Press Gang

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David Ennals, Labour's Minister in charge of destroying the health service, reached deep into his arsenal of poisoned weapons last week and accused hospital maintenance supervisors of killing patients.

His statement had been coaxed out of him by a series of witch-hunting articles in the national press, which like Ennals claimed a sudden conversion to the care of patients.

Ennals and his fellow Labour Ministers can take personal responsibility for the deaths and suffering of those admitted to hospital too late, discharged too early or screened not at all.

In the name of "realism" they have axed millions of pounds from health service budgets.

By comparison any suffering from the current grading dispute is tiny, and even this action-a work to rule and overtime bancomes after four years of empty promises from Ennals.

Likewise the press. A fortnight ago the Daily Mail headed its front page "Your Life in Union Hands» , a story complaining that the supervisors had set up a monitoring system precisely to ensure that emergency patients did get treated.

The Mail referred to this The Committee of Twelve who have to approve hospital operations' Since then a united front from Fleet Street has been prodding the most reactionary consultants to more and more dramatic warnings about danger to patients.

Most of these consultants come to life only to witchhunt hospital workers or to demand more money for themselves under threat of turning their highly paid time over entirely to private practice.

A week later the Mailwith an assumed air • of impartiality-attacked Ennals and the hospital workers under the banner heading 'Don't They Care About People'.

The murder charge was made complete on Saturday with a headline 'Don't Let Any More Die' The Sun has not been far behind with a plan-from one of these consultants (Save My Patients!) as early as October 6.

Last Saturday the headline read simply 'For God's Sake, Get Back' quoting Ennal's death claim with whole hearted approval.

Of course if these papers knew of a single case where the hospital action had led to a patient's death they would not be hiding behind generalities.

And of the hundreds who have died and thousands who suffer because of health service cuts-not one word.

The 'Boat People'-reactionary fugitives from Vietnam-have arrived in Britain to a fanfare of nauseating trumpets.

Picked up in the South China Sea these supporters of imperialism's corrupt old puppet regime have converted all the most vociferous Tory advocates of harsh immigration controls into welcoming hosts.

Tie contrast between the dew! eyed sentimentality of the ress on this issue and the • cious treatment that was handed out to the Malawi Asians on their arrival in Britain shows the true basis of racist immigration controls-the class interests of the bosses.

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Police attack NUJ picket at Darlington during the long struggle to achieve a closed shop PETER MCINTYRE looks at the role of the capitalist press, and the necessity for the labour movement to have the means to put forth its own propaganda in the struggle for socialism, drawing the conclusion that the working class must expropriate this key weapon of bourgeois rule.

again in pursuit of a closed shop agreement ige PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report One points La de of the first key to be seized by any army or occupauvn of anminatinn is the radio station.

Unlike the water supply, the power supply and the food stores control of the media does not immediately provide material necessities.

But control of the radio station, the TV and the press is at once the most powerful weapon for strengthening political control and the highest symbol of being in command.

Just as this is true for the sudden seizures of war, so it is true for the struggle for ascendency between the classes of society.

Throughout the world the struggle for supremacy between feudalism and capitalism or between capitalism and the working class is reflected in control of the press.

Censorship

In Pakistan the military government throws journalists into jail and imposes strict censorship; in India the ruling Janata coalition came to power on the wave of opposition to Indira Gandhi's emergency controls high an the list of mented with a relaxation of controls on the press, to the tiniest degree, in' an effort to woo the support of US imperialism.

At the next sign that the opposition to his regime had increased rather than diminished the Shah reimposed censorship in its full authority.

In Northern Ireland the offices of the republican newspapers are raided by the army and the state Hypocrisy Files of subscribers are removed, both to harrass the paper and disrupt its distribution and to provide the authorities with lists of those sympathetic to republicanism.

Since the state power in Northern Ireland is the same state power that declares ritual adherence to a "free press" in Britain the raids on republican newspapers are of themselves eloquent testimony to the hypocrisy of liberalism in Britain.

On the other hand, reactionaries entirely defend the gathering of the reins of the press in the hands of a tiny group of supercapitalists.

On the other hand they are mute when the small Revolutionaries have always seen the vital importance of making their voice heard in print-even under conditions where newspapers have to be produced illegally.

Lenin and Trotsky both placed enormous emphasis on presenting the authentic voice of the revolution in print, and of combating the lies and distortions, both of the capitalists and of the fake lefts who sought to obscure the real and sharp questions which the working class must face.

But the capitalists and social democrats also see that importance.

Their attempts to control and limit the political views of the working class are two-fold. On the one hand the mass press keeps up a constant hymn in defence of capitalist property relations. On the other hand it concurs in an economic stranglehold which make labour movement papers difficult to produce.

Long established

In Britain and other advanced industrial states the unionisation of the printing industry is long established and complete. capitalist owners a record number of papers is testimony to the ability of print union members to defend wages and conditions under attack from both the employers and their own union officials.

Their defences are put up around traditional rights and payments and in dispute after dispute management _ has been unable to impose defeats on the workers.

But with few isolated exceptions-a NAF ad in the Sunday Telegraph being one-print workers and journalists have not challenged the capitalists' right to print whatsoever they wished.

The campaign against the NUJ's attempts to win a closed shop in provincial journalism brought to a height a campaign by the employers and their editors to identify strong unionisation with an attack or = free si IN statement published by cannot exist in a void an former Labour Minister and must represent the orgar now Newspaper Publishers ised defence of one class c Association chairman, Sir the othel, free' but mus so the pres Richard Marsh, the theme cannot be reflect the superiority of th is the same.

The 'free' press is central ruling class. to maintaining 'democracy' In times of * socia and a 'free' press is inconsis- upheaval, where a • socia tent with strong trade transformation takes plac unions. the tors carpa out control of Not abstract the hands of the ruling clas But this is a situatio 'Freedom of the press' is which is not stable. Like a an admirable slogan. In manifestations of dui 1905 it was on the lips of power it must resolve itself Russian workers who over- It is no accident in threw the censorship laws. some of the bitterest ideo In every country where ogical battles around tl newspapers are harrassed Portuguese revolution. : and journalists thrown into 1975 arose precisely OV jail one of the focal points the question of control of opposition to the govern- the content of Republica. ment is around the slogan of the freedom of the press. Ordered to print But it is not and can never be an abstract. A free The most dramatic an press, uncontrolled by any gripping account of du social class. can by power and its effect on th delinition, only exist in a press is provided by Trotsk classless society. in his account of the 190 Just as the state itsel:

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Fleet Street workers-traditionally organised in powerful union Threatening to assert control over the bosses' support for fascism-media workers' meeting last month ESS, Wel 25 In Petersburg, political control passed for a short period into the hands of the Soviet. That power reflected itself on the press.

The typesetters, newly organised in the Union of Print Workers ordered their employers to print the newspapers in complete disregard of the censorship Reactionary newspapers, still fearful of the real intentions of the Csar and his new liberal front were reluctant to do so.

Blue pencil

The Petersburg Soviet issued a famous proclamation the «The Csar's manifesto proclaims 'freedom' of speech in Russia, yet the Central Directorate of Affairs of the Press still exists, the censor's blue pencil is still in force Freedom of the press still has to be won by the workers.

"The Soviet of Deputies resolves that only those newspapers may be published whose editors ignore the censorship committee, retuse to submit their issue for censorship, and generally act in the same way as the soviet in publishing its own newspaperor this reason typesetters and other workers of the press will work only after editors have declared their readiness to put the freedom of the press into practice.

"Until that time, newspaper workers will remain on strike, and the Soviet of Deputies will take all necessary measures to pay the comrades on strike all wages due to them.

"Newspapers which fail to accept the present resolution will be confiscated from their sellers, and any workers who do not accept the decision of the Soviet of Deputies will be boycotted."

Most of the press owners at this point found their courage and began to ignore the censors. Not all were happy to do so.

The editor of the People's Voice (a right wing paper masquerading under a populist title) published a statement in the first issue of his paper published unvetted by the censor, which strikes an echo in almost every 'freedom' loving editor in Britain today.

'Committing an infringement of the law under duress, despite my firm conviction that a law, even if it is a bad law, must be observed until the legal authorities have repealed it, I am publishing this issue against my will without consulting the censorship although I have no right to do șo." (Original emphasis).

The editors in Britain of the national and regional press are fond of declaring their wholehearted attachment. to 'indivisible' freedom of the press-yet like the Petersburg editor, they are only too happy to sink this freedom under a higher one-respect for the ruling class.

In 'democratic' Britain this takes the form of obedience to the Official Secrets Act, D Notices, kowtowing to the laws of contempt and to gagging writs, used almost exclusively by capitalists and politicians whose activities have come under public scrutiny.

It is often wrongly stated, for example, that D Notices are instructions from the state to editors not to publish.

In fact the D Notice 1978 Committee is actually made up of representatives of the state together with national newspaper editors.

In the past year a similar arrangement has been introduced with minimal publicity for self-denying censorship in co-operation with the police.

Police chiefs have admitted that such a system could not be imposed on the press without the full co-operation of editors.

In the BBC all news on Ireland has to be submitted to a committee of top management before being published. A similar instruction was issued during the World Cup in Argentina on political news.

Trotsky In London, the Metropolitan Police refuse to accept the NUJ card and have issued cards of their UWIL to journalists they consider fit to be trusted.

An instruction by the NUJ that these cards be refused from the end of this year is meeting with strong opposition from the most reactionary of the Fleet Street journalists who thrive on a cosy relationship with the forces of the state.

The pattern of ownership of Fleet Street papers is changing. The old guard of press barons is giving way to the new.

The long established families who ruled through personal intervention are giving way to the brash new owners who exactly mirror their personal commitment to making the newspapers mouthpieces for the owners.

The Observer is now in the hands of a multi-national oil giant; the Express is owned by Victor Matthews -a capitalist with massive property and shipping interests; the Sun and the News of the World are controlled by multi-national union-hater Rupert Murdoch.

Only the Guardian and the Telegraph of • the nationals are not owned by massive companies which have major interests outside newspapers.

The ownership of the press has responded to the tendency for capitalism to dispense with national borders.

The tone of every single one of these papers is nationalist to the point of jingoism. Yet the ownership international-the offensives against the unions in one country carried over into another.

Despite the massively increased size of these companies, the personal voice of the owners are still carried loud and clear.

Victor Matthews, noted more for his business ruthlessness than for his literary skills, took the entire front page of the Daily Express after the machine minders' strike to protest personally against 'anarchy'.

The sombre Daily Telegraph, back on the streets last week after the longest closure of a national newspaper since 1955, was more circumspect. Lord Hartwell, chairman and editor in chief (of course! the two positions go hand in hand!) was only given the second lead position on the front page for his message.

"Vulture"

More than 13 million copies of the newspaper were lost, and despite a normal dose of cringing from the Printing Industries Committee of the TUC, the Telegraph was forced to • pay printers the two days' pay they had withheld before the strike.

Lord Hartwell appealed to the Telegraph readership to remain loyal and thanked them for 95% of the letters he had received, although there had of course been "the odd vulture darkening an already dark sky"

He promised that there would not be the same mixture as before. Like his colleagues at Times Newspapers, resistance from the working class within his own building had awakened in him a determination to go on the offensive.

The economic crisis has not brought any shortage of newspaper owners. For every one threatening to shut down there are two waiting to take their place.

The Express group is launching a new tabloid on reduced manning levels which will undoubtedly make money. The provincial press remains highly profitable.

But attacks on print workers and journalists will be stepped up, predominantly in Fleet Street.

The economic struggles over manning and pay will bring more strikes like that at the Telegraph and more determined attempts by Fleet Street managements to break the power of union chapels.

The print union leadership are already 100% behind management in wishing to impose i discipline and authority'.

The return to work at the Telegraph has been engineered under conditions where stronger action will be taken against 'unofficial' action.

As in other industries the policies for which print workers must fight are for an end to the business secrets, and, where papers such as the Telegraph threaten bankruptcy, the throwing open oi all accounts and plans and secret deals.

Journalists and print workers must fight to expose the secret funds and tie-ups between the nationals to bolster each other up in times of strikes or lockouts; and the links between newspaper owners and organisations such as NAFF which seek to set up strike-breaking, non-union Nazi print shops.

But the fight for workers control over the means of production. of the press cannot. and must not be looked at in isolation from political control of the content.

The attempts by the 'lefts' in the NUJ to separate the drive towards closed shop from any challenge on the owners' right to control the content is despicable and cowardlý.

When in 1905 the Soviet seized control of capitalist papers for a night at a time and forced them to print copies of Izvestia, the Soviet's own paper, the outrage of the owners and the police (who consistently raided the presses just too late to stop the paper being distributed) went far beyond appropriation of the paper and ink.

Howls of rage

It was the use of the means of production financed by capital to serve the interests of the working class which brought their most anguished howls of rage. chapels Until such time as there is a classless society there will be no complete press freedom.

The historic task of the working class is to bring about the dictatorship of the proletariat as a means of moving towards that classless society.

Progressive class

There can be no ducking of the stage of controlling the means of production including the press and media to serve the interests of the only progressive class in society-the working class.

In fighting therefore for nationalisation of the press, the workers must also be fighting for direct control over the content; for an end to the continuous attacks on workers and defence of property relations and for the press to become the powerhouse of the working class drive to emancipation.

Those who tell the workers to start their own papers if they don't like those of the capitalists are nothing but hypocrites.

More than 50% of revenue for all capitalist papers comes from the advertising of the very capitalists they exist to serve.

.Only a press brought within reach of the working class through state subsidy for printing presses and newsprint could put a workers' press on equal terms with those of the capitalists.

Even then, through their stranglehold on outlets, which refuse to stock anticapitalist papers, the big business owners of newspapers guarantee that the only path to a press free' in the interests of the working class is the path towards seizi: control over the mean of production which alreac / exist.

The capitalist owners must be expropriated.

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say that white kick are hold back by black kids. But ell WOMEN AGAINST THE hite kids. If there are kids who do not speak good learning difficulties. same as giving special classes to kids with speech or

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LIBE trod PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Repor

ENECTRICHL TRADES UNAL

STOP THE AZINT NDON PRESS BRANCH