Socialist Challenge No. 79, 18 January 1979
The scan: sc-n79-jan-18-1979.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
AsTories, CBI, Media, and Labour ministers feed anti-union hysteria SOLIDARITY! • With lorry drivers • With train drivers
Thursday, January 18, 1979 15p
-£65 now
Any time, any place
Labour leaders prepare for action
Socialist
Challenge
With public sector
workers-£60 now
JiMN DENİS Emergency Labour Ho/ Bousing TIME ANY PLE
sizes.
There is the Labour
courts.
Merlyn Rees General Sam Silken are looking at ways to picketing. Callaghan and Foot shout from the roof tops that the 5 per cent guideline" stay. Benn keeps down. There is the Tory breed led by Thatcher who threatens compulsory secret ballots and security for strikers families withdrawal There is the CBI, led by Sir John Methven, unleashing a witch-hunt against the Transport workers union.
There is the media breed They slander strikers, distort what their struggles are about and lie, lie and lie again.
But just what are the dogs howling about? "scandalous' lorry drivers who are just asking for a basic wage of £65 week. "disgraceful' workers in
& 5.
- £3.40 bonus now
• With all of them
for a 35 hour week
The dogs of war are howling. Howling for the blood, money and democratic rights of trade unionists. The war the dogs are waging is the war against trade unionists and the dogs themselves come in a variety of breeds and
Government breed. Ministers Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams are said to want an immediate freeze in all wage rises — a freeze backed by the
and Attorney
prevent effective
must his head
social
which
is
week.
At the
SHAH FLEES IRAN -See Pages 4 and 5
• THIS week's issue of your paper defends workers on strike against the attacks of the gutter press and Tory and Labour politicians. We argue that it is capitalism's crisis and capitalists must pay for it. We defend the use of flying pickets on Page 2.
• THE Shah of Iran has fled the country. We celebrate with the Iranian people and explain Constituent Assembly is vital. Pages 4
• 60 years ago two great revolutionaries, Rosa Luxemburg and Kar BENN STAYS SILENT
*The Labour movement is
under attack by the bosses
and Government policies
But Tony Benn stays silent. important
•Benn believes that his job
Line cabinet Is more cles .............. public sector, and all they want wages,
£60 a week. At train drivers whose one day strikes are in pursuit of an extra £3.40 a
None of them is asking for very much. All would settle for five percent of Callaghan's
IT'S THEIR CRISIS
13.
January to lobby
why • We talk SOCIALIST PAPER LEFT STAY PARALYSED
than opposing Labour's reactionary poli-
For Thatcher's wages or the media moguls' wages
It is the duty of every trade unionist in the country to come to the aid of their brothers and sisters in struggle. The battle they are waging is the battle of the low paid. Solidarity.
Liebknecht, were shot dead on the order of German social-democrats. We commemorate their anniversary. Page
• WE greet the public sector workers
who will be coming to London on 22
parliament. We -explain why they are right. Pages 8 & 9.
to the American film
director Robert Altman on his new film, The Wedding. Page 15.
THIS AND MORE IN YOUR Whenever a real fight is needed Benn is nowhere to be seen
MORE PAGES THAN THE SUN!
Page 2 scan of this page
political argument*
EDITORIAL
Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street, London N1.
01-359 8180/9. 01-359 8371. FLIGHT OF THE SHAH
THE Shah of Iran
other option.
to exile.
hated despot.
Shah's extradition to be
page 5), institutionalisation of democratic
sectarianism could be fatal.
developing a socialist press, trade
Peru and FOCEP is extremely important.
THEY DON'T
The Tories are exactly the same.
heman right.
atlaw unofficial strikes services.
effective pickets.
of course! contact with each other.
and the way in which society is still organised -
means of production.
will no doubt be numerous others.
if you agree with these principles and want
to be involved in activities by Socialist
Challenge supporters in your area, fill in
the form below and send it to us.
* 1 am interested in more information
about activities in my area.
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enclose 50p to cover costs.
[Delete if not applicable]
NAME
ADDRESS
Send to Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper
London N1.
Secialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 2
Distribution/ Advertising has finally left. After a year of mass , strikes and clashes with the troops he had no His powerful advisers and allies in the Department had no choice but reluctantly to authorise his transfer
The joy in Iran is understandable. The fraternisation between workers and soldiers on the streets of Tehran demonstrates the tensions which existed within the army. There can be little doubt that the masses of Iran have by continued struggle brought down a
Ayatollah Khomeini has said that he will fight for elected Institutions and a popular government which will demand the government is not likely to last for too long. Bakhtiar himself has MeG sama. The stated that he does not see himself in office beyond the spring.
The tasks now confronting socialists are very clear. Agitation should concentrate on the need for a Constituent Assembly (see
rights, disbandment of SAVAK, and public trials of the torturers and executioners of the Pahlavi dictatorship. The slightest display of
Iranian revolutionaries should prepare not just to fight for democratic rights, but to take full advantage of them in terms of
unions, and preparing powerful electoral intervention. In this regard the experience of
The Shah's fall must be utilised to create a permanent base for proletarian politics in Iran — a base for the socialist revolution. LIKE FLYING DO THEY?* THE ONLY strikes the Tory press approves of are strikes that fail.
W nenever a strike becomes effective they denounce the tactics which could lead to its success.
All this makes their talk of democracy increasingly hollow. One of the democratic rights won by the trade unions was the right to strike. It was only achieved after decades of struggle. The right of workers to withdraw their labour is an elementary political and
In reality the Tories don't like strikes. Full stop. Heath tried to
- and failed. Margaret Thatcher is now talking about legislation to ban strikes which threaten essential
On a smaller scale, the hysteria whipped up by the Tories and Labour Cabinet ministers against the lorry drivers amounts to the same. Merlyn Rees has asked the Attorney General to determine whether 'secondary picketing' is illegal. The idea is to differentiate the Labour government from the Tories, who tend to oppose all
Labour is different. They oppose 'secondary picketing' but are presumably in favour of primary, legal pickets. And who decides what is primary and legal or secondary and illegal? Why, the law,
The use of flying pickets by the lorry drivers has proved to be an excellent tactie. It breaks the isolation of the drivers. It enables them to determine what is primary or secondary and to decide what goods are essential, such as supplies for hospitals. It forces other workers to confront the real issues posed by the strike. The solidarity of the dockers has been exemplary and should ensure the future support of lorry drivers in any struggle waged by dockers. Furthermore, the use of flying pickets develops an inter-union solidarity which does not rely on union officials to establish
Shirley Williams, a member of the Labour Cabinet, was recently bemoaning the fact that in modern societies it is possible for small groups of workers to paralyse the entire economy. absolutely true. What it reveals is the growing contradiction between the technological developments which have taken place
- with the increasing intervention of the state to shore up the capitalist ownership of the
In these circumstances workers must use all the resources at their disposal to maintain their living standards and their democratic rights. The flying picket is one such tactic. In months to come there
4 January issue.
CUTTCH By Raphael Samuel (Ruskin College, Oxford) 1 HAVE supported Socialist Unity in the local elections, and the total would continue to do so it offered the choice) in a general election, because I believe it is important to register the need for a socialist alternative to the Labour Party.
Talso believe, most fervently, in socialist and reunification, and welcome the
albeit faltering, which Challenge has taken in this direction.
On trade union issues, particular, it seems to me that your paper has shown a realistic appreciation of the fact that the left in Britain is made up of a wide spectrum of and that it is possible for them
come together principled if limited platform, as seems to have happened in the struggle in the CPSA; in the Ford and Garners strikes; and in the support given by SCCUOTS OF the Wright in the AUEW elections.
Another welcome feature has been the discriminating attitude which Socialist Challenge has taken to the contradictory forces at work in world Communism, as in your championing of Rudolf Bahro, your coverage of the debates in the French Communist Party, and, latterly, situation in China
From this point of view your *New Year revolutionary unity certain retreat, and in place of discriminating analysis substitutes a (to me) very unsatisfac-
species of LOLY which Communists quite simply therefore, mies.
A manifesto, however brief, This is needs to contain a political argument; it needs to demon-
strate, however schematically the necessity of the course i proposes (i.e., in the case of your New Year resolution, the functions of a Marxist party; and it needs to identify potential support it is appealing to.
class.
revolutionary socialists are:
AN APPEAL for revolutionary unity and joint work, drawn up by the International Socialists Alliance and the International Marxist Group, was published in our
This has renewed the debate on the need for a
communist
sometimes Socialist
timed.
Year resolution'
economic
indicates
left to Bob trade unionism Britain.
complex and
bases for regroupment.
Lip
of the new
aisclosed resolution particular marks a
class.
labelling, in become "reformist' and by definition, ene- ways in
The sectarianism
referred to,
the constituencies of the situation revolutionary 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 that the two vital tasks confronting
class struggle tendencies class-collaborationism in the labour movement. These should be non-exclusive brose-Dased 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 thai:
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 car only be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with all
cessary means the power of the capitalist state.
Manifesto needs
regroupment also needs to be very carefully themselves
1am not sure that your New
succeeds on any of these counts. There is no
analysis of world some capitalism (though your editorial of 4 January interestingly
some of the lines this might have taken), nor of organisation the specific threats to jobs,
and working conditions which it poses in
Barely a line is given to the Labour government, though its record, over the last four years, is surely one of the elementary
socialist
service is paid to the ANL, but nothing is said either
Rowena about the unsuspected sources of strength that movement has Julian
HOI about the steward difficulties of Gillian struggle which is, in some sort, carried on within the working
Serious attention is given to the women's movement, but the manifesto fails, I think, to voice or to connect with the
which socialist feminists — a major constituency in any socialist grouping - regard their own work.
For fissaparous character of the left is
as a regrettable reality, but there is no attempt to situate it in a wider national or international context.
In sum, the resolution' lacks that realistic appreciation
in which SOCIaLSS find
3
in opposition to WHICH
of revolutionaries. contributions last week, we now print a further response to the appeal as well as a second list of signatories who have already shown their support for it (all in a personal capacity).
CLO CHeC
which, in other contexts, Socialist Challenge has shown itself well able to address. It seems arbitrary.
Al the moment there are
eighteen revolutionary socialist parties, groupings and leagues in this country quite apart from the major Marxis
Britain, the Communist Party the quite large number of Marxists and near-Marxists working (however mistakenly) in the Labour
More supporters
Bob Woods, vice-chairperson, Ealing NALGO Marianne Korn, ISA
Wood, president, Ealing NUT Association
Gree, NALGO shop
Simms, NATHE member, ISA Steven Marks, ISA
SIGN HERE If you agree with this joint appeal and wish to aid the process of revolutionary unity, please sign and return this form. We signatories in forthcoming issues.
NAME
ADDRESS TRADE UNION OR OTHER ORGANISATION POSITION HELD Send to: Joint Appeal, PO Box 50, London N1.
Our socialism will be infinitels more democratic than what exists in
"socialism' in the USSR and Fastern Europe have discredited sncialism in the eyes of the millions of workers throughout the world. We are opposed ! them and will offer full support to all those fighting for socialist democracy.
The interests of workers and capitalists are irreconcilable on a world scale. Capitalism has not on created a world market, it hav created world politics. Thus we fight for working class units on an internationa scale. This unity will in the long run be decisive in defeating both the
imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latir
America, Africa and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding the immediate withdraw al of _British-troop from Ireland and letting the Irish people determine their own future
The Communist Parties in Europe are in crisis, Euro-communist nor the pro-Moscow wings hase any meaningtul strategy for the overthrow of the capitalist state. socialist parties are more necessary than eser before, Conditions toda
are more favourable than over the preceding three decades. Hut such parties can
only be built by rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracs not 1°1
luxury but as a vital necessity.
After two Party, and the probably still larger number working in no political party at all, but active
women's movement groups, the trade unions, law centres, polytech nies, schools and universities,
Together these represent a huge resource of talent and socialist commitment; it could clearly become a much more considerable force if Wdy. could be found of bringing them together, pooling experi
and bringing that dedication to bear upon a wider ponucal cause
But to do so requires a much more generous appreciation of the potential boundaries of
universe in which the ISA - a SUDUEL than political group of disillusioned exSWPers - appear as a major constellation; and imaginative kind of political analysis than rather diplomatic choice of words which evades both the strengths and the difficulties which a socialist regroupment has to CHCUUHECE committee, Revolution
Carl Brecker, Ealing, Hammersmith, Hounslow area
committee of NALGO, chairperson of Hounslow Health Joint Shop Stewards Committee Richard Kuper, ISA
will be publishing the names of
Neither int
This means the right 10 organise factions and
Page 3 scan of this page
strike
1. This sign is to be found outside all large docks many depots and factories. It means lorries prohibited. It was made official by the Transport and General Workers Union last week.
The appearance of this sign has greatly disheartened the Emplovers and the Govern-
Issued committees, it informs flying pickets where they are needed and the numbers required.
3. Unfortunately for the Pay Policy, this sign -available from the Employers and Government to all those who challenge the Policy - has had no discernible effect on the lorry drivers.
IUC nas not com mented on this sign. In fact, it has scarcely commented on anything since the strike began.
4. This sign is a familiar recourse of the Mass Media when number 3 doesn't work.
It represents the burial of the economy and is accompanied by remarks about 'holding us to
THE CASE
FOR THE
TRAIN
DRIVERS
PETE GRANT is a member of | the train drivers' union, ASLEF. Based at Old Oak Common Diesel Depot London, he is a member of the UNHORS Paddington branch.
In an interview with Oliver New he explained background to the ASLEF strike and wny ine arivers are angry. He began by spelling out the background to the dispute.
*The present claim for a 10 percent responsibility payment originated from a productivity deal negotiated by the NUR for some train guards.
*The argument that this should apply to drivers as well has been going on for over a year.
'An inquiry recommended refusal of the ASLEF claim, but said that drivers of high speed trains (HSTs) should get £3.63 per long distance trip.
*It was the unofficial rank and file organisation of drivers on the Southern Region which torced the CACCULYC of the union into taking action on the claim.
At present the basic rate for drivers is £62 for a 40-hour week
the lorry drivers'
A 46
Lincoln 12 strike Newark 28
(Nottingham 48)
Leicester 63
freely
GIVE
As well, said Pete, we get a few quid extra for having to do shifts, nightwork or weekends. We have to come in all times of the day and night, there's no fixed time.
With such wages conditions the militancy of the the drivers is understandable, so how did Pete see the present mood of the ASLEF members?
*It varies a lot from depot to another, on whether they've got HST mileage jobs and the extra money.
•Most drivers are angry that they've suffered from government pay policy
workers. Some fighting mad.
*But at Old Oak Common, for example, where there is a high proportion of work in main line HS some are ever threatening to scab dispute.
The main thing that will deter any sell-out militancy of the Region.
Although the ASLEF dispute is mainly about money, explained that there was more at stake than just the extra 10 percent:
*Management is trying to
A learner's guide to
ransom' and 'starving us out.
strike
5. This kind of symbol has become necessary because of the effectiveness of the lorry drivers' pickets.
It indicates services allowed unhindered maintain essential aspects of working people's lives.
The significance of this sign is that it is issued by the strike committees.
The other article on this page explains cannot be seen on certain days of the week. ance, which is expected to be accompanied by that of the sign representing workers, adds to the damage being inflicted on Pay Policy.
The arrow indicates one of the turns from roundabout. The best way of ensuring this turn, and thereby demolishing Pay Policy, is by Dunlong support taking action living standards. and
one
more than are
on the
remove the especially the two drivers on the Southern HST increased
They are also trying to force ASLEF into the NUR, where Pete they think its militancy will be
controlled *But if ASLEF get the 10 per cent the NUR will go for it too. It's important to emphasise
goods and pass order why this sign
This disappear-
public sector
the Pay
THOSE to defend their A commuter sleeps in peace just before the strike.
manning, hostility workloads.
fight for
participation.'
serious Forton Services emigrés.
iPeT
Croatian
Croatia occupation.
June
central BOYCHICHE
interviewed
Yugoslav him
diplomat.)
taken
from
the
Who remains
The Italian
in full: that because of the traditional
between the two
'In the long run we have to
proper rank and file control of the rail unions with a shop steward system in place of the present system of
News
nowhere
Ustashi in action GRANADA TV's World in Action was once known as a
documentary w nat remains of tnis repura tion disappears when the true story behind its recent film of Croatian nationalism is known.
The programme was straight PR for the Croatians. Military raids into Yugoslavia, kidnappings, murders, hijackings all these were forgiveable lapses on the part of these lovable
What World in Action did not mention - - indeed was at pains to deny — is that the main
organisations are fronts for the Ustashi, which ran a fascist government In
under the Nazi
A number of emigré groups exist. but at a congress several years ago they agreed to accept
cold Liberation Movement as the
co-ordinator of the
The programme claimed to expose Yugoslav secret police attacks on the Croatians. They
man called Franjo Goretta who said that a
diplomat had told kill CENCE Croatian emigrés. (In fact he killed the
What World in Action forgot to mention was that, on the evidence of files
by the Australian Attornev General's department
Australian intelligence, Goretta was a double agent for
Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood, another organisation set up by the Ustashi.
backs TERe Ustashi mystery. IS
Dreams and nightmares THE Glasgow Sunday Mail recently ran a feature on nightmares. It asked a dozen well-known people to describe their nightmares.
Factor Claudia sympathies (she is a Communist Party sympathiser), but Empress Farah of Iran's nightmare and Mail comment deserve to be printed
EMPRESS FARAH
of my loved ones
In the pained te armed with hatchet:
through the marble ball! lood
Place. All the eave looking for and my son. ake ene corime to savo their triumphs. They between theoner to pass
Terrible
VIsion horrible,
This bands. The to sland bere, he their cruel hands open hish raile they shit This terrible dream
from
Washington, who have history of using right-wing East European emigrés?
Bonn?Last year the Yugoslavs captured four top Red Army Fraction members In return for their extradition the Yugoslavs demanded that West Germany hand over a number of Croatian exiles
Ustasha front. Despite its enthusiasm for nailing the RAF the Bonn government refused. Why?
*The full story appears in the 9 January issue of People's News Service, from which this information is taken.
Cold war and charity RUMOURS have reached NfN that the National Association for Freedom is applying to the Charities Commission for charitable status. This would mean tax exemption for lots of
warriors. Letters protest should be sent to: Mr Weston, 14 Ryder Street, SI James, SW1.
Women's Lib in Moscow 'SELECTING a hero is like choosing a bride. First you hav to be attracted to her. Then she has to measure up to your ideal.
It was with this measurement in mind that we set foot in the office of the Trade Union Committee of the First State Ball-Bearing Plant, one of Moscow's largest industrial enterprises."
— Беги апо у renov Meet the Mishakins. Novosti Press Agency, Moscow, 1977.
Cardinale revealed her left-wing KILLERS SLIT MY
SON'S
THROAT
leaves se e in os, and sad to say quite often et up for the washed out and al lie there
• sutterin
for her gaining so much
about this. The
if the conflict red
her le day. ncapacity fo
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
US, GB plump for
Women's miseryunder Shah
beautiful and great cook? You have nothing." * OCA
*
*
SAUDI ARABIA
BAHRAIN
* Major riots QATAR
ellI Relineries
Oilfields EMIRATES. By Richard Carver
DESPITE appearances, British Foreign Secretary David Owen is not completely stupid. In his celebrated apology for the Shah on Weekend World last year one of his main criticisms of the religious opposition was directed the harsh, dominated regime would introduce.
A future article will deal with the problems of- women's liberation and the opposition.
implict Owen's argument is the assumption that the Shah's regime has already "liberated' Iranian WOLLICH
The Shah's own attitude to women is shown by the box accompanying this article. But even this piece of misogyny is misleading since it implies that Iranian women nave cowant "in the eyes of the law'.
of Iranian gals women under the Shah are only two: the right to vote, which they share with men and which
utterly useless In dictatorship; and legal moves against the wearing of the veil,
superficially progressive move which actually infringes women's right to wear the veil if they choose.
That is why in the present
'Westernised'
UDSULEC women, whose usual would probably be blue jeans, have taken to chador veil. This continue until there is what one
described as atmosphere of freedom where human and democratic values COULIL.
The legal rights guaranteed to Iranian women are pitiful. A husband can legally stop-a woman taking a job which he
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 4
INTERNATIONAL
...In a man's life women only count if they are
graceful, and know how feminine...This women's lib business, for instance! What do these feminists want? What do you want? Equality, you say, indeed...J do not want to sound rude, but you may be equal in the eyes of the law, but not — I beg your pardon for saying so — in ability...
'You have never produced a Michelangelo, or a Bach. You have never even produced a great cook. And don't talk of opportunities. You must be joking. Have you lacked the opportunity to give history a
produced nothing great,
- Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi GULF OF OMAN
OMAN thinks damages the 'dignity and prestige of the family'
She needs the permission of her husband or father to travel and of her father to marry.
A daughter only receives half the inheritance of a son. court two women's testimony is male- held to be equal to that of one
The system of under which a man can have up to four wives is still legal. The formality which requires woman's written permission is easily avoided in a country where half of town women and 90 per cent of rural women are
If, on the other hand, a woman were to have a sexual relationship with a man other than her husband, might kill her 'in defence of his honour.
Under the penal code he would get off almost scot free.
In contrast unmarried woman is regardec as a criminal.
do pression extends re.
BUL beyond legal Poverty and the children mean that nearly three quarters of women countrvside have their child before the age of 19 and continue to bear them as long as they are able. garb The attitude to employment is typically ambivalent. In agriculture women will CONSULUTC majority seasonal labourers (at half a 'an man's wage). In the towns only 7,5 per cent are outside the home.
Equal pay laws, like those guaranteeing maternity leave, are systematically Equality for Iranian women is more of the type advocated in
10 be By Richard Carver
THE Bakhtiar government in Iran looks no more stable, even
council and the Shah is finally on his way.
Right-wing opposition in the armed forces rumbles on and mass demonstrations the regime continue.
General Roberty Huyser, the deputy US Europe, has been in Iran for a week to try to from State Department ments have played on the same themes: Bakhtiar must be given a chance; a coup would only exacerbate imperialism's problems.
Even the Shah has added his voice to the chorus of caution. He reanses Bakhtiar is in power there is a chance of returning.
But neither the government nor the US State Department is calmng continuous mobilisation of the In
polygamy
the the latter
pregnant
sphere. recent labour legislation, which need for abolishes the category of work
*harmful for women and young
in the workers
Many of the most oppressive attitudes Iran are Islamic in origin. Yet women have seized on
female opposition
ding some of its more Moslem aspects, as an opportunity to demonstrate their own activity.
Hence employed separate women's contingents
Jane even swearate protests, as contradictory ignored. wearing the veil.
The entry of women into political life has
is a sudden integrating
against This does not, guarantee
in tactical flexibility
commander
dissuade the COuD the precipitate action.
as possible. announce-
imperialism.
South outwardly negotiated mat as long plies from
privately furious.
The the Middle SHOES treatment Shah's jails.
and institutions in
the treatment the incluTHOVCHICHL.
get their
self- The mass
there have been the estimated
political WORCES
wel such
gestures as
inevitably exposed.
Demo-3 February
Bakhtiar
success of'a repressive solution.
That is the only reason why imperialism does not favour a coup. It also explains why there
enthusiasm for God help Ayatollah Khomeini, the only recognised mass leader, into the government.
of course the that the Iranian generals will display the same
as their the planes. paymasters. And if there were a
Americans would undoubtedly support it as soon
All is not going smoothly for
Enter pressure from the masses Bakhtiar has cut off oil supplies to Israel and
Africa. Israel calm and has replacement supMexico, but tracking Washington is
Events in Iran threaten the reasons. whole network of alliances in The
East. Already Turkey has been affected by the provoked a backlash, west most horrible aspect the
women in the
usual rape and other sexual tortures predominate in
women prisoners and women are often used as bargaining counters to
husbands give Deng
movement has looking forced the release of many of
4,000 women of prisoners. Others remain in prison because the Inprecor regime does not dare face the They
international publicity alternative *Man which would be created if some of the women's treatment were
upsurge of militancy.
traditional rivalry with the Shah, the Saudi Arabian rulers are territied at his departure. If Iran goes,
us was Crown Prince Fahd's verdict last week.
The US presence in Saudi Arabia has been beefed up by
arrival of a squadron of F-15s, complete with American personnel to lly and maintain
The clutch of small oil states on the south side of the Gulf is nestling up to Suadi Arabia for DEOCCHOE HO OUDE reaSSUrCU by the presence of a task force from the US Seventh Fleet at the mouth of the Gulf.
There has been a large influx of CIA agents into Iran to give a much-needed boost to US pouncal intengence, but scere
equipment, used to monitor Soviet weapons, had to be removed for security
military chiefs in the Pentagon are taking no such
77 Navy F-14s - precautons.
EVERY January Time maga-
its "Man of the Year'. This year the gentleman so honoured was
Xiaoping. Readers for a more sober appraisal of Deng could do worse than read the latest issue
Intercontinental Press/
will also find an nomination for of the Year': Hugo Blanco, the Peruvian Trotsky-
remain in Iran as • a mile back-up US diplomac despite the intelligence ri
this high-ter surrounding nology plane.
Britain, which is the Irani regime's main arms suppl
which played independent dip matic role, has fallen right in line behind Washington polic
Despite Foreign Secreta Owen's crude apologetics the Shah's behalf, imperialis
infinitely resourceful the comi weeks and months.
Its chief weapon will be t indigenous pro-capitalist les ers. Bakhtiar will probably blown away by events but th
me more substan National Front. And religious leaders will not be reliable buttress against perialism.
The questIon of a constituent assembly capab of determining the new form government therefore becom WOOCHIOSE ist, chosen by the Lin
issue: Iran, Turkey, Indochin Horn of Africa.
Single copies 30p plus p& Subscriptions are ty Tor 0 year, t5 for six months or f2 for an introductory offer of issues. Write now to Interco tinental Press/Inprécor, Box 50, London 2X Cheques payable to Interce tinental Press/Inprecor.
Page 5 scan of this page
constituent assembly
needs
By David Frankel
THE proposal for assembly is directed first of all against the continuation of the Shah's rule. It gives a specific alternative to the dictatorship -and universal representative body that could debate the alternatives before the country and decide on them.
Just the call for such a reasonable and democratic alternative tremendous pressure on the Shah's regime and helps manoeuvres behind the backs of the masses aimed
The demand also defending the interests of the working class, the poor peasants, the small shopkeepers, and the rest of Iran's toiling people who are exploited by world imperialism and the capitalist class.
CAPITALISTS
Election of a constituent assembly would counter attempts by capitalists to impose a government of their own on the Iranian people once the Shah falls.
Leaders of the National Front have announced that they are ready to form such a government if the Shah goes. According to their scenario, the Iranian people would be presented with an accomplished fact, which they would be called upon to ratity in some type of plebiscite or referendum.
Even Ayatollah Khomeini, the nationalist Muslim religious leader who had previously been the most intransigent in his opposition to the Shah, has announced that he has "selections in mind" for the leaders of a future government.
Historically, the demand for a Masses in Iran want to determine their own government.
INTERNATIONAL
Why
Iran
a
constituent
assembly
the peasants title to the land.
DEBATE puts
undercut the
perpetuating the
aimed order.
opposed to the
hands of the masses.
The masses the
exploiters.
TASKS
body must deal with.
institutions, domination,
of oppressed
of women.
INO
constituent assembly was first raised during ine ann-cudal revolnons that gave rise to modern capitalism.
During the French Revolution of 1789-94, for example, the constituent
passed the famous Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It abolished the old feudal rights and privileges and gave
Today the demand for a constituent assembly is a demand for the most complete freedom of expression. It calls for the broadest possible debate. It insists that the masses should decide for themselves the basis of a new
It is no accident that the Shah, his imperialist backers and the bourgeois opposition figures in Iran are all
demand for constituent assembly. They are well aware that the whole point of capitalist government is to keep the fundamental decisions out of the
need the fullest demoeratic rights so that they can organise and fight for their class interests most effectively against their
Revolutionists raise side by side
assembly the social tasks that such a
These include dismantling the monarchy and all its
uprooung imperialist of the emancipalon peasantry, establishment of the right
nationalities self-determination, and the liberation
capitalist government can
accomplish these tasks, because they require the systematic mobilisation of the toilers and the abolition of the class privilege and stratification that bourgeois society rests on. government, based on the organised Only WOLKCES and farmers power of the oppressed and exploited, is capable of fulfilling the needs of the Iranian people through the socialist reorganisation of society.
Of course, it is possible that if a constituent assembly were formed, it would have a reformist majority who would seek to ally with the capitalists and oppose the establishment of a workers and farmers government. But that is not a problem arising from the form of a democratic constituent assembly.
SOVIETS
This becomes clear if we recall that in February 1917, workers councils (soviets) existed in Russia and held power there. But the reformist majority in these soviets turned the power over to a capitalist provisional government. The revolutionists were able to lead the soviets to power in November 1917 only after they had successfully won the politically
The fight constituent assembly and the debate within such a body is one of the most important ways in which revolutionary socialists can win the majority of the Iranian people to the idea that a workers and farmers vernes on nisa Leon
In his writings on China, Trotsky singled out the importance of the constituent assembly especially in regard to the peasantry. explained:
'The essence of the question lies in the fact THal the peasant ulas. aroused to historical life, is not at all inclined place confidence advance in a leadership coming from this mass seeks a simple political the cities, even if it is proletarian;. formula that would express directly its own political strength, that is, the predominance of numbers."
INADEQUATE
It is by seeing in practice the workings of a constituent assembly that the masses can best be convinced that under capitalism even the most complete formal democracy inadequate.
The workers and poor peasants need a government that represents their class interests. They need a truly democratic government based mass workers, peasants, and soldiers councils government excludes the capitalists.
The complementary character of the demand for assembly and the development soviets was thoroughly explained by Trotsky in his article 'The Slogan of a National Assembly in China', written in 1930.
'Even if there were soviets in China - which is not the case — this in itself would not be a reason to abandon the slogan of a Trotsky noted.
*The majority in the soviets might be certainly be
organisations. interested in exposing them in the open forum of the national assembly. In this way, the majority would be won over to our side more quickly and more certainly.
Recalling the experience Russian revolution of 1917, Trotsky says that after the fall of the Czar, 'the Cadets (the main capitalist party) used every legal trick to drag out the convening of Assembly In revolutionary wave would subside. The Mensheviks Revolutionaries took their cue from masses the Cadets.
*If the Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionaries had had a little more revolutionary drive, they could have convened the Constituent Assembly in a few weeks.
BOLSHEVIKS
'Would participated in the elections and the assembly itself? Undoubtedly, for it Trotsky was we who demanded all this time
speediest Constituent Assembly...
*If the Constituent Assembly had been in 1917, then all the social questions would have confronted it. propertied classes would have been compelled to show their cards; the treacherous role of the conciliators would have become apparent.
The Bolshevik faction Constituent Assembly won the greatest popularity and this would have helped Bolshevik majority in the soviets.
'Under these Constituent Assembly would have lasted not one day but possibly several is months. This would have enriched the political experience of the working masses and, rather than retard the proletarian revolution, would have accelerated it.' on the Bolsheviks who convened that constituent assembly workers and peasants soviets had
constituent of during assembly, dispersed it.
and in the beginning would
in the hands of
would
assembly.
of the form in Iran.
the Constituent the hope that the
and the 3OCa
demands Bolsheviks have
convening of the
convened let us say in April
The
in the would have
elect a
circumstances the As things actually turned out, it was
the after the
already taken power
Since the assembly had been elected
an earlier period revolution, its majority no longer reflected the attitudes or ideas of the masses. It opposed the revolution
When the constituent assembly refused to support the democratic will of the masses as organised in the soviets, the revolutionary government
CONFIDENCE
The Bolsheviks were able to do this precisely because they had won the confidence of the masses during their earlier fight for the convocation of the
Of course, what is important in the experience of the Bolsheviks is not that it may be repeated in the same
For instance, it is possible in Iran that a constituent assembly could be convoked before any soviets exist and that soviets could grow up later in the fight over what policies the assembly should implement.
What is important is that the Bol sheviks understood that the demand for the freest and most thoroughgoing democracy was part and parcel of the socialist revolution and that such
would help propel the revolution forward.
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Scottish Assembly The referendums on the setting up of Scottish and Welsh Assemblies will take Before his death last October, NEIL WILLIAMSON compiled this question-and-answer explanation of why socialists should vote 'yes' for an
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Secialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 6
HOME NEWS
place on 1 March.
Assembly.
Why will there referendum?
Quite simply because it is the only way that the government Cal guarantee that legislation will be Westminster. The failure this legislation would literally decimate Ene aDOL electorally in Scotland, projecting among Labour supporters a vote for the SP as the only method of securing Assembly.
Opponents of the Assembly (over demanded a referendum as the condition of supporting even an amended Devolution Bill They hoped (and still hope) to use the referendum to sabotage or delay the legislation, but are also increasingly conscious of being held electorally responsible as individuals defeat the Assembly, by their votes at Westminster.
Where does the support for the
The legislation arises massive pressure from working people in Scotland middle
CaS. proletarian) for some form of self-government.
The demand Assembly, both inside outside the labour movement, is the immediate focus for the disillusionment and distrust of decades of failure by both major parties.
This demand for radical change is articulated in terms of bourgeois democracy, in its extension and its innovation, not, however. in reactionary self-active nationalism.
The ruling class in Britain has reluctantly this demand, acutely aware of the dangers of an uncontrollable executive in Edinburgh.
What about the opposing devolution?
First there is a confused and heterogeneous bloc in Parliament, with petty-bourgeois centre gravity.
At this stage it is weak and divided. Despite its consideraDIC SIZE and representation (Powell Kinnock), it lacks any central
line or perspective apart from a
commitment to
sovereignty at all costs.
Thatcher's party is incapable
Some questions answered
Vote 'yes for
ERPRISE
?
its passed
SHIRE WORKS
Party MICS
for the proposed
from
(lower of organising this current. It is
well both split and
paralysed, vacillating between its petty-bourgeois base and its
for an bourgeois backers.
and Secondly, there is the split in the ruling with those tied both politically and economically to the central state opposed to devolution.
Despite the impressive range of support for the Scotland is British' campaign, these bourgeois elements have little or no support among their traditional terms of political base,
petty bourgeoisie.
acquiesced in Will the although it is democratic?
No bourgeois-democratic system really Restrictions, manoeuvres and advantages are built into the forces very system. This referendum is no exception.
But despite this, it is only under very unusual situations that socialists would turn their
essentially backs on the
of population when, absence of any other form of self-expression, they participate in bourgeois democracy. scope of Boycotting
to could be justified instance: (a) the questions were rigged to give only the answers Westminster the government wanted, eg.
De Gaulle's referendums in the 1960s; (b) OOCH
LANARKSHIRE
STEEL NORI
SCOTTISH steelworkers demand jobs
around the politically in Spain; going to be Russian elections, 1905 EOYCHIHHICHL class in Scotland,
proposed referendum.
Paper?
the Scottish Abstaining or voting
referendum be
provisions,
'democratic'. democratic rights Scottish people
matter how critically of the in the choice
vote for an Assembly. referendum if, for
referendum,
agitation to self-determination?
referendum was By banned, e.g. 1976 referendum
(c) its results were ignored by the immediate anyway e.g. on its powers.
None of this is true for the
Socialists position Maybe we shouldn't boycott the referendum, but should we explain how support the government White
Assembly.
against the White Paper (or the final Bill) is very different from
possible boycotting a rigged referendum. However, the Bill should be supported, for despite its
vetoes and prohibitions, which have to be fight. constantly denounced, it does contain the essential feature of
for the - that of a directly elected Assembly.
For that reason, and that reason alone, we support — no
the government's Bill. Faced with
the masses between though it against, abstaining, or supporting the setting up of an Assembly, we say vote yes, MOCLaCY.
matter
But won't the questions in the
purely against the government's Bill, interfere with Scotland's right
THEN ODERN SCOT
which
BUILD
ARKSHIRE
зНІ
HOTC
that
Then are
THes
far the best method of exercising Scotland's right to self-determination would be by
elections to Assembly, with no restrictions
are not in determine the questions in the referendum, but we are sull rorced le
the Scottish people will arrive at such an
One (though not the only) essential way to fight for such an Assembly is by the largest
majority for the setting up of the government's version. Large abstentions of passivity can only weaken the
Will the referendum strengthen the power of Westminster in relation to the Scottish masses?
an
No, in fact it makes the setting up of the Assembly an act of
neaseives. even 1S through the framework, of bourgeois de-
This action, no how atomised or electoral, will make it very difficult to interfere with the Assembly once it's set up.
Of course the government will claim a mandate for it vetoes and limitation, but the powers of the Assembly in the
future will not be settled by legal niceties
The crucial lesson will be learned LITOLE! victory against Westminster delay and opposition, through the vehicle of a referendum, a vehicle
can be used by the Assembly itself in the future.
Are we in favour of including a question on independence
Yes, for the more detailed and open the choices given, the
democratic the result Also we think it is necessary
questions should include the immediate setting up of an Assembly restriction on its powers.
why are you against independence?
At this stage the working class will gain nothing from the dismemberment of the British state into various independent sub-units. Unlike Ireland there
no concrete forms national oppression which separation would smash.
The greatest strength of the Scottish working people still
labour movement with workers in England and Wales, which a socialist federal system of government would maintain.
How should socialists orient to the referendum campaign?
We should argue for the widest possible bodies of the labour movement to organise an independent campaign in the factories, offices and housing schemes. This campaign should argue for a clear vote in favour of a directly elected Assembly, which means support, no matter how critical, of the government's Bill.
We should argue for the greatest possible choice in the questions, and a vote against independence. Most importantly, we should seize the opportunity open during the campaign to explain that only
executive formed by the workers parties, accountable to the organisations of the labour movement, is capable of realising any of the hopes that Scottish people have in the
Assembly.
Such an executive, if it was to carry out any policies in the interests of the working class, would find it necessary to assume powers to confront the power of private capital and commercial secrecy and the anarchy of production private profit.
Page 7 scan of this page
IRELAND
De Valera: didn't trust Britain by Geoff Bell
IN June 1940 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made an orrer to unsa r remica Eamon de Valera.
Britain, said Chamberlain, would make an immediate declaration in favour of Irish unity if de Valera's government would allow British troops and ships to have access to Irish ports in return.
The offer was made with the full knowledge and approval of the British Cabinet. It was
because Britain facing military Hitler's Germany.
The Cabinet felt that occupation by Britain of Irish ports would help to check any German invasion of Britain's west coast. British intelligence, de Valera was told, was also suggesting that Germany was about to invade Ireland.
The British proposals were accompanied by a promise that a working party would be set up immediately to work out a new constitution for the 'united Ireland'.
By Tomas Marlowe
ROY Mason and the British Army last week took on a new role for themselves in the North of Ireland - strike-breakers.
On Thursday, after declaring a state of emereeney. Mason
massive scabbing operation in an attempt to destroy the petrol drivers' strike. The previous day the 900 drivers had voted to reject the employers' offer.
Mason invoked the Emer. gency Powers Act, first used during the 1926 General Strike, and in explaining his action the Northern Ireland Secretary used words similar to strike-breaking goverment of 1926.
"The action of the tanker drivers is an exercise in cutting our own unroats, vason said. *But it is my duty to ensure that
De Valera turned down the offer. At the time a German victory in the imminent, and perhaps Irish Premier felt that Britain was in no position to make promises.
But apparently the influential factor in de Valera's rejection was his that Britain couldn't be trusted.
Wasan assumption. When negotiating the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. the British Cabinet had offered the Irish side Commission
SCLUC by border between the North and
the ASSURANCE
Britain had promised that the Commission would assure that the boundary between the two states would *conform closely as possible to the wishes of the population'.
It was this assurance which finally persuaded the Irish side to sign the treaty, for only two counties at the most of the six northern counties
Mason's troops smash
tanker drivers' strike
as far as possible the essential
province maintained.'
Although the argued mal only people and services absolutely essential to
community WIll fuel', it soon became clear that Mason's orders were not just to maintain 'essential services' but represented a comprehensive strike-breaking operation. SUPPLIED
Thus, those
supplied included not just the fire service and hospitals, but all governLICHL CHESTUECS what their job was — as well as all Dus and airport workers. 'those on consular duties' and even broadcasters and journalists'.
These wide-ranging
in Ireland and England.
this position, Labour Party in the North.
reflect a dangerous naivety. war seemed Unionist majority.
the But signed the Boundary Commission was delayed, and when it finally did report four vears
most later it confirmed the existing
six county frontier.
The British promises had been nothing understandable manoeuvre; the wishes of the
population of four and a half of the six counties were ignored.
The Irish Boundary signed the 1921 treaty should
have known better than to take from government seriously.
After all, in 1912 the House of Commons had passed the Home Rule Bill which gave a limited independence to all of Ireland and parliament for the 32 counties.
The Bill was delayed by its rejection in the House Lords, but was nevertheless due to come into force in 1914. But in 1914 Britain used the excuse of the war with Germany to delay it again. had Even without the outbreak of
Tures proved enough to force the tanker drivers back to work and at the weekend they voted by a two to one majority to call off gOvernment
But if the defeat of receive drivers is one of
successes Roy Mason has had, it has further discredited him all but "loyalist' minded people.
Not surprisingly the Official Unionists declaration of emergency but reaction from other quarters who were to was angry.
petrol Seamus Mallon
reformist Social Democratic and Labour Party summed up no matter the feeling of many when he
said, allowed right-wing Loyalists in 1974 to topple the administration is now using the
The dangers of
'phased withdrawal
RECENT calls by members of the Liberal Party for Britain to 'name a date' for the withdrawal of troops from Ireland reflect a growing wave of opinion both
In Ireland the three main parties in the South hold
as does the Social Democratic and
But the experience of history suggests that such calls — as opposed to those for immediate withdrawal —
Britain Out
-Now!
once the treaty was have allowed the
opt
more than
indicated what
negotiators who scale is designated.
Once
the British 1912, the
means they could.
promised leader of the revolt,
Home Rule went through
1914 were
to partition Ireland. industrial stoppage'
Mallon added, has extended attitudes industrial relations'. the The emergency the few was also
THOSE
the 'welcomed" the "acted precipitately.
ALLIES of the
TGWU refused to Labour government
John power-sharing drivers'
break a genuine them to return to work.
war, the signs were that an amendment to the Bill would
six northeastern counties of Ireland to
out of the arrangement.
The period from 1912-14 is not just an example that a British promise to withdraw from Ireland is not worth the paper it is written on: it also The
happens In Ireland itself when such a time
would in the Bill promising CUCK Home Rule had been passed in
Ulster Loyalists the began immediate preparations to defeat the measure by any The
Arms were openly imported and paraded by the Loyalists, they promised civil war, and the And,
Edward Carson, even threatened appeal to Germany for help i
It was such threats which by Ireland
• persuading a unwilling British government Even
The obvious conclusion of
*Mr Mason his colonial into field
declaration attacked by Terry Carlin of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, and even by Bill Rodgers of the employers' side of the dispute
Petrol Retailers Association. Both agreed that Mason
But the attempt to break the
strike cia find some amies. int
make the
dispute official and it was the intervention of union official
rreeman the weekend which was crucial in persuading
Chamberlain: offered Irish unity declaration
the period 1912-14 is that the longer une promise to witnaraw by Britain was delayed, the surer it became that the promise would never be kept. milar situation arising in a similar situation arising Westminster government were todavto make a declaration of intent' to withdraw from the North in, say, two years time
Loyalists would immediately begin to re-arm. The present disunity in their camo
all probability be and, happened in 1912, elements in
British Army would threaten mutiny.
opponents of withdrawal would have two years in which to ensure that such a withdrawal never happened.
if COCECILE anything to go by, they would probably succeed
By contrast an immediate withdrawal by Britain from
would leave the Loyalists in disarray.
SORt "military campaign' was launched by the Loyalists its chances of success
KN21 British troops engaged in scabbing operation
would be minimal, for clearly it would be much more difficult to force Britain to return than it is to persuade Britain to stay.
• From a socialist point of view the demand for an immediate British withdrawal is the only political attitude which can be adopted.
Quite simply, if Britain has no right to be in Ireland 50 years from now, it has no right to be there two years, one year, or two weeks from now.
But besides this principle, the practical arguments in favour of immediate withdrawal are obvious.
OUT NOW!
Not only would all immediate withdrawal mean that the promise to quit would be fulfilled. It would also mean that in all probability the promise would be fulfilled with less violent consequences that would be entailed in any long protracted disengagement.
Three words say it all: troops out now!
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
ALLOUT THEFUL
'RUBBISH!' a guide to what to say on the picket line
PUBLIC SECTOR
WHAT does the government's offer of 5 per cent really mean to public sector manual workers! The pittance. To some local authority workers it will mean a measly 60p before tax each week.
The offer to all sections of public employees falls within the 5 per cent guidelines. In fact a large number of workers will not even get 5 per cent on their basic pay.
Take the example of health service ancillary workers. Of their 5 per cent a substantial proportion is devoted to the restoration of differentials - 20 per cent of the overall 6lfer in fact.
This particularly affects the low paid workers in the bottom grades, domestics and porters, increases of £2.10 to £2.78 — scarcely 4 per cent.
Women make up a huge proportion of the lower grade discriminates against them too. women have even more ground to make up if they are ever to approach the average private sector wage.
The offer does nothing to solve the huge problem of poverty and low pay among the low grades of public sector
All industries and services
Male 1975 60.80 1976 71.80 1977 78.60 1978 89.10
Female 1975 37.40 1976 46.20 1977 51.00 1978 56.40
Scotland is not published.
same basis as others in the table. Question: So you're out on strike as well. What a mess the country's in. Well, what are you lot striking about? Answer: The usual - pay. since 1974 the public sector workers have suffered cuts in real wages of up to
30 per re fighting to stop all that but
compared to some directors and judges asking for very much: just f60 a week and 35 hours.
But yes, the country is in a mess — especially for working people. should know, we work in jobs which Have DOTIC the brunt government's cut-backs.
Last ycar alone billion worth of cuts In expenditure. So it's not surprising that of the one and a half million on the dole nurses and 250,040 building workers. nurses all So ourse we dont chink much or
Contract government's pleas for 'restraint'.
That's all very well, but the country can't afford to pay what you're asking. That's not true. Do you know that because of the cash limit system central and local government have spent E3.25 billion less than even planned under the cuts. That's why it's a lie when the government says that
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 8
For you, 60p
-before tax
manual workers.
answer Is g
if they work a 40 hour week.
But many
ICICIS
bealth service ancillaries — of
tax. who will get The public demanded a two-thirds of the
workers, so it
And begin to
It simply sinicken and te reasonably
AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS Average gross weekly earnings: 1975-1978
Local authority manual workers
[England and Wales] [Scotland]
47.50 47.50 55.10 54.70 58.80 59.10 66.70 66.30
32.80** 39.10** 41.50 46.30
*A full run of figures for female local authority manual workers in
**These figures combine local authority manual workers and the
You see, even without restoring the cuts.
like company Not because of us. we're not
even of the TUC We
of the
there were 135 of free collective bargaining.
public
fault.
We've been
cuts in public
living standards.
suffer, even die.
amount
Groups 1 to 4, which include 84 per cent of all health ancillary workers, will earn between £44.50 and £46.86 after the government's proposed increase -
LAESE workers, particularly female domestics, do not work a 40 hour week on average, so their increase will be even less and their pay will hardly come up to subsistence
Women workers in Group 1 - 60.9 per cent of all women employed as
work an 27.5 hours. Their average increase will be £1.44 before
sector unions have £60 minimum wage, average industrial wage of £90. Such a minimum would
public sector manual workers out of the poverty trap that they have been caught in for so long.
The government's offer is derisory.
keeps the poor poverty well off won't be as well off as they were before.
NHS ancillary staff national
50.80 57.60 61.40 67.70 answers.
38.60 44.70 48.10 51.90 be
out.
settlements in the public sector would mean a deficit of t2 billion on public spending. They can afford to pay us,
You keep quoting figures at me. All I
normal life will be impossible because you're on strike. and
It's the - Labour government which is responsible. It has ignored every decision of the rank and tile of the trade union movement -
- protesting against bad pay and cuts in public spending.
They have even gone against Labour Party policy which, as decided at last year's conference, came out in favour
They working people have to pay for a crisis which is not our
reasonable and compromising for too long as it is, and what have we got for it? Cuts in wages,
services. They have torcca us to me back, to aciena ou
But what will happen if you stay out on strike? What about the sick, old people, disabled? They're the ones that will
Nobody has ever died as a result of strikes by hospital and social service workers. But every year thousands of old age pensioners die because
sector wage of £60 and a 35-hour week.
conference.
organising action on the pay claim.
policies it is helping to establish.
An odd thing happened at the meeting of NUPE's London divisional council earlier this month.
The pay claim and the impending action to fight for it were at the top of the agenda. The members of
executive attending meeting were questioned about the leadership's plans.
With nearly a sixth of NUPE'S 650,000 members represented by the
divisional council, delegates naturally expected
After all, the national leadership had postponed action on the claim last November in order that it could be properly prepared.
But the executive members could offer few clues as to what was planned.
The union's entire membership is to
levied at 1p per hour worked, yet the executive members had no idea how this was to be organised. Nor did they know how much strike pay would be or, come to that, which sections the union leaders were preparing to call
starvation and hypothermia; every year thousands remain homeless thousands TOI in overcrowded
sychiatric hospitals
It is not us who have caused this -it's Labour cuts, just as it's Labour's cuts which have closed 130 hospitals,
undoubtedly because of that people have died.
Yes alright, but your striking isn't going to help things, is it?
Actually it is. You see once public sector workers start being paid a decent
wage, then we can begin to rebuild our
social services, our hospitals, schools.
A decent wage would bring back the thousands of workers we have lost to private industry and private health
Of course, by itself a wage wouldn't do the trick, but combined
with a determination to restore
billions of pounds worth of cuts, ther
we would be able to do our jobs a lo better than we have been able to. And
that job is providing essential services and helping the elderly, handicapped and sick.
We want decent health, social and education services. It's the Labour government which is attacking them.
Excuse me, but the simple fact is that if
IT WAS the annual conference of the Public Employee's union last May which formulated the present claim for a minimum public
CAN, the Campaign for Action in NUPE, was surprised to find that 22 delegates attended its caucus meeting at the conference. The year before the campaign had just four supporters at the annual
Yet now — although CAN is still a very small oppositional group within the union - campaign activists are playing a leading role in
RAY VARNES, secretary of NUPE's Inner London Education Authority district, told Geoffrey Sheridan about CAN and the
To cap it all, says Ray Varnes, who is a delegate to the divisional council, the executive has no plans to meet before the second week of February will be a lot of use to the public sector the workers brought the immediately after the day of action next Monday.
In other words, Ray explains, the leadership of the union and the strike would be firmly in the hands of general the secretary Alan Fisher and the NUPE full-time officers, whose conception of SULLIC winning the claim centres on pleading with the Labour Government to be sensible and recognise the plight of the -OW 020.
That's the aim of the day of action, which as far as the leaders of the public sector unions are consist simply of a large march and lobby of Parliament.
Large it could well prove to be. The trains and coaches already booked to bring public sector workers to London on 22 January suggest the turnout may not fall too far short of the massive
and people will dic We're quite willing to discuss th provision of emergency cover. We want to work out an emergency plan with other trade unionists as to what is and is not essential.
striking social workers are doing: give rise those concerned the name and address of local councillors so that they can go the and visit those administering the cuts and ask them to provide the services lost through our strike.
decide. administrator to tell us that supplies of insulin for diabetics are vital or that the new carpet for the main committee room is not.
level of emergency
which
out on strike London
concerned will
well CAMPAIGN FOR ACTION IN NUPE Public Meeting "Fighting for the full claim'
Speakers: Bill Geddes and Ray Varnes London divisional council delegates At North London Poly, Holloway Road, London N7 Wednesday, 24 January, 7.30pm.
your strike closes down hospitals | decide how we will conduct o
struggle.
Or we could do what some of the
Caliball
responsible for
But whatever we do it is up to us to
We don't need a hospital
of the TUC,
We will decide what is the proper
over, just as we will walk it
RAYVARNES was among the speaker at the 300-strong rally held by NUPE
divisional council las Thursday who called for an all-ou strike as the way to break the pay polic in the public sector. anti-cuts march held two years ago.
And the plans laid by the Londo divisional council, in line policy of the delegates on the counc who support the Campaign for Actio in NUPE, threaten to take the actio
beyond the expectations an
Well, you seem to have it all work
out, but even if you win, inflati
might make a settlement not worth t
paper it's written on
That's a possibility, which is why
lot of us think that once our claim
won it will be necessary to launch
to have our wages I
utomatically as prices go u
We think the same could be app
to public spending — as prices rise,
should public spending, so shou
Do you really think you will win?
If we have the support of every tra unionist, if we have the active backi
adheres to its conference decision ar
backs us, then we'll walk it — we
Page 9 scan of this page
FOR
designs of the national leaders.
The divisional council has called for:
*Flying pickets to bring out as many public sector workers as possible next Monday, and if possible to involve private sector workers in the day of action. Every NUPE shop steward in the capital has been told to bring their
nbers out on Monda!
Support for all NUPE member who wish to go on strike after the day of action.
*An intensification of the struggle against the cuts in order to show the opposition of public sector workers to cash limits, which the Government has said would be used to ensure that a pay settlement over per CCHIL automatically lead to redundancies in local government, education, and the health service.
*To call the rally held last Thursday.
Although it is still a very small force within CAN instrumental in helping to forge this kind of militant response,
socialist alternative to acycloping a Alan Fisher's left social democratic policies which offer the low paid no answers to Callaghan and Healey.
Without any tradition of organised opposition within the union, and with Communist Party members backing
official leadership, beginnings were understandably modest.
The campaign first raised its voice at the 1976 annual conference, had just four supporters at the 1977 conference, and was taken by surprise when 22 delegates attended its caucus meeting at last year's conterence.
It was this conference, where the present claim was determined, which proved to be a turning point for CAN, over the issue of how the pay struggle was to be conducted. The campaign fought for a proposal to hold a recall conference in the event of the claim being turned down, which supported by a third of the delegates.
CAN now has a foothold in eight cities, and holds caucus meetings on
several of the main union bodies in London, with members of the Socialist Workers Party, the International Marxist Group, and independents working together.
The campaign has taken up: total opposition the government's economic policies; opposition to all cuts and cash limits; position t
acism and fascism; and full democrac within NUPE; including the election ane accountability of officials.
It has formulated alternative policies to the Government's aim of sustaining profit levels by cutting public services
and living standards; policies which include the demand for programme of building hospitals,
schools, and homes through widescale nationalisation,
WE TOU compensating the
owners.
As Ray Varnes points out: "How is it
that a poor country like Cuba has an
expanding health programme and can
provide far more adequate education
and nursery facilities than exist here?
Not by capitalist so-called planning...
With so little preparation made by
L CLAIM
the official leadership for the present action, it is clear that if it were left to the full-time officials chaos would rapidly ensue, with very little rank and file involvement in the organisation of the struggle.
An important part of CAN's activity is to encourage the self-organisation of the union members, particularly among women, who make up over 70 per cent of NUPE membership.
JUST •We support the right of women to organise independently, Ray explains, 'by electing their own shop stewards
will and setting up their own joint shop
stewards committees so that they can discuss their own affairs and gain the confidence to raise these in the union.' How such policies are beginning to shape up in practice, been example of how the action proposed by
the London divisional council is being prepared, is shown in the decisions of NUPE's district ting the 12,000 SCHOOl cleaners, and canteen staff working in the Inner London ority.
This committee, secretary, has voted to:
CAN's *Set up a permanently staffed strike
HQ to co-ordinate action throughout the ILEA. *Hold weekly meetings open to all members in the district. *Put out regular strike bulletins, not least to counter the propaganda of the DOLTeCOSIC. *To set committees with the other
was full-time
crash
financed
present
E60 for
35 hours
NOT SERIOUS
back public
austerity measures,
Ford.
policy. and a good
eventually led committee represen-
keepers, yet to materialise.
Education Auth-
sector union
of which Ray is
doing, says Ray.
absolutely forced to.
Leicester, Swansea, Newcastle, To be put in activities, steward London E14.
THE offer includes an increase in the 'dirty linen' bonus - for those working with soiled laundry -from 0.02 per cent to 0.04 per cent. A 100 per cent rise. Big deal!
By Stephen Marks Secrets Act.
unions involved in the ILEA, in order to keep them informed of action being taken and seek to gain their support. public spending plans.
*There are two main factors holding
sector workers,' Ray considers. "The lack of any apparent
the Government's and acute awareness of their own lack of strength for 1979-80, compared to workers such as those al
To confront the latter problem, CAN voted on by parliament. argues for pay action committees to be set up in the localities to bring together all those taking action against the pay
It was Ray's explanation of this idea at a public meeting held by Hackney from April this year. Trades Council during the Ford strike
to the trades council agreeing to initiate such a committee in its area, although this has
"There is no point in pleading with the Government over pay as the public figures were secret.
leaders are essentially "They will only cabinet. concede on the 5 percent where they are
A national CAN tour will include meetings in Birmingham, Nottingham,
Southampton, Cardiff, and Glasgow TOUCH with CAN write to: Ray Varnes, 47 Leyland House, Poplar High Street,
service.
Exposed
how they
decide on
public spending
WHILE public sector workers demonstrate against the five percent policy and cash limits, top civil servants will be deciding in secret what the level of their wages will be in two years time. SCLYAHES
And any attempt to tell parliament or the public what they are discussing would be an offence against the Official
Ten public sector unions make this clear in a pamphlet published this week, highlighting the secret and undemocratic way that the state draws up its
they
In particular they look in detail at how the civil service draws up the process. annual public expenditure white paper - a subject that sounds dry and boring, but which shows how bureaucracy and secrecy are used to make key decisions on cuts in jobs and services.
This week should see the publication of the white paper on public spending stage.
with orecasts for tac following four years. This, we are told, was decided on by the cabinet last autumn, and will be discussed and
In fact the process started at the end of 1977, when top Treasury officials sent round guidelines to government departments on what they should be planning to spend in the 12 months
Then, from January to early March last year, the government departments drew up their plans. From April to May, the departments negotiated their plans with the Treasury.
All this time, the negotiations and
There was no discussion in public, or even in the NAPO,
And no chance for trade unions or public opinion to have any say on the level of spending on housing, roads,
Even when the civil servants gave their report in for cabinet discussion last summer, and ministers discussed it in secret over the autumn, there was no room for pressure outside the civil
All the estimates were drawn up on the Treasury's own figures for how fast public spending should grow and at what rate public sector workers' wages should rise deeply political decisions, made in effect by top civil
The system works to make ministers compete with each other for a slice of the existing cake, rather than challenge the assumptions behind the documents the permanent secretaries give them.
The unions' answer is to abolish all secrecy in the process, and have all the key decisions voted on in parliament;
WHOLE union decision-making in all stages of the
Having more union officials sitting on joint committees with civil servants is not going to do much to offset the pressures for cuts from the city and the International Monetary Fund.
But the greater the publicity at every
the better the chances of mobilising mass opposition any further cuts in services and jobs.
The unions make the valid point that existing spending programmes and targets are drawn up only in terms of cost, not of the impact on the services and the quality of our lives. Instead they call for the impact on the public to be made clear whenever CUES are proposed.
*If increased infant mortality is to be the price for keeping within the forecast public sector borrowing requirement, it is preferable that the implication be openly recognised, they say
True. But what action is proposed by the leaders of the ten unions involved [ASTMS, COHSE, CPSA, NALGO,
NATFHE NUPE. NUS, NUT, and SCPS)? None, it seems apart from forwarding the report to the economic committee of the TUC.
The union leaders would deal a mighty blow against state secrecy and the cuts if they announced that their unions, with all their strength in central and local government, would use all their power to defend of their members who 'blew the whistle' on the secret plans by making them public
Socialist Challer, e 18 January 1979 page9
Page 10 scan of this page
HOME NEWS
discussed in the Third World.
By Valerie Coultas UPJOHN International Inc, a drug company, is marketing a long term contraceptive drug that has dire implications for women's health.
The drug, Depo Provera, is injected and is effective for up to six months at a time.
Among its recorded
effects are:
*Disruption of the menstrual cycle resulting in bleeding and spotting;
*Nausea, dizziness, By Carole Regan, Organising Committee for Women in the NUT
THE National Union Teachers is the largest teaching
74 per union, membership is female — surprisingly as the huge majority of teachers women.
One would therefore expect the Compose forefront
campaigns equal opportunities, better nurseries and maternity benefits, against sexism the COHEECHEL education and for a woman's right to choose on abortion.
But this is far from the case.
The particularly fanatical in its opposition to making support for abortion part of union policy. local teachers associations [the cqurvalent or brances in otner unions] have attempted to
the National Abortion Campaign or send delegations on pro-abortion demonstrations.
But the union bureaucracy has quickly ruled such resolutions against the aims and objects of the union'.
Women in the NUT were not
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 10
Depo Provera-
wonder contraceptive?
A NEW women's campaign was launched at a very successful meeting held in London last Sunday. The meeting, attended by 40 women and two men,
the implications contraceptive drugs that are in use in this country and
One drug in particular caused concern - Depo Provera. Why the use and effects of this drug are causing such concern is explained here.
Population
control or
women's
control?
aches, chills, change in skin pigmentation, weight done, essening or hodo and diminished orgasm. doctors have dismissed all these as "subjective symptoms'; *DP has been shown to lead to cervical cancer and to cause breast tumours in beagles; side *One British doctor expressed tears that DP use may cause deformed babies. heavy The return of fertility to women taking this drug is known to be head- "unpredictable', taking as long
Women in the NUT
even allowed to send delegates to the Trade Union Conference on November last year, when even of the Miners' Union, with a tiny minority of women members,
not At National Conference each year we are told that support or a woman's right to choose AlCI would split the because the Catholic membership wouldn't like it.
Over the last few years the education cuts have fewer jobs. Part-time posts, of which are mainly occupied by women with family commitments, have been especially hit.
PRESSURE True to form, the NUT has done little to fight this, despite pressure for action from many areas.
The union makes great play of the fact that teachers were among the first to get equal pay.
But although women receive equal pay for equal jobs, not so many women get the higher paid jobs But at last the demands of NUT
of various long term
as two years. loss, Despite all this the drug has
been approved for use in 76 Some countries almost all of them
in the Third World.
It is also being country and the USA, but more selectively.
Here and in has it 1s
described as those "irresponsible' vated, for contraceptive inadequate. In the US, at a full beginning to have some effect.
The union's Equal OpporuniAbortion in fies Committee dominated bi
men!] has asked members to send in examples of sexism in initial reading schemes, though they have not said what they intend information. probably mean that they plan to take up the whole sexist education curriculum.
forced to do anything then the pressure has got to be kept up. Exactly how to do this, as well planning aborHon, nursery nursery and maternity provisions, and fighting sexism will be discussed at the Women in the NUT Saturday 20 Conway Hall, Square, London WC2.
The conference important women in the NUT to begin to may
dently and to bring forward plans and ideas for campaigns to carry on the fight against women's oppression in teachare ing.
clients
used in this
women when they are
the US the rubella vaccinations given to arC
who are language 'unmotiwhom other In East London, methods are lecturer in
20 percent of Asian
own language possible side drug.
Women in
trials of the drug.
Depo
with this
doesn't black or working class.
basis of throughout the
light of this drug's use.
campaigns on
education, even clearer.
the imperialist Conference
January in
Red Lion
is opportunity for
depended on indepentake it each day.
Charity Clinic in Florida where Latin DP is prescribed, the women
described
irresponsibic, uncaucalcu and often poverty-stricken. tinent
In Britain, in Rochdale, DP is automatically given to Asian this too.
given - LO SEOD them becoming pregnant. The
barrier makes In formed consent a mockery.
La senior the land.
Obstetrics and Gynaecology thought that only
women were properly informed in their
about the effects of the ensure Glasgow who lived in deprived conditions and were bad contraceptive risks' have also been used in
Provera has not received the general approval either of the Committee for Safety of irrelevant Medicines in this country, but it Third World. is still widely used by many GPs. The women for whom it is considered suitable are usually
Keith Joseph's ideas that the *lower classes' are breeding too much and ought to be stopped don't seem so way out in the
There's only one word that clearly describes how it is used
help
The details of its application in the Third World make this
The joy of the drug as far as
population control programmes are con- explosion. cerned is that once a woman is injected she will not become pregnant for up to six months.
The pill was a failure from their point of view because it
women caring enough about birth contro to
Clearly women in the Third World do want birth control. The thousands of women in
America WIG nave dangerous illegal abortions are testimony to this. The fact that women in the Indian subcon-
alC prepared be injected with DP at all shows
But economic necessity may demand a high birth rate from that the individual point of view.
, tarming needs as many hands as possible to work
The lack of welfare facilities may mean that children are the only safeguard for old age. And the high infant mortality in
high birth rate is needed to
that the economic considerations are met.
This situation has led some people to argue, particularly those from national liberation movements in the Third World, that any form of birth control is
detrimental Or just to women in the
But like European women they do want the right and ability to control their fertility - they want the right to decide for themse ves when to have children. They do not want imperialism or multinational drug companies to decide for
thempjohn International Inc is
clearly not selling the drug to
women CLO cecee on childbirth. It is in it for the
and to help the programme to r auce 'undesirable reproducion and solve the problems of the population
Upjohn markets DP on the basis that whole villages can be
processed' in a day. And tha
quicker than the first - taking only 60 to 90 seconds!
The 'processing' of entire villages has nothing to do with helping women to decide for themselves about their fertility.
And there can be little
discussion about whether the drug has met a woman's needs satisfactorily in one and a half minutes!
The use of Depo Provera illustrates the crucial relevance of imperialism and racism to women's lives. We must ensure
feminists Britain confront them head on.
The meeting last Sunday attended by women from Brixton Black Women's group. Third World women's groups. Women Against Racism Fascism, East London men's Health Group, Spare Rib and many individual women, agreed on various campaigning demands to take up this fight.
After considerable discussion it was agreed to campaign for the withdrawal of the drug because of its serious side effects.
The other demands of the campaign include calling for further research into the effects of such long term chemical contraceptives; that women should be given full informa tion before being given contraceptive drugs; and to stop the discriminatory use of DP on black women, poor white women and Third World women.
A co-ordinating committee was set up. The campaign can
contacted at; Campaign Against Depo Provera, c/0 ICAR, 374 Gray's Inn Rd London N1. The next general meeting will be
• on Mondav 8 February al St Matthews Church, Brixton.
*The details of the effects and use of Depo Provera are largely taken from a paper by Janet Hadley produced for a workshop on 'Imperialism, Racism and Immigration in October last The workshops were organised by a group of London women active around various questions of racism and imperialism.
Page 11 scan of this page
Women unite against rape
Social workers call
to be on the streets at night without escort.
its last conference.
ber of the
Why is the NUS supporting the national Reclaim the Night' march on 20 January?
Attacks against Women widespread on the campuses and women's groups began to organise last term as at Sussex where there was an occupation.
This brought women together and the strength of campaign was demonstrated in me overwacming support at NUS conference for the march and launching campaign through the colleges.
This was important as there From Sara Burn Liverpool social workers strike committee.
SOCIAL workers on strike for pay re-grading and the right to negotiate salary scales locally are calling for the rejection of a national offer that will be put to a special local group meeting on 26 January
The union leaders argue in a report which will be put to the vote that the offer of a revised national salary scale is the best they can achieve.
Never mind that willingness of these leaders to participate in a joint working
THE
National conference, Saturday 3 February
Speakers include:
Blanco, leader of mass peasant Cardiff South-East.
struggles in Peru and deputy
for FOCEP united left
Harry MeShane, active in the London
CB's election work in the
1920s; Pat Arrowsmith, cam- Pennington,
paigner against nuclear
ON SATURDAY 20 January women are marching through the West End of London to demand the right
The march is being partly organised by the National Union of Students, which overwhelmingly supported the women's movement campaign against violence at
Pamela Holmes asked ALISON DOWNIE, a mem-
Socialist Students Alliance and NUS executive vice-president with responsibility for the women's campaign, what this means for NUS.
was a real tendency to lump together racist and attacks on students together with attacks on students as part of a general are problem of violence The last conference, and this demonstration, establish that violence against women is a particular issue that we need to LaKe up the movement.
You've been attending planning meetings, and NUS
leaflets throughout the colleges explaining why the march is for
day of action
party, the object of which is to formulate a revised national scale, has frustrated attempts by the strikers to force their employers to negotiate locally.
The NALGO leadership has failed to campaign among the union membership as a whole to gain support for the 2,600 social workers on leaving us to go it alone. And it now seems to be trying isolate us from the rest of the union.
This month's NALGO's journal, the example, includes articles accusing social workers of using up the strike fund on a
LEFT AND
ELECTIONS
socialist
unity
pons, for gay rights, for troops out of Ireland, and IndepenHugo dent Socialist
Conference begins slate; Holborn Assembly WC1. fee f1. Credentials from Bob SU, PO Box 50, wea- London N1 2XP.
that women's self-organisation has been a bone of contention within the union in the past, what kind of impact do you think the SUDUOTE women only march will have?
It's already had a big impact. For the first time, people are beginning to understand why it's necessary for organise independently. body could argue with the need for the march to be for women OIV when Its other precisely to assert
right to walk the streets without women the protection of men.
This has begun to chip away at the resistance of students to the idea of women's sel-organisation and opens d path for the NUS campaign to succeed in our student demands for a restructuring of
NUS to enable women to play a full part in all the activities of
the the union.
and Do vou see
involvement of the NUS with ne women s movemen COn "lost cause'.
It so happens
tional strike operations mittee with the proposal that a levy be imposed to sustain the strike fund we were told that finance is no problem.
Social strike, boroughs on
contacting all delegates to the special group meeting explaining how local negotiations will benefit other issue of NAIGO. and
for credibility of several trade union will be determined
by the outcome of this dispute. A day of action in the form IF THE provincial journalists vote this week to reject the 14.5 per cent pay offer from their employers, it will be in spite of the lack of a strategy from the leadership of the NUJ to bring the six-week successful conclusion.
The union's newspapers industrial council has called for the offer to be rejected.
Worth £9.40
journalists, less to the even juniors, the offer falls far short of the that the ur on is demanding.
While tr first refused to put the offer to the strikers, employers failed to give unconditional tion' candidate for 200 journalists and 100 printers
sacked during the strike, the 1lam, union has now backed down on Rooms, this position.
Registration The Newspaper
promisca endeavours'
paign and for this before and
women to Nofighting our
purpose women's movement
pracuice many than it's ever been.
women's
are now in the leadership.
If we're building women's movement this kind of that when approached the
com-
Charter Group. supported
from the tees. strike are now At the lobby
tion of sections of the NALGO as a
and spread the strike.
Journalists vote
on new offer
Many promises
printers
strike to ing Post.
provincial
to senior leadership. and considerably lower-paid f20 across-the-board
relative
NUJ negotiators at journalists' pickets.
because
"no victimisapledge to reinstate the
the Times
Society,
to secure re- Place).
I think it will. We've supported the National Abortion Cam-
COUNCI campaigns now we're beginning to help in organising.
We may be students but as women we face all the problems women face in society today. So our campaign, while taking up the discrimination against women in education, is about
oppression women in all spheres of life.
In this sense, we see ourselves contributing to the women's
We are able to put this into
because the women's campaign is stronger
The left in NUS has seen it as one of the most important campaigns and, through fighting to build a strong campaign,
serious a strong political -In this country then we must continue to develop links between NUS and the women's movement
By Jon Central CLP)
of one day strikes, a rally and HOW lobby of the group meeting has LABOUT been called by the All-London Social Workers Action Group and the Residential Workers
This call is election? Suonference of Strike Commit the Standing
we will be calling for: a rejection of the leadership's report; an escala-
industrial action; *Local representation of the strikers on NALGO's strike operations committee; and for a levy of the stand on entire membership to sustain
fighting to
rank
instatement, which is intended to mean that it cannot make
the Labour treatment of journalists and
the viciously anti-union Nottingham Even-
At the same time, the NUJ has agreed to prevent any local action against strike breakers.
If the journalists are to fight on, the strike will require firm
With mer casing numbers of workers now taking action against the 5 per cent, opportunities certainly exist to make the links that can end the
In particular, with over a dozen chapels now producing alternative newspapers, these bulletins could be used to unite struggles in the localities.
Mass march and rally against
closures. Called the unions at the
Times. Thursday 25 January, 11.30am, assemble in Arundel Street, WC1 (just off Temple
However we dress
Wherever we go
Yes means yes
And no means no
"This is a demonstration of women
only, because we are demanding
our right to walk safely
through the streets without escort? Leicester
Who foots the bill
for public sector
claim?
Duveen (Hackney
can socialists in the Party upsurge in workers" struggles and group together militants to to
general
This was the question which faced the steering committee of the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory at its meeting on 7 January. It came up with three proposals:
SCLV groups should hold public meetings to discuss what manifesto Labour should
are *The SCLV would sponsor a conference on democracy in the labour movement, with the idea of drawing together all those
democratise the mass organisations (Campaign for Labour Party Democracy,
ano me trade bodies, Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement,
*The SCLV would hold meeting at the London region
Party conference in March on how to fight rent and
While these steps are to be welcomed, they don't give a
Garners'
ANNIVERSARY
ASSEMBLY POINTS:
LUNCHTIME: 11.30 EVENING: 6.00
January
20th Assemble
6.30pm
Square
real lead to militants seeking to
involve their Constituency
Labour Parties in the struggles
now going on.
FOI we should
clearly fight for local councils
pay the public sector
workers' claim in full. Against
the argument that such action
would bankrupt them we must
firmly pin the responsibility for
such a situation on the Labour
government.
The alternative often put
forward is rent and rate
ICECESC that is. making
workers pay for the crisis. Rate
increases of up to per percent
being sanctioned; Ted
Knight, "left' leader of
Lambeth council, has accepted
a 30 per cent rate rise.
It is urgent to clarify the
complex issues involved
fighting these rises if we are to
mount an effective campaign in
support of the public sector
workers inside the Labour
Party.
*Copies of the latest issue of
SCLV paper, Socialist
Organiser, can be obtained
from left bookshops or from
SCLV, c/o Box 127, Rising
Free, 182 Upper Street, London N1.
GARNERS STEAK HOUSES STRIKE COMMITTI
PICKETS
SATURDAY
27 JAN.
onwards 399 OXFORD ST
56 WHITCOMB ST.
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
about 'democracy'
should be toned down.
By Martin Meteyard
The DISCILL wall-poster campaign in China has two
Many posters do little more than petition for the correction of individual wrongs - though this in itself could not have been imagined even a year ago.
But others continue to take up ihe general debate about democracy and human rights ocgun last Ivovember. One or the most outspoken appeared shortly after the leadership's attempt to clamp down:
•Do the people democracy today? No. Do they really want to be their own masters? Of course they That was the
CASON Communists defeated Nationalists...
We must realise that if it MCIC -TOT Mao's despotism, China would not be
the state it is today... Obviously the Chinese people should not continue along the road they have been travelling
*Why did they go along this road. Wasn't it because that bragging despot forced them to go along it?"
faces
total war'
From AIM/IPS, Maputo
MILITARY attacks on
zambique from Rhodesia have
intensified in recent weeks.
According to the Standing
Political Committee of Fre-
limo, the country's ruling
party, 'the massive employ-
ment of jet planes
napalm and
powerful DomOs reveal
programmed escalation in the
aggression against our people,
an escalation planned to lead to Moatize,
total war.'
The
attacks of the Rhodesian racists members
alone. Mirage planes
appearing in attacks against us.
American helicopters of recent
manufacture have just been
delivered to Rhodesia.
The attacks have taken place
in four of the country's ten
DLOVILICCS anO have
reached the areas around the
provincial capitals.
A Defence Ministry
munique documents 18 differ-
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 12
INTERNATIONAL
Debate on Pekings
Democratic Wall
AT THE beginning of December the Chinese
leadership tried to put a brake on further discussion
and strongly suggested that criticisms of Mao Tse-tung But a lively discussion has continued as new posters
appear each day on Peking's "Democracy Wall' — and
increasingly in other cities as well.
Anolner poster but up in mid-December warned of the apprarance or a privucca class of bureaucrats as in Russia and argued that people should be able to dismiss even Deng Xiaoping Guofeng. It said: *Deng thinks stability and unity are in the public interest and interests modernisation, differently. I work hard, even exceeding my quotas, but after my shift 1 just like to ponder what I have been working for. have MAUSOLEUM
A comment written on the do. poster added: Deng the come here and read these wall the posters instead of apologising for Chairman Mao's mistakes.
The removal of Mao's body own from its mausoleum has even been called for recently: The people demand that we root out superstition and idol worship'.
This poster was signed by a group calling Human Rights Alliance, set out a wide-ranging list of 19 demands including free electhe
Mozambique
Cent cases of foreign incursions into Mozambique in the last Mo- couple of months.
The most costly came on 28 December when 14 people were killed in an attack on a civilian bus at Inchope Ten days earlier four people • had died WICH and exploded in the
helicopters, the systematic use restaurant in Beira.
extremely On 17 December a group of a eight English-speaking wrecked the railway bridge between Mutarara and near the border. The locomotive and continues: four wagons plunged into the
'We cannot say that these are river M'Combezi, killing three
of the are injuring two.
If these outrages occurred almost anywhere else and if those responsible had not been white Rhodesians, would have been news in Britain. Yet not one even national newspaper has mentioned them, even though the Mozambican CON- thinks that the attacks could signal the beginning
. It called for an end to mass rallies
non-Communist political parties to stand, open sessions of the National People's Congress, prisoners of conscience, complete autonomy Hua minorities, foreign travel.
Most interestingly, the poster challenged the leadership's line on the Soviet Union by calling
I think for friendship with the Russian
people: "These citizens demand that the COLTERY SLATE aIKS Russian government or accept suggestions which the Union has already A sign of how the debate is broadening in scope was the
should recent appearance of a poster
attacking LAC . itself the
right of a grenade
Oceana
mer-
Rhodesian troops?
Malawi full-scale war.
*Media distortion of events crew and Africa is hardly likely to
surprise our readers. But a new had pamphlet from the Zimbabwe African People's Union, 'Mass media and the they liberation in Zimbabwe', is a useful weapon for explaining front page
how these place.
It reveals how the Rhodesian government regime's atrocity
regurgitated whole of the racist
release all
for national until one day, and the right
the traditional monogamy
completely.
Sometimes displayed along government of our
with the
Soviet made. attached
in welts and bruises.
DECSCHE harsh MOZAMBICAN soldiers — soon to meet fulfigale war with
from the ments.
BUTES
three quarters black
struggle for hard To because unacceptable.
distortions? take
price 20p,
stories are and un- or from attitudes Street, London WI.
restrictions on sexual freedom. |
Quoting Marx in criticising the 1amilv. it argued that *Democracy people should be free to choose lovers whenever they pleased
when China showed achieved perfect communism,
forms field. and family ties could be allowed to die out
pictures are criticism with written posters. On 19 December, for produce instance, a man who put up a official visits. poster claiming that police had beaten his son to death in 1977
nine photographs showing his son's body covered
The most daring display was put on by two young men who
ety
ties.
displays authorities LEADERS trade
General Peruvian
action off.
of
behind reporting of statements and the left.
liberation movestrike such as the Rhodesian security forces are
are repeated, not because the truth
ascertain politically
You can get the pamphlet, The
either the strike to three Anti-Apartheid Movement, 89 conditions Charlotte Street, London WI,
ZAPU, 39 Goodge
PEASANTS demonstrating to demand democracy and human rights in Peking. hung 16 photographs on string between two trees by
Wall' early on New Year's Day.
One, captioned Inspection'
line of official vehicles parked in a vegetable
The photographers explained to Daily Telegraph correspondent Nigel Wade that this was terbe understood as
of local officials helping themselves to peasants
under the guise of
PHOTOGRAPHY
The photographers said that ordinary people laughed official propaganda pictures because they knew they were 'fictional'. So they had formed their own photographic soci-
'We take pictures when no one is looking. If we functioned openly we would certainly face difficulties from the authori-
But the increasing boldness and variety of such wall-poster
shows that the feel forced tolerate them because of Int
Peruvian general
strike halted
By Our Foreign Staff
of Peru's main union confederation called a halt to last week's three day general strike before it was half way through.
Communist Party-led Confederation of Workers (CGTP) gave lack of popular support and government repression
reasons for calling the
Repression has certainly hit the strike movement hard, with the suspension constitutional guarantees, the banning
number of left-wing publications and the arrest of about 100 leaders of the unions
governmen Tuca tut illegal because it had political rather than economic aims. The CGTP's decision to restrict its strike to economic
Party considerably limiting the workers" room for manoeuvre, was of course not binding on the government.
decision to limit the days because ment were not judged right for a general strike must also have had a demoralising effect. Indeed many workers
a depth of mass anger they express
This is already boiling over into mass demonstrations and strikes. One group of young people who marched with a banner through Peking's main square at the end of last month said that they had come to press the demands of fifty thousand workers on state farms in Yunnan province who had been on strike since 9 December
And another report from Shanghai says that on 29 December police fired workers demonstrating against high workrates and low pay
Clearly HOTC and more people in China are taking the advice of one recent wall Posici
*Is this the road to socialisn as envisaged by "Marx? Of course net»
"I call on you, comrades, to
of democracy. Do not believe in the unity and stability of the despots.
•Democracy HIS our only hope. Let us trust in our own strength. We стеле пина history. Let all self-appointed leaders and teachers get lost. will have been left with the feeling that, however real the repression the CGTP leadership was glad of the early opportunity lo stop the strike.
The strike was originally called under pressure from the rank and file. A mass rally of 12,000 in Lima on 7 December brought together workers from all major sectors to demand 1 that the CGTP name the day for a general strike.
The immediate cause of the strike is the continued austerity, measures introdueed by the
the price demanded by the International Monetary Fund for restructuring the country's foreign debt.
But it is doubtful that the UTESCHE leadership PENE CGTP was best qualified to lead such a struggle. A couple
months ago the president and Communist
general secretary both attended the Annual Conference of Executives.
They told 300 businesspeople and 100 generals and govern-
officials how they supported efforts to restructure the debt and rejected any idea of stopping or freezing payments to foreign creditors.
Page 13 scan of this page
Murdered by social democracy
By Raimund Loew
ON THE evening of 1919, a detachment of free corps from the cavalry-riflemen division commanded by Captain arrested two people in the Berlin district of Wilmersdorf false names.
Their cover did not last very long: the soldiers knew only too well whom they had found. They Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the legendary leaders of the Spartacus League and founders of the German Communist farty (KPD) only fortnight earlier. Wilhelm another leading member of the KPD, was arrested with them.
Seldom had so much hatred been Rosa truxemburg and Karl al Rosa Luxemburg knecht in 1918-19. For the nobility the 'Junkers' war-profiteers and captains of industry, embodiment of danger' that neatened Germany.
Friedrich Ebert, Gustav Noske, and Philipp Scheidemann, the leaders of the SPD social-democrats, hated Luxemburg and ebknecht because they had oppose their war policy of 1914-18 and because from November 1918 onwards they spokespersons for the revolt of workers and soldiers. REPRESSION
The detainees were immediately taken to the Hotel Eden in the centre of the city where Pabst and his troops had set up their headquarters. The arrest of the revolutionary leaders was part of a large wave of repression, launched by the social-democratic government under Ebert, which was worse than anything witnessed even in the time of the Emperor.
At the time of the November Revolution there were three parties WiT311 the labour Germany. ( The 'majority socialists (SPD) had supported the war policy of the imperial government and had brinze Mesentenin these sincent or Prinz Baden since the beginning of October 1918.
Since 1917 the opposition had been constituted as an independent party Independent Socialist Germany (USPD). The opposed the policy of
SURPLUS VALUE
LUXEMBURG T
the "majority socialists',
15 January
representatives
who gave Ledebour.
were Rosa class-conscious
Against the will of most Pieck,
Torcu to doucate
Karl Lieb-
DUAL POWER they were the
*Bolshevist "their' supported the were the government. growing
by the administration workers" militias established.
The radicalsca
new republic.
movement in
to the revolution.
He was inner-party organisations of calling itself the KPD,
Party of USPD truce
Liebknecht.
('Burgfriedenspolitik') advocated by
but could January come to no decision on a consequent revolutionary alternative to the SPD.
Its leadership consisted mainly of of
from the pre-war troops, 'centre' such as Karl Kautsky, Hugo Haase, Rudolf Hilferding, and Georg
But the USPD could count on the support or une main secuons Of tne
German proletariat - this was why the third major current, the revolutionary Spartacus League, had joined it as a tendency. leaders, the activities of the German working class had already shaken up the Empire in 1917 and 1918.
November 1918 the Kaiser had been
In all important cities, councils were set up; and from the first week of November there was a situation of (KPD), dual power. But most workers' and soldiers' councils were under the influence of the 'majority socialists or moderate USPD members - at the first all-German congress of councils nearly two-thirds of the delegates
policies of the
Many councils, however, particularly in industrial areas, started to go far beyond the framework established
majority. The was dissolved and
opposition between the WOrKerS and Ebert's government proved most explosive in Berlin. The fighting in January 1919 was to be the first serious clash between the revolutionary proletarian masses and the state apparatus of the
The starting point of the movement was the government's removal of the chief of police in Berlin, Eichhorn, at the beginning of January. Eichhorn, a member of the USPD, refused to obey, declaring: I have received my were mandate from the hands of the revolution and I will only give it back
supported by the the left and the working masses of Berlin. The USPD,
and the revolutionary shop with stewards, who had a strong base in the factories, announced a general strike and called for a mass demonstration
Rosa
and
Karl
The illustrations are contemporary woodcutsof Luxemburgand
in the capital to take place on 5
The demands of the KPD were: reinstatement of Eichhorn, disarming
the counter-revolutionary arming of the proiclanat Rosa Luxemburg explicitly rejected the idea that the movement should aim to overthrow Ebert's government - she thought the majority of the working class would not be ready to participate in such a step.
The demonstrations on 5 January exceeded expectations: hundred thousand workers soldiers, many of them armed, filled the centre of the city. Strategically important buildings, particularly that of Vorwärts, the daily paper of the "majority socialists'. were occupied.
Under pressure from this movement a revolutionary committee was formed by the three currents that had called for this demonstration. Earlier! decisions were reversed, and in a declaration signed by Karl Liebknecht
Georg Ledebour (USD), and Paul Scholze (revolutionary shop stewards), Ebert's government was declared lo be overthrown council power established.
REVENGE
Against the insistent advice of Karl Radek, who was in Germany representative of the Bolsheviks, and *
of Leo Jogiches, the organiser of the Spartacus BECaLUC the leadership of the KPD could not make up its mind to criticise publicly the steps taken by Liebknecht (which had been against party policy) and to stop the movement as the Bolsheviks had done in July 1917. committee commenced negotiations, On 6 January the revolutionary with the government. The counter-revolution used this
space to prepare revenge. 'majority socialists called for resistance against the
*armed bandits of the Spartacus League'. The revolutionary leaders
denounced *madmen, criminals and murderers'. Noske began to concentrate his free corps around Berlin.
The free corps had been formed in December 1918 from reactionary officers of the imperial army together
elite units from the
*Reichswehr' at a time when the
disintegration of most military units threatened to leave the government
KARL
without any effective armed forces. Its explicit political aim was to fight against Bolshevism'.
On :8 January directed wEne population violently against anarchy', and the free corps started
The revolutionary shop stewards, and a part of the UPD executive answered with a similar call to arms and another general strike.
The unequal contest lasted into the some middle of the month. and had entered the government he is said to have declared: "Someone has to be the hangman.' He proved satisfac torily that he was this person as hundreds of revolutionaries were massacred by the soldiers!
ne bass or are sectors o the working masses, who kept asking for an end to tne brothers', confirmed Radek's analysis. Unsuccessful but untiring, called for a retreat and proposed a campaign for new elections in the councils in place of armed resistance. and The arrest of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht was a big event for Captain Pabst's men; for several days there had been corps circles of killing the two leaders,
Although there is no proof that such an order was given by Noske, it can be safely assumed that he knew of these , intentions central discourage them. On the contrary: on 13 January an inflammatory poem' appeared in Vorwärts which included the following famous lines: *Many hundred corpses in a row, Proletarians, Karl, Rosa, Radek and Co., Not one is there, Proletatians'
GO-AHEAD
The free corps were at least justified in expecting the go-ahead from Noske touse violence against the revolution, since not one massacres had been criticised by the government.
Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht was plan probably already established when appearances they were interrogated were Carested old for some hours.
Then Liebknecht was carried away in fa military car while still being beaten by the soldiers. In the
Tiergarten DESOLICI Lieutenant the government Hartung shot him
fight Half 'oppression and
KPD the
Canal.
When Noske
attempted
proletarians and
'war between
"The he
again.'
TRIBUNAL
talk within free
and Kunge years in prison
and did
Austria.
1962 that the
martial law
their previous
murder Rosa
10 keep
the reactionary German
the car stopped, the was pushed out, and Horst von Pflugk-
an hour later it was Rosa Luxemburg's turn. She had beer beaten so much by a soldier called Otto Runge that she was already half dead when she was pushed in the car. She was murdered under the orders of Lieutenant Vogel in the vehicle and her corpse thrown in the Landwehr
The next day the press stated that Liebknecht had been shot during an
escape and that Rosa Luxemburg had been killed by an enraged mob. But in a relatively short time the truth started to come out.
This didn't stop the bourgeois press from expressing its open relief. The Tägliche Rundschau wrote that Rosa Luxemburg had been the victim of the bloodbath she herself had started:
day of judgement (.) for Luxemburg and Liebknecht is over Germany has peace (!), it can breathe
The government let the murderers amit military mentana
1919 military tribunal acquitted Pflugk-Hartung, and Vogel
were sentenced to twc - in reality neither served their full sentence. Captain Pabst was never held responsible and later played a leading role in building the fascist "Heimwehren' in the Tyrol,
An official press bulletin of the German Federal Republic stated in
murders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht had been executions in accordance with
The murders in January 1919 were to be followed by countless others: communist leaders like Leo Jogiche: and Eugene Léviné, USPD leaders like Kurt Eisner and Hugo Haase, and thousands of unknown communists and proletarians in Berlin, the Ruhr Munich, and Saxony were killed. This was the price the ruling class made the proletariat pay for the normalisation of bourgeois conditions in Germany.
And not only did the alliance of the social-democratic government and
officers bathe the proletarian revolution in blood, but it also prepared the way for the catastrophe of 1933.
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE EVENTS
LETTERS
SC covers
I MUST protest against the cover of
the 4 January issue (although not
from a political standpoint). How do
you expect supporters of
Challenge to sell a paper on the streets
with a cover that resembles a calendar
more than a socialist newspaper?
In my opinion most of the recent
covers have been poor. This is a pity,
because otherwise the content has
been reasonable. coverage, the "At Work' article, and the attack on sexism in teenage mags and comics, etc. surely
deserve a better
Death to the Shah'.
1 appreciate the importance of the Fund Drive to the paper's existence, but if Socialist Challenge is to survive there must be an increase in sales. This will not be achieved unless forethought is put into the design of the covers. However, I don't believe that it is just a lack of forethought. It is probably related to whom the paper is directed - "the advanced militant'.
A socialist paper in a country like Britain cannot afford the luxury of preaching to the converted. How can a paper be directed in the main at advanced militants when one of the major problems is the absence or shortage of such people?
And then again, if an advanced militant is someone who consistently takes the side of the working class, then I know many such people who find Socialist Challenge unattractive, to say the least.
STEVE ROSE (Preston)
Pol Pot's
nightmare
YOUR lengthy and
obituary of.
Caldwell (4 January) was charitable even for a paper which has been trying successfully to plot a non-sectarian course on many issues.
Who was Malcolm Caldwell? When all is said and done, there is no denying Inat he was prominent individual overseas supporter of a regime which would have made short work of any Challenge readers if it had ever got nO ColTien
During their three years in power, Pol Pot and his endeavoured to create a nightmarish society that out-stalined Stalin himself did, at least in relative terms. Having looked at findings and research on Cambodia carried out by French left-wingers who by no stretch of the imagination can be described as believe that in the last four years the 1am Red Khmers have been responsible for the deaths of more Cambodians
DEADLINE for this ColUmn publication. aday ine oaturady NORTH WEST WARRINGTON Socialist Ring an
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ontact Chris (273 5947, day) or Stev
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contacted mancnester Centre c/o 14 Piccadilly, Mancheste Gnalience
with a view.to forming a balford ou SouP MOsS SIDE Socialist Challenge Super saturday, Tier at Moss Side
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Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 14
LAST BY CORMAC #30
Socialist The international
these cover than '1979
from the skies in their B-52s.
not ADe allowed posthumous more their Cambodian victim (besides
the concept of socialism,
Cambodian episode.
given more
Shame!
TOMMY GALLAGHER (Manchester)
Iran-be
concrete!
December) somewhat Malcolm
about Iran scrupulously avoided.
*classical the with not
- HEUSU
DOCES
colleagues
they refer occurred. anything
tions of the composition of capital, etc.?
2905in them, phone Pete on (0632) Dorers up or deals at oners Groul ror cetalis lave brown. - rioneer collaces. Lo rillineton, vumnam.
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CDINBURGH Socialist •hone George at 031-346 0466 ty group details
than were the Americans when they conducted their own reign of terror
The Americans cannot and should
tO derive any credit from the which murderous retribution wreaked by
foes. the 5? million Cambodians left alive) is undoubtedly
which cannot be unaffected by the terrible
If papers like Socialist Challenge and spokespeople like Tariq Ali had
time and space to Cambodia then the damage might have been less. Instead the chief apologist of the Cambodian regime is
postnumous valedictory. fight
YOUR introduction to Dave Bailey's article Iran: A Classical Revolution'
states, correctly 'Situations like these always demand considerable precision from revolutionaries in the way they pose the question of power'. Yet in a whole page article any 'precision' - at least
in 1978
Dave Bailey claims Iran is in a
revolutionary situation one bit of evidence or analysis, after the first two trivial paragraphs, to show that this is the case. In fact Iran is hardly mentioned.
Instead we have the tired repetition of timeless formulae which could have been written at any time in the fifty or more years since the events to which
Whatever happened to Lenin's
Fora concrete situation' as the only useful guide to action? What about a specific analysis of the class forces involved: the nature of the resurgence of oppositional Islamic political forces, the state of the workers movement, the institu-
ICUUCSL.
Iranian state, the DUNDEE Information about Socialist Challenge activities from 64 Queen St Glasgow. Join in sc sales outsid Boots (corner of Reform St) each saturday 11am-zom
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How is it possible to arrive at a prescription for action in the absence of all this? The whole article is an example of orthodox Trotskyism at its most idealist; first find a situation
vaguely resembles pre-ordained model from "Every Cadre's Guide Making Revolution'. Then, by demands, try to cram events into that schema of things.
Meanwhile reality passes by and more humble things we could do here and now in Britain to influence events get neglected.
CARLGARDNER (London NW6)
Hypocrisy
of support
IN HIS article 'How socialists see the
for black liberation'
November) Colin Talbot argues that 'an explicitly gramme would hinder rather than anti-capitalist
nelp a united black movement embracing all political currents within the black masses', and that the political basis of the black movement should be simply an anti-racist one. He goes on to say that revolutionaries must give "full support' to black organisations like BASH.
Comparing these statements about the black movement with Socialist Challenge's attitude to the liberation movement in Ireland, I am struck by the hypocrisy involved. For while Socialist Challenge says it supports self-determination TOT -une people, it does not give full support to the movement leading the struggle, the Provisional Republican movement, arguing that it is not
THE LENGTH of letters printed will usually be kept down to 400 words in order to encourage as wide a range of contributions as possible. All letters may be cut at the Editor's discretion. Unsigned letters will not normally be published, although we will withhold real names from publication
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This apparent only be explained by the fact that the Provisional Republican movement is some engaged in a war against the British imperialist state. the movement needs ISSuIng support of all socialists in country, stantly attacks it.
And experience has already shown that its attitude to the emerging black movement will take the same form.
When the ANL refused to divert its forces -rom Brick Lane, cerenced the ANL disgusting attacks on the Hackney & Tower Hamlets Defence Committee.
Socialist Challenge shows in its attitude to the black movement and the Provisional Republican move-
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Board)
rbookmart
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ne Bookmarx Club is now an established method for socialists to get t
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MARY GORMAN [Manchester]
What crisis?
YOUR last front page ended with the
*The crisis is a crisis of inequality. Surely this is somewhat incomplete. I had thought that the crisis was one of capitalist social relations, which cannot be subsumed by the word "inequality' PAUL SPOTTER (South London) * Yes. The crisis is one of the capitalist system as a whole. We thought that this was fairly obvious. (Editorial her list of your choice. Extra lists can b
Blood in the Streets (£1.00) Gren and spine Tate coul ed produced by the Behr Th. Singing Flame by Ernie OMalle
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Page 15 scan of this page
The cultural field WEDGE
WEDGE COLLECTIVE replies. WITH BRISK resort to the latest fashionable journalistic catchword, Geoffrey Sheridan alleged that Wedge has not so far considered explicitly the relationship and interface between culture and politics.
It seems he OCCI reading the same magazine as the one we've been producing.
We don't intend to reply to this by pointing out that all three issues contam discussions (although they do) because to reply this way would merely hide the misconceptions in the original remark.
The point is that Wedge does not contain discussions of this kind, this is what the magazine is explicitly about all the time.
But why can't Geoff that? His review was headed *Does Wedge know where to draw the line?' His blindness about Wedge's politics stems from the lines which he himself
lines around constitutes culture, politics.
But our answer to rhetorical question is emphati-
SKAN No 6 OUT NOW! 1 Copy 15p
25 Copies £1.95
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UNDER REVIEW
Wedge hits back
has no fences
THE MINDS behind 'Wedge' boggled at Geoffrey Sheridan's critique of this left-wing cultural magazine, published in Socialist Challenge on 26 October.
Deploring the 'dismissive attitude' of the article, the
cally, Yes, lines must be drawn in different places from where they are habitually drawn.
We are not alone in believing this. People involved studying the political economy of culture have come to the same conclusion.
They have begun to engage in a debate against the defenders of the dominant bourgeois ideology who curiSUCH ously GraW lines culture and politics in roughly the same places as Geoff does.
Unfortunately, as in so many other areas of development of the sional journalists "of revolutionary press are becoming increasingly misinformed see (or should UnC say formed?).
They sorely need to take a busperson's holiday form themselves developments. what We don't expect Geoff to what agree this, dismisses Kevin his piece on une lent press so dismally.
Robert Altman on the
women in his films
-gainst
School
HiTs
News, cartoons, features R.A.R. Footballers Against Nazis NF and the Jews
order copies to sell at school,
football grounds etc.
Kevin's analysis is concerned with the problems of producing a revolutionary newspaper in a situation where, bluntly, professional journalists tend to have a counter productive effect.
Geoff says the distorted by ence for
in
which does not correspond to that of either of the newspapers ne exames But that's like saying "You don't agree with us, so we don't want to talk to you' forms of
Similarly Geoff ignores all the between problems about
political practice other articles such as Martin Thom's left TOIL language and the demonstraprofes
the tion piece.
CONFUSED
disin-
He simply confused conclusion, and in- that we of these productions with radical con-
tent cannot succeed if they use a conventional since he form of presentation'. McDonnell's He then adds: "This highly
contentious view appears to be unanimously ROBERT worked in the cinema for over 30 years, but it's only since the success of Mash that he has been able to do more or less what he likes.
Wedding', release. he was interviewed Dr
Fascism in 30's PA PARANAGUA.
Your film 'A Wedding' is about the young people from social backgrounds seems a failure from the start. Hasn't American society also Talen in its integrate the different races, cultures, and civilisations?
No, I think the opposite is the case. The two simply from different backgrounds.
The film is only concerned to show one thing: importance of marriage and the ceremony is directly tional to how nonsensical these are.
I think that the United States has assimilated its Jews, blacks and others more than any other nation has done. Assimilation yo. ves struggle, people want to preserve their identity in order to feel more secure. But this isn't important in the film, conscious V At least three of your films*Three women. and 'A Wedding' failure of the family...
I don't think the family as
collective
to put reading this.
article is Kevin's 'prefer-
bourgeois forms political project We wonder
practice approves of
totally question of why
substantive
culturalnewspaper other possible
anti-fascist
comes to
saying 'cultural
"bourgeois"
relationships
they've been classically by the 1 fined.
ALTMAN has
to disappear...
With his latest film, Quinter, will tell you
general Park' to A
women. Your them does tenderness, marriage of two
different which female
attempts to
life, while experiencing
families are campaign against gays.
social don't
films. that the interested in them.
. propor-
manipulating
effectively women.
always in-
because Equal Rights
that women least not second class citizens.
"Nashville',
- suggest the neighbourhood;
traditional
other means
and Wedge effectively extends it to political activity'. Our minds boggled on
It appears to suggest that Geoff thinks political activity academic, (leaving aside the question of "cultural production') is alright For if it has a radical content but
if Geoff advocating this, or admitting that this is the kind of political forms,
Socialist Challenge
Kevin McDonnell's article of this process. raises but doesn't develop the
produce newspaper at all; that is, why a
in preference to forms of disseminating information and
Wedge has constantly con- entry cerned itself with the gamut of all such forms. Obviously in only three issues we haven't tried to analyse them all, but it cannot have escaped anyone's attention that we totally reject LOTS any limiting definition of what constitutes the cultural field.
So of course we haven't spent much time explicitly addressing politics and cultural fields between
as desuch is failing, but that it is in the process of changing course. It suke wnen reudansm began
I don't know what will come after the family. My next film
From "That Cold Day in the
Wedding', your films have been centrally about
portrayal of not exclude particularly in "Images' and "Three Women'.
But most of the time your
pletely alienated and entirely accept the American way of
America is the women's movement and the reactionary
treat women differently from men in my
I tend to be more
Perhaps this is because I was brought up in an all-woman household. I probably learned as I was growing up about
women: about manoeuvring in a world of
men are open. ve a lot of respect t
omen. I donated $2m fro the profits from this film to the
Amendment campaign as I find it ridiculous
are considered Women
It's in women's nature to be more "underground'. Women can't be the menace of the
characters? they don't have the strength. To become powerful they have to adopt
A REVOLUTIONARY MAGAZINE OF GULTURAI
PRACTICE AND THEORY
This isn't to say we don't believe this somewhat narrower area of investigation ic be important. But nowadays, to isolate it in any way would be
in the pernicious sense of the word.
example, we are many concerned with the way the traditional domains of 'Culture' have been swallowed up by an extension, and by new
of industrialisation in the fields of cultural production, and with the consequences
The break-up of traditional bourgeois definitions of culture had begun even before Marx Wal and Engels were dead, though they were hardly aware of it.
Now the process has become that commanding, with the massive
of electronics-based transnational companies into all fields of culture, information, entertainment and education on all levels.
Since the leading corpora- IStS.
this SCCLUE now constitute the fastest growing
FROM Photography and Art — Art as Photography at the
ICA. Asexhibitor Didier Bay observes: 'Tam both a long user
of photo and text in autodidacts ways altogether with the
specific autonomous and conjugated connotations of these
two medias, and in spite of these connotations.' Pardon me?
It's this that makes them more interesting. Women are guerillas; more closed in than
At the moment I am writing a
story in which there are no
women. When Ilooked it over I found it quite powerful: to use women in the same way I used men in Three Women.
speak more and more in their own name.
Doesn't this have an inhibiting effect when you write your
I haven't written any novels or books about women. l've made films to which the actors
group of companies in the present era of capitalism, WC believe it is high time that the approach we are committed to explore be given the highest priority, however many toes must be trodden on, however
political myths sconced me revolora left turn out to need exploding.
We deplore Geoff Sheridan's dismissive attitude which, however, seems to be in
with other Socialist Challenge articles, such as Tariq Ali on cultural movements and John Ross on the far left in Europe since the
But since Socialist Challenge that a feu non-Trotskyists
non-Trotskyists might just be capable of brief, sporadic, desultory periods of revolutionary activity, we make so bold as to suggest that the next step might be to debate things with these non-Trotsky
rather than generously giving them a retrospective pat on the back contribute not only their talent but also a good part of the content.
Susannah York and I had a great deal of discussion about the role she was playing Images, and whenever ther was a disagreement she won because she had an importan advantage over me, being a woman.
Shelley Duvall wrote her owr monologues for Three Women I only made suggestions or alterations. In the character, one finds her female sensibility or her stupidity. It's this which makes all comedies
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Hackney funeral march, 20 January BLACK DEFENCE IS NO OFFENCE
Registered with the Post Office as a newspaper. Published by Relgocrest Ltd. for Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Printed by Feb Edge Litho Ltd (TU),
By Rich Palser
BLACK PEOPLE in London have declared Saturday a day of mourning and a day of defiance.
It will be a day of mourning for the funeral of Michael Ferreira, murdered by white racists on 10 December.
It will also be a day defiance as black people march through Hackney to Newington police show that they will not bow to racist violence and are joining together to act in their own defence.
The demonstration has been organised by a coalition black and anti-racist organisations, in particular the Hackney
*Racism — What it is and
how to fight it'
CRAWLEY Socialist
Challenge public meeting
Speakers-include: Tariq
Ali; Dave Ward (pres.,
Trades Council - person-
al capacity); Omar Vawda
(Community Relations
Officer personal capa-
city; Patrick Newman
(Labour parliamentary
candidate); CP representa-
five.
Monday 22 January,
8pm, AUEW Hall, Robin-
son Road, Crawley.
£1,000 short of our fund drive target and the effects of this are beginning to tell on us.
Wework on about a month's credit, but this shortfall will have to be made up by the end of January if we are to avoid problems paying our bills.
Our printers will give us a few weeks grace before they refuse to print us. But British Rail will not be so understanding and nor will the Post Office fact they won't give us credit at all. Either we pay or they won't take our letters.
And I doubt if all our
Domestic: 6 months, £5; 12 months, £10 Abroad: Airmail, £16.50. Surface, £10 per annum. Multi-reader institutions: double individual rate Name Address
I-enclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of r •
"Socialist Challenge'. Complete and return to: Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street, London N1.
Socialist Challenge
and Tower Hamlets Defence Committee and the East formed Hackney this People's Defence
tion.
Michael's death was the fourth known racist murder in East London in eight months. three The conclusion being drawn by
black people in Hackney is spelt
of out in the leaflet calling for the
march: "The black people must Stoke be in the forefront of their own
defence.'
The labour movement as a whole has the responsibility to show its support and solidarity by Assemble nase thems Assemble 9.30am Rushmore Road, London ES. There will be no banners or placards carried, and no papers or literature are to be sold.
BLACK people are also finding unemscives vicums or tne courts because they dare to defend themselves. One such case is that of the four Virk brothers. They have been given jail terms ranging from seven years to three months following an affray in which they defended themselves against an attack by five white youths.
At a conference of Asian, West Indian and anti-racist organisations in Newham last weekend it was decided to organise outside the court when one of
OUR FUND DRIVE
IN THE LAST quarter we fell subscribers would like being
told they had to pay for postage on delivery. urgently need all lM branches Over the and all our other supporters to take emergency collections to help make up the shortfall. This is the only way we can avoid a major crisis in the coming weeks.
Now is the time to dig deep into your pockets,
• in collections at all your meetings.
Keep on with the long term fund-raising plans, but we do need a big cash boost now The bills are coming in thick
SUBSCRIBE!
Cheques, POs and Money Orders should be made payable to
newly Black Organisaover death of Michael Ferreira. the brother's appeals is heard.
This is perhaps glaring example of situations where black people who defend themselves find ones in the dock. certainly not the only one.
After a similar incident of white racist Wolverhampton, youths recently selves facing charges of making an affray, offensive wcaDoll. and theft offences.
Although the admitted that attacked plainly for no other reason than the colour of their skins", Harvinder found himself in Borstal and two of the others received £75 fines.
Their position was perhaps demonstration made easier by the work of the Wolverhampton
and fast so we need you to get the money in to us as quickly as you can. week We have made a good start in catching up with the situation over the last week. fund drive total of £467 is considerably better than any total that we've seen in recent WEEKS.
However this is largely made up of f260 take emergency supporters at school on Eurocommunism in London last weekend.
coupled anonymous donation of €100 have ensured our healthy total. We need to do the same, if not better, next week.
In the post this week we had EWO letters from readers enclosing donations. RESOLUTION
Mike Davis made a New Year resolution to win us at least five new LA subscribers -hasn't got them beginning of March he wants to be billed for the difference.
Mike's contribution to the fund drive was given in memory of Neil Williamson whom he knew for a year in Scotland -*a most remarkable and gifted young comrade.
Black people's protest meeting in Ridley Road market, Hackney,
the
they are the
But it is
labour movement.
four Asian found them-
harassment possessing an
motoring
prosecution committee.
they were
Bhogal
and police harassment.
Anti-Racist
stamps at a steady rate
The weekly
loose stamps.
BOOST
raised in an appeal to our the Mandel column this week shows.
with an
coming two weeks
G Price Anon M Davis USA
American Steve Vieux USA
A Cullen P Davenport Norman Geras Stamp money Yves Thebault D Rice and if he Ed Mahood by the The Red Drinker Anon Anon
TOTAL Cumulative total this quarter
single
black arrested.
Committee. Apart from paying the fines and protesting the imprisonment, the committee has campaigned to make the issue of racist violence and police harassment against black people an issue within the
Last February an independent labour movement enquiry into racist attacks and police
was held in Wolverhampton, and a full report detailing incidents was submitted by the anti-racist
Now it is the turn of a white
committee's treasurer Dave Stevens, to be in the dock. He was arrested last March on a demonstration called by the committee to protest against racist attacks
The march was attacked by a
You are still sending in
- In fact recently we have not been able to keep up with processing them. We still have a couple of albums to sort out, as well as
Keep sending them in as they do provide a regular boost to the fund drive, as the £15 in the
And above all send in those emergency donations so that we can meet our debts over the
£2.00 5.00 8.50 2.50 5.00 4.00 30.00 15.00
2.00 10.00 10.00 0.50 100.00 Eurocommunism school 260.31
February, £467.81 Charing
£563.21 details.
the and Dave was arrested in the scuffle. Several
were then
Three of the latter's cases have since come up in court.
* Michael Rowbottom was acquitted of police assault when no evidence was brought in court, though he was fined ESO for breach of the peace.
*Wesley Thompson received a conditional discharge for breach of the peace.
* David Hines, facing a • drop the charges. Demonstrate charge of malicious wounding of a policeman, clearly had black little faith in getting justice in the court and failed to turn up.
Now Dave Stevens, facing c/o three charges of assault on policemen and one of actual | London E15.
BLOODY SUNDAY
COMMEMORATION Demonstration 28 January LONDON - organised by Provisional Sinn Fein
WORKERS OF THE
WORLD UNITE!
HEAR HUGO BLANCO
MIKE FARRELL, IRANIAN TROTSKYIST, TARIG ALI
7:30pm FRIDAY 2 FEBRUARY
CAMDEN TOWN HALL, EUSTON ROAD, LONDON NW1
5.30pm FILMS, MUSIC, DISPLAYS/ADMISSION £1
Admission £1. Two tickets for £1.30, three for £1.60. The reduced rates apply only to tickets bought before 31 January. Tickets from IMG, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. Cheques to "The Week'. GLASGOW Socialist Unity rally with Hugo Blanco, Thursday 1
7.30pm, Highlanders Institute, Cross. Also Latin American University plus lunch and reception
bodily harm, is expected to come up at Stafford Crown Court betweer anc February.
As with the other cases, the defence campaign organised by
anti-racist committee is calling for a mass lobby outside the court on the first day of the
Already N.S. Noor, Presi dent of the Wolverhampton Indian Workers Association, has pledged to ask his executive
mobilise a coach for the picket, and circulate statement to all black and Asian organisations to support
These are just examples of what is going on. Clearly both the black movement, and the anti-racist movement as whole, must resolve in mourning Michael Ferreira to defend from the police and courts all those who stand out against racist violence.
Drop the charges against Dave Stevens. Picket the first day of the hearings at Stafford Crown Court. Details from Wolverhampton Defence Cam-
Gc/o Wolverhampton Poly Students Union. * Release the Virk brothers,
against the victimisation of
people who defend themselves. Full details from Newham Defence Committee
Box 4550, Stratford Express, Stratford Broadway, FOR THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
Berkeley Street, seminar Glasgow phone 041-221 7481 for
3-4 The Oval, London E2.
← Socialist Challenge No. 78, 11 January 1979Socialist Challenge No. 80, 25 January 1979 →