Socialist Action No. 31, 30 October 1983
The scan: 031-oct-28-1983-SA-UK.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.
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IMPERIALIST TROOPS OUT OF GRENADA!
Below we re-print the early-day motion put in the House of Commons on 25 October, the day
SoCiALiSt
ACTION
No. 31 28 October 1983 30p The brutal invasion by the imperialists and their lackeys in Caricom should surprise no one.
Reagan has declared war on the peoples of both the Caribbean and Latin America for daring to try and determine their own future.
To carry out that war he has used subversion, assassination and now bloody warfare. The labour movement must side unequivocally with the peoples of Grenada and insist that they, and they alone, must decide their own destiny.
That is why the Labour Party and trade union leaders must start a campaign for the immediate withdrawal of all imperialist foreign troops now. To fail to defend the people of Grenada from imperialist intervention is to acquiesce in the crushing of their most elementary rights. If the imperialists get away with this in Grenada then the next step will be Nicaragua and finally Cuba.
South London Labour Movement Rally
A statement from Tony Benn,
Ken Livingstone and Paul Boateng The assault by US troops upon Grenada on the morning of 25 October represents the direct intervention of imperialism to use the tragedy of recent events in Grenada and the grave errors committed by some of the Grenadian revolutionaries to wipe out the revolutionary process in Grenada and subject her once again to imperialist and neo-colonialist dominance. Imperialism has a proven record of total opposition to and sabotage of the Grenadian revolution since its incep-
The invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada is an unjustified and brutal act of aggression against the people of Grenada.
The recent tragic events in Grenada have been used by the United States as a blatant pretext to escalate aggression in the Caribbean and Central American region. United States warships are already stationed off the Coast of Nicaragua and 4,000 US Combat troops are involved in military manoeuvres on the Honduran-Nicaraguan border. The United States invasion of Grenada undermines their claims that this military presence is for routine manoeuvres.
Hands off Central
America!
Friday 28 October, 7.30pm Salvador Moncada, FDR/FMLN Fennis Augustin, Grenadan High Commission Francisco D'Escoto, Nicaraguan Ambassador Tony Benn, LP NEC Terry Marsland, Tobacco Workers Union Alan Sapper, ACTT Lambeth Town Hall, SW2 tion.
No US military force will guarantee the liberties and the social and economic welfare of the Grenadian peo ple who have struggled to win their freedom in the teeth of a US-inspired economic blockade. The invasion will not secure peace it is a war against the Grenadian people. It is now the urgent task of socialists and progressive forces to halt the invasion and to demand the withdrawal of US and foreign troops from the region.
It is proof of their preparedness for direct intervention in the region. We condemn the reported participation of British troops in this exercise and demand that Her Majesty's government cease all cooperation with the United State's attempts to distort the independent political process in Central America and the Caribbean. We urge Her Majesty's governmen to support the initiatives for peace in the region by the Nicaraguan government and the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia ana Jeremy Corbyn MP Tony Banks MP Bob Clay MP Dennis Canavan MI
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against the
Action SOCiALiSt
CND's future
Every newspaper seamed to tell the ame tale. This was CND's last gasp. Every najor European power self to the new generation of NATO missiles.
But can they really afford to be so comlacent? The answer is yes if CND connues along the course Neil Kinnock and *P Thompson want it to go. To go for a reeze now and to adopt demands that miror opinion polls in The Guardian. If Cruise prives CND would then let its main focus ecome demands for a no first use agreesent, negotiations towards the reduction • nuclear weapons and oppostion to new peapons like Trident.
Such a strategy will ensure a speedy ecline in the membership and activity of ND.
You don't need the masses to back up a trategy based on multilateral disarmaaent talks. After all they' a been going on or the last 20 years without a mass move ment behind them.
But the answer will be different if Neil nd Edward don't get their way. pere large contingents of trade unionists nd Labour Parties lemonstration, large numbers of youth and
strong presence lomen.
Talk is afoot of some spectacular actions • Cruise arrives at the beginning of lovember. The planned
eenham Women Against Cruise — to set • Peace Camps at all 102 American Bases
Britain - seems likely to focus the ebate sharply again.
But the real question for CND activists
what do we do when Cruise arrives at Greenham. The answer is as Tony Benn ays on the front pages of the latest Naanal Labour Briefing. olitics in CND, not less, to carry on the Eht.
We must immediately build the mass ssembly against Trident in Manchester in ebruary. Secondly during the European lections, we must organise with all the insquity we can to take European-wide açon against all 562 missiles. Even if we an't stop the factories in Britain working
should focus on stopping the schools, he colleges and the universities.
Thirdly, CND must stop worrying about
'Soviet Threat'
out the real threat. The US warmongers
d their Western allies who are at this mo-
nt threatening the peace of all those ho live in the Middle East by their ilgitimate interference in the ebanese people and have now invaded Grenada.
But to achieve all these things we have o organise in CND to save it from the Neils and Edwards of this world. Now is the time ar the left to unite and fight in CND as it asn't before.
ACTION Sochise
Join the
fight for
socialism
- Age
socialist Action
has committed There
on last Weekend's
from the Greenham
action by We need more and start worrying
affairs of Name
Address
Tel ..i
Union/CLP (if any)
I you want more information about Socialist Action or to be put in touch with local supporters send this form to Socialist Action,
328 Upper Street, London N1.
28 October 1953
was
Last Saturday over 2 million people demonstrated against the missiles in Europe. In London the demonstration in Britain Since the second world 400,000 turnout war.
The CND demonstration was so huge that the demonstrators were never
one time. While people were onl arriving on tae Embankment to line up already going home from Hyde Park.
Once again, the march
dominated CND groups. But there was a significant turnout from the labour move-
400,000
missie
probably biggest
ment. While many trade unfonists will nave marched with local CND groups, many trade union banners were carried on the demonstration TGWU, NALGO, NUM, NUR and the print unions were well represented.
Dozens of Labour Party banners were carried.
Lady Olga Maitland's
much publicised 'counter demonstration'
Trafalgar Square failed to
ST EDINIDS ORD
NORTH
LEEDS
4 PEACE
'GROUP
IMPSTEN
AHGATE
materialise. The small group of right wing idiots who played patriotic music and Margaret Thatcher's speeches from a roof at thi end of Whitehall received an appropriate response from marchers. 'Jump' and 'fascists' were two of the more printable epithets.
Arthur Scargill, complete with miners' band and a praetorian guard of several hundred miners somehow inserted himself in the midst of the huge Scottish contingent, the national NI 'M banner. They marched
past the rootten
All pictures by GM COOKSON
drowning out the loudspeakers with the band's music and anti-Thatcher slogans.
Triumph
Without a doubt the day was a massive triumph
CND. The missiler may come to Britain, but they won't go away political issue. Saturday's demonstrators were over whelmingly young and bitterly hostile to the Torie and their nuclear plans. All the Tories' sour grape: cries that 'you're last th debate тов! conjure
them ood of crisscrace
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NOTRIDENT
9th Nov GrEENHAM take
'83 WOMEN
AGAINST CRUISE ON 9 NOVEMBER against Cruise take their case against the US government to court in Washington. On the same day 102 peace camps will be set up outside US bases in Britain — one for each base. Following last Saturday's demonstration, the peace camps will be another opportunity for mass mobilisation against the warmongers.
The case against the American government is being jointly filed by women from Britain and US citizens, including a number of members of the Congress.
On 27 September a Federal Judge ruled that the case was a proper one for the courts to consider.
Essentially, the claim is that Cruise missiles -their deployment and the effects of their use breach numerous articles of international law.
For information on the peace camps, contact your nearest regional office who will give you full intormation - phone numoers below. Sheffield 0742 25079 Leeds 0532 740197 East Anglia 0480 300907 South West 06267 79232 Northern Ireland 0232 56392 Manchester 061.445 0998 Scotland 041 423 1485 London 01 639 8561 Wales 0222 45381 Leicester 0533 702 585
President Reagan to Court in the USA Greenham Women
WE CAR
STOP
THE NUCLEA WEAPO ARE NO DEFENC
FREEZE
THE ARMS RACE
Europe:
Millions
march
against
22 OCTOBER was
turned out in West Germany United States and Canada.
nearly half a million
Berlin and LIm. people streiched for 70 mik
oats
the petit meTENT domination by the Communist Part!.
the bomb
probably the biggest coordinated international demonstration in word history. Apart from the 400,000 in London. half a million people marched in Italy, over a million
Tens of thousands also demonstrated in the
Biggest turnout of all was in Bonn. where the
demonstrators far out. numbered the population of the city. There were also demonstrations in Hamburg. Stuttgan. Wiest
American base
In one human chain around I'S bases. 300.00
Italy's huge taraoes - 500.000 in Romt - ax
the second time that the peact surezem
Page 4 scan of this page
Carry on fighting the witch hunt
Socialist Action 28 October 1983
IRELAND
UNFREE®
I was offered more than
$80,000 ...
AFTER THE SENSATIONAL Robert Lean, more questions are likely to be asked about the use of informers in the 6 counties. Campaigners in Britain have been successful in winning the support of civil liberties organisations and prominent barristers, who are appalled over this new attack on civil rights.
Jimmy Crumlin Road jail on the uncorroborated evidence of 'supergrass' Harry KirkPatrick. He has written about the RUC's use of 'supergrasses' in the courts.
'At present I am one of over 200 people who are being held in custody on the sole evidence of a "supergrass". Over 50 people have already been
such which was heard by a solitary judge with no jury.
•During the last two years, the RUC have been using sophisticated ducements, bribes and a wide range of "deals" in return for statements made against people named
Hollowing their arrests taken to the Catlereagh Interrogation Centre and held in clinical isolation for un to seven davs. During this time, they will be charged with an offence unless they cooperate, and inducements are made.
*On three occasions I was offered more than £80,000 if I made incriminating statements against Kid hen told me han they could weak it that l some of whom are unknown to me. was a police informer and have me shot.
TRIALS
STOP
THE
SHOW
TRIAI
Robert Lean
James Prior, Ireland, defended radio programme 'World at One', but appeared to believe that evidence used to achieve convictions was based on corroborated evidence.
He said: 'I am not only certain in my own mind that there has been no evidence of a miscarriage of jastice, but I'm equally certain that the manner with which the trials have been conducted so far, and the ability of the police to bring forward people and to corroborate their evidence by others has lad a marked impact on the nature of terrorism and the strength of terrorist organisations in Norbern Ireland. a whole has been simply immense.'
He went on to say that unless evidence was corroborated, 'the whole point of bringing informers forward in this way would break down'.
A case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing, or a major gaff?
• The full text of the letter from Jimmy Brown is available for use in local campaigns by phoning the Troops Out Movement on 021-773 8683 or 01-250 1293.
escape of Brown is a prisoner held in
non-jury Diplock
uncorroborated evidence,
methods: offering in-
suspects are
they are repeatedly threatened that SHOW TRIAL STOP THE its CHOW TAL
secretary of state for Northern
of informers on the The benefit of that to people as
Labour Against the Witch hunt is holding its annual general meeting next month; a must for all who want to fight against expulsions and press bans and for a united and democratic party.
Labour Against the Witch hunt was formed last year after the Blackpool conference which launched the disastrous attacks on Milltant. It was set up by over 100 CLPs and has proved
worth by defending socialists from expulsion,
organising Constituency Parties who refuse
By Alan Freeman
democratically-based and controlled by its affiliated Constituency Labour Parties at its regular National Council meetings.
Jim Mortimer told the Labour Party conference there would be no extension of the witch hunt. But conference rejected, by a majority of 5 to 1, every single motion against witch hunts, including an innocuous motion calling only for no more witch hunts. Neil Kinnock's own views are clear. Writing after he was elected to the leadership 1n the Con-
Listen! In this house we have complete
trust in the leader of
the party! Right?!
ference edition of Fabian news, he said:
The decision on the Militant editoria board Should stand because the political philosophy which they consciously hold requires its own separate pro-
and principles and is in direct contradiction the democratic socialism of the Labour Party and the provisions in the Labour Party constitution. As tar as the constituency parties are concerncu• tie uccool is ulc sallit as for the whole Labour movement; either they are
warh of national compani
La national constitution that is intended to be understood and obeyed, or they are not.
This is Kinnock's view. And is the view of the new not find it possible to carry NEC majority. They may this through, because the resistance of the CLPs
- but that makes it essential for this resistance to be organised. Our party cannot be united unless the witch hunt is stopped.
a Piece of the ACTION
My father trusted Ramsay MacDonald Yand I trusted Hugh Gaitskell and Harold and Jim and.....
PAL
FORAFLIPER, BETTER BRITAIN
Already, two new crunch points for the new NEC are coming up which will be a test of how far it is now prepared to go.
On 26 October the NEC has invited Tariq Ali to discuss with them and present his political views so they can decide whether or not to impiement ine
pel him If Tariq is expelled and his expulsion is contirmec the NEC, it will be the first • time years socialist has been expelled for their views.
Expulsion
It will be a precedent for expulsion otal those whose political views the so-called 'democratic socialist' majority do not agree with.
On November, Wythenshawe Labour
now suspended by
an AGM convened by the national agent, David Hughes, with promise made by Russell Tuck at the Labour Party ference that 'no-one will be excluded'. Already there reports that the right wing unconfirmed
/ And I have » (always thought that! trust should be earned. 4.. not acquired like a y free gift in a corn. flakes packet.
are desperately trying to secure right wing trade union affiliations from all quarters • including outside the constituency - lU pack the meeting.
Whether the witch hunt Lali stopped depends on whether you LABOUR AGAINST
THE WITCH HUNT ANNUAL GENERAL
MEETING
26 November 1983
Camden Town Hall
Wythenshawe Labour Party Audrey Wise Jo Richardson MP
dividual affiliates of LAW
the Witch hunt, phone (01)-802 1709.
News
Photo: JOHN HARRIS
help organise against it. eve resistance rons i costalle witch hungers at bay . This year, make sure Jim Mortimer is held to his pro The first step to doing this is coming to the LĂW Annual General Meeting.
Speakers include: Alf Homes, chair, Manchester
Delegation (with affiliation) from CLPs, wards, and all affiliated Labour Party sections, plus in-
Apply to: Keith Lichman, secretary, Labour Against
I1 Wilderton Road, London NI6 or You're trying to drive me into the S.D.P., aren't you!?
Page 5 scan of this page
News
THE POST OFFICE engineers won a surprising victory in the courts last week against the private consortium, Mercury. CAROL TURNER of the POEU London West branch considers the strengths and weaknesses of the union's selective action strategy. BRITISH TELECOM is big business. When Thatcher's privatisation plans were dubbed 'the sale of the century, this was not Just a cule culp
The communications industry is one of Britain's five most profitable seccers. represent British
the British economy, and it's closely linked to the fastest growing industrial sector, eel tronics. If Thatcher's government Is to relain lic support and confidence of the ruling class, there's no backing down on privatising Telecom.
The figures speak for themselves. The Financial Times has estimated that selling fifty one per cent of BT would mean a f300bn a year distribution of profits
1981
SHareholders figures. The actual sale of shares would bring SOnIC where in the region of
that's around half of its current public sector bor-
requirement (the money LOC plans to spend on public services). Good
Against this background, the DUSI office
barked on a campaign of
to stop privatisation. So tar the results have been surprisingly good.
In June the membership. elected left ex-
convinced that CLEVE. these were the people to see the campaign through. It was clearly a vote of no confidence in the outgoing executive, whose main axis has been a publicity cam-
to persuade the Valen public. and change MPs' minds.
In September delegates to special conference votea two to one to support the NEC recommendation for selecuive dustrial action. Since then the heat's been on.
In addition to the Mercury action, the POEU has called vul members selected areas, mostly international business. Management responded
out large numbers
with the clear intention OI bankrupting the union's fighting fund.
Members were advised written undertaking obey management's instructions, and return to work. The advice of legal experts is that such an undertaking has no torce devona an ordinary contract of employment.
Next BT began to bus engineers to . the affected areas. Pickets were mounted on key buildings
POEU must lead the way
and members instructed dollo cross. they worked as instructed ... and chaos reigned!
Engineers sent to London from as far afield as Plymouth have spent considerable amount BT's time and money discovering they can't do. the job without local knowledge. Control desiened to retain overals The union strategy control of how many members are out. Hence full take home pay is paid
members dispute. This strategy simultaneously the current strength and future weakness of our dispute.
If the refuses to back down which it must - there is no alternative but accelerate the action. So far, BT has played its ace in a
Nineteen of caulivus way. the suspended members
under five dav notice of dismissal. At the time of writing, that notice hasn't expired, but the union execulve s contident ther have an adequate response
dismissals on small scale. But such small scale dismissals could continue indefinitely.
Inside the union, the discussion is whether selec-
think Essentially this is to believe that the targets selected require an expertise to operate which can't be found among outside engineers, and thus crippling crucial business services will halt privatisation plans
This is shortsighted. Somewhere — outside Britain? determined management will find such expertise. ine strategy eif the selective be rendered less and less
Support
Already the alternative to this states so has begun
appear. the Telecoms unions have pledged their active support - the Union of Communications Workers (UCW) who brought out operators in One day solidarity action in London, al end of last week: and the Society of Civil and Public Servants (SCPS) who are currently discussing wnal Torm supportive actions te take.
Public sector unions outside Telecom have also contacted the executive to discuss sympathetic tion. For those like the health service unions, badly hit by Tory policy, the POEU action is a ray of
All out action to
beat the Tories
hope for an effective fightback against govern. ment austerity plans. Here lies potential broadening and strengthening the dispute.
Alliance
To win the battle, the POEU must go all out to build an with other sections of the trade union movement to take on the Tories. This means action on a scale not seen since the miners tackled the Heath government in the early seventies.
Only united action by the whole trade union movement can stop Thatcher's privatisation. This means the POEU membership for all-out national action, and building for such action throughout the trade union The
Hovelical.
POEU executive • must de. mand that the TUC and
Party fall squarely behind the fight
Telecom puonc
There is little time to DIcuale this battle Socialist Action readers should start now:
* Get your union branch to pass resolutions of sup.
Respectable Red
LOOKING like a couple
out of a Soviet 'socialist
realist'-type poster, Neil
and Glenys pose for the
the recent
Party conference.
The Tories
while, stil reeling from
the Parkinson affair, are
port and demand your
and national union does likewise.
* Take collections for the POEU fighting fund, and propose a levy of your own membership.
* Raise the dispute in your Labour Party and propose the Party organises public meeting in support of the strikers.
* Organise POEU
for your speake. and Labour Party meeting, contact the branches involved the dispute: London North Centre Internal on 01-353
Westminster 01-633 0080 or London City on 01-236 5159 contact your local POEU
the UNTOUCU Labour Party or Trades Council, by phoning POEU HQ on 01-998 2981.
Don't forget to let the POEU know that support for the dispute is gathering momentum, by contacting the executive at Greystoke House, 150 Brunswick Road, London W5 1AW They can also supply you with anti-privatisation leaflets. now dreading further revelations of the case at the Old Bailey last week. The Irish Republican News, has printed the name of the ex-Tory minister who apparently appears in certain photographs.
POEU members demonstrate against piratisation
Eager to take advan. tage of the Tories' problems, Labour are promoting Neil's 'family man' image for all its worth. Well, let's face it it's a much bigger votecatcher than gay rights, isn't it?
Socialist Action 28 October 1983
Branches
CATES ETERNAL TO
MALI
Cancer
drugs
MILLIONS and millions of women all over the world have been exposed to an increased risk of breast and cervical Calle through being prescribed thé contracep tive pill. dose brands, taken for The so-called several years, increase the risk of breast cance four times.
pills involve taking
daily LOSI hormones oestrogen or progestogel, or toul
- and there have never
studies of their side effects.
Doctor Mike Smith from the Family Planning Association says: 'Since cancer such an emotive subject likely to cause alarm any woman it is important women should not panic and stop taking the
ELEPHONE
ORDER
pill without medical ad. vice.
Male Order says: Panic now before it's too late. If you're on the pill stop taking it Get men in your life to take responsibil contraception, and in-
safe under your control like the cap.
True Blue
DID MARY Whitehouse do quite the right thing at the Party Conference?
While wave after wave of sex scandals hit the 'Victorian Values Party delegates watching films of can. nibalism, mutilation, beheading and castration
fringe meeting organised by Whitehouse to show how nasty video
It can only ' serve to put ideas into their heads.
Page 6 scan of this page
Military coup overthrows Maurice Bishop
Defend Grenadian revolution
Socialist Action
•aurd Courd
peoples petition of those bloods and tragie events.
HE EVENTS in Grenada, culminating with the
arder of Maurice Bishop and other leaders of the volution and the seizure of power by the army, are
cople's Revolutionary Army can be onetheless, an outline of the events themselves and
political disputes which ginning to emerge.
The news of a political DEit inside the People's evolutionary Govern-
began to come out
Wednesday 12
ber. On Thursday 13 Ocber Maurice Bishop was
ed under house arrest.
the next day it was: sported that Finance inister. Bernard Coard, ad his wife Phyllis, had esigned from the PRG in
spontes The and
supporters. ICKE ay, Saturday 15 October, a demonstration of several hundred people took place o the capital, St. George's lemanding the release of sishop.
At the same time Leon Cornwall, a major in the med forces and the amdaisador anpounced that Maurice bishop was being held
Atlantic Ocean
CUBA
DOM,
HAITI
Caribbean Sea
28 October 1983 VE KNOW of the invasion of Grenada by LIs erialism and its allies in the region. This artide, by PHIL MEARSE, was written before the ws broke. 'Protecting "American citizens" was cily the excuse used by the US for its 1965 inIon of the Domincan republic. It seems that
of the Caribbean must sulfer a
In these circumstances it is the duty of every
clouded in obscurity. It will be some time before precise meaning of the seizure of power by the
discerned.
preceeded them, is
under house for refusing to accept deciSIons of the People's Revolutionary Government and the New Jewel Movement.
He said: 'No one man can de above tne ruies, ne one man can be above the majority. The armed forces note that never in its ten and half years of existence has the New Jewel Movement accepted "one mannism" in its ranks.
Unison Whiteman, the Foreign arrested on Wis reported arrested charged with leading the pro-Bishop demonstration. Radio Free Grenada quoted the Armed rorces. echoing the views of Cornwall and Coard, as saying: 'There is at present a danger that counter-revolutionary
PUERTO RICO
GRENADA VENEZUELA
socialist and anti-imperialist to stand with the people of Grenada and to expose the complicity of our own government in the plans of Reagan. The butchery in Grenada will isolate the revolutions in Nicaragua and El Salvador and its success will strengthen the confidence of imperialism and all the forces of reaction in the region. Now that confidence.
elements will seek to use this opportunity to cause a
law and order in the country.'
'counterrevolutionary elements' referred to were obviously the supporters of Maurice - Bishop.
The Armed Forces also on 15 October announced the of Cletus St.
Paul, one of Bishop's top aides, for spreading 'vicious rumours' of a plot to topple Bishop.
The precise facts about the 19 ents of Wednesday October, when Maurice Bishop was killed, are still disputed.
But again the outline of these events is clear
A crowd of 3-4,000 people marched to the Prime Minister's residence and released Maurice Bishop Education Minister Jacqueline Creft.
According to some reports they were very weak because they hadn't been fed during the six days of house arrest.
The crowd marched with Bishop towards Fort Rupert, where 250 troops apparently loyal to Bishop were garrisoned. At 1pm army units loyal to Armed Forces leader Howard Austin arrived, and according to some reports openBishop, fire killing Maurice
Jacqueline Creft, Norris Bain, Fitzroy Bain, Vincent Noel - and also apparently Unison Whiteman.
Other reports speak of the crowd at the barracks
various v numbered between 10,000 and 30,000
dispersed and then Bishop and his com• patriots being put against a wall and shot.
In either case it is difficult to believe that they were shot Subsequently there have been reports killings of Bishop sup-
we must organise to undermine
porters. The whereabouts of Bernard Coard are not known.
AS we pointer out above, it will be some time before we can make precise political evaluation of the course of the leaders of the putsch in Grenada. It is not even clear whether
leader Austin and Coard remain united or whether Coard in turn has been pushed But two things should pointed out immediately.
First, the revolution in Grenada has been under constant threat from imperialism and these events will in the first instance play into the hands of Reagan and his reactionary supporters in the Caribbean.
Second, it goes without saying that from any revolutionary socialist point of view, the shooting of revolutionary leaders is totally unacceptable as a means of settling political disputes
Despite the paraphenalia of alleged participatory democracy
in Grenada, in reality the revolution has been led by a small group of leaders of the New Jewel Movement.
This movement has never had a congréss: it does not bossess me structures of
internal democracy in
WHICH pollical disputes
can be settled.
The result is that when
a serious political dispute
breaks out in the leader-
ship it is solved by shoot-
outs and murder. This is
the opposite of proletarian
democracy
The economic pressure
and political threats from
the world's biggest im-
perialist power, the United
States, have undoubtedly damaged the country's
economy. The evidence
available suggests that the
dispute in the leadership
concerned electon. and how quickly to proceed with measures of socialisation of the economy and expropriation Grenada's small bourgeoisie - with Coard and his supporters ad vocating more radical
Let us note that this must be, in a tiny country with few resources of its
debate.
There are no ready-made textbook answers to now to proceed with the construction of socialism in a nation of 110,000 people.
In any case, the viabilidepends upon extension of the the revolution the Caribbean: economic and political aid which Cuba has provided and which socialists should demand of the Soviet Union: and international solidarity from the world's labour novcilicit. Putsch
But however valid the debate, and whoever was more correct, there is no justification whatever for the methods of army
py se oh demoralise the
be to demoralise the Grenadan masses. Since the political debate had not been taken through any of the mass organisations, it appears very likely that the masses were at least confused about the
Maurice Bishop un doubtedly possessed massive prestige ane popularity among the Grenadan people removal from power without political debate •anC decision by the workers and farmers inevitably produced mass protest.
The use of the army against party leaders itself produces major dangers. Once a leadership starts to rely on the professional army, rather than • mass democracy and an armed people's militia, the road
becomes open to Bonapartism and military dictatorship.
The criticisms made by the Cubans of the putsch In • Grenada, that these methods are unacceptable in any correctes The absolutely correct truth is that the revolution
is now in grave danger. Popular confidence in the New Jewel Movement and the. PRG is bound to be shaken. The role of the army creates major dangers of a military dictatorship being imposed, or at least of army developing • autonomy from the political leadership.
Imperialism now has a golden opportunity to step up its economic blockade of Grenada, even march in with its own troops.
Defence of the Grenadan revolution, against any imperialist provocation, or any temptation to use these events
intervene, now number one task for all socialists.
Irrespective of the er rors of crimes committed during the present events,
of the absence,, of proletarian democracy, there is no evidence yet that any grouping involved is linked with imperialism, determined to break with the revolution. Only absolutely decisive evidence that the army or political leadership has gone over to imperialism should cause our solidarity to be broken off.
But we have to sadly note that these events will make it much more difficult to build solidarity with the revolution in the whole of the Caribbean and Central America.
Moreover, the armyhacker putsc! SnOW
clearly that democracy i
GRENADA
George s
International
Maurice Bishop not an optional extra for revolutions in world' under threat from imperialism, absolutely vital component of the defense of the revolution. Without mass involvement in both political decision-making and military defense,
can be put in grave danger as soon a political difference emerge - which in-
The Grenadan form of consultation. the Parish Councils and the Zonal Councils. in no way amounted to genuine mass participation decision-making • that remained centred at the top of the PRG. The Parish Councils merely amounted to an op portunity for the Grenadan people to ask
and make sugto others who Naut behalf. decisions Attendance on their
Parish Council meetings declined greatly in recent mollis.
The illusions that this system represented authentic participatory democracy have been proved to be absurd. Whether even this system will survive the army-backed putsch lies in the balance
The task now for socialists in Britain is to use every means to prevent ine pollucal and economi isolation of Grenada by US imperialism and to en sure that the solidarity and good will which Grenada
has enjoved in the British workers movement is not destro
Miles
Page 7 scan of this page
News
NHS cuts:
National Health Service.
result from the required restrictions.
call 'enough is enough'
Services Secretary, Norman Fowler.
Almost ten district health authorities up and down the country have rejected the Tory cuts.
This only scratches the surface of a campaign involving ordinary working people in the collullly and the health service, who are organising mass meetings, lobbies and demonstrallons reject cuts, closures, redundances privatisation of the NHS.
of these campaigns began in the months following the general electie NHS with Thatcher's 'the safe with us, speech still ringing in their ears. Campaign organisers were already active against the spring 1983 cuts when they heard of Lawson's treasury proposals and the planned redundancy
These further cuts are devastating news for the health authorities. While the regional health authorities rubber stamped the instructions - with one or two exceptions the district authorities hesitated.
The district health authorities have nowhere tell urn because iney have carried through cuts
programmes since Callaghan and Healey started it all in the IMF year of 1976.
They have only two options now, closure and redundancy or take stand, under the pressure ol me local community and health workers.
Figures from the four London regions illustrate the absolute savagery and impossible disorganisation the Tory plans will bring.
The inner London borough of Islington suffered a f¾ million annual
this Lawson y cal ordered another £1⅓ million cut 1n July and finally Fowler has demanded that 100 jobs go, with another £½ million drop in spending.
Greenwich suffered by £½ million in the 1983 chop, with Lawson now demanding another £1 million and Fowler ordering 150 job cuts with a further £¾ million slice.
All these cuts are to be implemented within four months. bv March 1984;
London is hit hard, with a 2.4 per cent net 1ob loss, compared to one per
Builda
national
campaign
THE TORIES are retreating on their plans for the
A Tory District health authority, Bromley and Kent, is now being allowed to overspend because 'serious redundancies and substantial cuts' would
Even the Royal College of Physicians is about to
and the British Medical Association is seeking an urgent meeting with Social
cent nationally. These cuts atfect those in posts on 3] March 1983. But around tour per cent of jobs are already frozen with DECVIOus Ward closures and reorganisation. So district health authorities in Greater London face a five to six per cent loss of established posts in medical, nursing, paramedical and ancillary jobs by March 1984.
By an ASTMS healthworker
These job losses will be impossible without hospital closures and compulsory redundancies.
Waltham Forest are planning to close four hospitals and Hackney three St.
Leonard's District General, the Mother's Maternity and the German.
After the magnificent local ana nanonal strike action last year for a decent living wage, local hospital and community campaigns have been left to fight the government on. their own.
Debate
NALGO and NUPE have had limited publicity campaigns and there have been some good trade union pamphlets agallsl privatisation But the national leaders of the TUC and Labour Party are dragging their feet — the TUC being too busy having cucumber sandwiches at Number Ten to organise an adequate campaign of action.
Action to turn the tide against Thatcher is coming LEON De ow. Workers at Thornton View Geriatric Hospital in Bradford have been occupation for weeks against closure, and ancillary Barnett General Hospital take part in rolling one day lightning strikes every three days against private tenders.
Union and community boundaries have been surmounted to defend the NHS, with joint shop stewards' mass meetings at Charing Cross, St Mary's Hammersmith Hospitals, involving hundreds of health workers.
There have also been mass lobbies and occupations of district health authorities, with the disruption of the Hackney meeting grabbing headlines. The TUC Health Services Commit tee has organised nothing yet.
Now, under pressure trom these actions. and
initiated
East Region of the TUC
organised subVid. committee. Trade union, Labour Party and cam. paign activists are beginning demand regional and national action.
In London, a steering committee was elected at a GLC sponsored meeting in County Hall on '17 October. This has delegates from district based health campaigns, hospital joint shop stewards' committees, NHS UMOl SUID committees, the Greater London Association of Trades Councils and the South East Region of the TUC
Mass action campaigns against cuts, closures, redundancies ard privatisation will have to
be built from such beginnings. we mobilise
with a Massive la
while the iron is hot and
Lories al c • Ul0 LAST WEEK a jury constable Finch and
shoot an innocent
wounded on the road.
Finch had Waldoron to Stephen car with a gun at the ready. He fired without giving a loud shout 'armed police' nor did he give his victim any chance to surrender. This was against the rules. Being a lousy marksman, fortunately his bullets hit the car's tyres
Then he let fly with his four remaining bullets. Along came Jardine gun in hand and saW Waidort's wounded body sliding out of the driver's side of the car. Three more shots were then aimed at the helpless wounded man. Fortunate-
again these would-be killers missed.
But if you can't finish a victim off one way when he is down there is always another, SO Waldorf was hit over the head at least three times Then the guardians of law and order discovered they had
Trained to kill
agreed that detective-
This fehow defective-constable Jardine had been right to man and then for good measure, pistol whip him as he lay bleeding and
the wrong man!
Just for doing their job in the way they had been taught the two over-enthusiastic coppers were charged with attempted murder and attempting to cause bodily harm. But the good judge Croom-Johnson not having any of that and he explained to the jury that it was quite alright to shoot kill an innocent man and belt his skull with your revolver as long you think it is someone else and of course as long as the thug who is doing it is a policeman.
By Bob Pennington
The fact that there
the car - even the detec. tive constables could hard. ly claim they thought they were also Martin • didn't seem to bother the judge.
Jardine
So doing, what the judge more or less told them to do the jury acquitted the two gunmen.
The acquittal caused some sharp reactions with the Daily Mirror editorial asking icence to kill? But for did they
many in the establishment it had been a good trial. The public prosecutor's
Finch
decision to charge Finch and Jardine with attemp ted murder meant that the Issue or now tne ponce ust their guns could be tested legally.
Mr Justice CroomJohnson summed up such a way that the jury were en to color trai the police had a right to shoot down the
Socialist Action 28 October 1993 and the guilty, arme unarmed, as long as thought they were the right thing
Jardine and Finch have squeezed the trig and dealt out the blows
behaviour was some one-off depar from the norm of pr procedure. That bruta and determination to which they showed London street last Jan had •been nurtured developed by systen
in the force
They had simply a like coppers are traine act. If the Police Bill
the statute thousands men women like Finch and dine will be given incre power harass. timidate, bully, fram and even murder if suspicions are aroused
This latest act in a line COI cases of brutality shows that e move to strengthen D powers must be resiste
We can't afford to render our democ: rights into ie hand thugs and murderers
Page 8 scan of this page
Or Death and the Marxist profess
id Owen
I WILL NOT come as a rprise to many people to and the SDP, Frank happle, and the right wing the AUEW supporting ans for coalition vernments and proposals break up the Labour arty.
But it may come as a ock to find the same line ing pushed by the heoretical and discussion urnal of the Communist arty' — as Marxism Today titled.
For four years now however arxism Today has been selesly campaigning for ecisely such a Labour-SDP-
eral coalition. It is the guiding read of all the key articles that pear in its pages. The latest stallment comes in the October we with long articles entitled abour's Lost Millions' by Eric obsbawm and 'The Popular hont Revisited' by David iscott. lajority
The key article, of course, is at by Hobsbawm. He argues: i, at the next election, natcherism is everywhere posed by two or more ndidates competing for each hers votes, the Tories can look rward to being in power well to the 1990s. Some way of iting the majority of the British
Socialist Action 28 October 1983
IN A LITTLE publicised, but extreme-
ly important, move Gavin Laird, the
general secretary of the AUEW, agreed
at the beginning of this month to
become chairperson of the SDP backed
'Campaign for Fair Votes'. This is only
people which is opposed to Thatcherism, must be found.'
From this Hobsbawm concludes that, 'the issue of electoral unity will have to be faced'.
the same issue provides the 'historical background' to the familiar Marxism Today analysis.
Priscott supposedly analyses the experience of the French and Spanish Popular Fronts before the Second World War -although somehow he fails to tell us the small facts that the Spanish Popular Front culminated in forty years of Franco's fascist dictatorship and that the French Popular Front collapsed within two years and was followed by the banning of the French Communist Party and the collapse of France amid the Nazi invasion of 1940. Legitimise
Hobsbawm's line however now carries the analysis of the Popular Front to even more extreme conclusions. Those forces seeking to legitimise the SDP within the labour movement, to break the trade union's links with the Labour Party, and to put Labour in the coalition trap are not even the 'petty-bourgeoisie', 'middle classes', and 'antimonopoly forces'.
and its campaigns, are the monopolies themselves — although perhaps for the Communist Party they are the
Britain.
The David Priscott article in
Thatcher.
The firms backing the SDP,
British politics.
Frank Chapple
"progressive monopolies'. Indeed ICI, Thorn-EMI, Beecham's etc are among the very largest and most powerful companies in
The Financial Times and Economist are not journals of the 'middle classes' but two of the most authoritative, and proThatcherite, journals of British capital. The attacks of these journals on Thatcher have not been for going too far but for not going far enough.
All these forces of British capitalism understand that an SDP-Liberal-Labour coalition would be an unimaginable catastrophe for the Labour Party. Its policies would demoralise the Labour movement on a scale that not even the 1974-79 Labour government of Wilson and Callaghan could achieve. It would open the way for an administration far worse and more reactionary even than Thatcher's and under a relation of forces much more unfavourable to the working class.
A Labour-SDP-Liberal coalition would be a defeat far more crushing than anything the labour movement has experienced for fifty years which is precisely why ICI, Thorn-EMI, and the Financial Times favour it as an acceptable alternative to
The CPGB has for long been known to its friends as 'Her Majesty's Communist Party': Eric Hobsbawm is evidently now in the running as the first ICI Professor of Marxist Politics'.
one of a series of new moves by the
SDP-Liberal Alliance, their backers
and allies. JOHN ROSS looks at the latest developments in the so called
'centre' and 'moderate forces of
AT ITS SALFORD conference this David pledged the SDP to be a 'social market'
Anyone who of politics those words mean. "Social market economy' was the phrase used by Margaret Thatcher to describe her own economic policies. It is the key term of Sir Keith Joseph's Centre for Policy Studies, the Institute for Economic Affairs. other monetarist supporters that inhabit British politics.
Owen has lost no opportunity to make his economic views known in the appropriate circles either. This October Economic Affairs, the journal of the Institute for Economic relaunched in a new expanded format.
The Institute is an organisation set up 1950s monetarism al a time Margaret Thatcher Joseph had probably never heard of it.
It is the chief publisher in Britain of the pamphlets of Milton Friedrich Hayek, and also brings out works of Thatcher's personal economic adviser Alan Waters. The first issue of
has its central article in its first issue Competition and Compassion by none
Eric Hobsbawm
Where is the I
Owen explicitly
follows the -knows what
Bae vser
And all the books organisations and
Times Samuel Brittan.
Affairs, was for Policy
campaign when even and Sir Keith by Brittan
Friedman,
expanded Economic Affairs couraging
TH
All boys together?
right goir
other than David Owen - his article is then followed by a round table discussion by four monetarists on his views.
Economic Affairs however is not the only publication in which a major new "dialogue' is opening up between the SDP and the monetarist theorists. One of the SDP's principal economic
Nobel prize winner economics James Meade - has been publishing over the last years a series of
on economic strategv. These have been consistently reviewed in the most glowing terms by the Financial
chief economics commentator
Brittan is the author of the first publication of Keith Joseph's Centre
Studies and, through his Financial Times columns and books, is the man who has done probably more than anyone else to popularise the ideas of Milton Friedman in Britain
Recently however this commentary
on Meade's work has become a positive love-in. Writing on Meade's latest book Demand Management in the Financial Times on 20 October Brittan concluded, the Meade research programme is the most en-
development in British macro-economics at the moment and it dwarfs in importance all the political
Page 9 scan of this page
E SDP'S FRIENDS
Or
abour
g?
party conferences in Brighton and Blackpool for many years past.'
In short a quite clear and precise policy convergence is being worked out between the monetarist writers who formed Thatcher's economic policies and the chief strategists of the SDP. The well known description of David Owen as 'Thatcherism with a human face' is not a joke. It is a perfectly ac-
of the economic views of the SDP.
The reason for this growing clarity of the SDP's policies are not hard to find. Nothing could be more naive than the view, put forward in the press and sections of the left, that the SDP is a 'middle class' party, clinging to Keynesian economics. That completely confuses who are the SDPs (very few) activists with who actually finances, runs and controls the party groups being very different in many vasoo
The real forces that created the SDP le in the companies who feared during the 1970s that the major problems of the Conservative Party would lead to a situation where Labour was almost permanently in office. Between 1964 and 1979 Labour was in government for 11½ years and the Tories for only 3½. Believing the Conservatives might be
too weakened to keep Labour out of office under the present system a whole series of major firms began to campaign in the mid 1970s for a proportional representation and a non-Labour 'alternative to the Tories':
Companies such as GEC responded by donating money to the Liberal Party after the 1974 election. An committee for electoral reform' established to back representation London at the beginning of this October to decide how to back the SDPs 'Campaign for Fair Votes' which is being launched this autumn.
SOCIALIST WORKER The Committee's present members
and supporters include Sir Adrian Cadbury of Cadbury Graham Wilkins Richard Cave of Thorn-EMI, Sir Leslie Smith of BOC, John Laing, Sir John Sainsbury of the Sainsbury grocery Broackes of Trafalgar House, and two Tory ex-Cabinet Ministers Lord Carr and Lord Jellicoe.
There is a parallel City committee including Sir Robert Samuel, Mr Ronald Arthus of Prudential, and Roger Gibbs of the National Discount Company.
The chief these industrial figures, and that of their individual companies, quite strongly as regards immediate tactics. Some, such as Schweppes and Beecham's, are strong financial backers of the Conservative Party. Others, such as Thorn-EMI, at the last election donated money to both the Conservative Party and the SDP-Liberal Alliance.
Their common goal however was explained clearly by Wilkins of Beecham, when he stated to the Financial Times on 4 October, 'you have to be realistic and recognise that the Conservatives will not be in power for ever' and therefore it was necessary to ensure we don't get back to violent swings of policy?
More bluntly put this policy means that Labour should not be allowed back into office — or at least not allowed into office without market coalition partners David Owen is preparing.
As for the SDP itself it has a more precise and smaller band of supporters
the overall representation' industry network which we have looked at in previous issues of Socialist Action. At its foundation, and subsequently, the SDP chief supporters were John Harvey Jones (chairman of Claude Wilson (Rothschilds), and Ed- Lindley mund Dell Minister and now a merchant banker). The chief executive of the SDP was Bernard Coyle - the former head of Booker McConnell. Roy Jenkins was himself an ex-director of the merchant bank Morgan Grenfell.
What makes the SDP very different to the Tories, for British capitalism however, and gives it a quite different tactical significance to the Conservative party, is that the SP has real links with important sections of the trade union bureaucracy. Frank Chapple, as
electoral industrial was proportional — unis commitce mel mn
usual playing the role of saying
Schweppes, Sir of Beecham's, Sir
Chapple WrOte.
Sir Maurice Laing of
group. Nigel
Tories in on y June
Clark of Hill
political orientation of
differs
Cadbury- calling for a vote
of constituencies in June.
Coalition
Sir Graham
AUEW
the leadership Jenkins, Sir lan Gilmour 'wet' ex-Cabinet Minister, O'Brien England. the SOCA
tion.
*proportional tain.
identical. (ICL
Cabinet ferences on other questions.
explicity considering the Alliance.
what others merely think in private, er plained his policy very clearly in an article in the 17 June issue of The Times surveying the outcome of the election.
*If we had not been ,so completely tied to the (Labour) Party's coat tails we could have urged our members to vote SDP, or Liberal if they had a chance of winning. Over and over again our loyalty to Labour let the
In other words the orientation that Chapple proposed was an 'alternative' to Thatcher in the shape of a LabourSDP-Liberal bloc. Chapple in fact had already put his words into action by calling for a vote for the SDP candidate issues is attractive. against Labour in Islington North in 'In a more the general election. Roy Grantham of system, APEX was another trade union leader
for the Liberals against the Labour Party in a number
always
- Since the election however the most important step taken by the right wing trade union bureaucracy was the decision of Gavin Laird, general secretary
become vice-president of the SDP backed 'Campaign for Fair Votes'. Laird is joined in
campaign by Roy - the Tory and Lord - ex-Governor of the Bank of
The right wing on the AUEW executive are of course well aware of what is the 'political' purpose of the SDP the general campaign for proportional representa-
The goal is to institutionalise a system of coalition government in Bri- of-Tory
Frank Chapple puts the coalition issue openly and brutally. Laird and the SDPs backers in industry prefer a less abrasive approach. But the content is
The
The goal of such a business backed SDP campaign is made quite clear not -simply by the forces involved in it but cites, nortn also by te most senious journalsuc voices of British capitalism. For on this issue the two most widely read journals of British capital - the Economist and and the west. the Financial Times both speak with an identical voice no matter what their dif-
Both the sent.
Economist and the Financial Times en- election, dorsed Thatcher in the June election.
But both then went on to conclude by
The Financial Times, in the special
editorial it prepared for the election concluded its voting appeal as follows: *The policies on which the Alliance has fought the election are not exciting but they are appealing. Its main lines of economic policy we can, with one exception (statutory incomes policy J.R.) largely endorse... It's approach to defence and major foreign policy
representative voting the Alliance could emerge tomorrow as the main alternative to Mrs Thatcher, which we would count as a strong gain. This is highly unlikely under the present system: but it would do nothing but good if the underlying support which the centre party has
claimed were realised in the ballot box tomorrow, if only as a marker for the future and a powerful argument for electoral reform.'
Dominant
The Economist was even more unequivocal in its view. It anticipated Chapple's post-election analysis and quite explicitly called for a 'new division of British politics into two blocs -a dominant ory boc and a subordinate Labour-SDP-Liberal bloc. In its chief editorial in the last issue before
election the economist noted: It is important that there should still be a believable and democratic lett-
force in Parliament towards which by-elections and future general election can then swing. It is desirable that it should be of a sort that can form an effective parliamentary force with right-of-Foot Labour.
Alliance needs to tee secure enough at future by- and.general elections to help moderate Labour candidates to capture orv seats in the
England and Scotland:
Labour should feel weak enough to give its help to the Alliance in the suburbs, south England, East Anglia
Such a geographical coalition of a Southern Alliance and northern Labour seems fanciful at pre-
The worse Labour does in the and the better the Alliance does, the more possible such a desirable coalition of the left (and the dismantling of the Labour Party under its present constitution) will become.'
Naturally, however, the Econom was not being particularly brilliant anticipating the orientation of Cha ple, Laird and the SDP After all t Economist, like the EETPU and AUB right wing, simply jumps to the tu demanded by the forces that creat and financed the Tories, the SDP, a the campaign for 'fair votes(!) in t first place
ICI, Thorn-EMI and ICL turn t handle of the barrel organ, Economist and Financial Times pl out the notes, and Frank Chapple is t monkey who jumps around on top collect the money.
As for dismantling the Labour P. ty under its present constitution' the is no doubt what that means. It mea breaking the links between the tra unions and the Labour Party. once more, is the line of both Fra Chapple and the Thatcher governme only the means differ.
The way the Thatcher governme is trying to weaken the links betwe the trade unions and the Labour Par is by seeking to smash the unions. F Chapple, in his post election analysis, it means arguing that Bo wings of the movement (trade unio and labour should be more indepe dent of each other.
For the TUC leadership under Mu ray it meant at this year's Trade Unic Congress distancing themselves fro Labour. For the 40,000 stro Engineer's and Managers' Associati it entailed at its recent conference ur ing the TU to weaken its links w Labour and adopt 'realistic and pra tical policies which can be pursued w
To show that it a proved of the TUC's new course t EMA invited Len Murray to addre their conference for the first time f eight years. Meanwhile the SDP is ste ping up its attempts to gain discussio with the unions and claims members the executive of sixteen trade unions
At present, of course, those forc explicitly backing Labour-SDP coa tion politics are a minority within t trade union and Labour bureaucra But they are now very far from a sm minority. The EETU and the AUE right wings are powerful forces with the TUC and labour movement
They have access to capitalist co
have already created one new polit party in the SDP.
This drive to force Labour to acce coalition with the SDP-Liberals as only way forward, and to smash t links between the trade unions and t Labour Party, is the most powerful a concerted political attack mounted the labour movement for decades. It simply the political flip side of ti direct assault by Thatcher.
Socialist Action 28 October 1983
Page 10 scan of this page
10
THE problems in the
Wythenshawe
constituency continue,
despite the decision of
the annual conference
to endorse the NEC in
their suspension of the
CLP.
The National Agent
now callllg a re
convened AĞM for 4
November. However
there are now
complaints about the
procedure being used to
circulate trade union
branches to obtain
delegates.
The following trade
union branches have not
received the letter giving
the required 28 days
notice of the meeting: SUPE Hardens, Pcw
Manchester
Amalgamated; BFAWU
Manor Branch;
GMBATU 153 Branch.
These branches are
affiliated to the CLP SINCE Labour polled.
sestrously among young people in June, trailing
ef behind the Alliance
securing the support of
rst time voters, I was arprised to see Socialist Action refer so negatively to the Party and LPYS barning from the drances of the Scandinavian socialist youth organisations.
While there are clearly Efferent specific political ad economic conditions, sete are at least four ood reasons why those rganisations are a better ide than Militant's
Jubilee Hall, Covent Garden
(next to Transport Museum)
Fri 4 Nov 12.30-6.30
Sat 5 Nov 11.00-5.00
1983
Socialist Action 28 October 1983. Problems continue for Wythenshawe
delegates to the CLP. than coincidence that the delegates from these branches have supported the officers elected at the last AGM!
This 'inefficiency' is further highlighted by the fact that the Central Manchester branch of NUPE has been asked to send delegates, despite the fact that this branch has never been affiliated to the CLP.
Clearly the meeting called for 4 November is now out of order, but we are very concerned that the National Agent will decide to endorse this meeting if the result is different to the result of the last AGM, but Will have another excuse to suspend the CLP yet again if the result is the same.
Socialist youth organisations
BOUR PARTY YOUNG SOCIALISTS
suffocating grip on the The first and most obvious reason is that thev are proportionatel many times larger than the LPYS and consequently a far more significant force in the lives and actions of young people.
Secondly, they are an support and sustenance
those parties in criticising ving social democracy Chirdly, they have : track record on women's
Socialist
Bookfair
As a further example of the lack of fairness being shown the National Agent has made no attempt to get the list of trade union branches affiliated to Wythenshawe CLP; we do not know which list he is using certainly it is not an official list.
One thing is certain
- the Party members in Wythenshawe have no confidence in the National Agent. The only sensible course would be to allow the CLP to continue until the next AGM in February.
If the National Agent continues on nis present course we seem doomed to months or further internal dissent.
ALF HOME, (suspended Chair of Wythenshawe CLP) Manchester issues and on involving women at all levels in the organisation and leadership that puts the LPYS to shame. It is not accidental that my successor but one as president of the International Union of Socialist Youth is a Danish socialist feminist.
Last but not least, they have a rich and active progressive cultural fite which should be the EPYS, but of the Party not just of the as a whole.
A serious debate on the British left about a socialist appeal to youth and the role of the socialist youth organisation within that is long overdue and a top priority now. Let us begin on a positive note by examining the achievements of other socialist comrades in Western Europe.
HILARY BARNARD (President IUSY 1979-81) London E3
The Friday
Alternative,
Friday October 28, 7.30,
Channel 4
AS TV Choice returns,
The Friday Alternative
gets the chop. It's
secrel that the
gramme was the IBA's
pet hate and it's the latest
casualty in the campaign
against the 'trendy lefts'
supposedly upsetting
that important
"balance
SOLIDARITY is a genuine movement of the working class and through it the Polish people can take forward the struggle against capitalism and the •bureaucracy that is stifling socialist development.
But two negative points need mentioning: irstly, there are probably many reacationaries in
Oppose the PIE
prosecutions
ON THE orders of the government, three leading members of the Paedophile Information Exchange have been arrested and charged with
number of offences, lonowing ine media hysteria around the rape of a boy in Brighton.
They are to be prosecuted for inciting people to have unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16: inciting people to commit buggery: inciting people to indecently assault a boy under 16 and inciting people to commil an act of gross indecency with or to a child under 14: and for publishing an
article and sending indecent' material through the post.
Write to us!
This is your page. Send us your
congratulations. But please be briet -letters over 300 words will be cut. Write to: Letters, Socialist Action, 328 Upper Street, London N1 2XP. (Tel: 01-359 8180)
CHOICE
Uneven at times, but when it was good. It was very good, so catch while you can.
The Battle of Chile Monday October 31, 11.05, Channel 4 DEFINITELY worth seeing is Patricio Guzman's excellent documentary shot clandestinely during the coup and smuggled out of the country.
Covering up for Stalinists?
Solidarity and these people may conspire to undermine the socialized property relations in the
East. But then there are probably no less a number of dangerous reactionaries in the British Labour Party.
Secondly, the struggles of Solidarity can be used by the capitalist media to confuse people as to the true nature of
All the 'incitement' charges are based on the age of consent laws. These laws say that people under the age of 14 or 16 (or 21 for gay male.sex) cannot have sexual relanonships • Or at least what the police and courts choose to define as : 'sexual relationships.
The reason given is that people under these ages are incapable of making important decisions for themselves. In this way, the age of consent laws uphold the unlimited dictatorship of parents and the state over young people.
Socialists should
oppose the laws on the age of consent, and the hould therefore oppos comments, criticisms or even
This • 1S the second part of his film and covers the ten weeks up to the military takeover No ridiculous 'balance' here, Guzman lake an unashamed Marxist stance and analyses the failures of the left's strategy.
Aristocrats Tuesday November I,: BBC2 In which you can learn all about the hectic life style of the Duke of Westminster as he struggles to decide which of his two statelv homes he should oLdy at this
class relations within Eastern Europe.
Because of these problems it is a gooc thing that the WRP's Newsline exposed Scargill's views and pur the problem of the class nature or use workers states back on the agenda. hev. performed a service for workers
You are covering up for Scargill and the Stalinists by trying to pretend that the WRP have no place in the aDour movement (Socialist Action 16/9/83).
I took the conclusion to your editorial to mean that members of the WRP should be hounded out of the trade unions. Please correct me if l am wrong but this is not my Idea of socialist action
The WRP are not above reproach with regard to their less than
wholehearted support fo
hose sacked at Cowle but it is a disgrace for you to say that they are equal to scabs and strikebreakers. There is not a shred of evidence to support this and the idea inal tney nela back publication to assist the media is ludicrous. these persecutions
The proof that these laws are aimed at the repression of young people, not their protection, can be found in the media treatment of the Brighton case and the PIE prosecutions.
These have been used to attack gays, but they have been used even more to put over propaganda for good old-fashioned childhood. A series of articles have preached the need tor greater parental supervision and discipline for children, and regretted the passing of Victorian childhood
In, an editorial aptly entitled 'Be a parent, not a friend', the Sunday People said that children need 'to be under the jurisdiction of a teenager or an adult at all times How would you have felt about that when you were a child?
The government, the capitalist media and the police have never cared a damn about the violence
weekend. The good duke cites his huge number of licence endorsements for speeding as proof that he gets no preferential treatment.
He also puls up spirited defence of his re
he acquired the prime SI George's Hospital site in London for just £23,700 • (no, I haven't missed any noughts off the end). Mountbatten of Burma Wednesday November 2, BBC1 Live coverage as Her Ma-
Letters
Scargill's letter is
dated 21 July and it was
published on
September. I am sure
the delay was a result of a
careful consideration of
the importance of the
material they were
handling and the need to
guard against being 'set
UD
If only your
publication displayed
evidence of such
vi cual allul. lil voul
editorial you imply that being against the altering
of the balance of forces in Europe is not incompatible with SOCIAISH. (Perhaps the slogan 'Carry on Yalta appeals to some. It does not appeal to me.)
You must inink agall on this issue because you are talking rubbish. The prevailing balance of imperialist moneylenders anu eserves to De overthrown. Its overthrow in Europe, East and West, is a precondition for the socialist transformation
Do not spoil your campaign against the witch hunt by persecuting another • socialist organisation.
SENSBURY, London
LETTERS
and oppression meted out to children. . The real meaning of their current activity around "child sex' is to reimpose discipline on young people as part of putting back together the Victorian family. JOHN INIGO, London WC1 Scottish devolution to blame?
I FEEL that it was the Scottish devolution campaign that helped the Callaghan government lose its credibility; for
while this was going on the unemployed and the health service were being ignored.
Personally, I feel that an independent Scotland would take us back to the eighteenth century war between us and the Scots. DA PEARCE, Keighley YS.
jesty unveils the statue to commemorate the Earl's unfortunate boating accident.
Open Space:
The Need To Know. Thursday November 3, BBC2
programmes, Medical Campaign Against Nucleal Disarmament demolish the Tory's civil defence 'plans, particularly for post-bomb health care The programme centres
and looks the local health authority's plans.
Page 11 scan of this page
The Great Moving Right Show
REVIEWS
DAVID EDGAR is well
known as the left-wing
author of plays like
Destiny, a sympathiser of
the far left who, for
example wrote street
theatre for Socialist Unity.
His new play, 'May Days',
however makes a critical
assessment of the far left.
Here TARIQ ALI reviews
the play.
This article first appeared in Time Out.
MAY DAYS is survey of political life in Britain, Europe and America. It spans the period between 1956 and 1980 and is centred around Nicklebyish hero, Martin Glass, and move from involvement as a Midlands public schoolboy of the early through a period of intense ultraleftist commitment position as lackey establishment = deciding at the play's close whether or not to evict some demonstrators (including an old and more resilient from his property.
The play's scope is massive: the intellectual debates between far-left groups, the violence of the American draft protestors the British Angry Brigade, fate of Russian and Hungarian political refugees, and increasing awareness of women during the period covered by the action.
But is the play part of the Great Moving Right Show, which reached a scutilicalal at party Conference in Brighton? Or are we merely witnessing the impartiality of the bystander?
Edgar 1S вину aware problem. He ripostes: call Shakespeare a child-molester just because he wrote "Richard III"? In other words, he rejects any attempt at identifying him with the renegades who are the central characters in the play. Yet one's doubts are not fully assuaged.
May Days is an extremely intense theatrical essay on politics. Trevor Griffiths and David Mercer have written on themes in the past. and 7:84 continue to do so today, but shun the glitter of the big theatres and play before more popular audiences in small Scottish towns and working-class clubs in Wales and England.
Edgar's canvas is broader, his aim more ambitious. He is writing about defeated revoltOus. hopes, battered illusions demoralised cadres. It is a selective biography of Edgar's own generation.
May Days concentrates on the aftermath of 1968, phenomenon is a universal should not be restricted in historical time. Despair has claimed many activists in the wake of defeated revolutionary upsurges. Passivity, tions and even suicides have been the unhappy consequences. just to look back at the 1930s and study Germany, Italy and Spain after
reasons.
Germany. The defections in Weakness
cherite Britain
quake. twas
mammoth
that the present
La stable as it appears.
Despite all this, CND devastating ' 60s demoralisation.
final the
anti-nuke
girlfriend)
DONALD COOPER (Time Out)
and the
the
the Labour Photo:
detached David Edgar
'The history of the Marxist left is
littered with the corpses of tinpot
Lenins playing at toy Bolsheviks'
the •Would you dissident
become an
turns on his audience
prepared script by
revolutionary.
present-day
quiet dignity, adjacent John McGrath dramatic effect is considerable.
over a decade ago.
dissidents.
destroyed
and
Trotskyist groups
the one and ages are accurate retlections. Who
defec- intimidating people?
If one were The macho rhetoric,
the victory of fascism, one would see hundreds of thousands of defections: a collective renegacy and for different
Many of those who participated in the forward march of Hitler's legions had at one time been supporters of the far Communist and Socialist Parties in
That- are
after 1979 are minuscule in comparison. One could go. lurtner back into mistory waen tnt the revolutionary wave of 1848 assumed the dimensions of a continental earth-
repressed eventually, with the inevitable political casualties.
The simple point I am stressing is period in Western Europe is not as startling as the 1930s.
LYUC Nor is the ascendancy of the Right as
David Edgar is quite right to try and understand the serious
processes political
The most powerful characters are the dissidents from the East. One of the most powerful images in the play
Parties.
theory.
fessor is that of the newly arrived Soviet
Lermontov Iclusilig instrument of, the cold war. At a dinner in nis nonour ne
- a glittering galaxy of academics, journalists and royalty — and discards the carefully
an experienced BBC hand, formerly a Hungarian that
'Yours are not gaolers' faces,' Lermontov informs them with
'but perhaps the faces of people who hire the gaolers.' The
It is when the targets are clearly identifiable that Edgar is at his confident best and one is reminded of the way he dissected the Right in Destiny,
The play is, however, not just about defectors and
There is a concurrent theme. The economic recession has not led to a boom in socialist ideas. Capitalism is
but so is the Marxist left.
Edgar's depiction of the post-1968
is not merit. I'm sure he will be denounced by them for this, but most of his im-
can deny that the gauntlet of competing newspaper-sellers as enters a left-wing meeting can be an
experience for ulally
tne same style of public speaking, the commandist internal regime is, alas, only too Lie usu
real in most cases. The history of the Marxist left is littered with the corpses
tinpot Lenins playing at Bolsheviks.
Despite all this, Edgar's vision remains savagely one-sided. There is, as
as the largest groups are con cerned, another angle. Their members
dedicated, self-sacrificing tivists. It is not easy, especially now, to devote the bulk of your life to a struggle against the system on every level. It is true that membership of the
can impart a certain siege mentality, but it also helps to insulate
person concerned from relentless atomising pressures capitalist society
James the leader of the Socialist Vanguard in Edgar's play, is shown as a hard-faced practitioner of dogma and factionalism. I know the
He/she exists. It is worth remembering nonetheless that fac tionalism is not confined to the Left. It is a virus that exists in a more
strain boardrooms, academia, trade unions, Fleet Street, the Tory Party, the Labour NEC, and, yes, even the women's movement. Nor is it something restricted to the last few centuries.
Wherever men and women with strong personalities gather to engage in collective work of any sort, they impose their will, albeit unconsciously at times, on their colleagues. Infighting is universal and inevitable.
There 1S another imbalance. Edgar's concentration on the far left has led to some absences. The major defections have, over the years, atfected the Labour and Communist
They have suffered much more than the tiny Trotskyist groups. Yet this is not in the play. Nor is is without relevance. For defections are taking place in the field of socialist
Veteran CP theologians now tell us of the importance of the middle classes and their vital role in helping to preserve modern civilisation.
Eric Hobsbawn is Neil Kinnock's favourite Marxist.
Marxism Today is promoting a merger of the Labour and Democratic Parties, without having the honesty to declare that the Communist Party should disband as well. Half could join Labour, the others the SDP and fight for a fusion within.
All this called "thoughtful'. This process is nowhere to be found in May Days. Possibly the dramatic reasons for the omission are sound ones. Politically though, it unbalances the production.
In a recent article in Marxism Today, Edgar has written that the role of socialist playwrights as cheerleaders is now defunct. I agree. I never thought it should have been that in the first place. In any case, Edgar was hardly
in his former persona Destiny was a serious attempt understand the extreme right. May Days is more of a settling of accounts with the far left.
Strategies
Edgar wants to 'reassess, internalWho could distres Chochan th
Though the dangers of a rapid drift to a position whereby change is regarded as neither possible nor desirable should not be underestimated. Renegacy, after all, is not simply a monopoly of politics It has its counterpart in the cultural field as well.
Arnold Wesker is no longer a Labour voter: David Mercer after ditching all his previous beliefs (and plays?): Tony Garnett, the enfant terrible of the BBC, is now happy in LA: Mick Jagger, who sent me a hand-written version of Fighting Man for inclusion in the Black Dwarf 15 years ago, is now settling comfortably into middle age. Numerous others could be added to
In the West, of course, it is the defections from Left to Right that are toy always celebrated.
break with the system there is isolation and abuse. In the '60s, Russell, this distinguished regularly attacked for challenging the Labour government's American policies on Vietnam.
Here was a case of a movement to the Left, villified by the media. The
of
Photo: GM COOKSON
Pro- Tariq Ali
other celebrated example is that of Social Tony Benn. Who can doubt that if he
had played the game, he might wel have been elected Labour from Right to Left and has paid the price. being
to
David Edgar's first major play for the RSC since DESTINY and his award-winning adaptation of NICHOLAS NICKLEBY Not only a powerful and dramatic assessment of the collapse of political ideals in Britain and died abroad over the past 25 years
MAYDAYS is also an epic and exciting story of detection. betrayal and revenge Street
BARBICAN 01 628 8795/638 8891
Socialist Action 28 October 1983 Financial For those who reason.
Benn. , Bertrand country's • most philosopher, was on a writer's
servile
Fleet Street
It is not easy, especially now, to
devote the bulk of your life to a
struggle against the system'
"reassessment'
tanks'.
determined
ty.
children
turns up, Common Leader of the party? He too had moved many thanks
Marxism Today is often quoted by details.
'The last 150 years have been studded with 'May Days' that didn't quite make it through to June
MAY
DAL
leader-writers in the Guardiar adie
Times as the The same men have sist Their second cousins 3= Sun and Mail have often callec = = "loony'. Far be it from me to intrade dramatic irons mighi have, it includ privileges, ed, given a sharper cutting edge to May Days. It would also have con tested the reigning orthodoxies of
What worries me is that Edgar's
however well-intentioned, will tie in neatly with the pre-occupations of Kinnock's 'think
Think tanks? No! Rather stagnant pools with a fetid smell,
to drown dissent and debate in the name of a spurious uni-
For all my moans, May Days is a play about our times. It captures well the political directionlessness of the the sector anger ate an e 1968. The feminist, is not one of the strengths of the play A good person, she carries on with he priorities. She organises crêches and
inevitably, at Greenham with 15-year old daughter (born in 1968).
History has moved on. The period that began in May 1968 in France and ended in November 1975 in Portuga is over. The multitentacled grip of Reaction can be observed most clearly in Britain and the USA. The masses appear to be silent. Order seems to have been restored. Pessimism and conservatism go hand in hand
Amanda declares her faith in the rationality of the species. It will carry on resisting till injustices are removed. It is a low-profile approach com. pared to the heady rhetoric of the '60s. At least she hasn't caved in completely: For this small mercy, David,
'May Days' is in repertory a the Barbican theatre. See ad on this page for
PREVIEWS FROM 14 OCT REDUCED PRICE
Page 12 scan of this page
19844
NEW
OYALIST
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AUST
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THE Guardian last Friday had headline "Councils put on the rack to spending'. government respondent Carvel went describe how Tories had the instruments financial which are to be used to force local authorities to cut throw council workers onto the dole.
In another front page article, Victor Keegan told how Nigel Lawson had 'nailcu lne government to the objective of elimination of inflation'
It is indeed a violent word in particularly ting finances sorted out
concerned. had our own problems as the computer which was bought to make accounting easier plunge us back into the dark ages cheques orders on the envelopes.
At many points over the past weeks we looked upon the Luddites as kindred spirits. machine
John Ross
Financial tortures?
back to life and we can the lank une long list or supporters who sent in their cut meantime.
Local Many people wrote in CUl' to support us when the John presse middle ng ere on to Conley witch hunt the middle the unveiled Two authors of a Ci ty Limits article of moles sent payment. New wrote to although they read the and coverage in the press had attracted them to it. Not only did they subscribe to Socialist Ac-
economics editor tion, they also
donations.
The Labour conference made it clear total that be kicked out, will have to organise to which we live, make sure the right wing where get- are kept in check. Witch-hunting attacks on MiliWe have tant and Socialist Action benefit no bosses in the long run.
Why threatened 1o your coppers, notes or cheque to our adding up regular postal porters? backs of
Manchester DistriC
Now the Hemel Hempstead • spluttering Coventry Ken Livingstone Ernest Mandel Judith Arkwright Saturday 29 October British politics: facing 1984 (10-1pm) Andrew Gamble, Doreen Massey, John Ross, Barry Hindess • Rebuilding the Labour Party (4.30-6.30pm)
Ken Livingstone, Vladimir Derer, Jude Woodward
• Struggle for black rights (2-4pm) Jenny Bourne, Unmesh Desai
• Socialist economic policy and the AES (2-4pm)
John Harrison, Hilary Wainwright • Strategy on Ireland (2-4pm)
Speakers from Socialist Organiser and Socialist Action
Sunday 30 October • Economic strategy for European Labour (10-1pm)
Ernest Mandel, Stuart Holland MP, John Palmer
• Socialist foreign policy (1.30-3.30pm)
Joy Hurcombe, Alan Freeman • • Women and family policy (1.30-3.30pm)
Judith Arkwright, Mica Nava, Lynne Segal • Democratising the unions (1.30-3.30pm)
Kate Holman, John Aitken
Diary
the
about
us in their
readers say that hadn't paper before, article
decide to
sent in
Party London
if the Tories are to
the left Londor
8888888888888
one but the
don't you add
pound
sup-
150.01 140.00 E Coleman
Total £5,265.53 Hilary Wainwright Vladimir Derer
Page 13 scan of this page
International
THE ECONOMIC crisis in the West inevitably raises the question of the state of the so-called 'communist economies of Europe and, in particular, the Soviet Union. Does the Soviet economy suffer from the mass unemployment, raging inflation and production characteristic of capitalist crisis?
The short answer is no', but the Soviet economy beset by a series of major problems which derive part from the crisis in the West, in part from natural limitations, but particularly from the existence privileged bureaucracy.
The October Revolution • of 1917 destroyed the capitalist Russian state and replaced it with a workers' state based on the nationalisation of the land and all basic industry. However, not until the late twenties that serious planning was instituted. By then a bureaucratic elite with Stalin at its head had gained control of the Communist Party and the state apparatus as a result of the defeat of socialist revolution internationally and the quent isolation of the Union.
By Rick Hellman
Stalin began a programme of rapid industrialisation and tivisation of agriculture financed by harsh exploitation of the peasantry and working class. visalon resure m a calastropnic decline in agricultural production. In industry, persistent overfulfilment of the disproportions. Nevertheless, the industrial growth of the USSR in the thirties revealed the gigantic potential of the nationalised economy at a time
massive crisis in the world
This damentals of planning which remain unchanged to this day; the working class was excluded from the planning process and became the passive executant of centrally determined orders; planning priorities werę determined
num) 1971-75 - 1976 7.4 4.8
num average)
National income utilised Gross industrial output Gross agricultural output Investment Electricity output Petroleum output Steel output Coal output a = growth rate between five year averages
1971-75 1976 1977 6.8 3.3 4.1
Is the Soviet
Eastern in
the sector
of a
rate than Sector A.
Priorities
The Ninth It was (1971-75) conseSoviet decline in Table 1).
collec-
Forced collec-
and
capitalist Table 1: Claimed rates of growth of industrial production (per cent per an-
1977 1978 1979 5.7 4.8 34
Table 2: Tenth Five-Year Plan targets and achievements (per cent per an-
1976-80 Plan 4.7 6.3 2.9a 4.7a 5.8
2.8
Table 3: Annual increase in industrial output per person (per cent)
1978 1979 1980 3.6 2.4 2.6
economy
in crisis?
by the struggle between competing interest groups within the bureaucracy.
These two factors have meant that the economy has continually suffered from a major disproportion between
producing means of production (Sector A) and the consumer goods sector (Sector B). It was only in the late sixties that Sector B production grew at a greater but unplanned
Five-Year Plan was tne nrst to actually foresee a larger output from Sector B than Sector A, but growing problems in the economy resulted in a rapid switch in planning priorities back to Sector A. The bureaucracy's inability to ensure a plentiful supply of good quality consumer goods threatens a major social crisis in the future.
Nor has the bureaucracy's desire for stability been aided by the steady
the rate of growth (see 1980 1981. 3.6 3.4-
1976-80 actual 3.8 4.5 1.7a 5.0a 4.5 4.2 8.4 1.0 0.4
1981 1982 2.7 2.1
This decline is mirrored by results of the Tenth Five-Year Plan (1976-80) in which plan targets for key indicators have not been achieved (see Table 2).
The falling rate of growth has been accompanied by a drastic decline in the growth of labour productivity (see Table 3).
Alcoholism
There are a number of reasons for this fall, the most important being the discrepancy between the steady rise in incomes and expectations masses and the still very low level of comsumption. There appears to be very little tangible benefit for hard work and so absenteeism and jobchanging are commonplace alcoholism is a serious social problem.
Experiments, such Shchekino and Aksai, have been introduced to try and intensify usage of labour and raise productivity. These have normally entailed a certain degree of participation by the
creases output.
Led with genuine workers' control
ly
tories for supplies.
Population
cessive bad
West, particularly However, the last witnessed
the machinery and spare parts.
of' the Losses
and
in production. Soviet estimates
the no need to import any.
So leadership
Socialist Action 28 October 1983 gains.
Soviet plied because
workforce in setting production levels with high bonuses for significant in- tory.
practices have achieved some notable results, but they should, in no way, be confus-
fundamental decisions are still taken The
- and they appear to be on-
applicable to smaller enterprises with less dependence on other fac- 'second'
price.
Agricultural production which is Soviet intimately bound up with light industry has not been aided by four suc-
harvests. The Soviet bureaucracy has been forced to import large quantities of grain from the
for fodder. five years have virtual stagnation 01 meat production which means, with
populalol, a per capita decrease in meat consumption.
The bureaucratic character of the management of the collective and state tarns das meant low producuvi ty in comparison with the plots of land and livestock in private hands. Despite the high levels of investment to an adequate infrastructure has still not been developed: many roads are of poor quality and impassable in the Winter: there is a lack of storage facilities for fertiliser and produce
agricultural resours
Transport throughout the Soviet degree Union, and the railways in particular, is very inefficient which leads to enormous losses of goods and bottlenecks existence.
that, if the amount of grain lost in transit could be saved, there would be
what does the new Soviet intend to do about this explosion sorry catalogue? Firstly, Andropor
Lenin and the bolsheviks establis the first workers state on the bas of a planned economy appears acutely aware of the poten disaster of too great a gap between come and the availability of consu
His first therefore, been a campaign to cla down on 'parasitism' and impr ment of the availability of goods
at the place of work discourage absenteeism. measures have already recorded se
Quality
Secondly, there is much talk in press about reform of economic mechanism so as to prove the quality of goods produ perhaps through some decentral tion of decision making Howe the reform introduced in 1965, w it partially halted stagnation, was
only slowly and unere of conflicting inter between the bureaucracy in the c
planning agency bureaucracy at the level of the f
In 1979 a decree opted for a m traditional approach of increased c tralisation and strengthened ministrative control over producti
latest murmurings indicate possible legalisation of certain of private enterprise operations of
which blossomed in recent years to pro scarce commodities and services s
It is a sad commentary on bureaucracy's inability to develop
economy, more than years after the revolution, that inst of a gradual elimination of the n nants of capitalism it can only se Its own interests Dy a rentorcemen those elements. Impasse
While the USSR's main trad partners are still within Comecon import of Western technology has creased dramatically within the ten years and, along with it, Soviet debtedness Western banks. seems if the mineral wealth of Sibe
be further exploited technology will have to be impor leading to greater and grea burden on the economy. The ot great drain on the economy is
military spending wh represents absolute loss
The bureaucracy is, therefore. an impasse. It cannot allow the wo ing class to play a significant role planning nor can it allow too grea
of private enterprise wh would threaten the nationalised F perty relations and its own privile
At the moment reemergence of the Soviet work class as a political force appears a lo way off, but the continued incapas of the bureaucracy to deliver goods may yet lead to a much grea
than brought birth of Solidarnose in Poland.
Page 14 scan of this page
NALGO action hots up
orkers met on Tuesday If Dresber and decided to 300 delegates calate industrial action in support of a claim for a orter working week.
The meeting authorised the 24 hour strike which
by of the negotiations with the employer at the tional Joint Council's London meeting. If no substantially imwea orrer 1s a claim for a reduction in
basic working week
to 37 hours
residential staff in
elderly
Die s nomes work up lo hours a week • bran-
will be encouraged to
ghen up the action at
level.
Residential workers I impose a strict 9-5 day, using to do clerical and ministrative work, ban-
duties d taking strike action.
action has cady started. In Shef-
270 National and cal Government Of-
Association ambers at 23 children's
END
CONTRACT
POVERTY
Plastics, Redditch, canises on Monday 10 October. Over 100 supmers turned out, with representatives from Birm-
ham and Redditch trades councils and the Na-
cal Society of Metal Mechanics, to which the okers belong.
They are fighting for
and
SLUI
datement. Their ap-
industrial al comes up on Lon-
dismissed
joining the union and
Tabs were recruited to The firm it the workers on an
Socialist Action 28 October 1983
representing b residential
place on Monday 17 October to support a mass
homes were on strike for one day on 10 October. NATCO and seven NUPE Salford eight at the Park LICHUCIS House assessment centre have been on strike TOI month now.
UVCE
Essex strikes continue at the Boyles Assessment Centre, Westcliffe on Sea.
Portsmouth 46 members are on strike.
Strikes have also occured in Strathclyde, Coventry, Tameside, Croyden, Northamptonshire, War(Leamington, Rugby and Norwich) and Haringey. Establishments have closed Barnet, Lambeth and Brent.
Threatened strikes in
101gU
Asian workers
fight dismissal
mounted a picket of the
84 hour week - seven 12 hour shifts.
Although the company invested 500,000 in new equipment and is very profitable, wages
distre NiMM handling of
affair nas been shambles. They applied for negotiating rights, but
Bury and Dorset have forced management to drop admission plans, and in Cleveland strike action has won reinstatement of a sacked union member supporting the national action.
In Kent 230 NALGO members in social services are still on strike and eltec. tively picketing the Kent
Council central supplies depot at West Malling. The Council still trying to use Tebbit's. laws to smash this secon dary picketing?
tine show solidarity Kent strikers made up one of the largest contingents in support of
Muhammed Idrish use Defence Campaign demonstration in Birmingham supported by NALGO.
Delegates the meeting discussed motions from Lambeth, Brent and Barnet branches of NALGO calling for ballot for all-out indefinite when the workers were
equivocated calling the other NOMM workers out.
They discouraged the nine from mounting picket and made a hash of the first tribunal. Jack Langford, the district
bears most
responsibility for this, but he now seems determined
This is a bit late in the
that youth, black. and
asian 110!
always see the point of
joining unions.
strike action by residential workèrs. Motions from Wigan and South Tyneside called for nationally-called actions like a ban on 'sleeping-in' duties.
•Powerful speeches were made calling for solidarity with those already out on strike. But although the limitations of selective action were pointed out, especially the divisions between those
strike action and
SHEFFIELD CITY
Council employment
department have pro-
duced a pamphlet
arguing the case for
railway electrifica-
tion.
Their effort is sup-
ported by GEC Traction
Sheffield joint shop
stewards' coillice.
and local representatives
of the NUR, ASLEF and
the Confederation of
Shipbuilding. and
Engineering Unions.
The authors explain,
'Electrification of Bri-
tain's main line railways
has been under discus-
sion nationally for
number of years.
It is supported by the
Labour Party, the TUC,
the rail unions and sun-
dry organisations
from across the political
spectrum.
*Public reports in
1981 and 1982 have made
a clear case for a
UL U of electrifica-
tion The government
has failed to act.
'More than that, it
has implemented an
outright attack on Bri-
railway network
through privatisation,
limits and, most
recently, proposals to
close engineering works
The recently published
Serpell report sounds a
warning for further cuts
o cone.
"The purpose of this
ALGO
GO
those not, the majority of delegates supported the present approach of the union's national committee. They have promoted a 'shopping list' of tougher actions from which branches can choose.
The residential workers deserve support frọm orner NALGO members and the rest of the labour movement. national campaign is needed to step up the strikes and publicise their just
Electrify for jobs
pamphlet is to outline the
case for electrification;
indicate the barriers
the government has plac
ed in the way of its im-
plementation and to look
Flen HE SONALY
17605
CHODSE AY UP claim. victory for them would be a real contribution to building opposition to the Tories' plans for the public services.
• ON MONDAY 17 October, thousands residential workers strike action and 2000 lob bied the national negotia tions in London, at which no offer was made.
On the same day, Bury
ELECTRIFY
FOR JOBS
The Case for
Railway Electrification
more widely at the
programme electrification.' • For further details o) the campaign to electrif)
News
• . By Mark Hackett, Bury NALGO
WALGO
Residential workers fight for shorter hours
social services' ment closed three children's homes, locked out the staff and dispersed
the children all over North Photo: MORNING STAR
Wales and Lancashire.
Over 50 residential workers are on indefinite strike Social services' staff will be out on strike on 26 October for the day and the following day mass meeting will be asked to bring al memoer OU. on a series of one day strikes. for jobs contact: Mick raaaon Employmen Department, Sheffield City Council, Palatine Chambers, Pinstone Street, Sheffield I.
Page 15 scan of this page
Miners national campaign begins
In the Unions
MINERS BEGIN a national overtime ban on Mon-
day 31 October. This was the unanimous decision of
the special mineworkers' union conference,
rejected the Coal Board's 5.2 per cent pay offer.
voted to campaign for a substantial pay increase, to
oppose closure of any pit unless its coal is exhausted,
oppose further rundown of jobs, and to demand full
talks with the NCB.
Photo: GM COOKSON
Photo: GM COOKSON
which
The conference, held in London on 21 October, Durham miners join the lobby of the NUM delegate conference Dai Davies from South Wales and Alan Cummings from Durham
NUM president
thur Scargill said that overdue makes up between 12 and 14 per cent of LOCTOIS workea. In lne pits and its abolition could Creale between 30,000 jobs.
He stressed that the overtime ban 'is only the
first step in our campaign to save our industry'
VOSI miners understand that an overtime ban only has value prepares for more militant
The NCB and its customers have built up Coal SLOCKS 50 million tonnes, which could last six months with miners losing up to f45 a week from already stretched pay packets.
By Celia Pugh
A delegation of 50 miners from the Monktonhall colliery Scotland joined a lobby outside the conference. They have been strike for five weeks against the Coal Board's refusal to comply with normal consultation procedures while imposing 300 redundancies
One of the Monktonhall miners explained: 'We are determined to keep our pit open. We got good support when the Scottish miners went on strike for a day our support. want the same from the
the whole coalfield should be shut down evervwhere'
After the conference decision, another Monktonhall miner pointed out that 'an overtime ban may be okay for the pay issue, but it won't be enough to save our pit.'
Dai Davies, one of thé lobbiers from the South Wales NUM echoed this. 'MacGregor out decimate the pits We could be down to as few as 12 pits in South Wales. My own pit is under threat
would feel very isolated if was in the position of the Monktonhall lads who have been out on their own for 5 weeks'.
Time to take
a stand
newspapers suddenly friends.
Funnily enough this happens just
and downright lies.
The NCB said that only loss making pits would have go. DUl threatened pits, like Monktonhall have years of coal left.
They make a 'loss' because they are starved of investment. No pit should
closene Board shys sted.
Board savs that the coal industry must pay its way. But f400 million a year- $20,000 per work. Ing goes in in terest to bankers who have #ever even seel a pil. The Board says that we
cannot sell the coal. Coal
stockpiled because of the bosses recession. It
Alan Cummings, lodge secretary of the Easington colliery Durham pointed out that the NCB
closure strings always said that the Board were after the pits. It's not bullshit anymore because it's clear in the pay offer.
"They are tying the 5.2 per cent pay offer demands to reduce capacity in pits they claim are a burden. They demand that "meaningful talks" should take place over capacity and that "high cost" pits should be eliminated.
lan MacGregor the NCB chief reiterated these threats last weekend, demanding more closures. Miners realise that compulsory redundancies could be on the cards by next summer if a stand is not taken.
Campaign
The miners of Monktonhall have taken a lead
faced wilt closure are pushing for a campaign of militant industrial action.
Revnolds trom the threatened Horden pit
Durham told Socialist Action, 'It's about time we nau a snowaown agalsl the government. And it's not just us. We might as well all come out miners, rail, health, electricity and power workers. The TUC should be backing workers to strike to get rid of the government, not talking to the Tories'
Lobbying, miners felt that the overtime ban gives time to build up a campaign at the pitheads and in the pit canteens. But the Monktonhall strikers are a reminder that this will not be enough.
ONCE A YEAR the National Coal Board and the become the miners' best
when the Board wants to close pits and force through a low pay rise. Right now, MacGregor's lie machine is being cranked up to churn out distortion, half truths
could be distributed free to pensioners.
The dangerous and expensive nuclear generators would be replaced by coalfired power stations.
By Mark Hunter, Welbeck colliery, Nottingham
The Board says that we Stalls work harder. Since 1974 output per face has increased by • 33 per cent. Men in their 50's work mnemserves to deal at the coal face because they cannot afford to take a lighter job.
Socialist Action 28 October 1983
MOLES
EYE
VIEW
The Ayatollah and
the camel
WHEN IRAN'S 200
universities were closed
down nearly four years
at the all wise light of
light
Islam thought the
Ayatollah Khomeni was
against knowledge.
But the mullah has
confounded all his critics
and the spirit of learning Tehrana thriving
In a scientific
breakthrough
agricultural graduates
will the proper
prayers for making
rain. They will also learn
the right psalms to ward
off the menace of locusts Fashioned nonsense like that
using pesticides.
Special classes are be-
ing U1 how
sacrifice a lamb which is
essential for anyone tak-
ing a degree in zoology.
A special feature of the
course in animal husban-
dry is the advice on what
to do with a camel that
has been sexually
assaulted by its owner.
The 'disgraced' beast
must be expelled from its
vicinity and sold to peo-
ple who are unaware of
its shame. A must
reading the
Ayatollah's book Solu-
tion Problems and
students are taught to re-
dubious and non
scientific sources like
Darwin. winstein and
Marx who are accused of
Castine COUD the
truth of the prophets'.
Reduced and
Create jobs and make
lives safer.
Mark Hunter
The Board says that we should accept a small wage rise and our jobs will br safe. They said that last year. Since lnel jobs have gone from the
Absorbing such highly specialised knowledge requires very special type of student so the Ayatollah has reluctantly had to chop the number of graduates
Tehran university from a former 23,000 to 4,000. Women in particular find difficulty grappling with the idea being taught on the new course that women ar
weak and DOLI dangerous and need to be kept under control for their own good.
But don't get the idea that the mullahs are against women having the right to meet and organise seperately. The authorities have a rule that talking to anyone of the opposite sex is an offence. In the class room women sit behind a curtain separate them from men which is the mullahs' definition of what women's group should be! Keen on the idea that women should be seen and not heard regulations forbid women to ask oral questions so they must submit their questions in writing.
This might explain why only 10 per cent of the students are women compared to a previous
per
Moles ave. view is comniler by BOB PENNINGTON Contributions
SHOUL sent to arrive by Thursday
industry. Seventy thou
under MacGregor's hi
fight for better wages strengthens union. it strengthen the fight for jobs. In the run up to our ballot, the
Board, the telly and the papers WIl whip them. selves to a frenzy to defea us and our union.
The claim is a just one but justice never win. without a fight.
The NUM must organise now, down the pit, at meetings and in the pub to argue that an alter native exists to the plans of MacGregor and Thatcher.
It must organise nos to fight, not just miners, but for tel ki and the future of the mining communities. I's Clai to take a stand!
Page 16 scan of this page
Support the
'S US TROOPS and their allies invade the tiny and of Grenada we should remember the other ene of imperialist intervention
the wake of the
ab attacks against US
French peace-
ping' troops in Beirut
can bed you pile that
pals are ig to step up their litary involvement in ebanon.
Davy Jones
When some US politi-
demanded Reagan US troops he ade a very revealing rep-
'We have cause basic US interests
involved.' other ords it is a 'basic interest'
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Out of Lebanon
— Lebanon. fend the right-wing Phalangist. gangsters who run the Lebanese government!
This weekend foreign ministers of France, Italy, USA and our very own Tory government are meeting to discuss stepping up their 'peacekeeping' role. Their role is about as peaceful in intent the US invasion of Grenada. recent weeks the CIA has launched a major serles revoluting blowing Nicaragua, including up large proportion of the oil Now the US has invaded
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Grenada to roll back the gains since the revolution overturer Gairy regime.
In the Lebanon also the imperialist troops are there to stop the Lebanese people determining their own future. British troops are already in the Lebanon doing American imperialism's dirty work.
Fight
The British labour movement must not allow what happened in Vietnam. happen again in the
Lebanon. We must shout Irom me roonops lor unt withdrawal of British and troops from Lebanon.
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TANDS OFF union laws.
Mercury didn't lose the case because British justice is fair and impartial. They lost because of the strength of the engineers' action and the growing
for them in the SUDDOrI rest of the labour move-
Already the other unions in the JOSla vices the UCW and SCPS, are dicussing support actions, and solidari-
resolutions from other unions and Labour Party branches are pouring in.
The post office engineers are in the front line of the fight against the Tory government. Thatcher's plans to privatise British Telecom are crucia to their economic projects. Selling BI would yield $4 billion and provide bonanza for the Tories' friends in the city. Thus the stakes are very high for the Tories.
But so are the stakes for the labour movement. Since the election the real
of the Tories' 'the NHS IS safe with us'pledge has been revealed in brutal plans to cut doctors and nurses' jobs.
leagues work.
overwhelming
this into nationwide action.
TELEPHONES!
BRITISH TELECOM AND YOURS 'The message is loud and clear: no sell out for private profit
engineers
THE TORIES suffered a rare setback last week, at the hands of the post office engineers. Private firm Mercury confidently appealed under Tebbit's anti-union laws for an injunction against the engineers for boycotting them as part of the anti-privatisation campaign. But they lost, giving a major boost to the fight against privatisation and against all the anti-
The post office engineers' campaign against privatisation spread the idea that privalsalon Ically piratisation of public services. It has successfully fought off Mercury's court action and une warcal of dismissals by management.
Now is the time forthe
ment to rally behind the POEU action. The health unions and the post office. engineers should draw up a joint plan of action to ward off the Tories' tacks. The other postal unions should levy their membership and prepare a campaign of solidarity acthe Telecomworkers.
And in every • locality trade unions and Labour Party Should organise solidarity meetings and collections with the post office engineers. That is the way to escalate the fight into a campaign strike action to bring the Tories to their knees. * See page five for further coverage of the dispute.
TWO WEEKS ago Telex engineers in Aberdeen went on strike as part of the POEU campaign against the privatisation of British Telecom. Six engineers struck and two more were suspended for refusing to carry out col-
On Tuesday 11 October a mass meeting of over 300 telephone engineers from North East Scotland adopted an overtime ban, and demanded that the union executive should spread The Telex srike proved to be the most effective of the union's selective action yet, when the entire
has
BT atWorkers action can cripple Tory plans
Aberdeen action shows how to fight
By Anne Shirley (Aberdeen POEU)
operating in the North Sea were cut off
call off the overtime ban.
tee, told us:
HANDS OFF TELEPHONES
FOR SALE POEU Picket Telex system operated from Aberdeen collapsed. Some 165,000 customers including oil companies
Eventually Telex was put back on the air after the two suspended engineers were reinstated • Unfortunately, last Friday the branch also decided to
Bill Loxton, a member of the branch commit-
The problem facing us now is sustaining action if there is no national action to back us up. Since Telex is back on the air and the overtime ban has been called off, we are in danger of losing the momentum built up in the members.
← Socialist Action No. 30, 21 October 1983Socialist Action No. 32, 4 November 1983 →