Socialist Press no. 91

US MINERS DEFY

ANTI-UNION LAWS

SOCIALIST

PRESS

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 91 * March 15, 1978 * 15p The entire trade union Carter's labour mediator movement in the United Wayne Horvitz made this January, clear States faces a crucial test wiel pointed out that: this week as President "The employers believe Carter brings the full that for many years they have weight of US strikebreak- away more than ther oVeR should across the table to the ing legislation to bear in a unions, and that perhaps this bid to break the back of is a good time to get some of the United Mine Workers it back". Union. The coal bosses are acting UM officials representing in this spirit. the 160,000 coal miners have Fines on strikers now been served with court under the

OTECES

The employers' original Taft-Hartley union-busting demands included a $20 a day legislation. fine on unofficial strikers, Carter hopes this will force sacking strike an end to their 96-day strike PrOVISIOn 101 the scrapping of the caused an energy tenders that nas miners' hard-won 30-year old crisis in 11 states. free health care benefits, and The orders tell officials to a savage attack on retirement instruct their members back benefits, as well as the intro- "cooling off WOTK TOTa period" of 80 for duction of sunday working.

days These demands were inte- renewed negotiations. proposed grated into a that the contract won endorsement of

UMW

President Arnold Miller but aroused only fuming hostility rank and tile miners, Irom invaded hundreds of whom the union's Washington Head- quarters and forced the 39 man bargaining council to reject it 33-3. Then in a much publicised "climbdown" the bosses witherew their sistence or the $20 a day fines and on Sunday working. All the remained allacks unchanged. Press campaign The

UMW

bargaining council, scared the at Witten prospect of a maior contron- If they fail to comply, they face fines in the courts, laton win une carter govern ment, endorsed the "new" and strikers who stay out will and submitted cease to receive the Federal proposals them to a ballot vote of the food stamps that have helped membersho backea up by d sustain them in their struggle.

$40,000 public relations exer- It is certain that the vast cise, with press, TV and radio majority strikers will adverts plugging the deal.

foilow the UMW tradition of such ulti- The result was a devastat- ignoring ing 2-1 rejection of the deal by miners determined not to On Three previous occasions injunctions under surrender their rights. Taft-Hartley have failed to Carter, confronting major energy crisis, the pros- force the miners union back pect of premature shipwreck to work. for his much vaunted "cheap Threat coal" energy plan to cut But this does not detract as well as chilgrowing in taessed inte from the threat such action poses to the whole US labour dollar, pressed Taft- action, invoking une

HOVCHCHL.

Hartley laws. Carter and the coal bosses that the miners' struggle is a test of the ability Tied to Democrats of US employers He did so knowing that through a -oune duack on living standards, US union bureau- working leaaing conditions and trade capitalist crats-ulea to. une rights throughout industry in Democratic Party - would the endorse his action.

CONTENC

Miners march in Pittsburgh declared in advance that he not object if Carter would invoked Taft-Hartley announced that his He long familiarity with the mine workers had convinced him that the union's internal required Troubles measures-and government Inal I ne were resident, ne would already have seized the mines! The United Auto Workers President, Douglas Fraser, Meany that "a agreed with takeover

COCTICEL

brief period would be accept- able" And the AFL-CIO Execu-

ACT LIMWA

Build general strike against Taft-Hartley! The fight such agains leaders treacherous must centre on the struggle for general strike action by the organised working class along- the miners, to defeat Taft-Hartley. These laws, part of the of legislation battery that impedes the independent struggle of US workers, are an attack on the whole working class. Solidarity If the helps Carter defeat the miners, then next in line for similar treatment and postal This Issue Workers slam TGWU witchhunt Back page In Defence of a Revolutionary Orientation ... .. Centre pages Make the Lefts Fight .. p.9 Belgrade against revolution • p.3 Carte of action to organise practic backing. Huge meetings in suppo of miners aCTOS, States indicate that United basis for such committe of action clearly exists But are hampere miners nuns ov me ack or any na leadership developed with the UMW in the course of t strike No new leaders The collaboration, increasing isolation, of Mill has not been accompani

UMWA

the emergence of a genuine auernative neane All currents within the unio remain tied to the Democrat While clearly demonstr ing their willingness to fig government and their allies the Republican Party, mass of miners have clear not recognised the necessit

UMW

to break the workers mo capitali from these parties and to build a Labou Party repeal anti-unio legislation and implemer

APPORT

measures to defend their ow class interests. Labour Party A fight for committees action would give miners ti opportunity raise demand for a Labour Par amongst the MOSE devanei class conscious sections of th Militant/Nancy Cole American working class a an organisational for hold for such a party. At the same time mine must step up the fight with their own union for the ou Miller ing anG bargaining council membe that endorsed the bosses' n strike contract, and repla them with leaders prepared t call on the whole Americ labour movement to suppo their again SLuggle capitalist state repression.

next year. While fight foI Socialist programme supporting strike action must be taken up with urgency In this the urgent questi this does not lessen the need the construction for immediate solidarity leadership

TOTKIN

action -in particular the the UMW dedicated to de blacking of non-union coal by oping the complete politi transport and other unions, maependence or une wor raising of financia class, fighting for the for and physical support for the ation of a Labour Party or hard-pressed miners who face socialist programme. the danger of Federal military This is a vital part of t intervention if they continue fight for a workers'

LUNC

their highly effective picket- ment in the USA which ing operations. the nationalise major indu Miners should TaKe tries without compensatio initiative in calling on the and under committees thousands of trade unionists workers management. I every drea wo have snown

working like beavers Pize =

- INTERNATIONAL

W. German officials A great responsibility now rests with the union bureaucrats of West Ger- many. Every capitalist „now looking to Inese corps ol volunteer nangmen, botn to deal a mortal biow to the of pril workers and to suffocate the metal workers strike wolle l 1s still in the cradle Loval to the interests of capitalism, the union leaders worked like of

DECSSUIC

of class- constructea aam collaboration. Safer quarters Now they are being reluc- tantly swept along with the Flood. But they still keep an experienced eye open for the first opportunity to leap back to safer quarters, and resume their historic task of building obstacles. In negotations with the German SPD leader Schmidt (centre) with Party employers, Eugen Loderer, Chairman Wily Brandt (right) President of IG-Metall, tire- lessly proclaimed his readi- bargain the BeSS awdy But at the same time they union's 8% wage claim and indefinitely postponed accept a level actually below decision on strike action in that recommended in govern- the even more important ment policy. region of North Rhine-West- But all this was in vain- phalia. the refused to employers 700,000 IG-Metall has a paltry 5% concede members in the two areas, increase. both Angry demands from the regions would swiftly cripple file finally left and rank West German industry. Loderer option but to no This gesture of good will to hold a ballot in the two major the capitalists was generously industrial areas. accompanied by an uncon- Daunting majority ditional agreement to the employers' plea for talks This revealed that 90% of betore the strike is due to the members were in favour begin. These are the actions of oi strike action. Undeterred by this daunt- desperate men, who can see ing the union's their nightmare of indepen- majority, nanona execurve persevered actor WOrKers in its campaign of sabotage.

becoming menacing daylight reaiity. At their next meeting, these 'leaders' unanimously called a •Meanwhile their fellow strike in North Wuerttemberg in IG-Druck bureaucrats - Vorth Baden from March 15.

continue to ride out CP's HISTORIC SELL-OUT Only article in confederation, spelt out the full meaning of this: "moder- their with the pact ate' wage claims and possibly Christian Democrats stale wage conor, agreement seems to have disagreed redundancies and plant with the leaders of the closures; a pledge of higher productivity and co-operation Italian Communist Party. wILd In oves DV CaDo vers Their demand towards speed up, rationalisa- police should be tion and 'job mobility'. legally free to affiliate to the In return for this licence major union confederations for an assault by the ruling was rejected by the bourgeois government party. The demand in itself was a of the :urther example Stalinists' method of present- ing the bourgeois state in a giamourised, reformist distor- "on it is precisely this per.

which has

CIOS

reen used justify the The dictators of the astone compromise Central American repub- The compromise has now lics give standard one Teased oners una democratic :?:esent a degree of betrayal response to :ha: is scarcely credible even demands: swift and such experienced brutal repression. seators. Full support has been re- Such obvious advantagest but shamed for Christian but it is •austerity pro- not guaranteed to succeed in General Earime of vicious attacks on silualiull. he working class. The CP has Anastasio Somoza has been lorward as a discovering lately saunch advocate two months, the ГОГ and order- convulsed Nicaragua. Somoza's regime is threat- for bosses storm in the printing maus- try by a similar combination of manoeuvres. Threatened by employers with a national lockout, they have struck back-by an offer of virtually unconditional talks on the introduction of new technology. Persistent traitors Such moves are the risks that need to be taken if the labour leaders are to succeed defending frustrating the independent interests of the working class.

It is the fight against these persistent traitors that to the central vI CoCill struggles of workers in West vermany -a ngul lnal can De carried through to victory only by revolutionary with the leadership armed Transitional Programme of the Fourth International.

CP class the has secured absolutely nothing. Cynically responding to the guarantee of Stalinist support to main- Christian Democrat Prime Minister Andreotti has of reshuffled his pack ministers without including a single Joker in the shape of 'left technicians' requested by Berlinguer. 'human rights' campaign. The US seeking a viable alternative in those sections of the Nicarag uan bourgeoisie hostile to the Somoza dynasty of presidents un- Decause or un-e yielding grasp the country's wealth and resouls The Democratic Freedom Union (UDEL) was floated. and the Stalinists o: the Nicaraguan Communist Pars welcomed aboard bishops coaltion oi bosses. But even bureaucrats. wah such expert advice on methods of class-

• BLACK TRAITORS

'Mr Smith is very fond of doing things at the wrong time'. This rueful comment was Bishop Muzorewa's Abel response to the raid into Zambia the security by forces of the racist regime. of The supporters his fellow collaborator, Chief Chirau, expressed the same meaning with a crude clarity.

Arguing that the attack was iustified bv the militar they confessed situation. that: "The interim government will find it difficult to inter- fere with decisions made by the the commanders security forces". a frank such of the wretched admission ponnical beltaya Involved m the 'internal settlement' would hamper vuzorewas current role The Bishop has been allotted the task of selling the deal to inter- an impatient national market. His objective is to politic- ally isolate compromise Patriotic the leaders of the Front-using the professional Carter assistaile Nicaraguan despot shaken ous forces it unleashed by organising national strikes and protests The workers and peasants nave not snown the sugalesi inclination to be contained in their struggles by the forms and demands proposed by the democrati: Bourgeois:e

MEN:

is Februar acting under Apparently the direction of the Castroite Front FSLI (Sandinist for SOCIALIST PRESS, Heiresia: 15 March. 19°$ Stalinists trample national rights The ancient empire of endence has lasted 17 years, and now the liberation armies Ethiopia is being now control the whole forged the anew by except the major forces of the deformed which they garrison toWIs workers' states. have laid under siege. Talks toward fusion are Without troops, equip- taking place ment and 'advice' from Cuba OnCe arall the two nationalist the Soviet Union. between military dictator- parties. repressive ship of the Derg could never Capitulation have hoped to succeed in its the Ogaden and 1r wals Agreement could only be Eritrea. achieved by a capitulation of Now the massive counter- Popular Liber- the left-wing offensive in the east Front (EPLF) to the ation steadily restoring the petit-bourgeois nationalists of territorial losses inflicted by the rront for the Liberation Libera- the Western som all of Ethiopia Front and tion by forces In the liberated areas, the from the republic of Somalia EPLF has introduced land itself education relorI, unversal Under seige and other progressive But this front is tar less scarecely surprising 1S significant than the struggle that leadership which has to subucate critrea accomplished such gains from assorted Assurances enjoy Stalinists over wieling that they will not popular support. intervene this interna dispute' believed by Consternation The present phase of the It is clear that the battles Eritreans' struggles for indep- to destroy this revolutionary movement will be far fiercer, and far more protracted than those against the Somalis This prospect, and a recog nition the consternation such actions would cause amongst its allies and depen

FACE CLASS FURY

dents. may w. persudue lit Soviet bureaucracy to stay its hand But these pressures must administration and the agents be gauged the of imperialism in the British which drove first necessity Labour cabinet. the Stalinists to structure this Muzorewa, Chirau and black fiasco of diplomacy.

Sithole have now openly their own

OSCI VO

themselves declared privileged the

DOS LON.

to the black liber Kremlin bureaucrats need to the gains of do caters safeguard Their South African October revolution and partner in class-crime, Chiet preserve a balance or gioba Buthelezi, experienced on power with the international Sunday the kind of reception bourgeoisie-a balance that at such tigures can expect trom once prevents major aggres- they claim une asse from imperiaiism and represent. restrains the development of When Buthelezi attended independent proletarian the funeral of Robert revolution Sobukwe (one-time leader ot the Pan-African Congress), he Naval bases was greeted with a hail O. militant black Part of this strategy is the trom search for secure naval bases youth. Russian control of The Zulu chief was forced Lo could the access to the with southern leave, along other Red Sea prominent black 'leaders'.

candidates for The youth were expressing main this role lie in Somalia and their violent hostility to the Eritrea. of class-collaboration But of tactical practiced by these dignitaries •a series blunders now makes it inev- in working willin legal Cuban of the the apartheid apparatus Russian forces must either system. use the threat of their This latest action reveals military power to extort such that the process of building leadership new direct conces on on mado the move on in a vicous counter- revolutionary struggles the oppressed South revolutionary Call vall of crush independence Atrican masses has reached a the Eritreans crucial stage of development.

and promptly executed two government informers. At least 30, but probably many more Indians were killed and the wounded state military struck to crush this local uprising The Masays tas eruption e: he Hercest heroism and Somoza seemination only a one sided victory Farate for the revolutionary They will discover tha Nicaraguan workers urgently their struggles against expo:: need, but tragically lack ation and oppression mas dictatorship prolonged Somoza 3r.C 5....

BELGRADE.United stand against Lessonsfrom Black Thursday SOCIALIST PRESS. Hednesday 15 March, 1978

• INTERNATIONAL•

For six months now diplomats from Russia and Eastern 1ng class throughout America, Europe and Western Eur- capitalism ope have been engaged in prolonged manoeuvres in Belgrade at the follow-up degenerated workers states.

conference to the Hels- inki agreement on Euro- pean Security and Coop- Though eration. tions on Conference whose opening was accompanied by yet campaign led by President posed. against violations of and hatred 'human rights' in the USSR, seems set now to end in a Helsinki and and In they have joint resolution eattirming the 'principles' of Helsinki. As yet it is difficult to any detail what as emerged from the smoke- action the diplomatic hot-air double both the post-war balance talk which has inrouded the whole procee- DWel stability of their own regimes But one thing is clear. erence the formal declaration Representatives ratified the national and poli- tical boundaries established in The Stalinist Europe bureaucrats post-war of Russia and Eastern Europe orsed the 'principle' and the iocridilses Europe and America have sovereign states. brought together their diplomatic representatives in declaration was an agreement Beigrade, not out of any con- to preserve the political stat- cern for "human us quo within Europe. Dut to discuss the threats which the acepening ol tne world ed on the Black Thursday' is the who Tunisians now give name strike have now eagerly vol- to the day of the general unteered tenants of the ruling strike on January 26. mitericience in lne allaırs of the different classes its 13 executive members still sections of society see in prison, the UGTT has held blackness different an extraordinary * is ot course reconcile' the union with the The bourgeoisie was ruling Destour Socialist Party .:...ronted by the massive Ludl • vary potential or tne throughout the country. ::etariat, while the workers terenced the full brutality * bourgeois state. Lion leaders and Tijani Abid-a prison, henchman of the he police have now gen- installed been promised to release secretary-general; who of bureaucratic reforms' has been imposed on the consti- Bonapartist tution, and Lovers- the of President Bourguiba apologetically Prime Minister Nouira from earlier clearly recognised positions. necessity and the But even this large offering unity to press on with of humble ting attack against the enough to satisfy the appetite economic crisis and the for- ward movement of the work- Europe presents both to the stability Western Europe and the tuture of the parasitic Stalinist caste in the Mutual fear the social forma- which the Stalinist bureaucrals ana the imperla- lists rest are entirely counter- both are drawn together by their mutual fear of the working class as a revolutionary force.

Belgrade sought reach ag cemeal on a ciear imita- tion and demarcation of the conflicts between them so as not to sharpen by precipitate is? contradictions which threaten to tear apart Europe and the At the 1975 Helsinki Conf- Stalinist leaders-against revolution and revolutionary end- CriSIs of non- Portugal was foremost in the minds of both sides. The Stal- inist bureaucracy by its The content of this formal guidance it actions ana ine gave to the Portuguese Com- munist Party gave positive imperialist assurance Though nowhere mention- powers inal it stood firmly pre- opposed to any revolutionary arcade opposed the workers' hostility might again find violent expression in the near future, the ready neu- the government has class in conceded a paltry increase in wages. Achour has also extorted a considerable price for this in congress to a renewal of the social pact - of thorough class- Diece collaboration. imposing repression The has also government moved Tunisian youth, who formed the deter- mined core of the strike and protest reliable With unem- demonstrations. DSP-has an acute problem by&the slate that regime has …done range nothing resolve Bourguiba's son and special advisor now solemnly UGTT has declares that these youth withdrawn 'refuse' to work, because they Jillian. from the sulleT mandarin of long fingernails complex and hands which they prefer pie will not be not to soil This socialist revolution dissolve Wdy degenerated imperialism. ment Stalinist proletarian the bureaucracy world imperialism Neither in any way tion. last few years clearly that movement in the European bureaucracy working class. The spontaneous strikes

ISOS

against price rises which swept Poland that same year gave clear notice to the bur- eaucracy that the unleashing socialised property relations.

of the proletarian revolution would present a grave chall- enge to its own existence drafted on forced labour To prevent that projects disperse tc them from becoming from the cities. deleat, it is necessary to fight At the same time others lor a will quite simply be exiled revolulionary alternal s to rural areas. nationalism of geois Repressive in themselves, subtle hue these measures will be fully exploited break up any Independence which groups emerge hostility to the government.

Students, Crucially, who workers must be led to under- continued academic strikes stand the nature of the state and de monstra- alic Died tions in the last few weeks.

instrument geois dictatorship. an obvious and understanding immediate target. oped Will y struggles Calls for the restoration of political independence of the democratic rights and for the working class. independence the UGTT ro subjectively trom the state are dangerous- tionary elements in inadequate these far-reaching attacks.

the loday. posed is the. Syndicalists can workers party, based on the only the negative lessons of of workers, struggles disillusionment and endent of hauropnic Page 3 But the limited agreement crats and state managers is reached between the Stalinist obstacle to the development Bureaucracy and imperialism of conscious planning which could not in any fundamenta requires the active participa- class tion of the organised working lne class. antagonism between the prot claran revolution on wnose Massive defeat bureaucracy rests and world The last decade has seen a Neither the limited agree- marked slowing down in the reached between the rate of economic growth ir bureaucracy auRe

USSR

now less than a imperialism could not in any third of what it was in 1951, fundamental way dissolve the while deficiencies in the plan class antagonism between the are Increasingly made good revolution on by turning to the world whose degenerated conquests market rests and The Soviet grain purchases are the outstanding

LOSI

did their agree- example of this. Soviet trade ments with imperialism serve with the advanced • capitalist to defend the has countries increased from gains of the October revolu- under 1% of GNP to around 5% in 1975

USSR

and thi Serious obstacle now runs trade flassive deficit the WILl USA, a mounting to 12 times its Indeed the events of the shown exports in 1975. The the Stalinist dependence of the Eastern European countries and its deals Western with imperialism stand as the agricultural and industrial imports not Goslace cvel more marked with many now only to the extension of the loans socialist revolution but as the dependent on massive from foreign banks gravest internal danger to the Rumania is now a member of the IMF and Poland The contradiction between has the nationalised property and applied for membership the parasitic caste of bureau- Penetration All these developments threaten the monopoly foreign trade, the of the Way lo penellation. economy by imperialist com- panies and undermining the socialised relations of produc- tion. At the same time from within parts of the ruling elite of right- a growing number wing dissidents have been spa look to the capitalist West both for economic model and political philosophy. The right wing exiles Solz- henitsyn and Bukovsk] who admires the Chilean junta are only the extreme more examples of a definite trend.

'Human rights' By calling for 'human rights' the 'democrat" Carter sends state troops

WOO

break the American miners picket lines and gives aid to the repressive anti-

MOSI

working class dictatorships from Chile to Iran, does not in any sense mean the gran- political ting of greater freedoms to the working class in Russia and Eastern Europe 'human rights setback that Carter is seeking, but the historic rights for right-wing dissidents to organise to fight socialist for the restoration of capital- petty bour- ism and for bourgeois demo.

cracy. That the Stalinist bureau- cracy has, as far as can be seen, , made no concessions to the West on these points indi- Tunisian cates that they fear that the social consequences of such the right Concessons would ot bour- undermine the entire Such stability of the ruling caste.

an can be devel- But the Stalinist bureau.

through the cracy is itself capable only assert the of temporarily holding back . development the these contradictions. revolu- The Tunisia only way which the of the urgent task now social gains October Revolution can be defended building of a against imperialism and its supporters within is by the indep- working case

SPARE $27 Billion? "Screw more out of your domestic industry. Congressional workforce" is the blunt warn- Washington are now investigating ing to US employers from the anguished calls international bankers and oil trace measures delivered in the comprise magnates, two-toird. imports at present coming from form of a slump in the value of the dollar in the money cr countries: markets. Vicious package are concerned by ne bankers massive 927 billion the annudi deficit in the US balance of pay- and by evidence US industry ments last yoal, 'solved" by that a similar figure will arise in tration through a vicious package 1978. This occurs at a time of anti-working class ionary measures designed to force recession-blighted shrinking, world is forcing every market Tntouc culs cuts class working standards, drastic austerity ation of outdated plant, rationalisation and mass sackings of imposition the rate to ative and sackings on the powerful US ation of their own working class about moves post-war The bedrock •itTicutIes Ine through reconstruction of capitalism, and the its through massive aid provided the basis strike. Garter s programmes and tor the rationalisation equipment of German and Japan.

industry, has lagged behind way towards double

HITS

such developments manufacturers now find working class resistance US outpriced and out- themselves i ne collar produced in world markets, while capitalist class growing penetration of imported the US has brought dictions of neir own system Cords To strengthen the from widespread anDeals stability for protectionist measures restore safeguard competitive less The Workers Socialist League is a Trotskyist organisation fighting to construct a principled revolutionary leadership in the working class in Britain and internationally, and for the recon- struction of the Trotskyist Fourth Internation- al on the basis of the Transitional Programme.

The WSL fights at every step against the existing leaders of the trade unions and the - now firmly harnessed to the Party Labour bourgeois politicians of the Liberal Party in an unspoken coalition arrangement.

Against their policies of class collaboration we put forward instead a programme which independent class interests of points to the the working class, its need to endently to overthrow capitalism, destroy its machinery repressive state socialist planned economy.

Only in this way can workers resolve today's problems of tumbling living standards, mass slashed social services, racial, unemployment, national and sexual oppression.

For more details on the WSL and its work, fill in the form below. Name. Address. Trade Union/Occupation.

BUDDY CAN YOU

the US economy. committees in But to impose such measures would deal a savage blow at the level of world already depressed protectionist which trade-forcing a further round of goods closures and redundancies in each Ine capitalist country not Yet one stabilised value, the capitalist class-in ther kev sections 01 "their oil fil East Middle particular producers, who sel and keep huge The weak competitive position collar reserves-stand to make thumping can only Carter adminis- losses This is why oil producers and Qatar are Kuwait, Iraq and detiat increase tor already oressine in public spending, in the price of oil, to compensate for the loss in value of the dollar.

clas. Having as took place ruthless rationalis. DUCh an incast and the with the five fold price increase in would course signal a 1973, orastic seeta up new leap in inflation internation- ally and a further attack on the depressed levels of carrying chronically capitalist the such attacks are clearly oroduction current countries. n880 Protectionism attacks also coincides with figures suggesting that inflation is well on Carter faces no easy options. lending added fuel to the fires of road he follows Whichever US dollar and finds catecuare ute The Crisis industry must lead into the capit- international cul-de-sac intensified caught indissolubly in the contra- auST protectionism, all-out trade war, and galloping recession. dollar and conditions it the Uncel unese absolutely essential that the work- markets, Carter must prune back

YOUTH MOB FASCISTS

A massive spontaneous by youth in movement High Wycombe has on two weeks running driven the National Front from distributing leaflets in the town's shopping centre- the Octagon. On the first occasion. March 4, less than saturday 20 anti-fascists were distribut- about six members of the NF arrived In the ensuing struggle, the fascists' leaflets were destroy- organise indep about five and within ed minutes they were surround- and establish a 150 people- ed school youth, mainly and white, who burst through a thin blue line of police and fascists through chased the the shopping centre Into unfortunately carpark wnere they managed to escape in a Mobilised their narrow escape the in the face show mael Octagon this sature day Earlier the appeared briefly in handful ing class internationally preserve complete political inaesen dence, opposing all forms of class olaboration Gangrene Protectionism gangrene infecting sections of the leadership of the workers move- ment. of the economic one last resorts of a leadership which raticac to tioni tor dent interests the working class fake left' It is rite amond leaders and MPs in Britain.

union It is a major policy of the Com.

munist Party. And, surprisingly, not most widespread of all inside the workers' encersal. Coses the leaders AFL-CIO union confederation in the United States. Carter's government is already wholesale protectionist imposing charter. suct measures-mostly Most "voluntary" disguised forms in ne export restrictions from stronger emphasis before from especiall Shining shoes capitalist at nome and not abroad But this is leadership. the AFL-CIO executive meeting two weeks ago in Florida the AFL-CIO council going to Following week's last which drew report the defend ised

TGWU

Militant group that they The article, reasons. Police attack youth and anti-fascists in Birmingham, Feb 18.

last week, actively are the TGWU. But the fascist forces were again mobilised. A large crowd of about 80 including youth Asians, and blacks, punk rockers waiting for a others were glimpse of the NF. Liquidation much Police were very in evidence but were unable "moving people on" despite to disperse the crowd. : with which youth in High Wycombe have willing- demoristrated ness to fight fascism must be translated into the building of organisations to develop that particular the strength-in School Union of National Students, the union of those at school. Unemployed youth must fight for admittance to the The trade union movement. whole of the workers move- ment locally must be mobil- ised to follow the example set by the youth and take action fascists off the to drive streets of High Wycombe. squads, Workers defence and trade union including NUSS forces must be set up Carter each other's shoes." adopted a 15 point protectionist pro-imperialist AFL sd y Meany, of this is not new. CIO president there mans shinst or him by is and accustomed new programme restricting imports, omer workers The US working class can be "low wage inter. along road bravian us capit is or prani that led by the only corporations invest nationals leaders and destruction

COT

SUCI

construction of a politica all of our manutacturin! indepen representing continues to move overseas we are DarL dent interests of labour.

reduced to shining

MILITANT AND

THE COWLEY 9

political line of the Militant article in leads them to a position of Press, Socialist victimis Cowley attention to the the ations as simply a question of failure of the 16-page Militant democratic rights within the struggle une TGWU rather than part of a Cowley 9 victim- in the develop- the major turn members, of bureaucratic moves stated ment have capitalist interests to defend intend to carry an and throughout Leyland article in their next edition.

they inform industry us, was delayed for technical The fact that Militant could tall to carry an article on such developments is not a sign of their links to the

TGWU

bureaucracy issue- As we stated in our article suggested in our last of rather an indication Militant supporters but such campaigning in failure to their major turns into the centre of defence of the Cowley 9 with the editorial policy of thei "revolutionary" paper. opportunist The Transitional Programme programme for action "It is beginning of until the from today the socialist revolution And from the practical point of view what is now the most important we can guide the different is how strata of the proletariat in the direc- tion of the social revolution",

TROTSKY

30p plus 10p p &p from WSL. 31 Dartmouth Park Hill London NW5 IHR

LABOUR

PARTY

to halt Front Major confrontations and anti- between

TASCISTS

will be necessary to fascists stop the NF holding meetings in the run up to the London council elections in May.

Labour-controlled Several councils have a policy ot banning fascists from using their halls.

But to do this in the election period when those standing candi- dates have a 'right' to the use of school for election premises meetinas would involve taking a stand against the law. Minimal likelihood of Labour The obediently councIis WnO nave imposed savage cuts DubiC services taking a stand against the taw on Issue Is-lO sd y least-minimal. It is the physical only by of anti-fascists that intervention the NF can be stopped from hold- ing these meetings. Councils and Labour rades Parties should be being called on the make necessary

NO VV

preparations, orino Loceter squads of workers from trade Labour Party branches, tenants associations. youtu cilos etc to cordon off halls and beat off the fascists. police will be the cieanv te major obstacle in this process and mobilisations Ilias. necessarv in each case. But another obstacle will be all those liberal and bourdeois elements involved in existing anti- tascist oraanisations wilo oppose physical attacks on fascists and who want to uphold the law.

many such In fact the organisations have built exactly these elements into their ranks.

ome were set uo in resoonse to the circular last year urging Councils Trades racist committees with their local Community Commit. Relations tees. These morally righteous and Uncle Tom bodies, hated ucelecs by working class blacks, are political and steered | by local couren womes ahe pouce udison officers. the London borough Islington, …Tne Communist TaLL• dominated Trades Council, which defend actively nao verusea

VONTO

ared

WON

police attacks or to campaign for forward to for youth,

JUUS

'racial Torm committee harmony' with the

GKG.

wiert happily receives assurances of goodwill from the police.

Workers But Tne Socialis Party-initiated Anti Nazi League suffers similar defects. Action needed- This body, instead of being beating based ot On I policy fascists off the streets and build- ing a socialist alternative, appeals indivio tals recarotes political affiliation, on the basis of moral opposition to fascism.

and Thus menders supporters who had succesfully and courageously against he bec

INTUICT

oloW fascism thom Levis Lewisham

JUV

found constd ed Ilford members of the ANL behaviour

SWP

stewards orderly beyond the police cordon. Leading ex-Liberal spokesman, Peter Hain had promised 'peaceful' activities and had wel- comed the two month ban on ali marches in London as a 'victory' previous refusal to From their mooilse the workers movenieu the vascists ontario mae fascists

SWP

have with the ANL apoarentiy sw ung to opposing any confrontation at all. Many of the local committees and fascism begur adainst racism and coordinated by the IMG, are popular-frontist class similarly alliances. including church tigures and Liberals. labour however, are some for movement fought gooles through trades councils. The approach of the Internat- ona Marxist Grou• seems to be to set up some kind of organisat.

ion and decide the policies later.

tne nationai co-orainating newspaper carries

CARF

statement of policies whatsoever, gives explanation causes of fascism, and says not a of the necessary socialist word soluTIon. Nor does trtiCIse Tra e and Labour Party leaders, union who tnet workers' struggles hold back the of development movement themselves are responsible for the problems breeding provide the wilcu ground for fascism. Liquidation This problem of bankrupt and leaders TnP KeV problem facing the working class.

The liquidation of an allegedly Trotskyist organisation tike

IMG

into such a 'popular' and apolitical campaign follows direct- from

HITS

raDoite socialist Unity' perspective of forming an with ananice hone of reforming them in the to revolutionary positions.

But the fight against fascism is a class question. Anti-fascist com- mittees must be based on workers organisations. Workers must rely ottell the and combine strength owr want anans mne Tascsts wit uut fight for socialist policies to solve problems of low wages, unem- une ployment ano Dad nousiig Central to this struggle is the fight to break workers from, and labour overinrou Tne existie movement bureaucracy. Hayward vies with Thatcher for bosses' vote Workers engaged in trade and struggles union anti-fascist mobilisations, and youth harassed by police provocations, who have gained the distinct that police impression is the repression on increase, are right. But in case they feel like their Labour protesting demanding this leaders and trend is reversed, they should into account that take Labour's right wing is openiy boasting about the increased cash allocated to the police under Wilson and Callaghan.

Hayward General Secre- Labour's tary Ron Hayward last week was the employers that it chose the pages of that well- leadership that has …La Doul known workers" paper the finally implemented the Financial Times to spell out Act-which Criminal stand of creates a whole new series of the reactionary "law jail Labour hureauirats on offences carrying sentences for those engaged aO OUCI factory occupations, Greater resources college sit-ins, or squatting in the Hayward bragged empty accomodation. Financial Times solidly Tory that "SO Cal sa y Thatcher readers that: Margaret more us?" devoted •Labour has repressive than is the comba- implicit question throughout greater resources to ting rising crime than the the letter. Tories ever did. In the life of Hostilities have this Government we of But course the ruling spent £250m or more in real class and their spokesmen in terms on public expenditure covering law and order and tne Juaiciary are not content the even with reactionary protective sérvices than was carried out by the being when took

1 UVES

SOC ll Callaghan regime. office. An extra £50m was Only last weekend Lord pumped into the system last Denning, Master of the Roils year'. expressed the hostility of the Social frustration bourgeoisie to. the fact that the law is not invoked against Much of this extra cash unofficial strikes. "pumped in" to the repres- sive police apparatus was of course siphoned out of educa- social services, housing tion. and health spending, thus helping to create the kind of frustration and SOCIa unemployment that create forms of violence and other "crime" Hayward does not reveal how much of last year's extra PHUIU: Matk susuos £50m was spent on training the brutalised thugs of Special Patrol Group for their picket-busting Grunwick. and their violent attacks on anti-fascists.

Nor does he elaborate on the amounts devoted to pro- Thatcher tecting meetings and marches National Front held by the from the legitimate hostility oT Tne race шю co labour movement. Deterrent But he does make the point that : "The greatest deterrent to the criminal [not to mention the demon- the picket, or strator] police the on Sugestions that the street. of has number policemen fallen since the Tories lost office are just untrue Tory propaganda. David Duke, the Grand "By the end of 1977 of the Ku Klux Wizard 7,500 Britain more Klan made sure to pack policemen than it did In 1974". his flowing white robes And by the start of 1978 before setting out for policemen had those con- England. spired with the reactionary His aim of securing links Lib-Lab Coalition Govern- this ment to deprive the workers' with the country seems to have been a movement of the hard-won secondary one. democratic right to march Most of his time in this through London-effectively country was spent in clandes- giving the National Front the Labour tine interviews right veto any WIld lascill ated reporters and posing for movement march by declaring their intention pictures. hold a counter-demo. One by one newspapers and radio stations made Hayward, however, is not "elusive" contact with the this satisfied with Cveu Wizard in unnamed suburbs, of uniformed state number anonymous pubs or over the "We need more" he thugs. telephone. tells his no doubt enthusiastic the In each interview businessmen readers.

OCCUPY

ury TO SAVE,

JOBS

DIRECT

ner"y)

OLUP SES

- TOSAVE ON:

*JOBS V

SUOP THE

YINAL

i Vi*

THASP

Demonstration against the Criminal Lau The law knows no right to exempt from the law Denning, Judges of course star strike, said right of the po. especially when TO ne harms "innocent bystanders" spectrum. services" "essential disrupts Warning or brings "the country to a halt" The workers who But wally WiL McKinnon, they have a oul such surikes are exercisulg rights but their not their of into word pullilg power, he spluttered. thoughts in the minds capitalist class that pa!

fat salaries Forbidden And with Hayward Labour lead enue The courts have been for- out-Thatche trying to bidden by Parlament to act Tories, this is a warnin "in strikes contem- Labour Party militants s aRals! plation of a not ignore

CO T

uuc dlice trade dispute' The fight o rever Denning wondered why marches mu ban on unofficial strikes-sometimes stepped up alongside thi even called contrary to union to break the instruction -should coalition.

PRESS GANG

KKKlick single Fleet white races to visit eachother.

evely paper obliged by bia In each interview his super- his picture on Page 1. numan powers to avold being Most billed him in a found by the police were role. The familiar heightened world coziness of the The radio reporter who made the picture ed:: told Duke that his views were "repugnant" was a rarity.

Fleet Street feel sate harm. More typical were those acet hatti the SF who allowed him to rant on exactly that for five minutes at a time accorded less than a about 'white supremacy and the need for 'racial purity' ag Fascinated, strangely attracted ars Duke's ambition, so he iciently repelled Flee said, was to have a tourist- has done for the KÄh type shot taken of him in his the fast talking tasis robes in front of the Houses not do for himse.: of Parlament. given them the put.: It was the press who drove him to the appropriate spot When Duke on the embankment, watched white robes ic: B while he slipped into his knew what he w3 robes and snapped away with knew the press ;: their cameras while he posed.

Page 5 "Under the influence betrayal by the of the historical organisations of he proletariat, certain ectarian moods and of various roupings cinds arise or are regen- rated at the periphery of Fourth he Inter- ational" Transitional Programme. This was how Trotsky, in 1938 characterised the polit- ca origins of sectarian ele- nents whose positions, then nd now, have always threat- liquidate ned to pro- tne and principles of Trotskyism into sterile propa- anda circles and discussion lubs, divorced from the ractical struggle to build evolutionary leadership 'in he working class The decision last month twenty two members of he Workers Sócialist League D resign from the Trotskyist Heathrow engineers vote to continue their strike sovement, and to seek fusion of the rith the sectarians the Workers Socialist League aternational Spartacist were exception to this 1IU endency, Is clear proof that general characterisation.

of political essence Seeking rotsky's warning has not wooden dogma and rigid fully grasped formulae for the flexible cycl oday. demands tactical and approach of the Trotskyist Sheer arrogance grew movement. tney impatient with every contra- The twenty-two-not one diction that conflicted with been part of • wnom nad their schemas. he original nucleus that It is no coincidence that formed the Workers Socialist their documents and their League in sharp opposition to contributions the December ectarianism conference discussion always 1974-devoted the 11 weeks studiously avoided coming to of discussion prior to their grips with the real contra- WSL's eparture Cre dictions inherent in the class ciond Annual Conference to Subei-very tacking every aspect of the tions that offer opportunities ecord and programme ot the for the revolutionary move- novement they had joined.

ment to develop. leading members of In particular they made no his sectarian grouping whatever reference in their lisplayed their particular 14-page "positions alent for combining fraud- document" lence with ignorance and international economic crisis usurping of capitalism. he title "Trotskyist Faction' At the centre of this crisis ni entitling their revisionist is the desperate attempt by "In position document bourgeoisie every tience of the Revolutionary country to halt the fall in the rogramme" rate of profit. taking space in mess to examine the political the Involved esertion of these forces we re not so much concerned to miner their lame and large t is honest arguments for with- from class Tne riggle. Dur purpose is much more • sure Inal our movement supporters the oraw kiessary political om the struggle, and gain a larer the assessment o_tical problems confront- the working class as a trie-of which the factional riggle within the WSL was a cíection. Exasperation Trotsky analysed sectar- product of as ine within. ges ot the workers move- *.. at the betrayals carried t: by their leaders. This is then coupled with of frustration layers Lenin addressing workers irin or around the revol- movement at their This objective economic *-lity to win of crisis -itsel Tne product e- programme. the irreconcilable contradic- I:. their exasperation, sec- tions of the capitalist system -ans lose patience with the material basis -provides the for Tuggle revolutionary for political developments.

alership, and seek to substi- the issuing every country onto the offen- Inatums tne pains- sive against the working class, ding intervention needed to simply the

HOL

wart ri. workers to Marxism. front, but also through the "At their base lies a refusal drive towards rationalisation, partial and struggle speed-up, mass sackings, and ransitional demands, i.e., for cuts in public spending pro- elementary interests and grammes anu socidi services eeds of the working massses, time the At Tne • they are today. intensifying competition for ro pose turning ten backs international markets in a the 'old' trade unions, period of recession opens up tens oi muions or rganised workers-as if the war and protectionism-con- could somehow live sasses laining wilnin It tne Inreal or atside of the conditions of a renewed world war. he actual class struggle! They Under these conditions the indifferent the that existed the 1n aner struggle within reform- 1950s and 1960s for capit- organisations-as Vile ould a in the masses without head off the orowing strength The reformist trade union Labour leaders and and the Stalinists who the oppose overthrow of and for capitalism argue 'peaceful', Parliamentary action by workers are now transformed into the open control of Doncenset wart speed-up-and are and increasingly suckea into une brazen most collaboration with the employers and their institutions, as shown by the Lib-Lab coalition deal and the growth of "worker partic- ipation" schemes throughout industry. Determination The opposite to this right- ward movement by both the capitalist class and their lackevs within the workers is the continuing no venuell strength and militancy of the working class itself. Again and ayan workers have shown their capacity, their willingness and, given a lead, their determination to struggle not only against the employers but also against the Labour leaders the 1n government and against their treacherous union own leadership Leyland toolmakers, Port Talbot electricians, Heathrow engineers and firemen have each their way

OWIE

inflicted setbacks on their and leaders come into sharp political con- flict with the government.

Real opportunities It is on the basis of these material conaltions, on the basis of ideal utopian schemas, that Workers the Socialist League has, since its formation, insisted that real exist for the •portunues fight for the Trotskyist pro- gramme within the working class The Trotskyist programme sets out, in Trotsky's words: "... to help the masses in the process of their daily struggle tind the bridge between present demands and the socialist programme of This bridge the revolution. should include a system of demands. stem- transional ming from today's conditions wide layers of the working class and unalterably leading to one final conclusion: the by the contarato cong uest By mobilising workers in the fight for demands which correspond to their material problems but lead to snow une necessily to over- capitalism, the trans- throw itional bring demands workers into head-on conflict with their reactionary leaders, who act in detence or the capitalist system. in this wav the question ot new leadership is raised in life within the labour movement.

For the Dorianic have this effect it is necess-

IN DEFENC

A REVOLUT

ORIENTA

Against sectarian Marxism which resulted in the split of 22 members of the Second Annual Conference.

The firemen's strike - 'selective' trade union work would have left Trotskyists in the role of mere sper dreams: class-softening the fight for "Revolution is impossible transitional demands without a change in the views "left' accomodating of the majority of the abandoning bureaucrats, working class, and this change points principle the OI by the brought "unity about search for an easy political experience of the which might offer a short masses, and never by propa- term increase in numbers ganda alone". Left Wing Commun- •Politically backward" (Lenin, ism, p.86). The problem begins when This kind of approach is forces in or around the revol- typified brilaln chameleon-like International utionary movement lose sight Marxist Group, and inter- of the revolutionary oppor- "United" tunities contained in the the nationally by of the Fourth contradictory developments Secretariat of the class struggle-and res- International. The sectarian response to pond simply sunlace the difficulties of intervening impressions and appearances.

becomes one- Their view In working Class sided and cut off from the avoid the struggle altogether.

movement The sectarian brands the and the contici that must be the life-blood of workers "politically backward" to merit the atten- revolutionary intervention within tion of his group of (inevit- Transitory moods the working class become ably petty-bourgeois) mistaken for profound shifts; "professional "strength" aries". apparent

CO I

The time is never quite the bureaucracy is mistaken as a sign of the "weakness" or right for him to transform his "illusions" of the working conious flow of words class; and the economic crisis even the most modest form viewed as a static factor, of action. within which possibly the Sooner than make employers could hold back mistake, or sully a principle, from attacking the working the sectarian will do nothing at all. Trotsky summed up class. Such an approach repres- the all aud a capitulation Transitional Programme ents empirical methods of bour- Sterile It leads to two, apparent- "These sterile politicians ly different types of response.

The onnortunist response generally have • no need of a SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 15 March, 1978 This is the first part of an extended analysis of the struggl By John the other shore. They simply dawdle in one place, satisfy.

ing themselves with repetition of the selfsame . Political meagre abstractions. for even for comment but not for action". The most chemically pure form of a sectarian organis- ation today is the internation- al Spartacist tendency. We will show in due course however that all their ettort.

to guard against opportunism by abstaining from avail-and have been to no that . bankrupt the most rerormist positions coexist lr their propaganda alongside hysterical the most ultimatums to the working class. But this link between and sectarian-

ODDOELUNSHD

ism is no accident-it is the rule The contrast apparell opportunist's Del wee lightminded contempt for principles and the sectarian's lightminded contempt for is only a practical work ditterence in torm In practice, since neither opportunist noI the sectarian will fight for trans- itional demands against the existing reformist and Stalinist leaders of the work- ing class both leave the work- ing class alternative programme leadership. While mav score

SOCIALIST PRESS, heinesda: i5 March, i9.8

CE OF

IONARY

TION

abstention e against sectarian revisions of Yorkers Socialist League at its Lister.

LOA.

Spartacists merely preserve it leadership proclaims its inter- brine, witholding national movement-the living demands from the International Committee-is the only defender of Trotsky- struggle, actual une conse- and the quence of each position is the ist principies, same. Trotskyist movement: on the they The intimate working rel- other hand grovel ations between opportunism unashamedly to the Gaddafi dictatorship, bourgeois sectarianism most tc ale nationalist clearly demonstrated by the forces the East curious hybrid positions Moee Workers Vietnamese Stalinism. by the advocated Revolutionary Party. The most rank opportun- On the one hand the WRP ism features side-by-side with fight ultra-left sectarian positions.

scorns the for trans- Class context devoting In considerable attention to tracing the roots and its close links opportunism LO. may appear to have digressed from our examination of the Workers recent split in the Socialist League. But our political struggle cannot be understood outside of its material and class context. while the fake gecause "Trotskyist". lacton willin the

WSL

dressed up their arguments with ringing state- menes Dour leraardus u and the history of our move.

WRP leader G. Healy - WRP demonstrates link ment, their real starting point petty bourgeois timidity between opportunism was face of the daunting and sectarianism. in lne of task itional demands, and constructing Trotskyist party advocates their place country based on the working simply the expropriation of industry: the class. second will hand

WRP

other ducie memOC the examine more closely join class collaborationist class argued these Trotsky national questions. Important new layers We should point out here, wthin MOveTEC trained to the where however, that while there point were many points of disagree- they are capable ol inler- vening and giving firm leader- ment on the historical points ship in workers' struggles.

thrown in for discussion by none of those these people, points provided grounds for a Rationalisation split. were they seniousiy But such a change did not The real argued as SuICI. emerge spontaneously. A sus- interest of the opposition was tained fight had to be waged in withdrawal from the class against certain petty bour- struggle of today. geois elements within the why it was no 1 nIs was who resisted HOVe WICHI accident that their arguments, becoming directly involved in of conveyed with a frenzy the class struggle, and those arm-waving histrionics, failed who deterred bv their own convince a single one of failures to develop such work the industrial workers within in the past sought out "easy" ou move iclil solutiuis "Trotsky- The self-styled Jaded ist" action epitomised that and resistance,

TES

aocu The petty bourgeois forces ment gave a political rational- they did attract were isation for the abstention of motley combination of raw, such people from all forms of inexperienced new members, practical struggle-whether it Herause winacecnory- be trade union work, or sales naaise eor in dolian naat of our weekly paper. that " number individuals Their statement onstaat the invitable responded to work master- was a problems of building a move- of dishonesty blended piece ment in the working class by with diplomacy: lull away. "The WSL's trade union These for people had, work has no overall national varying reasons, failed to plan, and is without clear participate or learn from the Perspe civee No acteren rate qualitative develop- ¡aul ment of the Workers Socialist concentrate made to League in 1977. forces in particular factories unions of importance. In During year Our succeeded an unconscious way the WSL movement has turned to work in support number of areas in sinking far of particular strikes as a prim- deeper roots into tne workug ary field of activity, without Cass movenen PHOTO. Mark Rusher. IFL consideration of what any political lessons can be drawn from them, and with consideration of whether we have the resources to do this work without damaging other fields of work, or the training ol caures The whole passage circuit- ously avoids stating the real thought in the minds of the authors: the belief that cadres "trained" by abstain- Canbe from intervention ing particular strikes. Linked this the Io repulsive notion that Trotsky- ists should assess cunicaly the possible benefits to be gained for their betore supporting workers in struggle. Preparation arises, The question that ot course. Wolle uren training cadres for? Are they professional talkers debaters, commentators. Or are they lead struggles of workers in prep- for the time of the aration revolutionary overthrow of capitalsm. The Workers Socialist League absolutely that the second convinced answer is the correct road for Marxists. We must fight in the class struggle where it erupts; and we must build and strengthen struggles are yet in progress.

accusing the WSL of under- counterpose the petty bour- must be adhered to regardless such a fanciful schema Ion the sous t tor ripte ment add usti ons of of ern wardly unpromising sections avo unes nis edaine ering rand film processing plants and the apparently conservative layers trade skilled engineers, electricians and firemen.

Nobody could have predicted that these sections would lead major struggles But then to believe that Marxists in advance Cal "select" and move into the arena of the main class battles is as dangerous and reaction- aternat starch fore eN search . 'new Clelal vanguard" of ready. mass made politically independent workers with whom the IMG can simply "fuse" Petty bourgeois notion The concept that underlies this whole refusal inter- TO vene in workers' living struggles petty bour- 1s the geois notion that Marxists can be recruited and trained or the basis of words, ideas and abstract propaganda alone This was spelled out in an underlined in the =.2= document': "Revolutionaries today like the Left Oppositionists of the 30s, will not assemble themr initial forces primari through a strategy of direct recruitment trade-union OI militants whom we have been able to lead in struggle, but through central emphasis on the struggle to win subjec.

tively revolutionary elements the workers' movement through the power of ¡deas, of our programme."

Trotsky held a very differ ent view of the relationship betweer O Dadaist Rather than practical work. counterposing propaganda to work within the agitationa. working class, the Transition al Programme spells out the combine essentid. them, defining the period as: pr e-revolutionar sanda and organisation propa.

period of agitation, He went on: "The present epoch is dis tinguished fact not ior the that it frees the revolution ary party from day-to-day work but because it permits this work be carried on with the actual indissolubly tasks of the revolution".

The Transitiona Programme stresses that it is only on the basis of practica struggle that the bureaucracy can be defeated. Class society And unless Trotskyist: demonstrate ability to Taetr fight the bureaucracy, the! will be unable to win the besi elements of workers Trotsky Propaganda, spelled out, is not enough: "By means of O Daall distic literature, if it is good educate first Tn e UnC Call cadres, but one cannot rall!

vanguard the proletaria. whicn lives neiner m a cuci but ir nor in a schoolroom a class society, , in a factory the organisations oi in masses, a vanguard to whom one must know how to speak in the language of its exper iences. The best prepared pro pa must invitabl ganist circles disintegrate they find contact with the dail struggle of the masses. During Gevou0 dn the events masses inquire for the address of thi or that sect, but leap over it" All the high soundin; calls winnin! soulal lall "subjectively revolutionar! ideas by the "power o elements" elaborat for their pro covel reut of gramme acton - proie: sionally intervening revisionist and centrist meet ings, attempting

SCOT

debating points and

WII

sectarian elements withir those 'left' groups Insofar as the

WSL

ha successfully won forces fron other left groups it has beer on the basis of our seriou approach to the struggle fo the programme of Trotskyisn within the working class.

Abstention Yet the sectarians woul have us engage in an endles.

abstract debate complete!! divorced from any practica the work lll as. Ulsalil. ations of the working class!

Trotsky had little time fo such a position: "It is not enough to creat programme. It i a correct necessary that the workin‹ class accept But th in the sectarian, things, comes to a stop upor first half of the task the Active intervention into thi actual strugele of the worke supplanted masses lim by an abstract propaga la of a Marxist programm (Trotsky , Writings 1935-5 Having decided to throv aside the approach embodie.

in the Trotskyist programme the sectarians within the WSI followed their Spartacis mentors into the most remo: wilds of sectarian abstentio= Next week

Page 8 Deakinism By Di Parkin and the TGWU -witchhunters branches and trade union Though the witch-hunt shop stewards' organisations.

and attack orchestrated This Rank and File move- against the nine Cowley ment was strong in the bus militants by the TGWU section workers'

TGWU

the and produced other and bureaucracy paper The Busman's Punch.

agents of the right wing Its particular base was ir trade union apparatus is Central Bus the London without parallel in recent Committee of the TGWU, as had the years, it is not unique in the Movemenl of the 31/50 support the history of the British branches of London busmen.

labour movement. At periods of crisis when Independent between labour and capital is at a sharp point Then, as now, the union could not toler- the employing class has ire- bureaucracy quently been unable to carry ate the existence of a body through plans unaided and its control-a body has needed to act through its reflected the which instead interest of the minions, independent arcacucius trade union bureaucrats. working class. against it the acting Bevin Shabby trail

TGWU

the infamous used period of witch-hunts in the Black Circular issued by the of particular The period TUC General Council in 1934 TGWU which took place long parallel with today 1S tne before the name 'McCarthy which asked the executives early 1950s when extreme considera- meant anthing of unions Secretary right General In the 1920s, the major tion the possibility of Deakin blazed the …10 Arthur oppositional force within the drawing up regulations shabby trail now had amending the rules of your trade union movement Region followed by been the Communist Party, organisations as to officials. them to reject the organised initially within the Deakin set a new style of

CHADOWCI

Minority Movement. of members of rule over the nomenons dictatorial disruptive TGWU, which is now fighting Docker 10] ally Rank and File official positions within your least Britain's become organisation". democratic union. of Following the defeat nothing

SLATES

Rule change pletely from scratch, the 1926 General Strike Deakin himself learnt his the Minority Movement was bodies" "disruptive Rank For built his reorganised as : d methods anu bodies read-militant from earlier File based techniques an

IN REVIEW

AVOID

THIS

PLAY!

Sheilagh Priestman reviews Steve Burchol's play 'East'.

showing at the New London Theatre, in the West End.

experience-the you up to the bar area. with One of the delights of the audience well groomed and elegant furnishings, and middle class has always been halves of lager for 30p served laugh the comic and trendily oressco -ill ideas from stall resembling quaint ways of workers. supposedly sparkling space module whose shutters Big fat ladies with shrimp- and theories about art and culture and life. descend automatically. sized seasiuc that Woodbines The New London sur- postcards; and SuI VIVCU The foyer ordeal and got inside curlers: hobnail boots, passes this. cloud theatre-like a carpark with caps and clogs-funny lot the snarea win a smart restaur carpets-a worse ordeal was working class. ant and there is great dangel Entering a West End thea- entangled with to follow. ot getting fight for the prepared working class including. the that time, Communist Party. At the same time the TGWU adopted a change of members rule, requiring sign a declaration to "observe the constitution union"-a declaration designed to leave the door open for vague and unspeci- fied allegations against mul LaliLs In the 1930s it was the London busmen who received the attentions of the TGWU's kangaroo noosemen. Constitutional During a strike over wages seven hour day and for the at the time of the coronation 1937, the of George VI in Central London Bus Area Committee refused to accept Committee's the Excutive document on the strike. They put out their own leaflet and printed material in the Daily Worker. As the Committee was a body of the constitutional union, there was little the felt able to do about it Bevin. (later the infamous transport drivers outside the Kangaroo Court last month This was recommended as a brilliant piece of parody on East working class life London-in fact it was a piece of titillation for the middle class audience. The characters were stock figures: Dad in overalls and boots; Sylv, a peroxide tart; two "bovver boys' and mum, of course wearing scarf, curl- Mum was ers and slippers. for some reason played by a man, so she looked like the 'women' in Monty Python. That was one of the first from some- direct copies followed thing else, closely Dad figure being a bv the classic Alf Garnett racist and patriot. One of the lads worked in boring wear shop men's with an awful employer who forced people into nasty gar- ments "just your shade sir'.

His meaness was well desc- ribed. But of course this em- minister of Labour in the war and

TGWU

coalition General Secretary) spoke in 1937 of the impossibiltiy of "duties" carrying 0 Ul (ie. workers' suppressing struggles) when there was an within organisation" Clearly Bevin obiected to the existence ol a body prepared to defend the working class! instituted a Finance He and General Purposes Com- 'un- mittee inquiry

ILLC

official" movements. This star chamber inquiry lead to a motion being torced through the Biennial Delegate Conference of the TGWU the provisions the Under of members to take rights part unofficial action, affiliate to 'unofficial' bodies, or issue journals or literature not authorized by the union hold unofficial

OT T

meetings, were drastically curtailed. Suspended also the

TGWU

gave bureaucracy the ability to proscribe organisations which dealt with wages, hours, con- ditions, in a manner they thought to be detrimental to TGWU Region 5 Secretary Brian Mathers arguing his.way past Cowley type in the book was trotted Doubtless the author out. and 'sophisticated" audience saw these as being parodies of something but they were not challenged within the context of the play. There is no parody in offe- ring the remark that when mum gol olaner lils nung below her mini-skirt'-roars of laughter from the audience. play-whose plot is The largely irrelevant - was obses- sed with the sexual obses- of its very sions male and manly young heroes who des- cribed with great relish their different sexual exploits, reducing women to a com- bination ot sexual The female does young protest but only in terms of she wishing was a man This simply added to the notion that men and their sexual powers are marvellous and women necessarily passive objects who will end SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 15 March, 1978 the union. the bus strike the A Tel Bus Central Committee was suspended eight leaders either and the expelled or banned from the U0107 eight were Bert Papworth and Bill Jones Reinstated Some militants at this point tried to set up a break- National union away Passenger Workers Union. however, CP policy was correctly to oppose such breakaways and instead "strengthen Taise toe acmanu the change the union leadership." Papworth and Jones were eventually reinstated into the TGWU after massive protests to fight and they the TGWU bureaucracy under Deakin the post-war period. Once again they be witch-hunted and purged anti- in the grand era of in the unions- CommunISI the early 1950s Next week Deakin and anti-communism.

This sexism dripped from every part of the play, as did its view of the working class violent unmannerly and people who spit cake out when they speak. The tone of patronage and insult was so appalling that your reviewer was unable to stay until the end. Doubtless trendy some twist in the tail at the end attempted to undo the harm done all the way through; but short of turning the house and interrogating the audience as to why they blacks, found Jews. women and workers so degr- adingly amusing, there was no redemption possible Obscene There is something fund obscene about the amcaldily workers' being offered up to middle class theatre goers to amuse titillate and Avoid this play!

No-'Annie'offers no SOCALIST PRESS. Heinesda: is Marin is's 'Left' Dennis Skinner-wheeled out by Stalinists to address a Parliamentary lobby When Harold Wilson clearly the immense strength said that 'Labour is now of the working class. natural party the government ? he was working class which in 1969 in his own Labour expressing dereded shackle the unions contained way the truth that as the in the notorious In Place of capitalist crisis has inten- Strife White Paper. the mid sified since 1960s, the reformists have become the main agency for the mainten- class working ance of bourgeois rule in back the lation of the Britain. tration of 1971-4, and it was into Since Labour came the strike of the miners and in 1964, it has government the support they secured that dealt with the working class forced the of through series wage office in 1974. freezes and by Genner alev These battles induced unemployment. unprecedented successes the British working class.

Collaboration They have by panied These policies have etrayals by their leaders and increasing support from the the growth of participation trade union bureaucracy and and class collaboration of a have been responsible for the particularly vicious kind.

first falls in workers' living The successes standards since the 1930s.

period of class struggle and The short period of Tory the early 1970s rule made as a showed many sections of the mobilisation of the working capitalist class the necessity class, for the active class collabor- ation of the trade union and awav trom their traditional Labour leaders and convinced of mass organisalvis that the noncies tnem confrontation could only lead them to disaster. Leeds, 6th March 1978 Dear Comrades; xically calming, I must take issue with the little film'. review of Annie Hall in S.P.

89. I am tempted to take the review line by line, so riddled if she so missed the point.

is it with contradictions, but 1 will instead confine myself to a few general remarks. Comrade Thompson right- ly observes in her title and society elsewhere that a central fea- ture of the tilm is neurosis but, what she fails to observe, personified. OSiS is that it is the centrai tea- looks for a Ture Most of Allen's work has isolated from centred on neurosis and this film must mark the present relationships relationship in which work has point Lilal reached. Comrade Thompson then place in it moves on from a recognition ot neurosis as an ingreaien m the film to sav that the film neurosi as a whole is "balm for neur- course, rate from the

OUR

fight which offer temselves social alternative' 'the democracy have failed to pick any substantial numbers of workers as their member- wide- even ship snows, can be spread support, seen from their votes in by- elecuons. Very limited This should not come as a surprise. As Trotsky put it in The Class, the writing on Party and the Leadership: "Workers in general do not This period has also shown with the party easily break to awakens them that conscious life ...(It is not) It was the action of the as if the proletariat was in a well-stocked shoe store, selec- plans ting a new pair of boots. Even this simple as o velalull. well known, does not always As regards successtul. prove new leadership, the choice is Successes very limited. Only gradually, It was the action of the only on the basis of its own which forced through several experience, legis- stages, can the broad layers of an-unlul Tory adminis- the masses become convinced leadership that a neW more reliable, more firmer, loyal than the old." Tories out The overthrow of capital- will only be carried out have won by revolutionary party for which can take the working through these "several class accom- Decn stages. unprecedented Verbal support At this point within the class, British working this workers move into struggle they up against come gains which have been 'left' wing of social demo- result the cracy which expresses verbal support for struggles against have not caused large works the right wing, but ceaselessly to tie the working numbers of workers to turn class to reformism. In every great battie of the class-from Centrist organisations like working strike to Grunwicks the Socialist Workers Party

HICIS

comfort both parties, (Woody Allen and Diane Kea- exist, Tassullls case), have to Far from it: I found the in InIs

LULE

relate to the rest of society.

film perplexing and difficuit, All their attempts to make as must Comrade Thompson work are Enel SUlULIUI and the doomed to failure The point is this, neurosis failure is made all the more is a product of bourgeois soc- poignant by the fact that 'Annie' is as neurotic as 'Al- iety. The family inbourgeois vie' and is looking for exactly neuroses etl ales which are reinforced by exp- the same solution as he! eriences outside the family.

internalise All neTOUC Woody Allen is that neur- external problems. A problem for society becomes a neuro-

HO W

tic problem and a search for bonkh will Be uretent and a personal solution becomes other the neurotics answer. in society: The point that the film all nis perhaps home, (and fears about society andıs l alls Allen never intended this), is will disappear in such a search wil the face of that relationship LuCl In this way he hopes his It is for this reason that will disappear. many neurotics will discover relationsnip sepe- that the film is far from being , rest of soclety

POLICIES

Make the 'Lefts' By John Docherty ship for rank and file Labour and the firemen's struggle- Party members, the 'left' MPs are to be seen results from the constituency doing their regulation stint on parties for the Labour NEC the picket line in front of the will show TV abetted by the cameras, constantly Stalinists, wno that the opinion Tentelale there is no further need to develop any struggle against same time büreaucracy because the OI for those who can see no way the fact that 'somebody oppose there loves you' left and The HaNSS the right wing reformists insist at every turn The 'lefts' workers do not need to that alternative, but provide none.

mobilised, go be further .LO just beyond spontaneous struggle, AlIu to break with their misleaders with the empty because, they claim, there is forward - way another through appeals to the 'lefts' of are These pnenoliend the importance Cclltl di the class development as millancy struggle. the The 'lefts' provide essential and main Rezde 10C010g)

PHOTO

Delegates at the LCDTU conference-arena for lefts the 'left' democracy. than ment Trotsky that: development proletariat whelming sympathetically a balm! All Comrade Thompson's mistaken assertions about the supports film flow from this failure to Thomas (ie understand neurosis. power an understanding Without acidental. of neurosis one cannot . see beyond the superficiality the film and, of course, this is Party [not Thompson Comrade Stalinist wilal means when she says the film years], It also follows that if one only struggle can't understand (neOSS understand can't then „ one of Woody Allen's work, ally clique, but and that might explain some Thompson's Comrade left muddleheads his meraliar remarks aDoul of earlier films. whom and I apologise for the neces- their positions" brevity of my remarks sary and hope that they are taken in comradely spirit p.153). in the which they are offered J.E. Brown PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report wi son "systematic undertake such unmasking' by simple propa- denunciation - and though of course there must be some of this. To leave it at that is the block. method setladll simply who aim nedus. while temselves, convince leaving the masses under une of their present tutelage leaders. This is why it is necessar!

this for revolutionaries stage to place demands on the voting 'lefts' as part of the struggle before to expose them masses, to bring workers one breaking from nearer SuCu and "Unmasking' their present Jeaders the independent espousing leadership revolutionary The 'left' provides at the essential for their success.

the excuses Exposure Lib-Lab calition and the policies of the While explaining treachery of the 'lefts' we in pose as the Workers Socialist League at the same time fight along- the side those workers who con- case workers become disillusioned tinue to place confidence in words of the demanding that them, 'lefts', then there will be an "lefts' vote against the these article or an interview in the coalition; that the! Lib-Lab Stalinist Morning Star which themselves take part in mobil- will try to bolster the 'letts" ising the working class against supporters of action and wage freezing and unemploy.

ment; and that they launch a For all of these reasons it right fight drive out the wing Healey-Callaghan clique acmel Only by the fight on these policies and the exposure of the refusal of the carry out such a struggle will workers in the Labour Party and elsewhere who Iclal the 'lefts' be confidence 1n of the need to convinced make a definitive break trom TeTOTAISI wil Only such break make it possible to confront the struggle for power. Retain confidence It cannot be seriously said that to place demands on the to demand that the! 'lefts' should be as good as thei word, is to place any conti or to suppor dence in them them as against the right.

So long as they retain th confidence of any sections o workers, it would by wron not to place demands on th this couli leits because simply be to leave their illusion workers with orientation towards exposing and to accept their argumen!

wing social that there is nothing they ca: do. Such a policy is even more It is sometimes said tha timely now after long periods the 'lefts' do not have ir of social democratic govern- support of significant sectio.

was of workers. 1926 it in long as the grea But so the majority remain "The present stage in the traditional organisations a: of the British come into conflict with !.

where its over- right wing as they have dor majority responds constantly in recent yea: the then the role of the 'lefts. : speeches of the 'lefts' and of heading the means MacDonald and independent struggle right) in the remain significant. of not colse And it is impos- Possibilities sible to leap over this stage The path of the Communist workers' strugg. of course in the next pe:: •develop mutation of later sha:: and mOlt ulul c as the future great against the bureaucracy. ir party of the masses, lies not the possibilities OI through an implacable all sections break with against capital's reformism are posed. special agency in the shape of The development Thomas-MacDonald independent revolutio:. the also party will then take plai?

systematic unmasking of the by procamtl by means but througt necessity process of struggle withi-.

alone MacDonald maintain mass organisations. hose wno are sensil.i= the nature of this treai (Writings on Britain, vol Il, be capable of leading revolutionary part! recess for the overthrow of ia?::

Far::: English workers the

GEC

at Farately factory in Liverpool, are thrown on the scrapheap factory as yet another faces closure in the area.

Martin Jay, managing director of English Electric Products, said all consumer 670 the plant workers on would lose their jobs. The firm, which makes electric cookers, has just lost an order from the electricity boards for 55,000 cookers, out of a total production of 63,000. Losses the last 1n three years are said to be £6 million. The factory is on the same a GEC site gear factory as employing 2,300 workers said be Jobs are what the employers call 'safe' Massive changes in work- Ine comondous and melnoas pay leading to speed-up have been rammed down the Hospital workers and representatives of the local labour movement are fighting Bethnal to save Green Hospital East London. Socialist Press recently rebored a move ov terr anion committee to demand that leaders of the health service unions take SerIOUS action health service Resolutions are being Trade branches calling on the National Executives of NUPE, COHSE and ASTMS to Tamuseuves area-wide strike action the event of any attempts by the Area Anor to move ecle Gent and patients out of Bethnal The need to expose and fight the inaction of the trade union bureaucrats is now being seen as more vital man ever. NUPE leader Alan Fisher (who made profession lane dealst governmen curs the health services, has not even bothered to reply to an invitation requesting his presence at a major public meeting Main reed held York detence or tre nosoilar. Authority Many hospital workers now realise that, while happy to sound off on TV and in the newspapers, Fisher preters to stay away from those would expect him to laik aboul delion. leaders have the ine Union the authority and the resources prepare their for membershi The massive struggle needed defend and improve the health service.

They Terest workers at Bethnal Green are left the best their make situation Preparations are being made to regular picketing of local hospital and a meeting of union representatives taking place. But without the leadership needed much Bueray has been turned diversionary protest actions. Several lobbies of management ana government bodies, as welt as a petition have been Such methods can be useful in sc far as they attract new support through the publicity they receive une labour

DUU

when they are the only form of

INDUSTRIAL

NEWS

OCCUPY GEC!

English Electic workers' done his bit by cooperating with speed up. tnoals over tae past tnree Workers at the plant must years. These have been soid to now see the futility of collab- tne workers as necessarv for oration the preservation of their jobs.

They must build a leader- Now the brutal lesson of ship ready to fight the closure of the cynicism the plans and begin to prepare an employers being brought occupation of the plant. home in the most bitter wav.

The workers should strive The multi-million pound in the other 2,300 organisation has picked this GEC workers on the site into factory out for closure the occupation. despite every effort of the They must demand that workers' leaders to collabor- the books, plans and inner ate. secrets of GEC are laid bare company spokesman to an elected workers' com- said: mittee and that such a firm "Since October there has will which cannot not been a significant improve- meet the demands of its and workers must be nationalised periormance obstacles under the of mally Improve productivity have been over- the workforce without penny in compensation to the Cole. But the market for electric They must also demand a cookers remains very low" Eddie

TGWU

of useful work Roberts, programme district responded for the factory with all organiser available work out to the news by attacking the shared among the workforce without competance management and declaring that he had loss of pay. Save this hospital!

RICHT THE CUTS

PIOLLENHALY

Fisher postures for press cameras myth being peddled that other woove over Elizabeth health workers London hospitals (the way orward fo barrett and ana the labour movement. leaders must Nicholasi nave been cavery Linion such methods. In fact no commit.

challenged with these policies. So for made 'left' MPs like lan Mikardo been ment ras stale

MUS

Tinance

COA

ano wno nas declared nis support to Nicholas will only stay open at Bethnal Green Hospital, but the expense of other hospitals.

his contes to cive one centra question remains rariament to the o-Lao covern.

the need for all out defence of the ment that is making the cuts.

health whole,; made will nedaway strike actIon ano occupations under a about movement eacer against the cuts; and the battle for ship that grovels before Callaghan state financing of a decent health Steel and the ruling class whose profits they are defending at the service massive injection of funds with regular expense workers' living stan. increases to meet inflation.

dards. jobs and social services Expose Wright in office Terry Duffy, the by AUEW ContrOl exercised wing candidate in the AUEW officers. He proposes end the Presidential election pointed re election for svstem or requiar out last week that he had the officials which has made

AUEW

"great difficulty" in finding the most democratic of disagreement with the Ine bie unions ally And he wants to amalgamate positions put by the current with the viciously anti-communist President, ( the one-time left leadershie Ine CCIrU Scanlon. notorious for their suppression of the resistance from their Scanlon-whose flight the rank and file. right been just as marked as TGWU stable-mate his Best exposed Jack Jones-was leTT wing candidate when elected. There is no doubt that Dutty But 'Broad Left' rival Bob Wright will response to the profits same path crisis or british cabildism be fid.

•e rawn towaras life vigorously undertaken the job of as that traversed by Scanlon. He policing the AUEW's 1.2 million offers no principled opposition to menroers Ine riant wind sackings and wage control.

Wright can be best The struggle against the closure at Speke No. 2 plant faces very real dangers. The stewards have put no call for an occupation of the plant and have yet to call a mass meeting to organise fight against the closure In the absence of any clear lead, many workers are they will saying take redundancy pay The militant stewards argue that they can't stop anyone taking redundan- cy pay and can only organise fight with workers who want to stay. Mothballs They are putting forward a utopian scheme for maintain- ing the plant mothballs until a future date. The fight against closure has to also be a fight against the present leadership on the stewaros committee The convenor and senior stewards have gone right with participation, and diong Edwardes plan which the includes the closure of Speke.

Therefore the fight against closure has to also be a fight against participation. of maintaining Any talk part of the factory is a recipe Edwardes tor tallure, since stated opposition to the EETPU merger talks. For this reason Socialist Press SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 15 March, 19-8

LIVERPOOL:

-FIGHT THE

SACKINGS!

Speke leadership crisis hits action closure plan can only be against the closure. defeated by an all-out occu- However the most likely pation of the plant. the platform of speaker such a conference is Stalinist Derek Robinson, Confused Basis Longbridge and chief Concol participator in the Edwardes The IMG, Big Flame and plan! SWP have come together to The "Defence" meeting in form a "Trade Union Defence no way tackled the immed- Committee" for Speke on the iate question which the completely confused basis of principled struggle for uniting all forces save leadership in Speke that can speke. give a clear perspective to the The first meeting of this workers of how to fight the committee was held on closure March with about 25 present workers from only Dul Diversion Speke. Pat Hickey, IMG steward from Rover Solihull This fight must be central addressed the meeting calling and the committee that was support widespread to can only be a diversion for set up stop the closure and to make fails confront this 11 1t Speke task Lilt "another UCS" The closure can only be forgot course he fought on the clear basis of at

UCS

the occupation of the plant and mention Inal workers accepted massive withdrawal from participa- speed-up and redundancy and that the struggle was in Instead of collaboration, way a victory for the working the books of Leyland and its class which remained entirely subsidiaries must be opened in the hands of refórmist and elected committee of Stalinist misleadership. show the

LOSES LO

need for the nationalisation of Leyland, along with com- and Hanulacturers The Liverpool Trades other car monopolies as part Council was of a planned, integrated car praiseu having pledged support and industry, under workers' conference Malacemeal

SOCIALIST

PRESS *

5 issues .£1.10 110 issues ...£2.20 .£5.50 i cares 50 issues . £10.00 . I would like to receive ..

issues. I enclose the sum of f.

Name Address Send to: Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill London NW5 1HR

Birds Eye-only a NUJ chapelspicked

TGWU PREPARES SELL OUT

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 15 March, 1978 threat to sack? With major factory The closure announcement instead of laying plans for the closures being announced occupation of the Bird's Eye the day after T&G valle almost daily on Mersey- and mobilising suport WORKeRS S0aOl agreed 456 redundancies. throughout the firm-will side, it is clear that the But the 110 manage- threat of mass sackings is Chemis sureneute still solid ment's determination to press were Luel increasingly the means original pay claim. ahead with rationalisation that management use to The statement the pialis. discipline workers and closure was theretore manage- Predictable ment's tinal attempt to force solve their crisis of profit- speed-up and redundancy on ability. the workers. 'Left' Labour MP for Management Kirby, Robert Kilroy Silk's announced Climbdown 7 March their closure

OH I

1 uesaay intention to close the Bird's announcement was to call on At the weekend the threat Eye factory and throw 1,200 the coalition government to had the desired effect. The workers on the dole. stop grants ana ald call off engineers voted to This followed a 14 week Bird's Eye's parent company, their strike having failed to strike by 110 engineers for a Unilever. win their claim, in the hopes pay claim in excess of 10%.

Callaghan's predictable of saving the 1,200 jobs.

Bird's Eye announced they reply to this pathetic gesture would Both was that grants to the giant redundancy and TGWU way Unilever monopoly must con- money, since the production agreed to submit to every one of the workers on workers relusea to cross tne management's picket lines and therefore Merseyside must stop going demands were also on strike! Such a climbdown- on strike!

TGWU

INTERNATIONAL

WORKERS

BRANCH

PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report

TGWU

N OFFICINLSTKKE

TGWU

OFFiCIALSTRIKE

TRADE UNIM

RECOGNITKAN

CURNEXS

Garners workers before the ban on marches There is no question of sell out the strike in an inter- creates confusion strike a TGWU District levy to view with the Daily Telegraph among the strikers. on March 9. back the Garner Steak The example of Grunwick He was prepared to call off showed that ACAS is not the House recognition strike, the immediately, he solution for recognition, but according to Catering said provided only the is designed to subordinate the Officer George Abraham. employers would workers to the machinery set guarantee victimisation and would He told strikers up by the state in order to Monday that if they raised an ACAS recog- head off struggle. Garners nition inquiry. such support for The TGWU bureaucracy is strikers they would have to doing everything to Determined Devel do it for everyone! the all-out confrontation This marks a definite shift Abraham speaks only for crack the niccessary from Abraham's earlier state- himself, not for the strikers.

They continuous- employers. They are determined to stay ments to get such refuse to implement the "takes time"-.and support until they win union strikers' demands for such a oul makes clear that

TGWU

recognition. confrontation with mass officials have no intention of Speeches of this kind, and picketing and full blacking of fighting this battle to win.

the treacherous role of the Garners Steak Houses. Abraham had earlier TGWU in not mobilising any By such positions TGWU revealed TGWU intentions to behind the officials real a ical

SU DOLL

LIKE THAT OF ALL SOCIALISTS,

Fishall®

THE OFFICIAL'S WORLD IS AN

INTERNATIONAL ONE...

...ONLY THE SIDES

HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO

Diary

PROTECT THE GUILTY!

U.S.A..

...YOUR MAN AT THE TOP'S

FIGHT TO STAY ON YOUR BACK.

Journalists on 18 pro- vincial newspapers stand in severe danger of being thrown to the wolves as part of the NUJ's annual wages deal. They work on eighteen which have grant backdating on the 10% pay rise to January 1. All Du of still SiX chapels ine involved confronted by are the same management -west master rress. Backdating Provincial employers- of the Newspaper Society-refused to backdate the pay agreement after the

NUJ

successfully imposed sanctions to force changes in pay claims a cause on local over and above the national agreement. Now almost all of the 200 plus

NUJ

chapels in the Society have Newspaper forced their employers to give backdating ground on through local action. Those that are left are being lined up by the employers for a of thorough dose union bashing. All journalists have already received the increase of £7.09 a week. Penalty period Offers

NUJ

made to members seek to extract a penalty period for applying sanctions of anything up to •threat to the strike. But the fight can and must continue despite Abraham's betrayals. A strike committee responsible to mass meetings of strikers must be elected at once to mobilise forces this struggle. The strikers must mobilise for their next trade union branch

WE COUN

resolution and call on Region Committee to implement the following policies: *No talks, no return, until recognise the bosses the union! *Mass picketing to be organised every Saturday.

*Blacking of all suppliers,

• WEST

GERMANY...

for victimisation Six WeeKs coincidence that among the Westminster Press chapels singled out for attack are some winchproved thorn the management's 1n side during the protracted Darlington 'closed shop? strike-including the Oxford Mail Times chapel and anu the Kentish Times chapel.

Outside Westminster Press the Camden and Islington Gazette chapels, who have won a strike a year for the years, nave asa been refused backdating Sanctions have now been stepped up on all the remain.

ing papers to the point where union members have all but stopped work. Members are refusing to use the phones, work outside car, travel by 'normal' working hours or start work on a second story the until current story complete -a rule which is causing long delays. Mandatory Meetings are being called in working hours to disrupt production The South Shields chapel, frustrated delay, has been in a manda- tory chapel meeting for two weeks. But despite the unity and the NUJ nationally has done little but congratulate itself on the fact that so chapels many have won. that are left are Cose supples and maintenance * A regional levy to finance the strike. All messages of support to the strike and donations fund should be sent to:

TGWU

room 84. 12-13, Henrietta Street, London WC2.

STILL AVAILABLE

"The Hotel Strikes" Published by the Hotel and Catering Workers National Action Committee Available, price 35p plus 10p p&p, from WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR

FRANCE...

YEAH I KNOW WHAT

YOU MEAN LADS...

THE WORKING

CLASS IS IN

RETREAT'

HERE TOO!

Page 1! that demanding is organised in their action What support. started as a national (and seemingly trivial) dispute has been trans- lated into a local and funda- mental one Inadequate The NUJ strategy of per- mitting local deals has been translated into its opposite local managements are being given a free hand to attack their chapels Once

NUJ

again leadership proving itsell hopelessiy inadequate to the tasks demanded of it. The where work to rule. vigorously applied, has had a the newsp major effect on apers but it has not stopped them appearing. If continued indefinitely will have destructive the effect on membership While a strike under these conditions where manage. ments are clearly reluctant to lock out the NUJ members- is a tactic to be carefully used immediate steps be must taken to draw back into the dispute chapels which have already settled. Climbdown Nothing will have quicker effect on producing pressure on Westminster Press and the small managements howls of settle than Thomson from

BIOLOSI

United Newspapers News papers and the rest that their chapels are taking action against them. The employers have virtually ano wed Newspaper Society to cease to exist as an organisation during the dispute. They must be forced to resurrect it as the body which will produce a climbdown. Impotence The present strategy of the

NUJ

leadership, which amounts to little more than refusing to sign the national agreement until deal is reached, is a classic example of its wretched poker faced impotence, compounded by an arrogant belief that it is displaying good tactics.

break from bosses-

SOCIALIST

PRESS

WORKERS

SLAM TGWU

WITCH-HUNT

Support is clearly within the mounting

TGWU

for the nine members at British Ley- land's Cowley Assembly Plant who are fighting victimisation at the hands of union their own officials. Around 100 prominent members-including plant convenors, officers, and shop stewards have now sponsored a call for

TGWU

of conterence members on the issue, held in ford on april 8 to best means of discuss preventing a serious blow to basic trade union rights".

McCarthyism This step is the result of of increasing sections union becoming aware of the framed up convenors. McCarthyite witch-hunt being sentences including expulsion conducted within Region 5 of the

TGWU

against deputy three deputy Thornett, and banning from convenors, two shop stewards all union office for life in the and three other case of fellow deputies Tom the Cowley Assembly Plant.

White and Frank Corti. They face recommended The political and some tangible results economic crisis of the Fifth "he oressure on Republic in France has by leaders to come no means been resolved by the results of the first round

CFDT

reformist of the elections, in which the workers' parties won 49.5% that workers would and the bourgeois parties, stand why 48.4% of the vote. retuse to withdraw As we go to press the news the ensure has just come in that an arrange that the best- geois candidate to party candidate glaced workers party goes forward on the second round Whose as just been concluded betweer and Communist Socialist oo •ular while holding rary tenders conditions in Also included in this uneasy reformist-Stalinist alliance gramme bourgeois their reasur •rotection stable mates in the crass collar in different ways. of the Left" oration ist -the so-called 'Left Radicals 46

TRANSPORT HO

Cowley transport drivers register support for The or include care are accused include from the union in the case of paigning against" officials of Alan convenor disagreeing with the union,

TGWU

leadership on wages policy, and walking out of a District Committee meet- French CP, SP must take the power! workers' parties will want to see "commissars' as if the French Communist Party retains any more than the name 'Commun- CP and SP to arrange- ist'. ment on second round voting was But left wingers who argue that Marchais wants to impose a reflected in a statement from the trade union ett covernment are over confederation which pointed out confused Stalinist Marchais aeter … not under any of the worst mined to ensure that any possible government including CP repres placed workers' candidates should entatives is tied hand and foot to institutions of the capitalist defeat of the bour- The Fifth Republic. But his problem is that the leader Marchais, aspirations behind workers' votes took orine vote, had seemed to be bending to go well beyond this reactionary aim Their support for CP and SP this issue- candidates indicates a desire the 'Common Pro- make a real fight to end the year-old Fifth Republic and bring for these manoeuvres has been interpreted to power a government that their interests act Inetr defend jobs, wages and working conditions

WEREON THE SAME

We believe that it is essential for British Leyland to become successful.

Not only for everyone who works for the company and its seven thousand different appliers, but also for its sharcholders ar or the count The loss of Britain's biggest car manufacturer and exporter would wipe out the current benefits of North Sea Oil at a single stroke. The world is watching Leyland morefor Britair ing. plans, must The who are now victims of these charges had been reelected to office by popular vote in a factory- to enforce union members. wide ballot only three If these months ago. Known opponents left ists and Cowley. But all nine are known for their opposition warc control. to worker participa any militant tion, and to the job slashing Edwardes plan for Leyland.

Assembly Plant convenor Bob Fryer had been the only convenor to speak against the And the fact that plan when it was unvelled at Kenilworth last month.

ASTMS

are well Thornett Alan 1S the known throughout TGWU for his opposition to all forms of class collabora- tion and his fight at the last for conference union where policy of a sliding scale of wages in opposition to wage The large controls. for sponsors conference Speke broad hostility With British Leyland now being used as a testing ground The for the government's policy of wholesale closures, speed- the and sackings-as TR7 closure of the Speke condemning the shows-the union plant action who have declared National headquarters. leaders waging a struggle against French capitalism. . Both are dedicated to off of the struggles nedatel working class But forcing these parties for first time since into office for their and ine wat demands

CONTECT

WIll unes leaders, new layers Ot French begin learn the Cal necessity for revolutionary leader ship. Demands vital that revolutionaries aim for the victory Communist and Socialist the vote for the Parttes o best placed sark sce there same time they must agitate for those socialist demands a CP-SP government musi WhiCh be forced to implement. And, while refusing to vote for bourgeois Left Radical candidates workers must marder wal ever to break their parties from all with such bourgeois allance political tormations and from the reactionary Common Programme more than that

SIDE OF THIS FENCE.

getting better all the time. Abroad, our friends and competitors alike see the com pany's progress as a barometer for Britain's very existence as an industrial power We have had our disagreements in the past. And no doubt we shall disagree again Kut not on the basic neea To management and unions to work togeth n the difficult, but not impossible task o making Britain's own car company successful again. • L Great cars-and a great de.

Jones and Scanlon publicly reveal the motive for the Cowley witchhunt -anyone on the other side of the fence is to be suppressed.

And TGWU members of their full support for such the National Port Shop move ruthlessly Stewards Committee meeting to stamp out any principled Saturday pledged to last pole of opposition, if they are report the full facts of the such policies on case back to docks branches of the union. unprecedented moves to witch-hunt Trotsky- Can be stopped wingers are successful, ther These initial responses they will become the prece- show that if decisive action is dent for similar action against taken within the TGWU this that opposes bureaucratic offensive can be betrayals by TGWU officials stopped in its tracks, and the right fight All unions so calis policies against class collab.

oration can be restored. right Such a fight would create wingers from the AUEW and conditions in which ar the also already entirely new leadership could involved in the preparation of within the TGWU the "case" against the Cowley be bull of defending jobs capable indicates that such with- working and wages Conu hunts will not be contined to itions. the TGWU, but apply to any fight takes Resolutions place against the leadership.

of all

TGWI

number We urge April the support indicates the struggle. crucial resolutions in union branches within the stewards committees or other TGWU to McCarthyite frame-

TGWU

bodies condemning the witch-hunt and demand Miners Tunnel ing the charges be dropped.

national branch has passed a Elect delegates or simply resolution and sent telegrams attend the April 8 conferenc disciplinary and in Oxford Regional

FUND

£205 With exactly towards the Marc far fund and half th monthly gone it is clea month that we are beginning to ta behind means urgent actio This is needed by our readers an supporters to ensure that th fund, all £600 of it, , is raise in full by the end of March costs rising all th With time we cannot afford to ta of th short in the raising cash necessary to maintal and develop the coverage Socialist Press All donations to the fun CP chief Marchais should de sent lo. Socialist Press Monthly Fun 31, Darmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR

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