Socialist Press no. 165

In any war, people get killed. And behind the lies, bluff ano duster or british oress ano media propaganda, behind the contemptible "bi-partisan" Tory politicians on the need to maintain the military occupa tion of the six counties Ire- land, a real, tull scale WAR is in on. The war is between the might of the British through unstinting use the bullet and the trun- cheon to preserve the centuries- people the British class: and those Irish men and cou coeous enouon take action and take up arms in the struggle for libera- national foreign oppression. Defeat we are not neutral in this As as resolute war. opponents of British capitalism ' at nome ano aoroco. we stand ! unashamedly for the defeat of army mimicoldle troops, right TOr the people to self determina- and tor the buriding ot a i revolutionary leadership that establish united Irish can workers republic While capitalist press sheds cynical tears over the assassination of tormel In berrats! chiet Lord batten and the successful IRA ambush British army patrol at Warrenpoint, the mas media stand adamant in Thell defence of the policy of mili- imperialist tary occupation Tue lal fellars une foul caust of the war. While condemning what they "crimes" of the IRA tney remain derberately bling full negat san con my the crimes committed with the real terrorists in irelano-ine armec forces, the RUC and the other appendages of the British state machinery. Occupation 15,000 strets od soldiers stalk the counties-the occupying army of 500,000 in Britain. nev arecked up by a huge network of spies and infor-

SAS

numbers assassination squads They have almos: unlimited rights interro- to stop, sears. gate, torture, jait, maim and kill

SOCIALIST

PRESS

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 165 * 5 September 1979 * 15p

BRITISH

ARMY OF

OPPRESSION

OUT OF

IRELAND!

anyone they suspect of oppos- the ouroose and etect or assacc Loyalist paramilitary groups inating prominent individuals, Their ioyal assistants are the function freely with the conniv- particularly when such thugs the

RUC,

sectarian ance of ine nuu, murdering and strateov is so cleariv a sunstitute terrorising the Catholic popula- for any serious attempts by • the whose vicious torture on susoed ted republican sympathisers has tion in the six counties IRA to mobilise the mass of the been condemned by a series of irish working cass on Doin sidec Crimes of the border in the struggle miterialiolidi ficiuoine Amnesty International and scan- against imperialism and dalised even the Carter regime in crimes go thect the USA. unremarked in the media, under defend out as solidlists ve the RUC heading "keeping Behind "stanand" • right of the IRA stanes absolutely the prolonged anti- syctem nt Peace t soon an end rce republicans which amounts imperialist forces take action to conduct all forms of struggle to strike back at the occupying to internment without trial. the including rigged no-jury Torces Inel agents Thel against the British oppressors anti imperialist jails which convicted figureheads such Mount- fighters the full wrath of the batten, Force withdrawal al t orandea not as prisoners ot war mass easont to bear but as common criminals. against them. The task the British The Workers Terror gangs Socialist movement this workers Leaque does not advocate the suede sto take do me at m if this not kind of strategy adopted by the every way possible to force the AnG as were enough, the Loyalist UDR and a

IRA.

withdrawal of the British army In particular we question TUC Background p.5 Mountbatten from ireland This means a political fight for the removal of - the present leaders of the trade UnIon Labour movement, who slavish- ly support the bloody actions of class in the six counties, as avidly as they support wage cutting and spend- Union branches Every every union oranch. Labour Party must called upon to declare itself and fight or a volicy oi withdrawal of " mechate British troops from Ireland.

*Self determination for the irisn people Prisoner of War republican status the ane prisoners the socialist Blocks Long Kesh and Armagh jail. *Black supplies to the army in Ireland! *Kick out the Callaghan- Mason clique! The thousands of workers and youth whọ marched London banner Ene Now shared that there a in awareness need Dirtisi workers to suboot unel Irish brothers and sisters It is important that the fight for Ireland is taken forward in the movement as part ot a tiohary leadership in the work- ing class.

SO YOU'RE THE WISE GUY WHO WANTS

US TO STOP TALKING TO THE TORIES!

O'Fishall p.11 Lynch used as Tory scape - goat Within the howls of rage and anguish from the British ruling class, which has itself never shrunk trom berpetra.

ting the most horrific blood- baths in the name of preser- ving domination oppressed peoples, IS recognition of the political weakness of imperialism. ne rich war ot inerarior has gathered strength alongside national struggle. on a world scale-from the Basques in Spain the Sahrawi in the people allard.

ITOU

NUrE Turkey and Iran, to the black massos of Zimbabwe •It nas aiso grown up along within the into mine ng lies in side developing militancy the 26 counties. economic crisis for the sectarian six county statelet international there is little additional scope to crack down further population in the nationals occupied North, that has forced Thatcher's government to tur towards Lynch's servile now capitalist in the South. regime Lynch ha wu now ooed iently jumped to every crack 01 the Whitehall whip Repressive laws against anti-imperiatisi movements are as comprehensive as those in the North. One third of both the police the army the "Free are concentrated in the State" border area. And in the wake of last weak's

IRA

RUC

actions TOrenSH •ane interro gators have been the 26 working hand in glove counties,

WITT

unem concate gardai. But the Torie: must know that for Lynch to extend thi colaboratior south by British troops or thi Wholesale extradition supposed republican would create a major political

CHISE

in wnici Lynch would finger • himself as the imperialist puppet that he is.

For Thatcher to bring Lynch kind Corcessiol • than an attempt more foist the blame onto him for the continuing

CHID DIDOO

the Shed the Norin that s inevitable result of British imperialist oppression. Fol worKers however. . The is clear: the task is not simply to replace British rule ir

IOLI

• Luesyle bourgeois nationalist regime: it to overthrow the capitalist state North machinery South, nationalise the capitalist holdings and the banks, and establish trish WOrKerS republic which the demo- cratic rights of minorities could

Workers confront Carter in Page 2

— INTERNATIONAL-

Videla admits 25,000 murders The dictatorship of collect social relations General Videla will cecurity davments. densions and administer wills without produc- shortly pass legislation that tion of a death certificate effectively the confirms an to antonio death of the 25,000 'dis- open ao mission The oicta torship at are it ale appeared' (desaparecidos) of Argentina: General taken since the 1976 overthrow Albano Marould- minister of the interior the of Isabel deguy, government coup of March 1976 the Since reron. and chief of police before that Pinochet introduced the bill in the face of of Even Chilean butcher Ine te nationd campalit felt able Videla Pinochet has never calumny" against The the regime make such an camission. ludiciat or otherwise, of the crimes of closed down VOrCeS i the Chilean regime and, indeed, human rignts organisations Buenos Aires in terms of sheer numbers these This remarkable measure wil have been surpasser ov vigera "to and his repugnant cronies.

enable 'honourable', the the It was considerer cero t ne or she na.

disappeared and allows mocerate anal mcalatine Videla St. Louis pointed out that "Miss President Carter's trip They Lillian" Carter had said in 1976 down the Mississippi on a that would the aldy luxury cruise steamboat was open if "Jimmy" was elected.

dearly an attempt to avoid Now Conway nasust used the angry US working class 300 riot police to remove the Homer remaining patients from by hobnobbing with the ane arrest zu atmonstralors boat's wealthy passengers blocking the gates! "traditional" and visiting Americans in the small rural Trade unionists towns along the way. protesting Carter's Also ristian religion kid his But policies a group of about the Christian religion 200 trade unionists. oraise tor The brotestant work …nis arouo was resoonero ethic the virtues to a news praid and uncall America" "free enterprise" etc Machinist Carter cant turn ine cock Dack Wistricts y and os! on dayt ory ahea return to the They protested against cheap energy and heyday policy because Carter's energy low prices. ne neolects to say lne wildlau Anger he wants to tax was created by him when he began phasing out Carter arrived in when COniTOIS. that Louis at 9 am. on Friday demanded August he was forced to face Congress reinstate price controls for but neglected • to some working class. nationalisation of oil companie: his workday arrival, -a policy which was recentit hundreds of trade unionists and advocated by even the conserva- tive AFL-CIO Executive Board.

unemo oved protest shout anti-Carter slogans right under his nose.

machinists and United Auto Louis felt com- 50 supporters of the Workers in st.

ADOUT

Homer Phillips Hospital pelled to call a protest the visit of a Democratic Party signs protesting carried the clearly reflects President recent closine or ene nosoilal ov Democrat Mayor Conway. rank and the oressure laev art While Conway welcomed experiencing from members his under 13% inflation carte they canee

TOT

sutterine removal. while Jorge himself who remarked to a spanish cenera during visit of King Juan Carlos Argentina that the best *Subversive i wrato way was toss them from aeroplanes into the sea. gruesome wish; Is was no of the most it nas become one methods the prisoners military of 'executing waters River The Ene Plate bear sad testimony to this Jack announcement of the new law coincides with an all- between time low relations •tenos over the issue of numan rignts The US embassy has been instructed investigate concentlation camps and there remains at the moment that military aid will be restored.

the Argentine No color Airforce recently pronounced; this squatte too re squal!" for operates in contradiction to the fundamental requirements of imperialist power produced It has, however. development an the increasing links between the Videla regime and the Soviet Union. Apologies a' film When plight of political showing the metatnees rentina wa. screened recently in Moscow the official delegation Aircutic walked Tate receive profuse apologies for the unfor.

the incident Trom Lulla le tannest bureaucrats More important the signing of a military agreement between

TNI

TWO

countrie which will probably include sales and tite Argentine people. The counter-revolutionary character of Stalinism has never theoretical been SIm Die proposition; its credentials nave the blood workers and now the workers of A roentine o in this black history. A special report from 'Labor News', paper of the Socialist League (DC) in the USA.

lines remain in force. they kept the vain hope ot retorming lne capitalist Democratic Party by President "come back to the Democratic and the who Party

VOLCI S

elected you." labour Meanwhile otner Carter's leaders were shaking reception hand at leamstel vice-oresicent Harold Gibbons was quoted as "don't sell this telling a reporter The Ayatollah Khomeini has fixed on the region of Kurdistan the battle- ground for the struggles to determine the immediate course of the revolutionary process still unfolding Iran. True to his history of adopt- ing

DOSITIONS

Khomeini overruled the provis.

reached ional agreements leaders- and between representatives of the bourgeois cabinet and Islamic Revolution ary council His demands for a campaign crush utterly rebellion do not spring from the perverted principles of religious bigotry. This line has been dictated

TURKEY

IRAQ

BAGHDAD

Miles 0 Kms 200 auv short" and AFT Presiden Evelyn Balle called him "a good Christian man" these

OUCT

• traitors with the leaders of the Machinists who 1980 elections) henneov tor une and with the who stalinists dominate the "Ad Hoc Commit- G. Phillips tee to save: Homer unshakesole talth capitalist Democratic party and fight for refusal to an indepen party cent political working class. Protestors block entrance to HomerG. Phillips Hospital SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 September 1979 Desperate Khomeini steps up war on for refusing to obey the orders of their new Supreme Com- Kurds mander in Com. methods do not

ITSUCH

achieve discipline in a victoriou army, Khomeini ha LuBl declared his readiness tc by orcanes Wal mobilising all the most back elements ward and reactionary in the recions of Iran under hi by the supreme principle of self- control, and despatching them preservation for Khomeini and to Kurdistan the "people's answer to the Kurds demands with thear necotiations the Karaoh Deathan ad Violent Taleghani Ayatollah this and most bazaroan.s emissaries wort In latest dominated by the fear that the the violent phase reaction, Iranian regime would be unable relicious leaders have been abli to crush the rising of the Kurds to count on the solid backing of US imperialism by force. The

KDP

claims Comforted by the deals with armed and committed militants imperialism which continue to who have already shown ther feed the profits of the inter.

national bourgeoisie 2 armed ov revolutionary proletarian aTel native to Khomeini's barbarism carter as onese arms ment and moral support to the Revolutionary Council Kurdistan

CHISE

"Tabriz intensified appointed 'minister prime once again offered his Dacar di Reza' iyeh resignation.

KURDISH

Impotence

FAREAS

Increasingly marginalised Bazargan and his bagger and irrelevant 'aovernment' had been reduced SHamadan to figures of farcical impotence.

prime acknowledged the realit natior of a situation where power did not tie with the cabinet and its kermanshah aucrats, but had its

ICKS OF DUTE

centre with Khomeinis Revolu tionary Council in Qom and

IRAN

Iran through extended across and the parallel apparatus Islamic militias and tribunals.

OUR DEMANDS:-

200 *No surrender of arms to Chomamis guaras: Khomeini's army-Build workers' militias against Islamic ist restoration ability to inflict serious damage * Lift ban on demon the strations! on khomer s army. At the same time, there are organisation of Kurds - End state demonstration. reports of thousands moving from anto urdu to take up the struggle for their *For the rights of self-deter.

and separation of the national rights. mination Taleghani negotiated a cease- all other fire on the basis of proposals to national minortties. halt t the army's advance towards free elections with Islamic universal suffrage to a genuine Mahabad, The rasceran constituent assemory Kurdistan, and end the execu *Defend the workers' com.

tions of militants with the recall mittees! For the building of Ayatollah thi elected soviets. Khalhali, Khomeini's hangman.

*For the right to strike and form free trade unions. Discussions no secret No secret trials police! Release ThOS Such deal could have provided the political prisoners linked basis for future dictatorship!

WITN

. The discussions between the Tehran *Against sexual oppression!

Qom government and the full legal rights and social For Kurds bourgeois nationalist ecualty bedders homosexual men. Khomeini's rejection of this *For the building of a revol- compromise based Iranian ment than section more gloomy "liberal" Taleghani. or a reconstine rolen le ot the that national! Knomein, recoonises me ord carious balance of his authority and the immense potential ••oosition bent in une workin class, which could be roused to for its class struggle in unity interests The structic

SOLIDARITY WITH

self-determination the oppressed national minorities in

ZIMBABWE

iran.

LIBERATION

Undermine

STRUGGLE

Picket London Conference Any concessions the Torce at Lancaster House. Mon- have the effect of further under- mining the stability day September 10, 9am Khomeini's power Only an all 10 am, and 5pm - 6.30pm. Out orivE Cal succeed in shoring up the basis

MARCH

of his government. from Lancaster House to knowledge has Central Halls for rally at forced Khomeini to step up the offensive Kurds, against .7.30pm. when the danger of mutiny even is rising the army Within inherited from the Shah. file soldiers and Rank officers have already been killed

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 September 1979

INTERNATIONAL

Berlinguer conjures up ghost of traitors past effect Stalin's cutter revol- role in putting into utionary to da cellell divide the world into "peaceful existing" spheres Enrico Berlinguer, of influence with the imper- losing ialists. demonstratively This policy involved the the support of the living sabotage of the revolution- has invoked the dead in possibilities ary which support of his rotten existed in France, Greece policy of "historic com- and Italy. promise" with the capit- Togliatti himself super- vised the literal and politica.

alist class. disarmament of the Italian Berlinguer. general secre- workle class ana tien lOOK lars or ne lanan commun- ist Party. was writing in the party's weekly joumal Rinascita (Rebirth') on the fifteenth anniversary of the death of previous CP general secretary Palmiro Togliatti.

Agent Togliatti. the name of Ercoli) was one i f principal agents in Spain in the 1930s, charged with persecuting Trotskyists and preserving the spanish CP's popular front alliance with the bourgeoisie. After World War II Tog- latti returned to Italy from his Moscow exile to play Radical Party leader Pannella (like France) a horez in Respite for Burnham The "socialist" govern- ment of Guyana has gained breathing-space in mounting conflict with the militant struggles of the working class. Deals with imperialism's IMF forced Prime Minister had Forbes Burnham impose wage freeze in the public sector neavily dominates the economy. provoked the recent major wave or strikes wnich nas now fallen back. Workers in the bauxite industry returned work weeks atter a montn on strike. They were later followed by other 1100 Icker finally soldarity action and the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union called 20.000 members strike

ITS

last Wednesday. Threats from the ment the dualis! striKers reached a pitch when Burnham addressed the convention of the ruling Peopie's Ivaliond congress to attack reactionary and political zealots (the left opposition and Hass supporters). and to declare that political strikes would be with legitimate portical sanctions istate repres sion). its largest party, the CP. It is also entirely appro- into a class collaborationist priate that Berlinguer today government with the Chris- should harp back to Togliatti's tian Democrats. role and positions. This lasted from 1946 to Berlinguer quotes in his 1948 the Stalinists Rinascita article from were summarily thrown out article written in 1946 in the the OI government which Togliatti justifies his imperialist Cold War offen- policy compromise sive gathered momentum. between "great the two wings" of the anti-fascist "Opposition" resistance in Italy-"progres- sive" and "conservative". By Togliatti then had Togliatti's book Lectures played his part in the reim- on Fascism is one of the position of capitalist author- classic statements of ity on the Italian working Stalinism's Teacond class. policy of popular frontist He could from then workers' allance in play a new role as a focus of parties are subordinated to *opposition "progressive" supposedly Christian Democrats during capitalist parties. Italy's much-vaunted capitalist economic Authority "miracle" of the 1950s and early 1960s It is entirely appropriate Berlinguer is now trying that Togliatti has left his to use the ghost of Togliatti name to the most important • for two purposes. symbol to date of the Soviet : First invoke Union's economic collabor- authority of the dead leader ation with capitalism-the to uphold his policy of class Fiat ownelaby she Agnbil car plant set up compromise in the face of growing opposition from and Colonel family communist workers in Italy.

Gadaffi's Libya) Second, to remind the Togliattigrad. Christian Democrats that

SAHARA

VICTORY

THE Polisario Front is con- tinuing to press ahead with its military Mislae • IVIOrOCCO In the third of their recent the southern garrison attacks on guerrillas claim to have captured substantial quantities of vehicles and and to have ecuoment. killed 800 Moroccan troops before being driven back one day of occupation.

CHAD

TRUCE

A temporary halt to the civil war in Chad has been achieved by the tireless diplomatic efforts of the Nigerian military regime. At a recent meeting in Lagos if easeries was reseed between parties, representing ent fractions of the FROLINAT liberation front of the state armed forces and other groups. The conterenci also succeeded in piecing together a fragile unanimously demanded an end continued presence of French imperialist troops Chad of oppor- put ine rivalries tunist ambition are only thinly veiled by this facade ot unity will undoubtedly inter- act with the forces of economic crisis clas struggle in the whole region to bring about the collapse of this highly unstable coalition.

what whath nkable"-the they describe Communist presence of in Christian musicis Democratic-led government -once did take place and, (by implication), the Com- munists were then loyal to the capitalist class. Desperate This delve into the past represents a desperate effort on the part of Berlinguer to escape from the irreconcil- able contradictions of the latest turn of policy he has now been torced into-tha of "opposition" to the new government of Cossiga (his cousin), Cossiga's government- which nobody • LO. < last long-comprises the Christian Democrats with the small Liberal and Social Democratic parties . This ragbag government won a parliamentary vote of confidence August against the votes of the CP -but only thanks abstentions of the Socialist Party (with about 10% of MPs) and the Republican Party. Undermine The Socialist leaders rightly see Berlinguer's new offensive in favour of the historic compromise as an attempt to undermine the growing influence which the small Socialist Party of gaining at the expense the CP. The main contentious issue at the forthcoming Christian Democratic congress will be which offer of collaboration from the main workers' two should be as acceoled priority. So while opportunism cause fissures the may 1n Christian Democratic party, it leaves the Italian working class with no independent lead. Yet workers now face a new offensive of the capital- Ist ciass wnich 1s so desper.

ate to resolve its economic crisis. Sliding scale One of Cossiga's first aims parallels a policy of the Thatcher government and highlights the importance of the struggle sliding scale of wages under WOlKCIS CORITO! Most Italian - wage contracts contain a limited but significant sliding scale (escalation) which the capitalists have for years been trying destroy. Cossiga is now proposing that the index on which the Page 3 Young Italian workers-not convinced by Berlinguer's line present sliding scale is based should in future exclude the price of energy (which is, of course, faster than rising prices, and forcing other prices up). This is the latest proposal in the overall programme of "austerity" to which the Democrats Christian are committed. Although the trade unions are at present oppos- ing any monkeying with the sliding the Stalinist •scale. leaders have for the last two made the policy • cals "austerity" their own. Austerity his latest articles Berlinguer reaffirms to the bourgeoisie his devotion to austeritv but aware of the workers' hostility, the time attempts the sane impossible-to give working class content! In the Rinascita articles he writes: "An advance to socialism in freedom and democracy needs not only a political and social alliance of the motive forces of the revol- process but demands a clear definition mise wen te renewing so cial other components of so ciety win their approval or at least their neutrality. So this nuance on the historic compromise means that: "Our discourse on auster- ity was not limited to posing the need for better distributive justice but and proposed new economic policy which previsages an intervention of the working class in the accumulation

SUCCO

itself." Gymnastics Despite Berlinguer's gym- nastics, the circle will not be squared Neither his position of the that

CHO]

Cossiga government can be maintained for long, Attention now focussed on the congress of Christian Democrats. If the they fail to agree some new formula for coalition then The next government crisis can be expected to precip- Hale new clections Meanwhile the force which is the real pressure on Christian Stalinists and reformists alike-the working Ilallan class-is showing new signs (a wave of strikes in trans port and elsewhere that i is not prepared much longer back its pressuring demands in the interests of capitalist stability.

Page 4 Forecasts agree: a slump is coming th ba doi Cese di thon" spotening- For who still davene ly bad" predictions spoken doubts it, the Tory slump is chancellot Geottrey nowe officially on. and the warnings of the OECD Three They that British major forecasting agree bodies-the capitalism faces static economic London • o usines: growth, ochool, ThE Debartment mountino unenooy- Allied Economics and and a prolonged deficit National Institute of Economic the balance payments. and Social Research have added ne atest ovesne•nues

PRESS

GANG

When the ruling class is ated to give that effect.

The editorial executives take hurt-really hurt-it has an the role of to ugly peculiar anger to portraying a national cross class wounded bullies and out- resconse to events. in doine they cannot but make their raged tyrants. posturing ridiculous. The blowing and the of Lord Even the wording too Mountbatten destruc simular ro nave deen arrivee a TIon warren- separately. 'Bastards' appeared point has stung the British rulers on the front of the Daily the Star, the Scottish into a frenzy. they

CAUCS.

ГОГ

IWO

veers nave valy exoress ‹suo bosediv been assuring the British public separațely edited) and on the that the

IRA

in retreat. was page ot the sun wow trev inemse ves nave been All the gutter press gave over thrown on their heels. of the entire news- a quarter that light that the day tollowing Dabel workers Snoue regara Ine Mountbatten's death to denun tirades that havé screamed ciations of the IRA and hymns pages of the capitalist across the of praise for this 'patriot'.

oress tor the dast weekl Newspaper headlines are carved out at editorial meetings The Daily Telegraph had the от •onlicay conscious reuten• •est part of seven oroadsneet ants whose horizons are defined pages covered with reports and rich pay eighty tributes. pound (The obituaries are of course chousand houses, expen se ready written-sitting filing couctae cars ane account living. complete super- If the headlines seem to be oniv tor the time lativeo waitine and place of death to be filled soontaneous ouroursis or ander.

then they are carefully calcul- in).

STAR

] 6 soldiers killed Stin Mountbatten murdered

MURDERING

WE DIDIT, SAY

BASTARDS

aK PROVOS Lord Louis Blast rips carlis boa dies. killed by IRA bomb to pieces

FIFTEEN SOLDIERS BLOW

Daily e Mail Mirřor

MURDER OF

LORD LOUIS

LORD LOUIS

AUNTBATTEN

Castrat od Mountbatten and 17 soldiers : Fleet, killed by IRA Vicerey viurdered by the IRA PROYAS MASSACRE SOLDERS - Beck Pose from the NIESR forecast infla- tion at 17% by the end of the vear ane worsenine Li dat situation manufac- KrItISN turers are hit by the still rising the world. voune ana wide Unemployment is predicted 1.6 1980 million by 'to rise to •nis wilt de given an daded Turning the pages of these papers, workers can only nave become less and less convinced the page after page of myth outeine. sensing that the press was protesting too much. Mountbatten was a sworn enertiy Ine WOr KInC clas. thro ormer head of the defence Former head staff, imperialism heac ¡nold. anO i accoramg

LITE

diaries, one-time Grossman flirter with a military takeovel in Britain. But "One of the greatest English- men of our time , he repres ente• ano insolrec the best in al Englishmen of the one of the greatest 20th century • a peacetul old man dE tnt close of an honourable lifé one of the country's most dis tinguished Service-statesmen' were just a sample of the front page epithets. Yet behind this brave postur Ine. enne tme Danner nedone.

and the daring language what policy did the voice of the rulina class have to put forward?

The richness of the language was perhaps designed to obscure the strategy •overty Even in the terms of Britist imperialism the press was to out forware a sinale conerent policy which looked likely to advance their cause. Symbolic Not yet ready to call for a pogrom ine oress is reducea in the end to pictures of Thatcher the uniform of the Paras the scene of

SOAT

seerno successful IRA operation against the occupying army. dressing should tell workers all they need to know about whose army they are subooseo to be mouraine.

*EXPRESS *

THESE:

EVIL SEE

BASTARDS

SERE

boost by the cash crisis that is looming for many British manu- Tacturine Tas rising value of sterling „" na is reducing the prices of com- overstas conneettor

DOTA

nte nome market and abroad. But the high British interest Tats wiel sustain Lie tise nl sterling are to remain in force indefinitely according to Prime Minister Thatcher raises the

COST

borrowing finance from the banks, and puts a real squeeze ine N DrOTTS OT productve industry. Overcapacity While interest rates remair high, available markets are static under-utilisation plant arlu couronent-makine fT CITTICUI] to repay existing loans, let alone expand production. Journalists from provin- meeting in cial newspapers, Birmingham on Saturday 8 September to draw up this year's wage claim will do so under the shadow of their sacked colleagues Nottingham. More than months SOVCIl after the end of the provincial journalists' strike the leaderships of the NUJ and the NGA have introduct yet ablon likely to win back tne jobs the sacked members or to gain the NGA for and recoonition This has prepared the ground for a maior diversion the Digbeth pay ed by the NEC- Witr motion-backed by that the declara News dre Society lem olovers tereration; is not a fit body with which to negotiale! carries nis wone mean that the NUJ would put in no claim-in 'protest national wage ar arnst ure vorland wandde ment. Tras would abes don to the charitable wishes emplovers the maioritv of small provincial weekly chapels around the country. motion is supported by fake lefts who want to make a Nottingham and gesture over

WITO

avoiding any decision over fight.

ing on wages this year reinstatement and recognition ar Nottinonam can only be won through , strike

NGA

and

NUJ

action by members throughout the provin.

cial press-as the bou or so trade unionists who supported the picket at Nottingham last mass saturaay are well aware As a WSL leaflet put into the march said: ""How the unions respond to the Nottingham Evening Post attack acid mana, bluet TeST OT nOw mnev wil rescono to the legal attacks the Tories are now drafting and attacks SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 September 1979 This overcapacity is undoub- in effect to accept the inevit- tedly behind the ability of unemployment mas reported Michael ano Taling #ving Standares the' back cowaroes ciasn British Leyland workforce in a Alternative round But there is an alternative: redunoancies the crisis stems not from a lack Productivity oi raw materas. or orocuctive forces or from any lack And it also stands behind thè demand for finished commod- Tory campaign new ities of all kinds designed to persuade stems from the WorKErS t ne CrisIs inability That increases pay should be conceded without develop the productive forces or cr easts Utilist avaladit • materia productivity. resources for the satisfaction of the current situation of human need The answer is to mobilise the COnOFE slautlallon ever y in crease must potentially invincible strength productivit) result redundancies and the working class the further rationalisation of indus ane overlasow ane try To accept in any way at all expropriation of capitalism and the establishment of a planned socialist that workers should trim thei WAlCH the acunanus lo accomodate • to Ine need. no protit aictates faced the shape and pace of development.

economic Crisis by employers means in this period Only strikes can reinstate 28 which have already been made stock anti-union speech on Lord and Saturday's Denning olne mana, curets judges. demonstration walle onC The

NUJ

has mentioning any possibility of Executive NGA strike action. called out the handful of mem.

bers working at the Long Eaton delegates to the n wages Advertiser-a small weekly NUJ's Digbeth conference would be well advised to study the • Pos1 .JeCCLy BOUNt O management. tor rises to une uxiore mouon match the rise in the cost living, £10 across the board Lead action rise and for increases regular next year protect wages against inflation. This is a correct step but can only be justified if the executive is areoarer tolere acron to win recognition and reinstatemen Such policy-linked Committees Only now, four months afte

NUJ

the to assess the conference, nave TeTTeRTS TaLIe! chapels been circulated asking members-could unite the mem- them they bership a clear claim whether want around Sobor tne conterence poncy •aser neea to protec for a one-day strike living standards. NGA leaders Les Dixon and Tony Dubbins trotted out their Once more a massive police presence thwarted the efforts of the 600 pickets at Nottingham on September 1

TUC heavy squad prepares to SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 September 1979 Last year's TUC Congress chiefly memorable as wds the orchestrated send for the General Election bandwagon-which the end Callaghan refused to set rolling. But its paeans ot praise Tor right wing the ment and dark warnings ot the dangers ot a l ory return were only the thin public facade that efforts covered frantic leaders 0cal pach unofficial strike action by Leyland toolroom workers.

Prelude Terry ignominious Duffy's browbeat failure in his bid to the toolmakers bach to work proved to be what every TUC prelude bureaucrat feared: the to a rushing onward nde or pay Fight the cuts- with Labour Weekly? While fat cat Callaghan has been awav on holiday, the Transport House mice have begun timidly to play with policies that he has explicitly denonced. Callaghan record advance any denuncing ale ol • DV ne unionis industrial action the halt imptementation of Tory govern.

ment concies But unusuaiv carina editorial Labour Weekly. the Party's house-journal, comes bertousiy close ko cannele precisely such action. Pull no punches Pointing savage the impact of the Tory cuts and resolutely record of craven support for the government's cuts, the article stresses that: "ne onv wav co tiont dack is to organise a campaign against the cuts that brings the trade UnIOnS attaled ane l which will puli no punches.[!] political campaign alone will not be enouah. Bv the time the next Labour government is elected, and the thrown out of office, most of the camae will nave been one "The trade union movement has act now protect the ouDliC services Ano nevian that must mean the threat o industrial action.' "Threats" Yet whie even Laboui Weekly is talking of "threats" of industrial action against cuts Inere is no nint wnatever that Labour union *latts have any intention of leaders campaign tor the launchine any removal right wing the leaders who oppose any form of action aalst tne tories. In this way, in the style per- stable- fected by its mates Lett and Militant. Laboui of left Week/y uses a blather talk to mask its acceptance of Ene continuee dominance oi Luc right wing. stifle debate The strongarm work behind battles, beginning witA roros but quickly spreading to other The scones this vear nas Inere sections of private industry and fore been directed towards sup.

that into the public sector ally A similar kind of tear now otter a nint or oostve atrectrol plainly haunts the TUC leaders in the struggle against the Tories or the Labour traitors. this year's Inle Tun U •Socialist Worker has revealed Congress, now atoo lever canc or lue Wave of anger bureaucrats- Len Murray, ACTT

TGWU

and Sappe leaoer They sense that their hold deputy leader Harry Urwin-last week got together to ensure that over membership is threat amend- anpe •v ine ve or ane o

TVVO

TesOluLOT alu al Tory inflation, Tory ment calling as The break off talks with the Tories spending Tory sackings Cus, from anti-union laws tuel removed wett working class militancy. Conaress adeno a. Though a deft combination They had problem per- UCATT General Seper- of spluttering left wing speeches suading

CPSA

Woods ano comolete dosence Lary Le. tangible policies fight the Deputy Genera Secretar far prevented the Alastair Graham to drop cuts has amendment put resolution and of major struggles in outered the public sector, union bureau- forward bv their unions more of a crats recognise how fragile But they had problem with the motion from iner control. How Labour s Manifesto was born Labour Party ,Labour in did the Labour HoW Bish government, draws Party wind up saddled with nota ponticai oul atteriv Dank' its extreme right wing elec- rupt organisational conclusion. tion manifesto? "The real lesson that the

NEC

and the the party's head gallaticilal research Geoff Bish, to be sedaersnio must learl wort together-to jointly •determine believed it was the outcome not policy and strategy, whether in En8 comorelt dosenct or out of office." socialist leadership but of a poor organisa donat set the draft of manifesto was oroducec Callaonan s On the contrary, real clique Downing Street, the at 10 and revealed Labour that not lesson wildle ver LIik organisational machinery, uness untii two rariv oTTiciais adys leadership shows after the fell Parliament last March. lEseml ready ana aot le sland and fight for the removal of the admits Bish, was orar Callaghan-Healey wing "appalling" : then "Not Callaghan's only ignore CHoue anili- did working class politics will inevit- enue chaoters ably the the roost it vee aged and is orec aad which Labour Partv agreements this year's A resolution to teen rabowous nammerea oul Party conference from Thanet within the NEC-Cabinet work- East

CLP

offers ing groups."

HITSU

(Labour Weekly, 31 August) Towaros such a mant. ceciarino no confidence in Callaghan and his resignation Buckled down leader their attitude this But within a short space of resolution Labour Party mem- time "left" ever subDosed mers can daude ine redl osten opponent Callaghan had of 'left' talking MPs and confer- buckled down this ulti- delegates-who under ence matum and etrectivecceoted wherever his wholesale abandonment of to vote in favour of it. *Bish's party policy: article and other 10 draft became, "The No. material on Labour's 1979 elec in effect, the basis for discus- tion fiasco are containeo u sion". book What Went Wrong? new While conceding that there caller ov ner codes. ouolisner has been a long standing "diver- Spokesman Books, paper- gence views' the back £2.95. Callaghan the Bakers Union. not with the ww netne tacit consent thi • OT Uniol leadership, they singled out a branch secretary wanenester Paul Kennedy, TRell degree despite fact that he has no author.

the ity 'over union resolutions to the

TUC,

finally bludgeoned agrêeing to the withdrawal 817 60 ot the motion The that-uniess

KOCHTS

is unexpected opposition there from the floor-there will be no an end motion even •roDosi to talks with the Tories.

"Vigorous" The

TUC

talk vague "'vigorous" in this campaigns context means precisely nothing at all. But the TUC heavy gang has aso peen USInO muscit against ASLEF in a bid to get CLP moves against Corrie Bill Oxford City Labour Party has taken an im- portant initiative in the fight against James Corrie's reactionary anti-abortion bill. An emergency resolution from the CLP to the Labou rally wolicicuct 'Conspiracy to corrupt public morals' is the charge to be brought against four men at Bow Street Magis- trates Court this week. The prosecution is based or an article in the journal 'Under- standing Paedophilia, contact ads in the newsletter of une raecoonile intormation Exchange (PIE). Like other conspiracy laws, this piece of legislation i: masterpiece broad vengeance Public morals are not of course detined anv wav while there is no need for the prosecution to prove any inten- Tion Corrupt. nor to orovt the existence of any organised 'conspiracy" subversive plan of As in the similar trial of ll ('International Times') some Page 5 they not want trouble, al t Tha union to oroo ts moron rank calling on the next Labour nard and file from being inflamed too government to carry out Labour Tavolees-eclano "Everything has therefore wrong "interfere politics." been done advance produce critical but not Empty moves excitable Congress. There CoulO searcey. bigger contrast between the bureau- The last thing privileged reactionary conser- cracy wants is to open up any discussion on the role of the last VAlSm OT EnE UnOn leadersn! or-neaver LabouT Covelie! the working class facing torb!o - o1 TasKs Labour government returned full brunt o1

TION.

uFFeNy after the defeat .of the Tories plummeting ment davina stan dards and speed up on the shop Murray also will anic jump with botn teet

VIOOL

motion the Furniture the real struggles from It is trom

(FTATU)

calling on the shop floor that a new for workers leadership developed "masamonstraons acals.

ITIUS

Tories, and empty moves trained and challend and by. health workers to call for an the union bureaucrats remove intention f80 minimum wage

WV IH

hlavt As Guardian reporter Keith mounting any Tont Harper shrewdly pointed out: of the govern- Decause tnev ine v ac

WICHE

TO A I

Murray-lashing out at 'Trotskyist boot-boy's' in 1976

C NO

RETURN

TO THE BACKSTREETS

ABORTION ON _DEMAND

FIGHT

THE

CORRIE

BILL

"demands the fight that tor the remova Labour Party MPs act upon of those MPs and delegates the 1977 conference policy that tacitly or openly assist supporting free abortion on Corrie's passage mediaeval request and the 1979 attack on Labour Women's Confer- women's rights ence calling on the labour At the same time union branches and Labour Parties oppose any no venenl the 1967 mobilise restriction on must maximum Abortion Act, and mandates delegations on the TUC's national demonstration them against vole Corrie Bill its Third the Corrie Bill on on against Reading." Sunday October 28 Other CLPs should man- date delegates to the confer- Assemble Speakers Corner 11.30 a.m. March at 12.30 ence to support this impor- tant resolution, and take up to Trafalgar Square for rally -'Conspiracy' frame-up So years ago for its homosexual long coercion Contacl dos. such naree. •art volenct dl e not . . basically used as an elaborate must reject absolutely the right of the state to restrict the free means to impose censorship.

This • expression of humar cast

TIOWS

Trom Int sexudllty vicious and widespread witch- Just as we demand an end to all state legislation and discrim hunt launched last year through nation Ine meela acainst baecoonie. dualist nomose xuanly who advocate greater freedom we denv the cams ot ene sexual relations bourgeoisie that youth and between incapable and children and adults prosecution k ke ThA debarrea trom voluntarv sexua Gay News last year for criminal expression. Action Defence blasphemy, this case and teleoets Committee has been set up te a cear _attack on oasic cemo cratic rights. Socialists must avance The case ot the tou defend the right of paedophiles PIE members, and this commit organise openly and publish • Is already oraanısina pickets of the courts which should be literature. supported by all those deter But more is involved here than smal democratic. richts mineo lo eno bourdeois obores The PIE trials reveal once again sion of sexuality and to defend the bourgeoisie's twin fears democratic rights ayalst and forces nomosexualt stale oune sexuality. f ca Llun

USFI perplexed by wars between workers' state Page 6 This is the fifth of a series of articles about the major political and theoretical crisis in the 'United' Secretariat of the Fourth International exposed by the recent wars ir South East Asia. The main sources which have been ref- erred to in the articles are the following: Fred Feldman. "Behind Fall of Pol Pot Regime", , Mili- tant -Jan. reprinted in Intercontinental Press/ Inprecor, Jan. 22 1979. Fred Feldman. "Socialist Revolution in Vietnam", Inter- , reprinted in Inter- continental Press/Inprecor, April 9, 1979: The American collectively SWP's CFHW) - (Intercontinental view of the Press/Inprecor July 16, '79) world, to emerge in the

CFHW,

A are six facts of the to recent articles on there are six Indochina, is roughly as world situation which their follows: the world is a approach alone is able to between struggle We will comment explain. briefly in imperialism on the one on each turn July 16, 1979 p.710). hand and the oppressed

(ICP,

First "the imperialists and exploited masses on were hostile to the 1975-78 the other. developments in Vietnam" There are the only two But they not mention the fact that the imperialists malerial interests Involved So in this two-sided war all were also hostile to events participants-whatever their in Kampuchea. sublective position or inten- Omission tions-must be on one side or the other. This omission links to This oversim -

ZOSS

the second point that "the plification emerges

HOSL

imperlalists were asie clearly Woen comes rapprochement carry out a Stalinist the deanng. with with Pol The

POT

bureaucracy. impression is falsely created admits only two

CFHW

by that such possible positions the rapprochement (which was Stalinist bureaucracv: extremely limited in its ultra-leftist (the one extent) was a feature oi the bureaucracy is simply part whole of the Pol Pot regime of imperialism), whereas in fact it was partly adaptationist one (the result of the sudden despite desperate switch of line by itself, the side of the on Pol Pot in 1978. masses). In any case, if CFHW Dissolved hope suggest (as appears they do) that any SWP's Within the of rapprochement world the scheme of the bureaucracy with Stalinist imperialism that

DIOVES

counter-revolutionary their state is capitalist then material force ot immense they will have to explain the strength, of, independent of the meaning though collaboration rapprochements which imperialism with, simply every Stalinist bureaucracy dissolves. has made time and time This schema is developed again with imperialism. more concrete v in the Art- four leading

SWP

Third, CFHW say "the by Clark, members imperialists backed Peking's Feldman invasion of Vietnam" Horowitz and That Waters (henceforward is, to say the least, a sleight "Imperialism vs, Workers Steve Clark, Stiltant March 23 19i29, also reprinted in Onterce Winental Press/ Inprecor, April 9, 1979: Southeast Asia Intercontinenal Press ImpreC, April 9 Ernest Mandel, Clark, Fred Feldman, Gus Horowitz and Mary- Steve Alice Waters, "War and Revolution in Indochina- What Policy for Revolutionists?" Intercontinental Press/Inprecor July 16 1979. Chinese soldiers waiting to be sent to fight in Vietnam of hand. The imperialists in the Heng Samrin regime in fact opposed Kampuchea. publicly Peking's invasion. So we see that of the six 'facts' about the world Of course, it is right to that they did which only

CFHW

say not are supposedly able to explain.

oppose it very vehemently, less than they opposed the five are either wishful Vietnamese of thinking without evidence, Kampuchea with very Seiccuvt It is plausible that in his evidence visit So it is fraudulent to Washington just before the invasion Deng Tact that there are six Xiaoping himself explained. there the "facts" that would Because al o serious US objection to his carefully doctored proposed invasion. only that the And it is true that in the advocated by theory the middle of the invasion the SWP's leaders can seem the US imperialists signed to provide an explanation.

new, far reaching, Dishonest with the Beijing (Peking) Beneath such dishonest bureaucracy. and methods the specific of this falls far But all failures of the SWP's argu- short of CFHW's bald asser- ment runs current tion that imperialists thought which much supported Peking. serious and amounts more at best to a severe under- Welcomed The last three points made by CFHW are related. They say that "the workers and peasants of Kampuchea welcomed the Vietnamese action in toppling Pol Pot" the and workers peasants of Vietnam" rallied to the defence of their state in the above conflicts" and that *there was disenchantment and signs of opposition In China tc the invasion of Vietnam". (Ibid p. 710). Only on the third of these points there any evidence back CFHW's. contention The other two conform to their wishes-and the propaganda by theManoi Heng Samrin bureaucracy and its puppet estimation and at worst to a complete denial the objective counter- revolutionary nature of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The programme of the Fourth International, which programme tor Trotskyists continue against • WC world forces of counter- revolution- imperialism and Stalinism-is based on the 'idea that the humanity expresses itself in ot working leadership on a world scale.

This is another way of saying that there formidable force material which stands as an obstacle to the revolutionary over- throwing of the rotten ripe capitalist working class. That obstacle is the Stalinist bureaucracy.

Parasitic The bureaucracy derives its material strength from living parasitically on • blood ot working une class and its organisations. The centre of that parasitic power is in the states where capitalism has been and which a bosner ruled the Stalinist by which bureaucracy cente all the workers political independence The bureaucracy holds back the struggle against imperialism by • a whole with making compromises This collaboration with the class enemy is necessary for the Stalinist bureaucracy because political and material privileges are inimical to workers democracy just they depend Darasilicall workers organisations the bureaucracy as a privileged caste, therefore, depends on successfully its ability to balance between imperialism and the working class. That means that when the bureaucracy has initiated progressive such the incasults. expropriation capitalist in the deformed property workers states, it has done the Context overall policy which profoundly counter- revolutionary. So for instance social overturns were carried out by Stalin in Eastern Europe War tne ena or world Two. But they were part of the same settlement with imperialism which included the betrayal by Stalin of the revolutionary possibilities in France, Greece, the restoration imperialist rule in Algeria and Vietnam Gains reversed The role of the Stalinist bureaucracy has been to historical reverse which have been made by the working class, and so to prolong the rule of ploitative in its death agony. It is only by under- standing the nature of the SOCIALIST PRESS, Wed force revolutionary represented by the Stalinist bureaucracy that it will be possible to defeat it. of tradition Trotskyism has insisted that the bureaucracy cannot be defeated understood either by regarding it which will always a lorce revolutionary move under pressure from the masses, or by regarding it as simply a part of imperialism with no relation working the to class. Its balancing role exons weaknesses ana the reason why it cannot be But considered permanent. its balancing role between the workers movement and

MOCHOESN

counter- strength revolutionary force, which has been capable of existing and growing in power for a of half period over century. actions The of the bureaucracy and the between contradictions different sections of it must be understood by revolutionaries as one of the major forces influencing the struggle the oppressing and oppressed classes world scale Khmer Rouge soldiers captured It is quite correct to say that the current weakness of imperialism • makes physical interventions around the world more difficult to undertake and means SO that it attempts more and by Matever exploiting inter-bureaucratic conflicts. But that in no way equivalent to saying that the bureaucracies alliance with imperialism cease to be Stalinist bureaucracle become in effect part of what imperialism which

CFHW

and the SWP in its resolution effect say happened to the Chinese and Kampuchean bureau- relation to the Indochinese wars. Nor does it mean that a bureaucracy which is forced

esday 5 September 1979 SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 September 1979 By Henry Phillips S to resist the of thereby Classes. wars, Trotsky's the bureaucracy political 'The not So represented Caste welc stannism his- of the the class then the one were how do leaders agellis. state viavy. from the two class gang, in their and class 1ng the class."

CFHW

that the

(ICP,

words win, with no Pham conditions. the out. ical power they imply bureaucracy hand that the working hand with sli deformed on certainty no important Siutes

SIDON U

that than working class. wishes and class" always exactly correspond. "Certainly, "it They the are nave this major for the ruling Pol place-the victory: to Pot inside construction revolu- Ka tionary leadership. It organised. also fragile. 1s a castes which of Walk would have between the states up their history. hac ruling from their working This ship class" has capable of doing the class if they fewer job themselves. interna- "And certainly it would the world The stage. have been better if Hanoi many countries ing class ... had been guided by a revol.

the humanity's class. working class. not explain "The and this they scarcely mentioning. making would war tney tually the face the earth. "Yes, of world Press, 29 1979)- revolution cause the that the of between deformed likely Less class struggle That VIctory its inten- world because on a bureau- the working which the ruling in the stronger." the full road socialist revolution.

CFHW

saying here , Once 1952 anteed by kind of historical opment "centuries of OI no on For the

SWP

leaders conscious of that possible and by Vietnamese forces inexorable ary would be utionary Marxist rather than workers of revolution' but represents, getter a Stalinist leadership." formidable the check on nonetheless, unam big- đl. (ICP, July 16, 1979, p.710 ability of castes une LO which will bur emphasis). as they like in simply act The implication of this the world arena leaders' therefore, (ICP, July 16 1979, p.714).

astounding is that Vassard difference We do not wish to say between L11C the programme Stalinist the rule of the bureaucracy and revolutionary for Marxist leadership is merely the Stalinist SLates of the Stalinist of invincible. working

VIIC

yuanlaly. against the be Nor to deny the leadership good; ever- as Hialicul "unfolds" Marxist present and growing danger We revoluonary process

111 US L

NO W

leadership would be better.

to bureaucratic rule of the But the

SWP

leaders of the working nostillty both sides in presented abandon the Trotskyist class. scious the

USFI

revolutionary the lesson of the massive But we consider that the are the cuestions emphasis on the relationsnip newest ways cle created by the Stalinist between the working class series (See bureaucracy by denying to and Stalinist bureau- raised bv the it any independent role, by cracy placed by the

SWP

making it into an insubstan- leaders this passage of Marx's Why wars taken tial feather which simply amounts abandon- position "Men To make place noves according to the play ment of the Trotskyist their history"; of owi of the wind of class struggle.

position on the nature and In discussing the origins counter revoluuonary une countries and bers assert, have Kampuchea not workers' between tion was workers' Vietnamese against This the SWP, that it can the what they orthodox workers are not will go to defend only rivalries scores. have already ialist camp. Second, Cambodian refugees flee from Vietnamese invaders into neighbouring Thailand know as Vietnam the

SWP

and Ine that was not between but war used as a revolution attack. added virtue presented of the 1S analysis and only property imperial- argument place, the Kampuchea which it we have Page 7 explained something which the SWP chooses to ignore way compicely - ine which hostility between the Cambodian and Vietnamese bureaucracy had developed for many years prior to the defeat of US imperialism in 1975. This for was a rivalry the Vietnamese which bureaucracy must bear considerable amount of res- ponsibility ana wnich un doubtedly helped to contri- bute to the permanent state and hostility ot Lens. between the two countries after 1975. Denial of this element in the prelude the to wal between Vietnam Kampuchea of course. SWP's white. of the part washing of the Vietnamese leadership. To back up its argument that the Vietnamest defence invasion was against imperialism it is also for the SWP necessary to deny another theoretically possible the Icason invasion-a threat of political revolution in Kam- which might also pucnea pose a political threat to the Hanoi bureaucracy. CFHW assure us that this had nothing to do with the invasion But they choose to keep of ignorance the reports from Kampuchea before the invasion of uprisings against the Pol Pot regime not from the right and of the purges which took place at the top of the KCP might waca indicated pressure nave against the Pol Pot leader- ship from sections _ot the rank and file and the lulasse It impossible to say with any certainty that this was of the which affected the Hanoi bureaucracy But it is necessary to face the question honestly instead oi covering ll up a the SWP leaders do. Continued next week Sihanouk in I. ing

Workers Party: yet Page 8 July 15 saw the founding conference of the Workers Party, organisation formed by forces recently expelled from Gerry Healy's Workers Revolutionary Party.

The founders of the Workers Party had raised differences with Healy's opportunist and degenerate alliance with the.

Middle Eastern despotisms of Libya and Iraq, as well as the WRP's assessment of last winter's strike wave in Britain. As usual in the WRP such differences were met with bureau- cratic repression. Along with two political documents, the Workers Party has now published five issues of its Bulletin.

Number 5 was produced to coincide with the WSL's articles school and contains attacking our positions. This article is the first part of a reply to the points raised in that Bulletin and focusses on programme and practice; the second part will take up the Workers Party's views on organisational questions and on the Fourth International.

Although Workers the Party Group like the WSL has come out of the WRP, and echoes some of our criticisms of its leaders, it has not been formed in the same way; nor has it broken from the basic political of the Healy conceptions movement on questions of programme and practice. serious discussion with These comrades however. This is because they however represent, thev themselves deny, some ot the strengths as well as many of weaknesses of the Healyite noveliCal the issues thev raise Aiso, involve a discussion which was Healyism never possible before within the Unlike the. Workers Party the forces that formed founders, initially Ine structed within the

WHP

. TO raise out differences and fight for the internal possible Махипи olscussion to correct ine wrong positions of the Party. Understanding

OUR HISTORY

Indeed although the Workers We produced two major Party leaders were prominent in discussion documents-only one the WRP during our expulsions eventually from the December

WRP

selectively circulated by Healy.

1974, they show little grasp of We argued for our rights as tne events tal minority unoer lne unien expulsions the real issues

WRP:

constitution and in line involved. of the with traditions the with this Common Trotskvist and Bolshevik move attitude mos historica ment. questions, the Workers Party the Healy leadership take little interest in examining cracked down and expelled us, oetans-wiich acaredate be of considerable importance.

and the

WRP

Con- meetings The first criticisms we raised which were ference from

WRP

audinst ne ne exciucca. focussed on Healy's notion even ront 1974 that the collapse of the rigged

WRP

through in Britain capitalism and on a 'appeals' machinery against our world scale, was imminent, and expulsions. that it was this process struggle we were able to further dictatorsnio. •epoen understanoinu how profound was our split Abandonment with the Healy movement and of the •everod alarmist and totally false the WRP'g method one-sided analysis of practice of party-building.

economic crisis The three leading members cabita sm was not even carried of the Workers Party. on the through consistently: there was other hand, carried out no such WRP call, for fight against Healy. the formation of workers They were expelled from the mintias or any orner preparatior When v are unev against the predicted "police/ selves resigned. They had military dictatorship" produced no written critique of Instead it led simply to the The programme anel total abandonment any practice, , and only conducted a to day trade serious day brief fight within its ranks.

conducted bv the WRP- WOrK and of any demands on which Limited basis such work could be based. Atter all, if the whole system As a result their break with stands on the verge ot collapse, taken place only on Healy has then socialist revolution must be the most limited basis, and no Any demand real analysis has been developed short ot The Imme ate exoro Healy's attitude to practice Toret inadequate, lind in e sre.

inadequate, sole and oroaramne unlike the task revo. utionaries founders the build an organisation to carry Workers Party leaders emerged Inis oul. with no roots in the organised working class. Mass recruitment had been precisely the leading necessity fight • a cea this basis in and day out embarked on the most frenzied programme day in the workers movement that and ill-conceived mass recruit- had at first ment campaigns. TOCuSSed clearly, on the false Hundreds of workers, youth attention

WRP

and its signed up and passers-by mernoo or abandonment of the demands of on ine soot. ne streets. the Transitional Programme.

lifts, traffic jams, and enrolled on the most minimal of the "mass "members" Yet the Workers Party, Dasis has subsequently though revolutionary party. reached its peak of absurdity in recrurted election campaigns run two trom simov an costract chlout of Healy's most obvious talse the most general Why positions were we the tirst If with detect what was wrong to urasp the Terms. Vel of the fight for pro- the because unlike gramme in general and the sig Cowley Transitional

WRP

the members nuricance Programme in particular, in the recoon isec That recruitinu construct a revolu- members that are then required struggle carry out a fight for Party lionary party. Carlos Augusto Олона to break from the class struggle, a policy in considerable measure political agreement is essential.

And coming into large contact WIth sections oi the narrow circles of the WRP, the Cowley mem bers were Torced attempt to argue for the WRP's policies-and recognise the distant These were TrOM reality of the class struggle.

Isolated Far from developing workers action against and mobilising the attacks the dingo sie WRP's predictions military

COUDS

ano abstrac calls for the "nationalisation of industries" simply the from Partv Isolated • L/I working class. we turned compare this approach with that Pro- •ransitional found that gramme method indeed I rotsky's was entire citterent. We stressed the necessity for to find "a bridge and present demands the socialist programme of the revolution" We emphasised the need for patient WOrK trace unions trite se stand front trenches" even in ine course or struceles for the 'modest material interests' of the workers.

Trotsky "Only the basis of such on work within the Trade unions is successful possible struggle against the reformists, including those OT tne •tallnisu bureaucracy". {Transitional For Trotsky, then, govern-

NUPE < GEND

PICKET

LONDON DER

DIVISION

1: BRENTWOGS 125/00

Public sector strikers last winter: militancy was not lacking but leadership was By Tony Richardson mental demands were compete v relateo to demanos wages and democratic rights. Each had to be presented Ine torm or a brioce ove which the working class could advance, struggle, Is ddly, udue untor conscious ness, to a grasp of the need for socialist revolution. Healy, however, had tion of struggle for leadership.

Instead the was, reduced by the WRP to costractior aivorced trom Tne day to day class struggle.

highlighted after our Tom White The one remanne unr member in Cowley, was allowed the WRP to enter the class WOrKers participation" committees further He walt vva. the back the struggle by the 'Cowley Defence Campaign Ine TGWU bureaucracy of leading militants in the plant-including himself. Facts wrong Have the Workers Party grasped the way which Healy's method departs from that of Trotsky and the Transi- tional Programme? Apparently not. They attack fo. not or examore cease lessly Healy's Ime Labour Government . wain they uncritically support Even in this they get their TaCt. *When former WRP central committee member Alan Thornett and adopted cleariv wrong positions by arguing against a struggle It Gallaghar the Wilson- administration,

CARATE

WithIr suppressed" . (WP document The Revolutionary Party P5) we cle not arove acainst unt slogan that it hac ot then been reason adopted by the WRP! It adopted as a position until 1975 expulsion the s of many cadre and loss cowiey more WOrker TurIne widened the WRP's isolation the real struggles and TrON oolitica ever or ene workin class. On the other hand. from the Socialist Press has very outset attacker those oureaucrat and labour trade union argued that movement. who workers shone nole back their struggles in order to "save the Labour Government".. SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 September 1979 Newham Health District

ST. ANDREW'S

HOSE

LOW:

PAY

that seeks to moolise the kino of mass action that actually can bring down governments The answer mes now in tne of ritualistic use of form practical words, but the strucore revorutionaries against the bureaucratic leaders of workers movement. Arrogance It is ironic that the Workers Party, who have yet to lead any strucies anywnere in une work- ing class, have the arrogance to

WSL

who through- battles out last winters' • buildina strucored TOr Cane councils of action and the gener- action) alisation strike what Inev cal our "unwillingness to understand and intervene in that movement struggle embryo." Yet in embodied this dostiali conced "struggle for power" is the basis of the Workers Party's effective of the transitional abandonment cemancs and the memo or une Transitional Programme-a facet their politics that so clearly up the struggle to In taking 'left' social democracy ne workers carty actually through claim that today's class struggle the tactic the'lefts' we have different political tasks spelled out the demand alvvdy: trom those contronted _in tne that Transitional Programme, which, should called upon vote ant they say: Wilson- campaign against "was in fact written to meet the or a completely alian. WOre working class-even situation where working ThIS bringing the had suffered defeat after class о етеат. Now they declare, things are rarty ledders however have no real experience all changed because: of the struggle for programme in "The revolutionary tide the working class now flowing strongly They favour of the working clas Tal to drast the fight revolutionaries 1938 was at let Trotsky In inevitably confront not barns to stress une revolutionary movements the working

WU L

treachery of those 'left' bureau class: focus, crats who pose militant contrary to that of the Workers ot the working class Party was crisis but pull back in practice from leadership any struggle against the TUC multi-millioned masses Lower cautiou goals an enter • The rodo of revolution But each time It is crucial to expose these they are blocked by their own forces in action to tnose layers of workers that look to them conservative sureaucratic for leadership The Spanish proletariat has ne workers party accuse u "the economic separating made a series or neroic dulem et.

from the political" since April 1931 to take power its hands and guide the fate Yet they do not see that it is Howeve only in reality through the soctly (Social struggle transitional martie Democrats Stalinists Anarchists

POUM,

demands and SmIS each in its : own way acted etc)- through the shouting of abstract governmental slogans, that orake cano Inus • orepared Franco's triumphs In k betweer •aar "In France the great wave o struggles on jobs and wages and the strategic to over- necessity strikes •articular v during June 1936 , revealed the unrow captaism can de oroveni wholehearted readiness of the home to the working class.

capitali system arthrow _oroletarial Ine Practical struggle Fa from simply revelling in Because a slogan this militancy of the proletariat "bringing down" a government Trotsky stresses dangers does not posed I by its treacherous leader- make more •tica inan a socan ship This question centra remains unchanged today! post-war 1 Trotste int been unable movement has anv countrv to nace itset a of the masses or to the head carry through the revolutionary overthrow ot capitalism Must be broken The workers' movemen therefore politically dominated by counter-revolu- tionary tainism and even petty-bourgeois This hold can and must be broken it is not and has never beer Bull fondly Royston true believes, that "the working class is surging forwards towards an embryonic revolutionary consciousness loadin and brushing for ThirStin revolutionar to old aside contemptuously sectarlan and opportunis Thornett which would see it tied down to

MASS ACTION, NOT

STATE BANS TO FIGHT

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 September 1979 defeat after defeat or unprincip- led sell-out after sell-out.

ouch a messianic notion ot the role of the revolutionary totally divorced from party country have aries in each Marxist parties, conflict with HP i existing Trace spontaneous consciousness of the working class, and tendencies that appear to offer easy shortcuts to revolution.

Untrue quite simply untrue, desoite Ine cocument Issued during the election the that programme becoming Party is close to According to the Surreal- Immedate •demanes working class. ist Andre Breton, co-author Including, presumably such with Trotsky of the 'Mani- obligatory the festo, for an Independent nationalisation WItneUE compensation under workers Revolutionary Art', there is control of all financial, agricul- a great deal to be learned TUral and commercial from what he termed 'objec- from small family-run apart business and farms. tive chance'. ts verv easv to orocialm in Basically, this is a series of ringing tones, we find the coincidences which ' combine to 'If a revol- same document that point in a particular direction.

Reading 'Support the Leices- party cannot orcanist independently and carry. into

VOU

practice programme, agree with him. develop have a stunning Utonary ano tactics coincidence of dates which develop leadership and author- nave tarae. ity: red ANL arrows affixed saying Our polic, out-please "This adjust way Aori nnousanes ok anti-racists mobilised in Leicester attempt oreveni the George's Day march: The

ANL

enjoying the brief luxury PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report oT a erware ren in oree Coter the sir un rate stitch up with at Winchester. •roooed their plans for a timid counter- with stones 1 of any strudcie to actual moomise tne strength of the labour move- ment. 'Victory' The

SWP

immediately Callaghan declared this a victory in the spirit of Lewisham and a return Ihe more serious question is real struggle As we people can now …a tew cozen pointed out at time, how- counterpose themselves the Fascists march under state protection through Leicester rest of the working class, declar- ever. this was mereiv me otre side of their opportunist coin in ing themselves oc une revoid- April 21 and subsequent entering the ANL the tionary party. ane exocino fre were was hardly JuV demonstration masses to follow automatically.

called. tretore. anal anything can be dredged Rejection decided to boycott the demon- called in support of the verbal swamp it cal stration Trom Ins Aedthit oes togt her with only testimony the to •/ anti-racists charged tollowinc total political bankruptcy of the explicit rejection declaring it ine April 41 events, findina a bridae an 'ultra-left' diversion.

conceotion aulnors. between the daily struggle of The next hardly Rubbish the and the objective Agatha Christie to recurer an complete the plot and duly, on necessitv to develoo inese low.

The begins Dam oniet WIt? ards the struggle for power.

August 21, the ANL two quotations.* One is from of few months harsh themselves Tound Leicester's Chief Constable, the lined up behind 'Support oractica experiences in ine class other trom tnat wet known struggle will deflate the Leicester 87 an account of the anti-racist activist Arthur bluff arrogance. Workers Party's Latham MP "Mr Lercester events coltical who states, We compromised and confused that nobe Ine resultino olsitiu- nee ex-ministe sionment Will not lead to leserves sympathetic reviews torture himself) should tell chief in pessimism constables that British soldiers a veworine aro wormne old Clearly, talking of 21sts, the did not fight two world wars so Five 'of SWP have come of • vedis oractical could march struggle on our programme and houseboys liberal Britain." perspective in the working class

DOLESL.

zenophobic rubbish that the only has convinced us Repudiation accumulate serous criticism and sets the tone for Marxist cadre capable of mobil- the whole document. ising workers in struggle is not The oriainal puroose of the Essentially te the authors take pamphlet was, according to the authorities task the revolutionary party but Defence Committee, to take the empowered to ban the Nazi through the fight practice, im dortant ressons _reiceste out the widest possible the costs to consideren movement for system of audience the labour public in terms of inconvenience transitional ment ano moduise concrete suD• and damaged lact relations put port for . the Leicester 87. Torwalu before coming to their decision So much for theory. In prac- rotsky tor the smai forces ot to allow the march. the early Fourth International.

tice. widt we nave instcao isa support of this reaction- repudiation every lesson arv aroument stolen trom the Inflict defeats learned by anti-racists and anti- handbook of Stalinist popular fascists the past 50 years frontism they draw over our Our fight in Cowley is living ane a section headed attention work on the politics upon which the oroot the fact that CostS even small number 'No platform' by mobilisation on "city centre traders found that members inflict alludily their trade for the dav reformist deteaTs The and Talen by at least two-thirds o1 Stalinist bureaucracy by its usual figure", "people winning broad and solid support the incon sub eclea within the working class.

of traffic delays"' and ventence Elsewhere in labour that '25 needed movement, too, our method of hospital treatment. The lessor been struggle has shown to Trom all this, no doubt, is that the most serious the authorities should be . less determined class fighters, and to thoughtless in future. оттег Ine oniv consistent political challenge to the Whining apology bureaucracy. We must hobe that the This whining for Workers Party comrades are not politics is comoletelv sostract propagadist method of firmly attached with the principled position put forward by Leicester Anti- Racist Committee in calling for healy That Inev Will remain blind to these strengths and to Ine April zi mobilisation.

the gains that can and must be Having consistently opposed mate unrounsuca work id Trotskyist party is to be built in the uss of state bans thev raised Britain as part of a reconstruc- demand 'No Platform for The Fascists' Trotsky pointed out in As 1938: Rees 'Workers cannot let the

FASCISM

FRO

the bourdeois state suostitute tor tne samonie that they must wage their own organisations."

so is merer to otvt Top state • The means With whicr To at rs the beicesters anti- why Leicester's turned Tine movement April 21 for Ene woolly iberals the ANL, however, petrified by ine return of a right wing racisi there "orv government, nothing wrong in bleating about • state bans them, tne state is noi "the form which the of the ruling class assert their common interests a: Marx claimed, but rather some impartial god-like referee judgements dispensing Solomon on the conduct of the class struggle. Thus the authors claim, with their usua mole. Ike perception, that the actions of the police at both Leicester and Southall could not have been predicted. No confusion This nonsense, written seven yedis arler tle acalir or nevin Gately, a year after the savage attacks by

SPG

Grunwick pickets and in a situa ton oi continuee narassment of black youth under the SUS laws and under Prevention of Terrorism Ac placed collection of modern fairy tales.

the Defence Committee leaflet drawn up largelv bv WSL for supporters demonstration correctly stated: Ine massive police mobilis ation on the 21st was a planned provocation." " nere pointed out, no real confusion about te pole of the tice.

and

SPG

the dre increasingly no more than a paramilitary force used for smashing strikes and breaking movement demon- 16 000 strations. For thousands of black youtn, irish militants, picketing strikers and anti-fascists this is a political fact of life the authors

BUT

TO1 'Support the Leicester 87' this

ABC

remains class struggle might just as well be on another planet! Thus, their objection to the National Front is presented

VU U

clas termus Con Tne grounds prefer that The Na 'violence to democracy By elevating 'democracy' to une STatus ot ine bastion ot al freedoms they inevitably embark on that same slippery Track which took the popula frontists in Spain to their truction at the hands of France ane As James Burnham, in mercan Betrayal', "A for the of one of bourgeois ideology into workina class." anti-Marxist democrati line wEtT tionary qualms demo- "The conflict in and proletariat. 1 here asIl between democracy capitalism. To confuse the nature of the StaTe unoer carita ism Ene authors 87: couistently 'Support the do serves only to disarm the labour movement open and immediate danger at the hands oT une stale It was precisely this under- standing. which Trotsky fought for Stalinist theory auditisi init of the popular front. As he said "Only adventurers no thought the than

ULAC

Page 9 A guest reviewer looks at "Support the 87' Leicester to be published by the Leicester April 21 Defence Committee later this month. moment would nepos „ ot the fail to heed such a danger."

But intatuated are the ANL Drotesters with the surfact illusions of bourgeois society that they totally fail to recog- nise tnis. Instead, everything is sacri- ficed in a desperate pursuit of that myen of the fory medla 'public opinion'. The vital class. questions raised by the crowth of fascist groupings throughout Europe are abandoned in favour of page after page • or moral indignation ror unis reason wille ante gaoled, the authors racists are decline to make any attempt to draw out the class nature of the courts which are imposing such vicious sentences "Unfairness' Despite the lallings of ine Pentonville 5, the Shrewsbur the attacks •anC militants tnrough the flA ine pamphlet is at pains to confine its comments to the 'unfairness' ot ine sentences nancec outi "Our cause here is not to question the operation the authors cheerfully to expose the way which these being

COUI LO

used to make scapegoats of anti- racists" And what is the key to this?

INO

courts are part of the repressive of the state the appatalus Tault fies, tney suggest, with tne 'attitudes magistrates', and prosecution evidence supplied by the police police rresumadiy the evidence was truthful in their and the magistrates judged eyes 'fairly eviaenc these liberal do presented would have no objec tions une mont ask orecisey gov these buffoons would go about defence mounting for those memers or ine rish boeration forces who actually do resort to armed struggle against the British State The final .logic of this spelling position hardly needs

OUT

Having abandoned the class which guided ano the organisers of the July 21 demonstration in their leaflet tr attack naked class justice cerceste En( aUTnors 'Support the Leicester 87' enc "all those who with a plea for anti Tn€ cause Nazism and justice" (sic) join their campaign. No prizes for guessing whose 'justice' they are talking about. Helpless consecuenci crushing inadequacies the pam.

phiet well may become vital reaolo matte all unost seeking revolutionary • per- fight against spective for the nere, politics of the motley assem. bly of organisations which make Une AN Unprincipled uncompre hending and unarmed they Stane nervies. government not imbued with their touching naivety article we wit review a further account of the Leicester produced events LIFt and dis- Jetenct committee cuss the way forward for anti- racists mameolate v nowever. anti-racists and ANL supporters should demand to know: Where do the IMG and . SWP stand ol the question state bans? Where does the ANL •stand on the question of 'No Platform'?

*The authors have belatedly withdrawn this quotation from Latham, perhaps because it was

Page 10

INDUSTRIAL

GEC WORKERS

DIG IN ON PAY

The strike by GEC/ the memn Ders staggering and has revealed English Electric workers steady Une at the Liverpool plant is patience at the decline now reaching a critical wages real strike several stage. The wave of After five weeks, the cies that has hit the plant the members of

TGWU

has been met with no resis-

EETPU

and Sheet Metal tance whatsoever Union are reformist leadership. still solid in their efforts to regain living standards, and been allowed to slip in the are picketing 12 hours a day name on a rota. viability" Indeed the have still not Iccoveeu from the shock they Axed received when the members Indeed overwhelmingly voted for a strike despite the weakness alance "a substan- of the claim for completely tial increase' remaining that the con- fuse-gear It 1s Clear venors have been looking that remains. for an escape right from the Now start of the strike and are claiming that a "loss maker" having to be kicked up the backside by the membership inch the ship way. to question the spirit claims of "loss-making determination exhibited by "non-viability"

JOIN OUR FIGHT

AGAINST TORIES!

Returned to oftice atter tive years of Labour betrayals, the Tory government has immediately begun wielding a sharpened axe on jobs, conditions and social services. Trade Union rights face imminent legal attack.

Prices are already beginning to rocket upwards.

Plum sectors of state industry will be handed to the Tories' proteerine bie business backers, ane ine pay rises to ponce and armed forces mark only the prelude to increased state violence against pickets and anti-fascists, and an intensified army crack- down in the occupied North of Ireland.

ters i as made i clear tool will opppose any perspective other than settling down and meek.

ly accepting five years of Tory devastation.

though thev have once more dusted off their near And. forgotten speeches, Labour's continud teaders, too have set it to estabish la basis out to establish a basis for collaboration with Thatcher and the Tory cabinet, parallelling their anti-working class alliance with Wilson and then Callaghan.

But betrayals betore-to topple Heath's union-dashıng government in 1974 and smash through Callaghan's reactionary Phase wage controls in a series of monumental pay battles last winter.

These experiences are not dead. They point to the way that jobs, social services and hard-won union rights can be defended against renewed Tory attacks.

revolutionary leadership is needed if the Labour traitors the TUC collaborators and their hangers-on ir the Communist Party are to be exposed and pushed aside, and the mass struggles mobilised that can defeat and remove the I ory government such a leadership must tight day in and day out tor a pro gramme of transitional demands which, conditions and today's consciousness within the working class lead workers to grasp the necessity tor socialist revolution And in taking up democratic demands-such as an end to racial and sexual discrimination.

it must show the crucial role that must be played by the working class as the only consistent.

ly revolutionary class capable of leading the struggle for the emancipation of mankind.

MUS

TIOnT international oasis-moosino solidarity for anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist in Ireland, in Southern Africa or elsewhere through- revolutionary upheavals such as that which ousted the hated Shah in Iran This means fighting for the reconstruction of the Trotsky, ist Fourth International This method of approach, rejecting any descent to simple trade union militancy, or concessions to any wing of the labour bureaucracy, is the method fought for by the Workers Socialist Le the next period will see major class struggles in Britain. A principico, Marxist teadership is essential. Our movement tough strong in programme rerains small in numbers.

JOIN US and take forward the struggle for socialism!

NEWS

need for a new leadership.

•quite This should then demand erosion proof such company propaganda by demanding since the last boat the come openine , of books company redundan- including also the books of suppliers and bankers to the of elected trade from the union committees. This would then reveal And wages have likewise the need to nationalise this huge monopoly combine "company along with all the blood- sucking suppliers and bankers, which create the 'non-viability" through their profiteering. Local 'left' MP Eric the domestic Heffer required should be alvision nas been at the wage fight the axed Party coming Labour switchgear and conference to mobilise sup- divisions are all port for the resolution Thanet East CLP tabled by the company are calling for of no one of these is confidence in and the resig- of Callaghan, nation who The failure of the leader- has declared his opposition company to any fight to bring down "and Tory the wage-cutting the government. Council of action To: and strengthen extend struggle the English Electric stewards' committee Cocal delegate meeting of all should call labour movement bodies to up a council of action. Such would body provide the means to and all support struggles against the defence jobs and against the policies of the Tory government and prepare action bring down.

DON'T GO INTO

"left-wing" MPs have 4 of starting from today's

SOCIALIST

struggles-

GET

PRESS

Shipyard jobs sell-out looms The recently announced redundan- cies of a thousand jobs Cammel at Lairds on Merseyside has produced dubious, noises empty of resis- from tance the bank- rupt reformist and Stalinist leadership. The local Boilermakers' official, Barry Williams, guardedly told the press that: "We will fight all the way to ensure that none of the attent sirkennerd lose their jobs through enforced redundancy." The clear . and conscious any kind anywhere. implication is that voluntary British redundancies perfectly di t spokesman alright! ing the embryonic •this defeatist Ill ake Was Williams is not statement, alone. the conference: Echoed ers) had He echoed the words of The Chalmers, Boiler- could still John makers' leader and senior redundancies Confed official. came vul on a volunlary Speaking at the confer- basis." ence in Newcastic calea Dy the Confed on Thursday 23 August, Chalmers declared Lairds on the same day as that: tne

THE FIGHT BLINDFOLD!

CAPTAL

Trial sub (UK): 10 issues, only Six months One year. Europe: Six months. Rest of the World: Six months.: For a * clear Name. lead in the Address struggle against wage control, cuts and redundancies SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday, 5 September 1979 Ship launched at Cammel Laird British Shipbuilders stated "highly unlikely" that the required number of men from the Birkenhead would yard for redundancy This British be caust Shipbuilders stated there are within shipyards oIne travelling distance and the Issue or forcea Icaundancy notices was therefore neces sary. is further The situation complicated at Lairds by of 150 strike current Chalmers fitters dispute in wno are "Not one man leaves the the num ber of men UVei yards... There will be no accompanving ships on ser compulsory redundancies of trials They are preventing ships Shipbuilders being put through these correctly assess and, theretore, sell-out delivered until agreement has been reached cluded from this that, after * Williams took time out ''They (British Shipbuild- from his plans to worm in not changed their voluntary redundancy redundancies Cammell Laird to speak as an go ahead but honoured from the guest could be platform SWP's 'Right to Work' march last Saturday. His speech rec.

However, in a document eived enthusiastic presented to the stewards at

SUDDUTI

from assembled

SWP

mem- bers. Newcastle conference,

SUBSCRIBE

to Socialist Press

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Right wing and press foment = Cowley 'revolt SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 September 1979 The main plants, along few others scabbed engineering national engineering strike called for last Monday and Tuesday by the Confeder- ation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. These decisions have been usen to trv to attack an accon which generally remained solid.

It is therefore worth examining some of the tactors wich cor ributed to this development, particularly in plants such as the Plant which cowiev usually takes a militant stand.

Assembly Plant leader- ship problems

HUHI

TIrS" Monday one-dav STriKE when the right-wing leadership the Body Plant across of the same

COIT

plex and slightly larger thar the Assembly Plant, allowed the to work normaily whilst widill. was the Assembly Supporting management The Body Plant leadership argued that they wanted nothing to do with the Confed executive because Conted The was fully railroading management highly unpopular new a tve-arage wade StruCtUrE which downgraded the produc- tion workers-the vast The Assembly Plant stewards whilst sharing these sentiments on the orading issue, argued tha!

This ecue conc not de alower any way undermine the must support which aiven to a dispute nad nerome with the Tory most reaction the ring and most reactionary employers in Britain. By second Monday During the things had changed. week TRe so easy Lilt Assembly Plant had nad Body Plant and was forced to call a mass meetino an• orobose sulKe action for the following Monday -but specifically not in support ot ine Conted claim. No ban They proposed a one-day strike with no overtime ban in solidarity witn otner bu plants.

They were voted down on this proposal and an alternative motion proposina support for the overtime ban as well as the strike carried over- whelmingly. A tAouen une mass meetne had only taken a decision on the second Monday the solidarity of dav made it ditticult for InCT the Body Plant leadership to third Monday's sabotage the action. The leadership made a call

UNION DUES

for action on the third Monday and boin plants remained surld Last week in the run up to of day the first two the new

ACTIONS

Two events looK vidua on We dhee Assembly Plant the In the Assembly stew- Convenors met shop aros and issuer to inem instruc tions for the two day action and made picketing arrangements to the ensure tite plant. the Body Plant however- sub-committee met the

TGWU

an excioco to issue to hotruc tions for the Monday and Tues- day. but to leave it to the Hiutviuudi This is recoontser as inel way of saying that they opposed the strike. Right wing plan In the Assembly Plant the right wing then set in motion a well organised plan directed against the convenor Bob Fryer.

ine press were On the galts at 12.45, 30 minutes Detore in the North stoppages began ing and a vote on the strike.

North Works production workers marched into the South Works tracks and brought them to a halt. the ot convenor, extreme ight winger Reg Parsons, about 2.000 productior verged on re since which was defended by and number stewards militants Mass meeting Windows were smashed and doors kicked in ourino more than one hour of violence at the agreed address mass to Of all

AT THE TOP...

OXFORD MAIL

he man who took control at Cowley meeting later Bob Fryer At the meeting that the unions had told them issued an STrUCTION they would be out on Monday empered to take vote and Tuesday. no vote world be taken addressed the meeting and thek wing a vote and the meeting voted to work on Monday and Tuesday.

On Thursday, therefore, Bob Fryer faced with a very vvd. over tille ban was called off in almost section and was clea inal ine action had collapseu right wing also determined he was also clear that The bureaucracy of the Confederation of Ship. building and Engineering Unions received a shock all when their carefully planned manoeuvres were defeated a BL bv senior stewards meeting last Thursday. Contes out reso u with the agreement of the tion, BL National Joint Negotiating Committee. Thal ассеотес Int company's imposition of their contentious grading structure.

The right of the company unilaterally decide the grading would be accepted, with EnE procedure that was completely weighted in favour of the com.

•any s bosuon.' The resolution passed by the Stewards by Senior malone reecteo me comeany:

ZE THE CULPRITS OUTSIDE?

RIGHT IT'$ YOUR TURN NOW BROTHER!)

rage ll resist any further improvements, attitudes hardened ther would call for further morovements when are one we going to meeting are ¡lias. establish realistic wages Wednesday, this time calling To for convenor. ve as shop stewards nave Faced with a collapse union's instructions now. action ane the whole situatior turned into , account the views o' • leadership by the majority ot members. •WE right wing Bob Fryer decided to feel we have • done all we can in that regard. For this reason, anc act. oreer maintain the unit Situation of our organisation in order to face other problems which we He called an emergency the GWU Or this plant will not engage stewarns meet ane exodile the whole situation to them. further this action ally made a statement He then matter. saying the following The strike has been led into "Having fully supported the difficult conditions by to support call from our union leadership of the Conted. They and have followed the same doctrine The comes one day strike.

overtime ban for the past three • limited action which was so record our we want o sastrous and last winter. They refuse an all-out strike Stewards who have responded I these actions, which were prepared because they designed achieve shorter DOT Cas ContIon Ente hours, government, yet they know an oncer higher we ev rates all-out strike. would be more of the last fen accestabie to memnoes ditu ld days, however, within this plant, it would win. have demonstrated to T081 Inundated the majority of the membership Duffy admits to being inun- are not orepared to support the intensified action now called fo advantage of the cateo witn cemanos tor an all- take tull in support of the claim out strike-including demands situation they nad „created •v the Cowley car plants- the backlash into trom consolidating has been rejected in this plant in anti- out ne reruses to oudot anti-rryer, the that has. the Cowley Assembly way strike feeling. recognised Plant the leadership faced these Mater Secret ballot that the resistance to the strike or obie. call will not do our members on common with workers in the rest of the industry. good but They were well aware that dels They faced also particular Bob Fryer is the only convenor jeopardise out wate and

CON

in to stand ditions in the future. This is an I BL, not • leasi important point and should not ine decision or management to election in December by a secret move in. in the middle of this nant a not oranse ov He voncen dispute, hostile bureaucracy and in front But we also had to to torce in their new recognise that abandoning any wage structure. of a hostile press. the The decision to pull back as their further plant saw this i ney once the action was lost and not chance would covere weaken me tidel unions claim at national the plant was closed on level nano over to the mont wine wa.

would harden the a difficult decision to take but it Monday and ane tuesday action of a minority of stewards determinatior Convenors reject Confed plan- It chance that the the new grading structure and •Is no series of steps that would be individuals have received notific.

cao tars TUlI taken if they did stion of theis rade 'leaked" stories of plant closures and redundancies, that will included using case sees but the plants' own procedure, and and Swindon announced next then giving five strike not Cowley where the Assembly Monday 10 September. days' Plant stewards have received fight means that now notice. accept the

FIST

ot gracings worKers Plant has received nothing.

employers" crisis with regard to Longbridge they must say the same At the moment most plants witt regate to loos To fight any of the was this latter that was seem to be warting tor tne TITS!

to act. Some sectional stoppages employers attacks today put have taken place at Swindon but who at Longbridge hav: held workers must have a rectamint wanied for defence of jobs. back workers who Tine nolalag back : for the Senior Stewards Be prepared to occupy fac strike they Should meeting. tories, demand work sharing on wait till the back pay is in their hands and in the meant:me use pay in place of Weaken And challenge Edwardes' the procedure. closures . proposals further ins was move no. stewards' meeting last This holding back must end bridge The use of procedure and other Tuesday and passed overwhelm- retailers devices will only help to weaken suppliers, ingly. Nevertheless the most impor- the Teeling tant question is that the Senior Sections know their committees to expose exactly who profits are being _made grade and disagree with it must whose •rewares vote mas cicaree Unt way for workers to take action.

strike and call for support from *lame duck col Some plants others. poration are already on

A FEW MINUTES LATER..

RUT I CAN EXPLAIN.

THE SHOP FLOOR LADS

3O A WEEK INDEED!

| THIS IS THE TUC!

WELL THAT'S CLEARED

TITHE

SO YOU'RE THE WISE GUY WHO WANT

: UP THE AGENDA!

Engineers fight on-but leaders limit action

PRESS

Confed leaders last week partial steboed the actions called in support of this year's pay claim, calling for two-day strikes through-.

out the engineering industry each week on an indefinite basis. While this is undoubtedly an indication of the growing wages militancy duIUlIC ercteerc wokers. T TaS aSo OT Inf all-out indefinite strike action demanded by increasing Turuoeis

SIOD

STewares. some of whom angrily lobbied Civil Service jobs have doing away been cut by 3% by the functions of the state implementation chopping of several major social month ban on recruitment security benefits. in all government depart- Ui tt

OOLON

ments. suggested is that This month the government waiting period of three will Ene start ot a Sickness Benetit a nOUFC TO octals further cuts between 10, 15 and claim be extended to six weeks.

20%. I hese cuts will mean the loss involve "hiving This would responsibility pronldole sections of tne public sector to private industry.

ness benefit for this period from The biggest the state and cuts will be employer Departments Hlaue antne Industry. Trade, Education and Environment, Industry, Social Services, has Science and Energy on tae cuts to Urioo ofticiais Inland Revenue He says: "We There witl also be a loss of and taks altogether wherever we 2,700 can" and "change radically the JoDs Ene l inana Revenue. Department's The Department of Environ- NHS, to local authorities and to ment's Hydraulics Research otner externai bodies." Station will be sold to private the

DHSS,

industry. Review systell the Department means Depart- financial and welfare cmo ovment and the Health and Social ment suppiementary benetit claimants security cuts will Iliauk uy matuaing

FUND

With some of the pledges for the August Monthly Fund still finding their way to the office we are assured of this month's total of £600, with £595.54 already in hand. But as we have already pointed out, the impact of inflation on our costs has forced us to raise the monthly target to £750 starting this month.

If we are to achieve this target we will have to make an immediate effort to go out and persuade readers and supporters to give more money to the fund and at the same time find new sources of income. This drive to raise the extra money has got to start now if we are to have a chance of raising the new target by the end of the month.

All donations should be sent to: Socialist Press Monthly Fund 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR Published by Folrose Ltd.

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SOCIALIST

the Confed meeting in Black- pool on Saturday. Winning support repeated two-day strikes poses dn on be ocnc oț canozn all-out strike-and the Confed has done nothing to prepare the maes o or action sut Ine the employ rs an stop os ce stoppages impact SuCA more than selt-imposed short time working. In the present period of slump in the enoineerne nous try this gives the employers the hope that they merely sit out the strikes while frustration Duffy take their demora isation Civil Servants must strike to stop cuts with whole parents and the disabled,- has direaov oeen scranoer This has resulted in a loss of inculide 1100 jobs DHSS local offices. Lvv ul tese nave been re on fraud and abuse lnat asi been aepioyea the present work days at the proposed Cuts DHSS are allowed to he imnle.

will see the total mentee. we collapse of already inade Sick pay and understatfed Social yualc Security system. take away Inadequate got oavino sick transfer it to the The civil service unions must carry out a fight to defeat these welfare secretary ot State for attacks state. Patrick Jenkin The CPSA's Cuts Campaigr issued stringent quidelines programme of action consits oT a ban on overtime, a ban on temporary promotion and sub- must cut out functions one job sululfort. ocl sult. and staff. casual These policies are complete- approach ly inadequate defend civil jobs and public service l The servíces. the Postal

CPSA

and

SCPS

members wickwas must cemans that their leader monitoring ship organise all out indefinite needs of striKe a tIor sloo mne cuts and defend the hard-won rights pensioners, single and needed the by working class.

WORKERS SOCIALIST

LEAGUE

LEEDS

Public meeting The Engineers' Strike: The Way Forward' Monday September 10 8.00 p.m. Room A, Leeds Trades Club, 21 Saville Mount

WORKERS SOCIALIST

LEAGUE

OXFORD

Public meeting 'How to fight the cuts' Thursday September 6 8.00p.m. OCCR, Princes St. Cowley Road for the Workers Socialist League, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

NUEMYCSHEDE

niter Ne St Birmingham engineers: mass rally called for all-out strike toll of the militancy on the shop floor. this number Nevertheless AUEW Presi- dent Terry Duffy Leyland plants, ano omne Confed leaders who have set out to limit and constrict the action was virtually solid. taken must hi cosindly thes the plant, oose ve ThA overwhelming continued for the actions they suppport have called. scaDs forced picket lines. Handful spullst uimistakeao e only a tiny handful of Confed WITn| ine exceptions, nearly two million mined ignore engineering out VUTeN nave ouuke caled heeded the strike call again this won CoulO week, and frantic efforts by the defeat inflicted on the Engineer- and emplovers to create Cuptovers massive Init mn oression backnone shop floor "revolt" have fizzled government. out ignominiously. Unior Di anches optimistic ards committees must demand -vel

ISOST

employers had only hoped for their 250,000 workers to clock in on two day or otests Monday: but it is clear that the indefinite action. Talbot fight on Workers at both of the Peugeot, whose Chrysler/Talbot plants I eCOTa France second Coventry are standing firm in their nine week struggle for all for a living wage against the Moss Evans, any new Peugeot management. taker stewaras to Diack ine import o Delegations or stewards nave strikebreaking been visiting other factories French-made all industrial main TGWU branches al tas seeking • Hinancia sUDOO T . supporting supplement the puny levels of struggle should official pay awarded by both AUEW and TGWU begin at once. that the viflitants recognise "vonations struggle-sparked strade ent pay ore ot Talbot Strike omly 5½% workers-is

AVTON

CV1 2LS.

decisive test strength with ot Vauxhall walk out Thousands of angry than any presently in force in Vauxhall workers at Elles- the motor inaustry. One provision mere Port walked out last granting management week in an immediate strike in protest at the company's involved in sectional stoppages!

In fighting pay offer. increase The ucs- clause. deserve and must call for the way below the 25% claim sub- fullest support mitted by the unions inrouenou But more important in gal- other employers are vanising opposition were the the stringent conditions attached to suroooe coetore otter-including penalt offers. clauses far more wide-reaching Socialists sentenced to death 13 of tne Iranian HKS (Socialist Wor- Party) are currently kers ( undergoing a re-trial in Tehran having been original- ly sentenced to death by the Islamic regime. The arrest, trial and savage on these socialists sentenca ''crimes" consisted of vorous cerene na o «emo cratic rights and in Iran in oppressed nationalitie • etian of Gnomeinr has •a7aroar produced a flood of protest telegrams and pickets of franiar eludassies crouno the woro These protests seem to have had impact Monday Cran s roreten Minister went onto Tehran radio to proclaim the Islamic Revolu.

tionary Council's condemnation the •iS uOTIOn embassies by "enemies of the Iranian revolution". No intention But he went on to declare that the regime 'never har any intention' of executing the HKS prisoners. going on, said, and the Protesus snowo cerse It must be clear to all, how that the ever, lives these socialists hdnes TRe solidartty socialists and the labour move ment internationally Tradi dORESL AOLaDonI Party members should urgently press for their branches to send actual figure was nowhere near With the excention of a feu mainly in the Oxford area (see p.11) the strike giant Longbridge much-vaunted anti i revolt collapsed with only e nn e voc-oe turning up to face rein- cartie. message which leaders dlt dil- . Ine cam and major rahatcher reaeration the c ano stew Hamid Shahrabi trom all-out anti-union « une snoo

TIOOI

But still there is no sign that, Ine talk or support trom steps with

UUCK

supplies of Alpines. In atCui. the Talbot demand of leaders that this blacking Mustafa Gorgzadeh telegrams the Iranian Brooks, embassy demanding that the Fund, Transport голіть Short Street, Coventry *Immediately release the HKS prisoners. *End the ur derous Dersu cution of prostitutes and Iranian gays End the militarv offensive against and oppression of the and other nationa minorities in tran In London a public meeting sponsored by Committee fo inciudec Rights Democratic the right Contraday alls DeeT taler wol ker. Westminster on Friday 7.30p.m. be to addressed by adequate

HKS

• and against all penalt wewoer nodor nuosravi. SnIrko ADId of the Associatiol workers Kurdish Students Abroad Fred Halliday, and others.

from

WUS KCH

also demonstratior where inaustry been called for Saturday by the sizing up

AKSA,

will which

ICOV

ot the Vauxhall 1.00 p.m. Wekers orne making their .and march the Iraqi and Iranian embassies.