Socialist Challenge No. 72, No v, 1978
The scan: sc-n72-nov-16-1978.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge No. 72 16 November 1978 15p TRAN- BRITISH TANKS WONT SAVE THE SHAH
Page 2 scan of this page
Why the dollar is
OUR POLICIES 2
EDITORIAL
Editorial 8180/9. 01-359 8371.
The Iranian
powder keg
people for unlawtuiness, cruey ano corrupton.
Economist said that the
American
Walden (a former
stage be placed on the throne
will not be long before Pahlavi joins them.
The Russian revolutionaries executed the Czar.
many other choices as well.
Assembly.
in struggle.
Moscow and Peking is also apprehensive.
shan repracco wan a vacuum.
INSANITE
future will appear on the horizon
administration take
the institutions of the masses.
monarchy.
engaged in the struggle.
are part of it.
excellent work up till now.
solidarity campaign in this country.
Line proposed mass
fall of the Shah will make it even more vitai.
Redgraves vs. 'The Observer
Revolutionary Party, they were penalised.
Just picture the
The Times!
was used with great effect by The Observer lawyer.
an ass but politically vindictive.
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Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 2
Sociatial biles 3809. Der Set Ander in.
THE SHAH is on his last legs. In his speech announcing the military government he apologised to the Iranian
The speech was drafted by the renran. This small, significant, detail shows the Shah's precarious position.
Last Sunday's Weekend World prosramme also assumed that the Shah would not last long. Its presenter,
THEN WINE Labour MP), speculated as to whether the Shah's son could at a later
This suggests that 'unofficial' Foreign Office buffs are accepting the inevitable. The bulk of the Shah's family has already repaired to the Swiss resort of St Moritz. It
This would be a pity for he is a criminal. He should be tried by a popularly constituted tribunal and sentenced. Chinese made the last Emperor a gardener. There are
Yet not a single British newspaper (nor for that matter The Economist) has called for free elections on the basis of universal adult franchise to elect a Constituent
What will happen after the Shah falls is, in the best sense of the word, unpredictable. And unpredicatability frightens everyone except revolutionaries and the masses
The capitalist politician in Washington, London, Paris and Bonn is nervous. The bureaucratic boss in
The Soviet Ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Dobrynin, told the US Secretary of State that they had no desire to see the
What will follow the fall of the Shah is political
ruling class and international backers. For Iranian working people a new
The most favourable development would be for organs of popular power to emerge and an alternative workers
over Tehran. only development that could impel the masses in such a direction would be a split in the army between the ranks and junior officers on the one hand and the colonels and generals on the other. For a dual power to be established would require armed detachments to defend and develop
The central demand today is for the overthrow of the
unites all segments or me masse
But the demand for immediate elections, convocation of a Constituent Assembly, freedom to form political parties and trade umions are a vital part or our armour These cannot be counterposed to the mass struggle. They
For us in Britain there is an urgent need for solidarity. The Committee Against Repression in Iran has done
It now needs to develop further. broaden its base and prepare to launch a mas:
demonstration in December should be seen as the beginning of such a movement. The
THE DECISION of the judge in the recent action brought by Vanessa Redgrave et al against The Observer is. hy any standards. an outrage. Because those bringing the action were left-wing and belonged to the Workers
opposite. Right-wing Tories, supporters-of Smith, etc., bringing a case for defamation against a newspaper. Can anyone seriously believe that if the jury decided that the paper got its facts wrong the judge would then not have awarded the damages? The unashamed class basis of this decision has shocked even
We have numerous disagreements with the WRP. We believe that they represent the worst features of sect polities in this country. Their style and method of politics
But despite the fantasy world which the WRP inhabits there can be nothing but contempt for the distributors of "justice' in capitalist Britain. The law, in this case, is not
Socialist
We asked
whose book
dollar crisis.
There are two basic structural reasons for the persistent crisis of the dollar over more than a decade.
The first is the structural deficit in the payments and especially the trade balance of the United States. This reflects the fact that American manufacturing industry has competitive on a world scale.
This in itself results from the consistently lower increase in the productivity of
than in the main countries of Western Europe and Japan. OVERPRODUCTION
The second structural reason
LIC overproduction in the United States — or. to put it anotner way, the under-utilisation of
and CEL PHICH significantly higher in the US than it is in Western Europe and Japan.
This means Americal government forced to tolerate a higher rate
scale, than its main competitors in West Germany and Japan 11 it is to avoid an explosion unem oven! over the 10 million mark.
Hence the dilemma which the crisis of the dollar presents for the capitalist class both in America and internationally.
LONG TERM
If the combination persistent trade deficit and noner tale or in a on 1 ad US leads
the dollar vis-a-vis the European yen, this will not only have an
on world trade and the exports of Western Europe and Japan, but could also in the long term threaten whole credit system.
Capitalist firms and governments outside the US now hold huge dollar somewhere in the range of 5400bn. It's a question simple arithmetic: decline continues without halt, a larger and larger part of that will be thrown onto the this will lead to the collapse of
revolutionary socialists are:
1
THE FIRST WORD
Ernest Mandel on
in crisis
RECENT WEEKS have seen a sharp fall in the exchange rate of the dollar, only partially curbed by the 'anti-inflation package' announced by Carter.
ERNEST MANDEL, economist and leader of the Fourth International
"The Second Slump' has just been published, to explaininan interview what lies behind the
the whole credit system.
balance of reserves.
RECESSION
become less the dollar
and money rate severe recession there -the United State severer than the recession 1974-5.
1974-5, if not more so. towards The latest nounced by
workers is administration the
that the
of Towards to a continuous
main Currencies ane unt
collapse of the
balances
of the
CLASH Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders of the Labour Party and the trades unions offer solutions that are in the interests, not of the workers, but of the capitalist
Socialist Challenge believes tha
To build broad-based class struggle tendencies in opposition to class-collaborationism in the labour movement. These should be non-exclusive in character grouping together militants holding a wide range of political views. • To begin to fight for the creation of a unified and democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can, through an application of united front tactics begin to be seen as an alternative by thousands of workers engaged in struggles Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that: The struggle for socialism seeks to unite the fight of the workers against the bosses with that of other oppressed layers of society black people, gays — struggling for their liberation. This socialism can only be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with all necessary means the power of the capitalist state.
the Marxist
No banking system in the world could reabsorb even 10 per cent, let alone 50 per cent, of that huge mass oi dollar
On the other hand, a serious attempt to stop the decline of
would imply such restrictive measures on credit
expansion in the US that it would precipitate a
- much of
And this would probably lead to an international recession, at least as severe as the one in spill over into
measure Carter give the impression (we will see late what actually happens) that be heavy.
the Democratic means busiSILUREIC against inflation in the United States.
POLICE OPPRESSION
REVOL
UTION
LETTERS
OUT NOW! Order from PO Box 50. London NI.
3
two vital tasks confronting WOWICH
ERNEST MANDEL: '1 wouldn't like to be in their shoes
But that would unavoidably mean a recession next year And a recession in 1979 would
1980, and the political price for the Democratic Party in the presidential elections would be terrible.
ine social price would disc
Is the American nine or ten million unemployed
fight? SACEC SHIC indication that it will
* H-BLOCK
PROJECT
GIRLS
HACKNEY
THICHES
cation
AFRICA
very
BLOT
SKAN
"socialism" in the USSR and tastern Europe hase discredited socialism
in the eses of the millions of workers throughout the world. We are opposed l
them and will offer full support to all those fighting for socialist democraes
The interests of workers and capitalists are irreconcilable on a wurle
imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in latin
America, Africa and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding the immediate withdrawal of British troop
from Ireland and letting the Irish people determine their own future
The Communist Parties in Europe are in crish
socialist parties are more necessary than ever before. Conditions todas
are more favourable than over the preceding three decades. But such parties car
only be built by rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracs not te
lusury but as a vital necessity. This means the right to organise factions and
In Western Europe, for instance, even against social-democratic and Communist Party leaders, has become very strong after an initial period of disorientation. This is true now in Italy, in Spain, in Britain, and many other countries REACTION
And in America, where the relations between the unions and the bourgeois Democratic Party arent so deep as Inost between the European trade
novenCH the reformist and neo-reformist Janou takers. the reaction could of course be much
So there again they have a real dilemma decline of the dollar would
tion of the small amount of collaboration and coordina: tion that has been going on between the imperialist govern-
There would be an intensifi-
inter-imperialist competition a trade war, protectionism, and so on. CRISIS
But a recession to stop inflation would mean a
big political and social crisis in the United States.
So the dilemma is not merely between two evils on the economic field, but between two evils on the political and social field. They re really in a right spot — I wouldn't like 1o be in their shoes, I must say. NEXT WEEK: Ernest Mandel explains why the proposed
Monetary cannot substitute for the dollar in the immediate future. scale. Capitalism has not only created a world market, it has created world politics. Thus we fight for working class units on an international scale. This units will in the long run be decisive in defeating both th
Seither th "Euro-communist" nor the pro-Moscow wings have any meaningtu strategy for the overthrow of the capitalist state. New revolutionary
Page 3 scan of this page
Owen defies Labour
backing for the Shah.
GEOFF BELL gives the details.
ine mecung denutation from the National Executive of the Labour Party led by MPs Joan Mavnard and Neil Kinnock.
was arranged after - issued by 25 September Executive on which argued, the continued backing given by the British Government to a regime which by any standards has appalling record CLOT violation of human rights and suppression movement is without justification'.
UNMOVED
But at the meeting Owen was unmoved by the thinking of the party.
The deputation went to the mechne to demane an enato British arms shipments to the Shah, the cancellation of the Queen's visit to Iran and a statement from Owen sing, at the very least, "disquiet" about the Shah's behaviour.
Each of these demands was rejected by Owen In encounter which was described to Socialist Challenge as 'quite
speakers.
INTERNATIONAL
WITH the Shah losing friends as rapidly as portraits | great deal about the oppoof him are burnt in the streets of Iran one faithful friend remains faithful — David 'Dr Death' Owen. At a special meeting on Thursday Owen reaffirmed his
was with a acrimonious Owen's justification backing the tyrant was twofold.
So full of his own self-imporrance is argued at the meeting that the the promised were due in no small part to mis innuence.
He laid great stress on what he calls this "external pressure' an Britain and America the although he did acknowledge there was also a "internal pressure' on the Shah.
Owen's other explanation of his behaviour was less novel -the "British interests' at stake in Iran, detailed in an accompanying article on this page.
Owen was worried
whal would nappen to unesc interests if the Shah somewhat paradoxically then went on to argue that the opposition to the Shah was "reactionary" and that a more right-wing, government would Why this government would want to threaten Britain's Owen did not exolain. But when pressed Owen did finally admit he did not really know a
HEAR IRANIAN TROTSKYIST AT INTERNATIONAL RALLY and see film of recent events in Iran
Friday 24 November
5.30-7.30 Films from Iran, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe. Exhibitions, stalls from liberation movements and struggles around the world.
Food and music available.
7.30-10.30 Main Rally:
Ernest Mandel (a leader of the Fourth International)
Iranian Trotskyist Nan Bailey (black militant from US SWP).
Greetings from veteran Trotskyists, Zimbabwe and Irish
Camden Centre, Judd Street, nr St Pancras Station WC1.
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL 40th ANNIVERSARY RALLY
exec... again
Then came Owen's "concession' to the deputation.
Arms shipments would not be SLOODCU. expressing "disquiet would be issued but if the timetable for June elections was interrupted,
for if the military
proved be "temporary and progress of "liberalisation' was halted, then the question of the VISH "reconsidered.
But even Owen's minimal concession on the Queen's visit - Jucotake Dace In ECoruary has a laste of dishonesty.
When SOCIaLISE certain
* Get vour union national union or Labour Party about to affiliate to the Committee
Against
fell.
The (SON London NI and get a CARI 4. 18z Upper
* Get your labour movement body political prisoner. * Pass a resolution demandreactionary ing that Owen is booted out.
interests
(see separate article).
only the Queen's visit. •But. the aGeCe
government on , said the Palace other than if the
asked.
Haven neare
place on
we persisted.
Challenge
What you can do
branch, consulates. * Demand Repression in Iran Street,
* Get
forthcoming
* Organise action in your firm if it has interests in Iran
* Organise local pickets off to affiliate to it.
mean money.
EXPORT
amount to
Rapier missiles, ana armourca ars
Trade has
riot
for 'external' use.
concern over
WO.CoUnTes.
JOINT
rose 204 m last
period last year.
Many
spoke to the Foreign Office tney acnica all knowicage or such considerations affecting
spokesperson this really isn't our patch. We're on protocol here, better try Buckingham Palace'
*Oh no, the visit is definitely
Would it be called off if the elections were called off, if reforms were withdrawn?' we
anything about that" was the reply.
Had any discussion taken
placing such conditions on the Queen's visit,
No was me answer
Iranian airline offices and
that college authorities retuse to co-operate with Iranian embassy surveil-
lance of Iranian students.
labour movement organisations to support the
conference and
demonstration called by CARI (further details next week).
Set up a local branch of CAKE and gel local pontica
and trade union organisations
Why they are
THERE are two reasons why Dr Death is so concerned to defend his friend the Shah.
The first is strategic military cars. interests. And military alliances
Group
British arms sales to Iran But
something like €900m a year: Chieftain tanks,
British Ley- intervention VICKCE tank recovery vehicles and so
Recently the Department of
granted export licences for large quantities of
control equipment. So throne. much for the usual excuse that the military hardware is solely
The second reason for British
-TAT and the reason for the large arms sales - apart from the money the growing trade between the
Exports from Britain to Iran
from £502.3m in 1976 to year. Already after the first three quarters of 1978 the total stands at 168n might - 17 per cent up on the same
British companies prices. nave Jomt ventures with cod
END SUPPORT FOR THE SHAH SHAH OUTE FORTY people attended a picket of the Iran Air office in London last week. The protest started at the Foreign Office but was quickly moved on by the police.
interested in Iran
along the lines Chrysler's supply of Hunter Kits to be assembled as Peykan
such arrangements include Hawker Siddely, British Leyland, Massey Ferguson, Foseco, London Brick Acrow and George Cohen 600
the crucial British interest in Iran is oil — an issue which has provoked Western
When a radical government was elected in the early 1950s, piedged to the nationalisation
Anglo-Iranian Oil, CIA organised a coup to put the
Shah back on the same
British government concer over the Iranian oil workers strike is not, as they would have us believe, because they are worried about the possible los of British jobs. but because it
Shan les: amenable than he has been to imperialist demands over oil
The chief British participant
DON
MITH THE
SHAH
of | in Iranian oil is our old friend British Petroleum of sanctionsbusting fame.
The government-controlled company has a 40 per cent stake in the Iranian Oil Participants consortium
Recently BP has been negotiating with Tehran over a joint venture with the state, in which the company would develop non-oil industries in exchange for privileged access o Tanan ou
Iran is BP's biggest source of
As we pointed out last week, the probability is that much of that sanctions-busting oil which reached lan Smith started with another dictator: the Shah.
No wonder Owen searches around for "moral" reasons for the British role in Iran.
ACTION
No wonder too that these
companies who enthusiastically supported the Shah are now trying to curry favour with his possible successors. * In InE article and the accompanying map we mention a number of British companies with Iranian interests. If your employer is among them get your union or shop stewards committee to investigate those interests and try to organise blacking action.
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
The Priest and the Revolution
workers in action
'The entire
the Shah's
crimes'
The Shah aceuses you and the religious leaders being obscurantists and reactionary. What do you think of it?
years, in all my statements to
DeODic. have always called for, insistently, TIC SOCIal development of my country.
But the Shah, applying the policies of imperialism, worked lo keep iran in a state of underdevelopment. regime is ditatorial: individual liberties in Iran have been eliminated.
The Shah has arrogated to himself the three powers, Pre has established a singre
has established single pontical party. Ana neas made adherence to that party oongatory pain reprisals.
Our universities are closed half the time; our students are ocaren ana imorsoncu severa times each year.
ne nan nas desrovee our economy and has squandered the oi revenue - the wealth of the future on arms exorbilant prices that draws attention to the independence of Iran.
1 am opposed to the Shah, particularly because his policies nea to - Toreign powers compromise the progress of
When the Shah pretends to lead Iran to the frontier of a great civilisation he lies and uses nat excuse to aram me independence of the nation and snca Ene • blood of the people.
Because of these indisputable realities the Shah tries to Tacame our ODDOSILIOn accuses us of being obscurant-
If one day we can turn it around, he will be judged on
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 4
INTERNATIONAL
Interview with Khomeini
world knows
the basis of what he has done against the economic cultural progress people; the entire world knows
The land seized [by the Shah]
15
former owners?
OWnICIS over the vears had accumulated revenues without
has
What do you think is the cause His of the flame of riots in Iran?
Why are they coming now?
The repression exercised by the Shah and by his father and the evil which has hit our people
their independence, progress and their well being, and crammed with promises, especially during the last 15 years origin of the demonstrations. The deterioration in economic. social ana conditions and the scope of the repression have insupportable degree
tions of a gigantic explosion whose consequences are incal* culable.
That Constitution monarchial regime.
* republic?
The government that we will not monarchy at all. That is out of the question.
Would the accession of the Shah's son to the throne be
and We were against the Shan's
father; we ale current shan and against his dynasty, because the people do
VIEWERS of Sunday's
Brian Walden.
triumphant to sit on the throne.
TROTSKY writes:
CUDOSInE
have been foreseen. Gapon, a revolutionary priest, in perplexing manner placed by history at the head of the working masses for several days, lent the events the stamp of his personality, his conceptions, hisrank.
This form may mislead many an observer substance of the events. The and our Those land-
THE biggest obstacle to the struggle for workers" power in ITaR CINE imperialist-backed repression of their biggest is the political problem
to deal
lying apparatus.
After the appointment of a - they are the military government and signs
of unrest in the army. looks at some of the problems posed by the largest military machine in central Asia.
The The military leaders of Iran are not accustomed to direct Boles respons. doesn't mean that they won't try to play an increased part in future kept Do you Chilean officer corps!
The majority of third world armies are highly politicised from top lo bollom - trom the demagogic anti-imperialism of Ethiopia pro-fascism of Argentina.
That is because their sole reason for existence is internal. The prospect of most of these countries fighting external wars is faint. Their war is with their own population.
Iran slightly
against the Promoted he Britain and the
United States as custodian of HereSS. armed forces have more troops
treated to an incredible series of forecasts from former bookmakers' consultant and failed Labour politician
Walden admitted the Shah's future was rather bleak. He went on to forecast an government which follows the Shah will be unable to agree, the army will step in, the Shah's son will return
Walden explained that the Iranian masses were too religious to go communist and too influenced by the religious leaders of the Iranian opposition.
All of which reminded us of Russia in 1905. LEON
The formi taken by however, is just what January could not acmocracyloresw
strike, they
and WIl sympathy population. as lo ine real
Dazzled by
and higher most neo-colontal armics chorous. apparatus internal The second becomes less likely
with that to the side of the masses
ranks of the RICHARD CARVER
Tral
to the Shah.
CONSCRIPT A third of the remember what they 'democratic"
the hysterical
rank and permanent forms different. soldiers
Shah's in society at large.
"Weekend World' were
created CHICLE
He
amazing treble: the
masses day
Ulans,
actual meaning of the events, theresult?
social they
The central figure is the Droiciarlar. ne wolkers sand
they formulate political demands, they walk out into the streets semana
enthusiastic the they engage in technology than
The importance of this for the
independent that the masses. officer caste will split, with a section going over more or less
. So a Portuguese situation, with all its attendant opportunities and problems, is not on the cards.
Instead of
But large sections of the rank and file of the army are just as rank
armed their Portuguest counterparts in their allegiance
Cause Ole army conseript, so much of the rank and file is, literally, workers and peasants in uniform. rank
Already the impact of this officers.
refused to fire on demonstrators. An anernanon or treats comrades and fraternisation from the develop
working class. oroesus masses mas proker their discipline and steeled their resolve against the officers
The problem now will be to structure the discontent of the
file into more
The democratic rights of
within army these becomes key, as well as their right to join with the opposition therefore
defended
battles with the army.
The hero Canon has no
the revolutionary the Petersburg Seater workers, he only unloosed it.
of TOURU nousanas thinking workers and tens of thousands of others in a state of political agitation. He formed a plan which united all these
Hallal - for the period of one
The masses went to speak to the Czar. They were faced by
COSSaCks guards.
Gapon's plan had not prepared the workers for that. What was crater
They seized arms wherever
could they built barricades...They fought, alle though apparently they went to beg for mercy. This shows that they went not to beg but to
The proletariat of Petersburg entire manifested a degree of political
But alongside mass agitation | state apparatus is paramount. for soldiers rights must come
development of the -power of lhe
That is why the position of the Moslem opposition is so dangerous. They say the army
homogeneous instead of a structure torn by the class struggles of society.
Rallying with the and me to forces, the religious leaders make demands on the present army as it stands
The first breaches in military discipline have occurred be-
violent power of the workers. The extension of the armed activity of the masses will more and more turn the
and file against their
And that increased sympath! between soldiers Inel
outside can help ine arsenal
The point is that all such struggles for democratic rights in the semi-colonial world tend
move onwards
This is because no other social class is able to defend
rights. In determining who will defend them and
whether they are - the question of the
aleriness and revolutionary energy far exceeding the limits of the plan laid out by the casual
Gapon's plan contained maneenen so evo monar romanticism. On 9 January the plan colapsed
Yet the revolutionary prole-
romance; it is a living reality. So is the proletariat of other cities An enormous wave is rolling over Russia
It has not yet quieted down One shock, and the proletarian
will begin to erupt torrents of revolutionary lava.
The proletariat has arisen. It has chosen an acidental pretext
casual leader self-sacrificing priest That
enough start with. It was not CHouLn o wIn
That problem will be decidec by the extent to which the workers use their existing struggles to develop new, more democratic forms of sell-organisation waien can begin te stand as an alternative state power.
That not the whole
solution. The ranian worker have yet to develop any mass
direct the seizure of power.
But it is not tancitul to tall about any of these possibilities The speed of Ene masses in action is always dazzling.
When the shah coes, tha will be only the beginning.
EXTENSIVE coverage of Iran Is again une central teature o Intercontinental Press/ Inprecor (Vol 16. No 43),
Single copies are 30p plus påp. Subscriptions: £9 for one tear (48 issues), £5 for SiN months (24 issues), or €2.50 for an introductory offer of 10
Write now to Intercontinental Press/Inprecor. PO Bos 50, London N1 2XP. All cheques/POs should he made out to Intercontinental Press.
Page 5 scan of this page
Who's who in the opposition
power
return to work.
government.
A. HAMZEH reports.
Despite these threats and last minute attempts by the iranian authorities to confuse workers by announcing that the strike had been called off, all but a handful of workers stayed out on strike.
On Sunday, instead returning to work, many them went out onto the streets
demonstrate Shah and the generals.
WITH HOW petrodollars stopped by the workers, much of the rest of the
Iranian stones paralysed er
other strikes another explosion of street demonstrations imminent, the Shah's position looks more precarious than ever before.
that his imperialist backers are beginning to accept that his days are numbered and are seriously Bookine tor alleranves waler could salvage their interests.
COLLAPSE
After only two months in office the Shah's government
*national reconciliation' collapsed on 6 November under ine impact widespread strikes and a massive upsurge or steer cemonstratons.
It had failed to reconcile
1) The
Moslem
opposition
THE Moslem opposition is by tar me sironcest torce witHin the opposition to the Shah's regime. It has been able achieve this dominance simply because of the strong hold of religion among the masses, but more because of the lack of any alternative.
While the regime has been able to crush secular political opposition by repression it has not managed either to crush or subordinate the religious
Once there was an upsurge of struggles Ine renoious estan. lishment was in a much more VOUTED poston them.
The political bankruptey of the two traditional organisations National Front Tudeh
militants towards the religious - to the Middle Ages. ICAUCES
INTERNATIONAL
Strikers still defy government
Workers
test their
IRANIAN oil workers have again defied orders to
Last week they were given an ultimatum by the generals who now run the Shah's
They were told that if they did not return to work by Sunday they would lose their jobs and homes.
anyone, even at gunpoint.
The generals' rise to power did not represent a victory for reaction but desperation.
When the Shah announced
of
Line
oil the tormation of a military government on radio it was difficult to believe that it was the same Kings. sounded more like desperate and demoralised man begging and grovelling to save his peacock throne.
The man who once used to DOSSE about Shah by the Soviet and Chinese BureauCRee as done siderable damage to the left.
Moslem draws its support from a wide
urban poor to very bazaar merchants. What holds them together is their common adherence to Shia Islam and opposition to the Shah.
The wide range forces involved is also reflected in the wide range of political strands within the SHOYCERCHE. not At one extreme are the young and highly radicalised militants whose respects socialist. At the other views TAIC
are the bazaar merchants whose opposition to the Shah stems from the erosion of their power and wealth by the development
The undisputed leader of the
meini. He became well known TOle upsurge against the Shah lead 1963. Since then he has lived in exile in Iraq and now Paris.
The Shah and Western media have presented Khomeini and the Moslem past fundamentalist and reactionary force trying to drag Iran back
But religious
chambers was now repenung mis sins or repression, cruci and corruption.
The man who not so long agc had said that workers who did not work would be picked up by the tail like rats and thrown out, and used to order his men to shoot down strikers even expressed support for the strikes!
act of But the masses had no time
for the Shah's sob stories his confessions of guilt. They ALL TANKED UP: the Shah's forces in action. Exclusive photograph just received from Tehran.
had already found him guilty. before try had heard a all As for his King of before.
acceptable to them was his overthrow.
Their reaction to the military government was to come out onto the streets and demonstrate once more despite the menacing presence of large
con-
movement
wealthy
of social
Moslem
Khomeini have been able to win mass support because they have taken up issues suen as poverts
many and
because Me wanto relure Islamic principles.
The heterogeneous class base of the movement means that its political programme beyond calling for the Shah's overthrow and for democratic rights. They call for an Islamic republic, but are unclear on what this would mean. in Despite pressure from the more right-wing elements in the movement, Tains a radical anu-shan and anti-monarchist stand. He has called for disruptive strikes to bring GOwn government.
But the attitude leaders like Moslems is
between
demonstrators down.
now The
crackdown
and to carry out reforms. was extended, workers
only change ultimatum.
Strict DEBRIS from a looted liquor store is strewn on the street
rights,
is vague.
Front
Khomeini main- present day importance
Mossadegh,
the military
most dangerous 1950s
numbers of troops and tanks.
For a whole day there were battles on the streets of Tehran
demonstrators and troops and once more many
were gunned being illegal.
military government's tactic was to attempt to restore order by a combination of a the regime
and measures aimed at showing that it means Among
Tanks and more troops were servants:
minister
Shah's SAVAK The
royal
already
their wealth.
moved into the cities, curfew
and striking WCTO
censorship was imposed on the media, and the newspapers, which had enjoyed much greater freedom since the
Lakt success of the recent strike, seriously. were closed down and many of when i comes one man The Instead of calling on the rank and the soldierso come o side of the masses they call on me army lounrow ourtne olan
very weak.
2) National
number
THE National Front owes its and Tame more to history than its
His mistory goes back to Ine 1940s when it was formed by Dr
-LEt all prime minister who led the adherence 1o struggle for nationalisation of the oil industry in the early
Now two of the leaders of the
joke also been arrested because of a press statement it wiew tney referred to the monarchy as
At the same time the military authorities have begun arresting important former figures of
on charges of corruption and abuse of power
those arrested are big two of the Shah's most faithful
Amir-Abbass minister for nearly 13 years, prime
General Ne'matollah Nassiri, the man who was most responsible for building up the
CHOE machine,
Shah has now even
enquiry to investigate the wealth of the
family including the Pahlavi Foundation, his own enormous business front
Most of the members of the Shah's family have, however,
conveniently moved out of the country with much of
GANGSTERS
Neither of these measures are having any effect. The military government can arrest as many or une nans tormer gangsters as it likes, but while the head gangster himselt continues remain in power no one is likely
these mcasure
As for the Shah setting up a
present-day National Front is much weaker than Mossadegh's powerful organ-
has little support and is organisationally
But it is the strongest of a
of bourgeois liberal orgamsaons in tan today
The National Front bears all the worst characteristics of the liberal bourgeoisie of the semi-colonial countries. It lives in constant fear of the masses
throughout the Hlass struggles of the past year has trailed behind them.
It calls for the formation of a broad coalition government of
"national' forces and bourgeois constitution of 1906
Pressure from the masses has forced the National Front to
commission of inquiry into his own wealth, this can only be a
Nor is the escalation repression going to have any Cheer. The or WOrkers nave already shown way by
generals'
This decision to continue their struggle is not just a major blow to the regime but also a
boost for the struggle throughout the country.
The newspaper workers are also resisting by refusing to return to work as long as the military continue to try and control the press.
A call by opposition forces for strikes to bring the military
down is gaining LUYCEHHECHE SUPOUTE Power workers telecommunication workers and transport workers are all on strike tor pontcal demands
Bazaars have remained closed as well as schools and universities. Street demonstra tions have already begur provincial towns and are likely to start up again in Tehran
-The Peacock Throne already rocking heavily. If the oil workers' strike continues and other workers follow the lead then it may fall very quickly.
che general strike must be extended with a call for th abolition of the monarchy, ar end to military government and narasaw anne seru of a constituent assembly freely recently. For the first time it opposes the monarchy and now calls for disruptive strikes to bring down the military government.
3) Tudeh
THE Tudeh Party is Iran's pro-Moscow Communist Party. It was founded in 1942 and rapidly became the most powerful pelitical organisation in Iran after World War I.
At its height it had 100,000 members and almost complete control of the trade union movement.
It was made illegal in 1948 our continued to operate Tair! openly until the 1953 coup.
Tudeh Party i very weak. It has a small base among the working class and students.
Like the National Front it has been trailing behind the mass struggle over the last year and has failed to take the lead.
It calls for the abolition of the monarchy and the setting up of a constituent assembly Like the National Front it calls for a broad coalition government of 'national forces.
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
0
EQUAL OPPORTUNTIE:
their rights'.
producing the black communities themselves.
The formation of Blacks Against State Harassment (BASH), in which Asian and Afro-Caribbean organisations and militants have together In neW important coalition, is one sign of these changes.
The growth of groups like
Socialist Alliance Ine Sack Movement is Turther evidence and the Bradford Asian Youth of the growing sentiment for united action by blacks to fight racism.
QUESTIONS
This sharply poses questions which revolutionary socialists, despite their participation in anti-fascist and anti-racist activities, have for too long left partially or completely unanswered.
What type of movement Is needed? What sort of demands do we need to fight for to eliminate racism? What attitudes should we have
separatism?
It's high time we not only answered such questions but made them part and parcel of our activity.
The Bolsheviks were the first to develop a clear understanding Inat socialist revolution could not be a simple class against class' confrontation.
FESTIVALS
When Lenin spoke revolutions being festivals of the oppressed', he was clearly recognising that Wile oppression of the class by the bosses was the motor force for revolution, were were many of oppression which capitalism
The oppression of colonies by imperialism, the
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 6
BLACK PEOPLE in Britain are fighting back. From the rebel music of Steel Pulse and Aswad, to the massive strike and demonstrations against racist attacks in the East End, to their role on the Ford and Grunwick picket lines, they are serving notice that they will 'stand up for
COLIN TALBOT explains how this struggle is also
important political convulsions
oppression of national minorities within states, oppression of women were all seen by the early communist movement as important struggles in their own right, separate but linked to the struggle for socialism.
Today black people Britain are struggling against their oppression as blacks, and STORTE part of of the working class, as workers.
It is important to understand exactly what the oppression of black people in Britain consists of.
Some examples are obviously better known: for instance, the fact that the immigration laws mean racist tion in entering this country and racist harassment, includblack ing detention and deportation, for those blacks already here.
HUMILIATION and Similarly with the fact that the state, especially the cops, COLISISECHLIY Harasses people throne amelike sust blatant irame-ups physical assaults.
But what racism means for black people in their daily lives less well known. reformists, of course, that it's simply a question of "bad attudes legacy of colonial pride and the great brusa empire This is one element in the daily people. But it's far from the whole story. Here are some of CEnC working the facts.
the
In council average rent for black people is the same as for whites. Yet 18 per cent cent of Afro-Caribbean tenants have to share accommodation, compared to only 0.6 per cent of whites.
Furthermore, 62 percent of within blacks and only 25 per cent of
whites SuVe before 1940. A GLC survey in and the systematically allocate blacks 1974/5 SHOWCO
to poor quanty mael-city areas and reserve the better estates for whites. overall
the
racist
discrimina-
In jobs the story is repeated.
Unemployment as a whole rose by 138 per cent between 1974 and 1977, but for blacks it rose v super cent back your lave suffered the wors WHeN jobs their wage: than whites. Whilst 40 per cent of white men get white collar.
and or higher jobs, only 8 per
of Afro-Caribbeans and 20 per cent of Indians can Many reformists believe that
The education is the problem. But believe only 31 per cent of black male
graduates
Tne managerial jobs, compared to
almost 80 percent of whites
ASSAULTS black
And on top of the racist harassment from the state and the racist jobs, housing and education, black people now have to face the assaults of the fascist goon squads who are trying to drive
Capitalism is incapable of overcoming suca probiems While the mighty USA, the
housing, the
years since une of Asian and 10 per
racism.
obvious nouses built doesn't. they Many
because reformism
MATION Grunwick hunger strike outside TUC
should
instance!
blacks do get
average less blacks and workers
autonomous HLOVCHECHE Black organise oppressior get professional or
black unity.
Reformists reject 'splitting unity discrimination In
strengthened ane mutancy rebel.
HOME NEWS
socialists
see the
fight for
black liberation
wealthiest state on earth. has failed to end racism in the 113
abolition of tends to slavery, it took the victorious
only couple of years to root out the black worst effects of decades of
sort of
The conclusion is patently
revolutionary socialism works and reformism
so-called Marxists anu-racist one therefore adopt a wait until after the revolution' attitude to blacks (and women). But just an
doesn't
movement like massive which stohigher hiages, for fighting mass working
So what type of fight do we need? Because we recognise the
for blacks are doubly oppressed a
recognise the need both fo workers.
The working class unity and for an
demands black liberation
people have fight their as blacks.
Malcolm X so clearly put
minority "There can be no black-white unity until there is first some
which and sectarians • se -orlansanor working class bul une exocnence black self-organisation in the
black US trade unions is that it has
workers unity seen greater.
A resolute struggle by any
black the oppressed strengthens all other struggles Time! because we are fighting same enemy. In a very direct sense it encourages others to
How
the ters
At a more "ideological" level, any struggle by the oppressed
illuminate the real nature of the society we live in
Establishing the need for a
movement doesn't answer the question of what
movement. The oppression which blacks face as a social group defines what sort of political basis such a movement should have - an
Obviously such a movement has an anti-capitalist logic, but
explicitly anti-capitalist would hinder rather than help a united black
embracing all political currents within the black masses. It would militate against unity in action against black oppression, racism.
FLEXIBILITY
In organisational terms the greatest flexibility and democracy is called for in building such
MOYCHICHE Developments
BASH are obviously strides forward to revolutionaries must give full support
In addition, people need to take the fight into the
organisations the class through the formation of black caucuses.
This is especially important because racism in employment,
example, will only be fought by winning the trade unions to support for black
only way that such 'affirmative as action' in hiring, training, and TOMOROI WILL OC LOICCU LO LE fore is through black self-organisation within the unions.
Black people are a small
Britain. This means that the construction of a united anti-racist movement
supports movement is crucial to any successful anti-racist struggle.
Such a movement is already developing, as is an embryonic
movement, and the potental for bou nas neve
To use a well worn slogan of the American
movement Seize the of aim
WHEN 8,000 workers, most of then Bengali struck against racist attacks in London's East End in July it symbolised the growing resistance of blacks in Britain
The visit of Nan Bailey, leading black militant of the US Socialist Workers Party, gives socialists here the chance to
rights and freedom struggle of
Come and hear Nan Bailey at
SOCIETIN Challenge Day School on Racism and Black Liberation. It's on Sunday 3 December in London (people attending the ANL Trade Unior Conference can stay over I London). Admission is open to all Socialist Challenge Suppor-
- contact your local group for further details.
NORTH-WEST FESTIVAL ONE of the biggest anti-racist events in Lancashire outsid Manchester/Liverpool takes place on Saturday 25 Novem ber. That's the date of the NW
Festival for Racial Harmony, to be held in Preston Polytechnic Students Union.
The festival runs from 11am to Spm, and then from 7.30 to 11pm Belt & Braces Roadshow will perrorm along wit ofe bands (tickets El in advance for evening). There will be a creche throughout. Details, tickets leaflets from: PO Box 21, Preston.
WOLVERHAMPTON 4 ACTION continued ir support of the four Wolvernampion anti-racists arrestec during a demonstration last March. Both Birmingham and Mosely ANLs have organised
and petitioning 10 demand that all charges dropped
But 'unofficial' intimidation continues. Last Thursday brick throwers attacked the home of one of the four, Dave Stevens, for the third time, although he moved to an unpublicised address some months ago.
This type of harassment seems to nave peen too muc for another of the four, David Hines. who was charged with assault and malicious wounding. He talled to turn up i court when his case came up SE MONU
TORY attempts to stop support for the ANL backfired on 7 November wnena student union meeting at University College, London voted 3 to 1 to
every Saturday for the Chapel
OLEC action against the NF
Most union meetings only attended by about 150 people and are dominated by the right. But this time 500 students turned after anti-racists distributed 2,000 leaflets highlighting the issues. And the voice of the "silent majority soon put paid to the Tories.
THE NEW Nazi pamphlet Taking the Lidoff the Anti Nazi League has resulted in a number
those who have been attacked, including Peter Hain taking the NF to court for gros slander
It would be of considerable aid to them if details could be received as to how and to what extent the pamphlet is being circulated. All information to SC, PO Box 50, London N1.
ANL TRADE UNION CONFERENCE THE ANL is organising a trade
conference December at Congress House, Great Russell St, London WCI. The conference is open
bona -T10E trade -1110 1 bodies and workplace organisa tions', and all readers should
get credentials.
Registration (El) from: ANL, PO Box 151, London WC2.
Page 7 scan of this page
Sussex victory on redundancies
HOME NEWS
women's safety.
JAN PARKER.
It all started last year with a
Women organised speakers from the Rape Crisis Centre to dispel myths about rape, and the university was pressurised about security facilities - OLI nothing much came of it.
assaulis continued Finally a woman was viciously raped MUTOCICU parkland adjoining the versity:
TORODE.
the end of September after they realised that they were turning out 500 extra pumps a day for hardly any extra money.
This was the last straw in a factory with minimal sarety standards where the workers were areaey rusnce ou nel feet - with no tea-breaks and ony na -an nour tor unci
Inthewordsof Susan Starkey from the National Society of Operative Graphical and Media Personnel [NATSOPA].
MICK DRAKE reports.
The past seven months have been one of almost Consid struggle lo improve wages and workue condIons
Che final strar teme when
firm redundancies and then refused to pay the workers for four days when they were illegally suspended at the beginning of October. On 10 October the chapel withdrew its labour.
Usher Walker supplies Fleet Street with 30 per cent of its ink
Line Sun, Mal.
Telegraph. Times, Financial Times and News of the World. Union action could quickly havemade thestrike bite. OPPOSITE
But the opposite happened Senior NATSOPA officials issued temporary NATSOPA cards to two members of the United Road Transport Union on 20 October so that they could deliver news ink to Fleet Street. They also instructed Fleet Street members to accept delivery of this scab ink.
Meanwhile Manchester NATSOPA entered
oTnicas into an agreement to allow Usher Walker's Heywood plant
'HERSTORY' has been made at Sussex University with the first ever student occupation on rape and
What's more, it ended in complete victory, reports
Women students decided it was time for the students union to act on behalf of all women working and studying at the university.
EMERGENCY An emergency union meeting called; petitions circulated; and workers' supforthcoming. uni- successful Reclaim the Campus' demo was organised.
Grundfos women win by
'sticking together'
A MAGNIFICENT victory has been won by women striking against arbitrary speed-up at the Grundfos factory in Washington, Tyne & Wear, reports ANNE
The women took action at | Engineering Union shop stew-
Hard: You're a commodity that producesand that sil, you veno feelings. *If you get cut, bruised or baltered in the process, it's just hard luck, They can replace vou with someone else."
Forty-eight women sixteen men from the production line were eventually on SITIKE
sackings
EIGHT print workers at the East London factory of Usher Walker Limited weresacked by management last week - on the instructions of their own union officials
to engage in extra production for the delivery of ink to its southern customers. The price: extra £10 per week worker.
NATSOPA then set to work on disciplinary when the Üsher Walker strikers refused three times to réturn to work.
Temporary card holders had their cards withdrawn, probatlonary members were expelled and the remaining NATSOPA member summoned to resa disciplinary hearings.
On the morning of these. eight strikers received letters sacking mnem on tne spot tor not being members NATSOPA. Others arrived at the 7 November hearing to find une ceune lace surrounded by the police.
But all is not gloom. British Oxygen workers at the Hackney depot have relused to suppiv gases to the firm and are trying to get the Manchester depot to follow suit.
Picketing at the Manchester plant was renewed this week, and Hackney Trades Council will be urged to adopt the strike on Thursday
women's safety
We demanded floodlighting on campus, installation of an (SOS) emergency system, improved patrols in liaison students union, then late-night transport services. As a show of strength we occupied the building for 24 hours before a pre-arranged meeting with the authorities. Media embarrassed them into conceding all our demands straight were away. sur evens e occusanon itself highlighted the problems
and threats of physical and machine shop walked straight the morning until their union called them out.
Even then they were only out "under protest'. As one woman the *We've shown them up because we've proved we're stronger than eee them. sticking Some of us have and support We women with us, and some of nem nave chieren TomaK about
Union officials order
Printers,
USH
per
proceedings
of
discreetly
Resolutions of donations should be rushed to:
Jim Burton FOC, c/o Student Union office, House, Poly, Livingstone
sexual violence
phone security with women's and Delte liberation.
EXAMPLE administrative
follow our example. coverage In particular,
from women University to this But the male workers in the | their strength.'
picket each
picket line told me:
together. no men to nave singie
but they've proved work!
USHER-WALKER
CHAPEL
BLACK
SCAB
NEWS-INA C
Usher-Walker demo in Fleet Street earlier this week
support and Stratford, London
Livingstone
North East London Lane, E15. 7.45am-4pm.
Road,
Laird Liverpool, NULAN
We are therefore calling to more self-defence classes and Murt's
oppression and
of advice
We're not an isolated case all men are potential rapists. So
we want colleges to support the call
Susser weekend's NUS Women's Conference for increase, a national 'Reclaim the Night' unspecified • demo on Saturday 24 January WIth
And by sticking together they wor Manasemen nas arrecc to return to previous producton leveis. ana me women wil receive 60 per cent pay for their
They will also get a £20 bonus during productivity discussions with union representatives.
What is more, they have even struck a small blow against unemployment, as the firm has agreed to take on two extra labourers to help with the
N.A.TS O.PA.
in Hackney. called Images
Two
written IHCIMSCIVCS
club The
Callc
Rule December.
to joing the
E15. And Join the pickets: Fleet Street 7-8am at Bouverie Street and Whitefriars Street; Marshgate believes
More Liverpool
cies are threatened at Cammell
ship repair yard reports JOHN
Full-timeunionofficial Harry Murt has responded vigorously by demanding that.a social
yard to deal with those who have lost their jobs!
advice on last Thursday Boilermakers Union members. 620 of whom are affected by the threatened redundancies.
Theworkers weregiven plenty
about redundancy hand-outs, but nome about how to keep their jobs.
Earlier the stewards committee chairperson, Tommy Webb, had introduced the wage claim - tor a meagre o per cen
35 hours, 'incentive bonus", "travel assistance' and "fringe benefits".
Hackney Girls Project
WE ARE 40%
• WAGED
HACKNEY Girls Project has been organised by a group of local women who want more facilities and more fun for girls
A month long programme of varied events and activities for club. girls has been organised from 7 to 20 November. ne sere includes six evening events, a pudic exniomon, and lots or free, informative literature.
The first two evening events were a big success. The first,
of Ciris, wa altended by 70 girls between the ages of 14 and 17
groups of girls performed plays which they had
and worked One was abou sexism in education, and the
girls' was dUOu experiences in a mixed youth
second called Black Girls in Society, was also well attended. About 40 girls
see inc Newsreel Collective's film Divide and
Never! A lively
Garners day of action
THE GARNERS Strike Com- top
LOUCHICI with the Greater London Association of Trades Councils, has called for a day of action on Saturday 9
Supporters are being asked
picket at the Haymarket at 12 noon, from where they will be directed to other Garners restaurants.
The strike committee now
Garners management on the ropes' and sees recent shifts in the firm's
makersbeganto drift away from the meeting Workers Action supporter Lol Duffy tried tc speak in favour of a real fightback.
Only when Duffy managed to get tothefrontof the meeting did Wehh acknowieuge pre sence. Webb then called over une micropnone for a volt
the proposals
The uncounted and inconclusive show of hands was taken to indicate a 'no' vote by Webb, who then declared the meeting closed.
The day before, 1,000 joint Socialist Challenge/Socialist Worker leaflets had been handed calling "TOT immediate 35-hour week, a ban
overtime Strike against redundancies, and a worker - pial
the yard. produchor
Workers SeDaTarE bulletin made similar demands.
CE THE
WORK FORCE
discussion followed.
A follow up meeting has been arranged 30 November when girls in the area can discuss what ney woua uke oao nex
maybe organising a girls
Further events include
16 November: Take It Like a Man Ma'am, a hilarious full | length film witha brilliant dream sequence when men do the typing, shopping and vie for the attention of fat, rich businesswomen in sieazy bars
November: *Girls and Work - a practical workshop | run by Womenin Manual Trades in plumbing, carpentry, electricity plus screen printing.
23 November: Live music by Clapperclaw performance and music workshop by a group of women musicians. Refreshments.
All events are at Centreprise 136 Kingsland High St., E.8 7.30-9.30pm girls only Further info from: Box 3, 136 Kingsland High St., London E8
level management as evidence that 'we can defeat them'.
Pickets continue every day and the strikers arz especially appeaning to une tnousanos or students in central London coneges to pur down monons i their support, invite them to union meeinos ana on men on the lunchtime and evening ockes. une sinike commie can be contacted on 01-240 1056.
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1867 Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
PUTTING PA TUC says 'pass' to Jim's questions
Ulster Unionists of more parliamentary abstention on the Queen's Speech,
allowed a Government majority.
capitalist weekly, the legislation proposed in the speech.
rapidly dwindling support
the British Leyland pattern.
suggests how we can dispose of it.
the Economist *There is nothing in this speech which the Government is likelv to regard as a
would need no-confidence vote to General Election at alime nopiate a precipitate
Callaghan's choosing.
But there is one issue on which Callaghan has based both the life of this Government and Labour's election strategy - incomes policy.
Callaghan and Healey have stuck up two fingers to the TUC and Labour Party conference calls collecuve bargaining. It is on tnis issue that the right-wing Labour Government will stand or Tall.
OUTSIDE
Nothing that happens in Parliament will unseat the Government on pay policy. wnemer tne callagnan regic can impose its 5 per cent limit will be cecece ov events ours ac mC DeCe of Westminster.
Only WICH this policy is clearly failing will a serious move be made to unseat Labour in Parliament; and even then the rift in the Tory Party means that there is no evident alternative to -Callaghan for the capitalist class.
Is Callaghan failing? The recent vote of the Ford strikers would seem to say he is. But when the Ford workers broke the 10 per cent limit last year, and average increases for the private sector were 16 per cent, the Government was able to keep wage increases in the public sector to 10 per cent, and thus overall increases to 14.2 per cent.
anis year the rora workers scem sure to win a lot more than 5 per cent, making a repeat performance difficult Yet the 'winter of discontent' which Public Employees' leader Alan Fisher predicted is not guaranteed to upset the Government's plan.
Despite Congress duissenera laghan still has the TUC's Council behind him. They may not agree on a 5 per cent limit, but they are united in wanting the return of a Labour Government at any cost.
While Sid Weighall's call for another Congress to endorse the 5 per cent limit has been rendered impossible by the Ford and bread strikes, TUC-Government I0O. producing a joint statement.
Callaghan does not expect these to result in endorsement of the present pay
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 8
THE LABOUR Government is literally buying time. A bribe to the
seats ensured their and this, along undertaking on Welsh and Scottish referendums on devolution,
"A full session's work, but nothing risky' is how one major Economist, described the programme of
Even the most radical items, aimed at retaining some of the
for Callaghan within movement, only serve to promote more collaboration with bosses — such as the proposal to extend workers' participation on
RICH PALSER follows the trail of Sunny Jim's strategy, and
The Call ECLE First collective bargaining'.
This is another way of saying that where the union officials may back a
specitic fight for big wage
profitable companies such as Ford, the story is quite different in the likes of Leyland Secondly, it means that the TUC does not campaign in solidarity with workers who are confronting the 5 per cent limit. Murray has already made it plain he is not mandated to do this (unlike Labour's National Execuuve free Committee).
Thirdly, Callaghan will long-term agreement on public sector along the lines Basnett's proposals for comparisons with private sector wages.
What the Prime Minister does not Want, however, is to allow the public sector workers more man a per cem now. confident continued collaboration because he has asked two questions to which the TUC. including 'left wing'. answers. What is your alternative to the Government's economic policies? And who would you want in our place, the Tories?
There is one answer which the union leaders refuse to give. When Callaghan and Michael Edwardes say Leylanc cannot afford to pay decent wages, and therefore BL inflation to cut their wages or face redundancy, then that just shows that industry run on an unplanned capitalist basis cannot meet the needs of the vast majority of the population.
That's why the motor industry as a whole shona be
ensure JoDs, living products which are of use to society.
RIGHT TO WORK
CalFar from this being an argument for workers to stop defending their living standards, it is an socialist measures to delend even the basic right to work.
When public sector workers are told they will be forced to accept the pay policy, whatever Ford workers win, this the is not a reason for them to demand comparisons with the private sector. It is an inducement for automatically defended against inflation, through automatic increases in wages to keep pace with rising prices.
with an
the labour
the
is responsible
increases in want a
perhaps of has no workers must allow nationausea. and
Standards aid the bread workers.
ItIs an
stand for the
argument for people.
wages to the working class voters
THE LAP of luxury, 1978 style -alternative to Callaghan's axe on living standards
When the working class is informed Inat it must cuner accept Canaghans pro-capitalist policies or have a Tory
this is BOSSCS reason for Len Murray to do nothing to
leadership argument Callaghan out of the leadership of the the fightback. labour movement, along with Murray and all his supporters in the unions, and replacing them with people who do
interests of working
If Callaghan wins the next election, as the opinion polls suggest he might, it will be because the Tories are split not because me me visierras wor of leadership. the enthusiasm of working class people. pro-capitalist policies have demoralised
If a Tory Government is the result, it is far better for the labour movement to confront it confident of its victories in
yet the union leaders have no political
defending our living standards than in a state of disorganisation after five years collaboration with Callaghan and the
Removing the 5 per centers from the
of the labour movement will best be achieved by strengthening
It was the Ford strike which won the vote against the Government's policies at the Labour Party conterence this autumn. It will be by spreading the struggle, by joint action now part of all workers with claims in, that the s per cent hmi will be aercarca al its supporters removed from positions
That's why the task of the hour remains to demand the breaking off of all talks; for the TUC to launch
with the bread workers, and for a socialist alternative to Callaghan's policies.
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE
Our altern WORKERS' PLANS
* The Lucas Experience, wit Lucas Combine * Workers' Control in Iran workers' movement * Closures and Workers' Co Hospital Occupation Comm campaign * And more! (Speakers in pe
Saturday, 24 March. At Tickets £1, from: SC Trade London NI.
Bread
the Hig
battle
"CRUMBLING' has become bread strike - that's when th think they've got over the me ransom'.
With 20,000 bread sho propaganda, GEOFFREY SH workers' movement to take High Streets.
The strike by 26,000 bread work which began on 7 November alre looks like becoming the most bi confrontation over the Governme pay policy since the Fire Brigades Un was defeated nearly a year ago.
While the 'independent' bakers w normally supply a third of Brita bread have stepped up their produc (and prices) the press and the police doing their best to help the large (a highly profitable) bread companie resist the demand for a 26 percent rise.
ARRESTS
displaying their enthusiasm for tak on strikers, who happen once again t among the lowest paid. Pickets h been allacked and arrested outsid least half a dozen plants.
Coupled with reports of increa scabbing 1,108 Bakers Uni members have disobeyed the strike according to the union; twice number according to the bosses will evidently require the active sup
TAYABALI KAPASI: The bai job's hard, hot, and very fast mov
Page 9 scan of this page
IDTO THE 5%
TRADE UNION CONFERENCE 2 tive to Callaghan: nd WORKERS' CONTROL
1 Phil Asquith, executive member,
with a speaker from the Iranian
trol, with Carl Brecker, Hounslow ttee and treasurer of 'Fightback'
sonal capacity)
Digbeth Civic Hall, Birmingham. Union Conference 2, PO Box 50,
strike:
h Street
"leet Street's key word to describe the • headline writers and picture editors sage about hoiding our stomachs to
to help relay the ERIDAN argues that it is vital for the this battle against low pay onto the
of the workers' movement to ensure the success of the strike.
Although the union executive did not hold a mass meeting or a ballot before calling thestrike, it is easy to see why the overwhelming majority of workers in the large companies took to the picket lines.
Tayabali Kapasi describes his job on the bread line at the Sunblest bakery in Walthamstow, East London, as 'hard, hot, and very fast moving. Heis among the Asians who make up 90 per cent of the 250 workersat this factory owned by Associated British Foods profits last year, £33.7m).
Why SO many Asians? Tayabali shrugs. 'Cheap labour. White workers don't want the job." agreed rates, is 241 for a 40-hour week. Dasic on the nationally The employers have offered to increase this by demanded by the Labour Government, princely
with another 6 percent depending on ill strict productivity requirements. Hence
the strike.
Few workers in industry tolerate the shifts that Tayabali has to put up witn. Heis on a six-day week tnal egins at Sam on Sundays and involves working roman to om on Mondays and Fridays.
For a 55-hour week he grosses about E76, which is higher than that of many Omer Orcau WOrKCES.
At Walthamstow, only six workers are scabbing, and une DICKCIS strenuously trying to prevent the daily despatch of tens of thousands of loaves produced by managers under the excuse of supplying hospitals and prisons. The day before I spoketo Tayabali, 80 cops nad wadea into ine pickets and arrested 13 stikers, four of
chairperson Baldev Dhillon: policemen got hold of me, lifted me up to above five feet, and then dropped me
WHAT IS IT?...
RATNE 97 - 878 on theroad:
Yet the leadership of the Bakers Union seems determined to go it alone. They have issued no calls for assistance from the trade union movement, not even from the Transport Union, some of whose members continue to deliver bread baked by management and strike.
employers'
deal
bread
THE FORD strike is in its eighth week and the Ford strikers have become the shock troops in the battle for free collective bargaining JONATHAN SILBERMAN. (pre-tax Since Monday, all Ford factories in
Europe have been at a standstill or on short-fime working, thanks in part to the solidarity of dockers in Britain who nave stopped all rord smpuients.
OFFER The company was forced to double Colas its first offer of five per cent on basic
rates, rejected the so-called earlier this month, Ford replied that it was prepared to diseuss the unions' would opposition to the penalty clauses that
were linked do the offer.
Ron Todd, negotiator, has replied that the unions are only prepared to negotiate on the full claim.
Yet just as the possibility of a strong united and generalised offensive on pay was emerging from other sectors workers, a silence has enveloped the Ford strike.
are The regular Tuesday shop stewards
meeting at Dagenham was a very quiet arrair last week. minutes, the platform simply proposed some arrangemen to ugen up on picketing. whom The press and TV, which had tried to Said branch mobilise Ford wives against the strike, *Four and suggested the votes were lixed at
the mass meetings, has become silent on Ford - turning their attention instead
breakers.
be sapped by the barrage
support from other militants.
done with outside help.
The considers,
offer. SDCCIdE
consider the progress of the strike.
employers'
toilet paper. comes from Uganda, says:
through the machines here. no
real bread.'
Ford: danger
of backroom
return io work Like the mass media, writes
happening.
Al the Dagenham TUC chiefs and embraced by the Communist *final offer' Despite left-wing
chief union play the 'special case' card.
REWARD
Sid Harraway. put their
The Ford Over in less than 45
drive to spread the Ford strike:
Organising with workers already on strike. * In particular,
And while there is no doubting the determination of the large majority of bread workers, their morale can readily
o1 press propaganda and the lack of visible
Tayabali says he hasn't seen anyone from the local trades council on the picket line, and the task of leafleting the High Streets could only effectively be
Linking up with other workers who are against the 5 per cent is a good idea,
and he agrees that it would be worth sending a deputation td the Ford strikers at nearby Dagenham
Healso hopes that - unlike the bread workers' strike over bank holiday pay last autumn — this one won't be settled without mass meetings to consider any
deglegate conference is to be held this Saturday to
mass
Its decisions will hopefully help to wipe the smile off the faces of the emnse ves
discussion federation.
strings.
FOOTNOTE on the bread bosses' policy of persuading us that the white sliced loaf is the best thing since soft
Tayabali Kapasi, who T've never had bread like the stuff that goes
smell. I don't know whether it's the chemicals that go in, or the air. They're just turning out stuff to fill people's stomachs. For me, it's not
is improved.
large
committee
to campaigning for the bread strikers to
the union proposed eatersure wen aware or me dancer ol strikes spreading and they have done everyting m wei power to stop us
next November mass meeting. basis argued for the pad claim on the
COmpany S profits.
Presumably Transport Union members at Leyland shouldn't get wage rises because BL's profits are so small.
Certainly that is the thinking of the
their sist Party.
articles in the Morning Star, party members at BI have been doing their best to contain action (see article on this page) and those at Ford have been concerned to
Body plant chairperson at Dagenham,
position in a full-page interview in the London best to
our lads are looking for is a reward for the success of the company,' he argued. any decision
Workers Group has consistently fought this 'special case negotiate pleading. What's needed now is a clear
Sending flying pickets to workers with claims pending to encourage them concerned. to struggle alongside Ford workers.
joint demonstrations
mobilising Ford
strikers to participate in the bread workers' picket lines.
These are the sort of measures that are necessary. And if the Ford shop stewards committees are to build such action, there needs to be much greater involvement of the rank and file in the running of the strike.
This means regular and democratic
meetings where the strikers union - can decide on the conduct of the strike. And insist on t20 on the pay and one hour off the day, with no
Leyland and the
'lunatic left'
WORKERS at the Drews Lane tractor and transmission plant in Birmingham have given BL — as Leyland is now known of answer which is needed throughout the combine, argues BL shop steward PAT HICKEY.
Both shifts at Drews Lane walked out of the factory on 3 November after management had failed to come up with a satistactory response to their pay claim. They overwhelmingly voted for indefinite strike action until BL's offer
The difference between the strikers' demands and the management's reply is
Drews Lane shop stewards submitted the claim drawn up by BL's combine left'. which is an increase of 30 per cent; a 35-hour week: immediate parity, and full shift guarantee.
The company replied as they have done to all BL workers — 5 per cent, if a accepted, and productivity strings. The grading structure is to be the basis for parity, which is meant to be achieved by
The parity payments are to be phased in if and when productivity targets are met. Management has spoken of a 15 per cent improvement in efficiency. Given that BL's output is to remain the same, this can only mean one thing - a 15 per cent reduction in jobs.
STANDSTILL
The Drews Lane strike has already led to a near standstill in BL with more than 25,000 workers already laid off.
More ominous for management, the Drews Lane strike is a direct rebuttal to those who claim BL's workers are not prepared to struggle against management's miserable offer.
Fortunately for that management, the union leadership in BL is doing its
calm things GOWI The Communist Party leadership at Rover and Longorage pur resolutions to cave
on BL's offer until 1 December. This was to 'allow time to
But BL's boss Michael Edwardes has made it abundantly clear that there will be no negotiation as tar as he is
Only last Thursday, Edwardes maintained that not a penny more than 5 per cent will be offered.
But although BL's top boss has shown his intransigence, the one thing
*On Monday night shop stewards learned that Ron Todd had approached Ford for further negotiations, without any mandate from the union side of the Ford Joint Negotiating Committee let alone from shop floor workers.
At the Dagenham shop stewards meeting on Tuesday, there was concern inal ine strikers were about to see a repeat of the 1971 settlement, when the
Beaten SIDES TEMOTEU SUIC negotiating committee
This once again emphasises the need for a recall of the Coventry conference, which originally formulated the claim.
• the kind
that could make him change his mind
continues to be denounced by the union
At the Longbridge meeting, combine convenor Derek Robinson attacked those who favour strike action as the lunatic left'. When Socialist Challenge spoke to Arthur Harper, the convenor
Drews Lane, he declared his willingness to be part of the lunatic
REASON
Harper also revealed that the main opposition to strike action at Drews Lane came from a Communist Party shop steward. Yet there is good reason
for militancy. Like other BL workers, those at Drews Lane have seen their wages decline steadily during the past four years.
From being one of the highest paid plants in Birmingham, ine strikers' wages have fallen to such an extent that they are now paid t30 less than those who do similar work at such factories as
Salisbury's Transmissions.
Despite such an obvious cause for complaint, the workers at Drews Lane
receive only threats from their union.
The Engineering Union's East Distric
Committee has instructed the strikers to go back
Secretary Ken Cure has called a special meeting 'resolve
differences, but such diplomatic
intentions are not really Cure's style. In
August he threatened to fill the striking
SU toolmakers jobs with scab labour.
But if the union leadership is trying to smash the Drews Lane strike, other workers throughout Levland -art rallving to the struggle. At the Cowley plant, on a recommendation of their shop stewards, a mass meeting carried a resolution in support of Drews Lgne.
The Cowley stewards have stated that on the first day of normal working they intend to go one step futher by calling another mass meeting at which they will recommend immediate strike action in support of the full claim. It is
an example that should be followed throughout BL.
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
My song goes around the
Portugal: workers resist attack on land reform
What
more
want!
Trotsky's "The
time.
Bahro, is in jail
since August 1977.
Bahro,
printed below.
Thank you for your initiative and vour encouragement. the more so since you are certainly aware that our political colours are apparently rather different and I would hardly support the activities which if assumption is correct - have brought you here.
I was and I am decidedly for the non-capitalist foundations of the German Democratic Republic, which I do not view solely or mainly from viewpoint or my present situation.
NO HOSTILITY
Nor do I, for instance, think in terms of hostility towards the Soviet Union.
What I want to bring about is debate on the basis of that foundation, which needs fundamentally renovated political and, above all, ideological superstructure.
It needs it also because such a renovation (as intended Prague 68) would facilitate the
Argentina THE British Argentina Campaign is nearly a year old, and to mark the occasion it is holding its first national conference at Liverpool University on December.
The conference will be open other than structured on a delegate basis, and organisers hope it will be able to set up firmer national framework for the campaien.
Registration fee is £1 and details are available from the
52 Acre Lane, London SW2. We will be carrying fuller information on the conference in the coming weeks.
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 10
INTERNATIONAL
Rudolf Bahro's prison letter
world—
should |
'THE ALTERNATIVE', which has been called the most important theoretical work to come out of the countries that have abolished capitalism since Leon
Revolution Betrayed'", will be published in English by New Left Books in three weeks
But its author, East German economist Rudolf
- sentenced to eight years in June on trumped-up charges of 'espionage" after being held
however, has not given up the fight for socialist democracy. Two weeks ago the West German magazine 'Der Spiegel' published a letter sent by Bahro to a fellow prisoner in Bautzen prison. Extracts are
anti-capitalist on comersce.
I write this in order to avoid ms meers amounes Derwcer us.
You are right about condition my physically and mentally, as one cal oc unuct tHe Curcumstances.
MONKISH In Berlin I had to share with an economist, and was lucky with him. Only during the last the month before the trial was I alone and then again grateful for that, too.
My lifestyle had already been, at least to tne outside, somewnal monkish before all this. After all I had been writing my book, and also a dissertation, the past five years (1972-77) entirely in my spare parallel tomy verv normal work in industry...
Thad already in Berlin caught
in
HUNDREDS of riot police of
publican Guard have been sent agricultural workers' co-opera-
The PORTUGUESE WORKERS CO-ORDINATING
struggle to defend the agrarian the reform.
Beginning in the week of 14 October, police in full gear, armed with truncheons, sub-machine guns and dogs, riding 'Shortland" cars and horses, violent attacks co-operanves or Alentelo in southern Portugal. sune co-operatives
1972 - 19,
up with or re-read about 160 books, mainly world literature. well, Foreight weeks now i have beer
learning French. At the moment 1 am, at last, reading the Bible from beginning to end.
My material requirements are habitually so modest that, principle, I can make do with what lam given.
What I really miss is music (instead of loudspeaker), 1.e. music of the 17th to mid-18th century. In the case of zeen music, even a bit later. Well, and who would not miss females being here (1 really am , during no ascetic).
All in all: I can survive the time, 'outstanding
halfway productively here, if it doesrouge worshe whole
formed in 1974-75 after a series occupations of the estates belonging to absenice landlords end of 1974.
The aim of the police attacks as to reutaree areas orang up to 700 hectares, livestock writes on the
former landowners.
RESISTANCE
riot The police have everywhere
been «HIC resistance from the agricultural armoured
WOTKCIS. launched Cooperathe police attacked the
the
co-operative tholomew in the district Evora. They were met by 3,000 were agricultural workers and their
Hellerto
de FORu dente. 1967
Inge Lir
ber 1
е дс
Komitee Rudolf Bahro
für die Freilassung
Gc/o G. Minnerup
NOT ROTTO.
Postfach 3005 Bellevue Road 1000 Berlin 30
of my positions, OnC O1
ideology SUCCESS that dreadful
chamber the straightforwardly.
organise the
came
seven years
Meanwhile huge followed
which began at the in hospital.
and miscarrying. have been are. attacks
determined
For instance on
Bar- DIOLESL
Lisbon industrial belt.
Freiheit Freedom Liberté
pour
RUDOLF
BAHRO
fatal can
all: gong
Comité pour la defense Defence Committee de Rudolf Bahro Groupe Information RDA 4o, rue vaughard
GB-Ryde, Isle of Wight 75014 Paris
committal proceedings I suffered no breakdown whatsoever the and did not withdraw from ans
not even the languages. which fire concentrated — my readiness to should I want! use the sealed train. i.e. the And bourgeois mass media, to have
"transported"
I haveleft no doubt before the court and generally that I will of the continue to follow my path
All in all they have helped to
my (East book. The DM 200,000 they aDOl
with [Bahro's they supposed payment from •Western intelligence agencies'] was because Stern wrote that 80,000 copies had already been sold.
there IS
families. In the battle that
You workers were day injured and had to be treated
LOWIHS
In the co-operative Black Star 40 workers were inured. including a pregnant woman and was bitten dangere dog
danger Altogether more combative that 120 agricultural workers working
Have been regime, continuing, despite a wave of protest and revulsion which has spread throughout Portu-
palet sealed benera
confidence.
Intersindical union federation was observed by workers in the
they paperback. Before the end of
yCal there will be translations into five or six
My song goes around the world - what more
with regards to its impact, I had so far only known of the reaction of bourgeois circles in the Federal Republic and of some ultralefts".
Is it really true that the leaders
most important Eurocommunist parties have commented officially?
When - after all the ADN
Geman news agency trial? Hav on the substance? indicated position
Do ther regard me as a communist. in
seen? 1 have always hoped this
In the Alentejo a general one
Strike LooK biaLc with demonstrations in the main
OSt Dolla was held in Beja, where 80,000
PRESIDENT
The attack on the Alentejo agricultural workers, the most
section class and the most exploited under the old fascist
was ordered by the administration of Nobre da Costa, despite the fact that his government had been defeated in parliament on a vote of
The government is therefore
the President of the Republic
say it
discuss theses publicly' — that was precisely my demand, and that is what themselves fromat a high price trying save by condemning a book of a theoretical-political nature as a *collection of information'
Thave, however, uncovered the (politico-economic) nature of socialism as it actually exists
more thoroughgoing manner than previous attempts, nave expiamca me inneren obstacles preventing a break-
soclaiisin..
SYSTEM
I have attempted to analyse socialism as it really exists in the same wav that Marx analysed capitalism: social formation, an entire system which arose inevitably, 'functions and has to be overcome.
The idea developed in the late '60s, the decision was made.. 21 August 1968. Since then have consciously moved to wards the clash.
Only as late as 1977, when the book was nearing completion, did | indirectly make contact with the West onlv with the EVA publishing house, which is owned by [West German trade union federa tion)).
Nobody on the outside had any intluence on the slightest comma. When I was ready for publicity, about one and a half months before publication. EVA organised contact for me with the accredited correspon dents in the GDR of Spiegel.
and ARD EWO West German TV channels].
These are all the facts of the matter. Everything else entirely my own work, which of course touches them at their most vulnerable points where discussion is impossible (no crecave arguments.).
*A Symposium to introduce Bahro's ideas and discuss their implications for revolutionary politics is being organised by New Left Books for Saturday 2 December from 2pm to 5pm at the New Ambassadors Hotel, Upper Woburn Place, London WC1 [near Euston Station].
Speakers are: David Fern-
Alternativel. Monty John. stone Gunther Minnerup [Bahro Defence Campaign]. Edward Thompson, and Kav mond Williams. Admission El.
An international congress to defend Bahro also opens in West Berlin on 16 November, and Socialist Challenge will be devoting regular coverage to this and other solidarity events over the next few weeks.
General Ramalho Eanes
Eanes will be in London on a state visit on 14-16 November
The Portuguese Workers Co-ordinating Committee calls on all British socialists and trade unionists to show their solidarity with the agricultural workers of Portugal by sending letters of protest to the Portuguese Embassy, Belgrave Square, London SW1 and by joining a picket Eanes at the Embassy, Thursday 16 Novembe 7pm. The main demands of the picket are:
Defend agrarian reform in Portugal!
Republican Guard out of the Alentejo!
Page 11 scan of this page
of the missing minute
Scandal rocks the Bothas
The
case
But is capitalism? Not on recent evidence.
scandals i which dubbed 'Oilgate' and "Muldergate'.
moved slightly closer to its denouement last week with the nolite but pointed exchanges between former LADOUr MIS CS ОП ИПО КСИ what about oil supplies to the
Like Watergate itself, there is no longer any dispute that the crime took place. The 450-odd pages of the Bingham report, commissioned by the Foreign Secretary, have revealed the "swap' arrangement whereby the major oil companies primarily government-owned British Petroleum — used South African Mozambicar intermediaries to get oil through Toe we are
Ex-Prime Minister Harold Wilson reneated his ignorance
of all sanctions-busting protestation which would carr more weight if he had made it in
rarefied Ene SUCHE atmosphere of the Labour Party conterence
But even this apparently bland statement came under attack from two people in a position to know: Michael Stewart and George Thomson, Foreign and Commonwealth Secretaries respectively wilson admimistratons or tne PERCY QOBOZA, editor of the "Transvaal Post', summed up the reaction of most black South Africans to the current
scandal:
CUVCEHEHCHI Mulder's resignation leaves me
cold', he said — - a reference to the Justice Minister's response to the murder of Steve Biko.
Nevermeless. ne sor is an eye-opener. A judicial inquiry has revealed that nearl I/m of state funds had gone to finance ап аррагенну мосрепасне ргоgovernment newspaper.
The money was laundered through a Swiss bank account in
of exchange control legislation.
John Vorster, then Prime Minister and now President, and Hendrick Van Den Bergh, then head of the secret police, both approved the ASTANC HICHEL.
INTERNATIONAL
We jog Sir Harold's memory
strange
LABOUR came to power in 1974 pledged to open government'. In the week that Brian Sedgemore got the boot and the ABCtrial ended that looks like a sick joke. open government ever possible under
RICHARD CARVER looks at two more political
continue to bubble, respectively
One of the points of dispute concerned the meeting between Thomson and oil company executives February 1968. At the meeting Thomson was possibility of the agreement (though such an agreement was already in effect).
Wilson claims that he never saw the minute because nobody noticed its importance.
Unfortunately roreign ornice meeting (as well as accounts by other participants) is includedin the Bingham report.
Wilson claimed in Commons that: *I do not believe that Lord Thomson when he heard what was said realised the implications.'
But this is how the FO memo records Thomson's introduction to the discussion: "The Secretary of State emphasized the great politica importance which tached to being able to say that British oil companies were not
Rhodesia through Marques. leak was the parucularattacks at present. He in was under no illusions about our capacity to stop the leak, but it was essential that we should be The former Minister Information, Connie Mulder, and former head Department of Information, *Dr Eschel Roodie, were involved in the project. Both have resigned in the course of the scandal.
CHAMPDOWN But the conspiracy uncovered in the course of a judicial investigation of lesser misappropriations of funds in the Information Department.
But Prime Botha stepped in to stop inquiry and replace it with two LICW strict secrecy.
The clampdown means that thescandal can be stopped from spreading. Thosesections of the Nationalist establishment not yet contaminated will probably stay clean for the time being.
SHELL
RHODESIA able to refute the allegations being circulated about British involvement in this trade.'
Readers can draw their own conc usions aDol now HDortant Thomson thought the issue
wasto tell the world that Britain was not involved in this trade at minute of a the same time as admitting that
it would continue; and whether Thomson would be ableto make such decisions without consulting Wilson who, told or ine "swap conducted a highly personalised
method of government.
not inal
But significance to the meeting, oil bosse recounted in outline the 'swap'
They wheeled standard excuse for why oil for him supplies had to continue: memo on the The Shell-BP Company in
thes ransvas!
African company, with a South African manager, the under South African law; this
South African buyers without Continons regarding would do with it, and also meant that they could be compelled to fulfil contracts entered into.
would therefore continue to be able to divert oil to Rhodesia HMG at- before it reached the Trans-
Lourenco The excuse Mozambique impressive when one rememsubject of bers that the refinery providing
BP's Rhodesian requirements was not opened until 1971 - six years after UDI and three years after SUITS But the damage has been done. When an Afrikaner judge the denounces Cabinet and the State President it is difficult to brush the affair off as a communist plot.
But it is tempting to feel that Mulder's sin was less that he plotted than that he was caught.
Wab Although supporters may have scruples about the scruples don't count for much in ruling Minister Pieter stability - of the
the apparatus is likely to be seen as the greater priority. meeting in
The English-speaking oppo sition and their multinational neckers are aiso ceoentert oi the stability of the state, so they too are likely to opt for the quiet life rather than press home a temporary political advantage.
GENTA
bells oil to FREIGHT SERVICES
South Atrican Reg. Co. r Anglo America
Shipping and Ocean Transport & Trading Thomson.
able to break these
Line. swap Rhodesian oil.
report!
impeccable memory,
remember alter all, government
further
then
out their elsewhere, SALINS
WASS
POL [petrol, operating
being diverted
/wenave African clients
happening":
Wilson tells us
According to his
looks less
the multinational
imposed. mccung WILL
relied upon ministers consistently regime are the black themselves.
BOYCHECHE
methods used,
opposition groups. class politics and the
governing suffrage
nights.
SHEL SOUTH AFRICA SHELL -selle oil to MUZAMBIQUE
delivers oil to
It is also worth bearing in mind that the oil companies are
agreements when it suits them.
It was only in September this year that BP eventually stopped
arrangement The occasion: the publication of the Bingham
Sir Harold usually has an 1965
so it is that he should not what the Foreign SInce Office had to say about how his
should handle questions on whether oil was continuing to reach lan Smith. government
"In discussion it was agreer that in any statements in the
СОМОН.
Ministers would be
position with complete accuracy if they used a Office formula along these lines: "No British company is supplying point.
oil or lubricants] to Rhodesia". If asked whether Britain's POL consigned to the Transvaal by the British companies was
Rhodesia, torsof BP.
Ministers could truEntully say something along the following
COUTSE looked into this possibility. We And Are See USSIO
CYCl opportunity about the conspi- Greenhill? racy to undermine his authority.
Commons him.
statementinationath is plot was
companies, who told Smith before the UDI that they would get oil retirement. through to him if sanctions were
Yet Wilson is less forth- far away.
The only people who can be
oppose the apartheid MASSCS
Things like election resulls mean mine to te bracks, wao are of course not allowed to paracipate in tem. so mos watch with studied disinterest
Nationalists and the various
They note, for example, that these white oppositionists often don't even support universal
and that their main backer is Harry Oppenheimer of the Anglo-American Corpor ation in whosegoldand diamond
mines hundreds of thousands of blacks sweat out their days and
In these circumstances such indifference is not surprising.
coming on the visit of a senior Foreign Office official to Smith shortly before UDI. It is widely believed that the aim of the meeting was to reassure the Rhodesian leader that Britain would not use troops against him in the event of UDI
The crucial factor for Smith
continuation of his regime ever
— was less the knowledge that the multinationals would continue to supply him, which can hardly have been in doubt, than the fact that the British
would take similar attitude.
Indeed there is even reassuring continuity of per sonnel between the state and the oil companies. Lord Greenhill, who became ncad orme roreig
under the Wilson government in 1969, is a case it
From a senior formulator of
foreign policy he moved, after his retirement in
1973, to become one of the
government-appointed direc-
when the present government wanted top level talks with lan Smith in 1976, whom did they call on but
Inexplicably the Bingham team did not interview
The good lord has chosen the furore around sanctions busting
moment for his Perhaps he decided that when the soup hits the ceiling Greenhill should be
MULDER: his sin was to get caught.
S Africa
action
planned
AN important step towards building solidarity with the peoples of southern Africa was
by a COHECTCHCE in Manchester last Saturday. JOHN HUNT reports.
The conference, entitled Connections - Britain and southern Africa, was organised by Manchester Anti-Apartheid Movement and sponsored b the North West TUC
launch a campaign of education and
the trade union" movement in the area, to be organised Anti-Apartheid Trade Union open
Liaison Committee. This will organise a speaking tour of plants and labour movemen bodies and seek sponsorship from the NWTUC
The will aim to encourage trade unionists to investigate their employers' links with southern Africa and take action to publicise these links and eventually organise boycotts.
Many worthwhile ideas were presented to the conference Women's movement activists hope to develop resources centre on southern
was suggested that loc
ction should be taken to build labour movement inquiry into SalICLIO S DUSLILE
An issue which provoked particular debate was possible British intervention in Zim babwe. International Marxist Group delegates argued that any attempt to send in British troops WOLLO lICO colonise Zimbabwe and should DeoDoosed
Other speakers said that we should not Oppose such an intervention if it took place on the invitation of the Patriotic Front.
The conference was considerable success and shows what can be achieved by an open AAM conference which con centrates on planning action. It is an examnle which should b followed in other areas. Africa in Struggle *The new issue of Africa in Struggle' out now features an interview with a South African revoluonar
the 1977 •All-Nigeria Socialists Conference.
Single copies are 30p, plu London Ni. Individual sub- from Upper
€1.30 (inland), £2.00 (overseas surlace €3.00 (overseas Socialist Challenge 16 Novemher 1978 Page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
Prisoners Glasgow march sabotaged
IRELAND
WTHE GLASGOW march in solidarity political prisoners organisers, the Irish Defence League.
Saturday at 2pm, reports GEOFF BELL.
The cancellation follows an attempt to sabotage, split and intimidate the IDL march by Provisional Sinn Fein's GlasgOW cumann (branch).
The IDL had announced plans for their march following their successful demonstration of 700 people in August
Until last week Sinn (Glasgow) had fully backed the IDL and participated building the march.
The newspapers of ProvisioSmal Sinn Fein in Ireland had advertised the march advertised it as one organised by the IDL.
TURNABOUT
But in an amazing turnabout Glasgow Sinn Fein last week issued the following statement:
*Provisional Sinn regaro tne organisanon caming itself the Irish Defence League as a iront organisaton 10r # Socialist alliance whose aims 3Ге incompatible with stated aims of the Republican movement.
•To this effect Provisional Sinn Fein will take effective control of the demonstration scheduled for 18 November in Glasgow.
*Provisional Sinn Fein do not recognise the existence of the organisation described as Irish Defence League. group proclaiming to be
and contemporary anti-fascist and anti-racist themes
Heartfield
holocaust, Soweto, NF,
NI 2XP. Chequesto "The Week'.
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 12
RALLY STILL ON
has been cancelled by
Instead the IDL and the United Troops Movement will be holding a rally in Glasgow this
IDL will be allowed to display banners on the demonstration. wemners otne nema. tional Marxist Group and the Socislist worker SarEy wish are invited to attend the maren as inorviouais, o siow
Fein cain
November 18 the ON Irish Defence LC3gUT through the streets of the march and East End of Glasgor ine 10E status for prisoner of and for the Inish political
prisoners immediate withdrawal of British TIDOY
Fein ing tne Socialist Mokeri Parte. Sint Fein.
International the Marxist Group. fath eriol spale inlahe. Brendan will speak
their support with the trish liberation struggle leadership of Provisional Sinn Fein. •Banners of the International Marxist Group and Socialist Workers Party the not be displayed demonstration. the *Provisional Sinn
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with Irish (Glasgow), 10/11/78.*
This attempt to ban political
the organisations from the march,
and the possibility of physical
Out CaSHC SROUO
(Glasgow) attempt to implement tel calcts, produccu tne following statement issued on 13 November: *The undersigned individuals and organisations support the struggle for political status. We oppose British oppression of Ireland. So helping to build v callwar
trON Gallagher, Opposing views:
Tall-
News.
November Glasgow under the called by the IDL.
*The slogans neen now, political the self-determination for the Irish will people". the maT(nbeen a successful follow-up to Fein the IDL march of 19 August
› per word. Display £2 per colur ch. Deadline: 3om Saturdav befd publication. raymenı in aavance.
YORKSHIRE: 18 Nov Leeds. Discussions on serism, musto
lever o Socan: eveningnd Fun
MIDDLESBROUGH PAC rally. Mor Non. 3.90m AUEW Hall. Ticket on
Toteae cone in oranc, 8 78 )
racism Yox 1, 73 Walme. Co noak.
Friday Waterloo Action Centre, Baylis Ro
£1 (50p OAPs and children) at door.
Iceberg.
191° COMRADE from an African country
Richara Caver al Sc. or LOTTICE 01-9864045 (evenings)
So cia tsrm ricians/yop ist nout Eon tont Ter: or-ck rou Paul. ed to CONFERENCE ON Nuclear Energ)
Nazi November, Registration £1 in advance or £1.50 or the day. Details from SERA, 9 Poland oi. London VVI
Sinn an0Y.
An
organisation. abroad, to we have been the 18
DEMONSTRATIONS IN BRITAIN IN SUPPORT
OF PRISONERS
GLASGOW: Saturda organied y trad oe teno eren
LONDON: Sunday, 26th Novembe
organised by Prisoners Aid Committee
DEMAND Political Status for Irish Republican POW
lincluding Repatriation for those in English jail)
BRITS OUT OF IRELAND!
left, the latest edition of Provisional Sinn Fein's An Phoblacht; centre, Belfast Sinn Fein's Republican News; right, PAC
march with flags flying proudly the flags and banners. would have roops our of trerano
status statea decision.
would have political status.
WHAT'S LEFT
THIRD
Gc/o 374 Grays inn BLACK WOMEN SOPaK OU ZANU), Gall Lewis Br 62099₴ CAR MEETiNGS are avr
FROM LENIN s conterenee, nt
• YoN.
Marxism
Creche. Contact York AFA
November,
Alun Howkins
Sweat-
In aid of new Socialis
vamden Rd, London NW1 hours and Sundays) or Jor
SOCIALIST PRESS
New Amba
ANTI-ZIONIST Seminar:
Zionist Organisation and the against racist Zionism.
So we ue achons deeply regret the decision of cumann. Sinn Fein (Glasgow) to take control of the march and to ban the banners of the IDL, IMG
•We agree with the editorial
Phoblacht November. newspaper of the Provisional cireumstances Sinn Fein) of 28 October: *Joir with every friendly group or take place.
and get the mass their march. movement in motion, without dietation or discrimination, but
• NEWSR
PAC
DEMONSTRATION
all
•We believe the actions of the Glasgow cumann or sinn rem contradiet this editorial and the
fullest COTUNE Fein Ard Fheis (conference) for broad unitv in the tight for
'We oppose the undemocra- Sinn Fein.
Dd. Contact ICAR
invites you to hear Nan Bailey (USA) IGAH LncludinG 0& 0l
"FIGHT
td. WiCT. 7.30 pman, at 374 Grays in
to
na. Univ or Brnin
(optord Ciridsi Nabipma Mick Cox and SoD e2ic
Practice: 7-10pm, David Lawand Mich
WG2 U1-2401050 Helsiaion o for the weep FRANTZ
evenix End pere dmeetings. Saary
And other experienceto: NAC 30 Som sinke tar Enarem, un le 1st
Voburn Place, SEuston tube).
British Antid shi 25 Nole Manchester Details
Mitcnen. suvonn ol, Glasgow u
of the Glasgow wve think these actions set back the building of a mass solidarity movement in land! Glasgow. Despite this we will:
(a) burd as large as possiol the UTOM/IDL rally on 18
present cannot suDDort any march which mas
We support Tech decision of the IDL to cancel
(b) Continue to build support for the PAC march in London
DENOUNCES COUNTER-
on 26 November.
(e) Build the UTOM demo in Glasgow on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
'We will fight to ensure the
democracy the organisaton of Inis march tol all groups prepared to support it, including, we hope, Glasgow
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE now has a
bags with n black, fight racism; in
ed, women's liberation symbol: Cos
1 trom our offices or £1.25 by mai
RACISM' T-shirts. GOO(
uality white cotton with red desigr
sleeve or regular short sleev
PICKET GARNERS: Main
London Selfridges) UXTOrOS
1o Samera eike Fune 0 10 60l
12-13 Henrietta St., Londor
Nan Black on
Marx's Capital and Today Crisis by Raya Dunayevskaya, £1. Botl
from News & Letters Publications,
TORCHLIGHT picket, 6.30-8.30, 2
Brixton Prison. Called by Friend MeTroNonam Diling Conne to
-ACLIOI
Contraception, Abortion
*Troops out now!
*Political status now!
*Self-determination for Ire-
CAnos e cucue ov muare tosemner.
This statement was immediately signed by the IDL, the SWP, the IMG, and Paisley
branch of UTOM. Glasgow UTOM is expected to endorse the statement.
Following the issuing of this statement, it is understood that Glasgow Sinn Fein have now called off the march they intended to take over
It now seems clear that the whole intention of the Sinn Fein (Glasgow) manoeuvre was to force the cancellation of the Glasgow march.
PRESSURE
This may have followed pressure from the London-based Prisoners Aid Committee, who described the Glasgow march as la counter-demonSUTaTIOnE
This attitude is in obvious contradiction to SUDDOrL Une IDL march had received fron the Republican press in treland
Consequently there will now be no march in support of Irish political prisoners this Saturdav in Glasgow
The manoeuvres and threats of Sinn Fein (Glasgow) can only have damaged the cause of Irish prisoners. Equally it has tarnished the fine Republican tradition of unity and non-sectarianism.
The Glasgow rally will take place at 2pm at City Halls, Candlerigg printing and production techniques
specially platemaking, Upper Si, London t or ring 01-359 KILBURN UTOM branch meeting and Tduamo n7 NoV. vo ng 624g theo ry Nations theo BENEFIT ember of PD/MSR, jailed to Denis
NiV. Acmilsion Sanibridge Garden
THE STRUGGLE For socialism in thi
PEOPLE'S FESTIVAL 78
12 hours of culture, politics anc
fun children' festival
creche
Sun. 26 Nov., 11am-11pm
Belle Vue, Manchester
Tickets €2 - reduced for
non-earners
Delaus ao manersazc node
Manchester 13 (061-224 5378)
Organised by Manchester Area
CPGB
Page 13 scan of this page
Can only Trotskyists be revolutionaries?
Orthodox Trotskyists might be a minority
OPEN FORUM
RECENT ARTICLES and letters the classical Marxism of
JOHN ROSS whether Trotskyists their own can be revolutionary.
The question of whether nonTrotskyist, oreven non-Leninist, political forces could genuinely be considered revolutionary was one which Trotsky had to deal with several times in his life.
It was particularly important at the timeotthe founding of the Communist International in 1919-20
Internationalinthe 1930s.
It also has a maior organisational and political conclusion. Can only LISA VINS be revolutionary organisation, or can there be other genuinely revolutionary forces with whom Trotskyists should seck organisation?
Trotsky himself was about this, writing:
International will not be composed only of Bolshevik-Leninists [as the Trotskyists then called themselves!. (Writings 1935-36, p.151).
As he explained:
Leninistsconsiderthemselvesa faction of the International which is being built. They work hand in hand with other truly revolutionary factions.' (The Crisis in the French Section, p.47)
TRENDS
Trotsky knew not merely from theory bur-from the experience of the Bolsheviks and the International that any revolutionary party will inevitably have different ideological and political currents and trends within Bolsheviks continuously had left' and "right trends within them.
international Bolshevism was the most consistently revoluona movement. But that did not mean that
WICH I OInCI cally revolutionary currents which on sonic cucsons nad a more conce
James P. Cannon
experience Bolshevism Marxism, was summed up by the American Trotskvist leader James P Cannon in discussing the Marxist
We should draw
experiences of yesterday or the day perore.
The idea International and monolithic national hese experie dra: The poor on these experiences.
Bolshevism, from its beginning up until the October Revolution, was a
unifications and attempted unificanons winine Mensneyiks
UNIFICATION
It was not until 1912 that the Bolsheviks formally themselves as an independent party and no longer as a faction of the russian social-emocracy. Ano amer that. it shouldn't be Decaus une me oi ine revoluton depen on it unicanon win troisky and nis group after the March Revolution, and also kept me coor open or any sons oa revolutionary turn on the part of the left Mensheviks.
The Communist International was not built into a mass movement in its
Lenin the question of revolutionary strategy today. continues this discussion
consider that currents
positionthan Lenin.
Leninoncertainquestions.
and in
then historical
as p.130)
NONSENSE
quite clear The Fourth
hadn't been a Leninist,
*The Bolshevik-
Up.131)
was obviously not a Leninist,
Doin. (Wrings 1932.D. 50)
Communist Communist
serious
The group of Bordigists) has is traditions
scale, 33,p.58)
WOrkers But although they
represent of unifications
all the established.
SYNDICALISTS
monolithic
Independent gave the
constituted
Comintern
wing of the forgotten
the Comintern.
Opposition.
demarcation
with other oppositional groups.
have discussed how
and Trotsky relates to
by looking at other than
Forexample, Rosa Luxemburg was not a Leninist but a "Luxemburgist'. However, she was still one of the greatest of all leaders of the working class and actually right as compared to
As rolsky wrote: 'It one were to take the disagreements between Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg in their entirety,
correctness unconditionally on Lenin's side. But this does not exclude the fact that on certain questions and during definite periods Rosa Luxemburg was correct
agains Lenin." (Writings 1932.
When Stalin attempted to use Luxemburg's mistakes to claim that shewasnot a revolutionary because she
Trotsky acnounccatisasnonsense: nisgreat revolutionist is enrolled by Stalin into the camp of centrism. (Writings 1932,
Heexplained that while Luxemburg
"The disagreements [between Luxemburg and Lenin], despite their importance and ai times their extreme sharpness, developed on the basisef revolutionary proletarian policies common to them
Even after the degeneration of the
Trotsky held to this position. He noted, for
the Italian Communists (Prometo
which are sharply distinguished fromthetraditions of the Bolshevik-Leninists.' (Writings 1932-
were clearly Bordigists, and not Trotskyists, he stated that on the basis of the positions they held at that time, "the Bordigists
SCIOUS Levolonaly can days sumpiy by procialmng une need for new parties in each country. There was a rather prolonged proces:
and splits in the different countries before the national sections of the Comintern were firmly
The Communist Party of Germany originated with the Spartacus group of Liebknecht and Luxemburg. But this was followed Iwo years later Dy a unification with the left wing of the
SOCHISI Party which Communist Party of Germany forthe firstfime a mass base.
In England, the Communist Party
number of sectarian groups, none of
In France and Italy the syndicalists were invited. In the United States, the
invited the Socialist Labour Party, the WW and the left
Socialist Party to participate in the Second Congress of
Trotsky's method in creating the first cadres of the international Left
after his deportation to Turkey in 1929, was to draw clear lines
the with movement; and then to build it, not only by splits, but also by unifications
group' (Writings 1932-3, p.27).
AS WIN most currents in the unfavourable conditions of the 1930s, the Bordigists were to move away from revolutionary positions. Nevertheless, thisexampleclearlyshowsthat Trotsky did not consider that only Trotskyists comicocrevorusonanes
Intheperiod of upswing of the world revolution, Trotsky spredictionabout non-Trotskyist revolutionary currents has been borne COHE famous case was Malcolm X. He was
Trotskyist, DuE ne authentically revolutionary leader.
What Trotsky was not prepared to accept wasthat particular currents and JAMES P. CANNON
And then, after the original cadres of international Trotskyism had been consolidated, Trotsky initiated a new series of discussions and negotiations
left-centrist elements independent parties and others still remaining within the parties of the Second International.
WCFC
merely because they claimed to be so.
currenis mai exisica al tne time Trotsky wroie Labour Party, the POUM in Spain, the London Bureau — might well claim to be revolutionarv. but in really ther supported collaboration with bourgeois partiesin Popular Fronts, refused tocomeout against Stalinist repression in the Soviet Union. capitulated before One imperialist wars, and displayed the real characteristics vacillating in the material clashes of great class forcesbetween the proletariat and thebourgeoisieanditsagents.
It was this situation, and this alone. which led Trotsky to state of the initial forces of the Fourth International:
Trotsky never envisaged the Fourth international as a monolithic, purely Trotskyist organisation, but broad revolutionary which we, orthodox might possibly, conditions, and for certain periods, be a minority.
NOT MONOLITHIC
He stated this explicitly in one of his letters prior to the Founding Congress
1938 Tu-hsiu, who at that time was in sharp conflict with our Chinese section over some important questions, should be invited to International Executive Committee.
The interr international movement during the lifetime of Trotsky never tried to enforce monolithism...
The recognition Union as a workers state, and of the obligation imperialist attack, principle 01 our movement all the characterisation and this attitude was challenged time and again, year after
in expulsions or threats of expulsion
the Burnham-Shachtman they were about as wrong as it was
revolutonan
the Independent
SUCH
centrists Leninists'
hand as
Trotskyists, under proposed that Chen
be
regime our negotiations
of the Soviet
defend it
was a central international time. This
and treen discussed withou Man (Trotsky].
faction,
*Outside of these cadres there does not exist a single revolutionary current on this planet really meriting the name. (The Transitional Programme)
Ins was no a salement tang other forces could be revolutionary
that at that particular time no other
CUTCHE position on the basic question was still that the rourth International will not be composed only of Bolshevik
That is why the Trotskyists of the International Marxist Group are, like Trotsky, 'completely ready to work
in hand with other truly revolutionary factions who are not themselves Trotskyists. possible for a faction to be in America under conditions of that time.
It was a red hot question for us at that time...because public opinion was being mobilised every day by all te imperialist agencies against the Soviet Union. It was particularly reprehensible for Shachtman to choose that period to wash hishands ofit.
But despite this deep and terrible difference on such a burning question as one's attitude towards a revolution in existence, Trotsky did not advocate aspur, noteven wesnouro turn out to
minority in the Convention struggle. The split followed onlv after the minority refused to accept the Convention decision.
This is still not the end of the story. Seven years later we conducted serious
for unity with the Shachtmanites, despite the fact that they had not changed their position on the Soviet Union in the meantime. HARD TIME
Those who may be playing with the idea of a 'monolithic party and a monolithic International will have a hard time finding any support for it in the teachings and practice of the Old
(Letter from Cannonto the Political Committee of the SWP, 22 May 1961, in Trotskyism versus Revisionism, ed. Chiff Slaughter, p.78-81)
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
COMMENT
Revolution
I AM not entirely happy about the way in which the first issue of Revolution was sprung on all outside the IMG. Nevertheless, it could be important in building a united revolutionary youth organisation. The open letter from the IMG printed in Socialist Challenge (12 October) was, however, several serious flaws: it failed to explain the most important reason for independence, and a large part of it was not a0oui organisational left unity although connected. is not directly relevant.
The importance of independence is made clear on the back Revolution 1. It says: "We think that we can teach many of these "parties" a thing or two about how they should fight for real freedom.' I was very pleased to read this, indeed this is a lesson that has been learnt from the autonomous women's which has taught the whole of the lett what women's oppression is.
However, the letter gives a less important reason argument: an independent organisation is 'the best way to fight for the VOULD grasp Marxism'; and again, it is "the most practical way to convince thousands of revolutionary-minded youth of the necessity of joining a revolutionary party
The letter also endangers the building of an independent youth organisation by confusing it with another issue, that of the unity of revolutionaries into organisation: i am not opposca to either objective, but surely we should
regardless whether committed to the separate project ol building a new organisation. structures are well off the mark. Why Lastly, YOUI proposals should national organisations have ECOICSCHLaLIYES body in a privileged position? On 1 the
Revolution is to be truly independent, then surely it should be run entirely by its membership. That is not to say that someof these members will not also be members or mauotal organisanons. and they should have the same rights as any omer kevomnon supporters.
GERRY ROBERTS (North London Big Flame)
Where's your
internationalism?
THE internationalism' left _ specificalv of the MG. the SWP and Big Flame demonstration of 14 October conspicuously absent. excellent reporting and words of support on paper, the turnout was
There is a strong feminist section in the Committee Against Repression in Iran; they deserve all the support
No one from the they can get. women's movement came.
Why not? They need support now more than ever.
MARGE BERER (London W2)
BRO
TASTE
#23
CORMAC:-
Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 14
Panoramic twaddle
1 REALLY must
social Darwinism,
marred by
the revisionists International took sophy of DUL aDOU
which, be easily
funnily enough, Nature.
Engel's purpose in
page of
ception
things. movement,
its own devices,
only
reformism of revolutionary tional on Engels.
Secondly,
belief 1n21 CIne socialism.
single
of youth other, these
they are inense yes.
for
character as forces
inevitable under
doubt on that score.
Lastly,
placed upon a real basis.
BOB LLOYD (Oxford)
Idealist view
WE would contend Sharp's theses November).
of the
idealist view of history. on the Iranian
For example: was After all the materialists
events like the stemming from
that Engels' responsible tor tnis.
because of what
arguea azainst
IF IFF'S AND
WERE OTS AND PANS
NO S WOKK
SUdICEy.
"science" protest at the panoramic twaddle about Engels and attitude
etc., that Tony Sharp has written (2 November).
Firstly, only someone who hasn't read any Kautsky would claim that
of the Second over the philo dialectical materialism "without question'. The illusion can Stalin's
corrected by
writing the book was to attack the static con-
which had dominated science up to that time. He wanted to emphasise that things change, that the world is dynamic, and further, that people can change
Engels knew very well that, left to
capitalism would crush the working class down and down. Put that recognition back into a study of The Dialectics of Nature and it is impossible to blame the
the Second Interna-
the reformism which allows so-called socialists to sit and by wait for socialism is not simply acceptance of the inevitability of the the collapse of capitalism — it is also the nuclear
only And this is a revision of Marxism. And as for Engels, he said:
*On the one hand...the capitalist mode of production stands convicted of its own incapacity to further direct These productive forces. On the
productive forces press forward to the removal of the
contradichon abolition of their quality as capital, to the practical recognition of their
social productive Sharp's
And there you have it: what is
capitalism is not socialism eventually but class struggle now. Both Marx and Engels had no
word of advice from Engels for all readers: "To make a science of Socialism, it had first to be
politics
with Tony on Marxism (2 We think that by separating humanity as a social being from the natural universe of which it is an outgrowth, Sharp arrives at an
since when view great historical 1914-18 Wal problems in the
history of ideas? Yet Sharp tells u
•determinism' was
The German SPD's capitulation to social chauvinism was a product of reversible material processes at work in German society at the time, not
Engels wrote in Anti-During (1878). In fact Engels
those (Duhring,
N BRITISH IMPERJA
IRISH
CREEDOR
FIGHIER
Bernstein) who naively attempted to transpose the principles of natural science to social practice and political
In opposing the fatalism of Second International Marxism, Sharp falls into utopianism leading him to base
upon pure activity. basis for science is this? Such
on the part of Spartacusbund committing the opposite error to the SPD majority's dererminism prevented effective challenge to Kaursky et al
Similariv. on the Soviet industrialisation, Sharp tries
deduce Stalinist terror crude and mechanistic philosophical conceptions. same way, such as Sydney Hook and Burnham, in their polemics Trotsky in the 1930s, Tocussed their attention upon the conceptions dialectical materialism held by the Soviet leaders, rather than developing a concrete analysis of the new Soviet social formation and an appropriate political strategy
As Marx/Engels said: "History. can be divided into the history of nature and the history of mankind. However, the two sides are not to be divided off. As long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned. (The German Ideology)
Hence politics cannot be reduced to pure and unconditioned practice
individuals. Such anthropocentrism is clearly quite inadequate IC
modern technological age weapons and vast powers. The ideas of the Enlightenment no longer suffice in the era of advanced capitalism.
JOHN MUNSON, STEVE SMITH, RASHPALSINGH (Hull]
Doing it now
WHILE leaving it up to readers to decide for nemselves abour lony
complete misreading November or my cuers ocoDer. I'd still like to deal with some entirely new points which he raises.
According to Sharp Lenin was a social Darwinist and belonged to a 'materialist lineage which included Kautsky, Bernstein and Stalin. If this was so why, for instance, did Lenin spend several pamphlets exposing the links between Kautsky's reformist
and vulgar materialism/ economic determinism?
Sharp doesn't bother with this question, probably because considers it too theoretical diversionary. He has all the answers anyway — or at least the solution. It's cased revolomary practice doing it 'now'. Maybe Jerry Rubin will MCIDOUL
However, a necessary part revolutony practice is knowing how capitalism objectively works. It is useless talking about the revolutionary subject if no account is taken of the objective processes of history. Such an account can never be absolutely "correct" but it is nevertheless an essential in the theoretical armoury of any revolutionary organisation.
Sharp dismisses any lessons which might be learnt from the practical use to when scientinic socialsin nas been put in the past by revolutionary
as he is concerned, history can never be discussed with any objecavity and amounts to no more than an indistinct mistake. Thus he
equates October 1917 and Leninism with the 30s purges and Stalinism! Sharp. loo, has his lineage and no one has traced it better than the Italian Marxist Sebastiano Timpanaro who, in On Materialism, finds some of the origins of left idealism in the shift from What positivism to idealism in late 19th
century bourgeois ideology. Thus he the writes:
*The most conspicuous characterisic or ine snilt at tne ena ortne last century is an increasingly radical antiobjectivism.
of departure are real
problems in the epistemology of the from sciences, related to the need for a re-
examination of the very foundations In the of scientific knowledge.
*But this epistemological crisis is with quickly used in order to reassert an
absolute, mythological creativity and
of freedom belonging to man (sic!), and
in order to be able to disregard both the real conditioning to subject and the way to overcome it. It then becomes possible to proclaim a completely rhetorical and mystifying subjecuvism- voluntansm.
PAULTICKELL [London SW9]
Need for
education
IF IT is a Marxist principle to educate super- the masses to the level of revolutionary
International Marxist Group is sadly lacking in itsapproach.
No-one in the movement takes the time to explain political positions to outsiders; it is assumed that by talking to members you sympathetic. If you pluck up courage and ask, you run the risk of being put down in sucn a patronising way ina you are made to feel a fool for not naving caucaica Couldn't Socialist Challenge also explain positions far more fully, rather
(2 than expecting natural agreement and
understanding among its readership? Perhaps I could now describemyself as a revolutionary socialist. But i feel this is more perseverance. How many supporters have you lost along the way? You are seriously lacking in your capacity to educate and therefore build.
IGREENBAUM (Manchester]
*We will be starting a regular series of one-page educational articles later this month.
and Understanding culture
of
GEOFFREY Sheridan, in criticising Wedge (26 October), sees the world parcelled up into neat little package of politics. one should be content to work away at their own little patch and not interfere in what he sees as exclusively the arena of 'politics.
Socialist Challenge, along with the rest of the left press, illustrates this approach ghettoising "culture' page of the paper and also by its narrow concept of what "culture" is. Michael Stewart's letter to Wedge 3 (which the collective
TAKE ONE TOTALLY FICTIONAL GROUP IN THE I.R.A
A COUPLE OF STORIES
MORONIC AND/OR JOURNALISTS
Dobson Affair":
Generally, its points of
and serious
'Dobson remember it for!
believe which man
Umbrella
so-called written by
then I feel that the
one
are already over incidents.
such allegations
Markov
evidence to
due to my own
that Bulgaria...
Bulgaria
the real culture, etc., where every-
discretion. both normally be to a separate will
recommends
SOME SA'S _WHICH CAN BE ATTRIBUTEI 7 AN INTERNA FEUD!!
IFE • LEAVES
KOODS TAIN ON BRITISH 7 HANDS!
should be read as a second editorial) makes a very valid point: So culture is the way we categorise the world, the meanings we see around us. Clearl these are fantastically important, as it is on the basis of our ideas, values, etc., and them alone that we decide to act in any situation
The article by David Lusted, ***The
How the media constructed histor!, shows how the media was able to utilise existing consciousness to defuse the political issues to one of son betrays his father'. Lusted poses a very pertinent question when he asks how many people outside the left remember the
Affair" and what they
There is a need to develop ocu thire retical understanding "culture' which goes beyond the immediate campaigns of the lett. Wedge, I
has made an important
DEREK BROUGH (London NW6
of repression
I WAS recently shown an article on
repression Bulgaria Richard Carver (12 October). As an active trade unionist and frequent visitor to that co:: Inrough the Anglo-Bulgarian Trade Union Association, I must protest most strongiy against the smears and innuendos it contained.
expect so-called aoe HOE "socialist' publications to indulge in the hysterical outbursts of the kind recently seen in the capitalist press
entirely unproven, alleged to have been the work of Bulgarian nationals. No evidence has been forthcoming to
For the innuendo contained in your first paragraph on
The article gives not a shred of
support the statement about *the thousands in Bulgaria's political prisons, relying instead on an Amnesty report which can hardly even guess at the internal repression' etc., and a pamphlet which suggests
etc. 'Guesses' and "suggestions' are hardly the currency of serious people committed to the building of socialism, whether here or in Eastern European countries like
While it would be foolish to deny
problems which exist, especially given the backward historical developments until recently in many of these countries, I feel your readers will gain little insight into the nature of such problems through such irresponsible articles written by those whose aims seem closely alled with the apologists in the capitalist press N.M. LEES (London SW19)
* * *
THE LENGTH of letters printed will
usually be kept down to 400 words in
order to encourage as wide s range
of contributions possible. All
cut at the Editor's Unsigned letters will not published, although we withhold real Manes from
pubicanon on request
AND NOW YOU'RE READY FO
ASSASSINATIONS REPUBLICAN
Page 15 scan of this page
Looking back in desperation
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE EVENTS
from the 'new' right.
the individual point of view expressed,
ROBERT WHITE explains.
In the 1950s, the British terary scene saw une apocar-
of the *Angry Young Wich WHo dHemDICE tO DIcIcC the smugness of life under the Lones. never had it so good' syndrome.
The three figures associated with this movement were the novelists Kingsley Amis [Lucky Jim] and John Braine (Room at the Top], and the playwright John Osborne [Look Back in Anger].
FRUSTRATION
The characteristics of these works were the sense frustration of living post-war brutam, une insulanty and pompousness of official
Establishment of Tory squires and aristocrats who seemingly ran the country.
However. these blows of rebelliousness were not tempered with an insight solutions to problems; in fact, they lacked creativity. they did articulate was a cry of frustration against the homogeneous smugness of British society, the crumbling facade of Empire.
Today, these people have all moved into rather different pastures.
John Braine has long since moved to the extreme right of British political life. Kingsley Amis has recently published a new novel, Jake's Thing, whose main theme is anti-feminist.
Osborne is currently gaged in revival Inadmissible Evidence cause he claims that the excesses COT women's movement need combatted".
THREATENED
It is interesting that * Angry TOURE Men' threatened not only politically by the left, but personally by the rise of the feminist movement presumably because it threatens their own conception of women.
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UNDER REVIEW
Yesterday's Angry Young Men
ROBIN BLACKBURN's rather timely article on the 'new' polities of Paul Johnson [26 October] dealt in some depth with the style of argument and polemic
St. Paul's [sic!] conversion is not only significant in
because of the shift in mood of a whole section of opinion amongst certain parts of the intelligentsia.
In dealing with this change of climate in literature. interesting that possibly best satirical novel of the "70s is in fact an attack on the left, The History Man, by Bradbury (1976). The itself is very funny, but this most should not obscure
prevailing reactionary tone.
PROTEST The 'Angry followed by species of protest, the satirists. Private Eye was established in 1963, and television saw That Was The Week That They were perhaps
in Macmillan Government's most
virulent critics.
Using the dual standards of bourgeois morality over Profumo widespread feeling that the tones were a rolen corruD! party of dukes, landowners and shady estate agents, they
into were able to create an image of
Labour as trendy, progressive What and go-ahead.
Ingrams, the editor Private Eye, admits that the Labour Party in those days was seen as better, more idealistic.
In the '60s Private Eye was seen as a journal lampooning the amongst its contributors Gery Lawless and Paul Foot (whe exposed the Poulson affair).
DIFFERENT
Today the situation different the
en-
of schoolbovs have returned to
be- their inheritance. Private Eye
and anti-trade union.
be Instead of an exposé of the
system, we are left with the peccadilloes of minor trade union bureaucrats Bourbon-like ravings
the Auberon Waugh.
feel return to the back pages might
not be sufficient to get the Eye back on the rails.
Recently, in September, this message was reflected in a Times editorial about the 'New Right'. The Spectator
BOLTON Socialist Cle Lor.
Deansgate, Thursday
Communiste / or reformist?'
MOSS SIDE Socialist supporters sell the paper at Moss Si Centre, Saturday, 11-1 NORTH EAST NEWCASTLE socialist local supponers are active. T you wan
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but also
No. 427 Friday 28 April 78
the
Malcolm
novel
the
Young Men'
another
Was. the
the aUTO
of ex-public and the singled out as the powerhouse
of of ideas.
Foot's Indeed, the current list of
writers for this journal makes very interesting consists not only of traditional conservatives such as Patrick Cosgrave and Mount, but almost was Private Eye team:
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THEIR VIEWS ARE ALL IN THE 'SPECTATOR Waugh, Richard West, as well as Amis The
of the Gulag,
The tone and level of the contributions are interesting som. The Private Eye people who savaged Macmillan are now
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The only attempt at a coherent philosophy has been Booker's pathetic attempt to
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The other characteristic is a nasty quasi psychological ton
substitutes personal for analysis Thus
lunatic whom only the century could provide Ferdinand Mount takes George task for describing Tariq Ali, in a book review, as a reasonable human
BENIGN
Mount spent his entire article explaining that beneath Ali's benign exterior lurked a monster-like Stalin - you see those tanatics will use device to win support!
Of Robin
COLESC Blackburn states in his article, 'the social movements of the sixties and early seventies were better at identifying wrongs
injustices than proposing adequate and co herent solutions
This is obviously true of the *Angry Young Men and the Private Eye coterie, whose recipe for social change always been vague.
VENGEANCE
Like James Dean, they were "rebels without a cause'. Giver
under, these gentlemen go back to the folk from whence they came, as a vicious attempt to shore up their position.
Ideologically, seeing the Labour Party representing socialism and devoid of political vision, they go back to
certainties of life, preferably those of the 19th century - - order and "freedom under law' The swinging sixties have departed with a vengeance
RENAISSANCE
The false credentials of these people, as ex-letties but have a profound effect on the intellectual climate, the more so as the left today is painfully weak in terms outstanding writers, satirists,
Regardless of who wins the next election, the "paternal conservatism' of Callaghan or the hard strident tones of Thatcher, there is a desperate need for a renaissance of political culture on the left, stressing the humanism and moranty or sociansm
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Socialist Challenge 16 November 1978 Page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
ALL OUT FOR IRISH PRISONERS, 26 NOV
It will go on until liberation of that country from British rule is achieved, and despite some important defeats inflicted on the anti-imperialist movement over the last ten years we are reminded regularly that its victories have counted for more in the long
Once again the Irish people through a variety of forms are ngnung back waln erect.
This can be measured in the size or ine recent demonstrajens organised by Relatives Action Committees and Sinn Fein, or by the fact that the collaborators of the SDIP have once again been TOTCCULU talk about withdrawal of British troops,
even by editorials in British bourgeois press which
despair imperialism's future Ireland.
But if there is room confidence, there is mone complacency.
With every victory won by your local group organiser.
Pan-Africa Diary)
OUR Fund Drive is suffering. We are about £200 behind what
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This week's total was under the £100 mark. The £99.40 that Came maKCS cumulative
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Many thanks to the Haringey
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The resources that it throws and the against the Irish
massive, and its ability to use
Irish them derives from the lack of a
powerful movement in Britain
mOre
ABC Verdict
THE VERDICT of the Bailey jury that heard the ABC Official Secrets case known as went to press. But we
Berry.
Justice Mars-Jones directed that Berry be found guilty of "obtaining information owing to his office Whatever the lawyers may make of such a direction, journalists will know that press
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IT IS AN AND URGENT TIONARY
DEFENCE PRISONERS
BRITAIN.
that surely self-evidentfuture course people are revolution itself.
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At the moment the Labour Government is concentrating urgent those resources to try to crush the campaign for prisoner of war status being waged by the solidarity heroic young women and men incarcerated in imperialist jails in Ireland and England, and by the masses from the oppressed Catholic ghettoes of the Six We Counties of Oceupied Ireland.
LEOODS IMMEDIATE REVOLUOLARISS RESPONSI- public THAT THE OF THESE Britain 10 AND THEIR DEMANDS IS TAKEN UP IN
This is important not only for the sakes of the young men in the hell-holes of H-Block -
now but for the of the Irish
the International Group
freedom is a nonsense when their sources risk conviction in
Berry, and Campbell have done as much to win freedom of information in this
as Callaghan's Gokeep it ABC and their defence campaign deserve
The trimming down of the original charges is already a victory. If A, B and C now stay
WIl De defeat for the General and his I cohorts in official secreey.
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TRADE UNION CONFERENCE
ON ABORTION Will you be represented?
Saturday 25 November Caxton Hall, London SW 1 Organised by National Abortion Campaign and Labour Abortion Rights Campaign Delegate forms from NAC Office, 374 Grays Inn Rd., London WC1 (tel. 01-278 0153)
therefore call on all British
socialist organisations to make
priority of the
demonstration in London on
called in with the
prisoners of war. supporting
their demands and demanding
the immediate withdrawal of
British troops from Ireland.
the fullest
co-operation with the United
Out Movement, who been. with others broadly-based rallies over RISE
weeks in all the major cities of
панона
contingent, supported by us, in
the march on 26 November
which has been. called by the
We believe that the largest
demonstration in support 0i
Irish freedom for some years 328/9 Upper St, London NI. Printed by Goodhead Press Ltd., 25 Murdock Rd, Bicester.
can be built on that day, and that such unity in action this question of questions for British socialists would prove a very important step in building a mass movement of British workers and their -TO| Troops Out Now'.
Alternatively, the important differences which divide us on other issues could be allowed to be a barrier to a united mobilisation on 26 November.
Leave aside the fact that no credit would be gained for the Irish solidarity movement by such criminal behaviour, those who stand to suffer most are not ourselves but the freedomfighters inside and outside the jails in the Six Counties
We can guarantee nothing as
of the POW status struggle, because we are not yet powerful enough, but whether ulitmately victorious, we must not nave talled to contribun everything we could to the fight against ASTHIST ialism in Ireland.
ALLOUT ON NOVEMBER Signed: Ailean O Callaghan
Central Committee Jerry Fitzpatrick [for SWP Irish sub-committee * The PAC demo assembles at 2.30pm at Speakers Corner to march to Clerkenwell Green.
VIDELA
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PINOCHET
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SMITH
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