Socialist Press no. 116

TOOLMAKERS

SOCIALIST

PRESS

HALT

ELECTION

Few workers would be fooled by Prime Minister Callaghan's pre- tence that he • never intended to call an October election. His plan has been to go into an election with his Phase wage-cutting strategy intact, and with no class struggles under way, in order to secure re- on a platform of control. permanent wage He was confident that (as under Phase 3) verbal TUC opposition to the 5% ceiling would. be combined executive to take away their sabotage of any struggle to right to strike has complete- break the pay limits. ly changed the class struggle Callaghan had watched in Britain. with enthusiasm the moves Both Callaghan and

TUC

by bureaucrats to Leyland well remember the control the by time the toolmakers expelling, withdrawing involved were strike in or disciplining credenasa action. workers who seek to fight Hugh Scanlon was the employers. howled down by a mass of 3,000 strikers. Scheme upset meeting Car factories a This is the essence of the halt. A union-backed threat AUEW execuțive decision to to sack all 3,000 toolmakers expel striking tool- led to spontaneous moves makers at SU Carburettors, national strike cowards the withdrawal ot creden- action throughout the tials from 51

AUEW

AUEW.

stewards at Leyland's Bath- petrified toolroom gate plant, and the revival of committee backed down at TGWU disciplinary charges the crucial moment, and a against leading members at weakened Callaghan turned Leyland's Cowley Assembly coalition the with Plant. Liberals backing But Callaghan's scheme forcing through Phase 3. was upset when on Saturday Decisive battle September Leyland's unofficial toolroom mittee voted unanimously But if the SU men are strike if the SU expelled tool- Tuesday and makers were expelled from the toolmakers take the union-bringing the unprecedented step of prospect shutdown national strike against their throughout Leyland. And union officials, battle, other sections, including decisive the future of Fords; declared support for Phase 4, will be underway.

the toolmakers' stand. A victory for the tool- makers, forcing Completely changed rein- statement of the SU men This meant that would be blow against October election could have the authority of every union taken bureaucracy, high weakening Dact point of a national stoppage their ability to preserve the in Leyland and a mass strike 5% limit. against the AUEW bureau- But a major problem in cracy. the fight is the weakness of The election had to be the deadership of the tool- postponed. Indefinitely. room committee, who will The refusal by toolroom be under enormous pressure LU

LANCH

SEMBLA

IDIN

Callaghan switches Phase 4 tactics SU strike leader George Regan has already said he would settle £83 Ior PIUs the Phase 4 5%; and tool chairman room committee Roy Fraser has not even put in a pay claim for his mem- bers in the November 1 pay review at Cowley. PHOTO: Andrew Wiard. Fraser also last week argued strongly for AUEW stewards Leyland's participation set- up. These leaders actually want the company-wide pay bargaining which Leyland . struggling ILas been that they impose, and insist are fighting only for differ- entials and not against the social contract. But despite their search for a climbdown, the tool- room leaders, Leyland and

DCIANS

great difficulty cooking up any answer to the tool- makers' demands. If the f7 parity money was paid to the SU strikers, other toolmakers would strike to equal it And the £83 was conceded including the 5% Murray and Callaghan Phase 4 increase, the Rover toolmakers would • soon move 5% ahead again. The most likely answer be the Commun- seems to ist Party's policy of bring- ing forward the imposition of a corporate grading struc- ture-in line with Leyland policy. But to introduce this November scheme bi would create huge upheavals other sections of workers-wile a later aate would probably not placate Reconstruct the Fourth International

CENTRE PAGES

F.I.S.T. review... .. p.9 TUC conference .. p.5 Free jailed socialists. Back page Ex-soldiers on Ireland • p.8 Down with the Butcher Shah!

AUEW

EXPU SIONS

Every attempt by the

IRON FIST

Shah to stamp out the fires of revolution that have flared across Iran,

PHASE

has so far only sent the flames leaping even higher-and dangerously close to his own blood- stained Peacock Throne On Monday 4 September 200,000 demonstrators marched through Tehran in defiance of the new ban on all opposition mobilisations.

Large of the sections march called for the over. throw and death of the Shah. But while ten people WSL lobby of the TUC were killed. in other towns by the repressive forces the Shah's dictatorship, this main demonstration passed off peacefully. The reactionary religious leaders who the clan credit for this achievement presented It seems probable there- flowers to the massed troops who lined the fore that the strike will go • ahead-a route. will which This gesture express all the frustration of 'peace 01 neatly symbolised the millions -of workers who have been political intentions of these forcibly held mullahs and ayawallahs. back by their leaders while They were not of course their living standards have inciting been slashed sections of the by wage to join forces with army control. workers and peasants The Workers Socialist to League has overthrow consistently revolution imperialism in Iran. pointed to the fact that These Islamic dema. wage controls have been up- gogues hope to gain held by growing attacks on their aims within the context of trade union democracy. 'democratised' dictator- This lesson has been ship drawn from our experience Four days later, a very of the bureaucratic closure different mobilisation of the Joint Shop Stewards gathered in the streets o Committee Leyland's Tehran. Cowley Assembly Plant of Tens of thousands of the closure of the

TGWU

workers, and peasants Cowley Automotive Group students, including many splitting of

TGWU

women, were led by youth branches, the disaffiliation demonstration of of Oxford Trades Council against the new

SULULCOL

and the attacks. the measures of repression. Cowley 9. • These included the We have fought at each imposition of martial law on stage against this, and for cities (including Tehran the independence of the itself) and the threat of working class execution against any defence of VIval dre demonstrators. jobs and We wages. have This proved no. idle pointed to the necessity to threat. The final toll take the fight back into the main that but unions themselves, and in so 200 seems certain doing reversed many of people machine. were these attacks. gunned to death in Tehran Now is the opportunity alone last Friday. to defeat state control of Once again, the Shah's wages and step up the fight efforts to suppress the mass in the Labour Party to drive opposition to his • the Callaghan-Healey regime has only provoked

OUL

leadership. further expressions of open Workers must take up hostility. the fight for Labour In solidarity with the Party conference to remove of the Iranian these architects of wage workers and control, throw out their in Britain must WOrKerS wing election mani- fight in the trade unions and testo, and adopt a socialist Labour Party for immediate programme to. , reverse the action end all military end pay restraint and and economic culs. supplies end unemployment in prep- which the present Labow aration for the General lenders

Leadership crisis holds back Nicaraguan struggle Page 2

• - INTERNATIONAL

The general strike which followed the hi-jacking of malttdine• the Nicaraguan parlament repression by the Sandinist Liberation number Front has now brought the economic life of the recent almost oppositionists country to complete halt. the latest crisis. The ChaTor •om oa nasi second declared "a state of economic emergency". And visible means of vernerl out been the c czer vąve œn cœc nn a state of siege. ot Us imperialism. At the same time parts o1 Nicaragua are completely out of the control of Somoza dictatorship. Self-styled however the Last week "human National Guard regained the rights" cities of Matagalpa Carter and Leon Jiniiv had WitIeN

TOT

Time been gangsters and exploiters.

captured by the Sandinist Liberation Front and groups of. armed youth Samoza on wespite ine mobiisation of rights record! virtually the whole population against him, Somoza has once worried that •again arrrogant/y reasserted that he has no intention of resigning become so before his term of office ends in his own country. for a way of ditching him which Full-scale war would not at provoke serious On the face of it, few state- • ca•ttasmn ane ments could more Nicaragua and Uncon- Central America. Vincina Somoza now confronts not The reason a general strike, only but also many capitalist oponents have shrunk from replacing him up to Tuli scare wal With The Sandinist guerrilla army.

now is that The stage seems to be set for State American the final have urs thes t lemk. act in the 43 vear-lona dictatorship of the Somoza shows family. ¡nITO ane • main But, while this is by far the Somoza of leade extreme the many failure most crises faced by Somoza in the opposition to nim Although. the year. ne nas beer aole survive situations which would general strike so far has been almost have toppled certain!y •ve Toe many other regimes action of This is partly the result of working class leadership for the

SMITH HUFFS AND

PUFFS

*). promised the leaders of And he the Patriotic Front skulking in TAreRTS TA8T. Lusaka and elsewhere that they the imperialists, shortly WHO S80k To ride tne wind will launch reap the whirlwind" So said InTO zamiora Bill Irvine Joint Transport Mini- downing by forces In tne Knodesian Govern. ment. last waek. But Prime Minister Smith's sound and fury in Gross hypocrisy nis sunday broadcast appeared to signify nothing new. All the ding tne Martial law civilian survivors crash is gross He declared limited martial •at от тае law; he banned the recently steeped as it is in the blood of legalised

ZANU

the Zimbabwe m ana

LAPU

(arresting a num- ora ncatione If there are any raids agains!

ber of their leaders). Zambia they will top acate Sued s bwer od the and intensify pressure split the Patriotic Front and join the internal settlement. Such a split is the only hope Smith has ot keeping any intiu- ence in the future of Zimbabwe.

The reality of the situation is that it is only a matter ot time before the comes to power. Door open It was sianificant that Smith in his broadcast, despite a lot of bluster murderers", more ••Bn Tor Nkomo. His sharpest TerarYe® TOr Nyerere of Tanzania Mugabe accused of the long established and firmiy rutnies. towards all of strikers ane demonstrators have been killed clashes and have ocen arrestea since tne beginning O1 reason for the regime s dolity to survive witn- support continued backing Closest friend champion of President closest is the political friend of this regime of Carter even went so tar a few weeks ago of congratulating recent human Naturally the imperialists are their old client has universany natee in And they have been looking the same time dangers

SOI

imperialism strike has established itself.

the whole UNtE ivicaraguar capitalists wno claim to be the leaders of the general strike!

www somoz.s And their ci ut agreele lo cose down neir ous nesses lir their allies in me caer fore tam to do ТПЕ Department workers forced them SO) is no to try to NOTe up cleariy Somoza family's break The reason virtual monopoly of trade indus- in power-the and capitalist agriculture in leadership the Nicaraoua These "opposition" capita- success. of the lists have no objection to dic- as such-only to one TaTorSAlo semi-spontaneous which all most workers, clear Jucrative and profitable parts of tne economy to itselt. his talks with Nkomo. Smith, continues Ineretore, tists o an for with thated hana- plan for a negotiated hand- OVer With oossiole ine squeezing out of Robert Mugabe who despite his personal willing- made some velled despite the pleas of noss docoloo s su lno pressure from within his might Uhlas own to altacks continue the war to victory.

In return tor tha Nkomo's guerrilla of a Rhodesian aircraft propaganda suroun- alleged slaughter of of the air- voos on tne Smith government Refuges from the be designed Eritrean of capital Asmara have confirmed

COWBI

force Zambia to reports of the treacher- on Niomo to ous role being played by Cuban troops in the struggles of the Eritrean people against Ethiopian imperialism. Two workers and a Patriotic Front student who fled from the occupied city last month have reported the presence least 2,000 Cuban at Asmara, engaged loops In in the battle to break the "Marxist siege im posed by the lett the door wide Eritrean Popular Liberation talks with Front. hostility 'Red terror' Julius President These exiles also detailed who he the events of the 'red terror' sabotage SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednisday 13 September, 1978 are mem oers lawyers, known Somoza series or poltical crises This the. . recerving Carter. ser sus moza, on hs Somoza Nicaragua's will uncontrollably into geneldi caoitarism ITseT. Nonetheless and anomer dancer-wal struggle against completely days. oose sharply. The Sandinist cretely the mass struggle has Somoza

ITOM

The Nicaraauar guerrilla operations sponsored equivalent of the CBI more permanent (INDE or Nicaraguan Develop- with Somoza's National Guard HiCul Wistrtute cams But the support the general strike far been unable clear and Pro-imperialist leadership necessary of Somoza become more And closely involved with the organi- that this which sallul! .Clals L0 De petty-bourgeois the opposition- soearneso

COT I

group can offer the Broad Front Opposition which the

(FAO)

•This is a pro-imperialist class- of Somoza is collaborationist front supported by Catallsls Hoera oemo capitalist dictatórship. CaTS ond dnes Among most prominent

ITS

(the nOT actuavat ot tne itself and can be capitulate 8. component if Somoza falls UTRel claim to be more radically anti imperialist.

IT SO

take the concrete steps towards polticar bourgeoisie Th e necessary for imperialist struggle in Nicaragua.

Univ impérialism in greater danger.

But will Trotskvist leadershio capable o' directing the masses of workers and peasants towards political Nyerere naependence Cuban troops out of Eritrea. unleashed on Asmara by the the liberation fronts agents of the Ethiopian But walle the military dictatorship and its subjected the allies in the Stalinist bureau- Asmara cracies of Cuba and the atrocities it has practised on Soviet Union. Addis Ababa and the towns Executed of Ethiopia, repelled beet 200 youth were rounded attem pt from the EPLF up and executed atter two members of Despite the terror fighters and Cuban advisers, been soudas Ethiopian assassinated in June. the In a later incident, the been compelled to pull back thugs 'red after

• LITCE

claimed that for every one had failed oi their members assassin- defences of liberation fighters. ated, they would 'liquidate thousand' supporters of Camp David sell-out hatches group Tne priests and capitalists The highest level of "'The Twelve" possible betrayal of the were assoclatee witht the anti Palestinian national newspaper editor Chamorro whose murder earlier struggle is being planned this year sparked off the recent this week at the Camp capitalist-dominated David hideout of opposition tears to move befor( President Carter. go-ahead from Amidst the diplomatic much publi- posturing, the By-pass cised security piccaunon: and the censorship even of And it is terrified that any news photographs, the main interests tunction of the talks iS

WITO

Ta1 clear largest capitalist, spill The aim is to find agree.

over ment Zionist aulac k berween Tne leaders and Arab bourgeois- these oppor about a ghetto state for self-seekers the Palestinians lact 'on the so Ine mas called 'occupied teritories Somoza will of by-pass the leader. the West the Jordan and the Gaza Strip.

ship they want to impose on it.

The events of the last few this danger very • Liberation Front now generally recognised as tne focus, it not always con.

leadership of the moved awa one-off s•ectacvla towards of otale .Vvd Sandinists have So : to give even the decisive OntICa to get rid there is no possibility polticaly COnTeSed nationalist the leadership Nicaraquar masser require if the almost inevitable not vonowea py some new torm ol Sadat At Camp David the method being proposed Leadership either Zionist Begins One faction of the Sandinists running West Bank "terceristas'") is close to state under the patronage of

• FAC

Jordan, or Sadat's view that expected to the Palestinians could build bourgeois their own bourgeois state.

The Zionists hope that Sandinist factions their friend and King Hussein can be used once they have failed to again to murder Palestinian liberation fighters who wish to continue their struggle teesencence which are Sadat, more intelligently, genuine anti like would to rely the Palestinian leadership to do Peru at present is this policing. The great danger for the survive uness a Palestinians remains that the loud words of denunciation of these talks from some of their leaders will confused with opposition to the basic plan of a ghetto state. The results of these talks clear • alcol • we go tc press Whatever happens how- ever, the against

SITUACE

any ghetto state will go on .will the fight the

TOT

of the destruction Zionist state by mass mobilisation and military struggle anc by imperialist diplo- 110U macy. however raritied.

HAVARVO •

Derg has

WOIACIS UI

the same its armies have their Keren regain their MiG . forces have frontal break the the Eritrean

'Democratic' facade Franco's heirs trapped by mounting

-INTERNATIONAL

cast aside by "Democratic" Portugal Eanes, acting for the Portuguese bourgeoisie, dismissed Soares as now nas a cabinet witnout a single elected member. Premier auer a disoule w we coalition over how fast nation- And this new government of alised land handed the bourgeoisie- which wack to landowneus. appointed by military President Soares …The eatershin advance by agreed to devoted enough to the interests canes. The main boltica leaders ovine of the bourgeoisie. Portuguese armed forces and Nobre da Costa, headed by ex-technocrat

TASCIST

government-has been to take office allowed by Tour main barnamentary darties When Nobre da Costa intro- duced his government's Tionar •rootamme Ine Portuguese parliament last week he was greeted with complete SHenCe but it Ine sience was meant be the piqued appear response of the "parliamentary camocrats LuIS from the past, it was not very convincing. Shame The silence should have been a silence of shame. one of the Docaust four main parliamentary parties-and particular the parties which claim to lead the working class, and Communist Parties-have Presidential' new reactionary of the bourgeoisie to come to power. Portuguese capitalists of Nobre da decided they neaded a govern. Costa's speech was not the first could practically serve those interests more speed- heard these particular program.

ily than the "socialist" Soares.

matic proposals-including wage Working class

CUTS

ware controis. and savage cutting of govern- ment spending. His weakness, in their eyes In its essentials it is the same was that he was still forced te programme The

TOOK

over nis shoulders occas previous ionally at the working class and headed Socialist coalition peasantry whose votes helped to Party leader mario •oares make tne soclalist rarty by tar But six weeks ago President the largest in the Assembly.

The crisis in world trade generates not only protectionism, tariffs and the drive to trade war. Massive government produces in turn loans will go alongside the crisis in the shipping indus- of over 17,000 and also in ship- try, destrucuon jobs-40% of the total. The building. shipping agreement claims that the companies bulk of will sell off their stock and fail be This OsS covered by 'natural wastage' to take up orders for new early retirement, retraining vessels, so the ship-building schemes, etc. industry faced 7,000 The remaining massive slump in demand. will jobs be dropped through a scheme of 'rota- 1 he crisis 1s. worla-wide.

Two major Japanese ship- details remain obscure building firms, Mitsubishi Ishikanajima. Harime, Massive as this blow 1s and the deal clearly indicates the recently announced a 40% Francoist government's fear their tive capacity, and this move of the strength and deter. mination working follows on mosl ornel firms class, and also reflects the Japanese reducing labour inability of the their capacity by 35%. Inev- bureaucracy to move into itably huge redundancies are that involved. strength at this stage. the Spain, Suarez government has been forced The main shipyards are to intervene directly, centred in Euskadi, an area with the similarly crisis- already high unemploy- steel industry. ridden have ment where walkers Lengthy negotiations WIlD and been vanguard employers In conflicts with the liberal- agreement last week on a new plan to ising' regime. 'save' the industry in terms concession parallel to of capitalist profitability. the 'rotational employment' Portugal military said clearly what they will do in The Soares covernment succeeded in obtaining a large this debate credit from the IMF, and the The right-wing bourgeois Social Democrat party has main.

Dourceoisies see that this credit is not lost in tained an apparently sympa- supporting the state deficit and thetic silence and not nationalised table a rejection of the expected to industries motion. 7181 decisively diverted into the The other main bourgeois The Portuguese Assembly party, however, hands or the capitalists the social anc This wook the new govern- Democratic Centre (Christian ment must survive virulently Nic: pro. attacked the Nobre da Costa mentar 68D3T order to stay government as being in alliance office. with the Portugues But the government does no ist Party. have table vote of They name three ministers as confidence. CP sympathisers. the Portuguese consti. under ThE scandalou tution there is only a vote if one the puts down parties credence the

MOTION

18 eccon That is leaders nave cooked uo government. some kind of filthy backstairs None of the parties have yet deal with Eanes and Nobre da economic crisis proposal has been made to police and armed police, agricultural workers but are also forced on occas southern Andalucia. Faced ion to their restrain increasingly militant with 'excesses' and criticise their demands from the 16% of over-enthusiastic defence of unemploved workers in this the regime. region, the government last month allocated over £13 Outraged by these sli, million to a scheme of emer- to their repressive authorily, gency public works. of the leading members Six weeks later, the fund extreme right Police wing exhausted-70% had was repre- Association. watch been spent on the materials 85% of sents the armed required. strike police, declared last week agricultural has that: workers "As long as the govern- by the nOW DeCl canned main unions in Cadiz the ment practices an indiscrim- region, demanding further inate policy of pardons and funds and an extension and completely austresses the scheme to include un- disdains the law, we cannot offer protection to calved vol But while the Suarez citizens." government faces mount- The officers con ing resistance from workers cerned were dismissed after defend this outright threat. But the 1LS allelpis lo without directly moves within the armed confronting the power of forces military towards a the working class, these show coup the precarious balance of the Suarez gov- same compromises and halt- measures have also antagon- ernment, ised the forces of the repres- The failure of the Fran- sive state apparatus, coists to contain the The Francoist heirs make struggles the working liberal use of the army, riot class increases that pressure Costa. The CP and the bureaucracy of the main trade union feder. ation Ene «air-intersinaical which it dominates, have urged (without complete success) the suspension or an oncome labou disputes during the formation of the government. their speeches and press the CP leaders have taken consistently conciliatory the overnment amoroach urging their followers to and see" what the government is like in practice. Of course a last minute shift of the CP into "opposition" Socialist the Party's oppositional noises seem to be gaining them any popular CP what the SP and buT leaders both want to avoid at all costs • voting together against me new covernment anc against the bourgeois parties.

Workers' parties. Because that would immed- iately •the question falst the government consisting workers' parties alone For the Stalinist and reform.

leader. ure WOrST possibility, since it would bring them face to face with the class parasitically the derive tneir strendin. Both leaderships assiduously cultivate the that Portu guese politics is not a matter o one class against another but of versus dictatorial forces. they try to That is the way justify their treacherous class collaborationist alliances.

Parliament But part of this deception Is lnat politics all takes placi inside parliament. That is why the new non- Close collaboration between Suarez and SP leader Gonzales day. The threat of every military renewed dictator- ship will Spain for as long as the mighty forward movemen! Nobre da Costa parliamentary government is an embarrassment to both the CP and SP leaders. Foreshadowed Even if they let it pass now, they will be looking tor a new parliamentary regime. Soares foreshadowed this approach last week when he said parliamentary that new solution must be obtainer within two or tree montas But these frightened leaders face another problem. They anxious to avoid al t Turning The oreseni crisis into a situation in which general elections would be new held. If that did happen they fear that the political affairs would shift from parlia ment and that the masses would be able to re-enter the political arena as they did in 1974 and The workers' parties are both in their different WaYS therefore, to their involved up necks in the bourgeoisie's plans to keep the Portuguest regaining any political

TTON

initiative. Mobilisation Workers demand

• MUST

8no to au these manoeuvres ano that their parties' form a govern.

and implement policies ment which meet une Need. oute working class These are not parliamentary tasks They call for the mobilis of the of workers ation mass and peasants to bring down the Nobre da Costa government and force the SP and CP break their with the bour. geoisie and torm an independent government. workers Spanish held 1S back from its revolutionary goal by quate leadership staffed by accom piished traitors

Basnett muzzles fight against Page 4 As the Aubrey/Berry/ on the TUC to "note with Campbell "Secrets" trial concern" the continuing call the prosecution, on under way at the got Attorney General the charges, and call for the drop Old Bailey with exten- coverage of sive press introduction of a Freedom of Information Act-should

NUJ

the prosecution case, An attempt to challenge not be debated. this ruling failed the TUC gave a calcul- support-though in the teeth WIl! ated kick Legal advice delegates from the Society the NUJ and other to of Civil and Public Servants forces fighting for the Public He claimed that this was Civil and ana the the outcome of legal advice Services Association (whose charges to be dropped contend

TUC

chairman David on the problems of discus- mem bers Have each day with the Official currently sing matter Basnett ruled that a lairly

NUJ

motion-calling before the courts. Secrets. Act) voted with the LalliC

„JACEE+HOSENBAL

MUST STAY

Agee and Hosenball deportations were an earlier attack by Home Secretary Rees Nationalise these catering giants! Ever eaten a good

TARA TON

meal in motorway cafe? The question is so ridic- took a top ulous that lt. employers' spokesman nine the

MONDIS

television nerve to go and into print to assert that the whole system Is not a monumental rip-off. Cider boss Of right wing Transport Secretary William Rodgers had chosen The catering firms are also viciously anti union: our picture the shows a THF service area blacked by union action last year reliable figurehead

IOT

"committee of excuse ed" fell between government make additional inquiry"_Peter Prior, chair- profits 1973 and 1977 from 10.3% hand-outs these latter- Bulmers cider man of une to 2.5%, he claimed. firm. day highway boost their profits further.

expected, Prior the luckless As black motorist's "inflation adjust- We propose that the reac- refused

DULL

from anti-union catering tionary, criticise his bosom pals in ed" meal has gone to astronomic in agents, the breweries, and Forte, expensive the Houses Prior's own cider giant Ross and Granada catering price, while petrol remains MIr. nationalised without stubborn 8p per gallon monopolies run the Wno compensation motorway service areas. extra. the workers' management. proposes Their 'inflation adjust- WRP leaders:

OUT NOW!

junk the old Trotskyism

WRP JUNKS

THE OLD

TROTSKYISM

A WSI

This pamphiet brings together two articles recently published in Socialist Press, dealing with the Trotskyists' of the Workers Revolutionary Party in relation to the policies Middle East. The second article in particular exposes the way in which almost every aspect of the pamphlet consists of documentary material to demonstrate the full extent of this volte face.

Price 45p plus 10p p&p from WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR 'secrets' show trial

NUJ.

ling of these tution, NU

NUJ

delegates walked out of the hall, and subsequently circulated copies of the that would have speech been union. Presi- given by dent Dennis Moshane. No infringement The text made it clear there that was never ant spestio infringing tish McShane's speech

SUD•

judice regulations-but that a damning did contain indictment of the record of the Labour Government imposing restrictions on the freedom of the press-inclu- ding references to the de- portation of journalists Philip and Mark Agee Hosen ball and to ship and distortion of news from Northern Ireland The speech also attacked the government's abandon- ment of its manifesto pledge to repeal the Official Secrets Act. Basnett's decision silence such a speech seems far more related to a reluc- to embarass Labour tance on the eve of an expected genuine electIon worries about the sub-judice rules. The urgency of the NUJ The press does not like to be wrong. Political correspondents had been recalled from their holidays, executives had been preparing lists follow party leaders about and leader the country writers had been rehearsing their arguments on the need for 'firm' government. All in all the press was as geared up for an election as were MPs, Labour bureau- crats.and political parties.

In thrashing around for explanation for no election the press has come up with an almost infinite variety of conclusions. Some papers portrayed Callaghan scheming master of suspense, deliber- building a ately up crescendo of nothingness.

Others screamed with (The Sun frustrated anger announced the news under headline- the one-word 'Chicken!'). But in all the headlines words and thousands written on the subject there has not been one single SU reference to the Carburettors strike! Had the election gone ahead under conditions of a of national shutdown SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 13 September, 1978 Basnett

ABC

Defence and the Campaign calling a national labour movement confer- ence to build for the three defendants is now greater ever. 200 join picket A picket of some 200 trade unionists and Defence Campaign supporters demanding the dropping of the charges assembled out- Old side the Bailey last as the 'ABC' trial Tuesday opened. The three defendants face a

PRESS GANG

POLL-AXED

British Leyland, Callaghan and Healey could have faced as big a challenge from the action as working class did Heath in 1974. This fact did not rate one line of coverage-either in reaction immediate Ene stories or in the 'serious' think pieces in the Sundays.

the Instead press the decision presented being based 'private polls', predictions about the future or plain cowardice.

Telegraph The Sunday fact underscored the capitalists required an tane election-whichever way it went. "If the Government had its won an electon mandate for a five per cent limit would have been vastly strengthened. On the other hand if the Conservatives had won, the new Government under Mrs.

Thatcher would have begun implementing policies- notably cuts in taxes and public expenditure-which would have transformed the for industrial prospects expansion. As it is the country is saddled with a lame duck Government." total of nine charges under the otticia secret:

CACT OU

and 1920, all of which relate to the alleged disclosure of infor.

mation on the hugely expensive and secret SIGINT surveillance NOtWOTK Journalist Crispin Aubrev is charged with arranging a dis. cussion between all three defen.

dants and apettine cam oool Information John Berry-who, sever earlier,

SIGINT S

held rank corporal! chardet Witt communicatio information to Campbell. And journalist Duncan charged Camboell obtaining information from Berry and collecting inform- defence aTIOn communid tions the prosecution has Already declared that a of the trial will be held in camera' This is despite the statement prosecuting by Leonard that the case is "not a spying case" official conviction the the Secrets Act ottences woulooe recarded d being at the lowest end of the Scale Stepped up Trade unionists should not Tal tor tnis attempi to minimis the importance of the case. The defence of these • stepped up. Pickets will assemble outside the Old Bailey Tuesday from 12.30 p.m.-2.30 p.m.

PHOTO: Andrew ". Callaghan Both the Sunday Times and Observer dr voted long articles each of several thousand nords the the decision, ot without mentioning its central plank. is too bland Callaghan and avuncular a figure to be raw material for the cult of the personality. But the press chose to endow him with the gift of personal caprice to ooscure and the most gigantic obvious obstacle to general election. class in The working

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 13 September, 1978

TUC 1978

THE GREAT

COVER-UP

was noting with "gravest concern" the

WHETHER IT

the prospect • massacre in

JODS

Chrysler factories; wriggling out of criticism from the Fire the betrayal of their 10-week pay Brigades Union over battle; greasing up to wage-cutter Callaghan by adopting a meaningless form of words on pay; fobbing off lobbies of unemployed, low paid and age old dropping even the call for socialism from its objectives, the 1978 TUC successfully avoided advancing any struggles of the working class. arrived another target for a wage", well that previous such tar- gets have been buried with- out lace talks began.

UPW

And rose to the rostrum to plead for Callaghan postal workers the rent to strike' which, year's surrenders blacking, thought they already had In between talk, by 'left' and right alike yet another farewell to the treacherous twins Jones and Fisher: new target and Scanion, interference After a year in which committee Ministers have carry out an Labour supervised brutal 10IC. And on Grunwick attacks Labour pickets, bans on Labour and time demonstra- movement their dedication the 'ABC' tions, pro- list state secution and the estab- be prepared to assist in such lishment of a new police an inquiry. cr imputer with files on political of issue state ference in the Labour movement has become a major question. But while TUC delegates rehearsed their endorse- the expected for imminent Labour election campaign thev were careful not to spell out the full extent of Labour complicity in the attacks, or offer any real answer. Government : Tobacco Workers Union General Secretary Doug moved a resolution Grieve calling for the Government "independent inquiry" into the functions ling of the ana activites or tne special sections Branch and the Special resolution Patrol Group. any attempt OI the role of Such a call is worse than whole, in their useless. creates Illusion thel! that government-run Tory-bashing came the real of TUC newly taken-over unchanged essence policy: total, grovelling sub- servience to the reactionary Labour leadership and its of British capital- celerce pensioners; ism. NUPE leader Alan Fisher yet propose "mini- knowing full pay

SOON

Rep bureaucrat legislate until last squalid

UPW

over Grunwick everybody had UPW leader Jackson the double The whole scene was set for Callaghan to hoist the General curtain Election-except for the ritual one No answer to police could black workers and youth. actually independent Murray, supporting Len the motion, expressly stated that that it should not be seen as suggests attack the whole Hencers-wio have "nor on the men and again revealed force women who work for it"! The Speaking strengthening of the capita- on the main apparatus-could resolution, Grieve pointed to the compiling of files on militants and union officials Special Branch; to the phone tapping the and interception of mail; and to students attempts Lone into working agents.

ACTT

leader Alan Sapper, who moved an amendment, referred to the of the Special Patrol Group against pickets at Grunwick: Protection "We want protecting, not brutalising" said. The force, added police hẹ 'must protect us, not beat us up" But those expressions of anguish and horror are also of expressions complete confusion. nurser The police are part of the At the same time in sing.

repressive two specialist armed force the maintained by the capitalist ponce, well clear state . preserve capitalist They exploitation. will expose the police as a never act in resoonse lolic "democratic" defence of wishes of the majority of the population, aLLaLAD pickets, their harassment of who are exploited by capi-

TUC

outside the hall. element that the bureaucracy, for all their have still labours, not managed to contain futile protest. The rank and file of the working class, defiant and Marciicis hostile, continued to reveal road and the van away its strength. In Bathgate and in SU Carburettors, workers stand solid against bureaucratic dictatorship, threatening to further huge struggles in British Leyland.

This harsh reality which referred was scarcely during the hullabaloo of the

TUC,

marred scene A prompt decision was taken to throw the election reverse- leaving craven TUC officials bemused. Party's Even the Labour official journal Labour stranded Weekly, left Was high and dry by Callaghan's switch. The elaborately orches- trated overture had turned out to be a discordant and confused finale. lobby 'Right of the Against Youth ployment'

TUC

on Secretary and a string shine the 'left'. that he was him self from diverting platform that ution central lobbyers, ment. and whose interests talism, demand the overthrow of capitalism. The only way a police force to the

COOLSIVO

movement can be worKers established is through revolutionary struggle for a planned

SOCASE

Come lyr the dissolution of the police and the standing army, and in their establishment the workers' place militia organised through the trade unions. Rut such a course means a fight not simply against the police and their Labour Cabinet but also against Grieve, the TUC bureaucracy. Page 5 During a short break in the lobbying, on the Wednesday lunch time about 70 or 80 Right to Work marchers brought along a van to empty out tables and tood tor their lunch, on te wide paveltier The police took violent objection to this. First, they tried to prevent the van from unloading at all, though it was not obstructing . Some Right to Work marchers then sat down in a rather Suddenly police horses appeared and ran straight into the sitting injuring a number or them and forcing marchers off the The arrogance and viciousness of the police was no doubt helped along by the compliance or tne bureaucrats 1918

LONDON

dole money

BRIGHTON

ain't funny Evans plays the protestors' tune The mobilisation of a bare old cliches of some 400 unemployment the 1n. 1930s. Out came the usual Work' to ot how spunous estimales marchers and supporters many "extra" jobs would be 'Campaign "created" by the 35-hour Unem- week outside the Left out Tuesday offered TGWU General But of course, as did the 'Anger on the Road' march Moss Evans and the various categories of of other campaigns against youth un- bureaucrats a chance to employment, Evans left out as spokesmen of one vital point: unemploy- ment is rising because TUC collaborating leaders are Boldly -in the knowledge with employers in speeding- committing up production and cutting nothing and manning levels confron As long as this continues tation with the 5% Phase 4 working hours- a cut limit-Evans strode to the if achieved-would even a resol- bring no new jobs at all!

echoed the Dole queues are growing slogan of the because of brazen betraval calling for •a 35 such the sell out as at hour week to cut unemploy- British Leyland's Speke where 3,000 workers plant, Out came all the thread- lost their jobs through refusal officials, of union "right to stewards or even work" campaigners to fight for a policy of plant occu- pation, opening Leyland's and the fight for a

DOOKS

and nationalised motor components industry. Connivance And unemployment will ended

TUC

not until leaders are forced to break from their connivance Healey's public spending cuts and to fight for a crash programme of public works paid at union rates under workers' control. Evans

Page 6. 1953: parties were moving towards centrism and even a "revolutionarv orientation' under mass Dressure trom their membersnip - was rudery shattered by events in the ciass struggle East German workers rose in political revolt against the Stalinist tanks. Stalin's death in the USSR crushed by Soviet orooramme tor poltica revolution. castino aroune tor «ett .sections or tne kremiin bureaucracv And in France a General Strike was brazenly sold out by the supposedly leftward-moving mass Communist Party, while the Pabloites refused to criticise the Stalinists.

radio mednwe. • Was cavant in undernano Tacuond Cannon, International. Under James r.

'Open Letter' SKyISIN ained in the International Secretariat.

ing class from Daily confirmation geoisie and all thạt of this is the Cevoc imperialist decay is to ane wonkels ment, the found in the profound polit- Fourth ical and crises . economic remains that the capitalist and convulsilg paring the human, material the colonial and ex- STaTes. polițical the and regimes, colonlal ana necessary degenerate states workers crisis of proletarian leader- of Europe and Asia. ship the In this period the of both Stalinist struggle for socialism. betrayals Social Democratic from the beginning faced by parties internationally-each huge objective and internal finding new depths of class difficulties. collaboration in the face of movement today confronts movement of growllig workers and peasants post-war history against Im perlalsmn —high line s the vital neces sity foe examined in order to probe the political reasons behind the reconstructon its prolonged disorientation.

Fourth International as the Only from such a basis can a organising of the CollIe world party of the socialist principled ToumOo rcconsuucuon revennon. Founded forty years day DICoClIL ago in 1938 on the insepar- revolu olary able principles of stands alone in prolelal• ian internationalism and the need for defence the political take the independence of the work- struggle (tor The Porsaguese AFM regime East Berlin workers defy Stalinist tanks The perspective outlined from 1950 onwards by Fl leader Michel Pablo - that Stalinist bureaucracy, only to be tound Pablo and his co-thinkers without an' manoeuvres witnin omer bartes orine the US Socialist Workers Party finally issued the famous of 1953 declaring a public faction with Pablo and seeking to defend 'orthodox Trot- The signatories of this letter formed the International Committee. Pabio's followers rem tion. For this reason it. is the bour- its agencies onlv olsKvIsts wao reect on principle political blocs HOve task of or partnerships with other classes in which the revol- International was strength of the _oi pre uLOtay class is subordin- working ated to the interests of the Tesourcu to resolve the peasantry, petty bourgeois- military 'progressive? juntas, or sections of the international parasitic upon Ducaucray workers the But the International was movemenl itself. funda- Because ot the The Trotskyist 'mental importance of this principle we are convinced it is necessary to re-examine wilee those episodes in the post- must be re- of Trotskyism history war in which that position was and abandoned in practice the method on which it way forward be rests was thrown into ques- tion. In particular it is neces- sary analyse and all Wa Trotskyism the break from the method of continuity invo ved in the omentation Marxism, of the movement lowards the Stalinism under the leader- seelng the working class ship of Michel Pablo-both lead in the prior to and after the 1953 split. social

CVUIL•

LO INK

this to an of examination the orientation of Trotsky- towards the ist tendencies Castroite leadership in Cuba petty DOurCCOs nationalist forces in Latin America and Algeria in the 1959, years following and to analysis of present the dentudes lates changes in post-war Stalin- ism-so-called 'Eurocom- munism' the capitalist states, and the naturé of the Vietnamese Communist Party. And such analysis must also involve a search- ing examination of the attitude of the various ten- dencies of the world

HONKVISI

HOVeNeH 'progressive' military juntas as the post-1974 AFM such Can yesterday's blunder- profound internal crisis, er and miracle-man become composed of the most hetero tomorrow's Marxist? opportunist The answer is in some The .rival instances yes Committee" Can this be done without the harsh lessons of Healy, examining British Workers oase woo ∞екн o Party the false positions or ine past without a struggle to change and mixture Trotskyist "orthodoxy" essence of svas MET XARmme from The answer must be 'no' Tha the blunderer struggle, So how can adaptation

OF HS TOROWER

•e Torree make such a break? ceois nationalst This is the Middle East and Africa. problem. con- fronting those TOrCES nationally who see the need to Tee tor ThE fight an international basis Fourth

OCRFI)

and the rosaluu method of Trotskyism leader Pierre Lambert. combine: . oUT TINe themselves up against three main groupings (and a number fight for the Trotskyist smauel ONes Bach lay lns with to represent the contin. claim gramme uity of the Fourth Internation.

liquidation social democratic number of countries. The largest of these group the 'United' Sacretariat, ings Looked

(USFI)

remains wracked by a these none regime in Portugal and pro- gressive' bonapartist regimes as that of Gaddafi's

SUCE

in Libya. Above all we must estab- lish the basis to positively 're-affirm both and in current programme the practice of each section as well as by drawing the lessons of the past, the basic starting point of revolution- Marxism: that the ary proletariat, the propertyless class, exploited by the bour- geoisie as the living instru- of capitalist produc MeNL tion and the source of value, is the only consistent- class revolutionary society. OCI leader Lambert 4. Yet in capitalist or colonial countries where peasants and small farmers represent a sizeable section of the population-even its cover •T SOeCIOUs majority-it is necessary for the workers to be equipped with a programme around struggles, which alliance can Mensheviks made with those oppressed adopted by all sections of small property-holders GLanSES against the bourgeoisie and defeated in practice. the big landowners. Such basing itself on phe theoret- programme, em bodied 5. the ical gains Trotsky's theory of perman- mobilise the working itself, the key is likewise a ent revolution, must contain a system of programme transitional demands which can form a demands com bination with bridge between where appropriate democrațic demands, spontancou: capable of mobilising the union struggle carried on by the working class, broadest layers of mass sup- necessary conscious struggle in struggle against for the socialist revolution feudal relations, national Bonapartist and the dictatorship of the oppression, or fascist dictatorship and lead- proletariat. ing over to the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism.

such a programme to form Such a programme is the the basis of the actions of indispensible basis for com- working T.S Ci mon struggie, and the bridge material way between the democratic and Marxists must today under- the socialist revolution, take the task ensuring that the reaction- What Lenin Done?: ary separation these SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 13 September, 1978

RECONS

THE F

INTERNA

,and is their practical claim either in their theoretical Tecor• or geneous forces drawn together • positions, to represent the con- tinuity of Trotskyism basis the last 25 years since the 1953 Nor would anything improved by simply fusing these "International three inadequate groupings led Gerr

LOCBLUBT.

the The very history of the post arouna Revolutionary war Fourth International sufficient to prove that neither , Its policies are a bizarre wooden, formal, dl-oreoareo ano mastv solis. nor opportunist "'reunifications" leftism, propagandist abstention themselves resolve day-to-day casi political probiems and gross opportunist The reconstruction of the the bour Fourth

COULTY

International. as Tne organising centre of the world TorcoS InTne socialist revolution 01 salt And the Organising Commit realures not the formiaron or dec laratibly diplomatic verbal heconsruction International all agreeable headed by French CI parties. not a mutual hiding of an opportunist approach to the requires return demands of the examin. Tne oro ramme TN8 Transitional Pro principles and the method on which Fourth International Torouel Golne forces into founded 40 year Wa in a • in Wnat way tose orincioie.

have been ree importane oi challenged themselves, post-war International, ghoubults demon rae SLL leader Heu Disagreements between the remaining parties of the Internat SLL and the French OCI - continued unresolved. Opposed assessm the French General Strike of 1968 and of the Middle East War of an 'international' which never attempted to achieve democratic cent Finally, in 1971, on the pretext of criticism OCl's roli and the Transitional I arouments on oniosoony the OCI. The OCI went on to form the OCRFI.

advocated by the combat spon-

C. .TC

taneity, to divert the work- and now class ing from this trade and spontaneous, is ondesed

WHOSI

SUNItL COil under the wing of the bour.

bring geoisie 41:0 under the wing of revolu- Democracy struggle to tionary class all worship of the spontaneity of the working class transitional noven eIl belittling of the role of the the daily 'conscious element', of the Democracy, role of Social trade quite independently means, of whether he who belittles and the that role desires it or not, a strengthening of the influ- ence of bourgeois ideology upon the workers". The fight in practice for this reason, also,, therefore, any • abstention from this fight for leader- ship the class the within working which class movement is a retreat in from . the task of Marxists described by It today. is of a maltel Is To Be principle therefore for to undertake Trotskyists

reaffirming the correctness today's principles struggles. And above all it demands a rigorous scrutiny of the past and present practical work of those lay claim to be that parties ensure parties, …rotskyist reconstructed that round International a operate piratic democratic basis centralism. The Workers Socialsi which is not a part of League any ot these Three man crous ings, has since its foundation, argued for such a consistently perspective. We have pointed out that moves to reconstruct the while must Internationa almost inevitably begin with on the roots of the discussion divisions crisis •resent and within the wore rOTSKVIS movement", that its objective must be to lay a principled basis ot programmatic and method ological agreement on which a fighting International can built, capable of giving leader- ship to today's struggles of the international proletariat.

•na committee - ine britist Its of the history of the Fl, of 967 were scarcely discussed in alism. in events in Bolivia, and under rogramme, the SLL split from and systematic work, propagandising and for the demands agitating of the transitional within the labour movement and the the mass ot a whole. working. class as fight Without taking Tine the into this arena, programme becomes simply words. 6. In the ideological arm- ing of the working class and the intervention of Marxists into the labour movement is enshrined also the need for parties and a reconstructed Laternational constructed Bolshevik pattern, on the political and principle pastonal of *arent in arriving at with = ov al mem- sed discipline SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 13 September, 1978

STRUCT

OURTH

TIONAL!

But this objective is casually brushed aside by the leaders or the USFI, IC and OCRFI. see would

SOU TO

continuation Tine oresent confusion than any attempt to cut through the tissue of lies, and half evasions WUls which they have attempted conceal the history of the move- twent The WSL has been repeated- to attacked for is dosannion fight for an understanding of issues underlying political splits the Thotskost movement in post-war Tine 1953 and 1963. But our dosition is •ased no on academic interest in 'history sake. the the contrary. problems political Central those splits-the problem understanding the contradicton most-war role of Stalinism and the difficulty ot orientating towards petty bourgeois nation- alist forces in colonial liberation struggles-live on as probiems in carrying out the decisions of the majority. The fight for this internal high regime point the fight against the bourgeois tendencies polly to individualism, propagan- dism, opportunism and the which beset Careersu bankrupt ranks and leading echelons the Stalinist and centrist move- ments. At the same time it challenges syndicalist brought. positions into the movement by trade union comrades bringing the And by of the practice movement into open disgussion enabling the theoretically established perspectives and daily developing practice of the party to be hrought into sharo contlict.

democratic centralism plays a crucial role Ene onl against schematism and dog- together with all malisin, of forms Iculcal facina todav's working class.

The abject confusion of the

USFI

"Euro- leadership on (which they communism regard as a 'progressive' phen- reflecting in the boring omenon feeling working Cratic acci ano ne crovesno or luE International Committee leader- ship to petty alists in the Middle East, amply demonstrate țhal these "historical" questions are in fact questions about today. We remain convinced that shortcut there no • UB International. It is not possible piece together the simply existing splintered fragments of the post-war Trotskyist move.

ment. necessary to reaffirm both in theory and in practic the principles on the Which Fourth International was founded. practical and theoretical agreement the on listed below as a nine points basis for the principlec struction of the Fourth Inter- national. Trotsky the Marxist method from of dialectical materialism.

Similarly inter- level national democratic centralism must be upheld as the essential organisation- principle the structed Hourth Internation.

The Workers Socialist League will not be a party of the repetition ally "moratoria unspoken and that •'non-aggression pacts characterised the nave organisational opportunist within the IS, relationships the

USFI,

the ll ana lne

OCRFI.

We fundamentally concept of opposed to the "International" in which the discipline is so loose and program matic agree- that public ment weak warfare can place • TaKe between its factions around •ditterent countries the world. We insist on the Page 7 1963: Despite the Hungarian events of 1956, the SWP leadership began to move closer to the Pablo- Kremlin bureaucracy was being pressured into self-reform, and increasingly that the ite view accepted the Pabloite emphasis on petty-bourgeois-led colonial liberation struggles in place of the fight to train a vanguard party in the proletariat and in the advanced capitalist countries.

The high point of this emerged in the wake of the 1959 Cuban revolution. Castro, under com bined military threat and economic blockade from US imperialism, turned towards the Kremlin for support. Under Soviet military protection, and in an increasingly close relationship with the Cuban Stalinist party, Castro pressed ahead with nationalisations and the replacement of the old bourgeois state apparatus with the apparatus of a deformed workers state.

'natural Marxist', seeing the Cuban rel ne sir loinee the radiotes in regaroine vastro as d 'model' for future revalutions in the colonial countries, and seeking to 'fuse' th olution as the Trotskyist movement with Castroite forces the British Socialist Labour League (who wrongly insisted that Cuba remained a its political sympathy capitalist state, hut defended it acainst imperialist attack) the SWP broke for the International Committee and declared in favour of a 'reunification' with the International on a Pabloite programme and without prior discussion on the split This took place secretarial of 1953. The result was the present 'United Secretariat.

of working class Only fullest internal discussion political independence Tine of the the working class from the when such a change is made and examination cán the fight for the trans- sections, practice Stalinist bureaucracy in the struggle for state power. It combined with a strict ad- itional on an programme herence by sections to this, along internationa scale take or all of the real meaning and life at the the line of the majority.

analysis colmter- revolutionary world strategy • centre OI Reconstruc the post- tion of the Fourth Inter- of Stalinism In 7. The Trotskyist Fourth period which most national war International traces its inde- the Pabloite 9. Should agreement be clearly refutes pendent and its origins notion of a 'left centrist' reached on these general for existence from reason evolution of Stalinism in the political principles, the way the pronouncement by European buffer would be opened for Eastern up Left Trotsky and the zone or in Asia, and which steps to organisationally re- Opposition in 1933 that the construct the Fourth Inter- shows most clearly the reac- Comintern, totally domin- 'Euro- national tionary nature ated by the Stalinist bureau- communist' criticism of the WSL is flexible in for the dead cracy, regimes in Eastern Europe regard to the organisational wa. purposes of revolution and a is this position also that aspects discussion counter-revolu- thoroughly confirms the need for the towards this reconstruction.

within the tionary force building of Trotskyist We insist only thesi international parties for Workers must involve parity arrange- political movement. At the same Cuba Vietnam, acceptable tion in all menEs time Stalinism was seen as and that both the China and Yugoslavia parties, fundamentally unstable

USSR

history of the movement as the and wel Bonapartist form of rule Eastern Europe whole ana unt • presen balancing between the nat- practice of each part of i for the necessary estabided in rty elations ionalised world Trotskyist movement be to

MUSI

the October to re-examine these issues examination. revolution and the internat- the bearing pOs wa. pressures of imperial- ional role of Stalinism in order established a ism. Trotsky to clarify and correct the of clear cleona posteren uncon- positions that have wrong defence the For this been adopted Soviet Union as a workers' purpose the USFI, IC and imperialism, state agains

ÖCREI

leadership and fight coupled (TO sections-for all their false prepare political revolution positions-cannot for the conscious overthrow regarded in advance of the bureaucracy ana res- placed themselves having of soviet power. toration outside the world Trotsky- ist movement. This analysis still has to be defended both against 8. It is impossible to that have tendencies the Fourth reconstruct attempted to see the Stalin- International without a con- ist bureaucracy as a perma- break from the nent and progressive force

SCIONS

of method impressionism workers' movement in ine (pre-war centrists, and Pablo and empiricism taking up a for the, dialectical struggle in the post-war period) or as method as fought in Defence of permanent, reactionary Trotsky in force-a new ruling class in the Soviet Union (Schacht- Marxism. Such break break from manites and state capitalists also a macalls attempts to substitute petty loady). In defending the • Dolled propagalua for groupings serious Trotskyist perspective, the USFI leader Mandel Marxist cadres developed in important starting

NOSI

of the organisations point is the question of the

Speaking out about Page" British Soldiers Speak Out On Ireland has been produced by ex-British soldiers who opposed are the British war in Ireland. military It highlights the historic liberation struggle in Ireland and elsewhere while show- Minister Pitt: ung 'the repressive nature of "The the British rom British the country, trom statements unte involved in that soldiers rendered repression. provide The first few pages give a ot competent account of the role of the British army in Ireland (1169.1922) and of which the Irish people's continuing them troops that resistance unse conquests. They show the increas- brutal attempts by This Britain to crush this resis.

Lance. weakness of this • coccer section is that a lack of class analysis means that there is the English where why it 110 explanaton of that partition Luddites: was was "For accepted by one section of the Irish population. districts. Weakness military ticular, Another weakness is that terror there is no similar account arrests, of the from the 1920s onwards. giving an account history of parison." wars, fought by • Ene Britain against the Irish, the pamphlet shows how repres- sion in Ireland was linked to class, which the maintenance the ruled

OVI

army as a force of the ruling struggles class. linked It shows how the raising Ireland. of the first regular army (in seventeenth century) was coupled by the, ruling "with suppression Cass the Irish and defence of the the protestant religion". by used own forces. Cromwell's campaign the Irish booklet Tenes given but the pamphlet also Ireland' points out that a number of to give regiments, influenced by the Levellers, refused to fight in Ireland. Pamphlet blood on Republicans A quote is given from a pamphlet of the time: fanatics. 'Fellow soldiers. Oh! the ocean of blood that we are was fake 1918 how those gunty OI! deadly sins of ours do tor- trying ment our consciences! What fighting

TOT

have we to do in Ireland, to pendence. fight and murder people and which have done us no harm? We have army Unionist waded too far in that painted already of favourable innocent and Christian Catholics. blood.' Despite these orotest. the war continued with terrible. suttering the Using Irish people, but Ireland was soldiers never fully pacified. There risings pamphlet 1798, 1802, 1848 and 1867 but as Engels pointed out, for example, these were futile against england naval

WITH

Vivid fleets, her army, her police and spy system. out by these Training ground law and order": "In The pamphlet shows the with my importance of Ireland as a battalion training repres- ground in sion for the armyne barracks. During late eighteenth century the army brutality army was given its first internal mobile patrol Britain, against the bomb working class, up patrol lifted solute Britain's longest- running war they though might have barracks in and near working class towns.

been the thrower. Tory Prime was Walcul company TV when he was circumstances dragged into the camp. He was shown to all the others coupled with general state of affairs, in the TV room. He was then taken into advisable barracks other the passageway and the kingdom. repeatedly hit spirit had appeared in some stomach and balls with rifle of the manufacturing towns bulls. Inen the rest soldiers joined in with their made necessary be kept near fists and boots. He then had his fingers broken by a corporal who Luddites jumped on them while two others held his arms out. All new use of troops this happened within about against the working class ten minutes of him by E.P. dragged in. Thompson in The Making of Emphasis is placed in the Working Class pamphlet the lies . on mentions the promises which draw the young unemployed into the weeks whole ally. were virtually under martial law. And one 'Death of a soldier' in par- Containe established a reign republican with arbitrary in the Long Kesh concen- searches, brutal tration camp questionings and threats, for fictional account-factually which we must turn to Irish of com- search use ot the army against the British working far from 1S today's inseperably with the struggle in Propaganda techniques purported troops some violent dreamt up in Loyalists those inde- publications an official • IS the quite typical-entitled 'Death of a Soldier' which sketches the life of a British Role in Aden from his origins the Glasgow slums to statements from the streets on involved in repres- Belfast. sion around the world, the Lloyd Hayes, black, and shows link a former soldier, gives attitude of between the army's role in.

account of the Aden the army to its black troops.

Malaya with that in Ireland.

descriptions "We always were dIC given of the violence meted show, on camp open days "guardians of and when civilian military personnel 1971 I was posted Bisited. " African Black countries unit, the first Royal Green- He describes the racial jackets, tok Belfast Mulhouse prejudice within the army: "The

NCO

always seemed biased against us, we My first encounter with was when a were aways more severely .came under punished than the others."

"Black soldiers attack, and the refused man to go out on patrols because who we were Delng usea lor night foot patrols while the the whites would do the cushy vehicle patrols." He on to draw goes parallel between the of oppression blacks and that of the Irish. His article was finishes: the "We must no longer be part of a murdering army of Britain that itself has brutal- Or LIC ised our race and plundered Africa and the West Indies.

"One day British the be used going to against us in Britain when racism, we acclare war on unemployment and police harrassment. So brothers • being and sisters don't help them win that war." and The pamphlet touches on desertions and sucides by British soldiers serving Ireland-but it would have been usetul to give some figures of these concrete cases. prisoner Imaginative of pictures, cartoons poems and fill •II pamphlet full of useful information for those fight- ing the removal of

TOT

imperialist troops from Ireland. his Although the authors' sympathies scream from the pages of this pamphlet, its weakness is the lack of even a brief statement of policy on the Irish struggle. This is despite the fact that Editor Alistair Renwick has a long history in the campaign to bring the truth and about the role of British from troops out into the open and the struggle for the of those removal troops from Irish soil. Alongside clear gramme solidarity by British socialists this pamphlet can to used help end Britain's first and longest colonial running Wal. SOCIALIST PRESS. Weinesday 13 Septerber. 19-8 Keith White and Martin Folan review the pamphlet British Soldiers Speak Out on Ireland join the

ARMY

Tory spokesman Whitelaw congratulates imperialist troops INFORMATION ON IRELAND No. 1 Edited by Alistair Renwick Written and produced by British ex-soldiers Available from Information on Ireland, 1 North End Road, London W.14. Price 30p plus p&p

UNITED TROOPS OUT MOVEMENT

Demonstration against British imperialism in Ireland Saturday 7 October at 1 p.m.

Barnsley (constituency of Roy Mason)

Taking a swing a SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 13 September, 1978 for unions to go on general release.

The Leicester Square ship in the Teamsters holds preview of

F.I.S.T.

important object lessons for already attracted consider- every thinking worker. able publicity. But for the makers of The of this F.I.S.T. this is all a closed promoters relatively lavish Hollywood book. production are clearly It may be hard to believe hoping for a big box-office that a film on this subject matter could leave out the SUCCeSs. working class-but F.I.S.T.

Socialist Press readers will welcome a film which manages just that. seriously with American trade unionism The union (according to and the of the

'COUDLION

this film) was built by the union bureaucracy. actions and manipulations However, they will not of (implausible) individual find this in F.I.S.T. figures. The film is loosely based Of course there are the history of James 'workers' in the film. Hoffa, President of the giant just that they don't seem to Teamsters' Union, who was think, speak show the jailed for criminal trace of indepen- slightest activities (later to be freed dence. by another criminal-Presi- Grunts dent Nixon-kidnapped by unknown As substitutes for these and to disappear without trace).

attributes they grunt, listen to Kovak and respond with 'Rocky' star a chant of F.I.S.T.! F.I.S.T.!

Johnny Kovak

F.I.S.T.!

to his demagogy. (played Hollywood has depicted by 'Rocky' star Sylvester Stallone) represents Hoffa.

more perception and class The Teamsters Union consciousness

F.I.S.T.

(Federa- portrayals of the 8th becomes Cavalry in Westerns. tion of Interstate Truckers).

The violence, intimida- The audience taken tion and scab thuggery of across three decades, from the employers against trade the fight to built F.I.S.T. in the 1930s the 1930s to the point of unionism Kovak's downfall. shown up film (in by Lne The battle to build the fact the plot of strike scenes Teamsters, forty years ago, seems completely

SUDO O-

provided an unforgettable inated to the need for liber- al helpings of violence oblig- page of struggle the history of the US working box-office atory

TO IN

class movement. ratings). But everything else And the development of is pure fantasy. a thoroughly corrupt leader- 'F.I.S.T.! rests on a mon- at the fight MARK HYDE reviews the film F.I.S.T., starring Sylvester Stallone, soon strous and slanderous decep- tion-that the Teamsters' Union was built not by the workers but by the Mafia. Kovak is portrayed as in- capable winning the battle to organise the union (despite the apparent readi- ness of strikers to organise workers' guards ocTence against scabs and cops) without enlisting the assis- tance of mobsters. It is the hoods' Molotov cocktails that win the day as the workers take a back- seat. From then on the plot is simple, and tediously pre- dictable. Kovak (despite the bill board claim that 'He loved ..) can't get the nis men. Mafia leader Milano off his back. The union uses tradition- al Mafia methods against workers and becomes a field of operations for organised crime. At last we reach modern times with Rod Steiger as a crusading and fair-minded bourgeois Senator rooting out the gruesome history of corruption. Still the dumb workers tollow Kovak to his violent end. The message is simple- the union could not be built without corruption. The rise of the bureaucracy was inseparable from it. In fact, as Socialist Press has shown in features on the period in the question, Teamsters Union was built on a powerful mobilisation and radicalisation of the American working class. Further, central to this development was not the Mafia, but the Trotskyists.

Members of the (then- revolutionary) Socialist Party Workers such Vincent R. Dunne and Farrell Dobbs stood at the head of the movement. It is a well documented history but one which Hollywood can never tell- for a milestone not simply in trade unionism, but in the experience of the struggle for Marxism. in the American working class.

Perhaps the most ironic line the film comes, when, during the strike, a union leader warns the strikers against listening to 'Bolsheviks'. Bolsheviks Kovak asks his sidekick 'Have you seen any Bolsheviks?' The real story would have heen the Bolsheviks asking Have you seen any Kovaks?' In conclusion, those who cannot believe just how bloated and corrupt the union bureaucracy is may learn something from this film. But anyone who wants to know why that bureau- cracy. grew up, and the working class struggle behind che Teamsters should give F.I.S.T.' a miss.

Jimmy Hoffa in 1946 Page 9 Kovack (Stallone) marching with Truckers Writings on

WSL

the Fourth International Fourth International: Problems and Tasks: The first WSL document attempting to draw an objective balance sheet of the post-war history of the Trotskyist Inter- national, and analyse the roots of it current crisis. Adopted by the Founding.

Conference of the WSL, in late 1975.

Published as three supplements to Soc- ialist Press. Price 15p plus 10p p&p.

Aspects of the History of the FI: Based on a lecture by John Lister to the WSL 1977 Summer School, this article examine in more attempis to detail the departure from the Marxist method carried out by Michel Pablo the majority of the International and Secretariat of the Fl in the period following the Yugoslavian break" with Stalin in 1948. The article shows the methodological connection between the positions which led to the 1953 split in the International, and those which opened the door opportunist tor the 'reunification' of 1963 Published Trotskyism Today No 2, in march 1978. Price 50p plus 15p p&p.

The Poisoned Well: The document drafted by the Workers Socialist League for submission to the of the USFI pre-conterence discussion XIth World Congress exposing the political bankruptcy and opportunism of both of the previous main factions within the USFI. Pointing out that the common factor of each of the self-styled 'Fourth Internationals' is their departure from the method and principles on which the FI was founded, this article calls for serious steps towards the reconstruction of the International. Published in Trotskyism Today No 3, July 1978. Price 60p plus 15p p&p. All available from the WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5

Page 10

INDUSTRIAL

Mikardo grilled on Bethnal Green Local MP lan Mikardo was the 'star' speaker at a meeting called on Thursday Save September the Bethnal Green Hospital Campaign.

HUTU

But his attempt to resent himself as hero the people battling to save the hospital was a sorry spectacie He had, he said, cone oVer the strategic plan with a tooth- that the come one covered closure decision

WES

based on extremely faulty statistics.

He himself had been refused Area Health a neariner Authority, nad nine meetings with Minister Roland Moyle in the past ten monin. ano rao sack ot coresoon- dence and notes of telegrams Mikardo sent on the matter. ment. Chairman John Snooks made Criticism repeated appeals to speakers to keep politics out of and to anyone ter me what TESTrICT nernselves betana more ere as no sid. Green, but in vain. But the contribution which shortage of flustered CritiCISm TroM the AU-STrong MosT Milkareo ano tuat ence of hintire for thie which brought much the responsibility strongest applause came from a WSL member. cuts taus on me Labour governa

WSL

The Workers Socialist League is a Trotskyist organ- isation which fights to build a revolutionary leadership that can politically prepare and mobilise the working class for the taking of state power and the construction of a socialist society. The fight of the Workers Socialist League in Britain is a part of the struggle for the reconstruction of the Fourth the World Party of Socialist Revolution, International, 1938 under the leadership of Leon Trotsky.

founded in The basis of this fight is the theory and practice of the Transitional Programme of the Fourth International.

The Workers Socialist League puts forward a programme to defend the interests of the working class today against the attacks of capitalism in crisis. The aim of the programme is the independent political mobilisa: towards the tion of the working class overthrow of capitalism and its state machine in the capitalist countries.

In the workers states whioh must be defended against imperialism the task is the political revolution to over- throw the parasitic bureaucracies which repress the work- ing class and endanger the gains that have been made.

The fight for socialism is impossible without the fight at every step the misleaders of the working expose class: the Labour and trade union leaders (both 'right' and the Communist Party Stalinists (both 'Eurocom- "left'), munist 'pro-Moscow'), the bourgeois and petty nationalists derail anti-imperialist struggles in the who underdeveloped countries and those groupings which pay lip service to Trotskyism whilst rejecting its basic methods and programme. Only through such a struggle can the working class find a capitalist crisis-falling living road ot the standards, unemployment, denial of basic rights, colonial repression as in Ireland, and the threats of fascism and war. For more details of the policies, programme and work of the Workers Socialist League, fill in the form below.

Please send me more information about the Workers Socialist League. Name. Address. Send to: WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR

NEWS

She challenged _him with being completely disingenuous in oretenome tat te soures or Bethnal Green made it an excep- tion other 100-plus hospitals which face the axe in London. She his also challenged pretence that he did not know what policies were necessary to win the campaign. She challenged him to deny that the EGA ciosure nad oniy because surrounding hospitals had been Wiard, Report for and ' DoIsed •StriKe because the Emergency Bed defying Service were manage refer ment Contac patients there. Didn't all this dangerously threaten the trade union bureau- CraTs Stratedy ail- out direct confrontation on the cuts? she demanded. She called on him to use his influence to directly encourage such action Bethnat Green the Joint shor ane nele Stewards Committee. The action already being taken by occupation physically prevent the change of surgical to geriatric actually assisting the beds was

READ IT

YET?

'Communists' Against Revol- the iny of ution, containing "The Theory Structural Assimilation" Tim Wohlforth is the book or that Mandel and Healy would not discuss. get your copy Make Juld you -gvailable at £1.75 plus 20p p&p from:

WSL

31, Dart. mouth •Park Hill. London

NW5 1HR

Public meetings

OXFORD

WORKERS SOCIALIST

LEAGUE

Public Meeting "British Leyland and the Crisis in the Motor Industry" Friday 15 September 8.00 p.m. at East Oxford Community Centre Princes St.

PECTNSTRUCT THESE

DANGER

HOSPITAL

CUTS

KILL

cuts, she said, and widespread strike action would be necessary to restore the services. Why, Mikardo • really had votee ever

CUT

Parliament, as he claimed, Char nobody heard about it, she continued Finally she challenged him conduct that campaign such a way that it hit the head- lines and to include fight to kick out Callaghan and Healey who are responsible Ine Cuts Mikardo's attempt to fob off politically motiv- this attack as ated' was shouted down and he was forced to agree that indus- trial action had been the key to the Elizabeth Garrett Andersor Hocoital Unfortunately not that much support from surrounding hospitals had been forthcoming at Bethnal Green, he said.

And politician, and convenient Tne social contract, he could not of course interfere in the affairs of lution Co

LEEDS

WSL Social Work Group Public meeting "Regrading" Thursday 14 September at 7.30 p.m. Leeds Trades Club Saville Mount Off Chapeltown Rd. 512

COW

VIRUSES

MERS

] WORKERS

SHRIST LEAR

WIST LEACH

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 13 September, 1978 WE

KEEP

NEED

Bethnal

OUR

Green

HOSPITA

Hospital

OPEN

unions, he lamented could do was call attention to Myrna Shore, the danger towards s jobs and the one of the more multant mem oers of une importance Ine Mion support campaign agreed whole- Work Campaign the and like with what the

WSL

from the Militant heartedly speaker plea speaker had said and went on to croue make

TOT

demand that the local health 'socialism' and also the Trades unions Fight in NUPE council таке very muck more decisive action. A local councillor, himself a Another WSL speaker called

NUPE

member, called for for London-wide fight in NUPE to withdraw the callet service • stewaros soonsorshi• Movie also took up Dan Jones, secre David Ennals right hand man in and Bethna the health cuts tary Stepney The audience which included Trades Council for Green failure 'organise sufficient many local hospital workers and to picketing and call campaign supporters was tully aware of the need for such • necessary action The bankrupt character concrete against bolicier The the Socialist Workers Party and wishes of the bureaucracy and particularly for all their any meaningful policies was strike actIon very clear. The delegate conference week They had considerable forces called for next by the at the meeting including Joint Shoo Stewards Committe: Widgery, a local GP and chair- must ensure that local and national leaders forced to are the Camwalcu tee. prepare to tnis ano to carry st All he or their other speakers out. 20p The Way Forward for Youth pamphlet explaining the Youth League policies of the Socialist Avanate Trom bartmouri Park Hill, London NW5 1HR. Price 20p plus 10p p&p.

SOCIALIST

*

PRESS

5 issues . £1.10 10 issues . £2.20 25 issues . £5.50 {10.00 50. issues I would like to receive. iasues. I enclose the sum off... Name Address Send to: Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR Subscribe!-

Lively meeting SANDERSONS VICTORY ONLY SOCIALIST PRESS. Wednesdar : ; Segrember. 19°5 on St Mary's fight John Sturock, Report. The building of London- action in the wide strike hospitals and the occupa- tion of St. Marys Hospital, Harrow Road were two of the policies put forward at the

WSL

meeting on the fight to keep the of every health job and the fight hospital open. for more NHS facilities in the Though area. • t was not a larce a lively discussion He outlined meeting, the platform speakers, followed already made articularly orinaine campaign round ine nospital.

experience the struggle The fight to

EGA,

Bethnal Green and the workers already Hounsiow Colin Kenny from the of a Joint Shop Shop Stewards District Joint Committee a couple of months lin Committee personat capacity) outlined the plans of Area Health Authority to in the hospital on with its run down ine Hospital where a derence campaion is lo closure in 1986. be set up. The new hospital is promised, JSSC was but clearly, with the continuing put cutacks brooose• ov ThIS ane The Thort any subsequent government, no against closure and the cuts.

Ted promise of a future hospital can Eames, member be taken as good bla. The l The AHA plan; issued on the Nursery Campaign drew out the £2½ milton sal lanne planned lessons of their struggle against milton The nexT closure which nas incueco osx few years. called for prolonged struggle tor support- nave consultation period on the plan ing strike action. until the end of November.

Other This so-called consultation is the need for the opening of the , nothing but a phoney attempt books ot the draw in workers inquiry into the health and tenants into agreement with needs of the area the ciosure westminster Colin stressed that has already agreed to organise this. the WSL starts from the defence •robesas tor sat Tinancinero Post Office engineers have ductivity deals (in other words, invited by thair union been jobs) told selling take part in the That Thev must seek a procud• buria carvice or their calm to tivity agreement in the context 35 hour wook, at a Special this claim Birmingham way oniv Saturday. (September 16).

possible to achieve shorter hours the Post Office without coming into direct con.

accepted a Engineering Union Tuct with Governmen concy out deal on Ine enolneers The union claim for hour week, quated the despite fact that any ••stacie to ue clamu. proposed settlement Was supposed to go to a conference.

long Now with the action The Special called ort those who sabotaged a winnable claim can expect to out this threw best boration but failed to escalate nava colators force through as fait industrial action. accomplis. The combination of over- Conference in overtime ban, work to rule and me bans ano work' to rules which, though inadequate had selective stoppages were insisted enormous head of built up an on by the membership. pressure. had been the result of Post Office againsa the engin the frustration over seven years of claiming working shorter Which ted to comolere stocoddes In some dreds was ordereo g The leaders of the POEU at Post Office National Board and a Special Conference in January the Post Office which are participation bodies

UNION DUES

Nearly a year and a half after being sacked for organ- ising a trade union, the Sandersons Forklift strikers their have yet to win demands for reinstatement and union recognition. The question everyone must be asking is. why is it, atter al this time, they are still denied the most elementary democratic And why is it that a union.

Colin Kenny the begin organise opoun witn Ine settic A mass meeting is planned 12 September All labour movement bodies should send large call for an all-London delegations to the Jay forward to carry of Action called on 7th STrIKe October by the Garners leading Strike Committee. A massive turnout would give a real boost to chances of winning this seven-month strike for reinstatement and and union recognition, in which the country's biggest union contributions stressed consciously held been from its • back victory by

ANA

own officials. strikers are Garners against an unholy fact up des counci of Garners boss Margolis, the police and top

POEU SELL-OUT

containing union members This 'experiment' in their members trial democracy' •roouces recording opposition if any.

because it was Weary 8 Tont muse up at the Conference in Birmin Which Was Saturday hạm this to reject the •ea. Which des a snorter week (but not 35 hours) two deal and the introduction stage also leaders 12 month rule as an of new which will technolOgy massacre engineers' jobs.

The American equivalent of Insisted on System (which the Post Office is in an advanced stage Conference of developing in Britain) cut th blatant colla. Western Electric from 39,000 in 1970 to 19,000 in 1976. It was not until the Annual estimated it nas •robolt an 75% cutback labour faultfinding, maintenance, repair and installation. There will be opposition at taken have successtul political ; for the sell out, and a reasons building perspective 01 revolutionary inside Boares-all leadersnip the POEU.

WELL YOUVE GOT TO HAND IT TO HIM,

OLD JIM CERTAINLY PUT ONE OVER ON THE TORIES.!

AT THE TOP...

AND IT GIVES US ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD

TO PREPARE. J

...AS LONG AS THESE BLOODY

LEFTIES DONT TRY TO REWRITE

BLOCKED BY OFFICIALS

hilt Labour like the TGWU with its enor- forcing through year mous membership and resource.

has proved incapable of crushing public spending. from this tin pot resistance employer? This Determination the right of people The reality that the strikers have to content witt AUCY a OU the increasing deter- not only Plant, are manaton or smanel expel those to prevent the growth of union membership but also Then union leadership backing to the GARNERS: challenge l betrayals on Oct. 7 Whipped into TGWU bureaucrats. Margolis already stands violent financial at the brink oI WILl ruin, as strengthened picket lines have trade police, particularly vicious.

additional restaurants. Dele- Meanwhile, UCATT and gations from secret the GLATC liaison commit- tee been among the save -including new supporters. Party Cavanagh The intensified picketing renewed has brought continue squabbles among the scabs lines to six strong. who last week held a 1 a.m.

The picket must challenge crisis with scab meeting threatening to state attack managers resign over a proposed new betrayal. Speakers on service charge. along crats, from A leaflet from the Central London branches of the union TUC shows the wrong Meanwhile Ron way to fight. This 'applauded" the critical speeches of TUC leader in favour of the 35 hour weel ing and holding said that support Garners strike Basnett's shorter working weel motion Was vital the Sanderson's strike. Without both realising Come that TUC leaders- prociaiming these bureaucrats Basnett foremost among them- October! Join have no intention of permitting demanding struggles on the 35 hour any

*TGWU

week or any other gains for the working class, the sell out will support undoubtedly be pushed policy! *Regular The central delegations branches-which point to the Garners restaurants. massive loss of 80,000 engineers jobs Technology -must take up a fight within the union around the policy of work Regional levy. sharing on full pay-fighting tol the retention of all jobs, with the work shared picketing! membership without any loss of Region 1 collaboration! day

THE WAY HE PULLED THE ELECTION RUG

FROM UNDER THATCHER, LEAVING HER WITH

WE'LL HAVE TO JUMP ON ANYTHING LIKE THAT!

AND WE'LL HAVE TO HOLD THE LINE ON PAY!

AND TERRY WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH THAT

[BLOODY SHOWER OF TOOL MAKERS... IN

FACT,LADS, THINKING ABOUT IT...

government So, Grunwicks, just as at after where every shade of year union including the most of wage controls, and cuts in ouroducial "eTt nIke Artnur scargill, anc the TGWU's Ron Todd-now from being sole to defend far meant responsible for the sanderson! strike-proved incapable. smashing a similar employer, the the union leaders like the lessons are bledt Carburettors and when chios are cowr defend yoursel the GWU at Leyland's Cowiey vou cannot actually against the bosses unless you are who stand out the same time prepared Condoration challenge all those who defend they prepare to impose Phase 4.

them. Wiard, Report. à frenzy, scabs have continued their attacks on pickets, management at Whit- combe Street, protected by the with agreement of the TGWU Region 1 Committee

PHOTO:

Communist members Peter and Staden (Regional Secretary)-police to restrict picket October mass Todd this This strike stil

TGWU

and This strike can still ever. won. the Day of The responsibility for it not Action will include Regional yet being victorious must be and National TGWU bureau- placed at the door o souarely with speakers the TGWU national, regional and local leadership. the Grunwick. Strike Committee, the Sandersons headershio must built in the fight to force the Strike Committee and the bureaucracy implement the Garners Strike Committee.

following policies Organise mass pickets with Challenge regular union delegations!

essential services, Todd,

CUT

ott black all suppliers! who as Region 1 Secretary Implement a regional TGWU played such a role in isolat- financial levy on members to back the support the strike! is now,

WORKERS SOCIALIST

National Organiser, the man charge of holding back

LEAGUE

HULL

and challenge 7th Public Meeting with us in Sandersons and Garners the fight for Region 1 must Strike Committee unionisation daily

TGWU

Friday 22 September picket all to 7.30 p.m. Blackboy Hotel *Black Garners suppliers!

High Street *£36 per week strike pay Speaker from Garners financed if necessary by a Strike Committee and *No deals with the police Sandersons Strike Condemn Committee (invited)

OH YES-THAT'S THE WAY

SHOOTS DOWN THAT

TO DEAL WITH THE TORIES

ELECTION BOOM!

IT WASN'T THATCHER THAT GOT

LUMBERED-/T WAS US!

backing Smith

PRESS

The sanctions busting national of the Rhodesian oil shown by Shell and embargo by BP aided and abetted by French were various Labour minis- ters is the reality behind the black the notably Anglo-American michils, must also aid and abett the proposals on Zimbabwe. supply lines to Smith. Just as David Owen and Andrew Young are trying to dare to reveal the truth of find some way of keeping who knew what. capitalism alive, whatever Already of the govern- colour shredders so the oil companies ment, evidence and a clean-up of kept both their profits and and company the Rhodesian government records is in full swing.

alive. now no longer possible believe But single word that any Labour launched by politician has to say on the inside the oil companies in subject. solidarity with From 1968, when the oil African embargo was introduced, BP i asses doubtedly discover the full and Shell continued to truth. suody Smith with the vital oil to keep his police state be launched on its feet. internationally. Cabinet informed called by The French owned com- leaders pany-Total-physically sent pocket of the very Labour the oil, but supplied leaders who wab the with oil in the first shown themselves place by Shell and BP. against the African workers Commonwealth Secre- une tary Geoge Thomson (now imperialists. made a Lord for his services Ine to capitalism) demonstrates the was

LOTO

about the arrangement. nationalisation He says that he kept the unballes Cabinet informed-in partic- control of the workers, and ular Harold Wilson. without compensation. Wilson that the says The whole Cabinet heard the up in the report, Marshu dinow opene including George expel all those Brown, in the sanctions busting and Tory) Callaghan to replace them with leaders himself. who will nationalise Marsh, who now has no companies in this way. need of socialist posturing, an enigmatic statement Zimbabwe and South Africa LeSS admitting that the that when Cabinet Knew was negotiate going on. negotiating representative. 'Did not know' ment which aids and abetts the oil companies supplying Callaghan had his Smith-in other political "brief' advisers agent of international capit- friendly newspapers to say alism. that he did not know what was happening.

STILL

The fact remains that the only way lt was possible tot Cabinet Minister not to know that the government was permitting oil to reach the racist regime of Smith was if he or she deliberately chose not to know. This applies to 'lefts' like Benn and Shore as much as the open nght wingers. The sanction busting has not come to an end. The Sunday Times has revealed that similar arrangement is to this day in operation South using the company Sasol AIMCAn instead of Total. Again Sasal provides the oil, and BP and Shell replace it. The link between multi- Printed by Anvil Printers Ltd., London. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.

SOCIALIST

Oil firms still capitalists and social democracy is clearly this charade. It is certain that not only capitalists involved but that some of African govern- Zambia No official inquiry would the paper are pulping PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report government Workers inquiry workers' inquiry the workers the black would un- Such an inquiry should and pursued It will not, of course, be trade union who remain in the have already ide of the sanctions-busting revived • need tot of the oil the fight must be taken Labour Party to In a dramatic about- implicated turn the Oxford TGWU District Committee last week decided to the oil proceed with the disci- Above all it demonstrates plinary charges against African workers of the 'Cowley 9'. The charges-which their leaders relate to such "crimes" with Owen. they disagreeing with the TGWU with Executive over wage of a govern- control, campaigning against unelected officers the union, and revealing the size words the branch secretary's commission to his members.

-were first taken up nearly a year ago.

AVAILABLE

THE TOOLROOM STRIKE AND

THE FIGHT TO END WAGE CONTROL

A Workers Socialist League pamphlet drawing out the political lessons of the national strike by Leyland toolmakers in March 1977 which brought the down- fall of the Labour government and the emergence of the wage-cutting Lib-Lab coalition deal.

Available, price 25p plus 10p p&p, from: WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR Published by Folrose Ltd. for the Workers Socialist League, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR workers' sive

SOMET

Geisel dictatorship. Twenty-one (Socialist Convergence). Two Ward Argentinian sympathising sectior 'United Fourth International. One Bressano Фетта! Nahuel Moreno internationally member ot the pot. Also Antonio Sa secretary

PRT

(Workers Party), also

USFI.

In July six of the Socialist Brasilia and are still being held.

Also on Socialist Convergence was kidnapped along with a high-school student

KORAGO

whereabouts the police refuse to divulge. of the nOW

TOBBE

Teleaseol bers the and the are still being talk of possible charges against Moreno. a broader wave of arrests which Wilson Cowley 9 charges They have been the subject of repeated District and Regional, level kangaroo "hearings and court-style "inquiries" and July referred by the

WELC

Regional Committee back to the District Committee in that move seemed suggest that they were being dropped. But the

AUEW

officials crack the whip at SU Carburettors and at workers at the TUC. Leyland's Bathgate plant, Fryer faces the witch-hunting right three elected the wingers on Oxford convenors, District Committee Thornett-is are Alan determined their mended for expulsion from recommended sentences, the union expulsion from the Including As the union and life bans on become known within the TGWU an ad-hoc holding union office, imposed on the Cowley 9, 'Cowley whom paign' has won the endorse- among leadership of ment of hundreds of TGWU Leyland's Cowley Assembly

SIOD

stewares Plant. officers Senior steward Bob country.

FUND

With eleven days of September now behind us, we have received £176.20 towards our target of £600. disappointing month in August we cannot afford to fall behind in September. This means that every effort must be made to get us back on target by next week.

All donations should be sent to: Socialist Press Monthly Fund 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR

FREE THESE

JAILED

SOCIALISTS!

Twenty five leaders of coincide with renewal workers' organisations were struggles in few arrested in Brazil on August mollis in brazil atter a long period of successful repres 22 by the DOPS, the repres sion by the dictatorship.

police of the This dietatorship , been responsible since it seized power of 1304 or nolding thousand: these were political prisoners without mem cars or the brazilan move trial ment 'Convergencia Socialista" Many of these have beer brutally tortured, in some cases WenDars oT Tne until they have died. organisation the And from other PST, (Socialist Workers Party).

prisoners countries have sometimes been repatriated That is the threat which now the secretariat wanes over toe arrested membar themr was Hug of the Argentinian PST, who known could be handed over to the who murderous videla regime. known leading Already in Brazil, Portugal, the United States and elsewhere imprisoned was protests have been made over Leal, we venera this latest series of arrests the Portuguese Socialist Press demands the Revolutionary immediati in good the section he droppil those are tad ge dropping charges other members as aust ou over onc Labour MPs, union officials tortured and labour movement must be called upon to support August 2K international campaign for member their release by the police the Brazilian picket of Embassy demanding the immed Almeida, whose of these prisoner: late Telease has been jointly called by the Workers Socialist Although Sa Leal and some International Brazilian detainees have Group. mem. We mine call on all labour move Socialist Conver- support this MeNT • Dooles two PST leaders picket. neva. ano There Is Monday 18 September 6 p.m. Brazilian Embassy These detentions are part of 32, Green St., London W1 TG WU leader Moss Evans being lobbied by Cowley charges, as do The latest moves by the deputy Oxford District Committee one of whom- show that though the threat of action seemed to nave receded,

TGWU

leaders were playing for time, charges have hoping that this counter widely offensive would lose momentum Defence Cam- The fight must now be stepped up throughout the

TGWU

SCSONOR

the October meeting of the and branch throughout the Region Committee West Bromwich calling for the immediate dropping of these trumped up charges Copies such resolutions should also be forwarded to General Secretary Moss Evans, who despite his bland statements With Cowley lobbyists TUC last week, has clearly decided mark his arrival in the TGWU top job by endorsing an almost unprecedented witch-hunt against militants within the