Socialist Press no. 172

MASS SACKINGS

PRESS

TO FORCE

Never before have trade their union leaders thrown such are riding roughshod over the massive resources into campaign to force their own cowardes members onto the dole conference of BL convenors.

And they queues as the Confederation Edwardes to the hilt in his move of Shipbuilding and Engin- to go over Unions British eering in convenors Leyland. ballot on his plan in the Confed leaders are working of a colossal press campaign.

hand glove with BL

OOSS

Michael Edwardes to ensure the Edwardes both closure or part closure workers whole tactories, and the loss of tive 25,000 jobs. oricials, and with no active resistance Riding roughshod threatened The extent of this collabor- Dine vote ation workers out of a job. coes . oevone even tne passive acceptance of closures Of course leaders or union the know full reluctant aclestence in techor union bureaucrats to shipyard implications than even the loss closures. 25,000 jobs. So anxious Confed frontal attack on those workers leaders to restore the profitab- who stay on in BL: -New court attacks on union rights Once again, even before from violent police thugs, who Tories have put their the Mostluausea iwo snoo stewaros.

on the one hand; and lawyers, new anti-union laws before who obtained Parliament, the Tory courts ton drainst The have struck a new other-brought an end successful tactic. blow at the right to picket.

walthe strikers tromi The Ellesmere Port plant have been conducting a militant campaign In retaliation, i suotor or well seven-week struggle for a 25% pickets mounted and Opel dealers throughout the Flying pickets on the gates West. North of Harwich docks succeeded for judge, LoUr three stopping vital Bush, immediately responded to supplies to Vauxhall's plants at dealers' Dunstable-bringing LUtO picketing as well. production prevented the firm shipping in Though Vauxhall strikebreaking supplies have • cars talked of simply OT ferring pickets to other dealers Trom the Continent. But combined not covered by this injunction

SOCIALIST

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 172 * 24 October 1979 * 15p

BALLOT

CONSPIRACY

ility of BL at the expense of The BL Board statement own members that they accompanying wallot paper states clearly that: "The Company cannot sur- proposals vive productivity improved as a major have supported continuous inau debenos production, fewer people and the heads of the the proper industrial and organise a postal engineering standaras. (we are investing in modernisation plants and afford WE Cannot leaders and which our-cared attituo es that

HOOE

osuruct morovements in ber.

in the so-called "safe" formance." plants-denied any alterna- Abolish agreement their Unot sign of in In other words a 'yes' vote factories-will com - will be taken as the go-ahead to fellow new common Their Im oose industrial engineering agreement union leaders which auolistic. muludl well that a 'yes vote on manning levels and ment clears the way for all-out speed- carries tar neavier up on the tracks. With all this at stake, every pressure has been bossio e brought to bear on BL workers plain that these CoUTl another move to are ban forms of court injunc. flying picketing, in advance of specific Tory legislation against DICKBIS on pickets. to this secondary Little by little over the last two years a body of procedents Further injunction LoCU estabusted Union 880 ers . гетиса challen is = SETIKErS essential that such on Vauxhall attacks Matawon UnIOr are met Tull scale But an obedient mobilisation the working class to bring Tory

MANCHCA

down the government and sweeo aside the a further apparatus of courts and police this through which the employers Toreven stewards tation. Trans them into voting popular daily to urayoor way their owr, jobs and work acceptance slashing plan! Ie coneltions. Special nightshift been maut compete BL convenors ¡ o ensure no concerted cam oificials could be mounted for paign

TASS

Nuffield no' vote, printer: Edwardes plan ress were bao couse. rates tor a special night shift to produce 165,000 ballot forms; and teams a Tent and sackings taking place or workers were en steo to mal out the forms within 24 hours of the BL Board's decision.

venors nave Edwardes over paper asks ballot years. workers to vote 'Yes' or 'No' to the loaded question you give your support to BL's recovery plan?" And the accompanying state- They cave ment treatens unde "If you vote NO then you the [!] will set the Company on a spelled out his which will be very grim I zuwu re•uneancies Through ine eed tor al ot us. This threat was backed up at 'workers participation' the weekend with a fuil-scale ery •ress cameaion And on Monday the Confea speed up itself uscals members corporate Dav subscription money to take out close down the advertising in at Speke. space every Defend abortion rights! TUC march

SUNDAY 28 OCTOBER

ASSEMBLE 12.00 SPEAKERS

CORNER, HYDE PARK

Edwarde. But now tha seizing on their demanding still more have felt CrOSUTes obliged to move token oppos- ition. Witch-hunt paper to argue for Edwardes' job- Edwardes has responded by launching remar Kaolt propaganda task has witch-hunt unwarranter against some of his most loyal easie Ine political bankruptcy servants, declaring: and union "I was alad that 274 shor the

TGWU

stewards voted against the plan and whose votes against the They mainly the Cal C been matched by any perspective fo workforce into industrial action prevent the closures and made them miserable in the process, Indeed the bulk of BL con.

The message should be made supported clear Edwardes' absolutely the last two current didn is forced Inrougn it will by no means end closures and speed-up in BL Standing ovation Edwardes is an asset-stripper His plan will run BL down as a vehicle producer to nim a standing where it can survive in the capit- ovation when he met them for time in January 1978 dist market vote for the Edwardes Dans Tol plan today to "save jobs" is to redundancies by the thous the reactionary ano for years to comi Jobs cannot be defended by manage- assisted su collaboration with crisis-ridden ment slash back the workforce, caritalism production. The pance of be deteced bargaining and by policy Triumph plant fighting inseateneopants TO! supporting strike throughout labour ment. and backine work trans ferred from closed factories.

If there is less work, because of falling demand it should b shared on full pay under the control of elected trade union Open the books The its suppliers, dealers and bankers along with other car firms

• MUST

to elected com- • opened up mittees of unionists expose those protitina from the corporation's crisis The show the need nationalise the motor without comoensation under workers' management if jobs are to be defended and pro.

ductive forces utilised A fight on these policies in could form the centrepiece of the necessary rflas. alla throughout the workina class to bring down the Thatcher government and fight for to the we neut responsiv: needs of the working class.

Leyland workers

HUA AND GISCARD SHARE

THEIR PROBLEMS

Zimbabwe sell-out looms

-INTERNATIONAL-

television French radio, week and press dominated by the arrival of premier Guofeng, Hua China, in Paris. Despite a week strike gas and by electricily day strike workers and a two and some railway workers; by major floods in the south of the the arrival of Hua was country, the again shown major news item. The minute details of his six- reported and day stav mulled over for significant signs policy change attitude. No secret bourgeoisie The French made no secret of their interest in the country of 975 million: the expansion of trade and the exploitation of Chinese workers an effort to bolster up their in staggering econ- crisis-ridden, Although sales increased by 82% in the first seven months of this year as compared with last, make is not difference much balance French payments deficit. Giscard's fact that Hua arrived The 1981 up The first in France rather than West elections. does Germany,

WHICH

satirical trade with the People's greatest Canard Enchaine Republic, was fully exploited by a time Giccard d'Estaing at for scandal rrench domestic 1970 and 19/5. his government. also evidence is more 18 More coming to light of the close Yvon bourges relationship between ex- Defence which Bokassa and Giscard "friendship and hiat has become known tooetner

TOT

What has remain attached "affair of the diamonds is links... to Your Majesty."

the undermine doing muci united in leaders of the The Front have Patriotic to the war in Zimbabwe. negotiated successfully. The enects the latest critical turn in tional their historic deal with not have within imperialism. have Now that all sides have the seno us amicably. disposed economies constitutional questions, the London talks are moving on problems ulal the remaining This of the transitional arrange- constant the ments. In accepting the Tories' hourgeois proposals on the new and Nkomo stitution, displayed once Mugabe of opportunism the again their revolutionary' politics the exposed and further reality of the London talks.

Cover carefully timed Their withdrawal from the confer- ence and temporary refusa.

to agree to the imperialists' transparent draft WElC failed cover that miserably process of conceal the himself was Carrington call this feeble able by bluff with contidence with the talks continuing delegation from Muzorewa the Salisbury regime. of Tories were The aware of the fully course pressures which had brought Patriotic Front leaders the which London and dictated their actions at the conference. governments of the The line and the 'front states bureaucracy ате desperately needed Giscard authority in the run- some event to use to attempt to presidential boost his flagging standing.

class struggle weekly Le However, beano when the has begun to impinged on unable to travel catalogue the 'gifts' given to the Hua was because of a train by presiddent betweet brittany railway workers' strike. Party The Communist letter printed

CGT

however, dominated April their best to aid the government Minister restricting the gas and elec of the by workers' strikes tied TO lOUI which has tricity hours on Tuesday and rotating long" and for the rest of regional strikes the week underlying threats These determina- their brought nearer to tion to achieve a speedy end are surface with each day that Nkomo and Mugabe fail to Inteilla" their 'victory' sanctions economic strategy of limited guerrilla confined been They Zimbabwe. front the caused the past, inevitably In presidents have eagerly the line' assisted the Patriotic Front of the bordering leaders to suppress any left states, and Zambia in partic- imprisoning opposition potential leaders of such a situation sharpens movement. tears as the bankruptcy Kaunda and his fellow petty Now, the Front Patriotic that of nationalists becomes mass action will develop to leadership obvious increasingly challenge their 'left' regimes have to act more boldly to and pro-imperialist policies.

Carrington Should he midst all this In the position and arguments about how much dispute? of budget austerit how wa. government will be refuse to with in 1980, • Prime weapons it asked for? Raymond Barre Minister shrewdly took to his bed.

safe unese polite. Even talked merely exchanges between the French 'great affinity' between Asia and not without complications, Chinese leaders were West Europe. The Chinese Giscard to react to arguably need noweve Hua's TalK more problems. continue 000oSin ally visit appeasement of the "hegemon unashamedly ists". Zimbabwe. prevent an explosion within tion in that guerrilla rural the for a nate thadeostip no Zimbabwe, new leadership struggle advance tution revolution social of property with inevitable Zimbabwe, settlers, in consequences for their own promises vague hold on power. international fund No conflict development. conflict is no There between this assessment and career, and they need of the Stalinist the bureaucracy in the Kremlin conference. to gain a negotiated settle- ment between the Patriotic Front and the imperialists not disturb will that volatile balance of forces in resolve southern Africa Nkomo and Mugabe can national offer no political alternative socialist revolution against weigh to new massive pressures. While the Marxist bureaucracy Kremlin played its well-tried game of restricting the flow of arms nationalist the and the provision of training guerrillas, the Patriotic Front leaders have connived at this continuous transitional holding back win over the rural betrayal by of the greater part who of the massive strength armies which they control. the within Even of their limits disastrous ialism have they strategy, own worked against the struggles Only racist overthrow Smith-Muzorewa regime. Divert struggle oppressed But this whole strategy freedom worked to divert the has revolu- for social struggle SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 24 October 1y79 and credits отте more concessions to capitalism more i desperate attempt to pull in a the Chinese economy up by its boot laces. major The other Issue l plenty which got Peking French press s this space. in the week was the trials of dissidents in post- For the first

LITIC

China pena revolutionary code is to be introduced as from 1 Janhe Gang of Four is to be tried under the code. But thost under attack at the moment as appear 'counter revolutionaries much. more of a represen the bureaucracy than threat to Mao's widow. A so-called public trial with hundreds of people present was set up last week. main targets are those The the journal Tansuo involved in (Explorations). Jing- editor Wei The first apparently has

OCOT

snene 15 years imprison: sentenced to ment , he is an elec. old, for the parks trician working department in Peking He was arrested on 29 March in No. 1 Prison, been and has Peking, ever since Giscard with Hua Cultural revolution make clear thie Kampuchean beginning Cultural Revolution he was at attached he to continue to thiversity of the People canoe military the from a family of comes old Party cadres and was among The French president played Redd of the and the first members issues and the United Action of the vaguely Guaras Committee. the revolted when he 1967 bureaucracy in bureaucracy. Red Guards faces that realised manipulated by one were being of the party leadership? Europe Tactur against another to try and gain fought against Jiangi He alsc and was: Qing,

MAO'C

wite with 200 others along arrested but was freed by Mao to his native He returne and 1968 Anhui the army until recruited into later when three vedis and took returned to Peking part in the Movement for Demo.

cracy. Mugabe he put up On 5 December talks of the hunger for land modern is- his text on the masses that democracy, ation which was the beginning of the while he agrees Yang Guang-now to the Tories' draft consti- revue which the missing--and Lu Lin also collab.

which protects the white orated on. arrested for • were al for They exchange criticism of the invasior their of some and a main article imperialist or new "Democracy called assist agricultural Despotism?" of Hua's verbiage the visit will not hide the fact that Such sellouts are entirely the Peking bureaucracy is facing consistent with his previous enormous problems and that: it will be tal turns to capitalism to shore it from the last at this London up against the Chinese working This opportunism throws cass into stark contrast the need to build a principled revolu- tionary leadership that can crisis Zimbabwe within the inter- struggles revolutionary leadership

TESTOSI

begin with the task that has been consciously avoided by leaders-the mobilisation of the indepen- dent strength of the prolet- ariat through a fight for the programme masses under labour oppression and lead them forward in a united struggle against the forces of imper- THE FALL of Ecevit's beyond and RPP government bourgeois the borders of Zimbabwe • of the reluctance and the the building of a right wing Justice Party Trotskyist party, section of precipitate a General Elec.

Fourth reconstructed has brought tion in Turkey International can offer the a new lurch in the country's of masses (political crisis Zimbabwe an alternative of

FEATURE ARTICLE

the against

NEXT WEEK

betrayals of today's leaders.

coup in El Salvador

INTERNATIONAL

Shooting during riots in San Salvador Pre-emptive army Last week's overthrow of the dictatorship of General

MEXICO

Romero by of group colonels is the first concrete

BELIZE

result of the instability in Central America caused by the overthrow …ot somoz: and the establishment of the FSLN regime in Nicaragua.

The state department has Deen overtine Salvador in an attempt to fore- stall civil war and the threat of a power. EL 1 Liberation'

SALVADOR

At first State Department Viron Vaky Cuaactes

• SUCI

and Wllllam bowaler Tmied persuade Romero to announce of Pacific Ocean elections and a degree vally perasanon:

DUE

backed from this and away failed to curtail the murderous tne acaln squads. 200 the imperialists had no choice

MILES

with the but to stage a cuay retormist wing or tne mintary.

Washington had denied any but complicity in the coup, its Cictrouted some and called for a full-scale insurrec- o anulla almost total absence of oppos- ition from the right bear all the There is no question of the hallmarks of a CIA operation.

junta succeeding providing 1n no so in mar atempr to sel degree clearly a last aten manoeuvre ana reveals lat total crisis of the bourgeoisie ations indicates their increasing and imperialists. weakness in this region. In addition to declaring an Vacuous aument righest *restoration teor and modification of and human new land 1he promise or elections Is totally vacuous and most Taner socio-economic unlikely to appease a significant strunce the militar junta has oI une masses announced resistance and the fighting are strengthen links with Nicaragua liable to increase and the ques- and establish diplomatic non or sower decome ever more with 'all peoples and relations acute. governments'-by as it it in ot In many melona « lor ane tne orkers that IS Vance has pronounced war avador 1ha1 ThE thoroughly satisfied himself Nicaragua has brought about political crisis most rapidly.

will such statements Unsurprisingly there has is by far

HAIS DIVI

been indication of no the most overpopulated in the rhetoric being implemented.

(233 people region per Dual! long curfew 1s in lorce, some mile compared with 18 in Nical left wingers have been arrested, agua) and boasts one of the than three most compact and ultramontane people are outlawed and orgarcales in tae worko political activity is efectively For many years the tamous families' Proscuroca. fourteen exercised control over totali Fighting economy based cotton, and indigo and althougl Moreover troops have been has industrialisation increased used to dislodge

TUVO

the factories they have occupied dena des the cored italisms s and dozens of people have been numbered in terms killed in fighting around and in 200 families and property is still remarkably concentrated.&.

tne capitai ol san salvador Even the bour- According to recent censuses reformist geoisie and the influential liberal 72,000 hectares six families own 305.000 peasani support for the new regime families farm 43,000 hectares, whilst groups of guerrillas have generally the basis of very on come mio tne surcels, organiscu the barricades, In 1971 90% of all farms in bullding Caribbean Sea

NICARAGUA

•Managua

COSTA RICA

400 Salvador covered less than ten hectares and together Ene accounted for less than 25% of cultivable land. The calorie intake in the rural areas has actually dropped over the last ten years to considered necessary to sustan an life; unemployment is officially put at 45%. but in reality under- employment is almost total and a peasant can expect to work on average no more than 141 days in the year. The land estion that ali for that • despite lact ised state in Central America, coffee for and cotton account over 50% of export earnings and provide employment for the bulk of the labour force.

Romero It was the crash in the coffee market as a result of the depres- sion unal arove tnic peasantiy to revolt in 1932. E' à movement headed by the Communist Party land and crops were seized in a desperate communal effort to avoid star- of the leadershp

BUT

Tne movement had been infiltrated and I in quickly the army moved to slaughter more than in an orgy of violence that has never been erased from popular memory. Proscribed to this union organisation in nas been proscnoed This massive setback for the with the lack of peasantry orransauon m ue sudil Prolet nearly 30 years through a political system based on coups while the landed oligarchy held sway over the economy. However, by the 1960s the Alliance for Progress and the formation of the Central Amer- had Icall Common MaIKel accelerated industrialisation and strength of the class which now

WORKIL

numbers 500,000. This process also created a bour- new within seclus geoisie, loo weak to chaueng the landed sector, bul SuS ininttie tore to resource to back the 'electoral' political system and Christian and Social Democratic parties-the PDC and MNR. Nevertheless, it was neces- sary for the military to retain of fraud power. ana a systell was established that kept the ruling PNC party in power from 1961 until now ine cost oI even a shan electoral process tour pulas mobilisation every and structural destabilisation.

In extensive that the opposition andidate, Napoleon Duarte ne ro uca a cous will l assistance some those officers who last week toppled Romero Transparent In 1977 when Romero the minister formerly te esor te porter rigging sufficiently transparent to cause the imperialist powers to dithe nition since this was manifestly a regime that was from its first VaSi majority of the population Romero heralded a marked shift to the right and imposed a system of repression that must be considered among the most harsh in Latin America. The and police were army supported by unofficial' terror- Army takeover of university in San Salvador ist squads such as the ORDEN against the fascists and military and the White Warriors' Union wnich, sıgnicantly, n laenunes operated mainly the parallel to rather than co- in countryside and killed hundreds substantial with the state.

of no ntes. itemise the towns, and although it has the attrition the support of sectors of the would be an endless task.

hit sectors; radical consoli working class, Il lacks priests frequently dated organisation in the were factories of its Jesuit and several expelled for oruc. ex pelled "subversion' and 'encouraging communism', thate lore leadership of FAPU is of the Class cenolince v their coleague.

class and ande kited don the of cat dozens of students strong connections with the

FARN

guerrilla which group this year kidnapped the campus in 1975 vation ol le calle. and, above all, trade unionists, two British managers of Lloyds and leftists Bank. In reality FAPU and FARN spirited away in their : scores to two wings of the De torture a asomarec are smDiv Only a few days ago almost same organisation, but unlike the entire national leadership of the Nicaraguan case-where the un newiy unte oeasant umon guerrilla gave burtn to tne pally -the FTC-were taken out and -in El Salvador the political and of the shot on organisations of resis- tance nave ocen acveo oca lose The opposition to Romero ther, and objectively there was organised il hoee bay three broad less chance of guerrillaism which becoming the dominant form of opposition. cena cole ma une bonaea arena and no doubt undergo shifts in The Bloque Popular Revolu- and cionario , (BPR) was founded in composition direction mid-1975 the class struggle develops First, there is the reformist that quit FAPU. These included of the bourgeoisic the largest peasan organisation grouped around -FECCAS-and th only legal the

PDC

alliance, the thi •MINK wnico is backeo ov he Second 'socialist' International).

teachers union ANDES. The Bloque itinal No popular base focus Satalle tie the most immediate Whilst

MNR

the has parallel the Prolonged of, .the popular base to speak People's War faction PDC for a time controled th FSLN, whose military strategy strongest of the peasant organis- and pseudo-Marxist terminology ations and still retains is shared by the Bloque appreciable following. Bloque categorises These two parties fought the Salvador as a backward capital- 1972 and 1977 elections defines state. It together as the National Oppos.

alsu CP as opportunist and revision- Imon Union (UU) wnien alsc ist-but on the basis that the Con cred th electoral De ot CP denies the possibility of th -the Nationalist Demo- cratic Union (UDN) formed in masses Taking ratne. than because has actually 1969 allied itself with the bourgeoisie.

The Stalinist organisation in El Salvador 'Revolutionary pole' strongest in Central America outside of Mexico. entire The question • of power is a central element in the Bloque's onentalon lo ward. politics and it considers Popular' pole the masses and a workers and SPeaKs o deveoome cae lorce of production (i.e. capitalism) peasants revolutionary front.'

befor taking and party event Congress in May the Bloque is without a consistent programme itself almost and its activity based on decicated exclusively to distinguishing radical populism between bourgeois democrac wing of the scarcely. a BPR is the FPL (Popular Liber- ano With reference to class struggle Forces) which has been ation There is no question of the mcreasincly activt alliance months. WILl Doureconst being in any sense a temporary al base ver a fines and tactical manoeuvre; it is now ten broad-based may vears old and its continuance 1 engraved in the political logic of already comprises tens of thous- Stalinism. and must inevitably it wil not be develop a strategv that include.

many days before its total bank- these forces rather than fall will be revealed in the back on guerrillaism ruptcy Salvadorean masses the ola allen are not aiscussed but shot out have maintained a remarkable Theae ase tis in a mad resistance dictatorship Salvado ical organisations in of their comrades in Nicaragua wica nave a substanuar Dase m the meses front they are without a Marxist party PopTar Action PAPU) Is ted United and programme such as the uransation. Bloque that derive their strength nelerogeneou. and more opportunist. from the spontaneous activity

FAPU

agreed to • participate of the masses are incapable of in popular discussions with the carryug tne assault on imperlal bourgeoisie It considers land beyond militant persuit of occupations provocative' which reforms without 'democratic calls for simply sunasnung or tne capitanst state government and the and expropriation of imperialist sees principal struggle being holdings is no assault at all

Page 7 support for IRA 68% An indication of the Ireland problems faced by Irish the continuing war of libera- Jack Prime Minister tion in the North. Lynch in fully assisting Supporting motives government's the Tory planned crackdown on 20% the republican move- supporting the ment has emerged from Ine IKA in une war agalnsi published by British a survey nearly 10% the Irish Economic and support Io1 Ils Research Social under conditions where the Institute.

IRA

1s an A massive 72% support a hounded on both sides of withdrawal unilateral British from the the

HOOOS

occupied six counties. 'border'. discuss fight against Tory attacks With almost daily confir- mation of both the escala- of the Tories' drive tion against workers' living stan- dards and the deepening of the labour leaders' collabor- ation with these attacks, the urgency of developing and adopting an action programme to defeat these dual threats is clear. Already of trade miltons unionists have been forced for- and in detence ol Ward pay working conditions with tens of thousands of others involved in protests demonstrations against public spending cuts and closures. Gains But whether the issue is the within ship- , steel or bu, or protec- tion of the gains represented by the education, health and social servin leaders the reTormIsI Lace realise that union of the viability

STAKE

capitalist system itselt.

and the TUC com- Murray Benn and Heffer in like the plague Recent the need mass a Doll political action to bring down bodies CDLM include: Thatcher Throughout the last decade, trade, the working class in Britain has

AVICSOULS

ready and able to hown itself Leicester OI Labour Tory women s governments

COHSE

their way. the same time the But independent policies to answer tne bosses open up workers to effectively great dangers. Way forward The Campaign for Demo- Labour Movement Conference Against the Tories, in drawing on its experiences o Heater. way forward for all those sections now being drawn In particular, women and youth, shoulder some forced to of the heaviest burdens of the Tories' policies, are urged join with trade unionists and file rally TaIL allu Poll proves massive look to a united as the solution to admitted of imperialism, and admitted methods- Lynch illegal, witch- It is necessary, of course, organisation to warn of the inadequate and partial nature of such imperialist-drawn polls and surveys. But at the Conference to Lining up for anti-union laws-James Prior Blackwells

TGWU

5/293, members in supporting the Con-

TGWU 5/833,

Oxford Oxford

CPSA,

Oxford

NUJ

movement

UCATT

Central Oxford, St carrying support for the

NUPE,

Clements Labour Party ward, Camden Oxford. councu. branches, trade union Trades Council, Trades Council steward committees. shop are urged to consider sending sub-committee, delegations

ASTMS NHS

Manchester, BL Cowley. Assem- Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

*Prepare to force out the Tories!

*For mass action against Tory anti-union laws *Strikes and occupations against the cuts!

*Build Councils of Action!

Saturday November 3, 10.30am-5pm

DIGBETH HALL, BİRMINGHAM

Open to all trade unionists and delegations from labour movement bodies Credentials (£1) and details from; Godfrey Webster, 99, Barclay Rd, Warley, West Midlands the figures same time published clearly show that the republican movement of maintains a mass base in the political support South, as it also does in the nationalist ghetto areas the six counties. At same time ine of the republican failure movement to direct into the workers' Irish organised movement as the vital lead- ing force in the anti-imper- ialist struggle means that this support remains more potential than actual. Trotskyist party, capable of mobilising the Irish pro- masses gramme of demands which connect with their existing consciousness and to the struggle for national liberation and socialist revolution, must be built.

PRESS

GANG

The Church of England tion between that compassion which report on homosexuals has managed to offend almost • KIn• oT •NOI everybody. which specifically have Gays mUst revolted by its patronising tont of addressing moral lepers. For saying Ene the arbiters of society's morality almost unbelievably Sun. however it was a good deal too "Today wishy washy and liberal The press saw the report greater tolerance understanding breach cancerous Church's traditional condemna saxuals

"BUT

tion of gays

VICARS?

The Mirror summed it up by "Will vicars saying

TOT

causing a storm in the Church of in church activities?" England. (The The press seeks to keep gays firmly boxed into a 'problem' child molesters). calcul y A report which recommen- ded 'compassion' from 'normal' people is fine, but in seeking to proposals which The Sunday accomoote TowarOs •40541 Jay lobby within its ranks, th summed tnese up custe heaty suggested "Homosexual report 'abnormal' desires declares, That vendos had some legitimacy. SinTul, The Daily Telegraph ously, however, that the Church should not be homosexuals criticised tor producing a repor -tempting as this was "Our quarrel with this report rests on those confusions which homosexuals apparently result from an ove adherence to modern zealous strict should than TauS ratne theology • ine report snould have made clearer the distinc Drivers claim £80 drivers,

TGWU

lorry The dramatic strike whose winter action achieved a major victory the against employers • established £64 and are to minimum wage, ahead for a 25% préss employers increase this year.

TGWU

delegate A A survey last conference discussed claims ranging up to f110 basic- fixed on the companies and finally figure of €80-one of the lowest submitted. Also in the claim are the £2 meal demands for per week. allowance, an increase in the allowance from overnight company £7.50 to £10, an extra holiday and a 35 week's received other bonuses. hour week.

TROOPS OUT*

NOW!

IRELAND

WAR WHAT WAR?

Bulletin of the Oxford Irish Delegation Committee Second issue includes articles on raising Ireland in the labour movement and women in Ireland.

Available, price 25p (including postage) from Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR be" here are more retrospectively makes allowances for such acts and the complexities in theology than meet the eye cond one This was-in longer words- Princess Margaret's low view the of the Irish, as expressed to Mrs same tume ds • revolting Jane Byrne Chicago's Mayor, would have American there rightly had little impact caused

NOTE

occured out or earsnot of d towards homo. American columnist. The Britist press, , overhear.

HOMOSEXUAL

Margaret refe ine rancess the trish pigs would hav not the idea alarm all turned a deaf ear. parents whose children take part Americans' ambiv

DUT

alent attitude Towards implied warning is of British monarchy helped ensure course that all homosexuals are remarks were widely That ne repeated. The report, in trying to face What was surprising in the all wavs at once. produced some that not British DreS yva, a most сету denials were Telegraph prominence, but that the ston was blown so big in the firs • acTS place. are not in themselves It could be that the initial if performed promiscu Fleet Street was an • response of unthinking reflex response to a Thev were, vet it adds, for the Church to allon controversy 'marry' Or could it be more likely other would be going too far. A.

That in streams to priests it is all right to ordair across the front TAel but when the editors Fleet papers, ot they decide to make their it rese guns went public what they are up to, the agreement offer their resignations sister's sentiments? to the bishop who should accept or reject Inem as ine case und

OUT NOW!

WOMAN

of reluctance employers to confront the union after the bitter and

WORKER

costly battles of last winter has been indicated by the fact that in the Leeds and No. 3 Bradford area one group of already has settled for a new £76 basic.

week of •Articles on women in Ireland, fighting the 5,600 executives from 650 Culs Kampuchea, and the Com- showed an munist Party's women's average take home pay of "Link paper, £8,281. This represented an wist, int Price 16p increase in pay over the 12 from postage months to july of over £10 Dartmouth Park London NW5 1HR On top of this, 59% held 50% free cars, medical insurance and 44%

Butcher Mason in anti- Last week saw a flurry of fresh evidence to show the scale of the economic crisis major that shares working threat to class the world living standards over. In Britain the cover tutol inflation has announced that rence an and a leve with still more major increases to come. Derisory Such continual pressure on weekly wage packets more tnan offsets the derisory tax rebates being landed workers a resut ou howe s rich man's budget. But the budget was also one settine d COUrSe reCession and mass unemployment, and last week additional of this, the mammoth attack jobs on BL being supplemented by gloomy torecasts elsewhere in the engin- eering industry. The Alston Foundry in Cum- bria close next year. Wilt cost of 130 jobs, pleading a lack of orders from the car industry and general engineering orinos Total closures among iron and steel foundries to over 40 in the last year: and, as une recession colners in bacc cemano for castines is estimateo to be less than half the existing -threatening capacity up to 200 680 ine oresent Tounonse with closure in the next few years. Recession Elsewhere, British 100 industry seems set to enter a Howe SUETALIST PRESS, heinesia: 1 October 19"» Crisis grows- world-wide of similar serIes policies. Tight controls on money sharply increased suppty and us interest rates now threaten in the crucial will have economy, which - DrOTOUnC resurcussions nOT crass but also or workers na class • but workers curope throughout ald world. 'Recessionary mode' Even US Treasury Secretary william Miler nas declared Carter approaches a traumatic that the reelection campaign American economy recessionary mode" The US will turn heighten the demands from further recession atter a seriod aline sections or us caoitarismn of increased output as Central for Carter to impose protection- ist measures to keep out imports Statistical Office Tigures showed a weakening or oemane. ano wom tner cabitanst competitor: proved that once again the bulk in other countries. of the last year's growth in out- But not the US that such war solery Ene resunt snows expansion in North Sea oil and Even within supposedly ThE "planned" and orderly set-up of gas. the European Common Marke1 Underlying causes nationalistic tensions and growing alongside The state tue cconomic

COSE

tacl bitish manuracturine inoustry mem der country is also the underlying cause of While. Thatcher conducts her continuing balance of pay- appeals from despairing ments deficit which is outpacing EEC head unsymeatnelle state in the colossai ossai 21.5 North sea ol revenues But while the high value of reduction the and the pound the soaring cost of British menroet ship next year, French interest rates of the or credit corning on top of the government, too, squeeze, is taking world slump begin to take their lateral steps to detend its owi to or weaker secuons or caoit- interests Its recent controls on ship- alism in britain, the plumeting of the dollar ments of cheap British lamb and money markets has now forced unoe and defiance Carter s Us administration into Tory outburst From his closely guarded, floodlit, bullet- proof hideaway Labour's former chief Torture Minister Roy Mason sent a rare message last week. A note to a massive 2,500- rally •STONe anti-cuts Sheffield appeared to adopt a militant anti-Tory stance.

Thatcher warnea were government Thal thev "throwing down the gauntlet", if they were not care- movement "would have resist". Empty wrath And he threatened a "united by unions, MPs and ettort'' councillors. But perhaps workers should be more worried prospect than should Callaghan This Thatcher. European Court ruling. They have been condemned by seven member nations-but are still being upheld to note in InIS ConTeXT Tnat une suooosed "internationalists" of the Communist Party have. assessine woere they stand on the issue of such controls. rITTV • French or members demonstrated outside a meeting

EEC

farm ministers, lavour contros soortino a nationalisti declaring save its sheep meat producers"!

Worse to come But, as if recession and exist- inflation were not already for the capit- bad enough news Class. still worse to come. A snare ooo onesel output is threatening a repeti- Saudi spokesman Yamani (right) Because it was trace of no soclalist sentiment unal Drouent empty from the such biro the architect of the barbarities Kesh anc

LOTS

te to ture or caste ean! The message itself made this The Tories, Mason clear. com- plained, • are preparea to stand "idly by" while workers this winter tight tor wage increases to match intiation "This is a complete negation and abandonment of govern- ment, he moaned. Beware do that is it. Mason wants mass protests by trade unionists and Labour activits against Tory policies ana Tavour ol Workers Sheffield and should Dewart Hvenas like Mason never chanat their spots-and the Callaghan lead the fight gang cal against the Tories. Page 5 US Federal Reserve Chairman Volcker-raising interest rates and squeezing credit Launching recession in election year-a worried Jimmy Carter tion the shortages which caused such chaos earlier this vear. Crisis ridden And while Libya has unilat- erally raised the its oil the present Cruc • 200 OPEC price ceiling and Kuwait of is talking Cuttin DaCH ministers production seem certain to raise prices by • 10% at least another this winter every • wront une worsen ing crisis compels the capitalists to contemplate intensified alideas clas. And the total inability crisis-ridden capitalism to develop and expand the , force or production to cater " Tor thf needs the vast of mankind points unmistakeably Ene materia necessity the world socialist revolution.

Raising oil prices-Gaddafi Calls to action on cuts to name a date for the Day The anti-cuts lass of Action on the cuts it is demonstration and lobby of • obligated to call as a result Parliament called on of resolutions passed at this November by Lambeth year's Congress. Council will be followed up In mobilising the maxi- by a national lobby on 28 support for the November called by South November lobbies, trade Yorkshire Association unionists must demand the Trades Councils, the Yorks public sector unions and the and Humberside

TUC

and TUC organise a serious, co.

South Yorks County tne ordinated, national Council Labour Group. programme of mass action This second lobby has to halt the Tory cuts, con.

already been supported by front and bring down the the the civil executive of job-slashing Thatcher service union, the CPSA. But still the TUC refuses

OUT NOW!

The Battle for Founding documents of the Workers Socialist League Trotskyism Price £2.50 plus 20p postage and packing.

Place your order now. Send your name and address together with £2.70 to Folrose Books 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NWS 1HR

Above and right: scenes from the Hungarian revolution of 1956. The USFI documents show that no lessons have been iearned from these struggles Errors that flow from refusa to learn from the past Page 6

PETOFL

the trade unions and of genuine It is not simply the series proletarian democracy with its of awkward silences, eva- the workers; control from diversity of parties or factions and omissions sions abolition of the censorship, and the USFI's documents that assurance of the right to real inade- mark them as opposition ceological to offer a lead quate spheres of social lite.

CONSOLIDATE

"TO working the class on a

GAINS

the

THESE

requires international national or power exercise level: freely elected councils through The documents also contain of the masses, the establishment positions-which yet and workers' wrong of workers power again arise from the ramshackle management, I. . etc.). heoretical and diplomatic basis "As part of an international the

USFI

the army will which ict torean constructed. be democratised and placed at There are a number of points the disposal of the international that could be stressed-but this proletariat as it was when it was article will take up only a few of built under Trotsky." (emphasis the more glaring examples, since added). others are generally either of a in the What this passage similar type or on clearly related usEl's document cannot answer issues. all these sweedino be brought chances Learned nothing about, it they are only going to be consolidated by the building of workers councils, and topped The World Document puts off by the democratisation of Political on torware a section the army. Revolution which snows is the The question arises:

USFI

either learned has removed Hungarian bureaucracy the nothing TrOM from above or trom below! events of 1956, or is simply con- genitally incapable putting Mobilising forces forward a 'clear programme as action. the basIs TOr practical If from below, then the first A study of TO Wind sket- before osage argumhat this rosses primary cuestion the upside ching out schemna 101 arouncil elaborate transformation of the down: address machinery, "The programme of the poli- slatt the task of mobilising the forces has thus been THe evolution for building factory committees living hammered

OUT

independent chais bodies councils other workers The main struggles. as the the elimination of the the essential organs capable organs of mass repression, challenging the state power held conquest of poittical by the bureaucracy and advan for the toiling masses, the estab- cing the independent strength of of. independence for lishment the proletariat in the deformed workers states This the unmistakeabit lesson of the workers councils in munedry Mass organisations And the only way in which proletariat, arms the in nana can hope to topple the conserva at that tive casic present controls the functioning of the workers states is if the for independent same struggle organisations al su advanced into the ranks of the and the fight taken Red forthe up COnSECUOT committees of rank and file Red independent of the Armen officers. Far from being the final seal that consolidates a victory won commit- by orner means, such tees and councils offer the only political road revolution conspicuous that It is also the section on Political Revolu- tion is

USSR,

* the Chin" this context we should USFI statement recall that no called -in even une most gerei c terms-for the construction workers and peasants councils in Vietnam puppet imperialis where ine forces crumbled in There still is no real concep the USFI leadership tion inset -despite the continued exis of

USFI

tence and the castern culone dual courage of those militants- of how central the struggle for independence class WOrKInC trom the Stalinist bureaucracy is to the method of the Transi- USFI XIth WORLD

CONGRESS

tional Programme. confusion KUlT

TESS

compounded by the production of the document on Socialist Democracy and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. to a wordy, evasive but wholesale duaptativi to the various Eurocommunist seek to transform currents tha the soviet Union into a bour- democracy, and geois Whic have publicly thrown overboard even the pretence of fighting for the dictatorship of the proleta- Pidl most obvious question to raise is why on earin such a document should be written by * rotsKy IStS. It seeks to lay down in the abstract possible terms, most and norms for a hypo- Tormulat thetical

TUTUTE

WOTKeTS but at the same time it ignores obvious theoretical UnE point tor any such dialysis-ure Transitional Programme of actual the workers in the Soviet Union and the subsequent workers states. Free vote clear makes it . rOTSKV cali dronetiation of the •oviels. lildi ""In the Soviets there is room only for representatives of the workers, rank and file collective farmers, peasants and Red Army men. the "Democratisation impossible without Soviets Soviet parties. The workers and peasants them- selves, by their own free vote, SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 24 October 1979 Part Five a "Dictatorship" that really rep will indicate what parties they suppresses no resses nobody, SovieT •arties. itself makes class criteria-placing anto fron the decision in the hands of the chiefly by its absenc view independent oroans It bears no relationship at al toiling masses-is not good example o enough for the USFI leadership to the oniv actual the dictatorship of the prolet I ney wish to accommouale ariat-in the Soviet Union.

the Eurocommunists, to no watering down the concept of The only a million miles away fron prol- the ot th dictatorshi the reality of the Russian Revol to the extent of spec- etariat, ution; it is also a strong echo o of legalisation the the kind idealist current geois parties, and elaborating ir attacked by Trotsk the most idealistic fashion what vicerously Class Nature would be consider Ency with Soviet State: ssary to oroviet democratic rights excess those available under bourgeois simply cemocracy concept, an ideal norm not 1 Soviets realizer upon planet. Small wonder tha reticians' of The fact that the organs of this sibed as they do not denounçe altog workers. power-workers coun ther the very word dictatorshi Soviets--that emerge as strive to smear over the irrece the revolutionary Ine basis contradiction seizure power, the latter and bourgeois dem which conscious revolutionaries cracy xtremely tendency Will characteristi among many-will from the laboratory and not ti workers opportunity time in of the first Have IS ! participate sect their lives in the determining o democrats (Souvarine and Co poitical policy and the shaping already impli is set aside as future, nant a break with Marxian inao eouate critique of the The USFI wants television, Marx rejected radio time, phone-in time or computers, and a whole series o name social comestab the fact that it places t • to the rights to give tun socialist strugs revolutionary t avid petty bourgeois appe formal control individual for democracy. concept o AS result 'It quite obvious Dictatorship of the Proletariat is there is no difference in pri robbed of any real class content careful dis ciple a tew democrats' and 'socialist dem claimers are thrown in here and democrats that there, the document as a whole crats', social There is no hard and tast pa makes it clear that this is seen as

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 24 October 1979 The United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI) is undoubtedly the and widely largest most known of the currents that have emerged from the post- war crisis of the Trotskyist With thousands of members and SCUOlS sawwatnsr sections in dozens or countries, it is viewed by many militants Trotskyist Fourth "the" interni ona The Workers Socialist League does not share this view.

we nge mo vor a amoendn that has departed on numerous key questions from the method.put ysILlDS aule

TOT-

wara in ThA iran ional PrO gramme on which the Fourth was founded nternational I8S0

LIOW

communism. Transgression CommuTSI STate the historical bUBlOns orocess

DUT

'democracy' in reality is etarian Gotha possible see word an incor• spirit the Was wearty eure banner

LUISTTI

"s unte compromise ine elements of Transitional Programme. We have seen ThaT allusion trUISIS. contai ence of any the USFI's In there is

TIONE

working class. not by clearly sections because their COmO letely confused They .are, TrOITIOn oreoccubiec revolutionary" with layod organisational oeuvres. "conti- simply lays the tuing tion" The only week of without Hay. whose post-war period has been We know, of course, that the characterised by profound polit IWO omer main orouoinos Tn8 lay claim to the title of "Fourth disorien aton auc col International" tinuing series of incomplete and both ava opportunist splits and fusions. su startay Smaler Luan Xith World The forthcoming

UNI.

Both of them-the Healyite Conaress of the USFI is however "'International Committee" (run important event. offers the opportunity Organi sing commite tor the British

WRP)

and stage a-sassine i more dotaw tue Reconstruction the Fourth of development of the political which has characterised by the wo uduod OCI).-certainly the USFi's PrenaT hold axistence SInCO olitical positions as bad or fa formation in 1963. than the USF At its Tenth World Conares

WWT&

ou maly in 1974 the main factions were questions anc are themse ves

USFI)

(like the wracked by the Leninist Trotskyist Faction, internal crisis. pontical su•borun! tae voru ally "orthodox", opportunist Disorientation the US Socialist positions Workers Party, and Inter- But the bankruptcy of their Majority autonal zent anc clinging on to the ultra-leftist rivals Is in our view no argu ment for in guerrillaist schemas of the

USFI

the exclusive continuity USFI's European Secretariat 1 rOLskVIS! movement. But the untenadle positions

MESE E

wabliec amouRE Tine within the workine cess. bureaucrats' demand of 35 hour -a demand bold policy of virt AIs unese union in the building a valv the -and class subject tub- the the Cisply cauc sie

UITPUT.

and CP appa. таке тет reformists. vision has its But such problems: "There class struggle But the document lett wing incipient one, European USFI's doesn't look means orientating petty people into broad layers are seeking do Tne new problems answers Ine consciously are confronted into this [sending new stage and can spective." mentoers INtO coM- jobs otten as a education they It states tlal That could simply sition cannot ano The Ine workers' cert- different other alnily CUTl- possibiy any coust witnout a clear and pro- gramme on take .InIS wOrK: dering lamely mIST ano currents only the Not USrl offer has bewildering replaceu "new Danklubt "class struggle left wing". this concept Tom tns American there is yet whatever strucoe ToI Trotskyism the

USA,

no where else! which the . grandiose way visions e "Class Exempted from political revolution: Fidel Castro •fisci alic adulaton taken by both the LTF and the this majority leadership that dratted

IMT

during Portuguesa the five events 1974-6 and main documen

TOOWO TO

LIRE

Congress. But their manifest Angolan war eo o' a charo re alignment of forces which now failure to reconcile past political shapes the coming Xith World s comolewrated Congress te pattern or conspicuou!

bulk of the USFl's diplomatic omissions and the documents Latin American evasions sactions tn the the int The Bolsevik Tendency ha.

actions broke with the line in the meantime declared itself a Faction dedicated to the and. led U8 oiVr ano ue LIr calls by Nahuel Moreno's Argentinian removal of wutat

PST,

formed Bolshevik "Castroist current' and an principled bloc" phi UiSfl and the restoration of at the head andanGy The growing challenge from these forces, combined with the onnodox frotkvism. in the credib. complete collapse IMT's Correct errors

TOT TRE

porspectives of 1969 and 1974, pressured both the European much threat is ana our IB8d0rS fi• o ner JOtL'OV dissolution of factions and the xeen in the matement orocucer formation of a now, "united" by a now 'Leninist Trotskyist Tendency which has also omer. leadership the Xith r of Congress. dea. witn torcas m a num•a

NUPF

say=:

NUPE

£60

NUPE

OFFICIAL N°

OFFICIAL

STRIKE

TRIKE

5, . USFI fails to orientate to working class women Who now and again others union wing. left wing, imaginary the native ideal the fcal organisation leadership." Stalinists, declares VIStS Ine that: the appea- advance the class struggle programme, ting blank anyone! wark in the Union Move- the in these articular variou: Indeed programme carefully as no the reformists. The tional are separater from this by many pages of see a cutt from the Prog- the need for tme between tion. But the oemane. of the fight

WO ACT:

strudo e

TOI

transitiona demands means and discrediting exposing the leaders. illal Otne d0U by a how to fight in practice fol demands Coninc

• W I[N

existing union con- The sciousness of their would-be ass struct ol Wl Page 7 sections, pledged to "correct the of the existing USFI leadersh ip The article below, part five examining the serre: position of the USF! in the run XIth Congress to its CrETON OT TOe • Tve maln

'TEXT!

presented to the Congress the new majority leadership.

nese cea with *The World Political Situation. *European Perspectives. *Perspectives for Latin America *The fight against women's oppression *'Socialis Democrac! and Dictatorship of the Prolet.

ariat". Concluded next week Readers doubt our advised them-

SU•STEUT:

citar nir the XI Congress docu. oppression "anti-nuke" and ecology camions man anti-nuke combines blocs with variegated pourceo!! fight against oppres- SIOn building communist women: build independent movemen national from many their interpre TIrSU

TOUT

Third Such construction of any under Themr Dany indepen- between requires both revolu functions. The serve former forms leadership for women, and attes orients all of clas struggle Towar• s a NaTIVE for revolutonar This ignores lan womel orochised oppression. revolutionary separati Marxist struggle the bou- movements, any bancon class lines bankruptcy the

USFI

on As is today's wibossos OT TAe NR sistent, to past.

LENIN AND THE

Page 8 In 1918, Lenin remarked that whereas it was much easier for the Russian work- ing class to start the revolu- tion than it was for the West European working classes, it was much more difficult for them to continue." The irony Lenin had in mind of problem related 'culture' The Western working classes as they ideologically dominatea p intineo aleseuaamaram slavery': revolution would mean with powerful breaking cultural and ideological machine which developed capitalism made possible. that break had

DUU

OrICC of been made Ine CUlTUre Western capitalism-in the sense of its advanced knowledge, civil- isation, science" ane technoooy could be appropriated by the proletariat as a basis on which to outlo socialism. EndangeredR In Russia, the situation was given the lack of a the developed 'civilisation' state ideoi- western sense the revolution therefore b e { sea it was severely en- was Iaut the lack of the langered by forces ot modern •evelo cd civilisation. fact clear from this aone mat cenm recoruco cur- ture' as being highest ot the importance to the making and sustammin ur trie yovolullut!

v cu ture ne meant noso much works of art, but. know- literacy, modern ledge, the WitnoUl harnessing of. such forces, building of socialism was put in dire peril. declared, must. he "take the entire culture that capitalism left behind and build SoCasM wun ! "We must take all its science, technology, knowledge and art.

CULTURAL

REVOLUTION

TERRY EAGLETON reviews "Lenin and the Cultural Revolution" by Carmen Claudin-Urondo, published by Harvester Press, unpriced.

Without shalt be these supreme importance to build communist society. *0 untabid revolution s success. was wrolerkui Carmen is example of a familiar Marxist clauain urondo unhappy with Lenin's attitude the reduction of class acvatiui. sucoesTs ner

TOC

cositor lene DOllCd

BOSILOIT.

uncritical stance on Lenin's part taken by an individual in theory towards the inherited culture of and practice) to class situation which an she contrasts capitalisiu tune socidl Class individual belongs). with the bollcy ot croierkut Proletkult was an indepen- Hence its sectarian assertion that 'the bourgeois specialist is dent for the orariiso lule psychologically. creation ot a pure protetarian incapaolt led by the idealist serving the interests of the prol- , and its divisive hostility Bogdanov and opposed by both etariat to the peasantry. Lenin and I roisky Fiercely sectarian, dogmatic Bordered on mystical ultra- and at times culturally jertist (some memoers reecice Claudin-Urondo also ignores the whole of past culture out of.

hand), Proletkult demanded the fact that Proletkult's culti- vation of 'pure proletarian con- the Enal orotetarldy recasi bordered culture the crucible of its scrousness orlen own class consciousness'.

the mystical-proletarian Con Trotsky sciousness as a new religion; and Claudin-Urondo approves Inis as a revolutionary transtor By 'culture' Lenin is norm- she is oline to Ine contradld mation of culture, in contrast to thinking of the second-of tions of its cultural programme ally what she Lenin's pro- sees That programme the massed forces of developec which must be "elaboratin civilisation otelarial already existing stock of culture culture which, with the destruc placed under proletarian govern.

to the masses. tion of society's. division into ment. Claudin Urondo dislikes this Transformation clases wil become common too: she accuses Lenin of treat- all mankind" (Declaration the All-Russian Proletkult 1st Proletkult certaniy ing science ana technology forces see the process of correct neutral conterence, building a revolutionary culture This is a very curious state which can be merely taken over.

indeed. If it is taken ment in Mussla as one of struggie ana she doesn t quite go to tne transformation. ridiculous lengths of claiming seriously, then ov some ciaed did Lenin: all of his tical trick :future But so "bourgeois'; • soCIaiIs inal culture will be more than ar considerable writings on litera-

OUT

she coes •VOTe Watnoui ture (work criticism Bogdanov's demand sion Ticantv

NOT

l extension mankind mentioned by Claudin-Urondo) for a 'proletarian mathematics', the culture the proletariat can stress the need to reinterpret the conditions of create now, walen oreloured some • Ol LIIC artistic more absurd 'scientific' backwardness, mass illit culture or cass sociely severe from a working-class viewpoint.

quacke als se sns to au eracy ano economic neeroev (Lenin's celebrated elopment support socills Tolstoy are a precise example) culture classless Proletkult's workerist refusal to But there integrate the skills of bourgeois Is a •iTTerenci socetv witbe . mn contradictory 'reinterpreting' electrif.

proletarian fashion the culture of a class.

between experts into the Proletkult thus ignored view. the ICaTIon

TTOM

Ine saltit revolution-an inteerdtion waic!

Lenin and Trotsky deemed fact that socialisi • culture. tai Russian peasants 'extension' of from being the The inevitabiy Daruiai. class based culture of a struggling revolutionary proletariat, will in TaCT createo n Whole process of struggle towards the abolition of social classes.

in which nere is no selisc future socialist culture can be simply 'read off' from revolu- culture- . Tionary orolelaridi quite apart trom the act una such ure, uiien the materia. material deprivation

TRE

hussidl working class, was for the most part merely a pipe-dream of the rroreckurust Trotsky's • recolute

OOOOS

to Proletkult receives a ition silence in Claudin- resouno lu Urondo's book. Postponement ror irotsky, the attempt te create a proletarian culture and project this into the far future sion tie• a oostoonement or trit drive build the classless society of communism. It was. in ettect, a retusal 01 ine perspective or oermanent revolution at the level of culture. The task of the proletariat, • Trotsky,

TOI

was not to consor idate its class-culture; strive to abolish classes was to , ana so altogetner ate boss for quite different and in unforseeable, form many wdys of culture in the future.

In the second half of this the meaning of Claudin- book uroncos attac" zenins cultural views become beauti- fully clear. in fact. nothing les: than convenient way the whole basis of attacking Leninismn lescil She launches the usual petty- bourgeois assault on What Is To SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 24 October 1979 Lenin Be Done?, which she distorts to tha suggest that Lenin Derteved 'consciousness comes from knowledge, and not from prac tice Material conditions sent of specialints enc ur specialists acicll production brocess. witn naraly a word about the material cor- ditions which necessitated this, and hardlv a hint ot an alternia tive programme. She suggests Lenin's large-scale industry belief that the building essentiai lo soamise ist simov one molrt his uncritical capitalist culture attitude to without quite commIttK herself to a 'small is beautiful 'back to the market garden' strategy. And though quotation after Lenin quotation ant acutery COnSCIOU. candid he himself was about the contradictions of objective buildina socialism in the Kussiar situation, it is all seen somehon as a question of Lenin's own 'mistaken' views, rather than of those contradictions tnelnseives and Cultural Tn Ar ar Revolution aspect of revolutionary activit) which is too often ignored But it also churns out anti-Leninist number of stock opinions which would be better ignored. Footnotes Conference wyoeecn at 4in of Moscow Trade Unions and Factory Committees, Collected vorks. vol. **Th Achievements and Difficulties of the Soviet Government, Collected Works, vol 29. Lenin (left) playing Bogdanov at chess

SOUTH AFRICAN

BOSSES SHRINK

CONFRONTATION

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 24 October 1979 Women from Crossroads march in protest at police raids on their camp The working class world throughout the iS and increasingly strong ready to fight. But it still faces the obstacle leadership that is incapable of mobilising its strength in independent mass struggles against the capitalist class.

Nowhere is this more sharply demonstrated than in struggle of the super exploited working DacK Casson boula Africa. particular, the recent deveroomnents surugat being waged by workers and their families in the Crossroads Calll D form to the lessons of Trotsky- ism.

FROM MASS

In April of this year, the from its intention to bulldoze and expel Crossroads commun lo nome au labour reservoirs, announced that the squatters would be re- nousea in cape lownis Allicall ghettoes. Concession commilice was sel up, bureau- drawn from the state cracy ana tne league or capital- ists known as the Urban Foun- which of the dation, Deode cuaned

IOT

une con- cession, and which were con- demned the and to poverty "homelands'. Listast Socialist struggles of the oppressed black FIeSS 103, inis by the working class. way Il rees neavily masses allu the full demands of the liberal white capitalists and their demands obtained and secured 1lCl through socialist revolution).

worKers, black bourgeois and petty bour- be a partial victory won by the geois lackeys. of leadership how- working class community. When ever means that theinrossro is the bourgeois state is forced Crossroads une state struggle forced to such as Tetean Delore a or- not only by the high level of ward moving working class, concession car oe mansioneu forged organisation unity of into reversals, even more try turn any during class. suuzzie. oul disu serious setbacks the Colicessiul tne inreat oi widespread sona- un sale The only firm defence for month its decision to re-house the event of a frontal attack working class, only 6,000 the the ov te state. 24,000 Crossroads aevelosment Headersio the indepen- basing itself clearly feels that the efforts of Class forces on dence of the class and the Urban Foundation and its This have had success poulancil icvll balance of class forces in South tion (in which the mass strength In. weakening meDencent the attained by the community and working class be Within overall its organised committees forward movement of the working class, which No bulldozing began massive strikes oi 1973 and high point in the 1976 uprising At the same time, recognis- crisis of leadership has given the continuing level ing

MISC

mune une strength displayed nationally by proletarian upsurge. The proletanal, STaTe SuI The impasse now reached by holds back from all-out assault, workers that there will be structic une amils or spontaneous milli- bulldozing of the 3,000 shacks.

ancy an unstable situa- une ouestor Te-sousing tion which carries the threat of setbacks. with question Yet those within the ruling whether class who consolidated or weakened , will strategy of head-on attack. have been course be by to carry their and not simply by position, a indication that thev recog- CodE proclamation or a state omicial persisting strength of There are clear of nice the proletariat. parallel being waged struggles Ihe state has been forced to

TOURNOU

turn more to ways of eroding response increases Botha the political independence won physieal and launched on the masses by a decaying bourgeoisie these recently

MOST

struggles have included the month-old bus boy- important the Durban industrial cott in area This now involves abou 15,000 workers walking tens of miles daily in protest against the vus lale ticicases. some ghettoes, streets have been barricaded to stop buses, been and lave Police violence against blacks battles with riot police Bosses have voiced surprise at the determination and solid- arity of the despite boycott vigorous attempts to divide the workers. For revolutionaries, these features tenect une underying reliance of the workers on their forces, and are based on the degree : of political indepen dence achieved by the class as a whole. Revolutionary intervention Page 9 Police harrassment at Crossroads in such particular struggles must into focal aim to develop them the

DOIES

extension of the political indep endence of the class. The mission of the agents oi tne big bourgeoisie. is to under- mine this development, proletariat demobilise the and illusory Culat

CODIES

demands. These collaborators have manocuvie and zigzags in a desperate bid to maintain credibility before a militant proletariat.

committee ol Ten launched the Soweto Civic Alliance, aiming to damness mne bower ortie masses in their drive for control of the vast township the leader of this Moudra clique of opportunists, manages 'left' speeches to the masses with brotherly advice • LO at university Une bourgeois e symposiums. Political agility His political agility meader of the significant theatri only Buthelezi, matched movement opened Inkatha membership to all blacks, after returning from a TOUT OI LIe JOAl The fight to politically destroy these pretenders can be SuCcessu oas tionary methods that clearly expose the illusions they have so far been able to create. This fight forms part of the battle for leadershi of the proletariat, which will also com son une bomacanank- of trade union leaders, and the militant popular frontism of Black Consciousness. revived under the banner of the South African revolution in the com- ing period of struggle depends crucially on the outcome of the for, leadersnip working class.

Page 10

INDUSTRIAL

Trade union inquiry probes geriatric care A report produced by to the care of the elderly grew at a trade union inquiry in out of the poor first Oxford has come out in Victorian and strong condemnation of thropy'. The Hospital itself the proposed closure of time an old workhouse Road geriatric Cowley hospital. of course seeking to destroy was set up the NHS and replace it with by four trade union bodies an updated version in the county, including the minimal care for the work- Oxford Trades Council and ing class. the Joint Trade Union Com- As the report states: health service of "The the National Health Service, unions. It has produced a report won by the which has published for the after

HOCL

views of the first time the steprivations of siee struggle, workers at the hospital and exposed the lie which had war

JUDI

manufactured by •been wracked by

NUPE

officials that the post war capitalism. workers were in favour of 'Both by redistribution' of resources and the Beginnings the inflationary real At the same time it has committment shown beginnings Tne what could be achieved by been progressively reduced.

full scale inquiries of health workers in exposing the mis- have been planning and the profiteer- build up traditional' family ing in the health service.

The Oxford inquiry IS their own, a full scale workers inquiry. It has not 'opened home." books' of the health the The report authority. But it has, by population forecasts, the directly to show that the workers concerned, pointed over 65s and in towards doing so. lne way historical introduction

DON'T GO INTO

THE FIGHT BLINDFOLD!

SOCIALIST

GET

PRESS

struggle against wage control, cuts and redundancies

NEWS

report shows how ically over the next ten years. laws In 1978 the Oxfordshire 'philan- Area Health Authority tell short of the DHSS standards Cowley Road for the numbers of hospital was at one beds for the elderly by 127.

The Tory government is Using official government forecasts on population, this shortfall will rise to 374 by of such 1978. The AHA has presented the proposed closure of the 'level transfer' hospital as d gain of as part of opening the new multi-million pound John Hospital. They labour Radcliffe 150 years of deny that the closure of the the hospital is a cut. successive governments the crises direct cuts,

STOP

encouragement of

CLOSURE

erosion of the state's

OWLEY RD. HOSPITAL

to provision of health care has politicians attempting values of each looking after force the burden of care back into the looks which numbers of particular 75s will grow dramat-

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RATES:

Trial sub (UK): 10 issues, only. Six months One year. Europe: Six months. Rest of the World: Six months ... For a of Socialist Press. I enclose clear Name. lead in the Address Send to Socialist Press, Hill, London NW5 1HR. general wards. But the report exposes this as a lie. The number of On beds earmarked for geriatric geriatric patients in the new hospital has been younger fudged through a patients, have clinically more system of double and those elderly who were esting' cases. previously in general wards and not counted as occupy- new ing 'geriatric beds' have now time for been counted no lu doy total. turning and Staff at Cowley Road Hospital have concentrated need. on the question of patient But . most care points to They are acutely aware that the existing building is need and in need of inadequate consider substantial improvement successful also recognise But they that the specialist nursing of is not a cut. geriatrics is to be split up and that far more geriatric patients high route in the city. betrayals, services. Demonstrators fight to save Cowley Road Hospital forgotten

TUC

collaboration 1914 and £1.75 Labour traitors, £6.00 Tory government €11.00 £6.50 revolutionary . £8.00 And it sollearity Please send me trial sub/six months/one year whether in Ireland, the world, out Tevotutionary League. 31, Dartmouth Park SOCIALIST PRESS, hednesia: 24 Ocrober ly s The report concludes: "In many ways the argu- ment of Cowley Road Hos- pital is an argument over this or that scheme for how patients geriatric should be looked after. "It is a choice between saving of the most in precious resource. or making a drastic Oxiord. which irreversible change disastrous has potentially results. "Confidence in the wil or the ability of the AHA to • plan a health service Dasee need is at an all time low The closure of Cowley Road Hospital is first and an act of exped- foremost iency "It might coincide with for long term Plan

SULLIC

Bert sincere in such plan such plan it is certainly not exists. part of one. "Once hospital is the Health Secretary Vaughan closed there will be no turn- there will be ing back and no compensating improve- general wards ments in the service.' have patchils This report, based on the 'compete' for attention with and trade union movement

WIDO

uld' directed into the organised 'inter- and unorganised workers in a valuable the hospital 1S Hard-pressed nurses (the tool in a fight to save the hospital is 60 nurses hospital. short of requirements) have It excluded from was the constant proposing and changing that therefore completely inade- totally dependent geriatrics quate in itself as a means of defending the hospital. of all It does however provide the way a basis from which a cam that at a time of desperate paign for policies of occu- authority call pation and SuD DOrLIl: highly closing strikes can be launched. and "Cowley Road Hospital - hospital and pretend that it Closure' The Case Against Ward, is available from The hospital is in a local and Sectetary, Trades Oxford community which itself has Union old of

HUHIR DO.

Bedlam, Trading Council, people. It is convenient for Old Road, Heading- Estate, visitors and on the best bus Oxford, price 10p plus postage.

JOIN OUR FIGHT-

AGAINST TORIES!

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

Prices are already beginning to rocket upwards.

Plum sectors of state industry will be handed to the Tories profiteering big business backers; and the pay rises to police and armed forces mark only the prelude to increased state violence and an intensified army crack- against pickets and anti-fascists, down in the accupied North of Ireland.

The Callaghan-Healey leadership has made it clear that it will opppose any perspective other than settling down and meek.

ly accepting five years of Tory devastation though they have once more dusted off their near- "socialist" speeches, Labour's "left-wing" MPs have continued to duck away from any fight to remove • Callaghan • for leaders, too, have set out to establish a'basis with and the • Tory cabinet, paraleilin tHeir anti-working class alfiance with Wilson and then Callaghan But the working class has experienced and overcome such betrayals before-to topple Heath's union bashing government in Callaghan's reactionary •Phase 4 of smash through wage controls in a series of monumental pay battles last winter These experiences are not dead. They point to the way that jobs, social services and hard-won union rights can be defended against renewed tory attacks revolutionary leadership is needed if the But a principled, the TUC collaborators and their hangers-on in to be exposed and pushed aside, and the Communist Party ari can defeat and remove the the mass struggles mobilised tha Such a leadership must fight day in and day out for a pro gramme of transitional demands which starting from today's within the working class, conditions and today's consciousness lead workers to grasp the necessity for socialist revolution.

And in taking up democratic demands-such as an end to it must show the crucial role racial and sexual discrimination, that must be played by the working class as the only consistent- capable of leading the struggle for the clas. emancipation of mankind. an international basis-mobilising must on and anti capitalist struggles- anti-imperialist .TO in Southern Africa or elsewhere and drawing strength. and political lessons from upheavals such that which ousted the hated This means fighting for the reconstruction of the Trotsky.

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

SOCIALIST PRESS, HEinEsia: 24 Ocrober 19-9 Big guns used the successful Following struggle to end the strike by workers at Talbot's Ryton leader- the national plant of

TGWU

and ships the AUEW wheeled out even bigger to knife the guns strike at the nearby Stoke plant. mass held last Thursday was addressed Hawley, national Grenville secretary trade group of the TGWU and Midlands Executive Cure member of tne Aurw The task facing them. was more difficult than that their colleagues had faced two weeks previously because Ene plant. at Stoke were company's offer ano aroune tor a continuation of the strike. Bureaucrats everywhere will the decisive role management required. have seen Insoired officials' performance. face of moreno other hand.

militant was narrowly in тасе return to work. home the message That unere broke workers available show for their clearly no money was strike, Management to continue the strike go above its original 5½% offer.

would mean that workers would end up on the As with the the prime lesson which must be CoIC did " nese nothing to aid the strike from nation on de c ecs week one to week fifteen playec sity Singer stewards cave in Only days after the Singer management announ- can never that all 3,000 jobs at ced Clydebank. Clydebank were to be lost, in the plant ing the stewards caved in and offered no plan unionist: for resistance. This was supposedly because workin bass Singer plant by two American "UccuPy companies and vague promises the books! of government aid. *Appeal LO This is one method of allow- take action in Ine free Tine compensation The American firms would monademont. only be interested in Singers if they im Dose soeeo-up.

.UNION

clauses and redundancies on the programme

AT THE TOP...

UNION DUES

for Stoke sell-out \ act to defend and extend their important actions to forced to deepen that blacking.

that be question can Tec Time y national officials were allowed Ryton onto ine piattorm Stoke. They should have been told bluntly that they had done eart address the mass meetings.

will Talbot management now

ONTO

offensive to smash trade unior within plants. organisation displayed pay The rank ano THe strikes shows that this offensive can be halted if the militants in work counteract Hawley the initial demoralisation and cynicism which are always likely defeats of this accon any When the vote was taken it sort. favour of a Shipyard have little to fifteen week refused to retreat Ryton strike treachery of of workers themselves to WORKERS AT the Robb Caledon shipyard, who have ban peen a Polish ship launching their fight to stop last of the yard, voted allow the to week launch to proceed. The 1,100 workers have been given five Weeks "breathing space" productivity as a um orove precondition to? promise to reprieve the yard. Times.. from back page. tially the most add the most damaging chapel strength difficult to quantify. disruption' Whether Tine Inter causes nor sur desers on le relative strength of the chapels.

fighting The chapels-not the no min leaders-nave 0888N hated anti- worst effects of the attacks.

But nothing has been solved for the tuture and during the coherent workers' challenge to the the management been mounted on me ortensive. chael ltd capitalists to run papers in the interests, workers at the Times have ensured that their problems are all still ahead. of useru public them.

DO WHAT?

OH I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN! YES WE SAW ALL THIS

I COMING:

SINCE

THATCHER WAS ELECTED, OUR EDUCATION

RTMENT HAS BEEN FLAT OUT. RUNNING SCHOOLS.

SEMINARS, PRINTING CIRCULÁRS, AND NOW..

Delegates show way to union - 'leaders' Entering the main hall of House the 406 Congress delegates attending the

TUC

South East Region conference on the cuts were inundated with an of impressive array leaflets and brochures, posters listing the cuts and their effects. This retlected com dieter the kind of "fight"" the leader. and the of the SERTUC ship 3UC are oreoared against the Tory cuts. 'We must educate the public on the effects of the cuts.

'We must wage a propa- ganda war". the MUSt Corvinc membership of the reality of the cuts. One after another the plat- form speakers, Harry Barton,

NUPE

Gerry Gilmore,

SCPS,

UCATT,

Les Wood Have long list of the cuts hitting their Astonished members and the effects these told that would have on the "public" • here to stay unveiled unev SERTUC's own secret weapon Tories-a November against His five-point Week of Action'. gramme on "United" fine stated what form this Not platform speaker gone the way 'action' despite against the cuts will take-they selection only insisted that whatever • His speech for doesn't happen) it reception from the floor must be united. Delegates were offered a tan- talising glimpse of a possible day for the Labour or action to be organised Dy Ine

TUC

on a working day some- year by Terry Parry time next programme. of the FBU.

BUT

worse But he quickly Dromey there describe Will be made retondant other thousands that calls from the floor orino

•OWI

cuts, The Tine cowardes olan the closure of Corby steel, delegates Singers etc-but the docks, The COHSE delegate by the silicon chip Merton, Parry did, however, give one

DULLOT

worth said in his area sound piece of advice: feel whatever vou about the cuts don't leave the fight to of general council Ene

TUC"

Inactivity Jack Dromey, having rocket- ed to dizzy heights on SERTUC (and now comfortably installed Transport House as a TGWU full-time official) summed up by giving nis usual call Tor was clear the unity meant-unity behind a policy of tootnless inactivity, capitulation and sell out. He stressed his belief that the ories are nere tor some time to come", and that "you

FIGHT THECU

THATCHER OUT!

ANYWISES

EVERY BLASTED

WE'VE PRODUCED

THIS!.. THE LAST WORD IN

THE CUTS... ALL THE OTHER TUC LADS

HAVE GOT IT, AND IT'S A REAL GEM.

101 VACUOUS

ADE ECHES AGAINS

THE CUTS

ATH SELECTEBICH

ANTI - (O

where 9 hospitals are scheduled for closure) (have three fully occupation operationa to take ove commutee Today threatened hospitals. Tommy Dumas spoke of the strike Hackney wide one-day action involving •TO•UCLIOl workers from BOC and public sector employees in defence of . Tre ouone sector .Many more rostrum speaker.

got applause for asking what the TUC and SERTUC are going to do about the cuts Ken Eaton

UCATT,

, stated conference He welcomed the brochure sent 10 at elegate. listing the cuts for their infor- there be seems to

OUT

crucial pages missing-on what we are going to do about it.".

Then, miscalculation, Dromey the floor on policies, pointing the way forward.

Need for action Anne-Marie Sweeney, Oxford County NUPE Dromey spoke of thé the decision Long on are mad if you think that they

•COHSE

WOrEn will go out in a wave of working members to occupy their hos clas militancy in March or April pital if threatened with immed late closure delegates were She Do the can the other "this government policies campaign, and TinE action to stressed the need to Honking class has moved to the defend occupations Walen •Cal be broken if denied the neces- tactical ter supporting strike action sal y fighting cuts tne one reflected TUC policy down the workers. She stressed the need But the conterence naon t books to show how ober the private firms-drug compan- careful ies, need dint the act contractors, etc- ot rostrum SOBAKerS making received cold •relits while cervices are sesner as thee also pointed to the who pointed ram She boasted of holding wages down necessity coacine the non government elected RHAs and AHAs who be sacked for soundeo more let with nis call can only for a full scale nationalisation balancing their books with elec- ted bodies or tree unionists this for than workers and users of the NHS were disturbing the labour move. answerable to • for action to : ment "The Tories know what class and are going were warmly welcomed by the they represent, helt for leather from using every weapon to fight for their interests. and Wands- alone • our leader: What are that we have heard today doing?

What the weapons they are ¡usina? Are gloss brochures the weapons of the working class? need occupations strikes and workers control!"

Finally Dromey. desperate to show he was doing something in fighting the cuts, promised hi would go down depots T&G lads and ane soodk to ta lassies ana see it iney Can cont up with a tanker or two of oil to Fulham occupied swimming baths. But unfortunately for him, before he finished his winding up the caretaker switched Parry the lights out on the platform.

-EVEN WHEN WE CALL TOKEN DEMONSTRATIONS

WE GET EVERY TOM, DICK AND HARRY TURNING UP!

...IT WORKED A TREAT AT LAST SATURDAY'S SERTUC

CONFERENCE-PARRY HAD EM SNORING IN THE AISLES

PRESS

Thousands of men and women will loin the luc march this coming Sunday against John Corrie's reac- tionary anti-abortion Bill.

It will be a massive show of to one of the most

•POSTLON

savage oleces legislation to be introduced so the Thatcher govern- Broadened But it tne actually defeated, and if steps the taken towards to be die necessary extension

HE FORCED

abortion rights to provide free demand as a right on valendi Service, then the fight needs to be broadened and linked to the tass strucules Tory policies: Even now women are being denied under working class Act because ine siasnea NHS has no facilities to provide that enabling the government to of The Parliamentarv maioritv that Corrie is expecting for the Nationa meate service. his Bill Third Reading other mating •asee on two oasic torces One is the same vicious anti- services: of hand-outs to

BLOODY DRAW

AT THE TIMES

workers' jobs have been thrown When the Times and Sunday Times reappear next awdy • month hardly a single one Newspapers Ltd Chief Executive Marmaduke of the crucial attacks made on the workforce will have President LeS emerged from been definitively settled.

of all-night talks the 12 The outcome of Ine rapidly. mon En cosure Been bloody draw in which manage- failed establish rock mouthing platitudes to the have Well press, wale bixon which hundreds print an elderly spaniel at his feet.

FUND

The money has certainly come tumbling through the this week. We received a total of £179.70 box letter including £1.50 from supporters in Middlesborough, £5.50 from a supporter in Elgin and f40 from an franian sup- porter in appreciation of our coverage of Iran.

But we still have a long way to go in the next week to complete our target-£391.75 to be precise.

So let's step up the fight for this finance and ensure that this month we successfully complete the target on time!

All donations, large and small, are welcome. Our address is: Socialist Press Monthly Fund 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR Published by Folrose Ltd Printed by Anvil Printers Ltd., London. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office

SOCIALIST

FIGHT CORRIE-

FIGHT THE TORIES.

DAY OF ACTIO

ABORTION

STEKILISATION

Pro-abortion demonstrators in March this year Tory majority rich and soaring prices for the WorKine ass olds. One i • its nome Labour's destroying the other anti-working saoo Class the same MPs who rigue vaug public and again oppose indepen. time Lift action The concensus of the rest oi Fleet Street-which desperately defeat on wanted a humiliating The contrast between Times that the NGA Cons -was and NGA Hussey had won out. They pointed out: as they

DIXON

onto the *Direct the fira round suggested that computer journalists a nO ad. reps-the main pre-closedown ground demand-hac Hussey stood like a patrician ceded.

*TNL

had lost between £30 million £35 million and Tawned Ke •urine ine sautcown. compositors had

#NGA

jumped to the top of the wages league with rates of £227.50 a week once they move onto the new machines. night shift now *A single brinas f90 for NGA members the machine room as against for NATSOPA members.

TIME

outcome is not d victory for the unions. "Flexibility" Many chapels have accepted 'large job cuts (e.g. 17% among NATSOPA machine assistants in the sunday imes. Direct imputting is to be re- NGA leaders are discussed and committed to "flexibility' on the question. disputes procedure has also been agreed which guar- antees continuous producuou This last concession is poten- Cont'd p.11, col.3 for the Workers Socialist League, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR •aCK peaceful protest. But since confidence has deteno loos. vine standaros o broucni public services and who essen ments: notably, ially agree with the Tories that Labourite wing "a woman's place" is chained to fan the home, producing and rearing children. forced to Colours "Consciences" The supposedly tender Party's ranks "consciences" control over its leaders.

MPs and their professed concern for the "unborn child" do not thousands of in the misery of working class facing unwanted preg- women the suffering un. demonstrations Hancy wantee couleren vorceo into tut closures abortion world by lack of facilities. schools ano nurseries combination of these I ne reactionary forces in Parliament poses the threat that the essential Corrie Bill could become law neither Torce invincible. The last Tory govern.

TONI

with a seem. ment under Heath Tory mobilisation. ingly impregnable Parliamentary majority, was unable to impose or its wage its anti-union laws control policy working class resistance, his/he that and was driven from office in rebruary 1314 Öf course then, the Corrie Bill as a major as now right wing leadership the that campaign. Party and

TUC

Labour must opposed

• SUCT

Now you see 'em repression in Chile. Now you don't!

SINAFEIN B

Not one trade union, Labour Party or Communist Party leade in Ireland, demanding the restoration of political status to republican prisoners of war.

Oxford Irish Delegation Committee.

Thatcher action, and attempted to hold it instructing Labour MPs to vote the Corrie Bill or against removal trom orice then the growing strikes and occupations li defend threatened hospitals and of the working class must be coupled NHS facilities other develoo extreme right to demands for the extension o Reg Prentice abortion facilities. Prior's forth- In opposing anu dooronse was ousted coming anti-union laws, workers by Newham Labour Party and reveal his : true Tory must show that such attacks are simply part of a range of Tory democratic rights he stapour conterence allacKs ul showed the pressure from the another which is the lone

COT

Corrie Bill still further possible the every way fiaht to defend and extend abor Strikes tion rights must be unked And throughout the country with the fight for mass action and women anti- men forcing ot capdore workers are now Joining strikes working class Tory government out of office …ano against the roses sendinicass Yet such an approach hospitals, principled see wares leadership to be built in the To build a movement from labour movement. Sunday's demonstration capable MPs-such endorse of defeating the Corrie Bil it i: Tony Benn-claim fight against Corrie But connect struggles, and to ensure that the they have all refused to fight for abortion rights the removal or the right wing Callaghan-Healey leadership- •aceo at the centre or me ars who have explicitly denounced attempts Set a date zorind Ene Tories through mass action.

the come Every worker must demanc union branch calls Inese letts must de called ubot to wage such a fight-or stand on the TUC to set a date tor it: incapable of advan. exposed as 'Day of Action' against the cuts, the and to include opposition to the tor women part of most basic right or all-ine rignu control their own fertility and the working of their own Every Labour Party member for resolutions pooles

SOLIDARITY GE

Top trade union, Labour Party and Communist Party leaders proudly marching last month agains

PROVSIONAL

5.NN

FEN

LONG KESH

BRITAIN'S

MENTRATI

CAMP

was prepared to join last Satur day's 600-strong Provisional Sinn Fein national demonstration through Oxford ägainst British repression The concludin rally heard speeches from Provisional Sinn Fein, the IRSP, Hands Off ireland, Women in Ireland and the