Socialist Challenge No. 277, 21 January 1983

Socialist Challenge · 21 January 1983 · 12 pages, 19,917 words read by machine

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Page 1 scan of this page

No. 277 21 January 1983 25p Unemployed and strikers 10p

Inside

Socialist

A Labour-SDP coalition?

Challenge

Why it won't work

See pages 6-7

ON TUESDAY the Franks report largely exonerated Thatcher for her handling of the Falklands war.

The report whitewash dealing with none of the crucial issues.

Thatcher waged war over a rock in the South Atlantic with a

than a Village. net result was thousand dead and E3 billion wasted far.

As Labour MP Tam Dalyell revealed in the House of Commons, at an early stage of the war when the Argentinians were putting out peace feelers Thatcher had the Argentinian warship Belgrano sunk to ensure the war would continue. Far from being in the exclusion zone, or posing a threat to British forces, the Belgrano was on its way home. 300 Argentinian sailors perished in this atrocity, for which Thatcher personally gave the order.

At the end of the war nothing had been gained for the population of the 2000 pointless deaths Falklands, only some

political prestige for Thatcher. £3 billion wasted Before the war

the Falklanders relied THATCHER on Argentina for

medical care, food post and supplies of every kind. Now they completely isolated for hospital care they have to come thousands of miles to Britain.

IS Sooner or later a

settlement will have made with Argentina. The British rule of the Falklands, whose GUILTY people were even

deprived of British citizenship in 1981, is a relic of a nearly extinct empire. The millions of pounds being spent on the British garrison will not prevent the eventual CLUTCE of the islands to Argentina Franks says That cher was justified.

We say she caused 2000 pointless deaths, wasted billions of pounds and whipped up disturia. History wir war hysteria. render a verdict of guilty.

Page 2 scan of this page

Irms deal killed to defend 'zero option' Reagan's missile fraud

missiles.

ed that he was being

tion' proposal.

What Reagan is actually proposing is clear. The Soviet Union must casinantic al us nuclear weapons in Europe - that Is the ss-4, 5o-5 and SS. 20. In return the United

not deploy the Pershing Il and Cruise missiles, but will retain in place every single one of its existing nuclear weapons, as well as the entire missile submarine force in the seas that surround the USSR. Britain and France will continue possess all their nuclear weapons and to modernise mem. I nis Is supposedly a 'zero option' which the "aggressive Soviet Union is turning down. Talks

In reality, in the whole history of "peace talks, few more grotesque proposals than unis nave ever been pus for rand It more

WISH Johnson's claim that the North Vietnamese

Havy was carrying out an offensive against the US fleet in

Gulf of Tonkin, or President Carter's assertion that Cuba was posing United States by having e military threat to te few hundred Soviet troops SOLO LECTe

Let us take first the SS-20 - which the Soviet Union is using to replace its more than twenty-year old SS-4 and SS-5. Both are liquid The s90 takes

takes nours to prepare for firing. Above all, both are fixedsite missiles that cannot be ialist Challenge 14 January 1983 page 2

RUMOURS circulating in the press this week suggest that one of the reasons US arms negotiator Eugene Rostow was sacked was because he was coming too close to an agreement with the Soviet Union. This agreement, apparently agreed between Paul Nitze head of the American delegation at the Intermediate Nuclear Force talks, and Yuli Kvitsinsky of the USSR would have cut back the SS-20 Soviet missiles as well as the cruise and Pershing

But such an agreement would have violated Reagan's 'zero-option' position. Rostow claim-

sacked for violating Talleyrand's principle of diplomacy - 'no deal" Here we look at the fraud of Reagan's 'zero op-

made mobile.

Since the United States is now developing allO deploying nuclear missiles that are accurate to a few

less, the SS-4 and SS-5 are meters CYCH completely uscless to defend the Soviet Union agamse an American nirst strike'

This would be roughly the equivalent of attemp ting to repel a modern tank attack using weapons from the first world war.

The SS-20 is a modern accurate weapon. Above all Is moone- which means that it is far less vulnerable to an attack by the American MX any more accurate American submarine- aunched weapon - or of course the Cruise and Pershing II.

Tebbit - hands off!

unions and bankrupt the Labour Party. Tebbit proposes the union national executives are elected by a secret postal ballot. Once this done the system could then be introduced to cover all union elections.

If the trade unions refused to implement Tebbit's proposal then the given power to freeze union runds, CYCl -remove union leaders from office.

These DrO• posals come packaged under the heading:

Democracy in the Trade Unions' ne tory idea o democracy is to remove elected leaders and take the union's funds away on the instructions of judges WHO have never been elected by anyone, and are to the ruling class and its state.

However, the SS-20

has far too short a range to

hit the United states.

whereas the American

MX, Trident, Pershing are

quite capable of striking

the USSR. Professor Car

G Jacobsen, professor and

director of Soviet Studie

June University of Miami, explained the

January 1982 issue of the

Bulletin of the Atomic

Scientists, . The point of

the matter is... that SS-20

merely confirm and

guarantee long established

strike potentials

against America's allies.

The Cruise and Pershing II

missiles, however,

8101 just

reciprocal destruction of

the Soviet heartland instead, just as effectively as True

do inter-continental rang

missiles based on US soil For there to be a true

analogy Moscow would

nave to deploy the SS-20s in Cuba. The fact (is) that

Washington feels that Moscow will be forced to swallow Cruise and Per shing missiles in NATO Europe, when it is Quite clear that the United States would not tolerate SS-20s outside ravana.

Professor Jacobsen could have gone even further. Washington made it

Cuban 'missile crisis' that it would fight a world war Union prevent the Soviet

ambases near the United States in any way equivalent those with which the U.S. surrounds the USSR.

fact the Soviet Union ha: made repeatedly clear that it is press give up both

all the nuclear weapons that it has in Europe. or aimed against it, on one simple condition Sine imperialists do likewise namely the United States. Britain and France remove their nuclear weapons.

But this proposal, 'A Nuclear Free Europe from Poland to Portugal' Locatey TOCOLCE by imTHE LATEST proposals from Norman Tebbit are a calculated attempt to shackle the trade

The use ballots

rather than branch votes

not extend

democracy. At the branch

11C DE debate

and argue the policies of

the different

Catedes.

and can make their minds

sion. They can

aquaint themselves with

the track record of the can-

didates.

This democratic procontrasts with

ballot method. zine

person, one vote, method

micans nat ine overweim

ing majority of the voters

receive the greatest part of

their information from the

media. While this

doubt is good news for

Tebbit - after all there is

LIOL one national news-

paper that can be relled on

to support any candidates

other than safe

perialism because Soviet Union can only be attacked weapons. To remove all the American, British, French nuclear weapons from would precisely make it impossible to launch a surprise attack on the USSR.

Reagan's proposal

absurd. It demanded that the Soviet Union give up all its nuclear defences in Europe, while the United states can maintain al its existing forces, the British and FICHCH HOGGERS® theirs, and the US deploy its new submarine forces.

On that basis Reagan might as well propose that

so borders all on t

its borders, haul winic lag, and allow une US tanks to roll in. The DOVICE Union right s jected this unserious sug-

the Shey would. Reagan knew States -By Jeff King

"moderates' - it's certain-

file democracy. The more

the Tory media influences

elections, the less can the

interests of the ordinary

members be served

In opposing Tebbit,

militants inside the unions

however must point out

that thev too are in tavour

of extending trade union also democracy, but from the

angle of serving the

terests of the rank and file.

Therefore they

avour of the periodic elec the

ficials and of all the na-

district and area

committees.

the officials and

didates for oftice should

be at all times accountable

ject to recall at any time a

majority of the members

cecees that they are no

longer carrying out

task they were elected for.

Reagan: still sticking to 'zero-option' fraud.

Later 70 women staged an anti-Cruise protest from the Strangers Gallery. More women staged a I sit-down in the central lobby, and were dragged away by police. ly bad news for rack and on the political Perpose The Tebbit

have of financially bleeding the Labour Par-

present system under which union members the auto deca pay political levy unless , they "contract out'. The levy is an absolutely essential lifeline 30 the Labour Party, in 1980 it put £5 in- treasury. million in the party The last time the Tories in used such legislation was in 1927 after they had icted a big defeat on the unions if the the General Strike previous vear, and this resulted in a

Furthermore that all big loss of income for the

Labour Party.

Tebbit of course claims party to their members, and sub- that he is concerned that

members are contributing -THOUCH choice they would not give of the ruling class. the to Labour Party.

Women from Greenham Common lobbying Parliament in protest against Cruise Missiles last Monday

proposals to stop big business making hefty donatons our orineir bro fits to the Tory party ty. He intends to scrap the fact that these profits ar

made out of the labour of workforce has his parently escaped notice.

Money

The unions are affiliated to the Labour Party and pay money to the Labour Party because the majority of their members have decided that working

terests. Tebbi and the Tory party are against

parky to represena thea

represent them. particularly if that party begins to adopt policies that offered the that damage the interests

ror this reason the Naturally Tebbit has no want to strip the Labour

By John Ross

women for

Life on earth

PHO. MORNING CTAL

isle of 1nd fast

Party of as much of its funds possible thereby make sure that it is organisationally crippled. The labour movement must unite to Tebbit proposals. Under no circumstances can we permit the judges and the Tory politicians, panied by their friends in the media, to decide what goes on in the unions. The unions were formed Because WOTKEE had recognised such people as that could not be trusted to run things.

As far as the Labour - Party is concerned, all the labour movement stand firm behind the idea that the trade unions must themselves decide how to spend their money and on what political objectives. and that they are not hav Tory politicians interfering with that right.

Page 3 scan of this page

Why the witch-hunt

Labour's Democracy campaign threatened

By Tony Benn

The long and ill thought-out campaign launched with the help of the media, to expel the editors, employees and supporters Newspaper has now led the Party into a grave and unnecessary crisis from which the NEC must seek to extricate itself as soon as possible, if we are to improve our chances of defeting Mrs Thatcher and electing a Labour government with an overall majority to implement our policies for peace jobs and freedom.

Nitch-Hunt bulletin

paign against Militant should be abandoned and conclude with a notice of motion to be moved at the NEC on December 15th.

The Case for Dropping the Campaign Against Militant

The evidence against Militant upon which the Hayward-Hughes report was based was not made available to the NEC at the meeting on June zora au Against which it was ruled that Militant was in breach of the constitution.

decisions of the 1982 Conference on the Labour reister explicitiv retected NEC no-w pro ose to con- witch-hunt which the duct by adopting a process from ot interrogation. behind

mesed do si othe Party

members the Party about their present and Reproduced past beliefs in clear breach or men civil noernes, and to be accompanied by special loyalty oath in the form of assurances not reonca or omer memocr:

KEY OFFICERS of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy have threatened to split the campaign policies they disagree opposition to the reister.

The campaign, which

ioneered the struggle fo reselection f MP and paved the way for the

Deputy Leadership cam-

paign, is having what may

well be the most importan Annual General Meting in its history on Saturday

PR = a matter of principle

IT IS GOOD to see that

Socialist Challenge is

taking seriously and op-

posing the support for

should stop

of the Militant I have set out below ten reasons why the cam-

of the Party 3. The NEC has not been issued with the legal advice sought by Party officials which apparently warned them that the proposals put to Conference would, it carred out. involve ine Party in taking action contrary to natural justice, the upholding of which is central in parlamentary democracy.

The motion to reintroduce a prescribed ist of

is itself a GedE breach of the Part constitution since the 1973 Conterence approved ending of proscribed lists and this decision nas never been rescinded by Conference.

The threat of expulsion of employees of newspaper, unless they

if it passes with, including

29 January, at which left and right have lined up around the

ICUSLCESSUC and around whether or not

CLPD should urge CLPs to defy the NEC by refusing expel their members.

The officers threaten-

Proportional Representation gathering among some sections

of the left: notably the

Communist Party, Socialist Society and even within the Labour

left.

However it is vital

that PR is opposed or

principled grounds. It is

not enough simply to say that it will lead to centrist coalition government in Britain

- which it will. We also need to point out that whatever its claims 'fairness', in practice the plemented destroys the

accountability for VCT which we have successfully fought in the labour movement these past few years.

In brief, the PR system favoured by the

Alliance and others, Single Transferable Votes in Multi-members constituencies, would recuire monster constituencies of over 300,000 electors

aVCidUG (bigger than a London Borough). This would break the link between the MP and

sive tutesi emreah ot

constitutes breach human rights, an attack on the freedom of the press Tony Benn and would in this case be arbitrary in that it would not apply the employees, readers. CULtributors or supporters of newspapers which oppose the Labour Party.

6. The risk of legal action arising from the proposed decisions of the NEC would expose the Party to a prolonged scrutiny of all its internal affairs, in open court, under the protection of privilege during which the activities of all tre Party, Including many operating within groups which organise privately oppose secure a change of party policy, could legitimately be raised.

to resign include

Vadimir Derer,

LCIIL founder Peter

Willsman and Victor Schontield, whose attacks on the left have desended to pure muckiakig

Schonfield names twelve CLPD members who voted against the reister in July and claims that their past services to CLPD do not amount to much, and the fact that these comrades used their Peter Hain recognisable community and also prevent local barses holding

their MPs or councillors accountable.

These and other cicuueus against 'R are explained in what we believe is the fullest socialist critique of PR in a pamphlet by Geoff Hodgson and myself: Proportional Misrepresentation? (E1 including p&p from Troune, 308 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8DY). We hope it will be widely read on the left a.Iu oCTaes -reviewee in your paper.

Yours fraternally.

Peter Hain

7. If the court case comes Electien DeTore the General

these hearings, which could be prolonged, could seriously damage the Party' s electoral prospects and would be reported at length in the media which already cover the Militant question at the expense of Party policy. 8. If the court case is delayed beyond the General Election an injunction may be sought, and granted, NEC to restrain it from ex- aLalise tR pulsions until the case has

een heard the legal costs of such preliminary hearings mention tre case liseir coula run in to tens of thousands of p. Ths.

Those constituency parties which respect and value the hard work done for the Party by aLuve ale dedicated socialists who support Militant, or which have adopted candidates who do so, and which retuse to expel their colleagues at the diktat of the NEC could temselves be

EC places to try and overturn our main objective makes them unfit for reelection.

CLPD's future is in the balance - • but not for the reasons given by SchonnewnO CES CHaTO oppose the register would CHata ouoc sardard towards conference decisisons". he real ques. tion is whether or not it is

WALE TeWer ELCI 900

Tel: 01-359 8180

Marxism Today

WHILE raising many télling criticisms of the current political orientation of the CP journal Marxism Today, Robert Mossgeil gives a very one-sided view of the debate raging in the CP over the

Tony Burs article 'Unions caught in the ebb tide

Far from having drawn a hostile and thoroughly justified response from CP trade

it brought AnOTSIO down the wrath oj the CP

apparatus and those CP layers most closely linked to the national and local

faced with disbandment on the eve of the Election which would constitute an unnecessary diversion overstrain our statf and fil the local papers with endless stories of dispute at a time when we should be uniting for the campaign.

The attack upon MiliLalL. and other socialists is widelv believed bu in-

members of the Party from left, right, and COLLIC LU be a mere cove for the abandonment of Conference policies including our commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from the EEC CecHon o ware rest aam and the abolition of the HOUSC of Lords: all of which the Party expects to see in the Manifesto; and to open the way for the

of SDP defectors ICLU!H either directly, or as part of a coalition government or a Lib-Lab-SDP pact in the event of a hung parlia ment.

Conclusion

I therefore intend to move the following motion, of which 1 gave notice of al the last meeting the NEC, at the next meeting on December 15th

"That, in the light of th situation has developed since Conference, the NEC resolves; (a) To take no further action against any groups. (b) To unite around the policies in Labour's programme in 1982 and as agreed at Conference.

willing to organise its sup porters to stand up to the right wing's attacks on the •BOLEYA which had nothing to do with conference deci sions and have already gone wildly beyond any mandate given them by the rank and file.

We urge all readers who can do so to attend the AGM and save the campaign.

Write to us!

WANT to get something off your chest, tell our readers about an event you're planning? Be brief WOr0s LOR LE ECHO CH0 Socialist Challenge, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP, trade union bureaucracies. It further reawakened the debates inside the CP over whether Marxism Today should be a narrow party journal, or should engage broader debate with nonpurty memvers

While not defending

Tony Lane's article we should be careful before ussuclating soclaus/s In

any way with the party

nacks campaign against him and Marxism Today's open contributions policy.

DAVY JONES

'Stop Silkin's

local party

capacity)

editor Chris Mullin.

tion,

votes of shareholders to sack Mullin.

A resolution being used

Deptford GC

The resolution reads:

take over the

making

a Tribune Friendly Society.

ment. socialist policies

- Sell the anti-

COPIES

Benn,

don N6 (802 1709).

International

Fourth International in Britain

Honelury stutor

cartoonist Steve Bell.

Subscriptions f5.50g

50 London NI 2XP

coup, says his

By Nick Long, Deptford GMC (personal

JOHN SILKIN'S constituency party has overwhelmingly condemned his attempt to take the left-wing Labour party paper Tribune out of the hands of its new

Under Mullin's editorship the paper has taken a weicome left-wing direc

firmly opposing the witch-hunt. Silkin has been trying to use the proxy

Tribune's fonding

passed at Deptford's December GMC likened his action to that of a city tycoon saying it had 'more in common with city boardroom struggles than the day-to-day activities of the labour and trade union movement'.

Silkin circulated a report to Deptford's January GC which defended his attempt to 'save Tribune' and prevent it

launch witch-hunts against good socialists'. 'I want Tribune once again to be the socialist campaign ing newspaper it once was,' he goes on.

When asked to endorse the report

reaffirmed its socialist credentials and showed Silkin the door, rejecting the 'report' by a large margin.

This GC views with extreme concern the reported attempts of John Silkin to

Board Tribune newspaper. Tribune has, over the past

begun to re-adopt the socialist policies of the rank and file of the labour movement and was in the process of

the newspaper accountable to its readers through the establishment of

We believe that the actions of John Silkin have more in common with City bordroom struggles than the day-to-day activities of the Labour and trade union move

We call upon John Silkin to withdraw from his attacks and at the same time, to make clear his total opposition to the attempts by the Labour Party NEC to begin a witch-hunt against socialist policies. We believe that the efforts of the whole party should be directed to removing this barbaric Tory government from of fice and preparing the way for the return of a Labour government committed to Fight the Witch-hunt

witch-hunt bulletin

of LAW's second bulletin are available for 5p, or 3p per copy in bulk. 8,000 have been produced with articies from Tony

Peter Tatchell, Jo Richardson, Horn sey, Manchester District LP and many others

Help spread the fight: get your branch/GC to order a bundle of 50 or order yourself. Orders from the secretary, 11 Wilderton Road, Lon-

Bi-monthly theoretical and discussion

journal published by supporters of the

Latest issue includes Ernest Mandel on the world

John Ross on the legends of

King Arthur, Oliver MacDonald on Poland, Ron

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Harry Wicks on the birth of British Trotskyism

and an interview with Britain's best political

per annum (Britain) or £6.50

surjace tiz aırmail abroad. International PO Bo

Socialist Challenge 21 January 1983 page

Page 4 scan of this page

Kent miners straighten their back

South Wales miners' leadership retreats over strike plan

declare

By Brian Grogan THE WATER workers' union leaderships have declared all strike January. An overtime ban was imposed immediately. They are claiming a 15 percent or E13 increase on basic wages back in the top quarter of the manual workers' wages league.

Ed tory overters or

jected Tory UVCILUICS 'arbitration' Yet they have agreed to meet the arbitration and conciliation body, ACAS This body is no friend of the workers.

prepared to make sillal CELECSIS bosses, but, as it showed in the ral workers disputes of last year, it fundamentally supports the and Tory policies

In this case, the invitalion of ACAS is a Tory ploy. The Water Council offer is four percent. But it has been widely mooted that they had been prepared to offer six per

except for Tory neddling Now, through they will try to make the original six per cent offer look like a concession to

By Barry Wilkinson IN DECEMBER, leadership took a big step forward in fighting for the future of the coalfield. They drew up a plan for new recruitment and f400m new investment. They won 80 percent support from the membership for a strike from 17 January if the coalboard failed to deliver.

This was a new offensive battle and no longe! just defensive fight

pit closure.

Following in the wake of the failure of the miners national ballot for industrial action, it showed the decisive role vigorous local leadership.

South Wales leaders got

firm commitments on their demands. The area Wall lifted but no definite figures promised either on this investment.

However, al an area conference last week,

Socialist Challenge 21 January 1983

Last

Jack Collins, general secretary of Kent NUM ment, we asked if this was

Waterworkers

all out strike

from Monday 24

- to bring them

the unions' demand of 15 per cent.

This ruse was made abSO CY OCCE SIC SidLement made by Tom King on his appointment as environment secretary that he would allow negotiated settlement. was the same Tom King Heseltine's deputy, that first put the block on the employers six Rank and file work

workers will need all their vigilance to prevent a sell out by the

ACAS. Water workers are in a tremendousiv powerful position.

The 29,000 workers in the industry voted by massive four to one in favour of strike action. An all-out strike would stop decisive sectors of British industry. the South Wales miners' following the recommen-

from South Wales executive, the miners called off the strike and supported further talks with the Board. Even so over a third of the pits voted against the executive for the strike to go ahead as planned.

*If the executive had made a recommendation for strike action, it would have been overwhelmingly carried would have beer solid' TYRONE O'SULLIVAN secretary of Tower Lodge told Socialist Challenge.

*The setback over Kinneil could have been over-

page 4

ONE THOUSAND Kent miners decided last weekend to reject the Coal Board's offer to cut the workforce of the Snowdown colliery by 250 as a condition of keeping only one face open. This decision puts the Kent miners on collision course with the Coal Board and the Tories.

BRIAN GROGAN asked JACK COLLINS, general secretary of the Kent area of the NUM, to explain the situation.

HOW DID you decide to reject the Coal Boards proposals?

Friday, the Board gave us wnat inev termed the final plan'. After they had read a prepared state-

tion negotiable. Rawlinson, the

Thames waterworkers - will they throw the Tories into the shit?

Rather than conceding the claim, the Tories are reported to be training the army in The solidarity a strike. solidarity the labour movement will be necessary to break SUIC OCCK ESC Tories. This would put the mockers the LOe: electoral prospects and encome by a strong lead. The responsibility lies with the CACCULLYC. This is a repeat of 1981 when we went back to work on the basis of empty promises. The Board will now seek union involvement in review procedures, as in the 1960's hoping to trap US closure agreements. But fight every threatened closure.

Fight

*Tower Lodge general mccune has unamimously agreed not to treat the area comerence accisions as defeat but to fight all closures send messages of support to three immediately threatened pits - Britannia, Lewis Merthyr and Blaongwrach.

The decision of Kent

area director, said that it

they thought that the re-

decisions coalfields had strengthened their hand.

So we went back to the membership last Sunday We told them in a resolu-

that we WCIC LissausHed with the

sure a Labour victory.

The Labour Party has

every interest in backing

the water workers to the

Labour Party polic

stands against any form of

policy. The de-

mand must go out for ac

tive support from the

Labour leadership

miners to reject the Board's latest offer Snowdown will give enSouth Wales after this setback. From Trelewis Drift PAUL O'SULLIVAN told Socialist Challenge that calling off the strike was a total sell out by the executive Paul's lodge is protesting to the executive they were totally wrong to call off the strike when them demands have not been met by the Board. The fight was there in the coal fields and with the executives lead we could have won against the Board - and the government. We don't get much out of more talk with the Board.

The way forward is for a threatened pit to take action to start spreading it though the coalfield and

Board's manpower posals for Snowdown. We also asked them to recognise that it had been the solidarity and unity of the Kent miners that had kept Snowdown open since 1981

We rejected the Board's proposals and demanded negotiations

This resolution was overwhelmingly supDorce mere was no vore but my guess would be that no more than 100 to 150 people voted against out of 1000 that were present.

The Board has now agreed to meet us.

What do you think will be the consequences of this decision?

Well I think it shows that if you straighten your back and decide to fight that

We are not out the wood yet. But we are still holding the line.

pull in executive support We must get organising to strengthen the strike.

be ready to back threaten-

ed pits with action'

GRIFFIN.

lodge secretary at

Penrhiwceiber, told

Socialist Challenge that

sion means that the Board

will step up plans for pi strike to save these pican d closures: *It will mean

we must build up pressure

make it irresistable to

the leadership', Mike said.

DAI DAVIES from member iber the and

member South

Wales executive, spoke to

Socialist Challenge in

personal capacity. 'We

could have won this battle The setback •11 Scotland

over Kinneil has been

over-emphasised. It show-

ed a weakness of the area

leadership not the rank

When you look at the situation in Kent, as opposed to some of the areas where decisions have been made recently, you Hus realise that we've been keeping Snowdown open since February * 198 against a decision for total closure. It has only been our determined resistance that has done that.

We have rejected the current proposals but even

are now offering here they to keep 450 jobs. Compare this with total closure.

What happened at the branch meeting the previous Friday which voted to accept?

There branch meeting called under

main factor here i think was a certain lack of communication. Many people had heard we had rejected the Board's proposals and they didn't think that they

NOTIONAL IN MINE WORKERS

MENT AREA Kent miners marching in support of health workers. Nov they are looking for support from other workers themselves

and file. With strong

lead from South Wales, we

could have got into other

coalfields including

Scotland and won their

support.

Case

*The leadership

afraid of isolation in South

Wales, ,but we showed in

1981 that we have the abili-

fields to back us. Our case to persuade other coal

for investment and recruit-

completely

unanswerable. 1981 on-

ly three South Wales pit:

voted to the

strike but -HOV pits

voted for the strike against

the executive

'So some have learned

the lessons of 1981. But

not enough. Yet the mili-

tant heart of the coalfield

remains totally against

were to be consulted. This is what we did at the mass was significant that number of the 260 chang ed their minds at that time

As elsewhere, we in Kent have chare o those that have been

/ a life In the industry and would take

retirement younger men who are at-

the transfer fee on offer; and others who are sure of a job even with the Board's present offer.

We of course are for early retirement, but we younger men Even transacts go ancad we wan! to make sure that they don't leap frog over the young men waiting to be made up to face workers.

But at present we are refusing any redundancies and this is what we will te the Board when we meet

We will their reaction and take it from there.

ORGANISE

Photo. TOHN HARRIS

closure so a fight is likely

The Board will not try and

bring us to our knees and

we re-unite the

coalfield by fighting back

around threatened pits.

majority leadership

South Wales

has backed away from the

battle which they had

prepared TOT WIll the

Board and government miners and other workers This setback

Runners and

rank file leaders

South Wales will now be

preparing for the next

stage to fightback

against the Board to save

the immediately threaten-

ed pits.

It is vital that this fight

should succeed. By

building up the pressure to

WIn the support of the

leadership, the Board's of

tensive can be rolled back.

Page 5 scan of this page

Police: 'democratic control needed'

Metal Box jobs fight

By Toni Gorton THE BRUTAL Stephen Waldorf in London on 14 January has highlighted the abuse of power by London's police. It is set against the battle by the Labour

the Home Secretary and make it accountable to Londoners and that of the National Council for Civil Liberties who are alarmed by the new Tory police bill which would, in their opinion

citizen's right to privacy'. this to be stopped and for more control over police power by the institution of a genuinely independent element in the police complaints procedure.

In London the Labour GLC has announced plans to bring the

Metropolitan Police under local control, a demand supported by most Londoners who paid E323m in rates for police force with the lowest clean-up rate in the country and the worst record of harassment of black and working class areas.

Everyone awaiting Sir Kenneth Newman's, the Met's new police chiet, views on how

le sees the task of trying to establish- public confidence' in a police force

and brutality.

That the situation vis a MANAGEMENT at the Metal Box factory in Hackney, East London substantial redundancies January. In an effort to save jobs at this 600 strong workplace the shop stewards are having talks with local MPs, GLC and borough officials. Socialist Challenge spoke to FRANK GORTON who is the Trade Union Liaison officer for Hackney North Labour Party and also an engineering union shop steward at Metal Box. There are five unions involved: ASTMS, AUEW, EETPU and TASS.

What's the story behind the company's HCW moves?

The planned rundown of Metal Box production Hines in London continue with the recent announcement of the administrative merger the Palmers Green and Clapton sites.

This will about significant job loss among ASTMS members management is saying that all departments will be affected

Metal Box is the last manufacturing establishment left Hacknes

more than 500 people. recent closures of Lesney's the Matchbox toy makers and Staffa in Leyton and job LOSS NICSLCLIICI neighbouring Tottenham, this latest threat to lobs in the area will prove to be catastrophic.

Anthony Kendall, Borough Council

unemployment here is worse than the depres-

sion. It's horrific.

that private companies deal with people's

lives. There is no real evidence that the com-

pany is in trouble.

so as to maximise profits and hiding the

whole thing under a smokescreen of accoun-

tancy fiddles.

unwarrented shooting of

GLC to remove the 'Met' from the authority of

'be an astonishing invasion of the individual

The NCCL argues for

vis Britain's police needs a thorough overhaul and a response from those who wish to defend democratic rights is plainly revealed by the NCCL in a new pamphlet and two press releases in the space of a week.

On the Police Bill which has had its first reading and is now in committee stage, the NCCL condemns BLUposals which would. give the police: • power to scaren mno cent people's homes and to inspect the contidential records and papers of docLOLS. SOLIdE WUIKCIO. priests, journalists, lawyers and other profes are to announce at the end of TGWU,

One out of every four of working peupie Hackney is already unemployed. The declin-

local y opportumany of

local many ol whom are black - very hard.

This unemployment problem in Hackney is of great concern to the local abour Parties and the trade union movement.

What are you doing to stop the redundancies?

The joint shop stewards committee has convened two her tings to bring together those WIIO have an interest in maintaining Metal Box produc tion Hackney and minimising job loss.

The latest meeting at the Town Hall was attended by the three Hacknev MPs: Ernie Roberts and Stanley Clinton Davis,

leader of Hackney

'IT'S an appalling situation both for individuals and for Hackney. The 25 per cent

*My anger increases daily about the way

It's just putting people on the scrap heap

sional advisors. • power stop and search which would form the basis for routine searches ot men and women leaving gay pubs. clubs and meetings, and would allow the police to read diaries and address books.

Ernie Roberts, Labour MP for Hackney North '1 HAVE been looking at the '82 company accounts. 54 percent of sales are at home bringing E18m profits and 46 percent are overseas bringing £54m profits

[his is a consequence of tial investment between overseas. f48m was invested in plant an equipment last year: and £30.5m overseas. There is obviously a

pany isn't with its back to the wall or near liquidation.

'In the past the London plants have contributed to Metal Box's growth anc

Labour, and Ron Brown SDP:

There were GL Offens from the and Hackney Industrial Polic: groups and the leader and deputy leader of Hackney Borough Council and other top officials.

in addition we had the district officers of the TGWU and ASTMS, the Hackney Trades Council representatives, Metal Box shop stewards and numOC O osTers

We centred on establishing the facts from national and local management plans for the

from Rhinoceros posters The design hots ody receig e london il bae imidle from Rhinoceros postcards. The design shows Noddy receivin Pinguding postege rom ot oero Posterds, B Perndale Road Loa on Sla.)

men • power to and lesbians dILCSL gay showing each other affection public the grounds of preventing an "affront to public decency • power to make body searches and take body samples of blood, urine, to carry the Hackney site

the differen never -LIIC UK and

Box can means unis com- -oreDarea uu

maintain employment. factory as a first step towards making concrete the promise of local, government intervention.

What the situation demands, of course, is that boat to he momio e sd the company UOPLIS its economic

do As a result tree Mps

refuse to As a result three MPs and the local government officials have SnOW met with local and national Metal Box management

How do you think this is going to develop?

semen, saliva in police staCOnS While arguing for the enevat COT the relevant clauses from the Police Bill the NCCL has also drafted a Police Complaints Bill which proposes a fully in dependent system for deal economic success. It should be prepared

time in order that when the promised up. turn in tne economy comes me work force is there to go into full swing again union officer san sliy g at tiedun dande

specialy i nacaney voooie arol LuKe

•er anotner one ano une reounoan(

1 believe that the workers anto their jobs if theyte

they're OUT U D a Stuccle tnioUeT Their unions eno or ine shoe roor

'In the multinationals its only those workers who put up a struggle who car

The great majority of the workforce need to keer their jobs and are responding to these initiatives TVTEA great interest, However it's early days This situanon makes big demands on the workforce. the management, the unions and the MPs. But especially it tests

the GLC election promise to save jobs in the inner city areas.

What we really need as Arthur Scargill says, is a government that is as loyal to the working class as the Tories are to their class.

ing with complaints

against the police.

Graphic examples are

given in ineir new

phlet A Fair Cop the

TerIsa DOnCE to

regulate and control their

own people.

In 1976 a black middle

aged couple in Stoke Newington were raided by

the police early in the mor-

ning and brutally

assaulted. In 1982 they

were awarded f51, 392 in a

civil action against the

police

To date no internal in-

vestigation has taken place

and indeed one officer has

been Sorts of romuses . These

abuses are com-

mon and onty une most

flagrant reach the

icaalne

While the NCCL is at-

tempting to deal with the

problems at the legal and

level, the

ballallcLdy

GLC trying

olice They want vaeplaced

lome Secretar

as the capital's police

authority by a GLC police

committee and separate

police committees in the 32

boroughs withmaximum

at the borough

DUWCI

level

This would mean that

the officers would become

local government Sid Weighell they caught him with his fingers in the ballot box

Sid bends the rules

By Bob Pennington

the lad who got caught with his fingers in the ballot box at the Labour Party conference

to take over from himas the National Union of Railwaymen.

What is more, Sid does not intend Io let silv irrelevancies like union rules get in nis wav. so in late December he sent a circular to NUR branches which was not intended to do Jimmy Knapp, nock's main opponent, a lot of good

NUR presiden Tommy Ham had asked Weighell not to send out such a circular, saying it could be interpreted as a plea to vote for Turnock not Kapp. Then after Ham hac • gone home to Derbyshire for Xmas, Sid sent off his circular. Not being too confident of the postal system, Sid used private contractors which

against NUR rules. Perhaps he thought

STERC NUR members were so overworked handling the Xmas mail, he would give them a break.

Ham was a bit upset by all this saying: .. the rules say any circular will be issued officially from the

But Ham Henance

doe rutes appeciate that

the rules not count when it comes to a fight to save union against communism.

Sid knows tuh we what a danger to the unior and the GaBOUI Party Knapp is. Sid told a press conterence that Кпарр was 'a disaster for the union' and that he

•WaSC member of the far left supported by the Militant and the Communist Party

employees ratner than crown officers, allowed to join unions and political parties.

Scotland Yard has

a EuCe LudE tre roDosal

are political and it is the CULLSS OHC be apolitical. This begs tho policy

Cucsuoll Who more

political than Thatcher's

Willie Whitelaw

LIL0 Home Secretary?

The proposals from the NCCL and the GLC and the abuses they are trying to prevent should be supported. The protection of democratic rights and control over police power is important.

The general framework of the DrO posals however presents more of a problem. When the NCCL argues for in-

-CO1-

obscures essentia nature of the police as a repressive arm of the state

In the final analysis the police are anti-working class and anti-black and anti-labour and nothing can prettity this ugly picture

A Fair Cop: reforming the

Pouce complamis procedure by Patricia Hewill is publish-

ed by the NCCL 21 Tabara

, London SEI. (46 price El.75 plus 20p pắp) Pu652 YOU MUST remember Sid Weighell - he was

now he wants his candidate, Charlie Turnock general secretary of

who if elected could tilt the balance against Labour at the next election.

proof of Knapp's

-AS electoral liability he cited Knapp's support for Waiteralis B rilain how he windraw from the EEC, walslee and how he was against the expulsion of Militant from LIC LADOHE DaLY As the majority the Labour Party and the trade unior are in favour of unilateralism and getting out of the EEC it is clear that these two organisations are being run by subversives and supporters of godless communism.

As for people being against the expulsion of Militant there is no doubt that a massive majority of individual Labour Party members belong in the Knapp camp. If this great majority are allowed their way we will not have any nuclear weapons, we shal be out nice capitalist Common Market and we won't allowed a witch-hunt in the Labour Party

To save us from sucl horrors Sid manfully tried to fiddle the ballot at the Labour Conferenc and WO D CUaCSO BrCaKB own union rules.

wwHchoscoueor fishing, disgruntled with an ungrateful public whe do not appreciate how hard he tried to fight ma Jority decisions

Socialist Challenge 21 January 1993

page !

Page 6 scan of this page

COALITION: WOULD IT W Would we be better off under an SDP-Lab

out Thatcher.

will become more

could achieve

policies? Wouldn't we just,

tions'?

WHAT IS the argument in favour of a coalition? week Aaronovitch in Marxism day, where he argues that The nature of Thatcherism is such that I'm prepared to construct an alliance with all kinds of forces who are challenge what Thatcherism is about.'

He went on to argue that the policies the Alliance is putting forward, though contain certainly be in advance of the situation we've got and, massive crisis, couldn't fail to bring about limited kinds of revival.

The case is that we would be able, mand,

demands. So let's ask two ques tions: first, what demands would we have to tone down -would be the price of a coalition? And second, WeSTED even ameliorate the crisis; would we be better off?

You can't answer these questions by looking at the SDP's manifesto. What any government achieves is not decided by its paper policy but by the material forces at work in the country and how it mobilises them. Callaghan policies the Treasury, Bank of England and big multinationals because they refused to mobilise working people for any alternative.

In 1974, however, when working class militancy was still high, Wilson granted many working class demands which he was only able to retrieve

The SDP is absolutely mobilising working people. So coalition only makes sense if you think Socialist Challenge 21 January 1883

LAST WEEK Socialist Challenge showed that the Communist Party and the 'soft left' of the Labour Party are beginning to call for a coalition with the Social Democratic Party to keep

As the election gets nearer this argument

popular. Thatcher is dangerous, it is said, that anything would be better. And by linking up with the SDP we

moderate progress on the sort of radical social reforms to which the SDP seems to be committed. After all, isn't the SDP only putting forward Labour's old right wing

as John says he wants, go 'back to Labour's old tradi-

ALAN FREEMAN looks at the arguments.

means to do so: demolishing threatened as belore

Theretore

against lying. page 6

SO accept

Golding there is some other material force

HICLIUH vice versa.

Tecevee d

built Vestment still but the Labour Party would take the blame. dustries.

when Labour's right wing and the SP leaders say they want to return to Labour's traditions, they are either fooling themselves or

What they mean by 'Labour's traditions' is the tradition of peaceful

collaboration wth the employers. The problem is that this could deliver some advantages in 1945, but it cannot do so now.

What is the proof of this?

The first fact we have to grasp was explained in SC two weeks ago: that he une ones were bicoarcu to

the welfare state ever helped develop it.

The world capitalist economy was ripe for expansion for many reasons.

The working people of continental Europe and Japan had had their organisations destroyed by fascism and war. The rate of exploitation rose savagely amidst conditions of nearstarvation in Germany and Italy.

leading world imperialist power. In

General Marshall unveiled a

Europe on a scale never seen before. This did cause some confusion among the Communists: for example, in 1947 the Communist Party of Great Britain

away at our Empire preferences - the salesmen of General Motors and Du Ponts and General Electric in British

munist leader Earl Browder was busy explaining that 'this is the only way in which Europe can become the effec tive market which is needed for the

economy's survival on a BICH democratic Europe is capable of buying and selling on the world market and paying its bills, in a fashion and

America, into a single world order.'

America can pay Europe's bill — not

into a junior partner of American imperialism. In September 1948 Britain

$1,263m loan and immediately lent a quarter of it to the rest of Europe. Between 1945 and 1967 Britain's overseas holdings were

again to Ellbn, under American tutelage

Britain, through the Commonwealth, retained a 'pocket empire' into which the great bulk of this investment went. Half Britain's exports went to the sterling area.

• A 'long wave' of economic expansion ensued based on large-scale in-

in new machinery, particularly in nuclear and heavy electrical engineering, and in oil-based in

Profits were high enough,

and trade expanding fast enough (8.6 per cent per year from 1950 to 1970), that Britain's volume of trade increas ed even though its share declined to 10 per cent by 1970.

• Government spending to carry in-

The Nationa/ government of 1937.

Standing from left, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister (Con), JH Thomas (Lab), Lord Reading (Lib), Neville Chamberlin (Con), Sir S Hoare (Con); sitting, P Snowdon (Lab), Ramsey MacDonald (Lab), Sir M Samuel (Libl, Lord Sankey (Lab)

dustry through threatened slumps was introduced, producing creeping, but not galloping inflation capital stocks were still being built up.

Every single one of these underlying conditions for policies has either vanishing fast.

The American economy can no longer finance the world monetary order established in 1946 collapsed in 1971 when change rates were abandoned and the USA started trying dollar. The IMF's packages and the threat of financial collapse, in the last analysis, reflect the fact that no single capitalist coun try can accumulate capital on a scale sufficient to finance expansion for the rest of the world.

Working class organisation has built up its strength again and in no industrial country does capital feel confident that it can undertake large-

long-term investment on the sort of scale needed to start a new

The long-term effects of persistent government spending has been to prevent the normal mechanism of capitalist slumps getting rid of outdated and inefficient capital. Table II shows the effect this has had, in Britain, on the rate of profit.

Table IV

Inflation and growth, 1955-80 (per

cent)

1955

average growth 3.1 average inmation

This is not the result of rising

wages, which are still a relatively fix-

ed proportion of the value of output.

It is caused by a rise in the quantity of

capital over which these profits must

be distributed, as figures now

duced OV the government

These figures do not exactly measure

Marx's 'Organic

Capital but they do,

refutably, show that profit rates are

falling because of the accumulation

of capital and not because wages are

too high

creeping

two or three per cent, intlation rate

of double figures or even six-seven

per cent are completely unacceptable.

Table IV shows how inflation in

Britain has risen steadily as govern-

ment spending was used to ward off

slumps, to the impossible levels of the

tion are absolutely unacceptable to

capitalism: SHO capitalist

other than a satellite or dependent Labour's COALITIONS

past

benches in

coalitions

tional salvation'

The disaster. In the

working

in.

accepted by

- to une stewards' movement.

because

welfare state' be demanded of an government,

capitalists.

The world First,

fixed extion. to devalue the just allows 'austerity unemployment

(which it finances Ency won L Second, domestic

have just outlined.

calculate

in 1978, "sanitising'

that the 'rate of return' £100 invested

level of 12 transfer 1965- 1975 are 5m workers in 75 1.6 proshow.

Composition quite

inflation of one,

These levels of infla-

have happened before. The most famous in Labour Party historv was when kamsar MacDonald crossed the government

1931 depriving Labour Party of government by joining with the Conservatives and Liberais in a government or na

result was a political election of 1931 Labour got only 52 seats and 30 per cent of the vote. But it was also a social and economic disaster for

people. Unemployment was still in double figures by 1937 and only the war brought relief.

But this was not the only coalition the Labour Party has taken part

In 1915 the Labour Party formed a wartime coalition. Nearly a million lives were lost in the fruitless slaughter and the 'industrial peace

trade union leaders caused terrible privation - leading

formation of the shop

Ruling class leaders were so ter-

economy sustained by outside funds can tolerate them over an extended period and continue to expand its in-

But these facts show what would

SDP-Labour not just by Thatcher's immediate base of support, but by all

government spending would have to be subordinated to the overall goal of keeping down infla-

Even the Treasury's computer Peter Shore get down LO 'only million by the end of five years: this is a wildly optimistic figure, because it assumes that world trade will not fall

will) and that world will remain stable (which

however, the price of spending would be a truly gigantic assault on workers" wages, to keep up profits which are declining for reasons

A simple equation is involved here which anyone can

Profits of manufacturing industry

which will take a pre-Thatcher year, were £9.9bn. Of this f3.9bn was used up replacing old capital, leaving £6bn. Capital stock in that year was estimated at E100bn, so

- profit per - was 6 per cent.

Now suppose wages are to fall so as to bring profits up to their 1960

per cent. This means a of €6bn from workers in manufacturing to capitalists. There

manufacturing; every worker would thus have to take an average wage cut of over €1000!

We can look at the same problem by studying the notorious balance of payments' problem with which Shore is wrestling, and asking what the ef

as the Oracle at Delphi and used by today's media priests for the same

needed an incomes policy. It said that if he didn't have one, the balance of payments deficit would be twenty five finished its term of office

brought the pound, and the govern

Wha

policy sufficiently draconian to cu £25m off consumption. Otherwise, there could be an immediate and

Britain's long-term commitment to the pound, the effects would hit im-

rified that they called a hasty e tion in 1918 before the sold could Libe Conservative coalition in of which dismantled all the machir set up during the war to control dustry — and with it the last rem ing shred of justification for Lab participation.

From 1940 to 1945 Labour part of a second wartime coali which right wingers Bevin and N rison wanted to continue after war, even if Labour won a majo in the elections.

Why did it come out of 194 much better than 1918 or 19 Because, as explained in SC num 275 (7 January), the Tories wer basic political agreement with w they proposed.

But the most recent experie was in April 1976 when, altho Callaghan still ran a Labour gov ment, he had to rely on Liberals port - the so-called Lib Lab pa Part of the price was the packag austerity measures which Labour the 1979 election

Page 7 scan of this page

ORK?

our coalition?

Furthermore, the effect of devaluation would be the same as always in the past. Imports would become more expensive, and exports cheaper. In the long term, the theory is that people will switch to buying British because British relatively cheaper.

But in the short and medium term, Britain's import bill would rapidly rise because the same bundle of imports, needed if working people are to live at the same standards as before, would cost proportionately That is why every past has been immediately draconian cuts.f

The point is that, because of the long-term decline in Britain's dustry, this could not be financed by exports until huge amounts of new investment had been pumped into improving industry. And this money could be released only in one of two ways: either if working people make sacrifices, or if profits were sacrificed.

Of course if profits were cut, the resources could easily be freed. For example, the government now has to pay over £10bn alone. This would be enough to treble investment in manufacturing if the government nationalised the banks and froze debt repayments. government would also have to control investment itself, capitalists would not invest money without guarantee of longterm profits.

In short, only by a frontal assault on capitalist parties could the working

itself. But precisely what -Ine SDP Labour's right-wing - want to avoid.

The message is obvious: only a radical assault on the capitalist class c an get us out of the economic crisis

and defend the traditional demands which working people expect from The aDolla

By tying itself to the SDP, the Labour Party would responsible for the crisis. Just as in

1979, it would have to attack trade unionists, divide its own forces, and pay the political price of a further set-

back of historic proportions.

There alternative

socialist alternative. If we want to

make a future Labour government

carry them out, we have to mobilise

the very force the SDP was set up to

oppose - the industrial might of the

working class. If this

Labour could not only defend itself

whether or not it had a majority, but

go on to increase its vote and divide

Thatcher's by creating demoralisa-

tion and fear in the ranks of our true

enemy: the bankers, financiers, and

industrialists whose system, in its en-

tirety, has got us into the mess we are

now in.

brought Thatcher to office.

In contrast, the Labour govern-

ment of February 1974, which came

to office in the wake of the miners'

strike, governed as a minority and

went to the polls in late 1974 to win

an increased vote and an overall ma-

jority. This was possible because of

the extraparliamentary activity of

the miners, whose strike had served

as a warning to the ruling class that

it would be unwise to obstruct the he Labour government until they had ty politically defeated it.

so The political defeat 1? delivered, obligingly, by

himself. In June 1975 he sided with

the Tories in fighting for admission

to the Common Market, and won a

majority in the referendum. He used ce this political victory to sack Tony

Benn from the Department of In-

dustry, junk Labour's policies, and

use the "Social Contract' to help

union leaders police the labour

demoralising

dividing it — leading to the Lib-Lab

pact, and to Thatcher.

The "high goods are

all this century.

standard

MOL. devaluation followed by

high.

crisis, withdraw

MeNE

interest required

moneylenders

that, whole was losing.'

The

because their

this and

Tory governments

seen as restraint; and in

SUDOULL

best-known

was done,

100 % 60 was Wilson

Table l

and

THATCHER'S strategy is not new.

pound part of a Treasury religion and has been so

In 1925 Churchill insisted that Sterling should be put on the gold

at the prewar rate oT $4.86 to the pound. The government promised to sell .OeTOT pounds at this rate, and if people started selling too many pounds they put up the interest rates.

Everyone admits this was too

Benjamin Cohen, an American monetary economist, said in 1970;

*To maintain parity after 1925 Britain had to tolerate high levels of

at each hint of foreigners were likely to London.

Capital flight was a constant threat... the high levels of domestic unemploy-

were eloquent testimony, as were the exceptionally high rates of

keep from leaving London.

Although the city was still probably deriving a net income gain it is likely

on balance, the country as a

Gross profits of banks in the UK are now nearly half the profits of industrial and commercial companies

Familiar? But it hasn't just been

All Labour have defended the pound to the death - liberally. The sterling crisis of 1949 found the 1945 Labour government on its last legs; in 1967 the devaluation crisis forced the Wilson government to wage

1976 monetarism first came to Britain, when a run on the pound forced Healey to seek IMF

Who benefits? Why do Britisn governments have these policies? The

beneficiaries are the

091000 0+0000

1.

00000:

2.

A74

Base, 1913 = 100.

Thatcherism:

who benefits?

finance companies and banks. High interest rates mean that foreigners keep money in London, and so bank profits rise with their volume of trade Gross profits of banks in the UK since 1979 have risen to over £17bn • nearly half the profits of industrial and commercial panies.

This isn't the end of the story.

High interest rates benefit all lenders of money against owners of productive capital. In 1980 industrial and commercial companies handed over £10bn interest payments shareholders and banks, government forks OUL amount to moneylenders. could double spending on both health and'education.

The result is a growing number of parasites living off the others. Nearly one tenth of all personal income in Britain is not earned. If unearned income were abolished, local authorities could cut all rents and rates to zero.

But it isn't just finance houses who benefit. A high pound means it is cheaper for owners of pounds to buy

Table III

Rates of return: manufacturing companies 60 62 61 66 68 70 72 74 76 76 80 700

000

* 161

Exports + Imports 0000000000 Exports + Production THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ExPORTS, U.K., 1811-1937 Ratio of Exports to Imports and to Industrial Production, in physical terms.

Table ||

CULL Germany

U.S.A.

France

EMPIRE COUNTRIES India Australia Canada

to South Africa and the New Zealand similar This cash AGREEMENT COUNTRIES

Argentine Sweden Norway Denmark labour of

goods abroad than for foreigners to buy goods here.

First, overseas investors who can buy plant more cucapry overscas this includes British multinationals as well as banks. overseas has gone up from f2334bn in 1977 to £10,367bn in 1981. £35bn or more has left the country in this way since Thatcher came in. By the end of 1980 profits from this source were nearly 25 per cent of all net profits.

porters and traders, particularly of raw or primary materials, which are now falling in price. Giant companies like Unilever built their empires by importing cheap food

At 1975 prices distributive and service industries after subtracting leasing from 3450m in 1976ment in manufacturing 1981, 25 per manufacturing.

on houses.

So who

industries like

dividends than it makes in The rats are leaving.

Interest and dividends

100

could nearly double

SCALE spending on health and

education

60

from one sector don't have

class of Britain

term. You

Be totally parasitic, living off labour of people overseas.

IMPORTANCE OF THE U.K. AS A SOURCE OF IMPORTS, 1913-1937

Share in U.K Exports, 1913 % 8.1 5.58 15.2 5-51 13.2

13.38 64.2 6.56 51.8 4-53 56.8 2.06 59-7

4.31 31.0 1.60 1.20 15-7

This benefits two further groups.

and

Private investment

A high pound also benefits im-

- has risen - than invest- to £4550m in come cent above that in world

This investment, largely wasteful, could double government spending percent

suffers from Thatcherism? Well, first of all, manufacturing and exporters in general. Their profits have been tiny and production 'mini-empire' has contracted by up to 40 per cent in

metal production.

Manufacturing is now paying more in

profits.

cent.

the

But from the capitalists point of of capital. view, this is only a shift of wealth

to another. They suffer the dole Manufacturing accounts now for less than half the profits of the capitalist

place payments.

However, it is disastrous for the economy in the long or even medium

can't have a national economy which does nothing but import food and export capital. It would

The City would like to do this but ALCULLY there are two good reasons it can't. First, the countries it invests in have a

Share of U.K. in Imports 1937

7-5 10.0 8.0

42.4 31.5 40.0 42.6 15.0 18.2 43-1 42.6 48.- 50.2

17.6 20.7 17•3 19.0 21.2 24.6 14.7 37-7

growing habit of not paying. Second other investing countries like Europ and America elbow them aside.

These two processes lie behind Britain's long-term decline - but it's been going on much longer than Thatcher, who is taking this logic through to is ultimate conclusion. By 1913 Britain was already importing more than it exported (see Table I).

If unearned income were abolished the proceeds could pay to cut local authority rent and rates to zero

It made up the gap with invisible trade - earnings on overseas investment and commerce - but whereas in 1913 nearly 15 percent of natural in-

obtained in this Britain now began to lose its share of

financial and commercial markets. At the turn of the century 50

of all world trade was carried out in pounds; by the Thirties this was down to 24 per cent.

In 1931 Britain took advantage of the slump, which hit Germany and the USA the hardest, to consolidate a

by forcing the Commonwealth nations to trade with it in preference to others. Table II shows the success of this policy; while trade with the USA fell from 15.2 percent of US imports to 6.6 per cent between 1913 and 1937, trade with Canada fell only from 21.3per percent to 18.2 per

These arrangements too were part of a deal which included the use of the pound sterling to finance trade. In some cases this was quite blatant; Britain would lend money on condition

countries concerned bought British goods, forcing them to pay for the relative inefficiency of British exporters by using Britain's ownership

Now this policy brings decreasing dividends, and the trade deficit has to be made up in other ways. Oil has therefore assumed an unbelievable

the British balance of It accounts for nearly a quarter of all exports.

Thatcher, and her class, are floating along the last stretch of a creek which British imperialism has been sailing up for years. But in consequence the steps that will have to be taken to get out of the mess we are in

CHOROUS, • up to halt the economy is now dedicated to virtually unproductive ends.

Socialist Challenge 21 January 1983 pag

Page 8 scan of this page

The West Indies are coming - or are they?

'What is happening here is barbaric and totally unnecessary'

By Paul Lawson THE COMING TOUR by West Indian cricketers to South Africa is being hailed as a great victory for that country's government. Propaganda coup it might be, but the storm around it vividly highlights the utter isolation of South Africa, rather than any re-integration into the international community.

tempt to break out of sporting isolation with huge sums of money.

cost of the tour has been underwritten by the South African government itself.

The sporting ban on South Africa has been extremely effective. Many in the nicked, New therand authorities of England, and Australia would love Lo play soum Amca, bu 'A message from the Falklands' Penguin books £1.95 THIS WEEK the Franks Report largeMargaret Thatcher's war, handling of STRe Falklands War. Such

reached not just out

the government, but

such reports by asking wrong questions.

hose who want to ask - and answer - the rea questions about why around they 2,000 people died in a pointless war al C well served by Penguin's decision to make available to wider audience 'A Message from the nians Falklands'. The book is about the life, and death the Falklands war at 25, of a navy lieutenant David Tinker.

There was tack nothing exceptionable about David Tinker; he was political radical. Yet his letters, from the ters.

From a letter to Julian Salmon 6 May 1982 .. The picture that Nott and his cronies are giving is not true. The Argentinian air force has the latest attack aircraft and missiles, which we just do not have. We long for nights, when their aircraft cannot attack us, and at the moment we are rejoicing in a fog which is sheltering us. I wish the politicians would see sense and stop the war. What is happening here is barbaric and totally unnecessary...

This is what it is, a war for a flag ... I think that Maggie Thatcher sees herself as a Churchill, and as for Nott ... let him come down and lie on the deck with us while the air raids come in and the missiles go off. He would see what it is really like and soon change his tune.'

From a letter to his parents 6 May 1982 *It must be a very worrying time for you with all this dreadful business going on. But we are all fine, and in good heart and have not been touched. We cannot really believe what is happening and we all hope for peace: as 1 am sure do the Argentinian soldiers. I only hope that pressure is brought to bear on the British Government by the UN, USA and the EEC to stop the war. It is British action that is causing the actual fighting: the Argentinians merely return like with like.

Government falls quickly on a vote of no confidence...

Socialist Challenge 21 January 1983 page 8

The tour is an act of desperation, an at-

There is no doubt that the f3 million or so

they know the price of so doing would be to split cricket down the middle the black countries refusplay HERe Wate Hence the tough attitude to players gomg to bowm South Atlantic reveal an increasing disenchantment with the

bitterness about the Tory politicians who sent peoDie co about the futility of

His concern was

TUSE THE British servicemen.

to his father of the Argentinians. 'Despite what the press and public say,

are brave men who have to do their duty as we do' And: The pity for us is that there is no cause for this war; and to be honest the Argenti-

are more patriotic about the Malvinas than we are about the Falklands'.

David Tinker was killed in an Exocet at-

on HMS Glamorgan 12 June 1982. Here we publish

CAcerpts from his let-

come

flag.

I hope inat une

Africa.

Since the top cricketers can now earn large sums of test cricket, South Africa's money inducements templ those just below test level or test cricketers coming to the end of their careers.

Africans have been able to the South tempt a not-quite-England side, which duly thrashed by the Sprthe boredom of South African cricket fans, and the Lankan side which was also clobbered in front of emplo waner. ow there is no doubt that the West Indian side British destroyer in the Falklands.

From a letter to his wife Christine 8 May 1982 I cannot believe that Britain, after the experience of the First World War, can be starting another; but this is what Thatcher and Nott are doing. I just hope that the UN, USA and EEC humanity to say: Stop fighting, and let's sort this out peacefully. It is, after all, only a rock with a village population on it.

From a letter to his father 22 May 1982 'Your marvellous long letter arrived today ... It was like a breath of fresh air coming into this totally mad world here. I am glad that you think that way about Mrs Thatcher and the war — as I have

to think SHICC this business started. sometimes wonder if I am totally odd in that I ut-

rly oppose all this killing that is going on over

Vilfred Owen wrote when men make war on death for lives, not men tions trek from progress" still ... for flags", but it has been the reverse here - "na-

Apart from the military fiasco the political side is even more disgraceful. Even if Britain does reconquer the Falklands we still have to talk to the Argentinians and come to some arrangement, so

contains players who would walk into the pre-

ent England team; even i

Players like Lawrence Rowe and Bernard Julien would perform better than

OT our heroes

presently in Australia. Bu

great standards it is a weak

CLIC absence Holding, Lloyd, Roberts Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Gordon Greenidge and above all master-blaster Vivien Richards makes it second rate.

Of the rebel team onl Sylvester Clarke and Kalicharran had a good

Falklanders island.

have the

which was

citizenship!... renders.. "There'll come a day

craft.

chance of playing in the West Indies world cup squad next year.

Anv team without Vivien Richards is not the real West Indies team; but he is so well known for his determined antı-racısm that the South African probably didn't CVCLI bother to ask him Also emerging with great credit from the affair is Clive Lloyd, West In dian captain, who attack ed the proposed tour with some venemence A sporting ban against South Africa is very effec tive because the white South Africans are great sports fans. They reckon why not settle the war before it has devastated the

However, if Britain is going to turn the Falklands into a garrison island (in direct contravention of the Antartic treaty?) it will show the complete hypocrisy of the British

going -to leave the Salestea undefended and take away the islanders British

*... A classicist on board also quoted an example of another dying power having a last fling. I only hope the Falklands do not become our Vietnam, but as long as this government is in power they will be ... Mrs Thatcher and our admiral (he more understandably) seem to have no compunc tion about casualities at all - the initial shock of Sheffield has worn off, and now they are accepted willingly — 20 yesterday in a helicopter, and 20 in Ardent. And they will not end until one side sur-

*. As we don't have any personal weapons there is no particular feeling that we are fighting. We are mostly a peaceful bunch who do not want to shoot anyone. The war just happens; we do shelling of shore positions and get attacked by air

We dislike both, and the time that everyone is relaxed and happy is when we are legging it away from the action at 29 knots.

they have one of the best cricket teams in the world. and you don't have to be pro-South African to a cept that leam with

Polive Rice are Barry Richards, Clive Vincent van de Bilj is extremely strong.

The individual South African cricketers reckon they've been hard done by - after all most of them have played in teams of black players.

But the way is now open to those players to play Test crickei provided they break with South Africa. Allan Lamb

and Keppler Wessels (Australia) have

FALKLANDS FROM THE

GALLANT DENIH O THE MOST ACCOUN

From a letter to his parents 14 May 1982

is under attack weeks now but it seems like ages..

by mid-April!'

scripts) do what they

brains out, them.

handed about four hundred

burning the money.

From a letter to his wife 5 June 1982

government

but

for us by the EEC and Third World ...

done just that. No matter disclaim racisards etal disclaim LOCISHI won't break with the apar theid state.

The West Indian cricketers have been banned for ite so should th English players who went to South Africa and the whole Sri Lankan team.

South Africa's radio ads announce *The West Indians are coming!'; but West indies nly an ersatz West Indies coming.

And the fact that it will in all probability get soundly beaten only highlights the fact of South Africa's isolation.

A MESSAGE O

SADDEST

*... The newspapers all seem to be screaming War War and it must be the same on TV and radio They give the impression that the whole of Britain

.. It has been going on for two From the way that Maggie Thatcher has reacted one would imagine that the Russians were already in Bonn: not that we were defending a rocky island which Mr Nott had planned to leave completely undefended

From a letter to his brother and sister-in-law 28 May

"The sad thing about all this, of course, is that the professional soldiers of both sides (not the con-

are told. So if two megolomaniac idiots tell them to beat each other's

they do; and there is no stopping

*.. It is not as if the Argentinians killed anyone, and now we have decided to go in heavs

people are dead (including a hundred British) and it must have cost the UK about £1 billion so far (ships come out at about €150 million, planes, £10 million: people are cheaper). It will end up with the equivalent of handing over a million pounds to each Falklander, and

'One of our jobs out here is to transfer stores around between ships and yesterday I walked into a hangar and found a nuclear bomb there. I suppose if the USA and USSR have got 7,000 each ine chance of walking into one must be increased

nevertheless I was rather surprised, and wondered if it was worth sheltering in the hangar any more. Of course, it turned out to be a drill round full of concrete that Fort Austin, now eventually going home was taking back to England. I don't really know why we brought any down here Loosing off one really would evaporate support

My dear Christine, how I love you, so very much: and think of you much of the time. Think ing of you makes me feel happy, and I often have dreams where we are off in your new car, doing lots of fun things, and having great adventures. It doesn't feel that you are very far away; for all I know Portsmouth is just over the horizon. It is very difficult down here, as it is at home, although I can't imagine it is summer somehow, and seeing cricket in the papers is very odd. I'm looking forward to when I can put my dreams into practice..

Page 9 scan of this page

against

By Saber Nickbin IN ALL THE PREVIOUS upsurges before 1979, the leadership of the workers ment failed to offer a political line that would make it possible for the movement to grow and to advance. Instead orienting the toward achieving social and political independence, these leaderships subordinated it to bourgeois politicians, undermining it and preparing the way for its liquidation. As a result, the Iranian workers movement lacks organisational continuity and a political tradition. Before the start of the revolutionary process that led to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, there was no independent mass workers movement in Iran.

What we have seen since the rise of the present workers movement is a characteristic pattern of empirical advances, sometimes very rapid which have been continually undermined by the lack of a leadership that could offer a perspective and an effective strategy for building a movement independent of the control of bourgeois forces.

It is particularly clarity the lessons ot these setbacks now, since the revolutionary crisis in Iran is not over and there is still time to achieve a historic breakthrough in building a mass workers movement. In fact, if that is not done the Iranian masses face the danger of a very grave defeat. Strike

By late 1978, what might be called a creeping political general strike began to emerge. It involved over 1.5 million industrial, white-collar workers (bank government employees). phenomenon continued to widen with ups and downs but in a more or less continuous wav. up to the Februarv 1979 insurrection. It was what really broke the back of the Shah's regime.

The impact of the strikes grew, in particular, after the mass demonstrations reached an impasse in the wake of the September massacres, since they could not actually overthrow the Shah. It was the militancy of the workers that revived the mass movement and gave it new strength and effectiveness.

Thus, after being absent from the political scene for almost decades and despite its lack of class struggle tradition and organisation, the Iranian working demonstrated that it is the leading revolutionary force in the country.

The workers began to form strike committees (bypassing porative union structures), and found that extending and maintaining the

Khomeini

the workers

movement

bodies. Thus several

was in Khuzistan, moveregion. It was a committee of dustries

by the strike committees movement

thereby the plants. dynamic of workers control.

A peculiar both

CVCH

TolneSne

Wing class.

the ONES

The vanguard workers

of bourgeois

important to

bourgeois established over

surge:

leadership said.

crease production.

considered

agricultural and such.

and fered "Islamic

society*.

The began. street raised by any

1978 They demanded

for a constituent assembly. three

class

dividual plant

the corIslamic wing.

strikes required forming coordinating

cooramaung committees developed. The strongest

the oil producing joint coordinating the oil and stee in-

The demands raised most broadly

were for rehiring of the workers fired for their Dartc bauo tic sueec dealisl whose the Shah, for the payment of their unpaid wages, and for ousting of the pro-Shah and Savak clements from

The struggle created a

situation arose. The ment mosques and the bazaar merchants were partially financing some of the major strike committees (including

industry). The bourgeois opposition to the Shah

general sunike to be powerful lever for forcing the transfer of power to the mullah-merchant and liberal bourgeois factions of the rul-

The result of this situation was that even the most advanced layers within the working class were very much under the political influence of

bourgeois-mullah-merchant leadership of the mass movement.

layers of the movement did not, therefore, rally around the left but remained under the political leadership Orie Hu ass due eee g03e C02E0! Shora.

and petty-bourgeois Torces in opposition to the snan..

government was CHECN heads .ot thr masses, and was able to present itself as the culmination of the mass up-

*The revolution has been victorious, what we have to do now is rebuild the economy, the bourgeois

Khomeini himself called on the workers to end their strikes and in-

Those who refused to do this, he threatened, would be

counter-revolutionary saboteurs' and would be dealt with as

To replace the strike committees, the mullah-bourgeois leadership of-

Shoras Wn1en were supposed to be the means for assuring the participation of the mostazafeen (the humble) in building a new Islamic

political counter-revolution The only voice of opposition major force in inc movement was that of the leaders of the oil industry's strike committee.

that WOrKe organisations be 'represented' on the Islamic Revolutionary Council (IRC) set up bv Khomeinı as the governing body. They did not demand elections

The political role of the working class was pushed back below what it had been before the insurection, and the class struggle became even more confined within the limits of the in-

For concern. Furthermore, the working class, or at least its vanguard, was now split between an

wing and a class-struggle

The ruling bourgeois-mullah coalition adopted two basic strategies for dealing with this radicalisation The first was a major programme of nationalisations to make it easier for the state to intervene in those plants

owners had fled and where production was almost totally controlled by the shoras. The government had already achieved a certain success in the state-owned industries.

The second strategy the govern-

adopted was to coopt the shoras more directly into the state ap paratus. In April 1979, a united centre of Islamic shoras was set up. In this. the Islamic Societies at the major universities, especially the one at the Tehran Polytechnic (from which the Students Who Follow the Imam's Line later emerged) played an important role.

centre then drew up and adopted a constitution for the shoras. It set up an armed unit of Pasdars on the basis of the 'Special Force' law. And then, with the backing and direct involvement of the office of Revolutionary Islamic Public Prosecutor, it began to 'reorganise' and 'unite' the Islamic shoras, starting in the newly nationalised industries. In June started publishing a journal called

NCOrC C Lauye from Polytechnic Centre would go to the factories (with a group of Pasdars),

their papers from the Public Prosecutor's office, interview Islamic Society and certain members of the shora. Then they would draw up a new list for the leadership, force new elections, and set up "new shoras' which would then affiliate to the centre. If they met with any resistance, they would call the nearest Imam's Committee to arrest troublemakers.

Purge

In this way, in many industries, the Polytechnic Centre organised purge of the leit. It was initiated in Ju ly and August 1979, and became particularly extensive in September 1979. This was the same period in which the regime launched its first full-scale oftensive against the Kurds. Polytechnic Centre helped to recruit workers to go to fight against the Kurdish people

Gradually the traditional mercantile sectors of Iranian capital, closer to the masses but also more parasitic, obscurantist, and despotic — both in their mentality and ideology and in the social relations bound up with their economic activity - gathered around the IRP. This backward merchant class was also closely linked to the mosques. They saw the IRP as the plank for getting to the state trough and sinking their snouts in it.

The IRP could appeal to the urban and rural poor because the sector of capital it represented was marginal to the modern economy and had nothing tolame by intolir in demagnese

rhetoric 2 DOLLE

capitalists and landlords who fear not ReSOrOeZineWaE themselves'. That is, they had nothing to lose so long as the workers could be kept from organising independently and raising their demands. were certainly no less inclined to use strongarm methods Bazargan government

Despite the WOEKCES in action, weakness of the left and the workers vanguard disarmed movement in the face of this offensive. There was no strong force in the movement putting forward the line of fighting for political from the regime and for consistent defence of the There was no strong force putting forward a realistic political perspective for the workers movement as an alternative to the regime.

Banned

Ayandegan was first banned in May, for example. But at that time the regime was torced to retreat by mass demonstrations. banned again at the end of July, in the context of the beginning of the first the Kurdish war. tional Front organised a demonstra tion to protest. The major left groups. the Mujahedeen and the Fedayeen, refused to participate on the grounds -LIC that the NDF was a bourgeois group

The demonstration heavy attack from the hezbollahis. The following day, Khomeini called for outlawing the NDF and insisted that Ayandegan must be destroyed. It never reopened. the On the same day about 40 left and revolutionary papers were banned. The political headquarters of the major left groups, such as the Mujadeen and the Fedayeen, Then Khomeini War' against the Kurdish people, and this offensive proceeded under the cover of almost total press censorship.

The regime's democratic rights had a profound efand the fect on the mass consciousness. Opposition to the mullahs grew rapidly in this period. So, the repression was gradually running out Moreover, the government suffered a major military and political defeat in Kurdistan.

It was in this context that the occupation of the U.S place. It was designed by the IRP to divert the mass movement.

In the first place, imperialist demagogy course to take to divert the real anticapitalist dynamic that was developing. The workers and peasants who in their daily struggles were striking at the real bases ot imperialism now called on to come to the front of the U.S. Embassy to hail 'the Imam's Anti-Imperialist Line' 'these later the Imam himself called on the

everything for

Satan'.

Of OWI concrete And to assure this they contradictory

than the demonstrate

advances of the

the political

the workers auRese natives,

independence

workers interests. vantage

demands.

Then it was

The Democratic Na-

Islamic Shoras.

Calle Calle under Wave

WCrC OCCuOCa of repression. declared a •Holy

on SELLZIGK than

In

over steam.

to this day.

Embassy took by a major

empty anti-WCS -4OOE abolished.

that disobeyed

were

A few weeks managemicnl.

masses to stop all strikes and sit-ins *while the second and greater revolution is going on against the Great

COUISC the mobilisations around the embassy had initially a

erect encouraging large sections of the population to

their hatred of perialism and their aspirations for a different Iran. But in the absence of forces strong enough, united enough, and politically clear enough to present

masses with concrete alterthe demonstrations SOOR became purely the demagogic show that they were designed to be, burning themselves out harmlessly

The working class tried to take ad-

of the sharpening of anti-imperialist feeling among the masses to push its own social and economic

The workers" shoras everywhere were calling for a purge of all the capitalist and pro-imperialist managers and owners in industry. That is, they were trying to fight a real struggle against imperialism

In February 1980, the regime launched a new operation designed to curb and destroy the shoras' movement. After Friday prayers, a group of hezbollahi thugs, members of the Islamic Societies, supported by the Tudeh Party, attacked the Workers House, drove out all the workers that were there, and on the spot set up a new Centre for the Coordination of the

Societies and Workers'

This was a regime-controlled umbrella organisation for coordinating the pro-Khomeini elements within the Islamic Societies and shoras.

It was in this atmosphere that the Khomeini regime began a new wave

Having successfully gotten through the rigged elections for the Islamic Consultative Parlia ment, it launched a new general offensive against the Kurds in March, a much more ruthless and large-scale

the offensive of the preceding summer.

April, the Student Islamic Societies and hezbollahi thugs took

the universities, physically ejected the left groups, and shut the campuses down. They remain closed

These repressive attacks on the workers movement were reinforced

offensive against the workers standard of living, and were in fact a concomitant of it. The right of workers to share in the profits was

Wage increases were declared illegal, and any management

this decree Was threatened with imprisonment.

A new code of conduct for th shoras was passed by the IRC, which basically put an end to any independent election of the shoras and excluded them from any involvement in

Socialist Challenge 21 January 1983 page 9

Page 10 scan of this page

'The tide has turned.

Britain's new Irish policy

Shoot to kill

By Brian Grogan THE BRITISH government now has a 'shoot to kill' policy against suspected Republican activists. The leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, John Hume, has denounced as "legalised murder' the shooting dead of seven men by British army in the last two months. In the same period they have also made attempts on the lives of three others.

Thatcher herself has denied such a change security policy by the

SITES Northerment. elan

Ireland secretary, John Gowrie, has said he would resign if such a charge proved to be true. However so overwhelming that arch reactionary Cardinal Fiaich and other senior Northern Ireland Catholic churchmen have joined in the denunciation. Even the

Called an editorial acknowledging

strength of the evidence, warning of the • El Salvador major

El Salvador.

Throughout 1982, the

Keagan administration

planned to militarily exhaust the El Salvador rebel

forces of the Farabundo

Marți National Liberation

Front (FMLN) and isolate, by intensified repression,

шс рорша icaacrsnp oi

SERC Democratic Revolu-

tionary Front (FDR) from

Military and economic

aid to the regime of Presi-

dent Alvaro Magana,

the tune of $230 million

was vital for this.

Essential too was the

destabilisation

in Nicaragua, which gives

inspiration and contidence

to the liberation struggle

of the El Salvador people.

Meanwhile, the US

had to defuse international

disquiet and domestic op-

position stimulating

superficial reforms and

numan rignts improve-

ments - starting witn the

phoney El Salvador elec-

tions last March.

Collapse

By the end of 1982

mese plans were close

The FMLN miltar.

victories. The liberated

zones in Chalatenango and Morazan* were defended from army assault and imsan anincinte rematen Vincente, Usulutan,

the northern part of La

Union and north of San Salvador. FMEN advanced the fighting the bat capacity, inflicting injury and death 12 per cent of the 33,000 strong El Salvador army over the

year and capturing heavy

and light artilliary on the way. recent years, government backed repression has dealt heavy blows to the trade unions

Socialist Challenge 21 January 1983 page 10

the Royal Ulster Constabulary and

consequences of this turn in policy.

The Irish Times quotes *senior RUC

SOLI COS confirming that a change in policy occured shortly after the Assembly elections in October. And the Sunday Times has revealed that new 'anti-terrorist Special Subport UTES have been formed by the RUC. These aptly named SS units are run by the RUC and the British army undercover teams.

seems that such a new strategy has been embarked upon by Britain in PRESIDENT Reagan woke up to 1983 with a Central American headache. The first few weeks of January have aggravated it. CELIA PUGH looks at recent developments in

and driven FMLN-FDR SUDDOLL LUCETOUnCE the towns. In November a wave of strikes turned this

all employees on bee

8,000 employees Agriculture went on strike. To circumvent a ban on strikes, they went to their workplaces perform their duties.

Similar Was taken in solidarity by 1,300 the public CHISIUYCCOUE works and tourism ministeries. There strikes against Wage bUll trols at the El Leon spinn ing mul, te castalan saca factory and the Montagi construction company San Salvador, as well

western city of Santa Ana. The Sandinista government of Nicaragua successfully rebuffed CIA backed attacks from the Honduras - DOTECE These still continue there have OCCI 12 Incidents since Christmas -but on a far smaller scale, reactionary Somacista bands lick their wounds, following a major defeat at the end of

They had sent in three TIES 900 armed Sigifredo Ochoa

response to the increasingly successful tactics of Pro-

particular their 10 percent

preference the October Assembly elections. With such overwhelming support for Sinn Fein from the nationalist population British strategists believe,

ALLUL ding to une Irish Times, *that more direct action against suspected terrorists could cause no furLiCE alienation opinion'

This tactic

LICW coupled with another the USC Or intormers to indict large numbers of Republican activists and others on the say-so of a single individual.

At present such a mass show trial is underway in a Belfast court. Thirty eight people face some charges ranging from murder to membership the IRA on the mere word of Christopher Black who claims to member of the IRA. Many former

of them face sentences of up to 20 years imprisonment.

It is unstoppable

establish a 'liberated zone'

and alternative Somacista capital in Jalapa. They

hoped to spark insurrec-

tion in an area, where sup-

port for the

big rICe

The reactionaries suc-

CCCUCe Oily CONYHICHE

more of the Jalapa people

join the Sandinista

organisations and were

forced back over the

border by Sandinista troophile the FDR-FMLN

gained in strength, the

torces of the E Salvador

regime fell into disaray. partial reforms

demanded by . im-

perialism, to placate op-

position at home and

abroad, met sharp

resistance from the poweras ful coffee controlling

oligarchy and from the ex-

treme right wing butchers

of d'Aubuisson's ARENA

party, who were

March "ballot of fear"

Divisions over military tactics, aCCUSaLOEs counter-accusations corruption have deepened rifts. shattered ¡'Aubuisson's coalition government driven the ruling parties.

Backed by the US ambassador Deane Hinton, President Magana and Right wing rebel commander Lieutenant-Colonel

Gerry O'Brien, representative of the Belfast based Relatives for Justice Group explained Defence Minister, general Garcia moved to isolate d'Aubuisson's supporters, removing from key military posts

challenging them the Constituent Assembly.

Resistance from the extreme right was swift, with LIC headline grabbing takeover of the Cananas

parison on 8 January by

commander Ochoa Perez in protest at his proposed removal to the embassy in Uruguay.

stirred demoralisation in the army ranks. The wil to fight to the death has been policy of the FMEN turiner sapped the release prisoners to the Red Cross.

Props

At the end of January, Reagan and Deane have to obtain certification from Congress for further military and economic aid

the regime. statements signed by the

partie.

Salvador's Constituent Assembly, they have

•dil nounced their determinaof tion to get it, pointing to a pact, for economic and

luman rights reforms and elections in 1984

The myth of this "progress" easily exposed.

On January, the Council on Iemispheric Attairs reported that 'more innocent civilians WCIC murdered Guatemala and Salvador In the last year than all the other Central American countries combined". The human rights commission set President Magana presided over by the Director of the National Police,

branch of the security TOELES accused of nearly 10,000 murders last t year.

proposed reform is to be "imposed' by the army, meaning further intimidation and

report land reform in the 16

how such informers are created: 'They lift someone and keep them incom municado for seven days.

GUATEMALA

January Sunday Times quotes an American expert

*It still remains an unfulfilled promise

Of the large farms, 328 have been turned into cooperatives but only -22 have been given full title to the land. On small farms 38,837 tenants have so far

their land but only 408 have been given full

title f the 1984 elections.

FDR president Dr Guillermo ungo comments.

•We do not believe in the kind of elections tha Salvador for the past fifty nad years and waico we are to have once again. We do

стосгасу of the fascists

We think that democratic elections nave to be part o a broader political solution to the Salvadorean

and that

egin with an dialogue without any

conardons, which should led to negotiations that would include ceasing hostilities

This call for negotiations has been taken up in many Central American and European countries where Reagan allies This further isolates SIOOKS

the El Salvador regime and undermines US plans to smash the DR-FIN

United States backing for Thatcher's Malvinas war did little to help. In protest Argentina withdrew its army persone from the CIA backed forces on the HondurasNicaragua border. On 9 January, foreign

Panama.

Venezuela. Colombia and Mexico issued a statement

They use this time either to blackmail, psychologically Dressurise

people to turn 'informer' They have been known to offer as much as £100,000. But more frequently they use blackmail'

The tactics o1 ine Relatives for Justice

relatives of accused

the in forme created the conditions where a number formers have recanted in

this, Black disappeared in-

police custody at the end of 1981.

The police were PHOBLA afraid that Black might recant that the: caused an outcry by invoking an ancient law, the bill of indict AN ment, by which all pre liminary hearings dispensed with avoiding any prior appearance by Black.

The police are so nervous that when his parents called out to him when he tinally appeared in court, Black was rushed out and

El Salvador FMLN FOR ZONES OF CONTRO

condemning outside intervention in the region and favouring negotiations.

Luis was rollowca D an 87 delegate meeting of the Non-Aligned Nations January, ranich condemn- Nicaragua ed US policy in the region

No doubt Reagan and Deane will drive certification through Congress later this month. But the

going 1 getting tougher.

Their old project is in tat ters. They now have only

OPENS CE make substantial concesSIONS Cane forces and negotiate, or to play their linal card. out and open military in tervention of US troops.

Direct military Intervention EI

and would stir up major and damaging opposition

th me an abroad, Vien

at home and abroad. nam has taught US imperialism that 15 not always assure of nory

the option negotiations and major concessions to the libera-

Labour Movement Conference on El Salvador

County Hall. London 14 Mav 198'

For information write to:

Campaign, 29 Islington Park St., London N1.

An Evening for Nicaragua

JUNE Shaftesbury Theatre, Shaftesbury Ave. Londor

Tickets from NSC

his parents threatened by

the judge with two years

imprisonment.

This method of attack-

ing the nationalist popula

as with the shoot to

kill policy shows the real

of British rule

This 'internment by the

back door' only works

because of Diplock Courts

peculiar Northern

Ireland. These courts

simply consist of thre

judges with no Jury . Onl

La set up would so

reactiv SCULCHCO the

sole evidence of an

tormer

These despicable ot British im-

perialism can help expose

the obvious illegality of

British rule of the six coun

ties.

• Ban plastic bullets, a

labour movement con

ference to held

Saturday 26 February,

11am at UMIST, Barnes

Wallis Building, Sack

ville St. Manchester 1.

Credentials and in-

formation from: Box 15

164/6 Ditch,

ROHICHI

Manchester M3 4BN. HONDURAS PACIFIC OCEAN

tion forces will meet with fierce resistance from US imperialism's props in the El Salvador oligarchy. will greatly increase the expectation of El Salvador workers and peasants that control over their lives 1s on the agenda.

Whatever the US manoeuvres, is clear that

will

he the aged on i

the agenda Salvador perialism will go to an

engths to stop i

The vigilance of the FDR-FMLN and their determination to extend the liberation struggle should be echoed by the solidarity movement world-wide.

Saivado Solidarity Campaign, labour movement ference in London on MaTrade

union Labour Party and LPYS branches should be organising discussions and

that British Labour Movement can consider is ooposito! to US intervention in Central America the grovelling backing of the Thatcher Government

El Salvador Solidarity

Rik Mayal, Alexei Sayle

50, 15.50, 14.50 Terrace, London

Page 11 scan of this page

The supreme school

A Critical Review of Channel 4's 'The Spanish

Civil War'

By Dave Packer GRANADA's new

it was,

- missible to allow the slightest lack of clarity

unmentioned.

The first two in the series Prelude to Tragedy 1931-1936' and "Revolution, Counterrevolution and Terror', despite their

quantes compared to other programmes of this type, fail to clearly define the political forces it not the class in

*explosion history'- In particular the

question of questions, the role of the Popular Front, is obscured

Written Neil Ascherson James

ameron and produced b a team from Vorld in Ac. CLASS SADeS 11 1011 pace and style. The interview technique with surviving participants cutting into archive film of the actual events as they are discussed, lends immediacy and drama to the unfolding narrative. Much of the film footage has only become available since the death of Franco. Later in the first episode the use ol dramatic reconstruction is employed to portray the assassinations and military plots immediately preceding Franco's coup against the Popular Front government

Time

While the latter made for exciting and entertainIng television. also

some the limitations of TV Journalism culture. The time given to these reconstructions and

intrigues of the military compared to the

difficult and possibly less visually stimulating exposition of the character of the Popular Front, detracted from the political clarity of the programme.

The first half of *Prelude Tragedy seriously attempted historical survey of the ticular it showed how pare crisis. army and the church have always cast their shadow over Spain The extremes of wealth and poverty, the COLLS CEL oppression and tremendous humiliation verging on slavery that existed on the land, the na tional question, all were highlighted.

International

Viewpoint

The latest issue contains

malera or muscle

movement

the

and the European Nuclear

END and ComedIen

associated

Chestors.

Individual copies

Bookshop, 328 Upper St.

London. Subscriptions

£16 for

one venr send 2231080

Richard Lenoir,

Montreuil,

series documenting the Spanish Civil War has met with wide acclaim on the left and is essential watching for socialists Not only did the Spanish revolution fire the imagination of an entire generation of socialists, to paraphrase Trotsky, the supreme school. For this reason alone it would be imper-

towards its dearly bought lessons to pass

The narrative showed how the most basic demands and hopes of the workers and peasants were not, and could not, be met within the existing order, by the Republican government established in 1931. At the same time the government's failure to contam me mass stuggie only alarmed and furiated the bourgeoisie and landlords.

This was the most effective part of the programme. Republican land reform official, now an old man, explained in a matter COT fact manner, how he had come to realise unal it was Impossibie Lo carry out the reforms without the destruction of the whole social and political order. New

The emergence on the right of a new party, the

CEDA semi-fascist organisation the leadership of Gil Robles, and the formation ora new right wing govern ment, quickened the tempo of revolution leading again to uprisings throughout Spain, culminating the Asturian Commune in OcLODCI 1934. This was bloodily suppressed by legionaries and Moorish trooDs under Franco and thousands were massacred in cold blood

The lessons of 1934, of Red Asturias, were not lost on une workers movement we are told. It was FCCOENISCO that successful uprising did not oc cur because the left could not united. By sleight of hand however, the programme moved quickly on

the election ot ine Popular Front in February 1936.

By implication it is suggested that this coalition LOVETHeR! the legitimate product of those lessons. thus contusing the need for unity in action of the workers'

WITn workers* coalition of

parties and liberal bourgeous parties in government. In fact the Popular Front tied the hands of the workers' parties.

However it could not

AYTERVATIONAL

VENPOINT

THERE IS NO PEACE IN MIDEAST

Republican forces outside Madrid

hold back the dammed up energies of the masses, for whom the cicelord victory was the signal for generalised movements, land seizures and assaults on the jails to free the thousands arrested in 1934.

We are informed that the climate violence allowed Halange thrive; that the revenge that was in the air meant that the bosses could not OILI 1OSC their property but their lives: that the right were becoming disillusioned with

arliamentar methods.

t's as though we are bein asked to believe that it was all due to the provocations of the workers; that if the workers and peasants nac been more moderate the traged" could nave Deet avoided. Middle ground was crumbling and disaster now seemed inevitable we are told

However implicitly, the political thrust becomes little better than

apology for the Popular STORE government and the utopia of liberal democratic capitalism which, on the programme's

OWI evidence, had become impossible.

Point

It is at this point, as if to avoid the central ques tion of proletarian revolu-

and proletarian leadershipe we moran on

dramatic reconstructions

and plots and intrigues of the

officers.

The first programme in the series ends with Franco's Pronunciamento.

There could be no rapid victory either

110

compromises, n, no mori

CURIOUSCS.

war Revolution,

Counterand Terror' continues with the theme of inevitable human tragedy. powerfully drawn impression tha presented us is unrestrained and bloodletting within both Nationalist and Republican There

careful distinction made however between the random terror the

'the passion and hatred of centuries and the cold

SuCHane blooded terror of the Na tionalist authorities. estimated that half the

500.000 dead were ecuted or massacred. For

he fascists mass CACCU tions were seen as a cleansing of the nation. News

After news of the cour barcelona workin alens a, Barcelona,

The

the became revolution.

the

Republican government

of the

the factories, linked with the peasants,

passages, the chaos,

excesses of revolutionary

'out of the barrel od. We are infoemed this-

are informed that while the revolution was underway at the rear, the

were defeated at the front. COMMUnIS Party commander explained that

discipline was necessary to defeat the ef-

icient Nationalist troops The impression that DECSCHILCU that the democratic forces failed to unite around the 'new and fragile Spanish democracy: and the bourgeois Republic'!

In the series so far, the counterrevolutionary role of the Republican government in the first crucial months after the coup has been completely ignored. Behind the apparent chaos was the emergence of a

of the

peasants; workers

cluding in.

Popular They handed Over

the bourgeoisie', then set about task of destroying the embryo of the workers" state. It was this that was to finally ensure the defeat of the Republic in the civil war.

Spain says one

reader

ington still advocating the Trotskyist

have been established in Spain in 1936.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Consider the following.

Any attempt

transform the war against Franco anti-

capitalist revolution would have brought a crushing counter-blow not just from the Axis forces but also from Britain and France seriously believe after the experiences of revolution and the wars of intervention in Russia (1918-21), BR 31 world imperialism would stand idly by see a repetition in Spain? No

Neither is the analogy of Kerensky's policy Russia in Feb 1917 (ie the separating of the antifeudal overthrow from the overturning of capitalism with the policy Republican Government feasible at all.

In 1917 workers had nothing to lose bringing • the first workers state into being In 1936 they had everything to lose the very existence of the Soviet Union itself Ultra-left adventurism in Spain if 181000000138 sion would have thrown Hitler/Mussolini into the arms of Anglo-French-US Cabilals! it would have prepared the ground for

ECSUNDLOR terventionism on a higher scale.

The confirmation of the correctness Dmitrov' strategic wisdom, 'keep thy enemies

each others' throats', elaborated at the Comintern Congress of 1935, is surely the presence of twenty workers states on the world stage today. А 2000 рег cent increase on the situation in 1936!

Bob Pennington replies

the interests of the

British and French bourgeoisie

He quotes the wars of intervention from 1918 to 1921 as examples of what would have happened in Spain. According to this reasoning the Vietnamese should never have launched their revolutionery -WOr of independence fear of

everything could subvert revolution

strug

of the

for

the like

revolution intertie

No to revolution in

I AM SURPRISED indeed to see Bob Penn-

misconception that a Workers State could

These are states by the way comrades, which Fourth defends. Yet none of these states would have come in-

being Trotsky's strategy had been plemented in Spain

The Comintern leadership made many errors. But their calculation of the wona balance of Torces lr relation to Spain, that one

Soviet defencism with stopping Franco's advance, fundamentally Let Luigi Longo, leader of the Italian International Brigade and later supremo ot the PCI, put the case:

*In 1936 the Trotskyites and former General Secretary of this party, Bordiga, said a socialist revolution could be achieved in Spain

this point time. Where al C men today? One died in lonely exile. The other is a parial

the fringes of the movement and Togliat, then, Dmitrov and

communist parties that speak for tens of

of industrial workers and their families. parties which have played their part in creating an international SoNals col munity of states inconceivable three decades ago

'Workers will not back a horse that has never won a race, our stallions have won over twenty. History has spoken on the question

was correct on this debate. comrades Now let cease. (Speech to 1964 PCI Congress) LOU NOVA Manchester

LOU NOVA is at least frank. According to him Spanish workers and peasants had to buried in order to placate the

throughout Europe. From then on, Hitler went from strength strength in Germany and the left was pushed back in France

The stage was being se War. A war Which was to the Second World cost the lives of 20 millior Russians. And at the end of that war the shrewd Stalinist tacticians ordered the party of Luigi Long

and its French counterpar not to try and take the power, but to cooperate with their bourgeoisie, who once back in harness 'ungratefully" kicked out the Stalinist ministers

As a result 37 years Lated spame tae i de the same tactics as sure that capitalist governments still exist in France and Italy. AS long capitalism dominates the metropolitan countries the workers states will always be in jeopardy.

Policies that ensure the defeat of workers' revoluLLOTES cannot defend the USSR They can only place it in danger.

This is why Stalinist policies in Spain led to all the horrors of World War 2 and kept capitalism ir tact in Western Europe fo decades

Jaruzelski is no substitute for that!

Socialist Challenge 21 January 1983 page 11

Page 12 scan of this page

Licenced to kill

Socialist

Challenge

By Toni Gorton THE CASE IS CLEAR. London's cops thought they had a licence to kill David Martin because he was accused of the attempted murder of a policeman. Not tried or convicted - just accused. That was enough for London's finest. They went out and in a Bonny and Clyde repeat fired round after round into innocent Stephen Waldorf.

The bullet which brings him to the point of death as we go to press was put through his liver, stomach and arm as he already lay on the ground unconscious. The lads just stood there laughing hysterically. Even when they realised their mistake they made no move to help Waldorf but left it to a passer-by to give first aid. A plan to kill Sue Stephens, a passenger in the car and a former friend of the real target described to the press how on New Year's Eve she was questioned at Paddington Green police station where a senior detective declared: You know that if we see him (Martin) we are going to have to kill him. •' This is the real horror. Detectives cold-bloodedly planned to murder David Martin. And they would have got away with it if they hadn't made such a terrible mistake.

No more cover-ups!

The phoney claim by the police that the shot that was tired to immobilise the car already stuck in a traffic jam led to the other shots has to be exposed. This can only be done by a fully public and independent body examining the facts behind the event. No more cover-ups like the cases of Blair Peach and the Deptford fire massacre.

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 book normally costs 23.50 Alteratively we are offering Henri Weber's book NICARAGUA - THE SANDINIST REVOLUTION (Usual price £2.95).

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We support the call by Roy Hattersley, Paul Boateng, chairperson of the GLC police committee for the Metropolitan police force to be split up and made accountable to elected police authorities. Boateng is quite right when he denounces the Met. for being la law unto itself'

Defend democratic rights Public outery over the shootout is rocking the establishment with some of the most conservative dailies denouncing the police, Sir Kenneth Newman and Willie Whitelaw, the Home Secretary.

Newman's past history remembered of being the chief officer of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in the North of Ireland when it was brought before the European Court of Human Rights for abuses of individual rights and torture while in detention.

The National Liberties in calling the publication of the written and verbal

HE BENN

HERE

shadow Home Secretary and

suspect

is being

Two

Council for Civil

service'. instructions

After that first bad start of only f210.50 we nave 2774.50 in the last week. managed

But the grand total for January is well below what we need. We told you last week that our minimum requirements are €1,000 a week. bo even if your maths are not too good you will be able to work

Manchester

Bristol Brent Birmingham Exeter Aberdeen

Total so far

Photos show armed police in action and the sorts of weapons in the police arsenal. According to Scotland Yard, guns were carried by the

under which the Metropolitan Police are issued with firearms also commented: "The shooting of an unarmed man in London bears a disturbing similarity to a series of recent incidents in Northern Ireland when unarmed men posing no apparent threat to the security forces have been shot dead.'

Specifically the West London police ignored their legal responsibility to: • make a positive identification of a

• challenge before they fire • shoot only when their lives or the life of a member of the public is at risk Disarm the police The urgent need to review the situation under which firearms are issued and used is proven. The belief that British policeare unarmed simply is arde. secretary of the Police Federatine, Jardine, pointed out that in the mid-1960s the police service was virtually an unarmed

But he went on, *I cannot forecast what the position will be by the

Socialist Challenge FIND DRIVE 83

WELL THERE is an improvement, but it's a small one. A total of E985 is not even enough to pay off the debts we piled up at the end of 1982.

out that leave us over £1000 short already.

Come on you supporters and regular readers. Get a donation in the post immediately. Better still ask your friends and people you sell the paper donati dos to sc All donations to Fund, PO Box 50, London NI 2XP.

€175.00 58.00 11o.UU

29.

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Metropolitan police on more than 15,000 occasions - and 38 shots were fired over the last three years

end of the eighties, but the trends are ominous.

Ominous indeed. According to State Research which specialises in getting the facts about the police, 'at least nine forces in Britain have developed crack units of armed police, separate from Special Patrol Groups and other units'. State Research says that issuing of arms is on the increase; that all forces are now organised in paramilitary structures and that all newly recruited police officers now receive firearms 'familiarisation' training with at least 12,000 officers getting regular handgun revolver training.

Make them accountable Killer hit squads roaming the streets of London cannot be tolerated. The police and their chiefs are responsible for this outrage. Give them a short sharp shock by sacking Whitelaw and Newman, disarming the police and bringing them under local community control. See page 5 for further moves to get the police under contro

SOCIALIST CHALLENGE

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DESTRUCTION OF ALL THAT I HOLD DEAR!

THAT REMINISME

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CHEQUE TO THE

FLIND DRIVE,