Socialist Action No. 62, 15 June 1984
The scan: 062-jun-15-1984-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.
Page 1 scan of this page
MacGregor's plan to crush
IN A carefully timed interview with The Times on Tuesday, lan MacGregor unveiled his new plan for coal — the plan he will be taking to the table for 'negotiations' with the NUM this week.
He made it clear that it is the NCB that will be dictating the terms. Comparing his plan to the 1974 Plan for Coal MacGregor said: "This time we must be more forthcoming. We will write the plan. The Coal Board will recover its responsibility for managing the coal industry
He explained his main proposal: *...while there may be fewer people, those who are in the industry will be substantially better paid if productivity goes up the way I think it may.'
In other words, the NCB will dictate the terms. The NCB will divide and rule.
It is a classic sell-out proposal - exchange jobs for the promise of higher wages. And the aim is to sow division in the NUM's ranks.
As a plan for coal MacGregor's plan means 'create one, two, many Nottinghams,' and deepen the divisions within the NUM, putting huge obstacles in the way of the future unity of the union.
There is no doubt that MacGregor's proposal has been worked out with Thatcher and the government. denies any 'political' content: 'I don't vote here - I vote in Florida,' he told The Times.
It is obvious that the ranks of the NUM are determined not to accept any deal that means pit closures. At the miners' gala in Scotland McGahey promised: meetings, but no secret deals. We are accountable.' On the same platform Heathfield insisted: "There is no division in the leadership of the union.' But in reality MacGregor are now working flat out to create divisions in the NUM.
The Tories have so far concentrated on ensuring that every individual confrontation with the pickets - at Orgreave, Ravenscraig or in Notts — has been defeated by a military operation from the police. Meanwhile the NCB continue to use negotiations to attempt to divide and weaken the union.
The real response to MacGregor's plan was seen at Shirebrook on Monday - extending and deepening the boycott of coal. Making the strike more effective and building solidarity action from other sections of the labour movement.
At the miners' gala in Scotland Jimmy Knapp of the NUR said of his union and the miners: 'We are now the provisional wing of the TUC.' The 'provisional wing' should take the initiative and step up the action behind the miners now. So that MacGregor's plan can be consigned to the dustheap where it belongs.
But of course MacGregor
are SCUICE
Thatcher and up the
ACTION SOCiA iSt
GUA
NO PI
the NUM
GOAL NOT DOLE
NOT DOLE
CLOSURES
STAR WARS
IS REAL
COAL NOT
SJOLE
AND PIT
EVER felt scared? Well one short item on Monday's news should have created more fear in the people of the world than anything which has happened in most of their lifetimes.
The news? Simply that the United States had successfully tested an anti-ballistic missile system. For the first time ever
intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully intercepted in outer space.
Don't believe that test has anything to do with 'defence', The US wants a reliable antiballistic missile system for one reason. So that it can successfully' fight a nuclear war. So that it protect the
Call mainland of the United States while it carries out nuclear attacks on the rest of the world
If it ever gains that potential United State capitalism, without question, would launch a nuclear war. It is precisely to gain that capability that the United States has repeatedly refused, and again on Tuesday, to enter into any limitations of its capacity to use anti-missiles systems in space. Reagan really means it when he talks of preparing for war.
Last Monday, courtesy of the United States, the world became a terrifyingly less safe place.
COAL
NOT
ORLE
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Socialist Action 15 June 1984
ACTION SoCialist
Reagan's
summit Last week's world economic summit was an almost 100 per cent success for Reagan. '
- the nature of the arms build up, the new cold war, the US budget defecit, rates, the international debt crisis - the US asserted its interests not only against the working class and the Soviet Union but also against its capitalist 'allies'.
The United States' small matters either. West European capitalism continues to be drained of its finances to prop up the dollar and fund the American military build
The United States is imposing a pattern of UD. arms trade across the Atlantic totally in its own financial interests. The US embargoes on trade with Eastern Europe are directly European 'high technology' firms. The continued impact of 'Reaganomics' ther the recession in Western Europe - and is directly creating starvation and chaos in large parts of the 'third world'. All those, including the Soviet leadership, who believed the West European capitalists would stand up to the United States had a nasty shock last week.
But the reason for Reagan's victory is easy to find. In a struggle between capitalists the Unitec States holds all the trump cards.
No European capitalist state has the power to defend capitalism in Western Europe against the Soviet Union. No European substitute for the dollar. capitalist has any workable alternative to NATO and the 'Atlantic Alliance' - that is the subordination of Western Europe to the United States.
More important the US arrived in Western Europe after World War Il with its Marshall Aid and ground forces to block socialism. Confronted with highly organised labour Western Europe, and the USSR as the strongest military power on the would not have survived in Europe without the intervention of the United States.
It is this reality which still dominates the positions of West European capitalism. Certainly the West European ruling classes dislike many of the current policies of the United States. But they tear the the USSR, far more.
Reagan, understand that reality perfectly well. They have only one - but utterly devastating -to European capitalism. ve will leave you to face your own working class and the USSR, alone.
Kohls, Mitterands, lapse like pricked balloons. As the United States is also the most powerful guarantor of their exploitation of the Middle East, Africa and Asia the Japanese capitalists finally will give in to Reagan on ahe only force whic
only United States in Western Europe was that out on the streets on 9 June - the West European labour and peace movements.
But then Thatcher, wanted them invited to the summit even less than Reagan did!
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weekly except two weeks in August and the a week or beccloct Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily repreent Socialist Action's views. These are expressed in editorials.
Send all correspondence regarding subscriptions, and receipts to Socialist Action Distribution, 328 Upper Street London NI 2XP. (Tel: 01-359 8180) Send all material for publication (including advertising) :o Socialist Action Editorial at the same address. Wie regret that due to the high cost of postage we cannot return or acknowledge unsolicited copy or photographs anless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.
Ronald On every key question in dispute
interest
victories were not on hitting West is deepening still furcurrency can No West European movements
continent, capitalist working class of Western Europe, and
and the United States ruling class,
• argument 'Either submit to us or
Faced with that logic the Craxis and all the rest col-
Latin America, West European and
force which really opposes the
Mitterand, and Kohl sales
The most important thing about Thursday's Commons debate on the miners strike was not what was said in the Chamber, miners in London. The spirit of the march and rally and the behaviour of the police brought home the sharpness of the class struggle.
if the police hadn't stopped so many people getting into the House. They were simply refusing to allow people in. gested; it's been far busier on many other lobbies. And, at one time, the Grand Committee Room, where various Labour MPs and trade union leaders were speaking to a running audience, was virtually empty.
Yet there were ines and lines of police outside rerusing to anow ally more miners into the building on
grounds that it was full. Outside there were 100 arrests, including one Labour MP, Dave Mellist, who was subsequently
much about what's going
tually said inside.
was out there myselt and saw people arrested penino a ver cavy row or police. For a while I had
• getting back in.
They refused to accept a parliamentar Jass evidence that was member of Parliament!
teresting incident tells a lot
attitudes. One MP from the north east was on the terrace with about a dozen miners. (There's a silly rule which says an MP can only accompany six people at a time).
A policeman actually came up and asked the MP 'Are this lot with you?' If
50, Deen mind 12, City gents and their wives sitting out there having a drink with a Tory MP, the policeman wouldn't have even asked the question. He certainly woulan't nave rererreu 1o this lot. It might have been 'Are Hines and gentlemen with you, sir?'
usually tremendous facade of im-
It's pro-
bably the one place where you would expect police behaviour to be absolutely impeccable. It's no coincidence that when miners come to lobby we see such arrogance trom the police
All this that Lucalt most Labour MPs felt this
Just another debate. The miners presence put Labour MPs
more determined mood.
Few
There are a few who haven't been that conspicuous in their suppor
for the miners, who were running around on Thurs day with their NUM stickers on. cheering the miners on. Dennis Skin ner's performance was the most remarkable heard In my short time here. The more the Tories reacted, the more it got Dennis going.
Pointing straight at Peter Energy Minister, he spelled it out:
but when
going to have to reinstate every miner
that's been sacked in the dispute. That evil incentive
schemes going to have to ago - it's no good shaking
your head, you're going to have to do it.'
Everyone on our side
A touch of class
but the mass presence of
And it could have been brought home even more
The Central Lobby was never that con-
By Bob Clay
brought monical.
And it ended
Labour
House
La rubber stamp.
things wilnoul any
Thursday will
among Labour that the
try.
it's WUli
struggle.
I'm (OIvinced the 1984
will the way from on. We
ting will be beginning the end
tand now
ago.
were somewhat that Neil didn't lead off Thursday's debate. To his eternal credit, Michael Foot ended his speech by saying the Prime Minister nao nea. And ne gol awa)
with it. (Tam Dalyell was
out for five days only a few weeks ago for saying that and refusing to withdraw).
Traditionally the party leader only speaks in a ma jor debate. , I would have thought that the miners debate was one. Neil Kin. nock seems to believe that the party shouldn't be too clearly identified with
this now: dispute, GCHO. Liver-
pool, and now the miners'
strike. Whenever legality is
raised, the front ben back away.
prepared They aren't to say, as in my view they
passed that
repressed those laws
we should
Until the : went
til they moving
Over! depressing phenomena. When group of
government, then the government turned the
order and the
Full to miners turned
active rank ing avoided
TUC, build massive increasing
When
Labour MPs is to on the
ULEC pressure and peed on ti victory. The LP ar at
ing statements condemning all violence. Ihey must
of have SULIC already, and condemn what the police are doing.
Miners no tonger
Labour MPs join miners leaders on Thursday's London march.
bother to tell you that they ve been arrested in a completely arbitrar! and ОГЛЯ it's much a part of every day
It's about time oul parliamentary leadership started stink about it. Think
Perhaps they think there's a mass of respec-
wowaruly-mobile
inatinge ter sanea
and put off the party if
say the police are , like a bunch of what's important than winning their votes (if they really Calou Is the fact thai thousands and thousands of miners and Inel families know that the police are behaving that way - they'ye been on the receiving end — and can't understand why our part leaders aren' saying anything about it.
It's very difficult to identify if the parliamentary leadership actually do support the strike. They support the struggle against pit closure; want a return to the Plan for Coal; they support the notion that MacGregor's is a polical appointment to butcher the industry and ought to be stopped.
This is a war, , a clas: it's the sharpest class war in this country for a very long time - and you can't stay in the mid
of the If you aspire to a leader,
News
Photo: GM COOKSON
Photo: GM COOKSON
Dennis Skinner — he turned the stately debating chamber into a Labour Party rally for the miners front of it to be at the you've
That doesn't mean the PLP should start telling the NUM what to do, directing the tactics of the strike. But there clearly a role parliamentary leaders. All the terrible things that are
the approval of the House of Commons
government ministers, sustained by parliamentary majority, who deploy the police in this way. The job of our leaders in parliament is to
Thursday's events, and what's happening in the strike outside, give strength to the argument that Labour's parliamentary leadership must give cert and unequivoica. support to the miners fight.
• Bob Clay is MP for Sunderland North Wearmouth, the second largest of the Durham coastal pits is in his constituency.
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Battle of Orgreave
News
IT'S MUCH HARDER Orgreave coke depot than it was at Saltely 12 years ago.
Then engineers, workers streamed from their factories across Saltley bridge responding solidarity to stop coke being removed from Saltley
and the gates were shut.
On 29 May 1984 the miners once again rallied outside a coke depot Haus South Yorkshire - 10 prevent the NCB using scab lorrv drivers to transport coke
the Scunthorpe works or une brinsn sleel poration.
The scenes of that day were unforgettable but for ditterent reasons than the victory Saltley gates.
The Tories and the police IS THERE a corner in your home where you store old memories? When I was asked to write a piece on Saltely Gates newspapers to jog my memory.
some trade union leaders. secretary, attempted to isolate the miners by suggesting that they against the Tory pay norms.
And who do you think said this? 'The trade unions must not create a serious enough, industrial. crisis or industrial damage to the nation's economy to cause a crisis which would topple the Tory ment.' It was Frank Chapple!
And the same Frank Chapple settled the power workers pay claim inside the very pay norm the miners were fighting much to the annoyance of rank and power workers.
Harold Wison's search for compromise the extent of trying to get Fisher Bendix WOrKeIS. who were occupying their factory, to call off their ac-
But the role of these coule dues comorer the events that led to the closing down of the at Saltley. Saturday's Birmingham Mail was full of how we could expect an ininvasion of miners the next day.
closing the gates at
foundry workers and car
Arthur Scargill's call for
depot. The police were outnumbered by the pickets
were out for revenge and they • unieashed a arrage of fury against the miners an industrial dispute for many, many years in Britain.
By Valerie Coultas
Maurice Jones, Editor of The Miner described the day most vividly saying there were three sets animals present: 'The
When Saltley gates closed
What first hits you is the similar role played by
Vic Feather, then TUC
were a special case in the fight
I went to Saltley on Sunday. miners from Wales and the Midlands stood around talking to students and workers who down to SNOW solidarity.
By Paul Davidson, Heeley Labour Party
The first wagons weren't due until the next morning. a postal worker at the time, wor oe union, the uw,
had just suffered at the hands of the lories Many of us were rooting for the
Half a dozen UPW members went back to the pickel on monday noon. The
dreds and groups of other workers were Spontaneously joining the picket line to show their support. Already number of had
dogs, the police horses and the police themselves .. Horses were galloped into people,
and old, scything them down -rained down repeatedly on unprotected heads ... I saw one man lying on the ground, white faced and twitching. A policeman on horseback deliberately rode back over him
'One miner had blood streaming from the corner of his eye where a member
souad had deliberately inserted his
Police dogs were set on pickets who tried to
The riot squad, uscolave ea tor ine nrst unie Il ail industrial dispute, charged into the crowd and smash ed their transparent shields 1BLO taces oi miners. police violence were com-
tatives of the local labour
miles from Woodgate Valley to join the picket.
But the biggest cheer that day came when hundreds of women engineers, behind the BL banner, joined the picket. Several building workers got arrested trying to close the road, and police
with several miners in hospital and arrested.
On Tuesday evening the engineering unions of the Confed pledged their support for the miners and along with the trades
copper ter to sanise
support Saltley
Other miners had been drumming up sup
colleges
On Wednesday morning a large picket at Birmingham Crown Court protested the arrests miners. By now there were thousands at Saltiev. that evening a call went out trom the loca labour movement for workplaces
balliey on
Their helmets were used as head-butts. Eighty two arrests and 32 iniured was the toll at the end of the day.
'police state, something you are used to seeing in Chile and Argen-
had been created in South Yorkshire argued Arthur Scargill who was himself arrested with 35 other miners the next day.
Roland Whitehead ex-
the Por. takabin was dragged onto the road and burned. Ihe charges the mounted police dictated that miners made barriers 'out of what was at hand' "This is why une wal ar une sue oute road was pushed over the telegraph
OUIC. WCIO Thursday morning.
When the Austin Rover banner, followed by
engineering workers, came the railway bridge we knew no traffic would come or go
that direction Other workers from BL, buildwere soon to fil the ering and engineering approach roads.
When thur Scargil 10.45am, Arthur announced that the gates had been closed there was
wet eye. We al went and got drunk after
No one should pretend
will to turn
into another
saltley In 1972 workers nad wilnessec a series or factory occupations and industry Birmingham was still relatively booming, numbers shop stewards quarterlies were
dozens, and unemployment was still low.
But the massive
of money and amioulls food being collected for the miners shows the sup-
organised. means
whole of the labour movement to go to Orgreave must be set. volving the ranks of the trade unions can ensure that Orgreave is another Saltley and not a Grunwick.
uprooted. Not as a battering ram as was claimed on television but to block the road.' The battle he explained "set-piece confrontation by the police Saltley gates
Anyone who has been on the Orgreave picket line will realise that Arthur Scargill has the wholehearted support of the militant miners. He is with them on the picket lines at each crucial point and when he is there he gets tumultuous applause. Picket
But too otten at the
Orgreave nicket fine Al thur Scargill seems to be
Members une leduct of the Yorkshire area ex-
Socialist Action 15 June 1984 ecutive, who should be in charge of this activity are 110L Ine week leading following the pickets. 29
May Sheffield Council urged all local trade unionists to support the miners' picket on Wednesdar 2-3,000 people attended but it was not enough to push through police lines 20-50 deep.
Union
The only tually directing operations was Artnur. Jack Taylor, along with other pickets had . apparently been held back by police from joining that particular picket.
une Dossibie for the Yorkshire area's
Jukewarm attitude can bi as Dave Parry explained in
our union leaders the negotiations have taken priority over picketing."
Whatever the reason un f bullains up Pie et line dare le se
police dare USC violence to contain it is the only way that the gates at Orgreave will close The NUM has to learn the lessons of Saltley as well as the Tories
A date should be set when the rest of the labour movement comes out and shows not ony that : they wish to give financial sup port to the miners but, as at Saltley Gates, they are with them action against the police and the riot squads.
Page 4 scan of this page
Socialist Action 15 June 1984
Notts women
on the frontline
ON A miners' demonstration in Caerphilly we heard there was a meeting miners' wives in Chesterfield The next minibus was arranged on he cool gid we well
We were met by Betty Heathfield when we arrived in Chesterfield Labour Club. She sat us down and started to talk about violence against women on the picket lines.
She had been on three pickets. At the first one the police moved the women where tney would nol we seen by the strikebreakers, and were told they would be arrested if they moved.
the women ran across the road where they would be seen and they were beaten and kicked back across the road.
On another occasion a police wedge drove WONCE back against barbed wire fence, behind which was a big drop to the road below. said even to shout out about it would nave beell seen provocation and meant ar-
From Chesterfield we
went to Ollerton Miners'
Welfare where we met up with wives from Durham, Derby and The olerton women themselves.
They aISO go on the
picket line, and again meet
with violence
dragged through a thorn.
bush, had her
bead banged against
wall. But they always stop
the violence when the film
crews are out!
Police harassment ex-
tends into the community.
when ine Wales
miners came to the miners'
welfare there was a line of
police waiting across the
road when they came out.
We next went to meet
the women from the
Welbeck Action Group.
We were told unal in une
week there is a policeman
on every street corner and
intimidation intense.
Even kids get told to take
their support stickers off.
Returning to Chester-
field the women held
meeting,
have had, to discuss pro-
WILl food, and
make arrangements for
demos and The
meetings take place fort-
nightly on a Sunday.
SCOT Sindicato de Trabajadores Mineros Pedro Roque V., Mina bimon.
Leon, NICARAGUA, Central America From: filiated to the Sandinista Workers' Confederation.
To: Brother miners of Great Britain.
Dear Comrades,
A revolutionary Sandinista greeting from the mineworkers of Nicaragua!
this Nicaragua, would like solidarity with the struggle you are waging in your country to win trade union democracy to sustain your struggle without your rights being suppressed. heart; right and reason will win through when there is a willpower as strong as yours. conservatives and right-wingers led by the iron woman — Margaret Thatcher — but your struggle is just, and being just will win, as the old reactionary structures of capitalism are swept away by the incontainable force of the revolutionary and
working class, guided by the best sons of the pro-
brother miners in Nicaragua struggle, a struggle which will be long, cruel and full of sacrifices, but we say to you, brothers:
The struggle continues
Signed: Enoc Castellon For the Union of Mineworkers Pedro Roque V.
El Limon Mine, Nicaragua.
must admit I was
I realised that Mrs
Thatcher was directly
and personally involved
in the handling indust-
rial disputes. in the
rationalised industries!
By Maggie Coles and Mary Croften
The Miners' Unions of Nicaragua Af-
we, ine miners of to assure you or our
Brothers, we would like to tell you not to lose
We know you are confronting reactionaries,
of the organised and conscious
- Victory is certain.
A PiECE OTHE ACTION I
I haven't been so disillusioned since I discovered, at of nineteen, that Santa Claus had no objective i reality but was merely a bourgeois myth! ?
Massive gala
in Scotland
LAST Saturday saw some of the biggest demonstrations in Britain for years. Not only did more than 150,000 march against Reagan in London, led by contingents of miners, but there were 30,000 on the Scottish miners' gala.
This was the biggest turn-out for a gala in ages
militant and waN demonstrated the enor-
support for the LOUN miners' struggle Scotland.
The link with the CND demonstration in London
with the presence of Bruce Kent on HUNDREDS of hospital workers struck at Southampton General
Hospital on Friday 8 June. The strike was a response to local management's at-
tempts to discipline
NUPE shop stewards for Calle out their union
activities.
By Mike Tucker
The two stewards,
NUPE branch secretary
Steve Ferris and Chris
Buckingham, secretary of
the joint shop stewarus
committee, faced dismiss-
al following the tearing up
agreed facility
aureements by manage-
ment.
The strike follows the
discovery bugging
at a mass meeting
called to discuss
Eleve
timisations. Manage-
ment's action is seen as an
attempt to break the most
of the
workforce before planned
privatisation services
later in the year. the age
the platform. He said it was ironic that was so keen on a ballot for the miners strike • Dul Wa. opposed to a ballot on the missiles. He said that the CND movement and the had more in common than any other two issues of the moment.
Other speakers included Mick MeGahey, Peter Heathfield and Jimmy Knapp who pledged the support of the transport unions.
Bill Gillespie from Sogat 82 promised to keep money rolling in TOr Ine strikers, and stressed the need for other workers to
Hospital workers strike to
defend trade union rights
Wider political issues are involved, because Steve Ferris is past president of Southampton Trades Council and leading member of the left in Southampton Labour Party.
NUPE has been at the forefront of support for the miners locally, with the facilities of the district office being turned over to COUNCIL, COMMUNITY GROUP Women Support the Miners public meeting 8pm Thursday 21 June Manchester Town Hail Speakers: Audrey Wise (member Labour Party national executive), Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures, Bold NUM wives' support group,
Greenham peace camp.
Organised by: Manchester Labour Women's
Action Committee I Finally grasped that Possibly as stagger- my shock when to
Ith a half wi Hat
Greenham also spoke and received a standing ova tion.
Meanwhile pickets Lochgally - the orivate l owned opencast mine notched u an important victory. On Wednesday two empty buses going to collect pickets were stopped by police. The drivers were told that miners travelling over the Forth Road Bridge picket Lochgally would be arrested.
Undeterred the miners went on picketing On Fri day word came that the police had called off their
she drives tsen decided
drivers then decided not to cross •pickel lines! striking South Wales miners.
The strike is seen as the beginning of a fightback. As Chris said: 'It is a measure of the strength and solidarity for the stewards who are being by ment.' • Messages of support 1o: Trade Union Office, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton.
THE
MINERS' CAMPAIGN
VIDEOTAPES
(N.U.M. endorsed)
F A SHOWI
- IODA
Kent NUM Women's Support Group March
Assemble 12 noon at B and Q, Dover March to rally at Connaught Park
Saturday 23 June Organised and led by women. our men are welcome.
Cormac
You know, I'm beginning
• suspect that Mrs • Thatcher is attempting to inflict a massive defeat on the trade
union movement...
Perhaps it's time I went back. to Greenham Common.
Miners'
Strike
Miners'
Support
Committee
Bristol c/o TGWU, Transport House, Room 1, Victoria St, Bristol BSI
Manchester c/o FTAT, 37 Anson Rd, Victoria Park, Manchester
Preston c/o John Parkinson, Trade Union Centre, St Mary's St North, Preston
Huddersfield c/o Friendly and Trades Club, Northumberland St, Huddersfield
Vauxhall c/o Joan Twelves/Greg Tucker, I Alverston Hse. Kennington Park Estate, London SEll
Southall c/o 14 Featherstone Rd, Southall, London
Birmingham c/o Trade Union Resource Centre, 7 Frederick St. Hockley
Ealing c/o West London Trade
Union Club, 33 Action
High St, London W3
Southampton
c/o NUPE District Office,
93 Leigh Rd, Eastleigh, nal.
Cardiff
Room 219, Transport
House, 1 Cathedral Rd,
Cardiff. Tel: 0222 31176
Hounslow
c/o lan MacDonald, 220
Wellington Road South,
Hounslow , Middx. Tel:
01-577 3429
Medway
c/o Vince Drongin,
Medway Towns Trades
Union Council. 19 Randall
ka, (natnam, sent.
Bury
c/o Brian Marden, 061-764
9648
Oxford
c/o Claimants Union,
Princes St, Oxford
Leeds
c/o District Labour Party.
9 Queens Sq, Leeds 2
Lewisham
c/o Labour and Trade
Union cino, Limes urove
Lewisham, London
Haringey
c/o Unemployed Workers'
Centre, 28 High Rd.
Tottenham, ; London N17.
Tel: 801 5629
York
c/o Terry Scaife St
York. Tel: 0904 25223.
Brent
375 Willesden High Road
London NW10
Birkenhead
Trade Union &
Unemployed Resources
Centre, Argyle St South
(next to Central Stn),
Birkenhead. Tel: 051-647
3904.
If your local support com-
mitter is not included here il
means we have no address
for it. Send it in!
Page 5 scan of this page
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Disaster in
6 Socialist Action 15 June 1984 The Mitterrand government in France was for a long time held up as a model in the Labour Pariy. It provided an inspiration for the 'Eurosocialist' Party Neil Kinnock is trying to persuade Labour to become.
But three years later the balance sheet of the Mitterrand government has been a disaster for the French working class. The labour movement has been deeply split, tens of thousands of workers have left the trade unions, the racist and fascist right has gained over 10 per cent of the vote in local and bye-elections, and every indication is the right wing parties will score a huge victory in the Euro-elections.
Resistance to Mitterrand's
policies has so far come mainly from 'far left' organisations and from oppositional currents in the Socialist and Communist Party trade unions. This interview with French Trotskyist leader Alain Krivine gives a graphic insight into the state of the French lett after three disasterous years of the Mitterrand government.
Question: What are the main results of three years of Francois Mitterrand's Socialist Party-Communist government with its austerity policies? Krivine: At first • there were positive steps — an increase in the level
political and social liberties France: the suppression of the special courts of justice, and steps to develop he rights of the trade unions in the fac-
On the economic level the first steps were the five big nationalisations - the banks, the steel industry and the secsions of the metal industry - and steps : o increase wages, to maintain real purnasing power.
This policy ended very quickly.
After a year they changed policy and decided to apply an austerity policy, beginning with a six month wage freeze
- the first in France for 37 years.
savage attack on the working ¿lass has developed. Inflation is eight per cent a year. The level of unemployment is about 2,300,000.
They began to attack conquests of the working class - social security, and even the financial allocations for the unemployed have been reduced.
That was when the workers began
:o fight - when they began to understand that the crisis was not only a
theoretical thing but it attacked them in
their daily lives.
In those circumstances what has been
the response of both the Socialist Party
and the Communist Party leaderships,
and how have workers responded
particularly supporters of these par-
ties?
The result of this policy is a fantastic in-
ternal crisis inside the Socialist Party
and inside the Communist Party.
The leadership of the Socialist Party
France
defends the austerity policy, explaining that it is not a strategy, merely a tactic, and that it will stop eventually.
The Communist Party leadership is embarrassed. I ney are caugnt in a terrible contradiction. They want to stay in the government and everything. They have no polical alternative. They want to stay even if it is very difficult due to the crisis in their membership. They have policy.
But the fact that the Communist Party represents the more radical and active part of the working class and this part of the working class Party about this policy, has forced the leadership of the Communist Party to make some public crucisms or govermen policies.
The leadership of the Communist Party uses a double language. government level they support austerily, but to their working class supporters
TOTAL
Angry workers protest government job cuts
Krivine
they make criticisms and they call for
are very careful to isolate each struggle because they don't want to destabilise the government. auct fightback, but its not organised. That's That means
why there have been electoral victories for the right. other last month, in big fights master ¿lashes with the police - but without any political perspectives.
tors most affected than national And that is a big problem we are confronted with.
At the Austerity usually with some promise that if the workers
PROMEN FRANCIS CLE
RENOVANS
NOEL THA COKERIE DE MARIENAU T
CCT
LA LORRAINE VIVRA
CGT-C.FD.I.- F.O.-C.F.T.C:C.G.C-E
IRCEN
But when they lead struggles they example social services.
Opening in that regard?
that you have where the workers
In the last year, and especially in the
there has been an increase government inen says social rights. very strong. combative. sometimes
It's more rebels coming from sec-
by the austerity, pontical
goes hand-in-hand
sacrifice wages and conditions they'll be compensated in olner arcas - for
What is hap-
There are local contracts in each sector relected
accept a cellall freeze of wages. Usually they are promised five or six per cent and the inflation is eight or nine per cent. But the
'we will increase The minister says we will have more participation in the factor! the workers can be members of the ad ministration council and things like
Then they try, in some factories, to link wages with productivity and to allow a small wage increase in return. Officially this is refused by the Communist trade union. although in practice things are often a little different.
But certainly the workers refuse.
Woul
unity.
The explanation that we need austerity is accepted by the bureaucracy and the trade unions more or less led by the officials of the party, but as far as the membership is concerned, austerity is
All the struggles are militant, nearly all are defensive although offensive demands can come out of the defensive struggles. For example there was a big strike among the shipyard workers — it's a very combative sector.
They put forward the 'zero sackings' demand. but then they went on to demand nationalisation under workers
And they explain that is the one was in aroid any sackings. It is defensive and also offensive but it is not old Vital seale Is opposition developing within the trade unions?
We have two big trade unions, the CGT, which is led by the CP and the CFDT which is more or less led by one wing of the Socialist Party
Today there is in the CFDT a national opposition which the Trotskyists
Communiste Revolu tionaire (Revolutionary Communist League) played a big role in building. It has its own paper — For a Trade Union number three and they sell about 5,000 They're copies per issue.
This opposition is very important It is based on a platform of indepen dent class struggle, against compromise
governell, against austerity policy, and for trade union
We have a big division today amongst the trade unions. This organised by the leadership.
If there was a democratic congress of this trade union, the opposition could possibly get about 40 per cent of the vote. With a bureacractic congress it would probably take 25 or 30 per cent or ine voles
For example the recent strike at Talbot was led by a section there which is affiliated to the opposition. Even the general secretary of the union did not
attack them during the Tee age lu strike. He said he supported them. He waited until the strike was over to attack them
What about the Communist controlled CGT?
Well in the CGT it's different. There is
Page 7 scan of this page
no right to form oppositions. But of course it is a question of the balance of forces. They are not in a position to exbel people openly.
There have been novements in the CGT Polish question for exalliDic organised a meeting in Paris attended by 2000 members of the CGT to hear owalewski, the exiled CaUC
This opposition on Poland had a ational conference and 500 regional branches were representea. i was a minority, but a strong minority. It had berhaps 20 or 30 per cent.
It's finished now. But the new opBUSILIUlI olicy. A big part of it is the old Polish against the
apposition, of course with new people. For example in this new opposition you nave old Stalinists who were against Solidarity.
But on the question of austerity they are furious at what the Communist Party Is aolng. members: 'OK on the question of Poland we disagree but on austerity we agree.' But nationally it's not organised, it's only local groupings.
Of course we try workers to link up and form national structures. We see this as a very imporant step to address the working class and to help form an alternative leadership. That is the central problem today.
Has the role of the Communist Party leadership helped to delay a fightback? The fact that you have the Communist Party in the government creates a lot of disarray. The Communist Party is in the government and the bourgeoisie is terrified.
They would prefer to be in the government themselves, not afraid of the Socialist Party. They are not afraid of the program of the Communist Party either.
What they are afraid of is the CP's links to the combative sections of the working class. With Communists in the government, Ine working waiting. For the first time we have representatives in the government.
Even during the government in 936 the communists refused to be in the government. It was only some years after the war that we had small participation of Com-
opposition - around ine
They
Solidarity austerity
munists in the government.
to help these
raine?
are unc WUIKCIS
There work. them. so their revolt
leaving.
There but they are
nounces these
class areas and
Popular Front ple came.
from and
Marchais policy
The fact that now the two major
areas? working class parties are in the government did sow confusion to a certain ex-
What conclusions do you draw from quiet. the experience of the steel strike in Lor-
I think what is happening in this area is a good indication of the whole political situation. On the one hand these people
most under allalk. because 30,000 will be sacked. All this area will be smasnca cconomically.
Is no oler possibility of This is a struggle for life for has been very violent. The CP and SP are more and more discredited. Their members are
was a public burning of membership cards. Even elected Communist mayors are leaving the CP.
Publicly the Communist Party de-
sackings. the workers say, 'No, you are in solidarity with the government' The apparatus of these parties is talling apart in these
people are becoming politically desperate. They organised a national march on Paris — 50,000 peo-
The fought dach day in their towns.
They want the police to come to fight. It is a way to show how they feel. In many towns all the state buildings have
Mitterrand been burnt. In one town they even burned down the Socialist Party headquarters. None of the left politicians could have a meeting in this area. The socialist parliamentary representatives
that area, split from saramentary group, but not from the
One day there was a general strike. Everything was closed. They blocked all the roads. They called it the Day of Death, the towns were dead. Not one car could enter any town in the region because of the barricades. The CP opposed the strike and the march tor a while but then said they supported it.
But they refused to widen the strike. They refused to call strikes in Paris so the people could greet the marchers as they arrived. In Paris there was only us
2000 workers greet steelworker's march. It was a deliberate
of the Communist Party isolate the strike.
Is that pattern being repeated in other
You have the nickel miners and construction workers and so on but they are totally isolated. Other sections are
The level combativity uneven.
One example was a national strike of miners, 90 per cent were on strike. he workers said thev would lust continue until they won. But the Communist Party said no.
Have you been able to co-operate with opposition currents within the CP? There was a small revolutionary fraction inside the CP but three years ago they joined the Ligue. When these people understand that nev have been betrayed they want to build another organistion.
But the problem today is that there is nothing organised inside the Communist Party. The CP has no internal life. When people get disillusioned they just leave, or stop going to meetings.
The best place to unite with Communists who oppose their leadership is in the trade unions.
The Communist party passive today, there are few posters on the walls, there are less and less people selling their Ther al C passive and that is why it is very difficult to organise opposition. © Direct Action — Australia.
THE LABOUR Committee and the Institute for Workers Control are running conference in Nottingham on 7/8 July in the campaign to defend the trade union political levy to the Labour Party. JOHN DENHAM, Chairperson of the LCC, explains the aims of the conference.
Parties have ralled to miners. Even the Labour leadership -with whatever reservations and hang ups about the wrong issues given clearer support than has been usual for industrial action. At such a time the links, political, between the party and the union movement seems deep and unchallenged.
is the exception rather than the rule. In more normal times union-Labour links are threatened both by external attacks and internal neglect.
The Tebbit-King much more than the Labour Party's finances. It is impossible to envisage real progress towards socialism through parliamentary socialism Westminster but has to be built in practice in the workplace, community and home. The role of the unions, as the organisations of people at work, will be crucial in achieving this aim. Unly b! having politically aware and effective organisation in workplaces can votes in the ballot box be change at work. If the ballots are lost and major unions end their organisational support for the Labour Party a vital channel for organising and getting our message across will be tremendously weakened.
The the pose such a threat, however, because the links between the Labour Party and the unions have been allowed to whither. In many local parties, union affiliation is low and participation even lower. (Too often, places merely provide an alternative route for activists to get onto the GC rather than reflecting deep union commitment.)
At national unions. the case for often not been argued for years. A few leaflets pointing out the similarity between union and Labour policy is a poor the political education that is needed. For many members, Labour rarly anilation is seen as power-broking by leaders with little explanation or in. vo vement of union members
filiated unions. membership is not affiliated yet the cooperation and support of many of these unions will be When we should be gaining support the predominant trend seems to be towards the promotion of a less party political strategy for the trade union movement.
reversed and that the case for strong union-Labour ties is won throughout the movement. While paigns are essential vigorous locally based campaigns as well.
The Labour Co-ordinating
nittee's Labour and Unions Charter i
THE RIGHT TO POLITICAL ACTION:
very
LABOUR AND UNIONS
CHARTER
Co-ordinating All over the country local Labour
support the
have
both formal and
Unfortunately, the current reaction
ballots theaten
legislation alone. 'voted in' matched by real ballots on the ponncal levy partly
union delegates
level, and within affiliation has an opportunity for national union
The problem is not restricted to af-
About half the TUC
vital to Labour.
It is essential that these trends art
national camthere must be
Com-
Tony Benn and Ron Todd.
support for amongst union members.
clude Tom Sawyer, Dromey.
£3 (£1.50 uwaged)
BOOKILOS lO St, London WI. (01-439 3749)
Socialist Action 15 June 1984 7
Peter Heathfield Tony Benn Ron Todd an important step in this campaign. The aims of the Charter must be taken up as a focus of local activity all over
will depend on the state of the partyunion links at the current time, the nature of the local union movement and so on. What is key is that a broad range of activists should meet to plan Nationally, the LCC is joining with the Institute for Workers Control to
speakers will include Tony Benn, Peter Lom Sawver Coates. Each day costs £3. The first day will take the form of a rally with workshops on building local action. The second day will look in more polic. which unite the Party and the trade unions and around which joint cam-
trade union legislation, shorter working hours, minimum wages anu socia
• On SATURDAY 7th. there will be Conference and Workshop sessions with Harriet Harman, Ken Coates, Peter Hain, Audrey Wise, John Denham,
This first day deals with the practical response to the Labour and Unions legislation; specifically the tasks for local parties and trade union branshes, and the Laporur and for socialin pinning
and for socialist politics
On the Sunday, plenary and workshops will in-
Peter Heathfield and Jack
Registration for either of the 2 days is available at
The Organising Secretary, 9 Poland
Page 8 scan of this page
One step forward,
Militant on women
AFTER three years of campaigning women in the LPYS this year finally won the demand for the organisation of a YS young women's conterence. it for this weekend in Scarborough (boycotted as a conference venue by notorious anti-gay policies of the council) and it is limited to 100 participants, all of whom have to pay €13.50 a night for the hotel if they want to take part. To cap it all it is not even women-only.
Militant tendency. Their hopelessly backward approach to the demands and organisation of women is theorised in their recent pamphlet on women by Margaret Creear.
JUDE WOODWARD reviews it here.
With women playing such an obviously crucial
in all aspects of the class struggle from Greenham to the miners' wives - — it has become increasingly impossible for
any current on the left to disregard the issueR women's rights.
This pamphlet by
Margaret Creear is an attempt to insert Militant into the debates ana discus-
sions among women in the
which
have so far largely passed
them by. In one respect at
least it is an advance.
the mid-70s the Militant
thought the whole Labour
Party women's organisa-
tion should be
down, and the Women's
TUC should be ended. The
passing of the Equal Pay
Act had made them both
redundant!
NOW Militant goes to
some lengths to explain
that all those who thought
this the case were
- they don't men-
tion that they were
main exponents of this
view. Only
But this is the only ad-
vance. Ine Dampuici
mains a polemic against all
the demands tal
are actually raising inside
The Dou movement. and
justification for the fact
filitant have lined up
with the right-wing against
constitutional
changes demanded by
Labour Women's Action
Let nice.
lynch-pin argument
against these consitutional
charges is identical to the
one iney raise in virtually
every other struggle, from
CND to Ireland. The tir
is not right, women ma
wait until the struggle for
socialism is more develop-
rasilig this
kind of demand.
Creear exMaryarel
plains: 'Future events
could lead radical
restructuring of the con-
sutution. i the moment,
nowever, we have lo press
for changes which will take
the Labour Parv forwara.
and in particular advance
le Tests ot women.
under the conditions (
prevail at this
stage.
Socialist Action 15 June 1984
six back
The Militant leadership of the YS have organised
unions due to the many
All this is not some momentary aberration by the
We've heard the Militant put forward the same argument on nuclear disar-
there point fighting against
wait until the working class has brought in socialism. Or to the nationalist population in the North of Ireland don't fight against the border, wait for the working class to create socialist Ireland.
This is all proposed in the name of 'class unity'.
varticular familiar with this brand of
precisely variety of non-unity with
struggles of women that the British labour movement has tried to impose for over eighty years.
Involves
This so-called unity of the working class actually involves the subordination of the struggles of women not to the struggles of the whole working class, but to a section of the working class, skilled white workers.
There need be no such Militant counterposition. correctly polemicise
feminists
who call for the demands "f women to be met out of the pockets other
workers. but Militant in reality accepts saline framework, it's just they
say thai the women should
withhold their demands in
'class hiereste
unity'
But the working class
can only genuinely
united through a collective
fight in the interests of all
workers, women and
blacks included.
But what is most in-
sidious 200| Militant's
frau one is that thy way
that
make this new choice, but
time isn't right. it is nara to see walek propitious cir-
cumstances for fun-
damental change will arise
not
taken today. The Labour
greatest electoral
and all sections of the Par-
ty are discussing the fun-
changes
damental
to turn this
around. The Labour Party
EQUAL
PAY
DEL
ingoing to question is,
only question whether women will play a role in reshaping it.
On the actual posals made by WAC Milant present Only out serious argument against them. 'hev say they won 1 work.
the NEC elections are taken to women's conterence the pamphlet argues, then the unions will want a block vote there t00.
WAC is in favour of this because it would make the conference a more serious body.
If there is a mandatory SW01%1 every Parllamentary shortlist the CLP's still won't vote for them. but al least Int issue would get raised, would have to be discussed, and would
ding. And there would be more chance of women be ing selected than if there are the shortlist.
SOLIDARITY
WOMEN
WORKERS
OF
TRICO
On the five resolutions everence
pamphlet argues that they
still WOll taken
seriously, and the TGWU
WifE walte resolutions
100. But then at least they
would be on the agenda.
they can't be debated at al
are not. And the
1GWU may represe
million workers, but the
women's conference nas
to represent half the work-
ing class.
Arguments
But Militant'S
arguments that these
be taken little
pose
conference, and one
alternatives are merely
Sexual Politics
MAHCHESTER
SUPPORT
- TRICOWOMEN'S
EQUAL PAY
STRIKE!
AUEN OFFICIAL
women in the Labour Party. Militant's real position is that the women s section of the Party has not campaigned enough, and if it did 'women would automatically have more impact on the Labour Party as a whole'. True It is true that without women or youth actively campaigning their demands, positive discrimination alone is no But the UTO' blem is that women have vocally and massively campaigned for their for years, and won very little response the organised labour movement.
All that WAC is saying is that women have already waited eighty years for the laboul movement to take the initiative, now women are going to force themselves into whether the of time is right or not.
IRELAND
UNFREE
AN
PHOBLACHT
Republican News
Humes -de helper lukes barren budget • PAGE 2
Dialogue -
another first!
North West London platform with
Labour's Irish dialogue.
granted the votes of the Irish community
the election campaign. Who better to
fight to get the British out?
sentlies
Roy Mason, and Don Concannon.
all so keen.
Kinnock, speaking pressure of the from the effort in London.
He missed a
The consequences
La nuclear free Europe.
campaign
Unionist veto.
Sarah Roelofs, paign against strip searches.
it will not be forgotten there either.
SINN
FEIN'S
EEC
POLL
PLANS
LABOUR EURO-CANDIDATE Pat Healy last week spoke out on Ireland, sharing her Sinn Fein's Joe Austin. This is the first ever use of an official election rally to promote
For too long Labour leaders have taken for
Prevention of Terrorism Act and keeping Ireland
It was right and proper that once bipartisan policies had begun to be changed Labour suppor for the reunification of Ireland should be fed int Labour's candidate than a representative from the party which more than any other is leading the
enthusiasm. The Tories must have thought they were home and dry when their man for the job was supported in the Irish Post (a paper which is read by
Calling on Irish people to 'make their vote count' the Post heaped praise on Kilburn's Tors MEP who 'had the courage' to seperate himself from the Tory whip and abstain when the vote on Neil Heagerup's investigatory report on the North
The report said nothing critical of Thatcher's
No other party in the parliament (apar from the hard line unionists) voted with the Tories against it. On top of that he voted down amendtion to the abolition of trial by jury and use of strip
So the pseudo-flattery of this 'man of courage was rightfully rebuffed by Labour in the election rally. Just the job for restoring the lost faith of the Irish in a party which has given them Merlyn Rees,
Just the thing to rebuild Labour's election hopes. If only we were
It is unfortunate that at a time of unity Neil
Brussels, bowed to the SDLP and disassociated himsell good meeting. Ken Livingston
said he wouldn't have come if Joe Austin was no there. Sinn Fein's election campaign was fighting against both the British and the multi-nationals
for both working people and small farmers was disasterous Joe Austin said.
Irish neutrality is not at risk? Endorsing the aims of Irish CND Joe told of the protest's against Reagan's visit to Ireland and supported the call for
Frank Hansen and Sheila Healy from the local constituency party outlined Brent's long running
change Labour's policy to one of
withdrawal from Ireland. Sheila said that despite its weakness the Forum report was seen to suppor a reunified Ireland so the Labour Party should press ahead now with a campaign to scrap the
the Labour Committee Ireland's Women's Officer, explained the cam-
The meeting finished with Pat Healy promising that Ireland would not be forgotten in her election campaign. If elected to Europe she will make sure
Page 9 scan of this page
West Yorkshire Met. County by election Fighting Tory 'democracy'
10 Socialist Action
Labour Activist
Her of the LCC EW AGENDA FOR
ARTY DEMOCRACY
Socialism in
50 years
By John Nolan, Birkenhead Labour Party 'A DOCUMENT that both Hattersley and Trotskyists could put their names to, how one member hailed the Labour CoorAbout 40 people attended the LCC's national dinating Committee strategy conference in Liverpool a week ago, which tried to prescribe the long-term aims of the Labour Party.
The 'long-term'
Hodgson, similar to the projection of the Swedish and West one of the document's German socialist parties. It would take two generalons - up to ou vears - to achieve such earth. shattering?) objectives as decentralised, planned (sic) economy with a small market under workers'
The conference recognised that the commitment to maintain capitalism in Britain would be seen by the left in the labour movement as a concession to the right wing. But there was a complete refusal to see that the transfer of most of industry into common ownership would come up against behalf of the bosses who own industry.
It was even argued that British capitalists were not really interested in running the whole of in. dustry privately. They would quite happily let us privatisation of British Aerospace, Telecom, local services and the National Heaith Service is all an il-
don't really want them.
Only half a dozen women attended the con-
positive discrimination in jobs and labour movement bodies, and their challenges to male attitudes
freedom, equality, democracy, planning common
ownership, the market, and international strategy
- nowhere seriously challenged existing class rela-
tions in Britain. Dressed up as a bold socialist in-
Just as the Alternative Economic Strategy was
immediately adopted by Jim Callaghan,
danger is that the LCC
board by the centre-right leadership in the labour
movement. Any demands that upset the bosses will
be denounced as divisive or 'narrow socialism'
discussed, nor as the question of nuclear disad
left out of the document because 'the party has not HE CIte
discussed its policy fully' on this.
15 June 1984
mooraey Iss The State Of The Left And Party Demoeracy LOl.
was
strategy proposals.
defined by Geoff
authors, proposals will be taken on
Indeed, nuclear power was deliberately
MARIE STINSON is the Labour candidate for a West Yorkshire County Council by-election in the Thursday id fune est Yorkshire is ne of the Chapel-Allerton/Scot metropolitan which gives this campaign a particular significance.
THE by-election is important because it might be
last metropolitan county council election
fought in West Yorkshire. As such it br. ings the issue of democracy itse t to the verv foretront.
The Paving Bill now going through the House of Lords will abolish nex
elections before parliament evel debated the provisions of the actual Abolition Bill, let alone agreed them — so anxious are Thatcherites to destroy democracy when it produces the 'wrong' result: And this particiar in
crucial another way. Although the seat is highly marginal ed
Labour only won once, at the last election it is currently Labour. It is inevitable therefore that it
miniceci on abolition.
Should we lose, the Tories will use the result to say that the people of West Yorkshire support
As it is not a safe seat, the election is not a chance
politics, but an opecasion on wnici it is absolutely essential that we do so. We
persuade the voters in a marginal ward
a movement of
THREE HUNDRED
Labour Party black ac-
tivists met at Birm-
ingham's Digbeth Civic
Hall June to
discuss establishing
black sections through-
out the party. After a
speech from Vididya
Anand, conference
heard messages of sup-
Livingstone,
Richardson and Paul
Boateng.
Conference rejected
the idea of black sections
simply campaigning TOI
black MPs. Speaker after
speaker empilasiscu
need for a campaigning,
socialist movement rather
than mechanisms for the
ambitious into
By Chris Palmer,
Ladywood
Labour Party response to demands from Also taken
the many women prescit
was Ine need to involve
level of
womer
black sections. As Naren-
dra Makanja said when
reporting back from onc
of four workshop sessions
on the way forward: 'We
must not reproduce the
oppression of the party as
whole, particularly the
councils threatened with abolition,
come out and vote Labour, and this cannot be done in any other way than by convincing them that our arguments are the vide right ones.
Nutshell
this
In a nutshell, we alt campaigning on jobs, services democracy. These issues weren't so much chosen as obvious. With the direct attack on the right to the expectation of the loss 0f
3-4000 jobs in West Yorkshire alone, and the prospect of public ser-
vices, especially transport, being decimated, privatisaltogether, even Hoosieu
there was no
question of the positions
that we should take.
the Tories
want abolish
metropolitan councils and
the GLC because they are
all Labour controlled. As
such they seei as a
political challenge to That-
cherism. Abolition only
makes sense if you accept
that the of this go about are dements
movement's
twin arms the trade
unions and the Labour
Party — and destroy local
democracy altogether.
national dimensions
IN
AGAIN
RACISI
Paul Boateng — a message of support to conference.
oppression of women.'
Also noted was the
need to develop work
unions, particularly
links will developing
black workers' groups.
Despite opposition from
Militant supporters
and the party leadership
conference clearly showed
black sections are heré to
The attack on local democracy is essential for them at the moment
although they control national ment, the Labour Party stil controis many of the key areas of local government. We still hold severa key cities. The councillors in Liverpool and elsewhere have already shown how local government can pro-
the arena for thorough-going challenge to the government and all it stands for.
Abolition is one side of
concerted attack on local democracy Ratecapping is the other. The two are not separate. Ratecapping is meant to starve local government of funds so that its 'uselessness' can be made to seem more obvious — and thus we move OLIC Whitehall dictatorship. step nearer to total
Poverty
The effect of ratecapping and abolition
practice is to reduce both
jobs and services, thereby
undermining working
class standards still further
and pushing the idea that
you can only get what you
pay for directly.
In the longer term the
attack on democracy now
The fores The sentiag or
the governmen
the living standards of the
class to the bone
and reduce LUSI
desperate poverty those
who can't work - can only
GM
Slay A new expanded steer-
ing committee was elected
witn grcale. representa-
tion from outside London,
recognition
movement's national
dimensions. further
conference was called
within three months to
formalise developments.
NANDS
OF
be successful by putting the political as well as the economic clock back - by attacking the right to vote itself.
The miners' strike has shown with what contempt the Tories really
democracy. The national ballot on produc-
schemes was declared in the courts not to be binding nationally -that's didn't work in the Tories' favour.
screaming for national
Exeter Briefing
editors face
expulsion
WHO SAID 'Why don't you back where you came from'? Not Enoch Powell, but Chester Long, the recently-elected Labour leader of Exeter council.
Since May, Labour and 'Liberal councillors cobbled together a working relationship' which gives this unholy alliance a majority of one Hall. Exeter Labour Party has never been consulted.
Among the first to protest was exeter Labour
Briefing, whose three from the party
Long's remark
was made at a special ses sion of Exeter Labour Par
ty's Executive Committee
considering the expulPhoto: sions. It was addressed to the only Labour Briefing supporter the
ecutive, Calbir Shukra
Party chair John Shp-
pard provided sym-
pathetic cover: Cir Long,
of course, must have been
referring to the university
she had recently studied
at!
The Exeter party has
protested the use of 'Ex-
News
HANDS
OFF
THE GLC!
1
nolgo
because they think it can be used to make striking miners go back to work.
This is exactly the same principle they use in rela tion to the abolition of thy metropol. Democracy an
C. Democracy hs produced the 'wrong' results, So it must abolished. The 'right' results, which make voting acceptable those which return Tory government or council, d those which call for an end LO SLEIKCS By Carol Turner, Labour Against the Witch Hunt
The name, the
To this, the printed front-page
silence criticism
The ICCUl
expel
Labour the
Labour's
hope that
before
cally surd
The
are a cleal warning to
anyone with the
idea
(Just Long's
sections.)
Exeter
Page 10 scan of this page
In the Unions
POEU conference
the left
DELEGATES who cheered Len Murray's opening-
latest gesture in support of striking magnificent 17p donated to the \L'M collection at the entrance of the conference hall. What they were applauding was a union president's claim that last year's industrial action had been a total waste of time.
Despite the real setback telephone have suttered in the last lz months, this year saw no sharp right turn. Rather it was a mixed bag of a conference. Despite big probien will mousta acuo last year, a broad left ex-
but with a slightly reduced overall vote.
By Carol Turner
Two 'left' candidates, Tony Young and Doug Raftery dropped from the BL slate after they voted wiin the right drop action on Mercury last autumn, and opposed
alternative BL candidates nad reduced majorities (down
32,000 and 22,000 respectively).
Two others similarly dropped. were unopposed by alternative candidates and had slightly increased
Photo: GM COOKSON
Time to organise
day speech at last week's Post Office Engineering Union conference were blissfully unaware of his
miners:
speech against the right wing
A resolution from the International Services orancul badly attected by the collapse of last year's acallisl privatisation — a censure ot ine executive, demanding that the poor conditions on which ecto work berencrollatcu - was defeated, with BL support.
And debate on or vallsallull saW lIU assessment of the and obvious problems the selective industrial action campaign experienced No further industrial
However, a resolution for of the union's pay claim was overwhelmingly carried.
This year first time that details of the negouanol nave Deen made public the Manage. ment are offering a differential award of between 4.2 and 4.7 per cent. The CACCULVC SCL Vi a Lulce.
YOR TRAINEES
2ZW PAY US A LIVING WAGE
ORGANISEB
MON RIGHIS CAMPAC
POLIDARIT
TH THE
VTRAL
RICA
point proposal to reject the otter and engage in industrial action for a claim oi eight per cent.
similar vell resolution from the right, Lo paol me memer sale before any strike action,
. Calu
Even by 96 000r0 30ming
vote to renominate John Golding for the Labour Parly NEU is not a total setback. It is the first time unal conrerence, as oppos ed to the Political vianazemenl commmtiee (a sub-committee of the executive), has taken the decision. It provides an opportunity in the future to persuade rank and file members to support lett candidates.
Telephone engineers are far from defeated after their unsuccessful action against privatisation. But conference lacked a clear Da ance shee selective action failed. Neither the executive
HOl
cha B 25e lessoe ha ve
drawn lessons HaSt year. Until they do, the left mood of conserenice which reriecis the optimism generated by the miners will not be turned into a •cal unaerslanding or now to protect jobs and save telephone services.
YoPs
050Г ПИРО ЗІ
'Rights — Wot
Rights?'
THE MAN(sic)POWER
for.
for £25 a GRANT KEIR reviews a new video on YTS.
In the interviews with young people the message
loud and clear: slave labour' "Too udlectous • No real train. ing 'No job at the end',
£Ž5 is not enough'
The video starts from the fact that YTS is a con.
Ironically it is the lou take up of youth on the schemes, that gives those on YTS some bargaining power. win ine nelp ol Steve Bell's penguins and interviews with trainees, it shows young people that
allempi lo li prove YTS.
The video shows thai by organising trainees into Liduc ploiting the bad publicity and the vulnerable finan cial position of the shark operators, a fight to improve YTS can be waged
Examples of good YTS schemes are dealt with just
much as the horror siones Young bad YPS ps.
how
that it is possible to fight for something better.
The video's message to the wider labour ment is that its responsibility the 'Tuture generation' has yet to be met. Some of them die as a
result the disregard for health and American socialist tours Britain
United States presidential elections.
the North.
on the eve of the massive anti-Reagan demonstra-
tion.
TORIALE. 00 POE Pick Services Commission (MSC) has spent a small fortune trying to sell Youth Training Schemes (YTS). Lectures in schools, glossy publicity material and exhibitions all have to be paid
Convincing youth that they should be 'trained'
week is not an easy package to sell.
safety conditions in non-unionised sweatshops.
Ine sponsorsmp that this video recelved from the GLC, West Midlands County Council, Sheffield City Council and NALGO is a start.
Rights Wor Rights? comes in VHS format. covers every aspect of YTS. From pay and conditions to institutionalised racism ana sexism on unc schemes. It not only shows the need to fight YTS, but how to do it.
This video is long overdue. It should be shown the labour
people. It 1s minutes long, very well made and easily accessable. • It can be obtained from: Birmingham Trade Union Resource Centre (TURC), 7 Frederick St, Birmingham. £12.50
Socialist Action apologises to Zoke for failing to credit him with last week's front page cartoon, which has received many compliments. Our thanks to Zoke.
MEL MASON is a socialist candidate in the
He toured Britain last week, after a nine-day visit to Ireland which included meeting with political prisoners in
A former member of the Black Panthers, Mel was subsequently elected city councillor for Seaside, California in 1980 — the first socialist to hold public office since the days of McCarthy He explained that his tour was one of solidarity with workers in struggle. Much of his time in Britain has been spent meeting striking miners. Mel Mason is shown here speaking at his London rally
Socialist Action 15 June 1984
New politics
for old
ENRICO BERLINGUER, who died on Tuesday, was described by the Sunday Times in 1977 as 'The Marxist with sex. appeal'. He also had the almost unique tribute tor a com. munist Party general secretary that his coffin was accompanied on its journey from Padua to Turin by the Italian president Pertini.
To the labour movement in Western Europe Berlinguer was best known for his phrase une COM promise' a proposed Calo cover mellu the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Christian Democrats But to the Italian ruling class Berlinguer was the acceptable face of Italian Communism.
By John Ross
The emergence of the PCi trom the resistance movement of the Second World War the strongest Communist Party in Western Europe created enormous pro blems for Italian capitalism. …Here was party which dominated the trade unions. and the working class vote,
primary historic allegiance was to Moscow and Rome
It was not that any serious ruling class circle feared that the PCI in tenced overthrow Italian capitalism. It was
pro Moscow party could not
Instalea intolt normal funcioning of Italian capitalist politics It left no option but to rely for government sole-
Response on
teachers
May).
minimum condition,
culaturalul
Tories etc to decide.
Needless to say, our
anything like that, so
Association;
Kepresentative; Mike
11 Democratic party vistose Christian corruption and inefficiency was a permanent public scandal.
The way out of that situation for Italian Colas •a РСІ and a PCI leader, who would decisivel break the PCI from Moscow and attach it directiv to the needs of Italian In Enrico Berlinguer, the Italian ruling class thought they had found their man That is why Pertini, and the entire Italian political establishment, so openly honoured Berlinguer.
Actually the press overestimated the general secretary's role.
The PCI had embarked on a practical course of 'historic corno se with Italian capitalism invented ore territ
invertelesse term
nevertheless now dead leader of the Italian Communist Party was a fitting symbol of the pro-
To be openly and publically mourned by the mass of the Italiat population as Berlhas been. would
communist leader when the state president mourns vou can be sure something more is involved as well!
AS MEMBERS of the NUT, and Socialist Teachers' Alliance supporters, we wish to point out the implicit dangers contained in Rich Hatcher's article (Socialist Action, 25
The article states: 'the STA is arguing that, as a
arbitration should not be entered into unless the employers have made a substantially increased offer as a starting point.'
It should not need pointing out to Socialist Ac В ФЕе ! mechanism of arbitration is a mechanism of class
Laue ulle dropped in favour of the state machinery deciding the outcome. Therefore, what is being said in this case is that we'll fight for eight per cent but we'l leave the rest to the state, the government, the
Our minimum condition should be that our support is so overwhelming, our action is so intensive that the outcome of the arbitration could only be favourable or easily ignored (the miners case in 1972, for example) where the real outcome wasn't decided by arbitration, but by the level of action.
action hasn't reached we should not be talking about arbitration — only about escalating action.
Siu Ming Cheung President Lambeth Teachers Association; John Esterson, Vice President Inner London Teachers Association, Secretary Lambeth
Gary Jones NUT Smith, Stockwell Park NUT; Ray Sirotkin, Assistant Secretary Lambeth Teachers Association; (All in personal capacity).
Page 11 scan of this page
AcTioN phase of
Photo: GM COOKSON
OVER 150,000 people through London last weekend to show exactly what they think of Reagan's plans to station hundreds of missiles in Europe. Thousands more took part in non-violent direct actions around Lancaster House, venue for the summit, and Grosvenor Square, site of the US
Hundreds of miners led and participated in LIC march, slogans made the link
struggle for jobs meters missiles. Hostility to the policies of the
US in Britain and worldwide was obvious in every aspect of the march. AcRavicterod s я newsnaper with the Post ollice Duhlished hv Cardinal Enterprises. PO Box 50, London N1. Printed By East End Offset (TU) Ltd, London E2.
SociAlist
Uncle Sam not welcome!
marched ing of the stars and stripes common feature.
section
House where Irall was around.
to the summit's door step. and The between the lack OI and the
conference.
SUBSCRIBE
tions like this one — a symbolic burn-
- were a
But the most militant and exciting day's events
definately the actions around Lancaster
stopped These actions successfully
brought the message of the march right
massive turn-out, despite the entnusiasin trom the CND
leadership, will help defeat the move
away from mass action that will pro-
bably be proposed to this year's CND Special free book offer! Take out a years inland subscription and we will send you free one of these books:
Thatcher and Friends by John Ross or Over our Dead Bodies Women Against the Bomb Introductory offer for new readers: Eight issues for just £2!
war
THE SHOOTING DOWN of an Iranian Phantom jet by Saudi F-15 fighters has brought direct imperialist intervention in the Gulf war much closer. The Iranian plane, allegedly brought down in Saudi Arabia's territorial waters, could not have been attacked without US co-operation in the form of their AWACS surveillance planes, and US aerial tankers refuelling the Saudi fighters. French plan exists to intervene in the war should vital Western strategic interests be threatened.
For a long time now the United States has made it clear that it would keep
by force Vilal of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the West's oil passes. This new plan for joint action with the French and British was probably hatched at the London international summit.
By Phil Hearse
The three and a half veer well which has cost more than 250,000 lives has for most of that time been stalemated. The Iraqi economy has been wreckea, ana tens or lnousanas of have died in human wave attacks.
In order to break the impasse Iran has assembled an army of nearly half a mishon to make conquer push conquer Baghdad' Al time the Iraqis have tempted to make the Iranians pay a high economic price for the war through repeated attacks oil tankers going to iran's
Kharg island oil terminal
Whatever the West's feigned outrage at the four or five Iranian attacks on shipping going to Iraq, the
fact of the matter is that the shipping wa
primarily the responsibili-
ty of the Iraqis themselves.
Iran seems strangely
reluctant to launch an o!-
fensive. Its reluctance
understandable. This Is a
make-or-break offensive,
in which Iran is ultimately
in a no-win situation.
In the first place Iraq
has superiority in air
power and in ground ar-
maments. Inc
war has wrecked its oil in-
dustry and through that its
economy, huge subven-
tions from the reactionary
Arab regimes have paid
lor weapon Ieplacements
To this, the Soviet Union
has now added supplies of
ground-to-ground and
ground-to-air missiles.
But even should the
Iranian forces score major
military successes, the real
last three weeks
United States has made 11
abundantly clear that
will not stand by and see
Iraq's Saddam Hussein's
government overthrown.
Reagan has secured
Saudi permission for the
Decisive
Iran-Irao
Now it has been revealed that a joint US-British-
use of airfields for the US air force. A new sodulull of air tankers has already been sent to refuel US jets US naval units have either moved into the Gulf or are waiting outside Lne Straits of Hormuz. In other words, if an Iranian offensive is too successful it will rapidly tace the in
of the United •lales.
In any Iran can
Last. gain nothing from military success in the war except a bit of prestige and minor territorial concessions. Iraq's Shia Muslim community responded at all to the appeals of the Iranian Shi'ite leaders to rise up against
Saddam Hussein Badershi Party Saddam's Ba'ath has apparently been successful in presenting the war as an Arab-Iranian war, and the Iraqi Shai community, the majority population, has remained loyal.
Lacking
Lacking any popular hase of support the Iranians could hardly have serious expectations of administering Iraq from Tehran.
A failure for the coming offensive would bring home the reality to the Iranian population that the war cannot be won
The Gulf war was begun by Saddam Hussein in the hope of a quick vicLOVA and cheap success based on the expectation that the anti-Shah revoluțion had severely weaken-
ed the Iranian army. Sad-
dam failed to take into ac-
Iraqi prisoners — victims of the war
count the stiff resistance
thousands of Iranian workers and peasants, many of them of Arab nationality, LOOK arms to defend their towns and Villages in the early stages of the attack. But the rapidly brought under the control
the Call al lehran authorities, and the popular resistance disarm ed and dispersed.
more than three years the war has been vuused by Lilt barbaric Khomeini dictatorship as a means of whipping up sup port for the regime. But this process too has its limits. Despite a partia revival of the Iranian economy, not profited. The social and economic gains of the working class from the anti-Shah revolution have all but been wiped out. Disillusionment now widespread.
United States' credibility in the Middle
East has suffered hard knocks since the
Saddam Hussein —
overthrow of the Shah, the catastrophe of Carter's rescue mission for the US hostages, and the debacle of US intervention in the Lebanon. Nothing would please the hawks in the Pentagon and the State Department more than an opportunity for a display
military firepower against Khomeini's regime
But neither the Iranian nor the Arab masses have anvthing to gain from such an intervention, or from the different rany which the US would like to establish in Iran.
Both the Iranian and Iraqi al c anti-working class dictatorships sacrificing thousands of lives for their own
Socialists in the West can take neither side in the war, but should oppose ally imperialist intervention. The work of dealing with une and Islamic fundanien. talist butchers can only bi that of the Iranian and Iraa workers
← Socialist Action No. 61, 8 June 1984Socialist Action No. 63, 22 June 1984 →