Socialist Action No. 65, 6 July 1984

Socialist Action · 6 July 1984 · 12 pages, 17,061 words read by machine

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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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Page 1 scan of this page

ON ACTION AC DIG DEEP

FOR THE MINERS

MINER

THE PICKETS

WHO GAVE

No. 65 6 July 1984 30p

SoCiAlist

NUM®

KENT AREA

& SOUTHEAST

TUC

REMEMBER

TUFIR LIVES

Page 2 scan of this page

Needed — a national Labour

2 Socialist Action 6 July 1984

SOCiALKA

Another EEC flop

LAST WEEK'S Fontainebleau meeting the EEC heads of government completes the round of capitalist states. The political meetings are evident.

Above all the last four years have emphatically confirmed the United States within the 'Western Alliance

From the point of view of the interests of the West European the United States become everyday:

Moted to lon the when committee of the Us investors in US bonds.

Even the Financial 'blatant' attempt to increase still further the flow of foreign capital into the United States.

The best estimates are that by 1985 or early 1986 the United States, for the first time since the First World War, nation. The richest state on earth is now becoming a net importer world countr ies!

For the West European states. quences are clear -growth for Western Europe

made by the OECD, are 2.3 per cent per year. The US economy is growing at more than twice that rate

much Agricultural Policy (CAP) which formed the cru› of the budget compromise is also not able to take the strain of the heightening farm price war with the United States. are due to the fact that in competition on foreign markets productivity allows it to undersell its ÉEC rivals. soaring European butter mountains, wine lakes, etc. And what is the policy of the EEC heads of state thoseto me La our left look for a teasing sections of the Labour left look for a reflationary economic links with the United States? summed up. document 'Europe the reportedly received a strong welcome from Kon and Mitterrand. This stated simply management of East West relations, and no less remain central

so in the management of the problems of world

economy and trade

In other words if Reagan decides to sit on us

we will grin and bear it.

concludes,

by the necessary resources.

States which has the real power the EEC coun-

tries obediently into

poodies their heads of government are increas

ng With that background the detailed negotia- coming to resemble.

tions on Britain's

tivated the newspaper

don't matter two hoots. Thatcher's two thirds re-

fund on British payments will look

extravagances of the CAP can be cut back, 'bad'

if it can't. But in either case Western Europe is

going to remain economically stagnant

that means the figure of more than four million

unemployed in Britain grinding remorselessly

upwards.

Western Europe has only two choices in the

years to come.

tion under the banner of the

'Western Europe' or more

other

socialism in Europe as a whole — a social revolu-

tion against capitalism in Western Europe and a

political revolution against the bureaucracy in

the East.

That wasn't exactly on the agenda of the EEC

summit. But it should form the agenda of the

European workers

ahead.

Editor: ALAN FREEMAN

Published weekly except two weeks in August and the

last week or wecemder.

Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily repre-

ari Socialist Action's views.

editorials.

Send all correspondence regarding subscriptions, sales

and receipts to Socialist Action Distribution. 335 Urger

Siree: London N1 2XP. (Tel: 01-359 81501

send all material for publication freiane a

Aarion Editorial at the are a

summits of the western economic and agreements reached at these

the unchallengeable supremacy of

allies the economic policies of

more Yet another twist was given last week

30 per cent tax paid by foreign

Times referred to this as a

will become a net debtor of capital even from third

the conseand formed the backdrop to The highest estimate of economic

the next two

largely due to capital infiows EEC Common

The soaring costs of the CAr

agriculture Hence the

States? Their policy was to break unc

in the Conservative government s

Future' which

'The US will European security and the

For, as the paper also 'influence does not last if not backed

As it is the United

place like the tame

budget rebate which capheadlines here really 'good' if the

and

One is austerity and militarisaUnited States, probably both. The is actually embarking on a struggle for

movement in the years

These are expressed in

MACGREGOR and Thatcher's campaign to create a 'drift back to work' by the miners after the NCBNUM negotiations broke down has failed. There is no significant increase in the working.

REDMOND O'NEILL looks at the new tactics the government is following after its failure to break the solidarity of the NUM.

The break up of the negotiation with the NŨM by MacGregor and Thatcher has produced a new wave of solidarity action with the miners and removed many hesitations in the labour movement. The rail unions at last have a really effective boycott operated by their members around the Ravenscraig, Llanwern and increasingly round the power stations.

The message has begun to sink in: this will be a long ana billel struggle which neither side can afford to lose. Oniv in this framework is it possible to deal with the manoeuvres and tactics of the Coal Board and government.

Their response the new WAYN of solidarity from rail regional TUCs and the Labour Party has been to start raising the flag

'negotiations' acall. negotiations not to end the pit closure programme but

in a new effort to confuse and demobilise solidarity. Bloke

was

broke the last . a centra

Scargill. Financial

Times 'The

LONd Coal Board are

al-

ecutive.

James deputy

chairman the Coal

Board, Mick

wanted his

biography!

labour as

particular.

decision ot the

TUC Steel Committee to

rense any

ment with the NUN has

created the conditions

So the army is being used to try to smash the miner's strike! Isn't it; outrageous! [ Isn't it/ inevitable?

march for the NUM

number of miners

where the government can attempt to duplicate the

between strikers and scabs in the NUM in the trade union movement as a whole, thereby tun damentally dividing the labour movement.

of significance for the Tories'

La really Laches. occause fundamental division in lne aDOU movement is precisely the necessary precondition for any serious talk of using the anti-union laws against the NUM.

These laws have not been used so far because taking the NUM to court was more galvanise even working miners into support their union and its funds.

The division in the TUC and the hardening out of the scabbing minority

the NUM makes such a response less likely.

In fact it is already clear that Len Murray and

company are being offered an excuse for treachery to

the miners by reference to

A PIECE *The ACTION

Sofar, so good!

But isn't it time they started using some of the tactics developed in Ireland?

Dirty Tricks?

DRESS NEWE defence of jobs in steel.

The coming weeks are going to see an escalation of the stakes in this strug gle and not movement by the Tories or NCB towards any kind of compromise 'Negotiations are lactics in the war - not a plan for ending it

It is for this reason that a national response by the labour movement

Dirty tricks!

The very thing!

it on militants!?

become more and more vital. Ine lul is standing aside, and through the steel committee nov scabbing on the miners. These 'new realists' be brought to account

TUC Ine September.

But, in the meantime, initiatives to draw together

movement of solidarity with the miners

national show strength is the best possi

response the manoeuvres of the government and the continued repression by the police

The Labour Party's decision o oreanise a la tional campaign to support the miners, although

belated, is to be welcomed But Benn's call tor a na tional Labour Party demonstration was not put to the vote at the National

Committee. execuuve stead the NEC called for a campaign of local rallies, demonstrations and so on.

This not

enough. Regional TUC

have already carried • through a successful series

of local actions. What is

needed is not a repeat of

these, on a lower level, but

a national action which

can draw together and

demonstrate all of the

enormous solidarity which

has built up behind the

miners struggle over the

past four months.

This would deal a ter-

rific blow to Thatcher's ef-

forts to isolate ihe NUM

and split the labour moveA petrol bomb through the window of a non¿striking miner! Blame

News

ment. , It would force the TUC leadership to reveal were stands the struggle. It would help create the head of steam necessary to fight for this year's TUC congress reverse Murray's scabb ing And it would be clear cut reply to the efforts to isolate and slander Arthur Scargill.

Local activities are no substitute for this Party NEC the Labour knows it The only ex planation for their refusal Neil nock is tensed ot having to lead a militant

demonstration with Illass Arthur Scargill at his side.

Nutshell

Labour's campaign to support the miners should be supported and used to build up the constituen cies' links with the unions, to win young miners to the

mobilise the women's sec Socialists and tions around the women's support movement.

But most importantly,

it must be used as a spr

ingboard to redouble the campaign through evert

body of the unions and

party for Labour to call

first national

demonstration of support

for the miners.

The next edition of

the paper will appear

on 27 July.

®GORMÄE

Surely the security forces have learned something from the • Northern Ireland f experience! i

And isit 2m possible that the British Labour movement has learned nothing?!

Page 3 scan of this page

WHY THE NUM FIGHTS FOR STEEL

News

A STRIKE be tragic and glorious, bitter and beautiful. A strike can bring out the qualities of courage and fear, love and hate, that lie buried deep in a persons soul. Such strike is the strike.

The hate is for the system and government which threaten the jobs of miners, steel workers, rail workers and their families. Also for the police who implement the Tory anti-picket laws with unrestrained violence.

for our general secretary Bill Sirs as he continues

Triple scat on the Alliance agreement, and refuses to build for any support for the miners.

The courage is contained in the three Hazell lorry drivers South

because they would not drive coal lorries through Llanwern picket line, for those small groups of steel workers who take their jobs in their hands every day of every week Shee bling for he nee publishing the Steel handling scab and building support for the miners struggle.

There's the

Coutan in the miners and their wives who make up the picket lines, go short of food and withstand police violence to defend all our futures.

The miners' fight i your fight. Without coal

need for steel. gas and electricity will disapwill blight our sley, rail Unemployment and power industries.

Government funding of

country Wate police action against the

By Ray Davies ISTC Llanwern

Steel

= jobs

miners could have secured the future of coal and steel if it had been invested instead.

The huge £17 billion arms bill is crippling our country. If half of the sum was redirected into steel, coal, health and social services, our troubles would soon be UVCI •

Closure coking coal pits in Scotland and South Wales inextricably linked to closure plans for Llanwern and

Lianwern steel furnaces have been running longer than ever before,

NORTH WEST TUC Day of Action for the Miners

Friday 13 July

demonstration starts from Mancunian Way

assemble 12.30 - march begins 1.30

Free Trade Hall Rally starts 2.30 speakers include Tony Benn and Arthur Scargill

ON MONDAY the steel unions rejected the NUM's call to stop steel production. Bill Sirs, general secretary of the

ISTC, said the miners demand was 'not practical'. It would be damaging to the industry and unacceptable' to his members.

But the truth is that the NUM has defended the jobs of steelworkers far more than Bill Sirs ever has. The mining and steel industries are inseperable.

On the morning Sirs was making his declaration South Wales Steel Sheet, produced by South Wales steel workers, was spelling out at Llanwern why ISTC members should support the NUM.

We are reprinting the article by RAY DAVIES, ISTC Llanwern, which replied to British Steel and Bill Sir's case.

CAROL TURNER looks at how Bill Sirs sold his members down the river, and the support the NUM gave in the 1980 steel strike, and how Sirs can be defeated.

+ coal

don't let them blame the miners dispute if they fail for lack of maintenance.

Emitter will give us all a glorious victory. When that victory COlICS and MacGregor announces

South Wales coal fields, the natural outlet for its products will Llanwern steer works. The natural outlet for Scottish coal will be the Ravenscraig steel plant.

do for every possible reason the Scottish and Welsh steelworkers to help build and be a part of that victory.

WHEN BILL SIRS announced Monday that the ISTC was going to accept scab coal and iron ore into the steel plants he said, 'We will protect the jobs of miners and steelworkers by ensuring the continuity of the supply of materials.

Given Sirs' record the idea that he defends anyone's job is one of the sickest jokes around. He is the union leader with the unique record of selling more than half the jobs in his industry.

The road to disaster started on December 1979 when the ISTC sub. mitted a 20 per cent claim. British Steel replied

with an insult - a two per cent offer conditional or productivity strings

Less than a week later BSC followed it up with an announcement 52,000 jobs were to be cut. On 2 January 1980 there was an alliusl total walkout b steelworkers The battle for steelworkers' jobs was Ull

In contrast to the

STC's role today, the he His sing to re and Arthur defence steelworkers.

At the end of January Scargill took the stage at the ISTC's rally field to declare, 'I've been accused of interfering the steel strike. I plead guilty. The applause was deafening.

He went on, "They say refrain from secondary picketing. What they mean is refrain from effective picketing

'They Cal introduce whatever laws they like but we'll picket whatever targets are necessary to

Man of jelly

win this strike. If steel Tories is a victory for all workers win against of us. You can count on the support of the Yorkshire miners. The All weren't just words. steel was boycotted from being bought into the pits. Kent and other coalfields miners lost wages as work was held back

Then Bill Sirs followsed Scargill onto the platform. His 'let's get round the negotiating table' call was audience.

Two days later, on 26 randary that Lord Denning ruled secondary picketing was illegal.

Vonetheless two days later 200,000 Welsh workers struck in defence of jobs in steel, mining and rail, bringing Wales to a halt.

South Wales was

survival with mediately Port Llanwern. voted to go on indefinite strike. There were moves to a rail strike. The direct threat of a general strike in Wales to defend jobs existed.

Then the TUC stepped

Sirs' support halting the strike action

and instead calling for a day of action for 14 May

months away. The solidarity moves collapsed.

By Easter 1980 Sirs' misleadership of the strike and the TUC's lack of solidarity, had brought the Stee strike lasted workers to defeat.

/ for 13 weeks By the MacGregor Corporate Plan for Steel was in place

the forerunner for MacGregor's new run down proposals for the

By 1982 BSC employed just over 100,000 workers

• 60 per cent down on a decade earlier. By 1983 half the jobs had gone in the industry. The ISTC under Sirs put up no fight.

And this is the union leader who now claims to be giving advice to the NUM on how to save jobs!

The real way forward for the steel workers was being spelt out the militants in South Wales last week. Continuing the struggle which Bill Sirs and the TUC broke up in 1980

Mass picketing must be mounted at Llanwern and the other steel plants

The TGWÙ must be made to hold to its Mon day promise to block road support. It has the power

Socialist Action 6 July 1984 3 to bovcott the scab firms whose lorries and see the steel run,

UID pickets at other places they deliver to, to make sure the actions a success. But in doing that remember that

was George Wright, TGWU regional secretary in Wales, who played a ke role in the 1980 sell out.

There is support for the miners in the South Wales steel plants - the militants there confirm it. But officials are blocking mass meetings. Fighting Ior mass meelings in u plants is a way to begin to get over solidarity even if it is a minority view at first

The steel blockade is beginning to bite. Even the 109 lorrie: BSC " was using in its South Wales convoys on Tuesday could still only move less than half the steel plants' needs for iron ore

It is the steel workers combined with the NUM who will defend the steel Plaills the BSC management. If the steel workers miners the defeat of 1980 can be undone

For the future not onl of the NUM but of th steel workers.

SOLIDARITY WITH THE NUM!

STOP ALL STEEL!

Page 4 scan of this page

Kent women-"we're not giving in"

4 Socialist Action 6 July 1984 AS THE miners' strike enters its seventeenth week the hardship being faced by the miners and their families is deepening. In organisation of women around the strike that is doing most to alleviate this, and ensure that the strike continues.

JUDE CLIFFE,

we hearing about Maybe

keeping

our from people C0lu0l.

chair of

the area.

SINCE the national

black section con-

ference a few weeks ago

Bob Lee has taken up a

lot of space in the Mili-

tant newspaper de-

nouncing the idea of the

black section the

Labour Party.

In this article,

MIKE WONGSAM, a

member of the black

section steering

mittee from Man-

chester, takes up some

of the Militant's

arguments.

IN TRYING to unleash a

scathing criticism of the

movement to set up black

sections, BOD Lee In laci

ties himself into the most

amazing TOSCA COuLU.-

Tarxest me thod ing

Lvis. the Marxist method

contradictions (and he

¿laims to be a Marxist), he

instead uses a contradic-

:ory method.

Deep-rooted

He starts by identifying

black people as the victims

of deep-rooted and

specific type of oppression

(double oppression, as ne

10 transform the victim in-

io the criminal simply

daring to do something

about that oppression.

For make no mistake,

cedes that black people

have actually to struggle

inside the party in order to

make it responsive to the

needs and concerns of the

black community.

An example of Bob

Lee's reasoning is when he

many areas

spoke to KAY SUTthe Aylesham support group in isation of women in Kent

There are

Canterbury and Dover wnere

organised.

march we had of

Doncaster and Not810181 met some from Staffs,

women explained there were

meetings. SECIIS

may be LILLK are not get-

we are closely with the locally.

Militant against

black sections

says: 'Many of the filthy prejudices that thrive

the cess-pool of capitalism

constantly played

and reinforced by a power-

ful media must

evitably rub off on some workers. The labuul

movement, however, by its very nature, does not base

itself on these prejudices,

but stands implacably op-

posed to them.' Loyalty

And yet earlier he has

admitted: 'But the loyalty

of black workers has not

Deen returned in kind by

the Labour leadership.

The right wing of the party

have always demonstrated

a disgraceful complacency

in regard to the special

needs of black workers

and their lack of involve-

ment in the movement.

And little later:

'Labour's 1968 Immigra-

tion Act was actually more

discriminatory UEaIO the

previous laws passed by

the Tories this fundamental failure of It has been

Labour governments

combat the rising tide of

racism, along with all the

Page 5 scan of this page

Boost for Greens

International

IRELAND

UNFREE

Irish trade

unionists for

Irish unity

IN THE LIONS the Lotulis, vero is echoed hithe refusal of leaders to allow Ireland to be discussed.

ASTMS Irish motions were shuttled away from the conference floor.

But with the publication of a statement by leading Irish trade unionists calling for 'Unity and Independence', there is a chance of turning this situation around.

The Labour Committee on Ireland is producing copies of this statement and, in collaboration with its authors, will be using it as a campaign issue at the TUC and Labour conference. W'ereprint the declaration here in full.

THE ORGANISATION Trade Unionists for Irish Unity and Independence has been formed by a group of Irish trade unionists, who are committed to work towards the attainment of a united Ireland. unionists involved on a daily basis in protecting and furthering the workers, wę consider that the formation of the group complements work.

James Connolly, that the Irish workers are the incorruptible inheritors of the struggle for Irish freedom.

We are only too aware of the accuracy of Connolly's prediction that partition would destroy the unity of the Irish labour movement. is not always now realised, the Irish Trade Union Congress and Lavour rarly In 1914 voleu allose unanimously to oppose cuded manv Northern delegates

While recognising the importance of the united

Not irade Unions. possess, we believe that the political division of the working class has been disastrous and nas been a major impediment to achieving goals north and south.

A united working class in a 32 county Ireland could become a dynamic political force, resulting ultimately in the formation of a government pledged to uphold working class interests. mains, the fresh wo ring class wil as rided red converse is politically frustrated. The achievement of a united Ireland will tererore contribute to the progress or Irish workers, north and south.

We are also aware of the economic damage inflicted on Ireland by partition and the conflicts that have flowed therefrom. plementing each other, both parts of Ireland have lad their economies distorted, suffered a drain on their resources and economic growth and development has been retarded.

At no time, but especially during a period of recession, should the island of Ireland carry these Duden. unemployment and

We believe that partition of Ireland and its maintenance, including conferring on the Unionists a veto on any constitu tional change, thereby deadlock.

A change in British policy is needed, and the demand must be made on Britain to declare its intention to disengage from Ireland and hand over sovereignty to the Irish government, ing that all legitimate safeguards are provided for the rights of the Unionists as a would naturally be involved in discussing the con-

Having asserted our towards Irish unity is a logical objective for trade unionists, we have set up Irish Unity and Independence' to win further support in the Irish trade union and labour movement for our position, to work %110 movements who are committed to Irish unity and maependence. 2118 SeeK

The group's intention would be to especially ensure a solid and substantial trade union and working class involvement in Ireland in the movement to end partition, thereby contributing to the form that a new united Ireland will take.

This rear in NALGO, NUPE and

As active trade

interests of Irish

our trade union We would go further and assert, like

Although it

partition, which vote in-

which we now

working class

as partition re-

Instead of com-

as the result has been permanent high

south and frequent

Britain is responsible for the

resulting

while ensur-

minority. They

and financial arrangements

belief that working

"Trade Unionists for

with those in the British and

ON THE SURFACE election commentators ever go much deeper in their analysis? — the only winners in the West German Euro-elections were the Greens.

Both the major parties Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) lost several percentage points in comparison to last year's general elections. junior partner in the right-of-centre West German coalition government, even failed to score the 5 per cent of the popular vote needed to gain representation in the EEC parliament.

The low poll of 55 per cent constitutes a setback for the 'European spirit' and shows that even in West Germany enthusiasm for the EEC is not what it used to be only a few years ago.

By contrast the Greens pushed up their share of he vote from just over 5 per cent In 198 to lust over per thus replacing the FDP as West Germany's third party.

By Günter Minnerup

"The real issue in west German politics, , however, is not the size of the Green vUit — inaicative as it is of the size and depth of the disaffection of young voters from 'established party politics'. There is absolutelv no prospect of the Green Party rising inexorably from their modest beginnings to governmental power in Bonn.

The DI COS comica tators are certainly right when they explain Greens' good showing by their success motivating and mobilising their political base that on a lower overall poll they were bound do well. Since real political

was not at stake in these elections some SPD voters may also have taken the opportunity to register a protest vote.

The Greens are there as a force to be reckoned with, but they have now pretty much exhausted their growth potential and will not change the face of WEST Germany's bitter metal workers' strike for the 35 hour week ended last week. The official arbitrator, Georg Leber, presented a report recommending reduction of the working week from 40 to 38.5 hours. The report has been accepted by the union leadership of IG Metall and by the employers. It is expected to be accepted in

ballot of metal workers.

The reduction ot the basic work week from 40 noness success orunc metal workers' union given unal the empioye.. originally attempted strongly to preveni ally reduction of weekly work-

and SPD left

- and when do bourgeois

the Christian

The Liberal FDP, the

West German politics fundamentally on their own. What is very much stake, however, the future of the Bonn government and the future of the SPD, the West German socialist party.

Some press analysts have explained the low SPI vote of 37 per cent a a popular rejection of the ing time. But a number of features of the deal make it very dangerous for the unions over the long term.

By John Ross

Firstly the 38.5 hours refers only to the average working week in tory. This means that the bosses can cul une workne week for some sections of

for example skillWOIRCIS, ed workers, but maintain others on a longer working week. This will have powerful effects dividing groups workers.

Secondly the wage increases agreed in the deal

- three per cent up to next March and two per cent for the year after that are not sufficient to keep up with inflation.

Thirdly the union

SPD's support for the metalworkers' and printers' campaign for the 35 hour week. That may be good bourgeois orovazan da, but is blatant nonsense

fore the Srike aup ore

the strike and general apathy working-class voters towards the Euro-elections.

In the big cities most affected the strikes moreover, the SPD and the Greens generally did better than on average. This was true, for instance, in Frankfurt which is both the headquarters of the IG Metall and was deprived of its two biggest newspapers by the action of the printworkers

The most significant pointer West LICE many's political future is

3812 hour week!

leadership has conceded that in future reductions in the working week will have

be accompanied by wage cuts. that any further shorten-

ing or working ume, willc

vill come up for review in 1986, will have to include 25 per cent of any cuts in nourS being financed by wage reductions.

West Germany's most important post-war industrial has therefore gained some ground on paper. But it has left the employers in a powerful position launch attacks the workers and union organisation the actories.

The result is likely to be a further break up of the 'social peace which las reigned in West Germany since the 1950s.

not to be found in Euro poll but in the Saarland predominantly Catholic IC2I0 badly •attected bi the decline of the mining and steel industries and which has had uninterrupted Christian Democratic government since 1949. German Benn

In the Saarland the Euro-elections WCIc Coll bined with local elections,

producing somewhat higher turn out and here the : local SPD is led by a political figure fast

the 'German Tony Benn This is Oskar Lafontaine, mayor OI the regional capital of Saarbrucken and member SPD's national executive

well known as an opponent of the denlovment of cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe and was the first leading West German politician to raise issues of a general strike against missile deployment and the Federal Republic's continued membership of NATO.

the Saarland the SPD overtook the CDU in the populal the Euro-elections for the first time post-war history and held the ureen volt down to around 5 per cent.

greatly strengthens the hand of those on the left of the SPD who argue, like Lafontaine, that the only road • lo a relurn lo power in Bonn is that of shitting the SPD determinedly to the left: towarros mie mons peace movement, and the

women's

This will either make the Greens superfluous and rally the millions of disaffected behind a rejuvenated and radicalised SPD, or at least open the door to 'red-green

Socialist Action 6 July 1984 alliance' which

• even O the evidence of the : Eure poll - has good chance of sweeping the Christia: Democrats from the demise of FDP libera coalition partner con tinues.

The political climate it West Germany is rapidl polarising cutting awa

middle ground which the broad ideo logical consensus betwee Ine liberal wing COT th CDU. the power brokin FDP, and the right wing o the SPD has been restin

so long. The muc: vaunted 'social partner ship between employers government and union

recover hom u industrial 35 hour weed

the hour WCCr even the mediator compromise formula of cut to 38½ cepted as temporar truce in the class war. Edifice

The apathy toward the Euro-elections is als

of an all Call! creasing disaffection wit the entire edifice European-Atlantic tegration which cement ne victor Perral Repuric turned

into dumping ground fo Reagan's missiles, and. a it now turns out, , can n

preserve the sperity which for so lon underpinned West Ge: many's social peace an. political stability.

The first polarisation The victim will be the prese leadership of the SPD an Its vain attempt to con bine hanging on the pro gramme and images of it previous right win: Schmidt period with tryin to appeal to the base of th Greens and the increasing

third victim might well b the Kohl government.

Stall

Arbeitsfosigkeil

Page 6 scan of this page

COUNCILS AGAINST 1

Socialist Action 6 July 1984 THE RECALL Labour local government conference takes place this weekend in Sheffield. It is less than six months to go before Thatcher's budget axe hits the big majority of Labour controlled councils.

The most urgent task of the conference is to organise support for Liverpool council in its confrontation with the government.

But for the larger number of Labour councils that are going to face the government's rate capping next year two basic strategies are being put forward.

FIRST THERE are those Labour councils which have got a majority of three, four or seven even.

These are almost impossive fo mobilise for a vote for an illegal budget because of the scale penalties against councillors.

In many ways these penalties worse than those

manslaughter. They are

powerful deterrent because they hit

at your family and they are finan-

cial.

A lot of councillors who will go

to prison on a point of principle

fear that the surcharge penalty

under the law will hit at their

families and that is what makes

them vulnerable.

So the chances of a narrow majority

getting a budget through which is illegal

are absolutely negligible unless massive

public pressure begins to build up.

What you're likely to get is a whole

range of councils where, because of

defections,

budgets are passed, and then the coun

sil leadership have to fight a line by line

opposition to any of the cuts which

would flow from that budget.

Labour councillors should not in

any sense surrender their chairs

leadership positions and go into ma-

jority opposition. You should stay as

far as you can in control of the council

and work with the trade unions to ac-

tually block the cuts being made by ot-

ficers and the Tories. Surcharges

Because while it will be very easy for

the government, with the threat of sur-

charges, to force rate capped budgets

hrough councils. When it comes to ad-

ministering the council, devising all the

necessary cuts to give expression to that

reduced level of expenditure, it is a lot

more difficult than it looks.

councils like Lambeth, the

GLC, Sheffield and so on where the

councils have got a real degree of ad-

ministrative experience about how the

building works, and don't just assume

it all works because a committee passes

a vote, are in a position where I think

they can prevent most of the cuts being

carried through.

You must stay in there and fight line

by line. You work with the trade unions

to make certain that if any

sioners are sent in they don't get any

cooperation. You try to prevent them

entering the building and so on. And

you mobilise all the support you can.

Out of that sort of position you can-

not forsee the conclusion. There is still

The first is Neil Kinnock's declared policy: that Labour councils should do the work for them by staying within the law and 'humanely' administering the cuts.

The second is that. Labour councils must defy the law and refuse to administer the cutbacks.

Within the left a number of tacties for defying the law are being discussed. One of the most widely canvassed is put forward, in a personal capacity, by the leaders of Greenwich, Lambeth, and Southwark councils, and by

'You've got to stay

there and fight

line by line'

a risk councillors will be surcharged for not having voted for the cuts but it will be a very chaotic period. It would only take a couple of miscalculations

Jenkin and yoü could have a tremen-

cous reactlull

There are some councils where the

Labour majority is so enormous that

they should be able to mobilise a vote for for refusing a rate capped budget. But very that's very tew. By Ken Livingstone

In London you can think of the

possibility of that in the ILEA, or in

Hackney, or in Southwark or Islington.

But these are the only cases I think

where the actual chances of getting a

majority for an illegal budget deficit. In

almost all the others

Camden and so on

just aren't enough.

When we had the vote in January

1982 on whether or not to comply with

the House of Lords decision on our capped fares policy I proposed to the group

that we should refuse to increase the

fares. We won in the Labour Group by

23 votes to Z2. By a near miracle we

almost won the vote in the council

because the Tories abstained. We even-

tually lost by 24 votes to 27.

But whatever the

dividual councils I think it's going to

accelerate the process of change inside

the party. I think you might very well

find a large number of people drop out.

Several people I know on the right

of the party have made it quite clear

that they would never vote for anything

that ran a surcharge risk.

taking the view that if the government

wants to run councils in that way then

they don't want to stand for election or

will resign when rate capping comes in.

When bitter disputes have occurred

in the party in the past, when councils

had to take decisions on the Housing

Finance Act for example, the split has

been between those saying 'this is it, we

shall stand and fight', and those saying

'well, there are other things

which make it worthwhile to

within the law and do the best we can.

In one sense the Rate Capping Bill

makes that argument redundant. It'S

not a question of

fares', or 'we'll give in on this or that'.

The government has got complete con-

trol of your total expenditure. commis- You either stay there and fight or

you simply administer cuts. Within that

situation there isn't really a role for a

Labour right wing perspective. There's

nothing for them there at all. So l

would think that in many instances the

right would ease itself out where you've

the deputy leader of the GL.C, John McDonnell. This is refusing to set a Tories' dirty rate.

Socialist LIVINGSTONE, GLC, for his assessment of how many Labour councils are likely to defy the law and why he is opposed to any strategy based on 'majority opposition' -cils abandoning office and simply voting down Tory proposals.

CAROL TURNER asked TED Lewisham KNIGHT, leader of the Lambeth

council, to explain his proposals. got a left wing majority.

In those councils where you've got a right wing majority, and a left wing by minority, that's where you will get the

bitterness. may well decide to stay in office and operate the cuts. Then the Labour left will be forced against them. There will be expulsions from Labour groups and local parties will tend to support the Labour rebels. In areas where the Labour leadership give a lead, as certainly I intend to do at the GLC, and I know that Ted Knight does in Lambeth, to say we won't comply with the rate cap budget, we will stay them. There I think there isn't much of a role for the right wing to play except moving their activities spheres of influence.

Haringey, - the majorities We musn't allow the argument to

become one that counterposes complying with the law and majority opposition Both of devastating for the party's popular support.

Simply to say we're obeying the law, however bad, would be doing the government's dirty work. It would be to totally alienate public support. And it would be a wrong decision in princiblank cheque and say well obey all its outcome in in-

laws. That's a ridiculous position.

No one would have type of blank cheque to be applied in Hitler's Germany. We awarded people fought in Hitler's laws with decorations.

No socialist can ever give a blank They are now cheque to any government. To say that

whatever it does will be complied with. Because there are principles which override whatever government demands of the day may be.

But I think it dangerous if, perhaps in a reaction of despair, we adopted a policy of opting out now, we go into majority opposition or something like that. we can do stay that would follow Labour opting out,

For for local people, they would never understand why Labour councils had shut up shop and walked away. 'we'll give in on

everything line by line.

in the trade unions and groups into that struggle. to be out there on the picket lines or defying the law, or whatever is needed.

For opting out are each in their own way equally damaging to traditional Labour support.

Action asked KEN leader of the

— that is Labour coun-

Because right wing councils

into voting and we'll fight against

other ILLU Why are

what are its main advantages?

these Would they can no

ment.

So we you can't give a government a strategy which

ycal expected that

Germany against tions.

deficit budgeting?

tary? the temporary

prepares a would be very

For trade unionists fighting the cuts

You money there and fight on.

You've got to try and fight to bring

community We have got time.

So the options of obeying the law, period

therefore

SAVE TH

DEFE

«We must have a uni

you putting forward the Interview with Ted Knight strategy of refusing to fix a rate, and

Every Labour council, certainly in the stress areas, is facing a situation where

longer carry out their obligations. They must be looking at how to overcome that. If we're not prepared to make cuts then, frankly, we're in confrontation with the govern-

are trying to propose a will unite Labour authorities at a particular point in the

- and that appears to us to be at the time of levying a rate or a precept.

At any other stage in the year, Labour councils are in different financial situa-

What advantage has your strategy over

Are they alternatives, or could they be complimen-

Deficit budgeting is when a council

budget of the spending necessary for its particular needs, but will not have enough money in a full year to cover the cost of that budget Therefore, whilst it may be levying a modest rate increase or one imposed by the Tory government, at some point in the year that council is unlikely to have sufficient income to meet expenditure.

But councils wouldn't run out of

same time So, as strategy for uniting them, it just isn't

The advantage of not levying a rate or a precept is that councils would be taking the same decision at the same

Income to councils would restricted to rents and charges, and so

of financial solvency limited and identifiable.

Councillors and trade unionists would That's right. We would have no have a clear timetable of events and authority to do so.

Page 7 scan of this page

IE G.L.C.

fied approach'

As I understand it, there's no legal obligation on a council to set a yearly rate, only from time to time. Although that doesn't apply authorities. If this option isn't an illegal one- at least for rating if not precepting authorities- — I would guess it will attract those councils who are uncertain about stepping beyond the boundaries of the law.

Perhaps you'll pull more people in behind you because of that. But what's to stop Thatcher introducing legislation or taking administrative measures to make what you're proposing illegal?

Whilst it isn't illegal not to set a rate, there is a requirement on us to balance vl cas. so, ln la cuneis wno adopt this strategy are stepping outside ine law. Our lawyer's advice is that there are risks to the councils involved in this strategy. But the risk of surcharge and so on is an unchartea area.

Can the government Law? The government can do all sorts of' things. But it is exceptionally difficult, as we have seen, for them to introduce new local government legislation in the House of Commons, or even the other chamber. It would not find it easy to introduce such legislation.

Can you estimate how much support your proposal's going to get?

I think there is a genuine feeling that we have to have a unified approach. are not saying, come what may this option must be adopted by everybody. But we feel that it has an advantage which other tactics that have been proposed don't have.

Whilst one what to do at the end of the financial year, councils must begin now to gear the town hail trade unions and other trade unionists, the labour Parties and

HE LAW

ILE.A.

constituency

precepting

number of authorities.

LaCUC.

there change the

them?

Labour

We jobs. In my are jobs.

struction of set vice speculate about COLECOR O

present a united front.

UK's

Photo: GM COOKSON

menl Higher

diture

activists, and the community at large for that fight. I believe we have unity on the need to wage the fight. That's the most important thing.

As we proceed through the next few

months I believe ours is the most likely tactic to be adopted by a substantial

That doesn't

mean we won't fight alongside other authorities who prefer to adopt other was

We're after posing a problem for the government that it can't duck. If

substantial nullet of authorities who may run out of money and default on their debt charges, the government will have to take stock of

that. It will have to decide what to do.

Your statement points out that you can't have a united campaign without the rest of the labour movement behind you. Has the statement been discussed with the local government unions? If cluded you run out of money, doesn't that imply you couldn't pay their wages? Surely that can't be a popular strategy with

First of all, there has been a great deal of discussion between trade unions and

groups throughout London and in the maior Labour authoritie outside the capital. There is a general understanding among town hall trade unions that they are facing a crunch.

In as far as there was no rate capping legislation, the choice facing them was the loss of tens of thousands of

own aulonity, Lambeln talking about approximately Unions know that for a council just to accept the government

losses and the total

In general they don't want to lose their wages, and they don't want to lose their jobs. We believe, together, we can

TORY ministers are promoting the

recent economic mance as the dawn of a new age. Yet on the Monday after the London Summit the UK's best-known establishment economic commentator, Samual Brittan, predicted slump within 18 months.

JOHN HARRISON and BOB MORGAN unravel the economic developments in the UK.

The economic crash of the first two years oi the Thatcher governmeni bôitomed out in the summer of 1981 companies began running down their stocks more slowly. Modest improve

continued into 1982 and 1983 consumer spending provided the main boost. Total consumer expen.

rose by 6.7 per cent between mid-1981 and the end of 1983. Pur chases of cars and other consumer durables shot up over the same period by 29 per cent.

investment also grew. building was buoyant as falling interest rates cheabened mortgages Su vestic l in services also rose in 1982/83, following on v a modest tall over the previous two years. But, in manufacturing, most severely by the crash, investment remained at a very depressed Nevertheless, by the end of 1983 output mad-1981 AITOSL level. Treasury per cent ministers began to perk up. . But, the table shows, things could hardly have gone on getting worse for much longer. The scale of collapse during the Tories' first two vedes Ce no suesestcu uatuc wanted Victorian standards of living to «combay yoda vaes

Unemployment had jumped by over a million. Manufacturing industry had declined at a rate which would cause it to disappear in a decade or so. Even the Treasury and Civil Service Committee, with a Tory majority, con-

that Government policy responsible for over half the new recruits to the dole queues

So the economy has merely been inching its wav back trom the worst reces sion since the 1930s. The upturn has also been very unbalanced. The crash had centéred on manufacturing. tight money had pushed the exchange rate through the roof. Companies had

Thatcher's economic record

% changes

GDP (output)

Industrial Production

Manufacturing Productior

Private Sector Investment

Manufacturing Investment

Unemployment

Output/Worker (Whole Economy)

Output/Worker (Manufacturing)

Source: Economie Trends (April 1984)

nd».

IS 1S & PARMENT

cover dit

tried desperately to come to terms with perfor- aird betweeo 1979 and cary 1981.

Tutu uclwcc] Many had failed. which was less exposed to international competition had fared far better.

Higher spending has so far provided little respite for manufacturing, as consumer abroad for their new TVs and videos. latest Imports satistied about halt the cense in home

recovery penod markets to sell Japanese VTRs is basis ior a sustained recovery squeeze on manufacturing is reflecter by the replacement of a 'traditional' surplus on UK with a defecit. Between 1979 and 1983 imports manufactured creased bv 20 per cent manufactured trade fell from a surplu of £1.2 billion to a deficit of £5 billion Had it not been for the North Sea oil revenue this cherad manufacturing trade would have posed House severe problems. The Bank of ungand

have estimated that about 25 per cent of LC WIL OULDUL OVC LICooL Lw. years is attributable to North Sea production hit The higher spending also

more to lower saving than to higher inlevel. comes, and people cannot run down

their savings indefinitely narofauring his has apt up by. a e COe CAeN Obsed phenomenal 17.5 per cent since mid 1981. The crash compelled companie: to restructure to survive. ment made it easier to do so by weakening union opposition. sacked and speed-up fewer workers now produce only slightly fewer goods.

The growth of labour costs per item produced has been slashed to only 2.3 per cent in 1983 quarter in that year. was Higher profits,

provided by Lawson's Budget to start investment projects allowances 1986, led the Chancellor and others to expect a surge in investment. And with world trade forecast to grow modestls Tory apar, and Ui firmas onrea singly coim

petitive, exports could provide a fur-

1979 2nd quarter 1981 2nd quarter -1981 2nd quarter -1983 4th quarter - 6.9 - 12.6 - 17.4 13.8

Socialist Action HEALTH

TTO Y VBUC

MON:

9-30 ther boost.

and early 1981. Treasury's maintain The service sector

off pressures mereds e looked

pressure demand over the Bullding new super-

no The quated numerically manufactured trade

goods inhe balance Or Germany's.

deficit

Led with a 25 profits in 1983

owed vestment

more dismal.

years

UK probably Unemploy-

Workers were HOOSCO Far

. Profits jumped by a

and the incentive

UK's

before generous would are abolished in April

present. crisis

'50s and

But, +5.8 +7.7 +4.7 +16.5 ing - 7.8 +24.5 +8.4 + 17.5 one centrist

6 July 1984

Dho IDEN HARPIS

But productivity growth is unlikely

momentum Even the propaganda sheet, Economic Progress Report admits that: 'Some of the gains were probably one-

responses the severe cost pres and 188, leading to the closure ol manufacturers some ot the least efficient units... thi:

has now eased and the productivity

(March/April 1984).

Much plant and equipment is anti-

In 1980 ici example controlled machine tools accounted for only 14 per cent of UK machine tool production, compared to the 50 per cent of Japan's and Wes!

UK capital could only compete effectively if it invested on a huge scale But as the Economist noted, when fac-

per cent increase in their companies: 'could find little better to do with their money then store it in bank deposits and other short term financial assets'. Whilst total insisce mid-1981 il remains well belene risen by 16.5 the average of the years 1973-79.

bre SLovnaac umme s ever

There scrapping has exceeded investment for the last three

although figures for late 1983 and 1984 show some improvement. The

has less manufacturing plant and machinery today than at the lowest point of the crash. Capitalists are reluctant to invest because they can not see any money in it. Since the early 1960s the pre-tax rate of profits outside the North Sea has declined by some ten percentage points. In 1980-81 it stood at little more than four per cent. Even after the marked jump in 1983, the rate

as oly i he poere on the

short-term economic prospects do better backin Brittan's judgement than Lawson's. But it woulc be a gamble. Forecasting is dicey at the best of times, and never more so than at

Minor upswings, based largely oi stockbuilding and consumer and hous. ing credit, are in any case almost irrele stabilishing the kind of conisions to

Phot and od. Tra chir i notee re

Thatcher is nowhere near to achieving that.

that is not to say she won't Likety to eyain above thre milton eo on trying. With unemploymen! many years, management will continue to press for major changes in the work

'new realism',

ublic relations jargon for the fear tha ligh levels of unemployment engende is not going to be given up lightly

union Economist: 'If Arthur Scargill loses we are heading for a new pattern. But if he wins, all bets are off.

Page 8 scan of this page

The bases tour of '84

8 for Jean-Marie Le Pen's fascist National Front in France shocked people throughout Europe.

Socialist and Communist Parties themselves.

looks at the bitter lessons of Mitterrand's government.

Iramigrants aren't allowed to work in France.

Nevertheless Francois Mitterrand was elected President of France on 10 May 1981 thousands of

immigrants were on the streets

celebrating the victor! of the Socialists and Com munists. Under a government of the left, blacks in France expected • 10 get their rights. It took only a few months to dash their hopes.

In France there are 4.5 million immigrant workers and their families. That is eight ber cent the population. There ale further 300,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants — many of them employed in the underworld slave trade of small sweatshops.

The majority of black workers in France come from the former French Canner colonies and North and West Africa.

Nearly 70 per cent have livTHIS SUMMER Youth CND will be holding a two week long peace march bases in Britain.

YCND National Committee, writing in a personal capacity, looks at the aims and slogans of the march.

October's CND march was frustrated by the slogans put forward by the right wing: 'Nuclear defence is no defence', 'Freeze the nuclear arms race', the opposite was true on the massive anti-Reagan march of 9 June.

Face to face with US imperialism, and in the midst of the miners' strike

filled demonstrators gap left by the political

the right ('Return to Sender') with obvious themes how CND can build itsell 1 accol.

The youth contingent in particular, carrying a

Socialist Action 6 July 1984

France

Mitterrand

against the

immigrants

THE ELEVEN per cent vote in the Euro-elections

But Le Pen's victories weren't prepared simply through the austerity policies pursued by Francois Mitterrand's socialist government. They were also directly aided by the racist policies pursued by the JUDE ARKWRIGHT, reporting from Paris,

Led in France for more than ten vears. Despite this verv few are entitled to French citizenship even among the generation who were born there.

Many black workers have to renew their residence permit every This places them We Constant re o deportation as the permit Is not issuca uniess lne applicant has a job at that and ment among blacks is exhigh. Under SLEingent laws passed in the 1930s the right to vote and ine right to organise are also denied to immigrant workers.

Small wonder that this section the French population had such high hopes in government which claimed to represent the oppressed. Before winning the elections of 1981 the Socialist party/Com munist party election plat form had promised

BASES

Vol

INOT BOMB A0 U.S. ASES!

DEPEND HICCOME RUSPENHAM TRACY DOYLE, & memue or

While the enthusiasm of demonstrators on last

series of banners 'No Cruise, No Trident', 'No US bases', 'Britain out of NATO', and 'For Nuclear Free Europe' gave a lead to the rest of the march. These slogans were passed virtually unanimously at emergency YCND conference in February.

For youth there is no 'middle ground'. While

migrants the right to vote, the right to organise, the abolition of the stringent laws on deportation, amnesty for illegal immigrants and the introducLOH ten year automatically renewable resident permit.

Shortly after it came to power the new government duly granted amnesty for 100,000 illegal immigrants and the most stringent laws were abolished. The right organise was established through the abolition of a decree of 1939.

In October, controls the CND leadership tries 'watering. down the fundamental demands of CND to draw the Liberals, SDP and Tor wets. YCND is faced instead with the thousands of youth suffering from unemployment, cheap labour YIS schemes, cuts in education and increas-

ng police harassment

So it is not difficult t win demands for mass tion. And the activities of Youth CND would

goul CND to shame. They pro-

just what CND could achieve if it began to build of the population who are suffering every day under the Thatcher government

If the leadership of CND really have no idea of what they are doing they should take a leaf out of YCND's book. The fortheoming "Bases '84' shows exactly how CND can and should built. It is a two week, 200 mile long march nine military and nuclear installations ending with a multi-cultural 'Jobs not bombs' (in Lon.

were introduced supposed-

to protect immigrants froin so called siave trade employers. was where the honeymoon Cucu

To this day immigrants do not have the right vote. Nor do they have the ten-year residence

OCTOIL. although Mitterand claims he has 'not forgotten' this promise. But in reality not only have these I Unuse been forgotten

but they have been totally reversed

By the time of the municipal elections in March 1983 the Socialist don.

The of the

future

demands.

'No hits

since alliance

the

missiles

NATO The right

anti-American just as they

against for the

there is great of 'anti-

all across Europe, this something should question those other "Americans' the people of Central America facing

and Communist Parties

had been instrumental in

whipping massive

late campaign against im

migrants. Jastor Def-

campaigning

Marseilles, , boasted that as

Socialist Party Minister of the Interior he had expelled more wing. In Vitry tar

the right wing.

Communist controlled

local authority bulldozed a block residences oc'cupied _by immigrants.

Pierre Mauroy, the Prime Minister, accused striking WOrKers Renault and Citroen of being taken over by Islamic fundamenincreased intervention and

troops. For them the west European

ucatt ment is a vital ally Nicaraguan women for instance visiting Britain went first of all to Greenham

Obviously we're not interested in the 'antiAmericanism' Denis Healey for which we Cal read capitalism'. We're not in. terested in weakening the US presence in Europe for

'Euro-defence bloc' Neither are we interested in a reduction in nuclear weapons from the US exchange for an increase in money spent conven-

European countries. CND will not be bull unrough orienting towards those who advocate nuclear defence' and 'Euro-defence'.

The fight against US bases is an international one. And our own march should reflect this. We've invited youth from other European ments to join us. Hopeful- HALE LUVC

talists.

All this served to create an aimosphere for the introduction in August 1983

the Dufoix decrees. Border controls were step. ped up to stop illegal immgrants and wives and children from entering the country Massive raids were carried out in the small factories and workshops to flush out -not the unscrupulou employers but the il

immigrant workers who were then promptly

deported 7,000 were ex-

pelled in 1983 alone

Under the decrees, , im-

migrants were also offere

and a promise of training, to return home tries who had nothing for them.

The government were carrying out vendetta against the immigrant population. Many im-

moreans deen in

forefront ot fight against the government's austerity measures

attacking immigrants the government was trying to cover up for their policies of creating mass unemployment By expelling immigrants they could pretend they were trying to do something about the problem

Georgina Dufoix, the Secretary of State responsible explained this openly, 'We against ly this will bring us one step closer to our proposed 'International Youth March'.

And we haven't forgotten the most well-known base of all. Hopefully young women of our march wil stay Greenham and give vital support 10 the there. Support that will continue when the march is over and as long as the women are there acting a focus for the rest of the peace movement.

seems hardly necessary to point out the significance of "Jobs noi Bombs' pra liters the midst strike. YCND has approached the NUM asking for help building the march and will probably visit a miners' picket line en route.

Young miners have already agreed to come on the march and we shouc have young women from

10o. The SYCND march solidarity with the miners.

News

unemployment'. She

stated: 'Our measures (the

anti-immgrant decrees

ed) are visible and effec-

tive

The campaign by the

so-called government of

the left has allowed an at-

mosphere of xenophobia

and racism to be whipped

up to the advantage of the

extreme

Marie Le Pen.

the immigrant

population are not taking

this lying down. Amongs young second and third

generation and im-

in particular,

feeling is running very high. In December they organised a march

acruss mrance to orotest a these racist marched licies 100,000 with

them when they arrived in

Paris and the main trad unions (CFT and CFDT)

were forced to back then

even though they sup

ported government policy

Mitterrand himself wa forced to the mar chers and listen to their demands. The tions set up to support the march are continuing and are begining to coordinate nationally

By organising together against racist policies, , the immigrant population are showing they • can fight to turn the tide against this reactionary government and can draw in other workers to defeat all its right wing policies.

We hope the carnival at the end in particular will bring together young blacks and asians, young miners, young unemploy-

women in a cu allu Youll massive call for Jobs not Bombs'.

It is vital that this march is a success. We

prove there is an alternauve lo tue blans or the CND leadership. We must build links between the peace movement and the labour movement. We must mobilise the thousands of youth suffering under the Tories

We need £17,000 finance the march, 200 people to take part, and thousands to welcome us in London

Bring itur in you trade union or Labour Party branch, LPYS or women's section. Discuss it in your CND group

Publicity, registration forms and sponsorship forms are available from

YCND 11 Goodwin

London N4 (01-263 0977) • The march is taking place from 6-19 August.

Page 9 scan of this page

Here we go again

Surplus Value

BEA CAMPBELL continues our discussion started by Tony Benn's 'Labour's alliance for socialism'.

IS THIS debate in Socialist Action about politics now, or is it not? And is it really a debate about new alignments some fairly habits and assumptions on some parts of the left?

I suspect it is the latter. And that makes it difficult to take seriously.

If the content of the debate isn't serious — and I think that much of it

teresting, insofar as it is? The only thing seems to be that there is a new alignment on the left taking place across some surprising boundaries.

What seems unite tagonists along one side of the trench is that the traditional notions of class struggle and processes described the struggle for socialism

are untouched by anything that has

happened in recent life, in particular the trauma of the last five years since the hatcher reoime was elected.

All those who dare to suggest that

Thatcherism is a specific phenomena,

on the one hand, and that the left itself is in a bit of a state, not to say a

crisis of purpose and pracuse,

banished to the swamp of Gait-

skellites, reformists, revisionists and

whatever, lending aid and comfort to the demoralisers and defeatists, if they aren't actually the demoralisers and defeatists themselves.

Cheer ир, says Tony Socialism! says Socialist Action, all is

well really, there's nothing new under the sun. Thank Godfor the GIC and Sheffield and Liverpool and

miners, they all go to show that the left is alive and well and definitely not in crisis. Eight million people voted for the Labour Party, which means socialism, we weren't defeated at the last election at all.

Winner

The great divide in the debate seems to be that there are those who, like Eric Heffer, think that the structural struggle within the Labour Party is complete, and therefore - since the DATO CONCCL — corrected and we're on to a winner if we can only hold on to our nerve.

The re-alienment between some democrats, munists and some Trotskyists isn't surprising — they've always shared similar assumptions. So maybe their historic compromise is historically in-

But many others, I suspect most of the left, don't share their complacency, nor do they share the party chauvinisms of some of the debaters It is among them that the bold ques-

them that we find political ingenuity.

While not sharing some of Eric Hobsbawm's areuments astonishing, and Doring should be represented by anyone as the new Gaitskell.

Whether some of the protagonists

Thatcher represents a break post-war Tory consensus and that, more important. she has captured popular support for

surely to anyone with eyes to see is that a re-alignment has taken place in British polities which can't solely be explained as the predictable betrayal of raggy, wimpish social democratic bureaucrats.

around unreconstructed

in-

the pro-

are Benn.

the

really

Thatcherism

to be understood.

Tony Hobshawm's

cent structural

hardly adequate. come Com-

Tries. people. 1o ask the

must be asked.

and among Healthy

find Tony he

DUTt

agreed, given with ported.

authoritarian

like and whether it could

that the

has appealed to

something - and that something has

Benn's answer concern about That-

cherism and his suggestion that the re-

long battles within the

Labour Party do not describe recent

structural changes within the working class or the progressive movement is

Indeed, it doesn't touch the body of Hobsbawm's wor-

What Hobsbawm is trying to get

at is the enduring crisis of the Labour

Party's inner Me as a party. and the

problem of its awful relationship to

the people, a relationship which has

often pacified and disempowered the

question isn't

defeatist, it is simply the question that

Benn doesn't ask any of these questions. As Jon Bloomfield

things pointed out in Socialist Action, there is a glib assumption being made that the labour movement is generally in a healthy state, healthy enough to sup-

Male alive to the capitalist crisis, and whether there is

SOURSE But these assumptions can't be sup-

of the

It is by no means clear that there is agreement within the party as to what

be implemented. There is even less evidence

movement's relationship to the people is healed enough to be called healthy, and whether even if the both relationship between some of the peo-

ple and the party is sufficient to win

the next election. I think the answer to

all those questions is negative,

Benn is right to remind us of the historic snilt lo the

Labourist consensus and he is certain-

ly right to remind us of the disastrous

consequences of the Labour leaders'

support for the Falklands invasion.

But his notion that eight million peo-

ple supported a radical programme

for socialism is unsupported.

What is surely true is that Labour

enjoys the enduring support of eight

million people who voted for it in the

last election, and that this probably

describes a core of class allegiance to

Labour in its old fortifications. But that isn't the same thing.

Hobsbawm not

repudiate the left. More likely he is

suggesting that the left hasn't chang-

enough, hasn't recognised the

depth of the current political crisis and too often confuses two distinct

- the party and the people. What he's worried about is the isolation of the left and the Labour Party from many of the popular movements and fissures within popular culture. Changes

Maybe that doesn't worry the left

Labour Party. That is characteristic of both the big party chauvinists and the chauvinists who've moved in on Labourism. What I find worrying is the way the left isolationists seem not

have noticed those changes in popular culture which have moved

rightward and leftward, dependently of the organised tradi-

tional left. Nor have they noticed how men and women and whites are easily and able to forfeit their class loyalty or in-

terest for sexual and racial privilege authenticated by the party of their rigal l

these shifts in the party but they just

mismatch I'm describing. Things in the party have changed, he says, take for example the powerful movement for women's rights.

women, and some people on the left seem to have noticed it. Himself in. cluded. But that 'support' amount to a powerful campaign. saying: Demands

What is obvious, powertu movement rights has blossomed outside the political parties. Kinnock genuflects their direction Labour Party puts children first. And at the same time he

movement within his own party.

Benn mentions Northern Ireland but it is by no means clear how Labour will solve its own problem about Northern Ireland - will it get out? The sect dramatic initiative has barely begun,

if at all. Benn, with typical courage, has not shrunk from the responsibility, but has his party?

Finally, Benn undermines all his own generous acknowledgements of in- popular forces outside the Labour

Party with his proposal for their af-

Socialist Action gress'.

alliances

agined.

Why?

automatic

class, faced what called the

tried

Party.

lually, face organised be

sexes.

it.

Benn attempts to register some of

left.

itself.

The mon feminists

is that the for women's

seems to by saying the

and groundwork for such a

Well,

brilliantly

6 July 1984 9 filiation to it. He sees the Labour Party itself as 'the true alliance of pro

The point about the debate aboul

which has taken place among socialists outside the Labour Party for the last couple of decades is that something quite different is im-

The rehabilitation of traditional notions of class struggle is in compatible with such an alliance, if it is to be an alliance between equals.

Let's start with feminism. In its assertion that the relationship between men and women is not reducible to class oppression, the women's movement has shown that there is no

unity between men and women. Indeed, within the working

women are subordinate and have been subordinated by the men of their own class. Much of men's class struggle has been exercised at the ex-

of and although remainer resilient fighters on their own behalf within

the working class, we have constant!

willam nompson la 'sexual Toryism' of the

working class men's movement.

The far left and the men on the left

in the Labour Party have consistent!!

suppress this fact. The women's movement

cannot be affiliated to the Labour

It is the height of Labourist

chauvinism to suggest it. Feminists

engage with the Labour Party - ac.

Other fight for women in the of the movement's resistance,

which has been organised within the

Labour Party itself. Problem

The Labour Party is certainly an

arena in which women fight for allies.

it is a party feminism should like to

transform, but the party is also part

of feminism's problem. The implica-

tions of that cannot be understood by

the kind of position which asserts that

men and women are united when the!

manifestly are not. Sure, they should

but the men's movement

culpable for the division between the

That's some feminists

within the Labour Party themselves

are saying — it hardly takes me to say

The condition of the renewal of

women's offensive is the autonomy of

: feminist movement outside the The collapse of autonomous

feminism has historically always been

matched by the collapse of feminism

as a force within the Labour Party

Autonomy is not a sometime

thing, nor is it a matter • of conve.

the survival of feminist

energy to fight within the left is con-

tingent on the renewal of autonomous

feminism itself.

energy of Greenham Comdidn't come from socialist - but it has clearly energis-

ed the spirit of those fighting within the left for the left's transformation. There's a lesson in that somewhere. One of the difficulties for left men

be that thev can't see themselves and their movement as a problem. It's typical, I suppose, of a white, metropolitan, male experience in the oldest labour movement in the world created in the oldest capitalism in the world — it carries with it the egotism and smugness and sense of superiority which British imperialism exported throughout the world. thinks it doesn't have anything to learn from anyone.

the oldest labour movement in the world loses two general elections to one of the most

primitive right governments in the world maybe it ought to learn that it's time it learned something from someone else.

Page 10 scan of this page

10 Socialist Action

TGWU

emands a

FAIR DEAL

for

HEALTH

SERVICE

WORKE

TWO amendments have been introduced to the Trade Union Bill which is now passing through the Lords.

The first means compulsory postal ballots for elections to the prinicipal executive committees of on strike,

Was taken This amendment introduced by a strange alliance of Tory right

wingers, SDP other Some Labers ne, sa ali ones,

some Labour peers,

led by Lord Beloff of the

Economist. As the bill stood originally,

possible to have a workplace Dallot,

argue it wasn't

possible to have a branch

ballot. ecutive.

government's

position is unclear:

have neither welcomed it

nor said they will write

this amendment out of

the bill.

That's the first

change. The second

that the government closed? itself is introducing Lords' amendment in the Lords

to deal with industrial action.

In the original, union in the context of anyway. an official strike had to 1982

hold a ballot in order to be protected by the im-

munities granted under the 1906 Trades Disputes legislation. Holding the ballot is sufficient, the isn't result doesn't matter!

In the context of the acts. miners suake. and uluci pressure from its own hack benchers and trom the Alliance, the govern- earlier

allennole new piece strengthen the bill so that immunities only apply to difference official strikes called after majority of you've members participating in ship, the ballot have voted in conviction,

Ton. The

Originally, the government was trying to force unions into a ballot that the in the belief that a majority of members would It's vote against mansenal action. They felt that was ped the

su'"The NUM's struggle

6 July 1984

Westminster

started ano continues as

The deci-

example In 1981-82

geological

rather the

defined

Employment

by im-

through this

if the leaderToe

'82

that the have stop-

The view from

taking

fusi

dreds of

could be

SUDOUL.

will

LICVCI

there

have

ed.

1980 and

flesh. tidying up takes

has talled

The and not

The

maller

legal action

hun-

suits that

Not

a powel-

another

never be

the police

employ

Acts of

the are the last

Commons.

but they

before the

begins.

should

This would

the

it's our

Diane Abbot interview

"The bottom of

the heap"

DIANE ABBOT is standing for the women's section of the Labour Party national executive at the October conference this year. She is standing as part of a slate put forward by the Labour Women's Action Committee (WAC), whose demands for constitutional change to give women more power in the Party have won majority support at the last two women's conferences.

Diane is the first black woman to stand for Labour's national executive. Socialist Action is supporting the whole WAC slate, and will join with WAC in campaigning for it. As a first step JUDE WOODWARD asked Diane about the issues involyed.

What made you decide to they think they can ignore stand for election to the WAC's slate, and that NEC as part of the WAC they'll be able to stitch the GRANT slate? elections up with the trade The main 1 am delegations the

women's as hisuatre cul mende it maybe usual that won't be that easy this LICI select and Lulc The Campaign group haven't said where they Sao a une waloie silud tion as yet. It is a big problem for them They were black quite keen on Judith Hart.

But at the same time they claim to be committed to feminism and anti-racism, they should support WAC's slate.

Do you support WAC's upfront will demands? plenty of coverage.

I support all of WAC's demands. l've been a supporter of WAC for years. I try,

the women's conference It should black women nos no power. united against the white, struggle male right to elect have power, including the the women

members of the NEC This, together with the left policies. black section, is vitally im-

portant for black women in particular. black section the Party can give a sign to black people that it will acknowledge their presence in a positive way instead of the passive antoniance we've had in out- the cole the Partv. Black women are at the Already know bottom of the heap, a fact nave that VUI male, white

the leadership often loses sight of. In the context of the recession black women are being forced to pay an incredibly high price. If you dominated. From this take privatisation the

of cam- health service you'll find it the cleaning, catering and laundry going. In other words, the lower pala winch very large proportion Party. women trom

morues.

aga

the 'best'. It would mean 159 staff employed domestics instead of the from

present And total domestic hours per week would be reduced from for over three 6170 to 3410.

the privatisation of By Jeremy Corbyn MP their jobs. be through, il means a 44 pes privatisation ly, when the Health Authority cent cut earnings,

perhaps more. on their fate. would be employed by a

private cleaning company of the District from and cleaning many conditions of work

would disappear. hospital's own There would be no

long term guarantee that even NHS wage rates

These women should of the fightback. From the pre Seul leadership of the Wouldn' Know that these labour movement hundreds of thousands of black women existed. That is the importance the black section, to build up their confidence, make the issues more visible.

WAC the

Morrell, the WAC

know Joan Maynard

ins pr •iva

JEREMY CORBYN MP

would be paid never mind sick or holiday pay, maternity leave or any such conditions.

News

Photo: MICHAEL ANN MULLEN

been able to ask them as yet. stand i discussed neermal, Before

ly with many members o

the black section steerin

committee and they agreed

to it. Hopefully at the next

meeting they will formally

support me.

How do you see the cam-

paign going forward?

WAC is planning a major

with the women

Hicculs

on the slate at the TUC ir

September. I will be there

as a delegate from my union, through this we hope

build up support from the

block votes.

Building up support in the

unions is particularly im-

portant if WAC is to win its demands.

This dispute is similar

the one at Barking Hospital, where employees of Crowthalls Cleaning Company who have tendered for the Hammersmith contract have had wages cut by : 44 per cent through reductions and

• workers at Hammersmith have expressed their solidarity with Barking They want to be put into the • There are pickets mounted every da at Hammersmith Hospital, Ducane Road, Натmersmith. All expressions of support and solidarity are welcome.

Page 11 scan of this page

In the Unions

Thatcher

grabs

London

Transport

LONDON Transport workers have a new boss: the Tory govern-

This week the SHeIL.

London Regional Transport Bill through Parliament.

Immediately LT's chair, one Dr Bright, went to press: • fares will go up later this year • competition will be introduced profitable routes, or they will simply be sold off

closures and job losses will follow.

BaMSDON Minister, Nicholas Ridley, is also DUS Pr least 7,000 jobs IADSIYC cuts. At least will go few

over ine nex!

In ten years time they want 100 per cent one- person operation buses no more smiling bus COMANCOTS. Wages will be forced down current 4.o per cell on vlfer will seem generous by comparison.

LT workers are increasingly seeing the

for the left

RON TODD'S VICTORY in the general secretary of the Workers' Union is a serious blow to the new realists' hopes of extending their hold on the TUC. Had victory to Todd's main Wright, the balance on the TUC would have gone decisively in favour of the right.

The election was не e oe co ! the trade unions today.

Todd's 40,000 Hla uril. was, in TGWU terms, wafer thin. It was the most closely fought campaign since Bevin established the

parallel between their fight

the miners' strike. This led quite a tew them to strike on the South East Region TUC miners" day of action on 27 June. Many workplaces are taking regular conec tions and organising sponOOrCU CYCLI 10I miners. Stamford Hill had a football match that raised f450.

By Richard Rozanski, Stamford Hill Bus Garage

We are also preparing for the fight to save jobs

July many distributed

mousarus leaflets to the public explaining the collocuuclces of the London Transport Bill. Winning the support of the public will be crucial if any industrial action is to succeed.

Many workers now agree that the only way to win will be through an all-out strike. It is up to the union leadership to tap

A slim victory

elections for Transport and General

opponent, George

present structure in 1921.

In 1956, bbe Sone0 oo By 503,000 to 80,000: in

334,800 to 28,000 and in '77 Evans WOI by 350,000 119,000.

The, result shows the

unis potential.

Ine next messi con. the London Bus terente RASCISS. and hopefully carry, a motion CallI! out strike as soon as any cuts are attempied. But the campaign cannot let it rest al lal Special mccul should be held in every TA NIP 1000n aan1 arRIPr workplace.

The real problems of organising any strike must

discussed:

Ui cals flying pickets to stop recovery of the right in the union, since its defeat in ine carly DUs

Jones and Evans had their base in the trade groups and the shop Stewarur OralIsaL0 s. Unemployment and the attacks on the stewards particularly the car industry, has weakened this base.

By Pat Hickey

The union's membershin has talen trom 2.25 million in '79 to about 1.5 па c d dga broportion of this decline has veer i manuracturu! Todd will be question for

whether he can stop the advance of the right in the union. This wii De cosev meeo mae policies the TGWU follows in the LUC and the Labour Party.

Wright stood

curet on a platform • carefully hedged ot support for incomes policy and watering down of unilateralism. He was opposed to Tony Benn, and would not have supported the NGA. His defeat is welcome.

However the close result and Bright's state. ment ual Ine gloves are off with the hard left snows thal the battle in the TGWU is not over.

The task for Todd now will be to throw his weight behind left the

the Labour Party and CND.

In beulenwer the TUC conference will have the opportunity to call the general council to account

ICKNEY CENTRAL SII garages who worked the GLC day of action; raising money to ensure we arel ! ola ved work; building solidarity In lhe rest ot the labou movement; stopping coach companies

IrONI providing services during the strike.

All these problems can he Overcome if they openly discussed and contronted. he London Bus Conference must begin the fi9ht now. Our new bosses are doing just that.

GTW

for its sell-out of the NGA, and its failure to support

miners. 'new realist' course can and musu pe reversed

the Labour Party the tight around will continue, and the TGWU VUtt will be crucial.

In CND the right will continue efforts 10 atECI unilateralism. Todd's record on this issue

good the TGWU's influence has not been placed clearly behind the left in CND.

Under Moss Evans the union has frequently tried to straddle the left and the right. A much firmer left course is needed if the advance of the right is to be halted. This applies also inside the union. Decline

The decane in and the stewards has the shop bewares small measure due : to the union's failure to give full support members when they have gone into struggle. This has eroded confidence and reinforced Tine O TITT the right. Todd's own record on tese issue is much les harkers would be ihe First than perfect Ford to point out. As the largest union ce the country : influence of the TGWU could be

lecisive in the comino bat

les. The left in the TGWI must ensure that the opportunity is not wasted.

with the NUM.

at this year's NUR conference.

This year's conference was in a politically militant HOO• OR SUCH calling for the release of Nelson Mandela and cam paigning against nuclear weapons paign actively against nuclear weapons.

On the urgent issues facing the rail industry itself, delegates voLed against the wishes of NUR general secretary Jimmy Knapp, to reaffirm union policy no o entertu any further talks on productivity and this to certainly include any proposals to extend driver-only operation of trains.'

As long as the membership remains determined, this could tie the hands of the union leadership in the productivity exercises which British Rail wants to impose particularly now that a pay deal with out strings has been concluded.

But this year's pay dea

of a measley 4.9 to 5.6 pe cent was hopeless. And

They acicgaics kniew il. decided to go for a whopping 33 per cent increase next time round. And, as delegate after delegate explained, this necessary increase will involve a fight

Delegates Conte ence gave a , big boost to solidarity with the miners when they agreec to

change union rules so an! member suspended for Telus ne move coal trains will be paid The movement by train of iron ore to Llanwern and Rav-

steelworks has censuralg now been effectively blockaded.

These and other decisions taken by conference will give confidence to the next group of railworkers about to take industrial action: the workshop employees who build and maintain the trains.

Hit

Shopworkers have been hard hit by closures and Tory plans to hive off profitable areas to private

The Shildon work: have just closed after a two

year battle. Now 5,500 fur. ther thep by she end or 1987 for the Shops will provide the buik Glasgow Swindon of the victims if manage. ment and the Tories get their way.

Ksis massacre of ihe

workshops being

by a policy non-cooperalor with management and a refusal

Socialist Action 6 July 1984

NUR in

militant

mood

RAILWORKERS are in a militant mood. Hard hitting solidarity with the miners is growing in the industry. Railworkers joined miners at the front of last Wednesday's 50,000-strong solidarity march

DOREEN WEPPLER, a Stratford guard, looks

to handle one particular of train (Class 142 DMU) been contracted out to the private sector. This actior will culminate in a national 24-hour stoppage of shopworkers on August, coinciding with a massive demonstration in Derby that day.

Shopworkers have hard fight ahead in fending ott Inenrcaienea closures. But virtually every group of workers on the railway has a battle looming Whatever union's stance, management will undoubtedv be looking for ways to continue their attacks on jobs and working conditions.

Management will want to trains in Kinge Cros and ahead impose operation

the Strathclyde region.

Remain

Whie the miners re. main on strike railworkers have all the cards , in thel hands. The British Rail Board's insistence that we'd get no pay rise without productivity strings melted when the government decided to

tion between miners and railworkers.

It's in the interest of every railworker to support the shopworkers in the fight against closures campaign to force the Federation of the : Drivers Union and the NUR to call for a national stoppage o all union members could build on the growing determination among railworkers which has been evident on every regional

SAY NO TO

SERPELL

11 day of action held to date A united stana on inl Issue woula oe a massive step in overcoming the sectional Ovstos management and union leaders have fostered, to the detriment of the rail unions. Gain

But above all, ever! raiworker will gain it th fight against job loss and DrouuCuvIl railway is seen as part of the fight of the working class as a whole. The time is right to link up the fight to keep railway jobs with the miners' strike

In light Jimmy Knapp's revelations at Llandudno that British Rail and the NCB have hatched a secret deal to close a number of rail links berween pils ana powe stations, such united ac tion is urgently needed

As many railworkers said the day after the London march, 'We weren't well organised this time round, but just give another chance. We'll have all of London totally shut down just like Kings Cross'. But that extra chance is there for the taking!

A national 24-hour strike call in defence of jobs would unite all secnons ol tae rau mnaustry — from the workshops to the guaras with the miners and with workers in virtually every other industry who are suffering from Thatcher's policies. mighty display of solidari- Would such ty be a political challenge

the government? Certainly would. But anyone who continues to

unions shouldn't be political conceding the struggle to defend our jobs agains

Thatcher's policies befor the fight has even begun.

Page 12 scan of this page

Action Labour must back

Fund drive: 250,000

THIS WEEK WE took a gigantic stride towards getting a new, better, and cheaper building. week's bonanza of another cheque, not for five but for £15 lovely thousand.

This now makes sure we can leave our present address and get shot of an onerous financial burden. It also leaves us only t5000 short of the half way mark. Now, Bob Pennington

for Mole's Eye

on a Lambeth Trot

GRAHAM - the Red Trotter scorched the streets of Lambeth last Sunday his clocked up one hour 50 minutes for the 13-mile half-marathon. Media reactions differed to the flying mole.

The Sun headlined it as 'Reds run amok in Lambeth'. The Next Step screamed: "Socialist Action runs for Knight'.

When asked the reason for his success Graham said: 'It's down to my red document'. A smiling correspondent of the Peking News asked: 'You mean chairman Mao's little red book?' 'No, no, mean chairperson Ken's little red bus pass, and if that bloody 37 had come earlier I would have done an even better time!'

His trainer, Colin S, is himself an experienced marathon person -once entered a local hostelry at 5.30 and didn't leave until 2.00am, a feat which so impressed the local constabulary that they gave him a free room for the night. He says he has more like Graham in his stables.

Watching every yard of the running together (well, the first 20 yards anyhow) from the Tavern, he told me: 'I shall probably enter the editorial board in the three-day non-stop London to Glasgow run.' Saying Graham's run had raised over £100, he was quietly confident that an editorial-run marathon would evoke a real mass response among the readers. He would not be aegistered ds a newspaper with the post Uffice •ousnea Dy varamai enerprises. PO Box 60. London NI. ¿rue Dy bast bua vlset iiu) Ltd. London EZ

SoCiAliKt

15 thousand lovely pounds

After last £5000 came

need and can afford.

dear sponsored Daily he Brockwell

drawn on sponsored runner.

Broad.

JBSCRIBE

readers, get cracking in the readers'

groups, talk to our friends and sup-

porters and go all out to raise that

next £5000 by the end of July.

Already we are eyeing oyer other

premises so every penny you scrape

together from now on will get us

nearer to the kind of building we

Watch this space for details of

cash raised and news on a budding.

who would be the most

So there you are. Your cash can

get us nearer the building we need

and get the editorial board on the 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

Over our Dead Bodies Women Against the Bomb Introductory offer for new • readers: Eight issues for just £2!

KTO

& VICTORY TO THE (VICTORY

MINERS

EN THE

ERS TORY TWO OPTIONS FACE

Kinnock's policy of cuts with a human face.

This in effect means

the day's end there will be the choice of either standing out against the government or caving in.

The first test for the Labour Party Labour authorities will be whether to defend Liverpool. is Merseyside that the first and the most decisive battle will take place. Liverpool has a Labour counci that has refused to set a Ical Ducel

Moreover it is a council that went to the polls in Ilay asking ine clectors to:

mandate defy the coveriell and got just that. If Jenkin can crush Liverpool with its popular mass support the resolve

Liverpool

TOINE TOTHE

Labour's recall local government conference when it meets in Sheffield this weekend. It can either refuse to cut jobs and services, which means defying the law, or adopt Neil

doing Thatcher's job for her. No matter how the decisions are dressed up and no matter what rhetoric is used to present them, at

of many other Labour authorities will be shaken and their local population will think that it's not possible lo lake on the Lones duo will

By Bob Pennington

Terry Harrison, vice prestaent or te Liverpool district Labour Party summed it up when he told the recent fightback conterence: It vou make the struggle national then follow Liverpool's chaloic localy. This is OK as far as it goes but just

LIVERPOOL

TO THI as Sheffield, Lambeth or the GLC can't win on their own nor can Liverpoo

Thatcher and her cabinet are out to pick the councils off one by one, doing what one cold Hungarian 'communist leader described salamm lacuc. One option Jenkin is deliberating about is using the first year of rate capping in as mild a way DOSSIDIC create conditions 'divide and rule'

He would demand minimal cuts in and jobs, tempting the councils into cooperating, ten une nexi year the screw would be tightened. 'worst of the spenders' would be taken separately with Liverpool of course coming top for hitting Such a policy would give Neil Kinnock's policy of 'staying within the law' life

line and

MICTORY TO THE MINERS could if successful break

united LaDOlI resistance Labour

This is why the labour movement

Illusi oaCk Liverpool but also why 'heroic go-it alone policy from Liverpool won't do The way to defeat rate cap ping and the destruction of jobs and services that will follow in its wake, is bi united action. David Blunkett is right when he says 'We don't want martyrdom we waltt tory' A victory. .can and must be won

But it must start by all-out backing for Liverpool's policy of not setting a legal budget and it can b guaranteed by the other threatenec administra-

taking same 'illegal' road. With united backing from the laboul movement Liverpool can

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