Socialist Press no. 107

Stop torture of Irish POWs! March July 9 See back page

SOCIALIST

PRESS *

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 107 * 5 July 1978 * 15p Minister Prime Callaghan intends to stomp the country from until the General now Election campaigning for a fourth phase of rigid wage control-with increases no more than 5%-followed by perm- anent pay limits. This was made abundant- ly clear arrogant, in mis speech provocative to bureaucrats of the Confed-

PHOTO:

eration of Shipbuilding and Unions confer- Engineering ence last Friday. Callaghan declared not only that there would be a also that he Phase 4. but na no renon or seek- ing prior agreement the TUC on his proposed figure. as with words. the Phase 3 10% limit, the has government decided simply to thrown down the gauntlet to the TUC bureau- knowing full well that these union leaders are that the eager

ASSISU

employers to pull through Phase four ineir crisis and so scarea of the strength of their own members that they will do nothing to ciduenge dpay ceiling. True to form, the Confed did nothing Headers this high-handed challenge The display by Callaghan. described next day official union reaction "guardedly favourable". There doubt can be no that if Callaghan is allowed to carry out this policy it can only bring backs to the workers move- Phase 3 will unleash further Record struggles and further acts treachery from OT Callaghan's latest plan Callaghan and the coalition for further wage control, cabinet. combined with the whole The question now posed of treacherous record starkly Delore every Laboul governat Party member and trade four has when ll years unionist is how they must prevent Callaghan's work and inflicted historic planned sabotage. cuts in working class living could be more Nothing standards, well be Illay than stand dangerous sufficient to alienate further back passively and allow the working class Labour voters, Labour right wing and their and bring the return of the allies in the TUC bureau- Tories Thatcher's under ride roughshod cracy right wing leadership. interests of the over the But even if Labour were working class. to scrape a the Election, General Tame Callaghan cabinet Those 'left' Labour MPs regard this victory mandate to crack down who have consistently taken with renewed viciousness on this position, and tamely any section of workers that gone along with every reac defied the policy and tionary government policy pay. fought to defend their living have opened the

GOOT TOI

latest standards. this move by During the past year we Callaghan. Headed by cabinet left' have already "seen Labour ministers, in a Parliamentary Wedgewood Benn, the Tribune Group of MPs have coalition with the bourgeois of the Liberal trooped time and again like politicians Party, troops in sheep into the government

USC

massive scabbing operation lobby to register support tor to defeat the firemen's pay mass unemployment, social service cuts, strike. pay laws and There is every indication attacks on democratic rights that, with the beginnings of -each time arguing that the inflation, the

LOLUTE

OHLEV

Was return of a Tory govern- working Class pressure wages alter the expuy on election looms

CALLAGHAN

TO DEFEAT

TORIES!

But the way to fight and Tories is the defeat independent the da vauce working struggles ot the class. And this can only take place if a clear stand taken at each point against the policies of reactionary the Labour leaders. The 'lefts' have demon- cratic voice. strated their refusal to take This strategy for betrayal such a stand at any point- must be fought throughout and in doing so they have demoralis- the workers' movement. contributed to union cynicism among ation and Every Labour Party ward- branch, supporters

WIIO

and GMC must discuss these want to fight the capitalist developments and offensive.

SALES I

Callaghan and the sight resolutions demanding pass a full Labour Party confer- wing feed off ence be called prior to the weakness. ditionate count leon the General Election, at which will have the delegates traditionally low level Labour Party activity during opportunity to throw out Callaghan's proposed mani- the summer period and the festo and the entire Lib-Lab of this likely year's Party conference in cabinet. MPs must be order to force reactionary through Local forced state their thoroughly and Callaghan's manifesto with rank and file positions, removed from members being denied even supporters the pretence of demo- lists of candidates. Better Red Than Dread. Eritrea: part two.

SACK

It is on this issue and the fight in practice for a social- based ist programme on abolition of wage controls, restoration of spending cuts, programme public OI create new jobs

WOLKS LO

and nationalisation of the banks and major industries without compensation under workers management that the Labour lefts' can be put to the test. proved As they are unable to challenge the right the best layers of wing, will recognise the worKers necessity for a break from social democracy of revol- construction leadership to take utionary the working class to power.

Inside

MAY-JUNE

1968 Page 8 Lessons of the Popular Front ..pp.6-7 p.8 p.2 Scanlon puts bosses case AUEW President Hugh Scanlon last week called on fellow union officials to act more energetically alongside Leyland manage-

STSA

ment in forcing through speed-up on their shop floor members. Speaking the annua conference of the Confedera- tion of Shipbuilding and Engin- Unions. Scanion bemoaned the fact that certain unions have not yet been drawn fully into the reactionary joint manacement Union tion' set-up that has trans- formed whole layers convenors and shop stewards into an arm of management.

"There for are all the reasons in the world are not particıpating in partıcıpa tion", he declared. This is certainly not true of Scanlon himself. who openly dedication to Layland manage declared complete ment when. ointy with tormer TGWU leader Jones, he went on to the front page of the Leyland Mirror to call on his members Keeo workine and accept management attacks. In line Scanlon and the Confed leaders gave tneir backing last spring to a ultimatum to малачетем 3,000 striking

AUEW

tool- makers. cemanaina they return He is clearly eager that other to work face the union officials follow this line.

and make similar threats to their members. We must work together on the problems that face the workforce", he said. "At times •we have to say unpleasant things to our members. employer in Echoing every ScanIon the current crisis, linkea nis call Tor continuous production to the threat of withdrawal of investment and closure if stoppages continued: one do when nat does disputes of the nature of some which developed in BL nave take place, and you are asked to bring forward and money there money avallaole because it has gone on lost production?" The Scanlon's answer question is straighforward: you get rid of the class ionist 'participation' set-up and is detenders. vou set uo cected trade union committees to open BL's books and expose the huge profits accruing to Tims. suboilers and tne banks. and you • step up the fight throughout the workers' move. ment Tor The nationals ton or these private sectors, without compensation, under workers' manacement Any answer which stops short of such a solution serves onlv to tie the workine class and its unions in with BL manage- ment Callaghan Edwardes the ana hell-sent jobs and drastic imposing speed-up Inrougnout te comoine.

Page 2

- INTERNATIONAL-

Eritrea's historic liberation fight David Whitfield traces the history of the struggle of the Eritrean people for self- determination against both imperialist powers and a succession of repressive regimes in Ethiopia. When the British forces The new regarded Eritrea in a very differ.

1941, invaded Eritrea in ent mont. they came, of course, not to Eritrea did not liberate an oppressed people unique strategic value it held for the Italian colonialists.

advance one

•UTE

second In • The Contacul directiv controllea most of the imperialist World War. Middle East, years of Yet the eleven northeast Atrica British colonial rule gave rise to political major deve o oments Not long term among the Eritrean people.

ot imperialist In unis onase domination, eritrea was transformed of extendina their rule beyond ¡auically economically and socially, both the end of the war, and so very incentive by the policies of the adminis- and even more by the tration country s resources completely longereian ot torces control of the their mass hevone successfully used to incite the British rulers. In the first periorite had Eritreans to revolt and to desert Eritrea the rule armies, the British declared "we been exploited as a market for give you our word you shall be Italian goods, as a settler colony base for allowed to choose what govern- and ment you desire!" further colonial expansion into northeast Africa. the consolidation at this stage to hand over Eritrea But with Mussolini's Selassie, Haile TasCIST dictatorship began a limited but emperor

WOW

rapid industrialisation the restored to autocratic despotism in Ethiopia territorV considerable Communi Later, infrastructure had fascism in Italy, they cations already been developed, but this consider returning the colony to its former masters-but never to was alone

VVILFI

military projects and the growth concece independence of light industry. war, Eritrea was used as a source of the British invasion, of the Eritrean •i sudoies iol population lived in the mush- in the Middle cast. rooming towns and cities, and a Boosted capital, light industry flourished cunstantia. oroletamar nao occu in a short lived boom, with 300

PRO-SOVIET TAKE-OVER

IN SOUTH YEMEN

"A very bad business for The death affected have reaction Percolary regime. dramatic cast denunciations yemer communist the existence of God" these avents Presidents countries dispute were killed. National Liberation Front.

North Un clearly leader, Ahmed pro-Soviet

MOST

Front. caused briet-cast salem My d overtures rescent Salem Robaya. by the following accused Wednesday, Yemen s with the Aden as a naval base. He in an was Yemen South internal cold Ali Nasser by ladi Vival had tried member of ruling trium- of the Libera- power" tion Front. Circles. The of the third North Yemen! fate triumvirate, Robaya the memoer for Ghachemi's Abdel Fattah Ismail, tary General of the NLF, is not was correct for wanting week end of The last into a now Aden radio was continuing North Yemen". communiques in his broadcast In the name. when South But some press reports say he was killed in the independence fighting between sections of the bitter armed army and the bone s mid which followed the coup. Part Iwo. new factories established installations allary and For the British state, easily were expanded, but other aspects of nave Ine samne were less legacy Lile easy to aispose oi of Italian Huge numbers Britain already dominated or deported settlers interned outside Eritrea, but and by now all of large number still remained The British sought at once to increase agricultural produce by allegiance

LICH

granting them extensive Tracts of the most fertile land owned The British had no intention by critreans Despite replacements at the bureaucratic Italian

LOV

largely co-opted any aparatus was lock, stock and barrel. propaganda, But in other ways, the forms were very of rule those that had different Trom conscript preceded them far greater experience With British the co on !a Tuit. bourgeoisie relatively sophisticated understand- In practice, the British aimed ing ot the dynamics ot colonia development than the Italians.

puppet they Rigid repression Particularly in the period of the defeat the adminstra- fascism, were tion had exercised rigid repres sion over any signs of indepen- dence from the Eritreans.

Eritreans had been held During the remainder of the possible nack lowes the Allied forces of development, educated only in the glories and triumphs American •t taman civilisallum While the British state had by now uncomfortably realised and other social nationalised reforms instituted. : events show problems which exist in defend- such without the political backward gains and military protection of socialism the If the coup has halted plans otGnachemi In for compromise with imperialism, it North yemen does not soon to the extremely South nas probably that Yemen into closer involvement HaLul d with the Soviet bureaucracy's has continued to broad- counter-revolution. worldwide of- South ary strategy. has These contradictions can resolved through the only offends moral values and denies under struggle lasses, Trotskyist the leadership of South Yemen the both imperial- parties, coup seems as if it might resolve and the bureaucracies in the within the workers' states. A wasser. me now suorono represents wing of the Naval base Robaya had made arabia probably to the imperialists and to China in order to undermine which USeS Salem Robaya's "axecution" was necessary, according to the regime mouse le because ne "collaborate with imperialist and reactionary Yemer every also implied that the In Bucharest, Romania that accusation at a meeting of the council masconsieit of the economic body assassination body Comecon-the 1U] economic cooperation have condemned him between the East European "to ear our deodie , fratricidal war with Cel Kosygin, and countries, Mongolia-Alexei since 1968, years emer Soviet Prime Minister, called won for closer co-operation after a long and the countries between involved. British colonialism, virtually the He recognised the organ- whole of the economy has been

SUDAN

/BEGEMDIR

GAJAM

ADDIS

ABABA

that such a colonial policy was, Eritrea it faced the proidam on suicidal, long term, potential resistance Eritreans but not only from the aise trom tne tata sellicls And all this at a time wner British government was the strained the by severely demands of the war, and could ill afford great expenses in of direct appeasement

KENYA

the Italian settlers had to be of accompanied by some form political the relance Eritreans themselves.

NAIROBI

Education The British greatly expanded dependent for their authority and completely transformed the hoping to on education systyem, the strenoti or mel rather win the lovalty of a new petty.

dominant position in the feudal bourgeois elite of intellectuals and technicians. A process society. But all 'Eritreanisation' began in the contributed actually civil service. The new colonial rulers also acce eration open opposition to imperialist the attention to turneo mell rural areas, which still contained cost. 80% of the population. British policy took a new turn.

adminstra- Here the The industrial tion had done little but attempt to gain the support of the feudal collapsed as interfering with withdrew their chiets oy not many factories were ciosed their powers. The administration The British followed had established in pattern they oismantle [NE other installations, transterrin otner colonies and selling off the machinery create a new system where the scrap and even the floating doct chiefs would become the local Massawa and administra- representatives tors of the colon les colonial European dockyard struggles engineers in Paris, and this The strike by 60,000 meant workers in the govern- alicases dockyards and ment Barre's cabinet decreed that munitions factories of France has increased in 'suspended' strength over the last months only. week. Giscard's The hostility governmell lost no time in unleashing workers the repressive forces of the this mass action in defence of a wage 1951 settlement. claim After a powerful strike in 1951, the workers in these yard Brest sectors gained parity faced difficulties Congress isation because of economic prob- League lems in the West. He called "nega- address, on a discussion 1ng tendencies happening tive capitalist econ- within the but which to performance. omies, certain degree reflect on the lOW of the world "shameful" economy Socialist system". among foreign attacked soaring inflation Meanwhile at the 11th SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 July, 1978

/SAUDI ARABIA.

ERed Sea

MASSAWA

NORTI

OUT

YEMEN

EME

EGulf

TIGRE

ADEN

Aden

DJIBOUT

BERBERA

CHARRAR

ETHIO

SO MALIA

MOGADISHU

250m Greater Somalia British had Already the prevented the development new than and gold. their plantations

COLLUT

mining i had begun develop in the last Egypt and these (India, native Italian to the provided British hostility and imperialism with these modities in abundance) Many of the infrastructural With the ending of the war, schemes started by the Italians had been halted, and large areas immed- of the communications network imperialists allowed to fall in disrepair and neglect. • post-war Labour Now the acted to : presided over the government and rundown and cynical, system- atic plundering of the whole econorny oine to other yards The Maritime Police Susalal banned all mass meetings at the docks and used dogs to But in March of last year, help enforce lockouts, while regular police have launched this arrangement would be violent attacks on pickets at twelve tOT Lorient Although the govern- demanding the ment of the of the strike as a ending intensified this precondition for talks, last year, when the government Tuesday the workers the voted with a majority Brest of 76% continue their The present strike began strike indefinitely. in the traditionally militant The use of state violence early this against the working class month, and rapidly spread not of course unique to the French bourgeoisie. Amid the present strike Giscard must be wave watching with envy the legal possessed the by powels 'democrats' who now the machinery of operate Francoist state in Spain.

the Governor The Civil position Barcelona-a with invested massive authority by Franco's dicta- torship-moved to end week dispute 11 the city's docks 1,800 workers had been a go-slow operating the protest aerisor. 'safety' conditions in force and were demanding an end to the system of hiring and of the Yugoslav piece work which prevents Communists of employ- any President Tito, in his open.

ment. hypocritically The Civil Governor was attacked grave shortcomings left with no option but to the country's economic smash this of the phase which include movement by dropping the and productivity mask of liberal democracy.

competition and threatening the workers Yugoslav firms not only autollal. markets. He also but also dismissal with charges probable of sedition.

Can elections save Banzer?

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 July, 1978 Two weeks the ago Peru military regime in staged elections SO - constitutional called assembly. During July two other South American military dictatorships will be permitting Presidential in Bolivia and elections (Julv 9 July lo in ccuador). The Brazilian lin regime since 1964) claimed this week to nave oress censorship and will also shortly holding presidential even the croentin an, oint.

ors are talking more and more in public of some "return to consultutonor rule cations are never to confused with democracy. And thai could not be more true of present Latın America at the constitutions under President Giscard blissful d'Estaing's vision of renewed capi- in talist prosperity France has been blocked in recent weeks material by the very of obstruction thou- of workers in sands struggle region and country almost every sector of industry has been flooded by a tide of strikes and occupations that shows little sign of ebbing. The railways have been spasmodically paralysed by the action taken by drivers demanding improved the Lyon underground more seriously disrupted DV has continued strike that despite the appeals of the Stalinist Tenders. Construction strike In the Alps, construction work on a massive nuclear energy installation Mal- at ville has been halted for nearly months by

LWU

strike on a claim tor iner.

eased travel allowances. After fortnight on workers the mineral water-bottling plant at Vichy returned to work last Thursday having won a ware ncrease Workers in the regional information of the

- INTERNATIONAL•

which all these elections taking place profoundly are undemocratic And elections Them - selves commonly charac and terised by fraud, trickery intimation ov the rulers.

They are using elections to of legitimacy GIVe semolanco to their own rule Can•t neos them to fit in with the rhetoric Carter's imperialis "humar rights" policy. But that is only one side of which comes taking place almost inroughout Latin America. other side is that the that the military actatorshins are losing their political grip and becoming powerless deal increasingly upsurge With the movement. Except for Pinochet, the Latin American dictators came power for the most part Massive strike wave engulfs France government tax department recently struck for a week support of union demands that more jobs be created for youth. 24-hour strikes have virt- ually halted production in the iron mines of Lorraine, the Pompey steel- and in of with the threat 6,100 redundancies in other steel-plants, certain to escalate. Picket lines Again in Eastern France, lorry Icluscu to cross the picket lines of the furniture workers factories of the Vosges, on strike since June 13. The collapse of the indu- Marcel strial empire Boussac has also its impact in the Vosges. In a campaign to save protest tneir Jobs, workers trom the factories blocked textile main roads for several days.

With the announcement by the court administrators companies that July's wages would be paid in full, most roadblocks OT lifted. possibility of But the occupation has not evapo- rated, either in inese lact- ores or at the olices ana printing works of L'Aurore the dailv newspaper form- owned by Boussac). erly These strikes, other scattered that breaking actions without inflictind anv decisive historic defeat on the organised working class movements of tuesd counties have held down these i hey movements through a combin- and where of ation •ossible. making the most unprincipled sections of the working class leadership (e.g. The communis rarty In Peru). But their power has lacked any social bast In general the dictators have failed to traditional bourgeois parties equay taled create theN own This has created a crucial lack the political level which shows of whenever any workers struggle takes oraco On more and more occasions inadequate to preserving stable in the last 12 months, sheer capitalist rule. All the regimes, therefore, redression nas deen snown to we Dockworkers demonstrate in Brest ances and employ mainly women. (the Socialist Party- led CFDT has been putting the slogan forward "Moul- inex woman, workers") but exploits its The company has refused out daily, all form part of to negotiate until the occu- the resistance of millant pations are ended, allu France workers in to the some Planti ravaging attacks of the capi- applied to the courts for an eviction order. all sides, Attacked on the But state and the workers have been fighting employers held back on to protect their living stan- using this power until signs dards with wage increases, of weakness appeared in the they have not been action. defend the struggling very existence of their jobs.

Riot police A major element in this the prolet- The forces of the state movement by France showed in has been no such hesitation alal in dealing with the Renault the involvement of womer Flins. Riot and immigrant workers. occupation at receive in Both sections police were called remove the strikers from the very low wages and exper- ience the most intolerable presseshe for some and remained conditions days. working French industry. workers Maintenance the refused to deal At tne same time women with have to endure the burden until the police machinery of domestic slavery, while were withdrawn. workers are this had been Immoralll forced achieved, some 100 strikers live the in conditions of re-occupied the press-shops.

hostels and camps. The last 30 finall were ejected on June 27, whin But it is these heavily 2.00 oppressed layers who have management threw in come forward most sharply eager scabs and reactio ary the weeks-not forces, armed with iron recent oniv the immigrant workers bars. at Malville, but above all the The core of the strike workers and has been immigrant workers at Mones Renault. North Africa, who

HOTO

Of the 11 plants of Moul- fighting have on whole range of demands to 8 were occupied as inex, improve their abysmal cond- the workers

TITOUCROUI

itions. struck on their company Wage claim demand for a wage increase, far above the government's Their the recommended levels. 62s-ol the management abuse The Moulinex comes procedures, domestic appli- produce grievance Page 3 bourgeois rule be stre nathened But the process is one which political Latin America's conditions is extremely ditTicul for the dictators to control.

The years of repression have led to the seeking of increasing solutions by the masses-illustrated in arTerent ways mas abstentions in Colombian elec- tions and gains by the far lett in those in Peru move s •resenta election, due July dictator Banzer's last ditch his powel door to maintai атте the forest •estroy implicit in the wave of strikes and occupations in the tin mines Armed workers on the streets of Bolivia in 1971 and universtie alle schools which began last year.

being forced towards (they Not standing are hope) some very limited "demo cratic opening through which Banzer has not even dared to

COUT

nemsel TO Ware candidate Instead aiming to remain in nare or tae arme forces and is supporting General Juan Asbun the Presidency Peroda Asbun as the official candidate is to 'win'-after all the government 'counts' The VOTe But (which under the 1966 constitution will al gie him inmate national national seats generally assembly regarded as a tormality raine than a political triumph.

Battles Because the real politica battles are taking place among battles over who represents the bourgeoisie and imperialism and over who will lead the working class. And these battles have of Bolivia's drawn many Giscard d'Estaing er cine have been lying low or in exile for the 7 years since Banza over regrading, retraining and job General security with increased leave Torres dispersed the Popular Assembly to visit their families abroad in the pre-revolutionary crisis o -finally developed to centre 1971 claim on massive wage Ate as count. ex which, like that at Moulinex presidents were standing for the government's presidency-Victor dwarfs the Paz Estens- proposals. soro anchernan siles duazo Throughout the dispute Petty bourgeois at Renault, the trade union retreated bureaucrats have Both of them are leaders of into hiding. the petty bourgeois Despite • the action taken Wall nationals party by 70,000 Renault workers, (National Revolutionary Move who stopped work ment) which took power after protest at the first attacks The revolution ott ano nec the occupations, the until the military coup by on leaders of the CGT and the General Barrientos 1964

CFDT

resolutely refused Suao has the sudoor to call any wider strike. Communist Bolivian Party (pro-Moscow, and or the Determination

MIR

(Left Revolutionary Movement) a reformist group In the present mass the vocals inter French workers national' especially through its upheaval, with the Spanish

PSOE

nave aeciarea in achion lael tried to determination to resist the Har

CSLENSSOT

violent demands of the capi- well with the Christian talist class. candidate General Democratic But in the same process sene berna escalante. but ne is they have once again conf- also reputedly ready to do ronted the treacherous lead- deal with Banzel and Pereda ership of the labour bureau- Asbun it that will get nim baci a bit of his lost power cracy Not for nothing is Paz Esten The cynicism …ot these COrt and 'comnunists' 'socialists' opportunist in a country where expressed was clearly by the competition is very strong Richter, of the the leader CFDT in the Flins plant of Heterogeneous Renault. Having contributed to the defeat of the occu- There will also be at leas class and date one working 'suicidal action as a the stanoile Wate Revolutionary strike' Front

(FRI).

Such leaders' will always This is politically hetero. by watch the stand to geneous alliance including working-class bleed itself to reformist union leader Juan death in misdirected battles Left Revo. Lechin's National The central lesson that lutionary Party needs to be gained from this Maoist the 'Guevarist' party, is an understan- experience Workers' Revolutionary Party ding of how the daily and a group . 100 miners leader Filomon Escobar whic! of the working struggies claims to be Trotskyist class and the fight against not be the onl his nis may Richter and associates left-wing candidacy since there vital part of the are is a possibility that Lachin may struggle to overthrow the independently capitalist system, and create the dictatorship of the prol etariat which alone can giv birth to socialism.

Page 4 A resolution calling for a workers' inquiry into the Health Service to be sponsored by the • Greater London Assoc- iation of Trades Councils and the South East Region TUC was carried on Saturday by delegate a fifty-strong conference. conference at Portchester Hall, had been . convened by stewards of the occupied Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital as part of tneir ngnt agamst contuu• ing moves by the Lib-Lab government to close. the

EGA.

The inquiry, to be composed of delegates from labour movement bodies, will examine the possibilty of trade union to action at the EGA; mend the lift of look into the state accident Bethnal in the Green district and ascertain the availability of acute with the St. Nicholas threatened hospital. Strike action A firm call was also put out from the conference for leadership Trate to lead extended and wide- spread strike action threatened the hospitals, of central importance hospital occupations in the fight against the cuts. The disgraceful record of bureaucracy the union the fight agamst Ent CuL was demonstrated on Satur- day by the fact that only one union official attended —a Nurt area orticer, wno left half-way through-and single representative not a from GLĂTC or SERTUC was present, though each of these bodies wee CO- sponsors of the conference!

The theme of forcing the Several hundred London hospital workers struck work on Friday 30 June to march in solidarity with and their brothers sisters at Bethnal Green the hospital, where casualty ward is threat- ened with closure. At a rally in Whitechapel those fighting to defend the health heard a re- affirmation of the hospital PHOLO: Mark Rusher, Ii u

DANGER

HOSPITAL

CUIS

KILL

STRIKES AND

OCCUPATIONS

KEY TO CUTS

FIGHT

EGA conference calls for workers inquiry trade union bureaucracy to blamed the NUPE leader- transfer patients from two the lead the fight against ship for sabotage wards to a nearby hospital.

defend cuts was taken up by many their struggle to of the speakers. nursery facilities in Oxtord, Full support from the called for massive speaker allu Emergency Bed Service injection of cash into the This is obviously an branch, social services and the link-

COHSE

to break the members continued to refer attempt ing of social service spend- of the West militancy EGA and ing to inflation. to the pallelils

NUPE

London branch played part Docked wages which was the only hospital forcing Ennals to postpone branch to embark on indef- Stan Hurst of the West closure date, spoke of the inite strike action when the the complete lack of official London Hospital told the Hounslow Hospital was from the COHSE the current support cone cuce raided. dispute at his hospital where leadership. NUPE members are refusing Sabotage to clock on and off. There were also speakers The hospital from Bethnal Green hospital manage- the conference ended The five members who ment ale gomg to enormous by pledging full support to lengths to win this apparent- were minaly uisciplineu Have the ly minor dispute. appealed against Tne mira workers occubalion department have already casualty decision and the hearing is docked 10% from the wages and called for on Tuesday July 4. its wide strike action Speakers from the South of workers involved 160 to walk out, Oxford Nursery occupation causing Hundreds strike to back Bethnal Green work-in Regional Health Authority!

Shop Stewards Committee. workers determination to diplomatically working at their None of those who spoke continue avoided mention of his own hospital. however drew attention of role, and that fellow The action being taken the out-and-out retusal OI members of the parliamen- the trade union bureaucracy "Tribune' tary group, with an elected action com- in the health service to mo voting time and time again mittee to ensure defence.

bilise the membership for for the policies of Callaghan of total programme The and and his coalitionist friends- Jubilant strike action occupa- policies which have brought tion necessary to fight the government's health service the health service to the The atmosphere at Ine brink of collapse. cuts rally was a jubilant one Pride of place was with speeches from a leit 'Unaware' 'Labour councillor about the reserved for local 'left' MP Mikardo, need to 'stand up and fight' Labour lan Indeed, Mikardo who affixed blame for the and Iron a representative further, saying that T.ne of the Tower Hamlets Joint the Minister responsible, Ennals had been 'unaware' of the siluation, tal lie pialis 10.

of the imminent closure casualty department had countermanded, and that he had arranged for a Ennals deputation personally. cynical Such from manoeuvres, coming people who bear criminal responsibility for the WE on the health should be treated service,

NEED

total

KEEP

with mistrust by hospital workers, as should Bethnal

OUR

Ennals' temporary

HOSPITA S

'reprieves'. Green Hospital Inquiry

OPEN

The fight must be inten- the sified against trade and Labour union misleaders for strike action to impose a socialist policy to defend the health service against capitalism's attacks.

The action committee should take steps to launch an inquiry into the finances January this year. Early days in the struggle to save Bethnal Green hospital.

The Bethnal Green occu- pation has also underlined the importance of defending the victimised EBS workers since, like at the EGA, the maintenance of casualty and depend emergency services the willingness of upon workers-in this case ambul- drivers-to defy instructions management and continue bring patients for treatment. The Bethnal Green work- 8.00pm, in, received its first emergency Cace ambuance 8.05pm! branches

UTON

must show solidarity with this action by ambulance staff.

ENNALS OUT.

NO MORE

HOSPITAL CUTS

Red Youth

SOCIALIST YOUTH

LEAGUE LAUNCHED

of Bethnal Green hospital, demanding to free access waiting lists the accounts, of the and future plans Area Health Authority This will add further weight to the fight for the

NHS

protection against inflation through a sliding scale spending OI and for the nationalisation without compensation of the suppliers and contractors who continue to siphon profits from the flagging health service. SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 July, 1978 Kuwaiti cash handout While leaders of the Workers Revolutionary Party continue to deny that daily paper Newsline their financially backed by 'progressive' Libyan dictator Muammur Gaddafi, evidence has emerged of a far more startling cash subsidy to the WRP-from the Kuwaiti _reactionar government Central Committee member Vanessa hecorave film documentar Palestinian', which сеті' its absence of remarkable for positions

TOTSKVISI

whatever. The film has been exten. Britain shown both sive v But and internati mall WRP the and that apucal. have distributors been none too choosy as to who it handles. The Kuwaiti rights of the film were offered not Kuwaiti masses but to the semi- 'Information Ministry reters Teuddi …TOl tne sulT £13,000 Delighted at the prospect of and at the Tace. fact that the film in no way Arab bourgeois the lilicist the leaders wno nave Detrayed Palestinian struggle, the • "ntor Ministry" paid up in mation price- excess handing over £20,000 The extra £7,000, said the appreciation Kuwaitis. wa. support of the Arab cause".

seen be remain. whether sucr nanosome donation to WRP funds will be with increased Tavouraoie coverdoe in the pages of Newsline

SAVE THE E.G.A

EGA supporters demonstration

OUT NOW!

The first edition of Youth, Red the monthly paper of the Socialist Youth League (in political sympathy with the WSL). Available from SYL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London, NW5 IHR for 5p plus 7p p&p (for indiv- ¡dual copies) or £1.44 for a year's subscription. (Regular Socialist Press subscribers need only send 60p). Mikardo

Callaghan government

03:F7ES5

Two events last week * Don oT Inem small enough highlighted themselves. the way in which the exist- ing capitalist world trade system could be toppled like a line of dominoes. At the start of the week the Graek government announced Inal u was unnataraly corne to "newly restrict from Japan (Japanese exports to Greece are countries. •is no Lou TimES like this exports to Japan). Then at the end of the week the Tries in tne were world trade talks in Geneva ottered a torcibie dose of thei medicine when the

EEC

own Commission threatened LalKS interests. Greek In oose restrictions textile (especially of is or Britain going for five shirts to unless Greece "voluntarily" become knowr round' of tariff negotiations them. Their Such moves as these towards

TOLOCLIONISM

reductions between every day throughout the capit- industrialised The by the

EEC

countrie tions of the so-called 'Kennedy (an accoriated territory of the EEC) were part of of taking against the more back- ward capitalist states of Western Europe. Lib-Lab coalition The other main victims of These moves are Portugal and Spain. And the main advocate the EEC of a hard protectionist PHOTO: John Sturrock line against these countries Callaghan's Lib-Lab coalition government. Callaghan and Healey's cus- rejection import conuros is tus snown nothing more than a facade.

Another coalition govern- the Socialist monT •dan an counter bro a virulent drake broke three weeks

EEC

3g0, more backward capitalist countries. Speaking London Belgian Director- week! The General Cor that, foreign trade, M. Jaques said that nations ought to "western Labour's Ireland debate scrapped There will be no struggle of the Irish people Labour NEC report on for self determination. Northern Ireland for the north this year's Labour Party "province", Conference. report on it to the A 101-page Policy" report has been scrapped. Labour deciding that NEC disagree- Weekly, the official journal ments mean that the Labour of the Party, declares that Conference this 190 aiscuss Ireland at all, these because of fears opportunist politicians can't that it would help but show their arrogant understandings in contempt for the Irish liber- province" (emphasis added) ation struggle. One time left' Michael Repression Foot proposed the report be referred back to the 'Home "left" The Policy " and "Organisation

NEC

has committees-meaning that it supported will Roy Mason's Conference this year. violent repression as super- visor the Collaboration forces-but draws the line at allowing differing views to Labour Everv time the discussed bureaucrats mention Ireland Conference. their approach reeks of their was not There age-old collaboration with raised against the decision British imperialism, and to scrap the report and the their refusal to side with the discussion. leads trade war scramble Us bosses clamour for import controls adopt a ioint strateav of protec.

round' five years ago. tion against imports from the These talks have become a industrialised farce. capitalist negotiators sit in Geneva talking of freer trade, the governments out statements which led the represen- have been They represent engaged in more and alves or so develooin• coun round of ferocious trade War in walke taruis ano restrictions ano "vo- demand a special session of the untary" export cuts have been growing. to lae account or inerr It now seems quite impos- These talks, which have been sible that the Tokyo Round of negotiations-due to years. have conclude Tokyo as the July professed aim to capitalist powers-can result •rocramme or tariti anything other TeN the main vacuous statements of principle.

It is that the talks capitalisl to follow the reduc. may reach complete breakdowr -in which case the trade war "Left" Labour MP Eric Heffer has come up with a new plan to win votes at the next general election, on an issue that will rally the whole workers' movement-a ban on blood sports! In a momentous discus- sion last week on this appar- ently vital principle of prol- etarian internationalism, 14 members Labour's National Executive-who have gamely accepted wage controls, spending cuts, unemployment and the Lib-Lab coalition with murmur-felt scarcely Heffer Whether it be referring to ot ireland as a referring "Home Committee, should not dominated quite happily torture-master bloody imperialist the Party at a hand British soldier in Ireland PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report ano the economic cumo which result from the capitalist crisis will take a new sharp turn for tue worse Even if an apparent "agree- is reached in Geneva in the weeks next IWO chance that will be ratified In the US Congress demands more protectionism are ng every day. growin And thes constantl up by propaganda trom both capitalists and bureaucrats. George week Last president of the AFL-CIO and Murray Finlay, president of th Amalgamated Clothing a joint UnION statement with the bosses-the the Dupont company head and the president American Textile Manufacturing Institute and for more Joined torces to call for textiles to be excluded from measures to Heffer nearly fights! get up and LO register their views. ban fox hunting. He did Heffer, putting behind him for his a moment wretched record of cringing actually socialist policies, subservience key issue the Callaghan- Healey leadership, was able obscene more reveal that bloody and brutal military received letters from life- long Tory voters living in occupation of Ireland. While foxes the country who would vote

PRESS GANG

Sirs shows his mettle For a moment there the steel union leaders their successful the Shelton works, the ISTC really had them leaders had worried. humiliated, thrown aside by Threats of a complete the British shutdown of the steel indus- tion-as if the spirit of class try put the boldness back collaboration was dead. into the headlines of the national capitalist papers emotive scenes at the Scar- fire borough allu DaCk

HALO

delegate stomachs of the industrial ence of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation How long has it been since they were able stood gates boldly declare that an all- when he said: 'We have told out national strike of the corporation that if thi dramatic importance instruction has going to be called by union by removed leaders! industry will stop. was enough to bring If this industry back the nostalgia of days stop let me long gone. will stop all steel moving in The Times presented the this country. There will not news sense of be an ounce of it moving" history, declaring that the But as the battle threatened strike over the drawn closure of Bilston leaders union steelworks was the first their battle gear it was left strike since unusually to Male al 1926. to put It was not of course that outbursts into proportion.

the union leaders could not swallow the loss of 2,400 ham fist) said: jobs and another closure.

Page 5

LABOUR

PARTY

imports to the USA This statement shows clearl that import controls, far from being "socialist" policy Tribunites and the Communist Britain, are the claim in age-old unprincipled policy class-collaboration chauvinism Work sharing Jobs will be preserved and won not oy the workers in escr country a inion the sate sia nationalist economic as : their bosses (which Meaney, and the want) but through the fight the against capitalists al countries for work snarine full pay to save jobs, for public works programmes George Meany winerovel These measures are refused, for nation- the Geneva tariff reduction talks alisation of industry and banks protectionist under

WITHOU

compensation be applied against workers' management. Labour if it was pledged to confident that Heffer waving his arms and shout- speculate ing at the top of his voice whether these Tories would their on behalf workers remain loyal to Labour if it should have shed by now adopted any such illusions. any or if took steps to end an even But, the foxes are not institution getting it all their own way: British imperialism's age-old after a word from Callaghan Heffer's pet cause was shelved for a month by the feel

NEC.

llla It was just that just after many enemies the • closure of British Steel Corporation ill afford lose its to Call been publicly friends. "Three days ago Sir Steel Corpora- Charles Villiers, chairman of BSC publicly promised the steel workers that he would The Times pointed to the consult them about future plant closures. confer- "Yesterday without con

BSC

sultation suddenly announced proposals to "Most of the 140 dele- shut the down works at cheered and Bilston, Staffordshire, which actually made profit last year been not Some 2,400 will men then, the their jobs. lose And BSC will lose its best friends-the does union leaders who have co.

clearly say operated the In painful closure of so many steel works" They said it, not us. But lines the Mirror can be confident up and that unless workers take dusted off determined steps now, the *best friends

TUC

of the the Daily and BSC will kiss and make the angry up- in good me to close down the steelworks with.

Its editorial (Steel glove, out a cross word on either side "Any organisation with

LESSONS FROM

POPULAR FRONT

Page 6 article in The first dealt with character and he adonted this series Popular combative under conditions the Front' as his main slogan.

which the French Trot- This attitude, one which of the Ligue skyists ignored class lines, was lo Communiste (LC) dec- become a source of deep confusion, not just between , on the prompting ided the GBL and centrist groups of Trotsky himself, to like the Bataille Sociate. enter the centrist

SOC-

within the ranks of the ialist party the SFIO.

GBL

itself. calls problem for British centrists In the 'French turn' of in the ANL today. 1934, the September

SFIO

the the as Open letter Bolshevik-Lenin- Groupe

(GBL),

maintaining iste The decision of the GBL La Verite their paper to leave the SFIO was based an idependent paper. on a number of considera- The 'French Turn' cul- minated at the SFIO Mul- Lills. One reason was that the Conference in June of degeneration 1935. The demands they Stalinism through the made included preparation Popular Front gave an even for a general strike, for the greater urgency to the task arming of the people, for a of building revolu- a new united of workers' front the international, parties to seize power from Fourth International. and from the Teacon 1935 Trotsky In May and for policeose. published thiation letter, constitution or a workers and inviting allanon and peasants government, essential for became democratic resting Trotskyists to be seen as an assemblies, to carry out the independent party demands of the masses. banner from the separate Trotskyist or Trotskyist- Second and Third Interna- allied policies won one third tionals. and, not sur- one vole were now prisingly, moves youth afoot to expel the section and soon the GBL itself. Uproar one of the GBL Rouse. members was elected to the executive committee (CAP) conference; and Naville, their leading spokes- caused uproar by his man, attacks on the SFIO record in Parliament. He tore them apart for participating in attempts to the budget when balance should have been they workers' fighting for Duurel. He took up their support for Rome Agreement whereby France agreed It was also necessary to exchange parts of Libya and . sections of other

TUTO

Somalia and its neutrality those in the Com- workers, the Ethiopia. 101 munist Party, in the trade of Italy neutrality and also the Tunisia. Trotsky unorganised. denounced the And he reckoned that social patriot- Front with the Popular ism had caused a significant anti-working Radicals membership change Tne and a betrayal of the class of the SFIO. socialist revolution. He described it as not revolutionary only not Conciliatory line party but not even a prolet- arian party'. Pivert Bataille and petty bourgeois Socialiste took a much more was not just in its politics but conciliatory

TOWAROS

composition. Front, also the Popular partly

ILS

By May 1936 he immense ot ine because described it as the party of support it seemed to evoke.

of the middle estate, Pivert said that the Popu- and civil lar Front would be

IOTCCU

develop a 'combative' servants.

THE FRENCH

Part two by Pru Chamberlayne Now that the Stalinists "making common cause with the reformists on the We basis or patriotism are the only representatives of the great tradition anti-patriot- of the French prolet- ism ariat" To remain in the SFIO meant arresting the develop- ment of the many centrist path the Cullelllo There now a new Was danger that militants in the

SFIO

might schooled through Stalinism into the ways of the nation- alist and conservative Soviet bureaucracy. There was also a danger of any longer being associa- ted with Pivert in the SFIO also rapidly since was rightwards under moving of social the pressures patriotism. But the proposal to split from the met evel than resistance the original entry had done and the from this movement Trotskyist was to be severely hampered by internal conflicts. Thorez Crisis in yee French Section writings Trotsky's deal with this situation from July 1935-July 1936. Centrist tendencies were becoming clear in already the GBL proposal to launch entitled La paper' Commune. adamantly Trotsky opposed any dilution of the political line of La The proposal dominated the September GBL conference narrowly and was only rejected. Opportunity Centrist tendencies also came out in the response by the GBL leadership to the

- CHRONOLOGY

Economic crisis sets in. 1930: Huge miners and textile workers strikes over Spring 1931: pay. Elections: government of Radicals and May 1932: Centre. Fascist activity developing.

installed. Dumergue Feb. 1934: Right wing coup: Massive working class demonstrations.

Socialist Party and Communist Party form a May 1934: united front. Ligue Communiste (Trotskyists) enter SFIO Sept 1934: Federation and youth Franco-Soviet mutual assistance pact.

May 1935: June 1935: People's Front formed. Youth expelled from July 1935: August 1935: Riots and mutinies in Brest and Toulon; GBL finally expelled from SFIO Nov. 1935: Molinier announces his paper La Commune.

President Laval resigns. Replaced by Sarraut Jan 1936: Fascist attack on Blum. Giant demonstration Feb. 1936: called by Popular Front. Equal numbers of German occupation of the Ruhr.

March 1936: CGTU unite on virtual Popular Elections: Popular Front government May 1936: returned. Blum refuses to intervene in Spain.

Sept. 1936: Popular Front struggling to assert control 1937: over the working class. Fusillade at Clichy; massacre of Tunisian miners.

Blum resigns in favour of radical Chautemps.

Aut. 1937: Renault/Citroen ended by March 1938: Pivert leaves SFIO and forms PSOP.

June 1938: Dec. 1938: Aug. 1939: June 1940: expulsion moves. mercilessly Trotsky welcomed them: must be exposed. act "By for instance, expulsion the traitors have river! blamed the expulsion of the given us an excellent oppor- youth section on their insis- tunity" ne wrote tence on calling themselves of seizing But instead opportunity, the GBL Bolshevik-Leninists grounds that since the Bol- leadership wrote state- shevik party itself denied ment of loyalty which was this internal the SFIO with s any case rejected by the

SFIO

SFIO and which comprised provided the weapon against them their positions To confuse matters 'Unity' Pivert now formed a group called centrist Gauche Revolutionnaire, one was Just which would 'dissipate elec- example of Pivert's idealis- toral illusions and take the ing of the 'hypocritical and, masses towards direct extra- fraudulent democracy of action'. This the SFIO parliamentaly severely undercut the fight was the appeal Another

GBL

against their by Tne for 'organisational unity expulsion. orientation to the and his reformist apparatus instead Trotsky regarded Pivert of seeing the need to liquid- as the extremely dangerous ate that leadership. By contrast Trotsk. called tol action as "the only means o breaking the anti-levol opposition of part and trade union apparatus committees whic These he also called 'revolutionar parliaments' bor must be and th struggle th requirements They would not formally elected to giv formal democratic represer tation to all and any masse but would give revolutior th representation to ary struggling masses. Umbilical cord be bui They must and around any possible struggle and shoul have been set up around th at Toulo rebellion sailors' and Brest and. the distu bances in the barracks ov of militat the extension service could th Only thus ground be prepare se the arming general strike and worker militias. And only thus would th : leadership of tr reformist movement with i workers' ties to the Radicals be mac to crumble. But Pivert could not c the umbilical cord with S leader Leon Blum: "Pivert clutches Zyromsky, who clutches Blum, who in turn togeth clutches with Thorez Herriot, clutches • who Laval". Pivert substituted 'unit programme ar for need for neglected the independent party of actio "Committees the revolutionarv party a Fourth International the

must begin and militias defeatism hate Jouhaux workers, time we party of the GBL La Verite criticise introduction member, erally, and Groupe He thus discipline

GBL

lay him

OIL

utionary In January applied sary March Workers' although separate Thorez, the old publishing (Workers Molinierist| open up lo Parti the Commune. sections found refused period and tred movement come. No form La Revolu- with The defied the party only ienced, Trotsky February and the The Molinier the Open Will Molinier type.

LOUDS

(POI)

stood they split again,

POL

the Ouvriere Fight), the as Interna- ensuing period of Trotsky spend only throughout the was and of ' February 1934 coup Front any Many of The vote. events dest seemed alliance demon- Front CP with vote ly demand an equal dence. the number red as half those So had shown flags be and call Did increase

ILS

of limited economic of support approval den its class CP stood the veh policies, The launched second round. different? campaign. massive Their programme workers Soon was heavily demands sO strike, and to do middle the quickly partly over were what 11 and grounds was 187.000 on ned fascism relative and full to neeaca partly was alliance That this was employment Ine period bec The to the middle classes Front made of was They a 'free, immediately to salary union of strikes. the of the balu vacations recognition, previous year. hour contracts, contracts. Ironically these were subsidies Now the employers credit terms der the the position of having to promptly agreements sta The contradictory They made following: was still By June 2 more sections with the agreement maintain of the engineering industry Radicals, the working were out, in chemicals, tex they class tiles, wholesale foods, mines the pact, and warehouses. the demanded Having started the down in the second round strikes, the Stalinists were for the placed now faced with the task of candidate. ending them, which they set The results about doing, hand in hand showed the CP doubling Blum, with President 1.5 million

VOLU

Socialists behalf of the bourgeoisie. compared the 1932 Blum ously At the last minute the CP, after months of demob- 1.9

NEXT WEEK

their with CP, The therefore, ilising the active fight called Spanish Civil War The the upper order to for a counter-demonstration and the French Popular massively and this was the its support among Front attended proletariat campaigning the lost And was himselt the Socialists, with attacked by fascists

Left Press fails to grasp the role of Better The Rastafarian move- ment has a large following amongst black youth both red in Jamaica and Britain. In this, the 01

IIIST

Winston articles,

IWU

Smart points to some the movements irom the Rastafarians took many of their basic ideas. than Next week he discusses the history of Rastafarian- and looks the 1sm benels, rituals significance of the move- ment in Jamaica today. dread Rastafarianism is the concept of Ethiopianism priol to the cordiata to Garvey.

most powerful cultural According God force in Jamaica today. WoUld now Through the medium of through the spectacies reggae the ideas of Ethiopia and he made frequent MUsIC, Rastafarianism are spread Tererences to me superiorily ol youth of Jamaica amongst the the black race_one _ot many ideas that the Rastafarians were where under 19. Britain, largely ment. through music, Nially Disarray back vouth dentity to a oreater or lesser extent with the Rasta- farian movement. Biblical sources were used to "prove" that whites Since Rastafarianism is iden- races were corrupt. The will of titied in the minds ot many witr progressive- would come through Cor for Africans -politics, important and according iviarxists nave some KnOW ledge ot the nistory and ideas 01 ture a tallen race the movement if its influence is "The power and sway once held passed away but now to e successtully comoated the fight to win black youth to In ine wenteto century. we are Narxism and the task of build- about to see the return of it in the rebuilding of Africa; yes a ine a revolutionary party. civilisation. a new culture movement draw very heavily on shall spring up from among our people" and religious/political With Garvev Ethiopianism movements that orececeo tem These include the early black was transtormed trom an ideol- to a and the ogy with Christian churches designated being 'Back to' Africa' movement 01 Marcus Garvey. Provisional rresicent OT ATrICE and its "anthem of the Negro Ethiopia race" beginning with the words: 'Ethiopia, Thou ratners occurries mcalately When Garvey left for we America in 1916, the Jamaican concept of Ethiopia. disarray. century slave- movement Tell InTO As the lotn Many small Garvey movements owners Torced Ine Christian emerged and continued in exis- religion onto their slaves these able discover Tence Un 1930 saves welC In that year the Prince Ras Trom the bible -wich reterred Tafari was crowned Negus of Egypt and Ethiopia as Africa-that the blacks biblical Times mace "Redeemer" important contribution to the development of culture. (The Ethiopia word He took the Haile Greek eauivalent of the Hebrew Hallic word for black and the whole Selassie (Miaht of the Trinitv) East had been which he added "King of area Kings, Lord Lords and Lion blacks populated • of Judah'. He also

K14 KI

or ine roe claimed direct descendence As the black man's memory from Solomon. of Africa became obliterated in Ine course ot time, that varcus carvey. on mis debar- remained were Biblical ture for the United States, was references to Ethiopia. supposed to have said: "Look to was Africa ATrICa. tue Crownino seen as a homeland to return to he shall be the Brack KInd' in the same way that many Jews four For men -Leonard saw Ist ael nomeland which they would return. Howell, Josepn hibbert, Arcal- The effects of this discoverý bald Dunkley and Robert Hinds by blacks of an ancient African of Ras Tafari, which they read about in civilisation suosecuenty blaved important role as a toca wally was the

TUITIL -

point to ment Garvey's "prophesy". and they launched based the the Rastafarian Interior nature otine blacks foverment While the first Ethiopian Shorty atte the coronation in Jamaica was founded ceremonies had taken place in Church Addis Ababa. Twas The back Africa movement Marcus Garvey at the beginning of the century Inal embodied in its highest form the Early Rasta holding portrait of Haile Selassie By Di Parkin Most of the left press has recently carried articles looking back ten years to the events of May-June 1968 in Paris. These times were quite a litmus for the paper European left. At points of social explo- sion and crisis the policies of various political tendencies become most clearly revealed. It is important for us to examine the turning points history, where the order see method different OI tendencies leads or misleads their followers. 1968 was a year. when the crisis of revolutionary leadership was sharpiy alll dramatically posed. Dual power which was year began with the Tet offensive in offensive vietnam: which marked the beginnings of the defeat of Indo. imperialism in China. In August there was the of Czechoslovakia invasion by Russian troops and the whole crisis of the Stalinist brought bureaucracy was sharply into the open. between these events fell the May-June events in France During this period 10 on workers were strike, factories were occu- pied; students held the in Paris; Latin Ouarter and schools ontrol of there colleges students; the force of the state was paralysed. The De Gaulle govern- ment was for period unable to -De Gaulle himself had to leave Paris for hasty consultations with the heads of the armed forces-and the situation with verged on dual power all the possibilities of the revolutionary seizure of Conscious steps now taen ald De Gaull survive? t might seem that by conceding massive wage increases and turning to the boxes ballot he managed with simple electoral victory, to reestablish capit- alist stability. Yet the real answer this question lie does not simply with the actions of ine bourgeolsie. It was the mass French Communist Party which in those crucial days

LOOK

conscious steps to prevent the situation developing to point where the question of power would be posed. As Trotskyists we are Stalinism used to this being the role of world Stalinism. 1968, however, this tact was clearly revealed to all-and the stakes were so high that the Communist Party had to act in the most blatant way order to block the struggle. The major lesson of May 1968 is the counter-revolu- tionary role of Stalinism.

Student milieu 1968 also marked the opening hour of a whole mode oi politics rooted in the student milieu. 'student "Hower powel, hippiedom and power, gestural protests were attempts to find substitutes for action by the mass organisations of the working class. For TriaL it 02968 Ali in 1968 and After, socialism in was reborn 1968" For 'others of us it had never died. Ali's conception 1soase base one oo ed! the working class and patient, consistent struggle within its organisations and against its leadership for the construction of revolu- tionary party is not the road De Gaulle In 1968 French capital- ism ilke its rivals stooa. al the end of the long boom, beginning to feel the impact of the impending economic CrISIS There were half a million unemployed and workers were demanding an end to the wage treeze French capitalism had inherited from its past many weaknesses which rapid technological change and increasing competi- loreign tion had worsened. France was also suffering a crisis consequent on imperialist demise an power Algeria and suffered in

MAY-JUNE 1968

Vietnam. (French Revolution 1968, In this situation there Seale and McConville). was growing unrest within in May the focus of the the universities. from struggles moved Latin This and revolt Nanterre the unrest was to be the spark which Quarter in Paris. lit the struggles of May.

However, while a spark Sorbonne closed can light a nearby explosive cannot itself even On May 3 a demonstra- threaten explode the tion took place against the might of the bourgeois closure of the Faculty of order. Letters in Nanterre There had been a massive The demonstration increase in student numbers within the courtyard of the -from 200,000 in 1961 to university building of the 500,000 in 1968. Sorbonne when the police French schools and uni- were called in. versities were overcrowded, Calling in the police was authoritarian institutions a question of the arrival of which gave students no armed force, the dreaded room criticise and

CRS.

with teargas and baton develop attacks. Student protests began Barricades went up and particularly develop the students took to the Nanterre, just outside Paris.

streets. Thus began many nights Nanterre strike of ferocious street battles.

The Sorbonne closed, was In November 1967 there and by May 10 35,000 was a strike at Nanterre and students marching wett numerous incidents through Paris. followed indicating the Their slogans were vivid - frustration students' with they introduced a sharpness their lack of control over of phrase, assault on the uncisily ana tne role their bourgeois in in society they were being graffiti and slogans. prepared for. "Nous sommes tous un In March 1968 five groupuscule" (We are all a students were arrested as a tiny group) they cried, result of anti-Vietnam marching in the streets.

ALVINES

protest meeting was Challenge to CP called in Nanterre on March 22 and its This was a challenge to gave Halle to one of the most important the attitude of the Com- of the student munist Party which had felt the Movement of 22 March.

able to dismiss the students The significant and the Trotskyists as "tiny

ILIOSI

figure in this group was the groups" anarchist Daniel Cohn- The Communist Party's Bendit. attitude the student Rejecting the need for a demonstrations the and revolutionary this party, nightly-and fre- group put forward demands quently heroic-battles with for a 'critical university' and was first one of permanent challenge to indifference. authority. However, the growing outrage : within the workers and indeed the Spontaneity

SROVCHECTI

and Metro passels by travellers whose eyes stung The stress on spontaneity with teargas from the police rather than leadership held allauns all wilo were lnem by this group was echoed by selves also mercilessly the "Trotskyists" ot the clunbed if caught in the Jeunesse Communiste wrong place-convinced the Revolutionnaire (Hrench take a •I tne need to youth section of the USFI position and to attempt to who scarcely differentiated such a movement capture themselves from before it got quite out of anarchist policies of the its control. Movement of 22 March. As a from Comicate Night of barricades the period remarked: "The JCR was the first political faction to recognise The battle of the Cohn-Bendit's potential for students continued with the revolutionary struggle and 'night of the barricades'- to join forces with him May 12-when 367 people The

JCR

the wor and wounded confidence of Cohn-Bendit arrested. his friends "Liberez nos camarades" by not the (free to our comrades) seeking таке over movement, manipulate then the cry. it to its own exelusive ends; On 13 May the Commun- instead gave the Move- ist-led union, the CGT (Con- of 22 March Generale uncon- federation de

MICHEL

ditional support". Travail) and the other

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 July, 1978 unions one day shared crucial aside Irom

SLOUCH

"It day" occupation said leader Sorbonne. However, almost join wno nac left ory. Those met with Minister those who The Grew the Latin struggle" the students. conception the time- that the student was the Come -ine up from the Welco the working struggle. of the USFI: Counterposed was tne view or tne Federation Etudiante Revo- lutionaire-the student section of the OCI, part of the 'orthodox' Trot- more International Comm- skyist ittee. Correctly this group saw the need Palient consistent work within the Class movemenl recognising that the sional day out amongst the workers was enough.

1IUL

However, the

FER

Students and workers joined in common struggle against capitalist oppression and exploitation British Trot- and mane points turned Nantes from from the their head. of the the

FER,

France, Rut they that mined 13th, Prime with- lated from from the and released studenls

PCF

(CP) fraternising workers. Students march in plant workers spreading Renault students

DIO JOSI

afternoon 01 were deter- the striking ting Ine students. solidarity menacing had any from which with the developing facilitate sion by We organisers

SLAIRO I

together now claims, strike. intervention, attempted Trotskyists, The attempted The hated CRS riot force Page 9 in population, agreements were and viol insurrec SO ently fear connection that time" and between continuation the But decisive opponent insurrection and social revolution France not 'public in any event, not even in the consulted the mass had been Marxist Jean in Ellenstein. Stal- 'dissident' plat- of Ellen- stein's Communist skyist' that and preserve "peaceful revolutionary the trad- itional of Europe, its own word." bureaucratic power France. "be- called cause there was make off cults from the thereby of

JCR

the time, this and of the and leader

PCF

was in "When the workers for power involve saw were marshals the workers workers spontaneously between and the CP poli- ended the under- the • students, and stupid continue As bourgeois within s effects, spective"! That 'spontaneity' the back the while the argues back gone claims alone. front tical evades the Gaullist in alliance auestior

CUTORY

with the Left-but working class within the On May 20th which group of .statement "The popular bureaucracy and without of a revolu- tionary as an alter- the the "showed that the the kind parliamentary intending to with confused the represented disastrousit Billan- initiate the in lne 1978 towards teachers are 1968 and The aim the direction contain it This decision Stalinist

BELOWSI

ways The

CGT

entered into building Trotskyist on allu the

COUCHIL

limited ques tions of hours, Writing in Socialist pensions etc.. initiative paper whose This 0 lI

DID CELCU

"children 1968"-Ali notion demands provocation omitted to use the Cass-wind actually government. advise ories the ane this demon - economy. proceeding the agree We intend, workers cracy Eurocomm- led the workers unist' CPs! for their back lo work For stein. the 1968 any external For us, Trotskyists, the lesson more

MUCH

possible undesirable: serous leader- working the the West. working our century Our ensure taSK through building of reforms, on condition in every that structural These country, reforms. allowed to

Page 10

INDUSTRIAL

AS BOSSES GET

implications of The Les Shorter's treacher- ous statement picketing to the Garners recall conference (See Socialist Press 106), was realised with soon series of vicious attacks picketers and on supporters in the 22nd week of the strike. At the conference,

TGWU

Shorter, the new Region organiser-whilst wholesale engaging attack on strike committee policy, denied the need for mass pickets, claiming that picket lines of one person (sic) were sufficient to win the strike. His open invitation to harrassment was gratefully accepted by the scabs Saturday June 24. There were attacks on three picket lines culminating most serious outbreak of violence when scabs at the Hay market lashed out at the picket line warmed with wooden poles. This important develop- picketing and the ment in the strike, reflecting of ation the desperation of manage- bership in Region ment, has to be met by a the picket lines reaffirmation of strike delegations. committee policy on mass Workers Socialist League principled revolutionary leadership in the working class in Britain and internation- ally and for the reconstruction of the Trotskyist Fourth International on the basis of the Transitional Programme.

the Labour Party-now firmly harnessed to the bourgeois politicians of the Liberal Party in an unspoken coalition arrangement.

which points to the independent class interests of the working class, its need to organise independently to overthrow machinery and establish a socialist planned economy.

standards, mass unemployment, slashed social services, racial, national and sexual oppression. For more details on the WSL and its work, fill in the form below.

Name . . Address. Trade Union/Occupation Send to: WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR

NEWS

VIOLENCE FLARES

DESPERATE

Shorter- "one picket may be better than many" mobilis- by the strike committee on the TGWU Wednesday June • Almill condemning and earing for the contence violence UnLU in regular tion of stronger picket lines A press statement issued step right The Workers Socialist League is a Trotskyist organisation fighting to construct a The WSL fights at every step against the existing leaders of the trade unions and Against their policies of class collaboration we put forward instead a programme Only in this way can workers resolve today's problems of tumbling living

BOYCOLL

GARNERS

SLAVE

HOUSES !

YOUR SUPPORT

IS OUR STRENGTHI

direction but like the policy document presented to the to get such support. conference this will remain That these merely words paper unless there is a conscious fight by the strike commit- tee the Rather against regional bureaucracy continue

WHICHUL

act roadblock in as a mobilising the Region membership the appeals for win strike. protection. Assurances given by Strength Shorter and Staden, (the new Regional Secretary) at Friday's meeting with the strike committee that the butions trom regional bureaucracy would mittee or masers circulate the floor membershi! with strike conference committee policy and "do their best" to organise delegations to this strike on the basis the picket line, a voluntary the policies committee will continue. levy of members and enforce secondary blacking *Enforce must not be taken at face blacking now! value. TGWU members to finance the strike. Broken pledges *No reliance 'protection' Such have Build been made in the past and win the strike and protect DOKen. lIkes the strikers Nicholson and Todd who violence. disappeared from the strike

TROTSKYISM

TODAY

*

STILL AVAILABLE

"TROTSKYISM TODAY"

Quarterly theoretical of the Journal Workers Socialist League. includes Issue No. 2 articlé on the history of the Fourth International. Available from WSL, 3.1, I Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR Price 50p plus 12p p&p from WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill London NW5 1HR

SOCIALIST

PRESS *

5 issues 10 issues. 25 issues 50 issues . I would like to receive... issues. I enclose the sum of f.. Name Address Send to: Socialist Press, 31, Park Hill, London NW5 1HR Subscribe!- SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 July, 1978

GLC-

operators hold the line Twelve telephone oper. ators at the GLC are now in the fifth week of official strike action. They are demanding inclusion in bonus scheme from which they have been excluded despite repeated claims dating back to 1974 The dispute presents the

GLC

management with complex The

•NALGO

operators are members, but the GLC Whitley Council controlled by the GLC Staff Association, a typical example of a management-dom- • inated 'house union'. Intense rivalry between NALGO and the GLCSA has lec after sabotaging all attempts

JOSILIC

wiere GLCSA svstematicallv

CONCR

bureaucrats claims from NALGO members.

are no different is demon- The function of a house strated by Shorter's meeting union is to we une workers with the police last Monday.

on behalf of management. than turn to the is increasingly clear that the GLCSA is unable to perform the working class in defending the picket County Hall InIS TunCtIon at where the Tory administration's line he resorted to pathetic cuts policy is generating a more "more police mutant atmosonere management refuses the agree tney will expose the role ot the GLCSA as a police body. other hand, if the! The strength of contri- they will recoonise claim strike com. expose the GLCSA as unable to from the win benefits for members its Thursday's provoking a turn to NALGO in demonstrate eitner case clearly that the fight to win of used position that of the strike NALGO bresents the left faci GLC workers, and has no faitt in the NALGO bureaucracy anc secondary ability hold back the membership *For a regional levy of In attempt an sell out their abilities to GLC manade ment as a more effective police the force, NALGO district officials on of the police allemmon to persuae ne the mass picket to telephonists back to work After four weeks of struggle the telephonists are determines from without baci guarantees of money this year Have you read it yet? Revolution no cony on Post-mar Com gainst .£1.10 .£2.20 .25.50 . £10.00 'Communists' Against Rev- olution containing the Theory of little-known Structural Assimilation' by Tim Wohlforth, is the book on post-war Stalinism that Mandel and Healy would not publish or discuss. Make sure you get your - available at £1.75 copy Dartmouth plus 20p p&p from:

WSL

31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

TGWU must save dock jobs!

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 5 July, 1978 The determination and militancy of the working class was again shown last Tuesday when the 5,000 workers Clydebank at Singer's factory voted at a mass meeting. to reject the company's plan for mass cut-backs and mass redundancies. Yet again the problems of leadership the fight to defend jobs were cear in the stewards' alternative proposal-the maintenance of industrial machine production dilu large-scale programme.

AUEW

convenor John McFadyen had correctly said the company wanted Tne nemp implement the plan. 300 workers from Newham's docklands gathered at East Ham Town Hall on Thursday 28 June to discuss the Port of London Authority decision to London's close upper docks. The closure will destroy 4,250 jobs in the docks with massive repercussions throughout the East End which account for Ildy many as 30,000 more jobs.

'Newham Forum' representing the 'community as a whole', did to build fight which defeat the can planned closures. They based their approach on a call for more subsidles trom the govern- make the upper employers. Cabinet This theme was taken up and amplified by Jack Hart, of Newham Council, leader and Nigel Spearing, MP for South, both Newham whom argued that 'the real decisions' would made Cabinet. the Any by thought of industrial action should be jobs save banished, they said. What is needed is a "new marketing strategy for the docks" based on more government money . The precedent of British Leyland was quoted. T.U. o shall

YOUR MAN AT THE TOP

Singer workers reject sackings But his only reply is to put forward an alternative capitalist plan, thus telling workers that they have with the employers. On the contrary, the policy needed is to prepare for an of the the moment the plant 2,800 proposed

OTI

The redundancies is declared.

The central demands of the occupation should be Tuls pay, work-sharing the books opening Singers ano onder demanas to the nationalis- that lead ation of the whole industty under workers management.

This policy should be put immediate mass belore an Singer meeting. workers learn the lessons of the betrayal of Speke. Lack leadership leads to defeat. TGWU leaders from the docks predictably failed to to this by explaining reply the Precis government money on BL, with "worker participation' aiding of Speke and wholesale drive towards on the shop floor SOCCU•uO with 12,500 jobs be abolished. Not good enough The barrage of heckling, made it clear that however, the dockers did not think their leaders' was good enough. However, policies 110 which a were proposed on fight could be based. There will be a series ot of this kind meetings Inrougnoul cast London in the next few weeks, with a 15 July, major rally planned show the strength of the campaign.

the Cea Stalinists reformists and have nothing to say in this Studon. It is up to revolutionaries to spell out clear of demands- programme the fight to starting from open the books of the PLA and National Ports the elected trade Council union committees. Nationalisation Such an exposure would reveal the clear case for the nationalisation without compensation of the docks as a whole and a planned Joint Committee stabs steward Behind the decision he importance of the incident is that it once again Rover transport of emphasises the offensive drivers to accept the being 10W ConducElu sacking of shop steward Leyland management Tony Tombes are issues stewards of far-reaching implica- movement. tions for BL workers. Sinister Tombes was convicted in disc court of using a tax And there new, from a car formerly owned sinister development. British Leyland on his Prior to his appearance own private car. in court, Tombes appeared before union- Lost nothing joint disciplinary He was found But despite the fact that committee. Leyland itself had lost 'guilty' by them. Tombes This is the same type of nothing, himselt committee which has been recommended the return to accepting work, thus the established at Longbridge to "investigate" shop two management s action. development of these trial power of the Transport workers' and General Workers Union unuci management, in which avail- to be put in a state of readi- able work would be shared, ness to defend every job on without loss of pay or jobs, the docks. the whole work- Those officials and stewards that obstruct such a course must be removed.

In the for preparation this fight the massive indus- Royal docks banner at Grunwick picket

NUM, O'FISHALL

YOU WANT

SPEAKING..

WHAT?

TWON'T STAND iDLY BY

I'M TELLING YOU... ANY DEMOCRACY

TO SEE DIRTY BOOTS TRAMPLE

THROUGH MY OFFICE!

Page 11 Airport workers offer bosses advice stewards accused of organis- ing an unofficial strike Such joint committees, Rival sections of the arising out of the partici- union bureaucracy are still pation' mean that steward at loggerheads as to which condemned as 'guilty', there planes British Airways hine should buy. defence, since the union is Following clash the two already a party to disciplin- , between Hugh "buy months ago ary action. British boeine WIIn eneines Stewards must take steps member Ken scanior andr "Buy all British" Gill Londor to break up this structure Airport staff have decided to get which has become an impor- involved. tant arm of management. representatives and officials British Airways Abolished trace union council nave come out opposition to the line The stewards at the British joint committees taken by must be abolished and the had Aircrati corporation, wno argued for "buy British" Tade mons mus garan from 'participation …anc BA workers decided that a take up their legitimate number of Boeings should be role: defending the working ordered, as well as a significant class from management. number of BAC 1-11s. and vnie inese stewaro. officials are drawn deeper into

TUNNEL

advising the capitalist state hon have put forward socialist

MINERS

approach to defence of jobs and wades As long as the component

ON TRIAL

firms, the firms, catering travel firms aspects ot the airwavs remar privately owned, and while the A contingent of members of 'nationalised' admin- the TGWU •Tunnel Miners picketed the Old ¡stereo ov ine cabitalist state ir branch the interests of profitability-in Bailey Monday on on the first day of the trial 01 part of the capitalist economy- They face tunnel miners. workers snoue concentate or charges arising from their fighting for their own interests, sit-in strike at Finsbury Park not advising employers last year. Journalists strike - to save jobs 45 journalists employed of head office instruction by the Trident Group in order cross the consistenty keep presses West London are on official nicket ano the using scab copy by non- strike against management union management. plans to axe jobs on the strikers nowever navi Richmond Herald by closing pointed to the danger that the possible takeover of Trident by down the existing paper and ayr. nemo biore • Ot otarwes replacing it with an adver- Investments could quickly lead tising 'free sheet'. the closure the Kingston •rint saoo ano Ine os or dou been

NUJ

print jobs. have backed The struggle clearly calls for of siste papers, mentoers Tite Surrey Comet and the Middle- a fiaht to force the openina of sex Chronicle. Trident's books to an elected of trade committee unionists, alancers lite Other NUJ members from jobs jo urnalists Cano Corini Highgate workers alike as long as the firm Komtore Kalourn Uxbridge and Clapham remains in private hands.

many local trade unionists have nesotution. assiste the orcelie оттт should be torwardeo to strike premises Church i Street, 162, London Road, Kin rior or Thamos. Kingston on Thames Printworkers both are hurch PIcKets also wel comi

NGA,

however outside 20, Street, and have used the pretext of a lack Kingston.

THIS WILL UNDO DECADES OF

NOW LOOK 'ERE LAD-DON'T COME

ALL THAT 'ONE MAN ONE VOTE'

PATIENT WORK-RESPONSIBLE LEADERS

WITH ME YOU

LIKE LAWRENCE AND | WILL BE

BLOODY

OVER-RULED BY

WRECKER!

O ANY OLD

RIFF-RAFF!

OH, IT'$ YOU ARTHUR ! GOOD GRIEF MAN

IN THIS UNION

YOU GOULD HAVE SAID SO.... WAS GETTING

REALLY WORRIED FOR A MINUTE!.. LETS

AND I'LL

RESIGN!

HAVE A CHAT

DOWN AT THE

IMPERIAL...

BRITISH WORKERS

MUST REMOVE

SOCIALIST

PRESS

The 9 July demonstra- tion called by the Prisoners Aid Committee against the British army's torture Irish republican prisoners of war seems certain to-be the biggest mobilisation against the role of British imperial- in Ireland for several Ism and Trade union labour far movement bodies from as away Edihburgh have resolved to send contingents on will The monaton assemble Corner, sneakers Marble Arch at 2.30 pm. level indicates growing awareness within the British labour move- ment of the savagery and brutal- carried

OUT

British army of occupation in Northern Ireland under of Labour ministers. Driven out nest willine servalies British and international capital- ism recognise all too clearly that Tre ana socialist militants in the North succeed in driving out the the struggle would not stop Both North and South of the ade elbricanoeratior imperialist-drawn struggle is therefore vital not boreer. Irish workers face chronic unemploy- only securing terms exploitation by ruthless Irish lettimate LUTe and capildi. atta Deode to se toetermination and state attacks on the independent but as an in Birish part of the part of the strength of working class organ- integral which ball struccle tor socal revolution l only Ireland. overthrow Irish capitalist Prime capitalism and the establishment Minister Lynch recochises this clearly when he carefully com- •т a workers reduolle. blow adminstered bines face-saving talk forcing British imperialism gossipie With repressive and military The withoroval •I TrOODS TOM the North would disrupt • the action against republican forces precarious structure of capital. and doalast ine irish ism in the isiand as a whole movement. COWLEY 9: July crunch The Midlands Regional Committee of

TGWU

which is the attempting to ignore the Alan Law ballot-rigging scandal and press disci- plinary charges against nine members at Cowley Leyland's Assembly Plant, meets on July 12 to consider the results of its inquiry. Holidays If that committee meet- ing decides to act in line with recommendations Regional Secretary Mathers made by the Oxford District before the Finance and General only two days annual holiday shutdown. Committee Purposes then Among those accused of the nine Cowley workers such charges as ridiculous Tina unemselves VICi

TGWU

timised by union officials- walking vul barred from office or even District Committee meeting and revealing the size of the expelled from the union - Published by Folrose Ltd. for the Workers Socialist League, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

Printed by Anvil Printers (TU), London. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.

LABOUR'S

TORTURE

CHIEFS!

leaders, who have repeatedly shown their dedication to •reservation or aris i eral- ism in Africa and Asia, have not implementing the most barbaric methods in theil efforts to intimidate and crush republican and socialist forces in relate. It was Labour leader Wilson in the British army in sent 1969 to forestall prosect of the 'civil rights' agitation by the Catholics. flowing over into generalised demands by MOre workers in vortnern reano the Labour Thornett branch secretary's commis- sion are the Assembly Plant convenor and three deputy recently only convenors elected by shop floor ballot.

A full meeting of all 170

TGWU

stewards on the Long Kesh concentration camp government that used the pretext ot a conveniently timec Sanita for no haramant ai Terror- Act for the harassment of Irish people in Britain. And Who was Labour deprived those leaders ones no were jailed for their legitimate imperialism of struggle against tuel status as collica disoners theoretically guaranteed by the Geneva Convention. under minister Roy Mason, the torture of these prisoners has reached such level ta plant recently registered a near-unanimous vote to sup- port the Cowley 9, demand the dropping of the charges by the Regional Committee and call for TGWU national officials to procure company recognition elected deputy

CONVERO

Alan Thornett. Thornett faces the threat of expulsion from the union at the hands of the Regional inquiry. As a precaution against sudden the atta prospect ol a by the

TGWU

bureaucracy, the Cowley 9 Campaign -which Defence has rallied the support hundreds of leading

TGWU

for the members victims- called has meeting campaign supporters on the Regional Committee meeting-Wed- July 12, 7.30pm at nesday the Digbeth Institute, Birmingham.

STEEL

CRISIS

WORLD

WIDE

Bill Sirs and the leaders of the Iron and Steel Trades Confeder- ation last week cynical- ly acted out their charade of "opposition" to the planned closure of Bilston steelworks. They were outraged at the fact that they had been publicly humiliated by British Steel Corporation European Commission for which had Human Rights and manacement Amnesty International have scarcely given

ISTC

been forced bureaucrats time to murmur araw attentior brutality used. the the last rites over The torture begins as soon as doomed Shelton steelworks a suspect is picked up before being called on to trade union Briston to leave quietry fot force their members Brian was allegedly found "hanging in his the dole queues. In( notorious taken Castlereagh RUC station after a Management, prolonged interrogation Sirs' aback by apparent The inability control his

BOOK

to Castlereagh File has recently the members and been compiled detailing the enthusiasm shown by ISTC aruesome Treatment meteo ou delegates for his show of to men and women "suspects" talk decided to by the Special Branch in the multant their closure postpone forced "confessions" plans. But looming in the back- POW status ground to these events is a steel world-wide crisis Meanwhile in the Long Kesh production in the capitalist concentration camo at sour which threatens over 300 convicted republican Coullies and socialist men are thousands of undergoing torture as a resum or tner deter Near collapse mined fight for Prisoner of War status. Since they refuse to wear EEC in The particular prison clothing •oo arison faces the near-collapse of its both which reflect steel strategy as capitalist they clad al t producers have broken its on v in a blanket. thev are kee by undercutting under continuous bright lights price levels or permanent solitary confine. minimum of producing and excreta; they are agreed limits. write denied food parcels, cigarettes Now punitive fines are to TV: the! priced access newys be levied low receive no proper medical treat- imports and suspect cargoes no and they impounded at EEC ports by suffer repeated beatings by customs officials. warders. Sweden Meanwhile in led Labour leaders huge losses have plans to governient 'rational This vicious "restructure' ise' the industry; 'restructur- ment must be fought through. out ing' is also planned in Spain.

British the move. ment: it is Labour leaders who In Belgium the national- are inflicting this punishment on ised steel industry has the opponents of imperialism in announced plans for 8,800 Ireland When redundancies. Mason acts as part of the hundreds marched against cabinet-which Callaghar this on May 19 they were turn is preserved and protected by the TUC bureaucracy. met by police with teargas Those few 'left Labour MPs and water cannons A strike against the sack- who nave voiceo timio goera protests against repression from all but one steel piers ings 40,000 İreland have lifted not finger To remove ms can• ou torture Belgium began on June masters from the Labour leader.

22 ship. In the USA huge losses union branch Labour Everv by the privately-owned steel Party ward and GMC must be mobilised in solidarity with the monopolies have intensified demands stringent prison all or the callio controls, while coalitionist Callaghan- process of mergers and lay.

offs (which already number thousands) continues. Scargill And in France thousands of jobs are under the axe in The Yorkshire

NUM

the Usinor and Facilor- "left' President particular, whose Sollic works in plans to Arthur Scaraill allows butche rationalise production. Roy Mason to stand as Labour fight in each MP for Barnsley must be called without a case for work-sharing on full And all those opposed to and nationalisation of pay, British imperialism Ireland steel under workers mange PAC demon. as part of a planned ment stration on 9 July. socialist economy, call for: no way these jobs will be

*P.O.W.

status for political saved prisoners as guaranteed by the Geneva Convention tett to sirs and his *Support international co-thinkers, for the Ireland. Self-deter steel workers every Hoeration mination for the Irish people!

capitalist will be country *Troops now! An

OUT

heading in their thousands for all political to join the millions capital- amnesty prisoners! ism has made unemployed. *Kick out Mason and the Steelworkers must ensure codution cabinet that this is not the case.