Socialist Action No. 80, 30 November 1984
The scan: 080-nov-30-1984-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
ACTION SOCiALiSt Thatcher 99
No. 80 30 November 1984 30p
66 For
a TUC as loyal to the
miners as the CBI is to
Page 2 scan of this page
How the TUC can put out the lights
SOCiALiKE
A
For a TUC...
RIGHT FROM the beginning of the miners strike only one force could save the Thatcher government from defeat. It wasn't the leadership of the TUC and Labour Party.
Every instrument of the capitalist class has popular press have poured out lie after lie on the handful of honourable exceptions. simply as a propaganda machine for the govern-
What has startled some people even more has been the police and courts have acted as hired bully boys and thugs — as every serious survey has shown. The courts are whatever decisions the government requires for its day to day tactics. Just work out beforehand what ruling would suit the interests of Thatcher and you will know in advance what the "justice' today in this strike.
Democracy
What the miners' strike brings out into the open is simply what Marxists have always claim-
ed. That our society is the dictatorship of capital. graciously granted by the courts and state, provided that no fundamental interest of capital is
policy or interest of capitalism then the pretence
of democracy is more and more openly abandon-
Then the 'neutral' cover is replaced by the iron hand of repression and state violence. The
But despite all this Thatcher still does not have the mechanisms to win this strike herself. gress, and at the time of the NACODS threat to
strike the government has been sent spinning.
Labour leadership the strike would have been
But what a total contrast between the total
mobilisation of capital behind Thatcher and the
miserable wetchedness of the leadership of the
courts have hammered out their lies, brutality
Neil Kinnock and Norman Willis been!
Just let the police attack a picket line with the
leader of 'Her Majesty's Opposition' on it. Effec-
tive action at only 13 power stations would win
meetings at every singie one personally with on-
ly that number involved! Send a general council
For while Thatcher has mobilised her class
for war, Kinnock, Willis, Sirs et al have left their
class completely disarmed. No ringing declara
tions of support for the miners from them. And
in the case of Sirs, Hammond and others there is
The shock troops of Thatcher have been met
by the TUC and Labour Party leadership by a
load of weeping,
Thatcher such
Labour leadership. She judged accurately and
precisely the miners would never be able to rely
on the leaders of the labour movement in the
way in which she could totally depend on her
forces. A mistress always understands the tricks
of her performing seals
si Full implementation of TUC decisions on
oycott of coal
• Total mobilisation of the labour movement ir
support of the miners
easily and with certainty.
Labour Party, as loyal to our class as Thatcher is
to hers. That is a struggle that will have to be
time afterwards.
only its beginning.
Socialist Action 30 November 1984
CTION
But if you threaten a really basic with no open denunciation
whining, moaners. No wonder open contempt the
The steps to win the strike remain clear and
With those steps Thatcher could be deteated
is Scargill said the goal must be a TUC, a waged not only in this strike but for a very long.
The fight to deliver victory to the miners is
THIS WEEK the right wing in the TUC was stepping up its pressure to get TUC Congress decisions on support for the miners reversed. The reason is simple. Despite government propaganda the 'back to work movement' has not broken the strike in the key
If TUC guidelines continue to be operated the miners are going to put the lights out gain victory. If the NUM holds the solid core of the strike together, as it is doing then only a climbdown by the TUC can win for the government.
PAUL DWYER looks at the new GLC commissioned report on the situation in the power stations.
has failed. Even the figures Presented With mat
core areas of the strike are
decisive question or unc
power cuts are still on the
account for almost 20 per
(CLUD)
CULS The CEGB at present is
predicts that power
despite the attempt of the
notes, 'apart from running
reportedly using the light-
Some llls
The use of the light-up
burners demonstrates
faced by the
CEGB. The basic fact is
that normally 75 per cent
of electricity in the UK
generated by. coal. The
whole electricity supply in-
When I consider the leadership of the Labour Party 1 an overcome with feelings of weariness and repulsior....
dustry the coal
The
• not to
• nol
1181
are to maintained.
supplies can be maintained
ahea
operational minimum dur-
Moving coal to the
power stations on the level
required will a huge
operation. In the peak
month, February, it would
shifting about
A PIECE THE AGTION
Be fair, mate! •I think we have a very progressive leadership!
You're insane.
Fast-dwindling coal stocks at Ferrybridge (above) and Drax (left)
630,000 tonnes week, and require 2, ,400 lorries travelling about 2.9 million lorry miles. determined TUC would make this impossible.
Power stations which have voted not to accept new supplies of coal
Station
Tilbury West Thurrock Fiddler's Ferry Aberthaw 'A' and 'B Didcot Thorpe Marsh Skelton Grange Eggborough Ferrybridge 'B' and 'C' Drax 'A' and 'B'
The central failure of the back to work move. ment is that it has failed to
bring any significant pro-
1I precisely the key areas for maintaining the supplies to the power stations. The movement Yorkshire, and the Norin totally failed
East. It will therefore
almost certainly be
necessary for the govern.
ment to start the task
shifting coal before the
end of December
For the trade unions
the answer relatively
simple. The GLC report
Joking on aht sic struggle....
lists the 13 power stations which have voted not to accept new supplies of coal (see table).
According the report if stations totalling about three quarters of the
Area Capacity Cumulative Capacity (MWso) (MWso)
SE 1308 1308 SE 1240 2548 NW 1880 4428 SW 1706 6134 SW 1820 7954 NE 942 8896 448 9344 1720 11064 NE 2214 13278 NE 2500 15778
capacity decisions accept
failure electricity result
stock and
"Therefore, although peak demands this winter may be lower (or, indeed higher) than last year the refusal by at most six to eight large power stations to take delivery of fresh of coal or oil supplies
/ They are weak vacillating, cowardly. prepared to betray any working class
News
nhotos. MOPNING STAR
would mean that peak de mand could not be met.
The task facing the TUC is a simple one. It is
direct efforts backing up the workers in those power stations which have agreed to observe the TUC guidelines This, rather thar equivocating about support IOl NUM, is what the general council must do in the next wechs The crunch situation is
already coming at Didcot
- where industrial action by workers prevented coa deliveries four weeks ago, but scab coal is now being accepted by a number workers.
But the situation clear. There are so few power stations which need to knocked out of the grid that victory easily achieved by the TUC if it Well, victory himself can make all ap peal to workers such as at
Didcot
If the TUC does not win the strike it is because because they are unable to They do not wall lo not
The task of the move
ment is not to let the TU( off the hook. To force the delivery by the unions of
Congress decision:
weeks ago, afte
he NACODS sell out, w
Socialist
A That still true can stop
NUM'.
The fight of the entir
movement has to be tr
stop that treachery now.
•GORMÄC
Precisely! They are still in opposition but already they are behaving....
LABOUR
GOVERNMENT
Page 3 scan of this page
New realism
Surplus Value
IN THE two weeks since Norman Willis's infamous speech at the South Wales miners rally on 13 November, attacking violence', it has become clear that Willis's attack on the miners was no mere flash in the pan. speech won Willis from Margaret Thatcher as a 'very distinguished unionist', was a signal from the centre and right of the TUC that they intended to win back the initiative that 'new realism' had lost at Brighton.
A clear division of labour has developed with Kinnock attacking the miners' on the political front and the TUC right, and Willis, trying to break
aull industrial solidarity around the NUM. The basis of the whole operation is to gain a major realist' victory by completely changing the position of the TUC on the Thatcher government's anti-union aws.
This policy is now being completeTUCTer Duty on Monday penly
Terry Duffy on Monday openly welcomed the government's new laws
ballots. There has response to any of the massive legal attacks now taking place
- including not only those on the NGA and NUM but £200,000 fine on the TGWU.
By Pat Hickey
The centre and right of the TUC are well aware that the miners' strike, and the support for it, are the main
face in swinging the TUC decisively to the right. They are therefore attempting to reverse the pledge of "total support' given to the NUM at Congress. Predictably, extreme right is leading the way.
John Lyons, of the Engineers and Managers Association has written to Willis to place the issue of support for the miners on the agenda general council meeting on the 28th November. His letter states that the 'general council, with Its responsibilities ne race movement as a whole must establish clearly whether it has a view of its own in this protracted, bitter more damaging dispute'. In other words, the TUC must state publicly that it does not support the NUM and reverse the Congress decisions.
Plan
David Basnett has followed this up with the proposal that the NUM and the NCB should discuss a new Plan for Coal in the light of new market conditions. aware that 'new market conditions' is the core of the NCB's arguments for the closure of 'uneconomic' pits, and the issue on which the strike has been fought from the beginning.
These moves from the centre and right can be seen in the light of the recent GLC energy report London In The Dark, which shows that refusal by al most six to cign large power slai tions to take deliveries of fresh supplies of coal or oil would mean that peak demand could not be met.' The report lists 13 power stations which have voted not to accept fresh coal deliveries, and predicts power cuts in January TUC guidelines adhered to by even a signiticant proportion of those 13.
If the General Council throws its weight behind those stations, now implementing Congress decisions, a victory for the NUM is assured. This level of support is something that is well within ine general power to deliver - 1 necessary by Willies himself personally going to the
The general council, Dower sallons. however, olner concerns winning the miners' strike. again the right is leading the way in what is now a concerted push to gain TUC acceptance of the laws.
The first step in this drive was the BETPU decision to accept cash tor government-imposed ballots. AEUW is to ballot its members on the same issue with a clear recommen-
'miners
The
praise
trade
'new been
June
now the
the
of the
wider
and evel Basnett is well
are
ment Act 1980'. Cash council's
than Once slake.
as a whole. 20L-O
policy.
The
dation from Duffy to accept the government money. Clive Jenkins of ASTMS has asked the TUC to review its policy, set at the 1982 Wembley Conference, which stated 'Affiliated unions shall observe congress policy and not seek or accept public funds for union ballots under the Employ-
that The issue of cash for ballot is however iust a svmptom of what is at
The real issue is the TUC's position on the anti-union legislation
The recent Austin Rover strike clearly showed the direction of trade
The response of the TUC AUEW and the EETPU to the use of the courts was to immediately comply with instructions to repudiate the strike. The result was a sharp defeat
rides again
for Austin Rover workers, isolation of the TGWU - which now faces further court action for contempt. The TUC
Silence
The defeat of the Austin Rover dispute constitutes a major victory for the government. It was the first time
the 1984 anti-union legislation had been used in a major strike. The TUC leadership's readiness to condemn picket line violence contrasts sharply with their complete silence on the role of the EETPU and the AUEW in the Austin Rover strike.
That the right and centre of the
was preparing the ground for working within the restrictive framework of the Tories' anti-union legislation MaS made clear Brighton. TUC Congress,
Can you tell stork from butter? and the although criticised council's stand on the NGA dispute, effectively endorsed in policy terms silent that betrayal by allowing a case by case' approach to unions facing legal attacks. on the legal attacks faced by the NUM and other unions has deepened the hold of new realism union leadership. Despite the impact of the miners' reasserting itself and is attempting to tighten its grip within the TUC.
Ballot
face attacks on two other key fronts: the closed shop and the political levy. The closed shop is now illegal unless secret ballots give an 80 per cent majority in favour.
Austin Rover the experience of the recent strike and the lack of leadership
Socialist Action 30 November 1984
tain
unionism,
coalition chances
non-political
Broad can after EETPU The about
action,
I he
ment,
organised
codifies
sent defeats.
Loyal
1982,
jority, bankrupt.
the general
• The general council's silence that
different on the trade
strike the right is 1972 The unions, however, now also
love leill
In firms such as
3
from the TUC will prove no good defence of the closed shop
The most fundamental political challenge facing the unions and the Labour Party over the next 18 months will be ne aerence or lne ponlical levy, and the organised links with the Labour Party. On this front the new realist line is a disaster. The fight for the political levy and the links with Labour need to be tied to policies which offer a way out of the crisis for the working class
Hammond and Duffy offer only surrender to the 'reality' of Tory Bri-
and June 1983 showed the futility of this approach
For the right wing of course this reality is not a problem. Their policy is precisely one of non-political trade
accommodation with the Tories, no-strike deals, and finally a
with the SDP/Liberal
Business
But if the ballots on the political funds result in major unions breaking the ties with the Labour Party then it
Labour's senous weaker of forming a government, and be a big step towards the kind of
business unionism Hammond et al desire. Just how far Hammond is prepared to go on this
be seen by his statement the conference Inal would like to join the CBI. and that he would 'be looking at the CBl's articles to see if there was a wa! to get round the point of our being a union and I will certainly be deing
of trade leaders seem to have got round ine point of being a union at all!
most fundamental poir. the attacks on ile unions is that the weakening of the =:. fective strength of trade unions. ari their freedom to engage in poura
undermines the most basa democratic right of the working class.
military style policing of the miners' strike, the use of the courts er an unprecedented scale in industna disputes, the attack on local govern-
and the undermining of the Labour Party are all part of this same attack on democratic rights — on the
strength of the labour
New realism is not new. It merely and extends the policy retreat and betrayal that the unior leaders have followed for the past five years. And this line has led to the pre-
The Tories have taken advantage of every retreat to launch a fresh attack. Starting with the isolation of the steel workers in 1980, and the sell-out of ASLEF and the Health workers in
, though June 1983 to the NGA and GCHQ, the present leadership of the labour movement has, in its ma-
itself to be utter!!
The Tories have turned to attack the NUM because it thought that the labour movement was sufficient! softened up for a decisive blow against a key section of the organised
workig Class
The Tories miscalculated on what struggle would COSI them, because it found a leadership that was
within the British trade a leadership that was thrown up by the strikes of 1969,
and 1974 was, Scargill's words, 'prepared to stand and fight'. The NUM leadership has refused to use the TUC bureaucracy to get itself off the hook. It has refus. ed to allow the TUC to step in and sell out its struggle. That Scargill leadership of the NUM remains firmly committed to victory
It is the NUM's stand that needs to be taken through the whole labour
The present labour leadership has to be replaced
The struggle in the labour move ment, to use Scargill's words, is for a TUC as loyal to the miners as the CBI is to Thatcher and the NCB
Page 4 scan of this page
740 delegates already!
4
Mineworkers Defence Committee
National Conference
Solidarity with
the NUM!
Camden Conference Centre Bret WC)
Sunday Dec 2nd
11.30-5.30pm
Scabs arriving at Killoch Colliery
Scotland: Clarke
•WE ASK now, and we have the right to ask after eight and a half months for physical support' Eric Clarke, general secretary of the Scottish NUM, told a one hundred strong meeting in Glasgow last Thursday.
at only 24 hours notice by Glasgow miners' support group, and attracted stewards and convenors from many large factories and workplaces throughout Glasgow.
speech, Eric Clarke, made člear that his purpose argent call for solidarity action. He explained that the miners need more than just declarations of support which were accompanied by the leaders backing down and 'doing a Pontius Pilate'.
By Matthew Ford
He was 'disgusted' by the statement made by the
comparing Arthur Scargill to a First World War miners strike no the strike Gallipoli. points. Firstly, the TUC decisions should be plemented. He included in
an appeal Ravenscraig 'even at this
stop using scab coal and scab iron ore' Secondly, he called for a one day stoppage throughout Scotland as a physical demonstration of solidarity which would be a tremendous boost for the miners.
Socialist Action 30 November 1984
VICTORY
TO THE
• MINERS
calls for one day stoppage
The meeting, held mid afternoon, was organised
Over £4,000 from factory collections was handed over at the meeting, but Scottish trade илЮЛ
present, including John Walker (ASLEF), and Hugh Wyper (TGWU) were less tor. theoming with support for the one day strike call.
Indeed Hugh Wyper
Free Davie Hamilton
Davie Hamilton,
Monkton Hall NUM
delegate, faces jail over
Christmas, perhaps until
February til he gets a
trial. Davie was original-
ly bailed on a breach of
the peace charge but was
subsequently jailed after
allegedly "breaking his
bail conditions'.
However the
Dalkeith central strike
committee have cayed
for the release of Davie
on bail now. They see the
decision of the courts as
based on Davie's leading
THE MINERWORKERS Defence Committee Conference on 2 December promises to be one of the biggest meetings of labour movement activists during the strike. It is vital that it gets its politics right. VALERIE COULTAS looks at some of the issues the conference faces. Nothing is more important in politics today than the NUM's battle to save the DILS. vital thai solidarity is increased and
ana Laboul Party conference policy implemenica
This means attendance
the Mineworkers Defence Conference London on 2 December is crucial for all those involved in the solidarity movement.
The conference was organised at the initiative of Labour Party members. The idea the Labour Briefing fringe meeting at Labour Party conference with Ken Liv-
suggested a one hour stop-
page instead. However
day stoppage was
greea unanimously Dy li
and ubsequent! place on y Ma
Twenty thousand marched
Glasgow and large
rallies were held in six
other scottish towns on
that day. And as Eric
pointed out, the
miners now have a right
and expect, increased
action.
More support was evi-
dent from some factory
See shores now a he
should now act in
call a one day stoppage,
general strike in Scotland.
role in the dispute and as
part a pallelli of
police harrassment of
Lothian strike activists
including arrests for non-
Casicill misdemeanours
during provocative
police patrols in many
villages.
Scottish demonstra-
tion free David
Hamilton will be called
in Edinburgh.
• Messages of support
should be sent to Davie
Hamilton, Saughton
Prison, Edinburgh.
ingstone, Tony Benn and Arthur Scargill
By Valerie Coultas
The national forum created Dy the Mineworkers Defence Committee is a unique intiative. In the last eight months there have been many rallies and demonstrations in support of the NUM. But this conference is a chance to consolidate the links between the NUM and the broader labour drawing together the activists who have been the backbone of solidarity WULK throughout the country
So far it has been Neil Kinnock and Normal Willis who have been grabbing the headlines as the 'voice the labour movement'. This Cull ference gives the rank and file and the left wing of the labour movement a chance to spell out their support for the miners.
Action not words must be the theme of this event. bul actvists confront three problems in order to achieve an actior orientation this conference.
The Communist Party, through Region TUC (SERTUC) une South East
has refused to
execuuve. sponsor the conference. It
only sending
'observer', although
SPEAKER: AFTER speaker
100-strong meeting of railway workers spelt out why
every railworker who refuses to shift coal is not only supporting the miners, but is also defending jobs in
rail.
tinghamshire, where
miners have extended to the railworkers. Called by
the Federation of the two major rail unions, the
in Coalville last month.
Both of these meetings, and future
despite a vicious campaign of harrassment
management.
powerful platform
included Charlie Limp, a
local striking miner; local
and district rail union of-
ficers; the assistant genera
secretaries • both rail
unions and national ex-
ecutive committee
members from each
LOU Adams, a driver
from Stratford in East
London and a member of
his union's executive,
plained, 'We have to sup-
port the miners because 80
per cent of coal in this
country is transported b
rail. And coal makes up 60
per the total
amount of freight traffic.'
Britain's rulers unders-
tand that railway workers
and miners arm po te
ful combination.
Serpell Report with its in-
famous proposals to slash
the railways pieces,
there are two options
cuts which if implemented
would mean that no coa
would be shifted by a rail
Arthur Scargill speaking at South Wales NUM rally NUM sub-committee of SERTUC has
agreca iu support the conference
The enthusiasm of tne SWP for the conference presents the opposite pro. blem. Belated converts to working in the trade union ana Labour tarly sored solidarity movement Iney now want to take 11 over, expose the leaders including of the NUM and pit the rank and file
One SWP against tien member went over the top 21 C suggested 'bureaucrats like Scargill' should
be allowed 10 minutes!
The Chartist Tendency are the tinal problem tha solidarity activists will confront on the day. One of its leading spokesper
Chris Knight, lined up with the ultraleftism of the SWP and argued that a
Shirebrook still firm
last Sunday's
The meeting was held in Shirebrook, in Notthe divisions amongst the meeting followed a similar open union meeting held
ones, are designed to show solidarity with railworkers who have stuck to working class principles and have backed union policy of refusing to shift scab coal
by
Tone lo a vowc station
anywhere in the United
Kingdom.
By Doreen Weppler,
NUR member
A powerful theme of
the meeting was to dispell
the myth that
railworkers shifted coal to-
day, their depot would be
sare wnen te governmell
comes for the rail industry
tomorrow.
"Let's recall the lessons
of our 1955 strike said
Neil Milligan ASLEF's
assistant general secretary.
'We found out then that
we weren't alright if we
were loyal to management
during that strike. They
came for most of us in the
1960s. They didn't
disciminate.? And, as Lou
Adams pointed out, a full
67 footplate depots are to-
day faced
plans.
Tony Donaghy from
labour movement demonstration would let the leaders off the hook' and urged the Collullice stead to adopt a declara. tion that called for the removal of Kinnock and pronouncements troops joining unions.
This declaration was sent out to delegates by the
against the ad vice of other members of
It totally fails to come to grips witl the needs of the NUM anc the solidarity movement at the present time.
critical stage. The NUM needs support to win the strike not leftist phrase
Firstly through massive Xmas appeal to raise money for the miners the NUR executive tackled the argument that the road haulage industry will keep
for shiftin coal if we let lorries shifi LUCI colliall coal today.
Jobs
'We meet regularly with Transport
Workers union and they
explain it's been
cowboys in the main who
are doing the work We
have reports of up to £500
being paid daily 'to these
cowboys. Farmers
tors, suitably camoflaged
are even being used to shift
coal.'
But above all, he said,
'we must take seriously the
miners' pledge that when
they win they will
guarantee that all coal
contracts return to rail."
During meeting
tribute was paid to
outstanding efforts of
railworkers despite har-
Tommy Taylor,
Tassient
from Shirebrook ASLEF,
told how the depot nor-
mally shifted more than
400.000 tonnes of coal
weekly with the
railworkers who are scabb.
ing today, 300,000 tonnes
coal could be moved. off to a lone
signalman who has stood
un to the pressure. HIs ac
tions mean that only
50,000 tonnes are being
moved each week.'
The Federation has
blacked all movement of
aviation fuel which is now
being used to keep open
News
Photo: G.M.COOKSON
and their families.
Secondly, through increasing the campaign around the power stations to ensure the lOU's promised at the TUC that can win the are delivered.
Thirdly, to campaign for a massive labour movement demonstration in the early New Year, in support of the NUM, to make the leaders of the labour movement come out publically in favour of the NUM and its strike to de lena Jobs
If Sunday 2 December
these precise goals it will mark an important step forward in winning wider support for a battle that the British labour movement cannot afford to lose.
stations, like JUWC Neasden. The desperation
ot the government to sup ply power stations was evident in management's ap proach to a small drivers' depot of 16 men in Thame, near Nottingham
limited LUVE amounts of oil in emergen
for the Ministry of CC. Defence. The drivers were
bribed with amounts of overtime they'd agree to shift oil to Didcot.
Fight
'Although these men normally exist on a basic week's earnings, and they
saw other sections dipping their bread in the gravy, to their credit, these men
refused, explained Neil Milligan
It's railworkers like these who 'should play Big
Brother to the miners in
Nottinghamshire'
alla
was the view of Paul
Galloway, a striking miner
from Thoresby pit, , where
only the 1400
workforce are on strike.
Both Coalville and the
Shirebrook meetings were
successful, they are
repeated in other places
like Immingham,
Llanwern, and Bar Hill.
the union will be in a better
state respond … to lot
losses in the rail industry
Coalville men
recognise this and have
planned second open
meeting at their depot, to
take place on Saturday, 15
December
Page 5 scan of this page
Cardiff women rally
News
Photo: JEFF BIGGIN
UNITY IS STRENGTH
MERTHYR
TRADES UNION COUNCI
£150,000 for the
'IT'S NEVER been this easy to collect money for any other cause,' said Swedish struction worker who has been collecting money for British miners every week since the beginning of August.
All over the country trade union branches, political organisations and solidarity committees are engaged in different forms
WOrK Gruvarbetarforbundet (National Unior Mineworkers) has launched a campain with lists going around most mines.
MEWN UNDOD
Mas
TYDFIL
NUM from Sweden
So more than €150,000 has been paid to the solidarity fund of the Swedish NUM, that has been transferred to the British miners.
in Maimranen, a mining area in the far north, miners $23,000 from a strike fund Whal was sel up during une 1969 miners' strike in the
The decision was made The four in charge of ad at a
administering the fund spoke against the decision: They were immediately sacked dune commitee and miners in of the replace them.
MINES WIVES
SUPPORT GROUP
YORK SHIRE CO
OT
December in Cardiff
women's rally since the
solid in South Wales and other areas.
Delegations of women from will be joining their Welsh SIsters of strength against the Tory
Wales Women Against Pit Closures also want to invo. vle women from outside the coalfields this demonstration, because if the miners lose, women everywhere will suffer under the Tory government.
We feel that a mass turn-out on 8 December will show the Tories what they are up against. Women in South Wales nave been acuve since day one of the strike. We are
have taken important initiatives such as occupying the pit-head baths in Cynheldre colliery which stopped 20 scabs going on day shift. Further actions are planned.
Other unions have been soldarily work as well. One good ex-
arforbundet (public sector workers They launched fund-raising campaign, limited in time. oned due date was postponed overwielming support. Altogether some £20,000 was collected.
Several organisations have arranged tours WILlINISH miners, have spoken public
visited factories and unions, and have been able to speak for
cause in the local press.
CHER
The mass women's rally in support of the NUM on 8
will be the third national beginning of the miners strike. The aim of the rally is to show the solidarity between women and the NUM at a crucial point in the struggle. The rally will show that despite the so-called drift back to work support for the miners is
Speakers at the rally are Anne Scargill, Gaynor Lagalle (black councillor),
by Rhian May
Anne Davis (GLC Coun cillor), Anita Gale (National Organiser Wales Party), Helen John (Greenham), Anne Clwyd (MP Cynan Valley) and other labour and trade
A national women's organisation A DELEGATE
in the miners' dispute
1984.
ference a national women's organisation has
mining communities.
Statement of aims of the national women's organisation
1. To consolidate the national women's organisa-
Event pit closures munities for the future.
the 1984 miner's strike. 3. Te develop Mintworship between the Matien l Union Mineworkers and organisation at all level: 4. To campaign or communities and education. 5. To promote and develop education for working class women. 6. To publicise all the activities of the national women's organisation at all levels.
has the backing of the NUM and the Wales Labour Party Womens Conference.
Obviously, after the last nine months women in mining communities Heet transport for the rally. appeal to everyone to dig deep and support us both physically and financially.
We are assembling outside the Museum in Cardiff at 11.30 for a short march to the rally. We are hoping to arrange creche facilities for the day. bring youl banners. Here we go!
Address for further information and donations:
South. Wales Women Against Pit Closures, c/o 108 Bookshop,. Cathays, conference of women representing all the coalfield areas involved
met together Chesterfield on the 9/10 and 11th November,
As a result of highly successful con-
been established. The enclosed statement of aims was agreed and adopted. The delegates reaffirmed their total commitment to the NUM in their struggle to retain pits, jobs and
tion and ensure victory to the National Union
of Mineworkers in their present struggle to pre-
and protect mining com-
2. To further strengthen the organisation of
women's groups which has been built up during
women's
issues which affect mining particularly peace, jobs, health
Socialist Action 30 November 1984
London Labour
women raise
£9,000
THE Piccadilly Theatre
in London's west end
resounded on Sunday
the singing and
chants of hundreds of
women. The occasion
was a benefit organised
by London Labour
Women (the regional
women's committee for
the Greater London Labour Party) for
Women Against Pit
Closures.
By Hilary Driver
After strange
(and occasionally dubious)
acts the event got off to a
swinging start with the An.
nie and
some traditional Irish
VI HOW NOS Gibb.
Betweel the performers, various
personalities
Juding Mirers Karliented
Walters presented facts and figures about the strike testimonials from miners and women in
mining communities about police brutality, tire strike.
how she saw Labour's role in the strike.
On Wednesday 21 November, at o'clock at night, Norman Fowler attempted to make a statement, which Labour leaders demanded, about the upgrading of sup plementary benefit which should have meant the miners got ar extra t The purpose of asking for that slalciiicill publicise the fact that the government weren't going to let them have it.
This was the bitter end another example of the government on the one hand trying to starve the miners back real Scrooge effort immediately before Christmas on the other trving to bribe them back with their own money, that due to them. had to make a stand
About 30 of us stood in front of the mace, a procedure which effectively
put an end to the sitting
We refused to go away. si in the end the Speaker hac to adjourn the House
We wanted to highlight just what the Tories are prepared to do I ney were all there to relish the fact that their government wa: going to take another f off the miners
This struggle of the miners is the most important struggle going on in
today. Since NACODS settled it has been much more difficult Tor le miners. Inis is the time when all 'good men anu truc
really must put their money where their mouth is.
We need particularly industrial from other workers in suppor of the miners. We need ti stop the power stations.
5 Tory hostility and their determination to fight to the finish.
This spirit was summed up by Betty Heathfield in s stirring speech which she appealed for renewed efforts in and fundraising to counteract the bribes of the bosses.
Unfortunately, the first half of the benefit overran by 40 minutes, so many of the best per. formers including Peggy Seeger, Robyn Ar. cher and Carol Grimes d and the Iguanas — were squeezed for time.
about 40 women Women Against Pit Closures join. ed with all the performers in a final song, and were greeted with a standing ovation while the theatre rang with the now famous 'Here we go chant.
The benefit was an unqualified success, with £3,500 raised in the collec tion and €5,500 from ticket Sales advertisin! and so on — a grand tota of £9,000!
Bedles shut up!
LAST WEEK national press headlines were grabbed by protests by Labour MPs in the House of Commons over the government's fl a week supplementary benefit cut for striking miners. It was one of the most effective actions by Labour MPs during the enSocialist Action asked JOAN MAYNARD, one of the MPs involved, to explain what happened and
There must be a real campaign to reach them -by leafletting the factories and by speaking to them dinat ine irrespective what leadership those unions are saying in order to persuade the power workers that if the miners get beaten we're all going to be in very, very
Just at the time when the crunch is on we have the spectacle of the
'leader' the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, saying he can't find time to go to even one o the major rallies which the NUM recently held. I just don't believe that.
He found time to go to India, he's Moscow. I don't oppose him going, but it is an ab solute disgrace, just when
need stand together behind our party and behind the miners who are conducting the struggle on behalf of all of us
Then we had Eccles chairperson of the TUC saying the miners win Trade unionist: snould say to him: 'If that's the best you can do
he de, the hold
she him the front remove TUC
The tragedy of Willis' speech on violence, and similar statements by Kinnock, is that instead of ex posing who is creating the violence society natche and the Tory goverriment, and thei
the strike, the police - they attack the miners. Just go and have look Yorkshire and North Der ovshire. were we've got virtual police occupation and a police state
Page 6 scan of this page
IN EXPRESSING solidarity to those suffering
prisons we recall, in the fifteenth year of this last base of our historic struggle for independence, those the world who are similar struggles.
To our black brothers and sisters in Africa, and especially those who struge aunder apartheid in South Africa, we
as solidarity. To those in Central
oppressed by regimes. to the Palestinians, deprived
= homeiand, to the Basques and to
men and women denied freedom ie people committed to gaining we pledge mindful that the successful conclusion o: eur struggle is a victory for you, just a: = victory for you is a victory for us.
i: Dublin's submissiveness and willingness to assist in Reagan's controversia electoral visit to Ireland is any indication, then we can Dublin, despite lip-service to the principre of Irish neutrality, is content take us pawns in Reagan's NATO chessboard, a chessboard upon which that geriatric whizz-kid seems intent on starting World War III.
Irish republicans need to be active in campaigning for world peace, against nuclear weapons and for Irish neutrali-
And before our opponents point to our position on the legitimacy of armed struggle in pursuance of national independence and freedom, let me point oui that there is no contradiction.
The suppression of small nations throughout the world and the arms race being pursued by the super-powers are but opposite sides of the one coin. support national liberation is to be opposed to imperialism position on international issues is based on its position on the national question
surely as the London government's foreign policy is reflected in its attitude to Ireland.
Democracy
We will continue to campaign for the restoration of Irish democracy and to articulate the desire of our people for freedom and independence, regardless
of Dublin smears or British violence.
Ireland geographically, historically
and culturally is one nation. We as one
people have the right to be free, and in
that freedom divided sections of
our people will find the
regardless of religious affiliations.
The Dublin Forum report does not
provide the basis on which such a socie-
ry can be built.
What emerged was not a blueprint
for a united, independent and peaceful
Irish society but an Irish establishment
alternative to the policies of Sinn Fein.
Nowhere in the Forum
reality of Britain's claims
sovereignty contested. Nowhere in the
report is the right of the Irish nation to
national self-determination asserted.
It should be noted that Sinn Fein's
exclusion from the Forum
and Margeret Thatcher.
Scared of the electoral and political successes of Sinn Fein, FitzGerald has been working through the New Ireland Forum to try to get a southern government involvement in the six county north of Ireland state. Thatcher turned him down flat - creating an immediate political crisis for the Dublin government.
To help understand the background to the blow up, Socialist Action is printing large parts of GERRY ADAMS' remarkable presidential address to this year's Sinn Fein Ard Fheis.
MARTIN COLLINS looks at the crisis in relations between the London and Dublin governments. throughout engaged in
totalitarian
our solidarity,
OBLACHT
SUIC that
Gerry Adams disenfranchised at least
people whose report stressed.
government needs to be met
Dublin's
declaration withdrawal.
business-like
stitutional,
state.
Partition
Over sixty
will calle
government in ment understands.
The Thatchel respect for Dublin.
heaps praise on FitzGerald.
Nothing has really changed report is the
Irish
starkly exposed. ovalism can onlv be
effectively sustains sectarian
Socialist Action 30 November 1984
IRELAND HIT the headlines of the British press spectacularly last week with the blazing row following the summit between Dublin premier Garret FitzGerald 102,000 nationalist and republican voters, the very
'alienation' the Forum society.
Sinn Fein's view is that the British
with a firm, united and unambiguous demand from all Irish 'nationalist' parties, for an end to the unionist veto and for a
aLC for British
Within the new situation created by these measures, it is then a matter of
negotiations between representatives of all the Irish parties, and this includes those who represent today's loyalist voters, to set the con-
and Colluliti political arrangements for a new Irish
years of partition, neo-colonial status. has so conditioned the Dublin establishment that it is not within their grasp to tackle the British
the way that govern-
government has no Mrs Thatcher accepts silver tea-pots from Haughey and
our part we are not surprised by any of this.
- Inings are merely becoming clearer and the contradictions inherent in our two partitioned statelats are becoming more
tackled by removing the system of privilege which
alu
undermining its quasi-religious base by the creation of a just and pluralist
Sinn Fein offers to those presently tied to loyalism the equality denied to them for so long under the British connection. Irish independence means for loyalists the opportunity to play, for the first time, a meaningful role, the rest of us, in shaping a new Irish democracy. Dublin
Dublin has failed these people and left them to the mercy of the Paisleys of this world in much the same way as successive Dublin governments have failed Irish nationalists.
lot of attention is drawn by Dublin's politicians to the 'threat to democracy' in the twenty-six counties. Most of these 'dangers to democracy" are self-inflicted.
Democracy within this statelet diluted by Section 31 (the section of the Irish Broadcasting Act denying Sinn Fein access to the television extradition, by disenfranchising voters by the denial of the true origins of this statelet and the facts of Irish history -particularly that part of our history dealing with physical force resistance to Britain's claims on Ireland - and by an impressive armoury of repressive legislation.
The smokescreen nationalist rhetoric raised by Dublin fools no one, no more than the verbal and intellectual gymnastic displays establishment speakers monuments through this statelet. We at least are consistent.
LONC KESH
not only salute Roger Casement. We salute also the brave men aboard the Marita Anne.
For my part, I wish to concentrate on another election in the North this year — an election that we all missed. It was, however, principle of democracy, with ballot. So secret was this ballot that the names or une canciuales secret their election kept a secret and even the date of the election itself was not disclosed. Even the voters were unaware, wards, that it had taken place.
The results, well publicised. Apparently, Northern nationalists voted in a secret landslide for Garret FitzGerald, Peter Barry and Dick Spring to be their representatives. Not surprisingly the ment has accepted this election result. They were obviously in on the secret as well.
North
- eds), by If Dublin tionalist opinion in the North then they are quite welcome to contest as many seats as they like. In the meantime, on behalf of those we represent in Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh, Antrim and County Down, Dublin any right to speak or act on our behalf. that ourselves.
democracy - have you noticed the etfects of just 2,304 votes cast for us in Dublin Central? AS We upholders of democracy
We have t
LONC KESH
the secret
• were kept a manifesto was
until after- elected them
however, have been
British govern-
EEC
wishes to represent na- ficial
Sinn Fein denies democracy.
We are quite capable of doing
While on this theme - it's called
SOUL the discovered
to
that over two thousand people voted for Sinn Fein, they decided that all Sinn Fein councillors elected in the twenty. six counties several years before should suddenly stop representing those who
And so we have seen the ministerial campaign of refusing to meet Sinn Fein councillors making representations on behalt of their constituents We have even seen attempts to interfere in the internal elections of a trade union.
Yet according to the EEC election results, Sinn Fein represents just about the same number of voters as the Of-
Unionist Party; 52,500 voters than the Labour Party; 90,000 more voters than the Workers Party with or without their fundraising wing -and 112,000 more than the Alliance Party. And yet those in high places continue to pontificate about the threat to
In another equally important and related dimension of life in Ireland there is an absolutely hypocritical attitude on the right to family planning and contraception the question divorce and marital breakdown, the invidious social distinctions which sur-
Page 7 scan of this page
DIEN
und the question of illegitimacy, onerent tamules and so on.
These are questions which we as a cople are mature enough to decide and itle for ourselves without fear oziers or duplicity by salaried politiins and without the tragedy of. ane Lovett to remind us that such oblems exist in Ireland.
This is the quality of life in Ireland. -what passes for the quality of life, cause as well as all this, living stanrds here are being eroded by the apcation of Thatcherite ficies which deprive an mber of people of their right to a angıul existence.
obs
According official employment in Ireland, uth, is now very close to 350,000.
five of the workforce al is one in thout a job. The real jobless figures, wever, must well over lion when we include all those arcially trimmed trom the lICS In the most deprived working class
For our major ciles une Jodiess ures are much more staggering, with ar out of five workers having no job,
he right
be free"
no prospect of a job and, in cases, no experience even of a job.
of sufficient health educationa. absence of tacilities; deprivation deprivation.
Monetarist
monetarist miccasing
those follow economic gospel, North and South?
tories are allowed to
Lense reduced
statistics, ing or a North and house-building
back.
discretionary grants are withdrawn. half a Where
official pupils are made
Led more than ever,
Stres are closed,
Davu
time
ORK
Photo: CAMERA
and power. pretends,
WIARD (Report)
Photo: ANDREW
many
The economic and social hardship which accompanies this is evident in sub-standard overcrowded housing, in-
services, inferior opportunities, total recreational piled upon through
problems
And what has been the reponse of the monetarist
Where there are few jobs, more facclose. Where workers have jobs, their wages, in real
Where there is sub-standard houstotal lack of housing, the patriotic CuL Where social welfare is already insufficient, it is restricted further and
classrooms overcrowded and special educational needs exist, teachers are left on the dole and and school. Where health services are need- uv pay iu liavel lu
less medicine available free, hospitals and health cen-
health workers are Come
made redundant.
Where young people are
through no fault of their own, with
on their hands there
facilities to occupy that time — and pet-
Calle become aimless allachons
further adding to the spiralling misery.
In response to this, the Coalition
government offers plan; they call it a National Pian an people a
entitle it 'Building on Reality'!
It quite obviously is not a national plan because — for all the time spent in the Forum - it ignores the economic
social cost of partition
deliberately fails to recognise that Irish
unity is a prerequisite of the economic independence required for progress.
But does it even address itself to the reality it claims to be building upon?
Does it offer any hope to the people of the twenty-six counties to which it is addressed? On the contrary, it actually promises an increase in unemployment, cuts in public spending, redundancies
in the public service, the removal of the remaining food subsidies and increased educational costs.
Pay
Those least able to afford it are going to be made to pay. Those with no responsibility for the recession in the capitalist economy are going to be forced to make all the sacrifices.
sobering reminder that economic and social misery that these policies bring is as nothing to those in
Their response to the misery they have created is to make the victims pay, to jail workers who have resisted redundancy, to imprison students who have objected to spending cuts and to denounce and insult those desperately concerned parents who have tried to
their policies' worst side-effects.
Their response to the problems they have created is typified by the Criminal Justice Bill which is now almost law: the extension of the methods of legalised political repression across the whole of society. This law does not address the problems of urban crime,
but rather, quite deprives everv person in the state of most basic civil liberties.
Sinn Fein has consistently presented an alternative to this. First of all we state that the Irish people themselves must have the power to take the decisions themselves and that this can only be done in a united, independent Irish Republic which is not fettered by the interests of other states. Planned
We advocate a planned economy which is not concerned with the maximising of profits for multi-nationals and private enterprise, but is concerned with maximising the benefits to the Irish people themselves.
We reject the negative, miseryinducing policies of the establishment parties, directed, as they are, at the pro tection of the interests of capital.
We declare our concern to be people, not profits. We state our conthronen the implementarish ple,
implementation radical socialist economic programme in a united Ireland, to solve their own
end the years of joblessness and social misery.
Sinn Fein, in presenting the alternative, has a responsibility to be in a position to deliver the attainment of those objectives.
This means the development and expansion of our organisation through
We need to expound not only the
reason TOr unity and dependence but the logical, social and economic reasons as well.
There are no shortcuts in the task of making revolution. There are no easy options or magic formulae. Only by painstakingly perfecting, educating
structuring our organisation so that it becomes relevant to our people and their needs will we be ready and capable of giving the leadership which will be demanded of us in the years to
left, and the
IN THE space of a week the Thatcher government direction of Ireland, achievements which could have been credited with and thrown Dublin's political establishment into chaos. the Forum report and its collaborationist philosophy has boosted the confidence of Unionist politicians and led to a new wave of sectarian assassinations in the North. as 1l coldly, what the say. but the wav that it said it. carefully cultivated diplomatic double talk was thrown out of the window, Thatcher Republicans have known for years. She is an incorrigible Unionist.
Dublin premier Garret Fitzgerald, was thrown into confusion as he tried to extricate himself from the humiliating debacle. In the build up to the summit as it became clear that the British would not respond in any way positively to the New Ireland Forum, the story was circulated that optimism was running high for Britain to respond favourably to the philosophy of the report if not its final conclusions. In response, Dublin some further measure cooperation.
more to maintain the border than the British. Dublin courts have already been made available to London both for the extradition of republicans and the se. questration of the funds of the miners.
On Monday, the
Guardian 'security accord possible'. On Tuesday: 'summit sets agenda for initiative'. By Wednesday it could editorialise it was 'very much a working summit', that it was 'one that really tackled the issues' and that there was 'less differences than in previous years'.
felt it would be 'churlish to complain about the blandness of the official communique'. The Mirror. (Tuesday) felt confident enough to headline in- cher Gets Irish Backing blitz on the IRA was launched jointly yesterday by Kritain Republic'. Fitzgerald was welcoming the new security framework between the two countries.
ing in the opposite direction. Fitzgerald was still claiming he had won Thatcher's support, was talking of the 'fullest, frankest, and ever'.
Bust up at
the summit
has switched British policy unravelled ally James Prior sidered reaction, The rejection of
respected.
But What changed was not so much
British government had to aire eltner The disloyal Fenian.
spelt
The press, long used to lionising
speak tionalists.
for this was lo announce of security ever go.
Irish tax payers already contribute
last day of the announced:
So optimistic was the editor that he
"That- A major
and the Irish quoted as
In the real world, things were mov- ed.
Whilst
Thatcher herself violence.'
most realistic bilateral meeting
Socialist Action 30 November 1984
Thatcher and Fitzgerald
On the Forum report, and its three options, Thatcher declared the unitars state was 'Out', the confederation was 'Out and the joint sovereignty optior was 'Out'. Fitzgerald said British reac tion to the Forum had been 'a con-
considered reaction'.
He went on that both parties were 'talking about realities in a new way. "hatcher, he said had recoonised ther: were 'two identities' which had to be
Thatcher clearly saw the realities' like any Orangeman — you
for the Queen or are a
As for the concept of 'alienation' which the Forum found to explain the high'vote for Sinn Fein, Thatcher said it was nonsense, 'one knows a number of people are republicans, they have been republicans for a long time, their views are different from the unionists'.
Whereas Prior had held out hope for Dublin politicians to play a role in the future of the North, they interpreted this as being given the right to
on Northern Thatcher and Hurd could not have given them a blunter rebuff Hurd said 'there will be no executive role for the South in the affairs of the North ... Dublin can express its views, Britain would listen and discuss them' But this was as far as it goes or would
In Dublin, the glue was coming unstuck. Fitzgerald, who had talked of useful agreement on Monday, said the British had been 'gratuitously offen sive' (Thursday) and that there could now (Friday) be 'no hope of progress whilst Thatcher was Prime Minister'.
The parliamentary opposition in the South were having a field day. Fianna Fail leader Charles Haughey, "scathingly critical' on Monday, was by / mid. week preparing for a new General Elec. tion. Fitzgerald was guilty of an 'abject capitulation to a new British intran sigence' and a 'craven desertion of the principles of the Forum report'. He was guilty of 'incompetence, misjudgement and ineffectiveness'. It was "a wonder he had the nerve to come home at all'.
The Unionist parties were overjoyed — Thatcher had made it clear that the only settlement she was in terested in was internal to the North. In rejecting the proposals and the ethos of the Forum report, the Unionist veto over political progress has been extend-
Kinnock, who can be relied upon to say something stupid, 'wished formalls to endorse the summit's rejection of
Thank you Neil, it was a point that everyone else overlooked.
Page 8 scan of this page
Young women have the right to choose
8 Socialist Action
AiNSTUDENTS
Ultra vires and the miners' strike
Over the past five years, student unions have suffered serious attacks on their status as independent organisations freedom over their own activities. Changes in student union financing handed over our purse strings to the governors of our institutions. These have been closely followed by a hard-line re-interpretation of the law on so-called 'Ultra-Vires' spending.
By Martin Huseyin, exec, Sussex University (personal capacity).
A letter from the Attorney General to college principles, light for legal action against student unions that use funds for activities not in either the students as such or the affairs of the college as such'.
The letter goes on to list examples of spending that would be judged 'Ultra Vires'. supporting industrial disputes, political campaigns or demonstrations and providing transport to any of these. Simple donations to would be judged illegal.
'Ihis is a clear attack on the students unions aimed at preventing any serious solidarity action with workers or other political struggles. As such, the use of the charity laws against student unions have a clear political relation to the legal attacks on the trade unions in the Tebbit and Prior acts.
The widespread support for the Miners' struggle in the student movement, constantly raises the issue of 'ultro-yires' and the attacks on student union autonomy. facilities to the NUM and the local support groups,
provide transport to demonstrations, conflict with the law. These are the activities mentioned in the Attorney Generals letter.
it is important to recognise that legal attacks by the State are aimed at discouraging all solidarity activities, not just direct solidarity payments.
The NUS leadership has failed to organise any effective opposition to the use of this law within the student movement. They have called for student unions to stay within the law, have collections and discos for the Miners, and generally avoid the issue of ultra vires' spending. Politically, this is just the same as Kinnock's calls to the Miners, not to defend their picket lines against organised state aggression from the Police.
Recent students have proved that given a lead, students will mobilise to defend their rights. They have also shown, as in the cases of Manchester and Glasgow, the police use against any form of organised expression of opposition to government policies. been a better time for the NUS leadership to mobilise and take on the government over 'ultra vires' than during the Miners' dispute.
It is therefore up to the 'left' in the student movement to organise to take up the capitulation of the Kinnockites in the NUS leadership. Particularly, HOTOS the miners, calling for full legal and financial support tor any union that comes into conce with une ta w in the course of its support work.
We must also organise around the demand for full NUS support for the miners. This should be expressed publicly by participation in a national demonstration along with other youth organisations like the LPYS and YCND.
However, if the Kinnockites of the NUS do not act on this issue, we will have to organise a national meeting with delegates from all the student unions attacked for 'ultra vires' ference in the next academic term aim of mobilising the whole of NUS to fight these blatant political attacks on the student movement.
ACTIVISTS DIARY.
NUS NATIONAL CONFERENCE. BLACKPOOL, 7,8,9,10, December All supporters urged to attend!
Sexual Harrassment Conference. Saturday 1 December.
Brighton, 10.00am - 6.00pm. Contact 0273 -678111 for further details
Refuse Cruise! 12 December. 6.00pm Trafalgar Square, called by Student CND. Book transport NOW!
Every Friday, PNL, Holloway Road site, 8.30am onwards.
30 November 1984 with political Vice-Chancellors, etc. gives the green
'the interests of
These include
political causes Student unions that open their
picket lines and may find themselves in direct occupations and demonstrations by
exactly the same violent tactics
There has never
Dollical
we must organise around the December Conference on the spending. Such a conwould have the University of Sussex, Falmer House,
Picket the racist Harrington,
MRS GILLICK, whose case against the DHSS came before the Appeal Court last week, is a member of LIFE, part of the Festival of Light. She does not want her five daughters to be given advice or treatment for contraception or abortion without her express consent before they reach the age of 16. (She seeks no such assurance for her five boys!)
The festival of light — Britain's own 'moral majority' — perverted'. It leads children to experiment in sex, and to increased Teaching children about contraception takes away the fear of pregnancy and leads to more sex. Instead of sex education what is needed is firm parental control.
Her case is based on
main points. First, sexual intercourse for gir under sixteen is illegal even with the girl's consent In fact the law is that a girl cannot give consent - the law was enacted 'to save her from herself'. So docLUID who prescribe COll traception are 'aiding and abettino' a crime ano. even if not themselves commit-
rille acting 'illegally'.
Rugby demo arrest
• believes that sex education is 'amoral and
teenage pregnancy and VD.
Second, because children under 16 are under the control of thei parents, including, in all of the patient-doctor relationship between
doctor must ill tee
doctor must there can be no breach of confidentiality because the child is not the patient!
Although Mrs Gillick's case refers only to her own
daughters, if she wins
the lords his will clearly
the Lords) clearly present the DHSS with big problems. The world is a long way from being composed of ideal, cosy
ren ite children suffer from incest. battering and neglect from their loving parents.
By Leonora Lloyd
they believe that their parents will be informed without their consent, how many girls will seek contraceptive advice? The rate of illegal abor tions and abandoned babies will certainly rise.
The right wing campaign on this issue is building up, and it thi DHSS wins there will be pressure on MPs to get the current Guidelines changed. The National Abortion Campaign and other
Defend the Rugby 18
groups must act now to campaion on the left to prepare a fightback. We Socialist Action MATT WILLIAMS, demonstration:
Why did you go to Rugby? The fact that the council had taken out the clause On 'sexual orientation' from its 'equal tunities' policy, mattered to me and other Lesbians and Gays.
There's no doubt that this is the start of a more vigorous attack on other groups, women, , and black people, and I, like others, thought that councillor Colletts anti-Gay shouldn't be allowed to Were you pleased with th «usL Dass day?
Besides the arrests, and the police harrassment, the rally and the march were very successful lots of
and Gays, union members, showing
searchwa
a big step in the right direc. tiothe rally in particular was very good with promi nent movement 'P, Chi out of a Gay Chris Smith (Islington South) cheer when he intoned enormous himself as Gay.
Why were you arrested? • first the march was unot ficial, then the rally decid-
back through town, because the first march had been sent through the back streets by the police.
The police said that if we marched again (our right!) they couldn't guarantee our safety. So meone in the rally said this meant against them!
trouble starter the Gay out teet when the don. When they succed banner
News
cannot rely on the courts or Parliament to do it for 1000 MARCHED in Rugby on Nov 10th against that council's ban on Lesbian and Gay employment. spoke to one of those arrested, after police charged the
ed a large section of the march sat down and thet the pigs moved in. There was utter contusion and &
They went for the Lesbians first and anyone who went o mea were charged with obstruc ting the highway cluding with obstructing the police.
We were kept for six ana a nal nours in a cel with no food or drink or shoes and they kept abusing us all this time. We on.
La lawyer half hour before we were let
What's happened since! The case was postponed a a hearing on 16 Nov where we had to remove badges eic as con stitutes contempt of court! It was reset for 16 Dec -and pleasebet coel
Deerse comin
has been set urgently need money for
egal costs as 16 of us ar
receiving no legal aid. Co lections have started bu we need lots more. We'll gladly send speakers out Where do you want sup port from?
Obviously all sections the Lesbian and Gay movements and groups such as Lesbian
Gays the Miners because all of us feel that the harassment we on the march, and tha faced by the miners, are all part of the same general attack • We've approached LGSM so we can use their contacts with groups and the NUM t canvass for support • Contact for the defence committer is GALOP, 38, Mount Pleasant, Lon don WC1 (01-278 6215).
Page 9 scan of this page
International
AS LABOUR spokesperson for overseas development, STUART HOLLAND MP has Nicaragua three times in the last year. His most recent visit was for three weeks during the November elections as Labour's official representative. He told CAROL TURNER how the elections were organised and the way in which Reagan and Thatcher have tempted to undermine them.
IT IS estimated that there were some 250 foreign observers for the elections on 4 November. All ine socialist internatonal observers declared the technical holding of the elections was excellent. Voting was secret, and the ballot paper listed the coloured symbols of the seven parties who ran, along with the candidates' names.
My election day was typical of many other observers. transport provided at government expense. went on to Chinendega, Corinto, and Leon. I visited some 15 polling stations throughout the day.
I spoke to 50 or 60 people, not only around the polling stations but also on the streets, including people who hadn't voted — it was marked by a red dye on their thumb - and asked them whether the elections were free and fair. Almost all replled thev were free, and fair, and secret. never before had an election of this kind.
Of those I interviewed, only three expressed any reservations. I spoke in Spanish and no one else was present. People were clearly talking straight.
second president Reagan says these elections aren't free and fair, because the Sandinistas had overwhelming media presence before the elections were called. Only one person made a point of that, but they also stressed the elections were free and fair.
On another occasion I went to a man outside his house with a crucifix around. his neck, anticipating answer. He said they weren't there had been intimidation. When I asked him about it, he said it was out in the countryside'. He hadn't personally witnessed it.
The third person expressing reservations said the Sandinistas threatened to lock him up. replied I realised he was swaying on his feet. There was an alcohol ban for the three days during the election. He was drunk! Contradiction
The atmosphere on election day. was remarkably serious and sober. The overwhelming impression from the vast majority of sense of the dignity of the occasion.
When I asked about Reagan not thinking the elections were free and fair, I frequently got the comment: 'President Reagan isn't voting here.' Several people made the point that here were seven barles ances i Nicaragua, only two in the States. Someone commented: which in practice are both the same -in their attitude towards Nicaragua, in their opposition to our freedoms and our rights to determine our own
In other words, the elections were impeccable. Tharvaod former Norwegian defence minister and senior observer International; and Willi Brandt put out a Statement to tnal erect. Clauce Cheeysson, French prime minister, been free and fait, and so did i.
free and fair O'Higgins, leader of the Irish Labour Party, declared them to be more secret than in Ireland.
Reagan's allegations predated the elections themselves. Coat-tailing the Reagan administration, Mrs Thatcher decided not to send observers. This is scandalous. They both gave a clean bill of health to the El Salvador elecBs will we certake menely different circumstances. It is clearly an example of the double standards of the British government: legitimating questionable elections in one country,
visited al-
In Nicaragua
We all had
LICL They had that Was his free,
had As he people was a
United 'two elections in Nicaragua.
were not contesting.
Arturo Cruz
fact
Staltenberg,
pressure on both for the Socialist the elections.
each. Even
weren't —
as support tor those parties.
position alive
There is no way in
tion did not take place.
and deriding what were clearly free
Reagan objected that some parties
This included for the Conservatives and Virgillio Godoy for the Liberals.
it is admitted that the American embassy was putting direct
of them not to stand, thereby trying to delegitimate
Both those parties picked up 20 per cent of the vote, roughly a tenth
though candidates withdrew — their status was unclear: first they were standing, then they
their names were on the ballot paper and votes were counted
Other parties picked up about 10 per cent.
The implications are that the op-
and kicking Nicaragua. It got a significant vote.
which the sandinistas, who got 67 per cent of the vote, are guaranteed such support in a future election. In a real sense it is quite fantastic to claim that an elec-
Nicaragua
The freest
elections
in the world
The elections called
February, and there was a period of
some seven or eight months in which
the opposition could have fought the
campaign. In the so-called 'Mother of
Parliaments' (if not democracies), it is
accepted that the governing party has
the right to call elections within four
weeks and at a time which will be to
that party's advantage. Whereas in
Nicaragua that schedule was set mon-
ths ahead and kept to.
Reaction
In Britain Mrs Thatcher is seeking
to undermine the financial basis of
the Labour opposition and its ability
wage an effective election cam-
paign by the anti-union legislation re-
quiring a ballot on unions' political
funds. In Nicaragua , each of the par-
ties was given $250,000 from govern-
ment funds for the election campaign.
All of them had equal access to televi-
sion and radio during the campaign
period.
A further criticism made by the
Americans is that there is overwhelm-
ing media coverage dinistas, that it is a Sandinista press and radio. It is not. For instance, the church hierarchy knows is opposed to the Sandinistas - runs its own radio station.
There are three main newspapers: La Barricada which is the Sandinista paper, to the Sandinistas, and La Prensa, an oppositional paper with a circulation of some 65,000 -a population of 3.3 million. La Prensa has consistently complained about censorship
sored is military material. There is no other country foreign incursion, which does not have such censorship material is usually cleared for release within 24 to 48 hours.
South Atlantic, were on the beaches in Grenada, there was no way they allowed a 'free press' to independently report have access to - what was happening.
Socialist Action 30 November 1984
Nicaragua in
Rights killed couldn't Goals unarmed; against investigation.
STUART HOLLAND
Led. tained.
per cent, Nicaragua of the Sanabout
which everyone Nicaragua.
, another which is sympathetic
proaching freighter.
- not insignificant in across
words,
In fact 85 per cent of material cen-
defending itself from
And this time by
When Mrs Thatcher was in the
or the Americans
June way.
For even by the
9
In Nicaragua, on all my visits, I've been free to see anyone at any time and frequently without any foreign office or party officials present.
recentl Jeremy Corbyr wasn't allowed access to those who'd been detained by the Americans.
The international press has claimed that there are human rights derrogations in Nicaragua. This is distortion and misrepresentation. For example, Marcel Niedergang, in one of a series of three 2,000-word articles on
Le Monde, reported without qualification that there had been 15 deaths last year, by implica. tion attributable to the Sandinistas spoke to the Permanent Humar
Commission, which independent of the government and church-aligned, about them These were 15 deaths which had not been investigated by the Sandinistas. This is for the whole of 1983, a whole year Six were in provinces subject to contra incursion. I asked whether those
were carrying arms, they contirm that; asked whether or not they were contras, they couldn't confirm that.
There were three cases of people shot while resisting arrest, or trying to escape. One of the cases, where I could gain information, was a teenage boy told to stop running by armed police. The commission couldn't tell me whether the boy was armed o
they could not tell me whether the police had fired a warning shot which went wrong, or if they had shot to wound.
In the United States - - as happens several times a week - if someone running to resist arrest had been shot by the police, this would be the case of a civil action against the police, no for an indictment of the government for human rights derilictions. I asked whether such cases had been brought
the police, the commission couldn't tell me.
There was a further case of a hanging in a prison cell. In Brixton prison there have been several such deaths. I tried to raise them with the Home Secretary and met with his stone-wall refusal to launch a special
The last case was of a 79 year old man who died in prison. The average life expectancy in Nicaragua is 55. The commission granted he might well have died from natural causes. but he'd been ill and not been releas
• I regret that, but it can't be considered a case of human rights
The fact is that every time Amnesty International has raised a case witt the Nicaraguan government, they have got a positive response - including the release of several people who clearly should not have been de
I was in Nicaragua for three full days after the election. The abstention rate in the US elections was 45
times more than in which was about 8 pe cent. People are under no illusion:
what propaganda use the United States would have sought to make of a 45 per cent abstention in
They regard this another case of the double standards being applied to their own country.
Everyone in Nicaragua was aware during the presidential election campaign of the claim that MIGs were ap-
Corinto Bulgarian It was constantly flashed the screen in the States throughout the elections. In other
at a time when the US public should have been able to hear of the Nicaraguan results, the overwhelming support for the Sandinistas, , all lne heard was the claim that MIGs were approaching Nicaragua.
This of course was denied at the
the Nicaraguan foreign minister and the Soviet Union. It has ultimately been acepted by One atay. hul him as part or on 'dirty propaganda war' being pursued
hard-liners in Washington, people who are intent on crushing the Nicaraguan revolution.
Page 10 scan of this page
All out on 9 December
Greenham women are everywhere
" IS ON committed to increased support for
"men-onds action if the forcenham camp on sun-
.. " December. Cireenham women must have the
• apport of everyon
build the. traditional December
marh- the Mith anniversary of DATO's announce-
nent that cruise missiles would be deplored in Bri-
emergency resolution to «Vl) conference
last neckend follened on the heetsof the announce-
ment earlier in lad weck as sne
aruise missiles have now been sationed here. THE DEAD HAND of CND's leadership weighed
ast weekend. But despite the fact that both the agenda and debates were arranged to prevent discussion of the real issues facing the peace movement in 1985, conference asserted against the platform the need to make opposing the missiles CND's first priority.
After much rangements committee, supporting Greenham action came top of the priority ballot. And 'next business' was successfully moved. in throwing out the weapons of the Soviet Union.
Despite opposition f.cm the leadership, amendments to strengthen the AirLand Battle resolu-
were WUll They reasserted the focus of the campaign around "the closure of US bases and the Tetull and demanded cruise missiles,
- that British withdrawal from belazalll NATO must figure more prominently in CND's campaigning.
At the same time, the argument — and the vote
- on non-nuclear defence Friday, 6pm:
arriving at revolic Sheffield City Hall for
CND's annual conference.
Amongst all the bumph is a list of Friday meetings.
Where is the
workshop organised for
tonight?
Cancelled! But we have
things organise: resolution supporting ac-
Greenham on
December, and getting our
demand for women's
peace conference onto this
weekend's agenda.
A Greenham Women
Against Cruise stall is set
up in the hall. Women
refuse to be moved on by
C.ND stewards. A hastily-
subbled notice calls
women's caucus In the
bar. A handful of women
assemble.
There confusion.
London Region CND has
withdrawn its emergency
resolution Greenham
we're told. We draw one
up, but the conference ar-
rangements committee tell
us it's out of order'.
First thing on Satur-
YOND Will take the con- Sue from Hackney
ference floor and demand
women are put back on the
agenda.
Saturday morning,
9.45 am:
Joan Ruddock is in the
chair and announces the
Socialist Action 30 November 1984
morement, especiall! The
in the anti-missiles moremens
which fligh of 1o
secone
Missiles Out! Bases Out!
eavy on annual conference in Sheffield City Hall
wrangling by the conference aran emergency resolution
debate on the nuclear
was lost. And the chair successfully kept Region's demand for a national demoastratiol London in October off the agenda.
By Carol Turner
The alliance built amongst the most deter-
paigners youth, the
left, Greenham
women and sections of the
direc action
(NVDA) wing of the peace
report on the conference agenda, in two parts. First
is an announcement about
fringe meetings. Then
report from the committee. Any questions?
Sue is on her feet, only
to be ruled out of order.
She should have raised it in
the other bit But this
wasn't clear. Sorry, LOU
bad, can't do anything
about that.
We try again when the
annual report is discussed.
Ilona from Newham CND
reference back.
Lost. The women's con-
ference is referred to the
new national council.
Women are very angry.
Saturday lunch time,
women's workshop:
Conference is not suppor-
ting women As usual
we're pushed off the agen-
da. they realise
we're at the centre of the
leading
the campaign against
cruise?
Perhaps we ought to
get on with organising our
own Cone cute our-
selves? No, CND must of-
fer its resources. we musi
demand CND supports us
But how? What's the
way through all these for
malities, these tricks ofa.
conference?
We'll raise it again
right after lunch. If con-
ference doesn't agree,
we'll storm the platform.
The resolution passer by CND conference was Conference notes the protest made In Trafalgar Square last Tuesday even-
in about sassinf
cruise missiles Greenham Common. We are outraged that General Rogers of NATO municated this information to us and that it did not come from the British parnament
We urge national CND and CND eps moa to oooncor against those cruise missiles already deployed in this country. We would like to see CND increase its
movement has been destabilised Labours the publishing, of defence document. The same confusion within the Labour Party left itself was renecle in ine sup port for that document at Tabour Partv earlier this year.
Without accepting
leadership of CND gone over to the basic strategy expressed Labour's policy: staying within NATO and trading off getting rid of nuclear
British wrapulls ritory against a conventional arms build-up. But Ins position nas no clear
as among CND's rank and file
Rather, support Christian CND' clever amendment to ПОПnuclear defence resolution - that CND takes no post-
specific nonLiuli nuclear strategies, Wills
recognising the need for a
'national security police'
represents a confused Satures We
don't.
Women mill around in the
corridors. council of
war held Conference
isn't with us. We have to
organise better tomorrow.
Someone gets to the mike
to announce a women's
caucus at 8am (!) on Sun-
day, before
starts.
Sunday, 8.30am:
We've been waiting on the
steps of a locked city hall
for half an hour. The
women's caucus occupies
the coffee men are
shooed away.
has grown since yesterday,
in sober, fighting
mood.
We don't know the
result of the priority ballot
on emergency resolutions.
If we win Rebecca John-
son from the camp will
move the resolution. We
will meet again at lunch
time to talk it out.
Meanwhile we can't
trust national council with
our women's conterence.
If conference won't let us
talk about it, we'll demand
a women's delegation to
national council. We plan
how to organise it, and
and ad-
dresses.
Sunday, 12.30pm:
We've won the emergency
support for the women's peace way it can, but particularly camp in witutever ricipating in night-watch? through women
committing themselves to the camp on a regular basis. Support for this should come in the form of local group actions.
National CND should provide publicity, material
ensure that the campaign against cruise is sustained. CND conference agrees to lend its support the women-initiated nrores, on 9 December this year,
women's actions at Greenham.
sentiment that anything's better than the nukes
Non-nuclear detence will be the terrain of much policy debate in 1985. The job consistent anti-missiles campaigners is to make clear what non-nuclear la Labour Party really means.
The elections proved a sensitive barometer of the state of the campaign. Overall, there was a slight shift to the right on nanOna ship. But council the most member- well-
known of what E.P
Thompson terms the fun-
damentalists' were resoun-
Pat Ar-
dingly supported.
rowsmith, Rebecca
Johnson and Helen John
were clearly of the
pops. And Joy Hurcombe
retained her vice chair.
The stage management
of conference raises ques-
about democracy
within the campaign
activist 'left wing of CND
powerful
remains
ballot. Greenham is on the
agenda.
The caucus has grown.
Seventy or eighty women
take over the coffee bar
again.
Rebecca will move the We discuss
resoluton
what she'll say, and who
else will speak.
Someone suggests the
camp should
given priority. NO.
Every woman here is
say.
Greenham wolich.
whether they live at the
camp or not.
Does everyone have a
delegate's card to get into
the debate?
We discuss whether
they will try to close the
debate quickly,
grounds that it's not con-
tentious. And how to stop
We want to raise all
the aspects of the camp,
and we want to raise the
women's delegation to na-
tional council.
The group breaks into
two. Women who are go-
ing speak discuss
who's saying what. Wo-
men who aren't organise
to provide moral support
Those not speaking will sit
at the front to make our
presence felt.
We rush back to con-
ference in jubilant mood.
Sunday, 3.30pm:
Rebecca speaks to a silent
audience. Women give up a large part of their lives fight the missiles. women at the camp are evicted for breaktast, harrassed for lunch, and arrested for supper.
She explains what is happening at Greenham, and why everyone
The red light flashes. Ruddock glances nervously over Rebecca's shoulder. How far is she through her speech? The red light flashes again. Rebecca will not he stopped At last women have the conference floor.
As she draws to an end, conference stands. For several there
thunderous applause.
There's no way this debate
can be stopped.
One woman takes the mike. We should oppose
separatist actions, she
says. al C sexist.
There are few hisses.
Conference waits till this
irrelevance is over
women's delega"The
tion is raised during the
debate. It's our conter-
ence, and we will organise
One speaker
the feelings of the whole
room. ast. he says,
conference discussing
what really matters: how
to fight the missiles.
CONFERENCE demonstrated its good sense when it decided to prioritise discussing the two most pressing issues facing the peace movement today: opposition to Reagan's threatened invasion of Nicaragua, and support for the women Greenham Common.
Conference supported
an emergency resolution
from Tottenham allu
Shipley CND condemn the Reagan ad- 2UUUS
ministration for "threatening military intervention against Nicaragua' and
calling on the British
publicly
oppose 'any armed attack
A Socialist Action pamphlet
on the future of Europe.
Contributors include:
CHrmest Mande on une
reunification of Germany,
Gunter Minnerup on the East
European peace movements.
Oliver Macdonald on the Labour
Party defence document, and
John Ross on social dislocation in
Europe
Price 50p (plus i/p pop Available from Socialist Action, PO Box 50. London NI
CND Conference
Defend Nicaragua!
against Nicaragua' on the grounds that: 'A US inva-
of Nicaragua could JULI quickly result in another Vietnam-type situation, with leading forces inside the US government press ing for nuclear escalation Nicaragua could spark a nuclear conflagration.
Come ana mee
TARIO ALI Wednesday 5th December between 12.30. 1.30
signing copies of his latest antholog
The Stalinist Legacy
You may telephone to reserve your
COLLETS LONDON SnI 4 66 Charing Cross Ro
Tel: 01 836 6301 EUROPE WITHOUT THE BOMB?
Page 11 scan of this page
Ford women fight on
News
THE STRIKE of 270 women sewing machinists at Dagenham and Halewood has shut down all Ford car production in Britain. Ten thousand production workers are laid off and the company is losing £10 million worth of cars a day — on a strike it would only cost £1,800 a week to settle.
Al roro workcrs arc nart of a tive grade A to b wage structure, with most assemblv workers on grade B. Six times in the last sixteen years the women have gone through the grievance procedure acmanamg from B to C to bring them into ine with other ¡vi c skilled production workers. cach ume [hev have been knocked back.
This time they have decided enough is enough.
Lasl Monday mass meetings of the sewing machinists in both plants were unanimous in their By John Nolan
ton. They were there according to Militant council
councils race relations committees black caucus.
Tras was provided by
cameras was provided the explosion of anger that erupted in the local labour movement over Militant's refusal to re-advertise the job of head of the race relations unit - as Derek Hatton had previously promised.
Despite the fact that there were several experienced workers in the Liverpool black communi-
who were better qualified for the post, a 26
yoal old Militant SuD-
porter from West London,
Sampson Bond, was given the job. The Militant dominated liverpool district Labour Party and Liverpool City Council endorsed Hatton's going
back on his original promise to re-advertise the position.
Before the City Council meeting over three hun-
and Labour Party members gathered outside migration Appeal Tribunal,
pean Court of Human Rights.
In 1976, Muhammad, a Bencal came to Britain to study at Bristol University. While there he met and married Scottish Wilal. The relationship lasted over two years. But within a few weeks of the bras told that the Muhammad
Home Was Office had turned down his application to stay.
Since his arrival Muhammad has worked with the
CULLmunities, first Bristol
determination to continue une suke oesole lic decision of national union negotiators to recommend acceptance of Ford's SCVCI N per cent wage ofler with the usual company condition of a freeze on all grading grievances.
This led to lively exchanges Thursday's meeting of all senior stewards which agreed to recommend the offer to muas HOCCune but committed Ron Todd to refusing to sign any deal until the women's grievance was resolved. A militant lobby of Dagenham machinists
WAS reported last week that "security spy cameras were to be set up outside Liverpool council offices including that of deputy leader Derek Hat-
leaders to protect then against the 'thugs' of the
the Toxteth Caribbean They heard CCllC • Merseyside County Coun-
6 MILITANT 23 November 1984
THE TORY press gleeful.
ly reported the disruptior
Council meting last week
which confirmed the ap. polntment Bond as head of the city's
Race Relations Unit.
chosen
Fight deportations
On Thursday 8 November Muhammad Idrish was served with a deportation order from the Home Office. This means that all the appeals against the Home Office decision have failed: adjudicator, Im-
Judical Review, Appeal Court, House of Lords. The legal process has not been fully exhausted, as we still have the Euro-
and now in Handsworth Birmingham. local labour movement taken up his case and built a Defence Campaign with his trade union, NALGO by Bob Smith, Muhammed Idrish Defence Campaign We have won the support of 86 MPs, 32 Peers and many and religious leaders. NALGO Conference 1983 and 1984 supporting Muham-
underlined the point.
Never teless me senlol stewards compliance is unfortunate. The company Is now going on the offensive saying the whole pay deal is questioned if the unions don't sign by 5 December and ditch the women's
The best way to deal Ciallll. with this blackmail would have been to have all Ford workers out on strike for better wages and conditons ralner tan silling al home without pay.
The women themselves are rising to the challenge. Picketing has been stepped
tion of scab trim into the assembly plant and assurances are being sought from convenors that no material carried through a picket line will be touched Women at
Big Brother in Liverpool
cil leader Keva Coombes describe Bond's appointment as wrong. 'There are racists embedded in the Labour movement as there outside,' said Keva.
After the meeting many people marched to the town hall and black
caucus members crowded Into une coune chamoc.
Liverpool stands
firm on race unit
Liverpool of Sampson ii context, rather that in n kav priorit
mad, pledging industrial
action, and calling
other trade unions io suD
port. This CasC Is an
of the present
ustaliul
government's campaign
against black trade union
and community activists.
Last year alone 2,282 peo-
ple were deported, and a
similar number left under
threat. Under the im-
migration laws people can
imprisoned without
trial, the Home UTTcE
the charges.
point the adjudicator, and
the final appeal can only
be made to the Home
Secretarv The fight
against deportation must
be taken up as part of the
fight against racist
Nalgo called on its
membership to support
demonstration 30
Dagenham have made it clear that they will stop Ford's internal truck fleet, and keep the plants closed Inat way, I any allempt Is made to restart production wiln scab Haltlal.
. Male workers are also being leafletted with of IIC1C union bulletins explaining the sewing machinists case when they pick up their tax rebates.
In 1968 striking sewing machinists at Ford's dic more than any to fight to estaDilsl the orinciple of equal pay for equal work. •ixtee veds laleı lucy alc fighting for recognition of
pay for equal skill.
Ford workers and millions more outside have every interests in their victory. to demand that Militant
leaders Te-avcIusc the
post. As the obedient
hands went up in defiance
of the black communities acnlanus. rounded Hatton chanting black's
'Racist, racist. And as
scuffles broke
council meting was abandoned.
lo reciity with its policies of ne Photo: Militant
Trevor Sonesigh, was the
"orst tat Labn Bor
January 1985. Branches will be encouraged to strike and send contingent. Support is invited from all sections of the labour movement, and supporters are asked to bring their banners.
• Demonstrate, Wednes-
day 30th January. Assem-
off Soho Rd., Handswor-
th, Birmingham, Jor
march to city centre and
rally at Central Hall, Cor-
poration St. For details
contact Muhammad Idrish
Defence Campa en,
Barry Lovd, Handswor-
trobus Road, *e lep Bimi Birmingham B21
021-523 8923.
Donations welcome.
Black section
IT IS with grave concern the National Steering Committee of Labour Party Black Sections view recent
involving eveti Liverpool council and black people.
We have contacted activists lal une City Hall who have formed themselves into black caucus and offered them our full support.
We view with alarm the cavalier attitude of the city councii, repeatedly disregarding the opinions of the black community of Liverpool.
But, given our periences of Labour Parcelsew ere with Militant Conference and Tendency who run the ruling Labour Group in Liverpool, we are not surprised.
We would remind Labour leaders in the city that black setled opte have been Liverpool, Britain's oldest slave port, for hundreds of years.
Black people based in Liverpool helped Inland 6 months t8: 12 months (15 aver.wa. (12 months only)
Europe C17: Air Mailt:+ (Double these rales
for multt-render institutions,
Name
Address
Please send me as special offer
Socialist Action
FORDS
GRADING.
GRIEVENCE
1968
statement on Liverpool
make this country economically strong.
Yet black pople in the city continue to live the worst housing, have the least jobs of any workers and get the rawest deal.
Militant cannot claim LaVC reversed this crisis in the Black community.
Even on the issue of black political representation, , they have lamentably failed There is not a single black city councillor, onone black county councillor and just one black member of the District Party's executive.
Black confidence in the Labour Party ex- Liverpool could not be a a lower ebb.
Militant's vision for tackling inner city poverty ignores black people everything merely to 'class'.
Hence the Tendency oppose 'positive action as a means of reversin the hundreds of years of inequality and repression which have stymied black progress in Britain. brings us to the ruling Labour Group's choice of candidate for
KUBSCRIBE
I enclase cheque/PO) payable to Socialist Action for £ Sendro: Socialise Aclion Suns, 328 l'pper Se. London N/ 2XP
30 November 1984 11
the all-important posi•
tion of Race Unit head.
While we do not want
to question the profes
sional qualifications of
their candidale San
Bond, the manner of his
proposed appointment is
thoroughly reprehensi-
ble
First, , because of the Groun's abiec
failure to consult the
UVCI
this key appointment.
And second, because
Mr Bond's declared op-
position to 'positive ac-
tion' simply incom-
patible with him holding
the post.
The Liverpool crisis
demonstrates the
of Militant
bALIKTUDU
Tendency opposition
black sections in
Labour Party.
We say to the ac-
tivists Liverpool:
'Your struggle is
struggle. Let this De i
warning to Labour
leaders who choose to ig.
nore us.'
Black sections are
here to smash racism and
fight for black
representation in unions
town halls, city halls and
Parliament. Black sec.
tions are here to stay.
Special free book offer!
Take ou a tear inland subscription and He mill send you free, one of these book»: Thatcher and Friends hy John Ros
Over our Dead Bodies -Women Against the Bomb
Introductory offer for new readers: Eight issues for just £2!
Page 12 scan of this page
time to fight
•ALL THE Act does is take away from the union some of privileges that unions have been given for generations.' declared Mr Justice
The fined the £200,000 for defying Court order to call off the Austin Rover strike.
Despite the collapse of the strike Anstin Rover has ruthless v nursued its case against the union, in order to demonstrate its tough stand against 11. 0 and to give the government the first major opportunity to enforce its 1984 anti-union laws.
The company has threatened to sack unofficial strikers in its plants, and the action against the TGWU is designed to prevent the unions from backing their members.
This fine is a vital challenge to the
Redictered as a newsnaner with the Post Oftce blished hv Carcina Enternrises. PO Box 50. London NI Printed By Laneridge Ltd. (TU), London E2.
the
So Hodgson
TGWU face of the
repudlated we strike.
High
the road of sequestration'. the NUM.
tion.
SOCiALiSt
ACTiON
TGWU-
trade union movement because it is the maior test of the new Act which came into operation in September.
During the Austin Rover strike all the other unions involved retreated in the court order, and
Ken Cure of the AUEW stated that his union 'was not going down The EETPU followed suit. The result was the unions handed BL victory on a plate.
The TGWU has now been given 14 days to pay the fine. If it does not pay, defeated. it will be faced with sequestration of its f55 million assets - the pattern Britain, already established with the NGA and
Moss Evans has made it clear that are the union will abide by its Conference policy and will not pay the fine. There gas, must be no moving mom us posi
The TGWU fine is even more im-
portant because there is now a concerted attemot by centre and ri°h1 wing union leaders to change policy on the anti-union laws. These leaders want to reverse the stand that the TUC is committed to by Congress decisions and by the Wembley Conference in 1982.
They have been encouraged in this by the lack of response by the TUC first to the fine of the NGA and then the seizure of the NUM's funds. This move to accept the 1984 laws must be
The TGWU is the largest union in
with over 1.5 million members. It is capable of bringing the country to a standstill. Its members
key industries sucn as docks, power supply, water supply,
transport, chemicals engineering The leadership of the union must use the 14 days to explain to the membership that this is an at-
tack which threatens to cripple the union for standing by its members. TUC And they must turn to the rest of the
Whatever steps the TGWU has taken to protect its assets from the courts, a simple refusal to pay the fine will not be enough. appeal for action to stop the courts. Moss Evans, acting on union conterence • decisions. stand against the anti-union That stand must be translated into action. The TUC general council must now give its full TGWU. • No compliance with the courts. Stand by TUC policy! the
Prepare for strike action if funds are sequestrated! and
• The TUC must declare its support, and build national action to back the TGWU!
Christmas for the miners
ON
(President,
ched
children at Chaplin.
miners.
managers
the appeal.
Christmas
their
Many break yuletide.
That's
about. 'Don't alright.'
without her
Task for much
The union must They
at our pit has now taken a
laws.
backing to the
HIC.
we have today.
My
MONDAY 26 November Susannah York, Stan Orme, Kath Chaplin (Women Against Pit Closures), Dafydd Elis Thomas
Plaid Cymru) and Liberal MP Simon Hughes laun-
the Miners' Families Christmas Appeal.
'Its's not hard having my husband on strike but it is hard saying no to my
Christmas,' said Kath
The appeal hopes to unite a lot of people to raise an Xmas bonus for the
Neil Kinnock Roy Hattersley, three liberal MP's, football
Jack Charlton and Brian Clough, Glenda Jackson, UB40 and the Flying Pickets are also sponsoring
The address of the Miners Family
Appeal c/0 14, Whitesley Street, London, SEI SSL.
CHRISTMAS IS not going to be an easy time for the miners and
families. It may be the festive season but it's also the expensive season and the Tory propaganda machine will not show
'mercy' in its campaign to
miners' spirit
Wily we're publishing Vicky Currie's article below. At 10 years old she has been quick to learn what working class solidarity is all
It would be good if some others in the labour movement could understand just as well.
Vicky Currie, age 10.
WELL I don't really understand a lot about the strike but I do know that my dad and mum are standing for what they believe in it. It is so me and my brother Peter can work when we leave school.
My mum is in the action group she goes out a lot to get money to feed the miners. My mum goes on the picket line. One copper smacked her, she lost her tooth. I sometimes hear my mum crying at night because she can't get us a lot for Christmas, my Dad says,
worry love, the kids will be
She says that it's bad without money because it's the first Christmas
Dad. He area on lia) 20th 1984 and she misses him very
I am trying to be good and don't
money now. But my brother still does. My mum says if I had two bob she would have two bobbies from Donny guarding it.
I know she's only kidding as she does not like the bobbies anymore.
beat up pickets and throw money at them. That's what they do
1 aont want my mum to mee Maggie or MacGregor. She says that it's grass pie before we go back to work. I won't eat it 'll go to mv nana's
My Dad says that when we start work we must never cross a picket
Our grandfather went without in 1926 so we could have what
brother Peter says not to worry, he will look after me as he is going to be Prime Minister after he plays for Liverpool.
← Socialist Action No. 79, 23 November 1984Socialist Action No. 81, 7 December 1984 →