Socialist Press no. 55

BLOW AGAINST WAGE CONTROL

TOOLMAKERS

SLAM SCANLON

WAGES CONFERENCE MARCH 27 SEE P4

"Who do you represent: the government, the manage- ment or the membership?" This pointed question, rammed home to

AUEW

President Hugh Scanlon by a 3,000 meeting bitter of striking Leyland toolmakers last Friday is that is one being echoed amongst thousands of workers in of industry. every sector The question pinpoints the role of the trade union bureaucracy as guardians of the government's wage control policy, collaborators with management, and policemen over the working class.

AWAKENING

It knocks on the head any notion that the toolroom workers the Social against ale

TOLUD

Contract. And it sounds the note an awake se CaSS groping for its political indepen- dence-the death knell of bureau- In voicing this the toolmakers not exception-but the all clearest reflection of the voice of the working class. Scanlon of course is one of the foremost enforcers of the Social Contract Last summer he brought the AUEW to the point of split as railroaded acceptance of the ne 5% wage limit through the union's national conference in defiance of the rulebook. Since then he has stomped the countrv detending everv aspect of the government's policy, and using every means of intimidation his disposal through union committees break the resis- to tance of any section of workers in struggle against wage controls or me brutal speca-up measures being forced in throughout the motor and engineering industry.

ONLY TEN VOTES

Yet last Friday, face to face 3,000 of with workers he supposedly represents, Scanlon could win a puny ten votes for his proposals. This came in a week in which the separation of the trade union bureaucracy from the membership was vividly exposed.

SOCIALIST

PRESS *

SCABLON

RIGHT! WE'RE GOING

TO HAVE SOME

IMMEDIATE CHANGES.

PHAS

TWO

In Fleet Street,

NATSOPA

General Secretary Owen O'Brien found himself unable to win more than twelve votes out of 120 in repeated efforts to force workers on the Times back to work. Without any real support it was only his expulsion of the whole group of workers from the union -thus effectively sacking them out of the industry-that weakened their resolve and tually drove them back.

DEMONSTRATION

In London last Wednesday massive demonstration of 20,000 of them from students many occupied colleges hurled abuse at

NUS

Left' President "Broad Charles Clarke who offered absol- utely no policy to take forward their struggle against the impact of education cuts. the day sale Glasgow, NALGO General Secre- Geoffrey Drain comronted howls of "scab" and "blackleg from thousanas of striking punc at his sector workers

TUTORS

compliance with a court order to call off an official one-day protest strike. Bitter hostility to the treachery

NOTHI

bureaucratic leaders is of their sweeping the workers' movement, throwing into the balance the continued existence of the 5% which limit was never od y accepted by the membership and Jones is now preserved only by dictator- ial measures exercised by increasingly discredited full-time officials. Under these conditions wage- cutters in the Labour government confronted with real dilemma on the toolroom strike.

FORTNIGHTLY PAPER OF THE

WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUE

No 55 * 16th March 1977 * 10p Contents International News, pp2- Back Page THF strike. Film Review Year Million Pollution Threat . p9 French Revolution-pp6-/ CDLM Statement ,.. p4 Festival of Healyism. p4 Industrial News..- pp10-11

PLESSEY

CASE FOR

WORKERS

CONTROL

Workers in four Mersey side plants of Plessey Tele weel communications last excluded management fron the factories following thi company's announcement o national total of 4,000 redundancies to be made or June 2nd. At the Kirkby factory, which i be closed down, the deter to mined reaction of the 378 (mostl women workers to the Marcl 2nd announcement was to begin days work-in only Management have excluded since then except half an hour the following Thurs day so that wages could be paid The redundancies come as th result of decreased demand by th electro-mechanica switching equipment produced i

TIM

the factories. But at the same time Plesse are engaged in rationalisation Whatever course of action they made possible through the chang take, they must be guided by the the production of the all to knowledge that everywhere the electronic equipment now required by the GPO working class is moving onto the offensive against wage-cutting and

SOLIDARITY

speed-up. As a result, three factorie And in Plessey's the Kirkby (Kirkby, Sunderland and Speke work-in, with widespread solid- are to be closed; 1,300 jobs lost a arity action, is an indicator that the Edge Lane factory in instal in Liver workers are ready to occupy pool; and a further the event of closure ation workers will lose their job given the slightest hint of leader- nationally. ship. At Edge Lane, Speke The government and the TUC Gilmoss (where installatio: have three possible options workers fear that they will b the tool- proceeding against amongst the doomed 700) whit makers. collar workers were until Monda

EXTREME WEAKNESS

ITOI

preventug entering the factories as an act o They can press Scanlon to go Kirkb solidarity with the for expulsions or suspension from workers. the AUEW-in the knowledge that But despite this lead, no actio this would be from a position of taken has as yel Sunderland workers or by sho extreme weakness. can move through the floor workers at the Merseysid They

NEB

for an of factories apart from Kirkby.

announcement closures and rationalisation of To begin a serious defence o Leyland-risking of wave jobs Plessey workers must fight t take real control of productio factory occupations, and complete alienation of those sec- into their hands. tions of workers not on strike. This can begin at Kirkby an Or they can move towards other plants by taking the super Cont'd Back Page, Col. 4 Cont'd Back Page, Col 3

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

DICTATORS RIG ELECTIONS

MID EAST SELL OUT PREPARED

Page 2 El Salvador The victory of ultra-right General Carlos Romero in last month's Presidential election in the tiny Central American republic of El Salvador was a foregone conclusion. His party, the Party of National Conciliation set up by the army in 1962, the last won election. by naked ballot rigging. And it did the same again. Aside (from the fraudulent count, working the San (clas capital Salvador were forced travel several miles if they wanted to cast their vote. The left wing parties of the Bloc boycotted Socialist lection. The result (announced by the radio before the count) provoked a wave of protest from the working class. There have been numerous strikes and demonstrations. 'At one time a of 15,000 demonstration of the occupied square tne capital. movement of protest has This been the greatest attacked by brutality by the army. ponce and According to opposition sources 200 people have been killed by the authorities in the three weeks since the election. suspended all Romero has constitutional rights and is now set to through alone. Mid- The carpets in red East airports must have worn weeks with th thin in recent series of visits from UN Secre- General, Waldheim, from tary 6th to 12th February and new US Secretary of State Cyrus 15th to 21st. Vance from designed These trips have been take another step to peace on terms dictated by the imperialists through re-convening the Geneva talks on the Middle East.

The imperialist powers and their negotiators are operating now in a new situation following the defeats inflicted the Palestinians Syria and the coming to power of a new administration the United States. The Syrians, with ine connie- ance of the Soviet Union, have con- Minued to stamp with an iron hee.

fon Lebanon. ITALY-The Lockheed affair shake the Italian to Two former government. deterice ministers, Gui (Christian Democrat) and Tanassi (Social Democrat), have been formally impeached by the Parliament for their supposed corrupt Lockheed. Ex-premier Rumor has for the been let off the hook tume being stil falls under suspicion, as dors President Leone himself.

BELGIUM-Christian Democrat (trime Minister Tindermans has been forced to call general dection for April 17th, having lost majority in Parliament over the of devolution. But the jor problem he has to face is the of workers' resistance to his Bhutto Pakistan Prime Minister Ali Bhutto's People's Party was returned to power in Pakistan's first elec- 1970 with well tions since over the two-thirds Parliamen- majority which he needs tary suspend the constitution. to by The campaign was marked huge rallies the opposition Pakistan National Alliance led by Air Marshall Azghar Khan. whoss only policy was opposition Bhutto. lack of There was an evident Bhutto's arrogant lor

CILIARSIA

demagogy. the reporter Every press on Just before the arrival of Vance they moved back from the Lebanese border with Israel after protests from the Zionist govern- ment. They have done this in order their areas of the Lebanon that are still controlled by leftist and Palestinian forces.

FIERCE FIGHTING

The movement of Syrian 'peace- keeping' troops away from the led February 13th to border 0I1 fierce fighting between Syrians and liberation forces in the area of Tel Nabla. after 65 deaths were reported two days fighting which OI Lebanese fascists were also involved Since on the side or the syrans.

then several more clashes have been reported. The Zionist government, whose problems have not

VILERI

IN BRIEF

measures due to come into force month. The largest strikes next since the early 1960s have broken out, reflecting the European wave resistance of to the economic policies being imposed by capitalist governments everywhere to combat the economic crisis. SCANDINAVIA-In Sweden and Norway the economic struggle of the workers has intensified. In both countries last week haelonal wage the talks between unions and broke employers' organisations down in - complete deadlock. In of Finland also the breakdown wage talks has led to moves which will bring at least 300,000 workers strike in the month of on

ULL

March, spot has reported gross violations

INDIA

of the electoral law, including the packing of ballot boxes with false votes Bhutto, who has now dropped If Indira Gandhi wins the his former pretensions to "Islamic Indian election on March 16th failed get the political legitimacy has he sought then no honest witness will political through the election. believe that the results are Having nothing in his policies to genuine. any of the needs of the meet Party Pakistan, The Congress leadership of imboverished are past masters at the art of ballot Bhutto will be forced to rule rigging, something which they do through crisis measures as workers and peasants search for a political with more Imesse than their coun- terparts in neighbouring Pakistan.

way solve their problems. Already they have begun congress concrois tne broadcast ing services completely, though numerous launch protests against have many Bhutto's dictatorship, including a sections oi lne Dress shown their hostility and 40,000 one-day general strike. journalists went on a one-day strike police have shot during the campaign to demand dead a number of demonstrators, higher wages, the first strike since arrested at least 1,000 opposition- partly lifted. the emergency ists and banned all demonstrations.

POLITICAL PRISONERS

Gandhi has kept 30,000 oppos- in jail ition political prisoners throughout the campaign. And 200 battallions of troops have from the been withdrawn borders to keep during the election. 'wins' Whoever the ballot, Gandhi's Congress or the oppos- ition alliance of right-wingers and the masses have been reformists, what they think of the showing dictatorship, and india will remain in a state of political crisis until it obtains a government which repres- ents the interests of workers and peasants. been resolved by the reelection of It reaffirmed its firm stand in Rabin Labour Party leader, rejecting all the capitulationist projects which the imperialist and this event as a POllidy 'diplomatic coup' on their part in Zionist forces are trying to impose the preparation for Vance tour. on the region with the support of the USA". In fact its purpose was to force back the Palestinians and to try to However, some doubts will Yassir find a formula this tor their remain atter Geneva "peace' talks. ment Arafat's own visits to various Arab Such involvement is essential for capitals. of the talks, and the a press conference given in the success Americans, who have begun to talk Kuwait on 20th February he denied any agreement with about recognising the rights of the Vance or the US Palestinians' are more aware of this imperialists, but nevertheless expressed his continued support for than anybody. Various preparations for the idea West Bank state. other of bringing about Palestinian particip- Talks with the Jordanians then in a sell-out of their cause about ation began along reports with have also been made. possible efforts within the Palest- the tinian leadership to exclude those 'Inus on fighting in South Lebanon, 13th opposed to the West

DANK SAILE

of the appeared February Zettun bemocratic Party letter possibly at meeting enlarged Palestine National Council Arbeiter Austrian Social which opened last weekend.

led by Chancellor Kreitsky.

This unsigned letter, alleged to be from a leader of the Palestine Organisation, talked of Liberation possible reciprocal arrangements' with the Zionists. and of making concesssions, presumably including the acceptance of the Zionist state, in return for a client state for the Palestinians on the West Bank of Jordan, in the River currently Israeli hands. As usual the Israelis, who seem to be the worst judges of their own best interest, rejected all this as a Finally on March 8th there was trick, and insisted that the Pales- the much publicised reconciliation' could Geneva tinians• only Joln in Cairo between Arafat and "peace' talks in the baggage train of Hussein, the butcher of the Pales- the Jordanians "black September' of tinians This talk has led to rumours about further concessions 19/U. The need for firm and resolute by the Palestinian leadership.

leadership the Vance ralestinan In the week after the Revolution was never greater than opened talks with King trip they now rejection of all the and a Hussein of Jordan on the possibility 'great solutions being power of an independent Palestinian state suggested to them is clearer than on the West Bank. ever before.

FOT

will The Fateh leadership this the Palestinians all these develop- have to look not to the Arab compelled by governments, but to the Lebanese issue a statement on ments who supported them February which denied the workers of *any against the Syrians, and to the document existence which Egyptian masses who recently delivered to any party Tergel in any wav erupted into the streets in the terroniced SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 16th March 1977

CYPRUS

FORMULA

AGREED

in a meeting promoted by the US foreign office as a bid to end antagonisms between two NATO "allies" leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities arrived at an formula agreed last month. With the Turkish government under severe pressure from a US military and economic embargo aimed at forcing them into conces- sions, the Turkish Cypriot leader Denktash his name to the put following four proposals: 1. Cyprus will be an independent two-part federated republic.

The land held bv each.com- munity will discussed and tivity and economic sufficiency of that land. 3. Freedom of travel, of resi- dence, and the right to possessions be the subject of negotiations.

to 4. Both administrations will respect the independent and dual character of the state. So while the document states "independence" the of Cyprus, it says not a word about withdrawal of the foreign troops on the island British. -Turkish, Greek, US and "independence" is Such clearly a fraud.

DIVISION

Both sides however were agreed on this position. The disagreement the division the centres island. While Denktash claims 36% island, Makarios for the of the ations offerts open the 20%.

offering fought for Another concession 200,000 refugees to return to their AKEU and the The Stalinist Socialist Party (EDEK)-neither of to stop the anything which coup before the 1974 invasion, who did nothing to mobilise the Cypriot and who supported the- toilers, Turkish continue their betrayals. supporting They are now Makarios' position in these talks, while the Soviet Union simply calls for the negotiations to take place at the United Nations.

ELECTIONS

US envoy Meanwhile Clifford General Kurt UN Secretary and Waldheim have correctly pointed out that the future of the negoti- ations depends on the outcome of coming the elections This is particularly true because of the within the opposition National Front coalition to the ment to any concessions or the Greek Cypriots over land return of refugees. These opposition for the are forces the lifting demanding embargo before any concessions in Cyprus. The lies that were put out at the time of the Turkish invasion-that Turks and would iuIKey

HOLCUL

give them land and jobs has proved completely false. On the contrary, the Turkish bourgeoisie has extracted tons of goods from the occupied territories and transferred them Turkey.

UNEMPLOYMENT

struggles But now sharpening have opened up against unemploy- ment and inflation. weeks ago 3,000 public A tew sector workers took strike action.

demanding wage increases linked to prices. And peasants have begun to struggle pursuing demands for land.

The recent talks and the further will do talks to come on' Cyprus for the Cypriot masses. nothing Both Greek and Turkish toilers struggle against must unite imperialism and for an independent Cyprus *For an independent Cyprus!

*All troops out of Cyprus now!

*For the unity of Turkish and Creek toilers against the capitalists

SPAIN - more reforms' SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 16sh March 1977 (Our brief note [in SP52] on the election in Denmark contained A reader wrong information sunt in Denmark has written to clarify the issue). The Danish government which called the election was a Social Democrat minority 1, 5't ite fice in government, January after massive and consistent working class hostility to the previous Liberal Party government.

However, they continued in much the same way in dealing with the effects of the crisis, although not going as far as the right wing

NEW LIFE TO CP

The same situation has given new life to the previously discredit- ed Stalinist Party, which has been the main beneficiary of the fight make the against the attempts to workers pay for the crisis.

However Lne slalmsts stopped even their bureaucratic and limited to lead mass struggles as the Social Democrac took office, and the power of the workers has been frittered away in a series of token strikes and demon- In May 1974 when the Liberal and began workers attacks on the workers' standard of below as a class answer. and encompassed 500,000 workers.

one others came out again, but its

LWU.

hard core were inbetween three and lour hundred thousand who struck and were looking for a lead.

The Communist Party turned it into a strike for a few kroner an opposed calls or a strike to kick the govern- trom ment oul,

SUWI

ranks, and used manoeuvres and lies to stop it continuing. 100,000 workers demonstrated Copenhagen, and later in the In year unemploy- strikes to protest ment gathered 250,000 in Copen- hagen alone. kindergarten and nursery

AIN¢

teachers struck against firings and with huge svm- cuts In Imance, pathy from the public. Despite the Stalinists who limit- ed the movement to days of protest the government was forced into a few But when a Don cuede. later the negotiations between me moms dr empoyers Collective Contracts over the new broke down, the government was

DENMARK-SOCIAL

CRISIS SHARPENS

one hand because on the the socia democrats by Illegal

TUC

even proposed upon support in the tations also lost support.

the Stalinists-gained •tarmists m une wroan workly bas palty, ed them after seete throuch the simones has opened the way for an intensi- crisis, inas- tication ot the as bosses trive strike breaking fuel supplies

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

polarisation Wildleyel Despite this reformist mask, the also showed its true face regime when in San Sebastian on March alleged 8th the police shot three members of the Euskadi (Basque) liberation movement, ETA, Killing workers of The two them. Euskadi immediately reacted with the unanimous militancy which they have shown so often in the last Massive strikes and demon- like wildfire strations throughout of the plovuices the showing

CUSK401.

once agam irreconcilable contradiction between the aims of this govern- ment of fascists and the demands of the Spain. mass 1n

MOYCHECIL

This, of course, did not stop the Spanish Communist from rally stagine a major event to back up its Police escort scab petrol lorries across picket lines sackings still and to reject a political intervention Management ripped up the old negotiations the govern. ment, but it was clear that no lead contract, and presented the new while the will come from them. workers carried on were opposed to before, working to old norms, meeting again if a crisis situation coming in at the same times, etc, so should arise--this would necessitate the firm locked them out and them giving some type of lead and announced to its readers its closure.

them into conflict with the "guilty» prt the lers The bring were lound at the Labour Court of refusing to accept the manage.

PRINT CONFLICT

ment's right ot manage and fined 50,000 Kroner, Meanwhile the latest conflict is They their refusal announced at the biggest newspaper and print- to re-start work under these circum- stances. They have some significant establishment of Berlingske Tidende, where 1,000 typographers support already, and have started and lithographers are locked out. producing their own alternative paper in 300,000 copies They are fighting a management plan to cut 500-600 Kroner from The newspaper industry has seen wages, get them on 3 some struggles because of this case.

Newspaper production has been instead of 4 shifts (increasing their 40 from 34 hours), getting disrupted, but the main union has been fined 200,000 Kroner already.

na or Luv-sou prers, mikea lo of computerised the introduction / By Mike Jones which will mean more these three major Western Europ- class collaborationist alliance with the Fraricoist regime. This was the Stalinist parties-a total ean hostility to the independent mobil- Euro-communist

SOMETI

between Spanish CP leader Santiago isation of the working class against Carrillo and Georges Marchias and the political representatives French capital. In each of their three coun Berlinguer of the and Italian CPs. tries the leaders of these parties are the publicised meeting sustaining in power govern- much communique ment through which the capitalist joint exercising currently its spineless platitudes about unnamed 'demo- whether this be Giscardian, rule, Christian Democratic or fascist.

In all cases these collaborationists do It refrained from any criticism of the Spanish fascists or not want to overthrow capitalist rule but to broaden it to include Soviet bureaucracy. showed very clearly what unites

WORKERS

SOCIALIST LEAGUE

The Workers Socialist League is a Trotskyist organisation fighting to build a revolutionary leadership in.the working class to lead the mounting opposition to the betrayals of both 'left' and right wing Labour and trade union leaders and the Communist Party, as they attempt to enforce wage control, sackings, speed-up and public service As workers take up the struggle against these policies they are the sheer weight of forces opposing them to confront Only with an understanding of the role of the labour bureaucracy and a programme to unite the broadest sections of workers in struggle can a way forward be found.

The Workers Socialist League is the only movement that sets out to do this, fighting consistently in the working class for transitional which go beyond simply trade union militancy to raise the political questions to workers and prepare the forms of organis.

ation and the knowledge necessary for the struggle for socialism.

As a result we have been at the forefront of struggles against the cuts, against wage control, for unionisation, and against redundancy.

We have done more than any other tendency to fight the introduction of 'workers' participation' in industry.

And we have strongly supp- orted the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement, which has set out to show the link between the reactionary policies of the Social Contract and bureaucratic dictatorship in both the unions and the Labour Party But our practical struggle for the continuity of the principles and Trotsky's Transitional Programme is in no way a task con fined to Britain. It requires an attention and involvement in the struggles of the working class internationally, and the fight to recon.

struct the Trotskyist Fourth International.

there has been a consistent drive within the WSL to deepen So and enrich the movement's understanding of the history and the Fourth International as an essential part of our present crisis of thr initiative towards its reconstruction.

We urge all readers who agree on the need for revolutionary lead- ership and the demands we put forward to find out more abort the #SL and join our fight in the Labour morement.

toolroom workers to continue their strike at a mass meeting despite the pleas of Scanlon, is a major step forward in the government strike denying this is a fight against the Social Contract it is clear that Phase II. It is also clear that Phast be held. if it was in one section got more than another section would go the form of an unofficial commit- wages held down and being Executive Committee

CLU

helping to solve the capitalist crisis all unions for officials to have all the negotiating power and for the stewards to into the hands of these officials under conditions control is essential. why it is not only the neither will Scanlon To us it seemed the most the rump boring of three ring circuses.

Clapham nothing But in fairness, we must admit that the Workers Revolution- ary Party managed to coax 2,000 over members, guilt- And Mike ridden drifters, and confused but cheerful youth their "Festival of Trotskyism" have on nothing Sunday 6th March. featured films The afternoon pensation and exhibits photographs and _ot gramme is out. documents, some of them interest- ing from the point of view of the "here development of the Marxist move- ment, others slanted to support the WRP's present campaign of slander against Joseph Hansen and George Novack, leaders or the Socialist Workers Party, sympathis- ing section of the "United" Secre- tariat of the Fourth International. About 1,000 heard a rally which Georges began the evening's entertainment Its impressively the array oi speakers must all but the most sceptical on the platform. that Gerry Healy's "International Committee" remains a vital force We ports must conni ourselves among the sceptics.

Representatives of the phantom

CDLM STATEMENT

BACKS TOOLMAKERS

We reprint below most of the text of a statement in support of the tool- makers' strike adopted on Saturday by the Campaign for Democracy in So all the force of capitalism and brought to bear on these workers.

The Labour government elected mto ornce lo delena joos, uses me 1½ million unemployment situation member of the Communist Party, and toolroom worker at Longbridge carry this threat through. The Tory Labour Movement supporters wil demand support for the toolroom then repeats these threats and in fact carries out the attack.

When the vote was taken at this Scanion ind Duffy in vehich they Duffy was the voice of two years of bureaucracy's wate held down the whole AUEW could only get ten votes out of 3,000 was supported. They are giving a lead to they are fighting the Social Con- defeated is by taking action against Phase II now. That is why the tool- the Campaign for Democracy in the ence gave no such lead, but directed heid by the attacks on democracy "sectional" disputes and become a reality in the struggles of the toolroom workers and a recall Scanlon's role-for which he conte ence ise aki these e evelopic clapped. Now EC member of the ditionally support these workers we WaY Leyland Combine

FESTIVAL OF HEALYISI

Greek section ot the "international" said 60 years in the working class move- that would indicate any Vereecken's remarks participation whatever in the living of struggles of the working class backwardness do working class

WRP

General Secretary kanda showed hus state- ment of programme that the WRP learnt nothing and forgotten the past two years. 11 "Nationalisation without under workers control" is in; Trotsky's Transitional Pro- words were magine smashing the reformist and Stalinist bureaucracy and on bruguig down -but Banda the Labour government- was utterly silent about how to do Banda also called for support for the WRP's latest propaganda lurch, a youth march for a United Social- ist States of Europe. Vereecken, long-time Libya. Why is that, Gerry?

collaborator of Michel Pablo, was Once politically alien element pillars of rhetoric.

WRP

now exhibit him at every opportunity because he sup; "inquiry" their into Hansen and Novack. Chairman Cliff Slaughter showed It is one thing to demand wages be brought up to the level of the highest paid plant in Leyland; it is another thing to ask to negotiate wages and conditions on a company wide level. company gives This the lead requirement corporate bargaining rather plant bargaining; this would inevit- up the ollicials. The massive movement workers is because of the erosion of their wages (not differentials') but of toolroom workers and others to include a demand for cost of living against clauses in tnen agreements wncicoy for the March 27th Confer- Union Democracy were agreed at last Saturday's meeting of Organising Committee 'hoto: Dave Evans, IF L

UXIOIC

sible, the Little Ilford School NUT.

Among other speakers will be current election for General Secre- St MITTeD" from Longbridge TGWU, a speaker approach workers in a number of control and the way this was осдет sirugges mcuumg cre loor committee agreed discuss campaigns within a number of unions with members present- conferences are approaching. It was agreed such meetings would be held there are dangers in the NALGO, NUT, NUPE and GMWU Vereecken as a comrade with "over about the American not, we trust were, however, allowed to is without comment, and indeed to respond to Trotsky's cries of agony. The rally considered a motion calling Calquiry into Trotsky's murder and Commission Lebanese and Palestinian militants indicting Hansen and We advance. abstained. the ones to do so. We apologise for that tell us why Newsline has lately been -we should have A particularly disturbing aspect

TOT

of the WRP's non-programme Gaddafi's anti-communist regime in "socialism now" is its effect on the working class youth around them.

of the WRP had been shoved up on We were appalled by the anti-trade union ideas of the young comrades with whom we spoke And it was time for the Equity Contempt for the opposed to political towards their reformist goal seemed to be that of depicting Stalinist leadership, is something no SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 16th March 1977 The toolroom workers should take their lesson of trade union 'democracy' into the whole trade

SUPPORT

The financial support already the of rolling for the toolmakers (without an appeal being made) and than the Ford workers' one day strike and lobby of the AUEW EC show hands of the kind of that is

LEODOLSC

of possible We call for other workers to take we must oppose the official instruc- tions to cross picket lines issued by will fight for the above programme automatic- in the trade unions. That is why the will be

TOOHOOT

Sake Sunday March 27th, 10am-4.30pm, Digbeth Civic Hali, Birmingham Credentials (50p) from Kevin Lee, 44 Devonshire Rd: Handsworth Wood, Birmingham 20 Conference details fixed members had only moved motions supporting the conference in those they felt certain to win, and could only claim one success in terms of mittee that in their view however torce the idea of the conference should be to arm those attending with a program met "catales" the wid- nolicies. Conference had grown Trevor morenot. had agreed to send delegates since Oak CLP; Kensington North CLP; Inion Liaison Healy More members experienced would probably not make the sort from the ot statements we heard youth. But it is the WRP's lack of programme for intervention in the Novack in organisations of the working class that makes it possible for such backwardness to flourish inside the voted against. party. WRP have in the past The of excluded members of other polit- their ical groups from meetings they We wherever could. were, admitted to the however "Festival" under our own banner, so to speak. Is the WRP beginning in the workers unions, as to take democracy seriously? Or did they hostility movement and merely find it expedient to strike a pose of openness in their campaign

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 16th March 1977

STUDENTS SHOW

The the struggle against

DES

HATRED FOR

proposals to increase tuition fees found a national focus for one day last week in the countrywide NUS demon- strations. In London, 20,000 students marched in protest against the increases; Glasgow, 10,000

BROAD LEFT

students took to the streets; and in Leeds, 6000 students, backed by NUPE branches, demonstrated This impressive turnout by fact 38 that studells, colleges are occupied, now once again underlines student willingness to fight the increases. But again, the between gap the NUS student and leadership's inactivity never WIder. The London demonstration was designed from the beginning as a purely protest action. But even this protest was blunted, as for example the managed march past the DES at Waterloo Photo: John Sturrock, Report even pausıng lo registei student opposition.

DUKE OF YORK

Like Grand Old Duke the of York, the demonstrators marched up to the DES only to be marched straight away from it. the And at end of the demon- Station informed

NUS

President Charles Clarke students

CLOSE

who could hear him above of abusive attacks massive barrage on him and the Broad Left in general how pleased was that they'd come, Shirley and how Williams had at last consented to This policy is clearly divisive, as meet the NUS Executive to discuss it counterposes overseas students to the situation! students, without a The point has often been made grant to those with one. hitherto that what is lacking Moreoyer the policy contents effective national leadership in this itself with the status quo-namely fight. that students already Local reports again show that should not have to leave.

not only are the Broad Left within It completely excludes those NUS not going to provide such who have yet to begin courses, and leadership, but that they are going paves the wav lor a further round their way mislead of increases bound struggles. 1978. At the LSE, for example, Students must agitate for a rejec- decision was taken to reoccupy on tion of al fee increases and for an Tuesday March 8th. The following end to the discriminatory practice day a Broad Left motion called off of charging overseas students much the occupation. than home students. higher fees

INDEFINITE

From these basic demands, we must campaign for the abolition of At Essex, despite recent setbacks all fees that anyone LO calling for motion indefinite occupation eventually succeeded- again against the Broad Left. Having failed to stop the occu- the Broad Left Executive pation, then issued a leaflet alleging that occupation's support had Ine "dwindled" and that the campaign was now nothing but the platform "ultra-left" of the Such a statement was a scarcely velled invitation admin- istration to move against the occu- pation. Nationally and locally the Broad Left within NUS have one aim: "patient negotiation" backed "if necessary" with empty

PIVEESL

actions, to achieve the non-imple- mentalion or lee mercases lor sell supporting students only.

NUS President Clarke ASTMS picket

PICKET

IN OFFICIAL

DISPUTE

Part of last week's demonstration The 30 week old strike of Tuesday March 8th saw ASTMS

ASTMS

technicians at members there from garnered London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Birmingham University over other universities throughout the the University's refusal to UK in a mass picket called at short National implement a Agree- notice on a working day as a follow ment with ASIMS for 5 weeks Lo a one day anonal sure m support of the Birmingham holiday is still on. LSE students outside their occupied building.

wishing to study can do so.

These demands against the fees must present coupled with demands for a rejec- cuts, and for tion of all education expenditure to rise to keep pace with inflation, as the necessary precondition for real expansion of educational facilities.

The policies must now be taken fought

NUS

up the end of conference at month. Failure to present clear programme opposition to the

NUS

official position can only mean the continuing domination of NUS by the Broad Left, and there the continuing of fore education. Sit-in highlights The Middlesex Polytechnic occu- pation began in only the Church Street administrative site and with a partial occupation at Enfield-but engulf all six has now spread •to main sites. Despite the claims of the direc- torate that they are on the students side, the canteens at Hendon and Enfield have been closed, mini- bus services stopped and light and heat cut off of the Bounds Green site. Meanwhile the Broad Left NUS leadership doing nothing-but has sallied into members. ASTMS General Secretary Clive Jenkins was among speakers who addressed the 1,000 strong meeting saying that the strike would be funded indefinitely. The feeling among the strikers is still adamant-they will stay on strike until they win. Every gate of picketed by the University is по less than 12 pickets every day between 6.30am and 7pm. Posed in the arrogat Some publishers with

ASTMS

have struggle by blacking Hudsons University Bookshop which is situated on the Campus.

A major question to be raised on this issue is how a public institution such as this takes upon itself the right to brazenly disregard National Agreement Universities are Other looking on with keen interest. the management in Birmingham defeat ASTMS every other administration wil attempt to follow suit-threat- ening every gain made by union- isation in this sector of the public services.

ISLINGTON

General Management Com- of Islington mittee meetings closely North CLP are to be scrutinised by Transport House. That the outcome of an NEC enquiry into the CLP set up allegations of right-wing ALle rigging of elections and the expul sion of left winger Keith Veness for fighting to expose it. The inquiry committee has also instructed the to restore Labour Party membership Veness. Veness Veness was expelled by the CLP -dominated by a bloc of Catholic Action supporters MP Michael O 'Halloran and orthodox reaction- aries-following an interview in the local community Gutter Press. Veness In this exposed the 'Conspiracy to rob' The trial of the Islington 18 black youth faced with High charges of "conspiracy Court to rob", is set for April 25th.

Parents and involved

VOTI

know they are only the tip of the iceberg. "But if we can get off this time, it will be the start of a fight back, said one youth. "It's a problem for an attack on the London Co-ord- inating Committee set up by repres- from entatives occupied colleges. Coordinating Yet the Com- itself suffers mittee from the complete lack of leadership from Socialist Workers Party (IS) mem- bers who sit on it. These people formed the main opposition to the demand moved by Middlesex Poly- technic that the occupations be linked to the struggle all education puli spendint to be kalt in pace calling with inflation. At Kingston Polytechnic, it was of the 'Militant' group members the union's who executive joined with right wingers to argue for an end to the college occu- then three days old, •AT• of further await the outcome negotiations with the directorate.

The occupation ended on March 4th with a demonstration through the town centre. But when on the Monday it was clear that no con- cessions had been made to the students, the union leadership still vigorously opposed any resumption of the occupation. At Portsmouth Polytechnic over 700 students occupied the offices following a virtually unanimous decisions at a crowara umon meeting A later attempt to further occupy the telephone exchange in block the met W1L0 violent opposition from some tech- nicians and lecturers who literally broke down the doors with crow- bars and sledgehammers, which is an indication of the kind of people students are up against in fighting racism and attacks on education. lage

BIG BROTHER WATCHING

tactics of the right, including th "out of order" of Ward ruling against them

AGMS

which went and the packing of meetings witl members of other wards. He also attacked O'Halloran fo his relationship with the Nortl building firm of J London lump Murphy, O'Halloran's forme employers who were finer £750,000 last year for tax evasion and for his failure to speak in th Commons-0 Hallorar House has yet to make his maiden speec after years as an MP. More recently, Veness's wife only Valerie, the Councillor Islington with remotely lef position on the cuts, was attacke with a broken bottle at their hom by two thugs who gave her "That's for Michae message O'Halloran" It is the outcry over events o this kind which must prompted right-winger Shirle! Williams to propose Veness an indication tha O'Halloran's although politics an impeccable-he votes solidly behin Callaghan-his political methods ar an embarassment even to the righ wing. However in even Veness, Transport House has mad sure that they have not paved th for left-wing takeover o way Islington North. GMC for the next yea Every attended by a Transpor will be House Prevent other Vote regist but 1 official, ostensibly reality to keep an eye on the lef wing inreat which the local reac themselve tionaries have shown handling incapable discretely every youth, black and white. They ought to abolish the charges o "conspiracy" and "suspicion Many more examples of the mal Tractices arrest all the one to arrest, the youth were relusca permission lo phon either solicitors or parents. Insistins on his rights one was told, "YOu don't have rights thi any country." In all-night sessions youths were made to slapped and punched, stand legs apart and arms out stretched, while they were beater in the kidneys and groin.

the event months atter is suffering from , a hard one youth head from where he lump on nIs masher of this sixteen year old Wa flung against even tricked to signing his "state ment" by being assured that if she did charged so he would not be Eventually she signed and the officer laughingly poured scorn on her. history of crime for which thes Most have served have years or

IWO

and which probation against them in bail applications "STOLE 3p" One, at 15, allegedly stole 3 and two sandwiches, and another at the age of 12, was charged wit] "robbery with violence" fo stealing 4p. The Defence Committee organising a petition and a loca Saturday demonstration on Apr 23rd. The local Fabian councillors an critical of the racisn MPs openly of their old guard colleagues be challenged to thei 11Ce influence to put an end to polio brutality in the area. MP O'Halloran must be partic ülarly called to task. He is Presiden of the Whittington Youth Chus o which of the youth most members, yet he has bees beer boasting having 25.000 grant to a project 1or Ca youth and has beer organisi racist petition agains He was doubtless parts is de Jee which took pace ing 1th berween gates and the ali:. "Tising crite" Does that iccee a Fires of the solice?

FRENCH REVOLUTI

Part Two: Emperor of the Revolution Page 6 Napoleon's conquest of all Italy (right) contrasted with his rival generals.

"I should like to see-and this is the last and most tervent or my desires-I should like to see the last king strangled in the entrails of the last priest". published by voltaire. 1733 selier, of Jean "From all this, what is my infer- ence? It is, that this new system of robbery France, cannot any art; that it rendered e ov must be destroyed, or that it will destroy all Europe; that to destroy or that enemy, by some means other the force opposed _to chond ce made to bear some anai- and resemblance to the force ogy and spirit which that system exerts; that war ought to be made against it in its vulnerable parts.

These are my In one word. with iterences. this Republic nothing independent can coexist." Edmund Burke, On the Genius and Character of the French Revo- lution as it regards other Nations, (Letters on a Regicide Peace, 1796) "The French revolution broke the balance of Europe: power in the French republic, from its birth, knew that it could not live safely in friendship with king, that dIly democratic government must be the natural enemy of any arbitrary and despotic government, that THere would be as much difficulty in calming the hate between them as together vice and virtue."combining there would Italian "Jacobin' Matteo Galdi, On political and economic free remnons Derween (1798). "I hated thee, fallen tyrant! I did To think that a most unambitious slave, Like thou, shouldst dance and revel on the grave Thou mightst have Liberty. built they throne Where it had stood even now: thou didst prefer which frail and bloody pomp Time has swept In fragments towards Oblivion."

Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte (1815) bourgeoisie of The French 1789 made their revolution for their own rights and their own property. But the Revol- ution itself could not remain their own private possession.

It reached out to arouse and rely upon the sans-culottes of Paris-the workers, craftsmen and small wage along with the unem- employers. ployed and poor-who dragged the And the great revolution torward. of the peasantry stood as a mass roadblock against any attempt restore all the feudal rights which the lawyers of the National Assem- abolished in August 1789. bly

HARNESS

Thus, , with the one force pulling the front, and the other from placing their shoulders against any rolling back, the French bourgeoisie could move only in uneasy harness other classes. the sans- witn

TITO

of and the culottes city, who worked millions of peasants the land. Nor were the French revolution- contain their revol- ution within their country. despite the fact it was made in the name of 'the nation'. which combined By a process invasion and infiltration, infection, the French revolution inexorably spread. 1796: French army welcomed into Milan.

1794: bands of thugs ('Gilded Youth') raid the Jacobin Club in Paris the French revolution. of 1871. factions had sought war in the hope that defeats would disintegrate the Assembly and restore the power of the crown. Assembly the And within the war party, headed by the future Giraudin Brissot, preached leader. "a crusade of universal freedom' and warned that France safe until the whole of Europe is in flames' policies, if his Brissot's not motives, were supported by a sub- body merchants and stantial manufacturers who anticipated that war would bring fat profits to its camp-followers. External revolutionary prospects also lent weight to the rhetoric of Brissot and his supporters.

France sharpened Events in revolutionary processes elsewhere.

In Britain circles, {like Napoleon in 1798 London Corresponding Society), sprung up to support and discuss 1792 and 1815 four Between the developments across military coalitions were organised and the tracts, such Thomas as to contain and destroy it. But when Paine's memorable 'Rights of Man', which defended them. the of Europe met to powers restore the old order (the 'ancien political combin- In Poland the Congress of Vienna ation of intellectuals and "liberal' regime') at May 1791, a (1814-1815) they were able to re- nobility imposed, in erect many of its forms, but not its superficially •similar 'Constitution' to the French, but lacking its substance. powerful social basis.

IRREVERSIBLE

Burke, the venomous enemy of the French revolution, unwittingly Italy, Switzerland, the testified to the anaemic character German states, Poland, Holland and of its Polish counterpart when he Belgium-as well as in France itself, Bourbon monarch was rejoiced that it involved: where "no studied insults on religion, replaced on the throne-the basic morals or manners" social relations had been irreversib- and exhibited ly altered. of "regular progress towards the whole middle the stable excellence of a British Europe the French revolution had Constitution"! cleared the way for the develop- In fact, even serfdom was not ment of capitalism. abolished, and Poland very shortly politics was to trom then on. ranis ed in a partition by Prussia, essential shape from the take its Russia and Austria. and struggle between bourgeoisie proletarial. half

AGITATION

More than two and decades of almost continuous war Europe the form of took In Holland, small but commer- conflicts between states. But they powerful, 1789 revived cially reality the concealed cautious agitation by struggles of social classes-starting 'Patriots'. between the semi-feudal monarchist 1787, Belgium began, aristocracy of Austria its national revolt against the Austrian and (egged by their dominions Emperor. Though it soon took on a U1l relatives in the French court) and first revolutionary its French the thrusting, confidant steps were led, as in France, by the resistance of local aristocrats to the Already in April 1792, betore social struggle in France had From 1789 the tiny statelet of the reached its climax, nationas revol- Geneva saw a resurgence of middle ution flooded over into foreign war, class agitation against the regime French invasion the imposed, with French military Austria's provinces in Belgium. backing, in 1782. The French Assembly's decision Those who led it were abused as from a tangle of "sectaries of Jean-Jacques Rousseau' for war sprang and opposing motives philosopher was the city's (the most famous son and the hero of One motive was defence-as a many Jacobins). continent-wide campaign by the far 'Jacobin right for a crusade against revol- In numerous conspiracies' took shape; most were France took a dangerous utionary when the more reactionary repressed. In Bologna two demo turn hanged for and belligerent Francis II succeeded hoisting

COLA

Emperor of Austria in March the tricolour and issuing a call to 1792. insurrection. flowed from Paris, in the winter of 1791-92 Other motives thus contained a large number of intrigues of the French court-since XVI's "Flight political exiles and emigres seeking Louis failed to French help for their own 'demo- Varennes' (June 1791) | different SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday march 1oth, 1911.

The second in our series of four articles on the revolutionary the period after the reaction of Thermidor (1794), and the inter The third and fourth articles will deal with the revolutions of cratic' or revolutionary purposes. Together they seemed to provide a human refutation of the warnings Jean-Paul Robespierre, and Marat, isolated on the left in the of Assembly; that the peoples Europe would not welcome 'armed France missionaries', and that should not therefore take. the initiative in war. The foreign war which Robespierre opposed was in fact inevitable. The sans culottes were made up fro a cobbler and a joiner. It was to last almost continuous- ly until 1815. It was also, long before that, to promote his rise and the downfall of the Girondins. In March 1793 the opportunist French commander Dumouriez, was defeated -in-Chief, the Netherlands and (having his troops to persuade faied to march on Paris and 'destroy Jacob- inism') he deserted to the enemy.

By this time the forces against France had swollen to a general coalition including Austria, Prussia,.

England, Spain and several Russia, Italian states. appeared that, despite the which had removed guillotine XVI's head Louis be intentions were realised: disarray in the National!

Convention seemed to prelude the destruction of the newborn French republic. Pope, of thos In speculations which infallibly let the cat out of the religious political bag, suggested that the headless Lousi might well be made a saint!"

But the hoped-for miracle was: The rising of the Paris thwarted, 4-5th September 1793 concentrated power in the hand the committee over Public Public Committee Safety was a regime of balance at was single-minded in the nome, foreign war.

Joes TErOlutiOnS end there. In both cases the revolurion had and the new relations it had property far estabased. beyond 1143 own borders. This remained true after political reaction at home had crushed the most reveal y forces, and physically annihilated most of those who led the initial struggles. In the case of Russia, Stalin's and 1945, armies agents, after imposed a transformation of the the of and crononlito. SLaLES. Eastern Europe into lesser images of the Soviet Union. similarly the armies and And diplomacy of the Directorate Thermidorians, then of Napoleon Stalin the soil of feudal

•0U20CU

forming states where the curope, ON bourgeoisie ruled, states that all- some more, some less directly -had Paris. their political capitals War and diplomacy those days, without radio or the internal much slower, more seasonal and confused business than today. The political substance emerges clearly from the tangle of battles counter-match. Marcil and history of France deals with and and treaties, partitions coalitions, we single out one mational wars which followed strand. 1848 and the Paris Commune

MOMENTUM

Italy highlights many of the general issues in the European wars of revolutionary nation a under And to a very great extent it was but then acquiring (as in able to mobilise all the lower classes Napoleon's invasion of Russia in in support of this. 1812) a momentum of its own as the spearhead of imperial policy by Along with economic controls conceded to the sans-culottes went the major capitalist state on the election by the army's ranks of continent. their own combat officers.

In a short article such as this, the 'France's armies thrust back their Italian events must serve exemplify forces that were also at enemies as much by flexible tactics and revolutionary enthusiasm as by work in countries as different growing forces and supplies.

Prussia, Ireland and Russia "We shall". declared a spokes- Northern Italy the run- man of the Committee of Public way on which the military career of very diverse elements: (left) the idealised sans culotte; (left to right) a carter, a market porter, "stop fighting as. Napoleon Bonaparte really took Safety in April, off. soon as the moment arrives when the death of another enemy soldier But he assumed command there (April 1796) already blooded in a will not serve the cause of liberty.

of 1794 By the political, well as a military, eariv summer the immediate military danger had sense. been thrust back. And its retreat He directed the action which turn, of the crushed the royalist revolt of became, its one factors in the fall of Robespierre Vendimiare (October 1795). Not long after, leading the army of the and Thermidor. In the previous article (SPS4) we he

ITATIOT.

LOOKIE HARVE

forcibly closing the Jacobin clubs drew between in Paris (February, 1796).

French revolution and the Russian The hasty and unsuccessful plans Revolution of 1917.: Each displayed the permanent, fot insurrection (May 1796) by 'Conspiracy of Babeuf's Equals' combined character of revolution- were by Napoleon's aty processes. precipitaleu repressIon.

TEMPORARY

Imprisoned in 1794 as a Robes- pierrist, Napoleon came to a fully In each case the opposition to independent command in ltaly as the old autocracy by bourgeois the instrument of a sharp shift to 'democrats' and the right by the Directory in Paris.

coincided, but cutting across their The 'soldier of the revolution' temporary alignment paused momentarily Paris to in struggle between the rising capital- marry the aristocratic Josephine de ists and those that they exploited.

Beauharnais and took command But these two divisions were at early in April 1796. very different levels of develop- At that time Italy was not one ment, giving rise to quite opposite nation but a jig-saw puzzle of small results. states. In a swift series of actions In Russia there was the seizure Napoleon took Savoy and power by the Soviets in October of Piedmont in the east (April-May), France there 1917, in was the Milan (May 15th), counter-revolution and white terror surrounded Mantua (beseiged till it which followed Thermidor (July fell in February 1792), and forced 1794). surrender from the rulers of Parma, The parallel between the two Modena and Bologna. By June ibe :. year oli General effertirely commanded the North Italian plain the Po valley) as far as the borders of Venice, and the Pope was suing for peace. Echoing his victories against the Austrian armies city after city the boil in republican and came to jacobin' demonstrations, forming assemblies, adopting constitutions based on the French model, calling for a free and unified Italy.

SELECTIVE

was selec- Napoleon, however, tive in his support for these move ments. in Piedmont) 'patriots' 'epublic, but Napoleon repudiated them; he had already Sardinia should the continue to rule the area In the spring of 1797, turning north, Napoleon's Army of Italy Austria threatened allu crowds rioted when the Bank of Vienna shut its doors. Napoleon Venice government had replaced the old abolishing slavery oligarchy, the ghetto But the city was handed back to Austria as of the overall part of Italy at the Treaty carve-up Part of the deal was that Austria (secretly) recognised French rights west of the Rhine. The barter of Venice, therefore, was not only a stepping-stone in Napoleon's career. It was also an essential element of the Directory's efforts to safe- 'Republicanism country' To do this they tried to secure France's 'natural frontiers'- Rhine, Pvrenees.

YALTA

Stalin at Yalta a century Like and a half later, Napoleon negoti- ated his victories not as a revol- And a sequel to this 'settlement', universally unpopular among Italian France's annexation of Piedmont, the Piedmont marched to the slogan of Tne sans despotism of liberty', murdered by apparent-inconsis- Hungarian workers and students in Kruschev's tanks beneath portraits peninsula was taken and retaken by France and the various coaltions ranged against her. utionary offensive of were burned alive, along with the Liberty tree, in the main square of Sienna in central Italy. And the six-month-old Neapol- fell itan Republic to Austrian-Turkish army, backed by 10 obliged, presiding (along with his next six months almost the entire British foreign policy, which persis- The British bourgeoisie-having revolution-were not hostile to the politics of the French revolution as such. But they were determined to military and economic strength,

CHLOESES

British bourgeoisie had no natural affinity with the powers of

BEYOND LIMITS

But they were hostile both to bourgeoisie, and to the rise of a Within the international civil war that involved Italy right up to 1815 the puntuation marks provided by reflect Napoleon's increasingly reac- (November 1799). most of his territory and authority in Italy, in return for giving-under sermons on the virtues of taxation was that Napoleon was installed in January 1802 as President Cisalpine Republic, in the Po valley.

But Napoleon and his ministers order, they donned its very to campaign in which he destroyed the Holy Roman Empire, the ground for the modern German But on his way the "soldier of the revolution' Milan naused in Cathedral to have himself annoint- ed 'King of Italy'-explaining, by way of republican excuse, that both And Italy, on the eve of the campaign, was absorbed into the To this day the French revol- attermath example-Robespierre or Napoleon The same was true at the time.

Aumthinker whe nott felt obliged to take an attitude. Even into disfavour in Germany, and felt that, They deprived God of His phit- seem have having sophical Kant also

HILST

somehow be responsible for the fall of Kings. Napoleon (like Stalin) repelled initially greeted the inalty Shelley, born in the week that revolutionary Commune established in Paris (August 4th, 1792) possessed not only great poetical gifts but an acute historical intuition. He was one of the relatively few (unlike for example, Wordsworth) Napoleonic dicta- who cursed the torship, but without ever going over to the side of the old order.

In his he major poem pictures the revolution as a chariot, under its own Ultwalus Man. I = I a Strape So safe within, as one whom years deform, Beneath a dusky hood and double Crouching within the shadow ope And Shelley asks: Who is he with chin Upon his breast, and hands crossed on his chain?" "The child of a fierce hour; he sought to wur The world, and lost all that it did contam Of greatness, in its hope destroyed" (The Triumph of Life, 1822) The violent combination of and the revolution reaction Napoleonic regime was Shelley could only grasp through images. We see it through the lens of our own times. But the histories of the Russian revolution and its depener.

ation, and of the French revolution, do mutually illuminate another, That was the reason why Trotsky, to understand the roots of Stalinist the dictatorship in the Soviet Union, reached back to an Napoleon and analogy with Bonapartism. Trotsky. Trotsky explained that, in each case, it was a question of political counter-revolution imposing upon, but not reversing, revolution- utionary? The answer to this ques case, to the concept of 1793 was bourgeois in character. In it twice counter-revolution, (our emphasis) would have had to make an attempt in this direction.

among the artisans-the Directory Bonaparte allied course, not only a political but a bourgeois society and state."

the Question of Thermidor and Bona- The analogy between Stalinism and Thermidor was an essential part when the crimes of Stalin put those of Napoleon Bonaparte utterly in the ostracism And, echoing Shelley, the Trotskyist movement's objective assessment of its own period has earned it the combined hatred of the old order and of the new eroes The French revolution produced basic symbols modern politics The red flag (earlier used by the authorities as a warning that they were about fire on demonstrators) first was flown by revolutionaries in Paris, in July 1792. on it Sewn were the words: Law of the Sovereign "Martial People against Rebellion by the axecutive Power' After Thermidor the red flag was eclipsed by the French tricolor.

Napoleon himself surrounded with a nauseating 'cult of person- , draped in the French flag and ality'. capped • with the Imperial Crown But in the 1848 revolution both appeared again: the red flag on the Paris barricades erected by the Napoleon and workers, caricature-his nephew DaLIESLIU Louis Bonaparte. The struggle of the working class in 1848 will be the subject of the next article.

Page 8 This film deals with an important topic-the anti-com- munist witch-hunt in the United States five twenty years ago. It has an interesting story-line and well-directed and held together. However, it reduces the greatest political problems to the level of melodrama and the most profound individual choices into comic turns.

witch-hunts in the United States during the 'Cold War' were not just part of the reflex action of American imperialism to

THIC -

national rivalry with the Soviet Union. They owed much to the earliest traditions of American life.

'CONSPIRACY

The founders of the first American colonies firmly believed the witches of supernatural variety, and they hunted and killed old women in their search for them.

Their descendants the in American ruling class have chased and persecuted hundreds of trade union militants, socialists and black The campaign against the 'com- munist consoiracy' atter part of real efforts to hold back and defeat any upsurge by the American working class. Zero For the liberal, what is wrong with witch-hunts is not that they depression are directed against these fighting for better conditions, but that they witch-hunters. "their people thinking stop thing'. Thus the liberal can only confront a witch-hunt as a matter of individual choice, separate from false its context and results. Yet

PATHETIC CHARACTER

Most of the bourgeois critics of this film have talked about 'mis- casting' and other causes as being the reason for the failure of the film. They But this is not really the case.

writers, Woody Allen performs very well as The tront'. the man who Puts Is scripts written by authors In this lane co from working openly due to the notorious Hollywood black- list'.

SPOTLIGHT

NALGO's Drain; NUT's Jarvis; Each of the public sector

CULS.

Strikes unions is contributing 25 hand picked delegates to the March _2nd conference called by the November 17th steering com- health, services. mittee. This is no more than a pathetic gesture against the cuts, which, the talker, union leaders say, is an attempt to members influeace Healey's April Budget. Last year. in an attempt to defuse ibe growing of divide demands thei the executives of called

ALLAS

REVIEW: THE FRONT

"The Front" (AA), directed by Martin Riff and starring Woody Allen, Zero Mostel and Michael Murphy.

Reviewed by John Docherty Beaten US carworker-victim of McCarthyite witch-hunting.

Mostel provides just the right combination of mania and Woody Allen can the apolitical actor the same time make driven to despair and suicide by the principle. Allen builds up well the slightly even pathetic character of the "practical- instead a ly illiterate' restaurant cashier who own and a giri, in a wins fame, fortune role 'famous writer. as worth seeing. that

TREN

unreal Hollywood world is seen in But the two dimensions only. All the witch-hunted are angels whose revolt is a matter of indiv- responsible idual protest, not an attack on the system that oppresses them.

ferocity are all brilliant script- great actors and heroic martyrs in the cause of the right to free thought. the true horror of way development the witch-hunt, the terrible choices workers between livelihood and principle, is generation. not clearly revealed. ON

REFORMISM

ASTMS's Jenkins NUPE's Fisher encouraged. were not of one-day strikes. This manoeuvre badly misfired and London

NUPE

80,000 workers, many of them on strike, turned out in defence of the May 11th education and public be lobbying Feeling this NUPE left- called Alan Fisher on his conference to stage one-day protest strikes a little at a time, area by in the bubiic sector. calculated While Socialist tactic the the membership and demand persuade them of the "ineffective- beyond London. ness of strike action.

SHOUL

TROTSKY

In Defence of Marxism Writings on Britain (3 vols) On the Trade Unions Transitional Programme Revolution Betrayed Permanent Revolution The Spanish Revolution Problems of Everyday Life

LENIN

Left Wing Communism What is to be Done? State and Revolution Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism The April Theses The Three Sources and Compon- ent Parts of Marxism

MARX

The pressures are absent when The Civil War in France prosper and a stand on The Communist Manifesto Hollywood stops being a symbol but becomes stage, Wage Labour and Capital cardboard world of its Wages, Price and Profit This is a pity really, because the film remains amusing enough, and deriving libera stance. from the Stalinist/liberal standpoint of the (formerly blacklisted) people the 'film makes into much too faint an echo of the of the witch-hunt and the horror of its effect in allowing the Significance of the Transition Programme.

American ruling class to perpetrate The Fight for Revolutionary Leadership.

crimes agains the poor in every part Perspectives for Work Among Women of the world and holding back the of the socialist and movement for All available from Folrose Books, ference will call for a further round have already called for a London-wide strike on and a number of lay of prolonged strike action through- bodies including the London Health out the public sector until the cuts Services Committee of ASTMS will are reversed and the protection of the public the March 22nd for that this services. day be turned into a national strike Anything less than this will only assist the union leaders technique Press of demoralising members through a supports extend action series of ineffective protest actions SP designed to supporters achieve nothing than a day's loss of pay for those SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 16th March 1977

BOOKS

£1.75 plus 20p p&p £1.65 each plus 20p p&p 90p plus 20p p&p 30p plus 10p p&p €2.05 plus 25p p&p £1.75 plus 20p p&p £2.50 plus 25p p&p £2.20 plus 25p p&p 20p plus 15p p&p 25p plus 15p p&p 25p plus 15p p&p 25p plus 15p p&p 15p plus 10p p&p 25p plus 10p p&p. 15p plus 15p p&p 10p plus 10p p&p 15p plus 15p p&p 15p plus 15p p&p

TROTSKYISM

TODAY

Fourth International :Problems and Tasks....

15p plus 7p p&p .5p plus 7p p&p .15p plus 7p p&p .5p plus 7p p&p 31 Dartmouth Park Hill London NW5 1HR

1-DAY ACTION

NOT ENOUCH

Lobby the March 22nd Confer- ence at Central Halls, Westminster at 9.00 to demand: gualanets givell *All out strike action to defend the social services! *For a sliding scale of public expenditure defend against inflation. *Demand left MPs vote Ine against any budget which does not fluid restore public spending

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesias I6i Heret 1977 The first of two articles dealing with the hazards of nuclear energy.

MILLION

YEAR

POLLUTION

THREAT

Great efforts are being is very rapid the core could melt made to cover up the legiti- and the molten fuel and the liquid mate worries of many workers sodium used as a coolant interact explosively and scientists about the safety 1hermal reactors do not show a of the processes used in the sudden surge in power as the fuel latest plans for developing changes but an accident

DOSTOM

nuclear with involving a loss of coolant or failure energy a new of series of Fast Breeder reactors.

means controlling processes in the reactor core could technology Ine new alongside also result in its melting.

its huge potential benefits properly developed, also Ture

REACTOR FAILURE

potential to cause spectacular des- truction. The containment system (ie a Nuclear reactor programmes pre-stressed concrete vessel around remain beseiged with safety the core, and the reactor

ICACION

problems: weaknesses building) may then be breached and Icactor emergency systems: control substances released radioactive over operating procedures; and the the atmosphere. insolved problem of the ultimate A recent report from the Health disposal of nuclear have wastes Executive, and Safety who now attracted particular attention.

have the responsibility of the old fact, virtually all points Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, during the nuclear fuel cycle (from describes an official view of a fast the mining, through processing and reactor on a semi-urban site over- transportation, right up utilis- heats, melts and becomes partly ation and storage of nuclear vapourised, and its container fails.

materials) there are opportunities If only one tenth of the reactor for people to be exposed to signif- core vapourises this: icant radioactivity for "would cause several thousand lazaras to arse deaths within a few weeks of the accident".

HAZARDS

and To understand the new problems "some tens of thousands of we must look at the hazards invol- cancer deaths" may OCCUT In ved in the generation of power by area extending for "a few hundred nuclear reactors. kilometres downwind" the

WYCH

The two most common nuclear next few decades. fuels are a type of uranium which constitutes only 0.7% of and a drubil. substance called plutonium, which apart from small traces in uranium ores occurs only by-product as a 1n

MACENT

reactors. They utilized are power- generating reactors in several differ- ent ways, but the basic principle is the fission, or fragmentation, of a fissile atom. This process is initiated when the atom is struck by and captures known particle as a This process can be likened to the disintegration of a large liquid drop shaking give two medium size drops and a few tiny drops. The medium sized drops are analogous to neutrons. neutrons These may interact with other fissle atoms to produce further fission reactions, and so the chain

LET LEC

reaction). Heat produced by the fission reactions is used eventually to boil resulting steam drives turoines wnich are linked to elec- tricity generators.

FAST BREEDER

US burial ground for contaminated reactor machinery A fast reactor, so called because of the speed of the neutrons invol- "Land and dwellings" would be its fission reactions, in untit tor occupation tor some tens smaller, hotter and contains of kilometres downwind" , and farm

HOTE

plutonium than produce at gicaler uistances thermal reactor. may have to be destroyed.

This means that a very efficient The arrogantly notes: 'in these effects, By design of a fast careful though be serious, fuel elements and by insupportable by society" surrounding them with their contempt for oxide elements workers' lives. possible to create more plutonium Reprocessing of fast reactor fuel than is consumed. Hence the term elements involves dissolving the fuel Fast Breeder Reactor. from its cladding and separating out Special safety hazards in the fast the plutonium, uranium and inten- from sely radioactive tission products The safety hazards here centre surges or extra power as tne reactor core (where fission reactions occur) around the handling and storage of positions up new the highly use radioactive

VY COLU

plutonium. appropriate concentrations plutonium, like other fissile materials, can produce a spontan- uncontrolled, fission chain eous, reaction; this is the property made use of in atomic bombs Ten accidents involving uncon- trolled chain reactions are Known to have occurred resulting in several being injured and some perhaps the most element known antidote. Amounts as low millionth of a gram can be hazard- ous in lungs and bone. radioactivity and the fact that once retained for long periods.

I for half the some 24,400 years!

POISON

The movement of three tons of plutonium every year from British reactors been suggested likely should FBR's established Britain. This represents 5,000,000,000,- 000 times the maximum permis- down sible body burden laid by statute in this country. A phenom- enal amount of poison! the handling of plutonium increases as FBR's and re-processing plants are established, the chances be the number of must

THAT

accidents will also increase.

The high activity wastes of nuclear reactor programmes prevent the most enduring safety problems.

The wastes are of two types; fission products and a group of elements, which includes plutonium and uran- ium, known actinides. the

TANKS

At present, fission products are stored as acid solutions in cooled, stainless steel tanks. This temporary means of storage necessary because so little is Atom waste dumped into the sea in containers designed to last only 100 years of these wastes that no acceptable method is yet available. Provided that they can be separ with a high ated from actinides degree of efficiency then converted to glass and stored in a stable geol- ogical formation, they would decay to manageable activities only after about 800 years.

PILOT

Anyway, development of the process for converting liquid wastes to glass has so far only reached the pilot plant scale. The actinides themselves and the products their spontaneous decay, however, rena here anand a hazard for millions of years. convincing method available their storage to UI conversion manageable substances. Four methods for the disposal of actinides are being studied These are: burial in deep and stable geological formation; burial under the floor of the deep ocean; emplacement in suitably long-lived containers on the bed of the deep ocean; and irradiation in a suitable reactor to convert them to shorter lived materials. The first method the begs question; what geological formation considered stable over Can geologically significant period of time? Page 9 Even the Health and Safety Executive admit that the second would be difficult to the third, it would be difficult to prove the integrity of the containers for millions of years, under action plant and animal life and the corrosive action of the sea itself. Furthermore, human operations may uncover these stores of radio- active materials For example, in 1962 containers holding low activity radioactive wastes were recovered by French trawlers the English Channel! The fourth method is also ack- nowledged by the Health Safety Executive as having daunting technological difficulties, but is the satisfactory of the ones mentioned.

DESIGNED TO LEAK

Even this, however, would yield materials that at best would remain highly dangerous for 500-800 years.

The disposal of low and moder- wastes also prescilt d hazard At present, solid to wastes contaminated with small amounts of plutonium and other activities are dumped sea on the bed containers designed only contents on the lo protect way to the sea bed. They are designed to leak and expected to retain their for contents more than ten years. In 1964 a number of drums holding low activity wastes actually raled on impact with the surface of the sea. Low activity liquid wastes from reprocessing and fuel fabrication at Windscale and Dounreay are dis- charged to the sea through pipe- lines. In both cases the large volumes of sea water are expected to dilute the dangerous radioactivity to levels government acceptable to

WINDECLON

However, local concentrations of radioactive materials can still develop, especially near the dump- ing grounds and this may affect marine fle In any case, dilution has not always been achieved Radiation levels in the Celtic Sea have caused a greal dea One of concern. type had risen to 83% of permitted level tenfold rise in the levels ob radio- 1975, there been in fish between caesium 1973 and 1975. By a science correspondent

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

nUJ KETTERING LOCKOUT rege 10 Journalists at Kettering who voted to end a 12-week strike three weeks ago are still out on the streets-locked out by the management and deserted by their union officials.

70 journalists About Kettering and Wellingborough from Evening the Northamptonshire on strike Telegraph claim December tot an over à improved house agreement of benefits and fringe condoms.

FORECAST

gamut of the Press chapel decided by one vote not to 100% membership formally agreed This climb down had made the EMAP management determined to weeks On was referred to the Printing Industries Committee of the TUC, chaired by Owen O'Brien, General

SHEET

Ken Morgan, General Secre- tary of the National Union of Journalists has a mission in life of the union -to get out before his members throw him out. Morgan's timing, in moving to a full time job with the Press Council August will not save him from the annual conference, April, tabled where branches have motions against the social contract and only one has supported it. It wil however allow him to any NUJ action between sabotage now and August without worry for his future security. BBC Radio The disputes at Kettering '(see Sheffield and at below) have illustrated the way in isolate which he sought to of in struggle groups workers closed His manoeuvres the the of shop issue-with support Michael Foot-ensured that жете kept to a minimum. struggles But his finest bour must surely be complete abandonment Hosenball to their fate. sonfirmation of the branches have depts:= from retired single if chapel demanded that where it has members. not met, other NUJ rules state that no member their was EMAP chapels should be called out can resign during a dispute The chapel said that if the nine in support. They had addressed a number of showed up in the office and tried to these chapels about the dispute and would into they go Work. their assessment was that, despite mandatory meetings. vigorous opposition by the chapels would respond.

The management responded by cutting off their phones and order- The meeting opened with building. O'Brien out telegrammes ing them out the reading declaring that other chapels would When they turned up for. work that the doors had not support, and saying the followie day strike action was out of been locked. sympathy the question. (This was exactly the The chapel is now demanding method that the NEC of the

NUJ

pay of £25 a week be that strike had used over the Radio Sheffield increased to *40-since they the now locked out; that other chapels where chapel was ordered back to work with nothing in EMAP be called out; and that the TUC Printing Industry Committee after right wingers sent a gained, stream of telegrammes). be reconvened. The chapel was told that if they The role of Ken Morgan, General Secretary of the NUJ, has been to did not accept a slightly improved offer from all weaken every action the chapel management try to take. support would be witndrawn.

chapel voted He postponed a sympathy strike Unanimously the to return to work. The major gains call for seven days could to were that the agreement be time organise, he production annually, instead of exempted of Motor- reviewed and the New Musical three years time, cycle insisted, that Express (both produced had and 1cul the and he would be revised Kettering) from allowed the editor, Ron Hunt-an quarterly. scab "It wasn't everything we hoped NUJ member-to such extent that he turns out a daily for something', one chapel member said. paper on his own. they During the strike nine members Chapel members say *the forgotten taking part in had declared nemselves strike" NUJ and joining Morgan's inaction leaving the designed ensure remains Institute of Journalists-which has forgotten. the proud record of never having failed to scab on any NUJ dispute

USTS

The Agee-Hosenball defence demonstration

MORGAN DUMPS AGEE

him has not yet been published. It ing to the Home Secretary, Rees. include four right

NUJ

likely not to act against for secret including Ken Ashton, members receiving wingers, Chapels, former Deputy General Secretary. information was sent not by Morgan, but by the union crucial question what kind of campaign the left will run.

President Rosaline Kelly.

In the absence of a trade union Journalists Charter-which dominated by the SWP-is already struggle-which should be by

CIA

ordered flirting with Mike NUJ-against support Sheffield, a Labour deportations and M16 ordered Bower from "left'. arrests, the Agee-Hosenball Defence Committee is

OPPOSED

impotence. latest demonstration ten spoken against Bower has days ago in London was supported supporting chapels which challenge people and by no more than 500 the social contract and has consis- addressed by single confined the closed shop

LIUL

tently Executive. member of the

NUJ

issue to an 'industrial' issue in sup- display the port of wages-rejecting its role as a In a self-indulgent demonstration strolled round challenge to capitalist control of London, addressed an empty office the Press block-the Headquarters of M16- The struggle in the NUJ is not Official for a left' face in the leadership but of the burned copy Secrets Act, and accused a film a principled fight on policies which training crew of being CIA agents.

will show militants a way forward.

policies were proposed and Clearly on the single transferable No used in indeed without a labour movement the ballot Bower vote possible. second choice for lead, по would be poncies and Hosenball will go unless Agee Trotskyists. But a candidate must be found the NUJ calls strike action against who will fight on a programme for their deportation and for support defence of wages and jobs and for a from other unions. Morgan has refused to offer any ban on technology being used to lead on this or on any other issue. the of exploitation. increase rate

LONDON

PRESS

BRANCH

Fleet Street workers: their leaders have power over jobs as well as union cards.

Print pay fight axed "I am satisfied they have seen the errors of their ways" General said

NATSOPA ฿

-SO Secretary, Owen O'Brien, after bludgeoning striking printers at 'The Times' back to work.

His action declaring 120 in machine workers member- ship 'null and void' had certainly done the trick. of Faced with the threat permanent unemployment the strikers their jobs. went back to The Times resumed publication after a gap of five days and disrup- tion that had lasted three weeks. But the print workers' claim for more money to clean the presses or workers taken on to do the more job, is still on the table. Talks are due this week.

CRISIS

It is a measure of the crisis in which union bureaucrats find them- selves that O'Brien was forced all the way to expulsion. The role trade union oi ine leadership in policing wage cuts and speed for its members must up of this inevitably lead to attacks of a group Vil almost 100% united in their action.

Only twelve out of 120 had (up to the time of expulsion) voted to end their dispute. They back because pulled NATSOPA not only has the power cards but in Fleet Street it hands out the jobs as well.

Expelled from the union these workers would have been out of the industry for good. But support

NATSOPA

chapels from othet could have been gained.

REPUDIATED

The Observer chapel repudiated a statement in their paper saying that the Times workers had been defeated. "There no collapse of was morale of the Times NATSOPA chapel, which was in our opinion a lock out and not a strike" NATSOPA clerical chapel [The at the Times even refused to type dismissal notices to the our Ine This kind of support would men. have emerged rapidly throughout the country] The Times in its own editorial-a straicht statement of the manage ment position-analysed the role of O 'Brien correctly. "The dispute then brought into the authority the question

NATSOPA

who voted

CALLITE.

unanimously to give an instruction chapel. the he union leaders who behaved with considerable determination,

CHANDERE

the authority of the union and of the union's rules."

CAMPAIGN FOR DEMO-

CRACY IN THE LABOUR

MOVEMENT

Public Meeting "Support the Toolmakers" Tuesday 22nd March at 8.00 East Oxford Community SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 16th March 1977

¡EWISIAM & DEPTORO

TRAGES COUNCIL

rule referred to by the The Times is the catch-all declaring that expel the can member who 'brings the union into disrepute'.

UNDEMOCRATIC

As in so many other cases the union bureaucrats are forced into out powerful ally of the trade union unofficial action. Unless the unions unofficial stoppages they have little much future of the trade unions".

that the working class itself is ready to light so by their so-called leaders or not.

nearer the total collapse of control by the TUC over the working class.

incomes policy, and particularly of in yols are nearers policy, thrade unions responsible for the control of incomes rather than for raising comes to be in the position the boss has the responsibility to to militant sub-groups in the unions to attack the authority of the union must

THERINE

in anything like its present

COURAGE

The NATSOPA chapel are still technically pursuing their claim. If members they are to win it the courage there must take their hands defy their executive. The strength of support in other NATSOPA chapels and throughout Fleet would show whose Street expulsion is really in order-Owen O'Brien and his executive of strike breakers.

PORT

STRIKE

THERE WILL BE A complete of British shutdown Monday 21st March. This is due to a one-day strike called by national dockers leaders in protest against the proposed axing of 2,000 jobs through the closing of local-author- itv owned Preston docks.

HOLIDAY PAY STRIKE

NALGO BOWS

TO COURTS

lessons both in the Sharp the ignominious ranks OT ThOSE increasing court interference whose leaders are prepared to sub- ordinate the entire strength of the into the unions and the com- union to a handful of extreme right of the plete servility union wingers and the courts. must be drawn bureaucracy NALGO members can be certain from the calling off last week that if General Secretary Drain and his right wing pals back off even a of one-day strike protest action in the face of a court NALGO's 60,000 Scottish order, there is no prospect of them members following a "tempor- leading a serious struggle to stop granted the cuts, which must centre on the injunction to ary preparation of all-out indefinite seven right wingers. back the strike The strike call had gone out government plans. from the union's special conference But if the NALGO retreat is out January which strong inusions in the thadership ol NUP, there should delegation from Scotland went specifically to ace or He Serke to be an instruction, binding on all

ASTMS

and other unions proceeded with the one-day stop- union members. While clearly in itself insufficient page in Scotland last week.

While militants from those to stop the massive arracks alleady against public sector unions correctly howled at Drain, underway him "scab' and in branding 'blackleg' for decision represented a considerable pulling out of the would action, they do well to setback for the NALGO right wing, it bitterly, and remember that their own leaders who opposed equally opposed to sustained indication of the willingness within strike action to stop the cuts-and the branches for an all out fight for defen- jobs and conditions. in the case of fisher, open ders of wage controls under the And it was clearly the right wing with not a in the

NALGO NEC,

Social Contract The of new leader- word of opposition from spine- question ship throughout the public sector less 'left' talkers, who ensured that confronted if the the court decision was as soon as cuts are to be defeated, Such annouiced by Lord Cameron. tele- were rushed out to all leadership must base on grammes 1.3Cl uniting with all sections of the Scottish brancnes, lening taem to work normally. labour movement against the social NALGO thus joins the UPW in contract, against the cuts, and for

MASSEY

Hull NUR Strike

STRIKE

NUR members in Hull held

WON

March one-day strike on 15th in protest at the planned closure of British Rail links to After eleven weeks on strike Hull docks. workers 1,000 assembly at The closure will mean the loss Massey Ferguson voted unan- of about the local imousiy to return to work branches

NUR

are urging the after management had leadership to organise some form of national action against the closures.

conceded their demands. Meanwhile, the threatened 450 The dispute was sparked off by Siddeley the company's action in taking 136 redundancies at Hawker Aviation of Brough near Hull have workers off the clock for alleged been given a temporary reprieve. sIoW WOrKIg. ver 1,0vv assembly This about because workers struck in sympathy and for has come the company will be nationalised a time the factory was occupied at the end of April in line with the until the company got a court order Aircraft Shipbuilding Bill. and directing the strikers to quit. the for

TO HOOTL

strikers (a of over 100 mcellig representing several heroes Coventry discuss met recently to ways of developing support) when the down and company backed agreed to take issues through pro- cedure, national Workers at F.H. Biddles of to level. future instead of taking men off the Nuneaton are on strike follow- clock. ing management refusal to sign In addition the company agreed a regrading agreement which to pay the strikers their full three- day holiday pay. had been verbally accepted by The fight will now be around the management and unions. continued attempts by management involved rest the actual cash bush up the production targets slight-approximately to 48 tractors a day. £35 a year-but feeling on the shop

BANKRUPT

'ALLIANCE'

No forward against the Liaison Committee for way on Defence of Trade Unions. vicious government attacks on Only WSL speakers pointed out teachers jobs, conditions and. that the purpose of these moves by living standards forth- was the Communst Partv was precisely coming from the conference to head off the growing resistance last weekend of the 'Socialist to Stage Two of wage controls, and Alliance* the if teachers were to necessity Teachers master- forward against find a way wage minded by the International cuts for them to support the March Marxist Group. 27th Conference called by the Discussion centred endless Campaign for Democracy in the 'tactical' "initiatives". Whereas Labour Movement. The Socialist Teachers Alliance veneer of revolutionary-sounding dwindled itself demands was added through has already string of amendments to the IMG'S numbers from its first conference.

Further like that staged main resolution, these were negated fiascos by attaching the whole resolution weekend will most likely polish last it off altogether. to support for the - bankrupt Stalinist-led "initiatives"

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

a rising scale of state spending to against protect public services inflation. And such a leadership will not shrink from mobilising the full strength of the unions against the interference of Until the However, it would be wrong to think that iobs wi not be lost in the aircraft industry, as national- isation case bound mean rationalisation with speed-up and jobs lost. floor is high. Regrading will change the mini- mum time rate which only affects holiday pay time rate (minimum plus one-third). Normal weekly wage is based on the domestic base rate, negótiated at plant level, plus 2 DOnus. The works agreed to manager regrading January and three weeks negotiation was followed by shop floor meeting which accepted the deal. fixed the date of Management signing then began to backtrack. First available Works the director was "not to sign. Then found to be on holiday was Spain. When he arrived back a new signing date was fixed-12 noon on March 4th. When the works director refused to sign and asked for more time a mass meeting was held on Monday Friday March 11th. again on The drivers at Biddles negotiate separately but have come out in support. the meeting their steward called for support when they went into struggle. Despite the fact that all the lorries are "heavy goods vehicles" all the drivers classed as unskilled and the basic rate £28 a week. The mass meeting voted support for future struggles by the drivers.

On Tuesday morning (March 8) NALGO special Conference such a leadership emerges, 'tempor- injunctions' and whole ary battery of legal restraints will be utilised by right wing extremists inside and outside unions to the of frustrate the implementation democratic decisions. *The of outcome meeting convened by Hull Trades Council this Wednesday could be a generai strike in the town on March 30th. The TGWU is proposing the action, against unemployment.

the stewards were called in by the works director who said that as he had not been involved in the nego- tiations the whole thing must be gone through again. "I've got to be careful. This is going to cost me the future" in he said. money At the mass meeting of March 11th, stewards reported that no headway had been made and the to meeting voted unanimously continue the strike, elect a strike committee and not meet until the following Friday. One of the strikers told Socialist.

Press: "In my opinion this strike is the frustration result which has built up over low wages throughout the period of wage control.

It's only the second strike in the plant's 35 year history. Three were national average wages, now about £15 below. production The highest paid worker is on £58 basic". "We've good had • really response from delivery drivers. With an average of 15 lorries a day only two in the whole week have crossed Messages and support donations to: Biddles Strike. Committee, c/o 496, Kingswood Road, Grove Farm Estate, Nuneaton.

NEWS

IN BRIEF

"SUGGESTIONS"

A special branch meeting of the GMWU (Nuneaton, called to discuss what attitude to take towards cleaners who had scabbed on a two day protest strike against the cuts Tras honoured by the attendsece of Ralph

GMAL

Jones. official. Against a background of basem education cuts in Warwickshire i ser he stood, saying: "We're not going to stop the cuts and we've made some sugges- tions as to where they can be made in order to protect jobs".

Once again it is the union leaders who head off, discourage and where sabotage spontaneous moves by workers to fight the cuts.

WORK TO RULE

A meeting of Warwickshire NALGO voted to implement a work to rule and ban on over- April 4th) as time (to start in the fight further steps against the cuts. Among the actions decided on by the meeting were-work not to 148 working hours in any exceed four week period, blacking of any work started outside normal hours refusing to carry out work connec all posts temporarily of ted with permanently vacant, and refusing to as overtime do preparatory work. the county council elections It was clear, however, that there was considerable feeling in sections of the meeting that these action would not stop the cuts. Some members argued that only action, nationally maermile sIlke organised in conjunction with othe trade unions, would be sufficient to stop the cuts. already members Some were «wher that opinion the these measures fail we'll have to go for the indefinite action".

SCRAP PAPER

ON MARCH 3rd 50 TEACHERS in the London Borough of Havering lobbied a meeting of the vacanc Control Procedure' established b the Council to cut one in every ten vacant jobs. The need for stronger actior must have been brougat home to lobbyers when the com ROme mittee chairman, Alderman Kembit thrust back a leaflet proferred thim at but a cation cuts wied to 'Use it for s need it"

WILLOIL

schools, you'll need the

CAMPAIGN FOR DEMO-

CRACY IN THE LABOUR

MOVEMENT

Public Meetings

NUNEATON

Monday 21st March at 8pm Bull Hotel, Market Place National Ad-hoc Committee speaker

BIRMINGHAM

Thursday March 22nd at 7.30pm. Labour Club, Bristol Street Speakers, in a personal capacity Alan Thornett, BLMC Shop Steward Mick Rice, AUEW Chairman, Lucas BW3 JSSC

LETTERS

We welcome letters from Letters for publication readers. should be kept as brief as possible and sent to: Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

Page 12

MEETINGS CALL TO

BREAK PHASE TWO

Break Stage Il of the Social The had been connection Contract now! Support powerfully between taking action of wage currently bureaucratic imposition control such as the control and the wholesale attachs against be on trade union democracy which Don't Leyland too makers! by the Stalinists who were taking place. diverted oppose the current strikes and call Thornett emphasised that the instead for a TUC vote for free Recall Conference to be held on March 27th after July! would collective bargaining mark a new Prepare to fight for the leader- the struggle for leader- stage in ship of a mass movement which sUnlike the first Conference, it is emerging against the policies of the Labour government by firstly would not be confined to the level developing a programme appropri-

CIA CINOR.

and then struggles

CONTRIBUTION

turning those sections of workers " The opportunity now existed who are in struggle towards that to draw into the Conference programme workers now on strike against the Those were the points rammed the government and employers, home by Alan Thornett, a candi- for General the trade date 1n The Conference was poised to Secretary of the Transport and make a contribution in real terms General Workers Union in a series in providing programme and per- of meetings in the past two weeks spective to current strikes which organised by the Campaign threaten the Social Contract and the Labour Move- Democraçv 1n Bristol, the government. ment in London, The programme to be discussed Sheffield, Hull, Manchester, Liver- by the Conference is contained Glasgow Newcastle. pool, and within Alan Thornett's election

CENTRALITY

address. No had candidate Supporting the perspectives of other the CDLM he pointed out at the presented a perspective. for the mobilisation of the working class.

well attended meetings that the Committee Campaign had recognised the centrality of wages issue to all the policies the of the Labour government.

standpoint they From that were able to confront the issue in the Summer and Autumn of last year when no other tendency on the left was prepared to do so, starting from the conviction that class would not accept Stage Il and that by the would end of the year struggles emerge against it. The Wages and Democracy called by the Com- Conference mittee last October, he said, had an essential Iorum advanced layer of which an workers could discuss the neces- sary programme and the problems of leadership would 301C0 confront workers when the mass movement emerged.

FRENCH POLLS

Socialist. and The municipal elections of ative peddled by Communist Parties, and supported 13 and 20 have March by a growing proportion of the unhealable uncovered capitalist class. wounds in the political body The way that should be fought for in these elections is by voting of French capitalism. for Communist and Socialist Party Gaullists of ex-premier The these do not lists only where Chirac's Rassemblement Jacques contain representatives of the cap- pour la Republique are fighting a against the electoral Such a vote should be seen as lists of President Giscard d'Estaing part of a campaign in all working politics with whom force class organisations to they maintain an increasingly CP and SP leaders to break from tense coalition. their capitalist allies. The battle has centred on Paris Chirac hopes to become

'TROTSKYIST'

We believe that this task is in.

Other sections of the disinte- movement have the presence Gaullist no way changed Dy allied themselves, much to the in many cities of a list of candi- dates put up by the 'For Socialism delight of the Communist Party with the popular frontist Power' alliance of leaders, Workers'

-HOT

Union Left led by "Trotskyist' Revolutionary ot ine the. of Communist and Socialist Parties.

(section Communist "United' of the the Secretariat

PROBLEMS

Fourth International),

• LILLE

also Ouvriere and the Maoist Revolu- The elections have problems for the Union revealed Workers' Organisation. tionary of the Left. While it would be right to vote from the opportunistic places where for these lists in Aside between jostling for The capitalist candidates on powel CP and SP leaders, they have been

CP/SP

list and do •we nOE TANe under growing pressure from the principle with putting disagree in in this campaign to working class candidates up Leo mandy abandon and break with the bour- such an election, the programme geois parties (the opposition Gaul- abandoned the strikers to then lists and Left Radicals) in the utopian propaganda and does not Union of the Left. confront the necessary struggle in There are increasing demands working class to destroy the that instead these parties put for- front politics the popular only of composed reformist leaders. ward a slate Stalinist This by the workers parties. This is the political task facing incorrect position of completely alliance French workers. the 'revolutionary' calling for a vote on the second the Iney must both Wealty mund for Union of the Left lists of the TGWU In a meeting Central London branch, addressed by seven of the fifteen candidates Thornett challenged John Cousins and John Miller-two of the five bureaucrats pushed by the capitalist press as contenders"-to state for breaking Stage II they and if they supported the now toolmakers. Miller in a demagogic speech severy talking ton refused even to either general point, i "opposition" the about Social Contract. Cousins, living in a complete dream world, said that he support- or ine allance is based on se WaS breaking Stage Il now. He then said he did not think particularly relevant was a question because Stage been broken so many times that it no longer existed. It was clear to the meeting that for the vast majority of the not only working class oppose the Social Contract but suffer under it every day that Cousins offers no alternative and the be for Alan yote

THELSE

Thornett. Thornett Plessey's From Page One productionaut om the vision of the management- hands appointed foremen Instead factory committee must be elected from organise the

WOTKOTCO

production When Plessey then move to cut off payment or supplies, the fac- tory committee must take the full-scale lead in organising occupation of the factory.

The demand of the central occupations must be that Plessey's be forced to open their books to these elected trade union commit- This will show the case for tees. the fers to be atient, ed these, workers' management, these, be along other with

HOOS

by future rationalis- threatened ation to saved. and work-sharing with no of loss of pay implemented.

PRESS *

BRITAIN

..21 6 insures.. :: ..$2 12 insues 24 issues ..EA

NAME.

ADDRESS.

Jones brought his Jack personal touch to bear on the Trust union battles against House Forte in Birmingham, Sheffield and Oxford-by stamping out any question of national blacking. The blacking of all Trust House Forte establishments had been strikers Calen Oxford and Sheffield. They have been joined on their four month old strikes by workers at the Night vut nent CIo l after their shop Birmingham steward was sacked. But at the National Executive meeting of the TGWU called to discuss national blacking Jack spoke strongly Jones against with the agreement

DUULLIA

GMWU as a reason for not imple- menting it. The decision of the executive came after the trade group and the district committees of Oxford and Sheffield had backed the call for blacking. In Region S, wnich includes Birmingham and Oxford, blacking been organised and Trust has House Forte must face the drying up of beer and food supplies to all their main hotels. Sheffield, where the But Hayhurst, regional secretary, has fate, no blacking has been organ- ised. This is despite the fact that

GMWU

members Allied Breweries have already refused to deliver Trust House Forte to hotels. Toolmakers Slam Scanlon ... from Page One.

negotiations with the toolroom workers' committee-which could only interoreted as a majol climbdown by the company, and commitment to a will carly d some point increase the rates of paid toolroom workers by lower £18 week-crashing through Phase Two any proposed Phase Three. no doubt that any There is along these lines by would Leyland upsurge of unofficial committees industry every evade the bureau- attempt cratic stranglehold of their union officials on wages and get directly the employers. guins with In other words by attempting confrontation Leyland would merely stoke up chain fires for a whole The further confrontations stretching motor industry. far beyond the

MPS

This is why some 'left' are now attempting to find ways of defusing the militancy of the toolmakers by ensnaring their unofficial leaders in ACAS arbi- tration. the biggest danger of all But to the toolmakers is the uncertain of their claim. nature the factor that interests most of struggle is the wage those in levelling increases Involved them up with other plants, the toolroom committee has centred demands simply recog nition of the committee itself dangers. By This glare from the wages turning away

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SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 16th March 1977

BLACK THE!

being strikers The are now encourage- supported and ment, not by their local officials, with other but through contact hotel workers, who have formed into Joint Shop themselves Stewards Committee

TGWU

GMWU

members. and meeting in Birmingham drew the strikers from Monday the three disputes together witn hotel workers in London. members at the Cumberland, part of the Strand Group bought Trust House Forte, have applied for recognition, rejecting previous development In week a lightning strike by GMWU workers at the James Hotel London, part, Centre for Group won a claim

HOTEL

Christmas payment after extra only two louis hotel workers of lobby by Transport House in Smith Square called by London been the has Shop Stewards Committee Joint national that the demand blacking be implemented. The-lack of action by national officials over Trust House Forte Lodge allowed Ine Oxford -where in management the strike is in its 18th week-to step back after making offers of partial reinstatement. The chairman of the commer- 5/35 branch cial drivers self- Dennis Mills, Birmingham, the spokesman for appointed Night Out strikers has been declar- ing to any one who will listen that "the gloves are off". With Jack Jones and his gang sabotaging these vital disputes the handcuffs still firmly on. question and claiming that their against the demands are not leaders cut Social Contract the then elves then sections t other sections trom workers. And by calling for corporation- as a section they level bargaining to the are exposing tnemseive. danger that even if their demand accepted, they Want again subject to the dictatorship of full-time union officials over every wage demand. After Friday's solid vote, the toolmakers leaders now They opportunity. can their case by. spelling strengthen their demands out wage members are really seeking, and flatly the fact that

THIS

Phase II and any counter Phase Ill of the Social Contract.

They toolmakers can turn towards the fight to protect wage increases against inflation through a sliding scale of wages rising to keep pace with the cost of living.

THREATS

they must challenge the And endiess threats of closure flowing from management, government and the press. As the statement on toolmakers the strike by the in the Campaign for Democracy points out: Labour Movement being "Instead threat to the workers it should be a threat to the capitalist class: if you create redundancies we will occupy factories. A policy should be put forward demanding work sharing on full pay. they If the employers say cannot pay we must demand they open their books and those of the component firms and start the struggle for nationalisation with- out compensation of the whole

MOTOR MOHOLY

for these demands In fighting the toolroom leadership will have ample opportunity to expose the nature of the union bureaucracy Labour government. and the On such a basis they can confi- dently call on the mass of workers in every industry for support, and rally the growing forces in oppos ition to the union bureaucracy in the struggle to end wage In doing so they would help a new leadership to. repace the whose Scanlons and Jonests policies today threaten the living