Socialist Press no. 191

WIN THE STEEL STRIKE!

STOP THE

LORRIES!

General Strike! Tories Out!

SOCIALIST

PRESS

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 191 * 19 March 1980 * 20p 347N BR$ lorry load of components passes through pickets into BL's Cowley Plant As the steel strike enters is twelfth solid week, the press is speculating as to the next manoeuvre + splitting and demoralising the strikers. The British Steel Corpon non are moving to smash the strike. They the unions and ballot steel workers trough the post. They hope that they have chosen the moment to get a maonly sor a letun to work.

employers want the conditions to open create the gates to the scabs and gener- cabacko work movemen. But while such management are to be mOveS . exoccicu de tris wace unev are ov no means the most decisive element the strike The kev factor in determin- ing the morale and tenacity of the strikers at this point in the struggle and strengthening the malacement Vinnie onl Time been out by

TUC

leaders. only the steel

IVO U

lessly knifed by union bureau- workers been let to nant toe Tory alone-with crats-but government strikebreaking out miners, supplies of steel have for twelve workers and others being ruth- weeks been freely moved into Black bosses' ballot ! Even before management pressures-is rigged the finalise their plans to ballot the bosses' favour from the outset.

BSC workers on the 14%-with Surines outer tnere are torees in and around the And the higher the participa- that the should partici- the ballot, unions tion the

WOTE

credibility it can claim.

Date l i. ano went or a no vote. This is why the unions must But the organise a boycott of the ballot, postal ballot- through which individual and retuse in advance to accep1 stepping up worker Cat nome is consulted outcome. while while subjected to a barrage of the offensive to seal off steel media propaganda and family supplies to industry. around country by with the Laud unOn connivance d un occ As the Financial Times arro- gantly boasts: "British maustry sufficient alternative sourcing li.e. scab roughly to balance the absence or the briosa steel corporation •from the market. the strike could indefinitely whour anode canare Dem! 'caused to Britain's industria production." (March 17). Docks How are these supplies being moved? Through the docks and rinanciar limes quoting from government reports, points out: ... there has been no deter ioration the past month the quality of the steel delivery services by road transport oper- * "Imports being are hampered at a few ports !!! by restrictions on rancine steel but most orders placed with European Community mills and third world countries are • Delig delivered. wholesale to this strikebreaking fallen by 3%

OUEDUL

since the start the steel industry is virtually un- affected and

IGWU

arIvers

TGWU

dockers, following have been carn then ories, carrying an olnicial strike by luwu steel workers! It is in the : hands of this one win the anon alone

SICCI

strike by issuing a clear instruc tion to members that no lorries should cross steel picket Yet instead, amidst 'left' talk "stepping of up the strike" Passive revolution Centre pages • p.9 Corrie.. • p.8 Fine art of alienation • p.4 Cuts struggles

MAG105

-1 Evan. crushed by the Tories than to unleash the power or tne ladoul movement General Strike down the bring cre covered They see all too clearly that would develop * such a struggle the strength of the working clas.

and create conditions for the bureaucracy Utill acted consistently to hold back struggles for workers' indepen- dent interests. Such treachery must be com Moss Evans' speech Vallcu GWU leaders Evans and Todd March 9 was greeted with angr "stop the lorries!" Ye roars of have everytaing except raw steel, gas note has been done and oil to drive through pickets An all-out of they have lined up wallpal lobbying and other action completel will and the rest of the TUC General District, at Regional and Council National offices must now ensure ine isolation ol the stee.

waged by steel strikers strike. and trade unionists through.

out the country to force this. Ico ation broken-both through the the

TGWU

take the mobilise other • sections action to win this strike.

workes ur stuke acuun. anc by

LEONE

CONSCOIS

steel pickets to action designed Ame at the came time othe production major up the growing engineering factories. from steel- means confronting workers for the TUC to call ar head-on the sabotage and all-out General Strike to bring of

TGWU

down this Tory government treachery and other *Stop the lorries every *Dockers must black all steel effort has been directed towards ensuring , that industrial produc- supplies!

*TUC

must call. a General tion is not hit by the strike.

Strike! *Bring down the Tories! bureaucrats These would *For a workers' government!

oreler to see une see workers

FRANCO'S HEIRS SET BACK IN

EUSKADI ELECTIONS

French cops wade in

- INTERNATIONAL

The first elections to the new and almost powerless weighted asallisl Basque parliament - took yvpulous anu urbamsea region inat. March They place on that mean produced a result which was both predictable and unpre- Ical wilca dictable. LaOTona Guernica, The expected part was that the nationalist vanlous baso ve 1937. parties would together the 60 seats (ZU party of Basque capitalism, each of unenree basoue Viscaya, Guipuzcoa Drovices ana Alava) What was less expected was dramatic the caical. Ol and the re sedemo campaign the VICLOry bio w 1S1 suffered by both the cratic" Francoists of the Demo- expected. cratic Centre Union (UCD) and radical 11C also natonal parties the Socialists who are allied to workers

(PSOE)

and the Communist organisation Party lila l unel Much• to boycott the parliament. lts embarassment the party of the central govern- This means Madrid (the UCD) will will ment in be nave only six seals in the new

COIOUT

T10 01 parliament. And four derisory of those obtained the tunctions which have been allo.

saidiest the provuce nava ds a resum ot ine calca 1o A 6-week public inquiry into the build- ing of a nuclear power station at Plogoff in Northern France nas lea to butter dally clashes between anti-nuclear demonstrators and riot police. Last. weekend the violence spread to Paris, where a protest march of 2,000 was viciously attacked by police using tear-gas.

TILC International Summer School Eight days of classes and discussion on basic questions of Marxism and the fight to reconstruct the Fourth International.

Sunday July 20-Sunday July 27 The Summer organisations affiliated to Committee, and is open to WSL members and supporters.

More details available from: WSL, BM Box 5277, London WC1V 6XX electoral system which is heavily Basque government. strenespi the PNV 15 bound to Despite MOSt is bound to does not Luskaol in creasing l wnreat under-represented in the Parlia- ened the ww assemole in the sections of the nationalist move- Basque capital menl bombed The heavy popular support Hitler's and Franco's planes in for Herri Batasuna, and for the tuskadıko The election victors were the Lkerra unnkea lo rra oontical the military), came from sections of Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).

the petty the class Demagogic bitterlv hostile to n nev are Madrid and Francoists of After a demagogic national- tne omnipresent

PNV

got apparatus; and at the same time out of 60 seats-even more than alc contemptuous or tnt fNV s bourgeois respectabuiity nationalists and reaction. Herri Batasuna (Popular Unity), guerrilla : Support EIA (militar). sa deputies will It is very likely that this that the PNV support for Herri Batasuna will strengthen as the PNV imple- wing nationalist ments policies which, exercise the tnen nanonanst inetonc, will be to distinguish from those auli laisllallyo naTo the central government Madrid. Such confrontations between large num- bers of French workers and the police have multiplied in the last eight months, with Nantes, major incidents Cherbourg, In Belfort, the naval yard at Brest and the full-scale riots in steel towns of tllt Longwy and Denain School will be attended by delegations from the Trotskyist International Liaison The of the Basque remain in Euskadi). cuns will the police point in Salld

ANC

Basque direction as those of the Spanisi from the seho the Bilue ponce (wno will • in any case delenuon ITom and Fuskadi. day the alongside 'the aspects which :epression raulcal llallonlansis class scts incapable propems or tne working cass clearly between larcery a orversion however workers' national rour ano ine alternative solution The disillusion Giscard's motives The reasons for the French government's refusal to align itself with the US- condemnation of the Soviet invasion of Afghanis- boycott the Moscow Olympics have now become crystal clear. Figures released this week reveal that Franco-soviet trad‹ Teacneo rrr oot on asi yea The ade 1900 teose by fron level FFr. 12.18 bn, and rrance 1s likely as une soviet Union's second largest Western trading partner in the 1980s To the French government's delight,

UNAK

increased by 30% and included

THE RESULTS

such things as oil recovery aslicultula and DroGuCIs. mOstlV meal butter, and whole factory equip.

ment The imports were mainly. of Basque Nationalist Party o1 and of products natural gas Herri Batasuna and materials a tereato us umetals, - such cotton, Euskadiko Eskerra nickel and copper. Socialist Party These tigures may also throw Democratic Centre Union Communist

1C CT

(arencn Party Secretary Marchais' appar Communist Party ently maverick stand in support Popular Alliance (Francoist) oi the Soviet bureaucracy or the question of Afghanistan.

SOCIALIST PRESS, H'ednesday 19 March 1980 Jubilant Basque nationalists ically low vote they received in flags flying the elections public buildings, The PSOE got 14% • of the votes and 9 language in the seats, the CP a mere Haruly ulstracl q/c ana only one sea acure ane growing problems of unemploy- It is certainly these attitudes faced every of workers in Euskadi, especial working vlass us tho se

JEU C

DasuuC Ongu produced the very high WilCh It is those material problems level of absten -participaion abstentions last continuation week's Will e was only 59. After the elections there is b fa c cl sap poll lol dal little tha .either the PNV or thi UCD in Madrid can now do to Incapable disguise any longer the pathetic nauu wilen ine present siatute Because of their petty bour of Autonomy represents pos on they Capitalist authority will be offering any inrown into a growing crisis ir Euskadi. conerent answer to the materia revolutionaries, there. An many wor as almedy fore the present situation vies and the pNe creating challenge arguments massive Bụt alsi conlalll: opportunity to fight in the mass They did not in the elections movement to link the demands working class and those major the Var lics tllt laurlallscu Hadionast CP, to offer an against the policies of the reac- tionary Suarez government and of workers occasionally insolent, puppets wain tne rerormisi ane •ramasi ultimalery leaders is reflected in the pathet- the PNV in Guernica. Still friends: Suarez and PSOE leader Gonzalez % of Seats % of votes votes in 1979 general eleClon 38 25 28 16 11 15 v v0 14 O д

Turkish workers fight

DENG REHABILITATES KEY

'CAPITALIST ROADER'

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 19 March 1980

INTERNATIONAL-

The following report from Istanbul was unfortunately delayed in reaching us. But though the events it describes have since been reported in the media, it gives a clear picture of the elements involved in the unfolding class struggle in Turkey, where the Demirel government has now ordered troops to shoot "terrorists" on sight. lett wing small-scale civil Wall took place in Izmir, third largest city in Turkey, when state forces moved in to break up the occupation of the state owned agricultural factory TARIS. The occupation -which, along with a simlar struggle in the

ANTBIRLIK

plant in the of the city Antalya, strongest in the history of the class -began LurKish working the wing Demirel government attempted mass vic- unsalons. militant workers wing WIth fascists. Barricades As the moved in, workers set up barricades on the roads and in the factories, and open armed battles erupted between workers and lett wing militants and the state forces.

The fighting went over a week, though eventually the police regained control of most parts of tne irm The city of Izmir itself has been occupied by 5,000 troops in response to student protests Soreanty workers. Thousands of students were Confiscating left wing literarure arrested and herded into van arous m a secue omwous reminiscent the 19 • 3 des without i meht Despite an :32 ler: inOn Pinochet coup in Chile. total absence oi leader. contederation DISK children armed Women and

DISK

pared to fight aoms in hand to _event

SEITAST

workers are The the with and stones sallied leadership has done • nothing defend their jobs and rights.

more than organise two demon tO Te on as once mover into the working class districts.

The TARIS occupation coin- strations in defence of As the whole Aegean coast cided with Cracy —one m u a one m area remamed m turmoi, Prime Antalya, which was attended by struggle by 20,0w workers the state-owned

TEKEL

a crowd of 20-30,000 wOrkers Mmicter bene energy his was formed combine Istanbul, Tinish such precisely Demirel's acions. problems instructions had also taken Held back numbers of known fascists, and but mine me vicous acuor the state forces leaves no trade union leaders had been doubts Demirel's killed. as to But instead of mobilising the And it also coincided with mass key sections of workers in strike action (almost

DISK

struggies or workers against ine Lne t CaR OT a tenera sinke fascists and state forces have against Demirel's new economic members are currently in shown that they will not surren- measures and repression from must ul pay negollatons unc "It was the biggest frame has up our party ever known, and it must be com- overturned." pletely With words the Plenum of China's Communist Party Central Committee announced the total posthu- mous rehabilitation of Liu Shaoqi. It has now even raised him Chinese revolutionary dead heros, ahead even of the forme Prime Minister, Chou En-tai I ne otner decisions 5th Plenary session reinforced the position of Deng Xiaoping in the party leadership. Hangover The four remaining members of the politbureau The four are Wang Dongxing pre-Deng who represented a ''lettist" line -Mao's bodyguard and a difficult to gauge if the and were a hangover from the Central president the Com- aominant reason tor this purge "Gang of Four" days had their mittee: Wu De-the o'o mavo was ine present arrocant contio.

resignations accepted. of Peking; Chen Xilian-the old ence of the Deng leadership or Commander the Peking nev were ah closely associ iated with Mao himself and the military region and Ji Rengkiu- opposition. majority felt that first political commissa delay in their removal would positions his strong supporters- or ine rekine military reaton Although they had a decade younger the old only encourade dangerous previously of all army, opposition tendency: stripped guard, thereby

HITS

Commentators have pointed and civil administration pal ty successIon "factional" Yaobang out that their Hu has been [nis nevertheless marked a break with that less formally ensconsed in the activiry enoandered ine staoifiry and unity of the regime. pragmatic, pro-imperialist created post of General Secre-

POLIS

DISK

have actually caucas Theo to noe back une struggle that have developed. Assaulted DISK articials were assaulted Di 3DET TARIS mlitants ater hey Joved in with an appeal to "zo back to work". But such an approach sten

ITON

bonuca links between the n bureaucrats and bourgeois appositio Bulent party, Ecevit's RPP Ecevit keeos decanne trat Demirel's new economic measures are modelled on Latin American dictatorships, alla tal cy maply tne destruchol of "democracy' But he insists that the way "demo o fight back is through words rarela mentary means. The TARIS workers how- ever showed tary of the Central Committee having been cited as such over a year ago Altogether others have been brouaht into leadina bartv positions, including the First Secretary Sichuan Zhao Liyang who is tipped for hiat office Solid background They have similar character- istics • Or being signtly younger than the top rank leadership firm Deng supporters, and have collic

HOTT

_ a sole icchical administrative economic background Clearly the most spectacular announcement from the plenum was the rehabilitation of Liu There ceremony in his memory where cornet. uranor. rene. scab" gade. are to be anol This gesture is symbolic its implied criticism of Mao for beine bany to tne attack on tais "great Marxist" This bureaucratic reshuffle is of more than the simole synatome or ine sino is dead, long live the King.'

Greater Attacks alongside greater attacks on the political rights of police quate-understanding that what necessary confront offensive of the • moorers alo state against the working the class and its basic organisations is revolutionary struggle such a struggle the most basic democratic : gains the form of trade union rights jobs and living standards,

NATION

bent restoring. fortunes of Turkish international capitalist firms at the expense of we workur Class Coordinate Other sections of Turkish WOIKCIS MUSt LOLOW Me LARIS Occupation commit- examole tees and soviet-type councils of must be co- ordinate and catchil Cuest struggles Armed detachments workers militia must be • formed and stalt the Chinese workers and •easants anoves towards imperialism, particular- = to assist them in whipping up Cold War hvsteria agains the old workers states outside emonastseo Parts the constitution enshrined in article 45 are to be deleted. to -soeciall bureaucracy has been the wall poster at the in Peking. This right cracy wall is to be revokeo new tightening on discipline and correct : behaviour initiated with is to be moTE stringent application of the new criminal code. The Chinese bureaucracy was one of the first to leap in and condemn Soviet the invasion Afghanistan-but of course from not the stand- • point Atghar masses No-it appealed to US imper.

ialism to step in and deal a blow against the Red Army The bureaucracy can caock military reward creater economic assistance from the US butchers. But it is going to need more thạn this no O struggles oppressed ot the which will continue to have its reflection

• LITC

Page 3 Police armoured car breaks through barricade violence. labour - and movement Torced preal and the RPP's fraudulent talk of democracy, and to mobilise the strengti Demirel regime and create the basis for a workers and peasants This got The tol struggle to construct a Trotsky- in Turkey as part of a party reconstructed Fourth interna tional takes on an even greater Demire. No. 1 •Nov. 1979

INTERNATIONAL

DISCUSSION

BULLETIN

THE TRANSITIONAL

PROGRAMME IN

TODAY'S CLASS

STRUGGLE

Founding document of the Trotskyist Inter- national Liaison Committee Ayailable, price 75p including postage from

WSL, BM BOX 5277

LONDON WCIV 6XX

Over 2,000 teachers, school students and parents joined a protest demonstra- through Ealing tion last Tuesday, as the NUT staged a half-day strike against the cuts. 180 teaching jobs face the axe. anon enucation otchldren between 3-5 is to cease in Ealing council's £2.8 million kuls hundred marchers several supported the contingent of the Flowers lays wreath on medical schools Several protests and demonstrations. have taken place in London over the past two weeks against two reports containing proposals on London hospitals. These medical schools and acute beds-present the most serious threat so far to the already decimated health service in concon The report by the Flowers Committee proposes reduce the number of medica senools from This would include closing Hospital ster Medical and 116 gig the onesex Royal Free Medical School and the closure of the British Post- Medical graduate Research proposals alone nece present a serious threat to natiorial medical staltual as trainine one researen. The second London neamn rannino con.

plans reduce. sortium. hospital beds by 20-25%, If implemented this complete WoUl The closure of the Westminster Hospital This report is justified by "demographic factors"'. Because supposed on earion decline in London report claims. that demand for acute beds has fallen. Treason for the closured is the reason for the closure medical schools; as the students acute nave sutricient patients for their practical studies. Already students and aca doyal free Wesical Schools Royal. Medical Schools have staged token protests in an attempt to prevent ine reports bai o propel mute proposals seen as part of "the . genera attack on the health service in London Joint defence committees should be formed in threatened doctors and sonoo S WIth students fighting through their respective unions for the policy in of occupaten _ oT TnreatAnar facilities with supporting strike action to prevent closures.

In this tight the professional layers of the health service must both COHSE heory pledged to a policy. of The demand must be for no cunting closure asto restored to re-1976 levels, and funding Intration through a sliding scale of spend ing. Ealing teachers strike - Ealing 3-5 Action Group, destruction by such rhetoric.

at the march by half day Tally eno ot the token strikes. overflowed the Town Hall with Nor will be intimidated by hundreds left outside. bluster leaders Labour refuse even Who But for all them sleves to reverse the cuts if this evident. willingness to fight reelected the lorie direction speaker Neil James wilatever was

NUNN

platform speakers argued from the floor of the President Jim Murphy rally that the only way to halt drad a line between "good" the cuts is through a political allu lories. and called Educa.

occupations based tion Secretary Carlisle a "hypo- together with local and national crite". strike action as part of the fight Carlisle unlikely be out • Ine Lores shaken from his course office. Women bear brunt of mass unemployment Successive attacks on use of part-time jobs by labour Labour and Tory denous ol production. and fallen sales have governments provide loosely-organised most heavily on the least easily disposed of ariu organised and most Tlexible worktorce sections of the one fifth oppressed part-time, working class-with women being the prime sufferers. report And a 1977 survey showed Dub ished for the Women's

TUC

reveals the stark that 78% time fact that while the total number workers wite is predisely su numbers unemployed . precisely suCk women that are facing the most • went downs in the four years 1976-80, the savage attacks in form number of public spending cuts and redun- women unemployed dancies. 10SC

•LOC

same period -an increase of 62%!

Cut in hours this of obviously the direct impact of In many local authorities for instance the thorny government soenoing cuts in the question of public services in which women sacking full time staff in educa- orm a majority of the work social services is being

LOT OI

evaded or minimised by cutting

1OICC.

addition falling living hours worked by Dar lulle standards are among • factors statt-thus cutting wages pressing more married women retaining the wile nominaly Employers same numbers on the payroll.

HILO

seeking Jobs are seizing upon this fact and And Tory nalgo

PEOPLE

NOT

PROFITS

5F0 victims-both of the jobs lost services all! slashed. In Leicestershire, for instance, 1,800 . 00. the council's f6 unteatened ov million education cuts, 1,790 all but 10! -are women. But while the Women's TUC to parade an impressive Is abre array of statistics to show now underway against • 1 is o1 course unable e point linger at those that have it in their to. hit • and defend hard won jobs conciuns and base neats-ine TUC and Labour leaders. Only the building of a revol- leadership utionary interests of the working class- including its most oppressed exploited -Cal working women and men a wa forward from grow of capitalism a tha and poverty overthrow planne socialist economy namp Stop S cuTs PHOTO: John Sturock (Report) Leafleting in an earlier NUSS campaign against fascists in schools, this time the YNF NUT must oust racist teachers School students in West hund young caled or 4pm called London have met a blank was sabolaged oy teachers send wall of obstruction in their ing students home one lesson fight to drive out a racist early As rumours teacher. circulated that Brady had Stephen Brady, wn teache resigned from his post, he told Elthorne High School, the local Ealing Gazette that Hanwell, was exposed wanted to go back to the Sunday People as a member of school to leada ngnt wing League But Education Committee of St. George, and one of those chairman Lady Henniker- Ku Klux t the who • Heaton insisted that there was Klux leader Klal Brady aire culme ns vau tobnitan his racist views at school Photocopies of the Meanwhile the silence were schoo

NUT

leaders the issue 1S students by NUSS members and • Where do they stand was chea was a feeling for Brady to be teachers in school? It is high removed. time the NUT joined force with an attempt NESS to hound out Brady lunchtime meeting in the and they sula was dockcu oy icachers appear. despite the presence of several Fighting the cuts in Tunbridge 1976 when the from Pembury Grange away Labour government's public resulting in gradual run down and an excuse for closure spending cuts prompted the Tory Yokes see us a eler dominated Kent ate tactic by the Kent County County Council to close Coken in defence orne home.

Council undermine action down Court Royal, an old the Tun- people's home in One the xplanati for bridge Wells area, the local County refusal Tory Council, in the face of Grange Pembur is tha save mass protest action was being situated on the outskirts forced to defy the decision of Tunbridge Wells in acres of desirable and oppose the closure. catches land would prove minancially reward The situation has now ing if sold for redevelopment.

changed and it It is now obvious that only alone could prevent closure of

NUPE

and old people's homes would they NALGO workers will save the have been saved a long time ago, home. The Tunbridge Wells • Cuts In attack by Committee and Constituency cowaront the Tories, Pembury Labour Party see th only way Grange, ConFused home prevent cosure • or remor old people is closing Grange is occupation by NUPE and the residents kicked and

NALGO

members witl some strike renoused supporting action Irom expensive private homes which their tellow workers in othe are unsuitable for unions. specialised supervision required Trades council A connaenual aocument nas shown that Pembury Grang is close by September 1980 no In response to this resolu tion,

POEU

and

CPSA

Coting to for it no home in reality (P&T have demanded underway, that the Trades Council for the same paign policies Tunbridge Wells area con.

being dis which are at present branches cusser union veniently 'misplaced throughout the area. Kent County Council and con stop the gradual rur vacancer 8Tiano down in numbers of old peopl Pem bury Grange are not being ano san. NAG must cemani filled. that the waiting list be handed This coupled with adverts in over them arianis the local Tory paper for staff at vacancies to be filled immediate- another home-due to be axed next year-could attract workers

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HOW STALIN OVERTUR

CAPITALISM - FROM A

Page 6 Jon Bloomfield is not but Passive a Marxist, is a superb Revolution book, containing tremendous amount of valuable research and a wealth of factual mater- ial on the post-war over- of capitalism in turn Czechoslovakia. book is the Though the from the best • lo emerce "Eurocommunist" stable, developments the Czechoslovakia are in no way compatible with insistence on EurO CPS peaceful parliamentary evol- atiance with semocratic" socialism capitalist parties. Bloomfield shows this contradiction at the end of the book, where he admits that: example, the "For retaining balance between maximum unity and encour- advanced most forces to press ahead always judgement. needs tine. 1945 the KSC's (Czecho- Party's) Communist slovak caution undoubtedly led it to emphasise the former."

He explains this away by Czecho- arguing

LIC

slovak CP was not working towards socialism! Passive Revolu- Indeed tion is not a Marxist work Bloom- because precisely field approaches simply to discover facts that his own "Eurocommun- ist" perspective. He nas no intention of probing histor- show ical development the primary forces at work- which the most decisive is that of the leadership of the working class he way Czechoslovakia' approaches as an isolated phenomenon - isolated not in its period, was the Czech CP Why not working towards social- ism? Why did "Commun- ists" oppose the revolution- overthrow of capitalism di y in 1945? in The \ starting grasping these questions of the understanding bureaucratic degeneration within the that took place condi- Soviet Union under tions of isolation and crush- difficulties in ing economic privileged the 1920s. headed caste, bureaucratic and epitomised by Joseph began increasingly to Stalin, recognise its need if it were preserve its position-to to between the Dance strength of the nationalised achieved relations property in the October 1917 revolu- strength and the imperialism internationally position, summed This of "theory in Stalin's bunting serialism one coali only lead to Teratory gained by the Ussk rots Territory lost by Germany 1945 Leningrad Moscow e Kaunas tanbul gence of a political current rela- nationalised property reactionary the most within within its leading ranks that the Soviet effort to tions clusion: set out to revise basic tenets Union, the Kremlin leader- preserve the balance of class Transitional of the ship is capable, and at times back forces holding to defend™ Programme. has felt obliged, working class struggles inter- Trotsky had Where itself imperialist against nationally of fought for a conception offensive by a variety Through the bureaucrat- need mobilise the to even to isation of Lenin's Commun- ana means -up working class independently this including the overturn International, with the . conflict capitalism itself in the post- and counter-revolutionary Stalinist and reformist of war 'buffer" states perspective of the Kremlin this bureaucracies, labour Eastern Europe. leaders became the watch- current, headed by FI Secre- Communist of the Michel Pablo,

WOTO

saw tary Parties of every country.

the social overturn of capit- apparatus of the Europe- alism in Hastern "Communist" the Trotsky and the Yugoslavia

MIOVC'

and particularly transformed became Opposition, and subsequent- Stalinism - "proof" that into a major obstacle to the ly the Fourth International, completely was not struggle for revolutionary bureaucratic fought the counter-revolutionary force communism. inside the "special' degeneration Under certain Soviet Union. It is from the concluded conditions basis of their work, analysis Stalinist bureaucrats Pablo, and practical struggles pressured into be the real nature of Stalinism the Czechoslovakia centrist and even revolution- 1945 can be grasped today, positions by the move- was only vear from the contradictory transtor- one example of ment of the masses. mations in Eastern Europe revolutionary resistance can be understood. mobilisation. But it was also of Such an analysis an example of the other side Yet the Trotskyist move- course called into question the post-war period of the contradictory role of ment in the very need fev thribuiry for bureau- found its very Stalinism; challenged by emer- revolutionai y cracy resting parasitically on Trotskyist parties to combat Stalinism and lead the work- ing class to power. This confusion as to the role counter-revolutionary of Stalinism, and the way in operates, contin- which uously arises amongst forces calling themselves Trotsky - ist. It can be seen today the forces diverse opportunist Socialist Workers Party-with its ful- some support for the Cuban Stalinist bureaucracy-and the sectarian Spartacist cult with their position of "Hail the Red Army" in Afghanis- Such people cannot com in which prehend the way or a world scale acts as a material and polit- ical force for counter-revol- ution through the demobil- isation and repression of the independent struggles of the working class. Monument to Red Army liberation of Prague in May 1945 bureau- If, for its own the Kremlin cratic reasons, bureaucracy should relations in property form Afghanistan, this minor and progressive step limited still be seen in the must of reactionary context its world scale on strategy And will be Cant. the same Red through by Army that crushed workers East Germany uprisings • in and Hungary in the 1950s in some of the Trotsky, writings of his career last examined the change that the interna : place in took of the Soviet tional role Union after the takeover by the Stalinist bureaucracy.

He replied sharply to critics like Max Schachtman that, since he who argued Red supported Georgia 1920 invading hold he should on the actions o position the Red Army in 1939: "You (Max Schachtman quote the march of the Re Army into Poland and into

NED

BOVE

Georgia and you continue: if there is nothing Now the situation, why the majority oes

HOL

ropose to hail the advance Red into 'Ene Агшу the Baltic oland, into countries, into Finland..."

Page 20). In this decisive part of your speech establish that something is "new the situation between 1920 and 1939. Of ourse! This newness in the situation is the bankruptcy of the Third International, the degeneracy of the Soviet State, the of development Left Opposition, and the the creation of the Fourth "con" International. This creteness of events" occured precisely between 1920 and And these events 1939. explain sufficiently why we changed our have radically position toward the politics of the Kremlin, including its military politics. It seems that you forget somewhat that in 1920 we only the supported not deeds of the Red Army but also the deeds of the GPU the point of view of From our appreciation of the state there is no principled differ- ence between the Red Army and the GPU. activities they In their are not only closely connec- ted but intermeshed. We car that in 1918 and the ay hailed following the Cheka their fight against the Russian counter- revolutionaries and imperial- ist Spes but in 1927 wher to the GPU began to arrest, exile and shoot the Bolsheviks we changed our appreciation of 0S SaulOn "We began to change this We : 1923. position proceeded by stages more or less in accordance with the objective developments. The develop- point decisve ment was for us 1933-4." Marxism, (In Defence of pp;38-9). In tne quoted passage to grips Trotsky is coming with the fact that Russia is no longer, as it once was, a revolutionary workers' state The of the Stalinist had bureaucray brought the defeat of the class German working 1933-yet there had been no reaction wnatever. insiae the Stalinised Comintern. And the line of the Kremlin leaders continued to reflect their opportunist relations with imperialism, regardless of the consequences for the workme class On a world scale, there- fore, the workers' state that had emerged from the 1917 revolution had been trans- from a revolution- tormed workers state struggling workers auv alice struggles, to a counter-revol- in workers' state. which a bureaucratic dicta- torship. exploited cynically the strength and repressed of the masses to preserve its own power and privileges.

But Trotsky goes on to deal with those people who drew from this the conclu- that STOl Jonger to defend the necessary USSR against imperialism.

argues for defence He of the Soviet Union basis of defending the gains of the 1917 the form of the material nationalised property rela- tions. It is the understanding of the specific phenomenon of counter-revolutionary bureaucracy based degenerated workers state Trotsky's leads to that understanding of the social transformation eastern Poland in a way that offers post- a key war overturns. HOw could the bureau- be clary All over Europe • THere was the basis of proletarian The workers revolution. were armed in the resistance forces supporting malniy the CPs. The bourgeoisie's were in the main exposed for thei co-existence with and often In this, and a further article next week,

TONY

for the outright support RICHARDSON reviews the book Passive Revolution fascists. There were mutinies in by Jon Bloomfield (Alison and Busby, £3.95), and US Army-as. troops the examines some of the issues it raises in relation demanded to be sent home.

And a huge wave of strikes to the post-war overturns of capitalism in the erupted in the USA itself.

Eastern European 'Buffer' countries.

So there was a genuine socialist basis for revolu- tions. And it was here that the most important counter- of role Russian bureaucracy •was revealed. Stalin directed the most powerful CPs to give in their arms and to take ministerial positions in bourgeois coali- tion governments This they did from 1945. 47. These years of collabor- ation were used by provide an bourgeoisle to essential breathing space for capitalism which ensured its survival. In Indochina and in Stalinists Greece welcomed the actually imperialist arrival occupying armies! Anything subsequently done in East- Europe is far out- ern weighed by inese counter revolutionary actions. In the Eastern European "buffer" states encircling its borders the Soviet Union set up coalition regimes which included bourgeois partiesor Stalin transformation of the econ- only to omies. aimed aneu provide the Stalinist bureau- and buffer стасу breathing space to rebuild.

So what exactly were the Eastern buffer states of Cech crowds greei Red Army iberation forces * remained reinforte the** 1945-73. They tions that tionary yet at the same time capitalist states: but capital- of the out progressive analysis carry 1rolskylst ist states in which the state transformation? post-war overturns. the rested machinery "The statification of the Tim : Wolforth says in strength of the Soviet Red Against Rey- 'Communists' means of production is, as Army or (in Yugoslavia) on said progressive olution (p.20) "It was inter- we partisan Communist-led measure. But its progressive.

national considerations forces As such they specific ness is relative; which determined the final unstable forma- remained of social evolution the weight depends on the sum tions, in which a process of countries in this IE. Europe total of all the other factors.

was already under- buffer] region. Challs c Challec Thus we must first and fore- way establish that the This is essential to under- most is little evidence stand because the form of here extensions ol the territory suggest that these 1n dominated by bureaucratic the process of transforma- the Stalinist initial tion was different in a lot of.

move. and parasitism, autocracy bureaucracy did anything buffer by "socialist ways in each but move forward empiric- cloaked of augment the country. In the case measures, can there ally step-by-step: the masses Kremlin, Czechoslovakia, prestige of seems no sign of any overall engender illusions concern- were very much involved: long-term strategy of assim- but in the case of Hungary ing the possibility of replac ilating these states as there was the direct use of proletarian revolu- ing the claimed for instance by the the Russian Army. tion by bureaucratic man. Harman SWP's Chris This evil beuvres and so on Harman of, course believes by far outweighs the that the Russian state is a of content progressive capitalist state: but he also Stalinist reforms in Poland."

feels that there was a grand Despite these apparent Defence Marxism, plan at work from 1945: divergences, the transform- 1p. 19) themselves were "At the same time they Of course this does not allons politically the same. They (the CPs) were preparing mean that Trotsky provides in the the ground in co-operation analysis of the

LOOK

sallle period because of the same with the Russian occupying post-war overturns: rather international factors destroy these forces, to the Marxist ollers At the end of the war the allies (bourgeois ministers) method of approach. that Soviet bureaucracy came as well-'from above'" provides the tool with together to horse-trade with Revolu- (Bureaucracy and which to open up the com- Eastern the capitalist world which Europe, plexities of the overturns.

countries would come under , p.35). the other Bloomtield on which' "sphere of influ- hand is able to offer us only ence". descronions. nol a pontical Czechoslovakia was of the explanation ceded to the Russian sphere bureaucracv ol ine soviet of influence, even though The actions of the Czech troops were in a are described -bui position to invade (helped who had alternative courses or delion the Germans, are examined. held out against the Russians but once they real- ised they being defeated made things easy for the 'allies'). As a result-he offers us only dilemmas. From the imperialists' a series of For if the Czech CP was not point of view this territory aiming for revolution or for was ceded to Russian influ- only they socialism, then what kind of because party and programme were needed the help of the needed: what needed over bureaucracy lo'stod today? of revolutions in the industrial- And what kind ised West. state Czechoslovakia Trotsky's expectations of today? Yet his research offers the possibilities that would from the war were the reader a chance to form- arise ulate answers to these ques- shown to be correct. counter- Rather each move took revolutionary form forced the upon by own bureaucracy contradictory role as a priv- ileged conservative balanced precariously on a workers' state. the . outset the From Kremlin ourcau insisted that the Clac European should have the Parties ministries Defence-knowing that. these would be crucial to stop attacks on the Soviet Union from taking place from those countries. So even while the states were still capitalist (despite nationalisations, extensive following the expro- often of fascists' prop- priations erty Communist the Kremlin-control Parties had led positions key from controlled the repres- sive state apparatus. capitalists couldn't act without them Red especially

WIT

Here for a Army looming. period was bureaucrati control over the capitalists.

The factor that transfor- med this was the imperial.

ists, who, after their breath- ing space, took the initiative in launching the Cold War.

CP ministers were chucked out of coalition governments in the West in 1947. The Marshall Aid Plan was started recene alo capitalism in the West-and moves were made to bring the Eastern European coun tries into this plan. the Russian This led to act, where bureaucracy the through possible national Communist Parties, through elsewhere Army. The bourgeois ministers were thrown out, the social were transformations carried through, enlarged, purged and mono- lithic Stalinist parties imposed their bureaucratic deformed, grip new,

COI

worKeT. stale, through revolutionary over- throw one i cauc military overturn So when we look at the developments in a particular country such external factors first.

But this does not mean the dismiss internal factors. As Tim Wohlforth points out: 'The of process assimilation structural was carried through every Eastern Europe country in by the combined efforts of internal forces and the external role of the USSR weight external and internal forces

COUL

depending on the country indigenous strength of the Stalinist movement in the particular country and its eyes of the Kremlin. in reliability relative the (Wohlforth, p.29) Continued next week Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin carving up the post-war world

The fine art oi alienation A GUEST REVIEWER discusses the exhibition ABSTRACTION: TOWARDS A NEW ART showing at the Tate Gallery until April 13 (Admission £1). The first two decades of no means monopolised tne this century saw something - greatest artists of that period or since. of a revolution in Western It was a vocabulary of shapes painting-only a very partial and colours and textures which apparent revolution, claimed to eer to 'external nature, but only to than rea!, in that it occurred itself and its internal relation.

on canvas and not ships-and SOmeLImes society. Mondrian and Ene Dutchman Artists the Russian Kandinsky, to mys- continued pretty tical concepts and systems.

much the • saltie boseltial The most important painters they had for the previous 400 in origin and The years or so of painting for the abstract' painting were Picasso commercial market and Braque who aceloded They were under Ine years aroune on caric and appreciated (some- type of painting we call Tne times) by a small elite from the 'Cubist'. ruling and educated class; from Cezanne masses , they • were quite divorced. This despite the fact that it was those masses who produced These paintings were, noW

SUTOIUS

value evel revolutionary c earv painting, like all cultural activ- related to earlier developments, ities not essential to maintain.

particularly Cezanne. And ing life, fed. lucy suit reicica nowever com plexly and unapparently, to the superticial revolutior consisted largely in this: the world around them the What marked them as revol.

abandonment objective reality ot une sensua worla: in utionary tmentotal aban- donment of traditional perspec.

Tavour or ineir own decorative or and courses, tive-whereby an object or scene this course had always being viewed from fixed been true to a certain extent in sudet post-Kenaissance painting. Ine with all paraller lines pointing to artist saw through their own a single 'vanishing point'.

eyes and those the class This art of 'perspective' wa invented at the beginning of the belonged or

WHICH

uncy welc attacned henaissance Then This inevitably led-to some paintings had been made gener- deviation, with more than 'abstraction' some one lay trom vanishing point, with an appear wildl an use o their Tield of vision when they ance ot Tiatness without , giving set up their canvases It grew increasingly so in the became possible Post-Impressionism artists with une Invention or, perspec- van Gogh, Gauguin and tive like Cezanne Medieval paintings had been Yet the ten years or so up to painted, then, as being seen by the World War saw the the the God eve on whom they served. From the ceve looment or a new vocao.

ulary of painting-though it by late fifteenth century onwards unines were seen in daintines a from the eye of an individua person-corresponding bourgeois .and numanism. the inervioudlism capitalisi society that was being born.

The great achievement of the Cubists that they wvds

OTOK

seeing waV reality in painting. Challenge They painted, for example, violin many seen trom of view simultaneously,

DOINTS

thus challenging: bourgeois tradition wanting they inevitably Dome this made the painted canvas look different: longer no reproduced reality obviously realist was realism-though Lationa remains as all genuine art must: The painted surface empha- sisco Unal It was ust that: it more decorative,

TOOK

patterned, geometric appear- ance. It was, vortunately, uni: more see coco or wer taken up most avidly by avant garde painters around the world The social basis of the rapid development 'abstract' 'non-representational' art fairly It was initially rebellion against a reality that Was.

TCCU

•enuman see ang debased-the reality of capitalist longer пто still brutal anto fury to tal production of art.

Tuncamentary Becaus social The revolution that was necessary to end this regime, they tried have a revolution in the world of art to which they retreated, as they reacted against both capitalist reality and the bour- Kandinski: Composition (1916) geois artistic tradition.

and geogra- symboucally phically at the centre of this large exhibition of the pioneer WorKs or dostract painting are Cubist works by Picasso and Braque the rooms around this revolutionary centre, are paint.

ings grouped according to the nationality that was, by 1910 becomine much ess moortani To laced is nation so o school" worid earlier stage ot capitalist society. Abstraction There are the Dutch paint- as cove one venera with their vertica horizonta grids and • omare developer. of colour. Mondrian's towards abstraction is carefully of paintings. There the Russian are like Rodchenko and painters Ivialevich bernad. nistoricall the most important dioneers of purely abstract painting; there are who probably best into decorative ana meaningless abstraction; the German, British, the American paintings of ten years or onenomenaly amazine growth are some very exciting and interesting works. And in them are virtually all the elements wnich abstrack painters since then have. used, re-arranged and made money pick they WItn ano the capitost fastikes discarded which capitalist market system ensures are the basis of much art (This is true, equally, 'representational much equally unadventur- painting, ous, stale and at the mercy of the market place). Pioneers These pioneers certainly saw iner arastc revolution as deine socially relevant; many even saw it as a blow against an individ ualistic capitalist societyessel Tarly opposed to ine production of art works of even this exhibstrac, pure abstract tota rejection of the sense te must wonde whetne "liberation' painters saw it, Is not uitialty sterle are ostiv ings of paint, or of an individ.

alistic 'self expression'. socially anony- nest mous paintings, monuments to capitalist society's alienation: the alienation of the masses Trom art or man from man. and of man from the world around him, the social reality which he was wrested mom nature Are revolution in antin occur and only or the socialist revolution. as thi oroletariat seizes ine culture or the past and builds on it the art -not of artists or a ruling class- but me genuinely mass basta dr oT a cass ecs society. Picasso: Still Life (1912) Mondrian: Composition in Red, Yellow and Blue (1921) The Battle for Trotskyism Second edition of the opposition documents presented inside the WRP by the present leader- ship of the Workers Socialist League With a new introduction Price £2.50 plus 20p postage and package from Workers Socialist League BM Box 5277, London WCIV 6XX

Mass resistance forced Corrie Bill's SOCIALIST PRESS :3-mcm defeat It now looks almost cer- tain that John Corrie's anti- abortion bill will not receive its Third Reading this session. The only chance OT Its gaining turther is if urne comes uD on JuV 4: out thic possible if other will only be Private Members Bilis. are dropped. However. Corrie's Bill is the to restrict the attemot limited for abortion offered by the 1967 Act. And Il is certain tnat It will not be the last Yet is immediately obvious the that MPs decide the fate of abortion legis- lation not represent the wishes of the electorate.

Against restriction series of opinion Doris overwhelmingly nave Shown that the majority of women and men in this country are opposed

ADOTTION

ACT

•espite The T3C1 Corrie's Bill at its Second Reading taroe numoers Catholic MPs who believe that should be denied women control of their own fertility. vociferously supported nave Corrie. However it is not only male MPs who have supported the Bill. Thatcher-whom Sole liberal feminists supported during the election campaign as Ene re presentative oT women'c interests-led the anti-abortion- ists the 'aye' lobby, supported by all but one of the Tory women. Morality The support for Corrie's Bill Against action: Callaghan nas to Against abortion: Thatcher attempt to shore up the tamily unit and bourgeois morality Against Corrie: Jo Richard- It encourages the myth that son. a woman's true place is in the her children, , since nome. With the denial of abortion rights forces unwanted child-bearing At the same time there has been much rhetoric against the 'permisiveness' unimalied In an interview published that women ano. arouments women who unwanted in last Thursday's Guardian pregnancies should be deprived Republican Party right avor lou, as vunismment lor oi winger Ronald Reagan the •recautions-desotte spelled out with fact that no is bruta really safe and efficient.

frankness the reactionary This rehabili- against abortion and HoSe late une institution or tne tamilv against contraception for strengthens an important ideol- "under age" young women. ogical of capitalist social relations. Accusing the government of "sticking the nose into Reagan brushed aside Individual unit the view that efficient contra- ception would avoid the ЛоСО The family isolates workers into individual, units, reducing Voter cependence on Inei nusbands women, and redundancies in the anth the denigation of support.

burdening working men welfare are female employ- area OT nion ing wite and children ment. the fact that the The Corrie Bill provided one Moreover denial of abortion rights will tie further easino more to the home, women at a unem dovment. What more, weltment abortion have escaped the restrictions would not severely Connot notice of the Tories. affect VOTer Most of their other social issue legislation has the effect Women with money mult of paid always abortion, soueezino women out employment: the slashing nursery education, threats al nantey or. cilnics, Just as they did before 1967. maternit ano emolov. ment protection for pregnant working women who By Mary Wilson Reagan on abortion for abortion. "Whatever happened to just " no s. ne demanoeo. And showing the link between repression of sexuality and the right wing call for "law ano orcer _ Keroan went on "It's morally wrong, , and our Judeo-Christian tradition tells it's morally woulen tiraso de tar better toi girls to do what girls from time immemorial have done, have baby and

VOI

child-and how long we waited.

would again suffer-at the hands of backstreet abortionists.

We would return to the grim pre 67 years, with their maternal montant morbidity rates-the very reason why the Abortion Act was even- tually passed Why then, did Corrie fail?

The immediate reason was the filibustering of Tribunite MPs, and tabling huge number of amendments usea up the imited time allo cated widespread anti-Corrie feeling, evidencee PHOTO: Mark Rusher (FL) "So-no talk about a break- morals, we're

COWN

Wina really saying is, there's a kind of philosophy that if it feels good someone to bop someone else over the head with a club .

What ever happened to try and teach morality to the young!'

Reagan's "'morality" course of imperialism capitalist exploitation. And like the Tories. he sees the 'Mamilv" as the means to prop up that system. and more concretelv br the

• TUC

demonstration October, and last lobbies Parliament ao vance

OT ITS

Retor the goademeit made impossible for give the Bill extra time-and risk identifying unemse ves openly with the anti-abortion- ist What must have weighed the fact that, according to the polls one in every three women of childbearing having aNt, becomé accustomec

TRE

rights conceded by the 1967 Pare 9 Forced to oppose Corrie proposals: Health Secretary 'Vaughan

LONDON

ВІКАР

ABORTION

KEEP !

KEEP IT

SAFE

PPOSE T

TUC Anti-Corrie demonstration present

NHS

abortion service sard they seek

WOUK

abortion denied reactionary legal access to it. tion and avoid a return to the backstreets Act, if passed, strike action by the Only woticrearyoe continuously MPU/ASTMS and other brokourd be totale sale, . Also would totally sector unions in. cetene victimised doctors and health able. (Before 1967, prosecutions workers who continued depended almost entirely on the •rove aronson fectes and of police provocateurs: supporting action from the rest acts of the labour movement would would wome able satequard general intorm on abortionist who performed a vital, if unsafe, right to safe, free abortion.

service). such a campaign of direct Meanwhile backstreet action would not mobilised easily. operators would be orofiteerinc on women's suffering and mean

WOUC

private clinics would gain demands on union leaders forcing them lucrative trade . act in detence the body •i workine ciass women which did not defeat Corrie wa: Yet a start has already been the Parliamentary Labour Party.

made The fact that the TUC was At ine decona redon, onty 53 Labour MPs voted for Corrie pressurised into calling a demon- White Caline an ref ed te PLP stration against itself a historic three-line whip legislation was campaign SteD Water to Corrie and free abortion on has been carried into the labour request is Labour Party policy.

movernent has strengthened this Even trade union sponsored Labour MPs failed an anti-abortion Next • Time Corrie-flouting

TUC

bill is tabled, the : labour against The Tories. than But betore that happens. wi Labour, from the strength

• MUST

Tine outset that abortion is a class the labour • movement the fight to abortion Issut facilities. Given that tne PLr has We refused to make demand that a stand must government defend women's rights,

TUTWI

repeal all anti-abortion legisla. last ana go, since tion, making abortions no more June whether Corrie's Bill would become law. surgical operations. As it. has turned out. the More immediately, the propa- petitions anG Labour Party and trade unions ganda campaign have this time been successfu services

NHS

However, if Corrie had won defend them against cuts and

SUCH

#mited tactics insufficient defend the

WOMAN

WORKER

woman worker Bi-monthly women's of the Workers paper

A GENERA

Socialist League. Avail- able price 18p (includ- ing postage) from WSL, BM Box 5277, London

WCIV 6XX.

Page 10

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

The thought of ambulan- ces trying to whisk women about to have babies along the A4. Western Avenue in the rush hour to Hammer- smith seems a sick joke. But this is what the local ON AHA is seriously proposing.

Hammersmith call and Hounslow Aret Healin Authority proposing the the Perivale Mater- closure of which has all the nity mosoital maternity beds in caring District. Mantosh(FL' The usual pseudonym for Curs- rationalsaloll ucec to try to lustry enis latest attack on the NHS locally

NUPE SAYS:

The even cuts the nerve to link these nas the Witn Beco •evote resources •ğ Ơ such services the elderly and provision handicapped when mercy •Tory • Their Trienos calane Council have just closed a day centre! vain attempt is made by

SAM

TinE

• ANATO

• LOSK LIC

facut is the sa are con arned saving of about about amalgamation 24000U Bel possible 'disposal' of the site.

be no South referals from Perivaie. Districts in Ine same AnA Nave ¡nev a so more. than the recommended patients can number of beds per head of Hospital anyway argument But even they are forceo le admit that the proposed Health Council Bailiffs break in on Meccano The 100-day occupation minutes notice late last year.

of the Meccano factory on The largesu

GMWU.

Merseyside an came to abrupt end when last Meccano's atains! Tuesday (March 11) a squad

AIRTIX

of 100 police and bailiffs dispute! burst into the plant wielding cirective. sledge hammers, pick-axes stocks and machinerv. and orner and hatchets. directed The handful of workers still unse only ejected DursuIno InE jobs axed at Meccano. vactory ano oans out MotIon precisely to ship out equipment, materials GWU official that and stocks of finished toys and Meccano sets Token Bicket- the beginning of the work-in.

including supporters from other Merseyside-is being unions on the gates of the Monames on plant: in a bid to prevent sucr With materials being moved, manage- virtually ment succeeded at the weekend Merseyside the hopes they loads. The prospect of reactionary, depressing gates of from the fight an indefinite vigil at the It is to be a dead factory seems unlikely to galvanise The entausiasm on Merseyside: the ight could much more produc 10 say face taken up within tively be Ferguson UnIons Whos Meccano were al Anowsiey: Fight on to save Perivale hospital

YOU CANT

RUN HOSPITALS

SKELETON

ISE

STAFF

LS

PR HELP

FIGH

THE CIT

IT's NHS trade union of the West calls for Perivale Hospital to be and Queer Charlotte's takes place there will locember closed labour ward capacity to take Meters are being given real local that say many ence go to hillingaon he reason. Ene noso tais ir the North and South Hammer.

answered Districts have than smith more Community "recommended number ol beds is because of their national reborE importance as teaching hospitals the demand for with especially the Lebover Method offered at the West London. The

CHC

reply shows how the Perivale Hospital covers the AA with a very area in high concentration of women of child bearing age which is also one ot Social Stress covent the Southall, Greenford and Northholt areas. of the mums told AS one us, many hospital's doctors are Asian and can talk the Asian young women the has litted not a Tingel blacking action owners-the comone-o even to offer strike pay to those in blacking of the solidarity action Airfix mario loy "strucase tol Une such policies Egan area have shied away from since Six issues New buyer Three months (12 issues).

empty Six months (25 issues). тастогіес two a penny now on One year (50 issues) held out of finding a new buyer

EUROPE

are exoosed as e utopian diversior Six months (25 issues). for One year (50 issues) hoped that this missed by Ent

REST OF THE WORLD

workers currentv occu• ing the latest Merseyside factory Six months (25 issues). axe-the nearby One year (50 issues) . The first real initiative to £80 minimum from the engineers' follow from April 23. 1980 the 40 breakthrough on hour week is the present

SOGAT

print workers' dispute. caved in and are Management have offered acceptance of on top rates with 20.6% prop- ballot of members. ortionate in creases 1OI grades plus a 39 hour week from 37½ hours anuary following pressure from July 1982. pay-out at the limes, have now turned it down. them feel more and make With contented. Workers thousand no This sort of thing is ot interest to the moguls of the streets

AHA

policies the "vertne apparently lack 01 fact that without practical experience of obstetrics it could organised working class. withdrawal of recog- call lic by the General Nursing varsity Council and the Royal Colleges right of recognition for training perspective nurses and doctors. workers ore bared A vigorous local campaign to defence save the hospital begun. Bill Dunn of

COHSE

Cratic monts some of the staff at the with policies nose nam ocen inter victice through and a petition na. the trom been circulating around all the i le working bidso. trades councils union branches, internationa and political parties in the area to lose • from A public meeting is plannea tol April. The final date the profitability of their to be notified to the objections employing cras. AHA is 31 March. to the dictions say radio interviewer alist system • that it necec the workers would consider sary accupying to save this must firs HOweVer ciscussed

WITN

themselves and preparations a way forward of the made gain support referring tive readershio patients and to the ambulance drivers to keep bringing the The Joint Shap the Workers Ared of Stewards Committee has League. Diedded to cive a support le any action taken in defence of the hospital. Name : This must be taken up and a Address supporting STrIKe action given Work must done among other local COHSE branches who apparently in the oast would nOT oleode unem selves to take action in the fight to keep Perivale open. The tendency now of some oco•e to cav inal curs saoure be made in other districts of the Sena AHA must be roundly attacked that Perivale is a It is cleal very copular nosorai an ocd workers, residents and tenants will to keep

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SOCIALIST PRESS. Wednesdas 19 March 1980 NGA sticks to claim This reflects militancy The original claim was for an among the membership. . But th 37½ hours plus

NGA

calling selective token stakes to back up is digit for the claim only

NATSOPA

Clearly the full claim can have only won through nationa recommencing the offer in a strike action wada de la taken up the full The NGA, obviously under the massive claim! *37½ hours now! *All out strike action!

JOIN THE

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advance beyond by the workers trade union militancy, protest taking to the politics and illusions that capit- Tory oppose there is plainly no parliament. The Workers Socialist militancy the Trotskyist League is a and day ment fighting day Yet the existing trade union out to buria such a principies leadership in the working class hureaucrats and Labour leaders in Britain lett -have offer those to Internationally, we are fight affiliated to the newly-formec dares, social serice and stan- jobs, Trotskyist International Liaison lavina Committee, which fights for the Fourth reconstuction These can only be defended International and the bullding which of revolutionary parties in every star independent interests the struggle county which, against imperialism and againsi has the parasitic Stalinist clas: oureau nothing to gain and everything cracies in the deformed and I attempts to restore degenerated workers' states "own" of reduci s Socialist pres see morE details of the WSL and its work, In a period where tne contra of the anarchic capit- and to join us in the struggle for force the wholesale socialism destructio sweety Socialis economy on a world scale offers To achieve such a perspec necoed which, in today's struggles fights•

RED YOUTH 19

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COMES TO COWLEY

SOCIALIST PRESS. » trace: "We're in a war. " This is how most of the South British tion. Yorkshire steel pickets des- cribed their decision to instruction must picket the Leyland Body observed. Plant at Cowley. When pickets Body After the refusal the of Levland senior stewards to call al up outside. strike on their own pay demand, des the the steelworkers lobby their their nicole. strikers decided to put pickets into Oxford. Buckle. The South Yorkshire TGWU memoris. weeks BRS, started to cross. crossing

LUWU

TOTTIeS When David picket lines, finally Moss challenged by Evans to issue clear "direc- tive' inal opposed to his earlier only applied to 'new steel'.

"The General Executive Transport Council. of the and General Workers Union meeting More oressure was tner onto the TGWU-at national level in detail the current dispute in the steel industry and reinforced by the SUrIKCIS Organiser Ron Todd then inter- PUll preted the directive as ventral secretary mat arrang port and General Workers Union fresh steel, oil and gas" members should observe cower needs very Needed: wo laid off. time affect especially if the company is able a general concentraTe ways to get of these iwo! strike!

TGWU

SIO D

stopping supplies steel «What we need tales. General Strike, and bloody seculary observing the pickets! quick, too!" These words from Mick Skelton, strike cooramalol LOrDY StrIKe committee summed up the growing convic- tion of numbers of steel workers struggle is a vital test Tory will Ine zovament. Skelton was speaking public meeting Leicester Called Trades by South

CLP

anla welcester strike about Suressca. pointing steelworkers are unal Lne leing used as a "dress rehearsal" fir the imposition of the Tories' ati-union laws. he firmly opposed any

ANG

ncion protest politics As we go to press talks piketing alone being sufficient tovin the struggle. are still continuing between "In two weeks this will be British Leyland the longest strike in history ment and the Joint Negotia- exopt for the miners in 1926 ting Committee that's in a mouerate urade unin, so-called! November 1979 pay review.

ow I'm making it quite The company clea that pickets on the strings offer was rejected in Gruvick size are not going to recent postal ballot by a win ie war. Pickets and finance majority -yet wonwin this war at all. union officials have consistently only way can fight refused to call strike action that with the solidarity of the would bring whole labour movement alongside the steel strikers action Atter months of hedging and Skion delays had. handed the initiative went on to relate how, is.. the back … a member ot negoting committee, he met conveners' meeting ten days ago with IC leaders and caved in to meekiv call fog carefully timed tactic of laying to be rid 'out of order! • At stake Yet stake is far more than the steelrike itself. "If Vare defeated, every- is defeated," argued OlIC sKelton To thories, the manage- advanced amine most is self evident: militants, lis to the TUbureaucracy-reluc- then a time to mobilis menrship all out defeat of thesisprkers is less prospect frightening ¡cal beilegedy swei out teet lership positions a confilt and forward moving work class. That is wthe steelworkers have been lef far to fight the Tories aione.

THE STEEL 'WAR'

pickets of the unions in dispute Steel Corpora- Instuct! menders to recoonise leat inis be positively started on the Plant on Mondav March 10 the lorries started to queue Drivers went away to phone stewaros. stewards contacted the District Secretary of the TGWU, David Suddenly the lorries, mainly Buckle the pickets Evans' instruction Pressure put ana availles Body Plant little steel the because Steel pickets at BL's Cowley Body Plant Oil and gas supplies can take This is a war' in which the production - Generals' wii not use the very weapons that will the simply enemy supplies Oxford Student Trade I be Liaison Committer let it is in the power of th • an active support com. Tormen organised plant mittee The immediately Lobby

TGWU

TWU District Committee members. made-up last ourselve have The ted alled a steet ocCI from exemoreo Committee steel SUrIKCI swear. our une ou-

BL 'LOSSES': OPEN

THE BOOKS

off a few thousand BL workers selected planes ano voted manage- agalst calling a strike. Pressing home his advantage and well BL's care- on the doctored balance sneets

SHOTTIV

to be given full Edwardes moved for the kill. He summoned obed- 13-2 ient union _secretarie to talks on the firm's "recovery ConverTs plan". Hammered home BL

WULACIS

There the call for further sacrifices by union members to viability' DU management. nammered nome to unlor already lent Icdutts wno nave Edwardes' their support to the loss of jobs by the thousand. And they were called upon to press committee into accepting the offer-strings and all. Duffy and his fellow bureau.

IFL

crats their commitment to the viability of BL PHOTO: Laurence Sparham days later Edwardes latest balance Pounced thumping sheet-showing i loss for the last £144.5 million year-and spelled terms what viability uncerta required. He said that the task was to reduce reauce "excess capacitv» "slim down" company to a sustainable une level and eliminate the basic flow deficit. then took LaKS with the union leaders- •ace Duffy. BL Cars Managing after which programme action in 10-22% claim.

UNITFO

NIVIDED

This fight is seen by come was that the uwu direc tive was still limited to the three strikers as the test case of the types of supplies. directive: it will prove whether Evans and Co. want to win the backed up the pickers well. with strike or nOT. finance ood and pickers Yorkshire strikers will then soon getting back-up from key Leyland Radiators coroy. bur une rea ouestion Swindon Body Plant and also to the battle of Cowley is to be interpretedetting won, directive dill olnel in a way that consumers. production stopped. to viability. point they have managic ultalams and sacrificed their members on the altar of profit. ditions pay offer seems not But such a move seems certain Director Ray Horrocks declared provoke fierce resistance o the "we are pleased with the out- Shop Toot, come page book of strings threatens to strip away every On Monday March 17 the union agreement talks reconvened, with General years of struggle Secretaries present to bludgeon Either the convenors of the JNC into line yet it scarcely seemed likely their that convenors week earlier had leadership that will defend hew accepted witnou yucsonne aosuro cam that interests. there were 40,000 workers lai off in BL (when in reality n more than 8,000 were tempor

NUR

arily lala oll wollo even sto o consider the validity of BL' balance sheet. what the Bi call ligures conceal is preciselv the ques suppose posalin supposed corporation The profits of BL's myriad ot private supplers, dealers and 24-hour General contractors are hidden from against view he claim that BIr cas ory government. that marches: alone will not huge stocks change its course un sold remains unproven. It is wing NUR leaders now concede need for such Interest payments Tne action But it is wrong to restrict And the huge sums creamed It to one day. Militants in everv off in interest payments by the union must press for an all-out bankers are obscured: last year general strike to bring down the payments

SUCH

amounted to over £60 million To prepare for in the and. strenathen Ryder Report and the introduc- strike councils stee workers participation must be built in each area draw.

TOR OT

- there has been no move by BL delegates TrOM convenors or union officials to labour movement bodies. question at any point the need to make "sacrifices" to restore Page 11 NALGO calls pay action The right wing leadership The action is in response to of NALGO has launched a i management offer of 6-12%. of other blacking compute members have been

NATITU

support of to work on the instructed not comparability pay issue of rate demands-a movi quickly prove very wint colle expensive for the employers, who will need to borrow cash to tide them over. being actor supported by white collar mem bers of NUPE who share the same demands. And traffic

CONTO

officers at municipal airports are be balloted on action over Easter

NALGO.

stand albeit over an obviously inade- pay claim a further wages throughout the tanley working class. London nursery sit-in On Friday March parents occupied Nightin- gale Lane Day Nursery in London Borough the of Wandsworth. Knowing that a demonstra- tion was planned for 4 p.m. the Matron tried to forestall any victory at Cowley could by removing • other use to lum to hildren from the Nurserv plants such Lucine Llanelli But in her rush and panic a window was left open and mator stee parents gain

• WELC

entrance legally and start their occupation The decision of Wandsworth Social Services Committee to close the Day Nursery was made in November 1979 Parents davisco bi letter of the decision. which was The son for own they The closing, were told -which is leased by the Council -was "no longer suitable" for a Day Nursery. At each Private nursery bent the knee Parents therefore were amazed and perplexed to find that two appucations ior the Acceptance under these con- lease (which come nas of Edwardes insulting for three years) were Tenewed. from individuals planning to run -would you believe-a private day nurserv woere tre y The parents occupied Night- ingale Lane Nursery the night the won 30 mcclug as a token gesture but that didn't deter them in their • I workers tace closure plan Since November the nursery which has full facilities for 56 children and had an attendance children closure decision. has been delih erately run down, to leave only four children on the day closure. The parents plan to continue the occupation as long as pos sible and have leafletted the local area and asked parents and childminders to bring children along to the Nursery to use the facilities. Supporting strikes The trade unions, Labour policies and Trades declaring Council Wandsworth have given support the occupation but needed, support important that the right particularly rom public sector unions in the generalised supporting strike action. If not there is a real danger that this occupation, like othe Pory attack on women achi ten strucere. parent families necessary and •vital service SUCh actor day provision for the under fives and spread the could of action isolation and enne defeat. Send financial support to: local Sarah Rackham, c/o Nightingale Night- Lane Day Nursery, ingale Lane, London SW12

STRIKES NOT VOTES

NEEDED TO KICK OUT

TORIES SHRINK FROM KREMLIN'S

'HUMAN RIGHTS' CHALLENGE

Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office as a necpaper. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Workers Socialist Leagur As Tory right winger Teddy Taylor scraped home the skin of his teeth in the formerly "safe" seat of Southend last week, it was clear that Thatcher's govern- ment is whipping up more hostility and faster than her ill-fated predecessor Edward Heath. Taylor suffered the humilia- tion of seeing a 10,774 majority transtormed into one only 430 in a by-election which he with barely over a won only third of the votes cast. With Sir Keith Joseph still sponging assorted foodstuffs off his suit after his uncomfortable visit to South Wales, natchel herself took care to offer only a distant and fast-moving target for • egg-throwers aurine lying visit to Yorkshire and Humberside. around by side sneaking roads and back entrances, protected by a wall of 500 Selby coalfield, police Thatcher remained unharmed.

But a group of steelworkers' wives narrowly missed her speeding car in Howden, and in

TOO.

Iner was impromptu attempt by a crowd

SOCIALIST

PRESS®

THATCHER

of over 200 to make an omlette windscreen natener nersel seething Meanwhile the at Tory policies found a reflection even in the House of Lords, where government pro- posals to introduce sweeping for school transpor charges were unrown oult a sulptisla 2-1 vote. Bitterness this While the revolt Tory question was led —ana will no doubt lead simpi further cuts on other aspects spending of education part al ness among workers and middle class families in rural districts, who would face crippling trans- sending their port charges • 201 children to school. But this small setback inflic 1204 30 Tory's strategy ted on the cuts--costing 'only thon me to stem till growine anything to stem the growing opposition to govern- ment policies. official Indeed the latest on retail price inflation figures -showing a 19.1% annual rise in prices, with more come- grossly understate the impact of Tory policies and the capitalist British soldier in Ireland Published by Folrose Ltd for the Workers Socialist League, BM Box 5277, London WC1V 6XX. Printed by Anvil Printers Ltd., Londor crisis on the working class.

still Not inflation accelerating upwaras -will prices for petrol, higher rates, council rents, coal. Dect. electricity; ane prescill ions still to come in the nex but the -months: two some much contallis steeper increases. risen have 12 months last mortgage of the soaring resull tate. Transport and vehicle costs have 23.7% is lower than 20% overall figure prices have largely because food one up by only 12.8%-a result of the mild winter Another factor concealed by figures for retail price the is that raw materia increases course for 2 million next winter paste are now so ingr twice a finished will receive a further boost a time when there is speculatior commodities-at an annual rate that Howe's budget will attempt of around 40%. to cut dole payments and other Fall in profits benents tor lne list telle suice the 1930s. IT is rapid increase brings These policies con there not a fall in profits Tories' with arbitrary spite will from the flow manuracturers -wilu The continue contionalising° respond world-wide crisis of capitalism- production an anarchic system that rests production for social sackings and

LUSHINS

speed-up on the shop floor need but on ine accumulation Unemployment-already on of profit. human rights Labour government which pres The ceded it-have dismissed the H under which the crusade Block prisoners terrorIsts British government pursues and masochists who deliberately hysterical anti-Soviet deprive themselves of the most its Union campaign almost up to date prison facilities ir Europe. blew in its face last up Abroad, the government Predictably the fuse week. comes under constant pressure- was Ireland. not necause orne moralis oppressors support that ble A cynical deal was reached Irish nationalists-but hetween the britiso governmeni repression because the torture, United Nations Human and treatment of Irish republic ans by the British tarnishes the mons Commission image of the 'free world' advoc- agreed to dror dissident rights a resolution calling for a Soviet ait. on the treatment deformed and degenerated stalemical workers states. Andrei soviet The Stalinist regimes them- Sakharov-in return

TOYT

of another by raised dropping ce ves nave never Soviet Union which condemned oppression or the treatment people Britain

TOT

Violating nullal the H Block rights in Ireland. handed out to deal-played down prisoners as anytning olner than measure the a bargaining counter, a means to Britain —is defend repressive regimes deep hypocrisy under which the over which they preside. anti-soviet crusade is oeng run For home consumption the The cornerstone of British government-both this foreign policy not British Sovietism. The real target of its and tory governiel! FUND-keep it up! Another good week on the Special Fund has brought us in sight of our first £1000, with £947.05 in hand. But it is still going to be an uphill battle if we are to raise the first half of the £3,000 fund by the Easter weekend.

Meanwhile, it is important that readers do not forget our Monthly Fund which we have to maintain at £750 a month in order to sustain our paper.

The total, half way through the month is f358.30 so we are not too far off target. But we must not rest on our laurels. Donations to either fund should be rushed to: Socialist Press Fund, BM Box 5277, London WC1V 6XX Speeding away in an egg-proof car: Thatcher This is why even as millions The answer must be to fight of workers labour lace a luture throughout move exploitation an any the ment tot generasuake acuon u banks major defeat this government and anu Duvells conditions to drive out are reportino recoro brolls al create profiso aast years aguara announce Labour's right wing leadership.

ouaorusted workers looking government carrying …oul Southend or other by-elections socialist i ron on based she is astered to continue on banks nationalisatior is allowed to continue on industry without compensatio: course for four more years under workers' manners latest Cambridge Policy Keview a real alternative to can offer forecasts 3½ million unem- ployed! sacrificed a major propagnda success wokers undeformed state would of course iniall have some political prisont it attack are the a workers ate socialsee is necessar! property relations in the Soviet to defend itself against movi to deformed Unlon anu re-estabilsh capitals. But the Soviet Union fce workers' Have barred the free exploitation of the rise of Stalinism hasing those massive markets by imper- since dropped any pretencthat this is its aim. The police se is anst manc The crusade on human rights use and dins workers sably.

used is trotted out only against thos who are not agents of intrial- which do not provid countries , West German) America, Britain ism with unrestricted The Soviet Union ishere. and markets unable to demonste to fore Where markets . the working class of throrld exist -11 the Shah's Iran and a Chile, the the difference betwe host of other repressive nations repressist the ex ed in Britain and America condemn imperialist countries 'outside interference" repression i the necessary markets might Where SuCH exploiters be created (in China, where the It is for that reasonat the imperialists hope to see Soviet Union cannot mpaign eventual overturn of national- of Block on the treatment the 1S0C propert relatulls, and Irish riblicans DrIsoners tirade is switched off like a tap.

by the British. Ireland remains Britain's But that fight mube taken Achilles heel in its international up by British socialis: manoeuvres. *PoW status forpublican The British had a majority prisoners! Rights Commis in the Human *Smash the H BKS! attack the

CIO.

*Troops out of and now! therefore Unior soviet