Socialist Press no. 192

What makes Murray run?

EDWARDES MOVES TO

SMASH THE UNIONS |

PRESS

Affiliated to the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee vision last General Murray was disavowing any intention to mobilise aurence sparnam, down the Thatcher govern- ment. attempts to smash up cratically employers everywhere. Murrav? thought that the workers' move- ment might be defeated? No! Murray The chips are down for 100,000 British Leyland car workers. Last week manage- ment announced that they intend to impose their insulting 5%-with-strings pay deal over the heads of the trade unions. It will be imposed by sacking anyone that refuses to comply with its provisions. despite „taken rejection of offer by the shopfloor postal ballot, in a marks a new move ov

DE TO

the strength of the break unions as a prelude to an even more savage onslaught on work- ing conditions. 92-page booklet ne • OT strings to pay deal effectively strip every away major agreement estabnisnea by unions in BL during 30 years of Management have no w announced that of April 8 will be unilater-

LILIS

Packare puny 5% increase ally im posed -along with une wOTKerS men. Workers who usual on April 8 will be deemed have accepted And management threat to sack any militants who fight for action to defy this vicious blackmail.

According director Ray Horrocks: "We are any take to prevent implementation will be dealt with those who cause disruption will subjected action." The aimed at each individual worker, Is unmistakeable. knuckle under or face the sack. If they there will be a wave of victimis.

of militant aTIons throughout the Hawley

SOCIALIST

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League * No. 192 * 26 March 1980 * 20p Questioned on BBC tele- vurav s overwhelme rears General Strike could

TUC

that week, topple govern- the natener Secretary Len and thus put the trade ment, in vigorous union and Labour leaders firmly spot, The workers demanded policies to defend bring to their And, •Class

HIC COLS

Murray aomitted. "If we did that, we would do with the not know what to •I would never be party to power we nau col elected government" Murray's entire energies during 1980 have as a result been directed towards prevent- ing a spread of the steel strike to that scares pernaDs UnE ounel seculons

WOIKCIS

engaged in pay talks or threaten- ed with mass sackings. The TUC leadership's absol- contrary.

CALL A

NATIONAL

STRIKE!

for manual the slightest opposition management dictates ane thus drastically drive up the rate of clock in as exploitation the shop floo ana press unrougn rurner sack- this ulti- ings. there is a blunt This is not the first time in recent years that BI nas StOO in the vanguard of the bosses offensive floor against shop managing wages, jobs and working con ditions. making it clear that Collaboration action that emplovees mar firmly and And at each step-in lead- ing the way on thể victimisa- disciplinary on mutant stewards. imposition of class collabora- tionist "worker participation" on the use of the argument to press home whole- sale cutbacks, sackings and succeed in this move, closures; and 1n

USC

Dostal ballots to outtank the stewards trade movement-BL combine, management have been able to count on une active collabora- ute dread of being thrown into the front line by the action of sate their members is vividly remin- of the state iscent une capituauon 1919 of the "Trade Alliance" of accept Ener miners, rail and transport union Gentlemen, Prime Minister DOll Ulalk from Liberal Prime challenge Minister Lloyd George The encounter is describe in Aneurin Devans book In race -of Fear: Lloyd George stressed to the union leaders that: Strike o1 1926

•YUU

Cally threat and strike, then you will anti-climax.' But if you do so, (...) have 1980 1s to You weighed the consequences?

For if a force arises in the sucil a chanence.

SURRE

BL and BSC workers lobby for strike action tion of union officials and the BL pineless convenors on the Com bine Committee been settled last November - Unhappy officials to call strike action.

And while This latest onslaught is no shrunk exception: chief union negoti- ator Grenville Hawley 92-page respon- The Edwardes' ded ulumnatul not with the necessary moves for immediate out strike action. the wage claim action on and strings, •DUl declaring that: "Of course we are not happy Now the danger what BL about management meetings have done [!]. At next week's meet officers at national levee which include that they do union Edwardes ultimatum, next will move." package "as and

NUKES

PAGE 4

WORLD WAR 3

PAGE 8

MILITANT

BACK PAGE

state which is stronger than the ready to take on the functions withdraw and authority asked the "have quietly, mers cauch novert omune. we were neaten and we nev After this the General wds really The task facing workers in consulucia new eagershin in the anour move.

ment that will not shrink from Lloyd George imposed". This would leave the struggle to individual sections in individ- ual plants-creating ideal con- ditions for wholesale victimisa- tions and a tull-blooded manage- ment offensive. Going it alone Already the victimisation of Derek Robinson successive betrayals of BL con-

GOT THE

officials mean that venors and WOrKCIS m muQual blants art reluctant understandab v contemplate , it alone"

VOTE

the fight against Edwardes But it is clear that BL workers are far from unique in

CALLA

facing such a crisis. Steelworkers are now in their 13th week of strugere acamst S1m01a1 management offensive. And at the Post Office

STR

weekend management announced intention to ape Edwardes and impose productivity package on postal workers.

As we go to press, we hear 'that convenors in Jaguars are to hold mass meetings recommen.

ding all-out strike action from Friday against Edwardes' ulti- This needed lead to all BL plants.

Similar mass meetings must Yet the negotiation of the be held throughout the com.

review -due to have bine. has been characterised above all Defeat Edwardes by the repeated retusal of union Edwardes' are convenors have designed to break the back of from actually accepting the if successful they unions: document, they even Will pave voted 4-1 only a few weeks agc greater unemployment and proposal for all- plunging living standards.

The fight must be taken up at plant and national level for Danger all-out strike action alongside the SUCCIWOrKeTS Cereal is that at Tory-backed towardes this week the offensive spearhead the Sallie and union leaders will simply declare fight for a General Strike accept the Thatcher doWi •Ene and talk government. of fighting the new management when it is

SLAUGHTER OF MILITANTS

IN EL SALVADOR

Drawing class lines in Peru Page 2

-INTERNATIONAL-

Reports in the last week El from Salvador confirm that for the US imperialists the longer country simply several one or ine post-Nicaragua trouble-spots in Central America to be handled through routine financial manipulation and CIA undercover activity. tiny Class conflict in reached such

COULLEY

Ilas hats become a major political become a major political and military front for the State Ded leil the

LOIS

dispatch of counter-insurgency new twallis. and Construcin even preparations for invasion involving not only the Honduran and ulalcillaall armier but as ome members Somoza's National Guard been re-trained by (who have Ine sa vocal the Honduran border with Salvador). All the indications are that, the tide in Central America In H widespread Salvador rural search-and-destroy similar Operation Clearly the move to. 'Viet- namise" Central America, albeit vet on a limited scale, has been taken lar more redany as d result of the shift of global class following Soviet forces But also reflects very closely conflict in fi Savador iself.

the escalation class In are as ax montas over a thousand workers and peasants have been killed by the military and assassination squads, though wan las vel lo Dicar ne irst resoonse or carter and organise was coup young last October to oust the inefficient dictator Romero and institute a mum Det orecenned which, was 'thought, would provide the time rearrange allu delence • capita ardlist luc increasingly militant and polit- ically organised and wcasallts Social anne Democrats as well as the Com- Party's electoral front munist Democratic

UDN

(National Union eagerly Jomned tie • anic with the backing of the small significant industrial sector o cola. Centred in San Salvador, the political and economic interests of this group are different from tne big -al insofar the they nomic benefit- economic benefits ceive which an alallall love Irst pusned by the us i 1976. That attempte , however, was landowners, stalled by represented oy une sector or tie army led by Romero who came to power in 1977. formation of the Common Centra Market under Kenmedys Alliance for Progress in the early 60s • Salvador has become the industrial centre of the (while Nicaragua was the leading supplier of raw materials).

class still Kut tne remains small compared to the peasantry, and the land question is or crucal Importance The ruling oligarchy's failure of the response to 1930s was coffee market in the the 25,000 peasants in 1932, ever since then independent peasant unions have been outlawed.

With growing capitalisa- tion of agriculture the peasantry has been progressively driven off into the the land and forced Tura Droiclaral Ull tile bullul and coffee plantations owned by the "14 families'. 30,000 In peasants (11% of the total) were landless in 19 / 10 01 4 2a no plot to work. In 1967 the oligarchy set up paramilitary evo SIrone organisation ORDEN to counter new radical peasant unions countryside the aliu wille une ouk or lne bilital security forces were concer in San Salvador to keep the proletariat in check, officially dishanded ORDEN in October but it simply changed its name Democrațic the Front (FDN) increased murderous activities The FDN now provides the informants ThaT The Financial Times rep- orted that the two days of rain which ended the long drought last week Northern Peru were greeted as a miracle. But this was nothing to the miracle for which the Peruvian ruling class praying as preserve its power attempts. to civilian government after the failure of twelve years of military rule for President The elections on May 18 and one ve are very unlikely to produce anything increase in the expentations of Peris working class and peasantry incapacity of the ruling class to any of these aspirations. satisfy the tions claiming to be Trotskyis Presidential Peru supporting the candidacy headed Huao Blanco, leader of the Workers Revolutionary Party, Peruvian section Thousands of supporters of the BPR march through San Salvador accompany the US-led 'reform teams touring. Tne estates point union leaders who are taken off and shot. On the estate of Colima, 40 km north of San Salvador, were shot two weeks casalls that ago on me very udy were receiving the fruits of land redistribution. : department of Chala- tenango the army Tee ole village with bush fire moved in to kill 40 people an abduct many others. US aim is to incorpor- ate the FDN ressive dovaldlus building three males Millar complete with helicopters-on fleets allu counter- insurgency campaign. Major Roberto

• • A DUISSO.

second in command of the FDN United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI): His vice presidential candi- dates groups supporting the two mair components of the Parity Com- mission for the Reconstructior (Reorganisation) of the rourtr International. rally Speaking the organised by March Hugo _Blanco on showed why he had such a vast among the Peruvian following masses In an eloquent but undema- speech Blanco gogic and witty vividiv described the appalling conditions Ine seasalilty unemployed and workers mercilessly criticised and and capitalist Tenel multary oppressors. His speech did not take up of the elements of the of polițical programme SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26 March 1980 Turkish bosses' born.

FDN-

The existence dilemma- ORDEN and the strength of the which the left •Deasalli organisations almost completely means that Nicaragua where the unlike The seven year office of in peasantry was not a major force the present Turkish head of the civi wa state, Mr Koruturk, ends on Salvadorean countryside brutal, necessitating elec will be exceptionally April 6, doubt very of President extendee tion probably decisive which could have important will not though, for the consequences country l Turkish working class. . On.V tne size 2100 extremely mountainous-there Under. the existing consti- is simply nowhere to go the President is electec tution; Added to this the proletariat majority of the by a Nationa Assembly in a series of secret allu more concentrated than Dario Li Nicaragua elections, las This has meant that the 1973, it took fifteen rounds of political of before Mr Koruturk vanquare voting struggle against the Junta, now emerged as the victor shorn of all party political sup- Even this was onis Then of except for the rump because the two main parties, DOTt the Christian Democrats, • has Party (JP) and the the Justice been in San Salvador Republican Peoples Party (RPP stepped up This has beer eventually managed to come to with the general strike of 17-18 a mutis time stand the March which was 100% solid in scene round the : city and received 80% back- looks set once again for a similar • Neither the JP nor the commands a clear majority unIS

BUTSI

патопа ponuca. She conso dated actator for o1 Шe 004 vole. consolidated of the i only rely on 311 working class that will be neces at most and the on 306 With a majority of 318 needed sary in ine future was particularly balloting in the final round of hich 150 died on the workers the ront wine. Isianic Nationa raids on Salvation Party, with 29 votes occupied factories and working could play an important role.

class regions of the town.

complicated are though by th • The Tack President be elected by the The CP still retains a broad President to be elected by intluence in the unions despil early participation in the versal suffrage its radical tutional reforms which would but JuIlle limit the President's power.

Front for Popular nied playing

(FAPU)

and Popular and much given (BPR) have these Pinochet's Revolutionary elections will be the tole Villal the military At present the September army appears to be holding back 1973 on his TV broadcasts, has three from the situation, though some that to quell the peasan- together with stated tine necessary to kill Popular of 28th conrees oreoct inal du bicoloral so or mom tene imperial- "it mat formed crisis would certainly provoke (LP-28) an intervention by the military the ists are clearly preparing through

IOT

tactica alance for the Presi such an eventuality. Coordinadora Evren, which planned the general strike same time, however, dency is genera nerdu the Army Chief of Staff and the and coordinates armed actions.

they are challenging the landed man who last December warned oligarchy by expropriating 36 of the

, WITD

intervention if fincas (estates)-comprising 25% LP-28 (and its voluntaris •i possiore army the

ERP)

the civil powers failed to main- guerrilla group от are no mo coe country tain "stability" parties agree that logistically th The agents of the rural bour- Five of the six President geoisie have answered by bomb- forces of the left are too weak of agriculture to meet the provocations of the so far have been from militar the ministry , unlike most of origins. and murdering Social Democrats military Guard, Normally election has meant as well as peasants. Somoza's National up thei have given State Depart- highly that the aisciplined 2180 a slightly long-term sional body have has militar

DOSITION.

returned to civilian life.

and peasthts of El Salvador ars In either There is WOrKers

HU1C

this time of conservative Sual the President remaining a mem- farmer We're going now engaged in a bioody breeding capitalists like rabbits. absolutely critical front-line cannot br multary struggle against imperialism.

ruled out. Such expectations will be still all hope will be made and the "which we alliance which he leads orooramme is party is built. temporary concessions But he did discuss one of the Blanco made no But When severa sections of unt questions which • was raised other criticisms expressed some scep the leaflet the WSL distributed mention of the about hon meeting, the raised political support Trotskyists standing purpose of the USFI to the Stalinist govern posed to be Al burst Into a in ine elections ano ine relation round of criticism of the "sec ship between ment in Cuba and the elections and the tarians' have to recog mobilisation of the masses.

revoiutionary coalition government the nise reaities. Our Nicaragua. "There simple tencenev towares electorals Is answers he helpfully explained based on the press of the parties to confess we involved We have not previously understood ind ments canel fight imperialism Eurout we say unreservedly that and racism was to demobilise a A simlar contical dodoration could be seen at the rally itself, criticism which mass movement cho make chul ¡i was not when of the could possibly reverer the subtle dialec against Hugo Blanco's speech at "Patriotic wa: tics of the USFI will eventually stater whether LArOLANU. Ine Taly greeted rapturously when explain Chow u (TO with what he said we aoree asked the audience to done. Meanwhile we continue to on this point: that it is through the fight for class struggle be patient and give the mobilisation of the WItn Us to revolu us time" in relation to the clea • I Car class, not through elections, tha pro-capitalist direction liberation from im pertalism and Mugabe-Vicr:=00si Fi sayist Inter capitalism can be won; that the zora as Committee-for workers forces regre 5005 mount respect the DourocoIsIt Taria Ali referred = =- election results; TArOvOn wiga propaganda for the elections cisions

US OIL WORKERS

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26 March 1980

NTERNATIONAL

After more than two months on strike the 60,000 Oil, of the Chemical and Workers to lace сонние the union busting attempt of the major oil companies along with the scabbing by construction and Al L-LIU maritime unions. The strike however is grow- ing and winming

SUD DUET

important sections of the labour Angeles over 5,000

LOS

workers from many including.the ILWU, shut down the harbour in an act of solidar- and marched through the harbour district. Closed down At the tood Hope tennenes plant in Louisiana, a mass picket traffic line blocked Marcil dilu Was successful in closing aown ine refinery for the day. major impediment to a victory in tnis struggle continues to' be the scabbing by AFL-CO unions. In Seattle, the Trinidad Cor- poration which tanKeTs under contract to Shell is paying licensed Doll nersonne overtine du une lle at the dock so that iney won l ship and be faced with an OCAW picket line case diso {lit Martinez, ne crest- nut Hill and the Austin have service to avoid provided launch the memolis National Maritime unon. Mates and Pilots, the Marine Engineers Union and the KaC10 uperators call contiluc work. Picket Boats Boatman's Inland Union, which recoanis ne picket boats in the harbour area if they manoeuvre between the Reconstruct the fourth Internotional d Mar. 1979 No. 1

INTERNATIONAL

DISCUSSION

BULLETIN

THE TRANSITIONAL

PROGRAMME IN

TODAY'S CLASS

STRUGGLE

Founding document of the Trotskyist Inter- national Liaison Committee Available, price 75p including postage from

WSL, BM BOX 5277

LONDON WCIV 6XX

FACE AFL-CIO

SCABBING

tow boats and tankers. has been threatened by the shen com- is contracting .out wilet non-union tow boats to assist in docking. launch services between marina A nacortes. wasnington and Shell and Texaco piers, enabling ''avoid" the ship crews to CrOSS- ing picket lines. In the 1948 Union Oil Strike although the National Maritime Union was willing to walk off in support, Lundberg of the Sailors Union of the racine broke tne strike through scabbing by his The same scabbing membership. is come un louay ares aunareds of carpenters, boiler-

AFL-CIO

makers and other bueno anoe asalt crossing the picket lines organized contingents directed Loe uno Ollllldls. these workers could quickly bring a victory to the strike it off the job and

LICY

were io neo Dy workers who move the oil and the shipyard workers who repair Refuse to act Despite the national impor- tance of this struggle, the AtL- CIO leadership has refused to use its power to order a halt to.

ine scabome 20 San In Febray por de en lobbied bers 35,000 District Council of Carpenters to stop the scabbing. midwinter recent meeting of the AFL-CIO execu tive council, the new president, Lane Kirkland took the time to invite Defence Secretary Brown necessity of the dratt! Yet there was no time". to discuss how Labor News can be obtained (25p inc post) from the WSL 5277, BM London BOx

WCIV 6XX.

UNION

NEWS

PROPIS

WORKERS

A DROP IN THE BUCKET

to build support for the oil be the major issue along with and dental full medical worKers. fact, .council with coverage. Ine Goss opposition 'votes and the mem persall Ol V

LWU

committee (Wimpisinger of JAM and tne have dropped the demand for i Hardý the SEIU) voted to support the draft, yet refused to full. clausu and settlement with the small refin- call support TOr falls far behind what. oil workers and an end to the scabbing by the many AFL-CIO workers neca now It is time that UcAw and unons ana micinalorals rest the trade • union No boycott call movement took up the political issues.

CONIONI

The AFL-CIO and Goss also

OCAW

member along with the refuse to call for an internation- rest of the labour movement.

al boycott of oil to the US of the the pirates t0d. ganisters ware wole suppults blockading Iranian and Russian run the oil companies. goods he refuses to lift a finger The AFL-CO has already called for the nationalisation of the International Transport reacraton lo Dick compar the shipment of all oil to the should be supported and public- ized by OCAW United States The nationalisation of the oil While the strike has beer weakened by organised companies unal WOrKUI: by

AFL-CIO

unions control would do much to stop scabbing. profiteering, the massivo and their leadership. 01 workers themselves stand solid gouging and the national untor in their determination to see the ottensive 0 19 the Democrats and struggle through. Yet Oil workers know. that with Republicans. to make a peep about the ques gains if they must win major tion of nationalisation are to survive intact solidarity that is now Since this is only a wage and hroughout building oil workers health care cost re-opener, othe for the country issues, such as safety along with must be supported and buill. wages and pensions. are again yet it is not enoughi. for negotiations in January. should solidarity bo directed towards the formation for nothing it major gains are of a workers party that is inde- pendent of the Democrats and not made now. will KeDub cars anc lilal settlements among the represent the oil workers along many the millions other small refineries that provide for with ¡perto care cost contriDunon AmeriCan WOrKer. political of $125 a month and 55 cents

OCAW

can gIVO por hour plus a 5% increase, yet lead to the four million other whose. . contracts expire this is still far far behind the real 1980 way It is imperative that a real the solidarity escalator clause movement and its political inde- cost of living pendence. Victory Dasea on an imitalill 60,000 OCAW workers. determined by the trade unions Page 3 Reprinted from Labor News paper of the Socialist League (DC), USA.

LOCAL H28

-can striking oil workers ITALY'S 39th

GOVERNMENT

CRISIS

The resignation last week Democrats. The left, on the other hand of Francesco Cossiga's want Into cicdr Demo- minority tion unless the Cr is admitter in Italy, to the government -a step whict governient rule Christian Democrats least served to out attention to a little-known Cossiga's •recionatior fact-that it was in office.

leaves the squaring of the Italian as difficult Resignation was the most circle act which this ever decisive positive miserable passive The last crisis (following the cadministra tion has taken since it came into 1979 general elections) took office in August 1979 o cays to resorve Since the positions parties in Europe main parliamentary that a majority time there is pressure government 1 hi: im oossibie Cossiga represented the only invisible highlights the crisis of leadership locucal Solutiou al the bourgeoisie only government. the level The trouble was even Cossiga bul alse occasionally had to materialise- curode since lary. *Is supposet diminutive way- he chairino the tEl ruling even la Council of Ministers. tront ot ine Assemoy lo dsk 10l But the only solution the a vote Last he put his nose week clas door and to the crisis so tar is to try Cossiga form another get natore the vote was taken wa.

invisible government away to present his scurrying to President Pertini Communist Part The has already volunteered, with its and Italy's 39th oper deference post-we reasen for the sie wisnes of Ine oourdeoiste. not lo rock the boat as long as a few tion is to be found in the crisis- verbal concessions are made to torn socialist rary. Up to now government's Cossiga has survived against Party programme. Communist necesar for siga yo resin that case why was as. a result or tne dariamichtar y anstention ov the •ocialists wno hold the balance of power.

The answer is that in Italy ini government. crisis is a method No guarantee the politicians wuetew aiven a formal reminder that thi Their leader Bettino Craxi only alternative to keeping the Christian Democrats in power announced not that the party as is another general election such Italy's That he asesinas tanter opposition, but rather And TOl mos parlamentary politicians these viewed as a days elections are aoe te cuararee waren way ms parliamentary followers would tate wore unan deal vote! the parlamentarians a govenment, cannot agree on This announcement retlects internecine battle between Fight and left in the party.

Thev are more orless unariou.

about the negative consequences of participation of the any The right is prepared to jorn masses in politics a coalition Ine caristian regarded are punishments for not agreeing to parliamentary compro. some MISt So the permanent crisis o botra is reviene n time rulina class requires a tion resolve its problem are obliged to accept the leadership of a mouse-and an invisible one at that In the meantime the govern- passes more ment of Italy daily into the nanos ora ewoo CIVil servants and the neads of the Police who implement the range "anti-terrorist' which repression laws will parliament (with the strong sup port of the "opposition" Com Party) equippec Cossiga Tonera.

Page 4 The constitutional con- ference on Northern Ireland set up by Atkins in January has collapsed in a predict- able series of accusations and counter-accusations. The called conference was the willingness as a test

SDLP

Ine Paisley's Demo- cem anos cratic Unionists. The conference was doomed a vance woes greater Gerry Fitt resigned after failing persuade party minimum condition for accep- tance. This was the reality behind between the Civicion initial call for a boycott against Fitt's call for participation ArKIns noDea Jor a veroal agreement which would have been used to impose a "initiative to allow the govern menu to move away nom uncl By Tony Twine The agents of interna- tional capital are proceeding in great haste to develop what they imagine will be "all-time' for an panacea their disintegrating economic system. The impetus behind the accelerated brogramme of fast nuclear reactors Kreeder France, Britain, , West Germany. etc., lies not only in the hope of Createl Dontical ana economic independence from imported oil, but securing share of the world markel loI both military nuclear plants, rewards appear consid- The erase s or eseni over vory countries have definite nuclear programmes, with plans violay 1995, costing an estimated $90 billion. A world figure of some 2000 been reallors las loretasl The end or this century latomic Energy Commission, US). Indeed US (Exxon, companies Westinghouse) already outi soro over luu

TWAS

worldwide, with France (Frama- 'tome) and W. Germany (NRC) also extensive reactor exports. it is, hird porld the so-called Third /orld indigen- Tectons. ous coal oil, where this scheduled to take already to the multi-nationals, of course international work- For the

190 CRO

25 chafe preme chines associated reprocessing racher nas much profound implications than

ATKINS CONFERENCE

COLLAPSES

British rule back direct Orange rule of the province.

it took place against a back- ground of increasing polarisa- Capitalism's lethal panacea For workers control in the nuclear industry! oeme mere an annoote to une declining profitablity of capital- Despite its huge benefits the technology remains beseiged with safety problems, unsolved ultimate disposal of nuclear wastes.

As is, the

FBR

cycle continuously generates гamo actre resulting hen active wes some of which 'critical' "geological" times (i.e. 24.400 vears for plutonium) At most points in this cycle (mining, processing, transpor- etc Laliuli Cal reprocessing and storage plants thousands of gallons countless into the environment (Hanford, Washington). •Ana to date waste products are either deposited in cally safe' underground vaults or in dumped on the collamices floor into ser Tonnes the Atlantic since 1967).

Caesium pollution tradi tional fishing nas risen ten times perween 193-75 atonal adol the 1978 • board: ( LO torecast couplec radiation levels by the year 2000 (natural radiation represenl 100,000 to 1). After the Three crisis at Mile Island (Harrisburg) workers were 30 NO contaminated and 13,000 people living the plant near are stil forced to undergo regulai isit At the Windscale plant radia- tion leaks have in the iaminated to 500 square up kilometres. local entering the Paisley within Northern Ireland tion itself. The 5,000 radio 20,000 between 15,000 and necessitating the lood chain Health Authority ordering des truction of tarm crops dangerous, within hundreds miles power stanons then ine promier ation of FBRs raises the spectre of atomic catastrophe a whole magnitude higher. club (USA France and China) became six-strong the detonated its 1974. The Wallar relationsnip 19K S19 though was not edresser owards parity until 1978 wher sold Lia's dictatorship the complete nuclear cycle. from the known fifteen nuclear weapon states, other critical paths include the intamous German with Argentina anol South Africa, who, with zionist to other alsellals, military regimes in South Korea Taiwan, Libya, Iraq and Peru striving energetically to develop their own bombs. Central to this scenario is the continuing availability of

USSR,

uranium supplies:

USA

and Australia control by far the major deposits while

DOUSO UNKS WILD

TaCIST DOULO Africa enable mining multi- nationals resources in Nambia.

(RTZ)

Upposition to nuciear teen nology present focussed through the propagand: various ecological groups, liberal anarchists, etc., is •ourceoise. =:::ne% phenomenon int marches of the earv 1960s i1 England mobilised 150.000 workers. intellectuals (plus SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26 March 1980

*TROOPS OUT

NOW!

Orange Order supporters last weekend in Belfast was a mark of the resurgence of sectarian politics in Northern Ireland.

The conference could I have

IRELAND

succeeded the British 101 cove men ov at une expensi of either Paisley or Hume com- (for. Ever tery fit attacked was adjourned' nume or aling to co into thf talks "in the spirit of goodwill There nothing for Irish ialism we call for the building of mis trying to find a compro- workers, Catholic wTh san seek to build a move Trotskyist party Irelan

COT

• PrOtes any peace talks with He praised Paisley for being imperialism. workins 'genuine' in trying to reach leadership of the yet the class as the means to break th agreement. anti-imperialist struggle-that is British stranglehold. But the SDLP is politically the leadership of the *Troops out now irrelevant. The frustration still offers status for Irish the Orange order is frustration continued guerrilla Devones a political prisoners war with the army. *For drainst ine lanure orune British Irish workers' army to strangle the anti-imper- While we support the republic. ialist struggle. struggle to defeat British imper-

THE

NUCLEAR

INDUSTRY

YOU!

NEEDS

NO

WINDSCALE

BUT WHAT FOR?

NOW!

Demonstrators on the 1978 anti-nuclear march through London Labour 'lefts' like Michael Foot) at Three Mile Island against the "deterrent". It is that isolated Nevertheless, workers' legiti- occupations anu process as m any industry) cannot of them- mate lens over health and safety have sparked selves control of this off huge demonstrations

NOW AVAILABLE

source away from the europe and the USA state. Labour movement bulle- In July 1977 at the site of patient principled but tin on Ireland with back- the world's first FBR at Malville political struggle must be fought ground articles in France. over 53.000 workers inside ne workina cass on lad hunts in Oxford and Tame brutally following programme: anc Students were side attacked by state police; work on p&p nuclear worker was killed and over 100 from WSL BM Box 5271 safe and i calluly London WCIV 6XX. i area. encient meinod or dISDosa oI existino in pot work on FBRs AgaIn In Uciober 19// a Kalkar in West Germany further work 60;000 demonstrators were plants until Witch-hunts: opposed bv 13.000 armed para Sall case acco aon troops and police, with to workers' committees, drawn arrests. from all industries assess satety aspects of nuclear powe

WAR-

Bilbao generators *No redundancies in the -for work In July 1977 Bilbao, nuclear industries- Sahe streas for conomy shallne on ul day lor worker.

streets for 'autonomy unable transferred to esearch work against Soain's first FBR and an increase in state were similar actions there March 1978 at Almele, Holland spending (40,000) April nuclear power research and 1978 alternatives i.e solar London (18,000), in April 1979 fusion, under workers Melbourne, Australia (over 120001 and May 1979 ConIto •a!! cabliction 12% 4 . I = = : aleria on MELANC mately luvvv marita c. the Capitol, in the aftermath of victims of past experimeni the L'SA's worst nuclear disaster

Benn wins by default in "debate of decade' SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26 March 1980 There were many manifes- The Debate of the tations in the future of Decade' on the doout overthrow of capitalism and the left' held in the the was establishment of socialism.

Methodist Central Hall on St. Patricks Day. Heçklers was largely an old boys from the 210 Perhaps the days _ot the ¡yous cemos. bul show or en changes in the this were the ultra-en neckiers the changes in from show simply ponncai Darance silice Illat tulle: and of the political problems cing the reformists and denoun cing every other participant for for socialists now. not following their example in ignoring simply making such issues of the same present certainly platform of the meeting, and in many or the connibalons. The argument Wainwright Sheila Rowbottom; co-author of nevora i/te that perhaps the trouble was we to trying state power at all. Isolated struggles selves instead concentrate on in small isolated struggles while being nice to one another.

Foot and ing cast from WOdE was thing Audrey Wise

PRESS

GANG

nationalism, suffering nation. Racialism, the corner jingoism are to believe that we are stones of the foreign policy we have to cough up hard cash of the fervent "patriots' of to French parasites Fleet Street. EEC on a world the The Daily Express was one seWs DUl ot tne eaders or opinion column could have been tion to the ition was based on racial affinity pages of National Front News).

with the white commonwealtn: •hostitv to the toreigners Europe and dinosaur-like 'greatness' the belief in French 'patriotism' hostility to the strong British ruling class, which is por- cullorial least sophisticated torm in the Dany Depress las much with into the gutter. Colle Great Russian chauvinism of the "Oi

COUTSU

the German nationalism of the Kaiser and InC nationalism of De Gaulle.

Ily compiex. Deaths It is the nationalism which ing sends millions of their deaths when the capitalists their Ta out For seven years the Express ship with us.. been largely "Well, has silent on ine question of the EEC. toughen Rut as exports tall and the cost of EEC policy increases the rampant jingoism is once more turned on On Thursday March 20 the Express (in a front page opinion column headed Get The message for France) declared: The British ruling "Ihe last time bnlam west into Europe with any degree of success was on June 6, 1944."

"We are a tolerant and long rotten we could by-pass it. The meeting of how union Hender. were the treacherous that we could rely achieving rank and file, who only on the were militant enough, and joined the SWP in large enough numbers-would be able to conquer state power.

exactly what was the reformists wanted. clearest case ol Stuart Holland tried some- the RCT and others who concentrated on denoun- and uiscussiul propaganda Irish political A more sophisticated version position the Hilary (together with PHOTO: Laurence Sparham, Ir L Fragments), was challenge for Even it we did not cali our- could activity his support-

SWP,

argued the Cucl sallie The Labour Party was sC their government have begun to Too long suffering. Too inclined ratte te crans on de own penury. British workers-in their to à capital- legitimate hostility Express does not blame Europe-havo nothing whatsoever In common the racist diatribe of the express taken word for word from the Dover-Catch 22 Gutter ministers expressed Express Dover Tories have come Next day the champions ol with • particularly up British nationalism sank deeper "Catch-22" for

VICIOUS

workers on the do make homeless allowances for the French. We council's 4000-strong hous- know their attitude is born not ing list. of arrogance, but ol an interior They have proposed a means that would eliminate any test "we know they nave nevel combined income forgiven the British for liberat- family with a in 1944 We know .axeeedina wiping out the list of applicants they nave never lorgollen thal.

council housing! darkest hour, Churchill that while offered them common citizen ny family with a joint incom is debarred French had ›t over + lł a wee up their over-sensitive from obtaining a council house they would in no way be able to and delicate natures because the buy the private British people are getting-angry a noust and we have only just begun market 3-bed- Average prices

TOT

room houses Dover €28,000-necessitating Ruling class around a £3,000 deposit and a €10,000 per year salary to pay a mort Having gage! Meanwhile-presumably cuper workers ino voulne lur ''no EEC entry (against the advice of aroline inat mere is now the Express), the capitalists and demand"', the Dover Tories have what ineffectually to argue that there is not really any difference cabinets! Not .and revolu- DeTween Tellis tionary politics. however, did Deltayal or Laboul Boveilleuts not need even to say that.

but he was eyen able to admitting that he cneerruny was a reformist, and especially sneer at revolutionaries who.

had achieved even less he said socialist' revolution than h

LOI

Benn speaking in the Central Hall debute Mergers herald new jobs threat Big business merger activity rose to a peak in the last quarter of 1979. The The of in 1972. total value companies acquired between October and the end of the year was policy £752 million -giving capitalism of £1656 annual total Labour Under million. administration boardrooms of big business From 1976 steady upturn. that they will alsa announced build no more council houses for three years! Here is the real background Now to smash trade Hece tine . programme of selling off counci up the g. promote private houses profiteering and speculation at recession and warfare, has become a charge the expense months mergers worth €800m cach This. of course industry geoisie has continued Heseltine Page 5 By John Docherty was never challenged except by series of Labour heckling infantile sectarianism. he was able cerved responsibility for the Le one ved make the most crever and contribution of No doubt he will have won his experience workers had she Leconveratty as ineividuals in the lefts like Labour Party 'as individuals' on his terms. Ali showed dim Since Benn's role as a leader awareness of the neca tor a ligh to break the working class from its leadership. • his main proposal • Howeven seemed to be to set up a joint with the SWP and organisation men get alliatea to the Labou Parly difficult for nO | to ridicule Wise this Audrey she perspective and algue and other reformists wert right wing She fighting hersell trom separated respons Di betrayals-or her own. Clearly this was a debate the "left reformists on the platform provido leadership for the struggles that Their responsibility tor ine policies of Callaghan Thatche mentioned The : 'socialist feminists, the 'extra-Parliamentarians Pabloites had each in their own way et inem our une nour The alternative in reality was chillion the never Labour Party and tor leaacsao on tre one hanc and building revolutionary leadership on the other precisely through thơ the mass organisations that genuine alternative can be built.

preferring toute c process of concentrating capital co piniors and concalbrate in eliminate swallow previous peak had been fewer. hands the existing body when companies valued of industrial capital at €2532m changed hands in the drive merger and provides the back last gasps of Healn s lame Quck monopole rationalising British ground to the wholesale attacks on jobs this tell 1o a Less employed about the ability of the Wilson the control of contrat A consecuence haunted ization is that as the mass ol capital in a single hand grows. however. the class-collaborationist IcWl employed by it. 1ЛСТО Unprofitable sections capital are closed down through Mad rush " process or asse order to protect the profitabil- its sectins esture tel with Thatcher driving ot and diminishing weltare mass of new wealth world This independent role intensified class capital as a social power , stand- ing opposed to the actual devel first two opment of the producave force whole and to the social have been announced working class acquisitions les nowv thercrisis of capitalism.

amounted to Two- Wealth face of the limp Tory claim that It can only be resolved b the socialising of the means of the basis of then attacks on tho under the control production wellare state was to encourage and management of the working productive cass tsen as ene only source u wealth in society alternative Concentrate capital musery, degradation and the collapse In reality the British bour- into fascist barbarism. For capit hold alism the death knell has sounded too long. buck on invesument in on

HOW THE CZECH STALI

MASS MOVEMENT OF I

Page 6 How much were the Czech working class in- volved in the overturn of capitalist property relations that took place under Stalinist control in the post-war period? Certainly Czechoslovakia in Lastern Europe in which there was the greatest amount of mass mobilisation the time. This was facilitated by the comparative v large s1ze and long history of the two Parties-the Communist Czech CP and the Slovak CP -which were the mass parties of the working class.

Yet Bloomfield describes the as a "Passive Revolution" because, says, the working class was a "willing accomplice" and not the driving force in the expropriation of capital and of the transformation old state machine. He comes to uns assess- ment partly because of his own Stalinist political stand- the He examines attitudes of the working class in relation to the lead given by the Stalinist party leaders in their bureaucratic moves towards the overturn ot capitalism: he does not the political analyse development of the Czecho- slovakian working class relation to the possibilities revolutionary mobilisa- tion and a genuine socialist revolution, WElC present from 1945 onwards.

Indeed academics while feel able to look at various and imaginary models of socialist transformation- the October revolution; the overturns; tast turopean the Chinese revolution; the Tne supposed "parliamentary -and their :0a0

CHOOSC

130:000 evolutionares are to:: lective DS*…:: In Czechoslovakia there enormous potentia was for revolutionary scope The masses involved from the WeLC outset in the military defeat of the German state power, increased and militancy towards the end of the war.

On May 5, 1945, 80,000 helped build barri- people University cades in Prague through a major Carly And this mass uprising. lasted right moolisalon 200,000- through to strong Gemonsae February 1948 at the point where Czech The

LOOK

complete control. Such involvement take place in was other East European coun- though Kremlin bureaucracy cised its control in the main through the national CPs.

It was not therefore the independent workers. of working class The Czech CP itself how- action ol ine • masses Olcalis Czechoslovakia that was power: after all, the ever could be relied upon to had any such develop- Stalinist oppose decisive in the overturn of vulcauliary themselves liquidated the ments. was a complete capitalist property relations: tool of the Kremlin bureau- soviets expressioon power was their consolidate one hand of the anti- order Clary capitalist feeling of the own power a ruling caste in the USSR of the willing- and masses ness of the Czech CP to itself. The Gottwald leadership this for its own For the Kremlin leaders to had been installed by the allow the full independent purposes. of Czech Comintern in But of course there could mobilisation the 1zy-ana had obediently followed be no question of the Soviet working class on the borders instruction from of the USSR would open up every bureaucracy assisting a full- Moscow pressures towards political = aded socialist reovlution Yet even this leadership the formation of revolution amongst Stalin at Yalta in 1945 SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26 March 1980 Czechoslovak workers councils sprang up in the struggle to defeat Nazi occupiers clearly came under consider- able pressure. There was in post-war Czechoslovakia-as throughout the East Euro- pean countries-i influx of membership into the CP While much of this would have recruitment been careerist elements, the growth these parties alse In coincided with massive growth of CPs in westerr Europe reflected the radicalisation of layers who turned worker. towards the CPs looking for fighting means Communism. found only Yet they bureaucratised appendages of Kremlin foreign policy parties that were to be ruth- lessly purged genuine possible dissi militants and dent layers of the bureau- the late 1940s and cracy early 19:50s The process of the aver turn in Czechoslovakia :3I be divided approximately into two phases: from 1945.

and from Autumn 1947 to February 1948 Yet there were elements of the second period in the first, which marked

•THE

moves by the Moscow bureaucracy to halt revolu- • struggles in Czecho- tionary Bloomfield points out policy: of that the Czech the December 1944 was Czechoslo "The people must liberate th selves and not await pass ly the arrival of the Army. Obviously co-ord tion with the advancing Army was essential. Yet internal leadership laid g stress in the need to ar actions in opposi 11l as. to the Nazi occupa which would culminate an armed uprising" (p.33 But Moscow's direct differ aunt. Gottwald and the exte CP leadership resistance activity as sin "complementary requirements of the , ad cing Red Army" (p.33). In March 1945 a cor took place ence Czech embassy in Mos which the four par that were to form National Front coali brot government were together to discuss a gramme. be "Popular Front" parties workers along capitalist parties took off Moscow's hand was again: all of the key gov mental positions allotter were taken the Cr

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26 March 1980

IISTS USED

VORKERS

external CP members. If the Soviet Union had In the uprising, workers' not obstructed the struggle, councils had taken over the the Czech working class had itself could have taken the tactories and developed militant demands power in 1945. revolutionary party

JOT

fatuhausations. Workers' militias had been fighting for a break from formed. the bourgeois parties of the Yet CP the Popular Front could have the spent whole this oitered workers a lead Derod developing these the fight for healthy indepen- dent struggles, but transfor- workers state based on the power of workers councils ming the workers? councils mere advisory bodies and soviets. "to put suggestions". They What changed the atti- dissolved the workers' tude of the Czech CP was not the movement of the miltlas. As the trade unions per- working class: by 1947 the sisted with pressure hadbeer • TAe1r cals I01 mas found largely contained. It was the nationalisation, they themselves opposed all the movement of the imperial- and the onset of the way by the CP. ists, cola war The bourgeois parties and social democrats had been very quiet in post-war Bloomfield's book exten- Czechoslovakia-resting sively documents this posi- the coalition happily tion, which lasted until government. Spring 1947. But as the bourgeoisie The CPs only consistent moved into an anti-Soviet amecton lor tnt masses was towards a fierce national- ottensive on a world scale this found its political They supervised 1sm. deportation of 230,000 Last TenecIion European buffer states: Germans, including Commu- "With of the announce- nists (shades Kampu- of the Truman ments chea?). And they ceased Doctrine on 12 March, publication of the CP's own the Marshali followed by dual language paper. June, Big Industry Plan on the was to be run Three coalition collapsed. on profit lines, and the CP The Truman Doctrine tavoured compensation Ior heralded an ideological cru- nationalised industry. sade against the USSR and the In wolus. Communism" (p. 179). Stalinists blocked revolution in the East as completely as they did in Western Europe Bloom field's depiction of the Czechoslo- The economic moves of events ot vakia exposes the fraud of the Marshall Plan were an Soviet pull the bour- bureaucaly altempl to claiming credit for carrying coalitions of Eastern geois Furone hack firmiv within Cocas mation in Eastern Europe.

The canaltoll 457. Stalinist tanks crush Czech workers in 1968 Right wing ministers in Czechoslovakia-as in other guer states. a nastres ponded favourably to this under severe pressure from Moscow they pull were persuaded to back. Stalin however had seen the writing on the wall. The Kremlin began to break the Eastern European economies completely from the West, and in September 1947, at a conference of the ten European CPs in Poland, the Cominform the to coordinate strategy

TOT

takeovel of and consolidation the power in stanist 'buffer' states. Meanwhile other factors Czecho- were emerging in slovakia itself. As the CP, following the new instructions from Kremlin, took up the call for nationalisation and series of 'left' policies, the right wing took a majority Social the Demo Party began cratic moves designed to split the Czech working class February the In right wing parties resigned from the government-using CP the that the entrol over the police meant uney were remove Doutical and replacing opponents inem wien parly members This was almost certainly the case, since the CP's perspective overall consolidation towards the of state power through the elimination of the right wing from the National Front government. doing this they were In even prepared to utilise the strength of the working class. and began to organise • through the Central Trades 8,000- Union Counci an strong conference of works for February 22. Meetings and demonstrations were called-including one 80,000 through Prague. Yet within the Stalinists were careful keep control. The confer- February 22 was ence composed of selected dele- "The

URO

only: (Trade Union Council) denartmeni instructed workers as to who their delegates would be" (p. 221). Not surprisingly, the con- the ference passed CP's proposals. A one-hour token strike was called for February 24. 2½ million out came wOrKeT. support February On 25 accepted President Benes CP's demands for Tne governmental changes, and Gottwald announced victory crowd 200,000. As Bloomfield This is the second, concluding, review article by TONY RICHARDSON on the book Passive Revolution by Jon Bloomfield (Alison and Busby, £3.95). also examines some of the The article wider issues the book raises in relation to the post-war overturns of capitalism inder Stalinist Eastern European 'Buffer' leadership in the countries. Central Action Committee.

points out: "This united demonstra- and workers milillas class ward off any danger of right tion working support for KSC (CP) policy wing resistance But, as Bloomfield points settled the crisis: carefully controlled inter- out: vention by the working class "The militia's presence in proved decisive in sealing Prague and other major the fate of the right and en- undoubtedly cowed

LOWIN

suring political victory for the opposition, but • their the KSC. military value was primarily From then on, Tim symbolic: the KSC's control Wohlforth of the police and army were points 'Communists Against the decisive factors in the hampering the possibility of Revolution,' critical armed right-wing resis- was whose tance." (p. 227). hands the state was rather The soon • than the mopping-up opera• millllas were private capitalist holdings of remains disbanded, as a monolithic tion Stalinist state was consolid- ated through takeover smashing of the old capital- ist state machinery. Stalin s Of course the CP did go foreign policy had taken a through the of further step forward -utlis.

popular mobilisation in con- the strength of ing solidating Ls aKeover. zecn workug class tormed Action Committees all In this policy of peace- over country, (f,) Page 7 ful coexistence with imperi- alism, however, the Stalinist bureaucracy are forced con- tinuously to readlust thell as the of stance balance class forces shifts in various parts of the world The capitalist crisis the forces imperialist to look towards of attacking .the

OFUSDCCLS

nationalised rela- tions of the USSR . and the deformed workers' states. the struggles of the workers and peasants internationally continuously threaten the hold oi imperialist oppres sion; and within the Stalin- ist-ruled states there remains the threat of mass struggles The social transforma- Eastern tion. burope were no triumph for Stalin's but belated slidlery recognition that 'peaceful coexistence is not a long term possibility study of the post war period is important demonstrating vividly the counter-revolutionary role of Stalinism in the carrying through of the his- torically progressive step of over ting captals property relations It is for this reason that Bloomfield's book is valuable for Marxists. But the only revolution- ary alternative to the class collaboration and bureau- depicted the cratism book embodied the programme of the Trotskyist movement in the fight for social revol- ution in the capitalist coun- tries and the political over throw of the Stalinist Dureducact Bloomfield's Eurocom- COnC USOl bankrupt. and counter-revol- utionary Czech CP whose treacherous manoeuvres he so ettective ly exposes. Stalin

ARMAGEDDON

Page 8 Soviet fighters and missiles at the ready near Moscow

NOW ?

(Sphere Books) I am not old enough to remember the Cuban missile Wall crisis or the Berlin episode in any detail. But I do recall my parents walthile the television reports of these Calls Their fear of war-of nuclear war-was transmitter me Twenty years later the helplessness unease and destruction air once 15 In more 1980 however is not 1963.

History is not repeating itselt exactly In the early sixties the United States the bustling was sym bol aro voo oi ine post-war boom in the capitalist west. economic success went American MX missile surfaces from underground bunker hand in hand with its diplomatic and military superiority over the begun in 1979. novice the political enue code louay oo moerial- Some And this is the message Sir arena. ism is immeasurably weaker.

ago John wants to get over-that the Times he Every newspaper headline of must preparations start now has the past two Ent weakness and demanded a rapid the Western its decay screameu oul anu rearmament programme the next World War. Vietnam, economic dereat For breach of the rule broady y Si Had tr3 o ta is this energy crisis doltar recession, divided Watergate, Angola, Iran preventi VLisiS post the Soviet Union and iss laking part in pontical dedate ne centres callallst ana now hietarstan firmly across the was with a fe. satellites; and the China-Japan knuckles a feather duster Setbacks the then Wilson government allance Now, freed from the 'con- Pardoxically each set nack straints? of the service, Géneral Pro-Moscow the United States and the for Hackett writes this book repres- capitalist world must make war and using the enting the teeing, with the Soviet Egypt is under a pro-Moscow Union contributions. of, recover lost markets and regain threatens to amal- regime, British and NATO military the the world with the Guit States by ano rol less ukey. Aiu lilal Is has a significance as a the subject of this book.

overthrow of their corrupt the political written in weapon, Its chief author, General Sir feudal regimes, thus controlling the oil supplies of the West.

popular futurist torm to appea John Hackett, was commander ano . intruence mioce class view the vital in cher or ne bos Army oe in mackelt s opinion. the Rhine and commander a ot e in tne area an‹

NATO

forces Northern the policeman of western inter- Immediate history ests is the Shah's Iran! (So army group in west Germany But crystal ball gazing However, nes mor smoy d Thus it was written in 1978 soldier but perhaps one of the you reverse ine name as if it is 1987 and an immed- scenario, the 1980 Middle East new breed of first the ¡ate history of the Third World still roughly situation War fought in 1985. with a strong grasp of strategic Strategic Gult. GeschiDeo The Warsaw Pact has been political considerations-- reserves se se int from the influence acitalca -ust sphere superior technology and a last General Hackett is no minute rearmament programme and Soviet-occupied Afghanis- tan. In Egypt, Sadat the

WOMAN

US to replace the Shah as their Middle East strongman). So the Middle East is the when, after first flashpoint

WORKER

period of tension in Decembe 1984, a US intelligence ship and • Gulf an Iranian transport in ale allacke vy. ouvit lules.

woman worker Detente Tories aftack housing brink is reached but a and jobs... women's Soviet/US summit temporarily Bi-monthly patches up a detente-style solu- of the Workers paper Socialist League. Avail- Both powers consider this merely for able price 18p (includ- The final milllary ing postage) from WSL, detonator ex piooca mn latt BM Box 5277, London July 1985 as pro-Soviet groups post-Tito Yugoslavia call for

WC1V 6XX.

break-

KICK

and a capitalist restoration.

THEM OUT WITH

Soviet tanks roll across the

A GENERAL STRIKE!

Yugoslav border from Hungary TREVOR SELLARS reviews The Third World War, by General Sir John Hackett and are met by an amphibious brigade of US Marines. Us and Soviet troops clash openly.

August 1985 at dawn Warsaw Pact the launched analist tlic ronuer or mne tecera reouonu of intensive Atente weik Germany. After three weeks Hick alu late and on a scae not seen perore 1o conventional warfare, the NATO lines hold. The advance of the Warsaw Pact is checked. This enough to loosen the event is grip of the unstable Stalinist bureaucracies on their peoples.

Nationalist forces is hoisted. The old Polish flag Troops trom order. Moscow, and stop fighting.

order the balance, the Soviet leadership plavs the nuclear ana England, hydrogen A manon casuailies are caustu.

Retaliation

NATO

retaliates almost instantiy with the aestruction Or Minsk submarine-launched The Soviet ploy fails missiles. ana Clanze leadership Soviet Union the into up and loses its hold of rastern suroDe An armistice is declared and describing possibl cours oi lil war on lana aiu t the sea and air and in covering all major theatres the book draws a picture of the present balance or torces ano aavocales changes necessary those Warsaw Pact in each defeat the analysis anchudes detailed comparisons of the strategy and levels of training taches as well as the weapont.

involved. Undoubtediy this has been war games played based on. the stafts and OUi mantar! their defence planners computers in recent years.

General Hackett's authority is snown ov ine coseness oi te timetable he has • laid out to real events For instance as accurately predicted yeedi medsures tate been tateis book, To secure une services an tain the training of British soldiers leaving rapid response inere can since the book was first published 1978 rearmament has got under way and detente is under great strain. missiles being West Europe deployed and in the SALI Lanks nava : down, the draft in the broken States may be United reintro- auceo ane consciouon nas ocor discussed in Parliament. 'State of the speech, Union' military Torce in gerence or us strategic interests. Thatcher Britain under the Thatcher government multary spending has become top posity HunGrees OI. mullons pounds are earmarked for new develop programme su marint corocaoes nuclear warheads and a replacement for the Polaris missile Later this year, in the biggest troop movement since entire the Territorial Army is to be mobil- ised and shipped to Germany as practice warumne remIoICe ment operation However, the smooth run up Soviet Union as lo war will tile advocatea dy War' will not occur. General Hacketi assumes can procede without opposition.

In fact such a programme can onv De manccu m Dillal by massive cuts in the welfare and nationalised indus- services tries, and is already running into opposition pitte

ITOM

working class (as seen in the steel strike specifically unthinkable that hostilities car begin after a period of tension without the development in the popular anti- West war movement Undoubtedly, such a move the Vietnam conflict would spill over into the MenI armed forces (especially in thost

NATO

states which rely th and

DOSSIDIV

Soviet Union being turned into a revolutionary war against the capitalist class SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26 March 1980 Pershing missile So answer to that para- lysis in face .waI the threat sensed by many individ- revolutionaries must state uals, that the most powertul torce oi the eartn today ls not tne imper ialist military machine but the working class as botand the world Every nuclear the warnead produceu labour of the working class and production of every concerted action Th f working class conscript soldier is a potentar revoretionar Vietnam showed that even in the late .twentieth the century powerful

SMOS

dill armed forces cannot defeat an armed and determined working viase the Bolshevik

ANC

lence demonstrateo that this enormous latent force working class can be fully in the Marxist revolutionary party.

Hell on earth earth. Its War is of al source and the source organised human conflict is the Cass suruspe the seizure of Finally only the : armed working power of class and the abolition th canaist class Cids. resolve the struggle and end war.

The most in this book that General Hackett knows thi last point. His projected war and against the Soviet Union victory is not the war to end all wars' He concludes: "America nother hinos par will eachother -across tact Pacitic Ocean. The Pacitic basır will become more important to cach of them, than the Atlantic , then, are the seeds of Here, the fourth imperialist world war.

AND CUTS A

CLASS ISSUEL

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26, March 1980 By Colin Morrow The Tory onslaught on has jobs and services produced a variety of res- ponses. These have ranged from the crocodile tears of Jim Callaghan, ender otine ast service sasand Labour administration, through the ritual opposition of token, • LaDOUI Sal cly

OUL-

numbered on Tory controlled County actual physical opposition in the torm strikes and occupations workers directly groups by the and

CUTS

closures thrown up different problems and different solutions vital pout to grasp at this poin time snal most so-called solutions have been individual solutions. Pleas to be treated as special cases nave anounced • as nave short cuts around the actual struggle the Tory attacks. services chopped by Thus, one tier of local government are likely to appear in revised torm as competitors bor mace a a different level. Chop Social Services budget and pop-up again colle as a com munity creche asking tor urban aid grant. And often the replace to Lillial existine state services waca al under the axe by voluntary provision. The that problem here is such whie tactics may-in minority cases-have effect of defending a particular ocal service. Iney any way alter the fact that cuts are taking place all around us as an act of government policy, This becomes obvious when

LETTER:

Dear Comrade Editor. There is an inaccuracy Henry, Wise Phillip's of the film Blood" (Socialist Tress 1901. The film, begins with the Hazel Motes, being de- hero, mobbed and returning to his native area of America. visits home, be derelict, and memores or ns childhood. The most terrify- his grand- image lainer. a orcacner in one Hasnack une colo is so frightened by a sermon that he wets himself. Motes does not return with the intention of staring a new church and this is where cde. Phillip's He review only wants to uve ana do tones he's never done before. That is why he goes to a

SACKINGS

Winning a grant of £10,000 for a youth centre or a nursery hal ally Lilt going 13 Um

CUTS

ease where, in the schools, the hos- and the health pitals, housing service. An i does nome lo defend our rights to those services. place is of little A nuIsCIV use to a working mother whose job as a school "dinner lady" goes as an alternative part of the CHES ackace Ano ureoD is no use without the day care provision to enable her to take • race one cut for anomel may well solve one, individual.

Hazel Motes no fraud town and visits prostitute who's address he finds written on a toilet wall. escape the

DUE

religion. chooses to buy, even the look In nis convince all who meet nim inal ne is a preacher preacher he becomes. new church he starts is "Church without tric where there 1s no jesus to redeem your sins. Each man and woman must com one une trun or ener owi lte, no matter now disgusting that truth Phillips quotes _"the comrade blind don't and the lame ana whats dead stays that way. What confronts Hazel Motes and eventually drives him to his deatn is not the trutn, but tne deceit, manipulation and profit-

HO'S NEXT A

FOR A

CUIT

Labour leaders march against Tory cuts: took no action against cuts by Callaghan and Healey it does themselves. personal problem but Their efforts to sectionalis not even begin and atomize working class don' to tackle employer: root of the problem: the drive thinking blackmailers® painting course. during their • soft sell various of the Tories and big business to point out real facts: what hool- and COs InelT Dulles pret

SUN

wner have gone economic crisis onto the work- through the press inflation literally rips the cash hand hand with the prepar- out of your • hands as you try to ing class. pocket it? ation of

SOCILI

induce workers to approach cuts Collective problem jobs as "Scroungers" individual, personal problems.

That is why it has to be treated a collective problem scnemes nke redeployment feed on just such thinking What price the cash when lacing the whole labour move- Thus, with redundancies, the the real prospect is mass unem- ment a cass ouesnon Of course that is what the ployment and lory attacks payments oricice dancieu Tories fear most, a united the right of the unemployed- res- 1ke a carrol in tront of each individual trade unionist to get branded "scroungers have, I hey him or her to sell their job.

and been at pains to prepare their Claim benetit trom the state looking after ground carefully. The Battle for eerine unar surrounas tne runoa mentalist sects in that part of Trotskyism America. The film points to chilling Daares in real fre suen as int mystifying growth of sects like the Moonies in America, and the recent succe or ajewisn Dov l Britain who was unable to cope with his conversion to the evan- Second edition of the opposition documents cal caren overriding impression presented inside the WRP by the present leader.

left by the film is the power of ship of the Workers Socialist League corruption With a new introduction Inal surrounds h. Hazel Motes is not a fraud, Price £2.50 plus 20p postage and package from as cde. Phillips remarks, but a Workers Socialist League victim ol these forces BM Box 5277, London WCIV 6XX

BUT

one correct, Wise Blood is worth secing at least once. Fraternally, R.E., London Page 9 Thatcher tary redundancies, natural wast schemes is to cut the were ment early retirement cheaply and without confronta tion boosting unemployment by the back door people on the dole is care ly unnnatural wastage menuoned Decaus precisely • that surplus army labour which will itself be used as the weapon in the next stage to hold down wages These sor of softly softly tactics by managemen of course had. the Have support of most union leaders.

Officials like Bill Sirs of the ISTC have cheerfully • boasted oi Inel achievements the workforce while Duffy and made determination back the rawardes plan all inis in. le name of viability' Accepting argument What they I don't tell mem- bers is that bv accepting this argument have also ther implicitly accepted that what is the bosses musi good tor ineir members So steelmen lose their jobs while the Tories extract massive lorcee donatons is the latest figure quoted by Joseph-from board to their amance _allalks joos and services With similar demands on the Gas to pay Tory Board policies (£180 million) nationalised Industries clearly becoming a milkcow for bankers and speculators wit back malenti the trade union leaders the Tories know full well that the crisis of capitalism as cass queston For trade unionists, there- fore, faced with the stepping up of attacks all their DasH posed most une question sharply now that of class action Workers •Can ony detent hensling the dentis or tast recognising the identity individuals they problems have no future except as part of that class Above workers must come to recognise unar une inter ests of the working class and capitalism are direcily counter- This means working to break the isolation of individual dis- tacl struggle no matter how small as the basis for common action.

Mobilise support It means mobilising suppor for every section as they come into struggle and building towards the formation Locus or Actor to co-orott ate this support. But above all it means fight- ations of each individual struggle and the necessity for a Today the need for a revolu- fighting party on transom demands which can provide a bridge between problems and the socialist pro- stamme or revolution stanas ou starkly before those who come into struggle in defence of jobs, living standards and basic

Page 10 On Tuesday 18 March representatives of local

NALGO

government branches gathered from all over the country to discuss the industrial acuon plans being drawn up in response the employers breaking off of the pay comparability negotiations. Originally intended to end December paid the comparability vedi. study was year s wretched 9.4% settlement for most local government white collar workers. While inflation has taken off at a members been expecting a settlement similar to LOse sector the Cilege committee. January concern has the about come, unc Natured. negotiators have kept a resolute lack of results. silence about the a ventuay nise that they could not

DO SSID

ly go back to the members and the insig- recommena i ci employers had made, , the NEC had no alternative but louna 11 to start ine action The membership is acutely of the importance of the aware which will ColliDalabuly Clans ine DasIs. loI annual Dd y claims for many years to come percentage claims will future pe bascu on wildlevel pay suluc tue emerges trom the preseni struggle. Clegg: pay cuts? Clegg The on report teachers' pay, due to report at the end of this month, is certain to offer no satisfac- tion to the teachers demands for a restoration of cuts in real pay the large since 1975. Leaks from the evidence to the commission suggest that in case grades many higher further and teachers in education repot will. be c Clegg's Have that aiscovered ao parenuly college recturers actually overpaid by their stan- though it is not yet clear uarus woemer recommend an actual cut in pay or just a withdrawal of the 7.5% interım increase granted from 1 January! The leaders of NATHE, the higher further education teachers nave around in embarassment at the -since discoveries' months ago thev accepted Clegg serious opposition from

NATFHE

senions 38% stain. round the serious Sulusele the is also a lesson NATFHE claim to the whole made union move on the trap represented comparability" exer- commissions of cases. inquiry and the like.

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

NALGO must impose workers' control the The response membership has been extremely most

STIONS.

will demanding more leadership to win a quick and decisive victory. Rock solid At the March meeting branch Drancil the sneaker's rostrum to repor membership meet- rock solid determina- ings non to deal ine Dosses Most oranenes demanded that. • the NEC issues definite instructions carry auce wide! industrial action, rather than the indecisive 'authorisation' A delinitive Instruction was demied only he blackinero wate members were Vellails. demanding blackine payments and the everyone actuality the membership to minance selected strikes in areas of strength such municipal Suall its new found popu- basking criticism atter months of lariLy

GUSTTIC

meetings

LACE

lack of action, and few of the willing to spoil branches une with warnings of caution.

Not defended Only lan Wall, convenor oi

NALGO

Action Group the reminded delegates of last year's universities allu failure of the organisation defend of members who had been disciplined.

action at one branch, a delegate reported that the shop stewards were examining all items of and could decimne

WICH

breaching •Ine 'Never mind compara- blackings. wildl control?' he asked. It was a casual comment but Stewards senou. mittees will have to take exactly this kind of control if the effect i to be directed of their and not deals against those in most need However his remark sparked off the only unpopular speech Gay. member attacked the concept of workers control and was almost shouteu uowll chance for a This was the Teachers in the Leicester City

NUT

Branch have voted for immediate school walk-outs if any redundancy notices issued or any teachers on temporary con- tracts are told they are not being re-employed. NALGO General Secretary Drain (centre) with NEC members powerful intervention into the bring forward this year's pay claim now seems to have gained meeting but in lact ine previous speaker • returned to the rostrum made membership and at apologise for having this poli result leading would JOKe doou

WUN IS

their control multant. Militants

NALGO

are tunities to influence the mass with massive oppor- of the membership. presented tunities by the • present dispuțe Link up with NUPE There is a mood of determin- membership ation the At this stage the priority Is action and to build in which as l to deepen the London Weighting campaign links with early 1970s, and NUPE wherever possible. NEC to issue clear failure of the Careful will instructions leaves it open tor us needed given NALGO's parlous take Will. Members Inancia stale an open promise of sup- home wine aven run suee port from the leadership.

pay-but those who walk out in Pushed into fight support will not be willhave to stewara. careful in At the same time it must be that their involves explained to membersnu individuals, isolated national leaders have and nO U action pushed into extremel important the development will and we must of NALGO as a trade union, an ensure that they have no chance to pul must take ca une base lessons or orkansallul i mustan can to and solary cal can be ariven into the membership now will Taalca. acmanus Carin bear rich fruit for exploited by many year. tne leadersno lu isolate militants. The super- to come. to ficially attractive

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Six months (25 issues).. One year (50 issues) SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 26 March 1980 Teachers vote to strike the current lack action if any teacher is threat- Angry defend ened with unemployment. of a to spread teachers insisted that The task Jobs. Ent this action should come geore ta lost, rather than dealt branches but also all the sector unions facing with when the *no-cover in Leicestershire redundancy gone-as Teache a read under sional pocretary entral Divisional building of a fighting anti-cuts which can draw Betty Coates claimed there wa: nothing members could do to those had around a programme of joint the build action ed temporari contracts; but the prepare branch. decisive relected: this local Illas. alla view and adopted a policy of the way for a general strike to bring down the Tories. indefinite walkouts and strike

JOIN THE

WSL. -

advance workers beyon With Workers trade militancy protes thousand taking politics and illusions that capi oppose • abolished through alisiT 1 can we policies there is plainly no soaritament The Workers the Socials of militanci in League is a Trotskyist move organised working class. ment fighting day and Yet the existing trade union build such a principled

OUT TO

leadership in the working class -whether in Britain no perspective to those Internationally. are prepared to fight the newly-formed workers living detence sland rotskvist international Liaisor Committee, which fights for the caros social services and demo cratic rights Fourth can only be defended These building and the through which start polture. or reven bes b ever interests struggle vrom ine meependen. country lead the imperialism and against or tne workine cass which international parasitio Stalinis bureau class nothing •gain and everything the deformed and Cracie. decenerated workers sidle: the profitability of their "own we Invite a readers. Socialist Press seek more em olovine clos details of the WSL in a perioo where ine contra dictions the anarchic capit- and to join us in the struggle for alist system destruction of the SOCIalISi ciosure •roeuctive

• SOCICLY

only socialist olanned economy on a world scale offers a way forward. f• achieve such a oelsocc tive leadership

RED YOUTH 19

which, in today's struggles fights!

Monthly paper of the Socialist Youth League Please send me more details Articles include feature Workers the Socialist of Further Education, on League. Ramones, unionisation Name of shop workers, NUSS, Punks on the march, Address. steel strike and more. Available, price 15p including postage, from 5277,

SYL,

BM Box London WCIV 6XX

BM BOX

Sena TO:

WSL,

5277, London WC1V 6XX.

DON'T GO INTO

THE FIGHT BLINDFOLD!!

SOCIALIST

For a £2.00

GET

clear

PRESS

lead in the £4.00 struggle against £8.00 wage control, cuts £14.00 and redundancies Send your cheque/P.O. to £9.00 Socialist Press, BM Box 5277, £16.00 London WCIV 6XX. £10.00 £18.00

occupation The solidarity shown by the Massey Ferguson plants at Manchester and Coventry towards the Knowsley, Liverpool occupation was seriously reversed last week of the by the decision Barton Dock Road plant in Manchester to accept any transferred from the work closed Knowsley plant. This astounding reversal one GaVi

SLEIKO

last week was the dirty work of the time

TGWU

full and who successfully lied their. way through a stewards committee meeting and sub- that the nev camed Knowsley dispute had not been though had made been made official only a tew days after med taken The plant had оссиру late Exploited Threats from the company refused accept work iom also exploited Knowsley were bureaucrac union panic Manchester members into rushed decision which completely reversed the magnif- been demon on on cr ity the previous week--when the workforce on strike came for a day in response to a strong picket from the occupied & now- sley plant. all is not as well as it But could be at the Knowsley plant and where There aulouls stories of possible deals with the Massey's Kil marnock plant earlier this year.

comorons alalzeical. including certain sacrifices.on conditions and working levels plus loss

UNION DUES

nice is March 1980 Blow to Massey jobs through "natural wastage" voluntary redundancies was by

AUEW

not ruled out venor Jimmy Yates spoke representatives Socialist Press This is a slippery slope which rejected the must demand for work-sharing on full must be will no compromise, did, show however some indications that all is not ost wnen ne accebted me necu demand scale official backing the AUEW exec- utive when it meets on Tuesday marco. Yates also agreed that the company's claims that the plant was un aee were nonsensc After some discussion Yates further acknowledged the need

TUC

General While Secretary Len Murray continues to campaign to TUC's May 14 prevent the "Day of Action" becoming a full-scale one-day General Tory Strike the against government, pressure from forcing their members some union leaders in the other direction. SOGAT leader Bill Keyes- attempting to force through a miserable pay settlement-was among the first to put out a call shall

AT THE TOP...

Royal Northern: keep up the fight the closure was mounted Mass opposition to the hospital, with pledges of sup Royal closure of drivers Northern Hospital casualty ТгОЛ ammurarile and other department oranches. forced the has London Strength government to postpone the closure date and set up al the The strenath "independent inquiry". campaign forced the AHA tc forward a compromise pro- The casualty department of put the which Workers in the occupied Knowsley plant this busy nospital was aue wusal. during close on March 1, as part of the programme of cuts planned by weekdays only, but workers in the hospital responded by the Camden and islington AHA pledging to move into occupa- campaign against Tine hand the wooe or une books of the company-includ- ing also details of dealings with banks and component suppliers independent - LO allu v assessment by an elected trade union committee. the This, with aid of expert financial technical aid dril would ten ConTal fraudulencesses" or the nilad to company's of the claimed виий nationalise the bankrupt Masses merguson company ds Dall vi a socialist planned economy.

basis of the infor- accounds the elected from obtained Illallull company trade union committee WOWe in a position to formu be then All-night vigil outside BL's Cowley Body Plant as steel workers plan 1o

OWI

production and use this plan to pickets struggle to stem the flow of components allowed run the nationalised plant under through bu the directive trom Todd and trans.

Scots strikers

ALL OUT ON

MAY 14!

Scottish steelworkers face the same problems as steelworkers in England and Wales-isolation by the ASLEF has followed their lead, trade union bureaucracy one-day

TOT

May 14: but he was swiftly has and strike breaking by the une by the wing And the East Midlands Regiona followed right

TGWU.

rUC has added. its voice to th leadership of the NUR. General For weeks pickets from the Sid call for a one-day General Secretary at Weighell correctly declared that Strike. massive Kavenscrang works Socialist Press supports the sufficient wave wintnerwe have been ocketur üght for strike action on May the ports and the steel stock- banners in an ede holders in an effort to make the 14 as part of the fight for an all Instead the NUR Executive demanded that

TUC

has «rike bud they down the Tory government and Several General Council: weeks 220 condie or the users. The Albio andanteed all trade unions Cals UDON political struggle socialist Albion and Bathgat to instruct their members not to BL truck plants, Catarpillars and existing for duty on . 14 May, against the report Do ices Labour and trade union leaders.

others. order to demonstrate the depth At first they were armed, as movement Tee ino were steel pickets in other parts againse engine dipolicy. union engine or the county, will mst

SPLATE

(GET OUT OF THE WAY, TOM! WE'VE

CONGRESS HOUSE-

GOT REAL PROBLEMS WITH THOSE

A HIVE OF ACTIVITY.

|B/L MEMBERS -WE MIGHT HAVE SOLI

IA 5% DEAL-BUT NEVER EDWARDES

92 PAGES OF STRINGS!

[TUC RECEPTION

TRACKING RENT INDEED

• NUTS! HELL

WE'RE NOT CAREFUL, THE

TO THEIR JOBS! I DONT KNOW WHY WE HOLI

MOSS-BOY ARE MY LADS

COULD ALL BE OUT ON STRIKE!

KUDD

|GUNNING

rOK TOU

NOTHING KOT

TROUBLE!

WATCH OUT, HERE COME

LtOFF DRAIN AND BILL! PiE. a full 24- tion and maintan service any Closure attempt was made hospital healtr minister announced March 4, that the closure postponed pending be Would the findinos or an mousy miu the health needs of the area concession • Although this must be seen ds. contains enormous. danders the campaign in the very near

TULUTE

has Vauahan's ploy First succeeded preventing the occupation from going ahead.

, on Wed- At a mass meetie nesday March 5, hospital staff moving into voted findings occupation until lic of the inquiry were known.

Secondly the inquiry is com- pletely bogus, and by no means consists one high-ranking Driso oricid Tracy, , who a nasceer mandated look into new health cuts in ways or makin the area The AHA are expecting him back early in April, report an• unere is not d single guarall tee that ltne nova casualty will be reprieved.

public meeting on the 28 reoruary cauca

WSL

defence campaign, mem trade and local bers unionists urged that the hospital should caned do cast ac casualty matte of the meeting with still the correct policy. An occupation best safeguard against the man- and the of Vaughan campaignest focus to the health cuts against inrouenout London stand firm tions from Moss Evans ordering luwu lorry arivers not to cros.

But as with the pickets on the BL Cowley Body Plant, this was quickly changed to a fresh letter, which simply gave pickets lorries dullull carrying raw steel. Since then lorries have been rolling through the picket lines continuously. anis snaro contrast tu the morale of the scottis! steelworkers who remain solid the betrayals of the despite sendersolo Several thousand stee. workers are manning the picket and lines throughout Scotland there has been no hint of an "back to work' move from the rank and file

OH COME ON MOSS, THAT'S NOTHING NEW.

YOU'VE NEVER REALLY HAD CONTROL

:THINK OF ME - I'VE

OF THAT MOB

JUST BEEN VOTED DOWN AGAIN!

THE INIANS

ACTID TK RADNEWS

ALL ROUND-SCARGILL

SEEMS ALL SET TO MUSCLE

IN ON OUR GENERAL COUNCIL!

STEEL: NO INQUIRY!

STOP THE LORRIES!

Defeat Labour's witch- As we go to press, leaders of the ISTC and NUB have rejected an appeal from BSC management for an immed- iate return Work exchange for a 10% interim pay supplement. thev have accepted the establishment of a "committee of inquiry" into their pay claim. on two pervery mom than one manage- and will come nowhere near the 20% claim. No challenge the tact is that no arbitra- board committee of tion ind uiry is going to challenge ine basis on manage- that ment case Sirs The Underhill Report has been published at an embar- assing time for the Labour lefts and right wing alike.

The most significant part of the press conterence Labour's former National Agent news that ne tavour tae exonson o ma from the Labour supporters rally. Underhill's wish to see ''the leffer ruoushed oy roirose ba lor the

SOCIALIST

PRESS

employer must restore "viabilitv"profits-at lill expense of the working class.

Steel who union axe jobs by te tens or thousand recent themselves se for "viability" accept the case But while thev have found it comparatively easy to demora- lise workers into accepting what in many cases nave veen !c!

sums in voluntary redundancy payments, union leaders. Andrew Wind Torceo to can une sunke oecause they found it next to impossible persuade to for accept BSC's further plan: -speed-up and crocures Wila 2% pay offer on the table. Now, weeks strike have raised workers' levels, Bill expectations to new have been forced to throw out out have had on production ir a 10% cash-down offer. the enis no good tor Sirs and It is good for Scabbing to reject Hecto Smith merely the BSC nav otter his neces But the weeks of conscious publicly take up the sary

TUC

fight for other unions to mobil- sabotage and scabbing by leaders- who ise solidarity action. nave might and main to isolate and Yet

ISTC

and

NUB

consciously refused strike -have leaders • have weaKen tric taken their toll on the strike.

10 00

TOIS.

morale among the strike defeated than militants remains high, it is clear fellow

TUC

embarass will 108 T

SLCCWUINCIS

vulcaulials look with dismay In particular, though thous- minimal impact their 12 weeks ands of TGWU steelworkers are hunters araument begin has to be put into the context of a statement Iwho actively witch-hunt) that a Unpuses mas already been

SCIE

from the organisation commit- the groups party asking inem to account Thatcher and suck tem Into where they stand on ine the dead-end politics of reform- and constan obiectives of the Labour Party To proceed now lengths of expelling the Militant The objective of the right hamue

• FUL YVE

wing not Dress tor ine and the 'lefts" achieving expulsion of the Militant but to this task inside release political tensions would stretch Dart ine ovalty or tne one el collaboration The Callaghan and spell out unmistakeably to with the Tories and sundry leadership's even militant sections TIre Trom veroa socianst concies the working class Meanwhile the Parliamentary he struggle of the Callaghan 'lefts' move any - Healer leadersnio oreserve force purge militan their stranglehold on the Party Tribunites-through self-preser- with their runs nand in hand draw a clear political vation -to • WOTKInG Cass between action designed to bring down and Militant-at a time when the ory government. many a Tribunite, with No challenge to the full. the purpose 01 While they are not opposed organisation committee the letter the advantage not electoral Militant. but to draw a lett in Thatcher they in no way wish to beyond which Tney are nO1 • a challenge to Parliamentary allowed to see made clear that It will be rule It is important therefore that Mutant supporters wilt rendi the Labour Party able welcome-so long as they do not focus of struggle leftward provide a sharp moving sections workers against ant waldunan-nealty seeking defeating leadership or a serious alterna- a means Workers BM Box 5277, London wuly bas. trintea Dy Anvu frinters, condor Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Workers Socialist League

STEEL

WORKERS'

POWER

on strike, directives from Moss Evans and Ron Todd • continue Convoy. picket lines lines to keep production Tole macioner There must be full scale lobbies of TGWU steelworkers' National

DISITICE.

regional and Offices to demand that the instructio lories at at once to all lorries pickets, and TAr im meciate disciplinary action to be taken driver who flouts azallist als such an order. tive to the Tribunites. Militant attacking the oress in any guise. The press owners know that the emercenci ce nuine revolutionary current inside the would Labour Party Ine Darly a renduit dileind tive means for the ruling class to hold on to power. Asth Times patied out:

SUCT

activitie allowed to proceed unchecked then the Militant Tendency may indeed intiltrate the party to the extent tatts seekine to do In which case the Labour Party would cease to be an acceptable instrument of Government.

Yet the Militant which and perverts Trotskyism, has not even attem oreo to moolisi Labour Party members in the defence struggle

OWI

(confining strudele manoeuvres with Tribunites) is no revolutionary current.

It is a classic contrist groun' ing which is agnostic on the of a revolu- question tion carried out by the working class outside of rarliament is an unavoidable prerequisite for socialisti It would be absurd for us to Zimbabwe strike wave The working class in of strikes has wavt lost little Zimbabwe has erupted renecting ine expecta- tion of the masses in the wake time in making its presence •of that result. Reports of the felt following the sweeping SulKeS valy. victory of Robert Mugabe in with suggestions that as many as 40 different plants have been i the recent elections. Mr Kum Biarai Kangai, the of and new Minister Labour social were as been workme overtime to get the strikes called He is quoted as saying "l point out that there is a procedure for the workers prevances. government undertaking to review the situa- tion as soon as possible, never- theless any precipitate action at only tills tall damage the goodwill which has been built up between the government, the employees and their employers, and will inev- itably have a crippling effect on . This in turn will have mausuTy. the effect postoning any improvement in ditions of service which migh otherwise have taken place,' Mass sackings Some strikers have returned something in the to work. while -region havt DeCI sacked Beside the number of differ- ent plants attected, the action 1: not isolated to town. Salisbury Companies Bulawavo and Umtall as well a: the Delni mine at Umvuma have been hit. • stored-up anger of the Zimbabwean Worki! cras. which suffers from low wages, and high unem- bad conditions ployment is finding expressior in these strikes. The task of revolutionaries is pro- to develoc necessdly gramme and organisation which Port Talbot pickets answer the desire of the an end to their unions,

LOO

Illasses TUC should be picketed in the oppression. This means the development action to i alle system of demands based of a win the steel strike And. a • principled leadership on the method of the transition- the building of programme, must be built in the steel unions soviets and the construction o to defend the interests of the a Trotskyist party. working class *20%-no strings! Imperialism sackings, no closures; defend all jobs *Spread the strike; bring out Such perspective the the BI: for General Strike to indepen develoomert o] bring down the Tories. dence of the working class, will bitterly opposed by the likes and the ZANU(PF) leadership, who are moving rebuild stable base for imperialism in Zimbabwe The conflict which has already developed between the Clas. government is the taste of things to come. In Britain, the movement for solidarity must • олестес decisively towards aiding such of the masses as they struggle. . Wavs must be tound • emerge suggest that the purpose of the draw link between the struggle strat of their class thee and workers here out socialist fress suoporters- unfortunately there are too few sisters In kimbabwe to merit such attention. out unere

FUND

to define happy the legiti mate enor the Labour rare no further "Militant-but and to draw a line betweer those vultant supporters and A big ; boost for our actively fighting for socialist fund this week! A against both the righ wins ano ine itounite takers of £280 donation Militant supporters are strong enough in the Party to together with other contributions to audinst lit witch-hunt. Special Fund has taken Mobilising members us over the first £1,000 and put us well on the If they were at all serious to reaching the fighting about right wing way stage of our half-way iner would Turiner. mobilise Labour Party mem. £3,000 fund by Easter. bers in. • lobbies and demonstra The fund total stands tons demandine an ena to arr witch-hunts, and the abolition at £1269,05. all bans and proscriptions So let's go all-out to adainst socialists get the £230 we need But seems certain that Militant will to continue by Easter, and at the by conauci same time, don't forget bankrupt comoination exploiting the publicity value of the £750 monthly fund. witch-hunt, and back. All donations should room deas win Iner mounite be sent to: colleagues on the Party's lead ing bodies Socialist Press Fund enemies as lame d BM Box 5277 this, Callaghan scarcely needs friends! London WC1V 6XX