Socialist Challenge No. 87, 15 March 1979
The scan: sc-n87-mar-15-1979.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
No 87 15 March 1979 15p
Socialist Challenge
"We did not liberate ourselves
from the Shah to be imprisoned by Islam"
IRANIAN WOMEN FIGHT BACK
Page 2 scan of this page
Towards a permanent
OUR POLICIES 2
EDITORIAL
Socialist Challenge, Editorial 01-359 8180/9. 91-359 8371. religious thugs.
deprive them of their rights.
now the obscurantists are saying:
exists as a religion in countries which are less
which bound women.
The demonstration
solidarity to their sisters in Iran.
Ulster Constabulary.
various international human rights bodies.
personal traits of Roy demands for 'human rights' in Ireland are sufficient.
needs to be faced.
something.
British presence as a whole.
MPs will make such an observation. forthcoming election. Let Ireland be an issue.
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Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 2
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Solidarity with Iranian women
FOR THE last two weeks tens of thousands of women in Iran have been demonstrating for their democratic rights. It is they who must determine how they live, what they wear and where they work.
We stand in total solidarity with them against all obscurantism. We recall the Muslim women in the Soviet Union who discarded their veils immediately after the revolution and were killed by
The Iranian government has passed a law making it a crime to attack any women's demonstration. But it is women and their supporters who must continue to mobilise against any attempt to
All the women now protesting were strong opponents of the Shah. In retrospect they made a mistake when they donned veils to join the mass mobilisations which toppled the Pahlavi regime. For
'Where were you when we defeated the Shah? All the women on those marches wore the veil.'
Not even the most liberal reading of the texts of Islam can lead to the view that it regards women as the equals of men. All other religions also discriminate against women in either theory or practice. This is more pronounced in the case of Islam because it
But there have been Muslim nationalists who have fought against this regression. And the alternative to Khomeini is to cite the example of Kemal Ataturk in Turkey in the 1920s. There too s king was overthrown, a religious monarch no less. A veritable Caliph. But Ataturk removed the shackles of religious oppression
organised by ICAR (International Campaign for Abortion Rights) on 31 March should give women in this country the first major opportunity to extend their
Let Britain be the scapegoat
THE NEW revelations of torture by the British administration in the North of Ireland will come as no surprise to readers of this newspaper. We have chronicled many times the countless acts of murder, torture and repression by the British Army and Royal
The truth is that the exposures made on ITV's Weekend World and said to be contained in the government-sponsored inquiry into Castlereagh police barracks should not shock anyone with even the slightest knowledge of events in the North of Ireland. The facts of British repression have been reported in Irish national newspapers, they have been raised by the Irish government, and highlighted by
There are signs that this time the Labour government may make some pathetic gesture to appease its Irish critics. There is, after all, an election looming, and the Irish vote cannot be alienated too
But the torture is not the result of a couple of particularly sadistic uniformed thugs, it is not even the result of the rather nasty
Mason. The tactics employed to put opponents of British rule in Ireland behind bars are the only tactics available to Britain — apart from internment or mass murder.
Torture flows from the British presence, it will continue to be employed while Britain is in Ireland, for such has always been the case. So although the latest exposures may persuade some of the Labour "left' in Parliament finally to ask a few questions (and a substantial vote against the forthcoming renewal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act would help), the time has long gone when
The denial by Britain of the right of the Irish people as a whole to self-determination is the biggest denial of human rights there is, and it is the whole issue of the British presence in Ireland which
Just for once in the life of this Labour government, it would be pleasant to see the Labour left actually taking a principled stand on
. They could do no better than take such a stand on the North of Ireland, and to say that it is not individual soldiers or policemen who should be made the scapegoat, but rather the
But we don't have much confidence that more than a couple of
Accordingly, socialists should think long and hard about how they can raise it in the
By Tom Marlowe
THE business section Sunday's Observer was quietly
"Hugh Clegg', inscription, Christmas.
The accompanying was satisfied that, in- make any developed Clegg can'.
The appointment of Clegg to head the standing commission
pay the public sector is one of the shrewder moves of the Labour COYCLICHL.
He was, after all, sacked by none other than Edward Heath from his position as son of the Arbitration Board 1971, he played his part in the Scamp inquiry government manual workers' pay which produced what was judged to be an inflatiorary deal.
On the other hand, there was a degree of honesty in Heath's treatment of Clegg which has been missing from the Labour government's 'comparability' in the same Civil Service arbitration proce dure from which Clegg was dismissed
The Labour government has merely ignored the recommendations of the Pay Research Unit which pronounces on pay for civil servants. current industrial action
Even government does time whatever Clegg and the rest of his there is the problem that by the time August comes along and the first stage of the recommendation is to be acted upon, the Labour government could very well be no longer in office.
Nor can guarantee that Clegg will award hefty pay rises for public sector workers. The comparison he is charged to make is with those in similar jobs.
Take the ancillary workers - or, to be more precise, those who work in hospital laundries. Can they expect a bulging wage packet in six months time?
Not if the comparison is made with other laundry workers. The wages council has just reported "typical adult grade' for those
class.
revolutionary socialists are:
THE FIRST WORD
incomes board?
photo-caption in the
for its readership. ran the a Father
article *If anyone / sense of the new comparability,
comparability Civil Service when,
into local attitude to Hence the
the Labour accept this
decide, -CROCES
supposed
be any
case of hospital
London at
of £34 a week. concerned that the lity in the Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders of the Labour Party and the trade 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
* To build broad-based class struggle tendencies in class-collaborationism in the labour movement. These should be non-exclusive in character grouping together militants holding a wide range of political views. * To begin to fight for the creation of a unified and democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can, through an application of united front tactics, begin to be seen as an alternative by thousands of workers engaged in struggles
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
The struggle for socialism seeks to unite the fight of the workers against the bosses with that of other oppressed layers of society - women black people, gays - struggling for their liberation. This socialism can only be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with all
cessary means the power of the capitalist state.
Hugh Clegg: Not a Father Christmas.
working in laundries outside
the end of November was the princely sum union leaders
and
The more the whole standing commission on pay comparabi-
public sector But opposition to
the is can
after examined, the more obvious it becomes that what the trade
who bought it then sold it LU their membership purchased was the proverbial pig in a poke.
pigs can be vicious
Our socialism will be infinitely more democratic than what exists in do not take up arms againsthe socialist state. The stalinist modek af 'socialism in the USSR and Fastern Europe have discredited socialism in the eyesef the millions of workers throughout the world. We are opposed in them and will offer full support to all those fighting for socialist democracy
The interests of workers and capitalists are irreconcilable on a sorld scale. Capitalism has not only created a world market. it has created scale. This units will in the long run be decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in latin America, Africa and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding the immediate withdraw al of British-troopfrom Ireland and letting the Irish people determine their twn future
The Communist Parties in Europe are in Fire-communist nor the pro-Moscow wings hase ans meaningtu I strategy for the overthrow of the capitalist state. New revolutionars
L socialist parties are more necessary than ever hefore. Condition- todus are more averrehe tian over the orecesine taree occaoes Dursui parts Car only be built by rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracs not to a luxury but as a vital necessity. This means the right to organise factions an
animals. They can maim and injure; the real concern over Clegg's comparability board is
threat posed the independence of the unions involved.
Leaving the long term future of the pay of public sector workers to some "neutral or question the real function of trade unions.
If there is a Hugh Clege deciding on what is a 'fair wage for workers to receive where does that leave unions whose job is to secure through their own strength what they consider "fair"?
question which concerns more than public sector workers. The suspicion
that Clegg's standing commission is a stalking horse.
That the Labour government with not a word of protes! from the leaders of the TUC, is planning a long-term incomes board to cover all of industry.
The arguments used to sell such a scheme can already be imagined. Michael Foot stands up and declares:
*The low paid workers have accepted such a procedure. They have accepted permanent wages board.
*Are the rest of you, miners, car workers, lorry drivers going to turn round and say you wil not agree to be treated in the same way? Are you going to say that might be fair for the under-paid but you will have none of it?
'What trade union principles of fairness and equal treatment custify such a stand quote you possibly
This is only too possible. The public sector commission is,
child of concordat, which has alread! promised a yearly 'forum' a which government, unions and employers will get together to discuss what level settlements should be stricted
It would be wrong to get too alarmist too soon. The Labour government still has a long way to go before it achieves the statutory incomes policy dream of all capitalist governments.
But equally it would be wrong to dismiss the public sector as short-term gimmick, just as it would be wrong to dismiss the concordat as no more than an election manoeuvre. They both need to be taken seriously and resisted.
crisis. Neither the
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Socialist Unity stands
HOME NEWS
SMASH &
RACISM
La Unity AFTER a hastily
March.
By Geoff Bell
Edge Hill, just east of Liverpool's city out for a socialist opposition. As Socialist Unity's national organiser Bob Pennington puts it: If ever there was a seat to contest, if ever there was a time to stand, Edge Hill is that seat and that time is now.
It is not too difficult to see what Pennington means. Edge Hill has the unbelievable unemployment rate of 34 per cent of the working population. It has 16,000 people on the council house waiting list.
Such conditions reflect the policies of the two 'big guns' in the election, Labour candidate Bob Waring and the Liberal Party's local whizz kid, David Olton.
On a national level, Lab ur government's doubling of unemployment since the October 1974 election has hit Edge Hill particularly
Un tne local level, decision of the Liberalcontrolled council to off council housing is explanation of Edge Hill's massive waiting list. And the chairperson of the council's housing committee? Liberal candidate Olton.
The Socialist Unity candi-
Fighting policies on offer
in Edge Hill
convened election meeting in Liverpool on Monday night, Socialist Unity declared its intention to contest the Edge Hill by-election on 29
The by-election - caused by the death of Labour absentee MP Sir Arthur Irvine — is one of the most important to be held under this Labour government.
date Al Speaking after the selection meeting, he emphasised that cries one aim of Socialist Unity's election campaign will be to charge the Labour government
SU candidate
Socialist Unity WALKER is NALGO chair. person of Liverpool's housing shop stewards committee. He is also vice-chairperson of the City of Liverpool branch of NALGO and a trades council delegate.
with responsibility for permanent crisis people in Edge Hill live in. the *No doubt the Labour and Liberal candidates rate knocking on doors making the usual promises, said Walker, "but we will be asking people to make up their minds on the records of the main parties. *Just one aspect the records is that Edge Hill has the highest rate of houses with sell outside toilets and no running hot water in England!'
Socialist Unity alliance supported by, among others, the International Marxist Group, Big Flame and the International Socialist Alliance - will not just be raising local
NALISM
conditions. It will pinpoint the failures of many aspects of the Labour government's policy.
We will also', Pennington, the solutons solutions, solutions which put Walker. the interests of the working
class first."
A major aspect of Socialist Unity's campaign opposition to the concordat and support for Merseyside's continuing local struggle.
The Merseyside public sector workers liaison continues to reject the national 9 per cent offer, and is currently candidate AL engaged
action in pursuit of the full £60 minimum, 35-hour week claim. Socialist Unity offering all its facilities to local ublic sector workers in a bid to elp organise support for thei struggle.
Other aspects of the Socialist
• the Unity campaign will be working current controversy
British-backed Ireland - the demand will be will be "Troops out now'
struggle against racism.
as is rumoured.
National Front stand in Edge Hill, the anti-fascist struggle will attract special attention from Socialist Unity. "We hope to distribute Anti Nazi League election material, says Pen- propaganda with - an election
nington.
Socialist Unity has already had experience in Edge Hill. A candidate stood in the local government elections in the
other Liverpool wards.
CCEEL
says Bob be trying to point which the
socialist called,
in its campaign.
will 217 Hill, Liverpool. authority
committee Unity, the IMG,
selective strike campaign.
will be striking fashion:
end of the
the around torture in we all want to see.
- and the
socialist opposition. the
in doing it.
our
1 appeal to Socialist
fe form
we reg relations
OTE AHSAN
SUDDOTECE dictatorship.
Socialist l
recent times.
them WHICHE assistance.?
the
countries or preferences.
itself, acoression
constituency's Fairfield ward in May 1978, as well as in two
The average vote then was 5.5 per UIESCHE
Because of the speed with
by-election was elaboration Socialist Unity is appealing for all possible help
Volunteers from all over the succeed country will be made welcome objectives.' at the election headquarters at
Wavertree Road, Edge
out China.
One of the groups in Socialist
has already written to the Socialist Workers Party appealing for a common SUPPORTERS
Bob Pennington sums up the from importance of Edge Hill in
•We are now coming to the
most wretched organisations.
Labour government since the war. Edge Hill is one of the last opportunities all socialists will the have to join together and fight together for the sort of policies
Sham Secretary.
In the campaign itself there will probably be disagreements, but what we are trying to build Is a unry or opposinon, DI again.
'A by-election is a unique chance for socialists to agitate on all aspects of their policies addressed and to gain national publicity Birmingham
June all readers of Tribune rally Challenge do Birmingham whatever they can to help us - was from sending money to coming to Liverpool. Socialist Unity is on the road again, join us.'
News
nowhere
Sino-Chilean
EL MERCURIO was the most rabid anti-left daily during the Allende period. It is a staunch
of Pinochet Last month it interviewed the Chinese ambassador in Chile, Hu Chang Fang. It reported:
The Ambassador of the People's Republic of China in Santiago has confirmed to our paper the consistent solidarity of the Chinese against the
attack being suffered by our country in
*In the words of Hu Chang Fang: "Chile and China have points in common which unites
against Soviet munism..if your country were subjected to an attack by this hegemonic nation or its lackeys in this continent such as Cuba, it would receive not only our moral support but, according to the circumstances the appropriate • of th This,
*The pragmatic position of
present Chinese leaders aspires to the creation of a
system of informal alliances with the countries of the Third World, regardless of
circumstances their ideological SECT On this precise issue, this policy coincides with ours insofar as it contributes to the creation of an element of dissuasion against the hegemonic power or the superpowers which tends to manifest
whether by naked constant interference in the concerns and interests of these countries.
*The recent dramatic events in Asia show the reality of the
world balance power, and provide important points to reflect on in the
of the foreign policy of small countries like
which must maintain a real independence in order to
in their national
The next step is surely for the People's Daily in Peking to syndicate Robert Moss's column in the Daily Telegraph through-
We are Benned
of Socialist their Challenge have been banned
holding meetings Birmingham's Labour Club, a traditional meeting place for socialist and labour movement
BL
Following a request to hold a public meeting at this venue
Birmingham Socialist Challenge office was rung up by Martin Brooks, Birming-
City Labour Party He declared that no-one associated with Social. ist Challenge would be allowed to use the Labour Club ever
Brooks alleged that this was in retaliation for the 'attempted disruption' of a Tribune rally that
by Tony Benn in yCal The facts are somewhat different.
afternoon Benn spoke at University. He repeatedly asked by WRIS supporters of Socialist Challenge and by Iranian students to dissociate himself from David
from
Owen's statement of support for the Shah. This Benn refused to do: indeed he asserted that he 'accepted full responsibility for Owen's statement
This naturally outraged the Iranian students, who decided to go to the evening Tribune rally to ask Benn the same question again and ask the other Tribune MPs, including Neil Kinnock, what they were doing about Owen and Callaghan's support for the Shah
When they arrived at the rally, however, they were refused admission by a group of stewards led by Martin Brooks. Socialist Challenge supporters, however, were admitted; only those obviously Iranian appearance were prevented from buying
This naturally led to furious argument, with suppor ters of Socialist Challenge and the SWP demanding that the Iranian students be admitted.
according Brooks, amounted to an attempt to disrupt the rally!
Brooks' decision to ban us from the Labour Club has been sanctioned by the Birmingham City Executive of the party. It party's Management Commit-
-ll is sure to be contested. Socialist Challenge will be launching a campaign throughout the Birmingham labour movement demanding that this scandalous ban be reversed.
Broad Left buy British ON 3 March there were divisional conferences throughout the TASS section of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers to debate and select motions for the annual conference. The Broad Left, organised by the Communist Party very strong in TASS. It controls most of the branches and can normally push through their resolutions.
At the London conference the following motion was put: *This branch urges all union members personally to buy British goods whenever possible and where they can influence
employers purchasing policy to endeavour to place orders with British companies.'
Now this line is in full accord with the Broad Left's vision of import controls. But since the
had its own prioritised motions, they regarded this as an irritation. The motion had been put from a notoriously right-wing branch. But, argued some CPers, the motion didn' go far enough!
For instance, how could one be sure that underneath the 'Made in Britain' label there weren't products of multinationals like ITT, Ford, ete The right-wing delegate moving the motion was overwhelmed by these criticisms. He accepted
resolution insufficient and withdrew it from the agenda
NfN readers will be pleased to hea flag of proletarian internationalism
kept flying by two delegates: one from the SWP and one from the IMG.
Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
Birth of the 'Anti-Concordat'
HOME NEWS
Rank and file reply
could be excused any confusion on this point.
Callaghan government.
*Anti-Concordat
Why did you think it important produce Anti-Concordat?
We were ( way the of. organisation nas . taken up in the last fe
The TUC, in issu Concordat with the menl, BES turned Con policy on free collectivbargaining completely on its head.
This endorsement of the hysterical media Cal Dalk against the unions includes taking on boara some or tne most restrictive measures that were In force under Industrial Relations They've endorsed the sort of industrial
TC aLIOls SLI dECEY which the Tories are proposing should they get elected.
In this situation the need to build some form of resistance is very great.
How do you explain that there was no opposition at all on the General Council Concordat?
Well, it fits in with the role of the General Council in recent years. The General Council has not reflected the drive and the general demands of the rank and file.
For instance, over the FBU strike, the General Council made it quite clear, when it came to the crunch, that they were in favour of the social contract rather than supporting the absolutely legitimate demands - which had a great measure of popular support — of the tiremen.
But there was a minority then...
There was a minority, that's right.
But there was no minority at all
opposed to Was Concordat...
That's right. Which indicates that the General Council - all of them — are becoming more distant from the rank and file of the movement. Concordat aimed increasing their authority.
This question of authority ane COntO S Ver HOOI LanL LU them. The General Council are, I think, absolutely conscious that they have lacked control over the past few months.
Incy vo DCCI forced assume roles which they really don't like assuming.
Trade union leaders assumed a militant posture - - they had to because they knew couldn't get away anything else.
Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 4
IT WASN'T exactly a St Valentine's Day massacre. But when the TUC General Council put its seal to the new 'concordat' on 14 February, trade union militants
So-called "left' trade union leaders completely caved in and offered no resistance. They had no answer to the offensive launched by the infamous 'Gang of 12' trade union leaders for a new alliance with the
It was this which prompted the production of the
— a rank and file reply', written by
was this There are four lessons rank unionists must draw from this слоепелсь. 1. Within every union we must struggle to establish full democratic control by membership. rank and file organisation must make it impossible for the top UNOR OCRS LO UCaL us anu our unions in this way again. the 2. Within each industry and Act. workplace we must campaign to establish a clear minimum basic weekly wage of at least £60 a week and secure one hour oTt ine working day 1or workers. Our demands cannot
But at the same time,
different animals.
So in addition to adopting a the militant posture, they forward in the Concordat the idea of stopping unofficial strikes.
The whole of the General Counci are united in tneir desire to control this situation more.
Another thing that obviously relates to the General Council's unanimity is that the traditional the The to
they with
further 100 trade unionists.
campaign around it.
Anti-Concordat on
lessons of 14 February
important be ned down and file trade "comparability" or restraint of
kind. They determined by our needs.
3. We must recognise that the the Concordat is a potentially The strength of highly damaging victory by the
right wing of the trade union movement. This calls for real efforts in every industry to unite the left around fighting demands mobilise rank and file trade unionists to fight for working class interests against those of the employers collaborators. 4. We must
left has come out with they're alternative to the strategy of the Labour government
put What implications do you think this has in terms of what's necessary to reverse the trend?
It'sgoing to require the building of an effective rank and file movement within the unions.
It's going to require a political strategy which is harder.
KEN GILL, TUC General Council member from AUEW (TASS).
four trade unionists — Bryan Macey, Secretary of the POEU. North London Internal Branch; Des Bailey, Executive Council, Inland Revenue Staffs Federation; Ross Pritchard, NGA National Council; and Aidan White, NUJ National Executive.
The Anti-Concordat has since been produced as a Rank and File pamphlet with the sponsorship of a
Jonathan Silberman talked to one of the authors, AIDAN WHITE, about the Anti-Concordat and the
by 'norms',
must be and office
District, Area and mCCUEES,
argue: [i) union and more wage restraint. that can ing now! (iii] Defend the and strike.
take the right to picket.
It's going
religiously belief in people who members of it.
strategy.
campaign to defend our basic trade union rights into the heart of the movement. At shop floor
meetings, shop stewards' and branch meetings,
Regional and at Annual and Biennial Conferences, we must
Reject the Concordat.
No more social contracts. No
[ii] Free collective bargain-
right to
(iv) No restrictions on the
an to require strategy which will distinguish within the Labour Party the people who are clinging to it
because their Clause 4 and the cynically waged? dIC
The planks are already there actually. The revolutionary left have the planks of a socialist resistance
What is necessary is to put them together and to launch a the
concerted attack on the way ferences.
Liaison Committee on the defensive
Star,
the unions".
Certainly, presented 5 September
seciclaty
aLIUHS
Dix pathetically
But the
Aidan White, member of the National Union of Journalists National Executive and signatory of the Anti-Concordat.
that the party that is supposed to be representing the working class is really misrepresenting them in the most dramatic way.
That has to be the purpose of an attack on the Concordat
attack on Callaghan's policies and so on.
plan How is the campaign around the Anti-Concordat going to be
The first task in building
HOYCHICHL LU the Concordat involves challenging it in whatever way you can at
forthcoming union conBy Jonathan Silberman
ACCORDING to the Morning
last BaTOaVSCOueE ence organised by the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions had been called to discuss 'the way forward for
the resolution delegates for voting as they arrived referred of the important issues tacing trade unionists.
But the only positive action recommended by the conference was a lobby of the TUC on
400
the resolution, with the introductory speeches Halpin and NUPPL LCDTU secretary Kevin
assistant Bernard DIX no perspective was advanced as to, how to obtain the objectives listed. Just plenty of denunci-
At least Halpin and Dix drew attention to the concordat, and
even somewhat dissociated himself from Alan Fisher.
first platform speaker after the lunch-break was Ken Gill, the very same TUC General Council member
A high priority is to challenge the specific clauses like secret ballots, picketing and the like We want to organise lobbies of the union conferences to back this up.
In addition, we will obviously be calling a meeting of sponsors of the document to
other parts -OT the campaign, in particular the organising of a rank and file conterence
We will be calling on the LCDTU to back our campaign - we want it to be as broad as possible. This means we have to go all-out TEO geL sponsors, especially from leading rank and file trade unionists but also from Labour MPs and so on.
who had publicly declared that it wasn't necessary to oppose the concordat. Yet not one floor speaker even attempted to criticise Gill.
In part this was because the floor speakers were, as usual, tightly controlled the platform. This was made easier by the composition of the conference perhaps the smallest LCDTU ever.
The conference organiser announced that 556 delegates had registered, but a morning headcount indicated that only
actually ateneco attendance which declined in the afternoon. Only 217 bodies sent delegates.
The sole polarisation of the conference came when ambu-
• Tonv Venthan acc uvc. moved a motion sponsored by Rank and File. It called for support for anti-concordat lobbies of union conferences and tor one das sympathy action in support of hospital workers 8nG nurses Wednesday 21 March'.
Although 60 delegates had signed a statement calling for the resolution to be voted on, Halpin' s ruling that the motion was out of order was endorsed by the conference.
Page 5 scan of this page
HOME NEWS
HoW
could
meet his
week for all those in the union.
settlement from local authority workers.
By Patrick Sikorski
It is not the case that NUPE
members were unwilling
fight on for the full claim
Taking the votes in the pay
calot in osal, a majority
17,793 rejected the offer.
Where the local
stewards organisation is strong,
as in Liverpool and parts of
London, strikes
authority workers are continuin Earlier on, determined local
leadership won a big victory in
Camden.
It is the lack of any national
orgamsanon winn Ene union
able to bring together these strands of opposition which has
let Fisher off the hook year atter year.
How else could Fisher ignore ine rejection by NUPE's national executive of the offer he had negotiated and get away with it?
How else could he afford to
ignore the fact that London, with 100,000 members, voted two to one to reject the local authority offer - and get away with it?
Although there is a growing shop stewards movement within NUPE and the public
By Geoffrey Sheridan
'COBBLERS'. That was most common view of the deal which has temporarily ended the lock-out at Times Newspapers put by Times workers as they talked in small groups after mecung las! Thursday.
The meeting was to have had a guest speaker, Tony Benn. But the negotiations between union leaders, Times management, and Employment Secretary Albert Booth which had continued into the early hours of that morning were considered by the Prime Minister too 'delicate' LO alOW intervention by Benn.
So the Minister who has put forward an alternative future
Building a left in NUPE
Mr Fisher
comeuppance
THE MANDATE from NUPE's annual conference for this year's pay claim was quite clear. The demand was to be for a £60 basic minimum wage and a 35-hour
A common settlement date was a central demand, allowing the united strength of the union's 700,000 members, together with the half million public sector workers in other unions, to be swung behind the claim.
But once again, Alan Fisher has been able to make a deal with the government, ballot his members section by section, and gain acceptance for the 9 per cent
organised areas remain isolated to from each other and unable to prepare co-ordinated action-on crucial issues such as the annual wage claim.
The executive's rejection of shop the offer last stemmed from a fear of losing their elected positions if they local had voted otherwise.
But because there was no organised nationa movement for all-out strike action, the executive was happy to reject the offer without finning the full strate. forward strategy The big problem they faced was unar sucn a call would nave meant challenging the Concordat with low pay to Fisher had just signature.
Instead of this collaboration, alternative policies fought for by workers' action were needed beat low Ddy carve-up of the welfare state.
NUPE GOes alternative economic policy, embracing calls for re-investin British together with import controls and sundry nationalisation.
But none of this gives a lead
Lock-out No.2 at "The Times"?
for The Times - its takeover by the BBC - was forbidden the by Callaghan from addressing the two hundred Times workers who had turned up to hear him.
In the they more of the deal which has temporarily re-instated 3,084 sacked workers reports in the evening papers than from the speakers at the In effect they have been presented with another date for a lock-out 17 April. agreement on the introduction proposed disputes procedure aimed at weakening the power any of the chapels has not been reached by then, management will again employees on the streets.
toe coker Nor 1s one pe and
the cuts. attempt by the left leadership to mobilise members around their programme and against Callaghan and Healey.
DCIC Because the union has
"radical cconomic programmac and a general secretary who makes fiery speeches at Labour Party conferences, munist Party says there is no need to organise a Broad Left in NUPE.
Instead the CP has a policy of sending recruiting them middle-ranking ficials — a policy which gives no scope SIOT opposition when Fisher kowputting tows to the government.
for The task opposition falls to the far left working alongside who are carrying forward the self-organisation of the rank which and file in the shop stewards added his committees.
Simply linking up a series of strong shop stewards committees is not sufficient.
It was not and the militancy which prevented the
local authority have an ning, but the lack of alternative
policies for winning the claim and convincing the memberindustry, ship that the money could be
found to pay without causing massive cuts in services.
Meanwhile the Times presses remain silent — a tribute to the employers' view freedom.
The most urgent need is for learned mass meetings to discuss these
could begin to turn the tide of from the cynicism which has become the
prevailing mood among Times workers.
The struggle liquidation of jobs at Times Newspapers If wants to cut its workforce by about a quarter — has brought some important gains.
The two issues of Times Challenger, liaison committee of the unions at The Times, have provided a its valuable forum for debate in the labour movement on new
is there
21861 1 alternative
if a broad-based,
built in the union.
the ComWORCES
CAN
in members or
from the full-time of- nexx weeks.
organising which
of organising an tions for
conference next year. militants
circulate
policy documents.
the lack of
rights paper winOI BUSCE
ranging the increase
women in NUPE.
of press itself has
the battle But the
of management,
against the
the bosses' management
offensive.
produced by
LCWSUAUCE.
NO
At its first national meeting 18 months ago, the Campaign for Action in NUPE identified
arcas class struggle policies need to be formulated
democra tically run opposition is to be
These were pay policy, cuts,
rights, and trade union democracy.
producing pamphlet on the strike which will be used to build a national supporters' meeting within the
The CAN platform is to be expanded into policy papers
SUDUULLCIS the campaign will argue for their
voted BaCCO 2000s Tese.
NUPE's annual
taken,
The union would then have
these DAUCES nationally, providing an alternative to the executive's own The
Work has already begun on the production of a women's agreement
The NUPE East Midlands government's division has produced a report
facilities in negotiations. conjunction with the Nottingham Workshop, and a wider
report being commissioned by the NUPE ILEA district committee on technology and press freedom.
And the liaison committee
brought about measure of unity between the half dozen unions involved in
offensive has otherwise remained on the side
and the threat of another lock-out will keep it that way unless the unions take action to challenge
'right' to decide whether production resumes.
A work-in is the best means for the workers to take the
It would rally
support fontedefence of jobs,
demonstrate pracuical way thi need for the labour movement to have its own mass daily
It is hoped to hold a national
301 NUPE in the autumn.
It is also planned to launch NUPE Against the Nazis from the London divisional council. I to take on Fisher.
We'll treat them
like Tories'
By Stuart Madewell NUPE member LOCAL AUTHORITY workers in Tower Hamlets fight on.
A mass meeting last Thursday
overwhelmingly to escalate the action already beins
placing all counci employees on all-out strike.
This now includes home helps, meals on wheels, and staff at residential homes. members of NUPE, TGWU, all-out decision and GMWU is in defiance of the
by these unions accept the miserable pay offer. We are demanding local
The Labour-controlled coun cil has been very obliging. Its only suggestion so far is that if we go back to work they'll talk about the claim.
The mass meeting had a
The TIMES Challenger
More Press-Not these STUP THE CLOSURE:
Times staff call for re-instatement and resumption of publication
Campaigns on issues such as these, through which militants will be able to actively oppose the leadership, will provide the basis for building an opposition different idea. The message was: *If the Labour council wants to behavelike Tories we'll treat them like Tories.'
One of the Tower Hamlets councillors is Jamie Morris, the NUPE branch secretary Westminster Hospital, whose determination to refuse services to David Ennals was rapidly followed by Morris's call to end all action in the hospital.
We wait with interest to see if turn-coat Morris can reconcile his ambition to be a Labour MP with support for our claim.
*A mass meeting of local authority workers in Hackney, East London, voted this week to end their all-out strike and retter Menand tool
Their demand for negotiations met with only one concession: to cut their 38-hour week by one hour from next August.
Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Involve the whole
Birmingham strikers aim to
HOME NEWS
Unit findings.
service, has revealed that the union prepared to accept payment in stages.
How can civil capitulating on pay?
By Rich Palser
Lord Peart has recommended that Pay search findings be paid by April 1980, the amount being agreed by arbitration.
It takes little imagination to guess what the first stage increase would be - the going rate' established by the public sector of per cent, thereabouts.
InIS is nowhere near the demand of the civil service union conferences for unfettered Pay Research. The Pay Research findings are based on
pay position servants now, not April By Jude Woodward
BIRMINGHAM General Hospital faces complete shutdown from next Monday,
ancillary workers NUPE go on indefinite strike and picketing action will aim to close the hospital doors.
At a meeting Wednesday of last week the Birmingham Central branch of NUPE voted by a majority of five to one to step up action in support of their claim.
This decision was followed by a motion giving 12 days' notice to the regional health authority Birmingham General Hospital would completely closed, by definite strike action, from 19 February.
TENANT
WANT DEAL HOMES all'.
Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 6
Civil service claim
membership!
AN OFFER is likely in the civil servants' pay dispute; an offer which will almost certainly fall far short of the claim for the full implementation of the Pay Research
Lord Peart, the Minister responsible for the civil
leaders are
servants prevent their leaders
1980.
You cannot pay today's bills now with promises of increases next Re- year.
The selective action which involves 1,300 union members will certainly force government to give the 'going rate' - that much, in any case, was guaranteed by what ine public sector or WON More is needed to win the claim in full. The objective has to be to involve membership in action.
In a review policy, the Civil civil Services Association larger of the two unions taking
shut down hospital
There were no votes against this motion.
The health authority responded by saying that the hospital will be kept open at all COSES. brought in to cover the NUPE ancillary workers' jobs.
Not surprisingly, the threat to close the brought an outraged reaction from the local press.
The Birmingham Evening Mail headlined its 'Contemptible threat to the General' and went on to explain strikers neither sympathy nor a pay rise. be The brunt of the attack has in- been borne by Dick Hackett, the NUPE branch secretary, dubbed 'Red Dick'
FORTY people occupied a Greater London Council 'dream home' at the Ideal Home Exhibition last week to demand 'ideal homes for
The protest was organised by Housing Action against the hypocrisy of those who 'build ideal homes only to take them down again a few weeks later, while thousands of people are without
action - sets out the arguments for selective strike action.
The review unlike the private sector, government is not motivated by profit, and because it can claim that strikes bv interfere with the democracy of government, me umons cannot win a major confrontation.
Leaving aside the fact that this means giving up hope of victory before neither argument Workers in the public sector do not hit directly profits when they take action.
Their ability to win depends on the gaining the support of other workers and ZOYCEILLICHIL This requires the involveworkers have ment of all the membership.
The participation of per percent of the members in the one-das strike on 23 February shows the whole that they can be won to action.
The claim that strike action or is striKe by civil servants and Public democracy is on a par with the
argument that action by health workers puts life at risk. Both press. He is a supporter of Militant and active in the has Campaign for NUPE.
Dick's response to the health authority's threat to keep the hospital open has been to call on the local labour movement to support the picket of the hospital has hospital.
This is what he called for on local television last Birmingham trades council has
editorial been
support the picket.
COHSE
deserved hospital, who have nationally
accepted offer, have agreed not to do NUPE jobs, but they will not be out on strike themselves.
The chances
by the HESSIVE confrontation ЕХНІЙТІ INSULTS
DEXE HUMEO FUR ALL HOMELESS
sub-standard accommodation'.
argues that, puts these things at risk.
SUNC
UnCH civil servants living standards
you begin, right. Public staged deal, private
isolating
members should
disrupts
one-day Action aumories WIll aSK
through the picket line.
call it off now. wee Barry
approached to NUPE isional officer members in the
the government's membership'.
19 February. will
HOMES-
homes of any kind, and millions are condemned to live in
Housing Action is a new group which aims to bring together the different strands in the housing movement. Further details from Housing Action, 52 Acre ane, London SW4.
can be countered by explaining that it is the goverment which
To deny the civil servants the right to strike is to deny them
democratic right organise in defence of their
With a paltry pay offer or the cards, civil servants should
the membership of the CPSA and the Society of Civil and
Servants against any and for the stepping up of action to involve the membership nationally.
Branch and area committee pay action sub-committees are needed to involve members in deciding what action to take.
The SCPS is pledged to hold regional one-day strikes. CPSA
organise in their union for a refusal to cross the picket lines, and wherever possible to join in the strikes.
Mass support on the picket lines of those taking selective action can be achieved by area
strikes, and the rejection of any staged deal. develop outside the hospital on Monday. No doubt the hospital has
the police to ensure that the scabs get
It is unlikely that the local LaW union bureaucracy will intervene to call off the action. The feeling among the membership is so strongly behind the strike has that it would be very difficult to
The Shuttleworth, the West Midlands divand national said that Dick Hackett was a sensible chap who reflects the views of his
The picket of the General Hospital will begin at 6am on
repeal.
think in order.
to the
wasn't
FIVE thousand students marched through London last Friday as part of the National Union of Students' campaign for a 27 per cent increase in the basic grant, mandatory grant provision for all 16 to 19 year old students, and an end to the means test (a survey published in 1975 showed that 75 per cent of students did not have their award made up to the full amount by their parents).
Photo: PETER CHILD
TUC backs down
on trespass law
By Jude Woodward A RECENT circular from the TUC, signed by Len Murray,
instructed unions and withdraw support from the Campaign Against the Criminal Trespass
The circular, addressed to all affiliated unions and trades councils, claims that CACTL
been counter-productive and has caused contusion'
only evidence put forward for this is that at the last Labour Party conference various unions voted against CACTL's motion calling for the repeal of the Act, leavin the abour Party with n policy on the issue.
The TUC call for amendment of specific sections of the Act, whereas CACT calls for its
Len Murray does not seem to
that amendment absolutely necessary. the
In the circular Murray says that the Home Secretary has said 'there has been no evidence of abuse of the criminal trespass provisions nor of the aid'
Act having unfortunate effects in industrial disputes', if such evidence emerges then discus. sions on amendment would be
The purpose of the Act is not to limit trade union activities and this had been pointed out
police, the Home Secretary had explained.
But the Public Order Act
introduced to stop anti-fascists mobilising and yet that hasn't prevented it being used that way.
CACTL has the support of well over 300 labour movement bodies, unions, trades councils and others who support the campaign for the repeal of the whole of the Act.
Len Murray's instruction that such bodies *should -HOI support or sponsor conferences being promoted by CACTL should be roundly rejected
Len Murray is the one who is being 'counter-productive and causing confusion'.
For the real facts about the effects and implications of the Criminal Trespass Law, CACTL have excellent pamphlet, OTOGUCCE Whose Hall
Law and Order? At 20p plus postage it is very good value from: CACTL, 35 Wellington St, London WC2.
Demonstration Defence Unit THE Demonstration Defence Unit was formed in London in March 1978 by legal workers and law students in response to
increasing number and randomness of arrests on anti-racist and other demon-
It provides free legal first
on demonstrations, conjunction with local law centres where they exist, by leafletting demonstrators about their rights if arrested, by taking on-the-spot witness statements, by attempting to secure the fast release of those arrested and by helping with the setting up of defence committees afterwards.
As a by-product of this activity, areas of unusually desperate legal need sometimes found and we can help local groups -in efforts to set up emergenc legal services.
If you are organising event and would like some legal presence (London only), contact the DDU at 289 3876.
Page 7 scan of this page
Women's TUC - basis for advance
HOME NEWS
LET
RELF
ROT.
Saturday.
Muggers Unite.
By Celia Pugh
The ANL supporters came from as far afield as Liverpool, Wolverhampion, Wales East Anglia to chant: 'Racism is a crime, Relf should serve time'.
The Public Order Act was used to deny them access to the town centre to spread their anti-racist message. But their numbers and determination made sure that the police could
DUCTIL them marching to the prison itself.
Here they let Relf know what they thought of his racism: *Remember race murders, Relf rot'. Meanwhile the NF's 800 supporters were forced to wander through the deserted streets of Winchester to meet in a cul de sac a mile from the
This encouraging mobilisation by the anti-fascist movement against the NF's attempts to recoup credibility in time for the general election now needs to be built on. For this we need a plan of action, which can best be drawn up through the holding of an ANL conference.
This would also allow us to thrash out the thorny problem of tactics which was once again raised at Winchester. At one stage the unity of the demonstration Wds badly splintered by confusion over its objectives.
Was our purpose to confront the NF physically on streets or to counter assault on the freedom of black people in the name of free speech"?
Should we have applied the same tactics on the streets of Winchester as we do when
CARF
Campaign Against
Racism and Fascism
No. 8 out now
Black Self Defence SPG Illegal Immigration Intelligence Unit Local Authority bans plus news and reports
Available from progressive book Box 35 182 Uper St London C from CARF
Remember racist murders
FREEZING RAIN did not deter 2,500 Anti Nazi League supporters from rallying in Winchester last
They had come to oppose a National Front march in solidarity with Robert Relf, now on hunger strike to defend his 'right' to print leaflets proclaiming 'Nigger
and from
ROBERT RELF
defending black
let in Lewisham and Brick Lane?
Last Saturday showed that we need clearer answers to these questions if the AN is to build up its strength and unity in the months to come.
*The trial of three whites charged in connection with the racist murder of Ferreira in Hackney December has begun at the Old Bailey. The trial is expected to last all this week, and daily pickets Care being outside at 10.30am. For details phone 01-806 5554 between 6 and 7pm.
the By Roy Davies their
THE WELSH electorate voted by 4 to 1 on 1 March against the government's devolution proposals. effect they voting against separatism, and against any furtherance of local government bureaucracy.
For those who now believe that an irrelevant diversion has been ended, and the real stuff of politics can MCCOs To oe saa nat unc actud problems of Welsh politics remain.
Wales still requires a national solution to the crisis language and culture, it still needs a national economic plan to resolve the problems of the industrial valleys and the rural hill farmers, as well as the divisive communications network.
The Assembly offered the potencald a polio a dress could begin itself to these concerns. Instead the Labour leadership cynically presented it asd nationalism, or as a would-be of unpopular local government.
By Irene Bruegel NATPHE THIS WINTER thousands of low-paid women workers have taken strike action against wage communities controls.
But they didn't get a mention at last week's Women's TUC Nor did women fighting for their jobs country. were passed without opposition and without political debate.
Nevertheless
Women's TUC advance.
Michael and clear
last feminist challenge "traditional family breadwinner and housekeeping, wife. organised Discrimination
trade union movement itself was attacked. The conference called for positive steps to be
Welsh vote a setback
The government has been hastened whilst a potential Welsh body of resistance has been removed. The need for the left now is to
were further
Welsh realities and begin to evolve a encompasses them. paign by Socialist Challenge supporters for a Yes' vote was a small but important step in continue, it that direction.
Plaid Cymru pursued its half-hearted and uncertain attitude devolution proposals at of end. Although aware that the proposed Assembly was recognition of nationalism, they were frightened that their "independent' Wales might be discredited in an ineffective talking shop.
Both nationalists and social democrats were unable to break to address out of the phony limits of their
ideologies. Neither separatism nor an evolution of WestminSUD ster politics can
solution to Welsh problems.
It is the Labour Party which will suffer the more immediate
A THOUSAND women marched through Leeds on Friday demanding an end to violence against women. The demonstration in Leeds was the culmination of a week of
mccungs,
to women,
to women.
up and down the activity and Worthy resolutions
real changes to be made.
this year's new technology was an
the WaS to the of male UnKnowical lazarus dependent,
within the benefits
share of housework. of a Tory crisis.
understanding
programme that Labour MPs.
The cam-
meanwhile current to the democracy! the As things
emergent North and South,
goal of class programme. provide any backwards.
taken to overturn the male domination of unions, for creches to be organised at trade
for training to be more accessible
and for decision-making bodies to be opened up
However, it will take a lot of
organisation by women within unions for any unreal
The key debate was on the
those microprocessors which threaten 1½ million women's jobs in combat offices, shops and factories and which will expose women to
But conference didn't call for resistance, only the sharing of
cutting hours of work so men take their full
It was pointed out that 25 per 1½
Not merely was its machine miserably inadequate in mobilising support for its own policies, but a vigorous campaign against Labour and TUC conference decisions wa: THE mounted by the Gang of Six'
The irony of Labour MPs Although like Leo Abse urging rejection of devolution because of the weekend example of decades of corrupt that Labour rule in local govern- yes' ment speaks volumes for the
state of social conference
stand now, the divisions within Wales between
Welsh and English speaking, are likely to manifesto. grow at the expense of working
and political
It is here that the real setback of the devolution vote is to be seen. The chance of developing FLEESE, a real political body that could address itself to those problems that only the Welsh people can acterme nas taken a step
action when women around the country organised a wide range of protests against violence. cent of fathers in Britain had never put their children to bed and 75 per cent had never taken time off to look after a sick child. Women argued that the new technological revolution should be used to change that
But how can it be, if the system of profits, of capitalism, is not overturned? In the
atmosphere COT the Women's TUC far removed from the workplace, the new technology was accepted anc DOC no programme of action to
increasing unemployment was even considered.
The Women's TUC lacks muscle. The General Council can and do ignore it. They failed to respond to the call made in 1977 and 1978 for more
(there are two - one for every
million trade
Scottish Labour
says 'wait'
By Des Tierney
LABOUR Party in Scotland has effectively ditched its commitment to the setting up of an elected Assembly.
executive statement to its conference last
welcomed the fact a majority voted and *reaffirmed its commitment to devolution', the refusal of the executive and
to demand the immediate setting up I of the Assembly means that the issue IS relegated to a pious statement of intent in the general election
The party's commitment to devolution and the democratic
of Scoffish WOrKINg people were less important for delegates than election year
What is not clear is how this new policy will help Labour in Scotland at the next election.
Throughout Saturday's morning session the chants of an SNP and Scottish Labour Party demonstration outside the hall
unionists).
This the call was repeated. since the TUC Women's Advisory Committee has more men nominated by the General Council than women elected by the Women's Conference on it, not much hope lies there.
The Women's TUC shouldn't be written off. It can be transformed into a fighting
representing women throughout the trade union movement
To do that means, however, that male domination within each and every union must be fought by women organising themselves. If this were done the Women's TUC could no longer be ignored. could be heard. 'Scotland said yes", they declared, '52 per cent means yes.
Such slogans, simple but logical, are bound to gain a hearing within the working class in Scotland. The tragedy for socialists is that these are the slogans of nationalists and not of the Labour Party or its leadership.
The Labour Party's decisions make it especially urgent that socialists actively support the Assembly and raise in the working class the case for immediate elections to it.
As an editorial in last week's Socialist Worker noted, the referendum outcome means that socialists should demand the government proceed with
call on Labour MPs to vote in favour'.
Trade unionists, students and Labour Party members should all demand that their representatives campaign for immediate elections to Scottish Assembly.
Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page
Page 8 scan of this page
THE MURDER D INTERNAL The burial of the Comintern
Union.
What went wrong?
By Tariq
The theoretica. basis of internationalism was deeply embedded in
consciousness the Bolshevik leadership. fact determining the insurrection in October 1917 had been Lenin's belief that a revolution was imminent in Germany.
The revolution in Russia was seen by all Bolsheviks as the harbinger DO CLan al Europe.
The notion of 'building socialism in one country' appeared bizarre even six years after the revolution. Stalin wrote:
*The overthrow of the power of the bourgeoisic and une estabusament or a proletarian government in one country does not yet guarantee the complete victory of socialism...
'Can this task be accomplished, can the final victory of socialism in. one country be attained, without the joint efforts of the proletariat of several advanced countries? No, impossible.
*To overthrow the bourgeoisie, the efforts of one country are sufficient — the history of our revolution bears this out. For the final victory of socialism, Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 8
SIXTY YEARS ago this month, delegates from 35 revolutionary organisations responded to an appeal signed by Lenin and Trotsky and gathered in Moscow. The Communist International was born.
Twenty-four years later its death was formally announced by Stalin and it was cremated without any fuss or pomp. In reality it had died long before that, and with it had been buried all the internationalist aspirations of the Communist Party of the Soviet
The murder of proletarian internationalism four decades ago recently reaped its bitter harvest on the battlefields of Indochina.
for the organisation
'entire as Russia, are insufficient.
One important 'For this proletarians
The formation of the
of the world, but also for the throughout workers.
In 1924 created throughout the countries. this The first four
less and less frequent.
OTTO GRIEBEL'S painting 'Die Internationale' (you won't spot any women). It now hangs in the East Berlin Museum for German History.
label of socialist production, the efforts of one country, particularly of such a peasant country
the efforts of the of several advanced
Communist therefore, a vital necessity not just for the oppressed of
Russian day
There could be many criticisms of some or me lacacs acobica Dy Comintern in its early years, but its aim was never in doubt. The Comintern was
unify Party. world, to use the strengths of the Russian revolution in order to aid the overthrow of capitalism and imperialism on a global scale.
The message which emerged from the Soviet leaders was concise and clear: if you want to help the Soviet Union, then make the revolution in your own
congresses of the Comintern were held annually from 1919 to 1922. Following Lenin's death, the sharp split inside the Russian party, and the victory of Stalin, they became
them
The sixth congress, which decided to
social-democrats as fascists', was held in 1928; the seventh and last congress was held in 1935. This latter embarked on the strategy of popular fronts, a grotesque caricature of the early Comintern positions on the united front. The logic was obvious.
From 1933 onwards the Comintern disappeared from Stalin's speeches and writings. There was one mention March 1939 when he denounced slanderous the allegation that the CI was fomenting revolutions. 1943 he announced its stating that it would 'put an end to a calumny.
In reality the Comintern had ceased to be a revolutionary force after the tourta congress. It was increasingly being misused by the dominant faction in the Russian party.
Inner-party disputes in the CPSU determined the line in China in the 1920s. The defeat of the 1927 uprising in Shanghai was a serious blow for the working class in China and Russia.
By the 1930s the contours of present-
Soviet foreign policy firmly established. The defeat Germany had been utilised to ram the theory of 'socialism in one country' down the throat of every Communist
The main task Communist parties throughout world was, according to the Stalinised Comintern, to ensure the existence of the Soviet Union. How? Here Stalin stood Leninism on its head.
The tactics of CPs were to be determined not by the need overthrow the bourgeoisie in their own countries, but by the narrowly defined interests of the Soviet state. Thus the CPs were to align themselves with the bourgeoisie of their own countries if the local ruling class was on good terms with the Soviet Union.
The zig-zags carried out by the Communist parties and their questioning loyalty to the Soviet state and its bureaucracy reflected a form of perverted internationalism. It destroyed
as revolutionary however.
In France, in 1936, the CP helped to defuse a strike wave of revolutionary proportions; in Spain the CP organised a civil war within the working class by liquidating forces on its left; in Greece Stalin disarmed the partisans at a crucial stage. After the war the French and Italian Ps loyally accepted the agreement at Yalta.
Where revolutions were made they were carried out by parties which broke empirically with Stalin:
Vietnam and China are the Call Co
The dominant characteristic Soviet foreign policy became that of defending the status quo. For this was the best way of preserving the stability of bureaucratic rule.
Peaceful co-existence practised by Stalin, then
Khrushchev, and finally by Mao, with "social- devastating results for the international
workers movement. The internationalIsm of lenin national chauvinism of the bureaucгасу.
bureaucracy was moving outwards. the assimilation of Eastern Europe, with the establishment of regimes modelled on the Stalinist as monstrosity in Russia, was required to consolidate its military and political Then in position in Europe. It was necessary to dissolution, contain imperialism.
occondly BUNC bureaucracy presides over a society in which capitalism does not exist compels it towards an objective tension with imperialism.
has no revolutionary content whatsoever, it is a fact that the Soviet Union provided vital military and economic aid to the Cuban extension of that was the decision of the Russian leaders not to oppose the Cuban intervention in Angola. had been
in Soviet Union is the only major power which provides military aid designed to bring down the southern Africa. The important point is that it is quite happy to assign the confronting accomplishment of this task to African
nationalists.
aiding the pro-Moscow Communist parties in the region!
to new Cubas (in the positive sense), the Kremlin advises caution and seeks to SHOUTE initiatives. Angola, South Yemen and Afghanistan are proclaimed by the Western press to be 'communist.
isolated by imperialism, held at arm's
un- length by Comecon, but constructing
powerful state apparatuses with the backing of the Germany. parties,
areas. If they went the way of Cuba they would considerably weaken the imperialist hold in the region. But until differing degrees, as instruments or the foreign policy bureaucracy.
the Comintern was founded there is not the slightest trace of internationalism in the actions of those parties which once belonged to it.
Yugoslavia,
best sole repository of the traditions of the
early Comintern of International founded by Trostky in 1938.
justifiably proud at banner of proletarian internationalism. was first But a gulf still exists between where we
by are and where we aim to go.
was replacca Dy lac WHETEST
In order to defend this regime the
quite capable of fact the
so, although soviet foreign polic
revolution. An
There can be little doubt that the
Even
settler regimes in hatred,
The Kremlin is totally uninterested in
building of even
Even where it is possible to create
advance by
spontancous
states that are
In fact they are curious hybrids:
USSR and East
All three states are in vital strategic years ago.
*Our TEYOOTER
been used. of the
of the Soviet revolutionary It is a tragedy that sixty years after
On an international scale today the
World'
Fourth
Those of us who belong to it can be
upholding the
Gromyko, 1968
OUR foreign policy is and
be characterised resoluteness in defending the sta
of -ENE Soviet people, safeguarding the inviolability of o land frontiers, maritime coasts and a space, and in protecting the dignity the Soviet tiag and the rights ar security of Soviet citizens. Minister, Pranda, 22 June ves Forei
Trotsky, 1919
"SEVENTY-TWO years have pass since the Communist Party announc its programme to the world in the for of a Manifesto written by the greate teachers of the proletarian revolutio Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
communist which had barely entered the arena struggle, was beset by baiting, lie
and persecution of possessing classes, who rightly sense in it their mortal enemy.
'In the course of those seven decad communism developed along compl paths, periods of stormy advan alternating with periods of decline; has known successes, but also seve defeats. But essentially the moveme proceeded along the path indicated
Manitesto of ti Communist Party
"The epoch of final, decisive strugg came later than the apostles of soci revolution had expected and hope But it has come
•We communists, the representativ of the revolutionary proletariat various countries of Europe, Americ and Asia, who have gathered in Sovi Moscow, feel and consider ourselves be heirs and executors of the whose programme was announced
task is to generalise th experience of th working elass, to cleanse the movemer
disintegrating opportunism and social-patriotism, mobilise the forces of all genuinel
parties of the worl proletariat and thereby facilitate an hasten the victory of the communi revolution throughout the world.
Opening paragraphs
•Manifesto of the Communist Intel national to the Proletariat of the Entir
written by Trotsky an adopted unanimously by the foundin congress of the Third Communis
Page 9 scan of this page
"PROLETARIAN TONAL SM How can there be wars between
By Livio Maitan
COUNTRIES which Marxist-Leninist, and where capitalism has been overthrown. are and nave been involved in military operations or even partial wars against countries of the same social character.
This raises at least two questions: - What are the causes of these conflicts? Is it possible that in conflicts of this kind will develop and take on the dimensions of a war unlimited in time and space?
Trotskyists characterise a series of European and Asian countries (not to mention Cuba, which is a very specific case) as transitional societies. But at the
time they specify societies nave an suricica a proround bureaucratic degeneration or deformation.
This bureaucratisation consists of two basic elements: the absence socialist democracy allowing effective participation of the masses — and in the first place the working class
- in political leadership, construction of socialism' amits of a single country.
In other words, if certain structural elements are absent or are completely deformed, the society being built concretely takes on very characteristics, and it is inevitably drawn into a different dynamic from that of a society actually advancing towards socialism.
The absence of socialist democracy means that the working class and the mass of working people in general are cxcaca trom poncal cadersmp. it means, for instance, that decisions on
workers' states?
claim to be and make it count.
inherited from
construction. and preferable
future other
and in the practice of workers states.
in Tact,
that these bureaucracy's power.
economic of national framework. the
party and the within the political One,
capitalism. specific
framework and such a logic -
the absolute
economic unity which involves
national limits.
The Soviet bureaucracy sends its army to crush the Hungarian uprising.
war or peace can be made without the masses being able to express their will
The building of socialism in one country means that the national state —
the bourgeoisie becomes the framework of socialist
This is even necessary according to the theorisations of half a century (from those of Stalin/Bukharin in 1924 to
the existing
This is a central element. The national state as such is presented as the roundanon or te wransinonal society. An
it is the source of the
Can one say that this has economic roots? Only in a mediated form, in the sense that the bureaucrats conceive of
construction within this
But the source of bureaucratic powe is control over the state apparatus
apparatus which essentially integrated into the state. That is why the basic motivation is a
from logic of a state constructed within a national framework, inherited from
Conflicts between workers states are inevitable once one accepts such a acquire
- once one
working class interests are concerned, is
prerequisite for real socialist construction: an international
from wish. the start the breaking down of existing
COULLEY H
occurred,
there capitalist 1968.
'foreign'
These conflicts can be fuelled by, among other things, different or even opposed economic interests. This was the case in the immediate post-war years in relation to the mixed societies between the USSR and the countries of Western Europe; and it could arise now in the event of certain specific choices made by Comecon.
But the fundamental causes are to be found on the political level: international policy should be adopted in a given period, what agreements made and what alliances sought, what form of military preparation defence should be chosen.
example the importance Ene start Sino-Soviet conflict of the problem of detente and relations with the United States (at the time the positions held were une opposite or wial uncy are today and the question of nuclear weapons (the Chinese refused to accept Moscow's thesis that the USSR was and should remain the nuclear shield of the entire "socialist world').
From the viewpoint of 'socialism in one country it becomes logical to accept and even to advocate a division into spheres of influence; and therefore to become preoccupied with defence — and eventual extension - of these spheres. Border questions in turn
an importance which exceeds their intrinsic significance.
In fact a terrible logic is unleashed which can escape the control of the bureaucratic leading groups themselves and carry them further than they would
How can such disputes, based on the existence of different 'socialisms in one
become transformed armed conflicts?
On the basis of what has already
outline possibilities: 1. A bureaucratic leadership inter venes militarily when it considers that
exists a short-term danger of restoration in workers state, whose leadership seems incapable of confronting the danger.
As we know, that was Moscow's justification for its interventions Hungary and Czechoslovakia. But in fact this theoretical hypothesis has yet to be translated into reality. 2. A bureaucratic leadership intervenes with its army to prevent or destroy mass anti-bureaucratic movements taking on a dymanic of political revolution. This is what happened in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in
In these cases what occurred was more exactly civil war, where
bureaucracy intervened against both the masses and sections of
what
and
decisive of the
week.
the bureaucracy, Moscow considered that the latter were incapable of warding off the threats to the bureaucratic regime itself, or were involved in extreme y dynamic of concessions.
3. Bureaucratic leaderships engage in military conflicts without there being any danger of capitalist restoration or political the logic of competing 'socialisms in one country'- in other words, the defence or extension of
far spheres of interest, the maintenance of
control by one country over another which seeks independence for itself, etc.
This is what happened with the Sino-Soviet conflict, especially in the present phase, conflicts in Asia.
into
three
another
VIETNAMESE peasants killed by Chinese shelling in the Laokal city region last
because
dangerous
revolutionary
revolution because of the bureaucratic caste. interests temporary
bureaucracy. win greater
more than ever
and with the current they put forward 1968 — the Prague Spring is crushed by the Soviet invasion.
This article does not aim to draw conclusions as to political orientation or to advance precise slogans. What it is concerned to underline is that the logic of socialism in one country - just like the bureaucratic denial of socialist democracy - has to be fought from a
position, from the perspective of a political revolution for
overthrow runng
This does not exclude the adoption of
tactical positions in response to particular attitudes or moves by this or that section of the
But, from the strategic point of view, revolutionaries must fight - today
against all the bureaucratic regimes, whatever their specific characteristics and whatever the ideological/political justifications Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page
Page 10 scan of this page
French steelworkers throw down the
Carter's unnecessary journey
WHAT'S
LEFT
word. wispiay te per colum wearine. spm saturday before Poncanon. rayment in aovance.
PICKE GARNERS: Main very day, noon to 3pm and 5.30 to 11
399 Oxtoros London 243 Oxford St (Oxford Circus); 40-41 Haymarket; 56 vincombe si. Leicester so.). Mass
every Saturday at noon, 399
as suike Day is only Lo. Ail donalon
1c lo hennera o, Londor 106. VITU 1:000 BLACK women's national conferenc
by the Organisation of women or asian and Alrican Descen'
›unday 18 March at Abena Centr
mesnam Mo. brixion. London w wam for ine wnole day. worksnons
ooo. crecne. our tecisitation on ine
INTERNATIONAL forum on Women ana he Drue Companies. soeakers on Deco-Provera. multinationals anc the contraceotive incusity rib Maron 7pm at Seymour Hall. Shouldham St
ernational Campaign for. Abortio W1. Organised
Racism. in Sheffield 10." Schoo
SS0D rK oners Aid Committee - Revolu Committee
Cornis so ker an do the ins
Bution: speaker Terry Marlowe WC1: 7.30pm1 12 rom St
son St,
the Haldan
dane Society of st Lawyers Sat 24 March 11 ce on Theatre, Chal Fee: E1.50 te chee Application Applicationp10s Secretar ound papers.
Haidane Society, 14 Parkfield Rd, London NO.
KEYOLUTONARY Communict Tan.
March, 7.30pm, The Roebuck, 108
ennam count ho. Loncon We (Goodge St and Warren St tubes.) TRADE Union Day Conference on Chile Sa1 24 March. NUR Unity House De coates invites trom all trade union
Chile solidarit 129 Seven bisters no London N7
Centre. London, 28 March: SpaCente,
caminoton soa. 26 March. Bookir 1-387 6293 (London), Coventry 70752 Leamincton).
PADDINGTON/Notting Hill
Dancing, rinking, eating. at, 24 Powis Square, Wil
• rontinian speakers.
Premiere
MAY DAY GREETINGS: would your
stewards
Contact Weppler, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP (tel. 01-359 8371).
(incorporating ISARFL
Silent describing the assassination of
Sudbury douse SOM LTO Tickets from Chile Solidarity Sisters Rd,
urgh 30 March. Film only
Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 10
discuss unemployment.
Meanwhile march on Paris on 23 March. the By Martin Meteyard
The French proposal to cut 23,000 jobs in the steel industry over the next two years has sparked off a mounting challenge to its entire ссолошс programme.
The Prime Minister, mond Barre, has staked his political future on 'making French industry competitive'. In the last year this has meant a 20 per cent rise in unemployment to 1.3 million, and huge price increases as controls have been scrapped.
Not that this has brought much action from the leaders of the two mass parties of the working class. Since the election defeat a year ago the Socialist and Communist parties have SUCTIL of their squabbling over who responsible.
These divisions have been mirrored in the two main trade By David Wax
WHEN the Camp euphoria was being acclaimed throughout the Western world, IMG we pointed out that it was a charade an act for which Begin and Sadat deserved an Oscar. Subsequent events have vindicated our estimate.
The United States desperate for After the events in Iran their overriding concern PALESTINIAN children in a camp
INTERNATIONAL
gauntlet
THE FRENCH parliament is meeting in emergency session this week for the first time in twenty years to
steelworkers are planning a massive
union federations - the CGT, dominated by the CP, and the government's CFDT, which
looks toward the SP.
So the last year has seen no concerted national action by the trade unions - merely the odd 'day Ray- separately by one federation or the other, plus stress on the need to negotiate with the government and the employers.
The steelworkers, however, have other ideas about how to save their jobs.
In the space of a few weeks their militancy unemplovment the number one issue in French politics.
north and virtually closed down on 16 LEEC February when other workers was joined the steelworkers in a one-day general French daily reported: preserve 'stability' in the Arab
David The State Department would like this to be done by trilateral talks, thus virtually excluding other Western influence, not to mention the Soviet Union.
The failure
setback for that project.
The reason for the failure is obvious. The Israelis were not to prepared to make even token
were blocked, paralysed,
Havange. completely
for a few hours. with searched. increasingly
organised
La consistent
were wounded
quarters.
has made
areas of east France were opulist Gaullist
10
Le Monde ment. concessions Palestinians. "Self-government"
retaining an
of Carter's represents a serious
particular
As a Palestinian son put it Panorama: The - no-one's concern in the current talks.
*Motorways and rail lines
factories were demonstrations occurred everywhere. In Lorraine, the cities of Longwy,
and Rombas blockaded on Friday morning, as was Bries
The government's response was to send in the riot police. In the northern town of Denain they fired teargas into a lorry full of workers returning from a meeting on Tuesday 6 March, forcing them out of the vehicle
their hands up to be
The reaction was swift. Next day 1,500 steelworkers drove bulldozers towards the police station in an attempt to storm it, and bitter clashes ensued. redundancies
That night unknown snipers wounded seven policemen with rifle shots, and next day there this campaign were further battles in which more than 30 demonstrators
in a police barrage of teargas at close
observers began te and even recall the events of May '68 noting, however, that this time the police were not engaging students but trade unionists.
And under this pressure the
party, the RPR, joined with the SP and CP
that President Giscard d'Estaing convoke an emergency session of parlia-
The RPR blames the steel
regarding the
on the West Bank, in any event, meant
Israeli military Sadat's presence and the settlements. proaching
But Begin's refusal to set a firm date for even this joke of self-government made it impossible for the Egyptian leader to prostrate himself any further.
spokesperon BBC TV's outcome of with Israel. of stability. ver March in versity
Leeds cunchtime
Golesmiins
S.O.S
emploi
cidt
steelworkers have even radio station in Longwy, which broadcasts every evening at 7pm.
on German competition. And the CP has been only too willing to join it in
In demonstrations in Lorraine they have taken part with banners bearing such slogans as "Lorraine won't be sold off to the big German corporations'
*1870, 1914, 1940, that's enough!'
This criminal attempt to turn the anger of French workers away from their own employers and towards their comrades in the West German steel mills plays directly into the hands of the bosses' propaganda
In reality the French lay-offs are only one part of a West European 'steel plan' aimed at drastically reducing the workthe talks will not affect what Palestinians want. It might affect what others are trying to inflict on them.'
audacity apthe - Israelis was clearly in the interests of the Egyptian bourgeoisie.
After their break with the Soviet Union, Egyptian leaders were desperate for a deal with the United State. This necessitated an accommodation
It was noteworthy that the Shah was invited to visit Egypt after his fall. Soon after, Sadat played the prostitute without
take the place of Iran, he told his American friends.
But Sadat's failure will only increase his isolation from the
too want a deal, but one which will lead to at least a modicum
This means that the PLO
involved
Grogan on speaking tour
1pm. Birmingham (Sni Buildings Unior Friends House. Bull S 16 Marci
and evenina names (evening).
set up their own private
force in steel throughout the Common Market countries
The recent strike by West German steelworkers for 35-hour week to stop redundancies shows that there is a clear basis for international action.
And at last Saturday's conference of the LCDTU in London, a steelworkers' delegate from the threatened Corby plant announced that they planned to contact the French workers to discuss coordinated action in defence of jobs.
and not nationalist flag-waving, is the way mount a real challenge to the divide-and-rule tactics of the West European capitalists. negotiations. The Saudis and the Syrians are at one on this question.
The European Economic Community is just as interested as the United States in the oil of the Arab world. So its leaders were not too pleased at the trilateral negotiations.
The British Foreign Office hes closer links with the Saudh and the Gulf States than with Egypt (hence the Queen's visit to shore up this relationship).
Owen is now proposing that the Geneva talks should resume with the presence of the PLO and the Soviet Union. Thus inter-imperialist contradiction: still play a vital role in relation to the Arab East.
The failure of Carter's mission will be welcomed by virtually all the factions of the Palestinian resistance.
It proves again that without the right of self-determination for the Palestinians nothing will ever be solved in the region. A boom. Trades unim Adelphi us
Best. March, (unctime); cainburgn (evening).
Brighton SHUI (evening). unchtime April
Page 11 scan of this page
Army weakened EYEWITNESS
US demo planned for abortion rights
the country only a few days ago.
He visited of recent developments. On the guerrilla organisations and the army Although there are differences between the Fedayeen and the Mojahedeen - the former refer to Das Kapital and the latter to the Koran - what is interesting is that there is a growing unity in action.
Both are agreed on necessity to smash the army and create a popular militia. Both groups were strongly opposed
all handing back weapons.
Both groups are also in the forefront of the opposition to the weak regime of Bazargan. Rajavi, leader Mojahedeen, recently attacked Bazarzan -for attempting stop the permanence of the revolution'
As far
as the army concerned, we must be careful. I don't believe that it has been smashed. It suffered serious political defeat, and it is in no position at the moment to organise a coup, but it is still intact.
There is a common thesis on this within the left. It something like this: the Shah's generals were preparing a coup, but the United States saw no chances of success and opposed
They then organised against it and organised a counter-coup within the army. This was volve dismembering Immortals' and removing the generals. The officers who did that would then OCCONC popular. But the entry of the masses disrupted the plan.
However, the army remains a
IF MEN GOR
PREGNANT
ABORTION
WOULD
• SACRAMENT
CAMPAIGNING for abortion rights in New Mexico. By Rose Knight
FEMINISTS from Women's
Centres across United States have formed the Abortion Rights Movement in defiance of attempts by National Organisation Women to compromise with anti-abortionists.
Without consulting stituent groups or testing the opinion of the members, NOW
but still intact
KAVEH AFRASIABI is an Iranian socialist who left
our offices to give his impressions
pro-imperialist force. Recently Ralph Schoenman, an American radical, posed as a CIA
recorded interview nel Tavakoli, military adviser.
Tavakoli admitted that the plan was to create an islamic army the and use Islam to polish off the
left.
He mentioned getting rid of 500,000 leftists and stated that the vounger officers were all pro-American. man released the tapes to the Iranian press and Tavakoli had to resign, but the rest of the army is stillthere. It is weakened certainly, and
to the rank-and-file are suscep-
tible to mass influences - the Fedayeen have a strong base in the airforce. There are very links with rank-and-file
diers, and four or five soldiers has committees have been formed.
At the Kerman Shah tary base there is an elected soldiers and officers committee which elects its own commanding officer. These committees . goes control
corrupt officers, and maintain viguance. but mcy are tar trom being generalised.
On the Bazargan government
The government
to entirely of bourgeois notables, the most of whom are
National Front. Without doubt they are the only avanadie to impenansm today. Bazargan is exactly the same politically as Bakhtiar. Neither Bazargan nor Sanjabi (Foreign
SAFE LAL.
OMMESCO C
president Ellie Smeal called for public mccung anti-abortionists the and an end to
confrontation'
In a press statement on 22 the January, the anniversary of the for aegansauon or doorton, NOW
said: *No-one con- Abortion is a choice of last
resort, but it must nevertheless be a choice guaranteed to every
Minister) have in any of their speeches UVCE shown the slightest trace of anti-imperialist rhetoric.
The clash between Khomein and Bazargan is, in reality, a struggle between a shapeless petty-bourgeois populism and tape- bourgeois interests. with Colo- Khomeini wants Khomeini's nationalised and interest abol-
this ished, while Iranian capital opposed to this scheme.
Bazargan has recently announced that he Japanese dustry to continue its operations in Iran.
Well, Schoen- prepared to allow US military
advisers to stay in the country.
If he resigns after a clash with Khomeini the political crisis would escalate
On the working class I spent three weeks in Abadan dISU and the other oil cities. The oil sol- workers are the most militant in Iran. This dates back to their calls SU22C mill British and then in the 1940s,
CONS SES
from the
KEEP ABORTION
SAFE AND LEGAL
S.W.
RIGHT TO
woman: the victim of rape or
between incest.
NOW contraceptives fail, *destructive ager for whom no-one cared
enough to explain the facts of life, the woman whose physical or mental health cannot stand the strain, the woman who is found to be at risk with birth pro-abortion! defects..Abortion is an act of
desperation The Feminist Health
the past year
itself.
Thus all banks that they injunctions.
Bazargan and The
are totally
sympathisers Party. petro-chemical
He also
the Fedayeen.
very rapidly. lot of workers.
the struggles.
agalist woman whose
the teenfeminists
Rights Movement:
Women's Centre in California who cannot
when the Tudeh (Communist)
Party created a mass base for
Politically the oil workers are divided into three wings. There They is the Islamic pro-Khomeini faction, which represents about 50 per cent of the workforce.
They are militant in the sense decided.
obey Khomeini's Tudeh is the second are largest force. A quarter of the oil workers are members Туге
of the Tudeh
Then there is a group of workers workers which supports neither wing, but is more responsive to the far-left currents, especially
The Fedayeen established a HQ there four weeks ago and are recruiting a
The strike committee which led the big strikes consists of the Muslims and the left. It was this committee which represented the 67,000 oil workers during
Abadan is really a secular city and conditions are ripe for a rapid growth of the left.
REVOLUTION
abortion. by unrolling baby blankets.
fire as sent an open letter to women's for doctors groups arguing that this was not the view of the majority of
NOW and state funded, advocating instead an Abortion
abortion
Many feminist activists view woman's life abortion as a legitimate method of birth control...we do not believe that abortion is only for women who have been raped, or lor teenagers or for women
withstand the
REPORT
FROM IRAN
Trade unions have not been formed so far, but the cells of these unions already exist.
However oil workers want to
beyond trade unionism.
actually want determine how the oil industry is run and what prices are
In Tehran's industrial suburbs and in other towns there
numerous examples of workers control. The General
factory Kara (industrial suburb of Tehran) has been taken over by the result of the workers' struggles.
completely after a sit-in which lasted 12 days
In the Leyland factories the workers are taking more and strain of pregnancy... we do not funds are used to pay for want to reinstate therapeutic
We want abortion rights for all women!'
The public meeting between NOW and the anti-abortionists took place after a decision that there would be no discussion except on areas of agreement. Many anti-abortion organisations refused to attend and two women disrupted the meeting
foetuses trOm
At the same time an abortion clinic in Long Island was set on
part of the violent campaign started a year ago by the anti-abortion movement.
In the last three years anti-abortionists have introduced a ban on the use of legal aid funds for any matter connected with They abortion, a conscience clause
and nurses, an exemption clause for religious hospitals, even when they are
and the withdrawal of public funds for any Rights.
except where the is in danger.
Many states have introduced restrictive clauses.
ARM's aims include fighting for greater access to abortion, resisting restrictive legislation and demanding that public
more decisions. The textile factory in Arak Road, Tehran,
under a system of workers control.
In Tabriz a tractor factory to has been taken over by the workers, who have elected a workers council. In Kerman 16,000 factory workers went on strike in solidarity with fifteen arrested teachers.
Political awareness is grow ing. In a country where there is a 65 per cent illiteracy rate, this consciousness is the direct
The task now is to generalise all these developments. There are enormous opportunities for the left. abortions for poor women.
Women from self-help groups are involved, so it is not surprising that ARM's objectives involve setting up such groups. They believe that women sharing information about their bodies can become independent of state insti tutions, at the same time as adopting a strategy of confronting these institutions and forcing them to recognise woman's 'inalienable and unqualified right to control her own reproduction.'
Women from feminist women's health centres will be involved in activities on 31 March, the International Day of Action on Abortion Rights
WIl be joined by organisations like CARASĂ (Campaign for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilisation Abuse) and the North East
for Reproductive
Demonstrations are being organised in Boston, Hartford, New York, Buffalo, Chicago and California.
demonstdon here mil bede
demonstration from Park to Trafalgar Square on 31 March, starting on 1.30
Socialist Challenge: 15 March 1979 page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
The unity of the bigots
RUC attack International Women's Day protest
RELAND
Solidarity
News
Gallagher vs Mason
SOME people are going to
extraordinary lengths to sabo-
LaRC Brendan Gallagher's
general election campaign.
Brendan Will be standing
againt Roy Mason in Barnsley,
and one aspect of his platform
is the demand 'Free Speech on
Ireland'. But free speech is the
last thing he is being given.
Despite valiant efforts by the
Committee to Elect Brendan
Gallagher, no public meeting
hall in Barnsley has been
willing to accept bookings from
the Committee. Nor has any
labour movement institution,
including the Labour-con-
trolled council.
Only one pub in the town was
willing to allow Brendan to
speak on •Ils premises.
eventually they too cancelled
the booking.
Despite all this, the election
campaign continues to gather
momentum and support.
further details
Committee to Elect Brendan
Gallagher, c/0
Street, London N1.
Ireland Socialist
Review
JUST out is the fourth edition
of Ireland Socialist Review.
which includes articles on the
media and current
security policies.
This excellent journal costs
30p and can be obtained from
The Other Bookshop,
Upper Street, London
Postage is 15p extra, but
three-issue subscription for £1
can be ordered from ISR, 60
Loughborough Rd, London SW9.
Dundee UTOM
MEMBERS of Dundee United Troops Out Movement joined
forces on March Zimbabwean students. occasion was the disruption of a meeting organised at Dundee University the Monday Club.
Star speakers WELC representative from the South
African embassy and Loyalist MP Willie Ross. But the Tories eventually abandoned affair after UTOM and the Zimbabweans prevented further progress by drowning out the speakers.
The two groups then held their own joint followed by UTOM demonstration to the centre of Dundee.
Torture fan THE Queen's publie house in Haringey, North London, trying live up namesake. Two weeks ago Pat Arrowsmith happened to be in the bar when she was refused custom. Ine reason was that Pat was wearing a 'Stop British Torture in Ireland' badge.
Last week a small protest was UNANISED when about people appeared in the wearing the same badge. Some had come from nearby general management commitlee meeting of the local Labour Party.
But this did not impress the pub's landlord, who refused to serve wearing the badge.
Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 12
Ireland. Charles
Paisley, adopted a common theme. Both disguised it
By Geoff Bell
Paisley's outburst attracted attention when he opposed the Protection of Prostitutes Bill in Parliament on 6 March.
The Bill, Maureen Colquhoun, sought to abolish prison sentences soliciting and give prostitutes better protection from exploi-
and tation and victimisation.
Ian Paisley didn't approve His opposition to the liberalising measure was, motivated by stand for the For
womenfolk'. Prostitutes, pre sumably, cannot be classed as Upper 'womenfolk'.
Haughey was involved in a different controversy. previous week he British
328 NI. with The the
any its
By Anne Marie Loughran Belfast MEMBERS of the Royal Ulster
40 Constabulary attacked pub Internationa Women's Day
picket outside Armagh jail on 8 March.
The 50-strong picket, called by Women Against Imperialism, WaS women's jail in support of the political prisoners inside.
A total of 37 women inside Armagh are currently
Women and partition
A PECULIAR merging of views has occurred in /
Haughey, said to be the most 'extreme' Republican in the Irish Cabinet, and lan
arch-Loyalist from North Antrim, have
with moral sanctimonious speeches, but it was obvious enough all the same — the oppression of women.
introduced in Parliament his contraception, proudly proclaimed, legalising the availability contraceptives, introduced by Briefly, posals seek to restrict contraception, on a prescription only basis, to married couples. It is, irish Mimister of Health, rish problem."
That description would he said, doubt win approval from lan desire *to Paisley. For what Haughey was protection of all really saying was that his Bill was a Southern Irish answer to a Southern Irish problem.
Leaving aside moment the The Haughey's finally clearly could not apply to all of punished by authorities for DOUCH SIBES. an locked in their cells for 24 hours every day.
The demonstrators sang and chanted to the prisoners, some of whom sang back and hung the socialist/republican starry plough flag from a cell window.
But then, at the end of the protest, as the pickets moved to being the front of the jail to disperse,
phrases and
the Irish Bill on which, he 'was not of
Haughey's
pro IAN PAISLEY
Ireland. coUntrys pulation The Irish counties
no applies in Great Britain. Haughey's words effect as anything
for the
validity morality. description, Women,
unmarried women,
the prison Robeared andeeps
demanding appeared They are kept minutes
physically assaulted rested.
Women Against and Belfast Committee, as well as wright who has released after months in Armagh.
of the SIX north-eastern enjoy the availability of contraception as sallic
women's were in partitionist as question.
Paisley has ever
proclaimed. In that one phrase he founded and erected and defended an Irish border of
especially young other will most suddenly This withir five the 13 people had been CanO ar-
The 13 included members of
Imperialism Relatives Action play viduals Margaretta D'Arcy herself just been spending two inists
CHARLES HAUGHEY
acutely feel Haughey's ban on
any form of control over their
own bodies. But the political
importance of the measure is
not confined to democratic and
rights. It relates
squarely to the Irish national
Much the same can be said
for the type of religious hysteria an
displayed by Paisley. His views
are shared - on this, as
Rule issues by fair
percentage of the Loyalists of
It COT mind attempt to intimidate Irish women's liberation has not gone unanswered. Women Against Imperialism has already responded by announcing a mass picket of Armagh prison in a month's time, and women's conferences, groups and indi- next
are being asked to support this initiative.
Similar support from fem-
Britain would
the North of Ireland. The
Calvinistic strain
ideology retains a significant
influence.
The spectacle of a bigoted
Protestant morality in the
North and a bigoted Catholic
morality in the South might,
despite their often common
agreement, suggest the propri-
ety of two different states in
Ireland, each legislating for its
own religious majority.
But that would be getting the
equation the wrong way round.
Rather than justifying parti-
tion, such contrasts are a result
A historical example illus-
trates this. In 1912 an Irish
Home Ruler, Thomas Kettle,
wrote: We Catholics volunt-
arily abjure the blessings of
divorce, but we should never
dream of using the civil law to
impose our abnegation on
those of another belief.'
Kettle wrote that sentence in
attempt to persaude
Protestants in the North of the
tolerance of the Irish Home
Party. His sentiments
were probably indicative of the
feelings of SHICLEE Irish
nationalists at the time.
But 25 calls later the
government of the 26-county
Irish "Free State' did more than
"dream' of such legislation
divorce was specifically banned under the 1937 constitution
was partition which allowed •thai constitution, heavily influenced as it was by
theology, to be passed.
Would such legislation have had any chance of being passed in a 32-county Ireland in which one quarter of the population was Protestant?
Would Charles Haughey's COHECHEDOldE ICSUNCHOR on contraception stand any chance
being introduced, passed, in a contempo. rary 32-county Ireland?
The asking of these questions provides the answer.
The simple conclusion is that the rantings of both Paisley and Haughey have their roots in the division of Ireland.
Irish socialist James Con nolly predicted in 1913 that the erection of a border in Ireland would offer up a 'carnival of reaction' on both sides of it. On the issue of women's rights alone, Connolly's prophecy has more than a passing relevance.
In the South today, growing socialist and women's movements will continue to fight and resist Haughey's edicts. But in isolation neither North nor South can be won from the existing theological influences:
That is why the struggle for women suocracon in ireland 1s intimately bound up with the struggle to destroy partition. demonstrate their understanding of the leading role women play in anti-imperialist struggle in Ireland, as well as the importance of the fight for women's liberation in Ireland.
For more information of
month's mass picket contact: Anne Marie Loughran, Women Against Imperialism, C/07 Rosenale Park Drive, Andersonstown, Belfast.
Page 13 scan of this page
Making trade union work political
REVOLUTION FUND DRIVE
JEFFERYS the Industrial Discusion Bulletin.
HOW in the present conditions of mass struggle should revolutionaries operate? What kind of strategy can we ofter? Can pontical organisation vacuum be filled? Can tnc mausunar mulancy or 1919 be given a political content or direction?
The first point to make is that there is no simple answer. This article is just a contribution to the discussion. need to have an open debate about 11....
My own view summarised as follows:
1. The continuing crisis of British capitalism, combined with five years of Labour government, has squeezed the left reformist leaderships in the trade unions and Labour virtually out of existence.
The working class remains ready to fight for class goals, but the lack of any organisational Cane alternative capable of generalising and leading that struggle leadership increasingly in the hands of the class collaborators, the conscious right reformists.
2. In the past we have placed too great an emphasis upon the fact that the trade union bureaucracy sells out because IL IS full-time, enough on the fact that trade union leaderships at all levels because of their politics.
The "left" leaders sold out not primarily because they were full-time officials, but because they started as left reformists who pushed further and further to the right. Our work in the trade unions must recognise this and be much more political in future.
3. Equally, in the past we have exaggerated the independent potential of the shop stewards basically because they WeTC rank representatives.
While it is true that this means they are both well-placed to give leadership to the class and to sustain shop floor
there inherent in being a rank and file worker (or leader) that guarantees political protection from ruling class ideas.
Our activities in the workplaces must also recognise this and be much more political in the future.
REVOLUTION
FREE ARRIED ON DEMAND OK
INSIDE: UNIONS-RAR TOUR-NURSESCOMICS- LETTERS- IRAN-SCHOOLS...
SURPLUS VALUE
THE FACT that the militant struggles against the government's 5 per cent pay limit have stopped short of a political challenge to Labour has aroused much discussion on the left.
This has been reflected not only in the pages of Socialist Challenge, but also in the press of the Socialist Workers Party.
Below we print extractsfrom one such contribution by STEVE
February/March issue and
We working class independence.
can be briefly EETPU and AUEW
amalgamation which we should move. 5. The Party
political dence.
leaves
leaders. Instead
initiate them where they don't.
and not
organised reformists.
inevitably got and strengthen our
reformists.
their The turned out to be.
necessary
nothing
systematic youth.
citizens at all.
dependent
they can organise.
women access to contraception.
from
ness
of the SWP's
4. The immediate threat to the working class is the danger of a major retreat by the right reformist trade union leadership before a new ruling class offensive (which we can expect just as soon as it recovers its nerve).
In this situation we must fight for a united front of all those ready to defend basic trade union rights, shop floor organisation and the notion of
The work of our comrades in the
with Broad Left' supporters and CP members on wages, union democracy, and the
is une direction in
united front on specific issues within the trade unions is the key. But to work correctly inside it we have to be absolutely clear on our organisational and political indepen-
This means that we do not dissolve existing Rank and File organisations which are politically independent of the reformist Labour and trade union
WC work strengthen them where they exist, and
But as revolutionaries working with non-revolutionaries in Rank and File groups we argue for joint work on specific issues with individual and
6. Working inside a united front which includes left reformists makes it even more crucial that we establish
organisational and political independence from the
For when workers are facing a Tory government and a TUC led by the gang of 12', Moss Evans and Alan Fisher can easily appear almost as welcome as Jones and Scanlon did in the late 1960s, and we know what
organisational and political independence has to be built both through our industrial strategy - stressing the need tor self-activity and opposing collaboration with the employers and reliance upon the reformist trade union leaders - and through consistent and
SOCIalISI propaganda (through Socialist Worker, meetings and bulletins) winning workers away REVOLUTION is not just something that we're all in favour of - it's the name of a youth paper. A youth paper initiated by the IMG to help establish a new revolutionary youth organisation. Why did we want to do this?
Most importantly, we want to
the self-organisation of youth are second-class citizens, they are not
In the family they are totally
on the goodwill of their parents. This is used as an excuse for denying them their basic rights: to decide where they live, what they do in the evenings, how
Youth are told that they cannot make up their minds about sexuality
- to 'protect' them, they are denied sation any right to express sexual feelings. This has the effect of denying young
reformism which fails represent working class interests whenever capitalism faces a crisis.
8. The unevenness in conscious-
amongst workers cannot be overcome by sloganising. workers are open Lo our revolutionary programme, and hence must be recruited direct from picket line and workplace to the SWP.
Others are only open to a part of
our programme (e.g. the demand for cal acmocracy luc unons. or 1o militant opposition to wage controls). In periods of struggle such workers often realise in practice the limits of reformist organisation and look for organisational forms that extend and strengthen the struggle.
Rank and File groups and action By Dodie Weppler WHY has the far left failed, on a European scale, to emerge credible alternative to democracy or the Communist Party?
Richard Kuper, a member of the International Socialist Alliance, argued at the joint school 'Revolutionary Strategy and Revolutionary Party last weekend that part of the problem lies in the conception held by revolutionaries about how to organise.
For John Ross, speaking on behalf of the International Marxist Group the answer to the crisis of the far lefi
The 'in loco parentis law allows the school authorities to take over the *rights' of parents. Youth are forced
humiliating school uniforms, subjected to petty rules, beaten and caned and denied the right organise. NUSS, is hanned by most schools students' authorities.
At work young workers lowest paid, not integrated into the trade unions which do little for their particular needs and the least secure in their jobs. Youth are the biggest section of the unemployed.
The revolutionary left has often ignored the fact that youth are oppressed as youth. Revolution was launched to promote the self-organi-
of youth against oppression: through building a union in schools, organising the ployed, fighting for social facilities.
committees initiated by revolutionaries as well as strike and picketing committees spontaneously thrown up by the struggle can play this role.
We must encourage their develop-
Some ment and after the struggle dies
full attempt to keep the
number of workers possible involved
the in sustaining the organisational links
created in the struggle.
This rank and file work is not ar alternative to SWP SWP activity in which we should be totally open. 9. We must not exaggerate our size and immediate potential. There are only a tiny handful of revolutionary socialists in the working class today In a small-scale struggle our views might get noted; in the present mass
I AIRWAYS
ALEW
ENGINEERS
The work of our comrades in the AUEW with Broad Left supporters and CP members is the direction we should move in.
IMG-ISA school
right many questions. social ional Leninist forms of revolutionary
organisation.
The school, organised to allow the IMG and the ISA -
the socialists who agreed with the appeal
for revolutionary unity published in Socialist Challenge on 4 January - to discuss new areas or those where there are outstanding differences.
These schools were proposed some time ago, but it was felt that they would be most useful once joint worl At the same time, thousands of youth are already concluding that the only final solution oppression, and that of other sections of society, is socialism. And that the
to
organising as revolutionaries. union, Thus Revolution is the first step on school the road to
revolutionary youth The IMG launched Revolution, but are the already it is under the control of
representatives from groups around the country.
Between when a conference will be held, we hope to see established so that a representative editorial board can be elected.
The success of these plans depends
their on regular monthly
Revolution; - UCHE separate oftice. a telephone and one
For two workers. All this will cost at
confine
maximum
working class. activity, but is
heartedness can be found in its inability to get was underway on a local level where
fundamental strategic there and he defended tradit-
including
one of a series, was
comrades, as well as other independent
attended.
Suggestions
*The least £4,000.
to their have much
through
depends establishing new contributions. organisation. Teachers,
Revolution
to send autumn,
groups
So start production it will also require
struggle they get swamped.
But this must not mean that we
ourselves DUTC propaganda role. Only by fighting, arguing and trying out our politics in practice in the actual struggle -around one hospital, one ambulance depot, in a school, an employment office, in one factory — can we begin to create a new leadershp within the
We have to use the opportunities thrown up by the struggle - the bankruptcy of Labour, the half-
the trade leaders, the sense of frustration felt by hundreds of thousands - to build the SWP and Rank and File organisation so as lo be in a more effective situation in the struggles of the 1980s.
the cuts STOP
for poise.
are members of both
Forty people attended the school,
good number independent socialists. Big Flame
invited although they refused to sign the joint appeal, also
for future schools include such topics as Internationalism and the Fourth International';
revolutionary party and autonomous movements'; "Revolutionaries and the Labour Party'; and "Socialist Democracy'.
An added problem is that the youth - virtually by definition do not
To depend on Revolution readers to raise the cash is
reaching this 4,000 target CYCL heavily on your
parents, lecturers in particular have a responsibility to contribute to helping the youth organise, as they play a direct role in their oppression. We appeal to them
contributions Revolution's £4,000 fund drive.
The new Revolution is now out -its main theme is sexual polities. Make sure that we can produce another and another and another.
fund-raising activities, send in a day's wages as a donation, and win support for the Revolution rally to be held in London on 5 May to make sure that we meet that target.
Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE EVENTS
LETTERS
Camden NUPE members reply
YOUR article on the Camden settlement (1 March) leaves one important question unsettled: is the Camden deal a victory or not? The lett press including Socialist Worker Socialist Press were in no doubt on this question; they saw the Camden victory as a boost to the fight for the full claim nationally.
In Socialist Challenge, however, the title of the article was routine and ambiguous, the IMG member leading the struggle suddenly became anonyLOUS. strike committee branch leadership were criticised, and
were Toeinat me weakened the fight national action'
It may help before you finally decide on this question if you get your facts straight. It is true that two-thirds of the workforce will get a £17.50 increase; it is not true, as you say, that the remaining one-third will get a 10 per cent increase. In fact they will get the nationally negotiated whatever that is, and over two-thirds
these members will additional increase per cent as a result of increased bonus
There seem to be two different kinds of criticism of the Camden settlement. One recognise it as a victory but to suggest that with better leadership it would have been an even bigger victory.
The other criticism rejects sell-out Camden ending its strike on whatever basis, even if the full claim ad been won; Camden has been bought off and this weakens the national fight. The IMG Political Bureau seems unable decide whether it is attacking Camden settlement as too small a victory or too big a sell-out.
On the first kind of criticism, we do not claim to have made no mistakes in our strike, nor do we deny that there are many comrades who would have been able to give us useful advice during the strike. We do, however, stand by dynamic operating within the Labour group, by our assessment of the strengths and weaknesses strike, and by our decision that correct leadership meant a recommendation to accept the council's offer.
These tactical considerations were based on a detailed knowledge of the situation, and while we are flattered that the IMG Political concerns itself in these minutiae, we feel that unfortunately its enthusiasm publication.
NORTH WEST WARRINGTON Socialist
er Socialist Challenge offices for details. 061-236 2352 GREATER MANCHESTER Socialist
Students support the paper and would like to gel
in anti-fascist activity, please Manchester SC Centre, 14 Piccadilly.
SALFORD Socialist Challenget sup
orters can socialist contacted Mancheste Centre c/o 14 Piccadilly, Manchester with a view to forming a Salford SC group.
group a meets fortnightly on
V01100 200Z 4 Piccadilly view manchester ou centre, cl MOSS Centre Sature paper at Moss Side SlUt Socialist Centre, Saturday, 1 Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 14
BAD
TASTE
and and Enose comrades settlement Camden for all-out be
DCLICUS council workers country have
approach economic
rise,
the self-organisation get an confidence of around 0 victories for
demands for higher pay.
quite strengthening the
as a
contributions as possible.
inevitably
real names from the request.
through collective action.
the
of the struggle.
Camden's example — Bureau
they should do so or not.
JOHN SUDDABY, Secretary, to provide leadership has outstretched | Camden NUPE General Branch
NORTH EAST NEWCASTLE Socialist cal supporters are active! If you want 2905in them, phone Pete on (0632) DUKHAM Socialist Challenge Sup oners Grou ror details contact ave Brown, 2 Pioneer Cottages, Lov Pittington. Durham MIDDLESBROUGH Socialist
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Dear Mrs Thatcher,
CENSE, CORRECT
its knowledge of the local situation.
who feel that "bought off should reminded that local throughout SUnC a struggle precisely for higher pay. To suggest that Camden workers went on strike for anything else is to deny realities.
Of course, revolutionaries do not
struggles only from the standpoint of pay. They are above all concerned with developing
and selfof the class collective action in
But we should not forget that
For salsaon of council workers today hinges entirely
THE LENGTH of letters printed will usually be kept down to 400 words in order to encourage as wide a range of
All letters may be cut at the Editor's discretion.
Unsigned letters will not normally be published, although we will withhold may
publication
on busting through the government's pay limits and winning higher pay
That is what we did in Camden and that is why the union has been strengthened and unified locally and why other sections of NUPE have seen the Camden deal as a boost to the overall
The IMG leadership should give a clear answer: was Camden a victory for the workers or was it a setback? In the course of a strike you cannot lead sitting on the fence. You have to tell other workers thinking of following
all-out action for a similar size of deal - whether
Join Challenge Saturday 11am-2pm HAMILTON supporters sell Socialist Hamilton shopping centre Sm Fe challenge celans or local activities contactuonr Ford, 553 Eliot Crescent. Hamilton ABERDEEN
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ROGER GALLOWAY, member, Camden Strike Committee JOHN DEVITT, Chairperson Camden NUPE General Branch DAVE BARNES, member, Camden Strike Committee
What about Kampuchea?
TAReD Ali vaghtly denounietname
C2 February). In the same article invasior however, he justifies the Vietnamese invasion of grounds (a) that the Pol Pot regime was a 'blot on the world workers movement' and (b) that there was a serious danger that imperialism might return to Phnom Penh, Kampuchean capital.
There are, of course, many "blots' on world socialism. Should they all be dealt with in the same way? China's short-term action against Vietnam
well bea "crime socialism', but so Is Vietnam's long-term occupation of Kampuchea. GREGOR BENTON (Amsterdam)
Bread and butter of Chartism
WHAT is James Francis on about (8 February), claiming that Chartism was "before imperialism' and fore political and internationalist?
Surely British imperialism predates both Chartism and Lenin's analysis of its developed capitalist phase in the beginning of the 20th India by the East India Om West century? The ruthless exploitation of combined with profits from Indian slaves and sugar to make the formation of British industrial capita possible at the beginning of the 19th century.
The plebeian morass that formed
NOTTINGHAM SocIalISt Musnroom books, Meatncore s LEAMINGTON Contact 311772.
For details of activities Chal ol eyewitness account Genting ham (21) be 200 contact o Trades Council. Adelphi toti
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SOUTH EAST
Chartism's shifting base in the 1840s was a product of Moreover, its weavers, unskilled mill hands, small shopkeepers and different kind of working class from the skilled respectable engineers who set their stamp on the New Mode Unionism of the 1850s James Francis's picture of a quick change in political consciousness and organisation brought on by a sudden and dramatic imperialism in the late 1840s - what Vietnam was it, anyway: the Irish famine of 1849, the Great Exhibition of 1851, or perhaps the anti-popery riots of 1853? on the - is real economic determinism. The problem is not that he asserts that imperialism, politically economically, consciousness and organisation. It the does. The problem is that he forgets just how old and deep-rooted British imperialism is, and ludicrously overestimates the degree of consciousness and organisation of working class before 1850 against An illustration to close: in hi eulogy of the 1842 'sacred month', he neglects to point out that what was driving those thousands of mill hands from Pennines was not Chartist agitation but hunger, as the revolt coincided with a periodic trade depression, unemployment and wage reductions.
How 'day to day' can you get?
PAUL ATKIN (York)
there- 'Blue Collar' chorus
THE letters contesting my review of Blue Collar (15 February) are a chorus of confusion.
Sue Aspinall tries to vindicate the film's 'realism'. I always thought that realism meant taking fictional characters and showing how, through their concrete actions and specific circumstances, they typify the processes of history.
No such processes are glimpsed
in the Wedge cafe/ bookshop, High St. arket) ai
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this imperialism. sinking handloom to a vicIous
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through the characters in Blue Collar, where the creaky plot reduces history
circle. The form pessimism which this gives rise to pushes the film's critical treatment o the unions into a reactionary rather than progressive direction.
Paul Gilroy says that law of the
is a racist metaphor, when I clearly use it to refer to the animal
and popularisations Gilroy ought to have concentrated his pedantic energies on Blue Collar's myopic presentation of
The film starts from the unrealistic premise that, in the most ghettoised city in the US, black and white workers are the best of mates. The racist confrontation at the end of the film is caused by the machinations of the Mafia, the FBI and the "baddie' union bureaucracy. In other words racism does not necessarily spring out
moat and imperialism, but is the result of a series of unfortunate accidents and backfiring plans.
By now, Paul Seligman and Wendy Baptiste will be crying out that this letter, like my review is all politics and not a discussion of "film as film'. I appreciate their point, but it's the task of a socialist reviewer to highlight the political implications of any work, regardless of whether or not the work has an overt politics.
Besides, politics are always bound There's no room to develop the point more formal questions. here, but, in the context of American cinema, Blue Collar's partial critique of individualism doesn't match that in Taxi Driver, which in turn doesn't match that in Penn's Night Moves The reasons for this are political and
particular techniques, subversion of Hollywood
Adorno's phrase might be adapted
Collar: *The politica falsehood stains the aesthetic form." PAUL TICKELL (London SW9)
Road, NW2. 7.30pm. Everyone -wercome HACKNEY Socialist Challenge grour
eer and Richard Kirkwar
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Page 15 scan of this page
THE DEER HUNTER.
Republic, revised
about Vietnam',
Cimino.
By Carl Gardner
Certainly, in technical and dramatic terms, The
harring spectacle rippines
harrowing spectacle. reputed that even hard-bitten New York film critics broke down in tears at the preview.
But what IS the film's meaning for a mass audience — particularly an American one, for whom it was primarily
What vision of the Vietnam-
re-presented four years after me tall or saigon!
The blurred TV images grow distant now; the memories that 10-year atrocity fade; the mass clamour of dissent has evaporated.
But guilt, doubt, anxiety linger on in US society feelings of uncertainty about America's world democratic role still clutter the imagination.
The awkward Vietnam CHICS re-interpretation in new col ours, using simply, homely categories. needs to represented afresh; the ideological account must be settled.
The American public needs to be definitively re-positioned and reassured in relation to those events done in its name. This The Deer Hunter does insidiously and well.
Here we had one of the poorest countries in the world invaded, blasted, defoliated, By Sally Feldman
THE DIFFERENCE between comedy and cartoon is that comedy retains some roots in
from surprising things happening within believable framework.
Cartoons don't need bother with any of that. They can embrace the impossible, the ludicrous, the outrageous, without paying any reference at all to the likely.
The joy of National
'BEST FILM of the year', 'the definitive statement 'an unsurpassed anti-war movie'. These are some of the accolades currently being showered on The Deer Hunter, directed by Michael
corrupted and wrecked by the mightiest economic and military machine in the world, Deer under the banner of 'freedom'.
Perhaps a little doubt is in order, perhaps a little guilt? Not according to Cimino's epic vision.
Our courageous boys, magically whisked across the globe, courageously did their suffered and died at the hands of a sadistic, inhuman enemy who played with lives.
This is a film which revolves almost totally around discomfort and pain of the uppressors, a is one in wnict of that suffering and
emanates exclusively from the Vietnamese, North and South; one in which the agents of oppression American imperialists, Pentagon, the presidency of the United States vanish.
For Cimino, the Vietnamese
of experience becomes essentially
La voyage of self-discovery for the central character, (played by Robert de Niro). It is be a vovage which attirms
supposedly timeless apolitical virtues of courage, loyalty, friendship, love and trust.
These values - so empty in the face of the inflicted on the people - in fact become the raison d'etre of the film.
They are all that the USA can CYCIE half-seriously
What escapism is all about
Lampoon's Animal House is that, while seemingly adopting familiar settings American college life in the 1960s — the film is in fact pure cartoon with the added spice of having real people aping the wild excesses of caricature.
Nobody needs to about the finer points
character in this movie.
like and hate, and everyone is drawn into the same consistent net; they are all painted in
best,
DEISOLICTS
brutality
from the imperialist adventure. historical The principal meaning which
the emerges from the film's early the episodes of the protagonists Michael, Steve and Nick — completely home and work in the industrial
mid-West is the InDorance of the male, "buddy-boy' life-style.
Everything is posed in terms Michael of male action,
togetherness; the ing, singing. Women are largely
(and passive shadows or objects.
It is irrelevant to argue that this is how American workers do behave — treated 'realistic. ally' suffering combined Vietnamese ioning US nationalism, it can
only be stated and celebrated 'Macho' stars-and-stripes worship salvage come virtues, rather than part
Animal House is much more concerned with seeking laughs our or everyting wan deciding exactly subject of beneath this roach. there tightness of design.
The goodies' are enjoyers full of lust, energy, spirit. The "baddies' are the Yes men and women, the arselickers, those who don't know how to have fun. Pure glorious hedonism is the winner - and the forces of control are what are being shot down in riotous flames.
Every feature of existence — teenage dating, the horrendous fraternity system, the cheerleaders, the wild, wild parties, exams, committees, sex is presented as part of the same procession
worry that is wrecked so magnifi-
of cently in the film's grand finale.
You It's all turned on its head.
You don't need to analyse too deeply. You just have to accept that this is a world where motor bikes windows, drunks piss on other
Battle
Hymn
of the
whole disastrous
at Vietnamese validity and My Lai). macho, king. drink- and
working,
in Midnight Express.
their play Russian roulette uncritically, and with an unquest-
in the swirling river.
behaviour and
beused "tiger-cages' cars get wrecked... with what is the Is attack. Yet, in all the
anarchic everybody,
is a fantastic
again.
the walking
mobile libido. offend, is campus Disgust
even passingly
of American -211 gusto
dared.
crash out of
the right place.
The
of the ideology which kept the prisoners. USA in Vietnam for so long.
The second section of the film whisks us to Vietnam, just wounded in time to see a lone NLF soldier separated. barbarically blowing up South
villagers (forget Nick
The three buddies are taken prisoner. We are then treated to the most racist treatment of
Since Alan there.
Parker's depiction of the Turks
He finds
The NLF soldiers gamble as in a
prisoners are forced to with a loaded pistol. Meanwhile the gamblers. waiting victims are kept caged
Forget that it was the Saigon regime, ably supported by the Americans, which extensively
for their
Militant
guys boots, horses get shot at,
And there's no need for one moment of anxiety because, as
best cartoons, even the bullies, always comes bouncing back
The epitome of all this is the irrepressible John Belushi
cartoon character
— who smashes bottles over his head, breaks guitars, roars and grunts and lumbers amicably through the movie as a kind of
Wed 28 Don't just the imperative.
Animal House really shows you what escapism is all about
- doing everything you've ever
thought of doing, but with more panache
than you'd ever
It's as if Marvel Comics had somehow got hold of the plot of If and quadrupled it! A silly, loveable film, that never dries up — and, against all odds, leaves your heart more or less in
Our three heroes escape to Saigon, but Nick and Steve are
and the group Steve is shipped back to the US, minus his legs;
deserts; and Michael returns to his home town, but then goes back to Saigon, just before its fall, to redeem his pledge to Nick not to leave him
Nick a mindless heroin addict about to take part
back-room of game Russian roulette, surrounded by depraved South Vietnamese
Despite Michael's pleading and his participation in the game' himself - the ultimate
HU gesture of loyalty - Nick gets unlucky and blows his brains out. Back home at the funeral,
entertainment tour
Forde Piranas and local banc Pranas and one Leyton Buzzards Sat 24 Middlesbrough Teesside Poly
/ton Buzzard: Barry Forde Pirana
and local band. Sun 25 Lancaster Un Leyton Buzzards, nterfere Fer Tue 21 onv Ones and interterene.
Edinburgh Clouds: Stiff Little Fingers
190 1 ane Caro Cumes Stirling Unl Little Mekons 713.10. and care animes. nur zy Aberdeen music nail
THE
Hate
Michael, his family, and other friends solemnly sing 'God Bless America' as the closing credits roll.
The central symbol of the film is the Russian roulette device which is repeated on four separate, dramatic occasions. It clearly stands as a symbol for war.
For Cimino, war is simply a brutally abstract and meaning. less game of chance, governed by blind fate; not a concrete historical event governed b real economic and politica forces (plus human choices) which possible understand and change.
War drops out of history -
guilt. blame, responsibility, nothing to be learnt. Well, at least for Americans 'n' Braces. Mon 9 Exeter Routes: Joh: Graces and Fans. Cimmaron: Bent 'n
Tue 10 Plymout Woods: JOnn Cooper Clark -Cimmarons. beir n braces and M' Wed 11 Newport Stowaway
John Cooper Clarke, subs and local Dano. nur 12 DuSTO
uni. conn cooper wiarke cimmaron:
n subs ano a-vens. sun to Londo Ally rany, Danos te be contened
first issue of Rock Against Sexism's dRAStic measures is now our price y with a long article Love Sex -
Sexism' by Lucy Toothpaste Among RAS's aims is to fight sexism in music and to use music to fight sexism at large".
More info from: RAS, 121 Grandison Road London SW11. Badges (as illustrated) 15p plus 10p postage.
Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge
Relgocrest Ltd. for Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Printed by Feb Edge Litho Ltd (TU),
Nightingale had the following to struggling for higher wages and conditions.
The interview was conducted in methods as those I would have
I hear the London Evening Standard and the Daily Express
providing hot soup and coffee to the RCN nurses.
I would have thrown it back in their faces.
In fact I reject the image presented of me by the press. It Is notning but romanticised mythology.
I went to the Crimea to make
THIS week's total was £204.27.
It certainly took us by surprise,
but as you will see the bulk of the
money came from
supporters in the
Labour Party. It was their
of celebrating
victory won by Camden NUPE,
aided by left-wing
councillors.
Ed Mahood sent in his regular
£10 from Canada. A wordon Ed
for our readers. He is a greatly
respected figure in the
movement 1n the
prairies. For a while he was in
the left wing of the Canadian
NDP (social-democratic
arty) but , some years ago he
the Fourth
FLORENCE
IN an exclusive interview with this paper, Florence
say better
conditions clandestinity in the upper reaches of the stratosphere.
Voter
Service Employees (COHSE) and NUPE who are arguing for a strike. If so, why?
Yes, I would. The nurses and ancillaries have a joint claim for £60 basic and a 35-hour week.
The nurses are also fighting for the restoration of differentials to their 1974 levels, and for overtime payments at the same rate as ancillaries, improvements in night duty rates.
OUR FUND DRIVE
and we're glad that they find our paper useful. Thanks Ed!
As readers will see from
Camder 3, we are backing Socialist Unity
in the Edge Hill by-election. the This means more resources for sending journalists and photog-
Labour raphers upto Liverpool to cover the campaign. So don't be shy, Another reader asked: enjoyed your centre-spread on Camden in the first week of the
labour all-out strike there, but why Canadian can't you do that sort of thing in
relation to Birmingham, Newcastle or Liverpool?
The answer is simple: it's not because we are in love with
Interna- London, but going
Registered with the Post Office as a newspaper. Published by
NIGHTINGALE-
1 would have
strike action'
to nurses power. working demands in your day. Did you of demano overume payment for in the
The press are saying that you
the RCN rather than COHSE.
Rubbish. This fits in well with the syrupy 'Lady of the lamp' image. myself.
Of course the press has
that the nurses won their rise in 1974 by successfully mobilising support from
The Mahoods are all activists do not permit us to do that
regularly.
page Thanks this week to:
S. Alwali G.M. Tomlinson P. Stewart Yannis Hitzos Robert Johnson Scottish supporter Ed Mahood (Canada)
Andy Bartlett Harry Wicks Camden SC social C. Cooper Cathy Tooley Other Bookshop Box Week's Total 100 our Tinances OutsIde OVERALLTOTAL £1,851.30
¿Socialist Challenge EXCLUSE,
The best way to win this claim is to strike. Show their• Wales, from
But you did not put in similar
strike with the emergency cover night duties during the Crimean
Your would have been a member of
I hate that picture of you tend to her? purpose in boosting the RCN.
They want to obscure the fact wouldn't
miners £2.00 5.00 5.00 15.00 5.00 1.00 10.00 Camden LP supporters 100.00
.50 5.00 27.00 to sell locally? 9.00 Write 18.77 Offices, 204.27 2XP.
D Weppier
Yorkshire, Kent and South
Sheffield engi-
This was done by an all-out
provision of
It was the total failure of the RCN ever since the creation of the NHS (which, incidentally, I
views will probably surprise many people who have typecast you in a certain image.
One last question. If were a nurse in the Royal Free ATUE and Margaret Thatcher were brought into hospital, would Wouldn't swas hoping ou reserve my opinion?
Interviewer: Brian Hearse
LOTTERY
SOCIALIST Challenge Spring Lottery. Tickets 10p or fl per book. Prize is choice of 12 volumes of Trotsky's Writings or a f25 book/record token. Name
Draw is on 2 May in Socialist Challenge offices. Help yourself while helping the paper! Why not order a few books of tickets on a sale or return basis
to: Lottery, SC PO Box 50, London Organised by
Front was planning another
mobilisation for Winchester on
Saturday 17 March.
check with the Anti Nazi League
(01-240 1714) later this week for
further details and for news of
any counter-mobilisation.
appealed at Winchester last
Saturday for full support for a
"mass paper sale'
Market,
demonstration made
clear that the NF does not take
kindly to the opposition they
Market whenever they
tried to peddle their filth.
cometo Chapel Market and give
bastards once and for all'
The Front is mobilising
10.30am on Saturday morning
London readers are encouraged
half an hour earlier.
Saturday 17 March, 1pn Scala Cinema, Tottenham Street, London WC1
Committee Against Repression in Iran Domestic: 6 months, £5; 12 months, £10 Abroad: Airmail, £16.50. Surface, £10 per annum. Multi-reader institutions: double individual rate
Address
I enclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of Cheques, POs and Money Orders should be made payable to "Socialist Challenge'. Complete and return to: Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street, London N1.
AS we went to press there were rumours that the National
Anti-fascists are asked to
Whatis definite is that the NF
at Chapel Islington,
Two separate leaflets handed
pro-Relt
have encountered at Chapel
As one leaflet puts it: "Please
us a hand to smash these red
at the Angel tube station.
to be at Chapel Market at least
THE CYCLE
A superb film by Iran's best known director
(Goodge St. tube)
Tickets €1.50 at box office Benefit organised for
SUBSCRIBEJ
3-4 The Oval, London E2.
← Socialist Challenge No. 86, 8 March 1979Socialist Challenge No. 88, 22 March 1979 →