Socialist Challenge No. 91, 12 April 1979
The scan: sc-n91-apr-12-1979.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
Socialist Challenge KEEP OUT TORY
now she is out for the kill.
The Tories
will be under connnuing alach.
promoted by Labour leaders.
government does.
a final resort.?
tightening their belts.
most recent cases in point.
failures of their leaders are to be confronted.
never moves into 10 Downing Street.
Here's how
they're fighting
back in British
Leyland...
By Steve Griffith
NUEW steward and branch secretary, Rover Solihull
BRITISH Leyland workers from healthy majority of the company's 34 plants have forged alliance the United Craft Organisation (UCO).
It brings together two groups: toolroom workers who struck in 1977, who are mainly members of the AUEW; and HE HECHa and
had distinct collective bargaining agreements, members of other unions.
The UCO is demanding:
* The payment of a national agreement to be backdated to
UNION
THE Tories are out to cripple the unions. Margaret Thatcher called the Concordat a boneless wonder. And
would force the unions to support families of workers on strike. And the right to strike
The Labour Government's policies have paved the way for the return of the Tories. The Concordat is one of the most vicious anti-working class measures ever
But many workers have refused to toe the line. And the Tories don't like their actions any better than the
"So much for the government's special relationship with the unions,' say the Tories. "It can't even keep the workers in line. The Concordat says the strike should be
And they are dead right. Labour is finding it more difficult to get workers to swallow arguments about
The struggles of the civil servants and Leyland toolroom workers are just two of the
But how these struggles are being fought show just how necessary overall socialist policies are if the
Active support for all such actions in defence of living standards — and for alternative socialist policies which can point the way forward for the working class as a whole — is the best way to ensure that Thatcher
its original date of implementation - November 1978. * A substantial increase —
La rise to £120 per week, which is directly comparable highest paid SKet worker employed Alvis in Coventry. * A reduction in hours to 35 a week. * Separate bargaining rights tor crall workers across BE through a committee elected by the craft workers themselves. skilled The workers because they and betrayed on the one hand, new yet confident through emerging movement on the other.
Bewildered, because they -like all BL carworkers -
promises skilled increases through parity and on the basic rates via the national agreement. are Betrayed, because in plants that have enjoyed the hard-won right through a toolroom or craft agreement, giving them direct
BASHERS
that
them in
control over negotiations, it is felt that the Negotiating the acknowledged figure being stolen these rights.
Confident, however, because the jointly they can stop BL dead in
Leyland-wide or on its tracks - which has
been reflected in management's hysterical response.
All Leyland workers should now prepare to claim rejecting proposals and putting forward what we need now.
counter Leyland
are striking Edwardes' plans to run down feel bewildered the company. Already he has
had secret talks with Sir Keith the Joseph and others about how a Tory would help to carry them out. eth, in to the general only recieved 5 per cent and a interests t0 should be election,
could have immense should grab it and use it like the nuclear force it represents. the Steve Socialist Unity candidate in the bargain local elections ward, Birmingham Heath.
Fight the
policies
could let
Leyland Joint Committee has
Civil Service
By Pam Shepherd Organiser, Islington CPSA
resubmit the LJNC's
standard of living to only way before boss restraint.
happen -to
run consequences of proportions. We government
stand is Griffiths IS entirely.
Last in Newtown Small
...and in the
official Haringey and TOMER
two days.
CIVIL servants are fighting for a pay rise which restores our was tremendous
Labour's pay with us.
What we have been offered is the present 'going rate' of 9 the region decided to approach per cent plus the remainder in trades two stages by April 1980.
But we can guess what will hardship
those staged increases if the Tories get in.
We want the whole lot now.
And the official position of They told us we had to give our union leaders is to reject them all the money
offer. taking action to back up that
another matter
week 3,000 CPSA members members at the big Livingstone PHSS computer walked out unofficially. Deputy general general secretary, Ken Thomas,
secretary Alistair Graham told them to get back or tey'd be suspended from the union!
In the North London DHSS
we decided that the one-day strike on April wasn't enough. So we voted to stay out unofficially for another
The response in our branch
93 per cent what it of the members stayed out, and the claimants were right
Because of the loss of wages,
councils and outside money to meet cases. like the clerical assistants who get less than f40 a week.
The response of our NEC?
for the national strike fund, and the union treasurer is seeking legal advice about the possibility of
against whose interests they're supposed to represent!
A sell-out is on the way. Our
11.
No. 91 12 April 1979 15p won't do anything to upset the Labour government.
In fact he was one of the original "dirty dozen' on the TUC General Council whos document in support of incomes policy led to the Concordat.
But by taking over these policies from the Tories they are paving the way for the Tories themselves and for a full-blooded attack on our very organisations.
We say that the way to keep out the Tories is to fight now. That means stepping up action for the full claim, building ou
between differen areas and regions at rank-and-file level, and de manding that all Labour candidates come out in support of our struggle and against the government's staged offer.
INSIDE: Is Thatchera vote-catcher?, page 3; every militant's guide to the general election, pages8-9; big gains for left in Spanish elections, page
Page 2 scan of this page
Socialist Unity'
OUR POLICIES 2E
EDITORIAL
8180/9. Distribution/advertising 01-359 8371.
Labour's
manifesto
management, and the unions common divisions.
and training" three in the manifesto's five priorities.
Labour's sharp, the Common Market. for women? Not a mention. accurately when it said that Callaghan is fighting the election with the Tories policies.
return of the Tories wouldn't be so bad for the working class because there's not much difference between their policies and Labour's. No one could agree more with this latter fact than Socialist Challenge. We have always argued aginst the lesser of two evils' position as a basis for calling for a return of the Labour government. would indicate a certain demoralisation in the ranks of the workers movement. And for those sections of workers whose votes would be included in any Tory victory, this would represent a real retreat from even the degree of class independence which a vote for Labour represents.
would lead to an immediate, automatic anti-Tory upsurge. This depends very much on the general confidence and the state of combativity of the working class. We don't want to speculate on future developments, but we should note that under a Labour government significant numbers of working people have refused to accept arguments for wage restraint and have taken action.
which the union leaders will try to exert on their members to respond positively to the appeals we are now hearing from Thatcher for talks with the unions. "If we don't get an agreement", it will be argued, 'much worse is in store for us.'
bureaucrats into deals with the bosses and their party if Thatcher were in 10 Downing Street, a wide range of reactionary forces would also find circumstances favourable to their projects. All of them including the lifers, the morality crusaders, or organisations like NAFF would find a new lease of life with the Tories in office. depths in the misery suffered by the working class today.
If you agree with these principles and want to be involved in activities by Socialist Challenge supporters in your area, fill in the form below and send it to us.
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ADDRESS
Send to Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1.
Socialist Challenge 12, April 1979 Page 2x
Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Editorial 01-359 THE bedrock of Labour's right-wing election manifesto is the *renewed co-operation with the trade union movement' which the TUrnment Concordat represents. And the manifesto goes just as far in its policies of class collaboration as the Concordat.
To provide an alternative to what it describes as a 'Tory free-for-all in pay and prices, the manifesto wheels out the proposals for three-way talks between government ministers,
- as if all parties should share a "national interest which somehow overcomes
The goal for attaining an inflation rate of 5 per cent by 1982 is repeated from the Concordat, as is the paltry 3 per cent industrial growth rate. A weak promise for 'special attention on more jobs
- one of the few references to youth — is number
Definite policies to extend individual freedom are so vague as to be meaningless, and a central point of international affairs is
vote-seeking attack on the agricultural policies of
The manifesto's authors have the nerve to record 'progress' in Northern Ireland, despite the policy of wholesale repression carried out under the Labour government-against the Republican population. And its claim of winning a 'new deal for women' through legislation will certainly not be greeted enthusiastically by women workers who have experienced a broadening of the gap between their wages and those of male workers. Abortion rights
And Labour certainly won't pick up extra votes among the Asian and black community with its promise merely to 'continue' (sic) to protect the community against discrimination and racism.
With this platform, Jim Callaghan calls on those who 'dare to turn the dream of a caring society into practical action' to vote Labour. But his promises amount to little more than continuing years of attacks on working people. They can only serve to help return the Tories. The Observer described the situation most
Within the workers movement there are those who argue that a
But that's not all that is at' stake. First of all, a Tory government
Secondly, it is not the case that the return of the Tories
We should equally consider, however, the enormous pressures
Finally, just as it could well be easier to draw trade union
the right-to-
And if these forces are given a boost, we could well see new
ELECTIONS
election platforms.
the SWP, explains to PETER GOWAN
plans in the election period.
The general policy of the International Marxist Group and the Socialist Workers Party in the election involves voting Labour.
But the IMG, along with others in Socialist Unity, standing candidates to present
socialist challenge to Labour's right-wing gramme in safe Labour seats.
Why has the SWP decided against mounting such an electoral challenge, however small?
To be honest, I don't think the left alternative candidates whether reformist, in the case of the Communist Party, or Socialist Unity - will have any significance. 1 regret it, but that is the will be directing our
We will attention to slamming the Labour Party
and arguing, purely on a class basis, vote
But of course we shan't say, "Don't vote for candidates to the left of Labour' You want to try it. Well, good luck to you.
We direct the bulk of our efforts towards the industrial struggles and trade struggles to come.
If we had 30-40,000 people then we could do both - have an electoral and an industrial challenge. But we don't have such forces, so we choose.
Where there are Socialist Unity candidates, will your members give us a hand?
We will be concentrating on
revolutionary socialists are:
* To build broad-based class struggle
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
the bosses with that of other oppressed layers of society -
Mary means the power of the capitalist state.
SWP leader says:
We'll vote for
SINCE Socialist Unity was first formed as a class struggle electoral bloc, it has campaigned for the involvement of the Socialist Workers' Party. In
the SWP has contested the same seats as Socialist Unity despite the closeness of the two
In the general election, the SWP has now decided not to stand. DUNCAN HALLAS, a central leader of
of the International Marxist Group's Political Committee why the SWP has changed its conference decision to contest the elections, and outlines the organisation's
basic socialist propaganda; the campaign against the Concordat; and anti-fascist activity. If we thought there was any value in the actual electoral intervention. then we would b running candidates ourselves.
Of course, if people want to vote for Socialist Unity or the CP, good luck to them.
We will, of course, be using our electoral platforms precisely to drive forward the antiConcordat fight and the struggle against the National But people will be asking Your members whether the SWP thinks that it is right to back Socialist Unity candi-
For example, in Callaghan's constituency Pat Arrowsmith will be backed by Socialist Unity. People may well ask SWP members whether they will be backing Arrowsmith or Callaghan.
From our point of view, this is an issue we shouldn't get very excited about. In terms of the national alternatives we have to say, 'Grit your teeth and vote accordingly There will be members of the SWP not to speak of sympathisers - who won't be able to bring themselves to do it. We shan't make a big fight about it, because we think there is a viable left alternative at the present time.
For us, it is incomparably more important that we try to lay the basis, in the workplaces and in the trade unions, for the struggles to come.
Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders of the Labour Party and the trades unions offer solutions that are in the interests, not of the workers, but of the capitalist
Socialist Challenge believes that the two vital tasks confronting
tendencies opposition to class-collaborationism in the labour movement. These should be non-exclusive in character grouping together militants holding a wide range of political views. * To begin to fight for the creation of a unified and democratic revolutionars 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
The struggle for socialism seeks to unite the fight of the workers against women, black people, gays — struggling for their liberation. This socialism can only be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with all
STOP This marks change assessment from the position taken at the SWP conference, doesn't it?
Al me conterence, we said "Vote Labour', or — low key -'Vote left of Labour, if you want to'. But it's true that at the conference a small majority did vote that we should mount our own electoral intervention.
Since then that position has been effectively dropped as far as any significant number of the membership is concerned.
Why has the view changed?
Because your perspectives for growth then have not materialised or because of a new assessment of the objective situation?
It's because of our actual experience of electoral inter-
You have to learn from experience. We contested seven by-elections. The results were not impressive.
You've also contested by-elections. Exactly the same thing - unimpressive results.
I don't gloat about that. I'm sorry you didn't do better.
Nevertheless, the Edge Hill result was poor and you can't in the eyes of the millions of workers throughout the world. We are opposed to them and will offer full support to all those fighting for socialist democracy
3
imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Ireland and letting the Irish people defermine their own future.
The Communist Parties in Europe
are more favourable than over the preceding three decades only be built by rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracs not as a luxury but as a vital necessity. This means the right to organise factions and
accuse us of splitting the vote. was because of this experience that we changed our mind on electoral intervention.
So you are basically telling SWP branches to decide for themselves whether they should give a nano in me socialisi Unity campaigns?
I think you are mistaken in mounting this election campaign. But in terms of voting of course, we shall vote for your candidates But we will not involve ourselves in the nitty-gritty of electoral work, because We have a series of operations that we are attempting to mount which will absorb all the energies of our people The fundamental problem facing the revolutionary left at the present time not its obvious electoral weakness, nor is it, as Socialist Unity tends to argue, the division between various grouplets.
But it is the left's effective isolation from the mass of the working class movement and its extremely weak roots in work places of all kinds.
That is the fundamental problem we have to rectify. All the rest is effectively a delusion ERaL we can jump over our own heads.
Our socialism will be infinitely more democratic than what exists in
The interests of workers and capitalists are irreconcilable on a world scale. Capitalism has not only created a world market, it has created WOTE PORES. ERUS WeLL DE WOrKIng CaSs uny on a international scale. This unity will in the long run be decisive in defeating both the
are in crisis. Neither the "Euro-communist nor the pro-Moscow wings have any meaningful sirategy fortne overtarow ortne captaist stale, ew revolutionar socialist parties are more necessary than ever before. Conditions foda
• our such partes cal
Page 3 scan of this page
Is Thatcher a votecatcher?
ELECTIONS
WITHIN a month, Margaret Thatcher will probably become the first woman leader of a major imperialist country.
What do women have to say about this?
By Jude Woodward
Certainly, a few years ago it would Have been impossible to imagine a woman prime minister.
It is the struggle of women that has made it possible now. But Margaret Thatcher is not going to take up the struggle for womens nants.
The Tories' policies welfare cutbacks, self-help, law and order and the importance of family life will all tend to push back into home; back into our cooking, cleaning, and caring role.
In this election a vote for the Tories will not be for a woman prime minister but for Tory policies.
Yet, from the moment that Thatcher entered the race for the leadership or the Party, the fact that she is a woman has figured prominently in every commentator's
In January 175. the Daily Mail ran a personal profile of Thatcher.
We found 'Maggie' has her hair done, wnal colour ugnis sne wears, and how she loves going round the sales
Keith Waterhouse in the Daily Mirror counter-attacked, asking wny we werent given the same details about Heath.
The most likely answer is, of course, sexism.
But perhaps the Mail and much of the rest of the media were being more astute than crass. How many women will vote for Thatcher and Tories, because 'Maggie' her washing in a laundroma and chats to her neighbour over the garden wall?
niras to mother Many lin
contrast to uncle Sunny the image we are being sold is a
She is often defended or attacked on the basis of some aspect of her sex.
Even the left has not been immune from this. Socialist Worker has slipped on this on a couple of centrespread a few months ago attacked the Tories Thatcher around a 'blue rinse' image, and last week the front cover headline read: Lady with the Iron Heel'.
We must attack the Tories for their policies, never on the basis of Thatcher's personality as a woman.
This is not to deny that Thatcher as a woman has a real consuluency CBC HOE among the hang 'em and flog 'em brigade.
An assessment of voting intention, based on all opinion polls, shows that 34 per cent of women will Labour, while 55 per cent will October 1914 when 38 percent YULC compared of women were for Labour, and 39 percent for the Tories. The shift is not so dramatic
Thatcher does have an
The female image
of
the Tory
the does and
appeal to ordinary" women -Iron who nave long ocel saying that
they would like to see a woman running the country.
Mary Kenny, in the Evening Standard in February 1975, said: It would be a marvellous victory for women all over just Europe to see a woman, and
such an able woman, leading one the two political parties in this country. the
would marvellous example, a great vote morale booster
confidence of women, to know with
sacrificing marriage or children either."
Well, some women may find it a morale booster to see a woman in power
she's a Tory.
But Kenny's last point is her most telling -wife and mother.
Many women may well be drawn towards her because of unis for te mass or wome! still wrongly believe that their best interests lie in strengthening the family.
Clearly, principal abolition of free school milk
the Tories such Labour in the race to be seen as
the party of respectability and the family - and in this race Thatcher is clearly precisely because woman.
Labour responded to this even it pressure by bringing up the idea
Thatcher is a
chauvinism
Labour Party
despite Thatcher's are well ahead of
really lie. asse she is a helped to VOLES. then
little for women
It's a
THE broadcasting
which
be run
vote in the house. screened
Job
cutter
ahoy
constituency, approved. sell-outs.
of the Ministry of Marriage - an attempt to catch up.
But Labour has done little to combat the traditiona male
of the working class or the male image of the
Most importantly it has not vigorous iv fought for women's rights - which would have won the support of more feminists to the Labour Party and would socialist have helped to educate women
fund. as to where their best interests
If Margaret Thatcher . De Name... comes the next prime minister,
power by women's Address.. the leadership will only have itself to blame - for having done so
knock-out
CONCERN the authorities to allow nothing to be televised
disTuDi election campaign on the terms that the main parties want it to
has resulted in an interesting cover up.
On the day of the confidence
government, ITN reporter saran curen camped on Enoch Powell's doorstep in Eton Square waiting to hear how the would-be saviour of Protestant Ulster intended to
As News At Ten viewers will recall, he didn't tell her. What they were not shown, however, is what first took place when Powell strode out of his luxury
Less than pleased, no doubt, that such a close interest was being taken in his former hate affair with the Tory leadership, Powell lashed out at Cullen, thrusting her microphone into her throat. All this was filmed by the camera crew. It wasn't GERALD Kaufman, MP for
Mancheste is also Minister of State for Industry.
His current plans include closing down shipyards causing the loss of 50,000 jobs yard on Teesside has already been closed and the closure of Falmouth in Cornwall has been HELP KEEP THATCHER OUT:
SUPPORT OUR FUND DRIVE DURING this general election we will be faced with a barrage of support for the Tories in nearly all the national daily papers
The Daily Mirror will tell us to vote Labour, but entirely on the basis of Callaghan/Healey policies. They certainly won't be giving any coverage to the Socialist Unity election campaign.
Socialist Challenge will be covering Socialist Unity's election campaign. It will be fighting for policies - such as troops out of Ireland, for women's rights and a woman's right to choose, against racism, against the Concordat, for youth rights, begin to challenge, and pose a fighting alternative to, Labour's
But to do this effectively we need cash We are entering a new financial quarter. We didn't make our fund drive target last quarter, and with the election we have even more than usual to do.
Make sure we can do it by sending in your donations.
This week's thanks to: Swansea sellers who've donated their £35.35 credit on sales to the fund drive, Grimsditch £5, Anon £50, Jo Hammond £5, Phil Tewdall £3, Des Stevens £5, Oxford IMG £12.50, Ed Mahoood £10, Paul Bellis £5, A J Najmi £3, Paul Keogh £3.
This week's total and total so far: £164.85.
I want to support the only paper campaigning for a genuin
alternative to Labour': cheque/PO/cash for £....
Send to: Socialist Challenge, c/o PO Box 50, London N1.
The main union involved in the shipyards is the Amalgamated Society of Boilermakers.
Gerald union-sponsored Labour MP, and until recently his union was ASTMS.
However in March the Labour Party's National Executive approved a change of sponsorship.
His sponsor union in this election, and if he is returned to office, is the Amalgamated Society of Boilermakers.
Ironic but apt, then, that the Socialist candidate Ardwick, Jeff West, should be an unemployed member of. the Amalgamated Society of Boilermakers!
Send us your reports DURING the general election interesting things are going to be happening in virtually every town.
You don't have be standing Socialist Unity candidate for Socialist Challenge to want to hear what's going on.
Write or phone in reports each week to tell us what initiatives you've planned,
HEYCHOTS you've made and let us know what the other parties are up to.
We want to know everything that goes on whether it's important or just funny, a step forward or a bit of a blow.
Make sure your paper has all the details that someone is responsible for keeping us informed.
which can Anon £30, Diane policies. enclose .....as a donation to the fighting Soeialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
Making Kaufman answer for Labour misrule
ELECTIONS
is standing
SOCIALIST UNITY is standing in these constituencies to present a socialist alternative to Labour's right-wing policies.
•SU needs both active helpers and money. If you can provide one or both, get in touch via the addresses/phone HULLOCES listed below.
BIRMINGHAM Small Heath. Candidate:
Adamson (former NUPE area officer). Address: 76B Digbeth, Birmingham DS 6DY. Phone: (021) 643 9209.
GLASGOW Queens Park. Candidate: Walter McLellan CaSSISTan secretary, Glasgow District NALGO). Address: 312 Cathcart Road, Queens Park, Glasgow. Phone: (041) 221 7481.
HULL Central. Candidate: Pauline Stanton (ASTMS, Hull Trades Council executive). Address: 3 Stepney Lane, Hull. Phone: 41994.
LIVERPOOL Texteth. Candidate: be confirmed. Address: 217 Wavertree Road, Liverpool 7. Phone: 260 0305.
LONDON Deptford. Candidate: Janet Maguire (ASTMS branch secretary). Address: c/o PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. Phone: to be contirmed.
LONDON Islington North. Candidate: Milke Simpson. Address: 110 Hornsey Estate, N19. Phone: (01) 263 387.
LONDON Southall. Candi0a1e lane All CUTESE Socialist Challenge). Address: 23 Hamilton Road, Southall, Middlesex. Phone: (01) 571 5019.
LONDON Tower Hamlets. Candidate: Ray Varnes (ILEA district secretary, NUPE). Address: 13 White's Row, off Commercial St, El. Phone: (01) 247 2717
MANCHESTER Candidate: Jeff West (Boiler-
Union). Address:
Piccadilly, Manchester Phone: (061) 225 0857
NOTTINGHAM East. Candidate: Ian Juniper (ASTMS). Address: Maple Square, Woodborough Road, Nottingham. Phone: 866126.
Socialist Unity campaigning actively for the following independent candidates:
BARNSLEY. Candidate: Brendan Gallagher (father of H Block prisoner). Address: 35 Huddersfield Road, Barnsley. Phone: 45012.
CARDIFF South-East. Candidate: Pat Arrowsmith. Address: 1-0-8 Books, Salisbury Road, Cardiff. Phone: 30183.
EVENTS
HULL: SU benefit bop, Fri 27 April, White Lion Hotel, Lombard St. (opp bus stn.). Som onwards. Bar extension to 11.30pm. Tickets 50p Bofs or SU supporters. Also May Day eve disco, Mon April, Waltham Club, Norfolk St. Late bar. All welcome. TOWER HAMLETS: benefit with film 'Home, Soldier Home and speakers Brendan Gallagher, Varnes, local UTOM speaker; plus film 'Take it like a man, ma'am'. Fri 13 April, 7pm, City of London Poly Students Union, Whitechapel High E1 (Aldgate East tube). £1.50 (E1 wageless, 50p school students).
Socialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page 4
Where SU, Socialist Unity
Chris
people.
explaining why: (051)
SCHOOLKIDS have virtually no rights at all today. We're herded about in concentration camps that KHOWEL schools; most of us are forced to wear drab, moronic school uniforms; boys are trained for dull and boring jobs; girls are trained to be housewives, and at Lane
the end of it we're sent off into the dole queue or if we're lucky might get a dead-end job.
Even prisoners beaten but schoolkids can have daylights out of them. The Schoolkids for Stanton campaign has been set up to oppose this and start also
By Jeff West Socialist Unity HE EWICK
ARDWICK is a populated working class area just south of Manchester city centre.
It faces many of the common inner-city problems: housing, high unemployment (especially racist harassment. and declining health facilities Five years government haven't scratched the surface of these problems. Unemployment has steadily increased Racism has been defended and encouraged by Law Order Anderton, Manchester's from Chief Constable, who stage-
30 managed the National Front
show in Longsight, Ardwick, in October 1977 The Duchess SU children's hospital still faces
the axe, while other necessary SUCH Ray remain unstarted
Socialist Unity is standing in Ardwick against Gerald Kaufman, Minister for who has been a central figure it St, developing the government's
policies.
Rather than building a mass campaign against racism, and
for Stanton'
in Hull
SOCIALIST Unity is putting a lot of stress on the rights of those without a voice in this election — young
In Hull school students have started their own 'Schoolkids for Stanton' campaign (Pauline Stanton is the SU candidate). They have put out a leaflet
the fightback for schoolkids' rights.
We're supporting Stanton of Socialist Unity in the general election because she totally supports fighting for their rights.
Just because allowed to vote doesn't mean this election doesn't affect us. low paid The next government will tell us what our schools will be like can t be whether we youth clubs, how much records thrashed will cost, whether bus fares will go up or not and hundreds of other things like that.
If they won't allow us to vote the consequent fire-bombings candidate, and police harassment in the area, Kaufman has limited his role to forwarding petitions to densely Mer vn Rees.
At the head of a Duchess of York demonstration last year, his only advice to the hundreds of activists present was to invite poor them to write letters to their MP youth), His latest piece of electoral opportunism came started his election campaign of Labour last week with a demand or even Health Minister David Ennals not to close the Duchess York. Fine words where's the action?
Fortunately Kaufman's inac'n tivity has not moltan campaigns springing up.
The Longsight and Levenshulme anti-fascist/anti-racist group has been countering the York growth mobilising opposition to the fascists for two years now And recently a local women's group has been formed, which women's centre Industry, shulme. They will be using the election to put forward their demands for women's rights.
Socialist Unity have already been active in these and other campaigns, and
It's 'Schoolkids
last five years.
schools,
Pauline more bored.
They've
candidate who
schoolkids
we're profits
can have more spend on
Already when he
but
prevented from
and
for in Leven-
supporters support.
Our
we've got to start our own campaign to tell the politicians and bosses what we think.
The politicians have done The nothing for schoolkids in the
The Labour government has cut millions of pounds off public spending, the which means that we've got less school.
less teachers, less books, less youth clubs but these
thrown over a quarter of a million schoolleavers on the scrapheap of the on dole queues just because the bosses aren't making enough
The Tories would be even worse, they've promised to take money for new hospitals, new
wherer schools and new houses to
guns and tanks.
Thatcher has said that exams will get harder and discipline
Humberside also want: the Tory county council has Leafleting Manchester schools
will be hoping to strengthen them over the next few weeks.
A socialist festival is already they re planned for 28 April. Here ocal activists and campaigns vote? will be able to develop their
election campaign
PAULINE STANTON — SU Hull candidate banned schoolkids from belonging to the National Union of School Students - NUSS.
want schools to teach kids about the British Empire, listen to Elgar and then be sent into
Army when they leave
Socialist Unity opposes all of
parties they say schoolkids should have the right to control their own lives. They want more money spent
schools, houses and lives. hospitals as well as creating new jobs for the million and a half unemployed people.
They say women should be allowed to decide themselves
For not to have abortion and that discrimination against women and black people should be abolished
Schoolkids for Stanton support all these things. We
*End the ban on the National started last Friday when we leafleted local schools, where
old CHOUSE to be unemployed but too young to
At Spurley Hey comprehensive, just outside the constituency. some 40 per cent of school-leavers go straight
Union of school students.
*Stop discrimination against girls in schools.
*Abolish the cane and school uniform.
*Schools to be run by democratically elected board of pupils, parents and teachers instead of an undemocratic governors board
This is what want in schools but we also want the campaign to give uS control over all sections of our
Schoolkids for Stanton want to take the campaign into every are where you are Involved Join in the campaign now and start the fight for your rights
Old enough to work, old enough to vote — votes at 16!
Join the National Union of School Students!
Jobs for school leavers now!
Free abortion and contraception parental consent! onto the dole queue.
On Saturday we were out in Longsight market campaigning for a socialist alternative. Ou fight to make Kaufman answer for Labour's years misrule is under way.
Page 5 scan of this page
Pat Arrowsmith takes on
What has Labour brought Ireland -
ELECTIONS
By Geoff Bell
TAKING on James Callaghan in South-East Cardiff Independent Socialist, Pat Arrowsmith will be renewing an old acquaintance - of sorts.
*I bear Callaghan one or two grudges' says Pat. 'He was responsible for having imprisoned Labour Home Secretary 1964 — I was given six months for non-violent action against British connivance with American war in Vietnam."
Such past encounters are not what decided Pat to stand in South-East Cardiff. But there is no doubt that the respectable press would describe her as the sort of person who does 'bear grudges'
She has been
industrial organiser in the nuclear disarmament HON CHECHEL. leading opponent American war in Vietnam, and
I'm standing centrally LUW. on the issue of self-determinaWaiting to the Queen. Cambridge, he IS
the very first chairperson of ICI.
education, health and social services. By Tom Marlowe
Not all the burden of developing the social
snared
RIGHT to the end the Labour
continued relentless SCaTCHE for
so defiled our glorious country. The prospective Labour candidate for Northwich, Barry Silverman, trade union leader Phil Flynn, pacifist Arrowsmith, and former Scotland Yard detective Arthur Evans have all been arrested under the Prevention Terrorism Act in the last couple of years.
On April Fools' Day a new name was added Time Out journalist Ron MeKay.
McKay was held for 20 hours after stepping off a plane from Belfast at Abbotsinch airport,
her jaller
tion for Ireland, on the need to get the troops out'
Fighting a general election is nothing new for Pat. In 1964 she was a candidate spin-off from the CND called Radical Alliance; in 1970 she SEDGe CHE Vietnam against Labour Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart.
This time she's fighting on in more than just Ireland. Says Pat: woman I'm standing on equal the rights for women, homosexual on equal rights for homosexuals.
I'm a sponsor of the Anti Nazi League, standing on SEnC racism; as a socialist standing on general socialist issues; and as someone who has campaigned for years in the nuclear disarmament movement, that's also a the plank in the platform.'
The activities planned for the election campaign Cardiff
apart from death?
PETER Robert Henry Mond Melchett is a Lord in
Educated at Eton the 31-year-old son chairperson of British Steel, the grandson of a former vice-chairperson of ICI, and the great-grandson of
With such a background it says much about Labour's social policies in the North of Ireland that Lord Melchett is the out-going Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office with responsibility for
economic policies has fallen on
theised by Done has been
assisted Don and another Minister of State at the
Another 'terrorist
Glasgow. its His dastardly crime was that the he was unable to fill in correctly an embarkation card. Specifically, he could not remember the address he was staying at during an assignment in Belfast.
Belfast.
Pat The vigilant Special Branch officers then seized an article McKay was writing computers in the North of of Ireland, as well as his passport National Journalists membership card.
Mckay has now charged under Section 8 of the PTA. For failing to remember the address in question he now faces a possible three months imprisonment.
already undertaken - reflect these different issues.
Only two weeks ago Pat and her campaign workers from for the United
Movement and Socialist Unity picketed an army recruitment
SNUC centre on the same day that
soldiers were collecting for an army benevolent fund.
Other planned activities on the issue of Ireland include *As out'
protests. as 'I am also speaking at a film
show organised by Nazi League', says Pat. "There will I'm also devolution, ISSUe will be other activities
I'm poster parades,
meetings, and assomaica general elections." man)
The Independent manifesto stresses a number of local issues, CORCHOR constituency.
LOSC But because Pat intends to
Northern Ireland Office.
and Concannon has of the tackled his
endeavour For example, announced a f38m programme.
The Belfast Telegraph ported: Among projects due to be completed over the next
for the Maze prison, a new closed borstal, offenders centre, prison at Magherby."
Unfortunately such decisive Concannon state intervention into
building industry has not done much to help the North of Ireland economy.
Unemployment at 13 per cent is the highest figure since the war, and government discussion paper concluded that the prospect of continuing low output growth unemployment.
So the Labour government's legacy to the people of the North of Ireland is not just prison camps and corpses. also includes the
been
during the opposition leader, and Troops Out policies on Ireland,
national one
the campaign. organising a rat has "blanket'
the Anti debate meeting on and I hope there won't be frightened.'
like factory gate usual with
Socialist if, in the
such as housing
Callaghan's glances in South-East Cardiff certainly duties with and imagination.
in July 1977 he nearly
building
Pre- are in Britam
are new cell blocks
La young and a new
the as unfit to live in.
evidence, supremo Roy declared: recent
'Ulster faces
and high
dose of It type of housing
"POLITICAL STATUS NOW"
*TROOPS OUT OF IRELAND NOW'
Glasgow UTOM demonstration, supported by Sinn Fein
- Saturday 21 April
Assemble 10am, Queens Park Gates, Victoria Road,
to march to City Centre rally
Accompanied by Republican flute bands
speak in many constituencies
election, her to the Labour particularly his will 'not just be a local campaign but a
The intriguing question how much contact Arrowsmith and Callaghan will have during
expressed her willingness to take Margaret Thatcher's place in a confrontation on TV with Callaghan: *Michael Stewart was prepared platform, so I hope Callaghan
It would be too much to suggest that the Independent Socialist campaign will cause sleepless nights for Callaghan.
But it wouldn't be surprising
course of the next couple of weeks, the Prime Minister finds himself throwing a few nerve end any
direction rents,
Broad economic hardship described Concannon in a recent report from the Child Poverty Action Group. more
This showed that there are
per cent more socially deprived children in the North of Ireland than there sell
Similar statistics explain the depth of the crisis. The average wage in the North of Ireland is more than ES below the UK average; food, fuel, transport and many other basic needs houses and services cost more; and Catholic nearly 20 percent of all housing is officially classified
Irish Times Flying in the face of such
North of Ireland Catholic Mason once 'We dIC doing can simply everything possible to improve picasail the standard of life. But his housing policy leads one to Catholics. doubt thetruth of such remarks.
Even the most "moderate' social-democrat would find it hard to argue against a good
public intervention into the North of Ireland's
industry the
building of council homes, low
and all those other promises which used to appear in manifestos of the Labour
But that has not been the
taken by Mason, and Melchett.
Despite the obvious need for
public nousing government decided last year to adopt the opposite course when it approved a decision to
staggering 190,000 publicly-owned more than a quarter of the total in the North of Ireland.
The lack of public housing but will affect Catholics particularly. The percentage of unfit
is much greater in areas than in Protestant ones.
As a recent article in the
put "The housing problem is, in effect, a
one. Badly-housed Protestants in inner-city areas
HOYC out •to suburban housing estates in dormitory areas...
because of the assassination campaigns, do not feel free to do so."
This inequality of suffering is true of other fields.
Although legislation suppo-
Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising
Organised by Sinn Fein
Assemble Speakers Corner, 15 April, 2.30pm
Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising
Organised by the Irish Republican Socialist Party
Assemble Cricklewood Broadway. 15 April, 2.30pm March to Kilburn Square.
"noto: KUGEK LEWIS
employment, the governmentsponsored Fair Employment Agency claims that unemploymunity is still 2½ times as high CHIC Catholic as in the Protestant one.
It would be incorrect to say that the Labour government has failed initiate
to lighten the economic and social hardships in the North of Ireland.
Numerous bribes. taxexemptions and grants have been made to monopolies to invest in the North of Ireland-
there has been noticeable dent In the unemployment figures.
In the long term such 'concessions" are counterproductive in any case. Once the grants run out, or the period of tax-exemption ends, the tendency is for the company concerned to pack its bags.
So the official forecast is that by 1981 a further 9,000 jobs will be lost in manufacturing and 6,000 in construction.
Of course, by then they may need to build new prisons to house those oh so illogical people who keep insisting that Britain has nothing to offer Ireland.
Socialist Challenge 12 ArM 10
Page 6 scan of this page
The idle rich and
ELECTIONS
Labour's lies
promise made in the
'It was the crisis', they say. *Factors beyond our control. This is a lie.
A policy which meets the needs of working people can be carried out today. But even some of the positive elements of the 1974 manifesto - • measly as they were could only implemented if a bold choice was taken to mobilise working class in a fight to break the capitalist hold UIL economy.
This would have meant a repudiation of the social contract and instead:
*a declaration of war on the rich and powerful;
*ending private ownership of production, sanctioning action taken by workers to put the economy in their own hands;
*breaking up the army of
How will the "Labour'
does not have majority in parliament, that does not mean its situation is totally hopeless. There is a way out; one need only have the will to find it.
Suppose MacDonald said this: *To our shame, country has a kind of august dynasty that stands above democracy and for which have no need. ...What if he added: 'We are going to take their lands, mines and railways, and nationalise their banks.'
..If he added, •With the resources released by abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords we are going to undertake construction of housing for the workers,' he would unleash tremendous enthusiasm.
In Britain three-quarters of the population is working class It Is a purely proletarian country. It has a small handful
•Faller e 12 April 1979 Page 6
the idle poor
THE government has managed to break almost every
Labour Party's manifesto in 1974. Labour leaders and the government have said time and again that they had no choice.
bureaucrats and police who run the LOUI forcing us to serve the interests of capital; * rooting such a government in the power of the working CaSS by promoung centralising genuinely be cratic workers councils.
This week VY C the examine a few
steps could be taken to begin to the remove the running
economy from the hands of the capitalists.
Restoring full employment. One and a half million are on the dole today. This because there is no work. But if they were employed idle factories, offices plants their couldn't be sold which would satisfy capital's
of landlords and capitalists they are very rich and powerful, it is true, but still they are only a handful.
If MacDonald walked into parliament, laid his programme on the table, rapped lightly with his knuckles, and said Accept it or I'Il drive you all out' our [saying it more politely than
I've phrased it here] — if he did this, would unrecognisable in two weeks. VY C
MacDonald would receive an overwhelming majority in any election.
The British working class would break out of its shell of the conservatism with which it has
been cleverly would discard that the reverence for the laws of the
bourgeoisie, the the church Casses. monarchy. But MacDonald will not do that.
Trotsky, speech to the Tbilisi Soviet, 1924
desire for profits.
Simple measures of workers election
control and CHISHEC Dase programme of public works is fulfilled. construction, behalf, direct workers
ancillary only sixty per cent of existing Cabacily repeated throughout areas of industry.
CHO
demo- A measure
resources which released has been calculated by begin to ways in which. economists Andrew Glyn and
John Harrison. In his pamphlet "Tribune's Alternative the egy, Giyn quotes from the National Economic Review that production isn't average of 20 per
in the capacity.
Around £20 billion of goods and and services (in 1975 prices) produce which could be produced are at a price
not thanks to the huge amount of idle resources. calculates that it could provide the following: 50 per cent improvement in pensions and other benefits: £3,500m.
Minimun per week: £5,500m.
Doubling £4,000m. 25 per cent increase in health education £3,000m. 10 per cent increase in living standards: £4,000m To protect the economy from financial and economic sabotage it would have to acompanied by the nationalisation of all finances and by control of all foreign trade. surrounded. It
Proper
slavish
production would planning and nationalisation of propertied large industry, together with a and the completely new, non-imperia-
list role in the world economy. And under these circumstances the new technology microprocessors sately used to everyone's living conditions
without unemployment. planning could
200,000 billion
and workers are idle
This USC
other people.
of the total
could
Compare this Stratstatistics thousandth this amount! Institute Consider
WEIGE SHOW
British are free-loading al all
cent under
goes on luxury expensive
Glyn manutacturmg for useless 'needs'
Finally,
the ownership of land. earnings of £70
for working housebuilding: increasing
essentials certainly does not
expenditure: producton.
The Benwell
be prices. This average. In banking and instance, the
full state much higher.
development of
require could be broken up.
nationalised.
like could be
capitalists.
spectrum
evils. vote tor the where
class vote,
most evident.
FORTY
way forward. misery from
Removing the income of the idle rich. The Labour Research Department recently estimated
eight win pounds. This probably a tremendous underestimate, since widespread tax fiddles and deceptions conceal the real wealth of Britain's top
Communist
The chairperson of the Board SCLICLAR of Inland Revenue, Sir William Lennan.
party Pile, reported to the Commons last week that he estimated tax yesterday fiddling at three billion pounds.
with so-called social security frauds of one
the waste this involves. An army of parasites
simply head. living, without doing any useful work at all. And much of the money the rich has its hands on
goods like cars, yachts, and houses which are out of the reach of ordinary people. So useful productive resources are
commocies things. speculation and activities like live
This only jacks up the cost of living
people by the price of like housing. the add government.
Community
Development Project estimates that 50 per cent of the cost of every house is now accounted for by interest charges and land
figure an London, for proportion is
This wealth could be put at the service of working people.
Investment and property trusts
Banks, land and monopolies could be
Luxury goods industries could be reconverted
Next week we will look at
Party other measures to end capitalist waste and state hand-outs to
From the left press
WHAT attitude should socialists adopt towards the return of a Labour government? A whole
has emerged on the left in this election. Most socialists have called for a return of Labour because it is the lesser of two
The Workers Revolutionary Party is unique in its refusal to call fora vote for Labour Party
time,
Socialist Challenge rejects the reasoning behind both these tory positions. We have argued for a
Labour Party there is no socialist alternative not merely because this represents a class against
but because it is when the leaders of the working class are in office that their defence of capitalism becomes
Under these circumstances, it is that much easier to fight fora real socialist alternative to the left of Labour.
MORNING STAR
Communist candidates are to spearhead a bold and confident' election campaign by their party to defeat the Tories and win a Labour government that will take a left
In all constituencies, where Communists are not standing, electors will be urged by the party to vote Labour.
And a 'special responsibility' will be laid on Communists to
support Labour candidates who endorse ano fight for left policies.
These were the strategic
by the Party's general Mr Gordon and adopted by the executive committee launching its general election campaign.
2 April
...The issue is policy. We need different policies, ones which stand Callaghan's policies and Thatcher's policies their
Instead of kow-towing to the big multinationals which are holding our country to ransom in the pursuit of their profits,
need to challenge their wealth and power and solve the crisis at their expense in the interests of the working people.
To achieve that requires two
The defeat of the Tories. And the building up of the mass democratic movement to the point where it can compel
Labour government to implement left policies, including, as necessary, changes in
composition of the
The Communist candidates will be spearheading the drive for these twin aims in their election campaigns.
-Editorial, Tuesday 3 April.
NEWSLINE THE various revisionist groups in Britain are unanimous in calling for the return ot the thoroughly discredited Labour government in next month's general election
The International Marxist Group, the Socialist Workers'
and the tiny Workers Socialist League all pleaded
with the working class to vote
June party of Callaghan, Healey, Merlyn Rees and Roy Mason..
In past elections the WRP and its predecessor the Socialist 35a 001 League forward the demand 'Labour
Power Socialist Programme' and campaigned to "Make the Left MPs Fight".
But that does not mean tha such calls are correct for all
whatever the circumstances. Throughout the his-
of Marxism, Trotsky, Lenin. Engels and Marx himself frequently engaged in bitter struggles against thost who clung to the slogans of a past era when conditions had changed...
What is decisive in Britain today is not whether Thatcher and Joseph subjectively hate the working class more thar Callaghan and Healey and are therefore more anxious to attack them.
The decisive factor is the obiective world crisis and it impact on British capitalism. The stage is set in Britain for a general strike and civil war, whoever wins the coming general election...
Our candidates will pu Forwara a cicar revornonar programme, based on the Transitional Programme of the Fourth International. We know such a programme will not
large VULC in this election - but that is not our primary concern.
Our task is to put before the Widest possibie audience workers, youth and professional people the task which faces them - the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism in Britain as part of the world socialist revolution.
- Saturday 7 April
TRIBUNE •.THOSE in the trade union movement who go into this election to help return a Labour Government do not do so in
happened in the last four years. They go into the battle in order that they may be able in the future to have some more significant influence upon what the next Labour government does or does not de.
Without doubt Labour's chances for re-election now depend on the sucess of the campaign by the trade unions. There is no reason to believe
that they will not pull their weight...
But the ingredient which must be added to that campaign
in Labour's election manifesto
must willing and enthusiastic commitment • to many of the crucial economic policies that the trade unions have been arguing for for so onithout a doubt, the most important must be a full scale commitment to industrial democracy, both through representation of trade unions in companies and also through the implementation of planning
Labour's objective must be to campaign for a future which must bring change. , The trade unions could well be the best engine for that change in the years to conte
- 6 April
Page 7 scan of this page
CP zig-zags its way to student conference
HOMENEWS
By Geoffrey Sheridan IF THE National Front through with its declared aim of standing 280 candidates in the general election, it will have one DaLCular objective in mind: the publicity that Front
national and local media.
This was spelt out in the NF's
Socialist Challenge internal bulletin last summer,
which maintained that quantity must override quality in the selection of a sufficient number of candidates to secure radio and TV coverage.
Some news bulletins have
parties will be running in the election no prizes guessing the fifth.
Yet the Front is by no means confident that media workers will obligingly relay its racist message. That's why propaganda includes attacks on the media unions and demands for "press freedom'.
The NF's latest move is to take the Camden Journal to the Press Council for omitting any mention of the Front's candidate in a Greater London Council by-election last month.
Most of une meata unions have toughened their opposition to racism.
A joint agreement between the National Graphical Association and the National Union of Journalists, for example, *recognises the members to withold their labour on grounds conscience because employers are providing a platform for racist propaganda
Journalists on a number of local papers have set excellent precedents. Papers such as the Hornsey Journal and Ender in London
pro fascists our in local
fascists during elections and NF demonstra-
Other journalists and media workers need to be persuaded to adopt this approach.
Local ANLs should be arranging nOW discussions with media workers about their election coverage, taking up the demand of the ANL nationally and of the Mass pickets are every Saturday.
Countering the Front's
media message
goes
OPPOSE
POLICE
for
BRUTALIT
its
Against state marassment DAon].
Campaign Against Racism in the Media for no uncritical coverage of fascists and racists. Pickets should be the order of the day where the press, radio, TV promote the NF's campaign. Back up for anti-racist media workers is also needed. On the Islington Gazette, for instance, where journalists have refused LO publish NF
of except in a critical context, the
editor inserted an quoting at length the local NF candidate on 26 March.
This led to an immediate 24-hour strike by the journalists on the Islington Gazette East and two other papers in the have same North London group
A major focus will be the local Front's party political broad-
casts, scheduled for 25 April on radio and the following day on TV.
CARM and the ANL are calling for 'No Plugs for NF Thugs. A picket hold casting House in London W1
has already been called 6.30pm on 26 April, and local ANLs are being arrange pickets of regional
POST
NOT a police line protecting Fort Knox, but uniformed defence of the Nottingham Post where 28 journalists have been sacked.
A HUNDRED people picketed Brixton police station last Saturday calling for an end to the 'sus' harassment of black people. The picket was called by Blacks
broadcasting centres.
Webster has been allocated five minutes on TV to promote the Front's racism. effectively policy would be to demand a
counter-broadcast anti-fascist answer the NF's lies, expose their Nazi connections, calling for mass actions to deal Statemens with the Front.
The mass
article presented itself as the defender
democratic broadca on the spite ight o policies The demand for policies. right of reply would allow the labour movement to explain mat it is me democratic oppressed.
If a reply is refused, pulling the plugs on the NF broadcasts would then be widely understood by millions whose sets would go of Broad- blank.
Many broadcasting workers for are unhappy to give Webster free rein of urged to Pickets would encourage them
to take the action that's needed.
By Pamela Holmes
THE gyrations Communist Broad Left in the National Union of Students have made the union's membership dizzy.
On 21 April there will be a first-hand opportunity to see what is behind the most recent alliance projected Communist Party when stu dents meet at their national union conference.
Students will be discussing both the general election and who is elected to lead the union in the next year. No doubt the Broad Left-dominated executive will try and whitewash its own record as well as that of the Labour government.
The Communist Party will also take the occasion to try and explain away how they zig-zagged from with the Tories to their present proposals for alliance. In light of the record
April. candidates will as and as well
WIDe candidates elections. laws and police In
The best ment.
multi-racial movement town, walle a
and
Revolution.
media has The Front does
support within the
rights
spite
NF members.
But it is
defender of rights of the
threaten
marchg George's Day.
much more
the prominence election promise of a
the airwaves.
difficult to of the Party-inspired
with the announcement that
by the the right to exist.
pendently. union certain
from these
have just two years ago.
an alliance
who turned up broader
See you in
Leicester
on 21 April
March against the NF
THE NATIONAL Front has good reason to choose Leicester as the location for its national demonstration on Saturday 21
The NF has spent £30,000 on its headquarters in the town,
standing ne events.
Leicester's
parliamentary constituencies, it
putting up over LICSSALE in the local
short, Leicester has become a stronghold for the fascists. his is where the irst branch of the Young National Front was set up, and last week the YNF picketed a Leicester meeting of the Labour Party Young Socialists on unemploy-
The YNF has also leafleted
schools in the School Kids Against the Nazis group has been banned from one school for selling copies of SKAN and
not lack Labour movement in Leicester. At one about it. factory, Bostik, the Transport Union convenor and seven of march the une umons snop stewards an
behalf not simply to strengthen this base and further Paul Winston
Leicester's Asian community that the fascists will
on
They hope to give national
to Webster's "very, He SCISES very heavy racist campaign',
There is one sure way of defeating this aim: mass action the by the anti-fascist movement on the streets of Leicester on 21 of the executive, it is not led
see why few students have been impressed nin Sars Star's change for the broad left'
The failures of the Broad Left are most evident in the further education sector. Here many student unions are still fighting hostile authorities for
The Broad her Left's response? To call fo desks and telephones. What is needed instead is a national Broad campaign to achieve and extend the right to organise inde- socialist
such disorientation amongst students has resulted
policies. Just compare the 5,000 students leaders want who marched on the national grants demonstration this year working class. with the 30,000 demonstrator
Even more telling are the 2,000 students
at a local Manchester march where the this? Socialist Students' Alliance has
fight
East Anti Nazi League has demonstration, and Leicester AN has joined with the race sub-committee of the town's
Arthur Scargill spelt out the messing held by Leicester ANNE, 160-strong
For
*We mustn't stand idly by and watch as the NF is allowed to parade through our streets.
Women-
Nazis •gainst
here is nothing the Front would like better than for us to ignore them and do nothing
*If the NF is allowed to
ANL be CHELSE marching at the same time."
Speaking at the meeting on
of Leicester ANL.
Socialist Challenge supporter
stressed that there should be no reliance on a ban under the Public Order Act to deal with the Front.
In any event, he argued, the counter-demo had to go ahead to show the mass opposition to
The Front will be fielding their Midlands candidates on
march. Every Labour candidate should be supporting the counter-mobilisation.
a campaign based on independent student action.
The new alliance seeks the inclusion of the Liberals, but this won't entail any major policy changes for the CP. None of the people involved i this project are prepared to talk about the programme of the
grouping, the pact. student organiser gives us a clue
letter to Socialist Challenge (see page 14).
The CP wants to drop the
Left as a 'harrowly organisation' with 'narrow socialist' demands as 'the social ownership of the means of production This indicates that Broad Left
to drop their strategy of uniting with the
and favour instead a suicide pact with the right wing. But what role has the National Organisation of Labour Students to play in
To date, they certainly
East End
By Patrick Sikorski
•JOIN a trade union, get organised in the workplaces and the sweat shops and the TUC and the trades union movement will support
against racism and fascism.'
That was the message from labour movement leaders at an
meeting 150 representatives of the black and Asian communities, sel defence organisations, and the unions last Sunday.
While Jack Dromey, secre-
of the South-east region TUC and Bill Keyes, general secretary of SOGAT, referred to the fascist menace and the racist killings, and acknow ledged the racism in the trade union movement itself, all they had to offer was a union recruitment campaign starting in June.
It was left to the defence committee leaders to point out that black workers have not been slow to join trade unions
organise struggles. The problem was to gain support for those struggles.
Patrick Kodikara, of the Hackney and Tower Hamlets werence Committee local Labour MP Ian Mikardo why he hadn't proposed the abolition of the immigration laws, and whether he and the rest of the platform would be supporting the mass picket West Ham police station on 21 April against the 'sus laws and the intimidation of blacks by the police.
Ray Varnes, Socialist Unity candidate for Bethnal Green and Be pointed us that wind
Webster Tyndall standing as candidates in the area, the racist threat would dramatically increase during the elections.
His call for the maximum unity of all the anti-racist and anti-fascist organisations organise a mass demonstration through the Brick Lane area on 29 April - the Sunday before polling day met with an enthusiastic response from the meeting.
An ad-hoc organising meeting is being held on Friday, 13 April, at 13 White's Row, off Commercial St, El, at 11am haven't published their views on this project. Rumours of a split in NOLS over this issue are circulating, but the best way to resolve this would be a recall conference of Labour students. Here big differences would no doubt emerge over any kind of student version of the Lib-Lab
The Socialist Students' Alliance has made certain gains in uniting socialist students around class struggle policies. But some sections of the left -notably the Socialist Workers Student Organisation - have refused to be part of this unity.
And so once again, students cast their votes in the union's elections, they will not see an overall alternative to the right-wing policies of the present leaders of both the student and labour movement.
only Canasce can rebuild the student movement is one which bases itself on building a genuine socialist alternative.
Socialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page
Page 8 scan of this page
EVERY MILITANT
Vote for...
IN ALL but 12 constituencies vote for the Labour Party candidate.
Of course we want to keep the Tories out but a Labour government also provides the best conditions fighting for socialist policies.
SHUS isn't because government can be expected to deliver these policies, but because Labour's leaders can be put on the spot and fought against best when actually in office.
There needs to be a
to Labour's right-wing policies. It is much easier to organise that when it can be shown in practice — that is with a Labour government in office - how the Labour leaders are betraying.
One reason it would be a mistake to vote for candidates of the Communist Party is that over the last five years it has consistently covered up for many of these betrayals. "left-wing' union leaders Scanlon and Jones who have played an active part in supporting the policies of the Social Contract.
Indeed in SOLIC Communist Party candidates are to the right of the Labour candidates. A case in point is Hackney North, where bOuT candidate Ernie Roberts is generally to the left of his Communist Party opponent Ireland, for example.
The CP's programme is reformist. On many DOnCICS qualitative difference between and the left of the Labour Party - and unlike Labour the CP is not the mass party of the working class.
The CP has all the disadvantages of
Vote and work for...
THE 12 constituencies should be a vote for candidates other than Labour are the ten where Socialist Unity is standing, plus the independent candidatures of Pat Arrowsmith in Cardiff South-east and Gallagher in Barnsley.
As well as votes these candidates need all the help they can get so it is not just a matter of putting a cross on a ballot paper.
Support for these candidates also means canvassing for them, building meetings, arguing for their policies inside the trade unions and Labour Party - doing everything possible to promote the socialist alternative they represent.
Socialist Unity deserves such backing because its policies relate to immediate needs of working people.
The big events
USE the election to organise support for:
* The Anti Nazi mobilisation against the National Front in Leicester on 21 April. Contact AN at 01-240 1714.
* The National Abortion Campaign anti-SPUC picnic for the wanted child on 28 April in Hyde Park. The SPUC mob are organising do unborn child' on the same date in the same place. These opponents woman's right to choose need to be answered in strength.
* The 'Make Ireland a Election Issue' four of
Socialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page 8
in scollana ine
for
Labour
'Assembly should, they are
socialist
election.
Scottish National Party.
revolutionary opposes the movement; the
promoted struggle left wing in the unions. such Rather than
constituencies have disgraced
workers movement.
The Socialist opposes the
on the issue of
them Its decision not to present a common where there
spending, immigration controls,
wage.
Brendan
League,
free abortion on demand.
Pat Arrowsmith South-east is policies as well
Out of Ireland Brendan
the North, London; 13 Hamlets, chester and Blackpool at NUS
for *the details.
of Conference. On
General Brendan for further details.
Labour, and none of its advantages.
Scottish Labour Party also sees itself as a working class party. But like the Communist Party the SLP has no mass base and except on one issue its policies are little different Homose or me about carv
Wet one issue is the question of the Scottish Assembly. While the Scottish
in line with the majority vote in the referendum, be established immediately it is not, as the SLP claims, the central issue in this
In suggesting otherwise the SLP often finds itself as no more than an echo chamber for the retoric of the
The Workers Revo name o Party is
in name only. women's liberation self-organisation of black people; and the building of a class
fighting the Labour mis-leaders, it makes the job of these bureaucrats much easier. Its slander campaigns and manipulative politics
Trotskyism in the
Workers' Party government's class collaborationist policies, it encourages independent action by the labour movement, and it stands on the side of the working class on most major issues.
However, it does not have the correct tactics for fighting the Labour leaders.
socialist alternative slate in the elections — despite Socialist Unity's appeals — is evidence of the SWP's confusion.
Thus SU opposes cuts in public
supports the abolition of and backs all workers in struggle fighting for a decent
SU also believes in organising round such policies — building the Anti Nazi
supporting the current Anti-Concordat campaign, fighting for
in Cardiff standing similar as giving special emphasis to the demand for Troops
Gallagher. respectable vote for Gallagher against Northern Ireland Secretary Roy Mason would be a tremendous boost for all those struggling in Ireland and Britain for the removal of British troops.
Gallagher and Pat Arrowsmith. Dates
12 April, Islington April, Tower London; 18 April, WISTE Nottingham; 19 April, conference; 20 April, Barnsley; 21 April, Glasgow; 23 April, Cardiff; 24 April, Hull; 26 April, Leeds. Phone 01-359 8371 for further
* Socialist Challenge Trade Union
"Alternatives to the Concordat' and 'Workers Plans'. 26 May, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London. Contact Socialist Challenge
GLASGOW — Socialist Unity, Troops Out demo, 21 April
Intr BLACKPOOL - NUS conference 17-21 April LEICESTER - anti-NF demo 21 April
THE CUTS.
EVERY time you pay for a pint of beer you become involved in politics. About two-thirds of what you pay goes to the tax collector.
And then the government decides how that money will be whether on tanks for the Army, hospitals for the sick; pay rises for the bosses of nationalised industries, or pay rises for school caretakers.
We cannot escape politics, though the professional politicians, the media manipulators, and worthies of varieties encourage uS otherwise.
They put naked women on page three of newspapers and say it's good fun'
GER
ELEC
GLASG
BLACKPOO
LIVERPOOL BIRMI
CARD and harmless records and say they sponsor must be kept o At the same spent build
against teams encourages rac Glad to be C Queen' are pol banned; pin-up the millions of all at, taunted or
think
objects.
Polities are the time we are
Page 9 scan of this page
'S GUIDE TO THE
RAL
TORNESS LEEDS
• BARNSLEY
MANCHESTER
TTINGHAM O
• LEICESTER HAM O ey churn out pop is 'entertainment'; and insist politics
e sport is used to nity' and playing
South vote. if pop songs like
'God Save the do and ly sensitive they are election. e not 'harmless' for greater nen who are leered sically attacked by activity. think of them as sex
where but most of to forget it and just
TION
SCARBOROUGH
HULL 0°8
LONDON go out and have a good time.
At general elections things change. We are encouraged to be interested in politics. But as always there are limits - all we are advised to do is read the manifestos of the main parties and then
There are many other things we can
not just during a general But the election provides opportunities TOT talking encouraging
That is why Socialist Challenge has produced this militants' guide to the generar cechon.
NOTTINGHAM - Socialist Unity
SOUTHA
LONDON Socialist Unity
- mass anti-nuclear gathering 4-7 May
SOnHi UNIT YOUT
MOVEME Deptford and Tower Hamlets. Anti-SPUC picnic, 28 April in Southall, Islington,
ACCORDING to most of those seeking election, politics is about parliament. But it's not that simple.
For instance it was the massive wave of industrial action which freed the Pentonville dockers in 1972; it was the 25,000 who demonstrated for abortion rights in June 1975 who influenced many in parliament into opposing any further restrictions on abortion; it was the tens of thousands who attended the Anti Nazi League carnivals of last year who helped to halt the rise of the National Front.
The best way to fight reactionaries and the most effective way of fighting for socialist policies is to do so on the streets and in the factories
It also means building campaigning bodies which can activities. A case in point is the current Anti-Concordat already a constituencies.
For example in Hull Socialist Unity activists have already held a Kill the Concordat' members of the local trades council executive have agreed to sponsor the
THE Labour government faces defeat in the election for one reason - what the political Labour's *traditional threatening to abstain because of the poncies pursued in une last nive years.
Although we say government should be returned, the fight-back against its policies should go on.
An fight-back is the Anti-Concordat.
The voteless
APART from kissing babies the big parties won't pay much attention to youth in the election votes in it for them.
But socialists do not primarily see elections catching. The fact that those under 18 years old are prohibited from deciding which party is going to chuck them on the dole queue makes it especially important for socialists to encourage the self-organisation of youth during the election.
The National Union Students is organising a picket of the National Union of Teachers annual conference in Scarborough on 14 April. They are demanding recognition of the NUSS -ano abolition punishment in schools
THERE are more promises made at general elections resolutions at New Year. All sorts of shady characters will be going round TOMISIS this support to all sorts of causes
Words are splendid things but the: don't bring jobs, fascists from the streets, bring the troops out of Ireland.
So any promises should be matched with action. means asking those on the Labour left what they propose to do about socialist policies they claim to stand for.
Those who pledge support for the Anti Nazi League should be asked to put the cost of ANL material on their election expenses.
Campaign with...
overwhelmingly
nere are
Campaign obvious Particular issues to raise.
strike action.
organise such Tower Hamlets in
campaign which is be arranged
number of there are
pick the most public meeting and nine
Never be without...
commentators call
voters' are
that the Labour its policies.
the Ulner
weapon that
recently published It spells out the
widespread support.
LUCIC ACHE
exercise in vote-
direction
of School they should
sure they stand.
of corporal
Put them on the spot
than
and that, pledging
submit don't drive the reselection. and don't
For assurances conference. This
candidate self-defence.
Anti-Concordat. One consequence of such activity is that the trades council
passed motion demanding a recall of the TUC
many other campaigns which should be promoted and built during the election period. The Anti Nazi League, the United Troops Out Movement, and the National Abortion
are COTT the most
areas will have other Those with Leyland factories can be organising support for the toolmakers, who are threatening
The CPSA strike can be publicised in many places and in the few areas where social workers are still on strike - like
London - the maximum amount of backing should
In every town, in every constituency
different different campaigns. Try and help them all, but
important, nationally and locally, and build, build, build -now and after the election.
meaning of the Labour Government/ TUC Concordat and points to how to
The Anti-Concordat is not just a pamphlet. It is, to borrow Callaghan's word, a 'crusade. Sell the pamphlet, win signatures for it, organise around
The pamphlet can be ordered from
Bookshop 328 Street, London N1, price 20p plus 10p postage. Details of the campaign from 265a Seven Sisters Road, London N4.
After Scarborough the next big date is the rally organised by the youth paper Revolution on 5 May in London. The fact that youth can't vote and the fact that so many of them are hit hardest by unemployment underline the need for an autonomous youth movement and the Revolution rally is a step in that
This is not to say that youth should ignore the election process. In some schools mock elections are being held;
be encouraged and Socialist Unity supporters should make
After all, if Socialist Unity is the organisation of the future it should easily win such elections!
Any who say they want the troops out of Ireland should be asked whether they are prepared to hold a meeting on Ireland during the election campaign.
All Labour candidates should be asked whether they are WHILES I0
themselves to automatic All should be asked whether, if elected, they will vote on the basis of the decisions of the Labour
If there is any strike going on in the constituency demand that the Labour candidate organise support for it. If there are racist attacks demand the
help organise black
Do not agree to work for Labour because of what they say - demand proof of their intentions.
Socialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
Was Camden NUPE right to settle?
HOME NEWS
WSL letter
AS shop stewards actually involved in the public sector pay fight in Camden secured almost the full £60/35 hour week claim, we teel we must come out publicly in opposition to what amount to deliberately lying accounts of the settlement published both Socialist Worker Socialist Challenge.
Both papers claim that there was no political opposition to
acceptance Camden council's offer in the week of 19 February. Socialist Worker states outright that: 'Certainly in Camden no-one on the left argued for Camden NUPE to stay out. The argument should have been put, but there is much strength (sic) in argument that not signing a settlement in Camden so near the claim will strengthen the opposition in NUPE to the sell-out' (17 March).
Socialist Challenge March) takes a more roundabout way of distorting the truth. In an article written by Sikorski and Varnes (unusually) endorsed by no less than the Political Bureau of the IMG, Socialist Challenge publicly disowns the actions of IMG member and Camden NUPE Branch Secretary John Suddaby. But it goes on report the steps leading to the acceptance Oner follows:
*Prematurely assuming that the strike would crumble, they (the strike committee) voted to recommend acceptance to the mass meeting. In addition, neither at the strike committee nor at the mass meeting did the branch leadership argue the case for Camden to continue to play their leading role staying out for the full claim.
The Socialist Challenge article dodges any mention of the opposition there was within the negotiating committee and within the strike committee to accepting the offer. Instead it minimises the opportunism of IMG MICHIBCE Suddaby by
WHAT'S LEFT
ineper ward. Display E2 per column
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Socialist Challenge - 12 April 1979 Page 10
which and the
(1
settlement as a resounding victory. and palming off responsibility onto
'the strike committee, branch leadership', and later even 'the Camden leadership'. These terms are designed to give the impression that not only Suddaby but (since no opposition is mentioned) all the leading stewards involved as in making the key
backed down.
This is simply not true. Indeed in an interview with Socialist Press (28 February), Cressy Road dustmen's steward John Seymour described he opposition that existed t he offer among strikers, whil pointing out Suddaby's role in
by in case the council withdrew
their offer.
Seymour argued then and continued to argue Camden to press ahead — to win the full claim for all secuons or worKers, strengthen the national struggle. It was Suddaby who from 19 February onwards pressed
STOP THE NF! The Nazis are planning a malor London on Friday 20 April with John meeting in North
Tyndall ington Town Hall, Uppte Islington Street, N1. called by Islington ANL. and SOCIALIST Feminist National Confer-
Noce 79 follow-up meeting open to all
21 April phone the planning group at
Half Moon Theatre 4806465
Belt and Braces present
Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo 7pm
MAY DAY GREETINGS: would your COUnCH SROD Cs May Day gadetings orSocialist ane to of Lay reems in socials dust send us ine name the secretary and we We 01-,P071). neeting ox 50, London N1 2XF
John Suddaby, secretary of Camden NUPE general branch, during the all-out strike. Many saw the
the case for acceptance
*the it was SWP members who
actually proposed holding the mass meeting.
Thursday 22 February on the other hand saw no less than six strike committee members - including WSL members -decisions VOLC
acceptance. stewards from dustmen, home helps (whom Suddaby wanted exempted from the strike call), lighting, sewers, cemetery workers.
It is a total fraud for the SWP and IMG to ignore this political opposition, led by the WSL within committee -they do so only to cover up the opportunist actions of their OW CHOCO. and to
JOHN SEYMOUR, CREASLEY NUPE)
EDUCATION is likely to be a major issue in wemonsirate Election. But
ICARF and Election
debated at the National Union of Teachers conference taking place in Scarborough at Easter.
By Bernard Regan, Pooled fare. For
Socialist Teachers' Alliance Although Shirley Williams, Secretary of Education, is due to address the conterence, the professionalist' "non-party' character of the NUT debate on the union's attitude to the Labour Party.
The Socialist Alliance will be at conference calling for a vote for Labour, but arguing the need for the UHOR fight policies of Williams -•stewards have led to a massive drop in
teachers' pay, school closures and teacher unemployment.
NUT general
Fred Jarvis has consistently sided with the advocates of pay restraint in the TUC
Fight Low Pay - and By Brian Grogan recommending These six were
sections of
workers, be
baths and local level.
big error -recognised,
the strike especially when
working class.
(Camden John Suddaby but
the General
the General
be
State for
will rule out any
BERNARD Teachers' school closures he has
against the Concordat.
which
kept aloof.
secretary
Recently civil servants) is necessary.
UCATT. NURE.
TAKI NALGO opportunism'.
Our reply
"nearly abstract
IN relation to the national struggle of the council manual
most of the left crucised une Camden decision
to recommend a deal on the
In
This critical approach was a
- as the IMG has now the failed appreciate me basic principie: on which revolutionaries lead the trade union struggles of the
VICEOR
The attitude of comrades determination Seymour and Creasley amounts to abstract leftism. They take national claim. up the IMG not for criticising In
- incredibly
Left unity at NUT conference
Teacher
conference -supporting
abortion rights.
REGAN: 'We
The need national action against
supported the abortion.
Scottish teachers have been out on strike, but the NUT has
ship of the union.
Clearly if the NUT hopes to win its own 36.5 percent claim national then a united fight with the Scottish teachers (and with the
The Ford Strike
way then.
'covering his
Now it is true that one cannot
look at the settlement solely
from the point of view of the
Camden workers. But nor can
one negate the fact that they got
the full claim references to the
"national struggle'
The question is: how did the Camden victory relate to the combativity and self-organisation of the public sector workers as a whole? Did it set this back?
other did the
workers' front or the bosses/government front?
The answer is clear: NUPE workers nationally, and many others, saw it as a resounding
boosted the of workers elsewhere to struggle for the
fact the Camden ders leadership was able to go onto
If the union does not lead a determined fight for the pay claim this will just open the door to further attacks on
probably from a Tory Education Minister.
The STA and Rank and File
have jointly campaigned around motions for
and both will be The attempt by conference to adopt the Te 'Women in the NUT to Charter for Women at Work'.
The debate on the Charter will centre on the question of
13 Communist Party teachers leadership is opposed to the union openly supporting
The STA will fight for alternative policies to those of the present right-wing leader-
April,
In particular it will press for
action combat STA; school closures. To this end it is important to strengthen and Broad extend united action with Rank
the offensive at once against
Fisher and the bureaucracy.
Through pamphlet, open
letter, and many meetings, they
immediately took up the fight
for 'All-out for the full claim'
on the basis of the Camden
victory.
The alternative of staying out
until the full claim was won
nationally was completely
abstract. It would have been
irresponsible reject the
settlement given its size and the
strengthened the
struggle.
To have done so would only
have weakened the credibility
of the class struggle wing of the
Camden branch leadership,
and rightly discredited revolut-
ionaries in the eyes of the mass
DI WOrKerS
Comrades Seymour and
Creasley recognised these
realities at the final mass
meeting to the extent that they did not speak against the line of
critical acceptance put by John
Suddaby.
Nor have they raised these criticisms at UHE shop
SLEWETUS and two
meeungs since It is not merely faint-
hearted but completely opportunist to write to Socialist
Challenge in this way while refusing to take up the fight in front of the Camden member ship and mutants
Comrade Seymour is nevertheless a serious if inexperienced revolutionary militant, even though he made a number of leftist error attempt to get a decision on all-out strike action before thi branch leadership had been able to carry out the vital measures needed to prepare such a mobilisation - which
of the right-wing.
But the falsification of facts by the editors of Socialist Press
claiming that Suddaby opposed all-out action, and was working to break the strike throughout the struggle - is a different matter.
This lying method - - derived from the Healvites of the WRE
- should be repudiated by the WSL comrades It tney wish te be taken seriously as conten-
for working class leadership.
and File Teachers
Members OI the National Union of School Students will be picketing the conference demanding abolition of corporal punishment in schools and recognition of the NUSS.
The STA supports the lobby and will be voicing its support inside the conference.
School students wanting to
go on the picket should rin
VUSS on 01-278 3291 for trave from London Redmond on 01-359 8371 for and Jude
travel from other places.
Pre-conference meeting, Fri
April, 'Conference 79 Prince of Wales, Prince of Wales Terrace, Scarborough. Speakers: Bernard Regan, STA; Dick North, R and F.
The General Election, Concordat and teachers' pay. Sun 15
Prince of Wales.
Speakers: Denny Fitzpatrick,
Dick Brown, R&F: Stewart MacLennan, CPSA
Left and Scottish Teacher speaker
Page 11 scan of this page
Basque nationalists sweep the board Left wins Spanish towns
China - the fifth modernisation
By C.O. Jones
IN most of Spain's big towns and industrial centres Franco's old fascist appointees have left their mayoral desks for the last
Last week's municipal elections left the two largest working class parties with 70-80 per cent of the vote in towns of more than 50,000 people.
The exception was in the Basque country where nationalist slates between them won a majority.
Many of the old fascist mayors stood for re-election for the first time by effortlessly switching their allegiance to the governing Union of Democratic Centre (UCD). Madrid was a case in point, where the old mayor, Jose Luis Alvarez, was roundly beaten by
In the rural areas, however, many of the old mavors or other UCD candidates returned, renecung solid support for the government in much countryside, and the continuation of electoral patronage
The question which Immediately posca was. now
FAR LEFT GAINS
THE general swing to the left in the Spanish local elections also favoured the smaller left-wing parties fighting for a socialist alternative to the policies of the Socialist and Communist Party leaders.
Foremost among these are the Trotskyists of Revolutonar Communist League (L.CR) who won a total of 35 local councillors and two mayors. This makes up for a disappointing general election score of 45,000 votes overall.
The two mayors are in the THE Chinese regime clamped down on its demo-
coinciding with the third anniversary of the Tienanmen Square demonstration which gave birth to the latest wave of opposition.
Plain clothes police arrested four oppositionists as they were putting up a wall poster last week. The four included Ren Wanding, the founder of the Human Rights Alliance.
The Peking city authorities have banned slogans, posters, books, periodicals, and photographs which are *opposed to socialism and to the leadership of the party. Wall posters can only be displayed "designated places'.
This has meant the end of Peking's Democracy Wall'. High pressure hoses have been used to clean off ised' posters.
The clampdown may have been immediately provoked by wall posters and slogans crincising une chinese Invasion of Vietnam - - certainly the first ban on big character posters in February was specifically over
INTERNATIONAL
could the left win majorities in the major towns, when only a month ago it lost to the right wing in the general election?
Apart from the fact that local elections generally favour the left, an obvious answer lies in the lett's disunity in the earlier poll as compared attempt patch agreement for the municipals.
Both parties must take the two blame for this disunity, but the Communist Party (PCE) in particular has spent two years firing vicious polemic at the (PSOE), at the same time as making gracious the towards the UCD.
The PSOE for its part has shunned an electoral alliance for fear consequences of being propelled into government.
Yet immediately after the municipals the two leaders arrived at an agreement to give tem working major ties. PCE leader Carrillo, the the individual most responsible for the sectarian divide, was now carried away with the need for a "global accord' was The left held attraction at a local level since it
Basque provinces of Vizcaya and Navarra, and 25 of the councillors Basque country the LCK'S commitment to the struggle and its deep roots in the region.
There were also councillors in Catalonia, three in Castile, and one each in the Aragon and Andalusia.
Of the other two major far left parties the Movement (MC) polled rather less and the Workers Organisation (ORT) rather more, but we don't yet have exact figures. has ihe issue of the war.
But this also marks a new stage in the political situation. The Tienanmen demonstration of 5 April 1976 was the starting point of a campaign for the rehabilitation of Deng ping now Vies Minister. As result democratic opposition and the pro-Deng faction bureaucracy have got mixed up together.
Some of those who produced wall posters calling for 'socialist democracy' have maintained that Deng was the one who could bring about. This clampdown has shattered that illusion.
Ine high point democratic movement so far came at the end of January when a large demonstration of poor peasants protested outside a banquet hosted by premier Guofeng and were dispersed by troops.
One of the organisers of the peasant protest, Fu was later arrested.
International has
was there that it provided the most credible anonaly Dom pardes nave fallen in line behind government policy on everything from law and order to working class living standards. however, they were seen as the with its only way of clearing out the
an fascist remnants.
The obvious parallel is with the 1931 municipal elections, damaging when an equally sweeping left
victory had a national political impact which overthrow of the monarchy.
Socialists Nothing so dramatic can be
expected now, but this result is gestures bound to make it far more
difficult for the PCE and PSOE leaderships to get off the hook and avoid the responsibility of poluca. confronting the government.
Alady, though, the are
trying understanding with local rightwingers. In example, majority by doing a deal with the right-wing Catalan nationalists.
In Andalusia the nationalist Socialist Party of Andalusia (PSA) holds
greater party which received financial
support from the UCD during the general election campaign.
In the Andalusian municipal election campaign the major left parties agreement with the UCD - reflecting struggle against caciquismo' — long-standing the system of
Basque patronage and corruption most
ably represented by the UCD itself! five The PCE sees unity with the PSOE as an 'instrument within a broader field of collaboration with the such as the UCD Communist words, rather than unity being
La weapon for struggle against Revolutionary the government it is seen as a
means collaboration.
The one place where that concern over her subsequent disappearance.
Also arrested in the latest round-up was Wei Jingsheng the author of a celebrated wall poster calling for 'democracy,
Хіво- not slavery', and editor of a
Prime wall newspaper called Explora-
the tion.
The slogan guiding official of STRe policy since the middle of the
decade has been that of the 'Four Modernisations'.
have suggests the addition of a fifth
HOGCENSHIOI There has been a flowering of unofficial groups organising that for the fifth The best known is the Human Rights Alliance, whose leader of the Ren Wanding was arrested last
week.
The Alliance has published a 19-point programme and students includes demands
release of political prisoners, for elections with the right to Hua form opposition the abolition police, for an Yuehua, censorship, for Amnesty travel, for a minimum grain expressed ration for the peasantry and
alternative. albeit In
confusing way Basque country.
Locally, been able to
cities
bloc deputies.
led This has
wing of the
phenomenon than that.
and does supporters,
Barcelona, for
the Basque people.
Socialists got a
certainly membership, the entire Marxist-Leninists UWIECES the balance, Its programme
pondingly hazy.
The could come
reached an common ground
to
electoral
offers struggle disgraceful
self-determination progressive forces
- in other order'.
greater Cas.
battles between Soviet Union.
By Dave Hayes
THE Chile Wei solidarity
Chile modernisation. annual general
following day.
Attended
17 unions,
which for the
parties, for of the secret hardly been stopped
end Jimmy Doyle,
freedom of
collaboration was rejected -
confused and was the
The largest party there was the bourgeois Basque Nationalist Party (PNV). But it has
form working mies des Bilbao and sast
Bilbao and Sebastian only through the support of the second-largest
Herri Batasuna
been all very confusing for the press, which had gone out of its way to label Herri Batasuna as the electoral
'terrorist' ETA milita. But it is a more complex
It is clearly more radical than the Christian Democratic PNV,
include ETA COUl defining characteristic is that it, like the PNV, claims to be a party of all
That reflected in its which includes spectrum from factory
corresImmediately after the general election one of the front's leaders was asked what its policies were - and all
up with as were demands about political pris-
Basque voters have opted for this vague alternative because it
prospee of - in contrast to the failure workers' parties to fight for
and their support for Madrid's 'law and
The result is a major blow to the government's centralist line on the national question and could be the signal for new
the Basque people and the Spanish state. for a reconciliation with the
The Soviet
No truck with Chile
trade conTerence oi
March renewed its campaign to beginning to arrive this month.
boycott all Chilean goods
call which was endorsed by the good food while children suffer
Solidarity Campaign from malnutrition. meeung where by over 200 rendered
delegates and observers from aero engines for nearly five
the trade
conference was answerine a bovcott
call from Chilean union and against the leadership in many
political leaders. Most vital is unions.
the boycott of copper which The
accounts for 75 per cent of increasing
Chilean trade and which has materia
shop stew- colourful
ards' leader at Liverpool docks special stickers ['No truck with
where there is a total boycott of Chile | for lorries and cars.
Carrillo, leader of the Spanish Communist Party, with Suarez, the right-wing premier.
Union is a socialist country, the programme says.
Chilean foodstuffs, explained that as a minimum we need a union national boycott of the Chilean 24 fruit and vegetables which are
- a Chile 'exports hunger, selling
Stewards from East Kilbride, they held up and useless Pinochet's
union years, stressed that an effective
will mean a fight
campaign will be its information on ine details of Chile-Britain trade and has a and COUSIC
intercontinengi Pres
INDOCHINA WAR
THE latest Intercontinental Press/Inprecor (Vol 17, No 13) is a special issue of debate on Indochina, including contribu tions by Ernest Mandel, Fred Feldman and the Japan Revolutionary Communist League
Single copies are 30р. Subscrintions are f9 for one year, f5 for six months or £2.50 for an introductory offer of 10 issues. Write now to Intercon tinental Press/Inprecor PO BOx 50, London N1 2XP Cheques payable to Intercontinental Press
Socialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
MURDERED! Apartheid hangs Solomon Mahlangu
THE Iranian Women's Soli-
darity Group has sent out the
following letter asking
sponsorship for the planned
women's delegation to Iran.
Dear comrades,
In the recent revolution in Iran
blaved a significant
part in the overthrow of the
Shah's regime. Their demands
were the general demands for
the overthrow of the corrupt
and barbaric dictatorship and
the establishment of democ-
rights rather their own
demands.
However in the recent wave
of demonstrations and rallies
following
Women's Day in Iran women
neen demanding
rights. This meant demands as
basic as the right to choose
one's clothing,
provIsion
childcare and contraception, as
well as te rigne to work, lei
alone full equality with men.
These actions have met with
a great deal of hostility and
also attacks from religious
fanatics and agents provoca-
teurs who support the
regime.
Furthermore the question of
women's rights has
equated with other aspects of
westernisation SO that
demands for women's rights
termed COULLICT. revolutionary.
APARTHEID murdered Solomon Mahlangu because that is the onlv wav it can deal with black opposition. Mahlangu and four other members of the
National Congress were hanged dawn Friday, 6 April.
Solomon Mahlangu because he was not prepared to accept that the racist regime had the right to send its police shooting their way through his town like gunslingers Western set.
Mahlangu was at school in Soweto at the time ol the student uprising in 1976. concrusion ne drew trom the police massacres was the need for armed struggle to bring down apartheid.
So he left the country for military training with the ANC.
Socialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page 12
INTERNATIONAL
Iranian women's appeal
We are a group of Iranian and British women who believe
for in women's liberation and its
importance revolution in any society. We are calling for a delegation to be sent to Iran to investigate and report back on Ine situation of women.
We are also calling for demonstration on 19 May London and for support for a conference on the situation of women in Iran on 12 May at City University in London. specific
We need your sponsoring and these activities and in raising for money CENE Each delegate will cost £500. A their minimum of £3,000 is needed.
Please raise this matter in your women's organisation, union, student organisation or political organisation Yours in struggle, Iranian Women's Solidarity Group
Initial sponsors:
Anna Coote, Alix Holt, Tess
old Gill, Sheila
Cathy Porter, Angela Phillips, Margaret Renn, Amrit Wilson, been Oonagh McDonald MP.
the IWSG can be contacted at
Women's Centre, Street, Clapham, SW4.
He returned secretly 1977 and was captured by ponce m sonannesours arter a shoot-out.
Two whites died shooting and although Mahlast langu was not directly involved
The was still tried and convicted oi uruer.
Murder is a strange category Africa. because it does not seem to matter whose finger is on the trigger. Solomon Mahlangu's was not, out mey tound nim guilty all the same.
And strange too because it applies only to the death of whites. The hundreds of blacks The gunned down in sowelo in 1976
were not murdered according
And so, the apartheid regime decreed, Solomon had to die.
And we say that is murder.
By Richard Carver
IN the United States they used to talk about 'company towns".
Rhodesia began
company country and not a lot has changed since then.
It was colonised not by European state British South Africa Company.
Foreign capital, dominated by British and interests, still has a 70 per cent stake in the economy.
Last week we looked at the similarity between the policies of the major parties stopping the people from deciding their own future. We said that the only debate between them was how best to preserve imperialist interests in Zimbabwe. But why is this? And what are those
social interests?
Imperialism
women's equivocally support lan Smith.
The Anglo-American sals for a peaceful transition to
Iranian black neo-colonial rule reflect
the hostility which many multinanonal companies Smith's Declaration of Independence in 1965.
In DarL this traditional rivalry colonial and settler interests. help in In the post-war years, British publicising companies
traditional mining interests and delegation. broke into
services and commerce which had previously dominated.
trade Yet the Central
Federation, formed in 1953 and of which Southern Rhodesia was part, was a device of settler
market. And then the election of lan Smith's Rhodesian Front to government in 1963 marked a decisive new victory for the Rowbotham,
SCELICIS Hence the many companies when Smith threw down his challenge to the British state.
They need not have worried.
North Multinational companies are London resilient and adaptable organi-
sations. The Bingham report on in
in the
Strange Mahlangu
Picket of South
HITe as
but by the
South African
British political all were based on
Zimbabwean
does
propo-
felt toUnilateral
reflected a between
expanded their
manufacturing,
been settlerune arentor sancuons African
rather than profits. South
increased since UDI. nervousness of The press
provocative
large stake there.
Newall, MURD
RACISTS
Africa House London Anti-Apartheid on the day of the execution.
Rhodesia -the British stake
The unacceptable face? Lonrho's Tiny Rowland
the continued supply of oil to Tobacco Rhodesia is an indication of how lightly most of them took son).
They did face problems in Rhodesia. The Smith regime's tight exchange control regulations forced them to reinvest
repatriate their Rhodesia African companies have had free movement Corporation. of capital and their stake in Rhodesia has correspondingly
creates the the top four impression that Rhodesia is ou of bounds for the international Lonrho. business community, but many British companies still have a southern
operations
These include: Turner and
British American
Industries Ltd Lonrhd
defiance backing parties.
with leaders
Rowland,
CHICHELS threaten impressed
There.
organised by
(chairperson Sir
Richard 'bribing wogs' Dob-
Stewart and Lloyds, GKN, GEC, Dunlop, ICI, and the British Electric Traction.
In sharp contrast to its public statements, the British govern ment has substantial interests in
through British Leyland and the British Steel
But two British-based multinationals tower above them all and consistently figure among
profitmakers in Rhodesia - Rio Tinto Zinc and tion
RTZ is most notorious in
Africa for its at the Rossing mine in South African-occupied Namibia. In Rhodesia it has big holdings in mining and industrial engineering, through its subsidiaries Empress Nickel Mine and Tinto
once dubbed the 'unacceptable face of capitalism' by a Tory Prime Minister
- manages to combine brazen
of with SanCLIOnS for black Certai
Lonrho has close relations
pro-Western African such Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda The company's owner-director, Tiny'
understands that superficially radical measures, such as nationalisations or joint ventures with African govern-
do not necessarily Lonrho's interests
The common touch
THE Tories are so taken with Ian Smith's idea of majority rule that they are sending a team of observers to look at next Tuesday's election'.
No doubt they will be much
Smith's jolly wheeze or not anowing any ol the major opposition parties to take part. It could catch on
The six-man delegation [and it is six-man] must know what it is doing because it is led by Viscount Boyd of Merton, who
and can even strengthen them.
explains Lonrho's increasing links with sections of
Zimbabwean Patriotic Front - it sees Zimbabwe's future as neo-colonial and it wants to nave a snare in ina future.
Lonrho is perhaps the model of the modern multinational. Its network of subsidiaries in every section of production allows it to both sidestep SanCHORS and confidently establish relations with libera-
movements in the expectation of future profits.
This should not lead us to cynicism over the liberation movements. However success ful it may be, the Lonrho-style multinational treating with a liberation movement is a sign of
he weakness of capitalism on
vorld scale. An the movements themselves are not undifferentiated agents of British imperialism. Quite the reverse!
But capitalism - and British capitalism above all will cling on to Zimbabwe with all Ene esources at its disposal.
*Much of the information in this article is taken from back issues of the Zimbabwe Information Group bulletin. A UK subscription for five issues of the bulletin costs for individuals and £1.50 for campaigns and institutions. From ZIG Cambridge Terrace, London NW1.
used to be Secretary of State for the Colonies. The delegation includes one knight, and two QCs
That's called the common touch.
*In a deliberate move to sabotage the Socialist Challenge, lan Smith has moved his elections from 20 April to the 17th. This came too late for us to prepare the survey of Zimbabwe we had planned for next week. So it will appear men are same
Page 13 scan of this page
European elections
By Anna Libera
LAUNCHED with a fanfare several months ago, the campaign for the elections to the European Parliament in June 1979 has already run into problems.
A contradiction faces the ruling classes in their project of West European centralisation and integration.
On the one hand it requires the increasing synchronisation economic, political and situations in the different countries On the other hand, in each country they are faced CESCS temporarily require a closing of their ranks - divided on the European question - against the working class.
But attempts to hold back the working class at a national level actually go hand in hand with the establishment of an elected European Parliament in order to coordinate this at a West European level.
The national West European institutions is the logical consequence of the West European concentration of capital, of the creation of West multinationals.
The field of action of the state under capitalism has to match up with the productive forces
of production. internationalisation and concentration of capital in the EEC therefore runs up more and more against the continued role of the national states and the absence of supra-national INSULUTONS.
The foundation of the EEC itself was a response by big West European capital to the contradiction between the development of the productive forces and the straitjacket of the national states.
To keep up with American and Japanese competition, European industrial groups needed to unite and take advantage of a more and more concerted economic policy
materials, Hence the Treaty of Rome.
But because of the decisive role of the state (money, infrastructure, social policy), these big West European groups supra-national institutions of a state type, capable of carrving centralised policy in their favour.
Once ine inter-penetration
West European centralisation capital reached a certain level, the pressure for a supra-national state became irresistible.
Since 1969 the representatives of the key sectors of West European capital have argued for thoroughgoing economic and political integration. As Fiat boss Agnelli put it on 20 February 1969 to the permanent industry commission of the Italian Parliament: If we want to
the development automobile industry, then we must take it in hand at the supra-national level.
That is the historic tendency. But in a period of growth it wasn't necessary to go beyond measures to aid exports and guarantee profits. Only with the onset of the big world recession of 1974-75 did the crisis of the EEC explode.
There was no supra-national state
capable of caring out the anti-crisis
policy needed by the
European groups to compete with the
American trusts, who had a powerful
state at their service.
In this situation, in the absence of a
supra-national state, each bourgeoisie
began to concern itself with its own
economy. Thus Italy demanded a
series of exemptions
community's economic agreements at
the height of the crisis of the lira.
And they turned to their national
states to deal with the deep social
crisis which was developing.
There was a clear risk that the EEC
could simply fall apart, particularly as
the national states were tending to
adopt protectionist measures in order
to limit competition from the other
INTERNATIONAL
of the
social
which European
and
The the West
infrastructures).
taxation, credit,
needed
OULd
and of
more
economies So in 1977 the
of the
steps to counter this.
The bourgeoisie, explanation
economic
At their 1977, Giscard
big West
*The West German governments would like to
moves towards economic
to European union.
They hope that the from the
contribute to this.' capitalism
French steel-workers fighting EEC attacks.
most far-sighted West representatives of West European big capital (the social-democrat Helmut Schmidt and Giscard d'Estaing) took
after the first of the temporary consequence of the rise in oil prices, now settled down for a crisis of longer duration, and began to sharpen up its instruments for making the working class bear the cost.
"summit' on 4 February and Schmidt announced their intention of acting as the motors of a European resurgence. Their common declaration explained:
and French see the Community take up again in 1978 the
union, a necessary stage on the road
policies of recovery (read austerity! put into action by several member states will
This clearly revealed the objective: to co-ordinate the anti-working class austerity policies put forward by the governments of the member countries of the EEC, and to use the crisis to redeploy the forces of West European
These objectives lie behind the
High stakes in the
three connected measures which the
European bourgoisie currently trying to apply: the creation of the European Monetary Union, the enlarging of the EEC, and the election of the European Parliament.
The creation of the European Monetary System (EMS) is in line with several concerns of the European capitalists:
not to be subject to the fluctuations of the dollar;
- to free the movement of European capital;
to co-ordinate the anti-crisis policy (credit, etc.);
- to create a common reserve fund which would allow (strong) countries to influence the political, economic and social choices of governments faced with powerful workers movement (in the tradition of the IMF in recent years in Peru, Italy, Britain, etc.).
The EMS is intended to accompany and act as a guideline for national austerity policies
For example, the economic policy committee of the EEC admits that the poorer countries which join the EMS will meet with difficulties, because it will require them to give greater priority to questions concerning the balance of payments, and less to other objectives such as growth employment.
On the other hand, because the is EMS regulates the rates of uncharge,
reduce political instruments governments faced with a crisis.
The main pitfall on the road to establishing disparity between national currencies, the different economies, the different social and
These disparities are currently blocking the full implementation of the EMS, although the bourgeoisie would like to achieve this before the onset of the new recession.
The establishment of an elected European Parliament is intended to allow them to forge ahead with these projects by legitimising the whole operation in the eyes of the West European people — in the first place, the reformist leaderships of working class.
In this sense one can talk of an institutional yoke on European workers
different West European bourgeoisies also hope to have a go at reducing the political weight of organisations in each national state
For example, Agnelli explained to the paper France Soir on 10 July 1976 and Gust after electoral gains, which were to lead to
its
'In problem Communist France and which in other
bourgeoisie:
market; the
produce countries into sphere;
social crisis
countries
Common advanced and
consequences
the workers.
La rejection
OUR DO available
the EMS lies in the the different
workers
Spain.
European immediate
stimulating
answered by
"foreigners'
the
the West
and A By this means the
the workers' and
capitalism
the Italian CP's -big
Inprecor.
integration in the Italian parliamentary majority:
integrated Europe, the posed by strons DESCHICC in Italy and would be offset to some extent. The Communists would thus have the necessary time to go through with their democratic evolution if they are capable of it, and we will have the time to confirm the sincerity of their respect for pluralism, not only politically but economically, and for the links which unite us in the West
we don't wish to
The fact that the West European bourgeoisies have encountered difficulties and aclays on we way tr realising this project does not mean that they will give it up.
This is also the significance of the proposed entry of Greece, Portugal and Spain into the BEC. For the bourgeoisies of these countries, the crisis they face makes entry into the EEC an urgent question.
Certain sections of the bourgeoisie
EEC countries are more dubious, but four factors argue in its overall favour for the West European
the advantages of market consisting of a quarter of the world
interest for big West European agribusiness in cornering the market in the primary agricultural
these Mediterranean and securing an opening Third World markets in this
- the interest for the industrial groups in redeploying their means of production towards those countries with a cheap labour force
— the need to give political support to weak regimes racing a massive
For all these reasons, which are stronger than those for holding back, they are therefore moving towards an integration of the three candidate
with special long-term clauses (particularly in order to limit the free circulation of labour from
with high unemployment rate)
The entry of these countries into the
Market which defended by the workers' parties in all three countries
will have immediate negative for the Spanish, Portuguese and Greek workers
It will strengthen the dominant
sectors of capitalism in each country and therefore their ability to exploi
These reasons are enough to justify
of EEC entry by the workers in these countries
However, this opposition cannot be mounted on the line put forward by the Communist Party in France
opposed to enlarging the BEC
only consequence is to
counterpose the interests of French
to of the three
candidate countries, and particularly
For while the policy of the West
bourgeoisie leads to COVISIOS the
workers of different countries (in
unemployment
therefore competition for jobs inside
the working class), this be
falling back on the
defence of "French jobs' coveted by
Opposition to the entry of Spain,
Greece and Portugal can only
mounted in the name of centralising
the struggles of the workers of these
countries with those of workers in the
'Nine' against austerity.
reduction in the working week can Common campaign for
lead on to a fight for the democratic
planning of the European economy
thus for the overthrow of
* This article is condensed from s
longer one which appeared in the 15
March issue of the French language
Socialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
LETTERS
CP reply on student
alliance
1 WAS somewhat surprised at the commens mn YOUT NeWS Nowhere' column about Communist Party's attitude towards the Broad Left alliance in the student movement (22 March). I can see no incompatibility berween the ments of myself and those of David Aaronovich.
You seem unable to understand the difference between on the one hand an alliance of forces who agree about a common perspective on a whole range of issues facing students
- from the future of the education system to support TOr liberation movements Broad Left, and, on the other hand, those alliances which around specific issues or specific
The Broad Left has had a number of problems in its structure and the way it works. This is the reason why the meeting on 11 March was called to discuss these problems. The Broad Left, both locally and nationally, often works in a way that excludes
many potential supporters from its ranks. Many student union activists to not consider themselves Broad
not consider themselves 'Broad
I think there are a number of
casons for this. Firstly, the Broad Lett is seen as a narrow y socialist or the banks and the social ownership ganisation with the nationalisation of the means of production as two of our demands. - demands which do Bot necessarily answer the immediate needs of the student movement.
The Broad Left meeting decided that the organisation would be a forum for left and radical ideas but would be based around a more concrete manifesto for the student movement.
Secondly, the Broad Left currently offers little opportunity for non-aligned students to influence its direction determined bpolicies
• DIOCCSS
egotiation between the Communist
National Organisation
abour Students and the Broad Left en the NUS executive. The meeting greed that the Broad Left would come an organisation of individuals who agreed with the manifesto and it would have conferences where differences were argued out.
Finally, a return to the active, campaigning style of work is essential for the Broad Left. It
union leaderships, it also has to offer a framework for rank activists to work within. To represent a fight for the interests of students in their colleges. I believe that a left alliance based on these lines is necessary for the student movement. SALLY HIBBIN [National Student Organiser, Communist Party] NORTH WEST WARRINGTON Socialist ' Ring leng
:: S61-236 ballenge offices tor OMEATER MANCHESTER Socialist Challenge School students whe upport the paper and would like to get
olved in anti-fascist activity. please
tact Chris (273 5947, day) or Steve manchester sc Centre, 10 Piecay.
write
SALFORD Socialist Challenge
Centre bio 14 Pical,
with a view to forming a Salford SC
second
ursdays month. A storalist Unity. For
utside Yorkshire Bank,
supporters sell the paper at. Moss Side SIDE Socialist entre, Saturday, 11-1
Socialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page 14
from
the
Challenge should ever carry
should
make any comment!
national condemned - le. the clearly
OTHES
way which the bourgeois revolutionary
what the democracy mean in practice. MARGARET FORD, HELD, JAN WATKINS (Camden)
*As reported last
for doing this. was once an important often
of
unity of those two maxims, life and 'transform the world"
policy-making
'elective affinity"
reservations,
that and file to see
parodied in the dreary, advertising hallenge' (22 Marci
who roduced i NORTH EAST
porters Gro. 2 Pioneer altages. Lot Dave Brown -itinaton Durnam MIDDLESBROUGH Socialist Saturday lunchtime ne stand at Cleveland Centr Also Linthorpe Road
upstarts in tus opencer nan shopping
SCOTLAND
For information about the paper or its
Four mentional publicationg o
EDINBURGH Socialist supporters Shone sorge at 031-1 gul to group
detais DUNDEE,Information about
Angry at pornography
WE are very angry about the recent supplement on surrealism (22 March). Generally it was a shoddy piece of writing, but it was the publication of pornography which made us really an restrongly question that Socialist
they pornography - an expression of violence against women. The 'Note on sexism' from the Editorial Board did manage *to come up with a statement that such
not be published without comment. But then failed to
We believe that you should have
pornography and exwhy. Socialist Challenge has a responsibility to condemn such writing and explain why we as revolutionary socialists con demn violence against women — in a
clearly differentiates us from the Whitehouse perspective of bolstering up the nuclear family.
It is clear that Socialist Challenge should now give the same space to a supplement on women, pornography and violence, written by women. We say you should do this if you really do acknowledge a difference between
media and The Editorial -DICSS.
Board needs to have a discussion on
principles of socialist
VERONICA POLLOCK, SUE
week. WE weicome the procucuon or tour pages on women against violence against women and are discussing a schedule
Parody of surrealism
IT'S worth remembering that there
between surrealism and Trotskyism, that the activity of many surrealists in France and elsewhere in the late 1920s and '30s was a serious attempt to find a political meaning in the
'change
Most of the surrealists gave active support to Trotsky, even though that support was sometimes (as in the case of André Breton) based more on an
than on any thorough understanding of Trotsky's work. Some of them, whatever their
became Trotskyists (Peret, Schwarz, Naville). So it's sad
collaboration grossly arrogant ipplement Surreali
he coterie (good old Rosemon
claim surrealists (are, for what it's worth) ana ouer surreansm as a umeless has
alascov Boots Saturday 11am-2pm HAMILTON supporters sell Socialist
Ford, 553 Eliot Crescent, Hamilton.
MIDLANDS Chal-
Newsfare
NOTTNGHAM readers Socialist Challengi nusnroom books heatncote s LEAMINGTON Socialist every other Contact 311772 YORKSHIRE
group meets Northumberland Street Challenge the York Community Wa maate i1230-45)
Socialist, Thursdays University. days (11.30-3 30) at Coney Street
package of truth, a missing ingredient which a band of devotees have been nurturing ever since the death of Breton — much as the more religious Trotskyist sects do with Trotsky's writings. Messianic rather than revolutondry. OUL of rhetoric without the connection.
Maybe they weren't responsible for the lay-out or the pictures (though
should've been, considering what they must have paid to buy their "intervention'). Geoff Carroll's photos of Edge Hill which sandwich the supplement look like Man Ray in comparison. But they are responsible for trying to present an experiment that was one of the starting points for anything we can now call cultural politics as a dogma.
To continue that experiment means junking much of its theory like Breton's views on the unconscious,
work psychoanalysis) some of ils techniques (such as
(such as automatic writing the texts included show just how transparent, boring that can sometimes be).
The surrealist project, the desire that ran through it, hasn't disappeared, even in Britain. It's there in the women's movement, the movement, Rock against Racism... The New British Surrealists should take ume off trom their self-imposed isolation and go look for it. MALCOLM IMRIE (London SEI1)
EB's hypocrisy
AMAZING! First we get a 4-page supplement (22 March) contributed oy une surreasI movement or a least a group of writers claiming to represent it).
It includes the dreaded text of Stephan Kukowski, violent, well-written and, as we see, "provocative" It's obviously provocative, because it's an 'automatic text" expressing as nearly as possible the subconscious fantasies of Stephan Kukowski's male mind. The Editorial Board publishes, with a superfluous disclaimer.
Publication produces outrage and occupation of the editorial offices by '20 angry women': the Editorial Board immediately caves in to this pressure, concluding that the text "should not have been printed" (5 April). Why not?
Does the readership need to be "protected' by censorship, or indeed by an accompanying editorial "line'? After all, most of us have enough intelligence to realise that the EB •did not endorse the views contained in the supplement, and we do notice the paper's consistent (if sometimes rather routine) support and reporting of women's campaigns. important is that the readership takes responsibility for attempting to deal with such issues.
This moralising seems to be all Stephan Kukowski's provocative text
actually provoked. Nothing HUDDERSFIELD Socialist the Piazza.
Saturday 11am-1.30pm
SOUTH WEST
regularly bay can details
Challeng Sunda
44 UnION SI HYG
Salesmercial road Precinct 'Trades Club WINDON supporters Regent St (Brunel Centre)
-sellers York
Vanbrugh, College: Satur
about if and how surrealism can help deal with such fantasies, which we surely admit to be a widespread danger, not from their own suppression. If all men are the should that be dealt with? National Health psychiatrists? Articles in The Lancet?
Some discussion is needed in the ret that or Prashahore the suin not that because, first, it does not have a mass readership; secondly, its readership will not react in alienated manner of the Sun's readership, precisely because, thirdly, the readership of Socialist Challenge does have access to its columns, to debate, attack or explore Stephan Kukowski's contribution not to the field of violent pornographia but to an exploration of the subconscious surrealist art-form. In such a case it is neither feminist nor revolutionary practice to condemn the writer or the publisher; for the latter to capitulate on having that debate is apologetic hypocrisy.
ED FREDENBURGH, CLAUDI ROIG (London SE27) gay
Lessons of
YOUR report March) stated that swept the Liverpool left that the Labour candidate's election address was to be written by the left inclined'
GMC of the Edge Hill Labour Party, and smugly concluded that 'a rumour is all it turned out to be.
The fact is that an continues within our CLP over the content of election material and all OTHeT matters responsibility of the candidate to his party. It saddens me that you choose to write this struggle off in a snide and infantile manner, but I wish to set the record straight for the benefit of your more serious readers.
Your articles on the by-election omit the following: (1) The success of the CLP in long-standing Labour MP for the area from the selection list in early 1977. (2) The fact that the GMC did pass a resolution in stating that the should be written by them. (3) The fact that a resolution condemning the underhand manner in which Wareing reneged on that decision because of pressure from Transport House was deteated by only six votes on the GMC The is: strengthen revolutionary forces more - serious, consistent work to develop
What's a fighting class struggle line within the
Labour Party, or a wonder' campaign by SU? Although Labour lost Edge Hill and will probably lose the General Election, a vote for the Labour Party is still considered, unfortunately, to be the
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only alternative to the Tories and Liberals by the majority of politically CO SCIOUS WORKOS
The 127 votes Walker received
got him out of the joke category and revealed Socialist Unity for what it is -irrelevant sideshow which shirks the serious task of freeing the class from me ponies or Labourism BAS HARDY (Liverpool 15)
Why we vote Labour
I WISH to take issue with the content given to the slogan Vote Labour but fight for a socialist alternative' (29
On the question of voting Labour, there is a sharp contradiction between the editorial on page 2 in which Callaghan 'has excelled' apparently in
ability to steal Thatcher's , and the article on the back argues that the Tories "would be able to go further than the present Labour government in its attacks on working class interests and
Moreover, these superficial comparisons bypass the essential point
the way the Labour government has been able to carry out "Tory' policies, which is by using its relationship with the trade union bureaucracy to suppress working class opposition to its policies
which Heath's government could not do
Only in this light can the crucial importance of voting Labour at the next election be understood. It is not just because Labour leaders can be tested and exposed in office. It is also because Labour is the only mass political party rooted in the working class, and thus when Labour is in
the question of democracy within its mass organisations becomes
more relevant for the
The second aspect of the slogan -"build the socialist alternative' - mav take a concrete form in the campaigns of Socialist Unity, but was it a so supposed to be concretised in the five
front page? The five slogans are minimalist posturing and alternative the tokenistic Full righist nowhere socialist for women', for instance, is so vague it could have come from a Liberal
MIKE SLEDGE (Wivenhoe)
THE LENGTH of letters printed will usually be kept down to 400 words in order to encourage as wide a range of contributions as possible. All letters may be cut at the Editor's discretion. Unsigned letters will not normally be published, although we will withhold
names from publication on MACANCT socialIst onalenge crou ToranY On inursdays a pub Mare vvna revolutionaries CEne general Labour Party and Socralist Unity
HACKNEY Broadway Vares newsagent. Middie N8:
Bookmarks, Finsbury Park
WALTHAMSTOW Socialist Challenge Sheridan Newsage Newsagen19. BaHoe
HARROW Socialist Challenge
Page 15 scan of this page
By Tariq Ali WHAT is humour? Humour is
for many British socialists. Why? Well there is the old puritanical strain in British socialism.
But there is also a somewhat bizarre conception of what a model revolutionary should be like.
There is a view that a modern Bolshevik should essentially be a soulless robot, carrying out
LasKS (preferably decided by someone else, incapable of recognising his/ her own mistakes and above all being incapable of laughing at oneself.
A hypocritical version of the same is cven worse. you can laugh and' joke non-political milieu, but not where politics are involved.
People who refuse acknowledge that humour and politics are interrelated should keep well away from Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo. currently being performed by Belt and Braces. It will only upset them.
By Richard Carver
THE BBC and IBA approaching the elections with their customary 'balance'. This
other things, INCE NS. among that parliamentary candidates are not allowed to be featured in any other capacity than as candidates, since that would be
ALEXANDRA PALACE SAT 14th APRIL 4,30pm-12pm
THE RUTS.
+том
BELA
«BRACES
UNDER REVIEW
Seriously though; you've got to laugh
'Accidental
Death of an
Anarchist'
For everyone else the play will be a delight in terms of both politics and entertainment.
Dario Fo is the most popular comedian in Italy. driven off TV because of his politics. His satirical barbs
Christian Democracy delighted the masses, but authorities.
Disgusted by the "historic compromise he parted pany with the Italian munist Party. He now works with a theatre company which plays before 700,000 people a predominantly workers.
Accidental Death ferocious satire against Italian state. It describes the murder of an anarchist railway worker by the Milan police in 1969 and utilises that episode to explain the flatule to capitalist state.
OK, OK I'm making it sound heavy. Just read the excellent programme notes when you get there. Not another word from You must go and see this play. It is the best that I have
free publicity.
Incidentally, that are reason why Jeremy Thorpe's trial was postponed give him coverage, they'll all be that charged with conspiracy murder.
Another early Labour MP. Joe Ashton,
ASWAD,
COOPER CLARKE,
TICKETS €1.70 (inadvance*) €1.95 (on the door)
UPSTARTS.
. LEYTON BUZZARDS
Rodil soN C1.70 (with dole card)
., DAMBALA,
He was
seen in this country for the last upset the 15 years (and for two of these I
had to see five plays a week as the theatre critic of a bourgeois COl- magazine).
Com- Now a word or two about the
performances. When one says that this is the best play to be seen in this country for many years one is not just talking about the script.
Une
It is the Belt and Braces production justice to Fo's satire.
The performances are superb and the evening I saw the play there was a real camaraderie between the players audience, Not a LEDATICE alienation.
Alfred Molina's
mance as 'A Maniac' deserves a Lunacharsky (our equivalent of
had a television play postponed was the until after the election.
But surely a better way of •If we achieving balance would be to
give the they're
to How about the
Singi Contoney mith Is the
casualty was singing 'Money
who world go round', or Michael
Heseltine in 'Hair'.
VIEWERS can
survive the next month without Joe Ashton's opus, "balance' policy
ANGELIC serious consequences.
Racism, we are always told, is something that all respectable politicians are opposed to. But that hasn't stopped the BBC
JOHN from postponing Dread, Beat
and Blood, a film about Linton
Kwesi balance hebesk poet.
How balance comes unclear, since Johnson doesn't have a kind word for any of the political parties. But perhaps that's the problem.
Even more BBC's comment: normal way the BBC would have balanced, over a period, the highly personal political judgements which are a vital part of the film."
Does this explicitly anti-racist film would be compensated for by equal time for explicitly racist views?
Yes. that's exactly
means!
LINTON Kwesi Johnson has found an unlikely champion in the Daily Star, Thursday carried an article which was balanced' in that it only quoted
'A Maniac' [Alfredo Molina] confronts police superintendent Andrew de la Tour
This is not to
is aptly CaSI
point home and he does.
which does full
election year.
and the including the odd
trace of UD. harassed, beaten up, ete perforTories a few light
slots as well.
Eurovision
makes
probably
but the has more
Linton Kwesi Johnson
BBC decision. contrast
the BBC.)
voting intentions secret.
sinister is the
*In Int newspaper
little news obvious feature is its Colour Starbird'.
mean that this But in its
some strange positions. what it
their claim. which
distinctly 'un- pay.
the Oscar). It is simply brilliant.
underrate anyone else (Andrew de la Tour
as a decaying, semi-fascist police chief), but to *Accidental stress the fact that A Maniac dominates the proceedings. needed a Molina to ram the
The entire production, of course, should be filmed and Moon shown on television, but then we are in Britain and this is
The
The Prevention of Terrorism Act has just been passed again; Airey Neave has been blown
tortures continue in H Block, blacks continued to be revolutionary
post-First
Fo, too close to the bone in Italy, would saw through it in the decision arts is he
(This to the liberal Guardian, which only quoted
This is hardly enough to make you rush out and buy the thing, but it is significant that the Daily Star is still keeping its
The Star is, as you would expect, a thoroughly disgusting
the term is used loosely, since it carries very this is the
whose most *Full how thes
enthusiasm for capturing the lower' end of the market it has come out with
It handed over the front page to NUPE's Alan Fisher during the public sector dispute and
centrespread to Arthur Scargill when the miners put in
Editorials frequently denounce both major parties for their attitude on low
Christine
The Star is owned by
the
Callaghan's Britain. Don't just go and see the play. Take all your friends as well.
Death of an Anarchist' is at the Half Moon, Alie St, London E1 until 5 May, and at the Duke's Play House, Lancaster, 7-12 May.
Especially for the election, Belt & Braces and the Half
are co-producing dramatised reading of Billy Colvill's "The Scream'.
play compares the Labour government's handling of the Grunwick dispute [and what it would do if there was a general strike] with how the social democrats dealt with the
in World War Ger-
At the Half Moon on 22 and 29 April, 7.30pm.
Trataloar House. with the Daily Express as its stablemate, so it seemed unlikely that it could call for anything other than a Tory vote. We asked its editor, Peter Grimsditch, to let us know what's in store.
It turns out that he thinks it's wrong for newspapers to tell their readers how to vote. On 3 May the line will be: *This is what Labour's offering, and
Tories" package.
Decide what you want.
Grimsditch didn't say exactly
policies would be presented. He did add, though, that when the Daily Mirror gave heavy front-page promotion to Labour in one of the "74
its circulation apparently dropped by 150,000.
And it's circulation that the Star has uppermost in mind.
on
*The cartoon which illustrated
weeks article the election and the media was by
Roche and firs appeared in Labour Research.
Class
war
comes
to the
National
By Margaret Ford (Equity) and Paul Colbeck (NATTKE) ACTORS • the National Theatre in London are crossing a picket line set up by ou members of the technicians union NATTKE
A motion at the annual
meeting Actors"
Equity on 2 April, calling on
union instruct members not to cross the picket line, was effectively blocked by the union executive they simply turned out the lights on the mover.
Yet one of their own members who has refused to cross the picket line is among those who face dismissal.
The National Theatre suspended 27 stage staff (pending dismissal) on 16 March after they had given notice of industrial action. This followed
y Call of protracted and frustrating negotiations for an acceptable and workable shift pattern.
On 19 March they joined by 20 workshop staff who had previously been engaged in limited industria
aGann for their sarity claime
Many members departments also refused to cross the picket line. All got the sack.
Management have stated that they will only re-emplos the strikers if they sign a contract agreeing any future unofficial strike action would mean instant dismissal Meanwhile the National's shows CORTHUC limited decor
The workers are now
packetin the this is rsa
dispute resolved this week they will also be calling for a mass picket of the theatre between 6 and 8pm each Monday evening
The strikers know only toc well that the outcome of thi dispute could be crucial for the future of rank and file organisation in the theatre. proposed contact would set a The imposition the dangerous precedent for the rest of the industry, and for trade unionism as a whole.
Tribute to
Trotsky
WE WOULD recommend to our readers the new double issue of New Left Review. It contains passionate and moving tribute to Trotsky by Norman Geras.
The continued existence of anti-Trotsky prejudices among
sections indication eligentie
indication ideological impact of Stalin-
Geras" restores Trotsky to his real stature: that of a giant.
He does so by concentrating
the literary quality Trotsky's writings. It is a fitting tribute to print in Trotsky's centenary year.
New Left Review, No 113-114, £1.75, available from all left bookshops.
Socialist Challenge 12 April 1979 Page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Chall
Registered with the Post Office as a newspaper, Published by Relgocrest Ltd. for Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London NI. Printed by Feb Edge Litho Ltd (TU),
DEATH
By Tariq Ali IN THE face of overwhelming mass opposition inside Paki-
generals Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, country's last elected Minister.
There was WEYC
out the country. In Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi the masses confronted police and the army.
They attacked banks, built barricades, set stations on fire. Over a dozen people were killed thousands arrested.
The slogan which chanted 'Revenge!
Revenge!"
After four days of rioting the generals have restored a shaky peace, but this is not the end of the story.
The sheer cold-blooded brutality of Zia and his cohorts has shocked the entire country.
Many oid rivalries have been forgotten. Former opponents
were prominent among those who demonstrated against the hanging.
Even itthe army tolerates a general election and even Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) wins, the masses will be looking for other
means of attaining these will be mass struggles, strikes, land occupations, and so on.
SUBSCRIBE
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"Socialist Challenge'. Complete and return to: Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street, London N1.
Pakistan: Bhutto hanged
ZIA SIGNS
HIS OWN
WARRANT
The question nationalities will also become prominent. Bhutto Sindhi. hanged hanged him and the judges who the acquiesced are all Punjabis — Prime though the Punjab masses are as opposed to hanging as the of rest of the country.
In hanging generals with a halo of martyrdom. In the death he will prove to be a more powerful image than when he was alive. ponce Zia does not have long to go.
The only question is whether he and will be replaced by a coup from within the army, government which from the promised elections, or a series of mass uprisings.
Pakistan was always a state without a past. The generals nave ensureo inal i is also a state without a future.
* Tariq Ali, Socialist Unity candidate Southall, among the who marched from Hyde Park Sunday to Bhutto's hanging. * More than 300 Pakistanis now marched through Nottingham last Sunday in protest at the execution of Bhutto. Speakers al a linal rally were Nawaz, Mohammed Aslam (a leader of SCOPO), and Julian Atkinson (Socialist election agent).
Cheques, POs and Money Orders should be made payable to
of minority Bhutto, the provicco nim an unstable
CHICEYES was
Pakistanis
condemn
Shebir
Unity
FIGHT FOR YOUTH RIGHTS!
NATIONAL REVOLUTION RALLY
Saturday, 5 May, noon to midnight
Speakers include: Bernadette McAliskey, Soweto student, Rock Against Sexism (Lucy Toothpaste), representatives of European youth organisations.
Workshops include: Sexism * Sexuality and music * The nature of fascism * Ireland and internationalism* Students as youth * Building a union at school
Militant films * Food * drink * stalls * Exhibitions
Glasgow, Cardiff, Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham, Oxford.
PO Box 50, London N1.
nge
Photomontage: FBIEKAENNARU
Rock for Revolution Gig in the evening with:
JOHN COOPER CLARKE THESTRAITS REGGAE/PUNK/SOULDISCO
At the City University, St John Street, London EC1 -near Angel tube. Tickets: €1.50 school students and unemployed; others £2.50. Transport will leave from:
Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Liverpool,
Tickets and further information from: Revolution,
3-4 The Oval, London Ez.
← Socialist Challenge No. 90, 5 April 1979Socialist Challenge No. 93, 16 April 1979 →