The 'defence' programme the GLC scrapped

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- USA Jui 5 USAF ALCU The decision of the new Labour GLC to withdraw from the government's Civil Defence programme has been widely reported in the national and local press.

Yet few reports give any idea as to what this programme actually means in practica terms for the majority of citizens in the capital.

An outline of the "plan" to clear up London after a nuclear strike was presented at a seminar jointly organised last November by the Tory GLC and the Home Office for the benefit of London councillors.

They were told that current War Office thinking is that there may be as little as 2-3 days warning before a war broke out between the imperialist western powers and the Warsaw Pact-but that there should be a preliminary period of "conventional" warfare before the first warheads start to fall.

And the; were reminded that while on the one hand Tory policies are forcing British imperialism into the front line of the NATO attack, the Tories are also cutting back on spending at home. This means that their plans for post-strike recovery rest heavily on "volunteers" dragooned into action under the draconian powers of "Teorganised local government"

Current military thinking is opposed to the mass evacuation of people from London or other main cities. Partly this is because they do not know for certain which will be the primary targets for a nuclear strike.

In any case, no area could be thought safe from the erects or tall-out. _ IS--1.

Those citizens without the cash to purchase their own fall-out shelters should not expect Civil Defence planning to offer them any communal provision. It is estimated that it would cost £60 billion to shelter even half of the civilian population of Britain-and even if the Tories were interested in such a project, cash limits will not stretch that far.

But government money is to be made available for the early completion of the network of protected headquarters for post-strike government. £4 million is allocated to this, in addition to £4 million on improved communications, and £4-5 million on "hardening" broadcasting centres against nuclear attack.

In all, it is proposed that the "Home Defence" budget be increased by 60%, with the expenditure by local authorities to double.

Five groups The plan for London is to divide it into five groups, for each of which the GLC is supposed to provide a Group HQ.

Because of the high probability of widespread destruction in London, each Group HO will be linked to one of the subregional centres outside London.

The North East London Group HQ in Wanstead, for example, will be linked to a subregional HQ "somewhere in Essex"

Within the Group area, each borough will be headed by a controlier with dictatorial powers: in London the controllers are the present Chief Executives of each borough-appointed by the Home Secretary.

The elected councils would virtually cease to exist except for 3-person 'Emergency Committees' " under the command of the controller.

In London the army would take charge of the three services-with army headquarters established in each of the five groups.

But there would be few soldiers left in the capital in the case of a war with the Warsaw Pact, since most available troops would have been dispatched to reinforce the Rhine Army.

There would be at most 3,800 soldiers in London, compared to 25,000 police.

• The Fire Service-so depleted by Tory cuts that it now has less than one quarter of the manpower and only 6% of the emergency units it had during the World War 2 blitz-would be withdrawn to the perimeter of London well before any nuclear strike.

Only after the radiation levels drop would they even attempt to re-enter London and attempt to rescue any survivors.

The fact is that while there are well-laid preparations to use the police and army to secure continuity of governmental control over the surviving population and to maintain supplies to the imperialist war etfort, there is no intention of the "Home Defence' planners to protect or shelter the population of London.

Instead the army and fire brigade will be withdrawn from the target area, and Chief Executives and their flunkies will join top government figures and civil servants in hardened bunkers, while ordinary men, women and children are left to fry.

Even Air Commodore Crompton of the Home Defence College, admits that it would take at least 2 months in a shelter before survivors of a nuclcar strike could emerge safely.

In other words there is virtually no chance of survival for the average London ratepayer with or without the Tory GLO's planned € 750,000 Civil Defence spending!

With Reagan and Thatcher sacrificing vital elements in the US and British economies to carry forward their war effort, there is only one serious way to protect ourselves and our children rom a nuclear holocaust: mobilise the power of the organised labour movement in action to bring down this government, drive out the right wing pro-imperialist leaders of the Labour Party and implement a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. ALCH underline the fact that the struggle is for a united Ireland-in which the gerrymandering and sectarian repression of the six county statelet in the North is brought to an end, and democratic rights extended to the Irish people as a whole.