Socialist Press no. 96

SPEKE: LEADERS

PRESS

Weekly paper of the Workers Socialist League PHOTO: John Sturrook, Robinson-tub thumping, no call to occupy Owen flogs imperialism's wares Imperialism's two bique). most energetic political Nkomo and Mugabe said they travelling salesmen. Andrew Young and LIlt plan David Owen are on to participate another door to door ference with sales drive through lackeys Sithole. Southern Africa, this time accompanied by US of presence imperialism's second in (United command, Secretary of Zimbabwe. State, Cyrus Vance. It doesn't look as it any So, although of the potential customers are his press conference mumbled buy a second- few Keen o hand neo-colonial constitu- about "Marxism". tion from these men. that the leaders do not rule out some Silent Owen and Vance. In Dar-es Salaam the of the "front line readers next went to fairly states" kept silent, where they secretly hoping the imperial- than shout through the gap in ists would manage to sew up Lie COOr some agreement Kana wnien wowa lead to a liling of economic sanctions against Botha Rhodesia and of the Owen-Young plan for a bring dil casing of their pressing econ- grand compromise. problems More recently,

SOCIALIST

* No. 96 * April 19, 1978 * 15p Everything necessary for a ficht to defend all 13.000 1obs rat Levland's Triumph threatened Speke plant at was Saturday's present meeting-except mass vital ingredient-a one clear call from the plat- form for occupation. After weeks in which HOIO: Mark Rusher, I L The Patriotic Front led by Mugabe Anglo-American Smith's "internal settlement" nonetheless agreed which they also as i a new con- in be Ш0UC. Toro wed Smith and his Namibia. Muzorewa and Muzorewa and Sithole, now coalition govern- They also agreed to the the TacISs, nave imperialist words about ULLeTed Nations) troops the Anglo-American plan, but neither they nor Smith have Mumbled ruled vuE competely, especially if some compro- Mugabe mise on their part would lead to the disarming of the liber- semi-coherent words ation armies. it appears So while everyone overtly Patriotic Front rejects the imperialists' plans is still it there with Smith, room for some horse-trading which would betray the The imperialist sales team interests of the Zimbabwean South Africa did little lasses Socialists must fight in the British labour movement against Owen's neo-colonial Racist leaders Vorster and plans; tor labour movement original authors material support to the liber- ation armies against all com.

promises with the racists; and however

AVOID CALL

TO OCCUPY

officials had spread a one day strike confusion- and uncertainty with rats, about the size of redundancy payments, struggle-but had come workers to the meeting determined to reject Leyland's attempt buy to them off. No jobs for jobs and conditions. They already knew The that with the colossal levels of un- argue like Merseyside employment there no prospect of obtaining alternative work once Speke is closed. Sensing the mood, no-one from the platform argued in favour of selling the jobs for plant to improved cash payments. But neither did they call clearly and firmly for the policies that can save

ONIV

jobs at Speke: occupation of the plant, linked to the fight to open Leyland's books and Such the struggle who face the Edwardes axe throughout the and expose the whole combine. owned Tub thumping "nationalised" Instead workers heard tub thumping "left' Leyland, speech fight from Derek Robinson, chair- sharing on full pay. man of the Leyland combine stewards committee show the Communist Party. Robinson is a lead- member, ing member of the reaction- ary participation set-up, and a mOLON foremost of the supporter are to be saved. Edwardes plan for rationalis- ation which has proposed the closure of Speke. weeks ago Only participation report fingered Speke as one of the lowest meeting, productivity plants the 1n threatened combine-handing a precious But at Saturday's meeting Robinson declared that: and given a "Not a nut, not a bolt will other be allowed to leave the TR7 throughout plant". that Even then, he consciously problems. from refrained putting The call forward a call for occupation.

Subordinate for the Instead he proposed series of protest actions that, and while they must be supported occupations subordinate must the inevitable tight within the plant itself.

mass demonstration in

INSIDE

Workers and technology Page 9 Yout conference called. back page Blake review . p.8 Power sacking .... By substituting the de "left' Robir tive talk of and vaguely formul: resolution this kind 1U1 the leadership initiative, Speke has failed to build the obvious readiness of membership to fight decision The that taken to defend the of right to wOt oppose compa redundancies can still b and lobby basis of of Parliament on May 9 can give added weight te the occupation, would •are not dangerous to delay a furl Leyland ster management, which has taken meeting to adopt this po until May 13 the weakness of the combine The strength of Saturd committee as the green light wholesale attack Illas.

HAUS

developed before un officials, the issue is not capitalist p central or confusion take their tol Derek Robin- son that Leyland's decision is The stewards must imm "idiotic" from a commercial iately convene a further m spell meeting to out Workers must act now to perspective. elect trade union committees Seize property in Speke and every Leyland Only when force management the fight jobs centred seiz and reveal their long-term plans of the property of on manning levels and redun- emplover through occunai does the struggle pass bey empty protest and begin None immune hit the central issue of the independ detence an investigation rights and interests of would reveal that no section working class will be immune from attack, This independence huge profits be guaranteed thro only being made by the privately the fight throughout component firms out combine for the construct of workers in the supposedly of a principled leadership t British Will fight to break the part and spearhead the set pation reject of work policy Edwardes plan and fi Leyland's insidious USt At the same time it would shopfloor ballots to by-p necessity for the the stewards' movement. expropriation of the whole This means also fight of the private sector of the break the anti-socia under industry Lib-Lab coalition and wag workers management if jobs fight throughout the Lab union moveme for socialist policies Forefront as only defence of jobs If this kind of lead had Wares been given at the Speke mass the 3,000 workers have set themselves firmiy a the forefront of a national struggle against redundancies lead to workers doomed plants Merseyside the face same could immed- lately have gone out to the Merseyside labour movement establishment of Council of Action to co-ord- expand factory and fight the efforts officials to head off struggles with "voluntary redundancy"

Moro abandoned to his fate as Italian Popular Front cracks down Page 2

- INTERNATIONAL

Since last week the Transkei, South Africa's first "independent" Bantustan, has had diplomatic relations with any other state in the world. That because Prime Minister, Paramount Chief Matanzima. outburst, broke off diplomatic relations with the racist South African state WiCH Spawned as regime and still the only to recognise it. The Bantustan- -pocket sized STELeS TOr DACKS Of V- were cat up sichen athe id stee in the siphon some axolosive soclar tausions or coutn Economic crisis As the economic crisis in South deepens. greater and greater pressure filip their on Bantustans the TOle For instance, of tells thousands, and unem- doved workers are dumoco ov the racists into the Bantustans of which they are "citizens" our ture is no nose wnatever the poverty-stricken That Bantustans contribute can any. thing DrESSINg jobs, housing, land and wages. So these areas are plunged into The bourgeois press talks of the Transkei as a scenic land of Matanzima Transkei dictator in now fraud reality 1.7 ands of wear are starving peasants, thousands vote to su on ooo cower working in subhuman conditions in white South Africa. Contorted response the demands masses The Matanzima TWIStS ano contorts nimselt in order to divert their wrath from him else-at the South African government against which he has made puerile threats of a military attack. All ThIS nas whatever to the Xhosa relevance The which oppress them are not colomarc pur mose ot bondage and exploitation to the South African state and South African captialism. enemy of Matanzima this. He is its direct agent.

In the "free" Transkei his every dictatorsnio nas detail of South Africa's repressive laws added few and besides. Walarzma Is a mul-mon aire who owns a good part of the umited inaustrv in tne rancker.

Paramount chief As a tribal he one is noly all the land. not the only Tine Second in command the government, Minister of "Justice' ana tre second biggest owner land and industry is none other than Matanzima's brother George.

This Tallyi however cannot expand fast enough employ the hundreds thousands of Xhosa workers seek.

ing jobs. would like attract Some end cooza or even the hello aid trom independent black African countries and the Organisation of Alican Unity. Dispel I his is impossible as long as he remains an international parian as the most prominent black collab- orator ot apartheid image ne aims to dispel through his present antics.

He may even want to be off provides half the expenses of his sham state) in order to get inter.

national recognition nuen ne coer not decerve to fool anyone there is a real danger that certain Dispossessed blacks in a rural settlement leaders of African states or even of the Southern African liber ration movements will opportunistically create Wrusons Nean amas "opposition" to apartheid as they have with like Chief Buthelezi, thin whose skin opposition to racism covers the ample flesh collaboration must be ruthlessly Hooration' exposed. Reject The only way for the masses Transkei the the break stranglehold of apartheid to reject their oppressive leaders and develos an ever closer unity with the whole South African working class in the common struggle for overton The cabitalist apartheid state in South Africa.

That struggle will sweep aside all enemies …like ivatanzima hiberation * leaders "struggle It has not yet been revealed whether those failed to officers who overthrow military ruler Siad Barre in coup attempt last week were aiming to shift the direc- tion of Somalia's inter- national alliances The first country in Africa friendship treatey with Soviet Union, Somalia broke with Moscow when the Kremlin last yedi full gave its support to Ethiopia in the Ogaden war.

A frantic search for imper- ialist allies was fruitless and Barre was forced a month ago an with- ignominious

HILO

Ethiopian terri- drawal trom 1o There has been speculation SOCIALIS PRESS, means rat independent of the CP's base look aghast control working class organisations, onleft they their as see of programme and clamouring for the strength- 10] socialist demands to mobilise of the capitalist state ening Italian the the power Moro's assassin- and calling the in workers ated bodyguards "comrades".

overthrow bank- struggle appropriate of repressive President and The however, because, Tupi reaction, ruling Christian institutions Italy's through its support Tory government, the CP has capitalism. Aldo Democratic Party, political 300 itself become been Moro, has now capitalist bodyguard of the given up for dead. state in Italy. At the end of last week his Brigade kidnappers Red Priority issued a communique read: against state The fight "The interrogation working of the repression He is Aldo Moro class and the left is a prority obviously guilty and has been for socialists in Italy sentenced to death" While rejecting the objec- Christian the Already tively provocative methods of Democrats, with the eager left-wing terrorists, and while Communist support of the being vigilant against the real Party (their partner in Italy's wing possibility that right undeclared coalition govern- provocateurs will appear used the Moro ment) have "socialist" disguise, socialists to kidnapping must not concede as a pitiest that the intensify repressive laws and Moro bourgeois state has any right step up state repression of the itself through detenc left. repression. Tories and Italy's The increasing number of As ask themselves the Stalinists class and left wing working "Who next?", and as question forces under attack (including Italy's of the total Red Brigades) secret police to come up with defended. even a lead on Moro's where- month after abouts Dissolution the becomes plain, search police pressures more In total opposition to the state measures are growing.

socialists must CP leaders, has The kidnapping demand not the strene bette head sharp brought to differences on this and 4882y the Communist Party. building armed workers In particular, large sections squads under the CD leader Zaccagnini

OUTLOOK BLEAK FOR

The fallen dictators of Pakistan and India

BHUTTO

now find themselves with very different prospects before them. For Zulfikar Ali Bhutto the future seems to hold out the noose as the only way of political activity in the month could no longer be defended escaping trom prison, before the trial was due to through the agency of bour- while Indira Gandhi can now open. They moved geois politicians. so power colnig once more But huge violent to oust Bhutto, and imposed into her bloodstained hands.

demonstrations have erupted military rule The military regime of support of Since then, General Zia's subsequentiy General Zia-ul Haq which the former Prime Minister ruthlessly regime sup- ousted Bhutto last July has Bhutto brought pressed all demooratic rights was now tried and sentenced him The rigged trial of Bhutto is

JUWC

on une crest or mass ordering the murder of mobilisations of peasants one small but symbol his political demanding land reform, and ically significant act in this opponents. workers demanding Jobs. general repression Conscious of the massive higher labour Bhutto's crimes against the wanes ane unrest such a move would rights. workers and of provoke, Zia first banned all peasant. Pakistan are legion, but they Once his ensconced be avenged by the grandiose pre-election pledges cannot Somalia flirts military servants of the bour- The full of the force geois state. Workers must break from bourgeois state was used to smash up factory occupations those alien class forces which with Peking and prevent land seizures. seek exploit them and to fight for their own indepen- Bhutto stood clearly revealer Zia. as a firm defender of capital- dent interests Bhutto and all their deter- ist interests whether the authors of over He was forced to ease his mined enemies. the coup wanted to renew to attacks by the organised Soviet alliance or objected to opposition of workers Barre's reported wish to do so Yet the crisis of working himself. class leadership in Pakistan, But all this has been some- the dominance and upstaged by Popular Front policies, inev- whaT announcement that only itably resulted hours after the coup attempt diversion of this movement Barre was off on a state visit by the cynical populists to Peking. the right National This is no doubt a new Alliance. example of the opportunism Armed forces of the Chinese bureaucracy's anti-Soviet dipiomacy which weeks alone Confronted with this in the last lew has led friendly hostility, growing mass approaches towards reaction- Bhutto himself was driven to anti-communist regimes call in the armed forces as a di y Burma and Thailand and base of for his support public dictatorial increasingly sialement support for the blatant anti- regime. communist alliance of South Once established the East Asian countries known brink of power, the generals Janata leader Desai as ASEAN recognised that capitalism

GHANA'S REFERENDUM

India: Gandhi regains some

"INICKNAIIONAL

of The plan the military dictatorship led by General Acheampong itself to give more democratic image can have fooled nobody. Ghanaians were asked on April 30 to vote 'Yes' or 'No' General's proposal the (revealed to him, he says, by God in a dream) for "Union Government". Government

UNION

supposed to mean a govern- ment in which, along with the army and the police, all the people also participate through Te resentatives elected as individuals. of In this government consensus" there •national are to be no political parties since "alien Acheampong political traditions* Ghana's and are "the cause of political instability". 1972 coup In the months before Acheampong's reterendum on of traditional this mixture despotism and the corporate it was legal to oppose Stale. the plan and campaign for a "No' vote Acheampong seized power 1972 when he coup in l a overthrew Ghana's last elected government ot loti Buzia, the old rival of Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah, who had headed for the fight independence which came in (Ghana 1957 was the irst In her steady climb towards back power, Indira Gandhi has paused to spare a thought for her fellow less fortunate dictator of former days, and generously suggested he should be that not hanged. Gandhi has legal problems The Shah Com- of her own. mission of Inquiry into the Emergency period is due to publish its report very soon, and this bound to be critical of her severe v conduct. But it is equally certain Janata that the ruling coalition will be unable to act as it had these tindings originally intended. Ine leaders or une govern- ment are trying desperately to put on a show of unity as internal frictions and external pressures are ripping the coalition apart. Demonstrations On the one hand, the elec- adminis- tion of opposition has trations in many states threatened the ability of the government Collidi execute its policies-partic- ramshackle ularly economic plans. But these decorous antag- stand Olls is with the crashing Colliesl wave of demonstrations and has broen across riots that towns cities throughout India in recent weeks. 200 people have been killed and many more

FIASCO

UNION

GOVERNMENT

UNION GOVERNMENT

NO

YES

black African country to get The government, mean- had been put in charge of the huge been allowed to count had issued independence), was himself while. Ireely 1966 by insist in advance on an open quantities of propaganda.

and public count: army and police coup. Lost vote obvious When it became Three organisations, led by that this was impossible if the bourgeois petty supporters It monopolised the front was to win, troops (at least for the moment) of regime pages of all the newspapers, were sent to intimidate parliamentary democracy which it rigidly controls.

Abban who obligingly with than more one party, for Unfortunately disappeared while army were set oppose up to regime, how- Acheampong's Union Government plan. carried out "count" ever, it had foolishly assumed soviet. that all this would be enough Former dictator "Majority" to win. did therefore, One of them was led by a They not, make sufficient plans for Even then they former military dictator only just belatedly converted to smooth and secret rigging of managed it Union Government got a "democracy" a former the ballot. and "majority" minister of Nkrumah. So in the end when the six provinces in All of them suffered from clearly lost the vote, • overall regime ot nine and the They were forced the national figure was only 53% state they were into repression. obvious prevented from issuing most clumsy and yes'. ballot rigging. That traumatic encounter and their meeling "democracy" was quite were broken up by thugs. Isaac Abban who with Judge old sparkle injured in these seriously incidents. lines nave attacked been viciously police, colleges closed down, arrested cemorsilaluis and martial law hundreds, imposed in certain areas.

While these eruptions have their underlying cause in the accumulating political frustra- Indian experienced by the workers and immediate catalysts varieu. Fabricated have been Some cases confrontations spontanicous Bhutto-Ciandhi spares him a thought in the midst of her own legal problems of the sections Indian masses, and the forces The Congress (1) followed Houses of Parliament. But the of the state. gains from apparently inevitable up its sweeping Some show distinct signs with February's elections to bower of Nehru's daughter of having been fabricated by is actually far from assured.

spectacular result in a recent agents provocateurs (such as by-election held at Karnal, in the fighting in the Punjab, Harvana Far from united while others bear the hall- This was area of action inspired and mark particularly hit by the forced The Indian bourgeoisie paid for by both the Janata sterilisation campaign far from united in a belief Party (ongress waged under the brutally that Gandhi would be able to (Indira). Emergency. through the colossal Gandhi is clearly trying to situation such attacks and repression on the ferment a Regarded as victory that she claimed existed when the workers peasalls they objectively require.

Emergency was declared-one of a sustained of Many eyes are no doubt campaign subversion against the elected Janata turning neighbouring gained a majority of 270,000 government and the state.

Pakistan and Bangladesh to over the still united Congress: feed thoughts of a possible enables This, course, 01 her to then attack the Janata this April they held the seat military takeover by only 18,000 votes over the One thing is crystal clear: for its weakness and in- Congress (1). any belief that a Gandhi or a The depth of the Janata's Bhutto is lesser evil than Rhetoric he gauged by the crisis naked dictatorship can lead tall fact that this was generally only to a massive defeat for When highlighted against regarded as a victory for the the masses of south Asia the abysmal record of the coalition which showed that the the tide was perhaps return- Programme zove call. rhetoric of this populist ing in their favour. accomplished These demagogues have oppor- Gandhi's Congress (I) has tunist has regained all its old nothing to offer workers and been recognised as the nOW attraction. official both peasants but broken promises opposition in Acheampong as much as the regime could cope with. Although it intends to go on with its scheme to produce a new constitution from wholly appointed "Constituent Assembly has summarily banned all the organisations which opposed Union Government. Whether Acheampong wil' survive to see his new cons tution in force seems doubt- ful. His clumsy and open viol even the rules he ations.of himself devised are widely and will, therefore,

KOWI

completely fail to provide him with the legitimation ne was seeking. customary

TE DISSOL

of working class organisations and of all political parties therefore, almost certain, be redoubled as he desperate- ly tries to hang in the face of obvious mass hostility. renewed repression and sharp- ening attacks. Their baneful influence can be destroyed only by a consistent fight resolute for the revolutionary socialist programme which can unite workers and peasants in the end their oppres- sion by the overthrow of capitalism. - In brief

ERITREA

The Eritrean Popular Front Liberation has announced that •Ethiopian forces are now using Kussian Mig fighters to drop napalm and fragmentation bombs around the beseiged towns of Asmara and Massawa. The Soviet and Cuban bureaucracies have consistent- maintained that the Eritrean struggles should be resolved by negotiation, and not, as in the Ogaden, by war.

DANISH

WORKERS

FIGHT

- LEADERS

As the international crisis Danish есолют drives the into the doldrums, Stalinist and reformist union leaders their customary are playing role of stifling working class militancy the Metalworkers : Unior efforts are continuine to down on militants in the wake of a strike by Ford garage mechanics last year. About 40 struct in exces demanding an increase government policy rejected an attempted sall-our by officials. The men's Stalinist led unior branch was ordered to now d extraordinary general meeting to expel the strikers from the union "zu stewaros immediate m condemn this call, and at th uneral meeting a crowd of 1,000 workers threw out the expulsio threat, and called for the union to put its efforts into breaking the bargaining Full support was given to the strikers The emniovers then declara that they would not re employ al and the fight turned the strikers, Into one tor rein cement ou remaining 25 fight eventually was defeated. the Metalworker Union leaders are trying to the boot in on their members change

LUIG

enable them expel over the head of the branch, an officials insteac elections. Expelled struggle TAnОТАв is still. takine union expulsions striking restauram place among Kalundborg-Aarhin STaTTIT ferry. strikers' the vard mere bul expelled from union. reinstated after backing from thi local membership, and voted into the leadership of the local branct ine ousue ledders autonue.

to take off the membership files leaders from block and ine new offices. But enterin rank and file opposition to them forced officials the national side the intervene strikers While union bureaucrats Their best to narass wese workers police too • are playing usi part and beating up pickets on the docks and on the ferry itself th labour bureaucracy was struck when the leadership of the bigges Women Workers branch of the Copenhagen Union removed for nepotism and misuse of union funds (for personal increases. ete.. Meanwhile 20 skilled scaffolders who have shut down Their Term since detore GArIsd remain on strike, after 86 fellow complete scaffolders victory over employers last week At the height of the strike the scaffolders organised patrols that scaffolding •ismantiec erected by scabs-and some wen!

attacking scabs throwing scaffold poles into the docks. These sharp expressions of the Denmark class nonion The continuine CrISIS O working class leadership that can the through only construction of Trotskyist These reports indicate yet again the desperate shifts te which the Stalinists have been support for driven by their the repressive military dictat orship in Ethiopia. In next week's Socialist Press we hope to publish a a declaration translation on the intervention of Cuban troops by the Eritrean Popular Liberation Front.

WSL conference offers political lead to youth No handouts in Lib-Lab budget Any worker who expects As a result, a male married 6.6% in March 1974 to 12.5% worker with that Dennis Healey's "give- two children making away" Budget will put more For ave аон earnings, will vind nis pay earnings it on average packet will contain an extra 7½p, gone packet is money in the pay though wife can collect 16.5% Same in for a nasty surprise. another f2. 26.1%. For a low-paid worker on £35 Despite the much adverticed a week take home will pay tax cuts, the combined effects of Lollipops actually go down by 66p a week.

Budget and owner of child allow- measures of Healey's policy mean will mean that workers at this level of inn the will kers As the capitalists' friend The that for thousands of workers take-home pay will stay the same Economist pointed out: paying income tax whereas before "Together the small with or even go down. the budget they would not have The Budget's businessmen, small investor aising of the The done so! goes away with of the lower tax limit and the intro average and low ollipops from this Budget" whereas tor auction or a new lower rate of paid workers the overall propor- means that leve TaX And that workers should tion of earnings taken by the state relieved • IS In line in tax will be less after the Budget with the politics of the Budget.

altocomer and it was immediately before, it coalition taxpayers should pay an average quatet will still be a good deal more than designed of £2 a week less. Laur C it was after last year's budget and the Liberal Party a lance with But at the same time national nearly twice as much as it was in who demanded sops for small insurance contributions have beer March 1974. capitalists incentves under the new system collaborationist profit-sharing which begins this month, Tax gone up schemes, which Healey also tax allowances have been dutifully obliged. Cula ended, to be replaced by new For •a workel The tax reductions, which for • nat the child benefits average earnings the many will prove to be illusory, are Hayable twer natonal overal tax rate has gone up from parent families to the mother.

moteless designed by realey a Instead of fighting for immigrants back the independent interests of They also hope in this the working class, these trade No youth today needs way to divert attention from leaders act to tie the their real aim-to destroy all

UNION

told that Britain, to be working class workers' and like the whole of the employers through their leave the class working capitalist world, faces a agents in the working class- defenceless before the attacks the Labour leaders. of the employers. most serious economic past 12 months But the twin evils of the in lne crisis. and workers in one industry after economic crisis the another have shown their growth of racialism and Youth at school daily to fight fascism cannot success- Warc face the effects of massive controls. fully tought as long as the cut backs in education spend- working class is saddled with ing. Not interested its present leaders. Youth at work face low The task confronting wages and the collaboration workers especially But and leaders like union of union leaders with the Lib- working class youth is build- Jones, Scanlon and Murray, Lab government to head off have new, revolutionary set out to block such struggle for any decent struggles the firemen's leadership in the working as wage. class, capable of leading strike and settle claims within Youth on the dole face a the government's 10% "guide- successful strugle for power future without job. Each lines" opposition to the reform- year tens of thousands ists and Stalinists When it comes who to the are school leavers are unable to faced by working committed to the defence of problems find placed in

WOTK

or are class youth, these bureaucrats cabilalisi "job creation" schemes which Such a leadership just aren't interested. can only keep them temporarily they have only be built through a fight Since no off the dole. intention of fighting the Lib- in the workers' movement for Lab the Trotskyist Transitional government thev have Coalition Programme. nothing to gain from organ- This programme ising as its starting point the and lakes For youth who leave unemployed into the unions.

conditions facing the working home, it is almost impossible With class and Its consciousness, ln aers or the to find decent accomodation labour movement themselves at a reasonable price. spearheading the attack These are the effects of a workers' jobs and living stan- crisis which we not are dards, the fascists an see responsible for. opportunity to recruit youth But the Labour leaders, on the basis of their racist in undeclared an coalition propaganda. with the capitalist Liberal By blaming the crisis on Party, are determined to blacks the fascists try make the working class pay.

fact that the use use And in this they have the crisis is an international crisis PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report full support of the bureau- of the capitalist system and who head the Clals the "simple"

DUSC

unions. of Solution The Economic Crisis and the Way Forward for Youth SUNDAY 7 MAY at 2.00 p.m.

Lecture Room 2 Digbeth Civic Hall

BIRMINGHAM

Credentials (20p) are available to WSL members and supporters from: WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London

NW5 1HR

Photo: Andrew wlard, Report Healey some sudar to sweeter the dir o' a further stage of wage control.

Despite Healey's recent reticence sublem emerged during the Budget debate that all the economic predictions made oy. neater degend on the growth of earnings in the next year being 7% And that implies that Healey is aiming to restrict increases in basic rates to about 4% in a Phase 4 of wage controls. Break coalition The "giveaway" budget is thus no more than a Lib-Lab giveaway smal from the ousiness pockets of the workers. Labour Party members and trade demand must Labour MPs vote against these measures, and fight to break reactionary LID-Lab coalition that spawned them and advances of series demands-sliding scale work sharing on full wages, pay, which workers immediately fight but which lead to the all one conclusion-the need for the working class to take power and establish socialist society Cheerleader No existing socialist youth movement is prepared to lead the fight to build a Trotskyist leadership The Labour Party Young Socialists--the largest socialist vouth movement in Britain- supports the Transitional Pro- But in words acts nothing oracuice more than left' cheerleader for the right wing coalitionist Labour leaders. "Give us our head, put us on show and we will win the the allegiance the enthusiasm young people • Give us the means and we will broaden Labour's support; bring in youth in their thousands". Despite the large number of police present at Saturday's NF 'public meeting' (to which onls' 30 people were admitted from the public) a number of anti-fascists were assaulted by fascist thugs.

NFP

PHOTO:

Bidwell Posters, leaflets and badges advertising the "Carnival Against the Nazis' organised by the Anti-Nazi League are being churned out by the thousand and distributed to workers and youth. The Anti-Nazi League has set itself the objective of organisin possible scale widest That was Labour Party National Youth Officer Andy Bevan speaking at the recent Labour Party Young Socialists conference at which no mention was made of the coalition and no criticism was made of the Labour 'left' MPs who despite their talk, solidly in Parliament for the coalition and its anti-working class policies. The Workers Socialist League recognises the central role that young workers will play in the construction of a new, revolutionary leadership in the workers movement that is why the meeting on May 7 will be more than just a meeting. It will be a major step in the fight establish national youth in political solid- arity with the WSL We urge all young workers attend the meeting and discusss the need leadership and the programme on which that leadership must fight". Can the ANL destroy the the dydilsl probadanor and activities of the Nazis in Britain order "to alert this country Elit growing New menace

COT

tne To this end it has thrown wide its doors to any personalities from politics, sport words entertainment arts who "irrespective other agree to unite to Cuter ences oppose the Nazis. Can this approach vield the desired results? It is possible to defeat and destroy fascism through propaganda: the fascists feed off frustration real material problems of tomoment and social Housine snortated service cuts , can a diverse group. ing well-intentioned Liberals, tootball manaders. Labourites anc academics provide a clear answer?

All the Tirms our view that the cannot Prominent among the sponsors listanile joined four other Labourites and Tories fIVe Select a rariamentary Committee report proposing stringent racialist measures siu tramoration ano crack cowr immigrant workers already in Britain. 'Victory' The ANL cannot consistently and clearly the oppose NF's vicious acialisiy WITt suCi elements in its midst Nor can the ANL sharply take up the was in which the NF anti strike and 'law and order' propa- ganda threatens democratic rights of the trade union spokesman

ANI

Peter Hain was among the first to welcome victory month wall on rarenes imooser by Lib-Lab Home Secretary Rees Under this ban workers organ- isations have been prevented from marchin anywhere _London and huge squads of police turned out to protect an NF mass canvass in the litord bv-election heavy representation non socialist forces renders the

ANL

Hicaudult or presenting a socialist programme in defence e of jobs, wages and the social services It cannot ever i can Tor tne break ing the Lib-Lab 01 since leading Liberal Lord Avebury and ourers dre soonsors. Defence squads emphasis on And its mere propaganda and publicity against the fascists means that the

ANL

does not the auvuvait

MOS

against covious torm or detence the very real by National Front and other fascis immigrant com. grouping: munities and the labour move ment. supporters ror those who insist that the fascists must fought 'here nOW the way to do this is to reov that organise workers defence squads to deal with fascist attacks Unior bishop: bureaucrats will not stop NF ane bolticians thugs beating up black youth and workers. No • will the police who from acteno counter-demonstrators But serious preparation in the trade workers politica parties, tenants associations and youth organisations hall them Well-meaning We call for defence squads to set factories, workplaces and working class estates. the

ANL

oine organisation would tight for suct policy then Workers Socialist League would fight alongside it on this issue But all the signs are that the Anti-Nazi League vu ware avoearance-s a move ment restricted by compos ition and its avoidance of politics but quite well-meaning inadequate badge-selling and poster-pasting jamboree.

Labour candidates SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 19 April, 1978

LABOUR

PARTY

The victory of right wing Labourite Donald the Garscadden Dewar by-election is not so much an endorsement Labour's treacherous policies as a clear rejection of Toryism and its nationalist counterpart. This fight must now carried much further by Scottish struggle the WOTKES-InL remove both "left. rioint wing" supporters of the Lib-Lab alle CorLUl principled anbArNilO •eren e workers' independent interests.

the Com- Cal Rabis munist Party,

YADISI

LaOOu Party and Socialist Workers Party in Garscadden really contributed While for workers up and down the the budget was an for occasion no more than a yawn, a shrug, or at best a sigh of relief at the static price of drinks, Labour's 'left' MPs seem to have been much more enthusiastic. Coventry MP Audrey Wise, for instance, who joined with Jeff Rooker to fellow 'left' vote against a provision in last apparently year's Dundel. declared herself completely convertea to healeyism in the Party Parliamentary

LO UT

following meting the Budget Overjoyed "listened to Healey had the voice of the Labour movement", crooned ecstatic Wise, who confessed that until this Budget she had him with regarded pessillisil. Hearing that he had won the Wise seal of approval- recognising that in this she spoke for every one the Tribune Group of grovellers-Healey was appar- entlv overioyed Astonishment According labour Week/y's sycophantic reporter: spoke, Mr "As face registered Healey's turn surprise, astonishment, Labour reprieve at Garscadden notning to tais struggle elner terms of political clarity or alternative programme. similal Stuation seem. certain to prevail in the forth- coming by election, where five "lett wing alternative.

LaoUr are caci acoina thelr own brand of confusion and opportunism to the situation.

Little gained Workers Revolutionary Party, Unity.

SWP,

Socialist Party of Great Britain and "'South candidates will jostle eachother on the doorsteps and main streets While there is no objoction in principle to standing revolution.

Left MPs lap up budget dregs "And when she said that she had regarded him with until some pessim ism Budget, Mr Healey was said to have removed his spectacles and looked as if he about burst into tears... Tears laughter, no doubt, since Healey realised that, without so much as a shot fired he had just foisted yet another Tory Budget onto endlessly spineless Parliamentary Labour Party.

"Achierement" Indeed only 30 Labourites even bothered to turn up to the meting and. according to Labour Weekly "none of the speakers failed to commend Mr. Healey 's general achieve- ment". "'achievement" This having attained COlSt II of post-war TecOTe He Ves unemployment on top of an all-time record cut in ine living standards of the work- the Class 11l culse rigid years of watc controls. Incapable The fact that Wise and the Tribune Group now sing the pralses or inese poncies in unison with Labour's extreme right wing Manatesto (irour clear proof to those that still need proof that Labour's 'left' MPs of incapable are offering an independent lead Local council elections are taking place through- out the country on May 4. We reprint below the local Labour manifesto from Ray candidates there seems little to gained from it this be at stage. Political struggles The WSL stands by its policy vote the toi caline Labour candidate, coupled with a political struggle in the Labour and trade movement reak the LID-Lao conition ana remove its defeders. Experience has shown that it will be in the process of this kind of practical fight, and not protest vote

SUSIY

LObLIT against Lib-Lab betravałs. o hon will convincad broak. from construct a reval. utionary teabe siip tu tho wastot Those 'lefts' that refuse to fight for the interests of the working class and bloc with the Labour leaders in support of the Lib-Lab calition and the politics of class collabor- ation must be removed, along with their right wing masters.

A revoluționary leadership within the In USI OutI working class movement, on a programme to defend jobs, and conditions WO KIe workers' living standards.

Unund Labour Weekly is up in arms witch-hunting Tory over a new booklet entitled Hid den "Tne Face of the Labour Party".

centre or Articier asotentl the allegation that an "unchecked Communist Cons- rotskyist and inside olracy unacrwdy Party. dillılalıyu bilaldımc Marxists in sheep's clothing are Tony Benn, Joan Maynard, ally syd be teve rol not. t Ory fight coalition will fight for the followi Massey and John Plant in the begin Kensington The candidates see thei policies. ward. for campaign as part of an effort *Opposition to all cuts Council East Newham in defeat the Lib-Lab housing, education and hea London coalition, and also as a contin- We think this indicates the services whether C InS uation of the fight, in which locally or nationally. kind of policies wallck tole hainst their Tory Mey *Committees the necessary fight back can Tory against their and housewives should be TOler up to determine the need i Reg Prentice. Next week we hope expanded programmes publish an interview with one HOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report puDIIC serces

SUTCC

of the candidates explaining mittees should ensure these policies more fully.

inflation not allower erode the public services.

*Support for the campai the closure aralasi We are standing tor the Plaistow Hospital. Sare Newham Council as an exten- Newham hospitals. amona inose atrack crash programme labour movement against our public bulding in

COOD

Tory MP Reginald Prentice. the buildi ation Prentice has now shown him- unions, provide self in his true colours, but he housing and to replace out has left many friends in the date school buildings. Expa Labour Party. The fight the Council's direct si or against them must continue.

department to meet we belleve inat tnere Is a need for MPs and Councillors oro allil. *Opposition to the T0 who do not collaborate with housi

GLC

to build the of the trade DaIS cuclc for sale in Docklands sh Dewar union and labour movement.

families ot Lib-Lab The

ROTMIOS

presen waiting for council housing coalition arrangement must *Freeze all Council rent be broken at once. *Opposition This collaboration has now racialism Refuse the uSe led to the horrifying Select buldings to Councı Committee Report on Immi- National Front and the gration, attacking immigrant community. derena mobilisation of the MADON IO SOg IASCi LUTarl the collabołators HOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report ever necessary and to improve educatio. The fight for real socialist for Newh: mactines mobilise the police. children. class working wage altst *Buy out the private lai control and cuts is the This is the only way lords. way to defeat the reductions maintain and impro in the standard of living that standards housing we have seen in the last few should campai Counci years. against having The time has come tor ? compensation to landioi fight against calitionism and who are not in need. against the cuts. If elected we SNP candidate Bovey

PRESS GANG

Wooden lady Nor did it stop the Daily It's little wonder that serious. By this time the parti Mirror and the Daily Mail most of the capitalist insult swapping in the pr squaring up to eachother like scornful press was SO rival football fans had subsided arguing the broadcast of about serious atten about a penalty decision.

Parliament. For the Mirror the Labour to assess the budget's eff Their room Francis Cai bureaucracy had produced was made by for manoeuvre to bill the cross in the Guardian perfection -a sort of higher proceedings as Notebo fiscal 'Sound of Music" with Her Economic than they are has been for the day was headed 1 something for all the family drastically reduced. The Mail budget time bomb' and fo same saw ne proposals as being more like a cast that the increased spe At the end of Healey's would result fr double horror • bill. Its attacks ing that droning budget pertormance, Telegraph the budget would bring a made the and Thatcher sounded as ll sne had woken up suddenly and Express look soft on social sharper crisis. democracy. was not sure where she was.

Her conclusion was Financial The certain fact on The Times, only the best Healey could hr which she could fix her mind having less need than Mrs for was a run on the pound was that she had not seen the seen to be damp down the mor acnet cautious and budget hetore hostile gave supply. But even this wo bring hirum ilc méet. One should have some lukewarm approval to most The budget of the measures. sympath! tor her. run produced by Healey But later in the week the would produce a cisis in patient took a turn for the probably almost exactly the gilt edged market, Tories would squeeze on living standard the worse. Sallic ds The trade figures were the have introduced. pay revolt, a need to jack worst for ages, which was not It is not easy to produce a interest rates" well received by the press With that kind of ass stinging attack on d budget Whitehall's descrip- which is obviously designed despite Cairncross adri ment tion of the steadily worsening as little as possible in for an e3 Healey go capitalism will of the figures as 'erratic" the hope that election Inflation continued to fall.

not get any sicker. Opportunities for anot This did but production figures not stop setpiece budger show. Thatcher's speech being no and cheered from the so wed

SIPTES

onslaught increase -a fact which makes hailed as a savage lines. have been consdera strident of the Tory press.

Healey the the high import figures reduced. •trata halene, ot

THE MATERIALIST

material world The nnot be understood thout grasping the fact at all things are in a of movement, ocess growth and ange, cay. This was the lesson of last ek's article on dialectical scientific terialism -the the thod dry Safe tradictory material forces hin things that produce se changes. Neither objects nor events ula be seen as stationary.

%,. devoid manent ernal contradictions. And just as matter itself been shown by scientific have its calcul ernal laws by which atoms sub-particles move, change-the historical vement of material forces rime-takes place according understandable material s and causes. Major advance Historical materialism application of the lectical method of analysis understanding tory, and marks the major ance of Marxism beyond aimless idealist and history ceptions ot amed up by bourgeois torians. Before Marx, history was as simply a matter of a succession of individual nts-in the words of Henry "one damned thing er another" All "analysis" centred on role of individual states- There or kings. od kings, bad kings, gressive kings or reaction- kings, great men ked men. And behind the actions of se individuals was posedly nothing more sub- ntial than individual ughts and ideas. Apparent- and waged Wais itinents ravaged for the of dens als. Good King Religion was seen as the atest-and most baffling. "civil Wars and of all. rs" were apparently fought rely because religious According to this kind of antile analysis the English il war was battle ween the supporters of the king who had ringlets lace collars and who

VIEW OF

HISTORY

Scientific analysis of social change By Hilary Jennings The capitalist system, like all class society is based on want and scarcity supported the established Marxists we al c church, and the supporters of engaged ceaselessly in the Cromwell who had short hair Class struggle it is theretore important that we understand and warts and were puritanical fanatics. the history, the movement of That the English the class the and sulustic stages of its historic develop- represented revolution struggle between two ment. for classes their obposed Division and that the religious ideas were mere Modern capitalism of those class system that depends upon a interests denied by bour- division between those who geols thought. sell their labour power For the bourgeoisie the order to live and those who world is full of individuals in unending competition.

DUV

the and between makers takers of profit-labour and Class struggle capital. This form of social organ- For a Marxist the basic isation and class struggle has division of the world is a not always existed, nor is it in material division between way or ally different social classes and, as but class struggle natural: Marx says in the Communist itself is age old Manifesto: Class conflict and class "The history of all hither- society did not fall from the to existing society skies nor rise from the seas; history of class struggle.

they time This is the cornerstone of social form, of the relations of view of history. It a Marxist of particular does not diminish the signif- historical stage of economic of individuals, of development. for actions, as inaividual Marx states in The Eighteenth Fetters Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte: "Men make their own history, they do What distinguishes

HOE

make it just as they please.

from They do make human beings produce That 110e their means of subsistence- by crem ances CHosen themselves but under circum- shelter clothing and stances directly encountered, and produce these human and transmitted from socially with the past" beings Karl Marx also in society and as Franz Menring argued "The basis of all social community the form of production of material life."

In other words, who and are derives tron

VUL

and how you produce. what materially possible example, for an intellec- for tual, free-thinking inventor spontantously from a society based on the hunting of animals with sticks and stones. Material changes A certain wav of lite of social organisation thought deriveś from each organis- particular type of ation of production. Changes in ways of life or patterns of thought do not therefore merely emerge in themselves but result of material changes in the organisation of produc- tion and in the class relations which are the social expres- sion of the economic basis of society. Marx puts it thus: The division of society "In the social production and possessing non- which they possessing classes rests on the men carry on of each historical enter into definite relations inability that and indispensable stage of development of the are independent of their will; to supply productive forces wealth in terms of commod- these relations of production correspond to a definite stage ities in quantities sufficient to of development of their eliminate scarcity and want.

of Only the massive technol- powers production. ogical advances made in the of The totality course of the epoch of capit- tnese of relations production alism now make it materially constitutes the economic possible to enviseage a social structure of society-the real system in which want could foundation, on which legal be eliminated. But the fetters of capital- ponnical superstructures to which definite arise and ism's requirement to produce forms of social conscious- only for profit and not to ness correspond". satisfy social need now Preface to a Contribution 1o obstruct such a development the Critique Political Economy. Struggle Opposition To go forward to unleash the material forces developed under capitalism means that While the major factor in the propertyless proletariat the movement ot history 1s the class struggle, the material must mobilise in revolution- ary struggle internationally to basis or lnal struggie is lne economic division of society expropriate and the capitalist class that owns into those who own the of production and the means of production In place of capitalism those who do not. be forms which this socialist system must established, with the mission division has taken have varied of expanding and developing during the course of human history: production in order to pave the way for a classless, com- "Freeman and slave, munist society. patrician and plebian, lord guild master and serf, and Not possible journeyman. word, oppressor oppressed, and Unlike animals, people do stood in constant opposition not live merely in nature but to one another, carried on an uninterrupted now hidden. now open fight, a fight that each time ended either revolutionary reconstitution ot society at large, or in the common ruin of the contend Communist Manifesto. The Catholic church is ideal for The form of conflict and struggle alters as the produc- tive basis of society alters.

struggle, the of material interests the opposing groups are reflected in what Marx calls the super- structure of society. are all the legal, philosophical, religious and word, ideological ina expressions of the basic econ- omic divisions. Thus the law under capit- alism 15 based notion of private property which is the basis of capitalist production. The bourgeois family unit exists as the mode of organ- isation of sexuality and child- care which is appropriate to capitalist production, both in terms of the inheritance of male property in the line (which requires monogamous marriage to prove paternity): the forcing of children into acceptance of their roles in socicty: and as the domestic unit which at minimum cost to the employer prepares the male worker tor sale of his labour power

The religious beliefs which have developed unluck capitalism are those which sanction individual competitiveness. examples the "the reveal fact that ruling ideas of alt y d hierarchical regimes he ideas of the ruling class" particular sets of ina inat deas flourish particular imes

CADICSSOHS

Materialist vision Thus we begin to see that changes ideas. levelopment of new concepts are a response to material the of hanges production. 'The mode of production if material life conditions the eneral ot process social. political and intellectual life.

t is not the consciousness of nen determines their their xistence, but social xistence that determines heir consciousness." Critique Political This materialist vision is a irect challenge to the idealist iew that it is people's ideals chich shape their nature and hich move history. For this reason the very arms idealism" and 'material- cause nisunderstanding since bourgeois speech licy ale always almost used in different sense. Engels shows this clearly in Ludwig Feuerbach and the End Classical Philosophy: "By the word materialism, philistine understands The gluttony, drunkenness, lust of the flesh, cupidity, arrogance, avarice, covetousness, profit hunting and stock exchange swindling -in short, all the filthy vices in which he himself indulges By the word Drivale. idealism, he understands the universal vultue philanthropy, and in general, a 'better world' of which he boasts before others but which he himself the utmost believes oniy as long as he is undergoing the hang- over bankruptcy conse- quent his Custonary 'materialist' It is excesses. his then sings 'What is man? favourite song, - Half beast, half angel'.

Mehring in 1893 added his own comment on the distinc- between bourgeois

TION

idealism and the pursuit of a principled goal: words metaphorical sense, historical materialism high moral Engels idealism, it invariably brings with poverty, perse- individual born into and every makes his washer- the richest weaver o earthly expectations 1l1all goods, oI lal sinecures, possible the of decorations merit, titles He W trades, change and honours. The distinction philosophy therefore the express interests of between mulerialisi that declares the SCHOOl clearly objective world of organising another, that that man's

MOSSES

thoughts are primary and that the is some kind of these of "At stage development, material The productive society into the But the idealist of cAstills merely production apparently diverse thing in expresses legal rengions. Through and framework which they From of develop- ditterent Lne social struggle for varying The the economic lead

SOULICI

whose the whole tormation In such trans- "terrific They formations always storms they distinguish causes could not "lose economic conditions production which determined selves of natural the science, and the legal, and people philosophic-in short, Ineir ideological which could not men become conscious Their conse- individual what he 1S 61l by its consciousness, on the Hall. cullualy. by must be ot material Contractors today between the of production. earth's No

SOCI

Is evel atmosphere. which it aucive sufficient have been religious matured

CASIC ICC

old society" Critique Political Economy within the caste The of system in India where cach establish- capitalism this process We the come which have authors whole discuss. of everything lord's land or allowed to his tha

DOUCHON

the oi king. market, and exchange of Such employed class them from and increase uucave wealth New

JOULES

Wele opened up, techniques unlocked develop- ment printing press and the material Latin into r.ngilsh. For sections of society to exploit these ogy them were increasingly material obstacle to the most advanced of the rising conflict with the ideology of Charles I-social contradictions cost him his head climate of competitive capit- Church. alism, in a way that no other system could have provided forced at that point of time. The Reformation insists on his yet «ovancer mos polarised of class soriety. conception of progress The class, the on enterprise upheld by the absolute solution its material problems living standards, sector of propertied unemploy- society English overntowa accumulate geolsie, monarchy, kevolution profit. within the context ot the

SYSICIN

the the only consistently revolutionary 17th 1n Ine Century, not complete and until in Reform ise the mentary struggle

OVE OU

expanded and capitalism, ap paralus. geoisie. and socialist In a materia the reins of power the absolute the early austocials struggle not between opposed classes but of ment plouuctive „orCes. all. Scientific and technical skills flourished in the early

COMMU

The Paris Commune 1871-the first major proletarian threat to capitalist rule

IN REVIEW

BLAKE: THE

REBEL ARTIST

David Whitfield reviews the Tate Gallery exhibition of prints and poetry by William Blake. Admission to exhibition is 50p.

French The great Revolution of 1789 con- vulsed and transformed the entire world. Revol- had utionary ideas exploded in a language that nobody could fail to understand. Throughout Europe, the radical bourgeoisie looked to France as an inspiration-and Tyrannicai i an example. trembled, and monarchs churchmen made their peace with god. Shock The shock was no less severe in England, where the middle class had already claim to power a slakeu its century before. Tories spluttered in gibber- ing and the state rage, unleashed packs of spies to infiltrate the secret reVOLU- somenes ol artisans, workmen and petty bourgeois Hired mobs and 'agents dragon, great red provocateurs' did much to the crowns woon ms reads. wreck

WOK

groups. liberty. they were as helpless AlIT For generations of English as King the Canute to stav writers, it stood as the rally- spontaneous wave of enthus- ing point for all apostles of iasm that swept through the freedom and democracy. Most were later to disown the of their youth aruoul New age and, like Wordsworth, took on respectably with madle The revolutionary age by cashing their ballads and political principles. for Welc financial security. along with the political of Tom writings Paine, and other radicals and atheists.

Disillusionment Artists did not hold aloof from the general ferment, and A very few struggled like Shelley develop their work many hailed to French Revolution as the political ideas when progress and degeneration of of r dawning age

BOOKS

By Leon Trotsky THE BASIC WRITINGS OF TROTSKY - Edited by Irving Howe. £3.95 plus 30p pứp

THE STALIN SCHOOL OF FALSIFICATION

New Park Edition €1.50 plus 30p p&p

THE TRANSITIONAL PROGRAMME

With a glossary 30p plus 10p p&p.

ON THE TRADE UNIONS

Pathfinder, 90p plus 10p p&p.

Available from WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR.

'And there appeared another wonder in neaven; and Denoia a having seven heads and ten horns, and seven the revolution brought bitter disillusionment. Fervent belief of But it is the work William Blake which gave the clearest expression in English those forces which erupted in the Paris of 1789.

Born in 1757, Blake lived through experience of ine both the American and the French revolutions. When he 1827. the Bourbon alea in monarchy had long been re- established in France. For all the political defeats betrayals this and period, he never two ulell abandoned his fervent belief in the ideal of liberty that had pervaded the rhetoric of the revolutio malicious Whether from irony stupidity, perverse the British bourgeoisie has selected some of Blake's verse to pompously chant in one of its patriotec anthems. stifling evel of school dreariness assemblies is not enough to deaden the power the writing in 'Jerusalem'. Blake's lifetime was not of simply period great political upheaval. Patronage The historical major moments were themselves the product of deeper transform- ations, which were to have profound implic- even ations for artists. of the This was age the Industrial Revolution, and its effects were not confined to those directly involved in the and industrial factories towns. capitalism expanded, the market economy and exchange production tol dominate in every came to sphere of economic activity.

Art was no exception artists had the past, gained their living from the patronage of wealthy aristo- By a lengthy and complex process, this system broke down into a situation where the artist was fundamentally able to sell free, products competitive market. This development had a traumatic effect every sphere of artistic production It was the real cause of many suicide and manus 'tragic' early death. Blake escaped either fate, but constantiv at the of the mercy same hostile circumstances. 'Eccentric' To sell his art to a wide audience, he needed But the of publicity. elite and their favourites patrons was still sufficiently power- ful to and dismiss exclude work so 'eccentric' as Blake's.

this situation was vehement: "The Enquiry England has is not whether Man Talents Genius, But and and wiener Polite and a Virtuous Ass and obedient to Noblemen's and Science Opinions in Art If he is, he is a Good Man. If Not, he must be Starved" major part of Blake's The of work

LOOK

etchings of his own texts with his own illustrations. These were subsequently coloured.

Almost all his writing was produced in way-text and graphic layout were con- ceived together, and ally attempt to separate them out severely weakens the impact of either. In editions of his poetry alone, the 'prophetic books' of unrelieved masses type that create an inevitable impression of congestion Seen in their original form, immediate all power and compulsion. Vivid images The mythological types and that Blake Tuardlicks used to express his vision of human history become vivid images rather than the turgid often seem in bald print.

aest went large, and peering at them under glass frames in the Tate exhibition not the best way to view them. How- by offered bourgeois publishers luxuriously The exhibition also includes range wilt Blake's other work: oil paint- ings, water colours and biblical both of "Times on times he divided and measur'd Space by space in his ninefold darkness, unseen. unknown scenes and for the writing of from the biblical Apocalypse, the his presentation of ollite poets of Intensity British colonial oppression.

not simply This It appears to have been question their political laid out with the sole aim of produced by content -1t cramming as much material as aspect of their tech- every available possible into nical execution.

TOTT

ana and this causes minor of the his drawing frustrations at almost every human body, , Blake was able turn. strength But caged such tuit vigour which characterised conditions, of some test the master picke. works still have the power Renaissance communicate a thrill of His colouring never excitement. gaudy or flashy but has the That convevs the brilliance and the delicacy of with which Blake interisity sunrise on a clear dav experienced the social and political revolutions of his Boundless energy age (When he imagined his When the Sun All this is bound up within critics asking, forms and shapings rises, do you not see a round that are powerfully compressed, dish of tire somewhat like a Guinea?', Blake's reply was: giving an overwhelming sense of boundless energy about to Innum- on no, no, l see an of the burst forth from the confines erable company of established order. Heavenly host crying 'Holy Holy, is the Lord God This exhibition Holy, for Almighty'') • some Juvaluddic understanding of the power of the bourgeoisie in its revol- Enthusiasm utionary youth. The hatred of tyranny and But even simply as energetic enthusiasm for colection ot artistic product.

liberty which were expressed it is an experience that should in the storming of the Bastille not be missed by any of our can be found again in Blake's readers who can attord SUp and an hour at the Tate. depictions of the monsters "Enslar'd, the Daughters of Albion weep; a trembling lamentation Upon their mountains; in their valleys, sighs towards America.

SOCIALIST PRESS, W'ednesdar 19 April, 1978

OUR

Technology represents tionary. the accumulated experience of humanity's see was that the struggle to achieve mastery over nature. the future It is the knowledge of how into the tools of liberation.

Capitalism to apply the tools with which human labour can transform millions human nature into uselui objects to insery meet our needs and desires.

ation. But technology does not exist independently history, and its value can only be assessed by analysing the But at the part that it plays in social life.

forces The growth capitalism OI extent that was completely bound up technol- Chornous ogical advances of the Indus- achieved at that stage trial Revolution. all capitalism BV using new machinery and new processes, the rising progressive this early phase. class of industrial employers was able to produce goods on do not enter into production scale barely dreamed before. from humanist motives. Their Dominance witnin It was the developments in primarily because they physical science and engineer- satisfy human ing which gave them the basis because they can be sold to to introduce factory produc- profits realise tion, gain capitalists. dominance over the market.

But to gain this position, tion could not the capitalists needed utilise technological advances employ human labour. that in a W d They did with SO humanity as a whole. vengeance. for ICLUIll virtually ceaseless Major obstacle in conditions, workers received were wares It was even scarcely enough to keep them distort more alive slums of the real gains which had already Lne been made. reacting against this Inevitably situation, destroyed passed Uvel their precarious stability phase

DLIC

HALO

smallholders the former society, some further Luc groups began campaigns the productive forces. machine-breaking. conflicts within Reactionary grounded in competition for markets and But despite the strengths of this militancy, such a res- of crippling severity ponse was essence reac-

POLICIES

Workers and technology ist decay, these same contra- What the Luddites did not dictions create trade wars and machines, thrust the whole of humanity which today were the instru- into global warfare. ments of oppression, could in Capitalism offer can the be world no prospect but that of barbarism in every area of plunged social life. abyss Yet even in this period bourgeois and degrad- class rule still permits certain advances technology to be employed.

Progressive As the pressures to gain markets capitalists same time it frantically for ways to had developed the productive seeK their commodities mankind to more cheaply. other More sophisticated economic system could have machine f computerisation, use transistors its barbarities, advanced circuitry or other overall played metnods may give tnem tne historical role in opportunity to undercut their rivals and win control of the But capitalists did not, and markets. Class issues Commodities are produced But these developments capitalism not cannot be detached from the can reality of history, and viewed needs, idealistic terms as purely "progressive' for individual They take place within class society, and in Such a system of produc- context of the class struggle to they inevitably become class issues. benefitted Such techniques are intro- duced only when they further the interests of the individual capitalists concerned This shown clearly forced to enough by the of actions and more the companies in suppressing and sabotaging certain dis- Luvees capitalism Where their sole aim is to from a progres- prevent other concerns from its undermining their own major obstacle to trading position, they will of regularly buy up rights from inventors--and then not even ne anarchy and perpetual utilise them for themselves!

Unemployment. profits lead crises But these grotesque episodes are only one aspect In the epoch of imperial- of the situation. Where technology is introduced, it does not come but attended done by parallel developments. Employers gladly seize the chance of such upheavals to force through speed-up disguised forms, and generally worsen working conditions to their own advantage. But above all such changes herald unemployment. Machinery with higher capacity for Out Dul now installed so as to provide the commodities for new and expanding markets. The capitalist's markets saturated, are and contracting as the crisis grips siili nardcr. Cheaper production Technical advances can improve the life of all If the plant is more in the future. efficient, but output remains stable, course less then ol nours of work are available, workers are then work sharing on full pay for uccued production. Such shift must be established under the makes economic sense only if control of elected workers' the employer can reduce the committees. worktorce. Where. a quick killing on confined to one factory. It is the markel the general necessary before competitors can which unemployed follow suit, then employers employed workers must unite Will shed labour' by declaring to combat all unemployment.

immediate redundancies. Where management refuse to concede this demand their Work sharing pleas and protestations must be met with the demand that Where the advantages are thev to be gained in the longer and prove their inability term, then they can take the pay. softer option and argue for that favourite ploy of union 'Bankruptcy' bureaucrats, natura Whether their claims that waslage This is simply a bourgeois 'bankruptcy' cuphemism for the long-term are genuine or not. we fight destruction of jobs. alongside these demands for Our answer to both these the 2l3te is clear and unequit- C.::0:02% ..... Page y Obsolete plant outside Leyland's Cowley fact Many hands make light work-but capitalism now fetters changes that might benefit workers Industrial Revolution. But to employ these gains to its profit, it was forced to employ wage labour, and so created in the proletariat the class would bring about the downfall of bour- geois rule. Workers have no interest perpetuating capitalism. Socialism alone can satisfy their demands by developing the productive forces to the stage where universal scarcity and want can be abolished.

Historic role In that development, the technological advances made through history will be fully employed within a planned economy to benefit humanity as a whole. As the necessary goods are produced inter. national needs, then further innovations will release workers from these labours to develop their full human potential in every area of life.

If it is to mean that fewer Technology will then begin to fulfil its historic role, which is not to enslave men and women but liberate them From the shopfloor or the This is not a demand to be dole queue such a prospect may seem a utopian mirage.

demand with and Revolution But the struggle for socialist can be revolution advanced even from today's conditions and today's struggles for lesser demands.

open all their accounts By mobilising workers as a to class with its own indepen- interests, dent the fight against the attacks made with new technology by the bour- geoisie is an integral and vital part of that battle, and the threatens them Trotskyist programme of transitional demands the key were to place in the hands

March with us on

MAY DAY

MARCH-from Charing Cross Embankment (Cleopatra's Needle), 1pm, Monday 1 May WSL PUBLIC MEETING-Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, 4 pm, after the march.

OUT NOW

Trotskyism Today ISSUE No. 2 Includes Aspects of the History of the Fourth International British Trotskyism in World War II Marxism v. Socialist Feminism Stalinism in Bulgaria Price 50p plus 12p p&p from WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR The Workers Socialist League is a Trotskyist organisation fighting to construct a principled revolutionary leadership in the working class in Britain and internationally, and for the recon- struction of the Trotskyist Fourth Internation- al on the basis of the Transitional Programme.

The WL fights at every step against the existing leaders of the trade unions and the Labour Party - now firmly harnessed to the bourgeois politicians of the Liberal Party in an unspoken coalition arrangement.

Against their policies of class collaboration we put forward instead a programme which points to the independent class interests of the working class, its need to organise indep- endently to overthrow capitalism, destroy its repressive state machinery establish a and socialist planned economy.

Only in this way can workers resolve today's problems of tumbling living standards, mass unemployment, slashed social services, racial, national and sexual oppression.

For more details on the WSL and its work, fill in the form below. Name. Address. Trade Union/Occupation. Send to WSL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NWS IHR Public Meeting

STILL AVAILABLE

Oxford "How we fight youth unemployment" riday April 21, 8.00pm A WSL Youth Pamphlet Ast Oxford Community Centre Price 10p plus 7p p&p Princes St. From: WSL, 31, The Nursery Campaign Dartmouth Park Hill, ed the fight against the London NW5 1HR cuts

SOCIALIST

PRESS *

.£2.20 SS.50 . £10.00 I like to receive.. issues. I enclose the sum of £.

Send to: Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill London NWS 1HR Subscribe! Lant Tru

INDUSTRIAL

Bonus plan to slash jobs in Leyland For some time now in order to force workers into British arguing for gang-cuts in order employers, to maintain their bonus. through the Lib-Lab Ihis is because there are government and the right only two ways the bonus can wing in the trade unions, increased. Canel have been pressing for production is increased-at a time where declining world workers to accept markets are the rule-or by incentive schemes. cutting the number of man Yet these sa me bureau. hours, through gang CuLS which reduce the number of crals nave al lne same ume felt obliged to bemoan the jobs. high level ol unemployment even while pressing schemes Consultative that add to it. The One of these schemes proposed Leyland British scheme would operate on a that advocated by plant basis-thus Leyland management. Two ensuring that only plant convenors and

WECK

ago li was lillowil oul 2-1 majority in a ballot not individual sections have OY BLMC workers. any control. But But even convenors would since the union national negotiating commit- on v have a consultative role of Leyland's since none tee has relused to oppose the principle, and decisions could be challenged scheme on All proposals and all monitor- Levland will certain v back with it in slightly ing would be in the hands of rearranged form, it is worth management alone No bonus would be paid technique examining the for through which aims loss production - attacking shop floor organis- whether this be the fault of ation, imposing speed-up and the company or trade unions Whether cutting jobs. of shortages components or industrial dis- "Trial period" putes stop prouuction. Leyland declares that "bonus The scheme proposed cannot be paid unless it is "trial period" of six months. earned" No doubt this would operate The basis of the scheme the same one would be manning levels arbi- "trial period" for the worker trarily decided by Industrial participation scheme-where Engineers. This would assert most workers never had the management's complete right chance of a second vote. and eraken achieves During initial trial weaken power period the Leyland prudently shop stewards in each section proposed to leave out a clause will surpalales lal workers Monthly basis have to increase wolO production by 12% The bonuses would be three calculated on the relationship months achieve the same bonus as in between the 'allowable the previous quarter: hours agreed by Industrial There is little doubt that Engineers and actual Tine Leyland intend hours paid. to use clause for escalating speed-up Indirect workers, provided Workers learing Cowles Assembly Plant-a typical month might mean 25p per weck bonus!

NEWS

they accepted I.E. manning levels, would same bonus as direct workers.

Alla, lo ensure Inat it Is completely out of the control of the shop floor, the bonus would be worked out on a monthly basis. Stewards at Cowley cal- that ir Lulalcu month the they have received in for exchange all accepting these attacks by management would have amounted princely 25p per week! 'Participation' The whole scheme is designed to follow up 'partic- in which whole ¡pation, sections of convenors have been transformed into complete Edwardes The incentive scheme would lead these stooges to directly toi

JOD-

cutting. And at the same time Leylanu nope it mignı ease the pressure on wages among Leyland workers. Meanwhile, Socialist Press has repeatedly shown.

the bonus scheme, management remain on the offensive on manning levels throughout the com bine, with the complete collaboration of convenors.

This is why the rejection of the incentives plan must be of

TOHOWAGI

up by ine end participation worker In Leyland, the setting up 01 Open the Books Committees by stewards committees each plant, the defence of the Speke factory and all 3,000 jobs and an all-out fight in defence of jobs and conditions in every plant.

Massey lay-offs Massey-Ferguson has released its long awaited statement on the future of production at its Banner Lane, Coventry plant. There will be an almost lay-off of produc- tion workers for two weeks trom April 24 In June there will be lay- offs for one day a week and a two day stoppage in July reported As last we week's Socialist Press production Banner cuts at attected jobs Late Birmid Qualcast, Warley and led to short-time working at Sterling Metals, Nuneaton.

Nuneaton The firm has followed the Massey- Ferguson statement with the announcement of a two-week lay-off of its own Workers at these factories must tight now for the policy of opening the books as part of the fight for work sharing on full pay.

- OPEN

RR BOOKS

2,500 staff from TASS voted full support have £2,000 for manual and workers in dispute with Rolls Royce management in Coventry. The pay dispute which has led to occupations at the Parkside and Ansty factories over the annual claim of The company have offered 9.7% Following the imposition of sanctions, Rolls Royce laid off the manual workers who attempted initially to stage work-ins. This proved impossible without and the Dwell being are no w lactorie occupied on a rota basis Heavy picketing ; at Ansty last Monday led 1700 staff to On Tuesday of last week Mr. John head James, of Rolls Royce in Coventry delivered a blistering attack on the workforce. He claimed that the dispute was not over 0.3% but over the ending of piece- work-something has been working coliday for over a long period: "If we fail to get rid of the piecework in system Coventry the alternatives are unthinkable. This is a wages war which we must win in order for the viable to renan remain competitive in a very tough business" claiming Management are that the being kept 0.30 I8 back to finance the change- piecework system. Union leaders responded by arguing that management had suddenly re-introduced discussion on piecework intc the negotiations. Only 350 workers out of several thousand at Parkside remain on piecework. Workers resist attempts management to these remaining sections. Clearly the fact that these workers are willing to fight for such small amoun shows high degree militancy militancy must be directed towards the fight to the of Rolls open Royce management in order their long-tern the firm plans for making "viable" by increasing the exploitation the workforce.

GARNERS CONFERENCE

STRIKES A BLOW

AGAINST OFFICIAL

SOCIALISI PRESS, wednesday 1y Apru, 1918 PHOTO: Andrew Wiard. Report The major develop- ment in the Garner Steak House strike for union recognition over the last week has centred around the conference called and sponsored by the strike

TGWU

committee, the SE Region 1, Region

TUC

and the Greater of London Association Trades Councils. For different reasons both the

TGWU

strikers and bureaucracy have been aware of its crucial importance for some time. For the strikers represents major oppor- tunity to take their policies of Saturday pickets, mass of suppliers to the blacking company and demands for a regional levy into wider layers workers• and a chance to all the commit major labour movement bodies sponsoring the confer- Threat Such policies are inevitably opposed by union officials who see them as d the stranglehold threat have exerted the they strike and to the balance of forces with the employers on which their bureaucratic privileges depend. For

TGWU

this reason Catering Officer George Abrahams and the assorted bureaucrats had who the conference sponsored viewed it with some appre- hension. After it had been called a newly elected strike com- mittee had emerged, fighting mobilise the

TGWU

around these policies. The assembled platform of talkers now faced the danger of being committed to action win the strike. forestall this threat bureaucracy the used two tactics in the conference.

Watering down On the hand one r their wen-estan. Garners

SABOTAGE

lished practice oi watering down the actual policies of the strike committee into 'financial demands 1U1 donations' pickets' "strong and outside help from other unions on blacking. Obviously under tremen. dous from the

OICSSURE

TGWU

bureaucracy, strikers' leader Rahman did not call in his report for mass picketing

ZABEN

committee bulletin advertised the conference as discussing build the ways mass pickets). Adoption Dromey He called instead on trade "adopt a steak unionists to house" for regular picketing. containing the actual policies he ignorea lne question Or a Regional financial levy and ot the strike committee Abrahams himself had called instead the rank and file to blocked support for a region- conference al levy in the 1/647 Inter- come forward with national Workers branch suggestions for raising

TGWU

earlier the and had finance. sought, without strike com- The question of blacking also turned away from was perssion, return to work the TGWU representatives on tiate in

ACAS

exchange for an the platform, into asking inquiry. what suggestions other unions Abrahams finished his naa lot blacking. The rogues gallery of left speech lyingly claiming that talkers on the platform the TGWU had done every- George thing possible to back the (which included Brian Nicholson, General Executive General Council Move in (GEC) member, Jack Dromey of the SE Region and Sydney Bidwell) Labour 'left Nicholson related how the then spent 1½ hours commit- TGWU had decided to "move ing their organisations to this a big …no lie emasculated way" and that the Garners CoNU leaders and

TGWU

the struggle had the "100% back• praising of the

GEC

-for what their the tor this is worth in practice.

strike. Dromey's left blather was Abraham's claim that the marked by his assertion that strike controlled committee the running of the strike and this strike was further proof black TGWU leaders res- ponded had fought at to their wishes workers Garner conveniently overlooked the Grunwick and were "cream of our movement'. fact that no letter had been the Yet circulated to TGWU branches throughout the Steak

TOTTENHAM

LT BUS

MARAGE

Transport & General Workers Union 1373 Bloomfield, NUR catering section member, then pointec out from the floor that this, Grunwicks, Intelli challenging the law He then asked for clarifi- where the TGWU cation on stood on the matter. Nicholson replied, giving tacit support to secondary blacking, and defending the TGWU's record at Grunwick.

The TGWU alone had been prepared to cough up money for the law suit that would follow the blacking of services in that dispute, he claimed. The strongest contribution of the evening came from delegate from the

TGWU

5/833 Branch. meeting, Dromey had been He contrasted the strength Sydney sitting next to of the membership in current Bid well, the so-called left disputes recognition Labour MP who has endorsed (Grunwick out for over 18 the recommendations racist months; Sandersons out for of Parliamentary Select a year) with the sabotage and Committee-which plans to

TGWU

betrayals of the harass, drive out or bar the leadership. of these same black Blacking refused and brown' workers. had the Bidwell, having He related the way in effrontery to sit on which the Executive of the platform including seven TGWU had recently union members of the strike refused national to implement committee scurried from the before he could be blacking of Sandersons and left had their members challenged isolated at Grunwicks. Sharp edge He then went on to focu on the policies that would The sharp edge the prevent such a betrayal in the meeting however came from Garners dispute in calling fo from the sponsors and especially the contributors the representatives of the TGWU floor. present to support Rechnits's These immediately went beyond the policy limitations call for secondary blacking of supplies to Garners. imposed by the platform and the not posed question He then asked whether the what the rank and file were TGWU would support the call going to do to win the strike from the then current strike but what the bureaucracy on committee bulletin for Illas the platform' especially from picketing which was in no Region 1 of the TGWU, were Dromey's the Some going to do to win the proposal of 'major picketing' But rather than making This first with came other avocas Lu divisions in the bureaucracy money he demanded to know itself. represen whether Eric Rechnits,

GEC

tatives in the meeting would and Region 1 Com- support the call for a regional mittee member whose area levy. covers Smithfield meat contradicted Recall conference market, Abraham's claim that every- had thing been done He finished by proposing black Garners. there recall He said he hadn't heard of conference in six weeks if the the conference until an hour strike wasn't won before it started. As far as he This drew knew no blacking action had response from Nicholson who been taken at Smithfield.

the completely detended leadership of the TGWU and Pledge refused to support the call for a regional levy on the He then pledged himself spurious grounds that if they gave it to Garners they would and the Regional Committee to black all those companies have to give it to everyone that supply Garners with In closing the conference.

Bouse Abrahams read his intended which was press statement amended from floor to demand include the should sponsors commit themselves to a recall conference in six weeks time if the strike was not won.

The the outcome conference is of major signif- icance not merely to the Garners strike but to all the other strikes recognition being fought at the moment.

"Drowning while thirsting for action" Desai's description was Mrs of the Grunwick strike at a conference held last 8m121 year, sponsored and attended by many of the left talkers who attended this conference. Unlike last year, however Garners strikers refused the to be drowned in the empty rhetoric likes Dromey and Nicholson. Despite the fact that the final press statement did not commit the sponsors to all the policies of the strike com- mittee the bureaucracy were forced beyond policy limitations they had sought to impose Leading members of the

TGWU

regional and executive level were forced to commit themselves in public blacking of suppliers deliver to continue to Garners, 2) to concede that they weren't opposed to mass principle and to pickeling l of promise mobilisation Tne large delegations picket finance lines and for the strike. Independence That these bureaucrats were forced to make these concessions is a reflection of independence growing from the full time officials of certain sections of the leadership of the strike The bitter lessons that workers have learnt is these that they have to fight their own leadership every inch of the way in getting support for the strike and defeat employers. The way forward for the strike leadership is clear.

The bureaucracy have to be kept to the pledges they made at the conference and made to for their failure account at the recall conference. The fight for a regional levy and mass picketing has renewed within the

TGWU

1/647 Branch Region within the

TGWU

and connected with the struggles continuir.: Grunwicks and Sanders:?

Power sacking a part of Edwardes'

SOCIALIST

PRESS

plan to break As we go to press, unions it appears British that Leyland management are standing by their decision to reject the final appeal against the sacking. of John Power, AUEW con- venor at the Service management is successful in the

TGWU

inquiry are Division in Cowley. this attack, further sackings Cowley Assembly Plant will Fryer follow Edwardes convenor Bob Power is also District Presi- allu dent of the AUEW, President tightens his grip on individual three deputy convenors. Two plants and joins with union the the Oxford Trades deputy Council, and the prospective officials to out convenors face a recommen-

IOUL

opponents of speed up. that they be banned Parliamentary candidate for the the office, Party in wille Thornett Alan Aylesbury. Ironically, Power is due to unira, expulsion threatened with He was sacked following appear tomorrow (Tuesday) from the union. management allegations that resumed inquiry into at ine Leyland workers thus face overdrew the 9 GWU members facing expenses for 1C T a deadly double threat-with attending meetings of disciplinary charges at the Leyland Leyland's new National Nego- both management hands Regional union and their own bureaucratic tiating Committee. officials. leaders determined that there Power as Trades Council must be Until opposition now Power has president is co-author of 8 110 Edwardes who plans received solid support from of wild allegations pages drastically to increase the rate within Service could

WORKON

resull In of exploitation on the shop Division, where he has been additional disciplinary action floor. destroy the Cano against the Cowley 9, who are Convenor lore vens. independent strength of the Although he has been one charged already with such trade union movement. "crimes" most outspoken and heinous as having publicised supporters of the deep political disagreement

TGWU

Edwardes plan for rationalis- with the General Power, who chose to side Executive Council, walking with the union bureaucracy anon, speca up ana decentlal- isation of Leyland, Power's out of a District Committee against the newly elected left- sacking would strike a serious meeting and publishing the wing TGWU leadership in the details of the 5/293 Branch Assembly blow at trade union strength Plant could now within Leyland. Secretary's commission. fall victim to the same class is no doubt that if There Among those subiect to collaboration -with not Threat to nursery occupation As we go to press. occupiers will not merely the Lib-Lab coalition govern- Council Oxford County turn tail and melt away in the ment's spending cuts. face of these threats. have the There is clearly support made first The County of fighting to Council for a policy moves towards evicting action comes at a time when defend social services by the trade unionists and support for the occupation of sliding scale the parents occupying the South Oxford Nursery for point with rising potl Class is still pouring in from South Oxford Nursery trade union branches, trades mittees of trade unionists and Class in the fight to councils and Labour Party housewives prevent its closure. bodies Similar well from committees must A notice from the Tory individuals. also seek scrutinise all Courcil was delivered to the local government aspects oi cutery on Monday, declaring Determined spending, to discover who "un- he nursery spending Hom A determined and enthus- occupied, while the working class has its dise iastic fight against the cuts in Cie: nat the Countv Secre essential services slashed, and would be grateful" if education spending such as that these firms are Casure this well deserves the interest accupants So Water than would nationalised, without com- and support it is enjoying.

ulding pensation, workers" This interest has now is Wednesday. management. taken on international signif- Further action 20 Danish school this students its is not done, the on a trip up the River Thames

O'FISHALL

states that on their barges and help from take right to Because of the impor- action as may be a japanese woman represent- ing a similar nursery occupa- tance of the article on secule possession tion in Japan. the Garners' conference, City Nursery O'Fishall has been held Coalition nas organ- or has called over for one week. The occupation underlines

N OLL OI

the determination that exists in the working class to defeat -d for the Workers Socialist League, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR finger lifted in his defence by the AUEW and TUC officials he has served so slavishly And the which way 1n Leyland have moved against Power indicates the dangers to the independence of the trade union movement contained that are the growing system of expenses- paid 'participation' and other committees within Leyland and other industries. There is no independent voice equipped to check on the facts of the Cavises paid to the convenors and stewards who are sucked into these levels of

ELVIM

BALA

PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report Despite the frivolous way in which the bour- geois press have greeted the week old strike at peoples' 'top hotel, Claridges, this strike for union recognition and reinstatement is the most recent example of the massive move towards unionisation in the hotel and catering industry. This strike was precipi- tated by the dismissal of shop steward Dick Elvidge who in unionising kitchen ше ксУ section of the hotel clearly represented a threat to the management. Majority Over 150 members of staff representing the overwhelm- ing of chamber majority maids, kitchen staff and floo waiters came out at lpm on Monday 10 April. This action has clearly hit the services of the hotel which has been forced to operate a severely restricted menu and to cut faculties of For the protection of both union member representatives it is essential that elected trade union com- mittees be established to vet and administer the payment of all expenses incurred in the course of union activity.

Such committees would ensure that no union repres- entative was paid more than his membership and would management prevent producing trumped charges as for pretext victimisation fight for this policy must be linked to the fight to break from participation, tc resist the imposition of the

CLARIDGES FIGHT ON

hot water and central heating.

Despite this and the apparent support of the public, will clearly It more than this action to win the strike. Issuing appeals to international bourgeoisie not use the hotel as the first strike bulletin does, will never win a strike against a manage.

ment who have made it clear that there will be cessions on union recognitior or the reinstatement of the victimised steward. Picketing itself has been severely restricted by a police imit of li pickets betweer the three entrances. What crucial strike is the mobilisation of working class its support. The way forward is clear.

Claridges is part of the Savoy chain of hotels which includes the Savoy, the Connaught, the Berkley, Simpsons of the Strand, and Stone Chop Houses. In fact the strikers them- selves members GWU branch which covers These workers Call Edwardes and defend plan jobs and working conditions from the attacks of manage- ment and the union bureau- cracy. Despite our total political hostility the political to positions represented by Power, the Workers Socialist stresses League urgency of resisting this attack by management on an elected The removal of witch- hunters and agents of the bureaucracy is a task to be accomplished by the workers movement and not management. The picket line at Claridges must be called out solidarity action immediately the Evening Standard noted the devastat- ing effect this would have on management). However fight for any such a broad mobilisation wil encounter the bitter hostility regional official Gerry Tilston, well known to Socialist Press readers for his the Soboldet Isolaling Metropole strike last year).

Tilston has convinced the strikers by building illusions policy of taking the dispute to ACAS and in Elvidge's case to an industrial tribunal.

Bitter lessons of other disputes have shown both the class bias of these organis- ations and their total ineffec- tiveness essential that the the Claridges workers learn lesson of the 3-month old Garner strike. They must consolidate the independence strike or ine and demand that their full time officials call out the hotel workers in the same branco