Gets Going

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fodder for reformists, seeking nothing more than a moderated form of imperialist exploitation.

The Guatemalan generals are looking anxiously. for full Us support and are said to be praying for a Rèpublican victory ins the elections.

But everybody recognises that the imperialist strategy is changing rapidly after Afghanistan, and that the State Department is faced with little choice other than buoying up the dictatorship or suffering the consequences of civil war such as that now approaching in El Salvador.

The Indira Gandhi government has lost no time in showing the direction in which it is headed.

One of the first victims was Mir. N,K. Singh, deputy inspector-general of the Central Bureau of Investigation. He was seized in a dawn raid at his home and taken into custody.

Singh was the officer responsible for investigating the charges against Gandhi's son Sanjay-charges which led him to receive a 2-year prison sentence, against which he is still appealing.

Singh was forcibly takeh by armed police to another statesupposedly for "questioning"' He was eventually roleased on bail.

Such pre dawn raids were a common occurence under the dictatorial "Emergency Powers" of Gandhi's last term of office, If they act in this way against senior police officers who cross the Gandhi family, what chance is there for workers who refuse to accept attacks on their jobs,, wages and basic rights?

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The ill-starred Atkins Down, Newry and Mour Iks on the nolitical future areas have flourished!

These powers would pot-at adic talks, it seems certain that least at first-include responsib- marine liberation that has management of the economy or brought new strength and But they would mark the movement will continue to lines of the Stormont regime: establish the democratic rights And Atkins proposals for of the Catholic majority and the the representation of the views Protestant minority in Ireland of the Catholic minority are so. as a whole or resolve the crushvague as to leave the Loyalists ing material problems faced by The ill-starred Atkins talks on the political future of the occupied six coun ties of Ireland received rather doubtful assistance last week from the petty bourgeois Catholic careerists of the SDLP.

They tabled a position paper stressing the need for any constitutional changes to embody the concept of "power sharing" at the highest level.

Majority -1.e. Protestant rule has not worked at local level, and therefore could not work at the highest level, they argue. та.

But in those areas where the SDLP works in "partnership" with the Loyalist parties-Derry, been breaking it for the last 36 years off and on-well, change it!

Thus thought Norman St:

Paisley

The SDLP's wheedling attempts to squeeze in on the act, and secure top level places for the Catholic middle class in any devolved government, 'follows on the statement the previous week by lan Paisley, who insisted that any Cabinet would need to consist of Unionists.

Indeed Paisley, as the strongest of the Loyalist politicians at present engaged in haggling with Atkins, is strongly attracted to the Atkins "Model A" , which would consist in a one-chamber assembly with law-making and administration powers.

John Stevas, Leader of the House this week in Parliament when he attempted to quickly slip in an amendment to the 1944 Education Act which would make nursery provision definitely a discreționary power Atkins ility for defence, foreign affairs, nato na law and order.

first step towards the restora- develop. tion of a government along the of local councils, rather thanas at present-apparently obligaThis move is a direct result of the legal embarrassment the Tory County Council in Oxfordshire is facing as it plans to close down its entire state nursery education service and replace it with some-as yet unannounced -playscheme service costing them £4 per child and parents many times more.

Urged on by the right wingled Campaign for Nursery Education, the local bureaucracy of the NUT has pledged to take the Council to court for breaking the 1944 Education Act. And the Attorney General, Michael Havers, has confirmed that under existing law the plans may be illegal:

No illusions • The consequent move by the a free hand to do as they please.

But the squeals from the SDLP indicate that-while prepared to lean over backwards to secure a pro-imperialist solution -they do not believe they can sell a deal which makes no gesture towards some form of "hower sharing"

No concessions Paisley on the other hand, would find it hard to persuade his hard-line followers to accept anything which smacks too strongly of concessions to the Catholics.

Even if some squalid deal were to emerge from these spotconfidence to the republican The only way forward to This amendment states that nursery closures must be approved by the Secretary of State for Education, Mark Carlisle.

Avoiding action

- But, anxious to cling to any method other than mobilising teachers and parents in direct action, the right wing in the NUT and the CNE claim that Mark Carlisle has stated his desire for nursery education to remain at its present level and therefore will not allow Oxfordshire council to go ahead with. closures.

Teachers and parents must not be diverted into more appeals procedures and letter writing extravaganzas.

The task ahead is to build a united campaign against all the cuts, involving all trade unionand parents who work in workers throughout Ireland is through the struggle for an Irish workers republic.

The main obstacles to such a ‚struggle are the British army of occupation in the six counties, and the bourgeois Haughey government in the South.

The Irish working class has The signs are that the one-day strike action on 27 February called by the NUT against Leicestershire's £6 million cuts in education shown itself prepared to fight for its rights: it is vital that the British workers movement is mobilised to fight for the immediate withdrawal of British troops to enable the Irish people! to determine their own political future.

*TW But the conl erence went on toi adopt a fi ghting 9-point programme to fight the cuts, including:

* Resistance to all public service cuts.

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