Socialist Challenge No. 92, 19 April 1979
The scan: sc-n92-apr-19-1979.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
DUMP THE
NAZIS
No 92 19 April 1979 15p Leicester Sat 21 April Assemble 1pm, Victoria Park
Southall Sun 22 April:
March Against the NF
Assemble 1pm Dominion Car Park, The Green, Southall Monday 23 April:
One-Day Strike, peaceful
sit-in against NF outside Southall Town Hall, 5pm
Page 2 scan of this page
Elections - more
OUR POLICIES 2
EDITORIAL
3180/9. Distribution/advertising 01-359 8371.
and Southall
familiar refrain of 'law and order'.
for increased state repression against militants.
Nentent on amiting
rock Labour's boat. HOr
ultra-left position. mational credibility.
ANL
Leicester.
best organised Asian communities in Britain.
And ine community Labour rule.
COnstrUCHOn.
firms
the dole queues.
defence of Labour's record won't do that.
If you agree with these principles and want to be involved in activities by Socialist Challenge supporters in your area, till in the form below and send it to us. ...... * I am interested in more information about activities in my area. * I would like additional literature and enclose 50p to cover costs.
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Send to Socialist Chailenge, 328/9 Upper St. London N1.
Sociatise Challenge 19 April 1979 page 2
Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Editorial 01-359
See you in Leicester
ONE resounding testimony to the success of the Anti Nazi League has been the retreat of the National Front in recent months. That doesn't mean it has disappeared, however, In fact, the NF is using the elections to make a come-back. The NF's propaganda is based very heavily on the theme of "democracy' which it links to the
Through this kind of campaign, the NF hopes to undermine support for the anti-fascists and, by isolating them, lay the basis
Unfortunately, many on the left are playing into the hands of the
CIOCARVASSIN bureaucracy argue against any mass mobilisations which might
them, the solution mobilisations lies in the state — that is, in more repression.
Other militants in the anti-fascist movement adopt a rather
They ignore the issue of democratic rights which is posed, and concentrate on physically smashing the Front.
The real answer to the renewed fascist mobilisations in the election period is to mobilise the largest numbers on the street demanding that the democratic rights of workers and minorities be defended against the fascist goon squads of the Front.
In Leicester, where the NF is contesting every seat, the first victims of any fascist successes will be the black community. This could be the springboard the Front needs to re-establish its
That's why Leicester provides an urgent opportunity to respond on a national scale to the NF's efforts at a renewed offensive. Under these circumstances, it's all the more unfortunate that the
- which. after all. was set up to prepare for a general election — is making such a poor showing in organising for
Southall should also become a focus for the anti-racist movement. That Tyndall and Webster plan to speak at a meeting in this West London borough can only be a provocation to one of the
responded in kind. A mass demonstration on Sunday 22 April will be followed by a half-day strike beginning at Monday lunch-time. The lead given by militant blacks in Southall on how to fight the NF is a lead which the anti-fascist movement in its entirety could do well to follow.
MARGARET Thatcher's 'concentrated' electioneering began in earnest in Callaghan's Cardiff constituency on Easter Monday. Without exception, Fleet Street viewed her radical speech as a break with the middle-of-the-road approach adopted to date. Her newly-discovered attachment to 'old-time socialism' could only have jarred on the ears of many working class militants who have fought hard against Labour's devastating policies in recent
In fact, Thatcher was only playing with words. She means nothing other than union-bashing aimed at rank and file militancy. In this situation, Callaghan's plodding defence of Labour's wage-cutting record is managing to whip up a modicum of enthusiasm. He has even had the temerity to herald Labour as the big spenders in social services and as the saviour of jobs.
But keeping out Thatcher's hoodlums can't therefore be equated with lining up with Callaghan. The truth is that official unemployment figures have more than tripled in five years of
wiin nundreas or tousanas or unemployed bunding workers. the government has refused to launch a crash programme of house
A trade union plan to fight back for jobs wouldn't be based on the collaborators we have seen with government subsidies to the
declaring solution. These should be nationalised without compensation.
Furthermore, many pay claims this round have included the 35-hour week. The fight for continued action on this demand can unite wide sections of workers and point the way towards tackling
These are the policies which could provide a real match for Thatcher's so-called radical image. And it is by fighting for such policies that the demoralisation and mood of abstention evident amongst some sections of the working class can be tackled. A
by Dodie Weppler
strongest. striking force.
committee decided to make a serious turn towards industry as a way to begin to pick up the pieces. New membership cards *place Workplace CP branches and bulletins are aimed for; and CP public meetings are planned for most union conferences. A national industrial conference is scheduled for 1980.
The sales of the Morning Star have not reached the targets set by the last Congress. Nevertheless, the new Saturday issue will be on sale for the first time April, with hopes it will inspire
campaigning amongst sellers.
These problems would be difficult enough for King Street if they existed on their own. Of COUTSC they bound up with the crisis inside the CP which has, in recent weeks, boiled over onto the
ages of the Morning Sta
general secretary Gordon Eurocommunist Monty Johnstone as delegate for the World Marxist Review Because it hostility from District Committee and even a threatened resignation from its secretary, Gerry incident will be added to the long list of factional disputes at the CP's next congress November.
offersolations that are in the interes
Socialist Challe
nary sociali
1
ELECTIONS
CP fields 39 candidates
- King Street?
WHEN Callaghan announced the date of the election, Communist Party leaders at King Street couldn't have been too enthusiastic. The party is not exactly at its
Membership is way down. In the polite language of the CP's fortnightly review, members have 'yet to renew their party cards'.
With 17,717 members already on the records, that is a drop of 4,000 in total since 1977. And the CP has difficulty in mobilising even these as any kind of
Last month the executive These
at the last Tuesday. work form. question was posed,
Labour Roberts?'
find difficulties in
eight-page
28 fered aren't approach'
last doesn't intimately
because elected for Labour When
wash either, conference. involved sharp
Cohen, this
Wore Core m is in crisis. The lea
believes that the two vital tasks confronting are:
problems for
policies
Comment, some 3,000
instance,
difficulties make it impossible kind of internal His not to tread on someone's toes.
And that's just what happened
CP's press conference Concordat' "Why', the 'was the CP standing Monty Goldman the document. in hackney agamst Icit-wing candidate, Ernie anti-fascist
Many party members committed to the policies of The written British Road to Socialism will
explaining how this move will aid the fight for left policies to be carried out by a Labour Government.'
And the justifications of-
too convincing.
Some local Pers argue the candidate is irrelevant because Goldman only polled 400 votes
this figure match up with the "official' explanation that the CP has a base in the area and can't drop its commitment just
left-winger gets
Gordon McLennan argues that the CP has responsibility to put forward its own left policies this won't
because Ernie Roberts' manifesto is well to the left of Goldman's. This just illustrates a more general point: the CP's policies are no real break from the left of Labour.
It's for this reason that Socialist Challenge refuses to call for a
The party has published two documents to back up its 39 of the Labour Party and the trades unions ts, not of the workers, but of the capitalist
Democratic Rights. With the
each the party could find itself in worse straits by its next Congress.
The CP has to contend with the practice of its leaders as well as these policies. Ken Gill's antics, in particular, have not gone down well with militant workers. At the 1975 special TUC on incomes policy, for
Gill unilaterally withdrew the TASS resolution against the social contract.
off-hand comment more recently that there was no need for a vote against the
even forced the editor of the Morning Star to write a long article condemning
Many Pers active in the
and anti-racist will also be disappointed that not a word is
about the fight STOl labour movement support for black self-defence. In fact, the self-organisation of the oppressed - women, blacks, or gays — doesn't figure anywhere in the CP election material
The need to 'prohibit racial provocation and violence' is a fine ideal, but most experience in the anti-fascist movement has shown the utter inadequacy or me crs call Tol legal action against parties which promote racist practices."
It has been the independent mass action - above all, that organised by the Anti Nazi
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE TRADE UNION CONFERENCE on 'Alternatives to the Concordat' and "Workers Plans'. 26 May, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1.
Further details from TU Conference, SC, PO Box 50, London N1 do not take up arms against the socialist state. The Stalinist models o 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 democrac
The inte
5 world pallics, 1
League - which has put the fascists on the retreat in this election, not the use of the law.
Because the Communist Party insists that the capitalist
be transformed, it State call adopts a number of policies on the police which could be met with outright hostility from the black and Asian communities. For instance, the Charter aims to transform the police force into public service to guarantee liberties'
Yet increasing numbers of victims of state violence are beginning to realise that the police force exists for one purpose only - to protect capitalist interests. And any amount of reforms are not going to change this class maure ores ale
Finally, the manifesto re states the CP's critical comments about the treatment of dissidents in the Soviet Union. It calls for the fullest freedom of political, economic, cultural, scientific pursuits and associations. Good
But where has it actively campaigned for the release of Rudolph Bahro; against attacks on Charter 77 signatories; the recent imprisonment of the Czechoslovak rock group The Plastic People; the arrests last month of a group of Soviet artists; and the repression against any kind of political opposition that emergès in these so-called socialist societies? erests of workers and capitalists are irreconcilable on a world
ve fight for working class unity on an internationa
Page 3 scan of this page
The hawk and the dove-
CHUBBY farmer Jim Prior and multi-company director Sir Keith Joseph are likely to be the government ministers responsible for industry — including union policy — if the Tories win on 3 May. It is not a
ELECTIONS
Jim
Prior
THE image Jim Prior tries to put over is of the affable, reasonable moderate.
His attitude in the last couple of vears has been to try re-build the bridges to the trade union leadership blown up by the Heath policy of confrontation.
Prior is out to win friends. Thus he has joined a union, he supported the recommendations for union recognition of the Scarman Inquiry Grunwick, and he tries to speak all the time as if he has the interests of union members at
He has argued that 'unions must act for their members, and insisted that government would be prepared to talk to anyone'
For Thatcher the importance of having Prior as part of the leadership is two-fold. First, as
one-time loyal follower Heath, Prior's leadership position helps to unify the party.
More importantly, Prior can be projected as the acceptable face' of Tory union policy - as the man prepared to talk with, negotiate with, and respect the trade union leaders.
He gives the impression that he ARIOST anti-union legislation and will do his best to avoid it if the Tories are in power. But he adds, almost reluctantly:
*The trade unions have to understand that British people believe in the rule of law and will not put up with the violence seen in the mass picketing at Grunwick.
This type of approach - that "the British people believe reinforces the image Prior i: trying to create. He protest that he doesn't want to outlaw all that many union practices, but that he has to respect what the British people want. Apped: Nowadaysen this pretence is dropped: occasionally described - often by the same people who used to describe me as an arch hawk -as the biggest dove in the sky. Well, that's the way it is in politics, but I don't think I have changed my politics much'.
Prior is right. It is not his politics that have changed from his days as the 'arch-hawk' of the Heath Cabinet; it's the way he has of putting them over.
The Tory union-bashers
pleasant prospect, as GEOFF BELL outlines.
I'm sick of "these academics and politicians who have prescribed rubbish that redistribution is on the way.
It has already gone Too Far and is reducing the standard this country.")
Tory
of
some socialists (kna. nothings, militant encouraged by polythec nic lecturers, wreckers behave as if conflict wen to be admired. «It is absurd to hold down pay for an under manned essential service Such as the police
I can promise you this! Under the next conservative government therew
mean electoral disaster
(self to banninge
Tosed shop now"
am
that
out for the same prey
In the conservaagains
Fi ve woL. hesitate to coislate on the subiect it persuasion does work...
"example 15
better than coercion.» + underpaid so the real diference is that one wants Ho sash the mions
says so
the other want
tosmash the
unions and not
say so till after the elections.
Keith
policy 'persuade
file.
in.
Tore an
•coul se Tory Party.
..our industry, life and society debilitated by
inroads.. not
years, ments did Joseph frightening.
the only compete relatively relatively low pay pound
citly
stated that he
shop.
who
the sick,
against fire.
the capitalism of *The aim
framework success -
then Prior
Shepard.
Joseph In that sense
of the same coin. side the coin comes up
for
Party Tribune
Joseph
committee.
THE aim of having someone on
party. like Prior responsible for trade
try to the trade union leaders to be reasonable and effectively police their rank and
But that aim only works if something much more horrible is waiting in the wings. Which is where Sir Keith Joseph comes
Joseph is one of Thatcher's Dickens closest associates, portrayed as the main "theoretician of the The
That theory is summarised in the following:
economic has been so 30 years of socialistic fashions that their wonderful very weakness tempts further
*The reality is that for 30
Conservative governnot consider it practicable to reverse the vast bulk of accumulating detritus of Socialism.. Socialist measures and Socialist attitudes have been very persuasive.
Stated like that, it is no surprise that the prospect of
power is SO Someone who thinks that the Tories have been too "socialistic ever since the war, someone who insists that
way Britain can by having sand low
Unlike Prior, Joseph expli-
stated his support for Grunwick boss George Ward; unlike Prior, he has explicitly
would be favour of banning the closed
Joseph is not among those
think that the government's job is to provide aid for ployed. For him the 'primary elderly and unem- sell-outs. duties of government' are law and order, defence, protection
For him a Tory government would be a signal for a return to
the 1930s: of Conservati policy would be to create the
for industrial Battlers*, £2. • based on improved productivity and profitability.'
All the signs are that if the Tories are in office, and Prior's socialist politics of persuasion do not 'deal with the union leaders fund.
and Thatcher will gladly hand the job to Name..
Prior and Address Joseph are just different sides
Whichever it is working people who will lose
Wrong address
THE comment of the Evening Standard was most authoritative: "The far left are grasping
power... by the stealthy process they adopt
foothold in the local Labour They gain out
and burrow tirelessly, forming secret caucuses and holding committee meetings behind closed doors.'
The editorial was discussing
events Newham North-east Labour Party which have led to the resignation as Labour candidate of former
Group chairperson James Dickens.
Dickens had demanded a unanimous vote of approval
party's general management
He also insisted that the address be binding for five years - not just on him but
entire constituency
Dickens won a majority, but only a small one. This wasn' surprising, as many at the GMC didn't approve of the address's support for such delights as the Concordat. It was then that Dickens walked out.
It is difficult to see how insisting on the right to vote against something is gaining power by stealth', but certainly
attitude with that of Callaghan.
latter JUS ignores majority votes like the many at Labour Party conferences on such things as opposition to wage controls and opposition to immigration controis. Whe
people these defenders of democracy are. Watch your step
ACTIVISTS will have to watch their step in this election or risk Prosecution under the electoral
The 1949 Representation of the People Act rules that all propaganda during the election
COHE
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 th 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 we s 1050k 10 odd Stevenson, ke Paul
J Dodd, Highfield, £4.50; Thomas Boushier, €1.65; 'Nobby's Deepdale
This week's total: £35.65. Total so far for quarter: £200.50.
I want to support the only
alternative to Labour's cheque/PO/cash for f.
Send to: Socialist Challenge, c/o PO Box 50, London N1.
period (except registered publications like Socialist Challenge or the Daily Mirror!) which advocates support for particular candidate must be declared on the election expenses of a candidate in that constituency.
- But a recent ruling by Judg Peter against BrUC leader Phyllis Bowman, arising
the Ilford North by-election, went even further. The SPUC leaflet was deemed illegal because it specifically mentioned the Labour candidate's pro-abortion views within an anti-abortion leaflet.
The implication of this ruling is that if campaigning material which aims to highlight candidates views is noi declared on Labour, CP Socialist Unity candidates' expenses, then specific mention must be made of any candidate or their policies
If you're in any doubt then consult a sympathetic solicitor Or aw cente. The Anti Nazi League took legal advice before finalising the text of their Sa) NO to the National Front leaflet. The WRP's 'public
THE Workers Revolutionary Party, who are standing along with Socialist Unity in Glasgow Queens Park, held a public
last week. Well, 'public" is not quite the right word, as three members of the International Marxist Group were not allowed in.
But three members of Provisional Sinn Fein were admitted, which almost took the attendance into double figures. Alas, these three were not there for too long either.
They asked the WRP speake if his party was supporting th United Troops Out Movement/ Sinn Fein demonstration Glasgow on 20 April. Certainly not, came the reply - the nasty IMG demo, and that ruled our WR were involved in
participation.
members of Sinn Fein walke At thi DOLL HENCHE
- which can Stevenson,
/ paper campaigning for a genuine
policies. enclose .....as a donation to the fighting Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979 page
Page 4 scan of this page
democracy CONSERVATIVI GOVERNMEN
'Nothing matters much; few things matter at all
ELECTIONS
attack
By Pamela Holmes
THE MAIN debate at
Easter's NUS conference will
be on the union's constitution
17 hours of it.
The right is reproducing the
stracgy i nas tor wrecking democracy in every other union directly into NUS.
Wherever general meetings and conferences have the right
decide policy or officials the Tories want to replace them with cross campus
The Broad Left leadership — rather than totally rejecting the Tories' framework — is leading its OWI offensive against participatory democracy.
Its main emphasis IS "conferences of the institution'. These would be bodies elected representatives having considerable power, blurring the democracy of general meetings.
These proposals tend towards re-establishing the old student representation coun cils, whose main role was to sap the mass campaigning activity of the student movement.
With conflicts between the decisions of general meetings and these 'conferences" it is easy imagine campaigns being stunted at birth, rancour and red-tape about which is the more representative decision.
The right in the NUS, elsewhere, always talks giving democratic control the majority - what they call ne amaneue malony
The left has always clearly argued that the way to increase democracy is to involve this majority in the mass campaigning activity of the union explaining to them that union policy depends on Involvement enrouga aucnaing meetings and conferences.
In the NUS the only groups arguing this position are the Socialist Students Alliance and the Socialist Worker Student Organisation, and some sections of the National Organisation of Labour Students.
The Broad Left should come out in the open and make it clear whether they stand with the Tories or with the left.
The Broad Left's constitutional proposals will weaken the student movement's ability
defend its members' interests.
Particularly if the Tories are returned at the general election, it is vital that NUS is prepared to defend the interests overseas students, help students fight college closures and generally to unite with the labour and trade movement against attacks on their right independent organisation and against public spending cuts.
A student union leadership which makes good relations with government its priority will be in no position to do this.
The Socialist Student hance candidates for executive elections will arguing that now more than ever - with the likelihood of a Tory victory socialist campaigning alternative to the Broad Left policies is needed in
Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979 page 4
elect with
of things matter at all.'
possible.'
By Tariq Ali
real Today's Tory leaders are not
so trank about tneir aims. Iney cannot afford to be. For the Empire has long disappeared. The sun today hardly rises on the areas still dominated by British imperialism.
Britain is today a second-rate power, country industry is in decline and whose world status has been virtually eclipsed. The British Foreign ecretary is regarded through ut the world as a monkey: people prefer to deal directly with the organ grinact Washington.
The Tory manifesto in this election is accordingly a modest document. It lacks the inherited self-confidence of a Salisbury, of the overweening arrogance of a FE Churchill, the quiet compla-
cency of a Macmillan, or even the brashness of a Heath.
The fact of British political life today, however, is that the Labour government has moved so far to the right that it has forced the Tories even further right.
So how far will Thatcher be prepared to break consensus if elected? It should Al- be remembered that the LOO. embarked on be Tory policies in 1970:
attacked the unions, tried to institutionalise laws, confronted the miners, and was defeated as a resuit. Tory thinking today is that Heath embarked on
The Tory Manifesto
LORD SALISBURY, a longtime Tory opponent of all reform in the 19th century, once defined Conservatism as the belief that 'nothing matters very much, and few
As far as change was concerned, the Tory leader was equally blunt: 'All a Conservative could do was to moderate and delay such of it as he found repugnant, and when it happened to assimilate it as far
COnTrOnTaTIOn ideological preparation. some believe that the Labour government's inability to stem the tide of social and economic since crisis has now laid the basis for a renewed assault on the labour movement's HOSL IHSULUHONS What is needed, however, is populist whose experience in parts of Canada has been avidly studied by Conservative CenUral Office experience of the tax-cutting Proposition 13 in California.
Thatcher has already floated the idea of dealing with updated version of the miners vs Heath letting the 'people through a referendum'.
The aim of the Tories will be fairly simple. They will try to give the Concordat legal weight and will tackle trade opposition with ideological weapons at their disposal.
Thatcher will try to defeat the industrial strength of the trade unions by hurling against it their political Moreover she will do so not in the the 'aloof" style of Heath, but through a populist appeal to the Heath middle classes, •radical inflamed by the Daily he Nationwide, and Any Questions.
It is in this light that we should try to analyse what the Tory manifesto means. five key tasks the Tories set his themselves are as follows:
controlling
trade union movement.
This means: allowances
as expenditure
without real
But of working people.
rewarded, hallowed jobs are expanding economy.
This means:
Tory ployment.
Australia and
3. To and the rule of law has the
of striking workers.
confrontation by
decide helping home-owners, standards of their
union all the real need.
This
council payments strike; more private education; etc.
their passions
Mail,
increasingly world.
The
NATO; more
THEREA
1. To restore the health of our economic and social life, by
inflation and worried striking a fair balance between the rights and duties of the
These, More tax planks for the private more cuts in SOCIA and the welfare services; curbs on the trades unions; cuts in living standards for the overwhelming majority
To restore incentives so that hard work pays, success is
and genuine new created in
More unem- WHETHER
uphold Parliament
This means: Further curbs on democratic rights; more powers struggle for the police; more harassment socialist
gays, blacks, youth and
4. To support family life, by
people to OCCONC raising the children's education, and concentrating Massive welfare services on the effective support of the old, the sick, the disabled and those who are in
means: Attacks on between the women; further restrictions on abortion; increased rents for
tenants; no SS policies workers on emphasis on
5. To strengthen Britain's SISWEL defences and work with our allies to protect our interests in under
threatening
This means: Hotting up the government. Cold War; more money for weapons; more attention
support for
whites in southern Africa. Even Carter is reported to be a bIl
by recent Tory statements on Africa!
then, are the five Tory policies.
Thatcher will try to implement them. Whether she succeeds or
From the left press
SOCIALIST
PRESS
Thatcher Callaghan is elected on 3 May, workers face the prospect of further attacks on their rights and living standards.
But it is only through the
for principled leadership in the labour movement that thes attacks can be defeated and steps taken towards ending the capitalist system whose crisis
mass unemployment ano connuing expionanon o the working class.
struggles by forward moving working class challenging Callaghan's reactionary pay limits have showr that there is a yawning gulf
aspirations and the independent class interests of the working class and the
supposed that. leaders' at the head of the Labour Party and the TUC.
powerful, combative working class is the decisive Pat
right WINg Thatcher government, which,
SUCH conditions, could soon share the same fate
Heath's hated 1970-74
All Labour candidates must be pressed by union branches and Labour Parties to declare
CONSERVATIVI
THE NEXT
GOVERNMENT
Conservative The
manifesto
not depends on the labour
SHOVCHCEE
Callaghan and his govern-
ment have paved the way for
her. In the process of doing so
they have demoralised a certain
SCCORE O workers. But the 1 fightback starts now.
themselves committed after the election - whatever the result
campaigning STOl an emergency recall Labour Party conference to drive out the Callaghan -chioue and adopt socialist policies. BIG FLAME
LABOUR's policies have been disastrous, often barely distinguishable from the Tories. But what's the alternative? handful of independent lent Socialist Unity candidates will stand on a clear socialist platform in the general election. But nobody's pretending that this represents a real alternative to Labour al present
For that to happen, there would have to be a massive break with Labour throughout the working class movement, and we're still a long way from
Big Flame will actively campaign for Socialist Unity and other left candidates
Arrowsmith and Brendan Gallagher - because our long term aim is to build a socialist alternative to Labour.
We do support return of a Tory government. Reluctantly therefore, we call for a vote for Labour where there is no Socialist Unity or similar candidate
Page 5 scan of this page
The Callaghan Road Show
ELECTIONS
PRIME Minister James Callaghan was in the North-West last week. JONATHAN SILBERMAN describes a day on the 'campaign trail'
ACT ONE
10.15am, Tuesday 10 April. This is only the second day of the official Labour Party campaign, so ine morning DICS conference in Manchester's plush Midland Hotel could be an important indicator of what is to come.
Along with Callaghan on the platform are Cabinet Mini-
Photo: LAURENCE SPARHAM (IFL
sters Stan Orme (an Tribunite) and Joel Barnett (First Secretary to the Treasury and aspiring Chancellor of the Exchequer), and two local MPS - Alf Morris and Ann Taylor.
There is no hint of past political differences - mney Te all one happy family now. The idea is obviously to 'keep the press relaxed and happy'
The first 'victim' of this jolly
Ann Taylor.
Press chuckles when Callaghan introduces her as whip turn into guffaws when he jokingly retorts: "Let's not have of your sadistic fantasies here.*
Thus the only involved in the proceedings is degraded from the start to little more than the object of male sexual fantasies.
And when I She COLICS LO speak, her subject is 'young families'. Any indication that you're intending to start one?' quips Callaghan, now turning her from prospective MIP into prospective mother-to-be...
It is left to Callaghan to deal with the "big' issues. Staggeringly, he chooses the question of unemployment.
"A vote for Labour is a vote for your job', he declares, claiming that training schemes, employment subsidies and the like have saved over million jobs.
No-one challenges figures. No-one points out the reality of unemployment in the North-West today, including the devastation of the very textile Industry which has LABOUR IRISH PRISONER
OURS
socialist
oto: LAURENCE SPARHAM IIFLI
unity
VOTE
JEFF WESTX
old allegedly been so protected.
No-one questions
the government has poured milhons of pounds into propping up private industry instead of nationalising it under workers control if it can't provide jobs. much interested in anything! No-one, in fact, is There is silence after three or four questions. else?' asks Sunny Jim. I ask him if he considers that Ireland is an issue in the election.
What does he think of the Bennett Report on the torture of Irish prisoners? What about the troops? And so on...
Once again Callaghan rambles on: 'We want to pursue a policy that will ensure everyone in that country live in peace. Today their lives are being torn asunder one As regards the Report, it is not anyone's such desire that any prisoner should suffer maltreatment
A future Labour government will implement every proposal in the report...
well I'm not sure that Ireland will campaign. an
them Labour The press conference ends
on these words. Everything has gone according almost. For the slight irritation is obvious. you represent?' laghan. 'Oh, good. "Anyone
ACT TWO
2pm. We're told afternoon electioneering. A small demonstration servants greets Callaghan as he
that leaves the
can Sunny Jim doesn't stop to explain why the civil servants Bennett should support him...
First stop is Glossop in a Tory marginal, Arriving at 2.30pm, Callaghan by the shakes hands and signs a few order... autographs in the
Club, and ther three-minute speech from first floor window to a crowd
saalist
unit
issue in the
the rain.
be
to plan concessionary
•What paper do
aSKS Cal- local workers shout: "Socialist Challenge'
good,
La hurry.
constituency working
spent back street striking civil candidate
lives.
Midland Hotel.
their children Churchill's Stretford.
High Peak.
Labour makes get Callaghan isn't keen.
ACT THREE
7.30pm.
of Manchester.
primarily
MP Maurice implicated scandal and stood down.
Labour nomination
ensure
Transport House.
in the past, chairperson Colin
candidate for the job'
of some 150 adults and young audience children gathered outside in
His main concern seems to
of SCHCHIC travel passes The that Labour would introduce.
There is some applause; a few
'We're does only voting for you because candidate Thatcher's worse.' He leaves in
Next stop is Moss Side, a
with some very demonstration class which catch form the basis of Labour's press slim majority. Callaghan stays well away from them, heading state their instead for the quiet suburbar
where Labour George Morton time.
Then it's out again to a tive." meeting of party activists and
Winston tative -Tory marginal, Labour Party
the police.
By 4pm it's back to th Midland Hotel for another TV session, this time with a bunch of "first time voters'. We try to has already
on me ackn audience Callaghan is due to speak in Stockport, just south about
It's significant in the election licences
because of what happened in Stockport South Labour Party after the sitting index pensions.
Orbach, was in the Peachey
The ensuing battle for the
was ver dirty indeed. Most of the work Callaghanes political adviser, the success Tom McNally, was done from
There is no mistaking why the 900-strong rally has beer organised. 'We've got to forge the local differences we've had
explains district needs...
Campbell
McNally, he says, is 'the best
But to get into the hall the chance and left.
By Hull. the has to pass 60-strong demonstration called by Socialist Unity to attack the government's record on reland and the economy
demonstration takes place inside the hall as well. A: Callaghan rises to speak, SO
the Socialist Unity for Manchester Ardwick, Jeff West
Callaghan responds immediately: "This is clearly a staged
designed the attention of the
"They have come here to
stay should ino so at the
at the appropriate time - at question
They are as undemocratic as they are unrepresenta
And to prove how represen-
democracy works, officials then eject Jeff and hand him over to
There is, of course, to be no question time. The chairperson
announced this earlier. And so members of the
demand right through Callaghan's speech that he answer their questions - on Ireland, unemployment, the civil servants, the health service, and so on.
to reply. Instead he waffles on
Labour's manifesto proposals to give free TV
to pensioners, introduce a home-loan scheme for first-time house buyers, to
Finally, he returns to the theme on which he began the day: unemployment. Somehow he fails to repeat his earlier claim of a million jobs saved
perhaps because official Transport House leaflets have been distributed outside putting the figure at only 300,000.
*Britain must belong to the people', Sunny Jim concludes
Not yet. But it will do..
From each according to his ability, to each according to his
. We've got the chance to go forward if we take it...
And then, seemingly acting on his own advice, he took his
Killing the
Concordat
in Hull
Andy Holland and Noel Hibbert, ASTMS members on Hull Trades Council
IT'S ONLY too easy to write the election speeches of most of the candidates when it comes to what are euphemistically called
Callaghan's supporters will wave the Concordat and say the labour leaders are anxious that union power should not be used "irresponsibly".
They will not find it so easy in
The Anti-Concordat campaign got off to a good
Fi nine trades council • executive members added their names to the growing list of sponsors
Now Hull Trades Council has overwhelmingly carried a motion to recall the TUC over the issue. A mood of anger at
meeting increased when Socialist Challenge supporters explained the full implications of the Concordat.
As one delegate put it: 1 don't mind the TUC and the government taking away my need to strike, but what I object to is their removing my right to strike.'
The Socialist Unity election campaign in Hull is taking the message of the Anti-Concordat into the workplaces and onto he streets.
Supporters leafletted a mass meeting of civil servants held during the one-day strike on 2 April, and we held street meetings to publicise a Kill the Concordat, Defend our unions' meeting on 12 April.
Speakers included John Suddaby, secretary of Camden NUPE general branch, Pauline Stanton, a trades council executive member and Socialist Unity candidate for Hull Central.
Every Labour candidate should be asked where she or he stands, and called on to back the demand for the recall of the TUC and Labour Party Conference.
That's the way to remove the right-wing leaders who have overturned the policies these conferences have voted for, and adopt new policies for the fightback.
Order vour COUN of the Anti-Concordat from Socialist Challenge [25p plus 10p p&p]. Ross Fish: A McLarren. NALGO P Giark. rAlL rorbes.JGWU 1054 Gordon GMWU: - Blakesion NIT • Collinson, NUT; A Story ASTMS Elliot Morley, NUT; G Percy, NUSLAT Gerry Chant, TGWU Castletor GWU; ASTMS Sorr
neral Branch secretary.
Il signatories: Mike Powe TOWU GMWU steward Jim Ryder TGWU 1015A Dave Dick, TGWU 1015A steward Johnny Shields, AUEW dist. cttee; F Hill, TGWU 1064; Phil Gillatt, TGWU secretary. sandersons strike chee • Mottram. sandersons strike chles
sinclair NUT Les James GWU steward Ross Fish; C ASTMS Reckitt's: Pat McMullen NU and Labour councillor; G Hewsor GMWU
Socialist Challenge 19 A 31 10g m
Page 6 scan of this page
Mention Ireland and
behind East End demo Glasgow SU fights
ALTERNATIVE POLICIES DON'T GROW ON TREES. DONATE NOW
ELECTIONS
dent Socialist candidate contesting Callaghan's seat South-east ESTONES support of Socialist Unity, was arrested on Saturday while addressing shoppers through a loud-hailer on Labour's Irish policy.
After being told to 'move on' by the police, Pat pointed out that election candidate, that she had democratic right to campaign, and that her electors had democratic right to hear what
argument did impress the police, arrested Pat and carried her bodily into a waiting police car.
with one was tater charged insulling woros ukery to caust
Socialist Unity
campaign in Bethnal Green and Bow has got off to a lively start with well-received street meetings over the weekend in the Spitalfields ward. In this area SU has taken 20 percent of the vote in consecutive elections.
The fight against racism is at the forefront of SU's campaign in an area which includes Brick the presence be leader
presence of leader Martin Webster for election.
All SU's resources will be thrown behind a demonstration in Hackney and Tower Hamlets on Sunday 29 April which aims i a
SOCIALIST UNITY is standing in thes construencies to presen d socialist
to Labour's right-wing
U needs both activ
addresses/phone numbers listed below.
GLASGOW Queens Park. Candidate: Wasgow District NALGO). Addr
Classo. Phone: (04) 21 7481.
Hi. Phone: 41994: 3 Stepney Lane. Paul Adam ol Address: 217 Wadidate Toxteth
Phone: (051)
LONDON Deptford Candidate Janet Maguire (ASTMS branch secretary. Address: c/o PO Box 50 London Ni zxr. rnone. none
*aller • 19 April 1979 page 6
it's 'threatening
behaviour'
PAT Arrowsmith, the Indepen- ] a breach of the peace' and two
obstruction charges.
in Pat's arrest follows that of a
supporter of the Revolutionary Communist Group's journal Manes Off Te and Callaghan meeting on 11 April at Upminster.
He charged threatening behaviour shouting Labour's torturers, hands off Ireland'.
That heckling has become viour', and that trying to speak in public is 'obstruction, are further examples determination of the authorifies to who government's Irish policy.
press statement the *Make Ireland an Issue' campaign *These latest arrests will only
Resources thrown
and Tyndall are standing.
Sponsorship so far has come from the Hackney & Tower Hamlets Defence Committee, Newham Defence Committee, Hackney Committee local Kacialism, North
Anti Nazi League, Hamlets Movement Against Racısm and Fascism Indian Standing the Association of Jamaicans in the UK, North London West this Indian Association, and Hack-
Lney CRE Although the demonstration was first proposed by Socialist Unity candidate Ray Varnes at meeting COLE
263 3387 Lane Estate, N19. Phone: (01)
Address: 23 Hamilton Road, Southall Middlesex. Phone: (01) 571 5019.
recretary Address.
Whine: 1) 2012 Commercial St, E1 White's Row MANCHESTER Ardwick. Candidate BoHermakers Address: 14 Piccadilly, Manchester 1. NOTTINGHAM East. Candidate: lar Juniper (ASTMS). Address: 5 Maple
Socialist Unity Is also campaign actively for the following independe
Phone: 30183
strengthen our determination to expose Labour's record on
Pat Arrowsmith showed her determination was not blunted when she adopted a policy of non-cooperation four hours in police custody.
with She refused to give her name,
after address or
questions.
now She also 'did an H Block'
beha- when she urinated in a police
cell and used charge-sheet as a substitute for of the toilet paper.
Because Pat is determined to critics of the exercise her democratic rights
and continue 10 during the election period she Election was too busy to appear in court declared: on 18 April, although she was
represented by a solicitor. region of the TUC, Ray is at pains to explain that it is far from being initiative: 'Our main concern is to get all the anti-racist and defence Against organisations working together Hackney during and after the election.
Tower *It would be a disgrace if
clear answer to the leading NF
West hate-merchants wasn't given in Conference, this area because
divisions anti-racist movement. *That is why we hope that al local ANL and nationally will come in behind this demonstration anniversary of unionisation strong Carnival
marched through these very streets.
The assemble 12 Shoreditch Park, Road. tube).
Socialist Unity circulating an open letter to the sitting Labour Mikardo, challenging him to a
Bow.
public debate on record on racism where he car say where he stands and what he has done about the racist immigration laws,
Union). laws, and the
harassment of black people in the East End.
SU's major election rally and festival will take place from 4pm onwards on April at NO DETE Brendar school, Vallance Road,
Speakers will candidates Tariq Ali and Ray Varnes, and provided by the Resisters and Charge.
during her
answer any
the police
campaign simply -an
By Walter McLellan Socialist Glasgow Queens Park IRELAND
of the
exist in the
than 500 the ANI leaflets for
on the
the 80,000
which the constituency.
demonstration i will
noon New North Hoxton (Old Street
is also Springburn.
Plan
Labour's
citizen in the city'
the "sus'
racist police
Sunday 29 Montefiore E1.
include
music will be
direction of Cardiff nick.
Unity candidate, •emocrab
has been at the centre of the Socialist Unity Pampaign in Glasgow Queens
So far we have put out more of
posters and 3,000 this Saturday's demonstration organised by the United Troops Out Movement and supported by Sinn Fein, the Loyalists. which is due to march through
But the Loyalist thugs who 'organise have pledged to stop it have now found more respectable at a ban'. allies in the shape of Councillo Ross McKay, Tory parliamen tary candidate for Glasgow
issue
Along with 20 other Tory councillors, McKay has called march. for the banning of the march, With describing it as 'an outrage and an insult to every law-abiding
British
As the UTOM have pointed
International Marxist Group PUBLIC MEETING
*For a Labour government, but fight for a socialist alternative Friday 27 April, 7.30pm Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London NW1
No, the sergeant is not organising the candidate's personal security, but trying to move her in the
threat to Irish march
out, this not only challenges the
right those opposed to Britain's presence in Ireland to demonstrate, but aids those who want to prevent the march physically.
McKay himself has warned
a counter-demonstration, and he should know. A member of the NF while at Glasgow University, he has retained his links with both the far right and
In a press release Glasgov UTOM has stated that it will
in the labour movement against any attempts
Socialist Unity is calling on its Labour opponent in Queens Park, government minister Frank McElhone, to
Joint •SECURCE its opposing any ban on the
80,000 Strathclyde youth unemployed, Glasgow is a happy hunting ground for the
Army recruiting sergeant. As part of its campaign
Photo. CHRIS CRECORY
SU has therefore leafleted schools and held meetings outside showing what the Army
- not the skiing and sun of the ads, but killing and being killed in Ireland.
The socialist youth paper Revolution is also organising school students to join the SU contingent on Saturday's march.
Queens Park is the image of what Labour's policies mean for working people, with its slums old and new, its poor services and high unemploy-
Socialist Unity has offered a platform to both civil servants and teachers currently fighting Labour's wage limits as part of
campaign to build an ongoing opposition to the continued attacks which can be expected from either a Tory or a Labour government.
EVENTS
Communis Contre Rusto
ILL: SU benefit bop. Fri 27 A
lite lion Hotel lomhard st
disco, Walthan Norfolk St. Late bar. All welcome.
Page 7 scan of this page
'tapping Mason on his shoulder'
IRELAND
All
of Ireland in Labour's election manifesto.
years.
burial grant to a more realistic level'. By Geoff Bell
Apart from that pledge of
future for
relatives of victims
Britain's presence in the North
of Ireland, the manifestos of
all the major parties do no
more than offer an replay of the consensus
repression which has
played out for the last ten years.
*There is an
ssential role for the army ir
protecting the people
Northern Ireland'
For the Tories, the courage,
Security Forces' will be given
'the highest priority"
As for the Liberals, "there must be no capitulation to violence' and they
mean the violence of
British Army.
The violence of that army is
denounced in the manifesto of the Communist Party. WHILE the parliamentary
candidate for Barnsley speaking at a public meeting in North Islington's Archway
Thursday. gentlemen were seen in the pub's carpark noting down the numbers.
As the candidate in question was Brendan Gallagher, what the gentlemen were up to does not need spelling out.
Gallagher has been arrested
though never charged 183 times in the last couple of years as he has travelled to and from Ireland campaigning on behalf of the political prisoners and on the need to get British troops out of his count.).
Add to that his personal involvement in H Block - his
Jim Masters
A MEMORIAL meeting memory of Jim Masters, who died last December, will held on Friday 20 April at 7.30pm.
Jim was an active revolutionary for all his adult life. Starting political work in the Communist Party, he later SUCHE years Socialist Labour League and then Workers Socialist
together
THERE IS a real goodie for the people of the North
It has not yet attracted the attention it deserves, but if it is implemented a couple of thousand people in the North of Ireland will be better off in the next few
For tucked away rather modestly on page 15 of the manifesto is Labour's promise that it will 'raise the
condemn the terrorist acts of the British Army of is the sentence.
A further five-word condemnation is given to Loyalist action paramilitary groups'. But the -ОП body the been condemnation, 23 words in all, is reserved for the target of the other manifestos: "We also condemn bombing campaign of Provisional IRA. and injures innocent and plays into the hands of reaction.
The logic of this argument is simple. If the IRA 'plays into the hand of reaction, then doesn't this don't words of the Tory manifesto, the that the North future still depends on the defeat of terrorism and the restoranon or law and oract! wye Or put it another way. It, in
Brendan Gallagher-
son Willie is a blanket prisoner was - and it is easy to understand why Gallagher IS against Roy Mason and why he TWO is determined to make Ireland
ISSUe the election.
Brendan summed up his attitude at his opening press conference in Barnsley on 10 April. I know this is a single issue campaign', he said, "but It Is on the single important issue facing British people. *Their rulers have shamed and endangered their freedom nOW LUCY Call freedom and justice.'
The feeling words is evident Brendan speaks in public.
Memorial meeting for
in About two years became an independent milibe tant. This wasn't a retreat into passivity. He openly supported the non-sectarian project of Socialist Challenge in a letter in the early issues.
But his main priority was always support for the struggle the of the Irish people. In practice this meant working with the Prisoners Aid defending the Irish prisoners
and its
12-word the words of the Communist
Party's manifesto, should ensure a solution in Northern Ireland', then surely it collective Labour's promise that direct
rule remains the only viable alternative. Any change can be made only with the consent of the people Ireland. We will work to make
orne which kills more
people democratic
Or the Tories' promise that *we shall maintain the union of Great Ireland in accordance with the wish of the majority in the Province.
The key word is democof Ireland's racy", the key concept is "demo-
crane nguts ance is that it will accept the recommendations of the Bennett Committee, and we will He does not plead his case, he tends to shout it angrily. He standing does not ask for help in driving
Brtain out of ireland. demands it.
general subtlety about Brendan
lagher.
The climax of the Barnsley election is scheduled for 30 April, when a public meeting is planned at which Shrewsbury
Pon Arden, and playmant
3HOS Arden, the Paul Foot are expected to speak.
Brendan spoken in over vote for constituencies
fore the election is behind those chiefly those in which Socialist whenever Univ is standing
He is calling for a vote for ago, he of war.
Sadly, despite
contributions he was making to the movement, he unable to overcome what used to call the "frenzy within", and in December last year he finished his own life.
Friends and comrades of Jim are gathering this Friday, Conway Hall to honour Committee
memory.
"A better life for all' — CP's ill-fated substitute for troop withdrawal.
Britain democratic ill-treatment impossible'.
can endorse which Britain
Northern
accountable and
Britain and. Northern
of Ireland for years. is already "ill-treat'
Labour's assur- already
innocent people, Megal to shoot currently
There is no Brendan.
Galbeaten out of them.
and journalist
Mason and will also have parliament. When the
dozen truth is revealed,
nationally be-
OVCI sense
caust?
If that
said when
prophesied tha
foundations' all the
was called Strabane,
unemployment town in the EEC
This
TRADES
TABETERTI
see that they are carried out as quickly as possible to make
by
The same hope of making Ireland. "impossible' the nasty things
has done in Ireland for the last 800 years is contained in the Communist Party's solution of a Bill of Rights to ensure 'full democra- member tic rights and civil liberties'.
That the Communist Party still comes up with the Bill of Bill of Rights' Rights solution suggests that it has the same bland disregard Party, as the major parties for what right of the has been going on in the North
THe SE ten
illegal prisoners, is illegal shoot It is even Republicans unless there is a life at stake. barracks Socialist Unity and for Pat Arrowsmith, who is taking on Callaghan in Cardiff and is
on tour with
But whether in Barnsley or elsewhere, Gallagher's message is the same. He explains how prisoners are ill-treated"
Long Kesh, and how they only ended up there because of no-jury courts and convictions
"This', says Brendan, 'is the Masoh juanice approved by
British whole won't the British people feel the same
shame that the Germans have shown following the screening of Holo-
sounds rather extreme, it is worth bearing in mind what Dr Robert Irwin
The first revealed aspects of the police torture in the North of Ireland. Irwin
TERE whole truth is known it will shake British society to its
Gallagher is not as respectable a figure as Irwin. He is only a lorry driver from a place
which just happens to have the highest
rate of any
Still, whatever happens in the election, the suspicion is that Mason will breathe a hefty sigh of relief when it is all over.
But all these 'illegalities' are committed day in and day out
the British in Northern
Just what do the authors of the Bill of Rights solution imagine would happen? Per haps as a prisoner's eardrums
about of the burst, RUC will OLIC
La warning. "Hey we can't do that, it's against the
To be fair to the Communist
it does recognise the ot the people of Ireland to rule their own country. But it does not say just when it intends to recognise that right in practice.
There is of course the tired old formula of the withdrawal of British troops to barracks. says But the British Army was in its
the Norti of
For on 8 April, Mason was seen to turn a paler shade of white when into a pub where he was drinking came Brendan and a couple of campaign workers. Mason was the one to drink up and leave.
COUNCIL
Ireland from the end of the Second World War until 1969 when one order from James Callaghan sent them onto the streets again.
A final comparison between the manifestos can be made The couple of hundred words
Communis Party's coverage of Ireland, and its eight paragraphs under the heading "Defend and extend democracy', do not include the words Prevention of Terrorism Act
Nor do the words 'H Block' appear in its section on the North of Ireland.
The Communist Party shares that omission with the Liberals, Labour and Tories. There are times when silence
more than a dozen manifestos can.
Yet even after the election, insists Gallagher, he will be "tapping Mason on his shoulder. Anyone who has ever met Brendan would say that 'tapping' is somewhat of
Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979 page
Page 8 scan of this page
IMMIGRATION - THE PROBLEM IS RACISM I was very scared. wept. "Why are you hitting me?'" detained as an 'illegal' immigrant
By Geoffrey Sheridan
FOR much Britain's population, the immigration laws that the Labour leaders want to maintain and the Tories HaVe toughen mean the permanent fear of a midnight visit from the police, followed by detention without trial or the right of appeal, and then deportation if the authorities consider that the person is an 'illegal' immigrant
Since the Immigration became law, over 5,000 people have been held for deportation. One of those is 17-year-old Abdul Azad, arrested at WOrK In October on the dav his mother was murdered. The police claim that blood tests show he is not the son of his Dal CHILs
This is Abdul's story. It is just one of the thousands cole be although this one has a difference. The campaign to defend Abdul has so far prevented his deportation.
On 4 October, a Wednesday, I
1.20pm cousin. I went off to work in the van. At about 9.30pm the foreman called me and said, 'Go downstairs". I went. There were two policemen waiting. said, What happened?' 'Your mum is dead', and they took me to the police station, saying they had to ask me some questions.
I was crying till about midnight. I couldn't believe it. I saw my mum that very morning. She asked me to go a bit late because my browner was cryng.
The police started questioning me on the Thursday morning visit our house, ete. They swore at me called me "black bastard' and said I had smashed the window of the cell. They kept me all day in the cell. Once they came in to take my photograph and
Fingerprints. I asked,
They had given me nothing to eat all day. They searched me again and again.
They let me go on Thursday night but they came back on Friday morning at 9.45am and said "Come with us for a while'. And then they questioning me, all about my sister's address, ete. answered them. said I was a liar: Black bastard, you're
Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979 page 8
telling lies!"
black
promised
LO
allowed to see anyone.
Act throw them outside.
who was Oldham last confused.
what went normal that morning.
From the told, SRIRIPE saying
remember when, they
would hit me more.
myself and my US AIES
me sign the paper.
noticed that and said,
They said, which people
months without trial.
was on 19 March.
Will you let me police station.
haven't seen
body even for once.
go through all these unjust pains, instead of trying to get SANCE
They
I asked the police
They pulled my hair, pushed around, and then threw me in the cell. I said, 'I want to go home". They didn't let me. They didn't let me eat anything on Friday either .They wanted to see my little brother and said I won't be
On the Saturday night, for the first time, they brought me some chips.1 had no water or tea to drink. hev fore my hair...handfuls of hair. They had to
I was very scared. I wept. I asked them, "Why are you hitting me?'. They made no answer...just kept hitting me.
My head was swimming. felt sick and my stomach hurt with pain. I could not make out
wrong...everything WaLS
Friday onwards, they i ney are not your parents'. Saturday or Sunday, I can't
made me sign a paper. They said if I didn't sign, they
At about one o'clock in the night, three of then came. One looked like a boss. He said, 'Kill him!'.... was hit so much I felt sick. Then they took me
They hit me again and made search
It was probably Sunday or Monday. I was swaying. One of the police bosses that a
•What's wrong with you?' I said, I've had nothing to eat. He got me some chips and peas.
That's how it went till 14 October, the tenth day, when they let me see my father, for the first time, for ten ol fifteen minutes. The next day they took
old house to question me.
They hit me and then took me first to Manchester Airport and then to Risley. That's where I was held for months and
temporarily relegser from Risley three times, the last time
Now I have to report at the local against
musinces died. They didn't let me see her dead
I can't understand why they made me
Abdul Azad was due to be deported on 16 March, but mobilisation by the Bengali community in Oldham, othe Asians, and anti-racists put a stop to that. An 80-strong picket Remand centre in Cheshire on March secured Abdul's release from the centre the following day, but that like the lifting of the deportation order itself - is only temporary.
When 300 marched through Oldham on 24 March, led by Abdul and his father, the chant was: 'Here to stay. here to fight. Hands off Abdul Azad!
The march did more than call for the withdrawal of the deportation order — it demanded the scrapping of immigration laws. Labour's candidate in Oldham, Michael Meacher, has not gone along with that. the Abdul's case - provided his parentage
proven. Otherwise, considers, he should be treated like any other 'illegal' immigrant.
Meacher, Tribunite, no condemns the violence that Azad received at the hands of the police. He may not approve of the house-to-house throughout the Bengali community in the Oldham area by the police in their
not for the murderer of Abdul's mother - but for 'illegal' immigrants. He may not be too happy
search was made of all the Bengalis' employment records.
Unfortunately, the Tories will have
difficulty in justifying activities in the hallowed name of the Immigration Acts. After all, how else could these laws be implemented?
*Firm immigration control for the future is essential if we are to achieve good community relations, the Tory manifesto declares. It is not racism that is to be confronted, but the rights of black people with a severity that is heralded by Labour's own policies, although not quite matched by them.
The Tories regar migrams
immigrants overstayers'. While they compulsory repatriation -advocated by the National Front they will 'help those immigrants who genuinely wish to leave this country'.
By 'immigrants' Tories referring to black people who have made Britain their home, quite apart from those who were born here. And we can be certain that racists and the police would be more than willing to
- Abdul Azad, 17,
help them make up their minds to leave. 1s a first ire on ly will have a word to say about the real
reasons why blacks come to Britain; that Britain's ensuree mate countries are still tied to the capitalist West, making poverty the norm.
areas where a Thatcher government will make Labour's policies that much more tough and oppressive: by introducing a register of all those settlement; ending the 'concession' of
the allowing husbands and male fiancés to
come Britain; restricting' the issue of work permits. supports
but it is along the same path. Work Meacher permits are a good example. A year ago
these were ended for unskilled migrants in hotels and catering, as a result of doubt TUC pressure. The Abdul should ask the Garners
workers who have been on strike for 16 months what they think about this 3N 20C measure.
Instead of policies to unemployment, low pay, and the need for unionisation, the labour leaders scapegoat people responsibility for the crisis economic interests of just one small section of society: the bosses. these
immigration laws. remain on the statute books, people and not the identified as a 'problem'.
Manchester is showing how the issue of the immigration laws can be taken up during the election conjunction with the Abdul Defence Committee, meetings in Tameside, Oldham, and Ardwick to demand the scrapping of
and the Immigration Acts. reject the policy
Sunday, 29 April, at which the speakers will be Colin Barnett, secretary of the North-west TUC; Mr Khan, president of the Oldham Bangladeshis; representatives from Bradford Asian Youth and the ANL
Andrews Hall, Winterbottom Street off Middleton Road, Oldham.
step to compulsory
None of the main political parties
pranace or as colonies economies of these
The Tory manifesto identifies other
entitled to
and "severely
The Tories go further than Labour, London
labour leaders restaurant London
confront
who have no ol ar system tailored to the
It is not a question of liberalising the
So long as they black Unity. system will be
The Anti Nazi League in Greater
campaign.
Azad is holding
A rally will be held in Oldham on
council
and
April.
The rally begins at 4.30pm at St
Confronting the Front FRONT leaders Martin Webster John Tyndall, who are standing in
constituencies. will receiving a welcome they don't when they plan to speak at pi meetings in London over the next days. This is the line up.
Wandsworth, 18 April, ANL S
mobilisation. Asser 5.30pm opposite Battersea Town I Lavender Hill, SW11.
Islington, 20 April, ANL N London mobilisation. 6.30pm ou Islington Town Hall, Upper Street Thirty of Islington's Labour c cillors are signing a petition deman that the NF is not allowed to hol meeting in the town hall.
Southall, 22 April. Demonstra against the NF meeting the follo day, backed by a large number of A organisations, the ANL and Soc
It begins at 1pm, at the Domi cinema car park, The Green, Sout On 23 April, a general strike in the has been called to begin at 1pm, mass sit-down to start at 5pm ou Southall Town Hall, in the Broad
Coventry Carnival By Will Reese
PLANS to hold an anti-racict cart in Coventry last year had to cancelled when the Tory-contr
refused to grant a ce venue. But with support from Labour group on the council, we support for a carnival this year o
The trades council has agree
Page 9 scan of this page
cialist
allenge
DALL
CRATION
NIPA.S-
O BI
NTI-F
MONS
combine its May Day activities with the carnival, and with the general election it will have added HOranCe.
Support for the carnival has come from many groups, union branches, immigrant organisations, and local campaign
playing at the event.
The Representation of the People Act poses a problem, however. AntiNational Front propaganda has to be put down on a candidates election expenses and the Labour Party has refused to do this contesting two marginal seats.
The Coventry anti-racist, anti-fascist committee is therefore considering standing its own nominal candidate in a safe abour seat. Part of the aim of this
Telegraph gives
making carnival.
In addition to opposing the NF, the test for the carnival will be whether we Portland Place, can use it to campaigns on such issues as the racist policies on housing, employment and in the unions, and Yorkshire opposing the immigration laws.
issues.
*The Coventry carnival on Saturday, 28 April, begins with a procession at the carnival on Hearsall Common at 2pm. should contact the carnival committee, c/o 26 Queens Road, Coventry.
NU BHNS ON
ANTI-FASCIST
DEMONSTRATIOYS
Socialist
Challenge
END ALL
IMMICRATION
CONTROLS
NO BANS ON
ANTI-FASCIST
DEMONSTRATIONS
Tell the truth political about the NF
including trade about the racism." demands of SUBC Local and national bands will be Campaign Against groups. organisca Dy unc
Media.
National Front and its because it is
is to expose the undemocratic media minute party political broadcasts that Evering Telegraph BiEs Corical one Fit has been allocated on radio
uncritical on 25 April and on TV the following coverage to the National Front, while day. Local ANLs are holding pickets of allowing no space to anti-racists and broadcasting stations in the following
no mention at all of the cities at 6pm on Thursday, 26 April:
build strong local BBC Pebble Mill
education, Scottish TV
The * Norwich, Anglia TV * Cardiff, BBC carnival committee has agreed to call a * Newcastle, BBC, New Bridge Street, local conference in June to discuss these * Bristol, BBC TV * Southampton,
BBC.
noon from Canterbury Street leading to holding a meeting
uncritical coverage Organisations wanting a stall Hampstead Town Hall,
April.
nere
Britain, Labour 'NO uncritical coverage. Tell the truth
Those are the jointly ANL and the Racism in the present
Part of the target is the free adverts for racists that much of the media will give by their straight' reporting of the
candidates.
Anti-racist and anti-fascist groups are urged to hold discussions with local media workers about their election coverage, and to hold pickets where such discussions prove unproductive.
Also lined up for attack are the five
London, BBC Broadcasting House.
W1 • Birmingham, Manchester, Granada TV, Quay Street * Glasgow,
BBC * Leeds, Kirkstall Road
West London ANL and CARM are
to discuss no of the NF, Haverstock Hill, London NW6, at 7.30pm on 25
Party,
By Ahmed Yussef
WOULD YOU rather be hit on the
with hammer strangled to death? For black people in
the choice between Labour and the Tories looks like that option. Whichever of these parties has been in power, the black experience has been the same.
The midnight knock and being taken to a detention centre as an immigrant'. Watching our youth being subjected to continual police harassment on the streets. and labelled as 'muggers" and 'criminals.
Doing the thankless, monotonous. dirty jobs which they could not fill with white workers.
While the politicians prattle about "immigration' and 'race relations', we say the issue is racism. The question is how to make racism an issue in the elections. How do we, as black people, project our struggle and our demands on to the stage c. national electoral polities?
Traditionally, the large majority of the black communities have placed their trust in Labour. After all, it was
which backed ndependence in the period followin
Second World War But more importantly, because Labour has always claimed to be the socialist politics, and black people know that our struggle for liberation cannot be divorced from the prospects for socialist advance for the working class as a wnole
There are other reasons. Throughout the 60s and early '70s, presented a coherent set of reformist policies designed to tackle discrimination, from Relations Acts to the setting up of the community relations councils and the
Commission for Equality.
Coupled with policies on renewal and multi-cultural education, and an effort to co-opt some local black leaders into the hierarchy of the Labour Party and the race relations industry', that
present this as an anti-racist record,
different balance sheet and coming to different political conclusions.
We remember Labour's inability to
SUFESS Malawi Asians story' directly to the death of our brother Gurdip Singh Chaggar in Southall. We remember Labour's defence of
Lewisham and Ladywood,
We know the Virk brothers were convicted for the 'crime' of defending themselves against racist attack
We know Abdul Azad and the other brothers and sisters who languish in detention centres, and of the so-called virginity tests which have been carried out on black women. This adds up to a
painted by the Labour government and its apologists.
No faith can be placed anu-racist pretensions of me abou leaders. The left wing of the Labour
sadly, has proved no capable than Callaghan or Rees of
Black people will
support Labours
but not as passive
footsoldiers
defending the people. themselves in chauvinist calls import controls, we get not a whimper
SLOWIN
an organised Callaghan's racist policies.
In 1976, the conference passed an extremely fine resolution which called for the repeal the building labour movement support for
"illegal black self-defence. A fine resolution it
has remained, public view by Transport House like an insane relative There are those who say we have to vote Labour because the Tories will be so much worse. But no government in post-war Britain has done more to fuel the racist inferno than the Labour government.
Of course, black people cannot turn to the Tories, the party of big business, or to the Liberals, irrelevant business. Should we then say a plague on all their houses?
Such a reaction on our part be understandable, but in the las analysis of no use to the struggle for black liberation. As black people we colonial have a fundamental stake in the fight
for a genuine socialist which takes as its starting point the interests of the party of oppressed.
How to build
alternative — that is the key question in these elections. conditions for building an alternative are created by the fight of the workers movement against its own reformist
Labour leaders, we stand for the return of a
racial
Kace
Racial
urban
Labour's
in the
WHOLE
interests of black While they regularly surpass
for
opposition to
Labour Party
Acts and for
locked away from
the party of
would black elections.
alternative,
exploited and tion.
such a socialist
forces in
Because the best
confident of that.
The way in which we fight for the return of a Labour government and
alternative is ine opposite of what the Labour leaders
people will no content to act as passive footsoldier! and vote for a Labour Party which is bottom. Instead we take our
hopeful must be confronted by black people with the question: "Are you for
Will they pledge themselves to scrap
youth? Will they unconditionally free every other prisoner of race? Will they
Photo: ANDREW WIARD (Report)
evidence of its own racism is one way in which we can take the fight for
freedom forward the At the same time we can support and join those campaigns the campaigns of Socialist Unity and
candidates which have a record of clear and principled support for black libera-
These campaigns represent the small
Britain today are prepared to use the elections as a platform from which to fight for a socialist alternative small at the moment, but they will grow. We are
Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979 page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
HELP BUILD THE LEFT IN THE UNIONS. SEND US A CHEQUE TODAY
LEFT
ip per word. Display E2 per column
nch. Deadline: 3pm Saturday before
poblication. Payment in advance.
STOP THE NF! The Nazis are plannin
London on Friday 20 Apri with Johr
WILl VOTE
slington ANL
Miss day
April, 10.30am at
Struggle
• 55 Mount Pleasant, London
Jss, May
CHUIQUE
NAC Dublic meetina - Menstruz Regulation and Abortion Facilities, 27 ADri. CGA. custon Ho. 6.450m.
renstrual regulation nas just Dee
we need more abortic cinics tor nis service. we neccalaw to make abortion facilities available on
If the Tories get in can we
et any of these
NAC, co-editor Bodies, Ourselves: 2 EGA campaign
Loyal worner on doonton
acilities law.
'ICNIC against SPUC, Sat 28 April, 1
pon seakers corner. SPUCis navi a mass rally for Day of the Unborn Child. we i weicome inem celeoratini Day of the Wanted Child. Bring food Play It's a NAC OUT aval dole HANDS Off Ireland No 7 now out! Articles on H-Block, Ulsterisation anc
oyalist Terror, Ireland and Racisn
TA and reports on marches, street Bennett Repon Arrest undar th meetninos and oiner activities Aisc
lencin Publications 1d 5. Chi. 4 RaitoR, London SE24 OLN.
WEST London UTOM presents Sense of Loss - full length feature Tim on ireland. Fri Fri Aoril. Aoril.7.30mm caling Technica College si Mar Rd, W5. Tube: South Ealing Bus: 65
Adm: 000)
101 SOM
pasta
Half Moon Theatre 480 6465
Belt and Braces present
Accidental Death of an ANTOINE by Dario Fo Mon - Sat 8pm Plus Sunday 22 and 29 at
7.30pm dramatised readings
of The Scream by Billy
Colvill.
RACIAL Oppression: How to fight it
oppression Is society. sot a clas against racist attack controls. New pamphlet from Revolutionary Communist Tendenc
påp to BM RC Londor (Cheques etc payable to RCT Association).
SOCIALIST Feminist National Conference 79 follow-up meeting
Fooled tare. For vare phone the plannie group ar 01-274 9829.
MAY DAY GREETINGS: would your
union branch SHoR stewards Socialist the secretary end me detais so that it can be raisec PBox50, London N24R
Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979 page 10
WHAT'S HOME NEWS
debate
pin-ups turned out to be.
totally intact.
By Pat Masters
The debate, held in London on 11 April, was organised by the trade union journals section of the NUJ, to carry forward the debate begun on the pages of Socialist Challenge Morning Star about existence of pin-ups on page three of the Yorkshire Miner
Scargill argued aggressively in favour of pin-ups, and if his arguments were entirely predictable and entirely wrong, it is nonetheless disturbing that a trade union leader who has expressed a sensitive standing of the problems racism should have absolutels no equivalent understanding of the problems of sexism.
Pin-ups are a fact of life, he said, part living.
In the same way that many working-class people vote Tory and make racist jokes, replied Anna Coote.
Scargill did not address himself to the points raised at the meeting but stuck doggedly
This prepared
Women's bodies are beauti ful, it's only the dungaree-clad School closures
By Ann Fiander SCHOOL STUDENTS from many inner London schools attempted to organise a march against school closures on 10 April attempted because the headteachers involved, ported by their teachers, want to elaborate lengths to prevent their pupils taking part.
Despite these efforts a large number of school students did attend.
At Paddington school it was the 2nd and 3rd forms who
threatened with punishment if they attended the protest.
In the words of one former who did attend march: It's easv to threaten Ist, 2nd and 3rd don't understand everyone disobeyed then the staff couldn't punish anyone.'
Despite oppressive teachers 40 students from Paddington
Miners' leader defends pg 3
Put-down
for pin-ups
at Scargill
debate between Arthur Scargill and Anna Coote on
A debate is usually an exchange of ideas, but Arthur Scargill came with a set of prejudices and judging from his closing remarks he left with them
prudes the movement who are trying to be men who object to pin-ups, he said.
Angela Phillips pointed out
has been at the forefront of the and the fight for sexuality and against the sexism our has led to feminist publications being banned in Ireland.
Scargill also implied that there was no involved as the working class "girls' wigw were queueing up to be on page three weren't paid His main argument, ever, was that pin-ups boosted unact- sales. of Daily Star and Mirror had it right, and their high circulation was their reward.
Similarly MEne Miner was more widely read modern-day than the national NUM paper, which Scargill put down to the pin-ups.
He even said the left press should learn the lesson and increase its making the popular, more accessible and speech more attractive pin-ups on page three.
Probably the most disgust-
school did get to Hyde Park.
They were joined by pupils Thomas croft, Sarah Siddons, Lavender Hill, High SCHOOS The school students involved are determined organising against closures serg up acton committees sup- and telephone trees between the schools.
Social workers
By Trina Shane VALGO
SOCIAL 6th Hamlets have now been on the strike for eight months.
years, they The Labour council in Tower Hamlets have so far refused to that negotiate
Their only response has been to propose massive cuts in jobs;
women' s "prudishness'
exploitation
pin-ups in our paper. how-
He felt that the Sun,
the women at the treating Yorkshire He thought preoccupation
been heckled circulation by meeting position on pin-ups. Dy papers more
through begun GUESTIONS women's movement.
Carleton, Ban-
Buckhurst Hill County and Robert Montefiore
Hamlets to go on espouse. school - their plans include Hamlets
their council: *Stop these cuts *Improve provision *Save our services
Hospital Campaign,
docks. workers in Tower
cuts.
Rally 2pm the national
Hall.
ing thing was the way in which Scargill effectively refused to enter into a real debate will
meeting, cattle-market'. them with utter
that this with with pin-ups' was a diversion from the real struggle of the working class - working class. he was outraged that he had
at an ANL DrOLESES at his
the pages
Some trade unionists have
Miner itself. understand the raised by the to try to scrap the community work team; and to downgrade all the posts in social services.
No workers could or would accept their proposals. They go against all the trade union and socialist principles that Tower
council claims to THE
On Friday 20 April, Tower
likely workers will controversial march through the streets to tell
social service to provide
Speakers will include representatives from Bethnal Green
Robert established Montefiore school, and the
press'
There will also be speeches winter. from trade unionists who have consistently fought against pay The restraint and public spending
La St Mary's shows Churchyard junction Whitechapel Rd/Brick Lane], march 2.30pm to Bethnal Green Town
WE thought Arthur Scargill should come to the top of our queue of working-class 'boys' waiting to be
The Scottish NUM decided against pin-ups on the grounds that they did not dwell in a
Scargill doesn't accept that pin-ups have anything to do
"cattle-markets' or that they contribute to the sexism which divides and weakens the
He must be taken up on this question at every opportunity. Socialists should insist that a debate on pin-ups is opened on
of the Yorkshire
Scargill will happily come to London to 'debate' the issue at Journalists in conference
National Union of Journalists' continued membership of the Press Council is
be the most issue to be debated at the union's annual
for conference on 23-27 April.
The Press Council is meant
public with redress against the newspaper barons. It does no such thing. the It's actual terms of reference are to 'uphold and defend the
freedom of the - which is about as established as sunshine in
councils last annua report, for 1976 (efficiency is
soose that body viti
that complaints just 34 were upheld.
Recent adjudications include criticisms of the NUJ's journal
the invitatior of the NUJ, but will he debate it in Barnsley with an audience of miners and their families?
The divisiveness of sexism within the working class has to be challenged.
We should get Scargill and other trade union leaders to come out in the open and debate their views, so that we can expose the contradiction: between supporting women's rights and equal pay at work while refusing to fight the sexist ideas and attitudes that underpin them.
for illastrating with a swastika a report about the unsuccessful attempts of a member of the National Party to join the union, the upholding of s complaint against the radical West Highland Free Press about which the council notified the newspaper's main financial sponsor.
The NUJ conference will be debating a motion which calls
the union's immediate disaffiliation from the council; for the executive to make proposals for alternative body, and wide publicity fo
union's own code of conduct.
The right wing in the union will argue for the retention of a reformed Press Council. If this position is to be defeated, it will
spelling out the class interests involved.
It is one section of societythe working class - which takes the brunt of the capitalis presses attacks, and if these attacks are to be effectively challenged, a press council will have to be set up by the labour movement
Page 11 scan of this page
Ee Hitting back at the caners
Picture from the latest Intercontinental Press which has a major feature on nuclear power. 30p plus 10p from PO Box 50,
INTERNATIONALISM — VITAL INGREDIENT FOR SOCIALISTS. GIVE GENEROUSLY
OPEN FORUM
By Tom Scott Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment
MOST people, including many
nave been into believing that caning is dying out in our schools.
The NUT, led Jarvis, and the NAS/UWT, led by Terry Casey,
fostered the myth that beating
is used only as a 'last resort'.
The truth is very different. 80 per cent of schools still cane
Many
excessively, often for trivial
"lateness', and even
the wrong colour shirt'.
belting in Scotland,
always inflicted in front
audiences of other children,
should not blind us to the
amount of beating in southern
schools as well.
survey of some inner
London schools in 1976-77
revealed for example
Bacons Church of England
Comprehensive canes girls as
well as boys at the rate of one
caning CYCE two
the myth
and
the reality
the myths about nuclear power.
of a major review of energy policy.
By Tony Webb Socialist Environment Resources Association
WHAT are the myths about nuclear power?
Firstly WC are told that energy is, or will be, in very short supply - 2101 210 925 will run out by the end of the century, and that energy demand is rising all the time.
So the conclusion we have to draw from this is that we will need more energy in the future, and this demand can only be met by a large nuclear power programme.
This, of course, is all right, we are told, as nuclear power is cheap, safe, and creates jobs
either directly through building and running plants or indirectly by ensuring the energy for growth.
These arguments are raised with a single voice by those who will make the profits and by trade union leaders. But what is the truth?
We have one of the most Wasterl energy systems Europe. Wasteful because of competition between different
and because of the technology used to supply industry and homes with the energy they need.
As for rising demand -recent surveys show that we
Fred
have nearly throughout the school year,
of chalking up an annual total of 689 canings in a school of 1,000 pupils!
Most local authorities mit children as young as 5 to be beaten, and physically mentally handicapped young-
that sters can also be caned in most
The use of euphemisms such as "corporal punishment' and hours "smacking' should not distract
Nuclear power:
WHILE the anti-nuclear movement prepares to do battle with the bulldozers at Torness on 6 May, the trade union movement is just beginning to question
On 25 April the Scottish TUC will debate the idea
will need no more energy in the
and year 2020 than we do now and
have improved living standards with a six-fold growth in the economy.
Nuclear power is not cheap it's more expensive than coal.
It's debatable whether can ever be made safe — and if it isn't safe then it will be a lot TOIC CAOCHSIYC And finally, far creating jobs, BEne programme will entail a net loss of jobs and a weakening of working class organisation in those that remain.
Safety and COST
separate things.
the are fixed with an eye on the
cost and the political acceptability of the risk that remains. The full effects of exposure to radiation will not show up for 40-50 years experts can't agree on what are "safe' levels.
Trade union leaders get up at conferences and say there are no problems while their own unions are pressing claims on behalf of widows of their members.
The Scottish Board's accounts show nuclear power is more costy than electricity generated from the usual oil or coal, especially when the cost of decommis-
us from the assaults which place.
Recent cases
per- Kettering boy
bone broken in his hand by a
and cane; a London boy who was
caned on the bleeding point; a Kent boy whose finger was permanently twisted by a Gosport boy overdose after a caning.
London N1 2XP. sioning reactors after their 25 years of useful life is added. though through kidden sun cost sidies. For nuclear
mation she the services from
stations receive services the completely free of charge.
Then there are social and from political costs to be included. present There is a continuing infringe-
ment of trade with increased vetting, and aren't rounds the industry. SCCICCY 'Safe' levels
This connects again with the question of safety trade union guarantee safe conditions, or and the fight for them, while they are
Seed by the Official Secrets
One tutor on a TUC Health and Safety censured for going outside the syllabus when he revealed this fact.
The provisions of the Health Electricity and Safety Act
that workplaces
relevant information to satety reps -raised by the Windscale inquiry.
severe physical
often take
include
who had complain at all.
buttocks beatings
cane; and
took an schools. trade union rights down
example, the weapons programme safety factors.
of Defence Questions
Torness
nuclear power.
union rights,
security and
there is the
that sur- of this year older coal-fired have to be scrapped
- how can power
safety reps
the NUM is disguised in the
course was Board's plans.
built
engineering access to and disclosure of
need not - were the only demands
TUC at the
These cases may be only the tip of the iceberg because most parents and students are too frightened of victimisation to 7 of the
investigated.
Nor do punishment books reveal the number of unofficial How
such as cuTs, slaps, clouts with gym-shoes, rulers and T-squares - which are endemic in most caning
Michael Rutter and his
The fight for these and other mented.
must be
taken up within the movement
together with the demand for
the full facts on economic and purposes
advantages:
raised by the Nuclear Station power
Scotland typify many of the and for
contradictions of conversion to
There is a chronic excess
capacity in generating plant - development
rising to 90 per cent by the end
- meaning that plants wil mining
This will mean an enormous
loss of jobs in the traditional
industry including cent.
coal-mining, which will not be
anything like made up by the
new jobs in nuclear power.
The motive of undermining
only thinly motive.
Electricity
Ironically, if Torness is not
now there will
redundancies in the powe
industry, espe-
cially on the Tyne and Clyde.
OI
But this conflict of interest
have arisen if
alternative plans for a gradual
conversion to Combined Heat CHP is
and Power had been imple-
schools.
The
ment co-authors in their recent study of London secondary schools observed unofficial beatings in
they lition
much more violence would have taken place had observers not been present?
The cane and strap are evils 10: in themselves: they Gardens, symbols of te autoritartan.
NO M
choose.
Radiati
LiTe
NORE HARRISBURGS
This would have used waste
heat from power production
for industrial and domestic
This would have had various
• It would create a steady
programme for work in the
engineering industry foundries making
pipes and other trades laying
heat mains to buildings.
It would stimulate of new coal
burning technology (eg. fluid-
ised bed) and secure jobs in the and
industry with more
money for mining safety.
• It would raise
efficiency from 30 to 70 per
It would put the needs of the
community before the profit
When the shop stewards at
C and A Parsons in Newcastle
looked for a pilot scheme for
such a programme they found
the electricity boards hell bent
closing down suitable
power stations near to towns,
thus closing off this option.
only one ot
number of alternative tech-
repressive nature of most of our
The abolition of beating is an essential pre-condition for the growth of democracy in our educational system.
Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punish-
ISTOPP] the only organisation which devotes all its energies to campaigning for an end to schoor beaung
If you're not a teacher, you can join as an associate. you're a parent, STOPP can SUDDY YOU WILLOTHO which you can indicate to a headteacher your refusal to delegate your right of physical chastisement to a school
We've produced the Abo-
Handbook, price 90p. which will provide you with a multitude of arguments against the caners, and includes advice for action.
For a free list of publications and an application form, write
Lennox Croydon, Surrey, CRO 4HR.
Pe
"EVENTS,
nologies which could solve our
energy needs safely, at less cost
and involving the creation or
saving of many jobs.
The union bureaucracies
would like to stifle debate on
the issue. The miners' union is
under Torresspressure to lay off
Members of the civi
servants' union have however
resolution to the
Scottish TUC calling for
major review of energy policy
La halt to further
development of nuclear power
If this were implemented we
would be able to consider both
resources and requirements for
energy and employment.
The recent shop stewards
initiatives - like C and A
Parsons - point the way by
involving energy policy in the
defence of jobs.
We need to develop similar
demands wherever workers are
affected by energy policy
We must also demand a
fuller debate within the trade
union and labour movement at
all levels and a campaign to
discredit the myths used to
justify the rapid development
of nuclear power.
Page 12 scan of this page
Fake elections can't save Smith regime ZIMBABWE - RACISTS
REACH INTO YOUR POCKET TO HELP MAKE ZIMBABWE AN ISSUE
INTERNA
brutal attack eve of the elections. By Richard Carver
THE joke now doing rounds in white circles is that a Rhodesian patriot is someone who can't get his or her money out of the country.
This is an indication of the depth demoralisation among settler population and some way towards explaining why elections are taking place this week — not as the gateway to majority rule, but as white racism's final backdoor trick.
Since the internal settle-
are having to
what it is they are defending.
So far under the
government there has
little change in any direction..
I was told that 54 per cent of
the whites in the armed forces
are 'new Rhodesians'
other words, mercenaries, who
cannot be guaranteed
loyal
government.
There have already been
incidents since the settlement
where Rhodesian conscript
soldiers have refused to put
their lives at risk. As a result,
large areas or we country are
simply being abandoned to the
guerillas.
Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979 page 12
NAL
THE Smith regime in Rhodesia has again launched a
on neighbouring Zambia. It is accidental that this comes at the same time as it is trying to convince the world of its good intentions by holding 'majority rule' elections. That was always the tactic: a combination of fraud and vicious repression.
On these two pages we look at Zimbabwe on the
Francis Рут, the Foreign Affairs spokesperson, the argued in a recent speech that: tere is to be an election, based on universal which. will lead establishment of majority government. Majorand ity under the acceptable to the Rhodesian goes people as a whole has been the
governments for fifteen years.'
That statement contains a number of downright lies.
British policy, for
Civilians find with at least two masters. ask woman travelling to a church meeting new permission of both the local been guerilla commander and the district commissioner.
AI civil level administration rocked by the financial scandal
involving the heads sanctions-busting black tion. It is alleged that, besides using illegal methods SELICIOTS. were using the same methods to enrich themselves.
By and large whites numbed by the turn of events.
The propaganda in the press, on television and on radio is as strident as ever, but business-
has never been concerned with not anything other than regularising relations with the Rhodesian regime.
Phrases like "majority rule' and 'universal meaningless in the context of the present elections. All black opposition is banned and has Deen twen Tory struggle. The election takes place under the CHECECIL since 1965 and suffrage, to the under martial law
black There is no
(rendering academic most of arrangements the discussion over whether or
not blacks and whites should be on a common roll which means that ballot-rigging will be simple.
Twenty-eight seats new parliament example, reserved for "Europeans', the
themselves men and civil servants who
have to plan for the future are planning for defeat hopeless kind of way. did not meet Rhodesian battle could be the CATECHE
COUNT of the booked. If it were not for organisa- legilation preventing it, many
whites to have left already. Despite the they COSBON was
illegal up to 60,000 whites will
the are months after December.
Scottish missionary James Wilkie, writing in the Times, 24 July 1978.
remaining Twenty
poll. -The
suffrage are
There are
into armed
state of which has existed
with some MInE second of the country
electoral roll
rolls.
of the
the will be
government commends it'. in a
one white believed the
Asian Front government won on the
three owards
ningi Sithole, fully Jeremiah Chirau.
Chirau and would BLOUSE
told that
African
three (ZANU),
Trump of followers.
72 for blacks. out of the 28 tribespeople elected by whites in a separate region.
other eight are reserved out of the common British roll'. In 16 out of 20 white Zimbabwe, seats lan Smith's Rhodesian African Front is standing unopposed. (ZAPU)
about 270,000 whites in Zimbabwe and 6.8 million blacks. That works out at roughly 'one African, one about vote; one white, seven votes.'
telling ratio can so-and-so is doubled to take into account such a tribe.' the fact that whites vote twice — once on each of the separate
since
The international supporters
"internal settlement, such as the Tories, claim that it would lead to the complete end Peter of white rule within ten years. Statesman This is a lie too, simply refuted from by the text of the settlement itself, which provides for an end to white rule after at least' ten years and then only if a
commission re-
The 'internal settlement' was signed on 3 March 1978 as ai agreement between the Rhode-
and black leaders, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Rev Ndaba-
and Chief
government no-one ever thought otherwise. Sithole is a former leader of the Zimbabwe
National Union who forfeited his position by his collaborationist terrible policies and was left with s
But Muzorewa was the white up the regime's great hope. They had no doubt that he could deliver
votes of in the Umtali
In a recent pamphlet on
media coverage the Zimbabwe People's Union comments: *They have the impudence to accuse us of tribalism when it is they who cannot write a single thing
Zimbabwe without their readers that from such-and-
In this regard the regime's racism was its own undoing
was incapable admitting that the population was swayed by politics. But that is what has happened.
Taylor -In the New recently reported Umtali that Muzorewa was shipping in busloads of supporters from Salisbury to
It was after learning about Cecil Rhodes, the leader of the settlers, that
Joseph understood for the first
time the real meaning of the
CURE
He discovered statements by
Rhodes which showed him to
be a racist: "1 believe in my
race... The non-civilised races
must disappear... every acre
added to our territory provides
for more of the English race."
This racism was the root and
justification of his desire to
conquer the whole of Africa.
He was also spurred on by his
Agreed for wealth. He
told the British Prime Minister:
...if we do not take and open
world which are at present
Grey's scouts — the mounted anti-guerilla patrol.
pack his meetings, while his
former adherents now talked
of the Patriotic Front guerillas
Taylor reports that mission-
aries tell stories that would be treasonable if overheard in
Salisbury' of popular
support for the guerillas and cooperation between guerillas and missionaries.
The level of commitment blacks feel towards the regime
can be gauged by the number of them in the armed forces Since the introduction of the black call-up last year only about 2-3,000 of the 30-40,000 immediately liable have appeared at the recruiting offices
British press reports hardly ever mention that in the bulk of the rural areas there is a dual power between guerillas and army. In the South-west
devoted to barbarism we shall shut out the world's trade.'
He openly admitted that he preferred "land to niggers', and speaking of David Livingstone,
missionary, *philanthropy is all very well in its way, but philanthrop and five per cent is much
Such was the nature of the man the whites looked up to. His statue was prominent in
country that bore his name and would continue to do so until the people could reclaim it as Zimbabwe
-FROM Black Fir Ac
Rhodesia, by Micheal Raeburn.
Page 13 scan of this page
Lands, when no govern the Tribal Trust ment men are around, Aricans are frank, less guarded
the Special Branch and bearer rewarded for trouble.
Here, the sentiments are the same: we support the guerillas because they are our children; they are the ones fighting for Zimbabwe their battle is our battle, the transitional govern ment has done nothing for us.
All this they say with terrorist guns at their heads as the government would have the rest of the world believe.
TV producer Peter Tay
t returned from a visit
Zimbabwe, writing in the New Statesman on 19 January 1979.
region around Bulawayo, for example, ZIPRA, the armed wing of ZAPU, must give its permission before even the bus runs. ZAPU strategy is based on the prospect of a relatively quick military victory and it has been responsible for the more spectacular armed tions.
In line with this it still keeps the bulk of its armed personnel across the border in Botswans
Zambia. ZANLA, 8П0 ZANU's army, has different perspective of longed civil war, has far more guerillas inside the country, and seeks to build liberated zones. These are no-go areas for the white army and are intended to provide the social and political reconstruction.
The brutal and ever-increasing air raids on Zimbabwean camps the neighbouring countries, especially Mozambique, are sign desperation the white regime feels at the fact that it is decisively losing the war.
Having won control of large sections of the countryside, the guerillas are now venturing into the suburbs of major cities like Bulawayo and Salisbury. Ine most sensagonar exampi was in December, when the Patriotic Front attacked and blew up the country's major oil storage depot in Salisbury.
The symbolism of the depot blazing for six days in the white settlers' capital city was humiliating enough. But the loss of 28 out of 35 storage tanks also meant the destruction of 15 per cent Rhodesia's oil.
Coinciding with the publication of the official British inquiry on the oil companies sanctions-busting and the halt
Iranian production, could hardly have come at a worse time for lan Smith.
white economy already in a shambles. the boom years immediately after UDI the Gross Domestic Product is now falling from year to year. Incredibly last year's budget actually military spending in real terms because the state was so much in debt.
The vital mining sector is in
decline. Houses empty because of emigration - there is no demand for the construction industry. And the country is no longer the tourist attraction it was Those who stayed used to refer to white emigration as the his "chicken run' - those
went were scared to face up to Now it is guenlas. 'owl run' - the wise thing to de.
It is not just the military threat which has this effect. For example, taxpayers been stung no compulsory three-year loan for
military spending National Defence Levy The 'internal guarantees the maintenance of the presentite enre ine white and populations hold roughly half and half, despite the massive disproportion in numbers.
The white farmers" opposition to the Anglo-American settlement plan rests largely on the fact that it is tailored to the needs agribusinesses such as Lonrho and Liebig. Under this plan there would be no handover of land to the black people but яс- the small settlers would be
squeezed out all the same.
The greater the Front's military advances the less likely is any compromise. So, the white farmer reasons, the the end is nigh. pro- The internal
election, then, is a desperate vote for the status quo, based
ON THE RUN
of
this
was After
cut
are standing
IN Michael Raeburn's Black Fire, the guerilla Kumbi is sentenced to addresses the judge:
'You are not a judge, you are a policeman paid by an illega who regime. You have the power to
your judgement, just as I do not *You may be happy to see me
directly die, but your joy will be short-
lived. people country are fed up with you and your people. They see you for what you are called the government, in other words, a
bunch of tyrants, and they are settlement" determined to get rid of you •We freedom fighters will see
to it that you go, dead or alive.
You are a fool to think the black
on the faint hope that with a respectable vote, an increase in repression, more South African military and economic aid, and a Tor multinational London, the Rhodesian Front
regime might just through.
That looks improbable, but the danger destruction which the state could cause in its death Patriotic throes. The recent escalation
of the war into Angola, which doesn't even Zimbabwe, may be a sign of worse to come. The gun law settlement wielded by the
of Sithole and Muzorewa is a symptom of the anarchy and
must
death and
people socialist revolution.
possible for us to lose. the revolution will me to SECVOLULIOLE a minority
continue in office.
decay in white Rhodesia.
government in
scrape rights of people. now ir the For all
racist
border the world.
once said: private armies liberators'.
days he was right.
ambabwe
be free.
regime will protect you. There UGANDA are over five million of us and only a handtul of you. You are outnumbered twenty to one.
*The guerillas are leading the
of this country in a THE We are fighting for a bettor way of life.
This is what our people want. It is therefore scientifically im- Uganda.
*Those who are opposed to
swept away by it. It is an honour for
die fighting for
*Thirteen Patriotic Front Sup- exposés porters have been sentenced to death since the 'internal settlement. Under both Smith's and the Anglo-American settlement plans the present judges would African
the
And worst of all a possible British military intervention on the pretext of putting an end to this chaos would bring further bloodshed and destruction, as first well as denying the democratic dictator,
the Zimbabwean Leyland trucks to these reasons victory for the liberation forces Uganda is urgent and assistance for them a pressing task for the household
movement around from
A black Zimbabwean leader Kampala,
'We are our own His name was Ndabaningi Sithole. In those
surely STIESBE
Uganda's
allies opposition. excluded
in 1971.
relief at the Idi Amin. combined defence
mination should Pat Collective, don SW4.
Embassy,
Conference University,
By Harold Wood
British press has predictably not drawn any of the obvious conclusions from eight years of dictatorship in
Secretly they are probably bemoaning the fact that Amin's overthrow means the end of a rich vein of racist No doubt there will be lots of
of Amin's investigations of who was responsible for Amin will be rather thinner on the ground. frican tries and at es
Rifles and School of Infantry in Wiltshire, his torture of Kenyan rebels in
1950s, and the role of British and Israeli intelligence in organising his 1971 coup will all be conveniently forgotten.
WINeMEERAE
British Tory government was
to recognise the new the sale of British Land Rovers and Amin's army, the massive British investments in
(ICI, Dunlop, and Barclay's Bank are among the
names involved), and the weekly whisky run
Stansted airport to which was only stopped when it became clear that Amin was going to fall.
The very manner of Amin's departure bore the marks of imperialism's responsibility for the state of African politics. I
an indictment of colonialism that its clients could only be removed by armed invasion
This holds great dangers for
future. The new conservative President, Yusef Lule, has announced elections two years from now - giving him time to use his Tanzanian
marginalise all Among those from the new government is Milton Obote, the premier whose radical talk led imperialism to back Amin
The oppressed masses the world over will heave a sigh of
disappearance of But that must be with the of the Ugandan people's right to self-deter-
Tanzanian troops withdraw to allow immediate free elections
No doubt Amin's successor will prove far less brutal - but he has yet to show that he will be more democratic.
IRAN WOMEN
THE Iranian Women's Solidarity Group, whose appeal we published last week, is still looking for both money and volunteers to help organise a women's movement delegation to Iran. Latest sponsors include
Rib Irene Brennan, Rose Knight and Toni Gorton.
The group's next meeting, which is open to all women who support its objectives, is at 5pm on Sunday 29 April, at South London Women's Centre, North Street, Clapham, Lon-
Future events include:
• 1 May, picket of Iranian
16 Princes Gate, London SW, from 5-7pm. The main slogan will be: British Women Support our Iranian Sisters in Struggle.
• 12 May, Iranian Women's
the City London. The
afternoon session will be in English. Demonstration, 2,pm, National
Trafalgar Square. March to Iranian Embassy.
COLUMBIA
THREE thousand Colombians have been imprisoned in the last three months under the Statute of Security.
While other Latin American regimes clamp down on the workers movement and leftwing opposition by destroying all vestiges of democracy, the new Colombian government of Turbay Ayala has maintained the facade of parliament and a two-party political system.
But this mechanism has been renacrea poweriess. runchons which once belonged in Congress - such as amendments to the penal code - have been taken OYCI by the execuave
Under the Statute of Security military judges assume the same power as civil tribunals. *Political al dineso such
demonstrations, can be prosecuted under common law.
The government has also implemented article 28 of the Constitution, which applies in a "state of war'. This means that anyone can be arrested on suspicion with no real right of defence.
Those found guilty by the military tribunals are imprisoned on the prison island of Gorgona. Friends and relatives whose names are discovered in prisoners' documents are often arrested, interrogated and tortured, only being released when they sign a statement saying they have been properly treated.
Prisoners are regularly movca trom prison to prison le avoid the application of the right of habeas corpus
The movement in opposition to this law is hampered by the fact that one of the statute's provisions allows for the sacking of workers for striking
Nevertheless an opposition has emerged, eith oppone among wide sectors population, helped by the emergence of a campaign of international solidarity, with organisations such as Amnesty International collecting signatures of protest at the arbitrary arrests and tortures.
CHILE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
presents
os PARRA de CHILE
Angel Parra Isabel Parre "For the right to live in our country'
• mav. mancnester. witn sullivan: Private Stock & Trevor Hyett, 7.30 Morris, MCCR, Eliot House, Jacksons Tickets £1.40 from rau Row, M2, Grass Roots Bookshop, N West Arts, 52 King St., Virgin Records, Market St
9 Mav. Leeos: with Hov ballev ar • Tickets Elso fred
University, 7.30. Leon Mosse sor Great Leed: The comer booksnoD. 162 Wood.
Cooper, 0532 782296 nouse cant Leeds - 45125: Barr
10 May, Edinburgh: with Scottis
baroque ensembl he Lough, 7.30 Usher Hall: shed Hall. Tick
420113 Seatle. 730, Loon Hall. Unvers London, © e29 Seven Sisters Road Tickets
from CSC 129 Seven London N7 (01 272 4298), Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979 page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
LETTERS
The ANL is learning
1 WRITE this letter in reply to the criticisms of the Anti Nazi League
(22 March) because the accusations made are serious and, unjustified.
Since the ANL was formed it has made many serious mistakes, from
the calling for state bans in Ilford to the NF mobilisation on the day of the second Carnival. organisation been learning, admittedly the hard way, and this was proved at Winchester.
At only short notice the ANI mobilised 1,200, from going to the prison (confining them to the empty town centre), and gave Relf a morale-boosting earful of
Let Relf rot.
The students from either stupid or ill-informed leaving the ANL. Cutting themselves off from the ANL and its activities simply doesn't help the anti-fascist/ anti-racist struggle it who also feel that the ANL should be more accountable.
The ANL has made a large impact, especially in the trade unions, and has changed the climate in favour of the anti-racists. Chances to convince trade unionists about the dangers of racism and fascism have never been better, and this is what the ANL is now putting its resources into.
Instead of anti-ANLism we need a positive attitude like that of Rich Palser if we aren't going to lose the best chance we have of turning the racist tide and beating the racists and their divisive ideas.
P.M. GRANT (Steering Committee, Rail Against the Nazis - in personal capacity
Take up the State
THE case of convicted racist Robert
Relf has raised a number of questions
regarding the Race Relations Act
1976 (Amended).
On the one hand defence and
strengthening of the Act
criticised for encouraging the illusion that such legislation can tackle the racism which has been encouraged through
Acts.
Yet at the same time it is absolutely necessary to defend the use of the Act against racists such as Relf. Catallliy Inas proved to be irritant to the fascists, since they have found it necessary to demonstrate against it.
We should therefore defend the Act whilst recognising at the same time that any gains made under it important areas of anti-racist woke, OTTOL substituted such as calling for the repeal. immigration controls, agitating for the No platform' position and black self-defence, etc.
THE DEADLINE for this column
Saturday berore
NORTH WEST WARRINGTON ester Socialist Challenge offices for regularly. Socialist Ring onanenge Man
UNCAICK MANCHES CH SOCIaIISI
students support une paper and wouie uke to del involved in anti-fascist activity, please contact Chris (273 5947, day) or Steve
anchester SC Centre, 14 Piccadilly.
be conta Manchester Centre c/o 14 Piccadilly, Manchester with a view to forming a Salford SC group. meeting: Return Laborate grou OLDHAM Socialist Challenge Thur 26 April, 8pm,
Co-op). Main speaker: (ArdWICK candidate). Other soBakers Trom Abdul Azad Defence committee Swr.
MOSS Mooner el the paper at Mosting SIDE
Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979
believe,
believe the
gradually
stopped the NF
To date the intervening on Winchester Leicester are
NF.
and those within at stake.
had pressurised
and the ANL intervention
balance anti-fascists presently face.
but developments
tially out of date.
Group members can be
Immigration
Most an
to respond to the
facing ANL
structure of the national ANL Socialist NORTH EAST
DUKHAM Dave ron, 2 Pioneerattage ac For derais tungton, wurnan MIDDLESKHOUGH ence sales. saturday lunchime nee ne lottery stand ar cieveland centr AIsO available LininorDe Moad
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SCOTLAND
contact Glasa Wed. Thurs, Sat afternoons. arrangement (221 7481). Wide range of Fourth International publications CLINDUNGN socials supporters uppe George at 031-346 0466 to meets
Uttails Dunbec intormaton abour socianst Challenge activities from 64 Queen St
page 14
FROM THE BARREL OF A GUN?!
ANL has avoided these Issues. At the ANL moonsanion was purely on the basis of opposing
some disenchantment that arose on 10 March was undoubtedly caused by a lack of understanding as to the issues
It was surely correct for the ANL leaders to refuse to charge the police lines in an effort to get at the fascists. But where we strongly disagree was that the day's events were described as a total "victory" for the anti-fascist forces simply because our numbers
the police into serving Public Orders against the NF
Although the NF were not allowed to demonstrate outside the prison, the real victory lay with the forces of the state and the police — as has been the case for some time now. If the ANL is going to talk of confronting the Nazis, it must consider the sort of
which the state making and look at ways of altering
forces which ANL.
We would argue that this means we
shut in tie to hidth Alitical
light political which render the ANL's founding statement substan-
LEAMINGTON Socialist Challenge
Problems on the ground
under
THE problems raised by the countermobilisation to the NF at Winchester on 10 March will not be solved just by holding an ANL conference. How to involve all those won to the ANL over the past year, how to combat growing fascist influence on the terraces, how
massive police defence of NF marches, how to carry out consistent anti-racist activity -these are amongst the real problems
groups which do not result just from the undemocratic
Challenge should pay police attention to these problems as well as the general question of political line.
Goats corner of Scam corner oaturody am zon HAMILTON supporters sell Socialist whalenge Hamilton shopping Cantre pm. For every
SUD- actans or local actvines contact vonn Ford. 553 Eliot Crescent. Hamilton.
MIDLANDS Socialist Chal-
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NOTTINGHAM readers Mushroom Books Heat cotesty socialist Guanenge
LEAMINGTON Socialist Contact 311772 group YORKSHIRE Queen HUDDERSFIELD Socialist Challenget for aiternative
Northumberland Street Challenge rOMA socianst chanenge is on are ine ror community
Thursdays Vanbrugh days (11.30-3.30) at Coney Street.
HAH! CAPITULATING AGAIN TO ELITIST MILITARISM!
PABLOITE!
It should be more actively concerned wit bullaing tne ANL MIKE TUCKER (Southampton ANL treasurer)
Need for anti-racist strategy
THE events at Winchester and other anti-fascist demonstrations over the past year have clearly brought into he AN faces, The main problem / problems which the ANL faces. facing anti-fascists today is the extent to which the state is prepared to go to let the Nazis organise and march.
There is a sizable and growing proportion within the ANL who feel that collaboration with the law has become the main concern of the ANL leadership. There Is also a stron feeling that the ANL leadership is
leliberately trying to tone down th
militancy of the anti-fascist move
in order appease so-called "liberal' elements in the
Again, the lack of organisation, cohesion, and coordination has been amply revealed by the events at the second Carnival, the NF Cenotaph march, and Winchester. tendency of the ANL leadership to play down clear failures like the Cenotaph march is deplorable.
There is also a feeling that the ANL is turning more and more into an appeasement' body rather than
undertive separated it
these circumstances -imperative that revolutionary left (SWP and IMG) reassesses its role within the ANL and develops an effective anti-fascist strategy.
What is also needed is an effective anti-racist strategy. The problem of institutionalised racism needs to be picked up. The extent to which the state goes to protect the Nazis should serve as an indication to those who believe that it is only the NF who count.
This means picking up things like immigration controls, "sus'
and judicial racism illustrated by the case of the Virk brothers), etc. Consequently an ANL
Bank, 12.30-2.00pm
in ine
SOUTH WEST
Series
Challenge every other Sunday
ISLE WIGHT 44 Union St, Ryde PORTSMOUTH Sommercial Road Precinct
Regent St (Brunet Centre). ookshop sellers York the south-west.
Bristol 6
OBSCURE REFERENGE TO THE RECENT DEMISE BRITISH POLITICIAN? conference is absolutely necessary to discuss strategy, pick up such issues. and coordinate general election.
UNMESH A. DESAI (LSE ANL and Central London SWP)
THE LENGTH of letters printed will usually be kept down to 400 words in order to encourage as wide a range of contributions as possible. All letters may be cut at the Editor's discretion.
Unsigned letters will not normally be published, although we will withhold real names from publication request. the Distined for 22.50 ea
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AWAKE POOK Idea of unity
THE letter from Leicester Poly CARF (22 March) argues that the ANL has not only failed to mobilise effective opposition to NF marches but has also served to obstruct those who seek to confront racists and not march off in the opposite direction
Why is it that the ANL marches off in the opposite direction'? The answer is to be found in their idea of unity
unity WITEn the oppressed, defending black workers in their struggles, but unity with supporters of a racist Labour government - Benn and Bidwell among others. MARY WILLIS (Manchester 12) de hungara 12 by Domitia Barre
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Page 15 scan of this page
Voices of the voteless
Mediawatch on the elections
final gig in its militant entertainment tour.
them.
Georgina, 12, from Dulwich, South London: It would be good to have meetings at school to discuss racism. If someone is offensive to a black person in the playground we go up and have an argument, but neither side really knows enough about racism to keep it up.
Meetings would give us more arguments to use. Most of the teachers are very right-wing, so
have anti-racist discussions in class.
Some kids think they support the NF but when you ask them why, they don't know. They suppose it's because their mum supports it.
Me and my mum and some of my friends if they're not busy go along to all the anti-Nazi things we know about. interests kids who
SOIS
JEUNE
TAIS
TOI By Roger Protz
THE opening sorties of the election campaign have put tax cuts at the centre of the battle. The message from newspapers and television is clear: tax cuts are a good thing and only wild lefties are opposed to them.
One of the most disturbing aspects of media power Britain is the way WHICH opposition to any reactionary proposal is either ignored or paraphrased in a manner so crude as to give the impression it was conjured up by someone who should be certified.
The few muted bleats disapproval to the Tory-LibLab frenzy over tax cuts is dismissed as the blatherings of hopeless malcontents.
Long before the election, the press was awash with stories about the BUUR over-taxed British by which they mean the
British? and the
Harley Street DU1T-U0H decamp to the United:
Almost without exception, the media ignored recent findings that showed that Britain was well down the league table of
UNDER REVIEW
Comments from Ally Pally
'HI, it's your alien kulture' announced the big banner at Ally Pally in London on Saturday, and that's what awaited the 5,000 who came to Rock Against Racism's
They were mainly youth. Socialist Challenge took the opportunity to ask about issues that concerned
Tormany mierested in pontes. They come along and become interested in politics.
Fahim Qureshi, 18, Luton: I'll be voting Labour to keep the Tories out, but the Labour government is racist. The Labour Party is okay, only they don't do mucit. They come round once every five years.
Racism should be made a major issue in the election: how black people are in the worst houses; the harassment by the pigs; telling the truth about the Nazis, who are being given time on the box. Yet the BBC bans Dread, Beat and Blood because they re afraid black might be encouraged to stand up for themselves.
RAR Unemployment needs to be
taken in the particularly how it affects black people. I used to work night shifts for a catering firm on E23 a week. It's not worth it. A lot of kids don't want to work because you get ripped off. I'm at college now.
I'll be going along for the demonstration in Leicester on Saturday. Black people should be playing a more dominant part in the ANL, standing up for themselves. I used to be very quiet...
Sheila, 17, from Watford: I'm always on about unions in the office where work. supposed to make coffee three times a day, but when the boss tax-paying nations - ignored, of COURSC because findings tended to destroy their tabricated propaganda.
The fact is that Britain has a relatively progressive structure based rather than spending use me word relauven with some caution
in politicians and their press
suboones are delerious, to change it in favour well-off and disgustingly rich.
Just as a percentage pay rise benefits those on the highest wages, a percentage tax cut will help those who earn the most. Although politicians would MEYEr SUCK terms, what they are actually advocating is an attack on the incomes of the poorest sections of society in order to benefit those who have grown rich at their expense.
And while desperately searches
and amples -01 social
scroungers, they ignore one of the great scandals of our time: Lincome Fiddling, SHITOR OCTES You trom reading the British press but far more money is lost fo
EACH TIME THE MEDIA MENTION
wants a cup have to drop what I'm doing, which I don't think is right.
There's a bloke who keeps asking me to do envelopes and if I'm busy he goes complaining the boss.
We're not even allowed to pop out for five minutes to get an ice cream because the boss says it doesn't look very businesslike. When I talk about getting a union they say it's impossible. from The option is either I should do what I'm told or I should get
out.
Stephen, 17, from Kennington, South London: There's quite a bit of NF around our way. We discuss it with them. few have changed, but a lot don't bother listening.
Te vack nice and that. But
there's violence and that. white kids do the same. There just isn't enough there; enough mixing. Jobwise, if you come from people from you ain't got a chance. I
make air fresheners, which is not a whole lot of fun. election, Mandie
North London: ledger and I'm treated like shit. I'm giving the job up. It's not worth being wound up every evening because you've had a lousy day at work. When you go into the Jobcentre they ask if you want to be an office worker, a child minder — never an engineer. I don't think I should have a VOLC I would rather wasn't anyone to vote for. All the political parties give out all this shit and when they get into power they don't do anything The age of consent is a load I'm of crap, because no one takes
Many notice of it. No one thinks about it, until they're taken to the Inland Revenue every year! SUCT from fiddles and perks than by
the tiny handful state benefits.
Middle management - the tax very people that Tories and
Liberals - I can intestines to help - already
have unlimited and the counts,
about £2000 a year in lieu of nay salaryl, clothing
education the children, dress allowances for
wives and "fact-finding foreign trips, better holidays.
Now the politicians want to boost these unearned incomes by slashing income tax at the expense of another media hate vulgar expression "public
ture./ That means education, hospitals, and other that benefit those in genuine need.
THE campaign got with the brated trip to her l
suburban
Such a sneak.
Quite a
not
where we come
17, from Islington,
I'm a sales control accounts clerk
there We carnivals
between.
which does local who abuse photographers.
press outside
busting their
you right. expense accompany cars [worth Every
allowances allowances
the great vote chase: 'We're
known as
she sees it.
expendi-
services and the noting her reheared
image of a people was factured.
you and me, isn't she?
court. It should be abolished.
need to have because there's strong feeling of unity and you feel really glad you came along. But they're so few and far gig'.
We're
I'm in the Camden RAR club
gigs with Sainsbury by a posse of press people and desperately clicking
Just in case you thought the
just happened to be Chelse: bijou residence by chance, let me put
national paper, TV and radio station was phoned by Tory Central Office and told they had a 'super idea to start
sending Margaret down to the shops tomorrow morning to show that she's got the common touch and knows a good slice of pork belly when
And so the dutiful hacks turned up and snapped away at her in the butchers, the bakers
candlestick makers, every carefully ulterance. She'd probably never been near the shops before in her life but the
'woman of the carefully manushop.
Her shopping exhibition set her back twenty quid Just-like ALANCE SEND US A QUID!
tickets as cheap as possible to get kids along. The club means you can build up a relationship; come along and say I thought so and so was wrong with the
hoping to tour of Camden with a band on the back of a lorry just before the
For Trotsky
By Kevin Creighton, 16
Living in the shadow of a great man What can we do but try to understand His books and his writings are written on the walls His voice is whispered in the silence.
His following is small But his teachings are known Many have died But their voices have shown That silence can shout in the darkness.
Theatre picket
By Paul Colbeck NT Strike Committee
THE National Theatre has gone ahead with the sacking of the 70 striking. stage, work shortenance workers who st administration week were told that they would only be accepted back to work if they signed a contract which effectively removes the right to withdraw labour.
election. • The Revolution stall at Ally Pally was kept busy, with over 200 sales of the revolutionary youth paper.
Have you received your copy
Revolution's election special? It's 10p plus p&p from PO Box 50, London N1 2xp.
Their union, NATTKE, has made the dispute official but refuses to instruct the rest of its membership not to cross the picket line
The strikers are calling for tinancial support from other trade umonists and for support on the picket line, particularly between opm and 8pm each weekday at the public entrance
theatre on London's South Bank
•Socialist Challenge 19 April 1979 page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge PUNCTURE DUNLOP'S CLOSURE PLAN!
Office as a newspaper. Published by Relgocrest Ltd. for Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Printed by Feb Edge Litho Ltd (TU),
modest, putting the total at 300,000.
The number of jobs lost is another
close.
quietly, but will they manage to stay? By Dave Packer and Tommy Healey THE fight of the Dunlop workers to save their jobs and stop another 2,300 joining the long Merseyside dole queue is gaining widespread support.
Nearly every major company in
attanas embarked on drastic cuts in personnel levels and rationalisations to boost profit margins.
All these companies allowed their plants to be run down through lack investment and it's working people who have to suffer from
effects of the capitalist MaTKCD
Unfortunately, the officially-backed Joint Trade Union Action Committee that leads the struggle at Dunlops has not challenged this capitalist logic.
Its members have become tanged up in the arguments about profitability. A so-called "viability' plan presented to the management — who have not yet responded - is an attempt to "sit down with the company" to come up with a compromise deal.
This would only mean cuts in personnel levels, speed ups, different shift SYSECHIS many orner concessions. a no-strike clause rear its head?
Stan Pemberton Thursday's well-attended mass meeting that the viability plan could lead to the loss of 1,000 jobs. And as one worker argued
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declared at an election meeting in the North-west last week. The Labour Party's official leaflets were more
Merseyside unemployment now runs at 12 per cent, touching 30 per cent in some inner-city areas. On 19 April, the Dunlop factory in Liverpool is scheduled to
The Dunlop workers have no intention of going
at the meeting. 'How can you expect us to fight when nearly half of us will loose our jobs?"
Another asked, Who decides who goes with this viability plan?"
The profitability plan is quite different from the fighting policy needed to unite the work force and defend jobs. It has have nothing in common with the Lucas Aerospace plan.
The Dunlop workers' campaign has certainly shown a great deal of militancy.
local Plessey factory and were joined in the demand for jobs by the Plessey workers, with vociferous attacks on Labour's candidate in the Edge Hill by-election.
A Jobcentre was occupied, together with two local radio stations, where Dunlop workCES successfully airtime to put over their case.
There has been a march by women, and last week a column. of the Dunlop workers filed through the main shopping centre in Liverpool with copies and Dunlop Spekes, Will campaign broadsheet.
But the campaign is to win support for the viability plan, and the most crucial occupation still needs to be carried out that of the Dunlop plant itsell. £10 Chegees, POs and Money Orders should be made payable to
Fi Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street, London NI.
story. On
workers'
Two demanded
What interest nas a big multi-national minor disruptions Liverpool plant? Only actions the which hit the company where it hurts - in the pocket force the company to back down.
What needs to be stepped up are actions like the picket at the Dunlop firm in Birmingham or Sexism (Lucy
CLOSURE DHNN
SPL
STA
COTTONIC in ILS stored there.
The will boycott Dunlop the National
means business
FIGHT FOR YOUTH RIGHTS!
NATIONAL REVOLUTION RALLY
Saturday, 5 May, noon to midnight
Speakers include:
Bernadette McAliskey, Soweto student, Rock Against
Toothpaste), representatives 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
the 'community picket' at the Speke plant itself to stop the movement of 15 million tyres
decision to products by Port Shop Stewards' Committee will give a real boost to the strike. But To only an occupation of the plant - showing that the workforce the days
- will lay the
DUNLON
DUNLOP
NO
basis for a campaign through- need out the labour movement on both a national and international level. This would provide the best conditions for the fight for policies to save jobs and
date, the Action Committee is far removed from
when the Dunlop Stewards' Committee saw the
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 t2.50.
Transport will leave from: Glasgow, Newcastle, Hull,
Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Bristol, Brighton,
Birmingham, Oxford.
Tickets and further information from: Revolution:
PO Box 50, London N1 2XP
Organised by Socialist Youth Education Society
take on the multi-national through the international combine committee based in Italy, Spain and Britain,
Scrap the profitability plan! Оссиру save jobs! Nationalise Dunlops under the control of workers! For 35-hour week with work. sharing and no loss of pay! 3-4 The Oval, London E2.
← Socialist Challenge No. 93, 16 April 1979Socialist Challenge No. 99, May 1979 →