Socialist Action No. 90, 22 February 1985
The scan: 090-feb-22-1985-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
SOCiA iSt
ACTION
Demonstrate in support of
*the Miners
Sunday 24 Februar ssemble 11.30 HYDE PARK, SPEAKERS CORNER (nearest tube Marble Arch)
The main speakers include Betty Heathfield, Peter Heathfield, Tony Benn, Ron Todd, Brenda Dean, Bill Keys, Tony Dubbins, Anne Lilbure, Stan Orme.
Called by LCDTU No. 90 22 February 1985
AT HER TUC on
The issue is still..
All
has been
executive. sell out
hide the weeks ago. government.
COLIN
stead to
government ranks
closures
NO PIT
after the NUM.
CLOSURES
maximum
meeting with the Monday, Thatcher repeated her demand for a total surrender by the NUM.
Norman Willis's diplomacy of the last week had not caused Thatcher to shift one inch on the essential issue of pit closures.
Willis's sole achievement
to try to bring pressure to bear on the NUM
Arthur Scargill was completely correct in calling for the NUM executive to throw out the deal Willis brought to the executive The executive made an error in involving itself in negotiating over what is simply a proposal for a
The reality of the situation is that Thatcher's continuing hard line over the miners is not able to
increasing problems which are hitting her government With the crisis of the pound, the withdrawal of Nigel Lawson's proposal for a 'giveaway' budget. Thatcher's slide in the opinion polls, and the Ponting verdict the government's position is visibly weaker than it was even a fev
The reality is that if the TUC leadership had been campaigning on the, policies adopted by last autumn's congress the govern. ment would be in deep trouble But instead Willis has been repeating Murray's miserable performance over GCHQ in the last "talks' the TUC had with the
Exactly as over GCHO the TUC has not been mobilising forces to defeat Thatcher but in-
negotiate and compromise with her. As this is a
which only understands the language of force the result every time is a sabotage of the struggle
Fortunately the NUM is a very different kettle of fish to the TUC general council. The return to work has been brought back under control and there is no chance of serious coal production being restarted outside the scab areas. While Norman Willis has been moving to isolate Scargill the
of the NUM are not prepared to accept either the pit
For the victimisations which Thatcher and MacGregor are demanding
All the TUC's different forms of words are not going to alter the basic issue. Are pits going to close
the strike or not? The government demands the NUM becomes directly complicit in selling out the jobs of its members. The miners continue to fight against it. The task of the labour movement is not working out deals but delivering solidarity to
That should start with the
turn out for the demonstration on 24 February and turning 6 March, the high point of the TUC's 'democracy week' into a massive show of solidarity between the miners and the defence of local government
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The unity of the graveyard!
2 Socialist Action
ACTiON
That war again
CLIVE PONTING'S revelations over the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Argentine cruiser, the have given a glimpse of the lying and corruption which are the everyday fare of capitalist government in Britain. Thatcher has been caught with her fingers in the till, yet the Labour leadership have failed to make this her Watergate.
The reasons for this have nothing to do with Labour's pathetic debating techniques as the Tory press would have it. The fact is that the Labour leadership is completely wedded to the same rules of capitalist government as are the Tories; and are guilty of the same malpractices whilst in office as Thatcher. But more fundamentally in this case, Tories stridion seine Are total the
Britain went to war with Argentina for one reason only: to defend the British imperialist system. It was seen as a warning to any oppressed country as to what would be in store for them if they attempted to assert their rights against Britain's involvement in the stranglehold of their nation.
Specifically, it was a warning to the Argentine people - who at that time were beginning to stir against the imperialist imposed tatorship — not to oppose the continuing imperialist syphoning of their distortion of their economy.
The servicing of Argentina's vast foreign debt is merely the most open way that imperialism sucks the blood of the colonial world. British banks have a direct share in this transfer of wealth picated in the present 765 per cent inflation which Argentine workers and peasants have to bear
Understanding this is_indispensible to any hope of really hurting the Thatcher government. It may very well have been the case at the time, in the midst of the chauvinist hysteria, that opponents of the war would still have been in a minority even if Labour's front bench had joined us. But even a week is a long time in politics.
Now, three years later, we can see how such a stance then would have been translated into a real challenge to Thatcher's government in the midst of Pontings recent revelations and his acquital in the courts.
If Labour's front stance on this war, it would have been able to link Thatcher's current embarrassment over her imperialist adventure in the Malvinas with her assault on the miners and other working people. Her government would threat from all sides at this point. As miners have come to understand in their 12 months of struggle, internationalism is not an added extra, but an indispensible key to victory.
At the time, the Labour leadership and even self-styled marxists like the Militant tendency derided opposition to the war as being utopian. We can now see who are the real practical politicians: those who tell the truth and act on the basis of class interest popularity. It was those within the labour move ment who opposed the war altogether who are in the real position to exploit Thatcher's disarray over Ponting.
The height of Labour's current attack is to suggest that the main problem is 'Thatchers abrasive style of government' — as suggested in the parliamentary debate by Labour's front bench defence spokesperson.
The problem is not Thatcher's style or her particular policies British imperialist system. This is what has to be fought. Until it is, disarmed when crudest of Thatcher's manoeuvres.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weekly except two weeks in August and the last week of December.
Somed articles by contributors do not necessarily repre-
seri Socialist Action's views. These are expressed in
editorials.
Soni zil correspondence regarding subsuripciors.
a Tens o Sociate Air Disturit is lippe
So Man it
22 February 1985 General Belgrano, Kinnock's offensive is com-
Argentina Galtieri dic-
wealth and the
peoples of the semi-
and are equally im-
bench had taken a class
therefore be under and not temporary Denzyl Davies,
The problem is the whole
Labour will be constantly
confronted with the sates
THE THATCHER government is now running into real trouble. miners' strike is undermining economic strategy. Reagan's policies in the United States have further damaged Thatcher's plans for economic growth and already destroyed Nigel Lawson's 'giveaway' budget. The Ponting affair has lifted one corner of the government's squalid suppression of truth on the Belgrano affair. The rate capping and GLC abolition fights are only just beginning.
has been calculating on destroying Arthur Scargill and the forces that support him.
But the truth is that if the strike keeps gong agalisi this background the
still deliver uncis call decisive blow to the political and credibility of the Thatcher government.
But what solutely clear is Kinnock's complete inability to ploit any opening against Thatcher. The miners, supported by the labour movement, would nave crushed the government.
But Kinnock sabotaged that.
The fight on rate capping could have been a key second front for the fight against the government.
But Kinnock, with John Cunningham, has done his best to head off that fight.
Now the situation has
PiECE
wipe that smirk 1 off your face! It was a disgraceful verdict!
judges instructions!
judaes is
Neil Kinnock greets new Labour general secretary Larry Whitty Above all the length and power of the
the government's high interest rate
proposals for
moved from tragedy near farce with Kinnock's complete failure over the Ponting trial.
By John Ross
Over the Ponting case the government has been clearly explosed as hiding the truth. The trial brought out into the open some of the reality of the Malvinas war jury simply ignored one of the most openly and blatantly biased summing up ever given by a judge in such a major case.
Yet Kinnock diverted the entire thing into an absurd argument - which he lost whether Thatcher personally had been involved in the deci sion to prosecute Ponting As Dennis Healey once said about someone else,
ACTION
, of the
And what's the point in being able to choose- I mean vet-the membis of a jury if they can't be trusted to -Ah! Another breach of trust.
Kinnock's performance was rather like being
savane a she i
only people emerge seriously strengthened out of the Ponting were David Owen David Steel, and the Alliance. Just compare Arthur Scargill or Tony Benn's defence of the miners, Ken Livingstone's defence of the GLC, with Neil Kinnock's pathetic mess up on even such favourable ground as the Ponting case
ingestini the sane
giving exactly same message. Last Gallup Poll in the Daily Telegraph Suowel Lilc Alliance only half a per cent behind Labour. Both David Owen and David Steel nave higher 'popularity' ratings than Kinnock. While the Tories are slipping in popularity the Alliance tionately gaining much more than Labour out of the situation
Worse still is the type of thinking going on in right Wills and 'centre circles of the Labour Par-
y. A horrifying example i the piece on the miners strike in the latest issue of New Socialist by Guardian leader-writer Martin Ket-
was his bond!
This article repeats the line which Kinnock's sup OUTLCI. have been giving out in the Parliamentary
Party. Namely that does not matter and even might be a good thing, miners are defeated Because, ding to • Kettle the defea of 1926 led to a new era of 'creative' and Labour won the general election of 1929.
Catastrophe
The 'small' fact that the electoral victory of 1929 was followed by the catastrophe of the mass unemployment o ine lysus, and by World War Il somehow escapes Kettle and his Kinnockite mentors.
The reality is that the Labour Party today is being led by people who are irresponsible lunatics. Nei Kinnock and his kitchen cabinet may pretend that politics is all about media images and opinion polls But what he is in reality really doing is actively col laborating the unemployment and social deprivation of millions of people. He is also playing a direct role in disorganis-
Precisely, young woman! Trust! That's the key word. In my, day a man's word
News
photo ON CHADMAN
ing the labour movement
front the much greater attacks on it which are going to come
the left has got to think like the leadership of the entire labour movement. There is
possibility of col laborating with Kinnock and his supporters except insofar as they, by acci-
bump path of the class struggle. The lett now set about defining its own priorities and its own agenda in politics
The bast rammes the
this, miners apart from
struggle itself, were the way the Cam-
forced debate in Parliament around the strike. The black section has set a fine example independent campaigning inside the Labour Party. It is more of this type of initiative which is required
Neil Kinnock is now trying to get three years of unity behind his leadership before he leads us all to disaster at the next elec tion. That really would be the unity of the graveyard.
The left today not merely has the right to act independently and oppose Kinnock. It has the duty to do so.
#872/85 •Cormac
If you wish to spout the hypocritical garbage of high-placed privileged criminals....
You take my meaning, I trust.
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Scargillise the labour movement
Surplus Value
THE MINERS' strike has seen the emergence of the first mass class struggle leadership in the British labour movement for 60 years. What has developed with Arthur Scargill and his base in the NUM is the sharpest turn in the political development of the left wing of the labour movement in Britain since 1968. The biggest opening for Marxists in Britain since the stalinisation of the Communist Party in the 1920s.
For all the militancy of the working class struggles developed in Britain from 1968 to 1975, they still took place, in important measure, within a traditional tramework. They above all militant trade struggles. They were directly interrelated with struggle in the Labour They ran largely parallel to, and not clearly in tandem with, rise of powerful social political movements women, blacks, in Ireland, gays, students and many other layers.
By James Marshall
The miners' strike of 1972 did see important physical solidarity with the miners from different layers of the population but there was no ongoing political organisational framework that to be contined. After 1975 serious setbacks were suffered by the labour movement at the hands of Wilson and Callaghan's incomes policies.
The explosion of struggle in the 'winter of discontent' 1978-79 later had a huge effect in feeding the rise of demands for democratic reform inside Labour Party but again it did not directly feed into the development of policy or organisation inside the Labour left.
What is decisive about the miners' strike at that political level is that it has brought into being a quite new, and qualitatively different relation between the different forces in the labour movement.
The British labour movement has historically had, as Trotsky put it, an 'aristocratic' character. It has never had to face a true show down fight with the British ruling class of the type that has taken place in other West European countries. Even after 1926 the economic strength of British imperialism allowed it to opt for a 'reformist' rather than a fascist solution to the problems which confronted it.
Under these conditions
labour movement as a whole, and not just its leadership, was deeply ingrained with fixation parliament, with chauvinism, with sexism, racism, with sectionalism of every sort. Even in 1926, for example, nothing on the scale and dynamic of women's involvement in the miners' strike seen today occurred. The ideology of penetrated deeply into the labour
that
union only in-
the Party.
the
and among
and
Photo: JOHN CHAPMAN
for
of
the the
national
with
permission leaderhip,
empire the strike
NUM leadership
Within the Labour Party the left developed chiefly fixated on elections and conference resolutions. The 'trade union struggle' was seen as something separate. the
But the 1984 miners' strike has left no room for that type of luxury. If women had not played the role they have in the strike it would have been defeated months strike ago. But women did not ask the
of the NUM or the men in the strike, before participating in it. The massive women's action in
was imposed on the NUM - although to its credit the
immediately
ATIONAL UNION
TORKSHA
INEWORKER
welcomed the enormous ally of wollen
Similarly blacks, lesbians, gays, young people, supporters of
Irish Republican struggle, fighters for colonial freedom, threw themselves into the struggle without asking permission from anyone. And not merely has the
strengthened the sciousness of tens of thousands of miners and their supporters throughout the labour movement but their consciousness has been radically changed as a result.
A new type of Labour left in the constituencies, and in parliament, has also emerged
:WORKF
result. The 'Bennite' left which developed during the 1970s was originally focussed reform and policy issues such as • attempts to draw up the 'Alternative main mass associated with was CND
con- that entire left
catapulted stent we fore greatess induis i as struggle for shown by the tens of thousands of Labour Party activists who have been directly involved in building solidarity with At the level of the leadership of
Socialist Action 22 February 1985 of the Britain is
BIGGIN 1926.
Left
it could
have been organised that phenomenon
wing
The potential created.
tory. on internal
Economic Strategy'. The That
campaign it was
But through the miners' strike
has been days. into direct involve-
•years. This is
the miners.
3 the Labour left it is seen in the massive involvement of the Campaign Group of MPs in the strike.
In short what has happened out of the miners' strike is a real class struggle left in the labour movement. One that has a base in a powerful industrial union. One that takes in the most oppressed sections of the population. One that extends from top to bottom
labour movement and across all its structures.
The single most urgent task which exists in the labour movement today is to begin to organise that left wing. For, contrary to views in some sections of the left,
not passing through some sort of equivalent defeat to
On the contrary the radicalisation in society is only just beginning. Whatever the immediate outcome of the miners' strike the curve of struggles of all types in British society is moving upwards and not down.
The left which emerged in the miners' strike came the only way
— out of a vast explosion in the class struggle. It could not
pre-planned or pre because it differed from the previous left precisely in being based on action in the class struggle and not just resolutions on internal party affairs.
But now the task is to spread what has been generated through the entire labour movement. So
'Scargillism' is not confined to one And so that in the next struggles which develop that left
is, at least in outline, organised in advance.
miners' strike is the greatest turning point in British working class politics since 1926 Organising the left wing with clear demands and structures is the key step in building on the full
what has been
The first step of that left wing which needs to be built is to continue to fight for the miners' vic-
We're
moving!
Socialist Action is moving its offices this week.
will mean big improvements in our paper time but, we're afraid, the maximum of chaos for the next few
Next week's issue of the paper will therefore be a special one which will have to be prepared in advance and lack much of our up to the minute coverage. After that we'll be back to normal.
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Which way for Target Labour Government ?
4 Socialist Action •TARGET LABOUR Government is about getting a Labour government into power as fast as possible, said Jeremy Corbyn MP, opening the first TLG conference held last Saturday in Birmingham. And the 150-odd Labour activists who attended were all agreed that it wasn't just any old Labour government we wanted, but one committed to campaigning for — and implementing when in office — a programme of socialist policies.
A Labour government of the Wilson, Callaghan or Kinnock type WHOL do. To be a credible and effective opposition to the Tories, as well as impic ment any socialist course, the Labour party must oc representative of the people for Labour claims to SDeaK and on whose behalf governments claim to act.
That means a policy of positive action to get more women and black people
parliament. Dianne Abbott chord when she described the anniellav Labour Party as *a white male club, remote from the par-
and the and always inward looking'
Tony Benn described TLG as being about 'how we win, what we do when we win, and what sort of party we want'. He spoke or the need for a refoun đing of the Labour Party, based on affiliation by those groups within sociebian and gan, women, black,
and every
her oppressed group for whom Labour claims 10 speak.
Benn described 'the anti-Tory allance lal Labour should become.
Vot that advocated by Eric
Speaking at the Target Labour
Government conference Sharon Aitkins, a Southall councillor, said:
people, black people, women won't be invisi-
Gerald Kaufman claims there are
black people to stand for parliament. The
a list of black candidates of all types: women
There and we're going to stay. against them.
what Target Labour Government is about.
because we need them. or women sell out? We're in this fir change.
that black people
time round.
22 February 1985 but one issue-
complete rethink the manifeso.
manifesto should be the movement makes every labour
promises.
'Saatchi Saatchi
partie have to get rid of the pollster policies and renlace them with a concept of Labour supporting struggles of the working class. 'We must,' said Tony Benn, 'restate the meaning of exploitation'.
The key issues today the miners' strike, the campaign, racism and sexism in sociely are precisely the awkward ones for Consensis policies. The issue now facing the party is how to build on the tremendous WE WANT a better soceity, one in which gay
Black Section Steering Committee produced
and men, Asian and West Indian, left and right. We didn't endorse them, but we produced that list to show the party that we're
In my constituency Syd Bidwell has been our MP for the last 19 years. He's well past retirement, but he says he won't go. He says that these Asians in Southall aren't ready to speak for themselves.
I've been in the party for many years, and it's only recently that I've been on this sort of platform. White men must stand aside for black and women candidates who have all the odds stacked
At Blackpool last year the NUM were the only union to support the demand of the black section. A defeat for the miners is a defeat for all. That's
We're campaigning for bold socialist policie Why should black people
Next time round is too late. We must ensure
and women are selected as parliamentary candidates on socialist policies this
gains of the miners' strike, how to consolidate the energy generated by ine strike and in the support committees up and down the country.
It was on this very problem which way forward for Labour that the Target Labour Government conference stumbled ano one lal
disap-
workshops discussed
internathe the SLalC economy. Afternoon
discussed WORKSIOD.
Nowhere did these
Contilluc to case while remains
and this
one.
Not
Target Labour Government IOU the business of organising the
candidates particular constituencies, nor should it be. That can only done locally. What it can
aspects of police as
aspects Ire poli identified has positive action against sexist and racist discrimination which will bring together exactly the sort of new alliance that was described by Tony Benn.
Target LADOUl
INTERNATIONAL
celebrated in Chicago
conditions of working women.
With the rise of the
modern women's libera-
tion movement demonst
rations took place in
tain starting from 1971
focusing the
demands of the modern
women's liberation move-
ment for equal pay, job
free con-
traception and
on demand ana free 24
hour nurseries under com-
munity control.
Since that time the movement has
not only broadened its
demands to include issues
of anti-racism, against les-
bian discrimination and
demands condemning
male violence but it has
also noneneds scope
and reached out to ever
broader layers of women.
This year will see
women from the
communities leading. de-
monstrations and celebrat-
all over Britain to
highlight the significance
of the rise of the Women
Against Pit Closures
movement
On 8 March in Hack-
ney the Women's Forum
for Peace and Jobs is plan-
ning an evening celebra-
tion tor women from the
mining communities.
dentify those sections o society with whom Labour must make alliances and in so doing can begin to map out the key issues of policy on which the party must fight. Many speakers pointed out the embryo of SuCT anance. OlIC which has become visible during the miners' strike. Democracy NuM at aast year's pahy The actions lne
ported the demands women, the demands the demands of blacks, of peace campaigners, the
demands of Irish people
democracy within the par-
to ensure that all such policies carried through by the leadership of the party point the way forward for TLG and for the Labour Party.
Only if it takes such a direction will TLG continue to maintain the support it has the potential to
from women,
from black from
gays and lesbians. the way for Target Labour Government to move for-
DCCOlLIC a rea force within the party campaigning for all
alliance of all the oppressed and exploited. But this first conference was only a
partial first step in that process. TLG must
take some hard
political choices if it is to go forward.
International Women's
Day 1985
WOMEN'S day was first in 1909 when working women, on strike over low pay and bad conditions, marched on the streets to protest over the general
They have invited
speakers from the Barking
hospital dispute Fords the
machinists
Dagenham, a woman coal
miner from the USA.
By Valerie Coultas
Entertainment is being
provided by the Hamp-
stead Women's League
the Dalston Asian
women's group.
next day in
Chesterfield sees a rally in
Saltergate Football
ground with streetbands,
stalls, exhibitions and
street then Aganist Pier
Women Against
Closures movemell la-
tionally.
Many international
visitors are expected to at-
tend this event and the na-
tional leaflet urges
many women's groups as
possible to support it and
to raise funds to enable
women from the pit com
munities to attend.
On that same day in
Kent women in Aylesham
International Women's
Day celebration and they
are also planning
organise a national march
Bernie Grant, Haringey Councillor, addresses the Target Labour Government conference in Coalville on 23 March, the anniversary of strike.
Coalville was chosen by the women from Kent and Barnsley for their first march on 18 March 1984 because they were angry that press attention was being focussed the statements of the wives of scabs in Nottingham and Leicester against the NUM leadership.
The 10 March will see a second 'Here We Go' concert organised by London Labour Party women at the Picadilly Theatre.
On 23 March the Richmond and Twickennam Miners Support Group women's group plan an all woman forum with Scargill, women from CND, Asian women speakers
All these events reveal women have made links with the battles against the Tories over the last year that they do not intend to give up
Women have led the fightback against cruise at Greenham and played a crucial role in the battle to defend the mining munities over the last 11 months.
Women have taken their struggle and demands into the heart of the labour trovelicit and consequently this year's Interna tional Women's Day celebrations will reflect
RANKING ANN/
FRANK <HICKENS IIII
MAGGIE STEED
EIFIE
BENEFIT CONCERT FOR WOMEN IN THE MINING COMMUNITIES N
PICADILLY THEATRE S
SHAIN STORES (MARKG.
ORGANISED BY LONDON
SUNDAY-10 MARCH 7PM
that fact.
The Midlands Coordinating Committee, set up by the miners' wives in the Midlands, is planning a national Women's Solid arity conference to give expression to this new stage of development that the women's movement has reached.
These International Women's Day celebra.
News
HERE WEGO AGain
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'SDAY+ ONE YEAR ON STRIKE!
ElEIENE BEVERLEY BELL
BRIG KEENAN
UNIQUE PATROL UNIMUMMI
A PEGGY SEESER
MARIA TOLLY
WANDSWORTH WARMERS 'N
SPENCER:BOOTS-CO-OPETC
tions will be crucial events in the consolidation of a new stage of women's organisation inside the labour movement. Make sure that you are involved in building them.
The next meeting of the Mineworkers Defence Committee Womens Group is on Monday February at 7pm, County Hall.
Page 5 scan of this page
South Wales meeting
News
Photo: GORAN EKLOF
ACTION SOGANN
420 PEOPLE piled into Penrhiwceiber's Miners' Institute in the Cynon Valley, South Wales last Saturday for the second SOCIALIST ACTION Miners' International Solidarity meeting:
present - from Kent, Lancashire, South Wales and striking miners and women from North Staffs, where 11 of the Dirty 30 were also in attendance.
tatives from the USA, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Holland, Sri Lanka and Ireland.
VALERIE COULTAS reports.
Mary Davies, from the Penrhiwceiber Women's Support Group, opened the proceedings welcoming everyone to the village and stressing that the community as whole was
fight to defend jobs.
Commentino on other important occasions she said that this meeting
WaN a unique event in the life of the village and that she could never remember anything to equal it.
The crucial message coming out of this meeting
'Fortress South Wales was al une maders ı las area contrary press reports were standing tirm behind the national union leadership.
Dai Davies, South Wales NUM executive, explained that miner sacked there would CVCIУ be four other workers in re ated notsenes julnerabec ato ling hee (ODS oclaust dependence of the steel and rall industries on te mining industry.
He pointed out that although 12,000 miners had been arrested in this dispute and tive had died not one policeman had been charged.
The penalties being imposed on miners were the maximum possible for
id cur unions
defend
Kay Sutcliffe,
from the USA, Japan, Representatives from most of the coalfields were
Yorkshire and
Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire,
Among the international visitors were represen-
trivial sentences by judges, 80 per cent of whom came from public school and supported the Tory party.
South Wales had no intention of returning to work while 600 lad. dismissed during the strike would not be allowed back to work.
O'Sullivan, from Tower Lodge, also stressed the necessity of not giving up the fight at this stage however hard it might be to continue. Panic
He told miners they shouldn't nanic because of the media campaign about Le Dack LO WOK mUve. ment.
That the truth was that out of 200,000 miners two thirds were still out on strike.
With only 300 scabs ir: South Wales the miners here were not prepared to return until victory had been achieved he said. eladiators in the Roman Miners not Empire would be aver Margaret Thatche tor
having put up a good fight for 11 months.
This battle could only be won by staying out and not panicing.
AcTioN.
All out to
the NUM
from Kent, Anne Jones, from Hirwaun, Nigel Bevan, from Penrhiwceiber, joined with International guests
Denmark, Sweden, France, Holland, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Luxemburg and miners from all over the country at the second Socialist Action miners meeting.
But Kay Sutcliffe's speech will probably be the most remembered speech of the day, touching as it dia on all ine temes radicalisation that have taken place in the mining communities throughout the strike. nay explamea unal nel father a Welsh miner and that during the 1930's her father, like other muHers trom Durham Scotland and Wales, he had been torced to march South to create mining communities in kent to find work. Kent
The Kent coalfield was created out of men literally having to march looking for work, she said.
Why should we have to do it again? nmunitiesa rusto oke communities, just olner people homes and families and we'll fight to keep them. It's no good saying there's work elsewncie. she continued, because there isn't any.
If the rest of the trade union and labour movement had a leadership like that of the NUM we would nave won inis sirike.
We don't need Norman Willis to negotiate on our behalf We need the TUC and the Labour Party to give us support.
Pin-pointing the need for an alliance between the organised labour movement and the oppressed she asked how long have we the mining communites sal Dack wnile ine blacks, the Irish, the lesolan and gay communl) in this country have been
NUCLEAR
FREE
repressed and done nothing?
Now we know how the police behave towards us we have to give our continuing support these
The miners deserve to win, she finished. They unusı will
Frank Elvy for the Labour Campaign for Gay Rights continued Kay's theme in the afternoon session about the alliance of the oppressed.
Reporting on the anti-gay prejudice expressed by a right-wing Labour Party member in his branch he took head on the submerged prejudice of many people against gays and les bians
Gays, like the miners, haven't chosen political. Police
The police and the state makes them so by
sexual activities, he told the audience.
What should be private wasn't allowed to be if you were gay, he added.
Just like the miners the press makes the victim of repression the monster, he continued
Referring to the AIDS explained Collroversy that sufferers from this disease were not all gay and people were isolated, not because they would inface others, but to protect temselves ally germs.
Explaining his anger at gay people being called
'pooftas' he said that he rounded on the man in the Labour Party. saying "I'm a poofta and I'm going to contaminate you'
The hall erupted in ap-
TULE CHION LAMA plause at such a brave and provoking speech.
Anne Jones, from Hirwaun, ended the session with an announcement urging the participants in the rally not use the men-oniv DaT the Legion club in the village
Women have stood shoulder to shoulder with the men in this dispute Let's ensure that women and men can stand shoulder shoulder drinking together tonight.
Victory
The International speakers reporting on how crucial a miners victory was tor ine labour move ment worldwide rounded on ne cavs everls. "erzus O'Hare, from People's
demoeray the best recein-
doubtedly ed drawing analogies from the miners' own experience at the hands of the police over the last 11 montus
In the North of Ireland we've had it for 16 years. nv une names anune places are different he Dollilcu bul
ine macel _ COntrast to the Bold meting in Uctober W Cin Lilf background of the TUC and Labour leaders refusing to do anything to implement conference decisions, leaving the miners to fight on alone.
But the meeting revealed that the miners and wullicl. re main utbowed, from villages cc uncu columler this battle in their vast majority despite all the hardship and repression they tave eneled nu : tighting for the right to work.
Socialist Action 22 February 1985
South Wales
stands firm
continuation of the strike.
areas of the NUM. THE news presented by the press was that our executive had discussed three options for ending the SuaKe
They said the first was
unilateral
TCLUrI work. wasn't even discussed and I still don't know where this particular rumour came from,
Our area executive and the ared conference have consistently reiected such a proposal
second 'option' was apparently to accept
coalboard's proposal to get the NUM to sign a written declaration agreeing to the closure of UniCCOnUll. pIls wasn't discussed
The coalboard has put forward that option because they want total capitulation. They want us to sign our own death warrant.
The third option was to stand firm. Of course peoPooking for a settiemena. South Wales
It's the 50th week of the strike : next week. The financial hardship is great.
There are 6,000 people on strike in this area alone ana nere s very ntue olner industry around here so the poverty is great.
That is why we have to stand firm and that's what we decided. Not what the 1 co cl lcu
I am in favour of a na. tional delegate conference and other form of courts, generally
October '84 are particularly dangerous.
The original charges brought by the Department of Public Prosecution were criminal trespass and criminal damage.
By Brendan Young
These charges would have been dealt with at a magistrates COllE. The Calne ••eralo. alu maintenance workers said that there was no damage to speak of, and no basis for charges.
They have an undertaking to the NUM I that they would defend the
COUE Li An in spection and report by an
NUM I safety engineer was refused by the prosecu• tion.
These charges have now been shelved. Charges ot unlawtu assemblv are being brought instead, and
5 DAI DAVIES, as a memier of the South Wales Executive of the NUM, gave this report to SOCIALIST ACTION about the attitude of the executive to the
As the statement makes clear the press reports over the last week about South Wales calling for a return to work are nothing but mischief making attempts to drive divisions between the most militant
meeting to inform membership of what is going on.
Any information that is valuable should be immediately communicated to the membership.
I'm not happy with Mr negotiating behalf of our union. I'm very dubious about his ability negotiate anything on our behalf.
He knows very little aDouL Cae Inaustry W f have got the best negotiators of any union in the country the three natonal officials, particularly our President Arthur Scargill Historically, there's a lot of reason for doubt the TUC's ability to deliver for the • mineworkers.
The press is out to between SOV Coluso South Wales and YorkSUTe walete the most solid. The strike's at a very crucial stage but we can still win if we stand ULUSU We've got no alternative but continue.
The Tories are not simply out for Arthur Scargill's head Iney want our organisation That's why they prepared to spend such
on policing this strike, im- HUCC auloulils OT mone! porting coal and oil at an! cost.
They want the union.
They want the roots of the floyclicill
DICCIN
103 miners on trial
ATTEMPTS TO BREAK the strike through the
by imprisoning rank and file leaders and branding miners as criminals, are being stepped up. The charges against the 103 miners who occupied the coal and ore cranes at Port Talbot in
the case has been referred to the Crown Court.
The new charges carry heavy prisons sentences and conviction could made on the basis of CITcumstantial evidence. The way investigations are go. ing indicate that the police are trying to isolate : rank and file leaders within the NUM and from the rest of the Lauc HUvC ment That these charges can be made, with virtually no protest from the labour movement, shows the effect of the scabbing done labo ur leaders OI the movement in the fight to defend miners against the courts.
Doclalsts wil neco lc lake up the defence of miner courts, and ensure that the labour movement rallies to their defence.
Page 6 scan of this page
Star Wars — the lynchpin of the United States plan for fighting an offensive nuclear war, designed to protect US missiles systems not population centres
6
REAGAN has presented his 'Star Wars' space weapons programme as preparing a defensive system for the United States against nuclear attack. But the truth is that Star Wars is the lynch pin of the United States plans for fighting an offensive nuclear war. STUART OZER looks at the reality of the most dangerous weapons since the Second World War.
THE REAGAN administration's •Star Wars' scheme may be on the table at the coming nuclear arms talks, but there's no indication it is Although Washington Moscow have agreed to discuss 'preventing an arms race in space', US officials continue to maintain that the so-called strategic defence initiative (SDI) is not a 'bargaining chip'.
A few days after his Geneva meeting with Secretary of State George Shultz, Soviet Minister Andrei Gromyko warned that any progress on strategic weapons at the new talks had to be linked to a ban on Star Wars research.
In response, Defence Caspar Weinberger stated the US would not let the talks 'derail'
Walks. and that weapons (ASATs) testing would continue. A White House official asserted that it was 'premature' to negotiate about what is purely a 'research' programmine
The dangers, uncertainties and expense inherent in space systems have been demonstrated by critics ever President Reagan's melodramatic speech proposing it in March 1983. Reagan described Star Wars develop the technology to protect US population centres against a massive Soviet nuclear attack and to make nuclear weapons obsolete.
Critics, and most recently the administration itself, have exposed the proposals as a thinly veiled cover for resurrecting and improving conventional anti-ballistic missile stems. The more technologically outlandish Star Wars schemes that would be necessary to protect population centres — such as laser weapons and particle beam defence systems -have been described by scientists and defence analysts technologically impossible, dinarily costly, or easily defeated by counter-measures.
'The most blausible outcome of a Star Wars effort in the short run (the next 25 years) would be a system to protect US missile silos, not population centres. And in both the long and short run, SDI systems would be effective primarily against a Soviet retaliatory
Socialist Action 22 February 1985 development
US-Soviet
negotiable.
and
Foreign
limiting
Secretary flatly that
anti-satillite
weapons
effectively
since original
strike,
in the Pentagon's first-strike (ABM) ipcoming talks.
celerated Soviet
tiveness of 'defensive' systems. ellnel
extraor-
Wing its technology race into the devastates Moscow tries to catch up.
not as a meaningful defence against a full-scale incoming attack.
Thus, Star Wars plays a central part
effort to achieve capability against the USSR. Unless checked as a result of the
Washington's latest
ffort to achieve unquestioned nuclea superiority is bound to lead to an ac-
build-up of strategic weapons in an effort to blunt the effec-
And Moscow will undoubtedly embark on a space defence programme of its own, adding a new dimension to the arms race. The Pentagon mav be bank
superiority in highcomputers and tracking systems — hoping to turn the Star Wars
'final conflict' that Soviet economy as Soviet
But with estimates of space defence system costs reaching into the trillions of dollars, there's no guarantee the US
will survive LOS precedented proposal. Two related initiatives are considered part of the SDI: the development of weapons to destroy satellites, and svstems eliminate
missiles and warheads while they're in flight.
Balance
Both the US and USSR make extensive use of satellites for the early detection of nuclear missile launches and for military communications. In ine current strategic balance, satellites play an important role in deterring a nuclear at tack by assuring the other side an ability to detect a launch and before being destroyed.
Weapons designed to satellites can be used for offensive purposes if they prevent an opponent from learning of an attack and coordinating a response. The US and USSR have both demonstrated ASATs, but in this aspect of the arms race the US has a clear and growing advantage. reason is a crucial technical difference in the way the US and Soviets deploy their satellites.
Most of Moscow's early-warning and communication satellites are in orbits that pass relatively close to Earth
within 1000 miles or ground. In contrast, their US counterparts are deployed in very high orbits some 20,000 miles up, outside the range of current anti-satellite weapons.
The current state of the ASAT race is described in a June 1983 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists and a June 1984 article in Scientific American
by Richard Garwin, Kurt Gottfied and Donald Haffner Garwin et al point out that it is un- unlikely the USSR
replace its low altitude satellites with high-orbit versions in the near future. The relatively large expense involved in launching a high-altitude satellite requires that the reliable. micro-electronics Pentagon satellites longevity that the Soviets can't yet approach:
The current generation of Soviet ASATs consist of heavy interceptors that must be launched from the ground by massive booster rockets — visible at only a few sites in the USSR. They can only hit satellites in orbits lower than 2000 miles which pass directly above the interceptors' launch sites.
The respond
authors calculate that on the average, the Soviets would have to wait six hours destroy any particular
would take about one week to destroy all US satellites in the system's reach, and the most strategicallv US satellites would be out of range.
Even US Air Force Chief of Staff, One General Lew Allen, acknowledged in
Senate testimony on July 11, 1979, 'We gIve (Soviet ASATs) a tionable operational few launches. In other words, it is a threat we are worried about, have not had a test program that would cause us to believe it is a very credible ot the threat.'
ASAT tests since that testimony.
In fact the Soviet ASAT program is most likel whose satellites are in low orbit to Soviet launch sites.
The ASAT system that the US has tested and scheduled for deployment in
STAR W
will be able to the satellites.
Garwin
equipment be very The substantial US lead in
technology gives
Presidential
new based Soviet satellites US ASATs,
led Washington Scientific American article's
satellite satelite. : deployment.
Another important
anti-ballistic
very quescapability I01 a
Research
but they
In fact, There have been no Soviet
directed at the Chinese,
1987 consists of lightweight homing missiles fired from F-18 jets. It over. comes most of the limitations plaguing
estimates that if such a system was stationed at a number of US bases by the end of the decade, it would be able to destroy all low-orbit Soviet satellites within a matter of hours.
But this is only the beginning of the US anti-satellite. In keeping with the spirit of Reagan's 'Star Wars' scheme
Science Advisor George Keyworth has proposed developing a
generation ASATs: Spacehigh-powered lasers aimed at
invulnerability to Soviet , coupled with the Pentagon's clear technological superiority and successtul current ASAT programme, has
to ignore two drati treaties proposed by the USSR in 1981 and 1983 calling for a ban on anti-
weapons development and
possible reason Washington is cool to an ASAT ban is that anti-satellite weapons technology is remarkably close to that required by
missile (ABM) systems.
The ASAT program provides a serious loophole to the 1972 treaty on antiballistic missile systems.
research and testings of systems that would be banned by treaty can be performed under the guise of developing new anti-satellite systems.
the US ASAT homing missiles uses the same technology required for intercepting intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in mid-flight. A dramatic demonstration of this ABM
Page 7 scan of this page
WARS
STAR,
ARS
capability was made last year when a homing missiles was launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the destroyed a dummy ICBM warhead in flight.
Similarly, a laser-based ASAT proposal would require the technology necessary for laser-stations that could 'burn up' incoming Soviet missiles in space.
The anti-ballistic missiles resulted from the recognition by both the US and Soviet Union that any comprehensive ability by one power to defend against incoming missiles would allow that power to attack with tear of successful retaliation. The treaty avoided a costly, destabilising and complex 'defensive' arms race and maintained a 'balance of terror' that had prevented a nuclear war for decades.
Reagan's Star Wars plan suggests the US is committed not only to a resurrection of anti-ballistic strategies, but also repudication of the doctrine of mutual-
assured destruction of both the US and the USSR to destroy each other in war.
In a statement on the eve of the latest Geneva talks, Reagan said, must seek another means of deterring war. It is both militarily and morally
lOvC future that relies so heavily on the prospect of massive nuclear retaliation and toward greater reliance on defensive systems which threaten no one... SDI research programme will provide ... the technical knowledge required to support a decision U1I develop and later deploy advanced defensive system.'
The more grandiose projects suggested under the Star mes involves massive, space-based antiballistic missile systems using high-
DON'T WORRY, SAM.
US GOOD GUYS
ALWAYS WIN. HAVEN'T
YOU SEEN THE MOVIES?
Pacific and
relatively simple same
proposed
For treaty ble.
under discussion
technologically jects.
Promise
missiles historic
ie the ability nothing more
public relations,
faces fewer we than a 'purely defensive'
away troll gain 'first-strike' capability.
the prehensive survey
whether presented in
American article, tober 1984, Bethem, fried and Henry Kendall.
Wars program-
tiers of defence:
6115: 8и жи РНеНДААНИ /
AVIH 7.800..
system
nik out,
that
decoys decade.
weapon
tested
re-enter provide
tion.
cities. space.
lasers, powered ases or beans ol alull vali ticles to destroy Soviet missiles in flight. The technology of such systems has yet to be developed, and by some estimates would cost in the trillions of dollars.
Already, scientists have described
and inexpensive countermeasures that the USSR could take to render such systems ineffective.
these reasons, many analysts dismiss these space-based anti-ballistic missile schemes as completely unfeasi-
But even if the more exotic weapons can never developed, the broad scope of the Star Wars programme paves the way for a major escalation of more conventional
available ABM pro-
And if the promise of protecting the population from a massive attack Is
than pie-in-the-sky the prospect developing new weapons to defend US silos or cities against a retaliatory strike
cauluctal limitations sysicill. either case, Star Wars fits more com fortably as a part of the US effort to
Several scientists who were active participants in the ABM debates of the late 1960s have undertaken a com-
of space-based missile defence systems. Their analysis
another Scientific this time from …Oc they and by physicists Hans Richard Garwin, Kurt Gott-
Their study points out that a successtul system would require several
• Boost-phase interception. refers to a space-based technology that could successfully detect Soviet missiles launches by watching for rocket haust from ICBM "boosters'.
would then aim and fire weapon to destroy the ICBM rocket shortly after take-off. Since ICMBs cannot be effectively tracked space after their booster rocket burns
system wollo rave lo capable of detecting, tracking, and firing at multiple targets within 100 seconds of an ICBM's launch.
• Mid-course defence. Those missiles
survived the boost-phase defence could pack a surprise — such as hundreds of lightweight aluminium-coated balloons • that would be released as
indistinguishable from warheads.
Unless the first line of space defence successfully destroyed mosl boosters, mid-course defence systems would have to track and thousands of flying objects in what are known as 'threat clouds' - a task beyond the capabilities of even supercomputers expected within une nex!
The interceptor weapon tested at Kwajalein last year was a mid-course
that was able to hit single warhead in flight, but its effectiveness against a 'threat cloud' has never been
• Terminal-phase defence. Only when the warheads approach their target and
the atmosphere would decoys in the 'threat cloud' burn up from the friction with air, exposing the flight. A last layer of defence against such warheads could only protect some missile silos against direct hits. It would
no protection to population centres since incoming warheads could be designed to detonate upon intercep-
Even at high altitutde, such detonation would destroy people and
For these reasons, any scheme to protect the population from nuclear attack hinges on a successful boost-phase defence. According to Bethe, such interception can be done only from
The most plausible weapons discussion include ultraviolet X-ray lasers and particle-beam weapons.
An ultra-violet laser system, known as an eximer laser, would probably consist of a ground-based master laser, which would send its beam up to "fighting mirrors' in space. The mirrors would aim and concentrate the bean on booster rockets and after destroying them.
Energy
To shoot at the current 1400 Soviet ballistic missiles would require 60 per generating capacity of the US, accor-
power plant alone would exceed $100 billion, only part of the total outlay. The technologies for constructing the
tne laser and int
compounded and feasibility stretched to the limit if Moscow were to increase the number of targets by building more
Meanwhile the US lasers. These would most likely be launched into space after detecting a Soviet ICBM launch. The laser itself would be would damage the boosters' skins with a powerful x-ray pulse
the scheme untenable include design improvements in booster rocket 'skin'
subatomic particles have also been proposed for a space-based missile detence •stille
When such beams strike a missile,
DISE LIC senionelco 'chips' in the ICBM's guidance system. But like the x-ray laser, the beams cannot penetrate the atmosphere. So a new generation of short-firing boosters also would, they undetectable by this weapon's tracking
This system.
addition, a new generation chips based on crystal gallium arsenide would be 1000 times more resistant to The particle beams
silicon chips.
Technology
from
be Other proposed systems for boostaiming phase defence are plagued by similar
problems of technology, readily available countermeasures Perhaps recognising these profound problems, some Reagan administration away from the initial claims that Star Wars weapons would provide blanket real protection. Secret
Senate armed services committee by undersecretary of defence Fred Ikle last year was revealed in the New of the Times late last December:
It stands to reason that as destroy move toward deployment of the full
systallly steps which have intermediate utility, Ikle testified. In a subsequent written
specific: "Such intermediate versions of a ballistic missile defence, while unable provide the from a completed multi-tiered system, may nevertheless capabilities?
What are the intermediate versions available? The Pentagon itself admits, in an April 1984 pamphlet, that the onthe technology that
before the year 2000 is the 'third tier' or terminal-phase defence words systems for missiles installations.
Even a study done for Congress by former Defence Department Ashton Carter, Star Wars systems as 'remote'. It did, however, describe a silo defence system as 'within reach of present technology.' If a full, multi-tiered missile defence program may be incapable of ever providing blanket protection to the Duvulallull. tion continue to insist that the full programme space-based technology holds answer may be that the system is intended for offensive, rather than defensive purposes, as a component of a US first-strike capability launch,
Contributors include:
Price 50p (plus 17p p&p)
London N1
Socialist Action 22 February 1985
of
currently used scale Soviet ICBMs
call from COSL and coupled
early-warning members of the have backed
York circumstances, defend
there are some intermediate
Ever
, Ikle was more
attack. available tack, protechion
offer useful tion. terceptors silos! will be available Soviet other missile defence
analyst characterised exotic
US
come of even why does the administra-
defence › promise? A possible
Wing a reality. with the goal of
EUROPE
WITHOUT
THEO
BOMB?
A Socialist Action pamphlet on the future of Europe
Ernest Mandel on the 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
Available from Socialist Action, PO Box 50,
'winning' a nuclear r war.
One of the main reasons the exotic
weapons are costly and unfeasible is that they are charged with the mammoth task of countering a full-
strike of 1400 or more
But consider the consequences Soviet ground-based missiles were to b devastated by a surprise, first-strike L'S attack from submarine — and Euro
based missiles minutes away their target, and if this were with destruction of Soviet and communications satellites. The US would then be faced with a far smaller ballistic missile threat from relatively few Soviet submarines and whatever remained of the USSR's land-based missiles.
Washington would seek to preserve its ground-based missiles as a 'second strike' force for future use. Under such
'Star Wars' wepons to against a Soviet retaliatory strike would require smaller costs and fewer technological breakthroughs
al ABM silo defence is more plausibly viewed as a part of a first-strike strategy rather than as defence against a Soviet
For in the event of a Soviet atthe would likely use vulnerable ground-based missile force before it could be hit, reserving its massive submarine force tor retalia
What would be the use of in. protect empty missile
It may be perversely fortunate that in the two vears since Star Wars war first proposed by President Reagan, the spectre of a naturally assured destruc tion' has been raised by both Soviet and
scientists. It may replace the 'mutually assured destruction' scenario Reagan is so eager to discard.
Now we know that the likely out-
La smal or one-sided nuclear exchange will be a devastating climate disruption. The world will be waiting to see whether Reagan's col war posturing can be overcome to pre vent this nuclear winter from becom
(From The Guardian New York)
Page 8 scan of this page
THE ROW between the United States and New Zealand over the annual naval exercises of the ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand and the United States) L the Pacific is a major boost for the peace move-
ent world wide. allow the USS Buchanan to use its port facilities is a
roduct of the
ent in the region.
rithdrawal from the exercises and the
military and economic sanctions, is an indication of
of similar developments elsewhere.
designed strengthen hand of «overnments WICE are ander pressure from the •t-nucical shile at the same time forong them to take a tirmer role in defence OI their alliances with the US
Ine ANLUS ras established in 1951, in *re wake or me viciory ul the Chinese revolution,
the Korean Its primary axis was conta millical of the Chinese revolution.
This is not the major consideration today. The Beijing regime is firmly committed to establishing Chited States and with the relations with the capitalist powers the region. The recent agree
with Britain over Hong Kong demonstrates be lengths to which China • prepared to go in pursui of this policy, which is ax
against the Soviet Union. The politics of the
however, cannot be determined
her China or the Unitec states. Vietnam
The victory of the Vietramese revolution was a
How US
-Talism South East Asia, from which the US is etermined I-backed regimes in Sri problems. faced Lanka. the Philippines
ad South Korea threaten
. An imperialist united ront is demanded, which
New Zealand stand andermines. The danger trong anti-nuclear move- America lies the
In 1983 Bob Hawke's Australian Labour Party was elected with a strong •ommitment to ban nuc-
warships. Hawke's LAST WEEK Belfast city council voted in favour of resolution aimed at preventing Sinn Fein and 'like-
inded organisations' from standing in the local asernment elections this May, or in any future elecbes to the bey hope to achieve this by making all would-be
adidates for election in the North of Ireland sign a acteration opposing
egiance to the British monarch.
This move is the latest
a series of attacks on the
ocratic rights of Sinn
and People's (PĐ) elected -sentatives the and in the wake
ificant victory
cillor John McAnulty st attempts by Belfast cil to 'unelect' him.
The PD victory in what
ane known as the 'But-
Apron has
onstrated
dity and necessity of sing the increasing atdemocratic
The row broke out last
Zionists to close down
the grounds that cople had erected an
Socialist Action 22 February 1985 The refusal by New Zealand to
pressure of the anti-nuclear moveThe American reaction,
threat of
e seriousness with which America takes the threat
failure to out this
vall y pledge has led phenomenal growth of the Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) in Australia, which, although formed on v a tew months betore the elections last December, won more than seven per cent or ine vote. Ivew Zealand's stand on nuclear weapons unere ore pul Hawke under severe pressure.
He responded by writing the New Zealand Prime Minister
Lange demanding that New Zealand should adopt the same policy as
Australia. This was done
By Pat Hickey
without consulting the cabinet. the ALP
parliamentary caucus, and
provoked strong opposition ALP and in the trade unions. As
has withdrawn from cooperation in the MX tests and Hawke has declared his opposition to Star Wars.
Hawke's position has been backed Prime Minister Japanese Yasuhiro Nakasone, who has his own reasons for
lisagreeing with New
Zealand. Nakasone claim that the security of the western Pacitic is at stake and that ANZUS provides protection against a growing Soviet military presence.
New Zealand's example is a threat to the Japanese the imperialiss role imperialist
the Pacific. alliances in Japan's policy i three theory,. based on principles: not to make, possess or allow nuclear weapons on Japanese soil The reality is that there are
large number of US nuclear-armed warships based at Yokosuka at the
'Butcher's apron' victory
Stormont assembly or Westminster.
violence and •swearing
Irish tricolour over it. During the debate heaped abused 011 tricolour.
In his response, McAnulty made an allusion the Scottish highland clearances of the eighteenth century, stating that some of his consti-
would regard
apron ack as a butcher's
flurry hysteria erupted from the unionist benches. McAnulty was suspended indefinitely from the council chamber, thereby effectively disenfranchising the people who elected him.
The action of Belfast council is seen all the more clearly when you consider
councillors have shouted
threats at 'D and Sinn Fein councillors, call-
mouth of Tokyo Bay.
There is a strong movement against the docking of nuclear-armed ships in Japan. example is therefore an ex-
danecrous one.
ing militaristion of the
militarisation the Pacific. In the Philippines there is a growing movement of opposition to US bases, while New Caledonia French plans for a huge military base there are under threat.
The US move is intended to provoke a showdown on the issue. Previous ANZUS exercises have been carried without New Zealand facilities for US warships. This is the first time in unree vears unal ene request for facilities has been pressed.
Reagan
The White House threat of sanctions is aimed not lust at New Zealand. It is aimed at US allies worldwide, and expresses Reagan's concern over the anti-nuclear movement
White House spokesperson Larry Speakes, stated SOMe western countries have nuciear and other move ments which seek to diminish defence operation allies Stales We would hope that our response to New Zealand would signal that the course these advocate would not be cost-free in terms of security relations with the United States.
I mis Is intenaca as warning to European governments to naraen up their stand against the ocale Lovelical 'General' Heseltine's
avocal ance at Molesworth after the attack on The camp there was Thatcher's way of reassuring Reagan of her loyalty. It clearly signals harder stand against the peace movement, and against govern-
such Greece, Sweden. Norwav and Den mark which do not go all
way with US nuclear policy. The peace movements response must
step up the mass campaigns against US weapons, and for unilateralism. ed for the incineration of the Catholic population
physically assaulted PD councillor Fergus O'Hare council chamber without any culprits being suspended.
McAnulty has refused to accent the mont of the council to suspend him indefinitely and determinedly turned up at every coun cil meeting since, only be forcibly ejected by the RUC.
By Fergus O'Hare
These actions have been accompanied by
protests from all other Belfast anti-unionist councillors the suspen-
PD Councillor O'Hare, walk-outs from counch meeligs Sinn Fein and SDLP councillors, and noisy scenes in the public gallery as police
McAnulty's protesting Constituents.
The affair has attractea much publicily in Ireland, and PD have
campaign highlight the case in the
Fergus O'Hare
labour movement in Britain. The establishment in Belfast has been forced to back down. When McAnulty took his case to Belfast High Court, they found in his favour, declaring his indefinite legal.
Smarting from their
defeat, Tane vindictively insevere restrictions on the right of the
meetings and set about try-
ensure that Sinn Fein and PD are prevented from standing in the fortheoming elections.
'butcher's apron' episode was the first attempt to ngle wack agams the ongoing attack on the
imperialists the Six Counties. particularly Sinn Fein. It marks an important departure.
With the electoral advances of Sinn Fein since the hunger strikes, both the British and Irish governments have adopted marginalise them by refus policy trying
allow them
New Zealand
US waves
rights normally accorded to elected representatives.
For example restrictions on the right of Sinn Fein travel to Britain, banning
the big stick
of Gerry Adams from visiting prisons, the refusal of ministers in Belfast and Dublin to meet Sinn Fein councillors, and the exclu-
International
sion of Sinn Fein from the All Ireland Forum.
Sinn Fein has made little attempl mount political defence against
Laking stead a stance: Well, what CEO you expect iron these people?'. Their non-recognition of the courts and (Irish parliament) also proves an
lo some steps likely to be involved in any defence campaign.
The SDLP leadership, far from defending Sinn Fein, actively collaborated In we allack, lor example through agreeing to clude Sinn rein from the All Ireland Forum.
It is within this context that the importance of the PD fight must be They have called lor meeting of all antiunionist elected representatives in the Six Counties
discuss the should the latest Belfast citv counci motion be acted
The whole question of decreasing democratic rights for anti-imperialist elected representatives in the North of Ireland is somelling walch acuvists in Britain should be raising within JULI union movement and the Labour Party.
Page 9 scan of this page
Surplus Value
ON 7 FEBRUARY 1975, Labour MP from Poltok Glasgow, James White, presented his Abortion (Amendment) Bill for a second reading. It passed on a free' vote.
Every MP had received a copy of a now discredited book Babies for Burning which purported to uncover all sorts of abuses. The Bill was presented as necessary to 'protect women'.
Despite the fact that the Bill was only available seven days prior to the vote, women's organisations managed to mount a rally on the day: over I00 people turned up. lhat meeting agreed on a campaign to fight the Bill. On 13 March, 800 people met at the House of Commons to launch the National Abortion Campaign.
That same month, the Women's TUC passed a resolution condemning the White Bill and the National Union of Students affiliated to NAC. June, when NAC held its cemonstralion, 20,000 against the Bill, with a further 500 on a march in Scotland, and a petition of 150,000 signatures was presented to parliament.
NAC's first conference, held in October, attracted 1000 people and establisnea lal simply fighting attacks on the 1967 Abortion Act did not go far enough. It was clear that the Act was inadequate. The aim of the campaign became 'Free Abortion on Demand'. The Labour Party conterence month opposed moves to restrict abortion.
Although it started as an umbrella group defending the '67 Act, NAC went well beyond that. A new group was set up, with NAC's support, the Coordinating Committee in Defence of the '67 Abortion Act (Co-ord) with an initial 20 pro-choice groups involv-
There are now over 70. In April, 1976, NAC held its second national demonstration, with 10,000 ching. In December the Labour Abortion Rights Campaign was set up to campaign within the Labour Party.
Restrictions
The third report of the select committee on the White Bill was presented in the summer of 1975. In October health minister Barbara Castle accented its recommenaaons. I ney In cluded: approving referral agencies, registers of foreign women using private clinics. and restrictions where abortions after 20 weeks could be done. The White Bill itself fell at the end of October 1975, but in December 1976, William Benyon, a Tory MP, announced another restrictive private member's bill, based on the select committee report.
January 1977 saw the setting up of 'Doctors for a Woman's Choice on Abortion' and a Tribunal on Abortion Rights organised by NAC and attended by over 2000 women. The secona reading or Benvon's Bill 1 February was marked by demonstration in London followed by a national demonstration in May of over 10,000.
month, international women's conference in Paris called for an International Day of Action on hertilty Control. It was attended by 6000 women from all over Europe and elsewhere.
In July, women occupied Westminster Cathedral in protest at Benyon's Bill, which fell the same day for lack of time. That year's Labour Party's conference called for legisiation to ensure women's right of choice in law. The TUC Aims for Women at Work was rewritten to include 'free abortion to be readily available'. A year later NAC held its first trade union conference, attended by 500 delegates
Ther ollempt to retic, sae yet another attempt to restrict the Act, with a 10 minute bill from Bernard Braine. In April, the tenth anniversary of the '67 Act was marked with a week of action, while the third
By first 102-
NAC conference decided to focus on abortion facilities and oppose NHS cuts.
In May, the case of Joan Paton hit the headlines. Mrs Paton wanted an Her husband, walked out on her, did not want 'his baby' aborted, and tried to get an injunction to stop ner down in Fleet Street to protest. In Liverpool more women went to court to support Joan. He failed.
Internationalism
An International Campaign for Abortion Rights was formed following a meeting in London that June. NAC became the first co-ordinator and it was agreed to have an International Day of Action. It took place in March 1979, supported by 25 counIn england, demonstration and the month the campaign became the International Contraception, Abortion and Sterilisation Women Decide! (ICASC)
NAC
Tenyears
of fighting for
abortion rights
Leonora Lloyd
drawn first place
had
Women county. TUC support At the
people, called by the TUC
union organisation demonstration on such an issue.
5000 camé on an amendment following
Campaign tion led by
In May John Corrie, who had private members' ballot, announced that the would be taking up abortion. The second reading of his Bill was in July. Campaign NAC set up a Campaign Against Corrie (CAC) with branches all over the
over previous year's TUC, a resolution had been passed pledging to organise against any further at- support the rally. tacks on abortion rights. October saw a massive demonstration of 50,000
- the first Arrests time in the world that a national trade
had called
MPs were under big pressure from itself, both sides. Jo Richardson introduced women's
which would have allowed abortion on demand up to six weeks — it fell. The Corrie Bill fell, partly because of the heroic opposi- Over
Richardson. The tremendous campaign outside parlia-
tober LOU. ment, which gave heart to the pro-choice MPs and others a very hard time, was a major factor.
In the last week of the Bill, the
Against Corrie, together with the South East Region of the TUC, organised a rally and a lobby of MPs. Central Hall, Westminster, filled up; so did an overtlow meeting ir the second largest hall. Still the queue of those waiting to lobby stretched has
Westminster Bridge! Various unions including the CPSA, had supported CAC's call for strike action to
On the day of the Third Reading
Friday, NAC assembly in the Central Hall, followed by a torchlight procession through Fleet Street. who demonstrated were arrested.
period, NAC organised day schools and debated such subjects as positive legislation —
Socialist Action 22 February 1985 9 a draft 'right to choose' bill was drawn up.
In December 1980 the Appea Court ruled that it was illegal for nurses to take part in abortions performed by the prostaglandin method Timothy Sainsbury MP announced that he was thinking of introducing yet another restrictive bill. He was so overwhelmed with protests (not to mention threats of picketing his family stores) that he dropped the idea we all breathed again
However, 1981 did see a new battle — and one that was much harde to fight, because the attack was more
autumn 0I 198l Minister of Health Gerard Vaughan had announced changes in the 'buff notification form filled in by the 'operating doctor'. Doctors had to give medical reasons for the operation. Objections were made by MPs, doc. tors and ourselves to the new form.
Eventually Dr Peter Huntingford was considered for public prosecution. The charges were dropped after a national campaign
In June 1981 Jo Richardson tabled a 10 minute Bill, calling for facilities to be available for all women needing them on the NHS. It got a lot of publicity and a fairly
good volc However, the anti-abortionists ensured that most reports in the loca papers were hostile to the Bill
NAC io
Over the next period, some extent turned inwards. Without any obvious battles to fight, internal stresses led to disputes about the direction of the campaign: should it take up wider issues than abortion. how much emphasis should there be on our work in the unions, and should NAC become women only?
These stresses led to a split, in Ox.
1983. From what happened after the split, it was clear that groups of women on both sides were able to get on doing what they wanted pro ductively
After an initial drop in membership NAC is growing again.
That is not to say that there are no problems. There is a continuing debate around racism — the problem of making the campaign relevant and accessible for black women. And, a NAC gets no grants, money continues to restrict what the campaign can do. as NAC gets no grants, money continues to restrict what the campaign can do. Gillick
A major issue for us is how to go on the offensive. The reaction to the Victoria Gillick case illustrates ye again the sad truth that people are much more enthused by opposition man posiuve campalguilig.
Throughout our 10 years, we have faced attacks from anti-abortionists Attacks on abortion clinics America are now in the news, but pa tient harassment exists in this country
The anti-abortionists have the money advertising campaigns notoriously the 'one million babies have been killed since the '67 Act' and 'if women had glass tummies' campaigns. They are much more efficient lobbyists than us.
Another factor throughout the 10 years has been the importance to NAC of the interna tional campaign. In particular, NAC
always believed that foreign women should have the right to come here for abortion as long as their own countries have laws against abortion and the question of Ireland - Nortt and South - is important to us. support the Northern Ireland Abortion Campaign's fight to extend the Act to the Six Counties
These are the issues we will be taking up in the coming year, but it means more members and more money. We would like our tenth anniversary to be the year we double our membership and make some real steps forward in our objectives — to ensure
women have the right to choose whether or not to continue a
Page 10 scan of this page
LIVERPOOL REVISITED
WELVE MONTHS ago Liverpool city council ok a courageous stand against the Tory attacks on
cal government. It stood alone.
any other councils are facing the Tory axe. Liver-
Dol Labour group has adopted the same tactic as ther councils, that of refusing to fix a rate.
embers took a report from the Labour group on
• council's finances this year orse than last
e no-rate tactic. The council is supported too by
local government unions.
Five of the seven Labour scabs from car's council are still in office, who are still intent
voting against But since elections last May, abour has an overall maonty.
The council's
Calllmaign to date has been in ower-key than 1984. Their much-publicised difáculties over the appoint-
ent of Militant supporter
Bond as the head of race relations unit,
inst the wishes of the
community. las
en a severe set back for
eir united fight.
The council's financial dight in the coming year
reach record Citv council leader Hamilton recently We
i take the course of
•o take ine course
on we have - and the
must lie squarely
In the government.
your Party in Liverpool
e doing what we think is
for the people of the
ETE CRESSWELL is secretary
ALGO and the joint shop stewards committee.
ast year the city council unions he represents were
attacks on local
OCIALIST ACTION about the situation this year. THE Liverpool city con-
is meeting to fix its
get for the coming year
March. That meeting following the trategy, adopted by the
calvarel and efusing to set a rate. That
the policy of the
HOW Liverpool Labour group.
positive Ivelopment as far as the
cons are concerned. On
day the joint tewards' committee has called for a one-day stopage.
Not that we necessarily far our not making a rate,
we LeTe mailey. Not fixing a onal should national
one tactic among many. ie also support a deficit
Labour base changed their tactics
the national ¡cuation. In practice what
appened last year and * happened by accident
as that they didn't make
rate.
The financial situation
: Liverpool is worse this
but we can get the
port ourer all-
because they aim
ake action themselves
his time Liverpool could
up a deficit of £96 which far than the deficit had to deal with last
The union's response is
as last year.
ese called a sunke
monstrate our opposi-
ries on 7 March, ( the
10 Socialist Action 22 February 1985
This year many,
A recent meeting of Liverpool Labour Party
which are now - and overwhelmingly supported the books ar This 'balancing
would, according to recentlypublished NALGO report, require a ate crease of
•per cenl 6000 council workers sacked. Since 1979 the city has lost £130 million in rate support grant, £96 million from its housing investment programme and further £67 million in housing subsidy.
By Carol Turner
was in as bad shoritory
La short-term resolution ot a crisis that still persists. The big difterence this ycal that Liverpool is not alone. It will be entering the fight alongside many other Labour authorities.
Liverpool city council still has the SUDOUIL of every town hall union and of the black caucus in the fight to protect jobs and services. NALGO
Pete Cresswell Secretary explains, that is despite the policies of the Militantcontrolled party and not because of them.
of Liverpool
the forefront of the first fight back against the government. He told
day of the council's budget council if they vote not to meetin We support the cul jobs and services. Beyond that it's unknown territory.
In conjunction with London Bridge, we're organising a steering committee joint shop stewards committees. We aim to have a conterence of local government trade
fect this would set up a nanona condone connilice
We also have links with Mersevside county council unions. Their council
March.
We'll be lobbying it, and they support our initiative for a joint trade union conference. Council
The council's campaign around the budgel has started a lot later this year than last. That's been a problem. There's some dissatisfaction with the provision services that's a problem as far as une wider community support goes.
But as tar as the unions are concerned our members anticipate a further fight. They know their jobs are at stake and they'll support the action that we've proposed.
The deal last year was presented as great victory. we callea ll a compromise. We are attemp-
our where things
Rally before Liverpool council set illegal 1984 budget
have gone from there, why the problem exists this
and what we should ycal. do about it.
The dispute over Sam Bond's appointment has affected VALGO's relationship with the council. It isn't what was last year. HOweVer that doesn't actually affect whether we campaign with the council on the budget Issuc.
On the other hand the fact that the council pro-
pecting a goes set
porting them does make more difficult. We say it's
LIVERPOOL city council's joint shop stewards' committee is hosting a national London Bridge meeting in Liverpool on Saturday 23 February, which will discuss the proposed abolition of the GLC and metropolitan counties, as well ratecapping and the vicious targets and penalties imposed on councils by the Tory government.
not a matter of supporting the council, it's whether they will support us, in a fight to save our jobs.
NALGO is sticking to its position that the Sam Bond post be readvertised. city council does not have the concence of the black community.
Supporters of the Militant newspaper just resort to a series of lies to try and prove that the council does. But the only support they have from the District Labour Party and
London Bridge plans
national conference
This conference aims
to be the planning body
for a national conference
provisionally called for 30
March, from
hoped that some sort
permanent national
ganisation of joint unions
will emerge.
Each local authority is
eligible send
delegates to Saturday's
meeting, ane provisiona.
agenda of which includes:
all introducton ov Lull-
Bridge chairperson
Jim O'Brien; a report
some council branches of GMBATU. Everyone else is opposed to them.
The main point is that the communitv opposes them over the issue It displays
degree of arrogance LIcH that they're not prepared to back down
They say to the unions that we should have unity.
way • thev see of resolving a dispute is for us to pack in.
Whatever NALGO
said, this dispute would not go away: The black community will not accept
John O'Brien, chair of London Bridge, speaks
from the councillors
with
Jenkin, and arrangements
for the 30 March Cull
ference. of The meeting will
discuss the resolution
reproduced below, and
will elect a steering com-
mittee for the March con-
ference.
• More info from: Pete
Cresswell, Liverpool JSSC
on 051-236 1944; or Ed Hall, London
Bridge secretary, on
01-674 9844 ext 180.
Militant nominee preside over race relations within the city. At least 11 ward parties out of 33, and two constituencies out of five, support the positio of the black caucus an NALGO.
The position of the
is that they still support the council's
and services. But whereas last year they played a very active part and appeared on
London Bridge resolution:
be put simultaneously to unions in the rate-capped • compulsory redundancies are threatened • a council service is to be privatised
posts an authority or part of an authority a collective councils ting a rate.
We thereby pledge our
urgent meeting of all branch officers recommend coordinated action to the branches.
place designed to publicise and advance the
ment persists in its present uncompromising course
trade unionists to be held on 30 March to discuss th
above policy and a national organisation to help imple-
ment it
News
LIVERPOOL VICTOR TO THE MINERS platforms with the Labour ere lies at have been that have been spread about them), this year the enthusiasm will not be the same.
It's all very well defending jobs and services, but the figures that black people don't get those jobs and don't get those services There's nothing to be had for them. As part of the campaign against rate-capping and th
abolition of the GLC and metropolitan authorities
call on the joint trade unions at branch, district and na-
tional levels to finalise plans for coordinated and effec-
tive industrial action in defence of services and jobs
branch meetings of all the
recommending immediate action if and when: allo penalised authorities,
• a member of any union is disciplined or faced with
legal action for non-cooperation with rate-capping
abolition or refusing to implement cuts or cover vacant
commissioners or other agencies are appointed to run • legal or other punitive action (eg disqualification or
surcharge) is taken against any councillor for supporting
capping and abolition, including the strategy of not set- unions policy against ratethrough industrial action in support of workers in our or determination
respond
any other branch who are themselves taking action in
defence of a 'no cuts in jobs and services' policy. In those
circumstances we call on the joint unions to convene an
and stewards to
In the coming period — before any of the above takes
— we call on the joint unions to organise activities
cluding a programme of selective action involving a
campaign, in.
number of authorities to be put into effect if the govern.
We call for a national conference for local authorit
Page 11 scan of this page
In the Unions
FROM 26 FEBRUARY some members of the National Union of Teachers will begin three-day selective strike action on their pay claim. Ballot returns so far indicate support for action ranging from 70 to 90 per cent. This picture reflects the deep-seated anger amongst teachers at the employers derisory four per cent offer.
The teachers are claiming a pay rise in line with
the 35 cent decline in the value of their
1974. As a first pay since step, the NUT is seeking a minimum increase of £1200 for all teachers.
On 28 the employers made clear that tney nau no more lo orel and contemptuously proposca posee the NUT is totally
opposed to.
From 6 February the NUT
began a campaign based on refusing to cover for absent teachers and withdrawing from all meetings outside normal school hours. considers that these acous de nos-cortacla there therefore no ballot of the membership before they began.
Some local authorities Tory and Labour, consider however that the ac. tion is in breach of contract onte of them.
Solihull, has threatened to FREEZING ROOMS and corridors, rubbish and filth piled up, over a hundred schools and colleges
taking on NUPE.
Unlike Liverpool's Labour council, mile across the Mersey, Wirral Tories are going along with rate-capping and cuts
services. Unwilling to Lake une Leachers NALGO white collar workers. the Tories tried to make £3½ million cuts in the pay and conditions
of 4000 low-paid — mainly women - • workers
Cleaners and canteen workers were to be sacked andrehired on 1l-month contracts, with less 1-nour. WOrK Del week and no bonus payments.
would have them no holiday pay, no emolovers' national
liability, and would have reduced their already low pay to dole
Caretakers' overtime be WCiC LU cancelled and their work loads increased to include painting, repalrs and
cleaning, thus putting orner workers on tne doie.
Teachers'
union faces
legal attack
take out an injunction to
stop ine acton ana torce
the NUT ballot its
menoers
this could serious
threats to the union cam-
paign.
By Bernard Regan,
NUT executive (personal capacity)
Despite the Daily Ex-
press describing the NUT
'left wing' this is far
trom the truth. In the
event of a legal challenge
the right wing leadership
will De inchnea lo buckie.
It would pose a double threat: it would disrupt the
first plase Calm
paign, but it would also
establish that
La W
teachers are bound by con-
Tacu to cover ums nao
pened local authorities
the country
would go onto the offen-
teachers pay.
have
been to force
Women workers
ensure NUPE victory
closed, 40,000 pupils and students sent home. This was the price Wirral's back-woods Tories paid for
Assistant caretakers were
to be sacked and replaced
by 'volunteer' pensioners
paid a pittance out of petty
cash.
By John Nolan NUPE meeting of
MOas voted
overwhelmingly to strike,
with 2000 education
workers coming out on 28
January Within few
days schools were closed
and the pupils sent home.
Typically the Tories
thought that low-paid
women workers would not
stay out on strike. But
there was hardiv anv scab-
bing - the strike remained
solid.
Ninety-five per cent of
the pickets, at every school
and college, were women.
As the
women galnea
idence, a typical comment
Was.
ago, striking and fighting
for your job
was sullic
package hich would link teachers negotiate pav and conaitons, sucn
LUVCI LUlI pulsory. resolutely refused to agree to any such proposal, but will come under increasingly pressure from employers and the other
unions which are prepared Lo uo a ucal
There is only one route for teachers take. The
Teachers Alliance has been arguing for an immediate escalation of the action, non-compliance with any court
and urgent steps to link up with other public sector unions in a fight against the government's cash limits.
On 9 March the East London and Lambeth Teachers' Associations are reconvening their salary conterence William Collins School, London, with the object of organising the left on the pay fight. posilive responst to this initiative from other
well JeNI currents for this conTerence. Socialisi supporters in the NUT should make every effort to attend
ZOAN
thing I read about in the papers. Now I know what it really means to trade unionist.
'But it's still different for us. We're expected to be on me picker nie ana still get the tea ready for the family. There's someten dono have todo his. thing wrong with
By the end of the first week. LIC council
collapsed and withdrew all the attacks NUPE members. But the Tories will not stand up to the
Black Sections taking
stormy organisation in the Labour Party.
Party
direction.
Although Saturday's conference is main y for auses revision, there will
discussion 81S0 around organisation, and
the incoming national committee. Up until now there has been a certain amount of unclari-
about organisational questions, and hopefully delegates and observers will come out of Saturday's conference with much more laca
ENOLICH
15
ENOUQI
government Labour councils are doing: they
Lry make cuts elsewhere
NUPE are calling on the other counci manual, white collar and teaching unions to join in a iomt shon cewards' com mittee of the sort that successfully defended council workers in Liverpool before Labour callic power there. If the Tories come back for more cuts thited trade union front. facing
Milestone for
Black sections
THE NATIONAL conference of the Labour Party
Saturday place February marks another milestone in the short but
history of black people's struggle for self This is because the press ballyhoo which accompanied its inception last year, and which lasted up to and beyond Labour
conference in October has subsided. The Black Sections must now decide on policy and future
what the movement is and where it is going.
By Mike Wonsang, Black Sections Steering Committee
overriding issue for the incoming national committee however will be Ine › mimon voles cas against constitutional change which would provide representation for black people various SINCE THE pledge campaign to defend Molesworth was put into operation last week, 150-200 people have been present at the base every day, maintaining a round-the-clock protest against the siting of cruise there.
Police harassment of the protestors has constant, with every effort being made to obstruct the action. CND has been pro. hibited from siting the in formation on the A604 it is to be : replaced by a mini-bus! The campaign has got off to a good start after 'General Heseltine's surprise attack on peace pected to build up over the be a constant presence at the base from until the 2-pronged march the base on Easter Sunday porters from ask over the CND asking country to join the pledge campaign. The constant presence al Molesworth will be a key part of the build-up Easter weekend events. Regions ate being grouped together to cover each day of the week, and supporters are being asked to contact the regional addresses.
Socialist Action 22 February 1985
levels of the party. Since
the Incollng Natora
committee will be more of
a presiding body than the
outgoing steering commit-
tee it must not forget that
black people are still not
recognised in the party, and therefore a campaign must continue to be wag-
The proposal is that
the committee
will be delegate body
black sec-
based on local
tions, will better
TCLICCI the of black people in the party. is therefore of para-
mount importance that a
definite campaign be
established order to
conduct the struggle in the
party, and now very im-
portantly, the trade
Join the pledge campaign
been
SAT/ SUN
the ex-
SAT/ SUN
11 unions, intervening coming trade union and regional party conferences with national tion. Appeal
It must be emphasised that in the absence of extensive press coverage this struggle can only ducted through a concen
campaigning work which is different from the
presiding body. The establishment ot a campaien committe is therefore one of the first priorities of the incoming national committee. • The meeting is in the Council Chamber, County Hall, London, at 10 a.m.
MOLESWORTH
\ FRIDAY
NEDNESDAY
TUESDAY MOMDAY
Page 12 scan of this page
AcTiON Powell's Bill An attack on women
FRIDAY 15 February the Powell 'Unborn hildren Protection' bill was overwhelmingly passlat its second reading in Parliament. • On Saturday 16 February, supporters of the Naanal Abortion Campaign gathered in Glasgow to debrate our tenth anniversary.
Support for the Powell bill served as a timely ninder that we have a long way to go in achieving * aims of the NAC.
Al those well known
hortionists, from White, SPUC and Catholic 1olned forces Powell put forward he Royal College of and
ecologists describe as
¿edented in the tela
includes the bannhuman embryo
about se Secretary of
Rents of women to on terr are completely
1967 Abor: became law it has from all
this year we the court's deciVictoria Gillick,
and provision to 16 year olds.
Sheila Abdulla of Doctors for
' an's Right to Choose
speaking the weekend
mned the Gillick
and spoke of the the threat of abortion for Arcel
g women.
Mary Harrison, , of the
Women's Advisory
mittee, paid tribute to
determination of the
nal Abortion Cam-
continuing women over the
:o0 often the fight linal Enterprises, PO Box 50, London N1.
SOCiAList
seen as the responsibility of the labour movement.
rorty MPs voted for the Powell Bill Donald Dewar, Shadow Secretary of state LUI Scotland.
Women's fertility and right to choice is not a matter of conscience.
Jo Richardson, who sent a message of support to the rally, has written to every Labour MP explaining why they should vote
Powell bill. against the
By Ann Henderson
Rosina Macrae, speaking tor the scottish labour women's committee, reminded us that wullicil
the Labour Party fought long and hard for the adoption of pro-choice policy.
The rally recognised the particularly oppressive situation for women in the South of Ireland following the passing of the 'rightto-life' amendment to the Constitution in September '83.
Irish women speakers from the North and the South stressed the impor tance of strengthening the
and links between British
67 Act despite its limitations.
The message from the NAC rally was clear Our bodies, lives,
VUI vul right to decide. We will defend the 67 Act and fight for its extension
Gillick and Powell represent une Talesl tacks. They will not go unCaucuscu.
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RETURN
WASHINGTON has military threats against revolutionary Nicaragua in the last week. world opinion to help stay They have also called up into the military forces all youths between the ages of 18 and 22.
Alarm has been raised oy a senes or recent events Last weekend US Presi-
launched hysterical attack the accusins vert beir accusing being 'creators fortress Nicaragua that intends to export Communism yond its borders'. This came in the wake of a US
'Contadora' peace talks on Central America.
Most ominous of al
TO
New US threats
dramatically escalated its
The Sandinistas have appealed to
Washington's hand.
was announcement this week that leaders of the counter-revolutionary armed bands - the so called 'contras' - have decid-
By Brian Grogan
Led to set up a 'provisional Despite government' several years of armed attacks, backed by the CIA with huge tunds and equipment, these contras lave talled establish themselves on Nicaraguan
BACKSTREET FF -
The announcement at this time of such a LaN( ment' is clearly intended as a fig leaf cover for an invasion by US forces, if the opportunity presents itself.
The seriousness of the threat is underlined by the decision of major capitalist polliclans associate themselves with the initiatve. These include Arturo Cruz who was Ine presidentai canaidale of the three main capitalist
to boycott the recent elec-
In addition, Pedro Joaquin Chamorra. self exiled editor of La Prensa the main popular capitalist
ABORTION
daily Nicaragua, has also decided to throw in his lot with this "provisional government' They know full well the onli way that such • a govern ment could be established is through the invasion b' US ground troops.
At present, the US has 30,000 ground troops at its disposal in the result of its •Big Pine 3 joint military with Honduras. The exer-
includes M60 tanks Cast and large naval con-
The United States is clearly stepping up its preparations for any military action it considers necessary against Nicaragua.
← Socialist Action No. 89, 15 February 1985Socialist Action No. 91, 1 March 1985 →