Rarely has a more ridiculous been made than that of the Labour leadership over the NGA dispute. We are now informed it has become democratic socialism that the law must be obeyed.
Éxcuse us while we laugh!
If the law had always been obeyed there would have been no socialism in the first place.
What was The act sovereignty of Parliament against the tyranny of the monarchy in Britain? It was simply that Parliament rose in rebellion - totally illegally -and chopped off the head of Charles I.
The American Declaration of Independence starts, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
For the American colonies which became the United States these words meant something quite specific. George IIi, the English king who ruled them, American colonies going to shake off British government for ever.
France the great wasted not one minute in rubbish about the law. Instead it overthrew the only too legal government of Louis XVI.
The English, American, tions are the great foundation stones of modern democratic liberty. All were completely and utterly illegal.
Only too frequently tionably obey the law are enemies of democracy. Hitler perfectly legal way. that Hitler's succession should have been accepted because it was law?
Far better that the German working class had risen up there and then, shattered the law, and saved Europe from fascism and fifty million dead in the Second World War. Aced bat we Topale martyrs that lis advice Tolpuddle general' their attempt to create a trade union shouldn't set one up because it onas against the supported If the labour movement had accepted the law it would never have existed in the first place. Those men and women who violated the law to create the trade unions are heroes pioneers of democratic socialism. tersley, and those who bow down before unjust laws, are in the tradition of the oppressors. They betray democracy and socialism.
There is one final word on democracy and the law. There are many many countries in the world in. which there is law apartheid system law. So is Israel's oppression of the Palestinians within its own boundaries.
To take another scale of values are we sup posed to accept that children die of leukaemia because the law says British Nuclear Fuels has the right to pour radio-active contamination into the Irish sea? Or are not Greenpeace right to break the law and fight to bring that pollution to an end? Who is the democrat in that?
But while there are many countries in which there is law and no liberty there is no state at all - whether in the East or the West - in which there is democracy but there is no free independent workers' movement.
It is the power of the British labour move ment, the power of its trade unions - not the power of its courts - which is the sole guarantee of whatever democracy exists in Britain.
The NGA, the pickets at Warrington, Greenpeace protestors hampions of liberty Roy Hattersley is not just failing to defend the trade unions and socialism. He is not even a champion of the very causes that created and safeguard democracy in the first place.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weekly except two weeks in August and the last week of December Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent Socialist Action's views. These are expressed in editorials.
exhibition DAVID FOWLER principle democracy and no that established the was a disgraceful tyrant.
perfectly illegally — were revolution of 1789 and French revoluDigbeth Civic Hall. tacked by the press. Socialist Action prints the part of Arthur Scargill's speech on the NGA strike.
The dispute involving the NGA, who currently fighting not only the simple single issue of Lne workers but also against the might of the establishment and the Tory governMeN. further analysis from this movement, but it requires far more also.
has to be recognition that what is taking place today is a proposal put into effect by the
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ON 30 NOVEMBER Arthur Scargill spoke at a rally organised by the Triple Alliance at Birmingham's