Socialist Press no. 174

ALL OUT NOV 28!

PRESS

New coup Bolivia Last . Thursday's over- throw of the government of Walter Guevara Arze by a sector of the army headed Col. Natusch by Alberto Busch has thrown the imperialist strategy for Bolivia into confusion and opened a period of acute political conflict. The of rightist overthrow in itself by Guevara Arze was Dress rehearsal The military had already rur an uncertain dress rehearsal two weeks before when an isolated "proclaimed who was being tried for treason by the newly elected congress.

Commander-in-Chief General Davia radiia was inen able to isolate the rising But the bulk of the armed forces were Clearly alarmed at the growing militan- of the working class after the JUlY incapacity bourgeois ot the politicians to share the spoils of organise mannie and controt the masses. Both of the two • wings of the MNR (the petty bourgeois nationalist bany inad came to power after the 1952 Revolu- tion) failed gain an absolute majority in the election.

ine vosnor was that quevara was appointed interim Bolivian president by until yet conoress elections could be held which would resolve the impasse.

#he do davs ot nis rue Guevara-the 'constitutional' president for whom not a single person nad cast a vote ted to establish an independent power base through a series of manlocovies lndl wow alon to extend his term until The Thatcher .1981. ment's latest General strike savage spending cuts-which will hit every working class This drew growing ••PosI- man, woman and child in Congress and the TrOm COB (the Bolivian TUC) which the country-has produced last week a predictable blast of hot announcee general strike against air from Labour politicians, Guevara's to delay plans union leaders and welfare elections. also groups. Guevara s antics were too much for the leadership of But amid the MNR-Autentico the wing of sounds of protest tion there is the Which nad served under Banzer and had grown exercising power on the against staneares attari leaders have waxed elo- saloo or une mailary. members who have a particularly long history of pro- over imperialist crous" plans, their "robbing the Bedregal Guillermo porch of fart eir ano JOSe cast around i vearce for a suitable military gorila I ne hoist them back into power and even noisily pledged to conduct Threat miners and the organised cooperation" working class. cuts-stopping short of all-out strike action. Cont'd page 3, col 1 But the TOr ment, such

SOCIALIST

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 174 * 7 November 1979 * 15p £3.6billion Tory cuts package announced NHS cuts will make you sick

NISHAN DEP I TRU

*CONSEN

CUTS

Os VE govern- simply water off a duck's back.

They have never pretended package of that their starting point is the problems of the poor, the home.

or the The i stak on Big byades the Tories say within which the profit- sion ability of British capitalism is continuing to decline. Driven to the wall all their varied and indigna. To boost the profits of the no hint of a policy strongest capital, their weaker compellors MUSt the Tory oe oriven to lne wal bretitan e sections of state-owned industry be sold off; and taxes on must top oNes divoenes •ane salaries must be cut to supposed minimum. public spending cuts Savage NUPE Executive integral part of this are of "non- campaign But while the Tories, WIEn LItt latest conscious or their task, go to work, the protests from Labour politicians lacking are in any Tory govern- or

SUCI

•:termination verbal protests are convictor. another • massive leap. in prescription charges: a huc These are just some of the main effects of the Tories' latest They admit that unemployment next yea order" and the armed forces.

NATIONAL

While Labour was in office sector Callaahar Healev possible ane Them selves started not from the needs working class but Ener from the dictates of the Inter- transform and nationa Monetary rUne , speeches efforts to restore profitability to Into oractical British industry, in the hopes of Labour MPs Ene • TUtUre It is easy for them now to called round and attack the turn Tories. But every worker knows that most of today's closures of une Qualio schools, hospitals and nurseries are the result of Labour's spend- of public spending. ing cuts Such And Labour's right wing leaders remain firmly opposed Moss workine cos bring down the Thatcher must meretore se government Yet this offers the only way labour forward struggle Tinf defend jobsend social •rootamme lobby Parliament to defend drainst une cuts nas oden carer on November 28 by Yorkshire trades councils, and endorsed by But of mUST made a massive indication of readiness fight. workers ment. throughout the i ne Background to BL crisis Centre pages CDLM Resolution . . . ..p.4 Open Letter to Tony Benn ..p.5 George Woodcock.. p.8 Architects of cuts: Thatcher, Biffen and Lawson New charges for school meals, milk and transport; another rundown in the NHS, and cut in local autnority social services; rising travel costs, rates, rents and prices; and 21,000 more teachers on the dole.

£3.6 billion spending cuts.

will rise by

PREPARE

STRIKE!

and wherever cuts is the fight in the private industry are: should fight for strike action on national level for occupations and strikes against sackings, cut day as part of the tight to the backs aure closure. whereve of the labour leaders nev occur The demand must be in each who declare case that public themselves against the cuts must national strike action in defence of jobs UDOr

TIONT

explicitly for the restoration of and services. cuts. and for the protection Bring down Thatcher against serviees inflation through a sliding scale action, Such linked to the other coming struggles against flies in face of the pro-capitalist policies • the Tories could create the con of the Callaghan-Healey leader- the ortions to general strike ship. Those who oppose the cuts that is needed to bring down the also to campaign throughout the • ottice a government respon for the sive to the needs of the working removal ot Callaghan, and for .

or socialist policie: •• repare tor suen stuccle the working class. and fight uncompromisingly at every level for the independent Occupation . Interests of the working class neal, revolutionary leadership is course main struggles will not be in Parlia- The Workers Socialist League is fighting to construct key to stopping the such a leadership.

Page 2 Spanish trial shows face of oppression The trial of eleven women in Bilbao for 'abor- tion practices' is one of the most gruesome examples of the legal and oppression of Spanish women. campaign support of the accused has been mounted parties and women's leTt organisations. 1,300 women, including theatre ano cinema personalt. ties, political figures and many oraliary WorKin class wowen signed declaration which admitted that they too had had unael auy. Cir cumstances in Spain. series of public demon- strations, marches, meetings major cities, and have These violent attention armed forces. Ine cove mine contre ceme of cratic Union (UCD) Adolfo Suarez tine toretront these attacks on women's rights.

But the trial has also opened The wav or ne beeneser right wing to give full reign to its hysteria. Acazar •concared front page to denouncing abor- tion as and 'murder 'barbarism being and ment tor

TOO

SOTT

'afloat on a sea of subversion'.

Monday that declare: reoresent "desootism

WAICH

will finish democracy; and that the penal system can coal with unese women These statements are a cul- mination of a series of remarks from Conservate ano

TION

to retreat Ayatollah Khomeini has been forced to beat a humil- iating retreat on one front of his holy against war revolutionary struggle Iran. Kurdistan by Khomeini's army, Despite invasion brutal repression by the Islamic and the murders organ- ised by the hangman khalkall, une natonast move ment has asserted its power and forced Counci to admit its own. weak ness. Armed militants from the bourgeois Kurdish emorati Party and the Fedayeen have recaptured Mahabad and other the govern- 1120 LOWS Tom ment forces. Starvation While the army is still impos- ing a blockade which threatens to bring starvation to the towns powerless and des- generals Delore ine rising power of the Kurdish rebellion.

But even as the Ayatollahs dele- send a WOrt gation to discuss terms with the ‹DP leaders, the Kurdish bour- geois nationalists themselves were conronica dy mas oppos ition. wine sectors walco attroute une supposed sexual immorality to democracy auer ranco socain General Jaime Milang responsible •isoreer ano cornootaony Socialist Press has never democratic accepted that the after Franco's vacace set us death-which has left. Franco's repressive apparatus cratic state. Sections of the 'progressive' Do uracolsit • are anxious ameliorate political extremely unsteady Situation ane Dave Way towards entry to the cEl by of their anti- democratic base worker covernment However, traditional busi- ness interests and sections of the amed less form tavour a subte control over the working class, which is amply illus. a position trateo in une doen threats tney have issued over the question of abortion continual cussion of the seekis military coup by top generals.

The democratic Spanish women can only secured through working mass to bring down the class action reactionary suarez reolme ano bring to power a workers gover- fight for such action INCi must inciuce struct ine strike action in support of the Bilbao 11 of and the placing •emanos tar une class condoor* ationist leaders of the Socialist Party and the Communist Party reak tom search or d coalition deal with Suarez.

Khomeini forced , ceasenire WItE Khomeini's army has been ignored by left-wing in Mahabad against the attended by thousands-despite a KDP call Jol a boycoll as a peaceful intentions. OI Peace mission of Such militancy difficult ditions for the KDP to negotiate sellout deal with the peace ministers. Khomeini's climbdown Kurdistan is the sharpest expres- is besetting his drive to impose a stable dictatorship mastes

LATOUCH

medium of the Islamic clergy. On the one hand, the militias and tribunals formed in support revolution against the Shah are refusing to surrender their authority Cente power defy inseructions (even from Khomeini himself to moderate Regrouping Factional struggles also tinue within the religious hier- archy. At the same time, the forces regrouping une are despite SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 7 November, 1979 Sandinistas declare war on left opponents Reprinted from Labor News, paper of the Socialist League Sandinistas deface picture of Somoza in his captured bunker (Democratic Centralist) in the United States.

The petition signatories also said that they a sympathis are The Sandinista

FSLN

ists counter revolutionaries ing section of the Fourth Inter Nicaragua government national which standi TOr • Ene announcec measure. dealist has begun campaign elimination of the bureaucracy them. of of the removal against sections Cerda trade bourgeoisie in the organs of the Nicaraguan union movement. Mw was taken oy armc bie ment or confor near call for the establish- ments from his house TnE And it has taken steps to astern city of Granada and ha: not been heard from since.

and peasants tha suooress Ine evolutionary Marxist Trotskyist capacity _ have ine express democratically what Petition United Secretariat economic system should replace Court termanend ine system under somora On October 3 according to a This follows on the heels of The signers of the manifesto the left wing and petition finished their state.

the expulsion report trom managua in Diaric Las Americas, right wing by simon bolvar brigade organista men declaring Cuban daily in Miami, a petition by the Bolshevik Faction of the working class of Nicaragua has 200 Nicaraguan

USFI.

Trotskyists said that they reared some fight for the the capacity to president of the uninterrupted revolution and demanded Vendors their Nicaragua and help in the form Union ation of a World Workers Party Soza Cerda and Armado the Sandinista that revolutior Milk Workers convene Constituent Nurinda the tHOL

SCOUTS

Assembly. have virtually been blocked out Union nave

DOTR

Deen

KIO-

napped. The Trotskyists according to of the American bourgeois press said that many of the report is an indication of two points.

The FLN Interior Minister, been threatened with them have First, "Diario Las Americas" Tomas Borge has commanoel •rison one to at teeder the Convinct publicly described the Trotsky- Ivan Soza Cerda is dead. community ThaT Sandinistas are upholders of the capitalist order in Nicaragua.

Secondly, the Us bourgeoi- the sie and International fund want.to monetary

TOICI

the FSLN to the right and into complete submission to the dic Tates bankers attacking 9 milor American blata from Many already withheld have loans and Ine vir s CondItions Tor TUtur loat a Mirag and retire owed on past loans to Somoza oe pale us. conditions These will without doubt lead severe attacks against the workers and peasants of Nicaragua if they are carried out FSLN leaders with Panamanian president Royo to prevent ally Zimbabwe march

- SELL-OU

ship, as popular disillusion with regime increases. of the the extent of

UPPORT

classy

SHOWS

Khomeini's problems. The army and Islamic militia intervene to protect dared not The servants or immersm Ironi this attack, and Khomeini him- self swiftly exploited the situa- T1on to splasn some Ires gioss his dowdy anti-imperialist credentials. It Is or course very DossDIe NO that the whole flam boyant staged by

TORY

incident was Khomemi's supporters to serve

SELL-OUT

purpose of diverting the the of workers away from their continued exploitation and rewving me Cass Conson the struggles to overthrow the Zimbabwe National Demonstration, Sunday November 11, London Shah. Assemble: 1.30, Speakers Corner, march to Trafalgar Square rally.

But the fact that Khomeini resort to such methods must of his rule-a reveals the crisis

KLAN KILLING

no longer have the power to control by themselves. TV Four people were shot down whole world on their by Ku Klux Klan gunmen on Screens Saturday during rally But the moral indignation that this brings in no way solves organised by the Maoist Workers Greenboro labou rooter North Carolina, in the Southern movement faces from the many

USA

different forms of neo-fasicsts.

The lessons must be that the Maoist leader Paul bermanzonn nao chanenceo toe on way ev can pe tournt r gun toring Klansmen to "face by the organised labour move of the people". He not a substitutionalist wrath ment, had called them coward: group. Brave as the demonstrators' From within the labour position is, there is no way for- workers defence movement ward in challenging the Klan to sovaes must ou shoot-outs. defend black communities, Certainly the nature of the demonstrations and picket lines.

Klan has been exposed to the opposition from the working class and peasants in the future FSLN is alread

LITE

the cisarming not participating in the Army or Militias." the direct " nes UnCe control of the FSLN. Castro The next move of the FSLN will probably be the banning of militias and block commit.

The tees, particularly if they receive from ally

UNLIOT

organisations to their policies The FSLN has also had the compiete support ot Castro ir its every move. Castro has lined with Portillo, Mexican bour.

geois nationalists Latin America sure that the revolution continues to have a Dourceois character According to Castro, social.

ism cossary vicaragua in order to carry int revolution forward Instead the FSLN should "do their own thing" whateve that means speech Nanons waerene • redistribution of the wealth of world-without a the socialist rEvolutIon avancer capitalist countries Statesman He then followed this with TOr barbara wa ters and other "honestl and newspaper executives and announced that in his last visit to une us ne was a revolution ary but "now I'm a statesman".

Castro certainly doesn't mince In the most grotesque of display degeneration; the workers Party in its paper, The Militant, and Intercontinental Press act ever Caneste ment of the FSLN and Casto including the expulsion the Castro's

FSLN

and political support for Portillo and oner Lawn American bourgeois nationalists Not only has this "Trotsky.

ist" supported the sup- • pression of the left and its owr comrades but it has also defended private control of the economy in that country. Intercontinental get the back wages This Murphy and the FSLN leader ship is assuring that the workers needs are met. Conscious blackout Again Murphy's article there. is full support • for "ultra left suppression of the and sectarians" while absolutely no mention of the Nicaragua Trotskyist movement which until the overthrow of somozi was a section of the USFI.

This blackout is conscious extremely significant In order to develon a "sur portive" relationship with th and the

SWP

SLN, Murph are prepared to allow the jailing and murder of their own sup.

porters without a protest This is all in the interest of course of fighting the "ultra left disruption"

SWP

members in the US musi seriousiv CaSH themselves what kind of organ- that they that isation are in the expulsion Would subort oin supporters. The Socialist and murder their own Leat ut condemns us avan and criminal policy of the SWF

Bolivia coup From front page They quickly settled upon Colonel Natusch Busch. had once been Banzer's minister and agriculture peasant affairs. already estab- Natusch was lished as a prominent right wing figure within the army and had an important base of support in the peasant organisations of the fertile Cochambamba valley.

was recently des- Natusch cribed by a diplomat as "an ambitious alcoholic whose chief dim is to seze power tor nim.

self and retire a whole genera- tion of officers who prevented from COlOneTS HKe namset advancing the rank general" Open secret These qualities are far from rare in the Bolivian army.

The

MNR-

icadel ine Estens- Autentico. VICTOr soro, joined with his cronies in actively cucoutading Ivatusch. became TIn e consoiracy almost an open secret. Gerara knew about it at least

LICE

WCCKS

auu ane nis predicted the timing of the

SON

coup to within twelve hours.

When Paz was summoned to the his balace exdacn behaviour he denied complicity -claiming that 'democracy is a • nice taine to nave arouno.

There is a certain attention to form in the 'high' politics of to arrest Natusch and knew per- fectly well that Paz would colttinue

LO BOT

ana Dargaln until the bitter end. Accordingly President set about rearranging his cabinet to Include raz s men as weil as the supporters of the other wing of the

MNR,

who wc pacacu •Terent secTor

OTI

Tne army. Unholy alliance Guevara orererte• to entice supporters of Banzer into the government and preside over an alliance SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 7 November, 1979

INTERNATIONAL

Colombian workers demonstrate last vestiges ot 'democracy' ir the face of the consolidation of the right. The resulting confusion too much for the oroved high command and they settied on a policy ot sup.

leader DorTine The Tirst army that made a move. General strike Natusch. But the colunel, unsurprisingly. tully aware ot une arowino strenotn of the working and militancy class, nis new rearme vo c ovac for nationalism" Torce lett which respect trade democratic

UNUTU

antu

TO OTS

parliament and even maintain appoint a leading member of the miners union

(FSTMB)

mining manader Ene STate corporation COMIBOL. This ambitious scenario lasted a mere twerve nours ane was brought to an abrupt end surpo surprise state mevaro f full Guevara support voncress ano une •ecaation COB general strike-against the coup and ''in. defence democracy" Saturday November 3 La Paz is completely closed down, the Metes Joe anese parts of the country at a stand.

still. Mass opposition The students immediately occupied university and large Collit to demonstrate against streets The troops replied with gunfire. A score of people nany more were kulled ano wounded. Although there has been no fighting, sustalneo Ene mast opposition has immediately weakened Natusch's position.

new memers ou 'Ine cabinet have gone into hiding and even Paz has disowned his nireling, Longress Is continuing to meet secretly; and significant the military (includ Mass frame-up trial in Colombia This deal was struck after La At a time when the trial A state of sieae has been Violencia, the Violence, a civil operating in Colombia for.

30 of six dissidents in Prague war provoked by Liberal years, recently SIVeI eVeT has been given generous Conservative and President var tic. shanoer TeeTr press coverage by the self- Turbay's Security Statute Weich estimated

CUU OHI

people mainly peasants, lost This decrees that the accusec styled 'human rights' lovers their • lives and gained nothing. have committed a crime adainsi of the western mass media, The 382 and they must there- Derson. Tine STaTe a show-trial of 382 people are alleged have fore be tried by military rather accused belonged to the Revolutionary than civilian courts. on charges of 'subversion' Armed of in Colombia has not merited force: Colombia Donde •Ene more bizarre features of the Statute is IrANLI. Ine Natona pera. a single line. tion Army, (ELN) and the April its invention of new crimes such The reason for this is that 19 Movement "occupying

•UD IC

Colombia supposedly (M19). private place with intent to put "democracv"-thouah one. let it pressure on the authorities" be said, where the Liberal and State of siege with was abic Conservative parties have had a year in gaol, with no right of This last group is widely sus- appeal. tormal agreement to take turns the and pe ted ef CiA beause or id governing It is also illegal to publish or share administrative posts for a relating occaust oroao cast intormation provocative tactics and to a disturbance of public order «wentv vear verleo ciminal negligence in carrying arrangement

IOSIY

Cisturoanci in fact con- them out gersists the mass arrests aler Army officers and police tituc. CxISu HOstenLOnISN include liberals and people at Ine oois nas increzseo to the inspectors are now empowered where President Turbay şympathetic the left who DOrTL to imsose orson terns ot vo zo Liberal Ayala's ruling one year Core es ano orter os wal ly nave invovement witn ine foquistas (guevarists). and again there is no right Soldiers fire on crowds in La Paz cutting all and economic a position of strength without discussions with Guevara, military aid, which amounts to else the •aae anywnere has gone so far as to call for $60 millions. world, will be absolutely strike Hence while on the surface inelare general critical. opposition to the coup. The Bolivian working class is Natusch retains controi and ha support the more advanced and better nomina Hostile major garrisons, organised than comrades in ract maner Nicaragua are very much in flux or t Salvador: Perhaps most important of It the present crisis undoubtedly puts mantary sorts. weic all, is possible, this may leave the the question of political power une us imperialists sensed or a bonapartste the extent of the hostile mass on the agenda construction • movement vanguard Dondanist reamne uncel 6 ne revo utonary telt obliaed to guise of 'revolutionary national- of the proletariat must build a Tave defend their 'democratic' exper- ism' similar to that of General mass party based rigorously iment Juan Jose terms by class concrete Torres _tne ore moesenoence Tine the Transitional revolutionary perioa ot Uctobel •emanes OT 1970 to August 1971. Programme and the call for But equally, the extraordin- workers governmen1 Toware arily rapid failure of the imper- dictatorship of the prolet- ialist experiment with consti- arlal tutionalism Bolivia by means puts out of count other sorts of revamped populist and reformist checavours Ene part of the bourgeoisie. Vital role Appreciable sectors, includ- the MINAi of Hernan Siles Suazo ne over oroub aromng have so far been able to distance temserve: TrOM alacament with the dictatorship Under these i conditions the of attitude and the the CoB strategy it adopis tor tne general strike will play a vital role in the coming days it is cruciai inar wanse sesist.

ing Natusch and his coup there is no bloc formed with Guevara colleagues ane oouroeois In this the practical role o Page 3 appeal The 382 are to be tried in soewanv crecec muce ute. the courtyards of the 'Modelo' and 'La Picota' prisons. Secret charges The defence lawyers will find it difficult to gain access to . Ine marquees since tt wili Dt necessary specialiy authorised security clearances to enter eacn onson And restrictions _the information avaitable to defence the covnse mecn T031 defendants dele on ecret charge aid win face effectively SEC eT evcerte. in winien Inere is no obligation to consider the reply of the defence! v use ae under ure the economic picture is no less depressing those who do not form part of the governing elite Colombia has almost • cessec to produce oil and has been pay.

ing for its new energy bill by savine on wares Wages are now lower than they were in 1970, and all thi: is taking place under an expand- in To riy in the international price or contee, the main export took the Colombian economy into period expansior which now expected to last until 1982. Unemployment However the situation in the labour intensive manufacturing ; brought increasing HUS TEs unemployment. The government has recently resticco crei lacildes water sect fos ted oo dincne ines- sectors look to multi. mion megat mamuana expon industry for loans This extremely high rica.lts interes TaTas Watcr TUrN push up prices and make Colombian goods hard sell

DOU

anCi aoroao The recent lifting of import controls also restricts market for Colombiar factured products once capitalists fidye course been orotecieo. ov ata reform which eliminates the progressive increase of tax on income iclation i LC aolte gains. the general economic policies the ot covernmen favour capitalists anc TInance the agricultural sectors the • atr of the caycIist • manuvacto ne ine us res general 1977 strike achieved none of its demand oU maltanc nas continuer unabated although disorganised even though the President une •DOWeT •to declare iregal any strike serimal rumiing of the conty.

which 'damages Illegal Naturally most strikes are declared illegal. union bureau- „trade participates cracy tri- partite National Wages Counci at the beck and call of govern.

ment and business interests This council last met in May business Ine request sectors who feared a recession wanted to reactivate •the economy dv rasine wades ane t thsu inere inse consumption. However, frosts which destroved bart of the Brazilia coffee harvest gave the economy ante mezed an notl wage aut dil Tise trom aoove The refusal the trade union leaders co allali etfective strike action has con demned workers to continu- struggle against military ana cconomic reoression in ınis 'democracy' without any

A political lead to anti- Page 4 This conference nises capitalism is gripped deep, international by a economic and crisis. of the election government in Britain coincided of this crisis with a sharpening The reaction Ine new Tory administra- right wing make system- tion to this was to atic preparation TOr class Wal against the working class first weeks as Prime Minister Martareu presided over big pay rises for the army, the police, the Judges and the top civil servants. offe followed this with huge tax con- to the middle class and protessional people Thatcher was marshalling her for The forces They Tories are class conscIous understana ine cabitalist omic crisis as a crisis of profit- ability. are convinced that it can only be tackled in one way rate increasing working EnE class. Major cutbacks have they To achieve every launched aspect of workers' living. stan dards. major demol- backs in education, the Service and other social services National council selling ало houses. They propose to hold down wages, break down working con- a straight "lame duck" policy Even before the announcement of the billion Tories' latest £3.6 British em- spending cuts, have shown the ployers of the gathering impact recession. of 1,800 survey companies manufacturing revealed a staggering ing order books with only toul months work less-an increase of 4% since July. more 470 were possimistic for the future, more are working below capacity, and investment ourers are plans. Exports are the slide rides the pound foreian exchange markets, while companies clobbered by soaring interest rates and falling markets increasingly poor are financia state. Far from the Tory myth of tax handouts and spending cuts boostina the private sector, the

CBI

expects investment manufacturing to fall up to 5% next year. CBI-sur- Lure • mi

PRIGN

& Tory struggles We reprint here the text of the resolution adopted by the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement Anti-Tory Conference at Digbeth Hall, Birmingham on Saturday November 3.

stripping on a grand scale and desianed to force employers to the hiving off large parts of attack the workforce in order to survive. nationausea inoustry the redistribu- have removed any •то таситате Incy of manufacturing industry tion form price control and fet international scale they inflation rip in order to reduce removed wages and put pres- the value nave They exchange controls for the first market time for 42 years in order have raised ine ivinimum Lend free complete capitalists ing Rate in order to force up the their capital dom move pound and put similar pressure around at will. on the export markets. these Whilst carrying out Alongside they have are preparing a decided that very large areas of They battery of anti-trade union legis- industry #tanulacturfin designed Britain completely

MUSU

the hand of the employers and destroyed. government when workers Basic engineering Capacit these measures or fight against reduced , particularly in and steel produc- struggle to wade Increases shipbuilding They are to tighten tion. racialist Immigration Act and British continue the imprisonment and Edwardes plan-far from being a republicans torture plan-is part of a plan survival North of Ireland. designed to run down BL The Tories draw strength successive "slimming down" with eventual from the oolicies and actions the operatloris of the Labour government Many Tory before them. jobs in BL and component carried on where manufacture. nolicies nave Callaghan and Healey left off.

asset- Ulou CBI's gloomy forecast veyed firms had laid off workers the last Tour montes-and 37% expected to throw more on the dole in the next period.

ror the empiovars or course, and those Labour anotrece accept their union leaders who socie. une answer to tus moute' ing recession is clear. They argue that the working speed up and falling living standards suffer the full brunt of should and sacritice its own CrisIs of the capitalists Only safeguarding "viability' of private indus- try can any jobs be saved, they claim. a. Concessions But in reality every

THNE

made collaboration with a system so concessions inherently chaotic that it is now workers in the hopes of winning a respite closing Trom Tone cantals cowa crisis, a dangerous turn is made obstructing the necessary development of the forces necessity away UrOl

LIFE

setting social pro confronting the employers.

way the inde- gress in reverse. pendent interests of the working Only socialist planned on a world scale, CaS In britain or in the country can be secured through

NMENT

PHOTO: Andrew Wiend The Conference platform at Digbeth This is a part of the crisis of leadership from which class suffer every day working of their lives. Ine working clas is strong. They have shown it in their national strikes encineerin which inev cained an moorlari breakthrough in hours and holi- udys They have shown it in the 13 week strike of Talbot workers betrayed which was by tne natlondi Olicias Political question But militancy is not enough.

Leadership question. vast majority of trade union leaders are tie to tne reformism of the Labour Party challenge They refuse capitalism as a system. I hey try to hi the rotten tootn ratner than pull it out This renders them incapable ot detending ine working class When Edwardes claimed that Recessionary policies-Chancellor.

escape trom the circle of speed-up, sackings and living standards- plunging only such an in Because economy oroductiv forces be expanded to satisfy the rather needs many than the profit lust of the tiny SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 7 November, 1979

CUT THE

TOLE

MANIE SERVICES

The cuts struggle featured prominently on the agenda seek to solve the crisis of profit BL no longer viable they wa. of the looked at it in capitalist terms the expense dollity and accepted the argument. The workine class fought Through bodies of worker: conTed Lucy struggle-such as built acceptance or so,ou redundal new cies and the closure of 13 action--this plants leadershin must be oreoared l all for a workers' governmen They are prepared to witch- to resolve the crisis of capitalist hunt and attack those who fight by ending capitalism itselt.

for alternative policies In the public services where Action programme of the working every class from the youth to the aged The Campaign • for • Demo cracy in the Labour Movement are under attack Ine pledges leaders are no better. with Live a no in this tory itself • fight for this perspec Verbal condemnation of the cuts ones hand in nano with u those lefts in of real leadership or res vve cam upon Whilst make the Labour Party who claim to democratic services are gone, fighting Ener soceeTes reform within the Labour Party wards closed, staff run down Part of the living standard of to also fight for these demands- the working class is taken away align themselves with those are prepared to fight for createc mas. and women are driven back into the independent interests of the the home with jobs, working class nursery provision; no maternity As delegates and visitors to leave and naving to care for the this conterence we pledge COul sick and the aged as state pro.

selves to go back into our union stewards vision is removed shop • same time an attaci mittees and Labour Party ward following is launched on the fight to free for the abortion on demand. action programme *No talks with the Tories- force them out of office.

Capitalism *Remove Labour and trade union leaders who won't fight What is needed is a leader- the not from the "NO or laws snio which starts. prepare mass unions: • problems ot capitalsm but ion action. the requirements, the rights anc Fight for "Defend wages. working cost al ot living Cause. class. agreements which points *Fight all cuts. Occupy with the economic tha sunnorting strike action. Set ut and intiation are not caused Dy elected committees to examine the working class but by capit- the books of the public services alisin which is workers leacersni. examine health, socia ano prepared to lead and has the welfare provision and establish necessary policies. which says Tine necessau leadershi public works to meet the need.

"open the oooks ano of the working class and combat when an employer nationalise which claims TO be *For a restoration of all cuts says occupy when tney ClOs and automatic increases factories; which fights day public spending to match infla- and day out against every job spend I to military

TION.

• AT every wara loss in ine nosoildis closure, every cut back in other anti-working class bodies.

school meals service or abolition Open the books of government leadership class; a •i a nesery deparments Cane loco that will fight for a sliding scale ities to workers' committees.

1% rise in take-home of wages- 1% rise in the strikes and occupa. wages tor every ; a stop towards forming cost of livind-as calculated by workers themselves in the form councils of action. of committees of trade unionists the November Parliament called by and Lobby ane nousewives who have reliance ad threshold clauses; the official Price Lamsel and refused to implement Tne

CUL

and which will fight for councils raise rents. Build for strike struggle action on that day action

#INK

together and direct them politic.

*Support the November 28 bring down the Tory Day of Action against the cuts ally to into one-day strikes Turr government out action. General strike "Support the rebruar Lobby of Parliament called by that sectional dis- Corrie Bill its vital putes that take place around the Fight for strike action to defend anti-union laws and other Tory and extend abortion rights.

generalised attacks throughout the focussed on the goal of a general trade unions and Tne for policies SuNc movement Councils of action should be withdrawal fighting for and noreparina British troops Trom organise a general strike To do b) self-determination for the rooted in the Enis tney must w Irish people; organisations to Irish PoWs or boltical statu class as genuine rank and file preparatory to the releasi prisoners; and d) the republican should ensure that labour national picket lines are movement conference for physical building Ireland. the based both *Oppose immigration pickets controls: • to the nationalisi and on mobilising mass exist policy of import controls!

pickets of the labour movement.

Liaison intervene A leadersnip mUST COn the Defence of Commee lo structed in such struggles that is Trade Unions (LCDTU) confer the working lead January on the policies ence class beyond the of the CDLM. removing the Tory government it by a Labour simply to replace which will again government

-Big money witch-hunt on 'H' Block demo SOCIALIST PRESS, hedresday " Vorember, 1939

CALLAGHAN

PREPARED

FOR PARTY

SPLIT

Labour leader Callaghan But the ruse fell flat. 74 MPs is prepared to split the Party lonored •ThE •esoeration Callaghan's plight, and failed to rather than risk the loss of turn out to participate in the control by his extreme right crucial vote. leaving Ine rar leader with an unconvincing wing clique, whose base of 133 to 61 majority. support is the Parliamentary At meeting, the nowever Labour Party and top union punches in Callaghan pulled no bureaucrats. a vigorous witch-hunting speech unmistakeable This which nas since set the tone tor message from the manoeuvres of his other public pronounce- The last tow weeks. waich sucurs Eric Heffer's pathetic bleats Callaghan has been trying repair the damage his that such comments "are not done to helpful" , and that the NEC had LuIS . vear s rarty conference. never attacked the party leader- There he failed in his bid to ShAD The wav Calconan s now attacking the NEC were brushed prevent reforms acmocratic aside. being pave the a hint of one line way for Party control over Giving certain to be taken up by the Labour's manifesto and the Party inquiry, Callaghan angrily reselecion ouvrs. Now Callaghan has pinned camanoco know wav The outcome of NEC had not acted upon the his hopes on the witch-hunting Underhill report, all-embracing "inquiry" into the Party. which alleged growing

" TOTSKV,

ist" activity in the ranks of the Labour Party. While loudly left-wing como ained …that the out trom Ine lents there is controlled

NEC

had "rigged" little but an embarassed cough.

the inquiry (by Heffer There never electing five was right. win ve resentativos as sus acle- move gation) Callaghan about by the Labour 'lefts' to kick out rigging it by arbitrarily packing Callaghan or to offer a socialist right wingers from the alternative to his policies.

When the NEC relected the Callaghan nas sperlea out ine manoeuvre, Callaghan set about the coming fight. stakes challenging their Either the lefts' will have to 3-line Invokind ave pudlicly to ine rignt Labour on an irrelevant wing prepare to right for Calaghant machine they piece of Parliamentary business in order to achieve a substantial removal —undel concilions last week's right wing vote at where he will go all-out to split PLP meeting. the Party down the middle. Callaghan A major witch-hunt has were not signed or marked with begun in Oxford against any mark. they claimed to collede which trade unionists and Labour belong to has denied knowledge Party members who suppor- of them. ted the recent Sinn Fein leaflets asked workers • ne why their union 'supported the demonstration through the IRA' and went on to claim that town. their UnOU WerE Several trade union branches supporting murderers. supported the march on the The leaflets were a co-ordin- ated basis of supporting the political status for republican prisoners.

NAFF-type capitalists, to attack These included

NUJ

the unions themselves. branches from Oxford and the Own leaflet • atene ACTSS and the TGWU 5/293.

Blackwell's workers hit back Labour Party with a leaflet of their own. They ward banners were on the 700-strong

SOLTE!

one the bean discussed and approved in march. Trom Uxtora, other from Hemel Hompstead.

the branch and that there were Following the march an dittering views on amongst union metabers, and daclared: claiming "Ireland is poople the of

SUGANS

OUTRO

The r: deode & a whoie and offices and the Cowley works.

they should have the right to The 'students' admitted they determine their future. were beina paid {10 a head 'to britain and lis army nas no hand out the leaflets, which right to be there.

OPEN LETTER

Benn petition which immediately Daar Comada canr 1979 gained January was thirty sionatures „ Trom GÇ members, was able to organ.

expelled from the Labour Party.

a defence campaign from my only Committee of Oxford eneral Unior •ranch reinstatément into the Labour decided that consuluency Party. because of my support for the policies put forward by Socialist Appeal hearing Press. Workers caber Socialist League, I should not After many delays, mostly be allowed to continue member- Election, Tinel intervening snip or tne rarty. General appeal appealed against the where | decision and, on the basis of a

PRESS

GANG

The Ayatollah Khomeini vindita to the emitires decision to direct and his ballot for a new won obtn ther conadered decision constitution by a landslide the privacy of their own and failed to magic oppos free make the quietly ition into disappearing. and deliberately'. Now the Ayatollah "Does anyone seriously Edwardes has repeated the for- imagine. that anything like the BL, claiming the SuD same result would have come of meeting, with a mass mass programme stewards ready to jot down sackings. names of those daring to defy lhe press nao every ngnt to their dictat. [!] crOW. It was a result which thej opProvid. "As Mr. James Prior weighs played a major hand in

TORCHO

Ine provision for secret ballots in his pressure which they helped to roposed legislation on unions apply. During the crucial few days should not be overlooked."

following the announcement of In fact of course it has not the ballot it became virtually been beer Sicwards InDoss ole jotting down names, but advertisements by placed Edwardes-who has invited Edwardes, from the copy run in those who voted no to leave

SUNDO T

meta company, and no doubt the There can have been few less intends to help them go. private places to fill in the ballot Reservation lor cada tae nomes or reylane resoi industry, traes WoTKers. The Guardian too, celebrates by leaders industry, trade ("A rycto but is a victory union officials, television, radio Is a victory!" with a slight ana une press to mark unel cross in the box called suicid relegraph Isivaliull The Daily "Critics of referendums as ar instrument of national policy acknowledged the importance have long argued that it is rela OI Inis Darrage 10I ine ruing the result. Class 'As you want if you have control of Sir. Michael said: it "Saying this does not auto- being maticaliy sianity agreement wit!

methods individual march. Power had ruled discus- The terrorism and civilian bombings sion out of order. used by the IRA equent Trades Council meating Power •made a • memoas serve. only to obscure and alienate statement denlorina Taoce wid taken challinged on in the 'The union had march supports no his political and, when with the excep Party - THoN …ThA Lanour levy which to allow it to be discussed.

members can, anc Pat Lally, delegate from the some do, opt out of."

ACTSS

While the employers pursue branch blackwells the witch-hunt right wing ingrily waved the leaflet whicl trade urion leaders have jumped lad been put into his workplaci алю авталава an explanation.

(unconstitutional to On the same day as a letter Power's response from the appeared to throw him out of the meating asking why they were the only and then to it when he 'true patriots' had refused to leave without a vote.

os the interational porteint Oxford Journal quoting Trades International Spartacist Council president, John Power, "encency. unons defied a trades council vote not Scab position to take part. The issue was who would

TART

no vote nad been allowed at the previous Trades in practica defend Provisional Expelled socialist challenges Benn and call could put mv Past witnesses in my detence. un the arranged tor taro other hearings were also arranged appeals Wile wero membership Labour OT. int Party for the same reasons that i was expelled ¡ nat it is a political witch of socialists and not hunt the conce concern tild Party's constitution had been breached was richly confirmed: not one single Labour Party rule the question and a fair degree of of the means com had munication. (Sir Michael both.) The trick make to results stick."

LUSE

Deeper in the gutter ine ches of victory were unmoderated by any such caution The Express started its news

SLULY

"The of Leyland's power mighty shattered on the shop floor lasi The company's chairman Sir Michael Edwardes, athat BIs Sho stewards speak only for a tin minority. Poison And the Mail, in an article stewards' remarked Michael served notice on ine snop stewaras tnar ne is prepared to go to the workforce over their heads again on major naschen' The celebrations. victory however, failed to make top tima form The press had already turned its attention to the next dose of poison that it will try to disguise million meaicine -23,300 worth of public spending cuts.

Sinn Fein's right to march and SUODOrI oasic demands for political status and anti-imperialist demands for the The brought a contin- gent to Oxford the day of on Page 5 of breaking. Instead we had to listen to torrent of from those on abuse Party and trade union move- ment in Oxford. Delegate delegate. the ' On Oxford fron my trade branch (ACTSS 5/833) had consistently Whicr supported me, as have several waras m. te constituand The appeais are to come up before the

NEC

the very near tuture an opportune time seem to be for the

NEC

to take stand against witch-hunts • 41215 nature by recommending my re instatement, and defending right those who fight for Socast dondes ins 1a8 8011 working class policies practised the last Labour government.

was whie Tinting.tor.a resolution whiche apan removal Healey leadership and calling for Emergency Labour Party Conterence in tre event ot ar election last autumn that the accusations began to fly.

in one ou une meemos vou addressed at Brighton you said, anyone in. orine in ines • analysis, their And vou sat was not entrism" you feared, but "exitism" from the Labour Party. If socialists are allowed to bi kicked out of the Labour Party with the NEC's approval, then constitutona year's conference will pdto written on. Yours fraternally, Ted Haslin "Exitist" Prentice the march. They sold papers photographs, but refusad to march. despite pretty green orange' is a scab position.

H-BLUCK

LONG KESH

BRITAINS

CONCENTRATION

АГРА The Sinn Fein march throush Oxford

British Leyland: the to Edwardes' run-do Page 6 Keith Joseph Edwardes British Leyland repre- sents a very large slice of the engineering industry in Britain. It accounts for 50% of vehicle production in the UK and currently employs 165,000 with workers, further 750,000 geared to it in the component industry.

The bolicies of successive Labour and Tory governments towards BL have differed only accret

DOU

nave approached BL not from the the standpoint protecting interests of workers

OI DICSCLV-

ing jobs. the require- but irom menis of an increasingly crisis- :idden British capitalism.

Reformist servant outcome such ine approach has varied the CAlCil thal lik lolls alc master. party ol the capitalst while the Labour leaders are simpl is more distiert t.

close 1s more aicuit Ior Labour government PHOTO: John Sturrock, Repor CP

ANLEY

OPEN

down major sections of industry than it is for the Tories.

not only cling to the illusion by shrewd „mcnern cao talste Can expanded to provide conces- șions and reforms for the work- but also base them- ing class, very seves much cose political relationship with the trade union bureaucracy —a rela- TOnSilD winlch mace more difficult in the face of a whole- destruction jobs and hard-won living standards.

Contraction But of course what predom- inates L atesr leathes is theis com the actions of the ment to seeking reforms within the asp ita lise suite m.

: last the instance, they, like the Tories. have found themselves set on a course of contraction in British Leyland-a course that HEust e o c even The reason for this is the particular impact on the British economy ine crisis of capitalism. The growing

OVE

Canley car workers on Confed protest marchi recession has produced intensi- markets, commenton

HOT I

which in turn has brought an the overcapacity motor world mousty scale. The waves of mergers and bankruptcies that place in recent years-the most TeGe to Peuge adte acsen to Peugeot and the financial crisis of Chrysler in the USA-are clear symptoms of the pre sa pilist marana dor es capitalist market forces "rationalisation' ane TestnCT. the growth of the productive forces. British capitalism, creaming off profits and reluctant to rein- vest, has lagged behind other capitalist economies in technical nova or-sne a cas are products, particularly increasingly overpriced dated on the world market.

employers tackle this b attempting economic changing the anc In custria • сттистите In KTI21n Though British wages have plummeted in compared Valle To noce in oner monst*?er countries, the rate of exploita- Mass meeting at Leyland truck plant in Preston SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 7 November, 1979.

CONFEDERATION

OF SHIPBUILDING AND

Reide

ENGINEERING UNIONS.

to it, The Executive Council •date is convinced there is no feasible alternative to the BLrecovery plan.

We therefore strongly urge all Trade Union members to vote [YES in the present ballot. Published by the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions General Secret A Ferry Cars Council m Edwardes line of BL policy. Dick Etheridge then CP con venor Longbridge oi the vast complex, told workers there was nothing to tear trom the com proposed pany s Measured Day Work payment system. No resistance PHOTO: Angela Phillips. IFL He likened to payment systems in the sovet union anc ag era BLe PSa capot ing that

SITI

an anarcnc capuaus economy! This meant that when BL : 1970 there forced in MDW in resistance from the with Communist Party readersy jaguars (with a right wing leadership) and the Cowles Speke assembly line Assembly plant with a Trotsky- tion of workers in Europe and in Basingstoke and Maudsley Japan is much higher. Motors in Birmingham leadersmp swuck in oppos ition to the scheme. In a move to rectify this, and s and conditions in DuL waze. Both the strikes were beaten to find ways of cashing in on the corporation have been under profitable production attack since BLMC continuous more ov so amon e e cereme intervention of touctionals.

the capitalist class ha. was formed in 1968 overstas. introduction Hav nt maay ent eel tk decided that basic manufactur- Measured Day Work coincided industry in Britain-cars, work system payment with the wage freeze policies of shipbuilding their advantage, BLMC workers anu succ produc Heath's Tory and government, tion-should be run down, and had achieved wages least capital invested in production double those earned by Ford had a dramatic impact on. BL wages over the subsequent four Vauxhall csewucle anc worKeIS. years were tied to a flat rate payment.

erosion of But this real Profit BLMC wages were also far in the public wares was wowere near etougi excess of those for management. Indeed The recent Tory decision to services or tne buik or tne engin- to minimise shop floor lift all exchange ering industry controls resistance to MDW the company the Labour government allow the unimpeded 01 capule agreed work effor of Harold the high Io a capital is designed Wilson saw

O ICI

which fell far short of their wages and militancy of BLMC facilitate this process. requirements--particularly ir workers as a driving force for For the employer the prime the : wages movement elsewhere, odils scheme. but the extraction of profit.

and gave enthusiastic support to BL really needed piece-work this can be more a crete ely the

BLMC

board in its attacks effort on MDW wages. share the piece owning. a GOlC DY WULk

SYSECI

Agreement Italian, Japanese Thus the ten years or so of oThel "foreign" industries than by have been ten owning factories in Britain, then The re-election of a Labou determination successive govertment, headed by Wilson this will be done managements to acneve a neo February therefore Meanwhile course flat rate uniform wages capitalists and their allies in the controlled and dis- structure nego. DrOneAT benind-the-scenes cussions as how best to wage the Labour and trade union move- tlated collian) JULlI necessary .attacks BL meent conste Lo oca ba negotlating Committee workers sacrifice jobs, social The eventuai aim has been to WOrKIoICE services and living standards "in move along American lines to It is clear that an agreement Aul ac hed with TGWU and was the national interest pay talks at industrv leve leaders problem Jones Wildi Continuous attack workers had from the outset in in which they would scanlon resisting these attacks was their ensure : the . acquiescence : of the The trade rundown . of BL begar e æo o ULUlE Ivaus u in earnest in 1972, four years Combine Committee, which had restructunng and rationalsatior after the British Leyland Motor played an important role in the of BL and undertake the crush ing of the power of sections of Corporation was firmi Tormed

DECOUS

Was the Management decided to close hands of Communist stewards movement The l

SNOD

Party. which resisted BLMC's heavy management

LWU

They accepted the general mission plants-Thorneycrofts policy.

SOCIALIST PRESS, hadnesda: " Norember, 1979 wn The collaboration was shameless. Soon Scanion and Ones were page of BL's on the front vee Mirror headline

KEEP

WORKING!" They the without" (the enemy Tories) and (the militants). ate comer high volume, forced ment strike ensued. eventually crumbled the closure of the and the the leader Alan Thornett. further

IGWU.

plant was sne and fresh ponvenors' huge шает national time. secret • onducted policy now to lorr Although forcing the acreased effort In 1975 a aquiry report which lational: Doard roclaimed this rescue xpayers record In saving BL ath. aber Bill Roche (right) with TGWU national official Grenville Hawley presenting petition to ackground By Bill Peters investment programme-design- ed to create conditions for more

HOL

privately. And it was arranged in such a way as to hang a continu-

TO TO COPAI ANT TAAO PATI CITI

workers, The cash be given tranches, woule ve winne u me required targets redundan- And the would be commercial made plan

TON"

destened break down once-strong Dicwarus joint were committees considered and was successful optectives ards' not simply class collabora but because it These described "step towards workers In reality ing the workers pace outshipped scored by BL By It was 1968! What was increasingly required was not halt measures but a wholesale cutback in BL, and its eventual complete run- down. A change of icadership was essential for the capitalist class The abrupt resignation of Si Richard Dobson as chairman of the British Leyland board, following the public disclosure him at a party created the change. Michael with tionary African as allu Hallazil. director. far more in a long Jine seeking to the Corpor he asset-stripper. allull, the Labour . off. And at was once conscious greatest assel BL convenors. participation, and led by Party the making wane they also backed plant level and its corporate-level negotiations. Appalling Their record over the pre- had appall- ceding years had ing by any standards. Ryder ad hoc Them. mto an Committe of and worked through Cars Council, the highest body in the participation set-up. In the summer of 1977 they Leyland Cars Joint the Negotiating Committee to con- tinue the same collaborationist traditions. rapidly 1NC

CORVETOES

earned the reputation of being the world's worst negotiators. 'Time and again they were out.

manoeuvred by management into accepting everything company wanted-from a new "red book" containing stringent penalty clauses, bonus designed schemes' throw to thousands out of work Edwardes could hardly wait weeks his had called a joint conference of to vene a plant misterst take his first *Edwardes plan' in January 1978. Page 7

'OUR POLICIES

*Threatened plants must committees, without loss of *Kick out the Labour be occupied to provide traitors! Drive out focus for the *Defeat Edwardes struggle and Edwardos' Confed collabor.

throughout BL. his Tory backers! For the ators, and Labour *Open the books of BL, massive campaign for a 'no' leaders whose policies have its suppliers and bankers!

Edwardes' ballot! vote in paved the for the way Open the books of the Mobilise mass action along.

Edwardes plan. Demand British car industry! side BL workers in the fight that those who claim Unmask the profiteers! to bring down the Tory the sackings stand oppose Warn of the dangers to asset-strippers! up and load a fight for a thousands of workers out.

*For the nationalisation socialist alternative through.

side BL. without out the labour movement, compensation of *No redundancies! For the engineering industry and or stand exposad. work sharing on full pay: *Build the banks, under workers' principled, the reduced work available management. For a socialist revolutiónary leadership • divided between must be plan of production for the among BL workers! the whole workforce, under need of the many, not the the control of trade union profits of the few! To this joint assembly -in which plant directors mingled with plant convenors-Edwardes of carefully declared that his plan avoided and , the Was allion Wak only hope of survival for BL.

It amounted to restructuring struggle by to agreeing the that the work from of separate limited companies.

and cutting productive capacity make individual Edwardes a50: backare ol redundancies- closures redundancies, but avoided saying how be this was fingering Triumph 25,000 lost received plant at Speke as a 'low produc response non tivity' factory ripe for closure and had almost certainly from the CP planned the shutdown of the Ken Baker AEC truck plant in Southall.

emergency voted As he finished outlining his oppose the announcing money place Trade unior plan the advertisements in the Mirror an participation became clear. Con- the Sun urging; a 'yes' vote venors and plant directors rose The spectacle of major trade with one accord and gave his unions, , not turning a blind eye job-slashing scheme a prolonged as they are in many cases to the change Even while cuts in the public services. no leaflets protest simply acquiescing as they are actively Fish she for dings red adaivels shipbuilding-bu chairing the and plant closures, and using the meeting went put Conted were in closi full resources of the unions to do so. must be unprecedented Nothing could spell out the re-elected bankruptcy of reformist politics Plant LOWICy clearly Nothing could stration, demonstrate in sharper relief the when • impossibility of opposing management attacks once you appeared television capitalist argument accept tne that : the company must at al by announce costs be made viable "amber light" the closures It is doubtful if BI could Eddie McGarry But ever be every in la pitarise there every worker there element Inte ment. On demonstration are four workers in ine private the struggle declared component industry. . that BL The component suppliers are He capable of ensuring that makes a profit-at never least not a profit that will ever office show up in the balance sheet of statement himself (hornett wne puzzled as to "The answer lies not in the why the march was deputy he convenor). ' scramble for capitalist viability Frver was Four later over the bodies of thousands of at the redundant workers, nor in lining convenors with the weakest

IGWU

"emer British ine Inbun group and the Communist port the stated that past and clamouring the 11 01 controls to keep out "foreign" 10 1 first time. competitors. The successfully Occupations plan dead bodies of our members" Existing jobs must be defen- of the Speke ded through independent action by the working to the vote he was overwhelm Class-lactor plane knew ingly defeated. But. undeterred of work-sharing on full could - pay has proceeded to The t Conted implemented under the control support" the of trade union committees.

plan to sack thousands of thei The only long term defence members. of jobs in BL and When Edwardes ordered a industry the company-run ballot to be organ 1 general les in struggle for the nationalisation • were cam- Iscu and a massive press of the entire car and component paign swung into action behind vocally in Edwardes, the Confed Executiv industry and the banks. witnoul January. compensation to the used thousands of bounds of exploiters and under

WUJACIS

Car be integrated into m 1181 planned, socialist economy Only in this way can the potential benefits of expanding and improving the productive forces be achieved by the work ing class Such • perspective is not simply a pipe dream. The work- achoi that sed fader hip ing class has built • prepared massive action defence of jobs, working 'con- ditions and líving standards.

Such action must begin nou decision to оссиру threatened plants as a centre- piece ol the mass struggles that are necessary to bring down the job-slashin Tor government and spearhead the nail lo not to governacl • Tessonse the needs of capital but to the interests of the working class Eddie McGarry

Page 8 Woodcock George Woodcock, archi- tect of TUC collaboration with Labour wage control, died i in Epsom 30 October at the age of 75.

Woodcock, who was never elected except by other bureau- today position his life, emerged of the inner TUC's bureau recesses of the cratic machine General to be Secretary from 1960 to 1969.

During this period he played in the develop ment of TUC collaboration with state and employers in the Develop. ment Council, and with th various incomes policies' and Labour govern- treezes of the ment after 1964. He was devout Roman Catholic, a Privy Councillor and Empor Commander of the British He said have …TO- rejected a peerage. Ruskin College Woodcock was born into a family in Bamber Bridge, poor 1904, Preston. and limal worked from 1918 half- cotton mill, when timer in a he held local He he was 24, aust into that Ruskin College when he he never looked back. Having performed with success in Ruskin, Woodcock was transferred to Oxford Uni- where did even better 1936 he was made head of economics went ment at the TUC, where his main job briefs Generat Secretary

LASTING

order to make it easier to work closely the Tory and with Coalition of the period. reward Woodcock As for this 1946 Genera:: Secretarv fanatical anti-communist the witch-hunter Tewson, Vincent Whom it is said he loathedi Just what Woodcock did in this position, it is difficult to PHOTO: Chris Davies, Report discover. Unlike his colleague.

Feather, he showed little

VIC

interest in keeping with ordinary trade unionists by trades council or other such meetings Woodcock proved his worth however. by chairing a

TUC

collaborated committee that with the vanilalsl

CUUELS

driving out the Stalinist leaders of the Electrical Trades Union in 1959, and ensuring that the extreme right would obtain the that they have retained to this day. Press image This Woodcock done, succeeded Seceral Secretary in 1960.

Tewson

TUC

in te cantanst Dress. me tas been portrayed as someone who took trade out of unions Trafalgar Square' (his owI phrase), and into the corridors of power. this view is much too simplistic, since the same could salt or tre ertorts ot major bureaucrat since the TUC was set up in 1868. It Is important to make ine that Woodcock did not point act in the way that trade unior have done bureanorts in the Feather

PILSON BETE

1970s, by direct connivance with governmental wage-freez- Nor did he walk, cap in hand, like his predecessors from George Howell Walter lobbies Ene or the offices of Parlament ministries. Voodcock's special role was to make Ene Tanon form of collaboration to the other. He the great post-war boom when he acted in was collapsing effect way compromise' he so often talked about between the governments he discussed with and the trade union members he was supposed 1o rinen the Tories wier stil it government 1964, or odort to void great deal movement-by made power Lead from the top The purpose of this was to allow greater direction from the top over the policies of individ.

ual unions. However, although Woodcock presented a report to this effect to the 1962

TUC

he found that the vested interests individua burcaucrats prevented him from achieving more than a move towards more amalgamations. Generall speaking. Woodcock showed little interest in the decisions of Congresses, still less of union conferences or of ordinary members. Together with Hugh Clegg, ne seems to have been the main architect of the Donovan Royal Report Trade Commission Union and Employers Urganisa which drew

TORS

1963-8 attention to the power of shop stewards, but did not duvocate major state intervention in the Woodcock was more inter. ested in collaboration and nego• employers on a higher level and government Lation with the Tory wage Suits ours freeze in 1962 he got agree ment UD the so-called Economic Develop ment Council, with representa- tives of unions, employers and SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesaay 7 November, 1979

A MASTER OF

THE SQUALID

COMPROMISE

NUS

HARWIC

BRANCH

Woodcock addressing NALGO conference government supposedly in efforts to persuade the sea- which, in the circumstances of planning overall economic men not to go on strike, then to growing struggle and confronta- tine it when the largely sualesy accent me moutry wilson irled irrelevant. to set up, and finally to go back without their aims being 'Planning' tried to bring it into their anti- union it chine leased This he did, not by discuss- said that the Val As the capitalist but byth eing codited with the with any ordinary economic seamen, White Paper In Place of Strife crisis began introduced by the Labour

ETOW

came more and more back in 1969 prepared anning axecutve even rushing to taken the for working est se for the purpose, bronzed from the way ior the Tory confron confront holidays abroadR working "class. unions after tations „with the Much The 1964 Labout been said 1971, so also it can be shown Has Woodcock's ment's so-called 'National Plan remoteness', and that squalid compromises' and the Declaration of Intent' lack of interest in daily trade ot the TUC the end of 1964 took place union life steps that led this ill- This was not just a trait of against the context of growing fated document-laid the economic crisis, with a his personality but massive groundwork in the first place.

balance of payments deficit and position he held, dealing with The hard fact is that 'econ- determination of and responsible solelv to other omic planning' under capitalism, growing employers and government to bureaucrats, Tory ministers, etc.

many so-called

HOWEVE

By keep down wages, the end of his period a "workers' representatives" General Secretary he had grown During this period the TUC involved, can only be planning leadership increasingly cooper- • weaken ine power ana con- ated with these policies.

Leaders would accept he White Wilson union ditions of the working class Thus . Woodcock Woodcock did not collabor- 1965 Congress "I am a believer raper in race of sire. ate as directiv in the formula. in a prices and incomes policy However, , these leaders were tion of such policies in the '60s compelled by make no mistake about that' from as Jack Jones and others were to persuaded the Congress to do in the 70s, but his position ment Ders to reject inest accept 'early warning anti-union proposals, even when in the 'corridors of power' in his system, which they from was the Labour came Labour served to reduce the inde- government's first step in this pendence of the unions and the direction. standard of living of their mem- Irrelevant In the following bers as surely as all the subse-.

Woodcock acted as a messenger Woodcock went off to quent methods of reformist boy, directly of Prime Minister become Chairman of the Com- collaboration beloved Wilson, and less directly of the mission on industrial Relations bureaucrats of his

LOOKS

IMF and international bankers.

a sort of early version of ACAS stamp.

RESEARCHING INTO STATE'S

STRIKEBREAKING PLANS

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesda; ? Nowember. 1979

NUPE

LOW

Paid says: Workers

NUPE

NEED

£60 a Minimum says. NOW (suts Wage elow PHOTO: Mark Rusher, IFL The small bimonthly or state powers against strikers by governments of both Labour journal State Research Conservative parties regularly contains material fails

AUDO.

TOUCHY.

which Socialist Press readers adequately for the accoull will find of great interest.

by the labour limited response As use of state independent group movenen powers in strikes. State systematically the daily aper o publishes palners and miotla. he erstwhile Trotskyist Workers on ton aeveropments in Tne phe areas or sate, especig y in reDIrnIed the State Research document in areas of law, policing and its entirety and without political une tary.. seeks to examine links comment. between these areas and the Limitations ooclalions o1 uc rule class The itself well Certainly it is valuable to paper researched, presenting details of reprint and promote material of regulations and laws under this kind, but and police inter- which military oToDer loI DarLy canne cu offer revolutionary leadership to venton laco sumkes take orce the organisational arrangements limit itself to reprinting material made by the state and an SuCI mm or calce WIElolI line history oi recent uses oi the drawing attention to its political state machinery against strikes.

limitations. four major weak- Despite these SeriOuS reser- nesses of the report. bublication of the VaTOS Tite State Research document is to ts o tase osroonaie demands mobilise action welcomed valuable of the state against the use summary of current knowledge against strikers. Increas nely Im orell to take account of it talis alca the limits of constitutional and One of the recurrent themes democratic objections to the use of State Research is the increas.

of state power ing pace of preparation of the by tne ruling class. state machinery of repression. fails also give any Unic HOCaO ot lus aurel reason for the growth in the use eration is in the pattern of use

NOW

OUT

THE

BATTLE

FOR

TROTSKYISM

This is second of edition the docu- ments of the opposition inside the WRP which expelled and was formed the Workers Socialist League in December 1974. Available, price £2.70 including postage, from 31

WSL,

Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

CNU

LOW

PAY

Low pay strikes-army has rehearsed strike-breaking role The 1964 Act was also used oi emergency powers. Emergency powers Tower Hamlets dust agast une relation to industrial disputes men in 1970, the Glasgow fire- in 1973 and the Glasgow have been used more frequently dustmen in 1975. snce u v o cer ere previous history since the 1920 was also the decisive in breaking the 1977/8 Act which first created them.

factor lemen s ratiolai suike Supplies Inere is no doubt that the troops against the fire- use of Tho orig nac , 20 ich iset- major which men Act, Ivicocl LOwel. «everomen mn mie cass ensirned previousty ao pica 21,000 troops were used regulations, has been the whole of the covering used on eleven occasion. . State Research argues Coultuy T empowers mre covernmen that the use of troops under to use the military in industrial the 1964 Act illegal, was disputes if the supply and dis- Army occause NCaUPROS trioltion ol rooc. water. ruc_ ol under the Act only allow Light, the means of loco- 'limited' and 'local' operations motion' are at risk. o be mnacer out of the sever eleven occasions have • troops Parliament actually been used. 1920 Act requires the June When the 1964 Act was approval of Parliament. made clear in passed, it was The 1964 Emergency Powers debate that national operation power to the Detence ACI aves would continue to require Council which hock approval under Parlamentar me mis ry a du civil serece to outnumbered old 1920 Act • pUCuui gap Regulation ATmY thi DriOg

OUI

LIOoDs. will seems to confirm this. reference Parliament, and However, a full scale parlia- apparently (as in cesas rike.

CPSA

Drayton strike, de bace wore mave piled enormous pressure on the when RAf tankers were driver Labour 'left', who were in any through the picket lines) not even a public announcement of case orce• mo a oke a o] evorts belind th masse seir before throwing their having invoked the Act. out operation Certainly the Defence Council wasted no time in amending Army Regulations to operations

IU UTE

under the 1964 Act. probably at this point that

WSL

differs MOSt seriously ts metnoc …TrOm that of State Research (and with WRP, to the extent that the WRP can any Jonger be said to have any method beyond that PHOTO: John Sturock, Report of the universal lickspittle to reactionarv dictator in the Middle East). Leadership crisis We and still the firemen 's strike, see, the deep crois assocate w a ol as a problem of technical prepara- as a problem of leader- ion but o o wor c We placed demands on the Labour 'left' to kick out the Callaghan leadership which hac sent in tne troops, ana on tn TUC leadership to bring for- claims, parti vard other was or NÜN na NUI members, that a campaign which would be too big for the Callaghan during firemen s siri . state to control could begin We fought to broaden the base of the strike through th formation oT ocacne action drawing delegations from working class trade union and pontical organisations It is primarily a consequence of the failures and treachery of the workers leadership that thi firemen's strike was deleatea depen his plans ant prepai ons state proceeded lor autacks on me workers e bee n eraied na s reo or have been trained in a series skills which can only be used to break strikes-tanker driving, water ambulance engineering, obcalon cic. The fruits of this preparation were shown strike breaking in the ambulance strikes civil and noNsna service strikes of this year, and the standby of troops during the tanker strike. The military preparation has hand in with the gone hand of an administra deveoonen tive machinery national, regional and local levels While a good deal of work remains „ eone area, it is emerging that at local councils' chief officers

ICVCIS

participate in emergency powers activity over the heads of elec.

ted councillors. No checks The State Research paper also deals with the use of police which is less well aralsI StIKes: documented necause плете пте apparently constitutional checks at all attacks against

RYSICA

mcket s by and systematic harass police the increase, everyone who has been on surke w mme ast torea years will confirm. Again, the Workers Socialist League wonaoeuteron not on the technical aspects of Dule opalaliuls altavuçl wi do nor denv tne importance studying these) but on the role leaderships trade union th reachung asreenen. police that limit the size pickets and lead to desperation deoralsallol LulC strikers The strikes at Grunwicks and Garners set the pattern for these metnoas and aulowea ine polce to develop them. will be mass Call dzil needed to force the TUC and the Labour Party into action to •elene Wolkes ricils Page 9 punTO: Mark Rucher. IFL Picketing firemen This will only be achieved over „ tne cend bodles oi ine present leaderships. it will be stage Hi Some necessary for Tne Researchers explain where all their studies of the state have lea, and wnat pontical concil sions they draw. Some of these weaknesses apparent danel

SMOS

recent background on paper the strikes, the police and multary Problems Although we would certainly recom mend the journal to all Socialist Press readers it needs to de Dointer out that inceoen.

dent groups outside a revolu- tionary party present certain Drobiens kind of authority can build up in a specialised journal on the basis of the quality of its research. Inevitably there will arise occasons wien une gouo neca to make explicit political state- ments and will utilise as political automy an duoty waca academic or technical. Sometimes this procedure is developed-the COnseo Usiy most im portant in point • case being the Stalinist-controlled Labour Research, which unden éver d come ęrce to large numbers of trade union branches From time to time howeve It ls obugea to put forwara ine which it does CP party line, without acknowledgement DolNOaT perween invest gative journalism and propa- ganda (Regular readers of Labour Research were puzzled December read SudZIL DieCE • Ol CACe mg wing propaganda under the authorship of Air Vice Marshal Bennett, the of the VaLIOl kniti enge or rats This was published as part of an out of court settlement in a actor (LaDoW Research. The readers were never given any explanation!)

SuCI Lavt arisen the case of State Research so far • E.P. Thompson ha Howevet made use of State Research as a platform for his own anti- Leninist view of the state and democratic struggles. latest issue of State Research should be the possession ol every revolution ary worker and the information in it should be used in as many EsTon meet as

SLADOW

Party branches as possible in the coming months. By Ernie Stubbins

ISTC CALLS ACTION TO

HALT CORBY CLOSURE

'BIG HECTOR'S' VISION

Page 10

INDUSTRIAL

The call by the Iron and has up until now made a virtue Steel Trades Confederation of its for a national overtime ban, management efforts to make the Corporation "viable". a one-day strike and a series of selective stoppages "Deficit" represents the first substan- tial programme of official out the country have begun to action to resist closures in recognise steel or any other industry.

Cost nebino oor wide out its esse The union move is designed million per "deficit" to nan te ortisn •tee coroor through ation's plan to close down steel- redundancies and speed-up, mili- making facilities Corby tancy has clearly grown-to the Northamptonshire, at a cost o1 extent that

ISTC

5,000 jobs. Sirs feels compelled to flex It comes from a right wing consiocrabe union. collaborationist redoesnio Inal A gauge of the type of 'It is not easy union leader steel workers rationalisation must confront if they are to manning, Taci defend jobs and conditions we know industry has been offered by a recent yve ve sheo tens or thousanes o appeal from "Big Hector" jobs in the last few years.

Smith, leader of the Blast- "And it's furnacemen's Union trade unionists published by BSC manage- omnicias to accoot inese chandes Their role has traditionally been ment's paper "Steel News".

defend jobs, but unions "Big Hector" urging maquay seeing there is no point in fighting for british Leviano workers to vote brothers and 25,000 of their every job if the end result is no sisters out of a job-in order to work tor anyone.' save to•s in ine steer sno ustry!

"My plea to Leyland men is way this. Back the [Edwardes] plan, Hector' from his mission in life -restoring the Lev tane com serve again, Commit in suddend the BSC at the expense of his mem- committing suicide, arm of management. wful devastating body blow to major ing. My union now says to BSC "reluc- spelling out his own 'you show us where we are over- manned tant acceptance boLs wholesate butchery of steel jobs, • core ovens, ara wer o "Big Hector" goes on. tiate phasing out these jobs' ".

DON'T GO INTO

THE FIGHT BLINDFOLD!

SOCIALIST

GET

PRESS

struggle against wage control, cuts and redundancies

NEWS

Things have clearly been chinate subservience maoe more embarrassine

TOT

ISTC and other union leaders by the open and arrogant contempt snown by boc manacemeni their annual wage claim-when bureaucrats were hint sent packing But as steelworkers through- told accordina to Bill Sirs Now, whether or not the TUC Steel Enem Committee endorses the ISTC's year alleged proposed action. union prepared to press ahead alone.

closures, As the biggest union in mo usury. Ine Nas leader Bill power to paralyse steel produc- tion, and the numbers to impose muscles the Cheative prevent the import of scab steel

OF MASS SACKINGS

Smith makes no bones about accept alliance with and reduced his nationalist British IT'S boooN tne the steel workers of the world: only "At the end of the day we too should have leaner, tougher ordanisatior or acalcateo steel especially hard for men who, with some of the best kit in the world-like the 10,000 ¡ ana lace unor • blas1 ady neocar-will Knock The nel out of of Smith has Bis are Smith has way, then, tne at Bsu loudys Mias. sackinus only prelude WHil tomorrow's mass sackings in the USA, Japan and West Germany!

Soaring unemployment has deterred "Big "Have vision!" "viability" And 25,000 BL Tor the workers racine ine cole oueut he has words of encouragement: 'In BSC we are still demann- 'So it must be with Leyland.

i say to Leviane mens.we knov how you feel, we know the problems, but have vision! Have courage to do what you know in your hearts has to be

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clear Name. lead in the Address Send to Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

CORBY JOIN

im olemented throighout therind stre continuing and working conditions. from dockers workers confidence such a struggle stocks. of string all-out strike would rapidly force the Tories to their steel •as across have shown knees challenge This is almost certainly why Santia coon on tead for partial an overtime activi ano selective StriKes-To provide maximum leeway for stee form of squalid some compro The struggle mise oe evisco ocrore une engineering industry com- defence of job. pletely disrupted However Sirs still predicts that overume ILSeIT would eventually bring produc- tion to a halt. that this call- lEIS bicar inadequate though it is-must be done. Don't be misled by the that ny cochites WitO

KNOW

changes are necessary, but haven't got the guts to come out all say sorwarty wve wous but and men may have hundreds of thousands of jobs will be made more secure.

ror Big rector it is a cast 'workers of the world unite with the employers'-in a cut- recession piovment and spurred on with the aid of union leaders "Let have solidarity- solidarity of purpose, steelmen and car To get this bloody men. lovery country or outs moving again." men" men and steel have a common interest alright- in inrowing abject collaborators like Smith out their entrenched leadership positions ne ou movement That task needs more than "solidarity': it needs a political alternative ly accepting fiv foraotter condooration But and smash But a £1.75 Labour traitors, ine communist rarty :£6.00 Tory government . £11.00 £6.50 racial and sexual revoltoney £8.00 emancipațion of mankind for whether in freiand, in revolutionary •nan In an ist Fourth International League principled, SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 7 November, 1979

BRANCHES

ISTC banner on Corby demonstration the threatened Shotton workers winc plant) face a hand in hand with thi must ge attacks on jobs, living standards series fight principled revolu

TOI

tionary leadership in the mobilising caldwit Meanwhile supporting action strength Tne Tne members and dent eterests. defence . of their indepen transport must be sovont in ine preparin force out be should to victory. closed and deserted CoUnTr his inability of making the logic But his bluff must be called workers ano orne steel unions forced to support Bill Sirs for action at Corby (and Corby workers demonstrating last week

JOIN OUR FIGHT-

AGAINST TORIES!

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

Prices are already beginning to rocket upwards.

Plum sectors of state industry will be handed to the Tories' protiteering big business backers; and the pay rises to police and armed forces mark onlv ine brelude to increaser state violenci against pickets and anti-fascists, and an intensified army crack.

down in the accupied North of Ireland Callaghan Healey leadership has made it clear that i wil! opppose any perspective other than settling down and meek.

years of Tory devastation more dusted off their near.

though they have once socialist soeeches. Labour s et wine mrs nave continued to duck away from any fight to remove Callaghan.

leaders, to establish a basis for havi with indichel ano in i ory cabinet, paralemin tHeir anti-working class alliance with Wilson and then Calfaghan.

working class has experienced and overcome such betrayals before-to toppie Heath's union bashing government ir through • Phase 4 o Callaghan s reactionary These experiences are not dead. They point to the jobs. social services and hard won union rights can be defender against renewed Tory attacks revolutionary leadership is needed if the collaborators and their hangers-on ir are to de expose• ane ousnee asioe. anc the mass struggles mobilised that can defeat and remove the Such a leadership must fight day in and day out for a pro gramme of transitional demands. which startino Trom toody conditions and today's consciousness within the working class, lead workers to grasp the necessity tor socialist revolution And in taking up democratic demands-such as an end to discrimination, it must show the crucial role only that must be played by the • workine class as te consistell capable of leading the struggle TOr • The must fight on an international basis-mobilising . and anticabitanst • struces- Southern Africa or elsewhere through- world, and drawing strength, and political lessons from upheavals such as that which ousted the hated This means fighting for the reconstruction of the Trotsky.

This method of approach, rejecting any descent to simpl trade union militancy, or concessions to any wing of the labour bureaucracy, is the method fought for by the Workers Socialist The next period will see major class struggles in Britain. A , Marxist leadership is essential. Our movement though JOIN US and take forward the struggle for socialism!

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 7 Norember, 1979 Talbot leads in new Scottish sackings Thousands more jobs are talk of a market smaller Scotland as threatened He Danc Tory-fuelled recession the also mace intend to introduce speed-up in grinds on. Linwood designed of its BSR is to COx: smaller 1E181 factories in Fast Kbride three produces nearly -at a cost of 1,000 jobs.

demand" arOp which blamed for the closure, extensive short-time Chrysler follows man among BR's largely talking working penl female workforce. 5% increase in productivity Massey planning arguments are Similar explain the move bine naveste Kilmarnock, by Chrysler (Talbot) Uk to axe production at their sackings are expected. night shift For Scottish Linwood plant. 28,000 of whom employers But while 39 hr week in shops 130,000 low paid shop workers are among the first The to benefit from the spin-off only a £55 minimum adult from the national engineer- and a 35 hour week. ing pay claim, in which the Employers, massive years Engineering Employers and growing profits, Federation conceded a 39 conceded once hour week in 1981. fact that without 39-hour week. But the negotia- even tors for supermarket staff were able to the cut in hours to November-a next conceded year earlier than the cognites - leaders of defeat Engineering Unions, whose Two ave per strikes had eventually week brought the employers to their knees.

3,000 TGWU

Todd from to steps for a 25% pay claim, offer. in This etTective dereat comes at the tenacious

TGWU.

officials have employers Ford rushed assist management break a picket and Vauxhall showrooms. halted car line that had This dress assembly at Dagenham. imposition legislation has from Transporter the Toleman's had honoured

WILL

reused line strike isolated, Dagennam - only payment by their employers.

wing Dunstable They then took strike action -supported by shop stewards at mounted no Vauxhails 17% Dagenham who refused to move cars from the assembly lines.

DICI

Rather than step in to ensure Workers will pay price for these betrayals.

mine ate On

TGWU

Toleman •rivers officials' first concern was to get mere Port lifted and restore brothers and Tine

DICKEL

plants in production at Dagenham. Prime mover in this has been TGWU national organiser Ron conditions. Todd. Offhall

UNION DUES

notified of redundancy April- the to meet, they have alleged capitalist firms that they giant are only incidental interest to ensure central issue is to defend workforce and living jobs exposing standards. This Cals lies and behind the scenes the 25% speed-up of the manufac- profiteering are the fight to open their books to gement enforcing a of elected trade union committees.

paring for prep Ferguson, too, occupation threat full-scale cutbacks in their com- ened plants as a focal point for bring down this where 1,000 more government, job-slashing 1Oгy basis of the fight for and as the workers- without of have been pay to defend all jobs. But rather than capitalise or Supermarket staff, too, have chim, leaders of USDAW, the their problenis of leadership, of claim, initial claim was rate shop I to be the whole deal steal through rollered fattened exploitation month settlement that will leave allusi shopworkers stranded in a rising the £55 in two stages and the Bosses welch Vauxhall on pay deal Eight weeks ago, members an all-out strike, after Vauxhall's Ellesmere floor workers at shop Port plant voted last week Johnson and Johnson's end their 8-week strike Gargrave plant in North and an Yorkshire won accept the company's 17% 18.9% rise. workers,

GMWU

admission of members, struck for a £50 end of a which basic wage for 40 hours and have used settled for £47 plus a £2 CoUn injunctions and police violence bonus. to smash picket lines on docks The strike was the first the prolonged dispute rehearsal for the plant's history, with the anti-union membership being forced to been carrie out tacit endorsement of bankrupt challenge left the who GMWU local leadership. right The result was that one ano convenors at the Luton official was shouted out at plants who he when a plant fight against meellig attempted to obtain an with strings early sell-out. this action, a heavy Prior to June, APEX members at the factory had settled, without return to work, Sees workers, like their for 11.4% a fight, plus a sisters at Talbot promise, management Coventry, are certain written into the agreement, to face a new savage offensive another group on manning leveis and working 10211 workers settled company

TO. IF WE DONT SLIM

CHRIST. THE TORIA

REALLY WANT THEIR

POUND OF FLESH.THE

AWAY BY A FLOOD OF

SHOP FLOOR WALLGO

TOTAL IRRESPONSIBILITY

MAD ABOUT INO.

AT THE TOP...

..YES WE HANDED SIR MICHAEL

SENT RON TODD TO SMASH THAT

PICKET AT FORD'S DAGENHAM —HE'S

LAN CAPEKIENCED hEr I-WINGCK.

TEE

STEWARDS

NCt

NISIA

LEYLAND

From back page letter to all employees after the greeted the ballot result-which •Those who voted result saying went in favour of the closure of the plan against musi

•DOW

and decisive the clear 25,000 jobs view of the majority" 150,000 more outside BL That Edwardes, should use the ballot victory for common sense".

employer, result to launch an all out attack on the trade unior within BL can be Undersoo• But he will continue to be the task by assisted oan trom now on-win bureau Confederation of Shipbuilding Engineering Unions, whose and fighting closures recommen- tead ers comelete ded"' a yes vote. support for must be scale Adverts recore evel bureaucrats Confed leaders used Confederation. thousands of pounds of trade Meanwe money _place dovel officially national daily tisements in the Edwardes papers to press for a 'yes' vote.

their tor a 'no had taken place. will nave ballot would give official backing any section oppose the closures for a substantially higher

BUT

resolve the

APEX

could sum Edwardes. negotiations. Although-denied action of the shop The floor has paved the way for -they improvement on the an into a yes original APEX deal. The employers now say occupied Combine to re-open negotiations and which that the relevant clause in June agreement is not initiative on these lines.

. legally binding. result people 155,000 On October 22 the com- other plants, pany's executive manage- piant and ment visited the it clear that thes drive forced for the optener through a picket of APEX jobs and members who had taken the Ene decision to call an unofficial one day protest strike. Though the turnout was Within high, APEX is now to hold the knowing mass meeting but ballot to decide whether to all-out strike embark shod over action, a work to rule and ano procedures overtime ban, a series of one cancelled day strikes, or no action at had all. ne was

YOU MEAN LIKE LENS

MIND YOU, IF WE LOSE

Hour

EVEN JIM HAS

ANI-CORKIE DENO-

WILL LATCH ON!

ANTI-TORY

THOUSAND MILITANTS!

SPEECHES!

(...YES OF COURSE WE'VE HAD SOME

..NO, WHAT I WANTED

TO REALLY PUT

GRIPES ABOUT CUTS, BUT AFTER ALL

MY FOOT DOWN ABOUT IS THIS DAMINET

CLUMSY BUSINESS OF UNION

THAN TRACKICA LE

WITH SOME OF OUR LOT...

LEGISLATION... HOW CAN WE

CONTROL THE WORKFORCE IF THE

COURTS GO BLUNDERING

JUIN! SHUr

TARDS COM,

TITLE

trade union claim on the annual Confed chairman Ken Baker rearranged review-and pay for October 31, the day of the ballot result. ano. une destructiol When the reply to the claim BL and -as "a was made, it was obvious why he had planned it this way.

well have lost the Pledge to help offer before the vote was taken.

And the Confed has pledged he desperately needed And to help Edwardes implement his 'yes' vote if The autory ord he was going to get away with cratic action to prevent workers attack he planning the To a claim of £24 a weel and enthusiastic across the board and a cost o1 sackings for grades woe thied tut a5% something four and •ot a for cringing five and 10% Tor grade one who for this pathetic Ine 5% offer, Edwardes is demand.

TGWU,

ing:, The abolition of the sectio the only managed agreement-which of the lay leaflet calling provides tor 80% or earnings tol days. when workers vote arter Ene volt 18TA laid off through disputes within Official backing No strike benary clauscs.

*Complete flexibility and the ending of seniority agree. Now Moss Evans has said he ments; his reconstect "Acceptance of a so-called statement that-no matter what scheme which was bonus

TGWU

rejected in a secret ballot two of members who does Dall tor problems native policy from their leaders agreement and the reallocation been blackmailed vote, workers would respond it one of the plants to be closed took direct action and Committee the for the Industrial Engineers.

Edwardes Plan should take an They should declare that the irrelevant, sary to "save the company, the Sinc have no right to vote 25,000 fellow workers, cent Salut out The Committee should make 25,000 that the blacking of from Threatenee pans will coliturud Roughshod of They have not yet rejected several hours ballot result, Edwardes demonstrated how he three days to consider the implications of it. intens to use t to noe rough- existing conditions Two weeks earlier Edwardes meeting ings throughout BL to reply to the .70p FOR A H20-.

PRESCRIPTION?. WELL WELL

HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING...

...I MEAN, QUITE FRANKLY, MAGGIE-

IF YOU PUSH YOUR LUCK ON THS ONE, WE

MIGHT NEVER BE ABLE TO FORCE IN THAT

NEW TECHNOLOGY YOU'RE SO KEEN ON!

IN?.

PUTS THE BOOT IN!

Conference on way forward

SOCIALIST

PRESS

BL: EDWARDES

Following the announce- fight in defence of hard-won ment that the secret ballot • SOnES, exultant cowaroes declared: of British Leyland workers any manager, any shop had the produced planned steward employee immediate res- result, the •The neat in The l kitchen now is a good time to of BL chairman get out". Michael Edwardes was to shown that. the stick the boot in. shop stewards are a militant minority and that the loyalty of Only hours after gloating at success, was cowaroes une labour torce announcing the pay offer that is management." to be the next step in his war on who had himself had a vote in the ballot, waxed Jous ane work ne concions.

message workers is I he Ene virtues otine plain. Give BL an inch, and they se elaimed, employees white will take a yard. Calcu ballot privately in their own homes" strengtnened by atne result, Edwardes let out an Propaganda machine immediate war cry wha, warnine manaders Of course reality it is at might shrink from coming struggles, and witch-hunting nome workers are most subjected to the Tory propa- mistants wao wi be torceo to ganda press medid, an une economic pressures of the family. The Campaign for Demo- cracy in the Labour Move.

ment held its fourth confer- in Birmingham last clic weekend-the first to direct aim at a Tory govern- its ne converence nas cooted an action programme for raising questions orocramme ano leadership coming struggles (See page 4). Edwardes The programme is designed Demonstrate to stop new racist laws- The final shape of the But it is already clear that threatened Tory the new legislation proposals will impose to impose further racist Drazen facial discrimination by insisting that only women who curbs on immigration is still can in they prove far from clear, even while will nave the ront isolated schemes emerge in husbands to live in bring their this country. the press. Throwing meat to the wolves-Whitelaw Published by Folrose Ltd for the Workers Socialist League, 31 Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR Printed by Anvil Printers Ltd., London. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.

It is in "their own homes" that workers are forced to res pond as individuals, and not as part of a class in struggle for its rights. Even so, it is hard to under- stand the staggering 80% return on a postal ballot, and the sheer majority.

SIZE

cowardes What is known however, that tor the first time the ballot carried identifying "Torms number, and printed and sent out exclusively by manage- ment Many ex-BL workers received forms: some employees receiveo uo to nive Ano every manager, supervisor and fore- man could counted on to return a res vote Now, to ram home his deter- mination witch-hunt militants, Edwardes has Cont'd page 11, col. 4 for a practical intervention into tne strodoles or ine working class-a point brought out by conference chairman Alan 'We don't claim that the CDLM is a mass movement, but serious stenticance Ene need to discuss leadership in the working class." International crisis Tony Richardson, introduc ing the main resolution, stressed The measure will have insignificant affect the numbers or a rants anowed into britain But by expressly excluding women have lawfully satuea un outain trom rants to be enjoyed by those born here the Tories deliberately place Asian women particular of "second class

LUC

catatory citizens' a serious step to restrici the already no ole wow immigrants into Britain the new scheme is a non starter. Callaghan's reactionary Labour government had already imposed every conceivable restriction. appease the baying racists who • so rough at last month's Tory Party conference one another, Inere, anter speakers echoing National Front phrases trooped to the rostrum from the Young Conservatives Conservative Students were Though Tory platform

1OTV8

that the attacks by the Tories were not a product of their dis- like for working class but material result of the international crisis profit. ability that the ruling class is facing. applied to the anti- this union laws, to the massive cuts .# tic socidi services ano to lit Corrie Bill The need is for a programme which can unity and generalist struggles, and to win the masses who were standing up and speaker Timothy Raison offered the racists little at the confer- ence. Tine. moves against Asian women are a means of throwing a little meat to the wolves i becomes more imoortani than ever that the labour move- mobilise these against Tory attacks •emonstratior has been called for November 25 about demean anti- sponsored by a wide range racist bodies. Socialist Press readers are urged to support.

National Demonstration Sunday 25 November Assemble 12 noon Speakers Corner, Hyde Park Stop the Tory Immigration Proposals and British Nationality Act! Repeal the 1971 Immigra- tion Act! Corrie fight must link to cuts action The giant TUC demon- stration against John Corrie's Tory anti-abortion Bill may be over-but the B1l) continues grind to through the Parliamentary machine. The October 28 protest determination • of snowed the thousands of workers to defend the inadequate abortion rights that exist, and to extend them achieve the to right to free avurton on demand. Back into the home But a Tory ment hell-bent on driving work.

ing class women •VUl workforce and into the isolatior

.IN THE PRIVACY OF THE HOME...

home there is no way т the such democratic rights can be achieved. And with the deliberate run- down of the NHS already deny- ing the oppor- wollen tunity of abortion within the existing time limits, the link fight between deans Corrie and the fight against the Tory cuts is inescapable.

winne we luny sup port the call for strike action to support a mass lobby of Parlia the time of the Corrie Bill's Third Reade February, it is clear to all that the chances of widespread stop the ПІ 3N dOLLION Issue are, say the least, alone remote. Central issue It is vital, if the struggle is to be advanced, that the fight against Corrie is tied in con cretely the will massive Anion leader are formed t leaders raise defence of abortion the central issue struggles to defend

NHS

Health workers and all trade that musi demand February 5 be adopted by the they say munal wanted

TUC

fight for a one-day strike as it: much-promised The conference, attended by over 160 delegates and visitors, Action" against the cuts, and focussed on the struggle against that this incorporate a massive lobby of Parliament against the CUtS unempioyment Ine anti-union laws and on wages.

Corrie Bill. At the same time prepara- Demands tions mus be made to defenc women's rights in the event of Meetings of the CDLM will the Bill becoming law. be held in areas represented the conference to campaign for Disregard law the transitional demands embodied in menderm from • NHS unions. and doctors- who have almost universally Workers Power calling for condemned the Corrie preparation for the demand of must be called upon to adopt a general strike the of safeguarding existing ayalls i abortion facilities, and disre i ones was acceotec in outine Interventions are be garding the barbaric restrictions planned into the Stalinists' ot ine Corre Bl wnetner 01 the not it is passed in Parliament.

Liaisor committee

TOI

Defence of Trade Unions They declare ¡lus conference and future ready take • all-out seves to conference called by the Rank strike action in defence of any. and File one penalised by the state lo But the conference rejected carrying out an abortion-or to defend existing charitable •TO Posal Ine GILM should seek to organise a joint abortion institutions threatened conference with the two bodies.

with lega dack

FUND

Well the October fund closed well down at only £631.41 towards our target of £750. This is a situation that we have got to change quickly. In recent weeks planned price increases on such items as postage, telephones and rai fares, to name but a few, have all been announced. To meet these extra costs we need extra income, and that includes meeting the higher fund target.

The November fund has started at £120.20. Let's see if we can't reach our new fund target for the first time this month. All donations should be sent to: Socialist Press Monthly Fund, 31 Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.