Socialist Press no. 155

SOCIALIST

PRESS

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 155 * 20 June 1979 * 15p The Tory government Budget means slump was elected to a five-year office witn an impregnable Parliamentary majority a mere five weeks.

and runaway inflation ago. But already the debate is raging within the work- ing class as to how long Thatcher will last. And those Labour and trade union leaders most openly dedi cole to ne reservation anc

PREPARE TO

strengthening of British capital- ism have rushed to declare their any opposition action that would stop the "democratically elected" Thatcher attacks. carry ie inrouen

FES

No answer They do so in the wake of a ouacet unal nas ser a cetinit!ve towards runaway infla- course

BRING DOWN

mass unemployment and slump. sucaet anavsis dade bl Even the latest forecasts show a drop in indus- trial

OUTOUT

next vear au% inflation rate this year, and a total of more than 2 million unemoioveo tor the next tew years, course there is no answer to unis туре ot crisis witnin the framework of capitalism. As a totally anarchic system

THATCHER!

==5= InitE Thes is roan : Tory attacas rap-aser: icliidl cuno "austerity' simital olans counti ess . other countries ano intensification of similar cárried by out Caltaghan's reactionary Labour Covereny Ever, artempt to resolve the prodem ' e farming" Profits falling thoui capitalism must- rationalising particularly in this period coronil Crisis-result the whole anemots

TOIST

burden onto the shoulders of the working class. not so easy.

DUT

[nat Bravado Despite the arrogant bravado of Howe and other Tory spokes- noboay seriousiv douots that the working class, which toppled Heath, and which last crusned Laboul 5% pay policy, covernment's will move massively to resist the l ory allalks It is fear and hatred of such mass struggles, and aviatie that IneY nave alternat:ve offer, policy forced Labour and TUC leaders into slatement: sup- "right" of the Tories Dor tine ne carry. out their policies unhindered the foxt 11 Ve vedrs Callaghan in particular has repeated his opposition to trade bring UnIONS TaKine acton to down the Tories: "The Conservative Govern- ment aecla• unrolon the box and must be DanoT removed from office by the same welned. Devastate Howe Calla or democraciyn veneration TOr that proposals and other attacks will The kino nt the return of a Labour govern- threatens to devastate the living be pressed through ruthlessly by ment standards of millions of Laboul But he significantly declared desperate caDitalst cass which has scant respect for the himseif practice supporters WaS еспо от а opposed to statement earlier in the week by democratic of rights trade unotticial strikes In tavoul Joe Gormley, unionists or their families.

improving productivity, favour of talks with the Tories ww occc taat shall have fights with No substitute all varieties but governments of omary Ine Nalso laadar speeches and ship which last week declared WUSt never alve une Inores.

DUT

sion that we or any other union abstract denunciations of Tory support for strikes dualist tnt will g0 on strike policies order union. ¡edders li ke I orv cuts ooroseo attemnts at Change the government.' McGahey the NALGO conference

IVICK

are no substi- tute for preparing the kind of out policies as the basis for such • ne reay ot course is that unless there massive work- action needed the

OUS|

acton ing class action to bring down And in the Labour Party l ories strikebreaking McGahey last week talked in itself former anie covernment. inen every one of Thatcher's budget about fighting for Benn continues vo•ue terms Tonv HEIFIISLCl to posture as a ''eft" obooneni and alternative Callaghan, to sibilest susiae for the renoval refusing of the right wing leading clique These bankrupt 'lefts' offer no lead whatever. The TaCI Is thar tiere is no wav oi stopping the Tory through speeches, through through mere • Partament, protest. The only. way Heath's government was stopped was by massive working class In fighting Thatcher's attacks as they emerge on everv front workers must look increas ingly towards coordinating and centralisine their struggles tow ard buchimg acou thio ol councils action in each area, comprising delegates from trade union bodies and every working class organisaton duch councis ot action can within which settls worker ana challenge the SocIalISTs control and the policies of the trade union and • Lavour Duredu cracv ane tont tor the strenath ening and spreading of strikes and upanions waues deanst une curs ano in detence of jobs. Councils of action And at a time when growing numbers of workers are acutely avare or ine combiete treacner.

Callaghan's government and Tories, couneis of action enable need replace revolutionaries argue for a to principled programme and for demands wic cn tose the bank- workers in practice ruptcy of their existing reform- ist leaders carry. through this kind of political intervention revolutionary warl) Tuus Dulli, capable of tignting every form of bureaucratic betrayal and consistently mobilising workine class in atence от It: independent interests This vital preparation for the Mass strude es anead The Workers Socialist League fights build such Todav's situation odrty •aDove all cries out for the demands we advocate: *Defend living standards! Wage increases must be protec against inflation through TA0 cost-of-living ciauses giving auto.

SWP: The politics of 'no politics' Centre pages

LABOUF

ISN'T

WORKINI

Thatcher matic rises in line with a trade union cost-of-living index.

"Detend ail jobs. Occupy te redundancies! Demand stop work sharing between the whole existing workforce without loss of pay *Fight for • tc wass accion bring down the job-cutting Tory government employers and wankels nOpen h bong of th ol monopolies along with maor mousta firms. The dank!

and the insurance companies to elected trade union committees T his will prove the case for thei nationalisation without compen.

sation, under workers' manage ment controls! "No iu oorl Create new jobs through a crash programme of public works for under valtoualsee Ino Usu workers' management. urge workers, House wives, youth and student consider the dangers now poser for their living standards and to join the WS our struggle for class Tory government. PHOTO. Andrew Wind Denar Gormley

FIGHT PICKETING LAW

Page 2

- INTERNATIONAL

VRIKSE

DANISH

WORKERS

For the last six demonstration but stayed out Danish workers have seen on strike, demancine that their claim for higher wages and agreement their wage improved conditions met. extended by the state and siren unen Their actior laws limiting pay increases.

they adopted the tactic of mass picketing. Danish bourgeois law usual the wage forbids round saw pickets trom hindering by the shaky Social Democratic otRers Trom working andre police were brought in to break coalition government. through the blockade of the bus This was received with a sigh of relief garages. trade But while the union bureau- hero ers wno nad done notning cracy was able isolate fight in defence of living alta struggle, bus standards even before the inter- •eTuse This The drivers' example has been taken ventIon. by up other Only after the government groups of strikers had been measures introduced Wino nave mounted mass pickets, and faced the onslaught bureaucracy ald Inte union of the police. what they thought molliso would be token demonstrations Biggest battles protest limits. The These Token Dates save out differently. centred on the militant struggle Copenhagen Every day since the government cement F.L. bv intervention seenalitanu •riversi strike action. Schmidt-the monopoly and agent for cement Bus drivers, for instance, not producer supported protest only # Donark, International Summer School is holding its The WSL international annual summer school from July 21 to July 29 inclusive. The school is open to members But such strengths dia not and supporters of the WSL.

mean that the IC was free from This vear we are extendinc Major

BERS THE WA BOTH

special invitation Weaknesses Which shower Them: movement put to the those who have been the victims Was of recent expulsions and those Today, in the most who have found themselves out- for revolutionary work, the WRP has reached its side the WRP in various ways over the past tew years aue aeepest stage or portical degen- the political degeneration of the eration. heritage has been liquidated leadership. and increasing by The WSL now represents the most devel oned exoression The WSL from its inception continuity of the strengths based itself on of the 10 tradition and the fight has developing for the Trotskvist programme- Ine continuity or une strenouns that were contained in the SL LI principles and method-

NRP

International Committee developed the 4½ over last Traortion. vears We have stated that these the of the Une ot strengths in the period of school will be summer HoUS and the eariv

I/US

•eeden understanoine included the correct insistence this development as a basis tor reconstruct the that, despite the 'boom' capital- the struggle ism remainee a system or Crisis I TolsKvisi rourn anternatond and had not changed; the ability The main presentations will to work carefully and include: Materialism; the atically in the unions; the insis- Dialectical tence importance on the internationa "Committee. Marxist theory, and the central- USFI; the OCI; and the develop.

Trotskyist the WSL as an Inter- fight for Ity or the ment o1 parties nationa endency. Police car turned over by pickets The workers struck, dem and- inc a cost-or-iving pay aaree: ment, a. reduction in overtime and more drivers to be taken on.

Within three weeks Sections of the Danish building industry were on the point of closure for lack of cement. Pitched battle When the management attempted to relmpor recently dispatched to Sweden, picketed drivers harbour. As police sent in, were joined the dockers drivers and a pitched battle which tollowed. In the police were eventually forced to with.

draw and did not return wave working the next day against protests brought the police violence lorry out to blockadi overs brides ped the approvers Copenhagen several Our founder members were the expelled from 1974-two weeks before the All conference. annua Recent Giscussion expulsions were on similar lines.

The suppressed discussion must proceed now. Our summer school offers a unique oppor- tunity for that to take place We ex-SLL/WRP UnINK Indi comrades have an obligation to be part of this. The WSL has of course been consistentiv sincere on el in the Newsline and elsewhere presumably in order to create a Darner between ourserves ano membership and ex-mem- The bers of the WRP. ex-members WE urue examine us on our polties and practical record and not to be influenced by this approach Ine scool will provide tne opportunity to discuss all ques tions or which there may disagreement the agenda of the school plus the practical details Accomodation wili de providea with meals at low cost. Details from WSL, 31, Dart- mouth Park Hill. London NW5 1HR НР 45 30г And rising at the attacks DIcKet resulted in , dockers and seamen voting stage sympathy pickets if further coment sald menis are anemoreo The employers, micreasingus of this desperate face class solidarity art now tuteal ening lay construction industry workers.

But the cement drivers art not only against the and the police: they employers of the vace also Polish Stalinist bureaucracy which export F.L. Schmidt by cement train. This is played down in a in the Danish article Cover paper Stalinist daily Lane Folk, which blandly declares that: "Even though they Ithe drivers] marty number, their conflict with the firm already meant big problems for the building indus.

try More problems be can expected in the very near future because cement supplies trom abroad are The countries enough. in ques tion are sweden, west Germany and Poland [!] "The drivers' appeal, how. ever. to Danish building worker!

not to use cement from abroad during the strike Communis member. Europe Denmark and throughout be confronted must With ThIs Tine stes

CASE

brazen strike breaking by the Polish Stalinist leaders-whose scandaious recora includes sana• shipments scab coal ascist heroic Spain during strikes ov Asturas muers.

% of votes 1976 Christian Democrats 38.7 CP 34.4 9.6 socialist rarty Social Democrats 3.4 Republicans 1.3 Liberals Radicals 1.3 MS! (neo-fascists) 6.1

PDUP

1.5 rar LeTt SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 20 June 1979 Italy's CP loses votes of youth If the results of the directed acainst the Christian Italian parliamentary Democrats: not course. against their anti-working class elections earlier this month ooHces-our coainst uner arro provided no comfort to the gance and inefficiency". Italian bourgeoisie they were even worse for Enrico Longer memories Berlinguer and his clique of But the voters whom the agents of the bourgeoisie at CP had was wooing the head of the Communist longer memorie. •and Stronge Party. class Teenngs than their stalinis misleaders gave them credit for.

The campaign of the CP was They remembered that since une last elections tne arrocant inefficient" and, more impor tant, anti-working class Iran Christian Democrat covernment was supported office firses hot be coin parament.

ot the In dramuel It was those memories which regime made the CP's campaign for way of governing Italya "New fall on hearing but unbelieving ears. Lost votes jails The CP lost votes through- out tav anen a social classes But the losses were geogra phically concentrated the soul, dna were especially grea among the young socialists proved by the fact that Ine tosser wer noticeably in the worse Chamber of Deputies (for which the minimum (for which than in the senate voting begins at 25) At least 9 members of The CP has tailed to win the the Iranian Socialist loyalty of a whole new genera Workers Party (HKS) have tion of working class and petty bourgeois voters been arrested by the local The CP paper. Unita 'revolutionary committee • ITSelT moroserv cacuated in Ahwaz. 40% of voters between 1976 Ahwaz lies in the province of 18 and 25 voted Communist Khuzestan, major centre of the last This week Most of the losses in this age Inoustry ane nome or tae Arab minority in Iran. the group were petty bour- The first two arrests came on Radicals and probablv te Ceos Mar the candidates lother 3U. wake „tar, ett fighting Khorramshahr than the PDUP) who got nearly between 'revolutionary th 1% of the pol Arabs possibility CP quares and cemanoine recognition of their national regaining some lost and an end to political authority the working class and violent attacks repression now seems iow Trom Anomein s supporters Further arrests came over Last resort next two days as protests the Though in the short term the developed Armed members of the local "historic compromise 'revolutionary committee ment has been from

HKS

raiaca Ene nome ine agendd, me bourgeoisie ma members, contacts and associ- driven towards still be rapidly ates, making arrests and confis trying to hold off the growing demands of the working class by catine mterature The HKS is jointly suppor- bringing the CP into the govern.

by

USFI

and the ment. ted the

OCRFI.

But in the present economic Its national leadership has ano politica crisis thIs would of demanded • release of a last resort which could not be expected to be effective for very The lives of arrestea members. all these revolutionary fighters long in danger. We no information their where. Other solutions aoouts or tate Such attacks on democratic The failure of elections and rights by elements of the new parliament to hold out the pros pect of any recime show uni determination political of Khomeini and his supporters must increasingly force leading to sweep aside with violence any bourgeoisie to sections of sorce nat seanas in lne way

OOK

their construction of a counter- tary-solutions for their revolutionary dictatorship in th problems 'Islamic Republic' Already during the elections the growth of terrorist actions A socialists within iran and internationally, must give their by the Red Brigades and other full support to a campaigr for Sillidi used by the government immeolate releast imprisoned militants the justify an , enormous increase

HKS

repression against the left

ITALIAN ELECTION RESULTS

The Chamber of Deputies Senate Seats % of votes Seats 1976 1979 1976 1979 1976 1979 38.3 263 262 38.9 38.3 135 138 30.4 227 201 33.8 31.5 116 109 9.8 57 62 10.2 10.4 29 32 3.8 4.2 15 3.1 2.7 2.2 3.4 2.5 5.7 15 5.9 35 30 6.6 1.4 0.2 0.8 0.1

Who is leading the civil war in Nicaragua? SOCIALIST PRESS. Wednesdar I0 June 19-9

-INTERNATIONAL:

For the first ten years or so after the overthrow of Spanish imperialism, Central America was a federal state.

The following fifty years saw , between wals conservative ane oera parties in the different states in which conflict largely Internal W de structured by alliances with like parties of other countries.

The requirements the ot ¡ocal •ourgeoistes compelled balkanization, but realjty America is very much a conerent unity Ts because or Inis that Ine civil war in Nicaragua is having such enormous impact The rest or the redion. The outcome of events there rapid will have and effect deed-seated Ine neighbouring states, not Latin America mention Vanguard Nicaragua is in the vanguard of the struggle. On face of things the it is Nicaragua that reason way will be tne tirst to tail lies in the extraordinary nature of Somoza regime. Somoza Anastasio Ine present incumbent, is the heir to family fief by estabiisneo in Ine

SUS

father with the aid of the U.S.

marines. Altnouon inere nave trom time to time been various puppet presidents, usually

COUSINS

neonews. Une Somozas have retained personal his control over the rules power over the country for the 45 years last comoettion. group, allied WITh With this power thev have various petty bourgeois sectors, huge am assed tortune and formed Broad Opposition control the Front (FAO) early in 1978 both infrastructure of the economy respond the mass AnastasIo SUCCUmO mobilisation and to protect to his present 'heart condition', there is always his brother or his their own interests for the post- Somoza era. son. Lne rUnT Ine Anastasio

III,

waiting the Split In wings. But they are highly unlikely Since the outbreak of full reap the rewards of the end of August civil at the family heirloom-the state-first FAO has split. Lne and a more yoremost because 'militant' faction that rejects 'somozismo' has now become an US mediation has formed impediment to the defence of National Patriotic Front (FNP).

capitalist relations as a whole.

recognises group that Monopoly 'somozismo without Somoza' quite insufficient to contain the The monopoly of the family pursued a masses ano has political and its more radical nationalist and over power reformist campaign. oreponde ance in une economy has over the years secto that This has enabled it to ally development itself with guerrillaist Sandinista Pourecoise tal Nationar recognised Somoza Front (FSLN) that is leading the that. governed the conditions of their mass struggle against Somoza.

existenice occarte allances increasingly belligerent about such as this that the Nicaraguan

DE NICA

RAGU

Somoza revolution, like all implications. the simplicity coes Dey ona military controntaton ano Is It struggle on fluid several ever yet diways critical no less true tor the FSLN itself. At the height of the insurrection September last vear the sandinistas were ir the process three internal that had existed for several vears The capture of the govern- ment the August, Manaola TnE subsequent in uprisings cities Leon, Esteli and ¡viasava anel une wa quarter that followed impelled such a unification differences weeeve the Ene betweer Tactions sufficiently great to have : major political implications process of the revolution even before the removal of Somoza.

Insurrection Only two factions of the

FSLN

claim marxist- Popular leninist: the

(GPP)

Protoncade ano Tendencia Proletaria (TP).

These two groups had a long- standing also Et over

INTE

strategy insurrection. The

GPP

preferred an extended rural campaign, while the TP arguec tor the necessitv or oroanisatior of the urban masses before an armed uprising. disoute has now beer resolved, as is evident from the co-ordination urban guerrilla ano strike witT major military operations in the north and on the Costa Rican border. Position adopted It would aopear that the TP now virtually non existent, but clear its that position been adopted by the GPP lla. ine mator citterences witnır the

FSLN

are over military strategy but over politics and specitically betweer the

GPP

and the 'Terceristas (Third Party). ine zercerista. TaCTion acquired name through mediating between the other but it has now and become the largest section its leadership is almost entirely comprised of social democrats.

i ne i erceristas nave endeavoured to subordinate all Sandinista guerrilla differences and There is no doubt that this is discussion task • the US has beer the warly belduse removing Somoza. unable catole ouT The dropping office or hit on a satisfactory ideological identification alternative would further ine danoinistas orooramme Is. o ProvoKE course, ideal for the Terceristas' mobilisation. The contradictions They seek only a platform imperialism the fact extend around which they can draw that at the time ot ine crisis the ambassador in Managua was optimum from US support inep' micalt classe. and wvd bourgeoisie, retain the support awarded the post by Carter to of delivering the Cuban vote masses and yet restrict Miami the presidential Ine movement towaros a Tul social revolution piecton He was much more disposed Broader base to playing poker with Somoza man booting him out of ortice There is no doubt that the the main, though, unification has broadened the Somoza's date has base • the simple and ween Tacilitalee facilitated advances balance of class forces. Whilst he is able to rely on Somoza. the National Guard. which ha In this sense it bears all the recently received a 50% pay hall-marks of the operation of a rise, he can to fight a continue untee Tront Nevertheless the There is always the possibili- the ty that the Guard will remove Terceristas who commanding amusemselves to secure mell cash, and recognition by Venezuela, and Costa Mexico nica. alone witn advine Erie main national leaders, and the alliance with the bourgeoisie nature of the ne class therefore remains struggle and constantly concealed repressed On the other hand, the GPP been fore has Organising oopulal resistance, particularly in Esteli and Leon, key centres in the struggle.

the extreme Moreover, brutality ot. ine war lat leas 3,000 dead since September) rapid rise the and very popular have mobilisatior brought about a movement that increasingly challenging system at reserved here entire „somoza and such power imposed wretched deprivation upon the masses. Hence, the experience of the last year poses a grave threat ter populand a great political popular frontism "marxists" ir chanende the FSLN. Hanging on The waging the and remans Ene most immediate task. Several times Somoza's has beer confidentiv predicted but he has still been able to hang on.

Page 3 property, but sunstantial ThIS would orovice mne wit scant relief last year unemploy- the ment nas risen TrOM | 407 1977 growth in GNP was 5.5%; in 1978 it was minus The foreign debt stands at in the 75%. of GNP and the rise 1979

COST

vino forecast to be at least 50% Violence In the face of this and the extensive mobilisation masses it is hard to imagine how any regime that does not under- take Dasic retorms coure survivi without engendering further violence. the Guard has acte and the proved loyal strategy of capturing towns and then holding out against the counter-offensive has been unsuccesstul-just as the genera strikes of the spring of were insufficient without armed (lessons nave beer learnt and in the last two weeks the new revolutionary offensive nas comone ine stratecies The has taken the towns of Leon and Jinotega in Ine norin ar . Ine same opening a major attack from the Rican while the Costa border urban oroletariat nas declared a general strike in Mangua offensive current • the weekend Of June IVianacut brought standstill on Monday the 4th seen Tendis whetner this will o enouan to dislodge Somoza but that will clear go етоте lond tnis will undoubtedly be a heroic and substantial victory for the Nicaraguan • But Hasset Wipe ta from over. We need only look at Iran to• grasp this basic lessor of the overthrow of absolutism.

Trotskyist party It is on this basis that we must continue to give our fullest support struggles the masses Central America and within that support tight I rotskyisi JU pontical leadersnip that extend.

the war to an assault on the social and political economic, structure or cao talism It is only in this way that the of separate struggles anti- fronts Inderaist throughout the world can achieve onslaught on •a maior the system itself. Somoza's troops on the streets

Page 4

PRESS

GANG

Stockbrokers and their company boss on £30,000 had, clients voting something more to have been with take home increase 01 with their feet over Howe's roso a week budget. The stock market But the opinions expressed has been plunging ever not economic in the press were since. assessments much as political approval for But no hesitation can be its reactionary aims. found in the Tory Press. Cairncross in the rrance. Unable resist erner une Guardian ramnled on tor several words to find jobs prices, economic reasons for her belief the pop papers all settled for mat may even turo our to ot a good budget" -before admit- some variation of the express headline "Howe's That?' that assessment was ting For good measure the based or nel reaculondry Exoress had a cartoon of Howe political beliefs. a wicket keeper, shattering "Perhaps people have three stumps which symbolise with Locome Insatient workers are shortcomings in British society Tine vIces That imbued with from have caused supposedly which our econ- birth. omic accime ™ witn are-va ued management, anarchic i ne press oroc aimed the At one labour practices, class divisions, and the time was a

MUCH

over da co little individual responsibility" restore incentives and a budget which put the tax The Financial burden belonged , did have second thoughts. on the necessities of life bought app- Having at TirsT CauTiousv roved the budget as a translating •v ine working classi Then out were to dad into practice liberating both and ¡l began to domit inal tre oroo

DOLLOTTE

eras lax dying lems all he anead (Telegraph). Of course, a wage Samuel arch-opp- earner £48 week per Treasury economists, onent o! been liberated' to the tune ou commentee: per week, the "It is hard to avoid the 11 4% while Bombings and the regular reader your usually excellent paper and

VOUT

ComeS A DISE Trous MC Soul. I do think that your corres.

article pondent gove very briet and blurred picture of the role of the IRA in Northern A war of attrition is being Ireland. carried out in the 6 counties and When the war developed out of the Civil Rights struggles, the remained silent. by and large

IRA.

said, Captain Terrence had cease The IRA has appealed to the O'Neill British trade unions and where has it got them? The Protestants had run the to the bombing in Ulster, As country for 50 years the said Pry srmed police fore, 99% nave repeatealy that they will make it impos heavily armed police force, sible the protestant, and the armed thugs British TOl TUrd Ulster and the ther ecno The marty of hopes of the vast launched vicious attacks on the majority catholics the Cathole one buty: After burning of the NOrEN Thor are not issued with Bogside TABy armoured vehicles by resistance to their murderous HM Government, nor do they actions, the! returned the next rein- night to finish the job have fresh o italons OT forcements flown in from England and Germany Young and old nev so the best inev can They Were mon by arcades sites, hat the statey hame and the stuff they make Devlin and Bernadette seems to Improve as time goes alike. on. These people knew what to axpect from the Orange from the experience their and grandparents-they arents how to improvise, hence new ine petrol dombs, etc Even specials ding were B' Specials the thugs the active again in the newly formed And bater Armen Urier berenc Regiment or one of the Loyalist para-military groups such as the UVF, etc. The recent case of the who Shankill Butchers, WOrE uniforms and carried arms supplied by HM Government and the actions of the grown in the Catholic areas. Lynch opinion that the budget ha: been almost deliberately drawn vindicate those the up Treasury Wire conne eny pect a wage freeze next Autumn followed by a return to pay con- Rutherford in the Malcolm same paper said "This is a budget of ernment etermineo that is ool.

icies will be carried out. The problem is simply that it has got budget therefore remains …The an act of faith." Summing up the few days following the Duager, Ine FT, in its leader column, , poin- ted out that workers had learnt to respond to militancy, and lamented: "They more with their relative places in the heap the total and Than with real I output available to provide real incomes. ne declared that uness 'militancy' could be defeated budget's could not benefits we canered in oy ine sortes The FT is the worried voice British bosses trembling before the struggles to come.

press has opened i ne its champagne too soon. Irish struggle 1 am sure that they aren't happy d or freland, and England or Ireland, I'm sure * habout the Cast lie yea bitter he ister hey have seen their peopl achine-gunned on their way t home from work, machine. gunned and bombed sitting naving a aruk I am sure they felt it when Marie aD Which shot in hospital Was unde military control. Her only crime was telling the Br thin and that NoNe ThaT would Belfast down stone by stone.

There of pienty people like Mrs." Drum left and they ur can't shoot them all. correspondent never mentioned comoine Dublin when 34 people died, or the rote of Littlejohr •rothers in banki Tobolne ano bombings and who their masters were in England. 'Bunch of killers' Of course the Irish people know that the Dublin bombing was a joint Irish-British affair to make bunch of killers and t crazy the Puppet government ol

•UVE

Ireland an excuse to introduce their infamous Emergency Measures you criticise the of the IRA you have a tactics responsibility to stress the back- ground against which actions in Britain • alienplace. lou mus give plenty examoles to drive home to thi British people the facts-that it Titled 'A Woman's Right to Work and the Need for Day Care', a successful day school held by Leicester Trades Council last Satur- day drew an audience of 35 public sector workers and nursery campaigners. They discussed the way for- fight against waro in InE cuts and the struggle for nursery facilities. T ne malr soeaker was Ann-Marie Sweeney from the Oxford City Nursery Campaign who aave a detailed analvsis o the TUC's Report on provisions for the under-fives. orinate

OUT

ine negore s strengths and weaknesses, she showed how the TUC is hoping is the Protestant mobs and the troops who are responsible for the violence, and that the IRA are fighting for the defence of the Catholic community. wwhe Moloney Coventry We reply As a regular reader of Socialist Press, Willie Moloney must have recog- nised that our sharp critic.

isms of some of the tactics employed by the IRA take place within the context of our unconditional support for their right co strugyle for national liberation in Ire- land, and our fight for the defeat of the British imper- ialist army. It is of course absolutelv core faterial conditions and.

the material conditions the sheer weight of military rep that drives some of the ression most militant of the Catholic minority into armed struggle.

unreservedly on we stand the side of those that are forced take up arms to defend thi Catholic gnettoes trom the vic ious attacks of Loyalist murder squads, army gunmen and RUC/ WUR InuGS But our support for such not oblige us to struggles does sub•o ever seer or toe cac tics adopted by the republican SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 20 June 1979 Step forward in nurseries fight to force to sume any ettorts the The sto are them to fight for even a single which was one of the Report's recommend- passed declared unanimously that: This school, mindful of the She stressed that the immed- ¡ate starting point must be chronic lack of day care prov. ective Ision in Leicestershire action Int that skeleton nursery provision exists and that following programme threatened by the cuts. basis for • a campaign of action te Drawing women the right to the experience secure tol the defence of South

WOTH

Oxford 1) No nursery the cuts in public Class, she poin. • occupation, spending! linked supporting strike all social services, by linking spending on those services WaS • Chaired une rate or intlation as assesse by Helen Flack on behalf of the committees of trade ".. Leicester Trades Council I housewives Women's Sub-Committee. 2) Where cuts : main planned they must ,ased The resolution offering guidance to Linked by sation coal 1 struggles now on the agenda in strike action. We WILu call on the trade unions to also defend workplace nurseries where they are threatened. nev nursery Casser and schools must be opened 4) The books of the Loca Authorities must be opened ti elected committees from the labour including movement nursery campaigns, etc) to asce!

the way public money is

TAIN

used up crippling interest charges and 5) The Women's Sub-Comm- should initiate local ittee

I0OUI

movemen drawing in parents and tenants associations, nature of existing facilities and neces parents children ( including after-school and holiday provision)."

*TROOPS OUT

NOW!

IRELAND

Torces on me contrar where but totally misguided, repub such tactics in qur view unnec- lican forces. essarily weaken the struggle and The very fact that the que tion "who sent the bombs?

' has strenothen me Torce redc tion we have an obligation to to be asked indicates the futilit speak out and to stress our alter- 01 a nann strated native rests on individual terror, and which has historically *ne oroolem tor socialists in always responding to the recent spate failed to araso the necessitv of letter-bombs in Birmingham mobilising the • Irish and also the British working class in mass sums uo the bankruoicv ot ine established tactic

HA'S

actor bombing militarily • civil - useless of Ireland and overthrow capit.

ian targets in Britain and Ire alism, North and South. lane Still no-one has claimed res- ponsibility for these bombs We will continue to defend republican which the movement have needlessly 'endan gered innocent postal workers.

army state soonsored In many ways these bombs and Loyalist terror and repress have the hallmarks of a clumsy ion: but as Marxists and as con ano reactionary orovocatior detenders designed to whip up hostility struggle, we will continue also to the IRA. to oppose dead end nationalism and the RA's own recoro to tight toi DUl means that we cannot rule out class programme and orientation the possibility that the bombs that alone can lead to an Irish workers' republic. were acludily sent by nonest,

SMASH

PHOTO: Derek speirs

ALIN FEIN ERASE

IFL

Sinn Fein in conference: offers no lead to working class

Only a sliding scale of wages can protect against

A BLIZZARD OF PRICE RISES

Jobs axed by the hundred thousand SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 20 June 1979 A monumental rise in the cost of living faces the working class in the aftermath of the Tory Budget, though only a fraction these of increases are openly admitted Tory vy leaders. Of course the raising of VAT to an across-the-board 15% dramatically WIll ada the cost of household items. But the Budget also included of series measures that will increase local authority rates; increase the prices of gas, public trans- electricity and port; than double

111 ULC

prescription charges; further

PUBLIC SECTOR:

LINK SPENDING

TO PRICES

Howe's Budget did requires not spell out dramatic

HOT

cuts in spending on the (NALGO) and Alan National Health Service by workers Education. He did sector-occupation not have to. Cuts in these sectors Chancellor under Labour Healey already laying panelits waste essential services.

In taking And by setting course for a 20% inflation Howe rate, others must knows quite well that the local trades rigid imposition of existing through forming councils of cash limits on these services for will in tact force through a possible supporting devastating of series from workers in cutbacks without provoking advanced

SCCLO

public outcry. In opposition Tory Meanwhile the decision strategy to more than double pres- spending cription profits of private cartes duel increase dental charges will the fight must means ol OI deterring class levels of working families from seeking spending, inflation through an end to necessary treatment. Public workers cash limits therefore scale of spending based on tace cou ole offensive-on their figures own worked Jobs, vitally elected committees of trade ana necessary social services.

unionists and housewives.

The day before the bringing further job-loss and decline Budget, the Tory conditions of the thousands government revealed of elderly, sick and others that they are carrying that depend of out a further review aulnonty provision Civil Service staff levels war on jobs is not restricted designed to cut to direct cuts in government from anything 75,000 and council pay rolls. to 150,000 jobs over the next three years. First taste This is over and above the freeze on recruitment cuts which and promotion already are only a first taste of what force, is to come will also hold up which is designed to cut 22,000 Civil Service work bullding schemes: they will depress jobs. On top of this, Howe's Budget has now cut £300m Supplier firms to the public from sector will the local authority see rate support of and seek to lay off workers.

grant-part the money allocated by the Labour government to help Budget's defray the cost of the local unleashing raising of interest rates, and government pay settlement.

will herald a new cutback in demand will have round of cuts in the services the eftect of provided by sections soaring price of petrol. This price spale increases-which directly or every working class family-comes on top of existing rates of inflation-currently ted at 10.3%. Indeed the arrival of the Tories office has prompted employer Howe increase the formidable cost of dental treatment; drive up mortgage rates and the cost of bank overdrafts; and add another increase to the The fight against the cuts.

the bombast of Geoffrey Drain Fisher (NUPE) but practical action in the public threatened facilities: strikes reutences full-scale blacking of private such action, health workers, teachers and fight through councils. and broadest Ine action industry and elsewhere in the public to the of public cuts to boost the industry, be for the 1974 social service protected against sliding and out by profitable and small living the businesses out of the market altogether. Small businesses will be local unable to absorb the huge upon price increases they face in But of course the Tory law malenals and services In the same way as their larger competitors: they will be nriced out of existence as the slump gathers pace. Those that from gain their failure will be thể The £1.5 billion spending Tories now say monopolies, multi- TH Є and the bankers nationals who decide Tory policy. Less profitable firms will and other unable to afford the 14% colossal interest economy. bank loans, payments on and hit by the orders cut, will be overall fall in production But at the same time the and purchasing power. simultaneous Desperate inflation In each case, increasingly squeezing desperate sections of of. employers will seek to vent

ICOS

to whack in price increases, the knowledge and diesel that they will not have to themselves felt. undergo the token On top even of Labour's tooth- Agriculture SCrUllEV less old Price Commission Walker has tactfully-delayed week alone saw a 463 price staggering increases. This of course is which will long before the inflationary effects of the Budget or the The Tory

BUDGET

fury and solve their caused by the crisis of their tnel Problem the perch anarchic capitalist system- from the worktorce-larough

OUT

sackings and speed-up. their own independent class Already it is forecast that , Interests Employers' the will Budget measures increase unemployment this falling sales. empty year by at least 150,000.

books and impending bank- But union leaders who lupicy must be met Dy the demand that seek win concessions from employers account books be opened to the inspection within the capitalist system trade union committees. will meekly employer's insistence preserving his "viability" show the The reality is that as the tween the and the major slump fewer Coate and fewer capitalist firms trusts; the behind-the-scenes "viable" will wheeling and al all - capitalism; and the essential and those that remain anarchy will achieve this profitability • through which drastically increased exploi- are safe. tation of the working class.

Occupation fighting in defence of jobs in the coming period They will workers,must start not from necessity for a struggle to the problems of the defend all jobs and hard- empiyers-wach working wol Page 5 rocketing price of oil, petrol pork-and thus gradually drive up also a whole range begin to make ot processed foods as well.

of all this, While ' Treasury figures Minister Peter disputed whether the annual announced the rate of inflation would turn 16% 17½%,

OUTO

De OI tion of the "Green Pound" there can be raise prices of analyst who doubts that the staple fresh foods-including must exceed 20%- figure butter, cheese, bacon and threatening the to cut buying power of workers' wages by one fifth! Against the this ludicrously tiny token tax concessions to workers in Howe's Budget can be seen in their proper context-as a sop designed to head off an inevitable nae or millancy the wages in coming months. Clearly major wage going to ncreases are be necessary if workers are to catch up with inflation. But demanding simply fixed-figure increases in period of runaway inflation offers no real guarantee of living standards The fight must stepped up in every union submission big TOr Ine wage claims linked to cost- of-living clauses that will Doome iceases in line with rising prices.

But time when figures and the "average wages" living are So Cos obviously miles away from the reality faced by every working class family, that the fight for essential cost-of-living Causes linked not to the Tories' Retail Prices Indey but to figures compiled by elected committees trade unionists and housewives.

Such figures would take into the actual prices of the that goods the effects of workers buy, taxation, rates, and other factors the on of living, and also regional variations in rents, transport costs and other expenses. In preparing the ground for the battle on wages, union branches and stewards committees should consider setting up such Price Committees to reveal clearly to the work.

force on the shop floor the extent to which their living standards are under attack, and the level to which wages must be increased simply to retain existing standards.

Redundancies be must fought around the demand defence of for work-sharing on full pay. Threatened factories pleas of must be occupied by order workers who otherwise face an indefinite future on the growing dole queues. the firms The fight must be taken up against the abject elected collaboration of leaders with the employers The figures revealed will and for the ousting of the Labour leaders whose own connection be- individual firm reactionary policies more than doubled banks and unemplov Me Tones retread or paved the way for ataling oppose their removal. the system Only the nationalisation of major industry and the means that no jobs banks without compensa of a planned tion part socialist economy under workers' management offers show the workers job security and the of improved prospect working conditions. conditions.

Page 6 "Many accept the socialist argument but have a healthy workers contempt for 'fringe groups.

. It is true that the ideas of revolutionary socialism do attract groups of people who preach like the Dissenting religious sects of the last century. These people are inspired by the idea of a 'milennium', a sudden convulsive burst into the promised land. But are terrified by the gulf between land' and the stubbore reusal of workers to move towards it. Prey take refuge in their They comfort themselves that one day the workers will own smallness. move, and will look for leadership. And so they seek to build that leadership 'among themselves, a leadership which preaches at workers from on high. Their aim is theoretical purity - but theoretical purity without any contact with real life or real human conditions. So they turn in among themselves, purge themselves of deviants and pour oceans of bile on one another in order to prove their purity. They develop a language peculiar only to themselves which frustrates and embarasses workers who come in contact with it." (Paul Foot: Why You Should Be a Socialist, p 91. Our emphasis) The election of a Tory industrial many workel government presents a new members. situation for those seeking the self-stvied inaeed revolutionary organisations to build a revolutionary grew during but IS this period; socialist party in the British crew more Inan Ine oiners. working class. Minimal programme the first weeks of this government Thatcher, Joseph This was primarily because and company have shown minimal of trade union cleariv inat they intend to carry out full-blooded attack on fulleldfil orooramme which organisations and stan- struggle for the workers' retused aara or living Already the fake lefts in the its populist denuncia- Party such as Benn have Labour Tions oT ine evils ot cabitalism and its simplistic and unmarxist uner moves Lo dodol economic analysis which put the the anti-lory consciousness blame

TOT

mounting crisis of British capitalism on "greedy and derail the struggles, which bosses" will emerge. Future articles in this series Their fake "left" statements will are peddled as good coin by the examine o Si economic theory, its attitude to building Ine CommUnIST the party and its theory of rank Party. and tileism In the trade unions, bureau- What is important to draw crats ta over each oiner in tae will continte to cause oroorems article is the fact out in rush to talk to the Tories, in the for the membership. thIs that vain hope that Thatcher can be struggles mount line peddled by Tony Cliff and persuaded sorten. ner anti- scale and compexit ine ovt s leaders has not gone working class plans. particular brand of syndicalism further exposed. only unemanenced But these challenges Opportunities were i ne ovr nas no conceolion met case by ruthless from here to the ot how to do bureaucratic repression. The Tory attacks, combined with fraudulent demagogy But would wrong Crimes LaDOUl TeTTS and oldinis ls assume Inat Inis bankruptcy oT along betrayals by programme will automatically

MANITA

The union bureaucrats are the lead to its disintegration in face Those who think that the facing workers obstacles those ot mountine class strucore wrs ack ot interna,. demo.

The

SWP

has cracy new phenomenon wno are seeking to detena them- leadership selves. shown that it can this catalogue should considel Organisations to the left of of crimes oooortunisticav aaot user to changing circumstances and find And Foot Ene communist rarty •are faced those who like with the task of laying before 'the way: •emoan une existence oi man!

workers their perspectives for an revolutionary party. organisations on the left should alternative road to tnal or class that quite a number

AILUVV

collaboration. Industrial base inese nave beer set up ine Unprecedented opportunit- of expulsions from the It entered the period of the IS group. tes are openine up tor revolu- Labour government with a sub- fionaries tor one simole reason.

1971 example the working class internationally Workers Fight, the only organ- stantal faces choice-socialism significant industrial base, to espond to a "unity" been built during the barbarism. IS, leadership cal The Workers Socialist in " were exoeted has been and will con- League "No disciplinary Inoustrial base was brought into the International were laid against the Tendency tue to de bull as an ineeden.

dent organisation. Socialists las the SWP was then nave scen This is because we are of the the IS leadership's explanation caneo on the oasis or te

• MOST

minimal trade union militancy for move was that opinion Inal now more nor ever, perspective and and anti-Tory rhetoric clear 'Trotskvist Tendency called principled programme of action On' 30 March 1974 the First IS 'centrist' National Rank and File Move- But this as ven worKers explains nothing coming into struggle. ment Delegate Conference was We never characterised IS othe wise, either before the nele No perspective fusion or after. "It was sponsored by the Fight no. 1, January For us the battles to come Tollowing rank and The papers will involve not only a struggle Go File. Carworker, Geerank Today Workers Fight is the against misleaders and London existing Communist ot the working class but also the Worker Leaque cL.. Teach A Tech sharoest criticisms those Rank and File the left" whose Teacher Tape and Case Contion

NALGO

Redder practice TIMe they serious thal nave • controwed baders. riasnuent perspective for the struggles and Building Workers Charter, and file ahead. dockers rank for yve nave This reasor Jockworker WerE frequently polemicised papers of any significance which against did not sponsor the Conference International Marxist Group Some 500 delegates from 270 Tor its carch-al unitv orive.

This new series of articles is trade union bodies retiecting tne the polemic main areas of recent rank and intended to deepen file activity attended, in an euror to Turiner develod membership confront considerable achievement in the oUr serious forces in the IMG with face of sniping sectarian attacks from individual CP bankruptcy many of their and Isation s oresent •aLO educate those who might take organised right wing. the IMG's conceptions as good They included 51 some bodies, of which coin.

AUEW

two Equallv important. however District Committees were will be to begin a long-overdue

TGWU.

NALGO

dialogue with branches, membership bodies, CPSA branches and 19 Trade: ana croneryot une socialst Workers Party. Councils." (S. Jefferys The Challenge of Biggest the Rank and File. International Socialism 76, March 1975).

As the biggest group to the The and file organisa- left the Party. tions cited by Jefferys had been wormerise the SWP will continue to attract period of Tory The it the balance of forles were attacks (1970-74) forces On were the basis of a significant ditterent-might easily ioin the recruitment trom student

WSL.

radicalisation around the At the same time the twists war, Is to was able and turns of the SWP leaders big organisation PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report government. In 19/s the Revolutionary •Opposition was expelled. This tendency-led others, the present leadership st antonest Revolutionary Communist Group-had attacked IS's theories on economics, And T lack of a serious orientation to winning from social worker. democracy, and had argued for programme of transitional demands. Southall youth attempt to drive fascists off the streets. ANL sticks to pacifist line

SWP: THE

OF 'NO P

This is the first in a series of major articles by Keith White wh Socialist Workers Party, in the context of the new problems fac her battorm was not cir culated and they were expelled for political differences Oppos- The att ition was expelled. Its platform 'In Defence of Marxism' wa: usual not circulated by the leadership At the 1974 IS conference Left Ooonsition members were not able argue for their positions as they did not contro SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 20 June 1979 Nations Rank and

DELEGATE

CONFERENC

S

UAL RELA

a branch from which they coulo delegates The National Secretary then wrote individual the LO's each supporters as follows: "Dear ( 1, I am informing you that the National Commit tee on 13 October 1974 ha: Your rate all gam expelled • you from ISaTION. Nichol." LO's critique of iS was the best yet but it lacked cohesion agreed perspective The

RCG,

Workers Fight,

ING

WRP

and eve Tne recruited members out of the Left Opposition. The LO had originated in a the Left tendency known suoseoventl split into 1975 the was present day Workers Power groupi these opposition: criticised from feTT But there were already rumblings and dispute within the IS leadership itself. Over the next couple these differences steady replacement of many of the old guard leaders and their dis appearance from the organisa-

TION

17 Birmingham members in the AUEW left after expellec others were wishing to support the stalinis led Broad Left slate the union elections and opposing the standing of an IS candidate These and others including a number of the old IS leadership came together to form the now

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 20 June 1979 ile defunct Workers League. Behind the drift away of the industrial members was the turn life of the last Labour govern- from the building ment-away oT rank and Tie arouos Instead lurched towards quick' 'get stunts and the "Right to Work" were camoalans. WAICh conducted outside of political struggle against the Lade union oureducracy. Routine union work The central thrust of the IS leadership was around the build- ing of "the revolutionary party" this logical conclusion in the declaration ot the Socialist Workers Party. Many industrial members did developments. nOt H.Ke These They had been brought into the basis sicauy. routine traoe union work on a minimum programme, centred on the building of rank and file uganisations. The new methods grated on them and many voted against them with their feet. ex-leaders in opposition how- ever stilt clung to the past and recarata Ine taunching party as They premature hankered the old days. after This whole period is a com- messy one and the plex purpose of this article is not to give history of the IS/SWP Suffice it Inat Ene departures from IS/SWP have been on such a scale that there IS "old boys and club, which giris

POLITICS

OLITICS'

ch will examine various aspects of the politics of the British ing revolutionary socialists after the reelection of the Tory defends what it calls the IS TracTion. This roup care does gor as where itself Ine interna- along with the SWP, the IMG's primary

TOCUS

TOT

unity offensive. The IS/SWP has been built me memnoo or oroomatic empiricism and what accom- that method-political panies For the IS/SWP a political line is regarded as correct if it works —i.e. if a steadv flow of recruits and an increase in paper sales follows from what you say Before 1968 IS had little in labour But the movement. the Mav/June events in France brought the working class into the centre of the political arena Western Europe was quick to cash in. Up to 1974 its syndicalist perspective of mere trade union militancy brougnt it many mem- bers. Bureaucracy But in the final days of the Tory government the

OUT

HITe government, more political questions were posed than IS coure answer How do you fight the trade bureaucracy and the Labour lefts? What can you do win a orooramme or mere trace union when the workers judge from surface icies of the acceotine Labour Ene poncies • OT The 1974 Rank and File Conference government? as a Trotskvist movement understood that far from "accepting" the policies of Workers were grappling with the problem of how confront Wilson. Callaghan and Healev how to get round the problem a trade union bureaucracy tooth tighting ana nail protect social democracy We battled to give leadership and perspective of proportion to our size when the pay battles erupted Right to work The IS/SWP who refuse to pose the real political problems racing workers as ones of leader- sniD simov inrew uo their done hands and turned to the easy growth through the "Riaht to Work" and election.

eering pains. election another close on ane campaigns in fact the IS/SWP pragmatism. Having declared the Labour Party 'dead" and having found the bullaing of groups far from ber of they stood in" number by- erections and recerved derisory voteshere is, of course, nothing recervine derisors your election voTes programme and campaign play an important part in show- ine une way torware tor workers to day struggle for in the day socialism IS/SWP, however, which very nature put cannot ov its Page 7 HUt: Mark Musher, It t Trade union militancy is not lacking in the working class: the crisis is one of leadership forward a clear revolutionary will be widespread but the patronising petty bour principled of course, leadership

SWP,

per The WSL prystallit spective tor day to day Work tavour ot the maximum unity who seek to oule a bartv in the turned • away from electoral against the class enemy working class themselves by politics declaring that it "didn't must not be consciously descending but this unity work". actually at the expense ot the elabora oolitical eve tion of a clear perspective for than many individual Propaganda union militants. struggles in progress, and the fight for leadership. The wav to combat workers The most recent stunt which More than ever it will be 'healthy.. contempt for 'fringe as the SWF the SWP have initiated is the groups the theor- not, necessary to clarity Anti Nazi League erical ano oractica bases o unt Here the threat of fascism revolutionary party which must to develop workers politically or was "combatted by a propa , be built. posture as a "mass party", but ganda campaign which centred evoking of hostility Paul Foot brings together many principled correc and disgusting aspects within Britain programme on which they can to ine germar more fascists. carry out their daily struggles in of SWP politics. The aim was to be the reduc- Its talk ot the purging o une union and learn in oractici tion of the fascist vote through deviants" is rank hypocrisy.

the treachery of the bureau- the destruction of its "respect.

and with. its cracy the inadequacy of But the passage able" image scorntu remarks about tnosi orner lett croubs The low votes of the NF in who "preach at workers from Ine general election have been high" also rings with the Cynicism claimed by the SWP. as a vindi.

SWP's total refusal to challena cation of the ANL the political limits of Without such a programme in te brocess. nowever. the spontaneous trade union "healthy SWP leadership has created con workers' militancy. siderable problems for itself at wi certainlv evolve sooner or For the swe the struedie Is later into cynicism and open of course not for theoretical ine base oroanisation. opportunism "contact where many members-particu- purity-whether rOOLS statement. nowever appalling though does assment Is address itself to many of the Follow moods ANS Sameless dachism. problems would be revolution After the Leicester demon- stration-where the ANL's plans arv socialists must tace The sole objective is to fit How do you win the tne the policies of the movement to working class to revolutionary opposite side of town from the the current moods and feelings fascists were frustrated and a politics? of the working class, so as not between theory and practice? sizable counter demonstration These and the to pede recruitment questions Toucht to det at the tascists- course, is why problems will perennid complaint mat unere certainly Socialist Worker easily can so are "too many left groups" arise within the ANL avoid the use of Marxist termi must be answered by Trotsky- nology, which is also scathingly

ISTS

Ditch ANL? dismissed by Foot. In its daily work the WSL does in fact answer them. Our TrOn ecuiooine In this situation it is by no worker recruits with the scien- practice shows those interested means that the SWP tific knowledge, the method and enouan to examine it lust now will make moves to jettison the you build a revolutionary party the F in the working class. AIN-particularly lead the socialist revolution. the have over recent months turned SWP-both in its press and in its But a revolutionary party is seriously towards open day-to-day work-leaves a0ove ConscIous continually to refine its theor- witysildl allacks mutants at exactiv ine oolitica class organisations and the black level with which they come into etical understanding so as to the movement. community sharpen its practice. Indeed the IMG seems to combat syndicalism, nere attemot This series will attempt to sense this possible development adventur-

IS/SWP

and the latest No show the link between Socialis ism, or opportunism. Challenge theory and practice the carries article InC Tigating tne bankruptcy theory and of that bureaucracy. stressing Ine i neceo conut the building of the ANL, and practice and me war in wil the the IMG adapts to it. importance mare Patronising It will also outline the altern. carnival This subservience on the part this workers are incapable of making alive " LO ano becaust of the

IMG

to the latest fad of what we think of unity both in the day to day working class the

SWP

their buTS such policar develooment appeals Indeed it is not workers who to that orcanisation tol and relations the building of a 'united revolu- "frustrated". and between ourselves and other left are "embarassed" groups. tionary party the proper In the battles to come undel exaction ano • USe Ine the Tories the calls for "unity" science and language of Marxism Continued next week Stan Pemberton, TGWU Chairman and figurehead of the protest against the closure o Dunlop's Speke factory. He opposed the policy of occupation from the outset, as did the Socialist Worker however praised the 'action committee's' entire 'action committee' paper and refused to offer any criticism of Pemberton.

TO CIRCULATE

"POISONED WELL'

WE REPLY Discussion urgent!

Page 8 Dear Socialist Press With reference to the letter you published last week headed questions tor the Unanswered IMG. we would like to put tne readers betweer concerning relations The la unitee secretar at on the Fourth and the WSL. is most unfortunate that the WSL leadership has seen fit our public betore we have exhausted Ine dossieties or resolvine any outstanding problems which exist between our two organisa.

tions inrouen consututed meet- ings our two leaderships. What is worse, however, of the

BUSI

bartlanty published letters simply reprinting one letter from a long file of correspondence between

OUT MOST

im sortant of di the outright lie which is perpe- introductory explanation to the letter.

categorically: No you say reply has yet been received to of points which any the Comrade Grogan is of course quite. correct to point out that the exchange of correspondence between the Workers Socialist League and the Internation- al Marxist Group on this issue now amounts to long file". inoced twas very much because of our concern at the apparent impasse in such corres- concence aTter unree vears written and verbal exchanges Socialist Press took initiative publicising trie issues au stake. It is true also that since the which published letter we Socialist Press wa: sell IMG, we have received a reply- too lengthy to here in full. but It is quite misteading tor Comrade Grogan cite this November letter as in any way by us. No undertaking i In particular, the IMG's Nov- ember letter significantly failed ove. anv circulate The Poisoned arguing that: original "We stand by position That Tine Congress debate is not the best format to have a discussion with you Tine DOsItIOns con- tained in the 'Poisoned Well'.

"However, the last thing that we wantis tor tas ordanisation• al question to become the main point of dispute and discussion •tween yy 8 want down to political discussion with you as soon as possible. will "Accordingly the MG press tor your document TO be circulated to the world move. ment."

IMG AGREE

We reprint below the text of a letter received last week from the International Marxist Group, British section of the 'United' Secretariat of the Fourth International. The end of the letter has been slightly abridged for lack of space.

makes'. I enclose a copy of the the International Bureau of the '78 letter dated November United Secretariat. the one The

VOU

me cocument published. Poisoned Well'. we remain o the World would nope that you can opinion that publish it in full, the conores. iscussion benefit and ot your appropriate place for the dis- Icaucis cussion of this text. •raw Their attention vour error in claiming that no such For us matters and disputes letter was received ot nistorv ot our movement are best dealt with in party schools, •umer me aiso take ume out to reiterate our proposals as well educational publications and so renewing our appeal in front On. I nis was the meanine oT ou of Socialist invitation to you to participate reduct sile our last party school on the wress For perfectly history of the Fl aware our proposal in this letter You attended and were able meeting to make your points. Our move- TOr ••etween a reg of your leadership, a ment donor. conced comrade trom the Bureau of the party history. voted on and made the basis of party Pourin international ano regressie clean fact take place

IMG

line anto bar ly of Stalin was importation into the Comintern. in early January on ine evenina school of the Fourth ThA which Nonetheless, as we spell out you made a contribution. our November and as meeting ¡ is we wno are awartine d Wa. reply. from you these held with a comrade from the propósals also do not that time made in the name of want this organisational dispute SE Asian wars have split 'united' USFI leadership meeting INB: not circulate the docu- When this to IMG This did take ment members. place it was made clear that Tollowea by the Tollowing Janudry.

USFI

let-out clause]. Bureau spokesman the "The Usec, refer the discussion of course, will nave to make is owe darsions.

walk lo uit ouredu, ano unal tue You must appreciate agreed proposals Tina based would be forwarded to number nationally writing, along with copies of the which want to circulate material in our discussion.

Resolutions on curove and Latin America which we had not received. event is very likelihood little Needless that the Used , the events say, would assume the burden of the various election aran ano large technical campaigns intervened: and, des- very financial costs involved in an pite several attempts to obtain it decision to circulate your docu- Tnis etter nas still not open cant ment." words we (emphasis added) correct in saving that no defini evasion the tive reply to the points raised in BiTi ThA November our October 25 letter had been went with the announcent that received at the time of going to bureau oress would meet WSL representatives But, this said, we are pleased not to speak for the Comrade Grogan 'to facilitate a Usec decision moved in this matter" position on the circulation of

LONDON

REDITE

IN SIALS REVOLUTION!

ism and the fight for the trans- over the fate of your text to get in the way of the political dis- itional programme can be raised the framework of these Cussion betweet are within therefore accordingly prepared texts. In addition, we invited this text make a specific contri-

YUL

the MG and the mieroets our CuTO communism Bureau will intorm the sections of its and encourage As you know we have pub lished them to circulate it VVI Li the comrades AS understood it, you the undertook organisation to the debating this theme and financial be serious choice has to burden or inis mace otne comrades or une 2. On the Worid Congress

WSL.

Do you wish to have a Our proposal to on the serious discussion with us about you world Congress, the made at tne possionity meeting with the representative ing a revolutionary internation- of the comrade from the Inter.

If so vou have to take issur national bureau was unal you make a contribution on the five with us at the level of the per- being presented to spectives which we are offering our uscomina world conoress by anemake

VOU

POINT.

dool the (viz your view of our record word Polttica Resolution Resolu- relation to that tion, American Resolu- Latin insist solely on the ques- Resolutiol une rigni tion ot vour view ot our record against Women's Oppression and is a half way house. If you have Resolution on Socialist Demo- a case, show us how it affects cracy) our bresent perspectives raise on the question or a This avoid to tul that we All Ine polis you wish to avoid full blooded The Poisoned Well, when he principles and method the ot says that: programme „tor Ene "[We are] reconstruction of Interna- prepared circulate the text to the tional the bers of the IMG, and the Bureau tralist World Partv of Socialist will inform the sections of its Revolution existence and them The encourage emergence in recent weeks and further to circulate it." We have already taken steps solts ane tendencies within the facilitate circulation world Trotskyist to Tendency' the 'International roduCtion French, Spanish and Danish lan- and bolshevik • lendency guage translations. We welcome within the

USFI:

the split USFI which has led this

ING

within the and the Usri towaras Tuitilling

IWO

their i soon as were vet is opposing the oositions Vietnamese invasion of Kam soon we receive copies puchea; the formation the of all USFI Resolutions tor the coming World Congress, work rOUTIn internationalist will begin on a document in dency' from groups expelled from the

OCRFI;

and the reply to them. continued crisis within waves of expulsions trom This will. indeed show the Healyite IC-all these develop.

relationship between view in our historical record of the USF urgency of a thorough. discussed in The Poisoned Well going discussion the and its theoretical and practical and principles or altind the Trotskvist

OSITION.

today s Cids. which interna struggle-as revealed in these tional must be Resolutions fall of which have Far from simply dredging up after The a tractons or ov on! Poisoned Well was completed).

of dead "history" , The Poisoned Such a reply will in no way Well attempts to examine the contradict but rather build actual experience or te war Trotskyist movement in its Tine oas ic arounowork lalo in The Poisoned Well We have made it plain from down startlic our very first statement on the the USFI ha Ane ust as question of the reconstruction been reluctant to discuss these the Trotskyist International that the note anciellas (Fourth International: Problems most signal omission trom and Tasks) that wish USFI's Resolutions any seriously discuss with the serious attempt to examine the USFI and with the other inter- •ractica experiences ot its sec national groupings calling them- tions even since its last Worlo selves Trotskyist Congress in 1974 Perspectives World Resolution, instance, at all The purpose of such dis contains no examination of the cussions in our view is to estab immense revolutionary lish whether sufficient basis of struggles between Fortuda agreement can be created on the 1974-76 and the lessons it must SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 20 June 1979

MDNAL

discussion The Possused Well. We have already your made area to vou at our las national school on the history of FI which you invited to make a contrioution Moreover we have suggested before, we are more keen or canist membersnid meetinos with vot to discuss some of the questions you rose in The Poisoned Well' facilitate EnTS SOmE comrades •от ine iwoare in the process of preparing a rejoinder to your •text. We will send this lo you in que course We look forward to hearing your response nevolutionary areerines Brian Grogan For IMG Political Bureau [Grogan's teller concluace with proposing organisational steps to advance the discussion between the IMG ano ine vol Trotsky have for revolutionary tactics and strategy in other capitalist By pressing tor the circula tion of The Poisoned Well and in replying to the USFI's World conchess mesolutions. unererore is attempting to turn The wol world Trotskyis movement towards a study pro Ine actua! oroblems gramme and perspective that must be confronted if leadership Is to l De olven to une working class in today's struggles As Trotsky points out, clarectica materialismu start from experience and always returns to it" We hope that the welcome decision by the IMG and the

USFI

to circulate The Poisone Well will therefore help USF members to understand that the their movement did not begin at une last or wore conares -but carries with it all of the post problems of the war Fourth International We repeat our public invi- tation to the members and the leadership of the IMG. the USF themsters other groupings regarding Trotskyists The UDel Poisoned well in the pages o Trotskyism Tetiay theoretica magazine Ano we will continue to seer every avenue for the furtherance of this much overdue discussion on procramme ano prince

Mob rule versus Teamster militants SOCIALIST PRESS, W'ednesday 20 June 1979 The Hoffa Wars is essen- tial reading for anyone the interested in American labour movement and for involved the struggle against the manipu- lation of power under capit- alism. It is only partially concerned witn Jimmy Hona. Tormer nead of International Brother- hood Teamsters (IBT), the of words biggest trade union with 2 million members. The traces Hoffa's militant murky trom cartel trace unionist ady July 1975 when murdered and his body into a steer-crusner to emerge n the words ot his adopted son (who was implicated in the killing) as "a goddamn hub cap .. a fender being driven around • Someone Fascinating The Hoffa story is fascinat- ing in itset out the book also about leaders who alive and in much are Still very control ID'. rrank Fitzsimmons and his son, Jackie Rolland McMaster and totally sunary oureaucrats It is also about the penetra- tion of organised crime into the movement 'the and between mob' HinKs

CIA/FBI

the tion of the Kenneovs. Ine biots Fidel Castro

NIXON

But most of all ine Morta about the long struggle Wars rank-and-file Teamsters democratise tne union Ine teeth of countless • killings, bombings, beatings and corrupt and the deals witn employers underworld. Not socialist * It should be stated that Dan Moldea liberal retormist. ne book is certaini not written from a socialist per- his hero main spective Robert seems nave been Kennedy. perfectly illustrates the urgent need for the revolu- Tionary orooramme trade union work. makes a Drillant joo of and the Fitzimmons exposine corrulot eagersnie. same time expresses support for (the Teamster reform groups, TDU-Team- being latest one sters for a Democratic Union) in their tactics of going through ne courts Yet throughout the book the and the courts shown state are oooosea lo une interests of the rank-and-file the TEAMSTERS

ARE GROWING!

Teamster! Indeed he shows verv clearly that the biggest sin Hoffa committed the hand stronaest section American working class to U.S.

capitalism on a plate. Anti-union Republicans and democrats were USt Hoffa's gangsterism to discredit, and browbeat the whole labour movement. Moldea's book is also documented. It extremely well snows call chain from the ordinary team- paying his dues and ster union pension TUna Inal money being used to finance everything Local 299 offices: (seated) McMaster, Fitzimmons and Hoffa Trom nomes ano swimmine pools for bureaucrats the killing of John Kennedy, the Castro, the otols assassinale coof Trace Tine elector Nixon and the Watergate cover- Corrupt practices The IBT membership has been consistentiv cheated ane years-both and Hoffa leaders. Wave beck were jailed for corrupt practices of that represented only a tip The Iceberg inell real Page 9 Johnny Byrne reviews The Hoffa Wars, Rebels Poli- Teamsters, ticians and the Mob, by Dan E. Moldea, pub- lished by Paddington Press at £5.95 transformed though these negotiations are the thirties was into violence against InE usualv carrie out in colabora membership by the leadership tion with the employer rather during the late fifties, the sixties than confrontation. and the seventies. • the eariv sixtie: noeed since Countless dissidents were it has been unofficial action that killed, beaten and has won the best conditions.

intimidated Juries bribed 1969 unofficial strikers pitched battle had to tight a Many dissidents were simply with ouns ane cites as teamste "officials'' tried to get a convoy Tired Trom iner loos lane tere the picket fore from the union) with the through ot lorries making deals with bureaucracy Itne inorder таке соо d routine "sweetheart" contract une dosses not to nant lor tre!

with th 1976 Peter reinstatement. When Camarata going gets rough then juries are bribed, judges are Teamsters leader Democratic Union) was nearly granted tavours or key witnesse kicked to death right in front of removed-and all this conjunction with the more mun- rank i national during delegate the cane Tactic. conference. union jobs for old pals, tamper ing with minutes and fixing rule Even so. it is the willingnes.

of workers to come forward and changes fight that through the With the of the the mob, the pages of the book. bureaucrats, and the police. Ine courts o is maran eat teamer Blown up amazing that Teamster have maintained This militancy has been most mutants the huge

IBT

continuous continuous since is otta to point out ther Hoffa came to been the hom the Hotta ritzimmons their McMaster clique, that is Detroit indoecuaties reliance on legal Local It is worth quoting procedures lack casional tendene real Trom ine cian and their tendency lead tro Detroit activist who helped unofficial strike and Inal continue the battle inside (like angry march on the union hat Fraternal Association of the in 1970: "Considering character the stee Haulers set specially exploited section of which we enem-01 1967) having were and fully aware-n have form The Hoffa Wars stil must salt that insanity that forced frail being stands as testimony to the gut militancy which like us to override class-conscious our tears an Contes on. to put aside our is an essentiai part of the tigh!

responsibility to tor a revolutionarv dersoective own pleasures and Tames. our security, and openly challenge perhap the most ruthless of social powerful criminals this country nas eve known. . I entirely reject any position that entails anything less than an absolute and com plete repudiation of the present Teamster leadership" This written shortly atter Leavitt's nouse containino his wife and children, was blown up by 'persons unknown' Teamster democracy in action I nougn ib i leaders inevitab use attack that witch-hunts and it is clear activities dissidents there is little sense of Frank Fitzimmons oniv escaped the fate because antoine martian oute trade union militancy in the variqus balanced com-

OT HIS

reform groupings that have oromise witn Bolticians anc defused in flared • up and mobsters. case anyone thinks that the mistory or the unior Hoffa "the mob' is some sort of out.

Workers defence American dated side-show in it as well TDU had a cost of living politics may clause in its 1976 programine one two orine conservative estimate but. only to link wages to the the net profits from illegal and government's mown InTaton figures. addition, castedd operators or ordai workers ised crime in the US shows that soontaneo 10 times . squads have been formed from it generates more than But in general time to Ine protits or exxon fine largest political corporation in America) anneled leddersn- 'Organisec crime" has been lacking since Farrel here Dobb was jailed in 1941 for refers Ine activities Ine "sedition' major "Mafia' "tamilies the leaders of which all have proven • Ine main close Hoffa/ tool of the state in its battle links Trotskyist leader. As against the Fitzimmons/McMaste oowe axis in the IBT. vodes sale in a television inter.

One Tony view some years later: go and and vice. "Now is true that Hoffa Provenzano was an pres dently faired for orering was amon eloi goon sudd Fitzimmons finally jailed ordering that Tobin sent to Minneapoli: actually true. But he • Meanwhile Frank the kidnapping and murder ot a Fitzimmons squats at the head Teamster dissident effect there he whippec eack Says 1961. us. For instance, he was helped ot the world's most powertu by the Minneapolis Police union, an organisation that has Meat hook Department The cours or unt city, the county, and the state most committed capitalist the mayor, the governor anc nation to a complete standstill The kind of men you come up against if you an anti-labour law that had beer speak out Ainerican capital knows vit rigged and d put through bad thi the ts renos are ano ritzimmons turT Wel the and has so far retained his usefulness illustrated bv the case of Davic FBI, the US Department o despite massive and blatant Yaras former Capone associate founded

IBT

misuse of union funds and blank who cheque support for near psycho- «Local 320 in Florida. Roosevelti , who then happenec be President of the United criminals like Rolland was jailed betore States.. • Under those circum- McMaster. murder Yaras described how he stances you got Ano what ot Hotta the man and his henchmen had torturec Hoffa had just a little help, who made Fitzimmons, only to suspected government didn't he?" informer • for • 48 hours, smashing , the kindest joints whether Motta Witn Ice pick Tactics a fender, hubcap nanging him on a meat hook and burning his genitals off with judgement is to a blow-torch. Violence not the only opening sentence ot the whole book: Hoffa's The term "Teamster business tactic used by the IBT leader aluable contribution the antin in many st laus. ship to maintain its stranglehold

IBT

on the rank and file. goon many locals. American labour movement came at the moment he stopped bureaucracy i me violence or ine unionisa breathing on July 30 1975" has negotiated better conditions tion struggles in America during

NUT chiefs won't fight Tories Redder Tape puts leaders in the pink

INDUSTRIAL

By almost 3:1 Jele gates the

NUT

to Special Salaries Conference voted to sell-out accept the "negotiated" by Fred Jarvis and his team. Jarvis 69 laboriously every uelaied minute-by-minute twist and turn of the protracted salary 'cam paign' which ended on May 21st when he accepted the offer of 9.3% + £6 on account along with reference the 36.5% claim to the Clegg Compara- bility Board. This will pay the rest of Jarvis at was pains to the offer stages-Jan point out why this offer is 1980 and September 1980. worse than nurses' the At the Redder Tape BLACKED on posts which conference held nave lallen vacant with no replacement show recently in Birmingham, awareness ot the need the largely SWP-inspired bring home the immediact 'rank and file' organis- of the cuts to Civil Servants, ation of Civil Service though often stopping short at the level of mere gimm- unions discussed the ickry. Tories' Civil cuts In Service jobs. Limitations Redder Tape sees its aim as building a 'rank and file' limitations The of organisation which will con- Redder Tape's political line, centrate on increasing mem- however, can be seen in the bership participation in the way they take upon them- the task of fighting umons at devers. seves Indeed several their the cuts in the Civil Service 0I ideas such as implemen- "because nobody else will".

tation of "no cover' In taking this position they polle- ies by placing large notices effectively abandon any saying

THIS

DESK

attempt to expose those

DON'T GO INTO

THE FIGHT BLINDFOLD!

SOCIALIST

For a

GET

clear

PRESS

lead in the struggle against wage control, cuts and redundancies

NEWS

Wilshire ("public support was stronger") civil the servants' ("they were able leaders and Labour- ites whose policies and class collaboration have made the cuts possible in the first place. They avoid the task of exposing the opportunism of the Militant Group in the Civil Service unions through demands on them to fight within the Labour Party to drive out axemen Callaghan and Healey. And their concentration on the 'rank and file' leaves Ken Thomas and other Civil Service union bureaucrats a free hand to move in from above to sabotage struggles on pay or jobs should they emerge. Tape's Redder obvious

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CUTSE DER FUTURE

SUFTER.

to hit at the machinery of government"). He warned that neither the manual workers

NUPE

the Scottish carnes du secured beret offers in spite of their pro- lactea strike actions. No action called He failed to mention, of course, how the leaderships of the manual workers had —like Jarvis himself-refused to call all-out indefinite strike action, or that in one area where such action did take place-Camden-NUPE Council workers won almost the whole £60 35-hour- week claim. Speakers from the floor, enthusiasm for workplace campaigning will appeal to many Civil Service trade unionists. But they will suc ceed only in betraying their unless they entnusiasm from break their myopic 'rank and filism' and spell out a prooramme that can mobilise develop the strength of the membership in action against the cuts.

Such practical experience offers the best means of ex- posing and removing the existing mis-leaders and def- ending the real interests of the rank and file. • £1.50 . £5.00 . £9:00 . £6.50 . £8.00 SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 20 June 1979 representing local

NUT

President, Murphy, not to Associations which have count the votes because voted to reject the offer- "any division in the Union 200-strong might be used by Casey of in Leeds-deman- meeting the

NAS

recruitment purposes" know why the a division •e c was Executive had not taken up sufficient calculol the from least 50 delegates and a call at Hum Der or branches to organise strike card vote taken action. With right Will Budget delegates breaking their branches and mandates They out that pointed supporting the offer, the the latest Budget card vote was announced as announcement by the 188,00:67,000. Tories hit even harder at teachers' living standards Call to account and jobs. The importance of this A clear assessment must move by the Tories was not be made of the moves by lost Executive member the on Executive this Alf Wilshire, who proposed period, and every Executive the called up memDe

MUSL

offer. to account for their actions and votes. First to fight? Anyone not willing to lead a serious fight to regain living He argued that to fight teachers standards against the Tories on wages must be thrown out at the the cuts will mean forthcoming Executive and taking elections. the government "and does anyone seriously leadership be

MUSI

believe that teachers should elected which will fight for be first the ones to do and wages, Loatlies

LOOS

that? the expansion of the After a move by the cuucanon service

JOIN OUR FIGHT-

AGAINST TORIES!

Returned to office after five years of Labour betrayals, the Tory government has immediately begun wielding a sharpened axe on jobs, conditions and social services. Trade Union rights face imminent legal attack.

Prices are already beginning to rocket upwards.

Plum sectors of state industry will be handed to the Tories' profiteering big business backers; and the pay rises to police and armed forces mark only the prelude to increased state violence against pickets and anti-fascists, and an intensified army crack- The Callaghan-Healey leadership has made it clear that it will opppose any perspective other than settling down and meek- i acceoune live veers orlory devastation And, though they have once more dusted off their near- forgotten "socialist" speeches, Labour's "left-wing" MPs have continued to duck away trom any tignt to remove Callaghan , have set out to establish a basis for LUC leaders collaboration with Thatcher and the Tory cabinet, parallelling their anti-working class alliance with Wilson and then Callaghan But the working class has experienced and overcome such betrayals before-to topple Heath's union-bashing government in and smash through Callaghan's reactionar • rnase 4 o wage controls in a series or monumental dav battes last winter These experiences are not dead. They point to the way that jobs, social services and hard-won union rights can be defended against renewed Tory attacks.

But a principled, revolutionary leadership is needed if the Labour traitors, the TUC collaborators and their hangers-on in the Communist Party are to be exposed and pushed aside. and the mass struggles mobilised that can defeat and remove the Tory government Such a leadership must fight day in and day out for a pro gramme of transitional demands which.

starting from today's conditions and today's consciousness within the working class, lead workers to grasp the necessity for socialist revolution.

And in taking up democratic demands-such as an end to racial and sexual discrimination, it must show the that must be played by the working class as the only consistent.

ly revolutionary capable of leading the struggle for the Cids. emancipation ot manking And it must fight on an international basis-mobilising solidarity for anti-imperialist aell ant capitalist structies- whether in Ireland. in Southern Africa or elsewhere through- out the world, and drawing strength and political lessons from revolutionary upheavals such as that which ousted the hated Shah in iran. This means fighting for the reconstruction of the Trotsky.

ist Fourth International This method of approach, rejecting any descent to simple trade union militancy, or concessions to • any wing of the labou bureaucracy, is the method fought for by the Workers Socialist Ledoue. The next period will see major class struggles in Britain. A principled, Marxist leadership is essential. Our movement though Strong in programme remains small in numbers JOIN US and take forward the struggle for socialism!

Nottingham picket SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 20 June 1979 Bosses move against sit-in strike Yet attack on Indeed another called the union organisation corDany sald taking place at Export Pack- should be made. ing Services, Banbury. Colin Carty, the C No 5 tenance men

TGWU

No: already has went to enter ine section. colln Carty told them it was blacked inquiry Committee Medional hanging over his head. ana uney wenl avay Now he has been suspended to build a case, saying that they bv the management while they had been "threatened' carry out an enguiry into nis so-called stopping of mainten- men moving into part of of the two mainte sance men has ance the site case has arisen from a ceciareo inat all ne was lolo wa: Colin Carty's that the section was sit-in strike which Most own section nave been noraie Carty for the past week. .nas as an action in section ithe section left on the site).

support of a group of members who retusec move

INEO

another section because they _meetina in their own that if Carty was stopped from still had work entering the site and also thev considered section suspension then they would stay the other section was unsafe to out with him. work in. of this other " ne SaTely section has been a long-standing €14m hotel strike! In the aftermath of the Garners Strike, another dispute over trade union recognition started on May the 29 luxurious Grosvenor House Hotel in Last week both groups voted to London-part of the Trust working. Houses Forte empire. Contc

CC IPO

menndet The strike started when 28 detied the vote ana joinea ine picket line chamoe mato.

LOOK

deLIN support of Their snoo sipware biggest being victimised for who was Stri ke came wnen refusing to change her duties.

members working in preparing for a was In une caleriy industry the wages are ver low-£34 week nett. But a inisanas the hotel tor the night lation of the

г0OTE

costs an averaae of £65! held thi: week-at 14 of chambermaids some r 4 milion otousiness were living in-and moved out This shows on the which

THF

ot' inel accomoadtion advice of their trade union torte is prepared to go to smas!

solicitor. They official and any form accepted the payment of £70 as tion inside his hotels. wages. but Official The chambermaids are in the InOS anc Timber and Furniture, Atled Invitina ALAD Intervention Trade

(FTAT)

which Union blacking has thev oinea becaust tne y vele disgusted by the benavour resoonse OTly

GMWU

of which they were coach drivers. It mermers belore. call strikers has been made … ne strike official and FTAT has called assess struggie hotel out two weeks and members in the handful committee subort bul oniyd have come out. demanos tor Still working are "Pull blackıng ot Ihr mensers

EETPU

Ine avlv ana the picket line. maintenance staff. These two sections came out for day-only hear one GMWU official Tilston tell his entatives present! members that now they had "'shown their strengtti" they

FTAT,

Snoule co Dalk lo wok Of eall

AT THE TOP...

UNION DUES

safety by that candes The incident with the main- they arose when Now the comoany Is trylnc kut there are many wiwnesse.

Colin Carty's side; and one olacked important of all, Colin of backing oniv packing They made it clear in a vote ve nesady because of his Meanwhile the sit-in goes on.

Toy plant walk out- he ee ru fotowee sult. But has concoly The strike against the victimisation of five TGWU boost at Selected Toys members

UCATT

Didcot

STL),

has come Ine note frontal attack from the Antiques Fair under refused to cross the picket line.

officials within its meant Ine cancet- first 2½ days. Fair-due District Official Phil Eynan- cost of yet Wa0 nas ••ecr on ta picket line-called a meeting las the lengths which Friday evening boss Sir Charles arome• sirondy tor tose ou tat 20 strikers who have not been of militant unionisa. sacked to to work Teluru Monaay and carry on workint no such determination is while the victimised 5 continue being shown by FTAT officials to picket the gates! —who have called no mass meet- towards 7 nis, ne arguea, woula aiion course "'negotiations" to go on. The officials' limited call for Hard to believe so far received a from Lan Though many strikers found believe now urgent that the It nare Tinelr pars meting, argued against mass Eynan's miserable capitulation, of the last elect a strike his legalistic jargon and pretence take forward of experience conned a majority into voting to return to work. But strikers ebcan *Mobilise union support on realise they had been tricked a better attended meting was *No more talks with THF convened ounady evenu. bosses without strikers' repres- and a vote taken to continue the strike for union recognition and Donations to E. Gallagher.

reinstatement of the tive Brian Grimes, Green, Kingsbury, London N9.

'Fairfield', Roe Donations to 97, Wessex Rd., Didcot, Oxon.

WHADDYA MEAN THERE'S NOT

MUCH GOING ON AT THE

SCOTTISH NUM. CONFERENCE? MGAHEYS A COMMUNIST -

AHE MUST BE SATING SUREIMING.

LOOK MICK--WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN TELLING

KOKeN CEONITC HDIO IKEEN NOl holds up police INUJ contingent arrives at 'Post' offices A succession hundred police Several speecnes Trom took 40 minutes to clear the officials threatened road in front of the Notting- time' the Post-which ham Evening Post at the weekend, union recognition tot after pickets and •sacked 28 refused to allow scab vans striking into the bulding. shut down and that if the Reinforcements were called Bailey atte police charoe Con would be defeated picket line was repulsed and the pushed memoe. Doldt anc vars backwards down Foreman St. It Secretary state several charges decision taken by the took further ushered vans betore through, But the une sureneln about 400 picket comprised of be put into ettect orinters C and ournallsts sharp contrast to ine alsastrou: state of the dispute recture demonstration had beer action. and NUJ by cared Int

„NUH

bureaucracies march

NGA

deputy and a building was newspaper the scak Timeo to artive artt! answe vans had already gone where the Pickets outside STL: basic rates vary 67 p an hour. Top rate with bonus is 71p an hour.

BUT SIR, HE'S JUST BEEN CHURNING OUT THE

USUAL OLD STUFF ABOUT BRINGING DOWN

THE TORIES - AH THAT'S IT!!!

DONT FRET SOE- TUST THE USUAL

FOR TALKS WIT

INCRU DED CollusLea dinines.

TORIES... NO MORE FNLING TO APPLY SAFETY STANDARDS

TO RETIRE AGAIN!!!

-MEETING PRODUCTION TARGETS.. PLUS THE USUAL

] VERBIAGE.

Page 11 porting striKes But worse than that the SWP members and supporters, , who of forefront the ocen the physical resistanci InE abstained completely police, the road to from chaltenging asaster inat was being sperted out by the union leaders Indeed the special edition of the Rank and journalists Charter; produced for the picket, spoke in terms of abject demoraisation cail for strike action, saying that rank and file in the mood nac to be ceol cor tne strixe In fact only by calling the strike the conditions the struggle created to take up the rant ano tHe who know from their experience icloi treachery leadersniu Challenge Again it was only WSL mem- of meaningiess the

NGA

and Stade oers • ane SUDDUl iCT. march who nex attempter Nottingham Evening challenge official slogan of 'Boycott the Post refused activity is now six vear. AI OTTICIa journatists for centred on bulding -would journalists alternative sacked News The Nottingham Dallit Dabe tonk anotaer sir vers iner towards a workers cooperal/ve management This disastrous step, which completely removes the cutting demanded of the demands tor rein

AMOP

that Ken Ashton, NUJ General statement and recognition, well as being doomed to abject union's strongly tal !! e nus annual conference to call a one.

challenged day strike of provincial jurnal- It is a mark of the distance ists in support of the 28 would the end and de twve er

TAIS

correct demand.

TOI

remstate Ashton was forced to return that the edition 01 The tec tre is heces photo Nottingham News on sale at the hecklers picket did not even mention the fact that the picket was taking appropriate time tor inaustrid!

and fact did not plake mention the dispute on any one denera secre tary Les Dixon loftily refused to of its 28 pages! demands know Example NA stoo• on sud The NGA are now intent on keeping T ne colsoute rUmDInC exactly as at present so along can hold out Notting- inat lutey ham memners oune an example of failing papers as settlement necolidlt new technology To this end they have callec September1- picket on a new more unan two montls avuay,dı which the same speakers will no doubt trot out the same dema- All those in the NUJ. NGA and Slade who are serious about anti-unior challenging Post the mandaemenu winning back 'nos otte

NUJ

members and gaining union recognition for all put umions. Inere

MUST

pressure their maximum be strikes iedoer siitu: called. Th shis tigat hot de stop from 28p an hour to should stop about this saying iney are supporting In Nottingham cause

YE GODS!. THE C.P. HAVE GONE RAVING MAD!!!

MICK HAS REALLY BLOWN HIS RESPECTABLE COVER!

DALLY

.FOR

HUH...TYPICAL HOW THE CAPITALIST MEDIA

DISTORTS THE AUTHENTIC

VOICE OF THE

WORKING CLASS!

UTOM march hits at racism

SOCIALIST

PRESS

Australia

MCNEE

general

DEFENDS SPG

strike

KILLERS

call National strikes across Australia have been called in with statements Thousands of trade for this week after the arrest defence of the SPC unionists and anti-fascists of 10 trade unionists in ¡here nad, ne claimed, beer of the turned out last week at the 'ill-founded criticism" Perth last week.

SPG

from "certain sections of funeral of murdered Anti The arrests came after two Nazi League supporter Blair Ine community These "sections" Int Amaradhalca are Peach. Metal Workers and Shipwrights increasingly course becoming Union had spoken at a meeting wide as armed SPG thugs exten Peach was killed by a single 200 workers in the mining blow to the head administered Their operations te Ine wore in front of witnesses by a thug sale harassment of black youth been the smashing of scene growing Patrol trom ine bonce doecial Group. mutant actor. fines But and violent scarcely had the attacks on peaceful demonstra- demonstrators mourners ano Under the state laws of a returned home than Metropoli- tors. Australia, the speeches Western Sir David So brazen was SPG brutality tan police in the massive-riots at Southall McNee. was hitting the headlines of the police commissioner, who was not consulted. But the officials were not had flown arrested until iney the 750 miles back to rertn, as police argued that sections leaflet from the organisers on Nearly 300 people joined the march and at the rally after- meeting were the "march against state and drunk'. wards TinE connection Another official claimed that racism" between Hyde Park repeatedly made between the if the arrests had been made in nature of the Preven- and Kilburn organised by veeressive Karratha, 'there would have

UTOM

last tion East London i errorism

ACT.

the revolution by Act and the "Sus beer Immigration Saturday. workers' lavy So far, the Australian Although there was But a speaker from the Irish Council of Trade Unions (equiv- alent to the TUC in Britain) has called a ‹4-nour national protest strike, while invidiual unions longer, and int called for nave some cases ¡noetnite

SEL

THE IRISH

AWHOLE/AN

OF The arrested unionists are refusing to pay fines that may be imposed. But Sir Charles Court (state premier) is refusing 're examine' the law, and

OF IRF ANN

press remains determined ahead with this attack. For The action of the Court state the latest covernment move in the general offensive by state govern- led by Fraser's reaction- ments i Te dera government Canberra, to confront the organ- ised strength and militancy tne Australian working class and its trade unions. Saturday's UTOM demonstration

FUND

SUMMER FETE

finance our The £2,500 Special Fund, launched to Saturday July 7 from programme of publications over the summer months has 12 to 4 p.m. now finally passed the first £1,000 with a total to date of Cowley Community £1068.76. Centre However, the money is coming in far too slowly. We are Cowley, Oxford now only a matter of five or six weeks away from the closing date of the fund at the end of July and if we are to Cakes * Plants * Games achieve our target on time we need to raise well over f200 a Bargains * Fortune week. The last seven days however brought us less than teller * Refreshments £50. Organised by the While a number of large-scale fund raising events are Oxford Area Workers planned for early July it is nevertheless essential that we Socialist League maintain a steady flow of donations from supporters into the fund each week. All donations should be sent to Socialist Press Special Fund, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

Published by Folrose Ltd. for the Workers Socialist League, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

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in which Peach was murdered that five SPG members have since been transferred to other duties. And the ritualistic pretence of a police "inquirv" Into tre killing of Peach led recently to interrogation and four-day su osecuent Teredst unknown SPG driver, along with the revelation that SPG lockers 40 illegal Containiec over weapons alleged "souvenirs". Total curfew An indication of the picket- role ol Ine once ano these report even aren

SPG

can when TOrCe was usee last vear goalms workers in 750 industrial dis- putes-compared with its role in 300 only narassine voUl football matches As for the mounting police Republican Socialist Party membership have been whose the brutal nar asser Suce Neave sation of demy canth, victimisation

ITISH

WOrKe had come to work in Britain to blacklisting in his native co. clare

EX UNIST

GUE

rty Women in Birmingham are in the middle of a fight to establish a proper refuge for battered women. They have been negotiating for 3½ year WIth The counci but have only oTTerer inadequate short term totally accomodaton Previous accomodation wai so disgusting that in January the to themselves agreed women vacate o erallel after a verbal promise property Council to find them proper accomodation stay The latest short property they have been offered can only cater for two battered women The Tory Council's response to demands for a refuge was to violence against black youth, micivee answe conference was propose a total curfew. Reply- black Inte declared that: "If you keep off the streets of London [!] and behave your selves. you woll lave to wolly about the SPG". much taw and order lice the streets! He went on: "I understand the concern of You get to trouble you one people But it you into confrontation with come the police." McNee's implicit threat to any youth found on "the streets of London" was echoed on the Now framed under the PTA, Scanion is still in brIXtor awaiting deportation without trall A speaker from the worker Socialist League emphasised the centrality demand the troops out now but pointed out that the key to winning this demand continual turn into ine oroanised labour move ment to secure working clas action to force withdrawal of the imperialist troops Kick out Callaghan This does not mean trying to change The lories spots fick in the aboar nd Callaghan Mason peacersnt• Witch nac been responsible for the same policies under the Im berlaust last Labour government and which now opposes action remove the Tories Women fight for safe refuge declare that they had 'no empty property avallable women occupied the Edu ca•baston owned by cation Department Which been standing empty for some In the absence or nondayin!

Tories, the Council passed eviction motion le revelab order on the house and to find another refuge for the women.

Pledged support But electricity and water have been cut oft and the Torie!

are threatening to (reverse tne when return. decision themselves

I NE

intend to continut

OCCU

pation until a suitable house is Police in action in Southall same day by Manchester's Chief Constable Anderton - James r the who became notorious huge • police protection he laid to allow NF leader Martin to march through th wveoster streets of Tameside Anderton for the pena INSULUTIOn camps" for "marauding gangs of dirty youths and men Shoot to kill His elite own Manchester Aid squad. the armed Tactica modelled on the SPG Group, recently tele was shown in training on military vIsIon style manoeuvres shooting kill man-shaped targets and at youth outside a tooloan match There is he das are to that with class battles Tories comme • unde capitalist state will machine seek to extend and strengthen detachments such police smash otsoerdl picket lines and prevent mass mobilisations workers and youth in street protests.

Licensed thugs In supporting the call for the

. TAG

the SPG oisoanoine

COT

and similar squads socialists further, and demand must alsoanoine police force the which licensed thugs of the capitalis a late al t opposed to the interests of the working class unions and workers irade political ordanisations must al once full-scale convene workers' into Peach's murcer. . ano take uo tne Toni within the Labour Party for the removal right wing of those govern Headers watte in ment supervised the emergence SPG and cold-bloodedly used these killers adainst mas pickets at Grunwick and else- offered. Many trade unions and trusts have pledged charitable their support. Responsibility It is vital that the maximum suoDort trom ine labour move ment is gathered and that gas electricity are persuaded to reconnect ant maintain services. The Tories see any escape from violence for womer threat to the sanctity • of thi family. The labour movement must recognise

ITS

defand women who are forced out of their homes for their own and their chiaren s satery.