Socialist Press no. 157

REJECT THATCHER'S

FRAUD! LINK

WAGES TO PRICES!

SOCIALIST

PRESS

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 157 * 4 July 1979 * 15p Somoza doomed but who will take over? In the last week the diplomatic remove dictator Somoza and salvage Nicaragua for imperialism have been fever- ishly pursued. The war. of course. contin- ues unabated even the and mandarins of Washington accept WIll determine Ine political future ot the centra American state. This is why the US rejected the British working class Somoza's offer oT resignation into accepting a drastic cut last rridav which was made on in real wages in the next the condition that US to pour funds into the continue year, the Thatcher govern- ment is preparing to rig the aulonal Guare. course action Such Retail Prices Index by could only deepen the war- leaving out the soaring price with or without Somoza. of petrol and heating oil.

Atate benartment otticia said: "One side is negotiating, They hope that the resulting but we are not". bogus figures will el sudat ne us imperialists mav wel workers to submit wage claims cajole nave given up trying to far below the real rate of infla- Somoza but they are now work- ine overtime on tre new orovis This blan was brazen!. ional government recently estab- revealed last week during the lished Sandinistas Tokyo summit, at which leading

(FSLN).

capitalist heads of state debated A whole series ot oans nave ways or toistine ine cost or une been cascading down upon this oil crisis onto the world's work bourgeois body in an effort to ing class. Thatcher eagerly took up the wean it wrom te iviarxist ere- the which ments Proposal. Trom a major speech obviously still influence the former Labourite Roy Jenkins, President of the arica struggle The first effort was a pom- Common Market Commission.

pous and idiotic 'constitutional settlement' dissimilar Higher prices ПОЧ that put forward for Zimbabwe imperialist powers last by the Jenkins stressed that while it sycar was This was essential that the rejected out or hand because it was dependant cost or dearer oil was oassec on on Somoza's agreement. prevent workers Now the provisional govern- from obtaining ment has denounced a new US wace increases effort to persuade big enough to compensate for and businessmen" to break with these price rises! Living standards must fall Tot or to real see tor "evervone' in une vestern cannot afford with countries, he declared.

FSLN

But of the the course the term moment real evervone" indeed their allance with the conceais une re be onsolidati gi rapidly.

content of the plan. The capitalist consolidating class, top rapidly managers and professions will of nowever Somoza will compel them to course continue to benefit from call an immediate halt to mass huge salaries, unlimited dividends. Torv tax hand-outs mobilisation and the revolution ary movement. expense accounts and lavish "perks"-while the full brunt of Despite continued anti- the current tidal wave of price yankee invective there is a real danger that the junta will accept increases. social service cuts ano US intervention in one form or mass unemployment falls onto working class families. anotner in order to ro ITseT oT Somoza, which it has already Thatcher's plan to rig the declared is its prime objective.

Retail Price Index would have a particularly. immediate and dras- Such be situation may tic impact brought about under cover of a pensioners. military stalemate. rowe soudder severed the ink between pensions and average But it is clear that the junta wages-substituting a simple link remains a capitalist body, dedi- cated to the exploitation of the witn ine netal rrices noex.

tically retreat from changing the A trame to index de fuel masses and palpably incapable

RPI.

But let there be costs the Index would oT Institutino the vague and mistake. grandiose reforms it has touted therefore leave pensioners hiah essential question for race was headst of living about. the Tories-as it was in three races way their years of wage controls under the each cav passes IT incomes. becomes clearer that the depar- Labour leaders-s To Torce the working class to carry the whole Small savers the struggle but the beginning o1 cost the economic crisis. StruGgles Which must And thousands of other Only in this way can the continue until they achieve the small savers and pensioners with nose inrouch increasec exo oit.

overthrow of capitalism index-linked incomes would also ation to restore the profitability Nicaragua and the establishment lose out hand over fist. of British capitalism. peasants This workers and such ment create such ar nelr allies outcry that Thatcher could tac- offensive against the working * TGWU must take the lead in defence of living standards class will be those wretched leaders who union time and acain aroue inat workers snoule respect viability' of the employers and restrict their own demanas accoralnoly. All such policies-which lead only to poverty and unemploy ment must be rejected. Workers must take action to detene real wages against inflation through cost-of-living clauses. But the open discussion government plans to cook official figures pinpoints the

TIM

-PRICES

inadequacy of the Retail Prices Index as a basis for workers to calculate the real cost of living As a sum total of the price of a huge of goods and absurd luxuries services-Trom household soap-the Index fails to account for the fact that disproportionately large pro- parket goes on essentials suchas DOTtIOn worker's food, clothing, travel •ane housing-the

COST

Which tends to rise faster than luxury goods. SWP's long struggle against Leninism Centre Pages Last week's Daily Telegraph shopping for instance, registered micreast

TOOC

-orices •Ine last sIx months-an annual increase of over 24%. And this is before the new fuel prices and EEC price increases make themselves felt!

Add to this the fact that as Tory spending begin to bite, the local in variations counci rents. buone transoort costs, rates, etc., will grow even wider. Various services will be dAco altogetner orinaina additional costs to working class families. In short the only way that the rea increases in workers cost of living can be calculated is not through the abstract and selective coverinent pubicised by the mass media but through the setting up in each area of elected committees with nets or working out a workers' price index. Housewives In setting up such commit- tees local union branches or shop stewards' committees must take steps to ensure that they include representatives of house.

wives, claimants and pensioners.

The help of experts sympa thetic to the labour movement should be enustee, and unions must be called upon to make their research facilities available to such price committees.

The figures produced will show unmistakeably the pace at which workers living standards are being attacked by the Tory and spell out to workers the urgency of waging a fight for cost-of-living clauses in all agreements to provide pay each month full compensation Tor intiation as snown on tne workers' price index. The TGWU Biennial Dele gate Conference will next week discuss precisely such a policy- which two years ence By voting for it, and fighting for its inclusion in pay claims delecates can aive a lead to the whole working class, strike a Tories major blow at the strategy, and show their deter- defend their members' living standards.

Defend living standards! Wages must be cost-of-living clauses in agreements! Build workers' price comm- Prepare mass action to bring down this ory covernment o employers and bankers!

Turkey's desperate political crisis Page 2

- INTERNATIONAL

The government Turkey led by Bulent Ecevit remains in office by virtue only of boycotting parlia- Meanwhile the right wing opposition-including the fascist NAr-remains sinole

VOTE

short of the 226 needed to over- parliament turn Ecevit. cliff hanging situation nas arisen as resut or ine defection of several MPs from Ecevit's Republican People's guver nment rarty and incependen acevIt's cabinet ministers-all of whom proved itself unable to resolve have joined opposition. country's economic crisis The opposition has shrewd nenas tinaily complied with

IMF

and imposed a ly pressed not tor motions ot confidence in the government, 13% devaluation in the Turkist D l tor censure mceos cce lra-but the capitalist class nas no confidence that he will foist at exposing the •corruotion oi various government ministers.

the full burden of this onto the A month ago this forced the turkish working class nasty restonaton or tne social security minister; now the min- Strikes Customs and Mono- pones races lne same trealtteilt Indeed strikes have already T sn catence ot nim tra Ecevit is forced to the humilia- this latest attack, begun against ting tactic of boycotting Parlia- otave ntauon • lar above present ment. tavei But behind these farcical The capitalist class fears an lies •deadly proceedings extensior inlesd Ititially Seriols

•OTICO

CrISH Isolated strikes-ana is tinancıng threatens Turkey with a milit- the of the growing ary-fascist dictatorship.

fascist movemienl Basque struggles expose Spain's "democracy" The Basque question has ot "la militar) which save been focus all terrorist again become the dominant individual altiuils

UTILU

political issue in Spain.

personnel

COT

tne colce ana Ins qay necause oi demands It appears, however, that the Ine new bombings were most likely namtousty tarstu masses oi cuskaol ftne basoue Ine work ot anotner oroanisa provinces) or tion,

ETA

(politico-militar) du tontony even independence. which has recent it is aiso decause ine oasoue virtual oeciarea d truce vilt daily shows up the authorities. Question superficiality of Spain's "demo.

The spectacular new cam- cratisarion since tne ceatn o oaron may pe daray desionea lo Franco. restore some the Ot popular support which

ETA

(politico- stimulates demands

ETA

inrovonout ine countrv doainst mitar Nas lOSI the Madrid-dominated Spanish (militar) state so treasured by Francoists.

The bombings were appar- ently firstly against The directed astounelnolysuccessTu assassination campaign by ETA rrencr tourists orotesT (militar)-the most active and against persecution of Basque exiles in France by militant wing of the Basque govern- of Giscard d'Estaing nationa rtcn movement- ment nas exposed the popular natred Close triner ot duan Carios l, for Francoist police and the man Franco made King).

armed forces. Limited hatred has oeen ae vances of Herri Batasulnatora electoral revealed ted to the however, the focus shifted Suarez govern erectoral TrOnT su•ported

ETA

(militar) the recent Madrid ment elections-a clear of statement (politico-militar) demanded the transfer of 100 Basque political mass suodot tor

CAS

point terrorism which has prisoners from the iail in Soria despatched 30 officers of over to a prison in the Basque region limited nationalist seoressive stale apoar alus Inis vear. demand is supposedly meant Militánt demonstra- mass be a prelude to a campaign for in Euskadi the tions against their release. ETA's campaigns of political cónté coveend oóven boe last few months become almost volence are. ou course. nor new a daily event. What makes them so threat- present Spain's ening Murder ruling class is not so much their increasing practical success And after the police murder the which they are increasingly linked mass of an anti-nuclear demonstrator in Navarra a tew weeks ago moo isations in demonstrations brief but almost universally

• SUTIKES

followed general strike showed Probably only a minority of the initiated the strengin ot working cias.

modnccnn ce loathing the Francoist by the ETA leaders themselves intensified who, despite their talk of authorities and "'socialism' tend to be rooted cemanos tor tne witnorawar ov central government forces in the methods from Euskadi. geois political elitism. Many of the mass mobilisa- Last week the issue domin- tions are relatively spontaneous.

ateo tne tront dades or eurodes capitalist newspapers as a series virtuav Inem are bombs exploded in Spain's opposed by the local leaders of Spanish main workers' man ToUrIST centres-actions which were attributed to ETA.

the CP and the PSOE parties. On the face of it this was a well as by the powerful nationalists of the bourgeois surprising change of tactics com pared with the recent traditions basque Nationalist rarty ([NVI.

Ecevit clings to office through boycott of crush the Their strategy organise rarisi with. The fascist mition memoers-s continuine its campaign of terror against the and labour movement Nouond mimodmes. an averaoe of two to three people are shot dead every day. Despițe Ecevit's talk of the armv preventino suen actons.

the martial law regulations leave the fascists a free hand while left. VOlenEly reoressnie . Lne Not a single left wing paper to publish .E. the martial law areas-which include ai une man work no class con- centrations. Strikes and demon- strations are under strict police and miitary scrutiny and open to fascist attack. Once again the working class The PNV looks on with especia norror at the present situation: on one hand a flass movement waeh il cartiiol control and on the other hand a central government which every- ud y sows lse d rrttie fore form of Basque nostile to any. Catalan) autonomy Suarez latest delayıng man- oeuvre is to oace ine matter In the hands a parliamentary which will come up committee

WITE

• anuted

TOF

autonomy in the autumn at the earliest These are the bitter truits of mne v s aoeer willnaness to compromise with the Francoists in Madrid. nev were encouraceo to see this as a feasible route towards convincing mask of some auto- nomv bv the presence in Suarez' party (the Democratic Centre Union) and styled and Christian democrats wno •favoured liberal treatment of the national minorities. Now. nowever. ooen ano ouollc rittin the uc government itself. Those with the purer Francoist pedigrees, like Suarez himself, are coming out more and more openly agai nst nationa cne mv ever closer political into an alliance the even with more Democratic o•eniv reactionary Coalition led by Areilza and Fraga. This hardening of the face of the smooth and smiling "demo- cha e Strame bain lexess oon the extreme brittienes. •ontica comoromise whieh nas allowed the Spanish ruling class to appear to pass from dictator.

smo to cemocracy. Right wing leader Areilza is paying the price for the reac- policies of the Populat tonary Front-the attempts by Stalinist and reformist leaders to fight alliances with Tascismn Inrouen "democratic" capitalists.

Turkey, both the reform-

ISIS

ano olalinists Teldi tied completely Fravit anc government to be daimiocrathe

RPP

proclaiming even as lts martial laws crack down the working class. Jailed Only recently leaders of the PT Ti wing union contederator

DISK

and the Turkish Labour Party were lailed for a montr following TAPIr Soppcaes CanCi calling of marches on May Day Yet still these leaders refuse Last week Giulio Andre- otti's caretaker minority Christian Democratic government finally ran out of pretexts to delay its formal resignation. until had waited the official th

DOSITIONS

LW0 houses of parliament had been shared out indecisive June elections oerweer Carstan Bemoi crats and the Communist Party.

And it hung until the Christian Democrats had electec their par i seentar preership.

preliminary second showed how far avvdy wd. ally hope tor the talan cao taste of finding a stable replacement series of govern- to Andreotti's ments since 1976 The Cnristiar Democrats leadership elections resulted in a sharp setback for the sections of ine sorte wnicn tavours some sort of parliamentary deal with CP (that Andreotti and the partv General Secretarv Benigno Zaccagnini). Not even top Their candidate Giovanni Galloni, Ene •arhamentary leader (not necessarily the same Premier) in the parlia- failed even to come ment the The oo et aone cet necessary absolute majority.

He was ousted by a repres- entarve or te tar-riont ot ne Pantani, adieh headed ex-Premier opposed to is anv more compromise with the CP Italy's real political crisis, a Crisis

•T COCOS

autnority, opened many years ago The latest formal crisis began lost week ane wil now ecveley with the effort to find a govern- ment which can gain a sufficient vana enlary ncoriy HaT ot tne Constan bemo crats are now vehemently reject- ing a deal with the CP. The CP itself is insisting that if it not oces Lao nel Ministers it will stay in opposi- tion. Square root of the And, none smaller between war tiet SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979 Turkish police arrest young militant to break from Ecevit Cor lc ment has no • #miterest widlever mobilise vast the untapped in defending the Ecevit govern-.

strenath of the ment. But it must organise and lator nove ment in struggle to confront and mobilise to defend its indepen- defeat the fascists. and living aen oreanisations Meanwhile the imperialists standards. bide breaking unel Time awaltina means from moment to replace Ecevit with a

RPP

the to dictatorial that will regime united front of workers' organis- support their moves to stabilise ations to form workers' defence the Middle East in the wake of suudu. Will aeted the Iranian revolution. TascIsts i he Turkish workers' move

ITALIAN BOSSES

IN DILEMMA

presented with the same charence «Detore Ine erections wisely decided to die of a heart attack. In the face of this crisis the CP leaders seem as oaralvsed as those of the bourgeois parties.

Evaporating their Beyond mouthing demand for a broad class-collab- coalition, oration Isi

TOPL

are unable to take any initiative losing even more willoul TopIr manae wcn! election showed, specialiy evaporating aready among the young. The working class, however insistently demanding is more indl ine ontica Dalarysi. ended. Andreotti-seeking guidance?

Last week the Stalinist-led

CGIL

trade union federation (Socialists, Sociat Democrats, or couo no n londel avole canind Mepublicans) apparent/y willing ot loegal eareers insonorion long-delayed demonstration without the CP to take sibility for keeping the Christian wade demanos widh were oul Democrats ottice. new for settlement nearly a year ago formula looks about as difficult The CF leaders weakness to find as the square root of the face ot mass oressure minus one shown by the turnout The crisis of Italian parlia- 200,000 demonstration democracy, mentary which Inev nac triec to keeo as smal reiects ine latent exoiosivenes as possible. the ay merlv ne class con- flict, may such that non Physical violence nemtnel cominani political parties can be permit ted to divert, and perhaps not It was also shown by the fact that their only • to of the next be part evert government. autoliur Ironically the only formula worker. neeseneeni which stave off total the CP) who wanted to join the can march was to instruct the stew- political crisis in the short run, may be for the government to ards (working in close collabora be led and perhaps even tion with the police) to keep by, them away with physical viol. consé yne oen ence gained /east votes in the general election. Dozens of autonomists were Inured

EAS

scaneaiou. Decided to die onslaught. end of his speech Luciano the CGIL's LalTd While some C•otca • General Secretarv was veterar congratulat- commentators rushed off to hospital with what devising this was rumoured be plecant souton oran malndr attack, later stated to be heat government to lead Italy, few o STroKe them are offering suggestions a It was in fact more likely to what oolitician could pull of blind terror sight. of sc at such a delicate trick. many wor kers •emanoine lna Three months they ago their organisations lead a fight •Repub. suggested Italy's rotting capitalist WoUiC Have against lican Party leader ugo La ivalta structure. He, when nowever

Dominica crisis spurs Post union bales

IRAN WORKERS MUST REJECT

KHOMEINI'S "COUNCILS"

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979 Following the down- fall ot the second Carib- bean this government year, the smaller islands are planning joint secur- ity measures an preserve attempt to their shaky regimes. The of the overo w Granada Gairy regime earlier this year appears to have prompted a speealel discussions conc usior setting the up almea Eastern viganisalion Caribbean States (OECS). Cabinet status One proposal is for the establishment oI a regional police force of 120 under a Commissioner General who will be given the status of a minister by all the islands involved. islands of these

MOST

have radical socialist groups similar to the New which Jewel Movement overthrew Gairy • in Grenada aim of the regional ana lne police force would be to such groups from follow the attempting to example of Maurice Bishop's New Jewel Move- Iloill, Such a force, however, will Mr Patrick John who has finally

DCCI

leblalcu prime minister of Dominica.

The Shah may have tem- porarily escaped death by assassination in Mexico. But the risks which he runs in nis luxur -ne exe bear c comparison with the dangers exploited confronted by the masses oT hran Formerly oppressed imperialism through the tyranny O1 Tne onan Ine WorKT other oppressed classes in Iran the monstrous threat now face counter evo allary Gictatorsnio trom Knoment ano his 'Revolutionary Council' The Islamic regime has pro- Clame une Toal l lodl councils throuonout tne with strictly limited powers and jurisdiction. Opposition This obvious, move is an torced resoonse to tne contin- uing demand for greater demo- and an attempt to estab- cracy, isn local pases o autno oi the Khomeini regime. The councils are designed to counter -Dalance tne strenain ot the tactorv commit tees and strike committees. they stand in sharp OpOSItIOn Ine netesaly cemane that sovets of workers power be built from these organisations ineeoenoent working Clas. strength: At the same time, the limits Ine councIls altneriy nakediy exposed by the contin- uing repression of the national minorities Who are demano no the right to self-determination, through within autonomy the inaeoenaence trom ranidl state. At present it is the Arabs in Khuzestan who are experiencing une snaroest ece ot anomeits 'freedom from tyranny' with the armed forces attacks from ane revolutonary cudres media censorshl• enforced, the rights of political Hecoom organisation are violenty denied the left opposition Memners and cunnortars o

-INTERNATIONAL-

on Caribbean force Desmond Trotter, the well- radical who was known for murder Iramed lve d ANGUILLA years ago and sentenced to

„BARBUDA

ST MAARTEN

ST. KITTS

death until an international

NEVIS®

TANTIGUA

him

MONTSERRAT*

Com vacl WUl

A GUADELOUPE

reprieve, managed to escape Irom Jall detst cn y DOMMICh fusion.

→ MARTINIQUE

Lasted one day

ST. VINCENT & ST. LUCIA

Garibbod member tormet Mr government, SOnn' s Oliver Seraphine, who

GRENADA P

resigned to set up his own Probrão political party after hearing of links between the govern-

'TRINIDAD

ment and South Africa, has new appointed the

OCCI

prime minister and will head an administration of various parties until fresh elections are organised. island's presarent, Mr Fted departure As the head of the reac- Britain at the Degazon Dominican Labour tionary height of the crisis preven- Party government, John was ted John being immediate- introduce ly since nobody allempulg replaced legislation to limit the right had the autority strike and tighten the appoint a successor. libel laws. The next President, Sir Louis Cools Lartique only General strike lasted a day, resigning after Massive demonstrations demonstrators attacked his in which a man and a baby home. President were police gave Eventually •klllea by to a four week general appointed way was successfully strike in outburst and he in turn appointed Mr discontent which brought Seraphine as prime minister.

together sections Dominican society. During the strike Shah's troops could not hold back Iranian masses: can Khomeini and Bazargan?

the Fedayeen, the HKS (Social- budget-and itself admits that Party, Workers jointly this is not 'revolutionary'.

USFi by former the anc

TWO

matn orovistons OCRFI), and even the Stalinist concern state expenditure and Tudeh Party Government beaten up nationalisation. to be demonstrations reaclonary spenaty siasneo by thugs, and arrested some 30% WitholT charges or trials by the 'Revolu- 'National' etfort and their tionary Committees' Alts expe thet tremand evel neneamer this expenditure in this protonged crisis of under intensifying repression, another Shah's dictatorship was a major developing, of struggle factor crisis, diec in tne economic Economic a move itself will do cemanos course played a major part in improve the lot o notnine lo Shah the exploited workers. UvernIOv Exaggerated by the policies On the of his tyranny, the world econ- designed to stabilise the econ- omic crisis of capitalism struck omv tor capitalst develooment.

Even then, it can be effective OlOWS against the work ing class in Iran. only if the cost is borne by the workers oedsants dliC polly Political forms bourgeoisie. will not be long before Many thousands of industrial and Bazargan Khomeini issu wor kers were erodue in sulkes a national vear Whicn oeoan with rousine aopedis Tor claims for higher wages and effort to resolve the crisis while they seek to impose 'austerity" improved working conditions, those of inen rabloiv ceve obed Inte medsures TrOTInO directly political forms every other capitalist govern- action Policies for wage-cutting Now. cocke• in lis neces+ sary secrecy, the 'Revolutionary increasing productivity ano reducing manning levels through Council ' has prepared its first out Lynch government The strike by Irish postal workers was called off by union leaders last week after nineteen weeks. The sell-out was a move bail the Lynch to government. leadership The union accepted an offer of 15%, 12% with in crease loi clerical workers, agalsi 37% claim On the spot The deal came at the end betwsen talks SeveT Lynch Irish Posts allu The determination of the Telegraph Minister, Faulkner, and the industrial ICTU to bring the massively powerful strike to an end relations committee of the was due to the fact that the Trades Congress Irisa Unions. labour bureaucrats are nov firmly the spot The deal hatched up talks then wages. these was Having rejected the accepted by the executive 'understanding' proposed by of the Post Office Workers the Lynch government in Union increase its control through such economic influence but above an. it is tne ecort- omic factor which has driven them to this step Like any 'radical' nationalist regime, common anc WItH capitalist government, every been taced with the Inev navt necessity state ot taking into industries ownership which are vital to the nationa economy, yet which cannot be organised profitably by private Caulldl Khomeini and Bazaraan are Sapinism in fran on ae cens basis seeking reconstruct éé de dond on nc çvr tion against the Shah They must be : fought every inch of the way in the struggle end oppression and the exploitation of the Iranian Hlases nemanas tor tulk emoov ment, improved conditions and will starting THuliti Walts points in tnese batties redundancies are the solution At the same time , the bogus these 'revolutionary 'nationalisations' must be coun- which hold leaders wilt OUl terec • OV tne cemand Tor une immediate future nationalisation, under workers' Equally, the planned nation- management without compen- industry, alisations have nothing to do the sation, with socialism nanks ana a mor caltalisu many (notably holdings in the struggle to build cases insurance), they simply consoli- socialist planned economy cae une massive stale owner. i ne mameclale untedl lo trit ship already developed under Iranian revolution Goes noi the Shah's rule. come from the imperialist power ranged outside, but from In other sectors, state owner- ship is proposed Where Tne tne forces ot reaction previous owners and managers and from the crisis of leadership in the working class. the and Tavt fiCO Coutily. unitv benino knomeini can present controlled lead only to a massive setback for those by the factory committees.

and bloody Torces wno tovant so nerolcaly Total threat against the Shah for their liberation already Of course there is no inten- fragile gains _ ne allowing made can be secured and devel- oped to a far higher level only let workers Collor dulit by the independent strength manacement in inese concerns the quite the reverse, for the bour- uniting all ime brotetaridl. geois and leaders oppressed masses behind the Islamic banner of its class dictatorship ot the

TUHV

conscIous Lola threat this would pose to their an nd scrvdcr dy power. the leadership of a revolution- with the The 'Revolutionary Council' party armed al y threpa and partibe a designtis motivated trans tiona orooramiit socialist revolution. Page 3 • the hope that Lynch would something little the more saleabl® faced CTU leaders were with a unilateral 7% pay ceiling from the govern- Iclll The first challenge to this pay policv is lkeiv to be 55,000 building workers who have put in a 25% pay claim. Action by other power- ful sections of workers ove pay would bring to an end postal isolation workers have faced through the nineteen weeks. Carbon copy The Lynch pay policy is almost a carbon copy of the ill-fated Phase of the Labour government with Britain complete 'sanctions' contracts who against empioyels settle outside it. The Irish economy is in crisis with the pound falling lower against sterling C ano jacked up by Inleresi rales between 1¼ and 22% Inflation is rocketing and the growth rate promised at 6.5% year, has downrated to 5% The first indication that the ICTU and UPW leaders call off were preparing to the action -which has brought post and telephone to a halt in the services the Republic-came WILl calling off of a march by the Dublin Trades Counci support of their demands.

Militancy The last march called by the trades council against tax increases was massively caused supported and virtual one-day general strike through Dublin. The AUEW had proposed a one week general strike in of the POWU-a support move which reflects the within their own mullancy ranks over wages. Warning In Ireland, as in Britain for the whole period of wage controls, union leaders who were unable to come out clearly against strikers, have isolated each strike by the retusing struggle to become general- ised For whatever bureau- cratic reasons their call had been made, the AUEW had effectively challenged that policy and cut across scabbing that had started on strike, for the Post Vitice example by the ETU which naa instruciea mem vers le deliver electricity bills.

the The betrayal postal workers is a warning to other Irish workers who are prevaring lo light ovel wages. Leadership The warning is not that not fight, they should but need a politica. Ena ne leadership which will not stop short of challenging the government's ability govern. To create such a leader- ship a major battle is now against the union needed who act leaders, Lt d! government's agents.

Give troops a chance LABOUR SWP's non-political 'rank and file' offers no lead in fight against Tories Page 4 Eric Heffer has spoken out the question of British imperialist troops in Ireland. But he clo not call for their immediate withdrawal. Rather he complained about the use of disciplinary measures against soldiers serving "under a strain" in Northern Ireland What declared they Hetter is not discinanarv action but a bout of hospital treatment or of removal from Ireland.

oresumaby Should put them on their feet again Catholic down reduy. and youth, Workers

KICK

front doors and carry out their general duties of intimidation of The nemonast do•uaton. •Trade union the Hetter.s concern

TOT

plight of these armed thugs of British imperialism matched interest what ally ever in the plight or tne rist people. He went on to propose that members the armed TOrCeS allowed to form 'trade outside of union of their owr The ul-cone ine nes oy tne Police Federation! And he was at pains to stress That he die not want to under.

mine" the Forces. stand

UNIS

reactionary HeTTer Seaks for the wole ot Labour's so-called 'left' wing, 1,000 More than trade union delegates packed New Century Hall, Manchester, for the largest conference the Kank and File group has ever called. Called "Defend Our Unons" the conference had chord inside militant sections of the well as working class, with left facing sections of the petty bureaucracy SWP leaders, boggle-eyed at the numbers hailed the outstanding conlerence all Weak Yet if the political level at which the conference was called was low, had still by the plungea lower time it wound up. The overwhelming con- from the clusion to come conference was Tne class is weak; that working it is itself to blant fortn and that what weak: requires "more old fashioned trade unionism' To this end the confer- ence endorsed a Rank and File Code of Practice containing trade union demands on blacking, picket lines and accountability, all strike which hecome policy within committee hours oi most disputes start-

LIE

Accolade Speaker after speaker- all, bar one, hand picked- the rank and file attacked for not fighting and stressed the need to persuade mort workers to fight. Phil Gilliat, from the Sanderson's Strike Commit- -pleads Heffer torture chiefs Merlyn Rees and all of whom as reformists accept Rov Mason throughout the life of the repres ine conanuation sive machinery of the capitalist ot the Labour cooiner anonas declare verbal yet opposition to the role of British minister under As a tormer imperialism. Harold wilson, wetter cave nis tacit support Labour few government's policy of military Tribunites that have spoken in repression support Ireland-a stand OTTA WITh away echoed by fellow Tribunite Stan British have refused to troops fight for wn actualy look on d removal or une

OTO-

ministerial post in the Northern Callaghan-Healey Imperialist Ireland office. leadership But Labour's 'left' is not at most prominent LaDour s "left" careerist Tonv Benn also all reluctant to call for a change happily sat alongside Ireland of leadership in the Tory party.

Sandersons mass picket last October: now Gilliat refuses to call another failures. When a mass picket called, large numbers w do No further mass picket has been called by to do because would bring him into direct

TGWU

the COnTACi

WILO

bureaucracy. When blacking was ordered by the bureaucracy was enthusiastically carried out by the rank and file and the employer was ready was called off prematurely, not by rank and file workers, Gilliat the but bureaucracy That is why the strike is still tee, was given the accolade on. That is why the fight for of opening the conterence.

and not tones cynicism recognition has been despair he brushed aside won. complaints about union Distortion insisting fader slay that ine "ourselves" fault The most conscious distor- "Our own failure to fill the from Arthur tion came gap by the union

IPTI

officials" Todd from the Dunlop committee- Gilliat, who has led the Speke who referred to the disaster Sanderson's struggle for two years, did not specify these that has overtaken workers Last week saw sane sickenine spectacle of Heffer and Walsall Tribunite David Winnick urging Whitelaw to take over the Tor leadership from Thatcher Whitelaw of course was also Tory chief

LOTLUTE

in relanie under meath. Last week vigorously defended the role of the murderers in the Southall rio and retused to call any torm of public inquiry into the killing of Blair Peach Incapable But Heffer cringingly sugges.

ted that "in the interest of the country" Whitelaw should "Provided we still have Tory 'sugh a disaster it might not be he recared The real disaster for the workers' is not that this individual Tory spearneads their attack! living standards, but that the Labour leadership-'left' right alike-is incapable of lead ing the slightest principled fight against British imperialism.

This crisis of leadership can oniv recoved Throuch tot exposure of Tribunite poseurs like Heffer and the construction to leac the struggle in defence of jobs and living standards. there as a 'Pyrrhic victory'.

Vaguely he wrong policies. He managed to avoid the word occupa- tion once in his whole con- tribution and then made the staggering assertion that at the end of the 'community pickets' (which he did not criticise) committee itself leading only tound 150 _ "the wolkers- Ical trade unionists". The other workers then whose jobs had been thrown by Pemberton, Todd away and the rest of tne ledael- presumably to ship, were blame for having recognised that there was no campaign to defend their jobs left.

speakers, some of Other them much less consciously diverting from tight, took their cue from the at the leadership conference. More organisa- the complete tion was substitute for politics. If the major strikes of last winter were referred to at all it was in the tones of mourning for the 'weakness' membership-who were in fact 1,000 times more developed than many speakers at the conference.

'Unwinnable Most speakers referred to Garners. None mentioned nalue concuson nane Garners' strikers themselves had come to was not to blame the rank and file but to blame the union leader- ship and call for their replacement. Nor it mentioned was that the SWP leadership had abandoned the strike 'unwinnable' at the end of last year. The resolution put to the SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979

PARTY

-Tribunite blocks troops out call "The immediate and un- these policies had fallen heavily and conditional withdrawal of Ine second discussion was neated all British troops from Ire- However the final voting land: self determimation for revealed a split of vote ten the Irish people as a whole; for dill PO:V status and release for But Tribunite vice-chairmar Walter Wolfgang refused all political prisoners..

a casting vote and so the • so read a resolution from the Richmond Richmond Town ward Of mowever the Barnes and Richmond Con- Town Ward will not be deterred Labour and will stituency Party prepare for the submitted General question

TO TONS

Management Committee Its ordinary motion calling June 18 for discussion for a demonstration demanding Labour Party's Annua Conter.

aswanding o ence. Patrol Group and a workers The resolution had the unan- inquiry into the death of Blair imous the Ward Peach was not taker as an emer gency item at the GMC meeting Which nad ned such a positior I for the and will be subject for dis first attempt to However its cussion at the next win the General Committee to presumably organisers, making deals with Stalinists or Tribunites, were prepared prevent manoeuvre that vote being taken. A call for the opening of the books of companies to rank file committees and lost clearly but Was 30OI heavily. no surprise, of course, that the conference was led so firmly away from politics. That is the politics of the SWP through and The working class does not need more rank and file 'old fashioned trade union- TGWU bureaucrat Todd: ism'. It needs revolutionary behind sell-outs at Garners politics which and Sandersons. limited to anti-Tory tirades conference had been sent and which put forward a out so late that many dele- consistent struggle gates-and perhaps most - the labour traitors in the had at best received it on and in the the day before the confer- umons Labour Party. ence. Militancy without Yet while the resolution politics offer no way for- had not been voted on by ward for workers branches, amendments were What makes this confer- only acceptable if they had.

different is that it is ence Two which arrived on the day of the conference were clear that the leftward turn- ing layers within the work- ruled out of order ing class are in severe danger So was a third from the being kidnapped by the

USDAW

Manchester

SWP

who will inhibit and packing branch of the Co-op divert their development.

put forward by ICI suppor- ters, which had arrived in time, When delegate but was said by the chairman Dick North, to be launched a tirade against too complicated to discuss.

Lenin, Marx and Trotsky he This position was greeted with indulgent was decisively overturned by the laughter from the

DW F

leadership In reality he comerence in lne only snarp vote taken. caught the spirit of the When two points from the resolution If the IMG seek unity policy (which was never read out) organisation With such then those of their members put, the conference were overwhelmingly carried who serious about against building revolutionary positior import controls party should be aware that What became clear was this unity is the opposite of File that the Rank and revolutionary politics.

WHY HAVE OPEC LEADERS SPURRED

ON CAPITALIST CRISIS?

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979 Last week some of the world's most leaders got together in two summit meetings. Une was the Geneva meetino of ministers from the Organis- Exporting ation of Petroleum Countries lorre were evod sheikhs and military dictators agreed an average price increase the And other was seven Tokvo the summiT leading imperialist heads ludicrous and un : to convincing efforts were made that create Tone impressior capitalism could the oil crisis through answer to Common COnSent imperialists commor determination foist the effects of the oil crisis onto the working class ano the workers

WOMAN

WORKER

Women's paper of the Workers Socialist League Available orice 6p plus 7p p&p from WSL 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR. 01979 and peasants of the colonial and sem colonia countries course no surprise. But what less obvious is why the reactionary oil states- manv or which especialiv oaudl Arabia, dependent upon imperialist military and political support-snoula nave embarked new round price only hasten increases that Ine comine worle ane further weaken imperialism.

The fact that their comestic stroteov tor counterine the growing anti imperialist movements own depends upon shrewo use . revenue ootr for the bolstering state and designed solicites provid mardinal economic retorms and employment for increasingly restive workers and peasants at home.

CLASS LAW IN

ACTION IN

LEICESTER

woman wo Now paper gives a load to women's fight against Tory attacks

SPG

atest round or orice increases The Saudis feel unable either it alone and massively to go increase suooies to me westerr unilaterally countries, or hold down their prices these rooucers are theretore ool d part of and a response to the growing world crisis of imperial Ism. The OPEC price rises and the resulting inflation and plunging living standards will now spur rush The pedatone Lowers world recession: such … a reces Saudi Prince Fahd will itself cut Iranian oil worker The acute problems of such capitalist oil monopolies cashed back demand for oil. on an abundant oil of in profitably under conditions But the poultical ano econ. a surdleyy omic within the oil crude runaway Neut will also intensify-and states alist world economy were high prices depressed lighted by the mounting crisis of The upheavals in Iran under- are unukel to allow even unt of the most craven reactionary regimes Iran. impossibility the Ine regime iined. leeway Spending regimes revenue. 11 KE In Ine •i states contin Within the capitalist coun Shah attempted uing effectively

SUOSICISE

foster- capitalism the simultaneous strategy Western cries inemse ves course political workers face not simply the and expense of their own Comeste technolony

OPEC

industry and the construction of stability. At the same time the a massive and lethal military and three-month stoppage ship

OUT

une specuiation • manold tion and profiteering of the oil ments macaine Caodult TrON oramatically monopolies that have compoun hoped, of repressing revolution- reversed the world supply situa shortage, ary movements not only in Iran ded the crisis and created selec from surplus to tive "shortages" as a pretext for but throughout the Gult creatine conditions maximising prices. of the Tories Instability This of the And ine emercenct taxation policies nas erective fiercely nationalist doubled petrol prices in Britain The huge strains this created in Iran, dedicated both regime few months -while the last within the economy of even the and supplies conserving world's second oil vrer orices nave risen onty us orivine vo is orice. doo sooul funda- 50% ing anti-imperialist rhetoric that But it is wrong to dismiss the found a ready response among menta coot causes or me wow simply ing mass movement that led to East the masses of the Middle where his violent overthrow earlier this oil monopolies or plot by new created Conditions fabrication by the capitalist within OPEC. the Ano the new instabilitv o Indeed Arab regimes the area, , the economic political intensified nave ocer unde the Iranian and military blows pressure to show an anti-imper- revolution struck against imper- face in the wake of the forced the other reactionary Us-tinanced Middle East oil states to look to deal between Egypt their own domestic problems Zionist state which Even Western estimates show contirms Ine alsoossession that, in rose by a t 1974-78 the Palestinian masses and years strengthens the Zionist once orl while • the orice oh nos mor accressors ted oil from World crisis manufacturers-anc . both "detence" costra

TOT

Under these political con- and tor mocernisation protects- rose by 50%. OPEC economists claim that the real increase was feudal regime, one of the closest US imperialism, and Ihus the real value of ol noldine a cuarter or une worle s revenues fell dramatically proven reserves of oil. has been forced along with the those tour vears-while Westerr TO 00 Police in action in Leicester on April 21 jailing of working class youth, None of this was apparently With the encounters with considered threatening behavi- second anti-racist by Leices- police and courts even the clubbing ter magistrates Blail stake arising from the demon- however: this was class justice same armed mob in Southall of the first order. And lest there were any stration against the National courts Front's April 21 march, the Co• talis! Ince no covet tal as alach there for only one purpose: to was directed specifically against question of the defence of •property and the defend private the working class, both the chie labour the who preach no enten rents o1 the gospel Tory jungle, Hemmings and against the attacks of the exploltation privilege and prejudice Hughes, were young workers: Tory state machine has now For this reason there was whilst the throudhou1 Ladis assumed critical importance.

murmur ot ciscuieT TrOM There gas been a steady stream assembled dignatories who of acquittals involving students, Bill Hemmings, one graced magistrates bench, drawn the middle the from class. Leicester sorowing young unemployed last Friday of the Ine Invasion • ns is no retiecon on oe Martin on students April 21 ovel determination armed thugs drawn from fight racism and the Tories, but Hughes in prison tacing a three reflection of parts of the country. rather the month sentence tor usine toreat led. ening behaviour on the streets hey roamed the streets for hatred felt bv une seven hours indiscriminately for working class militants, par- of the city. and ticularly the youth. wielding truncheons riot would no maoistrates this with the doubt justify this piece of legal- shie os accompane. stud lion the grounds alsatians trained to attack and police and

SPG

increasingly Ised savagery taking on the para rott Inal memmies uke many orner Page 5 The franian havt events simply brought rroward the oil that was in any event occur in the mic such they high- lighted the anarchic and destruc nalure LItt Castars system. Planned economy The capitalists now orate about "going nuclear and crash research me sorr energy But it is clear that the only way in which the world's work- Clas Cal avolu d savant recession -throwing furthe into unemployment posing the poverty and and Threat imoeriatis through the struggle in every building of leadership that revolutionar will Tient tor ine overtnow ol capitalism and the establishment of a workers' government Oniy such cover men naser on the development or a socialist planned economy can take the necessary steps • to con• serve and dian ine use or eneray insister viddie East and ents Middle else and whert see

COU

tracine relations on equal terms witt ex-colonial countries that can defending the basis to providE improving living and standards of the world's work. ing class. Capitalist leaders Schmidt and Ohira, forced to pay more mustar coreckers a no goon squads it is vital that the labour movement question detence adainst Inese altacks 1: openly debated Leicester 21 April Defence Committee is absolute.

correct

SAP

The centra fight now as not just a financial one but as a political one, to win abour movement suboort monstraticision to call for a July demonstration "Dror arouno une socans Charges-Disband the

SPG"

must be supported by all trade Unionist ano LaDoul Part members who wish to defend the independence of the labour movement But for such a campaign to succeed, it needs to draw in no IncIvidua Allarts must aco be • directec towards settling accounts with the right labour leadership SPG and towards compelling the trade union leadership and the lefts recently vocd around Kenn to make a stand For this reason, the call from the Defence Committee Artour scargil aligr „nIr self with the demonstration and from platform so early with nialec /Yorks miner Martin Hughes must be echoed throughout the 1a00UT movement anar Lice larly in the coalfields. Scargill who overruled even NUM legal assistance to Hughes mus pressed mobilise the strength ot the around the detence of the Leicester 87 his was the lesson ot the Pentonville 5 and Scargill, Benn and all the other lefts' know it only too well.

THE SWP'S LONG FIGH

Page 6 "For Marxists in advanced countries, Lenin's original position can much less serve as a guide than Rosa Luxembourg's, notwithstanding her over- statement on the question of spontaneity.

(T.Cliff, Rosa Luxembourg, 1959).

"However, whatever the historical circumstances moulding Rosa's thought's regarding organisation these thoughts showed a great weakness in the German revolution of 1918-1919."

(T. Cliff, Rosa Luxembourg, [2nd edition] 1968).

Those like the leadership armv officers, managers, lawyers of the International Marxist and so on, are subjected to an Group who peddle the idea intense education process which SWP's that the stated muCT technical committment to a demo- "But it is very dangerous to cratic centralist party' can mainly party's job see ne be taken for good coin are that of teacher. The main job is playing a dangerous game.

to give a lead To do this effectively the Thev are aiding Tony Cliff and his fellow SWP leaders in •ary manitants must usten, musi their attempts to systematically be sensitive to changing workers revise ano destroy date calls to link the how of the Trotskyist movement.

MUSI

KNOW

good for aspirations not workers to political aim. In short the IMG central accept the selt-pro their to learn from claimed cemocratic centralism they have of the SWP and put forward a fellow workers much -ol more-as they have to teach. mis criticisms ot the lack Tev To repeat, the job is to lead ot the cemocratic party It is necessary • to probe the and lead

VOU

Mave Cliff's under- thoroughly understand nost ot you are leading. Leadership is a standing of Leninism. Two way process Programme Luxembourg The job of the party leadership is to generalise the libraries. be even yve can theretore oniv dive a capellent under certain circum- brief outline of the main issues - to lead them a imultants and unity with stances designed to prompt they lead their fellow workers.

outline those who hold a ditterent view the left) see ot stainism-it a tirm common the leadership the Darly establish ali Ramblings repository coctrine and kept organisational skill There are many quotes we Of course it has Concerned -is not endle and knowledge. could select from Cliff's volum- for Trotskyists unify with to beatnese thines some those who everything reject nous ramolinos on une subell degree. But mainly it has to be We have selected the one which Ine Leninist, rotskvist tradition apt learner, most follows because we think that it the surface 'agree. except ear the firmest sensitive ane ments' with Lenin. is reoresentative or nis linking will." "Revolutions do indeed start necessary Cliff, Portugal at the as spontaneous acts without the examine claimed acnerence international Social- How- Crossroads. Leninism both theoretically and seadesh or a party ism 81/82. September 1975).

The SWP fails both understanding oracularly. the uprising revolu- inese Tests tions move forward Halure Cids. At the head of this article we and its develooment is central to the Ist and 2nd editions October solving our task of transforming Rosa revolution Cliff's was not a soontane class working but was organised Luxembra ane secono cuott all important practically wores from a class in sell to c comes after the IS/SWP conver- class for itself'. tion to •articulars including the date, This means raising workers by the Bolsheviks... As we snowe last week, une to a leve where inev recochise group adapted antl "Nowadays everyone pays at and are able to carry out their communism in late 1940s historic task of liberating man- least lp service to the need tor political preparation but in fact ana

SOHE

WIEn Kind defence of North Korea against still substitutionalism [sic!] The dispute we have with imperialism. the IS/SWP is one which in its rite on ine revolutionary leTt But bv the 1960s it felt able "It needs to be emphasised essentials was fought out to take a position of defence of and re emphasised that, in Lenin in his battle against the North Vietnam. Marx's words 'the emancipation Russian requires The key to this change was ot the working cass mude required reading the act of the working class ot course rootec in ine chande: those who wish to lead our clas petty bourgeois "public itself' today is Lenin's pamphlet What opinion" i-particularly that "But the rejection of substi- Is To Be Done? amonest students who entnus tutionalism in no way involve: supported the rejecting the • necessity for a tactically Viet Consciousness workers' party. revolutely Writing of the relationship ine workino cass is a oroouct Adapted capitalist society. Its betweer spontanenty consciousness and militancy and consciousness he says: It was the May/June events "Strikes the understano ine necessarily occurred in in France 1968 led to a extremely uneven. and and seventies chande in attitude on the part of To act, even in sectional they were accompanied by Clitt to Leninism' 'spontaneous" destruction of ret ures oradaisa The lack of party to tion For it to act as a class for The strikes ' etc .. challenge existin the biggest aim of all, the taking The Ilas: nineties revealed far the leaders was so glaring that even greater flashes of consciousness, • power ano Ine sociaiist recon the most blind centrist was struction of society, the most definite demands forced to see it. conscious and confident do vanceo. Ene strike was care this by

CHITT

be welded cases fully timed, known and InUS changing mind-though his together. in other places were instances giving explanation of "They are the actual changes cited above. a scussed. Ble. of their potential eaders laken by themselves These Of course recoanition of the feliows ... This union of thes strikes were simply trade union need for some kind of party struggles, not yet Social Demo ao vanced workers Is the revolu does not solve the problem of tionary workers' party ... Іг what kind of party is needed cratic revolzonary struckle.

times of crisis workers the workers were not and could not be, In this articie we propose to conscious of the resoon• to some leadersni• o show that the IS/SWP concep- other In the absence of a tion Leninist. treconcheole antagonismi revolutionary party led by the way their interests to the whole of We the modern political , and social more do vanced workers, revolutionary party we are, mass of the working class will course, considering the centra System. mat is. uneirs was ne follow acquiesce in some ret Social Democratic [revolu •vestion tacno revorones other kind of lead. The vacuum tionary] consciousness ine. how to construct one. has to do Tiled. The history of What we think about this "Of course the revolutionary countries shows That tine comes down to us from party also needs : tradition and working class, exclusively by its the whole history of the Marxist In its own effort, able to develop theory. movement. «Rores near to trade conscious- Orry some of the lessons of past ness." Decades of struggle workers' struggles nationally (What Is To Be Donel) Lenin goes on to stress that: reca conceptions "To weld together a broad -====0cE= advanced workers this "Working class consciousness cannot be genuine political con- some extent sciousness unless the workers rained to respond to all

CONGELAMEMS

violence and abuse no matter affected-unless Thev from a Social Democratic point of view". (What Is To Be Done?! Careful reacine alone will show that for quote

SWP

the political prepara- the tion tor revolutionary struceles consists essentially in generalis- and existing struggles Ing linking advanced workers in c force that can fill the "vacuum' when the opportunity exists.

Necessary battle Cliff specifically rejects the battle with the false, necessary trade union •ourceois. consciousness whicr soontane ously exists in all sections of the working class, whether they avance. backware placing the emphasis By learning from the simply workers' and giving only most cursory attention to trans- P C. Massive demonstration in Lisbon, May Day 1975. Spontaneous militancy was not enough to to mission of the theoretical and of programmatic heritage communist movement to thost workers who come into con flict with reformism he opens the way to the opportunism for which Tne wel known What did Lenin have to say about the ideological struggle!

worship the all spontaneity of the working class movement. all belittling of the role of the conscious elemen ... a strengthening of the influence of bourgeois ideol- ogy upon the workers. All Thos who talk about overrating the of ideology that the labour move ment nure and simple can elab.

and will elaborate for itself, T only tae workers fate from the hands of the leaders". "... There is much talk o' spontaneity. But the spontane- SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979 ous development of the working class redes co to bourgeois ideology. Lenin said, "wa shown history countries") Indeed Lenin went further than this and argued that theory socialism however, grew out of the philo sophical, historical and theories elaborated by Comic educated representatives of the propertied classes, intellectuas "By their social status the founders modern scientific Mary socialism anc belonged the themselves bourgeois intelligentsia 'In the way, in Russia of Social Democracy arose alto.

gether independently growth the soonraneous working class movement; arose as a natural and inevitabl

I AGAINST LENINISM

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979 ile capitalism thought among the revolutionary intelligentsia. This did not mean of course that themselves workers ¡ would nave no part in creating la socialist ideology: They part however, take not as workers, theoreticians. . in other words they take part only when they aole are to tue extent unal they are able, more or less, acquire the knowledge working But in order that succeed in this more must otten, of con- made to raise rever sciousness

TRA

workers general; it is necessary that the them.

VOTRES

contifie selves estricted limits "literature for workers" but that they learn increasing •ecree general "are • even truer to say PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report confined" because workers themselves wish to read for the intelligentsia and only a (bad) intellectuals believe that it is enough "for workers" be told a things about to have conditions dre reneaten to them over ano ovei what has long been known". (What Is To Be Done?) (Emphasis added). Members the

IS/SWP

that their socialist might argue orovacanoa the struggle Lenin argued for and that the + Economism against ten is sołea. Manitestation However, Lenin understood the concentration the that economic struggle was actually a passing manitestatior what opportunist method. argued that the funda- mental sioniticance от ссопоМ- ism was that it provided "a theoretical basis for their slavish cringing before spontan- erry. it is time to draw conclu- from this trend, the content of which incorrectly

TOO

narrowly characterisco as Economism" (What Is To Be Done?) The SWP's connection between socialist ideology and trade union militancy is neatly summeo uo ov raul root "We have to weave our socialist ideas action- wherever tre wartie bewee classes is being fought. Militancy million better workers than (which is dually Militancy makes workers confident, apathy strong Makes wear obsequious. use defeated its can can defeated. call just coated not trom other militancy, but also ideas about a socialist which society are The greatest inspiration to keep fight- • For once the idea of a socialist society • gets among thing ophat can happen. people there is no Socialism has the answer).

Here Foot displays the most Worsale militancy-whatever might say to the For him there is no connec- between today's struggles tion and socialism save the abstract micheludl isolatior vision of what life might be like in the indefinite future. No attempt Foot, Cliff and the SWP make no attempt to direct the struggle consciously in the direc-

LIOT

sociall pose •emanes which question of power. This is because a revolution- demands that prepare and mobilise socialist workers for revorution woute connICt witn the present consciousness of the working class SWP 'Rank and File' Conference 1977: no fight against trade union consciousness now become particularly urgent reformists in the workers' move- The opportunist retreat IS/SWP's forerunners of the For with the restoration o1 ment. the unity, the arty will recruit • This means combatting the its • them now eu trade many spontaneous union and tortio at lein theod a grea after period party unstable elements sciousness in Ine working cids number will increase with the at large reflected mere altogether Lenin reecline growth of the party. and in struggling i to militancy. many years. the (Second Soeech in the Dis the treaclicly Misunderstanding' cussion on the Party). retormist and starnist bureau Hallas Cliff claim that cracy the • labour movement

SWP

tooth and nail to Because no the Lenin's which fights reason tor redl need onlev was inar ine bartv nao le restrict workers Instructe lu develop under conditions the limits of capitalism.

and trair workers trade union severe repression. Any serious Expulsions also the rejects the subject shows readineor this to be rubbish. Lennis ConceD t Jal Ly That fight which Tony Cliff membership Lenin saw the rules calls substitutionalism, ananip. reviewing Cliff's book on fought for to be an aid in fight- the WSL to have political dis- Lenin Duncan Hallas says: cussior passing There are perspective which involves the misunderstandings about defending 'doctrine the whole membership. What Is To Be Done?' type IneorV We have never expelled any Cliff is fond of arguing that oroanisation waict • recurre orel opposition movement and wi one comic the 1905 Lenin called for • the would their ideas never other is tragic party to "open its gates wide to comic misunderstanding alone. workers". He also quotes Lenin I ne ¡ he viG place great stress used to crop up every now and o the effect that lack democratic on of a then in disputes recruit- The working class is instinc the SWP's demo Social etement m tively. Ment spontaneously cratic centralism Democratic" reason But it is the politics of the favoured restricted membership SWP-confining "theoretical" political Minimal basis was to ensure ano oroorammatic decisions lo d level' antonest une Cliff-like leadership elite, excluding However other that everything serious discus- members from most decided opportunists DeT Ore misses rest and the leadership subjected to the lack of democracy. Lenin's comment which reads: more effective the _contro by The lack of a political mem- 'and more than 10 vears o' membership. work put in by Social Demo- bership means that disputes anc absurd proposition has done a great deal to would be citicult to imane.

Cliff, Foot and co. must be (International Socialism, 79, transtorm unis spontaneity Inte consciousness." setter orcan sationary -uy Today the SWP sets out to wave after wave of expulsions made well Haras nas t ne equally important assess are the actual breadth of position clear for us. He thinks worker. trade union basis. Lenin's party vIES "linking sees role as citterences detween the leacer membershio ano ot course Inose ship and the forces which came militants, of Trotsky are "absurd". out of IS from the left providing them with leaflets and Participation saint the right wise and se simplisti arguments Those forces. in however in- articulate fighting a way were for the traditions of Trotskyism The that led employers. issues between and Its membership requirements COnTiCT Lenin Martov on party membership at are non existent and its 'theory 1903 is kept out of Socialist Worker and broulent historie and contined to counter-revolutionary theoretical journal, Socialist between Menshevism and Bolshevism are Review wort repeating oWVr members otten altack Lenin argued that Socialist Press for its 'unread- membership had to be limited able' articles Like Lenin we see ine neces- uals: for developing politically sity educated worker members. the party's wino recoonise programme and support it by to sell

VUI

have Socialist Press be or tha get means ano cannot theory and UITe partv s omanisations Martov said, however that We

TONI

ceveloc

OUT

should members as Marxists not just good trade unionists. party programme but need oniy And, of course, although we support it: by regular personal associa have our share talr trace tion under the direction of one tendencies in our mem- unionist our experience is that ot the party organisations Dersnio The argument was not over workers given a consistent lead theoretical who wanted a 'big and take wally wno wanted a smal one. it was seriousl anc work over the necessary membership develop as Marxists. disciplined struc- qualities and Worker Marxist ture Tor Ine carvine our or the required political tasks.

that the It is no accident Martov wanted a "oroad and the SLL/WRP before

WSL

would simply reflect the existing views of the are ine tenoencies lu successfulty resist the pressure entire class of the British the traditions *smarty is then conscious spokesman unconscious working class ana ac velor cadre of worker Marxists.

process This is because we start from Lenin disagreed with this: "The need to safeguard ot fightin the Tne necessit and principled programme firmness of the Party's line and basis against the political the unity of its principles has Page 7 by Keith White Cliff The battles against centrism fought there were battles where class lines were drawn. If the IMG was arguing for a principled Trotskyist position there is no way they could co exist with the SWP leadership • will The next artice we see strug the tole conse sor for leadership and struggle socialst consciousness ve wiii contrast thIS WitH the practice of the SWP, show ing how their opposition to a SCIentITIO orooramme ano struggle against present the leadership of the working clas inevitably uner capitulation to the reformist bureaucracy. We will also show why the IMG prefers the practice of the SWP to that of the WSL. Implications

IMG

members should the very seriously considel ¡mocations or aporoaching one

SWP

a joint organisation whole and , when the

SWP

oraclict LIfE consciously anti-Leninist.

The party must conscious be above Those cain Trotskyist must show what they have in common with the SWP centrists A future article will continue the critique of the SWP theory of the party by examining their concept "internationalism' and their total rejection of the strucee Tor national. Continued next week Lenin

Nicaragua: the limits of Sandinist Page 8 •Just keep By Johnny Byrne off the streets'... Every year thousands are among the most politic- of working class men, ally shrewd and powerful of all the elite groups in women and youth take society. of London and streets to decision Join an Through their Won't have ot wivesy about betave yourstives, dedicated organisation manipulation of their own to the smashing of contact with loIces, anel of the Not that the SPG has any workers organisations. the rest legal apparatus, their links with qualms about whether They trained are politicians and their Delaving bael- harass youth, to the media, these men are selves or whether they are demonstrators and strikers, able to exert a strong and on the streets or at home!

anyone who is considered a On the same day James consistent • right wing the polendi pressure on society. Anderton (McNee's equival- of administration Manchester) burst en L capitalism. a carefully into print with They rascist are those most timed call for 'work backward and brainwashed camps" "marauding In many cases the nature for layers ot the working class of this influence is actually gangs of youth and men". who form the bulk of the . Doll appucalon ponce loice. Anderton, who since his and conception. They are the most valu- Thames Valley The spectacle of Greater days W1Th able layers capitalism Manchester's Chief Con- Police has always had because they are needed to anti-trade stable, Anderton, mobilising physically beat, arrest and union and anti-youth views, thousands punisa Inose class-conscious NF thug Martin went on: escort militants who are prepared "Wretched offenders like Webster on a lone march in to challenge the rule of the 1977 these, who take the fullest quite sullis slate. advantage succinctly the role the of every meek But as capitalism lurches abomin- response to their nurtung

DONCE

Didy from international crisis to capitalism's final solution.

able conduct, should be international crisis the state Last week's press confer- needs its increasingly well- ence held Metropolitan where through hard labour by discipline Daid police chief Sir David and unrelenting muscle …to be cirected by a fully conscious leader- McNee to launch his annual they should be made ship. report showed clearly that sweat they have never as Thus the last decade has before and remain police leaders feel sweated Liticass seen the ingly able be brazen until their violence has been

CLU

band of police commission- penitent vanquished by about tell pontical views.

ers and chief constables who "If keep off the humiliation and unqualified you Sandinista guerrillas on the rooftops of Matagalpa This film, made in their history to the armed consequence of that defeat, close collaboration with by struggle led bv the peasant was followed Sandino between Sandino's the the Nicaraguan Sandin- Augusto death at 1927 and 1933 against the hands of the regime. ista National Liberation direct interventionist forces The sections of the film Front

(FSLN)

and of the US Marine Corps. dealing with the training of released this year, gives When the Marines left in the guerrillas shows why the 1933 they had assured the an account of the Somoza despite regime, victory Senior a highly-trained US- history, training and Somoza navulg (father of the present dicta- equipped army, including an of the present activity of 4,000, tor) over the peasant-based guard has ente Sandinistas. been unable to defeat the struggle. A brief historical section Until the time of writing latest offensive. shows that the FSLN trace Armed with an assort- Nicaragua has suttered the E Anderton repentence" Anderton clearly owes his rhetoric to both the Old Testament Mein and Kampf! Further evidence of the conscious manoeuvrings such men emerged in a little conference last

10 DOLLCU

May which drew together all Chief Police Officers, the Association of Municipal Authorities and the Associ- ation of County Councils.

A key speaker was Albert Longharne Chief Constable of Lancashire He voiced the opinions of the police chiefs when he called "a fully national police force" give command" "cohesive times of widespread unrest: accept term Unt 'police is an expres sion of potential abuse in English. In how- Europe, ever, the term is usually a technical one Most of the conference was spent in detailed discus- sion of the effects on public order increased unem- OT ployment and industrial un- rest Each chief constable singled so Out called ment of western arms, the guerrillas are shown under- going rigorous and realistic training. The fact that the film does not try to disguise the recruits "rawness' the OI reinforces the solises and dedication the guernia training programme. However, the part of the film dealing with ideological and theoretical work of the Sandinistas is not reassuring.

Moral terms The struggle against Somoza is presented largely in moral terms. Somoza is compared to Hitler several times. The of

LOICOSIOI

crusade against an evil alien force. This perspective is rein- forced by the lack of any The political programme. only concrete policy men- tioned is land reform. The clear impression conveyed by the film is that the Sandinistas not Паус developed any ponica. programme and practice beyond that of their inspir- Sandino fifty "political violence" as the "ordinary new threat to decent citizens" The pin-up boy for these ambitious and ruthless men of Robert course Mark, the Metropolitan Police Chief from 1972 to 1977. Mark worked his way up from guard in molluary Chief Manchester Constable of Leicester in After ten years he went London Assistant Commissioner of the Metro- politan Police and spent the yedis bulang unparallelled union-bashing immigrant-harassing and political intervention. Smokescreen All this was cloaked in a smokescreen police reform, busting his most blatantly corrupt officers an all aspects of site his ne on all aspects of life as Plato and supermar hac merged in blue one smart Having, resigned over lukewarm attempt the by government Hillouder A review of "Nicaragua-Free Country or Death ' ago This programme limited to that of national revolution and indepen- carried through by Conce The peasant revolt. film provides evidence of the practical consequences of this political bankruptcy.

in footage shot in lne cities during and after the offensive of September last the absence of year teenage striking. The explains Commenta that they have all been killed. The September offensive response brought huge from urban youth. when this military

PUSI

from countryside was repulsed, the Sandinistas were forced to withdraw- leaving the youth, unorgan- ised and unprotected, to the mercy the National Guard, who wiped them out. Armed struggle Clearly, any fight against such regime Somoza's, where his powe: the rests exclusively on army, the question of the armed struggle is central SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979 Tory law and order boss Whitelaw token civilian representation on police complaints boards Mark since used his do everything position lo from advertise tyres on tele- dubious vision and set up charities to pontificate on the and order in capitalist media His autobiography In the Office published last winter yer cere put up with the can put with nauseating self-intation and bitterly class anti-working describes the young copper's life, concentrating on'getting plenty of arrests ("usually from the ranks of the unemployed" breaking a man's legs to get him in the police van • He tells of beating a sus- pect unconscious that they had to swathe the man in bandages when he went next day that the judge wouldn't see he was still unconscious But these just the di t trimmings, anecdotes that who has been on a picket line or a march or an demonstration would be able top. The Sandinistas are driven to learn the lessons anti-imperialist struggle empirically. Their political is that of the Their personnel peasalilly. in the film are snownl peasants either the trom country or petit-bourgeois from the towns. Generalise They have had to develop struggle-to generalise struggle into civil Tne war-the hard way. It is usual when review. ing a film like this to end with a call for the building of a Trotskyist party, part world revolutionary party. Only such an organisa- tion is capable of carrying struggle heroically started by the Sandinistas, through to a victorious con- clusion. Watching these brave women standing and

MICH

around discussing the "revolutionary content" of the New Testament with two Catholic priests brings

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979 PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report The of the book .. seedy, cowardly degen- open

OU L

Loe erales describes political (of He how the statements police which there are many even can used more though Mark spends a lot of efficiently and consistently his time asserting that the to break up strikes. police are 'non-political').

At the same time Mark rejects a Tribunite's vain call for the police to assist He clearly regards the their Labour Party being legal right to stop vehicles in dangerously radical, though spells detail order to talk to drivers as: he out collaboration that Wilson, "an inexcusable require- went on with Jenkins and Rees. ment for the police to aban- Those don impartiality fighting for Irish the liberation according to industrial disputes to which Mark "intellectually subnor- they have always been dedi- mal cated".(!) _common calas guerrillaism Somoza's National Guard on the streets of Managua home that need an what replaces In MeWer Inat extremely that barbaric regime will be forceful image. Revolutionary will in the interests of the peas- present tragically combined antry and urban poor whose with political bankruptcy.

sacrifices and struggles have This film confirms the responsible tor that Deel belief that Somoza be can revolutionary act. does over into wil. nothing reassure the + It was Rohert Mark who revamped and redirected the

SPG,

which had been set up 1965 Chief Super- intendant John Gerrard. Mark Northern Ireland and was thrilled by various "special tactical squads".

Killing From February 1973 Mark approved the wnen SPG killing of two unarmed Pakistanis the occupying High indian Commission, the Special Patrol Group has become an increasingly strike force for important the state. Its most public activities have included Grunwicks, anti-fascist amonstrations the sushing of the Huntley Notting squal, tne Hill Carnivals and (most recently) the murder of Blair Peach and the maiming and beating countless people in Southall. In the last seven. vears SPG has the nearly 400,000 "stops and searches" Out of this number only 6% have been arrested. And only a tiny of proportion that 6% have been ovCH convicted. Sinister Nor this only London phenomenon. Other forces are rapidly their

OWI

squads, the most sinister of Anderton's para- military TAG (Tactical Aid Group). is not difficult to predict the continued escalation of political inter- vention by police chiefs.

The Candaleu was carried against backdrop of fascist provoca- tion and the militant response by youth, Asians and blacks. the revealed In this atmosphere its critical 'law and order' rhetoric of weakness. James Jardine (Chairman of Reformists of all shades the Police Federation) was in the Labour Party and the included almost verbatim in unions have proposed whole the Tory manifesto. packages of nicastled designed to 'democratise' Robert Mark thundered out his anti-socialist propa- the pollce and change such minor aspects as complaints ganda almost daily, demand- procedures. ing more legislation to curb new law, here and the and comparing unions there, presented as the the relationship between the cure-all. Labour "lefts' unions and the government ПО W call for the dis- popularly "not unlike the way the as Nazi Party seized power" banding of the SPG and for 'public' enquiries. Meanwhile Allan Goodson, Chief Constable Dangers of Leicester, was defending But revolutionaries must his brutal deployment of 5,000 police out to the working protect a spell will Nazi march with the class that no reforms argu- ment that "we fought two change the police or reduce world wars to preserve the the dangers posed by the McNees, the Marks and the right of free speech" Faced with this Andertons. rising workers' tide of reaction and shrewd of built to construction power inquiries must be bases, the labour investigate the activities of ment's leadership has again the police at all levels.

Aer Lingus / El Al Air India Middle East Airlines Pakistan Int. Airlines Japan Airlines 1 Alitalia PHOTO: Chris Davies, Report Close cooperation between police and army in 'anti-terrorist' operations Page 9 PHOTO: Mark Rusher, IFL well as fighting for the disbanding of all groups like the SPG, the revolution- ary all us include the disbanding of the entire police force The police have always been and bourgeois will always con- physical agents of workers' oppres- sion Workers defence Only by building workers defence guards can the threat from fascists and the capitalist state be smashed.

. rotsky wrote The Transitional Programme bourgeoisie -ine nowhere satisfied with the official police and army" The bourgeoisie needs a fascist card to play in the Britain in

TESOTL

today that card is hidden up the sleeve of the to p echelons of the police.

SERTUC talk-shop gives -no lead on nursery cuts Page 10

INDUSTRIAL

The most interesting feature of Saturday's South East Region TUC Confer- the Under Fives (attended by nearly 120 delegates) was the spectacle of Jack Dromey (SERTUC the Com- Secretarv and Party munist desperately manipulating the speakers' slips to prevent any speaker Oxford City from the Campaign Nursery challenging the talk-shop atmosphere that pervaded the whole conference. After much loud talk from stalinist ess GiNcuLl, caro Bailey (from the working party

TUC

Under Fives the Report) and Tribunite MP Reg Race on the effect of the cuts, took platform stifle decision inject programme and poltical by the Oxford Cam- organisation paign-the there which reoresenteo d Teal struggle against the cuts.

TGWU resolution A resolution to the confer- ence from the Cowley Assembly cranen was even- tually heard though Dromey made no reterence to It in his summing up The motion called for the setting up of similar conferences arec covereo

SERTUC

for full discussion of the TUC Report throughout the overell suboort tor anv actIon such as strikes threatened nursery Tachities presenting Thei MotIon Fred Carmichael out his nurseries, ranen s pony shooting out ot the Trees tne platform's line that there is class for nurserv poucation ane unar what was needed was a campaign to chauvinist educate and backward bullish worker

DON'T GO INTO

SOCIALIST

GET

PRESS

Demonstration outside the occupied Oxford nursery class Earlier delegate • the „trom West Ham Trades Council, Pru Chamberlayne, had brought out The neec Unionise workers and nursery nurses particular-attacking Dromey and wureddly their role in the Grunwick and Garners unionisation struggles Nearly other every bution, however, skirted around the key questions of tactics and class perspective. Embarrassment had the Dromey and Gil occasiona embarrassment ortne odd demanding some more concrețe action proposals,

OUT OV

ano idiot keep politics out with practised skill It was only at the end that were they Torced такв speaker from the Oxford Campaign after Ge edates patience with ine blatant manoeuvring had finally been exhausted. Ted Eames. delegated from the Oxford NUT branch, set the question of cuts in the context

THE FIGHT BLINDFOLD!

CATAL

For a clear lead in the struggle against wage controi, cuts and redundancies This Weighell's

NEWS

on fire ot the crisis of capitalism and …out token broodcanad on int argued for a linked strategy whole question nursery OT occupation education. supported by strike Dromey in his summing up action in detencine existine oro vision. made the astouneine declaration Occupation that, workers by itself is no quarantee of victorv. only withdrawal of labour by effect of the double negative in unions concerned can this sentence is certainly food local • ano central coverter back down. Tor InouentI

SERTUC

Eames also made the point He implied that would back actions against the cam udiums

IT US

elected committees possible trade cuT. every way Dromey must be taken up on this at : the first available hale poucation expose tne wal opportunity that banks and private supply WIThOUT orincipiec companies leech off the public his huffing about "winning set lor blindingly obvious Dalle is that of leadership and without the trade union problem movement" must stand exposed "Wrong policies" the diversionary rhetoric 11 Reg Race belatedly attacked conference it is After this the Labour government's record vital that all areas organise their own local and

CUT.

nurseries meetings that "wrong but put it all down to they should focus sharply on policies" the tactics necessary to tight the At the time the Tory offensive on cuts in jobs and facilities. Sam pureaucracvs cieariv unwilling to do more than pass

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Name. . Address Send to Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NWS 1HR. SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979 Chrysler workers nifty manoeuvre, coupled with routine 'left' defy enabled railway- men's leader Sid Weighell to duck out of fighting for a £65 minimum wage in next blackmail year's pay review At the NUR conference al Paignton last week, Weighell laid on a blustering speech Workers at Chrysler's talk to the trousiv retusine lo Thatcher government. Kyton plant in Coven- The Tories and the unions try started a strike for the speak same do not ever last increased language, pay deciared proletard Sid Friday. But combined this Management had refused with 'lett otoney stant offer vigorous witch hunting attack ht crease those 52% in response to a claim sections workers of 20%-25%. InaL

LOOK

winter and defeated the labour Both and government's pay policy the capitalist media have renewed his denun out to persuade ciations free collective workers that their Chrysler and advocacy of strike will threaten the viab- wage controls In similar fashion, Weighell's ility of the company. move to knife the f65 claim was They hoping that al t glossed by rhetoric will over their He argued that with inflation prevent Chrysler workers at alredey ove Coventrv's Stoke plant iron 20%, it would be wrong to "pin joining Ryton negotiations down" to demand- strike when they meet this a rate of pay which might week. not be adequate by next April.

While grades Hard hit require a 37% increase to reach £65 basic others Woute 9% The Stoke engine plant need he argued. reiterated his has been hard hit by lay offs perennial empty threat to take since the class struggle in action to cut the volume Iran led to closure of the overtime worked assembly plant there and fight instead rawdys Production has re-started Grits and full production at Stoke scandalous practice of leaving an expected to start this estimated 10,000 jobs was vacant week. workers must conference voted Chrysler The Nuk 47-30 to reject the £65 target reject the company's cam- with and go correspondin! paign of blackmail, next all out for the full claim.

nicher SeTT year's claim to Weighell's tender Railway workers beware!

- 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 torces mark only the prelude to increased state violence against pickets and anti-fascists, and an intensified army crack- down in the occupied North of Ireland will opppose any perspective other than settling down and meek- ly accepting five years of Tory devastation more dusted off their though they have once forgotter Socialist speecnes. Labour S leTt-wind Mrs nave continued to duck away from any fight to remove Callaghan.

TUC

leaders, out to establish a basis for too collaboration parallelling with Thatcher and the 1 ory their anti-working class alliance with wilson and then Lallagnan.

But the working class has experienced and overcome such betrayals before-to topple Heath's union bashing government in , ano smash tarovor Callaonan s reactonary rase wage controls in a series of monumental pay battles last winter.

These experiences are not dead. They point to the way that oos social services ano nare won union rents can de detender against renewed Tory attacks ur traitors let c revolutionary leadership is needed if the Labour traitors INt conaborator: an me dangers on m me communist rarev are to be exposed ana pusned aside, anc the mass struggles mobilised that can defeat and remove the starting from today's aramme of transitional demanos which conditions and today's consciousness within the working class, lead workers to grasp the necessity for socialist revolution Ano in takino uo cemocratic cemanos-such as an enct racial and sexual discrimination, it must show the crucial role that must be played by the working class as the only consistent- revolutionary capable of leading the struggle for the cass emancipation of mankind And it must fight an international basis-mobilising or „TO! anti- moerialist and anti camas strucies- whether in Ireland , in Southern Africa or elsewhere through- world, and drawing strength, and political lessons from revolutionary •neavals such as inar wrich ousteo me natec 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 labour bureaucracy, is the method fought for by the Workers Socialist The next period will see major class struggles in Britain. A . Our movement though principled, Marxist leadership is essential.

JOIN US and take forward the struggle for socialism

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 4 July 1979 Victory at Economist Bookshop management's After being on strike since December 15 last year the TGWU/ACTSS members came after at the Economists Book- solidarity shop have won their shareholders demand for union recog- pany. nition. Directors Last been London School of Econ- The l months. omics, the bookshop's agreed to the defence of all jobs. terms, having backed

SETIKAN'

A week down on a series of conditions that preventing final were advising their settlement. other jobs. The principle of bargaining for union was a significant blow members, which had bitterly resisted wanavement for earlier been mad backee. Concept Faced as they were with the holders accumulated effects daily picketing and partial but signif. icant blacking of supplies from book owners cut thelr losses, sin strikers' determina Since tion showed no outward sign of flagging.

LSE

reps Yamey and Roberts (well-known 'industrial relations' academic). who sianec the agreement union swallow TorCed to what had become enoless stream of learned 'reasons' why they could never give in This diatribe had, to the strikers' credit, been patients fought against point by point, basing themselves at all times multi-million what was essence denial of that the right to organise. Over subject of Department student support General boycotting the shop

TOT

Trade investigations. remained strong throughout and The valuable Coman fellow trade union ears in given in une Dillons Blackwells book- ing of emplovees sellers. A boost has been given to all also a member those particularly in such Management paid industries who Oxford City Labour Party!

are Tignting to extend unionisation and who The 42strong increasingly come National Union employers Pergamon determines than ever to resist.

LEYLAND.

"Productivity Cowley Ine criteria" be Plant last anieved and the second that the factory utilised accept concerned should try period new grades in totality. workers into Management announced that grades. once the productivity require- was achieved, (which ment the plant now have a now has been in 6 or 7 plants) of up to £250 to come in back then they would begin banking the new rates on behalf of each individual worker. announcing that this cash could The money would only be be in the holiday pay packets if paid out once the grading was the stewards would get the new accepted. grades sorted out. This has meant that as time goes increasingly large reaction. wave sum of money is available once swept the factory. the grades are accepted. Gehalll

AT THE TOP...

UNION DUES

TIMES CHANGE

The dramatic shift in the slice of arrogant capital virulent.in their anti-working position class demands, laid into Lord the Times, which has led to widespread expectation that Why were they losing €1,7 the papers will be back on million a month? Why had the Times gone it alone? Why were the streets by September, there no moves to resolve the collapse dispute? Solidarity with the big bour- by the petty vanished. Behind in the com- Cools e nad it lay only a wingeing band of snipers revealing the But it has exposed what has feast pleasant nature. siot * That the pimes print real position Lord Thomson, shaken the meeting, immediately unions are not fighting for the sought a 'new initiative' the NGA hac discuss direct ment virtually thrown in the towel by while the papers are back on the members to get climbdown suCC most fundamental point 01 But the shareholders meeting strategy. to Lord But no print union member Thorause for the stand he hed who should be blinded to what that exacter conceals in the print leadership.

the While the institutional share.

dispute the NGA has stuck only mute, on direct imput, not on the new Lute shareholders, who represent that technology. - Pergamon workers fight Labourite boss Rober Maxwell is known the demand for as the boss of Pergamon, the one restate •en or a memor sacked Him publishing company with a before the end of her six-month pound turn- probationary period. Recent has been the recrultment to te NUJ in marketing depart- of ment was followed by the com- pany issuing notices of dismissal notorious to two active new members of Oxford area for its low the union. rates of pay and arbitrary sack- Reassessment Robert Maxwell however is of the General Committee After chapel demands that procedure be followed, Maxwell chapel of the verbally withdrew these notices ot Journalists a ago pending Torin ani lone of three unions "period of reassessment' at the Oxford offices) have been Although Chapel had LITe on strike since Monday to back voted at once to give notice of Assembly management had hoped, simply week. management money; demanding holiday strikers proved to be hostile to summer to stampede new grading system itself. accepting At a TGWU mass meeting of the day shift last Friday, atten- Workers in varying grades in ded by about 3,000 workers, lump sum plant Bob Fryer convenor received massive support for the hard line he presented of tota Local press and radio began opposition proposed Ene sucture. Management are in a crisis. But they wille give yeasily.

They put years save This produced an immediate working into trying to create a strikes rigid OT centralised bargaining get com- order to But the strikes were not, as control plete 01 wort lates.

ANYWAY, IT COULD UNLEASI

SOME HUGE PAYCLAIMS!!!

The cut jobs in now proposed by management and almost certain to be agreed by

NGA

officials is not going to at Selected be as dramatic as once appeared It is nevertheless • a savage cut no rested chapel end ension last week. resiste strongly it ther After been proposed from the nad beginning. official Phil Eynan Little reliet hold a report-back until Monday For workers at the Time: there is little relief to be found Young on Monday. in the management climbdown.

When the talks are over the Eynan Times management will still be same the same seekige objective Meanwhile the NGA will have to return to work. demoralised the by worktorce losses of jobs. accepting major They be resisted on a programme which challenges the would Way Inev right of management to cut any for nothing. jobs, and which builds towards Eynan a new leadership in the union, "sometimes prepared

TONI

TOI

defence of the working class on oneldies" sacked a revolutionary platform.

court for unfair dismissal!

it was Dest to at his own game" Young's women and men workers. all wat yeah red Eynan action rganiser, NUJ full-time then. National Gary After 1½ Morton offered tne chaoe his victory and reluctant hands perspective 110 diternative want for preter to that of the company and even suggested that any strike Tuesday morning, should delayed - until two oursel «Tarlen victimised workers were out of should do if none of the strikers the door. Wige wackers who the victimised Last Friday Maxwell person.

ally confirmed one of the sack.

they had walked out remained in This is an important dispute sacked Could for publishing and print workers Tenl picketing and and for the whole future ot thi unions not to

NUJ,

NGA

AreX Pergamon Were crosing ite strike also raises the The problem need to campaign for Maxwell's at 9.30, when the strikers attem- expulsion Labour TrOM Tne pted to return to work. rarly ane some

• CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

And thev have an ally in the leadership of the craft unions, who have been pressing since the toolmakers' strike for higher differentials between craftsmen and production But the production workers are in no mood to accept dowr grading. Pressed forward by Ene impact on Leyland boss Edwardes petrol prices and inflation mood is for action. here is little This the outcome will be to put them week the •Leviand Cars Joint Negotiating Committee into grade 3 decision" to take a final I this is the case the period the grading following the summer orooucuon workers in the Swindon Body break is likely to open a period Plant. of sharp struggle in BL.

HES EVEN PLEDGED IS TO LAUNCH JOME HARI

ARIAIGN AGAMS

coal at onl

HARD ENOWN KEEPIN

SO WANT ABOUT

LEN'S CAMPAIGN:

Page 11 STL strike: new threat The strike by 20 workers and informed them that at : 12 Toys Ltd at noon on Monday the firm had gone into voluntary liquidation.

Didcot took on a new dim- He advised them to look for other jobs. Friday The atternoon's national press had boss Youn appeared on the picket line that

TGWU

Distric day and report were given decided not the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. meeting Sale Slave wages from Monday The Daily *told the strikers overin evening Mail article was headlined praviously. He urged the strikers wook his interview while sipping a glass of wine: I am pasi retting age and have enough One striker who challenged to live comfort. this said they had come out on ably", principles but if Eynan had his One of the be returning missed was also past retiring age She received two woeks' holida pay of £15 declared one was wages of sacrifice £10-obviously not , and that if any were enough for her to retire comfor- Young could be taken to tob Voluntary liquidation does "play Young necessarily mean inal the , he said company Is bankrupt • In Wednesday's Oxford Mail ' is 18 years Young stated: of vicious exploitation of youth, t insolvent as the •П01 rumour says. I have gone into voluntary liquidation. İ can pay Pushed for decision out t1 full and In ne t in shall do so. The Branch Secretary then In fact voluntary suggested the strikers make their ation is that Ward of decision on the picket line when use in the arunwick tried to early days of that strike mereiv handler pushed for a decision there anc his books to a firm of account ants (which can be his own) to hours Eynan got look at his assets. This take COLtO severa work. by which time Young weeks picket hopes the picket line will have nowever what they Production in whose support Meanwhile orders and production continuing 10 workers are five continue still in the factory-some asking other whom office and • cross the pickei wana chent their own members Eynan finally appeared the line on Friday-ni was answered doubt because the question o come to his occupation ears and on Thursday the Young would only let two in

TGWU

Regional Office Southampton had been rung by strikers demanding

OT THE

representation Eynan, like Young, is also encouraging the strikers to find other jobs. He has promised the picket line kept up by WIll supporters from Reading until the factory closes Strikers could soon be forced into looking for employ.

ment as since the dispute started they received ever the TGWU's meagre £6 strike pay. Occupying the plant and opening Youna's books to thi strikers is now necessary.

doubt Meanwhile that support of the picket line and their strike fund Is essentia Donations to the STL Strike Fund holiday should addressed to Brian Grimes, 97, Wessex Road • Didcot.

P'VE BEEN SLAMMING INTO

THATS DODGEY

WHAT

PUBLIC SPENDING CUTS!

WHAT CAMPAIGN?!!

WORKERS MUSTACT

TO BACK ZIMBABWE

SOCIALIST

PRESS

WSL

Summer School The WSL is holding its annual international school trom summer 21 July July 29 inclusive. The school is open to members and

STRUGGLE

supporters of the WSL: This year we are extend- ing a special invitation ex-members or the wkr both those who have been the victims of recent expul- sions and those who have found themselves outside the WRP in ways over the past few years due to the political degeneration of the movement and the

STALISM

increasing bureaucratisation

KILLS TROSANDS:

i lie interdal regime. osaliour Today, the in most

IN LIMBABWE

fertile conditions for revolu- work, the WRP has

MURDERE

tionary SIll reached its deepest stage of degeneration. political Its heritage has been liquidated by its leadership. The WSL now represents the most developed expres- sion of the continuity of the strengths of the IC tradition and the fight for the In response to the stepp- tne ratholic rront in Limbabwe Trotskyist programme-its ing British Tory up and against the recognition of principles and method- government aid to the white Smith-Muzorewa regime developed over the last 4½ racists in Southern Africa, internal instarled under ine settlement". years Anti-Apartheid called One of the tasks of the Anti-Apartheid and demonstration on June 30.

summer school will to backers in the communist ane The march was in defence of Labour Parties, had failed to understanding of this development

LEYLAND'S PARITY

basis for the struggle the Trotskyist reconstruct Fourth International. The main presentations will include: Political Econ- Dialectical Material-

PLAN IN CRISIS

ism; the International Com- mittee; the USFI; the OCI; and the development of the

WSL

as International • all Tendency Write for the agenda of the school plus the practical endorsed national British Leyland's contro- officers of all unions in BLand details. Accomodation versial new grading struc be provided with meals at Is entnus asticarv subootee ov ture due to be introduced the leaders of the shop stewards low cost. car plants by 1 combine, designed into their Details from WSL, 31, November this year has run Dartmouth Park Hill into problems. London NW5 1HR controlled the time The scheme, officials. which sneaked the Management

FUND

new oracino structure Inrouch a secret ballot last year as part of "bargain- a package of so-called InC reTorms. when attached last November's annual wage review 100,000 workers Ine OUR WORST WEEK YET! Only £12 has come in for involved, covering 34 plants, are our Special Fund in the last seven days. We are still, there- beginning to realise the implica.

fore, struggling to reach the half-way stage in the £2,500 Ine manacement proposals. fund with only four weeks to go.

At the end of last year a The Oxford Summer Fair this coming weekend and the structure set by the London Fair the following weekend should give our fund a national introouce the new grading. big boost, but we still depend on our readers and supporters evaluation to help us reach the target on time.

committee was tormed, maniy All donations should be sent to: Socialist Press Special comooseo oT Fund, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR the scheme, and job evaluation exercises initiated in the Oxford tote winners: 24.5.79, 11-22 036, 195; 1.6.79, 6-24. 314 varrous diants under ine contro.

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

Printed by Anvil Printers Ltd., London. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.

mobilise seriously for demonstration high and 2,000 marchers had been mobilised by left-wing organisations. The main sponsors of the also snower manner had no political answer to the urgent need for British labour for

HUCHCEL

LITE

national liberation struggle in Zimbabwe. No practical suggestion toi action was labour movement made from the plat m Joan Lestor. caleo tor emonasis or "keeping the issue clear" and "explaining what is taking place". one bashed the tories wnie up the which the Labou government, in which she was a roreign Utrice minister, paver the way for today's Tory policies Labour may have opposed "internal settlement"-but only because they wanted an equally undemocratic "externa solution" to set up a black neo- colonial regime. The two speakers from the Patriotic Front showed that PF essential tne leadershiD too, looks for a negotiated external settlement with 'the imperialist countries The speaker called frequently the "joining of for hands" to get rid of Smith and vuzorewa-but did not utter a word about "revolution" 'socialism" He looked tor help to the "progressive forces" the United Nations, the Common. wealth and the Organisation of African Unity. me cAvo soeaker useo tne words "revolution" and "social- At the same time a so called "grading panel" slotted ou main joo titles into o grade: which they termed "bench mark jobs". These "bench marks" al though theoretically subject to the process of the job evaluation exercise, have been regarded by management as non-negotiable.

They are very controversial Production workers for example comprise who two- thirds of the labour force an who in many plants are current- ly in grade one, go down into orade unret storekeepers and storemen, fork lift drivers go down to grade 4 BL's plan has been to get this in by bribery They outlined a so. "parity" called scheme which Inev woule day new rate.

(presented as part of pay review). when last two concions were met that manage- tirst is Continued on page 11 for nothing ism" in almost every sentence out presenter ConCrete suggestion the cemand or labour movementsin the imper- ialist countries thing I ne closest demand came from concrete Abdul Minty, of the Anti- Apartheid executive, and ex tessee an autube waco the opposite OT internationalism. "We need it!" protested against the Tory covernment s measure. which will help to supply oil to South Africa when price is need all the oil we can get. The chauvinism this remark is typical also of the oisinvestment cam balch Labour 'lefts be oved …ot the and the CP The liberation struggle Zimbabwe wi not be mater ially assisted by moral sym- pathy for the petty bourgeois nationalist leaders or by chauv inist calls on the Tory ment and appeals to the United Nations This is the politics of Anti Apartheid Zimbabwe and its cmercencv camoalen commit tee, which is backed by the Patty, the Wand C. Communist Real „solloarity requires concrete programme of indep endent labour movement black.

regimes in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa It requires also the building of a revolutionarv socialist parti in these countries to lead the fight revolution for social and acainst internal external "settlements".

SUMMER FETE

Saturday July 7 from 12 to 4 p.m. Cowley Community Centre Cowley, Oxford Cakes * Plants * Games Bargains * Fortune teller * Refreshments Organised by the Oxford Area Workers Socialist League Tokyo-summit Protected by a massive force 34,000 of armed police and rooftop snipers the political leaders of the world's seven major imper- ialist powers last week exchanged notes on the mounting international recession offer what they coult not ach othe out of the us hope ot a way contradicuons or tne cabltalls crisis. Instead the final communi- solutterer rade round OPEC price 01 increases and made vain attempt to find a formula tor a cutback in oil imports to 1978 levels blather about energy, nuclear" solar and "far reaching changes" Warmonger Carter however each capitalist leader aware that the latest was weli phase of the crisis will mean the devastation of whole dred. , huge new unemploy- industry, ment and plunging living dards in their countries Ano whoresale miser. and suffering that will be causec by the crisis in the semi-colonia countries wiil trigger intensitiec struggle … TO tion, alongside the inevitable workers the resistance aa vanced capitalist countries Divisions and rivalries over oil quotas along line between capitalists-each seek own InC maintain „TheN profits at the expense of their competitors-bring the prospect or a out trace war even whils the US imperialists prepare for a 110,000 'unilateral strike . force designed to move in and oilfields in the Middle securt East. No solution There is no planned solutior possible to the world wide crisis of capitalism, which costlict i anarchic Un slant system that functions solely on the basis of private international working must look class not to the Tokyo Sunnin any charade for answers to such their material problems-but of revolutionary building parties lead world struggle for socialism Summer Fayre Saturday 14 July Lyndhurst Hall Warden Street Camden (Near Chalk Farm Tube) Jumble, Games, Food Prizes, Plants and more Organised by London

WSL