[The seven COHSE members of the Emergency Bed…]

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The seven COHSE members of the Emergency Bed Service who defied Regional Health Authority orders and sent patients to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital remain disciplined and threatened with the sack if they do not follow orders in the future.

Meanwhile, Albert Spanswick, General Secretary of COHSE, is deflecting pressure to mobilise workers against the RHA's action by continuing to claim that he is using his personal influence to persuade Minister of State Roland Moyle to intervene on the side of the seven:

The recent battle around the defence of the EGA has shown the potential effectiveness of the threat of industrial action in the run up to the general election.

Closure date

The EGA closure date has been postponed four times. On 9 June, Secretary of State David Ennals announced an indefinite "reprieve" pending an inquiry.

This followed a build up of demands for continuous strike action if he went ahead with the closures together with the determined support shown by the EBS staff.

Yet the role of union leaders like Fisher of NUPE, Spanswick of COHSE and Jenkins of ASTMS-for all their clever talk about cuts in general-is to stand back from such local, specific battles and where possible, to divert all militancy into protests and so-called "independent" inquiries.

It has been left to the EGA Joint Shop Stewards Committee to make a stand by demanding that the disciplinary action must be dropped before they will enter into any discussion with Ennals on the future of the hospital.

Boycott inquiry

• Socialist Press continues to believe that the EGA shop stewards should press ahead with their partial victory over Ennals by boycotting his inquiry completely since it was dreamed up specifically to head off the developing confrontation and to try to manoeuvre the hospital staff into accepting a move to another site.

Conflict with Ennals now would provide a new focus for the movement to defend the EBS workers and to defeat the Labour government's social service cuts by the independent action of the working class. they qualify if they repeat this action.

Personally liable

This was a follow up to the incident in which the same administrator was able to effectively close the casualty by threatening nurses that if i they didn't leave the occupation they would be held personally liable for the care of any patients brought in.

This intimidation of staff combined with a damaging lack of leadership from the health service unions has produced a gulf between the hospital workers and supporters from outside.

If this is to be overcome there must be a fight to turn the campaign firmly into the trade union and labour movement and away from reliance on protest and publicity seeking.

The health service trade unions must be forced to lead the boldest possible campaign to strengthen resistance to the

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SOCIALIST SOCIALIST eject new Zimbabwe's internal settlement is dying and about to be buried.

Smith's support among the whites is crumbling since the settlement with the three stooge black leaders has failed to stop the war of liberation.

At the same time, Smith's white opponents seem now too demoralised and disorganised to launch an effective coup against him though a direct military takeover cannot be ruled out.

Since they entered the coalition with the racists the limited popular support of the three stooge leaders (Muzorewa, Sithole and Chirau) seems to have vanished.

Last week, though, Muzorewa staged a rally of his party at which he unconvincingly trooped out what he said were guerrillas who had joined voluntarily the racist regime's security forces.

But other black leaders of the interim government faced great apathy and hostility in public meetings designed to sell the internal settlement.

It is the growing success of the guerrilla struggle led by ZANU and ZAPU (the 'Patriotic Front') which has destroyed the internal settlement.

It has become clear to Smith and his collaborators that they cannot save anything unless Continued from Page 1 beyond to individuals on the General Executive Council, such as dockers' leader Brian Nicholson, the leadership of the Mugabe they can coopt the leadership of the guerrilla struggle and be physically defended from the masses by imperialism.

So the growing collapse of the internal settlement once again raises an enormous danger to the Zimbabwe masses: the neo-colonial settlement which the US and British governments have for months (with the South African racists' tacit backing), been trying to impose.

Dictator

This plan involves the installation of a British "temporary" military dictator (Lord Carver) who with the help of Nigerian, Indian and other Commonwealth troops would supervise the disarmament of the guerrilla armies and then, once everyner, despite there being delegations from the WSL, SWP, IMG and WRP, and though you yourself, along with other leading CP members, marched at the head of the July demonstration thing was safe for imperialism, allow "democratic" elections to bring Nkomo and perhaps Mugabe to power either in coalition with Muzorewa and some whites or at least in such a way that they have no political independence.

Conference

Through a complex web of secret and not-so-secret meetings over the last two weeks, a conference to reach some variation on this deal appears to have been set up.

The interests of the Zimbabwe masses can only be advanced by a boycott of this conference by their organisations and the uncompromising continuation of the liberation war which is undermining the present regime.

Secret meetings

But the Patriotic Front leaders have not adopted an uncompromising opposition to a deal with imperialist.

Both Nkomo and. Mugabe have made statements which leave the door open to a compromise.

Nkomo is even reported to have had a secret meeting with Smith's puppet Chief Chirau.

The Patriotic Front leaders may be themselves looking towards a settlement because they fear the consequences of an outright military victory on PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report Owen the most radicalised of their own supporters.

And also, perhaps, because in the last ten days they have seen a new highly significant mobilisation of the Zimbabwe masses which is outside their control.

This is a strike for a pay increase by 3,000 workers at the Mangula Copper Mine who failed to be intimidated even by the murder of four of their comrades by Smith's murderers.

The forces of the Eritrean revolution have struck a major blow against the invading armies of the Derg.

The Ethiopian military dictatorship is seeking to wrest control of the three major routes which run from Asmara across wostern Eritrea. It aims to seize these vital communication routes before moving against the central bases of the Eritrean | Popular Liberation Front in the rural areas.

But last week the EPLF struck back in a major attack, reporting that 750 Ethiopian soldiers had been killed in a battle south of Asmara, between Dehamhare and Digsa.

IRRATION CONTROLS The EPLF is now moving in to retake positions abandoned by the Eritrean Liberation Front, but the main focus of the war has now shifted to Keren.

Repulsed

The Ethiopians have launched three attacks in the last five days in their attempt to take Keren, but the EPLF have successfully repulsed each of these.

To the north-west of the capital Asmara, Keren was liberated by the EPLF last year and their ability to defend this strategic strongpoint will be a crucial test of the balance of forces at the present stage of the war.

106 TIFERI ANTI-RACIALIST COMMITTEE Several thousand antifascist demonstrators assembled at Brick Lane last Sunday to make the point that fascists should be prevented by mass action from selling their publications, and attacking and intimidating black workers.

The demonstration marched through Hoxton, supposedly an NF stronghold, but the fascists cowered out of sight.

Rings of police surrounded and protected the few that dared to come out at various points on the route.

The demonstration, though containing many Asian groups such as the Indian Workers Association and Bengali Workers Association, was lacking in trade union support.

The Anti | Nazi League is incapable of fighting in the working class because its politics are those of the 'liberal' bourgeoisie which make up a tiny minority of its membership almost its m entire The role of the police in protecting the fascists was taken up by the WSL delegation with the slogan "The police protect, the fascists: Workers self defence!

The politics of this demand

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