Socialist Challenge No. 270, 20 November 1982
The scan: sc-no270.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 TWO IN THREE SAY:
No. 270 20 November 1982 The latest Gallup poll shows that opposition Cruise and Trident is growing at a very rapid rate in this country.
The poll, which commissioned by
Photo mon reports that 58 per cent of
the population are having Cruise missiles here and 56 per cent of the people are against Trident.
Of the Labour voters interviewed, 77 per cent were against seaness cent opposed Trident. rather puts them out of step with the Labour right wing such as Hattersley Healey, whose interests obviously lie with the ruling
rather than Mass
Unemployed and strikers 10p
Socialist
NO CRUISE
NOTRIDENT
voters. both The strongest opposition of all to Cruise and Trident, according to the poll, comes from young people. was majority of CND, and a strong base in youth, ente against now in an excellent position to prevent the siting of these dreadful weapons.
But such an must be spearheaded by the labour movement. per why the attempts This right-wing union leaders like Chapple and their counterparts in the Labour Party to and sabotage the campaign and play the Conference decision on Labour unilateralism are so serious.
ple are not only against the interests of a majority of the population but they are tryWith a ing to prevent that majority the population achieving
This is why the struggle to movement is remove such leaders is in
the interests of democracy and is tied up with a rather important
opposition prevention of mass destruc-
That is by women for missile site Common.
anti-nuclear
down will achieve
matters Is
The actions of these peo-
what is wants.
issue the judge
These brave
It is in this light that we have must view the jailing of the
invading the at Greenham for the majority. Whether or not As we we think their type of action forts to
their ends is neither here nor there. What make sure
that they have Office IS
been jailed by a class-biased protests
for speaks minority of the population.
women who accepted Ball rather than give up their opposition to these weapons, do speak
redouble our efbuild the anti-nuclear movement we must
that the Home innundated with
No expulsions!
Lobby the Labour Party NEC
Labour Party headquarters, Walworth Rd. 9.0am Wednesday 24 November Bring Party banners Called by Labour against the witchunt. demanding that
tnese women are released
We must make clear that
Thatcher and her judges are
not allowed to intimidate us
in the fight against the war
drive of imoerialism
Cruise and Trident can be
stopped. But to do so will in-
volve mighty class battles. It
will mean industrial action
against their deployment. It
will involve the
labour movement of the traitors in its ranks. And it will lead to confrontations with the capitalist courts and judges who will use their laws against us.
BU1 the Gallup poll shows that the unilateralists are winning wider support and now that growing movement must be organised in a massive anti-Cruise anti-Trident campaign.
Page 2 scan of this page
tion. 'Constituencies trade allocated the conference votes which is
of individual membership
individual affiliations (£3 in that they paid to the party, he says. result of this would be that
curately reflect the financal contribution made to the party nationally consulucily parties unions. Because union affiliated members of the Labour Party pay a political levy less than £3. probably increase the Constituency Labour Parties' vote at annual conference to around 20 per cent, instead of the present 9 per cent.
Kitson
IT SEEMS pretty obvious
why constitutional reform
is in the air again: because
the crucial decisions of the
12S1 LaoONT. Party con-
terence were not sup-
ported by a majority of
Labour Party members.
three year
democracy fight, we had a
grossly undemocratic con-
ference.
So we can agree that
further reforms would be
welcome. Where do we
begin? Alex Kitson starts
from the need to keep
Labour Party union
links.
the democracy
campaign set out to secure
accountabilitv. We
haven't yet got a leader-
Ship accountable
membership. This, not a
SuODUsCtl
between CLPs and unions,
1s the root oi present bit-
terness.
There are three simple
campaigns the T&GWU
can back which would
dramatically improve its
relations with 90 per cent
of CuPs to throw our tae
register; elect an NEC that
support's
policies; and let women
nave real the
Labour Party
If the T&GWU doesn't
back these measures
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, PO Box 50. London N1 2XP.
IN AN important article on Tribune's front page Alex Kitson, deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union calls for a new change to the Labour Party's constitu-
and because many rank and
will be file Party members number of bitterly resentful of the in-
fluence of trade leaders at the party membership ference,
1982) vote was used to impose the witch-hunt and saddle 'The major the Party with the most
right wing National
then coulve since me asHe
says the reform will ensure that the Sidnev by incident not and 'some outside the Party trade and even some within it' to 'weaken the between the considerably unions. this would
The idea some influence. the Constituency Parties tink inal the best way to deal with the cratic use of the block vote
disturbed is to strengthen the
Blocking the
block vote
strongly suspect CLPs will treat the new proposal quite rignly as a crumb from the block vote table leaving real power exactly where it was before.
Where is the difficulty?
I think Richard Crossman spelt it out in mis matroduc tion to Bagehot's English Constitution. Real power, he said, is shared between the PLP and the union leaders and safeguarded by the PLP's autonomy and the unaccountability of the block vote.
Effective reform must
threfore transfer real power from the PLP or the union leaders to the base of both unions and CLPs.
Kitson's idea does neither. Murky
With this said, is there still a case for some other reform which would allocate power differently between CLPs and unions? Perhaps. For example, if the PLP can have 'sacred territory' which the concence Cant trude on, why shouldn't there guarantees of CLP's rights? Why shouldn't they have a veto, for exam-
unions. Kitson's suggests a compromise so that can be done while own words 'the block vote would continue to be cast
WCIC in exactly the same way as
balance of votes between
con- the constituency where the block and the unions would not
be unduly disrupted.
These constituency acEx- tivists who believe their in. should strengthened to deal with the block vote will see such Weighell
La change as a small, but used by positive stop forward.
Will the vital bond change help deal with the party and undemocratic
block vote? Will it cement
will have individual activists? Will it Iviany in it take the left forward?
Socialist
undemo: Further contributions wili ALAN
in- be welcomed. ple, over any constitutional changes affecting
membership?
The register wouldn't have got past square one in such a situation.
It is however wrong, in my view, to think that changing the voting strengths of CLPs and unions will help.
If the problem is the small size of. the CLP vote, why did the left support an electoral college giving Der Cut l cue vole lo unt CLPs? Why not back the 'moderate posal for 33-33-33 between centre' ULU-
CLPs, unions and MPs, which would have given the CLPs the biggest say of all? We need a different relation between unions and CLPs, not a different carve-up of the same relationship.
Three arguments will be put The first is that thè constituen-
wing than the unions.
This is widely-accepted but very dubious. First, if it were true, the right wing would have a very good case for stronger trade union control. They could claim the constituencies were unrepresentative.
After all, what's the point of winning the fight n the Labour Party if you Cal well at the pols!
The strongest part of the lett's case is that it does represent trade union opinion whch the block vote misrepresents.
Weak
But secondly, is it really true? Of course, the constituencies often pass more left wing motions.
But anyone can pass left wing motions; the problem
what you them. How many CLPs
reselected MPs who actually support all the motions they pass?
How many CLPs have been active in supporting the health workers as the thousands of union branches who've come out on the days of action?
this
in his
and 'the
parties proposed
use or lne
Challenge opens
FREEMAN.
Alex Kitson Nor can we assume the CLPs will be to the left of the unions
policy CYCl The CLPs were originally set un in the 1920s to counteract the influence of the Communist Party 1r the unions.
The unions spearhead-
the more radical measures in Labour's 1945 programme - particularl the T&GWU. If Goldin gets his way, we may well
ind the right wing laun-
own ottensiv through the constituen• cies. We should not play with ideas that any particular section of the party yoorer for ag than any other for time After all, look at the NEC.
The second argument, ward, is that the CLPs pr- which Kitson for-
higher financial contribution. I also think this is very dangerous.
If the principle of votes for money is accepted, then the way is open for a dramatic increase in the already corrupt process of umons simply payıng Tol the number of votes they walt The NORT wing unions would just calculate what thev need to win a particular vote and pay up the requisite sum.
The third argument is that in some sense CLPs are more ana that their higher financial conus outon retects las.
There is a point to this argument. One of the Drincipal reasons that unions leaders : have been less in CLPD's spotlight than MPs is because CLP activists are more vigilant about what goes on in the Labour Party than rank and file trade unionists.
Yet this is what began
Long not car on one
campaign.
Why not along
Broad by taking Labour Party issues more vigorously into the unions?
It's easily done: a simple circular from the T&G asking its branches to ensure they Take regular reports on the Labour Par-
ty, send delegates to GCs, and support T&G policy there. such
tion to witch-hunts. Host-
tion to witch-hunts. about a few T&G delegates at the next meeting of Spellars' nicentre! GC to defend Nigel Williamson?
And this shows where the argument individual members being more 'active' goes astray
Trade unionists who attend trade union branch meetings, vote for GC delegates and mandate them, are just as active as individual party members
and do te same. tiny
and the same. Why draw a distinction between the two forms of activity?
IT'S NOT only the left
talking
ConSTITuTional reform.
Labour's
Channel Week in Politics arguing for
what he calls one
one vote in the consti-
Luencies oman too, hand
every woman too,
vote in their constituency
Individual
members vote through
wards
When STer Inrough their
union branches
VOLOS : All vou have to do
Is snow up. • whats
now?
The thing is that
Golding doesn't mear
quite what he says.
means one of two things.
ly that crucial decisions
CONFERENCE MILI ADVIS
Is canvassing more deserving than organising strikes? Both are part of the foundations of the Labour Party
The contradiction lies in the different way ward acuivists and trade umon members have their votes counted at national level Individual members vote through their CLPs, and for that matter so do those made noose who send delegates to GC's. But trade unionists also cast an additional vote nationally which is in practice wield ed without consultation by their leaders, and controls Ine Party. solution is to seek ways in walterade UNIONISLS local level can play a more
Golding's proposals
¡sucn as une selection o1
all Party
dividuall
through their delegates
Secondly
postal ballots
Imagine this will applied quite selec
tively After all, you can'
spend f500 on stamps for
overy port or order Cal
vou? So what issues wil
there ballot on?
Well, we can't
Golding balloting
POEU members
untuatera disarmament
ought to be in Labour's
Nor can we somehow
see union be
consulted over who's going on Labour's NEC
next lot will be the
postai will
perfect mechanism for
puttina the local parties
petty Chapple Golding.
direct role trade unionists in Labour Party politics • such as factory branches and special conferences - and at the same ume make ine block volt accountable to the union rank and tle ov means of struggle to democratise the
More radical measures are conceivable
— such a transfer of a part of the block vote to local level.
But swapping votes between branch activists and trade unionists will, in my view, solve nothing, change little, and stand in the way of resuming the
Bishop campaign which Stortford interrupted for an accountable leaderWITn a mole chance for The Sun and the Express to get in on the act telling everyone hon to vote ir
the 'privacy of their own home. This means people will not near the alter native arguments
millionaire press behind
The posta
ballots is a Tory one. It' at the centre of the anti.
legislation they've veel by to lost one. tor the last Titteen years
They like it for one simple
reason. increases
who they Cal ala
easily discuss . with on •on-wine terms. over
membership. who cause them more trouble
But the that we don't suppose John
About neone i one - he's done so much for them already
Page 3 scan of this page
WITCH-HUNT
right
rethinks
The immediate reason, according to Mortimer, was legal problems involved. Wiltant says it has been informed that, in its own words '(1) the register is, in fact, unconstitutional and could be subject to review the courts; and (2) any individual members expelled under the provisions of the register could challenge his or her expulsion in the courts.' Clause II(3) of the constitution, Militant DUllILS Vul that which is used to justify the register, only lays down conditions for affiliation to the party. "The clause does not say, or even imply,' says Militant, 'that members of non-affiliated organisations cannot members of the Labour Party.'
Jim Mortimer and everyone who backee register now look absolute fools. This need not worry But the Labour Party as a
Campaigning priorities
socialist policies and against the witch-hunt
acceptance of expulsions.
'We will not go
down in history as
the ones who
buckled and paved
the way for a
general assault on
the left'
BERMONDSEY LABOUR
PARTY is to meet David
Hughes, Jim Mortimer and
Russell Tuck of Labour's
NEC on 23 November to
discuss what it will be doing
in the forthcoming
election provoked by
Mellish's resignation.
Socialist Challenge spoke to
Peter Tatchell who
selected as candidate but
not endorsed by the NEC,
on Tuesday 16 November.
Do you think you can win
Bermondsey for Labour?
Yes. But it will be hard. In the
done more damage
Labour Partv's standing
the Tories, the SDP and the
Liberals combined.
Labour's
JOHN GOLDING'S new model Organisation Committee has come a cropper at its very first meeting.
On Labour Party Secretary Jim Mortimer's recommendation, it decided on 10 October to postpone any decision on expelling Militant supporters until the National Executive meets on 24 November next week.
whole has to pay a price while the these people are in charge of it. our leaders can't understand legal technicalities raise by small newspaper which themselves claim is 'not of this world', how can they run the country?
The only way out is to drop te wnole thing, register, expulsions and all.
But there are no signs the NEC is going to do this. It is to discuss new ways of expelling the Militant. And Golding has now extended his campaign. On Saturday night's television programme A Week to the be CLPD.
Committee took the extraordinary step of threatening to disband Hornsey Constituency Labour Party unless it kicks our lario All What justification is there
Lobby the NEC on 24 November - bring banners Send messages and resolutions of support to Hornsey, Bermondsey and letters of protest to the NEC Ensure your organisation affilates to LAW and sends a delegate to its national conference on 12 December Organise local conferences and rallies in defence of
Resolutions to regional conference calling for non-
Bermondsey under threat
Stacks Bermondsey have given credibility to all our opponents' accusations.
This means we're with our authority undermined. But we re stand firm and resist an imposed candidate.
The leadership are sending down three people to a special meeting of our Executive on the 23rd'. We think thev're going to try and persuade me to stand dowi and withdraw its support. don't comply, that there will be an imposed Bye- shortlist of 3 and that I will not Bob be endorsed.
Our mood We're defending the right of all CLPs to choose was didates. If we surrender it will be a betrayal reselection Party members to choose their own candidates.
We don't want to go down history buckled under betrayed CLPs and opened the way for a general assault on the left. the witn But Spellars, for exam-
ple, claims that the right
CAMPANAN
labour party
democracy
for this? Tariq Ali is not a Militant supporter. He is being excluded only for his views.
even The decision on Bermond-
sey is if anything worse. After a socialist year in which the party
they made it absolutely
they Peter their candidate, they are not to
NEC-imposed makes complete nonsense reselection!
So whatever the NEC is going to do, rethink its tactics,
John retreat on its goal of carrying
out a purge of Labour's left. I is, however, worried that it will provoke too whole of resistance in an election year. Organisation It has two possible tactics:
an all-out assault, using its extraordinary decapitate Miltant and the YS demoralising the left before it Call resold. more likely Golding wants to drive the left from power in the constituencies and 'pliable' constituency organisation with the bones taken out, our tne liesn lelt benina Labour Against the Witchhunt is now ever. It is only if CLPs are picked off one by one that Golding can succeed. mondsey must not be allowed to go down be the first of many.
CLP
starting
determined to Party
AlI We the rumour is
Under threat: Bermondsey to fight
Labour Party's candidate, their can- Peter Thatchell
of the right of wing will
Labour's chances of victory by restoring a traditional Labour Would this apply in Berwho mondsey?
pressure,
It's travesty Healey and the Labour Party's traditions.
Its pioneers firebrands who believed in extraparliamentary
Labour Party
MPS ROSEN PARTY
replace Reg Prentice in Newham North East.
plain that Tatchell
accept
shortlist. This
while it may well
it will not
damaging
powers, to
probably — salami tactics.
create
more vilal inal
Hornsey and Ber
or they will only
Tariq Ali
Vigoros l rounded t
fifties leadership
tinguish.
you want to ignite?
ideological 1979, defensive
skirmishes.
devote ourselves campaigning. this on increase protest
side.
Party'.
campaign
say that a very weak Golding represent
witch-nunting were radical
action and disarmament.
LABOUR ST BE LABOUR NOT BY
• PRIME
MINISTER
Labour Party members demonstrate for the right to choose their own candidate - in this instance to
PETER TATCHELL interviewed
Do
that broke mistake to with this tradition. People like
paigning myself have been re-igniting the flames which they want to ex-
But how damp is the fuel
The Tories have been on the
offensive since tion and our Party is on the because hasn't mobilised mass opposition and has confined itself to defensive
This has perhaps had some effect, and we have to
to outward expe We'll be doing Clause Wednesday when we the property speculator's carve-up of Surrey members. Docks and Bermondsey River-
But the problem is that in who've the face of a sustained media
hate and ty members. misrepresentation, we have had
and unpositive What leadership spending more time campaigning for democratically agreed policies like nuclear
NOT BY FLEET STREET
you think this sugpost- gests it may have been a
stop camagainst the right wing after Bishops Stortford? Do you agree with Tony Benn's view that we have to keep the existing leadership? favour
I don't think we have any op-
Why do you think the witch-hunt began?
hunt.
It's an attempt to use Clause II
the supporters of IV from the Party. don't think there's any support or it amongst rank an • file Myself
These measure vetoes on candidates, disbandments and expulsions are the actions of desperate people
lost the hears and minds of ordinary Labour Par-
can be done to assist you by the left?
We urgently need backing from other CLPs to reject this im-
NOT EY
THEM
SELVES
Defend
Hornsey.
Bermondsey,
says LAW
'It is now crystal clear that
the register of non-affiliated
organisations said un.
of Labour
Against the Witch-hunt
response to the Organisa.
tion Committee's decision
'We trust the NEC will now
drop its divisive campaign
to expel individual members
of the Party'
The secretariat on
warn, however, that th : Organisa
tion Committee's decision to dis C standing rever mus ario alto mempersnio. anc and Bermondse:
• Tatchell as it
candidate, would have
tought.
Ernie Roberts MP, the campaign' • nese specnic proposais, sai
chair, 'show the urgent need for the
Labour Party to
before undermine
Labour': chances of beating
«ones. we can assure ineve : tha
a purge will be opposed by LAV
and all those in the Party who war
to unite to defeat the Tories.
To affiliate to Labour Against the
for information
contact Keith Lichman, , 11 Wilder
ton Road, London N16.
osition. We ask all Labou
Party organisations to send let ters of protest to the NEC as a matter if urgency, and a copy to
At the 30 October con. ference against the witch-hunt you spoke in
of resolution 4, which called for an im. mediate fusion of the campaign with the Labour Steering Commit tee Against the Witch.
What is your feeling now about the best way to get a united anti. witch-hunt campaign?
and Bermondsey Party supporter resolution 4 because we want to see a united campaign. • But we didn't interpret this as meanin that the 30 October campaig should dissolve, as others ap parently did We wanted LAV and LSCAW to work together in a united way and co-ordinate Socialist Challenge 20 November 1982 pago:
Page 4 scan of this page
In the aftermath of the miners' vote against strike action, a major debate has opened in the pits. Socialist Challenge opens its columns to three views on this. Miners:what went wrong?
secretary, North Derbyshire NUM
Why do you think the executive lost the ballot? We were disappointed with the result of the ballot atter particularly enand down the country and thusiastic campaign what appeared to be good support from members. it seems to me that one of the factors in delivering the hostile vote
wa campaign prop ne
the calivalsil tabloids especially conducted.
I can't recall an occasion when papers like the Sun, Mail, Express have devoted pages to persuade
trade union. propaganda war was won by our enemies and hopetully we will bear that in mind
Some NUM members have argued that the campaign was a bit lop-sided. At the top level it was good. the big rallies did a lot for the morale of those who attended them but it was very variable al a local level.
I'm not a believer in instant militancy. You have
and make members aware over a prolonged period. 1972 and 1974 were slightly different. We were trying to correct an injustice over a declining wage. This time There wast tony a lurcar to wages, there was also a
jobs.
ENTe Li
There were areas of the
Area Council spoke to Socialist Challenge
Wast ISSUC
prepared Ine
Boare's ofter rather than de
into what they believed would
be a long strike.
the campaign by the press and the media did have its eftect
saying all along that jobs and pay were
connected' with
Just playing words
because they never
unere s. But they were tryinit pit
closures.
people into thinking
closure issue'
This does not mean miners
WORLD cosure.
closures were on the cards at
this We've
that months Yorkshire miners
to save pits.
For instance, it's signifi.
cant that after the ›allot
Socialist Challenge
NUM, where some people pronounced their support to the union, but privately expressed their tions and made some pretty awful statements publicly about the campaign.
But nationally it was a Dren extensive canvalzil Whether could
intensified, I don't OCCI know. I don't really think so. I think more realistically we would have to look at
prolonged campaign, giving officials the opportunity to meet smaller groups of men in localities, rather than at the mass rallies. So at the end of the day, we probably met through this medium one in five of the members. isn't enough.
Returning to the future and the Board's attitude. I think it's going to be a particularly difficult period, mostly because OlI knowledge of the likelihood of a substantial number pit closures. There will continue to be campaigns against pit closures. The vote did not give the leave discuss pit closures ad nauseum. We will resis and fight every closure as it arises.
The most likely pits the NCB will try to close in the short term are Snowdown (nem, amnew scorand and Brittania (South Wales. Has the union got resistance dia these cases? immediate plan At the moment the NUM
NCB walling Ken Capstick, Parkhill NUM delegate to the Yorks mire all satergewat the Board miners interviewee TV sarcosing pish they can now
That's a battle still to be fought. - a battle miners are always going to be fighting
had one of the best
nstory. Mayoc lic response were one me dia
and the rest of the media throwing wies nalising up smokęscreen ana issue with attacks on scargill
unc political czare c co do v Mass unempimate the eroduced
Miners the same as everyone else cared pith ULliCI cen dovedea resolac
I think the miners could move meat ith rade. that trade union
When Derek Robinson Lucy SCO sacked are wial nabocnca di
20 November 1982 page 4
Our own mining engineers nave Coromcted very detailed survey with some posilve resulls been submitted to the Board. We're waiting for a response. Kinneil another ditticult one tha
The NUM in Scotland will be pursuing that initially. I think it's necessary to add more to the list.
The terms of reference of the have Dee determined mainly by the Government who will seek
to ride industy othe
industry. normal capitalist yard-
producing SLUCK considerably more than they are consuming.
So you don't think the new pits at Vale of Belvoir or Selby will increase coal producing capacity and be the promised land' for miners?
Certainly not. Selby will be manned by labour from pits that will be closed in neighbouring coalfields. Vale of Belvoir is a long way away. I've always maintained that Heseltine's delay in announcing the development at Belvoir was based on their intentions to privatise
This is a threat and certainly Tory Government, God forbid, they will talk about privatisation of important sectors ORIe dustry. That means those where the capitalists Call make a profit, like the Vale of Belvoir and Selby. British Levand since: WIICH
see people nke
Weighell accepting job losses
on British Rail with no str gle when they the
aralist
anarche this
miners too.
the traindrivers dispute. They'd got their MACHOOS the railways
won the support oI a lo
But we all knew that
when were
the TUC leadership not
1 ones - the miners would be
ine next largel
Many expected a fight muc
didn't TUC
the
would they back must
nave deet minds many miners. We failed to
them of their obability to win.
There are some lessons for the left in the NUM. We have
Miners
private interests, I don't think they will hesitate unless we as a trade union and labour movement as a whole are able to raise a realistic campaign against
On privatisation, the NUM Conference has issued a call for a national trade union conference of unions threatened privatisation. British Telecom looks like being the first for the axe. What are your thoughts on that? Although the TUC has declared its opposition to privatisation, don't know of any individual trade union in the public
that has done anything about it. Our attempts in coal. rail and steel to launch a rebirth of the Triple Alliance, has not really taken off.
A Triple Alliance is not really going to succeed if it's about trade union
pontificating London. A Triple Alliance will succeed when trade unionists grass roots level decide to act collectively to defend their industry and their jobs.
think Scotland is perhaps an example where it has worked. The threat to Ravenscraig has drawn miners and steel together. There's a fear, too. that in the railwav in dustry there are going to be cutbacks and loss
, in Scotland, there seems to be a
Alliance that is capable of actually doing things. Regrettably England that is not the case. simple wages militancy is.
have to raise the political con-
miners. feel strongly about a lot
•uner wes - Ic a ou ca week, early retirement, a rate
protection hehnological
and job losses.
Then, as Scargill said in
campaign stee Triple have to the Alliance something rooted in depots. It's no good having an
WILl those whose main Interest is a seal 1n in House of Lords
If we got to the point when workers in all three industries were together prepared TODs. we would SLIK
also be building a wider movement which really threatens the government.
Pat Hickey (Socialist Challenge)
THE LETTER (12 from Dick Hall and Mark Hunger is a little hard Challenge. The article Miners can defeat the Tories' was no doubt over optimistic, dramatically rades suggest. It was intended to take sides in the ballot, not merely to comment on it. It therefore pointed the miners' strike in turning the situation round against the Tories.
mal Result in the Balance Mitten in Campaign' collaboration with comrades in the mine and mining areas showed an equal degre
'For the first time since 1935 a united (my emphasis) NUM Executive coalfields stantle ovations, Dartil
the Tories ment to 39 reject
• rejection? was that it would be a close vote, A-level. in oscar norwastanding.
We cannot accept the comrades assess To confine ree question simply so ote
confine situation in the toralist approach COM GN AGAT A O BARO best camonde mo by any seco• or unt trade union bureaucracy for many years. Every doubt there bels ave been man! improvements. But we do not belleve that more leaflets. more copies of The Miner or even more pit meetings would have substantially altered the vote. The fact of the matter is that miners were not prepared to take the offensive against the Tories in a
struggle. The
trike, the NUR strike, the undermining o the health strike sive on the witch-hunt all contributed t LIS Clearly, miners felt that
union derst wow academ camoral the kind of class-wide support that would be needed.
under whose attitudes to the actions was, to say the least, lukewarm
was that the class as a whole the then lory Government
November)
Socialist tions and so on Moreover, TUC were scanion. but not 50 incorrect com-
potential of
bonuca broolen
The articles inside, 'Scargills Barnstor-
Celia Tories,
Tories.
The former, in particular, spoke ot
touring the that ho and referred enthusiastically to Arthur etC.,
Our eagerness for a fight-back against
no doubt clouded our judge- Tories But then who predicted a 61 main obstacle. The general assessment
simply We think that the cam
workers facing.
applies
TalLy MUSL
must
and the right-wing offer une neal
the trade we need.
In 1972 and 1974 the miners went into
leauersnID We now challenges.
The decisive factor • were fightin
been a whole series of actions against the Industrial Relations Act, over 200 occupa-
the dominant figures in the the lett leaders, unen. as now. ll was lne overal situation in the class that was the decisive
Failure to take this into account leads to a sectarian attitude to Scargill, similar to that taken by the SWP
While the points made about the need for a campaigning union are well taken they are not sufficient their own the
une pollica orovem is neenershi of the labour movement as a whole. lee ships, and has actrey salto aged
une mall obstacc wu a lizil azalls lik
Scargill's failure was not mainly tha he did not lead the fight in the NUM, but
did not fight the right wing across the labour movement. This failure is com-
Durcaulialy albiesch winin ce working cass Inere is strong minority which does want to fight the
and who see the right wing as the
Scargill, Buckton and Benn have so far ¡allea to organise inese forces at tne bas‹ to settle accounts with the right wing. In
confine themselves to • Nues, ors to sectoral within the bureaucracy
existence organised left across the unions fighting the right would be an enormous boost in confidence to
, the Tories' attacks organisation to dealing with the betrayals of the right
The adage. 'Don't Mourn — Organise
across ine movemeni sual insurance the let elde cen teal is an ane let leaders rade bion trade cross sectoral campaigns against this. W
every step that takes us such cross-sectoral organisation
It is by linking up with the left across the unions and the LP that • we call Usu unions into the campaigning unions that Lumn une um and ole
In the fight to prepare the NUM for the
dead. It is a thing of the past.
. Understanding that the right need li raci wing leadership of the movement is a pr lem affecting every sector is a precond
Page 5 scan of this page
Weighellism in NUR
GEOFF HENSBY, secretary of the Paddington. No branch of the Railwaymen Guards and Shunters Grades conference has declared his candidature for general secretary of the NUR. His decision provides a major opportunity for the left in the union to get rid of Weighellism and not just Sidney Weighell in the conduct of union affairs. w nen Sidney Weighell fell grace grace as general secretary of the National Union o
The declared that the Executive Committee had
battleground.
Too right. "housands. of railway workers prepared rol SunKe action this vear against job slashing productivity deals, one driver operation and closure of workshops all part of the Rail Board's corporate plan for 38,000 job losses.
Support
Their determination to resist these Tory attacks heaped Dressure the National Executive to lead rned by Weighell and This was spurned by
wing cronies in Unity House, but the
had their TaLKS Have
the election campaign for the new General
they will now secretary
their opposition to pers
their opposition to assaults on the union and for left policies to protest jobs to tackle issues like unilateral disarmament and accountable leadership that will cham-
By Pat Hickey BRITISH LEYLAND
has been
many years. He is
difficult to dream
members.
The excuse for dismissal was that HGV license had lapsed nutes coes not explain the severity action. managemnchl s Other drivers have had their icenses taken awar as a result of driving offences, and been transferred to other work.
Alar was taken off HGV driving 4 years ago, and has been driving van. The company's propaganda is trying to imply Does T driving time.
that put back on HGVs.
This dismissal is a clear case of victimisation, ing the license as an
Challenge to
National Union of and of the influential national pion and not sabotage a
The candidacy Geoff Hensby provides voice. In his 22
hear as been astershid
been associalcu a fight against the Board and the treachery of the right wing leaders.
Recently he has outlined fighting policies against productivity, one-driver operation, for the rights of women and black workers in the industry and for the unien to throw its weight into a campaigning Triple Alliance allu a llational campaign Privalsallun This year he was rewarded for this stand by the left and the right in cull He receIved. 20,000 votes for delegation Labour Party LUll ference and was witch-hunted and fined for criticating literature critical Weighell's headersus.
Hensby will address NUR branches in the next 3 months to seek the reGulcu and, if successful, will follow this with three months campaining before the election itself.
The debate his campaign
Thornett sacked by BL
management struck another blow against the unions last week with the dismissal of Alan Thornett, a senior steward at the Cowley Assembly Plant. Alan
consistent opponent management's attacks on the workforce for
widely recognised as leading left trade unionist in BL, and has been pilloried by the press as 'The Mole' for his activities. As more inappropriate name would be
up. His activities have always been openly fought for amongst the
This cuse. Cowley assembly has been a big problem for BL nis It was the only major plant to vote for action in the re of cent pay deal. It has stubornly resisted the produc tivity drives. And it hi recently had a spate sunker against the hard line approach of the plant a hatchet onrector. Wlal called Tom Gray.
The transport union. the T&GWU, , has put in notice of industrial action, and the matter is to go to a meeting when In notice is up. A defeat BL on this will be a step forward unions, and a setback for companv's plans destroy the unions as an effective force in BL.
throws up in every NUR
branch in the country can
only strengthen the con-
fidence of the left to move
forward against the Tories
and the union's right wing.
This is particularly im-
portant as the only other
candidate with a left label, come clear on his policies Jimmy has
against job loss, one-
driver operation,
privatisation and
dustrial action against
Tory attacks on the union.
of of the
go
Une
Trade Unions
Railworkers demonstrating on Triple Alliance demonstration in Glasgow
Hensby's campaign will
put pis care on the ab te
Knapp's supporters will try to argue that Hensby's will canvadi split the left vote. This argument holds no water because the union rules outline procedure of transferable votes, where members state an order of preference. Left votes can be transferred through a second preference vote.
NUR members will feel Cowley only major plant to reject last pay deal
more confident in casting such a vote for Knapp if he is forced to stand out for a clear left alternative instead of his present tempt to walk the line of least resistance and court the middle ground.
Hensby's Calvarel provides an ideal oppor tunity for the union's left to stir up the troops in the NUR battleground that petrifies rightwingers like Sidney Weighell and causes their downfall.
New
A MARCH agamst
South East and North
first People's cies.
Seafarers fight
victimisation
their employer, Research Council, in with legal action
research vessel Discovery. venor, MUSA NOGAN,
We had a five day stop-
Septembe
dock John foundland. At first we decide• or a za-nour stoopare. ou extendeo l атет .union harrassment from the
send a message TUC
healthworkers dill under siege from LIlt government, nau unere were other supporting them, even thousands of miles aw This
longest Wal of industria alliul any workers took in sondaril with the healthworkers, and therefore has nationa significance
• sailing we hac promise in writing ron
employer that there would be dustrial solidarity action victimisatior any
with But ncalllworkcis rive day stopoace made ung captain mad at us
After problem had arisen on watch , the captain acey ed order. Burefusio sin accused refusing misunderstanding. pt it cap tain had to accept it. disciplinary charges
the saw the CreW danger viction con
imposed an overtime ban fo
fur-
• a walling agalist auy Iner dulcinols.
• al essenta services especially safety, were maintained
No disciplinary action o charges mad time. But when we returned t Britain on leave. we were tolc
We went charges have been mace against us under the Merchant Shipping Act about discipline Tor oul two day bycitic val
Socialist Challenge
'People's March'
unemployment from Scotland to London has been proposed by the
West regions of the TUC. The original idea was to link the march with the elections. It has been suggested that seige of London be laid at the and of the
march its peoples core anti
March received major backing in the trade unions. But its potential was dissipated by the TUC leadership's emphasis on involving the Con. federation of British Industries and the chur. ches. As such it failed to play any role in offer. ing a national fightback against redundan TONAL UNION OF SEA SEVENTEEN seafarers have been sacked by
the National Environmental October and threatened after giving magnificent solidarity to the healthworkers. The seafarers, mainly from South Wales, were working on the
Their elected conspoke to BARRY WILKINS about the significance of the dispute.
They are using this Act as a lo phosetote to see us under Employment Act would be explosive. Because of th national significance of wick open We have full backing from demanding reinstatement core re Discovery will not mose until nappens NERC vessels are also bein halted. The NERC must be hit by trade union action to win this dispute The NERC has offices in Barry picketed thest offices thre
support from healthworker: South miates. We haalse over with oroad campaign nealinworkers alle lodges of the South Wale miners in support.
hospitals have Workers In taken wo carol stoppages
support from trace union leaders like Rodne Bickerstaffe Emiyn Williams of the South Was I l ALIS kind of trad union nich isole oution con solidarity action
to our problem edit a to her
workers.
The NERC cannot get us for our industrial
defending ourselves against the threat o
They must not be allowed to succeed. We will fight them all the way, with the growin SO DOTI workers in South Wales. of
20 November 1982 page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
The failure of
LEONID BREZHNEV was an apparatchnik par excellence. His rise to power was the rise of the supreme bureaucrat. As an individual he has little interest except as the embodiment of bureaucratic system which he oversaw. - patient, cautious and craving stability. Contrary to the claims of the Soviet
and its acolytes, Brezhnev anything but a world-historic figure. He was the least independent and dominating leader which the Soviet bureaucracy thrown up.
Since the overthrow of Khrushchev in 1964 the Soviet through arguably its most period since it came into existence -which is exactly why many commentators, both friendly and hostile to the Soviet Union, will judge Brezhnev's period of office to be a period of progress' for the Soviet Union.
But in reality Brezhnev oversaw the gradual unfolding of the crisis of Stalinist rule in the Soviet Union, the contradictions of which cumulating gradual nonetheless severe way. The sum total of these contradictions celerated crisis of bureaucratic rule.
The first and most fundamental aspect of this crisis is the emerging risis of the Soviet economy. Without doubt, judged overall, the 1964-1980 saw a substantial increase in the economic strength of the Soviet Union, and this marks off the Soviet Union from the advanced capitalist countries, for whom the period fron 1967 was a long period of economi cecine.
For most of this period the Soviet Unior managed relatively insulated from the crisis of world capitalism, thanks to its relative seit-sutticiencv in raw materials and centralised national planning.
Over the last 15 years the gross social product has increased by about two and a half times. put has increased 2.7 fold. In many industrial fields the Soviet Union has become the world's leading producer - in terms of quantity. The Soviet priority has remained heavy industry.
But the structural problem of agriculture has not been solved -there has only been one good harvest in the last five years — and although the quantity and variety of consumer goods has increased, many goods re-
short supply. The Union is far behind the capitalist countries in its technology and hence the quality of its goods.
The targets of the last three five-year were not reached. over the last ten years the rate of economic growth Tne economy declined markedly. Over a very extended period of time, despite the state monopoly of foreign trade the Soviet Union and the economic bloc in general are not able to isolate themselves from the crisis of world capitalism.
The need to import technology, despite the Soviet advantage as a producer of raw materials and of course gold, inevitably means that price increases are reflected inside the Soviet Union; and a genera decline in world trade inevitably affects the Soviet Union.
But above all the Soviet Union, like the other economies of Eastern Europe, is still plagued by waste, irrational use of materials, poor quality, pilfering on a massive scale and above all a low productivity of labour. In a period when economic growth is slowing down, these factors become CYCO more dehabilitating. essentially the product bureaucratic mismanagement of the
The lack of political democracy, he ack of democratic centralist plar-
....
sumer needs.
Socialist Challenge 20 November 1982
faceless
the
international
was
least
has
Union has been
stable are but
ac-
period remain Industrial out-
Soviet leading
And
Soviet Western economic planning, centralised planning
They are ibility, of
planning the
There
the years ahead.
page 6
Without workers participation in
the lumbering authorities impose the national plan without flex
without local initiative and with unerring inefficiency. Nor have the successive attempts to decentralise
hands of the local been successful.
doubt that the the working class
Sovlek bureaucrats many problems in Brezhney,
Soviet
Brezhnevism
- By Phil Hearse
While the Soviet working class remained relatively quiescent Brezhnev's period in office, the same cannot of course be said of the working class of the rest of Eastern Europe.
Brezhnev oversaw the destruction of the Prague Spring, the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The full implications of the thuggery involved in Soviet rule of Eastern Europe were exposed for all to see in this episode.
Dubceit and the Czech political com
Eat recromation with Kosygin and the whole politbureau, which
Brezhner told during Czechoslovakia would never escape
from Soviet domination
means the third
Even if Brezhnev never actually
presided over the sending of Soviet
tanks into Poland, it was the hand of
the Soviet Union
together with the Polish bureaucracy
13 December 1981 when martial
law was introduced. The repression
of the peoples of Eastern Europe by
the Soviet Union remains the achilles heel of their whole system of rule
For in Eastern Europe what is involved is not just paraphenalia of Stalinist dictatorship,
during
weaker.
VIeW Vietnam •
attempting to
tionalist
for
United States.
nationalist ment.
this process.
The
themselves.
ties to the limit.
The
wing —
the
Duceck that
'even if it world war'.
Due Cad
deepened. which struck
to the workers be no
the usual
system which they defend.
but also the brutal suppression of the national rights of 100 million people
Thus the national question will inevitably come to the fore in the developing political revolution. The Soviet Union has not made its rule of Eastern Europe stronger
Brezhnev's rule, but the workers have made it immeasurably
international affairs, the Brezhnev period will be remembered as the epoch of the flourishing eventual failure - OI 'detente' Detente was merely a systematisation of the persistent policy of the Sovie! leadership of 'peaceful co-existence' with the capitalist powers. It contain. ed many elements which were perfect. ly principled from a socialist point of
- in particular a partial and halting attempt to limit and tionalise the arms race.
But it also included the more seamy side of 'peaceful co-existence
change. During the late '60s and early '70s the Soviet Union sat on its hand. while the United. States pulverised
— doling out aid to the Viet namese with an eye-dropper
In the Middle East the Sovie Union saw its influence destroyed ir the early '70s, thanks to its policy of
win friends and in fluence people' via political suppor for bourgeois and petty-bourgeois na.
regimes In country afte country the Soviet Union turned blind eye to the brutal repression o the local communist parties, in returr
"influence' Egypt vividly demonstrated the bankruptcy of such a policy when Sadat quickly turned away from the USSR towards th
But peaceful co-existence does no mean immobility. In Africa the Sovie Union rapidly saw the possibility new allies, and in co-operation witl the Cubans, intervened to support th
in Angola Mozambique and Ethiopia. Withou doubt these were among the boldes moves of Brezhnev.
The destruction of detente was th work of the United States. Howeve ill-judged the Soviet intervention i Afghanistan, the prime reason for th breakup of detente was the war-driv launched under Carter and deepener by Reagan. Thus the Brezhnev leader ship came up against the fundamenta character of the imperialist powers.
In the world communist move
Brezhnev's period of offic marked the lowest point of prestige o the Soviet Union in the world com munist movement since 1917. 196 marks the crucial point of divide ir
intervention in Czecho slovakia, together with the role of th French Communist Party in the May June events in France, began a whol process of re-evaluation on the left including in the Communist Partie
The rise of Eurocom munism strained the link between the Italian and Spanish Communist Par
Soviet leadership wa: powerless to respond to this process precisely because the criticisms of the Eurocommunists however righ
• touched at the very heart o the Stalinist system of rule. Officia Soviet ideology had less and less attractiveness for a new generation or the left, increasingly concerned with
questions of socialism and democracy. The events in Poland anc the repression of the dissident move ment inside the Soviet Union itself en sured that Brezhnevism would be in capable of winning back lost ground
Brezhnevism was a failure because it could not tackle the fundamenta contradictions of the Stalinist system - inevitably because it was committed to the continued rule of the
which Since 1964 those contradictions have
Brezhnev himself personified the caution and inflexibility of the Soviet bureaucrats which will to the workers demands There wil
There wil 'self-reform' of the Soviet bureaucracy. Only the Soviet workers will be able to deal with them - by removing all the Brezhnevs and the
of brutal bureaucratic rule
Page 7 scan of this page
• Report from
Just before the anniversary nosc's recognition on 10 November SEVRAC visited Poland on behalf of Rouge, a French revolutionary newspaper and publication of Socialist Challenge.
We reprint an sive interview where he describes the mood and organisation of workers in the before the demonstrations of that day.
You were in Poland when the shipyards struck. Can you say what it was like the day after Solidarnosc was banned?
I would say people didn't recognise the validity of the new law. I was struck by the workers' determination. The decision to boycott unions was a gut reaction. Everyone I met expressed the same feeling big or small firms, teachers, intellectuals or workers.
It was hard to find anyone whe backed the new unions: in where a mine employing 8000 needed to assemble 31 people in order to set up the new union, only 18 came to the first meeting. In another factory the director called the founding meeting himself and threatened anyone who didn't come with the meeting was huge, but the workers JUST used the discussion to obstruct the bureaucrats and nothing done.
In other factories they didn't dare call meetings for fear of the result.
Nevertheless, many workers who saw the boycott as an important political test of opposition regime doubted if they could keep it up for a very long time. lacucs would nave to be reaiscussca after four or six months passed.
The new unions promise to resolve a series of social problems lodging, holidays, help to people all secondary in the present crisis, and which no-one else deals with.
What difficulties do workers face in their daily lives? changed from your last visit a year ago?
Things aren't exactly rosy, above all for low-paid workers. was struck by the endless queues for e cheatar things like milk, and the anguish nothing for the day if one was too far back in the queue. The shops were empty from seven in the morning.
Things are different now, It looks pretty clear that last winter's shortages were provoked aurnonnes. Many goods are now on sale with 1978 or 1979 date stamps. Today there are queues, everywhere in the tast. shelves are far from empty.
But this isn't the problem. The problem is that one has to be a financial acrobat to buy the food. The of-
monthly 9,000-10,000 zlotys. I've found more than one worker HeaV skilled - who get 6,000-8,000. minimum wage is even lower.
costs 20-25 zlotys depending on whether the free or official market, and a kilo of boneless meat costs 3-400. It's as if you had to pay fl for an egg and £15 for a kilo of meat.
There are many goods one cannot obtain - for example vital medicines, which in some towns bought for dollars. And you often get
goods that aren't available, and no ration tickets for what is available.
It looks as if the military are having some trouble controll-
the situation.
exten-
Polish
days the new
- in
Silesia,
sack. The
to the
They felt the
, such as What
A vear ago 1
bread and
of finding
by the
like but the
Wart
Not them controls the repressive forces. The
you get it on. ready reorkers' side. N to
think the Junta even
Parliament SULT
can only be meaningless.
that bureaucracy's Grabski,
What
known about the internal battles going on in their ranks?
This isn't an easy question to answer because we onlv hear rumours. But don't think we should underestimate the bureaucracy's ability to impose its 'law'. You must never forget that it
that
It's true that workers have noted a 'neutral' attitude from troops. But this doesn't mean the soldiers are
actively onto the . Many Polish observers called enough to lift the state of siege before Christmas — after, of course, making
all the repressive laws needed to make this
As for the internal disputes in the apparatus, and particularly between the military and the administration, one can only speculate. There is talk
Kremlin and the late. hard wing, led by want to give Jaruzelski an honorific post such as president while
Poland
putting two pro-Soviets at the head of the Communist Party and the parlia
How is the 10 November strike being prepared?
I think it was uneven. It must be said
workers were disoriented when the shipyard strike took place in Gdansk at the beginning of October. When they heard what happened, even though the (Solidarnosc clandestine leadership)
general strike for November, they simply waited for the leadership to tell them what to do. But no instructions came.
Support strikes and demonstrations were isolated and repression was
When Zbigniew Bujak appealed for unlimited abstention strikes in Warsaw it was already too
The news that the shipyards had gone back to work left a bitter taste after seeing workers returning, rage in
their hearts, on Wednesday morning. The scene was relayed in great detail and recounted in a tone of obvious satisfaction by the TV commentator. This explained many people wondering whether the movement would really be able to coordinate its actions and prepare the 10 November action efficiently. very
But I think the appeal which the clandestine movement launched later on 24 October, to spell out what TKK should be done on 10 November and
on the 13-17 December for the anio niversary of the state of siege, may
have mobilised sceptical.
Nevertheless I must stress that the movement's capacity ordination, both locally and nationally, was less advanced than I thought it would be. There is a disparity between The manneroose ruks bewweenegor. and the scale of mobilisations we have seen since the Spring.
How do you explain this?
SCUICI
the
regions minimum tended struggle,
hesitation strike, tions members ber?
No characteristics
leaders.
But
La price demonstrations
mass worker why I heard so
you see
few months.
movement workers who were pessimistic
for co- demonstrations.
sions.
our tasks here.
There's no doubt that the policy of systematic repression has paid off. Apart from the 600 who have not yet been freed despite all Jaruzelski's promises there are more than 3000 carrying out sentences of up to 10 years, and 2000 awaiting trial.
Many militants try to keep their heads down, particularly when the
police infiltrate everywhere, poisoning the atmosphere and catching a number of key militants Bus is this enough to explain
Black of co-ordination? Before 13 December, I had the impression - at least in some
that there was a of preparation to deal with this kind of situation, and resist a heavy attack.
Undoubtedly, but this preparation was very uneven. Otherwise one cannot explain how the military were able to take the Solidarity leadership by surprise on 13 December.
But also TKK's lack of clarity on its overall objectives has caused a certain dispersion of forces. Some impatient currents, who could be right on many questions, but who in my opinion do not understand how important the movement's unity is, have
to translate their disagreements into splitting actions.
This is the case with the Wroclaw 'combative Solidarity' which asserts the need to prepare for an inevitable confrontation with the state - one cannot disagree. But it draws wrong conclusions about methods of
counterposing generalised street demonstrations to patient factory organisation.
The problem is that the TKK's
preparing general which many of its members had been calling for since summer,
strongly resented by many militants I spoke to, who were quite hostile to the leadership.
But do you think this reaction is any different to the reac
of many Solidarity before 13 Decem-
you're right. One of the of the union was always a very open criticism of elected
Right now the leadership' vacillation on the goals and forms o. action of the resistance is affecting the determination of the mass movemen
And you would expect this. Man workers find they are paying too high
for ill-prepared street isolated strikes which let the bureaucracy carry out
arrests or strike down the activists one by one after militarising the factories
Moreover I found the most combative and conscious workers the most reserved when TKK's proposals
action appeared cut off from reality. The mining and engineering workers I spoke to were the most critical about the idea of a national agreement. Those most determined to carry the struggle through to its conclusion were often the most prudent in their analysis of the rhythms and stages needed to prepare the working class for a centralised confrontation with the bureaucracy.
If I understand you correctly,
the situation rather differently from the articles we have published in the last
This is true. This view of the workers
might rather : than one culled from a reading of the underground press and from the comrades who went on street
But I want to get things clear by stressing that the working class is very combative. MV reservations about the degree of organisation of the workers' movement are ony personal impres
And of course it changes nothing in the importance of solidarity with Solidarnosc, or the nature of
Socialist Challenge 20 Novamber 19%2
Page 8 scan of this page
Peace in Sheffield?
By Brian Heron 'A VISTAS.'That is what will greet CND activists as they gather for November. to one of the showpiece cities of Europe' according to the blurb accompanying delegates' kits. Must be all that real ale.
agenda will be enough to convince the most eager tourist, or even 'the connoisseur of good food' that they will have to give 'the multi purpose centres, like the Top Rank suite' and 'the many types of eating houses ... and historic banquets' a miss!
NATO
No
BY JOHN COX
A CND PUBLICATION 50p
No to NATO!
By Toni Gorton IN A rather odd little foreword to CND's lates pamphlet 'No No NATO
Lestor MP fails to actually take a position on whether or not the next Labour should withdraw from NATO. While rejoicing that a call for. unilateral nuclear disarmament passed by a two thirds maJonily al tne most Labour Party conference she deliberately fudges the very serious questions pos-
Fortunately CND not ambiguous and restates its position: the unilateral abandonment by Britain of nuclear wcabuls nuclear bases and nuclear alliances as a prerequisite for a British foreign policy which has the worldwide abolition of nuclear, chemical biological weapons
alic complete disarmament as its prime objective.
While firmly an evenhanded framework on the fundamental questions of war and peace, John Cox the author, debunks many myths that surround the nature of NATO.
That the vote for unilateral disarmament at Labour Party conference 1s in conrnet will tae voic against withdrawal from NATO is overwhelmingly illustrated.
That the vote for unilateral disarmament at Labour Party conference is in conflict with the vote against withdrawal from NATO is overwhelmingly illustrated
NATO is first and
Socialist Challenge 20 November 1982 page 8
SPECTACULAR CITY OF PANORAMIC
annual conference on 26 'Sheffield has been transformed in-
But a quick flick through the conference
FOREWORD BY JOAN LESTOR MP
NO-NO NATO
No
foremost nuclear alliance, there is no such thing non-nuclear NATO Cox points out
Led thousand nuclear for short-range artillery and that beyond
Retaliatory and
official: doc-
with
tactical weapons until we losing, and then world '
Cox makes of NATO, he believes will 'shock' supporters of CND who believe i that NATO.was created to counter a Soviet threat. He categorically states and proves that NATO from its inception has neer Ine pacemaker in the European arms race.
This new pamphlet will be usetu aid debate now arising as to policies of a future Labour government, takes up most of the main questions popular readable way and is reasonably priced
'No No NATO' is sop a
Car pias portae ao res
164186166
The Rally and Benefit on Fridav evening will be followed on Saturday with
stitution and an afternoon
workshops. Social events will keep us up until 2am. On Sunday all the general policy and action resolutions are be debated.
And here is the first problem. discus sions concerning the ac-
most important year of its exstence dre cd..c. to slots lasting less than an hour each. Policy
We will have one debate on policy, an hou of which will be taken by the platform, and then we have to discuss eight
amendments! Out of this ourcaucrallc Lantic CLIC movement must pull itself together with a policy Io1 the year of Cruise.
Machfor
thofuture
By Jean Pierre Beauvais
Farabundo Marti
Venceremos which is
Three important localities have been occupied in the Eastern Province or Morazan and two in the Northern Province of chaladoce. ror the first time months, severa actions were launched simultaneously in the capital: uniformed guerrilla units succeeded in temporariv occupying the northern suburbs of San Salvador, only retreating
having destroyed electricity and telecommunication installations used by the army.
The units whose officer corps has recently been bolstered by training in the United States and 'advised' by a growing number American officers — were despatched to the eastern and northern zones most
There are three proposals for action campaign in 1983. The first 'that non-violent direction (NVDA)
should
There are iillc 'NVDA' The
'NV'
Enda Fawr
But,
The stop nurses having a 12 per cent rise despite opinion' being on
The FMLN's new offensive
DURING OCTOBER, the revolutionaries of the
National Liberation Front (FMLN) launched a new offensive against the dictatorship. From 10 October, FMLN units of
up to 700 fighters launched a series of coor-
dinated attacks against military targets in different parts of the country. According to Radio
transmitted from territory under the control of the revolutionaries some important successes had been reported.
threatened by the FMLN offensive.
After a week of hard fighting 'heaviest CLIC for a long time' declared a to the speciai envoy of the American press the result was catastrophic for the regime which pretended 'to exercise authority over the quasi-totality of the country'
In the of Morazan, telephone links were broken and the town of Perquin, San Fernando and Torola remainulch the contro. of FMLN fighters. All attempts by government troops to retake them falled. On the outskirts of Perquin, an entire soldiers were either killed was decimated, 124 or taken prisoner.
dearer to their hearts. On-
the bittel and massive struggle will stop the missiles And that will mean mobilising al. the resources we have got and more besides!
Ballot
The second action proposal, in Resolution 8, calls for 'a national Ballot For Survival'. . You would
forgiven for hearing echoes of the World Disarmament Campaign, whose petition na Vail Safe in last was last ycal the UN special session on
disarmament did not turn out wanted Whatever happened to it?
The same thing that will happen to the ballot for survival. Nobody op DUSCH petition And that's the problem. It is precisely the sort of meaningless political action aimed at everybody which will affect nobody.
CNO
FMLN guerillas make their own weapons
In regions where the guerrilla forces have been traditionally weak, some
and have also been launched. In the Cabanas province between Chatalanga and Morazan. LWU militar posts have fallen into the
Something to do for those of that canno camp for three months in East Anglia.
The penultimate resolution on the agenda Resolution 14, is a comprehensive proposal for a paign in 1983, topped off labour movement by the following proposal:
actively fo a TUC/LP industrial and political Day of Action ir 1983, including a national demonstration in London, co-ordinated DOSSIDIC with an International Day or Acuon in olner Curo pean cities. Teeth
The seven amendments to inis resolunion bull ll different directions. The last, from strengthens the commitmenu to abou maovemeli action by calling for campalens for national strike Tese proposals mil ces.
proposals out the resolution already passed at Labour Party Conference, and are of the type needed to meet the challenge movement faces in '83.
But the first amendments, from West Hampstead and Coventry;
a PROTEST AND SURUIN
hands the FMLN, meanwhile in Usulutan
in the south, the port of E Triunfo was blockaded and taken over.
The scope of the operations, unen coordination over large part Salvadoran territory, th
try to take the teeth out of resolution They (amongst other things) propose either the deletion of the action proposals, or
the case of Coventry,
bll intele posse
involvement TUC, political parties etc
the demonstration for '83. Fight
Both of these amend-
should be throwr out. It is vital to use the ac-
of the comulticul organised labour movement as our battorm. we are not for the greatest possible involvement We are for these organisations being forced to meet their formal CUlll Inuticul
These formal commitments the views of hundreds of thousands, even millions
Traoe unionists and Labour Party supporters,
Olgalisa tions must , take up the fight arallis. nuclear weapons
We should be the last in CND, to get the leaders of tnese workers' organisations off the hook. Anything else is just playing around.
OURAGCOUS STAND TU
AVC THE
BLACK HILL BOMB-BUILDE:
INDIAN
depth of popular support they enjoyed, are the best response the revolutionary Salvadorans could make to those who speculated on their isolation their weakness and their 'incapacity henceforth to launch major military actions as high Washington State Department official recently an-
tatorship, the political advalares wall na oci to draw from the 28 March 'elections' al C finally revealed to be extremely limited
This is the context in which he places the new offer of negotiations made by the FMLN as it began its October offensive. The call for negotiations
been rejected out of hand
the genocidal military in San Salvador whose principle objective tinues to be ne multar crushing of the revolutionary forces. This objective shared by the
ambassador even at the price of the martyrdom of the peopl of El Salvador.
Page 9 scan of this page
candidate speaks
Prerevolutionary crisis looms in Bolivia
Brazilian election
FRANCISCA DA SILVA, worker, an teacher, lives in one of Sao Paolo's many shantytowns. She is one of the PT's candidates for the State Assembly. What follows is a shortened version of an interview with her which appeared in Em Tempo, a revolutionary marxist paper which supports the PT.
Tell us a bit about your own story and struggles.
In 1972 I helped to found the agricultural workers' union home town back in the north-east Brazil, together with my brother.
We became the regional delegates ano worker o build up the agricultural WOIKCIS contidence knowledge of their rights.
In 1976 husband came down to Sao Paulo, because the drought back home. Two months later he got run over. so came after him. I left my
FACING a nationwide general strike, the Bolivian military junta agreed on 17 September to withdraw from power. It announced that the congress dispersed by the military coup of July 1980 would be reconvened.
Early in October, elected a civilian president and vice-president,
Both represented major Union Democratica Popular (UDP).
Siles Suazo the leader of the Movimento Nacional Revolucionario de Izquierda (MNR-I,. the Left "Revolutionary Nationalist Movement); Paz Zamorra of the Movimien-
de Izquierda Revolucionario (MIR Movement of the Revolutionary Left, originally a guerrilla organisation).
The economic ministries of labour and mines were given to Communist Party representatives. The 1980 coup was
taged expressly to preven
from assulfille office. That is the extent of the turnaround.
During the military takeover, the headquarters of the national labour confederation, the COB (Central Obrera Bolivian Workers Federa-
from tanks. The leadere
from tanks. leadership of the COB was arrested, and violent military assauls WelC launched against the working-class nelgnbourhoods.
large number of workers were killed, it is still impossible to say how many. Hundreds were sent
concennon camps. ( The COB was outlawed, and broken.
In fact, the July 1980 COlo repeat the Argentine miltarv takeover March 1976 in Bolivia. It
An interview with Francisca da Silva
Workers Party (PT) candidate in
Workers Party
an ex-agricultural ex-metalworker and a literacy six children with my parents and got a job in a rubber factory.
I rented a house and in six months managed to gel together enough money to
back and 2C1 the children. After another year I couldn't afford the rent any longer. I sold my little place back in the Nora-east DOULAL SONC wood, and built . a shack which I'm still living in today.
My political activity began with religious mass. I said a praver for the
workers. the congress met and
Hernan Siles Suazo and Victor Paz Zamorra.
components of the
was on the section of the
CONLOS cocare bustucss unal the 1980 coup was essentially based. Its most direct
Rally the murderous military regime in Argentina.
This, to a considerable extent, explains the standoffish attitude taken by Washington, which refused to recognise the regime.
The political failure of the junta is symbolised by the tact that LWO years call the UPD It had to call Tne back government rescue
bourgeois rule. That forces forehe bourgeoisie the relationship vis-a-vis the workers movement and the masses of the poor. And in this situation, the bitterness of the workers and the poor toward the military is very sharp.
This inaugural address, Siles Suazo called for economy,
Wal discipline on the job, productivity'. At the same ume, ne promisea workers a share in the management ot the state owned enter. prises, which dominate the mining industry. taking office, the president had pledged to reform the armed forces and punish those officers involved the cocaine trade; at the same time he
called me up for a chat and i've never looked back since. In 1975 and '76 there was area ton ouses
the neighbourhood. That was the first one I got involved in here.
Then I took part in getling une big cost or Living Movement off the ground in '77-78. From 1977 I was working as metal worker at the Brasimel factory, and got involved Ill tie wages callpag i 1978.
The following year I helped to prepare the first strikes, but didn't take
myself because my brother was murdered back home and I had to go there.
He was president of the local agricultural workers'
and had been threatened by a big lan-
We never found the man who killed him, promised that his government would not attempt to 'take vengcance against the military'.
In the UDP
assumed the mediating role that the military expected . of it. It was not the UDP leadership that forced the co-
relinquish formal control of the The
governical. coalition leadership,
Bolivia Fund
who
on this page shows, another military
in Europe.
Challenge London N1 2XP.
International
but we know he was sent by this boss.
What about the shanty. town movement?
In 1979 WElC already a Sao of shanty-town organisations and were getting up to 14 people each week to our
That's still going. I'm also involved in the workers organisation the Catholic Church, and I'm a delegate to ANAM POS, the co-ordination of grass-roots community groups.
Together with the shanty-town dwellers, we realised the importance of being able read and write, and organised a literacy camwhere the instructors are chosen by the shanty-town dwellers
DIR COMBATE
РИМЕНЙ:
Banner of the Bolivian Trotskyists on May Day Demonstration
well as the union tops had opposed the unlimited general strike of 16 September. was the ranks and the leaders closest to them, especially in the miners' union, that forced it.
This development the same time reflected the pressure of an upsurge expressed in mans and actions, which forced the restoration of the legal
Socialist Challenge is opening a fund to assist the
the POR (Combate). The workers and peasants of that country
in the past shown immense courage in
now have an historic onnortunity. But as the article
• Up. Also dare the will ot
donations acknowledaed and sent direct to the POR. We ap peal to our readers to give as much as possible as they can for a socialist movement whose resources are var leo compardo to socidust movements
Send cheques made out to Socialist D Biggs. Bolivia Fund, PO Box 50,
IDA
themselves.
being
H8S brought special ficulties?
When Wal agricultural workers'
back home often couldn't find anyone Lo co uto lown will lic. ! travelled 12 miles home on MULOCOOLS bulletille with a child
People criticised me a lot. Mostly the men. They said I wasn't a responsible woman 1021 women didn't do that of
SOTT WOrK The other women only ever went out at their husbands' sides.
It's a bit better in the countryside now , but then
couldn't ever keep herself clean and put
they'd say she was chasing status of the COB in May.
The fact is that a new coup is being prepared now; that is obvious. And it would be a far more murderous one than the last, because it would face rebuilt and stronger WOrKer and organisations, and more determined opposition
At the same time, neither the military nor any bourgeois government can offer the masses any economic concessions whatever. The next
INTERNATIONAL
VIEWPOINT
SOUDARNOSC PREPARES GENERAL STRIKE
Misse
Striking metal workers in Brazil: 'the workers united will never be defeated.'
At the factories here in Sao Paulo, like all the nev yvulz women that get taken on, i I had a lot of pestering from the boss or his sons or one of the managers. But I soon told them where to get off.
Some people in the Sao Paulo women's movement 88V ThaT morning class Women women the shanty-towns
equal I that they're in.
Lovestbe m Is ust wades
on. What do you think of this?
Just imagine! Women in the shanties are even more discriminated against and disrespected To say they're only terested in conditions and creches is a lie. They want to be respected as women.
What about your stan.
military government will nave to force lne popula• tion to accept the results of a connue disaste. precedented even the dreary history of Bolivian economic development.
ment, including two Com-
has met the military's ex-
as the UDP atocclaulols titude to the general strike and the strike before demonstrated that it would. Now it faces one of Lne world's worst economic situations.
What depends on the political struggle that is opening up in the left including the UDP, which holds the government
The coalition in office is far from homogeneous. Ironically the most rightwing component of it is the MIR which calls for government national unity incudinne representatives forces. Communist
which follows the usual line of seeking an alliance with bourgeois forces, does not go so far It represents the biggest working-class component of the coalition.
International
Viewpoint
Latest issue includes major articles on the situation Spain Poland and ! Bolivia together wit! an extended interview with a of
TOLSK VIS movement. Individual copies 65p from The Other
Socialist Challenge
ADE:
ding for election?
agreed stand because I saw it as a chance to turn this space opened up. by the election campaign into a space for mobilising around strug gles that are already going on. Of course we will fight with the aim of winning, but I've got no interest being elected. What I'm interested in is helping to SUCELLICI Urgallisa tion of the Party. around mur mobilising your campaign
Wherever meetings, the majority there are always women. I can feel their pleasure at a woman standing. They're coming out much more since I began my cam paign, feeling more confident and taking a more ac "ive part.
Siles Suazo's party, the MNR-I is divided into a number wings. The right wing wants to rebuild the old MNR as the typical bourgeois nationalist par ty it was. But the youth in
solutions.
the UDP is vulnerable to pressure from the left, if a clear and determined left pole can be built
The Bolivian section of the Fourth International,
Obrero Revolucionario (POR
Workers Acvolutonary Party) is trying to build a
revolutionar regroupment in order to be able to intervene forcefully in the political process that has opened up
The strategic objective of the POR is to begin to
Contine thomasses for beir
struggle under the UDP government and for a confrontation in the not very distant future with the
At present tha does not involve all-out opposition to the government, but a strategy of Dressurile it alu CADUsIll the capitulationist leader ship.
Booksnop, Street. London Subscriptions £l6 per an man. le to checies, Send Richard Lenir, 93102 , to: IV Montreuil, France.
20 November 1982 page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
Where you can
buy Socialist
Challenge
Scotland ABeRDeNis avanable al boom town books im no
sold Thur bus station drews Sure and Ist May Books, or Better Books, ForFrom SC cre
vailable at Barretts, Byres Rd; Clyde
Fi sale every sat 1-5pm outside
aul Youngson, 18 Forrest Crescent 1amнtol Wales
NEWPORT: every Sat in town centre PONTYPRIDD: SC sales every Sat
Market 11-1pm ALBOT: 1lam-1pm SWANSEA: SC sales outside Co-op Oxford St, 11am-1pm, Saturdays.
England
1985 Books,
more details.
BIRKENHEAD:
at 104 Fo BOLSOVER: hone 643-5904. et or Keys, every Fri
at Fourth Idea sale 11-1, Fullmaras, ho Ipm St James sie rom
MEL HEMPSTEAD: SC sales in
also
Reden reine in 10.201200
Arnaale Centre. Corne
LIVERPOOL/BIRKENHEAD: SC
Sat 12 pm , Church St, outside Top Shop MANCHESTER SC sold 11-Ipm Sat
atre; and Droylesden markets 11am-12.30 Sat.
Shop. Tel: 061-236 4905 for furMANSFIELD: Fri 3-4pm, Stockwell Gate, Sat 10.30-12 Westgate. Four
shopping NEWCASTLE: SCornsale every Sat
outside
NOTTINGHAM: Sold every Sal
outside or Shire Bank, High Sirea For more information about local ac tivities. Tel. 061-682 515ł.
Whats left
col inch. cadlino: not tion. Peyment in advance. Phono 01-369 8180.
bookshelves? Send them Bookshop, 328 Upper St, London NI
North London Irish Solidarity Committee
Conference on Building an Irish Solidarity Movement
Saturday 20 November 9.15-5.30
Caxton House, St John's Way, Archway, London N19
Creche/refreshments available
Delegates Fees €2.50, 11
BM Box 4:35. London WC1 N3XX.
LABOUR COMMITTEE ON PALESTINE
NATIONAL CONFERENCE Saturday November 20th Lambeth Town Hall Delegates from affiliated bodies
members (membership available at door f5, unwaged
£1) and observers Conference fee: £2 (unwaged 50p) reche racinues availaok
Further information from: The Secretary LCP, 28 Carlton Mansions
holmierrn koad, London Nio
Socialist Challengo 20 November 1982 page 10
Side Kings Arms and every Sat
• S0op male Thursday:
orgate 10.30-12.30pm SOUTHAMPTON
Mersey 2364903 (day)
London BRENT: SC sold Willesden Junction
30: SC sold Thur, Ealing
ewsagents, eln sale on estates
It Uxbridge tube
1s East Sce dry side
BURN: SC sales every Thursda
NEWHAM SC sold Sat 1lam to
Bai rule WEMBLEY: SC 5 Fri 6.45am at North Wembley BR Station. Bookshops BANGOR: Holyhead BRADFORD:
BRISTOL • Fullmarks, 110 Chelten-
Other Bookshot DURHAM
CIty Co-od LORD: South Essex Bookshop, 335 MILTON KEYNES: Oakleaf Books,
ROND: Bo, 34 Comily
Books LIVERPOOL: News from Nowhere, 100 Whitechapel,
Books, Brixton and
ters Rd, terprise, 126k,
Paperback So Kiosk; Shakti Books, PORT STALBOT
McConville's hroom Books, OUTHA TON: October Books
SUNDERLAND: ine Ceolirith AN Gallery Bookshop, Grange Terrace. vora. commumly Doors, waili
МАРАКАЯ
will make badges for your
cialismes back into
061-23-4903.
unemployed
spokesperson on Ireland claims that the Plastic Bullet is a humane weapon. didn't use Plastic Bullets then 'we' would have to use lead ones. time the Paras used lead bullets for the purposes of crowd control was on Bloody Sunday. Within a week, there had been a General Strike called in Ireland, industrial sympathy actions on building sites in London, the burning of the British Embassy in Dublin, scores of riots and an international exposure of the true role of Britain's 'peace keeping tactics.
The fact is, that if your
sion or political discon-
Certainy
It thev
tendency to drift back into Lice or laose who ac
precautions against it, and there are evell
THEY CALL THE
KILLING OF
STEPHEN M CONOMYS
CIVIL ORDER
Plastic
bullets
He says if 'we'
There is a simple answer to this. The last
who are thought to be im-
despite the danger of falling masonry propelled by
heavy lumbering machines
it in case someone should
HOTCO
silen children. There have
on the left of the
International.
doesn't deal with the 'real' Issues
I'm amazed at their contempt for the lives of these youngsters, which must be a real issue tor ant socialist. Our critics miss
Things plastic bullets make many thousands ot people for the first time the truth that lies behind the mask and myth of British peacekeeping.
The Conference on Plastic being organised by the Labour Committee on Ireland will achieve a number of goals. Firstly it will get the tacts about Plastic Bullets over not just to the 600 or so delegates expected, but to the tens of thousands of members of organisations that sent them.
Ban
Secondly, it will go to some length to look at the way the army is trained, its attitude to the people who are the recipients of its instant justice and at the wav Northern Ireland is used as a training ground for repressive techmque. to be used against people in Britain - especially the black youth
We will also be organising a discussion on the background of Nor thern Ireland where all points of view will be expressed. To fight for a ban on Plastic Bullets, the movement has to be clear on every issue involved -
especially this. In line with Conference policy that the Party's spokesperson should campaign against Plastic Bullets, we are go. ing to ask the NEC to send Concannon!
the Conference has got wide sup port in the unions and the Party. Women's sections and YS's are already writing in for details and speakers. We want make sure that at the end of the day the left has got somelling say about Ireland and Plastic Bullets that doesn't just echo the Tories like Concannon does.
Kuttinawi and Jegan
Public meeting Friday 26 November 6pm Friends Meeting House Euston Rd, London (opp Euston Station)
Speakers Councillor Patrick Kodikara Bernard Reagan, National Union of Teachers executive K Balasekeran
Any pressure that can be drummed up to stop the string of deaths by Plastic Bullets can only weaken the repressive power of the British Army and only SuCHatter the hands of those in Ireland and Briwho only piece of advice to offer the British army for its tactics - pack up and get out!
Martin Collins Committee Ireland National Council Organiser Plastic Bullets Conterence.
Release Sri Lankan Political Prisoners
Stop the hanging of Campaign for the release of Eelam Political Prisoners in Sri Lanka, c/o 9 Grays Inn Building
Rosebery Ave, London ECI
Page 11 scan of this page
Prostitution-what attitude for
Job losses hit women in Telecoms
The recent ITV documentary on the rise of prostitution in the Kings Cross caused shock horror stories in the Challenge spoke | to works for Camden Council, about the real problems affecting the lives of women in the area and how the council proposes to campaign to defend the rights of residents in the area.
Prostitution in the area is on Ine increase because there are more and more women coming aown the area from the north of England main v because of unemployment and low standards of living generally but also because of all the events around the Yorkshire Ripper and what the women felt.
Of the prostitutes I've talked to many have young KIOS — Iney want a beller life than what they've had TOT LneT •KIC they want the financial security LOT LOCK. Manv of these women are under thirty vears old and some are only fifteen to sixteen years old.
They all point out that
By D. Fitzpatrick THE DEPARTMENT of Industry has told British Telecoms that it must shed 45,000 jobs by 1985. And there is little doubt that women telecom
the industry.
Out of a total labour force of around 243,000,
employs 176,093 wonel. working as telephonists, in traffic. clerical workers, and in catering and cleaning. These al c the so-called non-essential al cas. which means they do not make a profit, so they are top of the agenda for cuts.
In 1971, 81 per cent of the operators were women and this the section which ever since STD was introduced in 1958 has
the biggest decline in staff levels. In a tive period trom 1973-78 alone the employment of operators fell by 32 per cent.
The Brooke Report produced for BT on the future of operator services which now employs 29,000 people, predicts 'a steady decline in requirements over the next decade and a
and expects quirements to stabilise at about 4.00 some time around 2005-6'.
BAD TASTE
I heard son about population figures Chovant
gutter press. Socialist JUDI WATSON, who
prostitutes and the
there are certain things they will not do in the job an unar more oner nan not intercourse is not even Tectured ~ Lal S WEV JOI them its easy money occaust they have to do very little and they get more money than most women could earn elsewhere.
So what were the residents objecting to in Kings Cross?
Well, a variety of things -some said that the increase in prostitution in the area undermined the moral standards in the area, creased violence and noise
the streets, attracted pimps and kerb crawlers into the area, making other women's lives harder workers will be the ones who suffer the most if this is done as privatisation sweeps through
In the BT owned fac-
work involves repairs of
Now the ending of BT's monopoly spells job loss there, private firms undercut their prices. As the shift takes place Io electronic exchanges the new technology which can do things like test faults by computer will eliminate jobs.
The introduction of the disposable telephone Cole. amos certainly will mean the loss of 800° workers' jobs at the Cwncarn fac-
Nearly all the work there is the servicing and repair of electromechanical telephones. With the digital
new phones costing as little as £8, it will be cheaper to throw them away and buy a new one rather than have it repaired, so down ine drain go the workers' Jobs!
Sir George Jefferson has already told the BT employees that
Dss woula b
and such like.
They were worried about their children and Ine mars wica were taken over by the prostitutes and their pimps. ine prosuluLiloments Committee group of the
of the Camden Council saw their point on many issues but also seeks to defend the rights of and to take the woman's point of view.
For example, the residents put forward whole series of demands through neir oreansa tions to the council asking TOT presence, more money in-
HOUSES playspaces. jobs the area a law against kerb crawlers and the redirection of traffic.
The counci agreea on redirection of traffic because noisy there anyway and agreed to put to million into improving the area but on the other ISSUCS the working group took a different approach.
They were concerned offices are overstaffed. The message here is clear.
This is another area where jobs have to go, and in the
Women's Rights
for example that a law against kerb crawling
could be used as a kind of
'Sus law and abused by
the police. Already a black guy in lne area was ar
rested and questioned about being pimp because he had too much money in his pocket! Problem
What the Women's Committee wants is for the
mediately, to calls either from residents who are being nass ed from the prostitutes themselves who
nol are and violence as thel fros victims of noise pimps and clients.
But this means that councils have to demand more control over
the police in general not just on policy Control as wore reall operational
challenge their role because. they've never seemed too interested in the past in what hap.
secretarial grade whose
staff is 99 per cent women,
you don't get a prize
guessing will suffer
but halway through the
conscious had
women, whether prostitutes or residents.
This is why the work of the new Police Committee to monitor the police will be Women's Committed thi important and the be working through it. The working VIC W
sion onto the prespree,
sion onto which is what the residents demands would have meant. Similarly the council does not want to evict any women because she is a prostitute if she is not living in the flat but merely using it for business when it could be housing a family then that's different but
because they are a pro-
In Germany and Holland aren't there state
the most.
New technology, when
it is geared to profit mak-
ing, is used for one purpose only, and lal Is to
get moe work done at less
COSL which
people's jobs have to be
wiped out.
Nor does this new technology benefit the consumer. Costs will climb and the service will get WOrse one
Brooke proposals is to
COSC «down all • SEVICE from 6pm to 8pm to slash
costs by 37 per cent. They
won't do this of course until the private business sec tor is equipped with data Dalks Shut down won't affect them. As far as tne rest or vou go. voul convenience comes a lousy
second to the god of profit.
Faced with such big job losses and seeing how privatisation will cause a
prices to rise Women in
Telecoms which is a group of women militants in the industry have produced a leaflet explaining what happening in BT.
Quite correctly they call for a loint campaign of all the unions involved. and are urging both men and women to be active and united in the fight to
CORMAC
I FORGOT THE TOKEN WOMEN!
socialists?
run 'red light' areas and brothels?
Yes, but in Germany over 80 per cent of the prostitutes won l register!
State control of this kind is not what's needed fact the less state control une better decriminalisation - thạt is of doing away with all laws because the framework of the law is to punish the women, whereas decriminalisation will get prostitutes out of the ghetto and also out of the vicious circle which exists for many who want to come off the game but find themselves with fines to pay oft or throwi into prison so they have to go back on the game
This is not just a local ASSH it's latlulla issue and it's an issue of
By Ann Potter LAST WEEK saw parliamentary rights. John Corrie,
the defeat of his 1980, amazingly Members' ballot again this year. Immediately
either another
last one.
However, last
be 'very loathe
attempt.
tually
from the House of Lords
'risk'
'non controversial' issues.
restrict the rights of women.
The pro-choice
sures a woman's right to choose.
NAC/LARC
22 November 7.30pm, Courty Hall, SEI.
Sottallet Challenge 20 November
women's role in society as a whole. It could be goo lo set Camden Council spreading the campaign on a national level as well.
The prostitution working group is just beginning to tackle all these ISS US and are working out more Drovusal policing; dealing with kert Crawicis. decriminalisation evictions The and
Women's Committee is organising discussions with residents too. and we're hoping to eventually have joint discussions to 'women's point of view' which all women ir the area can agree on.
Next meeting of the ProstituWorking Group 7i Tonbridge S
New Attacks on
Abortion rights
the renewal of attacks on abortion who many had thought had disappeared forever after
anti-abortion bill in topped the Private
rumours circulated in parliament that he intended to introduce
anti-abortion Bill presumably a more limited Bill which would be easier to get through than the
Friday's Guardian reported that Corrie 'would definately not introduce a bill to tighten up the abortion law' He explained that this was because he would
indeed to put my family through the anguish which they had to go through when I introduced an abortion bill'. Presumably he remembered the enormously successful campaign which defeated his last
Unhappily, even if Corrie does not even-
introduce another anti-abortion bill there is no shortage of anti-abortionists in parliament. A very serious threat has come
A Bill introduced by Lord Robertson of Oakridge had its first reading. If passed it would mean that there would have to be a 'serious' risk to the life of the mother before an abortion could be performed — at the moment the '67 Act states that there has to be a
The effect of this amendment would be to seriously restrict the number of abortions. The threat is all the more serious because it has been introduced into the Lords and not into the House of Commons. A Bill's passage is usually easier in the Lords because it is supposed to be used only for changing the law on
As we know, abortion is one of the most controversial issues in Britain. So here we have yet another undemocratic manoeuvre to
campaign have been organising against this bill. But once more this attack underlines the fact that even the limited 1967 act will always be under threat — and that what is needed is a bill which en-
• Trade Union Liaison Committee open meeting on 'Which way forward for abortion'. Monday
Page 12 scan of this page
Make the health union leaders fight
likely to be lifted.
last few days: some commentators would have us
go for 'liberalisation'.
tic of workers.
Central to the plans of
the herous role if the
treacherous role Catholic Church. Last week Jaruzelski met with Archbishop Glemp. The Church has accepted that there can be no return to ally legai SLaLus Solidarnosc.
Glemp has become more and more bold in his the Polish workers not to participate in demonstrations or proTess catast martial law.
By Bob Pennington THE GOVERNMENT'S INTENTIONS towards the health workers are obvious. Firstly they intend to keep health workers' wages to a bare minimum. cillaries 31p a week more. First-year students would get 51p
workers' noses in the dirt and to teach them who is boss.
Secondly it is inteded to show the workforce,
SUBSCRIB
book normally costs £3.50
TION (Usual price £2.95).
Subscription Rates:
10 issues £2.00 Overseas: 12 months only
(Please delete as appropriate)
Name....
Address
Special Offer Please send me.
London N1 2XQ
logistered as a nou with the ubtiated by Cardinal En Princed By Fear End Offeet (TUl Lie, London E2.
Socialist
Challenge
POLAND-
The carrot
and thestick
LECH WALESA is free and martial law seems
That's the news which has been headlined throughout the West over the
But these things are not, as believe, the result of any decision by the authorities to
They are part of an overall strategy by Jaruzelski and the Polish bureaucrats to combine repression with a tac-
dividing and demoralising the Polish
In order to ensure the visit of the Pope to Poland, the Church is going to step up workers refrain from any Social disturbance work diligently.
The strike called by the Solidarnosc underground eaten for . November was only very limited succes Although crowds of several thousand people gathered in some towns. the strike by and large was Massive Their latest offer would give an-
both before stoppages.
Such an offer is intended to rub the health
and the union leaders, that they cannot hope to defeat
SPECIAL OFFER For readers who take out a year's inland subscription we are offering a free copy of Alan Freeman's new book THE BENN HERESY. The
Alteratively we are offering Henri Weber's book NICARAGUA - THE SANDINIST REVOLU-
Inland: 12 months £14.00/6 months £7.00
Surface & Europe £17.00/Air mail £24.00 For multi-rescer institutions double the above rates Send to Socialist Challenge, P.O. Box 50
Post Office.
repression against strikers I parucularly difficult for actions
anything other than a large
majority to go by without
mutants veng openca up
to victimisation.
still 3,000 people jail who have been sentenced to up to 10
years in prison, and 2,000
people held without trial.
In this situation, with an agreement the under its belt. the Jaruzelski team feels inthe Creasmay connectl
The release of Walesa and is in this context an utterv
cynical move. Walesa is in
cannot make contact with the leaders of the Solidar-
nosc underground, nor
play any active part in the
union. In this context his
statement that the leaders
of the Solidarnosc are 'ac-
ting according to their the government so they may as well get into line.
Thirdly, they hope this wil prepare the way for a
LICi NHS, as they reckon a demoralised workforce and a union leadership with no guts for a fight, will not be able to resist the Tory calve us of the health service.
ALAN FREEMAN
HE BENN
HERES
of
consciences' and that it is.
'not my position to judge
their actions will be seen
by many Poles as tacit ap.
proval of their actions.
The by
Solidarnosc are called for
December 13-17 to coin-
cide with the anniversary
of the introduction
Marta defuse
this, Jaruzelski has called a
That such a carve up is
madhe agenda was again
Naut weekend's_report in the Sunday Telegraph that Kenneth Clarke plans for further staff cuts, with compulsory statting levels, for all health authorities to be introduced next April.
Even Albert Spanswick, COHSE general secretary, and chairperson of the TUC health committee, insisted
CHIC SHOCES would submit to blackmail this blatant wav Unfortunately, Spanswick then still insisted
FUND DRIVE '82
about the
nothing,
are dying of starvation'
few thousand aside for
meeting of the Polish parliament for 13 December which will formally repeal martial law.
But this will be more Show reality. New laws 'public security will be introduced which will allow the authorities to do exactly what they do under martial law. unions wait until their recall conference on 14 December, which is about one month away.
This is no way to win a might be using back a claim. The Tories they might be uttering dire threats against the NHS but thev are certain v not bluffing. They mean business. They intended to break the power of the unions so that they call begin dismantling the health service.
This onslaught can ony be resistea by steppin
cent both inside and out-
Involunțary anorexia strikes SC
THE PRESS this week was full of scare stories
dreadful possibility that our dear Princess Di was suffering from anorexia. It it's true, then one thing's for certain - she's not under-eating for lack of cash.
When Di got fed up with week upon turgid week sitting around at Sandringham doing
she came back to London and bought 200 new dresses and suits.
Those who produce Socialist Challenge, however, are generally short of a bob or two, and so is the paper they produce. Last year we said 'Christmas is coming and our geese
This year's no different. So if you've put a
Christmas presents this year, why not send us a bit? And if you've put nothing aside, well why not send us a few
The difficult situation currently confronting the Solidarnosc leaders should not however by interpreted as any slackening of support from the workers.
lack of mobilisation on 10 Novenoc represented solely a feeling that the situation was not ripe for an all-out confrontation.
side the NHS. The health
workers must demand an
immediate recalling of special union delegate con
ference to prepare spreading the dispute. that every single hospital in Britain is operating an emergency cover and accident service only.
campaign must be restarted among the othe unions which spells out exactly what the lor and plans for privatisation means. In other words the passivity and inactivity that the union bureaucrats have imposed on the alspute be broken and replaced by a vigorous
to a good cause.
Fund drive
Wakefield Liverpool Blanco White Bath Leamington Rally IOU's Leeds Burnley JH, Lambeth Aberdeen Total Total so far
waiting for an opportunire The workers to show their strength again. Jaruzelski's 'carrot' OI releasing Walesa and suspending martial law is utterly transparent.
It is still the wielding of the big stick which decisive for the Polish bureaucrats.
fight to win the 12 per cent
and save the NHS from the
By of the Tory cabinet.
The 22 September day.
of-action with its massive
, snow or ade or sto
port and solidarity, show.
ed how to win this dispute
It's no easy task recreating
that mood and spirit but il
the NHS is to be saved it
has to be done.
The shop stewards and
activists at the base must
rise up and demand that
action replaces the
cowardly conciliations of
the bureaucrats and thus
snatch victory from the
jaws of the defeat they
have almost led it to. bob anyway - don't fritter it away, send it
75.00 50.00 40.00 22.50 10.00 30.00 69.00 40.00 3.50 70.00 410.00 6136.21
← Socialist Challenge No. 269, 12 November 1982Socialist Challenge No. 271, 26 November 1982 →