Socialist Action No. 114, 20 September 1985
The scan: 114-sep-20-1985-SA-UK 114.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
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ACTION SoCiAist No. 114 20 September 1985 30p THATCHER'S BRITAIN explodes
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Labour must defend
2
SOCiALiSt
AcTioN
Kinnock fails
another test
DESPITE THE claims of Tory and Labour politicians alike, the uprising in the Lozelis area of Handsworth last week had nothing
everything to do with the double oppression black people face in Britain today.
Handsworth suffers some of the highest
vironmental conditions that exist in this country. Within that, black people — and especially black youth - sufter most of all. They are at the bottom of even Handsworth's miserable pile.
That is because they are black - because the racism which is rife in British society means they have the highest unemployment, worst housing. cultural facilities of the lot. From every point of
black people have the least to lose from striking out against the system.
It is these facts, and not those of which That-
and the Labour leadership made Handsworth last week. Unemployment, poverty, and racism are the everyday conditions which created the potential for such an uprising; police harassment was the immediate spark that lit the
It was entirely predictable that the Tories, the police, and the media would respond as they did — claiming that a 'smali minority' of 'criminal elements' instigated the sacking and burning of commercial premises, and that this represented racial tension between Birmingham's Asian and cher and her friends is to push the whole weight
working class - to blame them for its existence and to make them pay its costs.
Labour Party leaders echo so faithfully the self-
It is because Neil Kinnock has set himself,
ing to the ruling class that Labour is a safe bet in government, that Labour is just as able - and just as ready — to manage the crisis and blame and Rooker cried 'criminal' and howled for more police repression just as loud as Douglas Hurd or Geoffrey Dear. And that is why those same Labour politicians made hardly a mention of the real causes underlying Handsworth, or the real
But it isn't just black people who lose out by
the poorer for it. By blaming the victims instead of naming the culprits, Labour's leadership further encourages the racist divisions that exist within the working class and, at the same time, undermines the struggles of all those - black and white — who are prepared to take on the real enemy: the Tory Party reinforces the 'law and order' drive of Thatcher and the increase in the repressive forces that goes with it. That is why support for Handsworth's black community, especially those youth who face the immediate and vicious reprisals of the state, is a crucial task for the whole labour
The position of Kinnock and his kind cannot be left unchallenged. It is the responsibility of every Labour Party activist and every trade union militant to labour movement champions the cause of the Handsworth black youth. And it is the task of the leaders of the left to speak out against the path Kinnock has chosen.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weeklv excent two weeks in August and the last week of December.
Signed PERCE contributors do represent Socialist pressed in editorials.
Send all correspondence sakes PO Box 50, London N1 2XP Send all matenal for publication (including advertis ing) to Socialist Action Editorial at the same address. we Egret mal duc cannot return or acknowledge unsolicited copy prograpns unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.
Socialist Action 20 September 1985
LEROY
Photo:
which explain what happened in
of
and The working class as a whole is the
demand that the organised These are ex-
regarding subscriptions,
COSL of postage we 4.
IISTMIDLANDS
SOCIAL SCURITY
CUTS
MARCH
AND RALLY
SATURDAY It, SEPTEMBER
March st Mam Roy Hattersley don't have a clue what is happening
THE RESPONSE of leading labour movement figures to the events in Handsworth last week has justifiably sooner had the flames died down than MPs and councillors were appearing on TV and in the press blaming 'criminal elements' and demanding tough
action by the police. 'Organised how
gangs of thugs was Lord
Frank Carter described those involved.
While Edwin Shore, chair
the West Midlands police committee, promised full support for the police 'in tracking down
the culprits.
Labour MP Jeff
'barbarous attack breakfast on
on Was by Afro-
from
This
revolt
and with enormols task The labour
Poverty
Labour representatives did Thankfully sullie focus on the unemployment, poverty, racial oppression, and police
affecting black youth. In a number of cases these people are lending support to initiatives aimed at organising defence of those arrested and combatting the danger or a clyisio!. between the Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities.
Why then did people like Rooker and Hattersley
black youth
Birminham councillor Amir Khan: 'People like Jeff Rooker and
enraged many Afro-Caribbeans. No
fall at the first fence? Amir Khan, a Pakistani councillor for nearby Sparkhill, argues that they just don't know what the problems confronting black people
like Jeff Rooker Roy Hat-
La clue I think
black that
council have
Goals
last six that
done hous-
the DOLI
then
The
on Wednesday night. Littie resolution was passed which identify the
of the particular alco
ing the run-
education facilities;
tions.
group of and
force An amendment aimed al the
par-
activists take Birmingham Trades Council 'the
rejected view. supported by spokesmen, that
order'
invite from
munity ethnic
MATCH The Council message of Unity
Of particular concern NOVICTI organisations in the area is the unity of the black com munity itself. Reactionary figures in the Asian community have sought to ferment divisions by accusing Afro-Caribbeans racially motivated attack.
LIVE AiD
On Sun eth Sep
* ODEON
DAY OF LIVE NONT-
BY BRITAIN'S LEADING ASIAN BANDS,
IN AID OF CHARITY FOR THE ETHIOPEAN
FUND Vra Ridef 1080
r Pth Sept ODEON
This lie has found and the Daily Mail. It also Sunand feeds on a real air of confusion and despondency amongst Asian workers and vouth that the Asiat shopkeepers are keen to exploit.
Fi of the Afro-
the
gestion the events were riot or "tribal',
A lllass
munty,
class conscious
discussion
The danger
will divisions class.
the Labour
movement.
by white workers who enjoy the better better facilities, and bette opportunities compared to blacks - where the real fight has to be taken up. li is the racism in thes
LS E actions of black youth -
News
* 2X
CINEMA
HI SOF
SIAN
M 230 am
CINEMA
which are the real obstacle
If black anger expresses itself ways 'alien' to the British labour movement it because the organisations of the labour movement have never given more than token attention to racia oppression, discrimination and police brutality. That's black self-organisation within the labou lOYE
is a demand that must be met.
Racism
racism and with 'scoundrels' who claim to speak for the working class as a wnole walle making adaptations and conses
ranks can white workers defend their own interests by unifying the class. Dur10g the miners' real progress was made Money from Handsworth helped boost the funds of miners from Warwichshire, Notts, Staffs, and South Wales
Anyone who collected on the Soho Road knows that came from the pockets of black peopl Miners toured the temples and Afro Caribbean churches arguing their case and in the course of this bega understand the issue of black oppression for the first time
Miners rallied to the support of Muhammad Idrish who was faced with deportation. They joined the picket line at Kewa Brothers where Asian women were fighting for union recognition and decent rates of pay.
these callic that the working class has to follow today. And that means. defending black youth.
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Why Handsworth exploded
THE GOVERNMENT and the press have attempted to portray the uprising in Handsworth as an outbreak of 'criminality'. They have tried too to exploit the tragic death of two Asians, claiming that last week represents a clash between the Afro-Caribbean and Asian communties.
In all this they have been supported by the Labour Party leadership.
But what took place in Handsworth has nothing to do with 'criminals? or clashes within the black community. It was a direct product of the policies pursued by the Tory government. A product of mass unemployment, social oppression and an utterly racist police force. The responsibility for the deaths of Kaffamali and Amir Moledia lies at Thatcher's door.
The entire labour movement must defend the black youth who are now under vicious attack. That is why Socialist Action is devoting four pages to what took place in Handsworth — and the reaction to it.
MICK ARCHER and CAROL TURNER report from Birmingham.
RAGHIB AHSAN provided much of the background material in our coverage.
Demolition work in Lozells Road after the fire GEOFFREY DEAR, chief constable of the West Improvements to houses, Midlands, is angry at the suggestion that the police roads, and water mains, are to blame in any way for the events on Lozells have been carried out by Road last week. 'Some people have got to face up to white contractors employthe fact that there is a substantial element of blame ing white labour. to be attached to some young people who get a High
social deprivation, and distinct kick out of causing pain, and suffering, and
racial oppression, are what hurt to others in society. There are some social com- make Handsworth exmentators who far too quickly seek to excuse what is plosive — not its alleged sheer criminality, sheer hooliganism, and destruc- 'volatile racial mix'
In the '70s these condifive anti-social behaviour. The rioters of Handsworth were utterly blameworthy. tions were aggravated by
systematic police harassNot surprisingly Dear In reality of course men or olack yout wno 1s Drepared to take the there was every justifica- were all viewed as potennecessary measures. Ques- tion. Black youth are the tal criminals, an image or tioned about plastic bullets most oppressed section of the area reinforced by a Dear said he 'wouldn't society. Not only do they racist press. shrink' from using them, face higher unemployment Relations between the although he was *reluc- and social deprivation police and the black com tant' to issue tear gas to his that faced by all munity went from bad to
working class youth, but worse. This led to a change
His response was to be ЕлеУ also face racist op- tactics in 1978 The expected. More alarming pression and discrimina- Lozells Police Project was the way Labour politi- ton as black people. launched in that year incians echoed Jeff It is this which explains troduced 'community Rooker MP called it 'a the disDronortionate v policing to the area for
attack high levels of unemploy- the first time. Its' stated criminality' before he even
ment in areas like Hand- encourage visica ine area sworth and even people living in the area to
Labour councillor Sar- these communities black dul Marwa, youth come off worst. agencies in solving the pro. WIll chair of the city's race rela- Of 1434 school leavers
blems of the communitv. tions committee. described in Handsworth this year In reality the project the deaths as 'cold blood- only 99 found jobs. Only sought to bring voluntary ed murder' and demanded eight were Afro- bodies in the area under that somebody be charg- Caribbean. the influence of the police, ed. Roy Hattersley claim- The much lauded ur- through their control of its ed there was 'no justifica- ban aid spent on the area £50,000 a year grant. tion' for what done nothing to Through community cured. change these basic facts. projects the police sought
Lozells defence campaign
SINCE MONDAY night the black community in would accuse them of beHandsworth has begun to organise. Each night since ing responsible in terms of then the defence campaign for the 257 youth who not doing anything before have been arrested has met. this.
PHIL MURPHY is an Afro-Caribbean Birm- White politicians like Dick Knowles (leader of ingham city councillor, involved in the defence cam- Birmingham city council), paign. He explained his view of events and what sort Jeff Rooker, and Roy of campaign was needed. Hatterslev 2108 forever A combination of reasons tunistic who wanted to steapeople element: frightened that if they are caused the revolt in Lozells assoctaling
week. Essentially what hap- problems called people Unemployment pened in Handsworth was
backlash might take place 'There a combination of political question of people's consciousness and and they might lose votes.' political consciousness. deprivation. To say thạt
wy nen Douglas Hurd it's just. the actions of Youth came to visit Handsworth
Achin manorily , as Ine young people showed they press has, is not to unders-
completely opposed tand what was happening. Their reaction to the to him: he represents the Birmingham city coun- events in Handsworth is state and iney were com- cil has done very little in- sheer political opporplaining against the state. deed for black people in tunism, meant to reassure
I don't think its a coin-
Handsworth for exam- the white electorate. They cidence either that the ple in terms of helping not prepared situation in South Africa create lobs. The leadershir understand the problems
place of the council are talking and to allocate the kind of now and there should have about the 'appalling resources tney can within been a rot, a reprisal, In events' in the Lozells area, the system they work in. Handsworth. and crying crocodile tears.
Also people They are downright. of young people, lucie s a gical danger whether were unhappy about the hypocritical. they participated way the police had been mv 18 months as a being arrested, taken into alienem. Obviously councillor, 1 have found a court, and denied the too there was an oppor- complete lack of interest. I justice they have a right to.
to change black youth's
view of the police while ex-
panding their own
knowledge of what
going on in the communiWebb, Superintendent
who headed the
project, became a regular
figure at parents evenings
inthe
projects,
'community
Clal exchange
incura I-
Galle black youth continued.
- 1981. , In the
other cities
Sixty were in-
made. these figures the were considered tame compared
An tha
defence
hard on a
Also feel explain black community happening. fluenced by the media's
ing to
community the conse-
support
come the ween and Asian
Asian died.
But
policing
society by
case that
never was,
be, any
SOIL.
understood
told the
other
this meant network together plete
was
within the
defenders community.
ferent to
shops.
also.
tor which
multi-racial
'community
the youth
Per-
Webb this. As he
'There
but what we
community been Living Handsworth
That's not
the
Having
CUll
deaths
the Asian
hositility
of the Indian
this area
a reaction
of community
residents
campaign
tatives of
Caribbean
tivists did reported
finger Caribbeans. Raids
More
gain
the Villa
situation police,
made Caribbeans
heroin.
As the
leader
the law Hallus
statement
munity on they state residents this brought the and large
the meeting, LIONS inevitable
Socialist Action 20 September 1985
policing comes the iron fist of state repression. The events on
white associations.
•drug
the Afrocommunity.
black acattend and
speeches pointed Afro-
raids
haunt
Cross pub.
now being
denies
to the
Afrothe in-
Soho Star
residents
their own
in a by the com-
September,
white meeting
bingo
that first
service of . Given ot the allega-
3 would conclude they were
under attack
The responsiblity for
this lies with those who
organised the meeting and
fuelled its racist accusa tions.
of the
Lozells
place the the
where, to one
jived with
the event as a
them a
them to
'community policing'
murder underway
turned.
including burglary, _possession of offensive
When events are
Meanwhile it additional
Police has
nearby Road
disclose the names of
treatment
the revolt.
Social reportedly
Talled to sign on their usual times.
quired.
policing has
fighting sup port
Call 104 Heath.
Handsworth, phone 021-554 2747.
needed
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Black section speaks out
News
AS SOON as the events in Handsworth last Monday evening were known, members of the Labour Party black section national committee converged on Birmingham to find out firsthand what was going on. We repring below a statement issued by
SHARON ATKIN and AMIR KHAN on
behalf of the national committee on the Tuesday after the uprising, together with
the response of HASSAN
end of the week.
"Timẹ is
'improvements' in the living conditions of black people in Britain's inner cities since the uprisings of 1980, 1981 and 1982 have been no more than synthetic and cosmetic.
The Labour Party Black Sections are horrified at the deaths that occured and we offer our condolences to the bereaved families. The Tory government stand indicted of criminal neglect of Britain's black communities.
So do Labour politicians who collaborate with pression by calling for
leavier policing to solve the problem.
Labour-run Birm-
'partnership' authority which receives a tew extra crumbs • trom the government. The petty cash which has come to the area in this way has made no impact on urban decay, bad housing and a local economy which makes an exception be employed if you are young and black.
Seventy one per cent of black vouth aged between 16 and 20 are out of work because of the vicious and divisive economic policies The right-wingers who control Birmingham City Council with the connivance of community godfathers have allowed themseives to
noto: ANNEL IE DANDY/HELE LANA LUAL
Firefighters clear debris around the Lozells Road post office (left foreground) after the Handsworth revolt
AHMED at the
running out'
'THE RECENT events in Handsworth, Birmingham have provided stark evidence that much-vaunted
be manipulated by Thatcher.
Proportionately more money is lavished on leaty suburbs like Edgbaston than the inner city ghettos of Handsworth and Sparkbrook. Yet we have heard hardly word
Lorese inequalities from Labour deputy leader Roy Hattersley, MP for Sparkbrook, and Shadow
HOUSINE man Jeff Rooker, MP for Perry Barr, which covers part Handsworth. was Rooker who called instead for more police.
We oppose the politics of 'containment' which mean more slush funds for *community projects' run by Ine goatainer matia and heavier policing. BACK Declons the politics of power sharin We demand that black DCUDICI alienated from participation in coll call politics because of past sell-outs like the passing of racist immigration laws, must be given real stake in the political structures of this
What is needed •Will Ye
are not bigger and badder police riot squads but policing by consent and under democratic control.
We do not need police drug squads. We do not need special police units set up to combat the evils of race attacks made on black people by fascist thugs. And we need determination by local authorities, spearheaded by Labour, to evict racist tenants, not move the victims to even worse housing.
Time is running out for the politicians who oppose black rights in Britain while mouthing platitudes about their position We mustand vill to apartheid Azania. be allowea to speak for ourselves about how best our needs ana soron. are to be fulfilled. Handswort is a warming of the Fire Next Time in Brixton,
BOTOTO Southall, 'Leicester, Moss Side, St Pauls. and ever other inner city area unless Ulat Britons fair slice of the economic, political and social cake.
Sharon Atkin, Chair Black Sections National Committee Amir Khan, Black Section organiser in Sparkbrook,
Birmingham City Councillor
Cars are overturned for barricades as black youth protest Douglas Hurd's visit British society.
Monday night.
black section, came with a delegation from tingham black section. He told Socialist Action: heard oday wace we first heard black people standing . to miseries of their life in Handsworth, some of us came immediately to Birmingham to get first-hand reports. From the very first we realised that the police and the Tories, and even the leadership of the Labour Party, were all trying to use this issue, trying to play it as West Indian against Asian.
We were very concerned because we knew that it was only by standing united that we could win Those people who died were not attacked by • black youth as Asians. It happened because of the frustration of black young people because unemployment, because
the police attitude towards them and policing in the area.
The black youth were attacking hsians. in that , not attacking Asians. particular area there are more thers. What than
others. the media failed to report was that Asian youth took part
When we were laying the wreath we were saying that black people should be united; we were saying that the blame for those people who have died in the riots goes to the police and the state, and eadership of political par ties and not those black youth.
One important nessage that Handsworth has brought home - and after Brixton this message came out - is that young
For black unity
THE LABOUR Party black section responded immediately to the uprising in Handsworth last week. They have issued a press statement highlighting the real causes of the events in Birmingham and calling for black unity against the institutional racism ol
To make this point, on Friday a black section delegation laid a wreath at the Lozells Road post office where two Asian brothers died in the fire of
HASSAN AHMED, chair of Nottingham East
Not-
black people are not going to put up with this situation anvmore. Since those four years nothing has nappened. no real ettorts have been made to change ine root-cause ot the problem and do something about it.
Handsworth has sent a strong message that black people, and especially youth, in this country are not going to put up with these appalling conditions anymore. Something will have to be done And if people think that just by pleasing a few god fathers in the black community and creating a few more community centres, the problems are going to go away, well it's not.
I think also it sends a message to the leadership of the Labour Party. who have stood strongly against black sections, that black people are not going to be patronised anymore. They want an equal share, they meant their problems to be understood, they want equal participation, and they want the elimination of racism from this society. That's the argument, the message from Hand sworth from those black youth. response of Rooker and Kinnock has to do with Labour being first in the opinion polls. rour vears aro the Dolls were showing Labour at the bottom, but now Labour think they are going to be the majority party in the next parliament.
That is consistent with Labour's past record.
Socialist Action When it comes to election campaigning they try to woo black workers, but in government they have introduced of the worst legislation in this country They think they're going to be the government, before even getting there they have started taking this attitude.
That proves again the
been arguing: that these people do not understand our problem, they do not blem of black people. to understand the pro
It's only with the participation of black people that we can actually get to ine roots of the problem and try to do something about
Look at the attitude of Labour's leaders during the miners' strike. It was not the struggle of the miners that was important to them, it was the law and order issue.
And look at the attitude they've taken on South Africa for example They say Neil Kinnock has
posing all the rugby tours
what he hool
with help actual struggle of South Africa?
If the Labour movement is going to show any real solidarity with the struggle of black people ir
Africa then they should be supporting the ANC. They should be of
for the practinst apar
Anything less thar that to us is just showbusiness. That's what the labour movement has got to unactstand now.
To us the struggle o black CODIR snaker throughout the globe whether it's In EI Salvador, whether it's in South Africa, in the streets of Handsworth, or in Brixton.
Black people are at the receiving end all over and it's the imperial forces that
20 September 1985 5 are oppressing and exploiting them. So for us Handsworth is not a one-off thing, it's interlinked.
What's happened at Handsworth makes more determined first to fight more fiercely for acceptance of the black sectionland to fight the issue
racism within the Labour Party and within society. Second. important that the black section tried to understand this situation, these different events - whether it is Newham 7, Brixton or Handsworth and tries IO link themselves with the grassroots and more with activists in the street. We have to take up these struggles collective-
That's the only way that we can keep this movement on the right political path That's how we can also avoid these at tacks like burning Asian shops as well. And that's ourselves in these sting only involving
The black section in Nottingham has called a meeting locally and inviter Indians, West Indians, Pakistanis, all the munity leaders, to discus Handsworth: response, the media and the police and how should handle this in Not tingham
In Hyson Green, Not tingham, there's been a lot
i tension in the past t days aiter Handswortl We were expecting something to happen so we actually went there t them to talk to them about what our response should be if anything happens. and how we should avoid any attacks on cach other.
That should be the first response of black sections to get out and talk to the black community. talk to the young people and make sure that if any struggle is on it's directed to the right peo ple, those responsible
Page 6 scan of this page
Socialist Action 20 September 1985
1.The emerging
WHEN THE ruling class embarked on the policies of the Thatcher government in 1979 it set in train an irreversible change not only in the British economy but in British politics. More precisely it began to create the most profound shifts in
of British politics Ine structure since World War I.
The reasons for these changes are easy to understand once the demagogy peddled in the press is discounted, and the real facts of the political situation are sidered.
Already in 1979, at the time Thatcher's first electoral victory, the Tory Party received its lowest share of the vote in any election it had won since World War I. In 1983 Thatcher's vote
in that election she received the lowest percentage of the vote of any government with a safe majority in parliament in British history.
This combination of a government carrying through extremely reactionary Shah policies, but with a low level of direct
popular support, was bound to create
extreme strains in the political structure
of the country.
The alarm bells were already soun
ding for British capitalist politics in
1981. The outcome of the right wing
policies of the Wilson and Callaghan
governments and the revolt against
them that came to a head with the
winter of discontent of 1978-79 — pro-
duced in Bennism the most powerful
left wing in the British Labour Party
since World War II. Simultaneously the
unpopularity of the first two years of
Tory government created a situation
where Thatcher was rated the most un-
popular prime minister since opinion
polls began.
In 1980-81 the Tory Party suffered
annihilating electoral defeats both in
local government and by-elections.
This development was of tremen-
dous significance, and of serious con-
cern, for the British ruling class. While
it is true that Thatcher's policies -and
particularly their intitial impact during
the slump of 1979-81 - sharply hit sec-
tions of British industry they were in
the direct interests of the most powerful
groups within British capital.
Output
While the output of British-based
manufacturing industry fell by 1s per
cent in two years, the great multina-
tional companies, banks,
panies, retan and property groups
boomed as virtually never before.
More than £46 billion of foreign in-
vestment flowed out of Britain in the
Right and left
in British politics
right wing consensus
four years from 1979-83. After decades of decline Britain's share of world foreign investments began to rise again — increasing from 11.2 per cent in 1975 to 14.5 per cent in 1980. The Thatcher government reinforced still further the imperialist character of the economy and British capital.
This development -the privatisation of new boom sectors OT economy munications, aerospace, helped to reinforce the position of the most powerful groups capital. Their position has been reincon- forced still further by the merger boom of the last three years. of Capital
In addition strengthening of British capitals international operations tration of capital that was produced Thatcher succeeded in shifting the distribution of income between capital and labour within the domestic economy.
The share of profits of industrial and commercial companies
economy, after declining in 1980, in-
creased from 13.5 per cent in 1979 to
16.7 per cent in 1983 — the highest sus-
tained level since the 1950s.
Parallel with this
redistributing income from labour to
capital, Thatcher also began a major
redistribution of income
working class. A combination of mass
unemployment, tax changes,
sector pay policy, cuts in benefits and
every other available means, was used
to widen income and other differentials
within the working class.
The effect of these shifts even in
purely electoral terms was evident in
the sharp increase in the political divi-
sions which began to appear between
the different regions of the country
the deepening "north-south gap' which
has become such a favourite topic of
discussion among the electoral com-
mentators.
Owen
The reasons for this shift are not
hard to find. The south of England is
by every measure the most prosperous Power Bemploy the, ghest chest
unemployment,
mortality and so on. The Tories' vote
held up well here.
But in the north, which was increas-
ingly hit by the economic crisis from the
beginning of the 1960s onwards, Tory oll com- electoral support fell sharply.
The rapid increase in unevennesses
and differentials within the working
class produced by Thatcher's policies
deepened that process still further. The
local government elections of 1984 saw the most geographically polarised shifts in any elections in Britain for more than sixty years. tions within the working class could • coupled with
such as telecom and oil
within British
Thatcher also be seen in studies of the social base to the immediate of the Tory vote. Tory support in vir-
tually every single - and the concen- population declined between Heath's
electoral victory in 1970 and Thatcher's
significantly in 1979 — the fall across Britain as a
whole being three percent. in Tory support was among skilled, and higher paid, manual workers. Here the the Tory Party's vote actually increased by more than four shift that decisively won Thatcher the 1979 and 1983 elections.
process of
shifts could be seen. the right wing in the already begun to re-asser itself -1972 Manchester engineering sit-ins. public
1975 severely hit skilled workers.
of revolt against this. shift to the Tories
in combination
Policy capitalist politics.
fitted perfectly
lowest
reverse them.
absolutely fundamental capitalism that without Thatcher'
THE UPRISING in
British politics. - David Owen.
the most
The sharply increasing differentia-
British capitalism.
A great
Tories.
Thatcherism
economic
section the
But the one exception to this decline
percent. It was this among skilled manual workers
Within the trade unions the same
During the 1970s the AUEW had
particular following the defeat of the
But the right wings' dominance was greatly reinforced by the policies pursued by the Wilson-Callaghan governments. The wage controls introduced in
The strikes among Leyland toolmakers in Goldsmith 1976 and 1977 were the first sharp signs
The same shifts which produced a in turn,
among skilled workers in the 1979 and 1983 elections helped reinforce the Duffy-Boyd right wing of the AUEW. By the late 1970s and early 1980s the AUEW right wing represented a quite new hardened right with the SDP. A wing within the trade union movement.
Thatcher in short had carried out a classic imperialist policy. She has reinforced the international positions of British capital. She had used this to mount a massive offensive against the labour movement. A major part of this was to divide the working class and pull its better off sections closer to directly
tionalisations.
The development of the SDP, and reducing, the accomodation to it of a whole series of trends within the labour movement Politics
into that context.
Because the policies pursued by Thatcher were indispensible for the most powerful sections of British capital it was vital that no government should
Labour however, and particularly the Labour Party under strong left wing pressure which emerged from 1979, was in no way a reliable
instrument for continuing the policies
of Thatcherism. It therefore became
for British Thatcherism should be COl-
tinued. The solution to that problem
Handsworth showed up in a brutal fashion the tensions which are developing in
Overall there is a clear shift to the right. Thatcher, the SDP-Liberal Alliance, Kinnock, Willis, and the extreme right of the TUC, are all developing policies which will ensure that the fundamental changes brought about under the Thatcher government are that.
was found in the grisly face of Dr Death
The SDP must be counted one of
spectacularly successful political operations ever mounted by
deal made oI une 'Falkland's factor' but the point purely factually is that there was no increase in Tory support in 1983. On the contrary the Conservative vote fell still further from its already low level in 1979. The entire decline in the Labour vote in 1983 went to the SDP and not to the
The goal of the SDP was simple. It was not to provide an alternative to
but to ensure that its essential policies were continued.
Following the 1983 election Owe
announced the SDP's support for th 'social market economy" • the very words Thatcher used to describe he coins strike the a followed a in goals. During
of total opposition to the NUM. Ower
is totally determining the defence polic
of the SDP-Liberal Alliance. The SDP in short, is not an alternative to the fundamental structural policies pursued by Thatcher, it is precisely their guarantor.
The pressure exercised by the SDP,
has helped reinforce That- Photo: MARLIE FOLK
cherisms impact in the labour move
ment. Owen has maintained the closest
possible links with the right wing of the
TUC. The leadership of the EETPU
works directly with sections of the
coalition government of
Labour and the Alliance is the political
cage within which Owen is attempting
to imprison the labour movement.
Kinnock and Willis in their turn
have moved to shift Labour and the
TUC to the right to fit within the mould
Thatcher and Owen have created. The
TUC is slowly but remorselessly shif-
ting to accept the ballot and other pro-
visions of the Trade Union Acts. Hat-
tersley and Kinnock have already aban-
doned any pledge to a policy of rena-
tionalisation of privatised companies
policy of new naLabour's pledges unemployment alC being
slowly whittled away.
What is being created is a quite new
framework for British politics. One in
which certain questions are negotiable
— notably the exact degree of welfare
spending and certain measures of refla-
tion of the economy - but where the
fundamental structural shifts brought
about by Thatcher remain unviolable.
That consensus now stretches right
from Thatcher, through Owen, Stee
and Hammond, to Willis and Kinnock.
It is the new emergent right wing ma-
jority bloc of British politics.
never undone. But at the same time the most radical and minority currents seen in British politics for sixty years have developed.
JOHN ROSS looks at why an overall shift to the right in British politics can be combined with a development of radical left wing minority currents inside and outside the labour movement: and what should be the response to
2. The radical
minorities
IF THE radical imperialist politics pursued by Thatcher explain her success in consolidating a shift to the right, then they equally help to explain the radical minority trends which have developed in opposition to her.
The old imperialist politics of
British capitalism was summed up
in Disraeli's famous phrase of one
nation'. The Conservative Party
consciously set out to integrate
almost every section of British
society into an imperialist consen-
sus. Those sections which were not
integrated by the dominant Tories
were integrated by the trade union
and Labour Party bureaucracy.
from a period of crisis around World War I - marked by the
suffragettes, the struggle in Ireland
and militant trade unionism before the
war, and the effects of the Russi
revolution and the creation of the Co
munist Party after it - this consens
succeeded in smothering
revolt within Britain itself for well or
a hundred years.
In Britain up to the 1840s a radics
and even revolutionary, tradition h
existed within the class
reached its peak with Chartism. B
from the beginning of the 1850s o
wards the entire British labour mor
ment was thrown politically backwar
by what Marx termed the 'period
corruption' created by the rise
British imperialism.
Britain became the classic land ‹
the labour aristocracy' in the real sense
Page 7 scan of this page
in which Marx and Lenin used the term. The 'new model unions' created from the 1850s onwards were based in the relatively secure and privileged sections of the working class. It was almost 40 years the unskilled organise. Fifty years before the working class created its own political party.
A real line of descent, distorted, exists between the unions of this period and today's right wing. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers, the skilled craft ancestor of the present AUEW. It union, WAN
refused to admit unskilled workers until after World War I. It refused to ac-
pt women into
i43. The Electrical Trades Union, the
edecessor of the EETPU, was con-
modelled on
malgamated Society of Engineers.
The benefits that
rialism provided for significant sec-
ins of the working class helped create
abour movement that was classically
iss collaborationist in both its inter-
tional and domestic policies. It was
dded to the empire, imbued with
'ism and chauvinism. It failed to
ganise women and youth. It had no
ISS Marxist wing.
While the Bntish imperialism unevenly distributed nevertheless they affected, as Marx pointed out, the labour movement as a whole. It was precisely for those reasons that the most radical currents politics were always most powerful amongst those who tegrated into Britain's system and benefits.
Most important of all was Ireland. Ireland was an oppressed nation directly integrated within the British state and subject to the most savage national oppression. tinuously against British rule even at the height of Britain's imperial splendour in the last part of the nineteenth century.
The second crucial
Here dustrialisation was far more rapid than in England. Un Ine west coast, above all in Glasgow, was created one
of the greatest concentrations of industry and slums in Europe.
The third key force less integrated into une impertast consensus women. The benefits of British im-
perialism were never extended to them
in the same way as men. While the
struggle for the vote at the beginning of the twentieth century had a powerful
component among middle class women it also had a big impact among working
class women. Sylvia Pankhurst's work
working class women in the
East End of London is just the most
famous example of that.
These three currents interacted with
in Ireland inspired the most advanced
forces both in Scotland and among
It was these
catalysed later by the Russian revolu-
tion, which came together at the time of
THATE World War I.
into
were to
however
to the war crushed direct
membership until
the old tain.
War
British imprivileges granted by were always
rise of
within British
were least in-
imperialist majority
virtually con-
wing
area was
DaLC of in- Wilsons
and Citrines, cocks Lense yes
and early1970s.
imperialist
Break
and above all the struggle
three trends,
deeds dictum by his imperialism. trade and
were
Carrons, and They period of which followed
trend in British
Those CURSCHILD. weren't were dominated by the Communist Party which by the 1930s, never mind later, was thoroughly stalinised and thoroughly reformist.
When the break down of British imperialist stability began to occur once more, from the mid-1960s onwards, almost inevitably that too began with those currents least integrated into the prevailing social order.
First was the impact of the great in-
ternational perialism did
British politics.
In miners' strike, a subjugate it.
to submission.
Nation
Labour unintegrable
the
Wood-
based
60 years.
that
since World War I.
Handsworth in 1985, explosions.
the tion. imcontrol. The Yorkshire miners' capitalism no give Thatcher's 'Great
Where they vanguard of the British working class, has arisen the most advanced mass working class leadership in Britain for
One that not only led the longest mass strike in the history of any imperialist country but forged the most advanced social alliances seen in Britain
The black community in Britain, together with the people of Ireland the most oppressed section of all those within the British state, is also another great assimilable for Thatcher's new Britain. The inner city revolt of 1981,
were elemental But in the black sections movement in the Labour Party, and black organisation in the labour movement in general, there is beginning to
Undoubtedly section
bourgeoisie. Against The solidarity,
SCLUDES amnesty for
sections,
Socialist Action 20 September 1985 7
the
movement; the Pit
conference, see
do exist.
Willis
preventing TOP of the
fight for the liberation
majority,
provided they are
of British ultra-leftism. wil
flow for
_ for
with interna-
today. To the alliance
to fight for.
Page 8 scan of this page
Reagan's fake sanctions
8
COMPUTER NE
South African bann: Prock for
"business as usual'
WITH AS much good grace as he could muster President Reagan last week called in the media to witness him signing a package of 'sanctions' against South Africa. It was the only step he could take to stave off humiliation in the US Senate the next day.
The Daily Telegraph sumex ory Sour Africass tremely powerful campaign to prevent a rather different country gaining access namely the USSR. Not only have a series of heavily restrictive laws been imposed on US exporters,
SOCIALISTS ARE looking for material to bring alive the struggle in South movement in Britain. WENDY PEARSON reviews the film The Anvil and the Hammer, distributed by the International Defence and Aid Fund. SOUTH AFRICA is at the moment in the throes of a deep political crisis.
Precisely everything they do be carenstitutional reforms, be it laws, be it a few crumbs LIEUWIL the workers' tables — all these have met
PUBLIC SEMINAHO
COME & DISCUSS MARX'S CAPITAL
WITH THE AUTHORS OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS
ON MARXISM
Robin Blackburn. Sheila Rowbotham. Eric Hobsbawm. Hillel Ticktin, John Harrison, Barbara Taylor, Chris Arthur,
Alex Callinico Simon Clarke, Hilary
Ben Fine, Mick Williams, Barbara Bradby,
Raphael Samuel.
REGULARLY EVERY FRIDAY 7.00 p.m.
1st Floor. Bloomsbury Tavern 236 Shaftesbury Avenue London Nr. Tube: Hoiborn, Tottenham Court Rd.
CAPITAL READING SEMINARS
Tel: 01-354 0668 Tel: 01-398 4852
Socialist Action 20 September 1985
GWI CADUrICS.
law ical wrist, or a fine and a caution. On 8 August, for ex ample, two Directors OI London-based company Wentwood Systems Graham Herbert and Molloy were convicted on seven charges
A film of struggle
Africa for the labour
militant resistance and re. jection by the mass of the people.
Although we might have been news coverage Africa in the British media, the resistance that Alfred No, general of the SCUICLaL Y water binns
• Wainwright, Geoff Pilling, Alan Freemen Geoff Kay, Simon Mohun, Geoff Hodgson,
W.C.2
under the Export of Goods
JCCHCCS Ihe company was series of sucn
sanciions will not
prove a prob preminma
• East companies in i on, it explained,
Economy
Obligingly, Apple International has announced it will continue supply
Three months earlier International
Limited. the former UK company now ANC speaks of will become substantially
ing the film The Anvil and the Hammer. Combining a fine array of speakers and commentators with plenty of action footage of
and police-cum-army attacks,
provides us with an inside look at the cur-
situation in South 1cul Africa.
The message of the film 1S positive: despite the horrific shows of brute force on the part of the South African regime tinue to defy it.
Whitewash
Speakers in the film include the Rev Alan Boesak Woo sales have respect for a governIC IT that walls whitewash cold-blooded murderers possibly referring to the judicial enquiry which whitewashed the killing of demonstrators on the 25th
of the Sharpeville massacre this year.
The inaugral meeting of the UDF in August
1983. filmed by amateur photographer, adds strongly the authority of the material and gives valuable insight into the conterence. 'here ay Axchic Sumede, Fiches
Archie Gumede, Frank Chihane (President and Vice President of the UDF, and Frances Baard from the Federation South African Women -
staying in South Africa.
overcome the embargo on
tions are pure fakery there 1s evident rea concern in
Communily
IS To the British viewer, ine speakers might be unknown, and more introductions could have peen used … or ехат f Billy Nair the 1
Irom tional ndian Congress was recently released after 20 Robben island. We should also not
historical background Or statistics from the film. aims rather to give the feeling of what is happening in South Africa, the bat-
Bank s Week
back people who produce
tleground and the ideas.
There are significant insights such as the two plain clothes Security Branch men who look for their specific target, an older man, and then at the
him to their car.
Rhetoric
The film both opens and closes with quotations from Nelson Mandela. His
words 'between the anvil of united mass action and the hammer of the armed struggle we shall crush apartheid' can be read at the outset of the film. And the film concludes with his daughter Zinzi reading his statement at the Jabulani stadium in February this year.
Although film might De said lo contall a bit tọo much political rhetoric, it can be used to good effect within the black and labour movements in building mass action against apartheid. • The Anvil and the Hammer: 1985, Colour 40
Available on video or 16mm from International Defence and Aid Fund, Publications Dept; Canon Collins House, Rd, London N1 8LR. Phone 01-359 9181.
Hast London porters of Socialist Action are placing a copy of this film labour Ull movement loan black, and
solidarity organisations. Contact PO Box 50, London N1 2XY.
terpreted it as a sign that the bank believer political issues have
fused with economic ones that the risk of future lending to
Africa outwieghs potential profits.
Chase Manhatten moved out, at least temporarily, not because of mumanitarian moves, oul because of a fear for its protits. Ica ilisations of the huge mobilisations - black people over the last year and the clear signs that the future stability of the Apartheid regime is at risk. As evel, It Is lie com pany. balance sheet, and
Dear Supporters
AS YOU will have
seen from the press
Wendy Savage has
now been to the High
Court to ask them to
re-instate her, and
look into the case
during the holiday
period.
Unfortunately, her
case came betore one
of the most
conservative of High
Court judges and he
took the view that, as
obstetrics was so
difficult to
understand and
would be much better
if Mrs Savage's case
was judged by her
own profession.
An interesting
argument because
learned judges do not
appear to demonstrate
any reluctance, or
express any difficultly in
judging architects,
builders, or people
accuseu in exuele
complex fraud and
embezzlement cases. Yet
obstetrics, it appears, is
much too difficult to
understand! (Perhaps if
the judge had been a
woman there would
have been less
International
not the human considera tions which determined this decision
It is profit that is also
the Senats the reason IOr The measures are designed Reagan 'sanctions' as a political signal to the South African governmen
and a way of headins off interna opposition within the US. They 'we wholeheartedly support your government but we fear you are incapable of defending it. Please in troduce the cosmetic reforms which we believe necessary to save your racist regime - and our profits.
The Wendy Savage
Support Campaign
The judge stressed very heavily that by not re-instating Mrs Savage there should be no implication that she was incompetent, but he felt that he was in a dilemma. If she was. imcompetent them she could be a risk to her patients and he could be shown to be in error in over-ruling the Health Authority.
He did not consider the implications of judging someone ahead of the enquiry (by suspending her) and therefore depriving women of a superb obstetrician.
In other words, the judge played safe and made it clear that the enquiry should get a move on and should there be a huge delay (he suggested a year would be a huge delay) then Mrs Savage could appeal to the court again.
Her solicitor has interpreted this
invitation to go back
should the enquiry not proceed quickly.
Best Wishes.
Beverly Ann Beech
Hon Chair
Page 9 scan of this page
Surplus Value
THE STRUGGLE in South
Africa is developing almost exclusively under democratic slogans and demands: one person one vote, the right to citizenship, the formation of trade unions, struggles over wages and conditions, the destruction of the apartheid state.
This struggle simultaneously involves the creation of mass organisations of the black working class above all today the black trade unions, but also with a potential for huge organisation in the townships.
But what is the relation between democratic demands, mass organisation, and the struggle for socialism? DICK CARTER looks at some developments of Marxist positions on these questions.
One of the most serious errors which exists on the Marxist left in Britain is to consider that a democratic slogan or demand is a 'second best' Issue. lhat the really kev slogans are economic — for the nationalisation of the 200 monopolies, for wage increases etc. That a specific slogan or demand for democratic rights is somehow not Without correcting this British left understand the dynamic of the South African revolution as it unfolds.
This drastic underestimation, and misunderstanding, of the struggle for democratic demands is part of an error termed by Lenin economism. It is a view that fails to see that the decisive question in any great class struggle is politics.
In Lenin's words, take precedence over economics. argue otherwise is to forget the ABC of Marxiam. ' Democratic demands -one person one vote, a constituent assembly, the right to form trade
are precisely political demands.
Democratic political demands are not simply vital themselves, regard to the working class. They are also in particular the key demands for creating the social alliances without which the working class cannot be victorious.
Trotsky outlined this point with great clarity in regard to Spain, for example, in the 1930s. He dealt with the issue in relation to the decisive alliance for the working class in that country, that with the peasantry, and in regard to students. Students
Trotsky wrote in his Tasks of the Spanish Communists: "The fact that
demonstraled with tue students is the first step, though still an insufficient and hesitant one, the proletarian vanguard's struggle towards revolutionary hegemony.
"Taking this road that the communists will resolutely, audaciously energeticaliy for democratic siogans. Not to understand this would be to commit the greatest sectarian listake
"At the present stage of the revolution, the proletarial itself in the field of political slogans from all the "leftist" groupings not by rejecting democracy (as the anarchists and syndicalists do) but by struggling resolutely and openly for it, at the same time mercilessly denouncing the hesitations of the petty bourgeoisie.
Trotsky outlined that this decisive role of democratic demands was posed not just for a bourgeois but for a socialist revolution: 'By democratic slogans, the proletariat is not in any way suggesting that Spain is headed towards a bourgeois revolution. Only barren pedants full of pat, ready-made formulas could pose the question this wav. Spain has left the stage of bourgeois
'If revolutionary crisis transformed into a revolution, it will inevitably CASS bevond bourgeois limits, and in the event of victory the
mass black political
"advanced'
view the quite unable to 'Politics must
power hands of the proletariat.
crucial can lead the revolution group the
puts forth democratic slogans under on road di
presupposes
struggle and socialist reformists.'
Struggle
distinguishes
petty bourgeois
as in South
struggie for ene cictatorsnio
advancing problems
@ll dal allail
confiscation
tionary constituent assembly) revolution far
trinairsm...
Soweto students demonstration in 1977
will have to come into the
'But in this epoch, the proletariat
- that is broadest masses of the workers and oppressed around itself and become their leader — only on the condition that it now unreservedly
all the democratic demands. in conunction with its own
lessen, but would deepen, the working class's clash with the bourgeoisie
refused to fight for thorough going
Close republican bourgeoisie. On the contrary they create the basis for a victorious struggle against the leftist
making it possible disclose its anti-democratic character
"The more courageously, resolute-
slogans, the sooner it will win over the masses and undermine the support
Les.
Under conditions of suppression, elimination, or lack of democracy
Africa - it is precisely democratic slogans that lead towards, and provide the framework of, the
of the proletariat. As Trotsky wrote in his The Revolution in Spain for example:
"To counterpose the slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat to the
and slogans of revolutionary democracy (for a republic, for
revolution, for the separation of church and state. the
of church properties, national self-determination, a revolu-
be the most sterile and miserable doc-
"To contrast the bare slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat to the historically determined tasks that are now impelling the masses towards the
Democratic demands
and working class power
road of insurrection would be to replace the Marxist conception social revolution with Dakunli s This would be the surest way to ruin the revolution.
The formation of the highest forms of workers organisation workers councils or soviets - would itself unfold on the basis of the struggle for democratic demands. In Trotsky's view on Spain:
"The creation of workers' juntas (soviets) is undoubtedly the principal task of the day. But it is absurd to counterpose the juntas to democratic slogans.
The struggle against the privileges of the church, the abuses democratic orders and monasteries — a purely democratic struggle duced a mass explosion in May. that created favourable conditions for the election of workers's deputies workers councils); unfortunately,
these conditions were allowed to slip
The reality that soviets are not counterposed to democratic slogans - but on the contrary are developed in the fight for them particularly clearly for Trotsky relation to the highest form bourgeois democratic representative organisation: a constitutent assembly (parliament to draw up the constitution of a state) elected on the basis of one person one vote. Trotsky wrote in his Soviets and the Constituent Cor-
'But if the Cortes (parliament) is to be boycotted, then in the name of what? In the name of soviets? In my opinion it would be wrong to pose the question that way.
*The masses of the town and countryside can be united at the present time only under democratic slogans. These include the election of a constituent Cortes on the basis of universal, equal, direct, and secret suffrage...
'Soviets are as yet nonexistent. The ... workers - not to speak of the peasants — do not know what soviets are; at any rate not from their own experiences Nevertheless, the struggle around the Cortes in the period will constitute the political life of the country.
'To counterpose slogan soviets, under these circumstances, to the slogan of the Cortes (parliament). would be incorrect on ine hand, it will obviously be possible to build soviets in the near future only by
of democratic slogans.
means:
deceptive assure the
workers', soldiers',
positions of the toiling masses.'
slogans continues rignt to le poll where the workers
of the
- pro- ning
struggle for
(to
juntas, as organs of the power of institutions of the proletariat, will find
democracy have struck.'
Mass
in of
taking place around demands, organisations of the working class, is therefore in no sense unusual. On the contary a ls precisely working class power under conditions of a savagely repressive regime as in South Africa While the class nas no anything like the peak of organisation in the Spanish 1930s nevertheless the dynamic of its development - with the combination of the fight for democratic demands and the creation of mass organisation — is totally clear.
black working class organisation was created in South Africa with the Industrial and coming Union (ICU). This
membership of 200,000 in 1928. Black trade union of tered severe
1930s but rose again sharply amid the strike wave of other 1945, 40 per cent of all
workers in commerce and manufacturing were unionised.
Socialist Action Africa stitution school.
townships
leaders, SSRC
general mobilising the masses on the basis of
to prevent the monarchy from convening a false,
conservative Cortes; to convocation of democratic constituent Cortes; and so that this Cortes can give land to the peasants, and do many other things,
and peasants sovietes must be created to fortify the
The struggle around democratic
and their allies were so organised that they could directly struggle for proletariat power - something that would occur at the end of the entire process not its begin-
would occur through the democratic slogans.
Trotsky wrote: 'At one of the later stages — we do not know when — the
themselves opposed to the democratic institutions of the bourgeoisie. Only then will the last hour of bourgeois
To see a combination of a struggle
democratic and the creation of mass
the road to develops
black South African rise yet reached
revolutions of the
towards
Already in the 1920s the first mass
Commercial Workers reached a peak
membership then sufsetback during the path
World War II. By African its general
20 September 1985
Other, higher, forms of repres tative political organisation have a been developed or projected in So
in addition to the tr unions and political parties.
In March 1961, following the m upsurge and repression which folk ed the Sharpeville massacre,
ting all the people of South took place. This demanded the o vening of a democratically elected nonracial national convention for purpose of drawing up a new a
in effect a Constitu Assembly. A general strike called the ANC to fight for this dema however failed amid savage repr sion by the South African regime.
1976 a higher developm took place in Soweto with the forn tion of first the Soweto Repres tative Council (SSRC) and then : Committee of Ten.
The SSRC was formed on August 1976 directly out of the m schools initiated revolt which b started on 17 May. It was based on election of two delegates from ea
Similar, less authoritat councils were formed in other bla
— Katlehong, Randf Mamelodi, teridgeville/Saulsville, Siba! Seshego, Port Elizabeth, the Triangle townships and elsewhere
Working with black trade uni
notably Drake Koka, gained the authority to is calls for general strikes
strike of 500,000 bla workers in the Johannesburg area 13-15 September 1976.
Strike
The general strike in Joh nesburg was accompanied by a sir of 250,000 workers in Cape Town 15 September 1976, and by sma one day strikes in wide parts of Johannesburg and Cape areas late: September.
The SSRC also called for establishment of a more authoritat black elected body. In June 1977 SSRC secured, with other organi tions, the establishment of the Co mittee of Ten based on promin
and individuals Soweto. This issued a plan for creation of a democratically elect council in Soweto, and ur quivocably rejected any contact a imposed appointees of the government.
The Committee of Ten rejer! the racist regime's proposal establish a new Community Coun ill Soweto subject to surellic supervision and veto. t inste demanded free elections to a coun that would have final authority o all of Soweto's internal affairs -cluding legislation, taxation, edur tion and the police
Undboubtedly a major part of t Committee saw the proposed coun as an alternative to mass mobilisati and organisation But neverthek the fundamental issue posed - t of the necessity of mass democratic ly elected organisations — was enti ly correct and vital.
The struggle in South Afri therefore shows a perfectly cohere and logical historical development.
under the slogans democracy. This struggle in turn giv
mass blac working organisation and demands for high
bourgeois representati democracy — notably the demand f a constituent assembly. Out of t struggle in turn mass developme
workers councils, soviet and similar organisations tend
although these rea fruition still demand a higher level struggle even than we are seeing South Africa today.
In taking as its axis the fight f democratic demands the struggle South Africa is not choosing a s cond class' route. On the contrary it taking the most historically powerf
of development that cou possibly be imagined.
The specific form of struggle ca not possibly be seen in advance. B
line of development
Page 10 scan of this page
10 ROY LYNK'S campaign to split the NUM is running into serious trouble. breakaway, once promised for September, has been postponed with no new MINERS at Blidworth pit
week gave sharp rebuff to Roy Lynk's attempt to split the NUM.
When Arthur Scargill attempted to speak at Blidworth a few weeks ago, he
welfare by the branch CHIHILICE and forced speak in the car park. But
this week's Blidworth NUM branch meeting vote of no confidence the branch committee was carried.
HELEN ARTHUR reports from Nottingham.
The resolution was voted for both by miners THIS WEEK's Socialist Worker joins the Militant • a vicious campaign of lies and insults against Liverpool's black community.
Western Europe, population is employed by Liverpool city council in its 30,000 strong workforce.
The Militant dominated Labour council have stubbornly refused positively discriminate in •vour of blacks and so redress this long history of siructural гаситах
The Militant led Liver-
campaign of lies against the Black Caucus which black people in Liverpool see being thoroughly racist.
Militant have called the Black Caucus 'unrepresentative' and accused members of being 'pimps and drug. Thev save also disbanded the ci-
Race Re Commattee.
By John Nolan
Now Socialist Worker base joined in the attack with an article caling the Black Caucus 'Kinnock's
and stating
Socialist Action 20 September 1985
Notts breakaway
loses steam
The ballot on the
date yet announced.
had during the strike. officials responded declaring and no ballor, prevent them a minority. on puricies
sonal
LOWILE Scargill 'Lepers!
Outcasts! votes!' coupled with to vote 'yes' to 'your
Fringe
Lynk has also released record with song describing Scargill as a liar and deceiver. Many Notts see this childish and ridiculous, the breakaway campaign more harm than good.
Lynk's case suffered a further blow when leading
Socialist Worker slanders
Liverpool Black Caucus
In a city with the oldest black community in
and where eight per cent of the black, less than 300 blacks are
that they are more vicious than Labour's right wing because of their stand in the Sam Bond issue.
In addition to the politics of the Socialist Worker has gone on state a series of outright lies about Black Caucus's actions on a recent march against lor social security cuts.
Socialist Worker lie number the Black Caucus threatened to 'disrupt the march' and force be re-routed.
The truth: the organisers the Merseyside Unemployed Centre agreed the black caucus's participation. They stuck strictly to march
routed the march.
Socialist Worker lie de. number 2: The Black Caucus 'called their own march'. The truth: the march organisers agreed a
was jailed burglary.
with of
financial
the
sion fund.
certification to
because blatant
with Coal This September why promised
for the
ed. Ideas
"I think we're really going to sink the Lynk now,* Paul Galowar Thoreshy pit told us. 'His
falling stony ground. The longer he delays the ballot, the more credibility they lose. The Notts men are beginnine to realise woat ne Is all about, and it seems he's Only COl lo own loyalsts, ther real superscabs.
comments on the strikers' campaign. 'Since meeting with Scargill at Clipstone cancelled because of the very Dansalve some backsides have been kicked. There has been quite a moyement for meetines with national officials from
included Caucus
ALG Granby Party to
Militant dominated
Many including the North Region
Lie Eric
speaker that
Black said
Class
Lie number 5: accor"ding to Socialist Worker those ooposed to militant *never vented their wrath against the Liberals'. The
speaking.'
miners in Mansfield Woodhouse
Richards
Call e to start
with Lynk.
Richards joined the
although worked
Own
The now
massive
яЙу in Mansfield Leisur Centre on 12 October, t
Kinnock and Norman Willis have been
Current indicate that Willis and Kinnock have agreed to at tend and add their voices to the defence of a unified NUM.
to that
Recent • plans
on a are
they last
when that and high
Tories now
head,
the need for national terests o d interests whole workforce. truth: the trade unions and Labour Parties LOUR stand against the Liberal council including
services
- which won!
The Black Caucus speaker said Liverpool blacks totally suppori the city council's stand against Thatcher and the government but they would not have leaders imposed on them from outside.
is incredible that such lies as in the latest Socialist Worker can come
And Nazi Leagus othe
Anti-Nazi League. only explanation is their current orientation 10 Militant. Their opposition
positive discrimination and black self-organisation, and their isolation from the Labour Party and most of Merseyside labour movement, has led Socialist Worker to line up with a vicious long term campaign being carried out by Militant against the representatives of Liver pool's black. community. They have allied with campaign and policy which has perpetuated racism in Liverpool.
met at their quarterly meeting last Thursday, one week after the AUEW
for-ballots issue.
The stewards decided unanimously to launch 'the most intense campaign for a 'no' vote in the November ballot. The meeting adopted a resolu-
recogolseu that acceptance of state
unions is the thin edge of the wedge
the unions'.
number of stewards pointed out that such state contro had already starter with rule changes that had been adopted by the union in May ensure compliance with Tory anti-union legislation.
And in July, the AUEW executive council had sent out a nowinfamous circular advising NUR Special with British Rail on DOO. delegates voted against the resolution. ROSE KNIGHT repor DESPITE the clear vote
delegates unhappy with the resolution, because it contained no reference to the reinstatement of the guards sacked during the dispute. Knapp covered for this by saying that the NEC were already abiding by the Rail Federation recommendation that no agreements would be reached until all those sacked had been reinstated
The debate on the resolution revealed this was a cover-up. Stevenson, moving amendment from
that sacked guards should reinstated before negotiations on driver only operation took place This aimed to stop British Rail using them as hostages to force union concessions on productivity in general.
Knapp wanted to use the sacked men as Hề bargaining counter
the NEC will lose knows face doesn't
Danse Tom old Dak
Davies Common said, the resolu
which was passer 'capitulated to the worst form of blackmail'
Delegates also criticised the union's decision to use ballots before in-
AUEW campaign begins
SHOP STEWARDS in South Manchester ALEW
just executive and TUC general council had concluded their congress deal Inevitably, the meeting was dominated by the cash-
shop stewards how with the 1984 Trade Union Act. Such a storm of rank and file protest greeted the circular that general secretary Gavin Laird had been forced to retreat.
In the August issue of the union's journal, Laird went into print to explain that the executive counci were not insisting on such ballots in strict conformity with the law' and that strike pay would not be withheld 'because members did not conform to Employment Act.
The shop stewards' quarterly meeting resolved to build on that sentiment by:
NUR: stop the retreat
JIMMY KNAPP got what he wanted out of the
General Meeting called on 12 September. The conference was called to decide the union's reaction to the 'no' vote in the ballot on industrial action to fight driver only operation (DOO).
Eighteen out of nineteen members of the union's NEC voted for the resolution put to conference instructing the union leadership to start negotiations
Only 11 out of 77 ty of four.
that ballots with making democratic, but gave
the accepted
action, sacked for "had not
before action,
major
framework Tory
British sacking suspending intimidating workers
place. the fin ding sacked guards letters
and
them Knapp
News
• Produce a leaflet for mass distribution and a poster for display in the factories along the theme of 'keep the state out o the ALEW - keep th ALEN in the TUC
Organise a public raily with national labour movement speakers help promote the cam
Ensure that mass meetings and factory-gate meetings are held on the subject • Set up a special cam paign committee, involy Ing shop stewards and other members *to ensure the most effective implementation of the resolution'.
Militant shop stewards are asto pousamg tor a specia divisional shop stewards
ensure that the campaign is spread to other districts
Clearly what the ballot did do was stop the campaign for action to defend guards jobs before it really developed. Grade by grade balloting let British Rail pick off each grade one by one. It gives im-
which has plagued the rail maustry. mining collective proach. It backs
false notion that it is up tr
or the grade to which he or she belongs, to fight to de. fend jobs.
British Rail want an undertaking from the
to discuss and negotiate freely on future productivity proposals before they will reinstate the sacked guards The NEC resolution didn't contain this concession -which would totally overturn union policy. However, as many delegates realised, there is a danger that the NEC may do this if reinstate ment is used by Britist
as bargaining counter.
Delegates picked out the weakness of the resolution and yet by a big m jority still voted for it. N real alternative was put forward.
Today the priority is to campaign in the union and the labour movement for immediate reinstatement of the sacked guards. Rail Federation policy is non-cooperation with the im
ple oration driver on
operation until guards are reinstated campaign must start in the NUR to overturn resolu tion union to calling a ballo before industrial action.
Page 11 scan of this page
No retreat on amnesty!
News
STRIKING
MINER
THE KEY debate at Labour Party conference will be on the miners. The Communist Party's industrial organiser Pete Carter has now joined a chorus of voices demanding that the movement backs down from support for the NUM and for anmesty.
Party conference must give total support to amnesty and the resolution of the NUM.
NEIL KINNOCK WaS
Tuc to reject the NUM's motion calling for the next Labour government to review all
CP deserts jailed
miners
The front page of the CP
weekly Focus last week
had an article by Com-
munist Party industrial
organiser Peter Carter
stating his views on the
NUM's call for justice
for jailed and victimised
miners. It stated:
'The NUM leadership
consider the potential
damage of pressing this
approach at the
forthcoming Labour
Party conference.
The moral blackmail
involved in converting
the widespread
sympathy for the miners
into support for a
particular dogmatic
stance does the greatest
disservice to precisely
those victimised during
the dispute, whose
CAMPAIGN GROUP
Fringe Meeting at Labour Party Conference Miners Amnesty Rally
12.30, Wednesday 25 September speakers include:
Tony Benn,
executive member, and miners' wives from
Kent, Lancashire and Derbyshire
For further details and venue contact Campaigt Gra
of MPs, House of Commons. Lando Sa:
VALERIE COULTAS looks at why the Labour
cases miners, reinstate all sacked miners, and reimburse the fines in-
the strike. interests it claims to represent.'
Carter goes on: "To
imprisoned during the dispute as 'political prisoners" implies that any action, however individualistic, irresponsible o destructive, is beyond criticism if perpetrated by members of a certain trade union.
'Similarly, the argument that a Labour government should reimburse their allies when they are in power embodies a concept of
patronage which should be anathema to anyone seriously committed to a democratic and socialist society.'
Dennis Skinner, NUM
STRIKING
MINER Format
RAISSA
Photo:
didn't come up to form.
Now it seems likely this 'arrant
could go Labour Party conference 1n an even stronger form
Arthur Scargill stated that there will be no
die considers tee resolu-
considers the resolution 'very reasonable' and said that there were many in the labour movement who thought the tion was LOL enough.
Clear evidence of this is provided by the amendments nom Constituency Labour Parties calling on Labour to give no recogni tion to the Nottinghamshire breakaway union and criticising those Labour MP's who distanced themselves from the miners strike.
With the press urging
Kinnock to take his gloves off, and confront Scargill
mine will de the the
key debate | ar Party con-
ference. It not only pinpoints kinnock's record as party leader but will focus attention on what kind of A AI
Labour government will be returned if Thatcher Is defeated at the next general election.
Two key arguments will be put up against the NUM position. The first is tha some of the miners in jail are criminals. Pete Carter
CP denounces the NUM for referring those in prison as 'political prisoners'. While some miners should be released others should be left in jail according to Judge Carter! Jobs
In reality every miner, or miners wife, arrested during the strike was carrying out NUM policy to fight for jobs. They were implementing TUC decisions in refusing to bow to a High Court ruling that outlawed Dicketing The miners were treated as criminals because every time they tried to picket, the forces of the state were mobilised against them.
Contrary to what Willis argued at the TUC about Chc it you bay the lay 'obeying the law because she is precisely making all forms of effective resistance illegal.
second argument against the resolution will be that the demand for amnesty will damage Labour's chances of being re-elected. Une ol lie members of the miners executive — Dennis Murphumberland NuM Noas Norsuccumbed to the pressure of this argument and
eporter as thinking the
resolution. Pete Carter
believes the 'NUM should reconsider the potential damage of pressing this (resolution's) approach. Votes
This argument, that identification with the
NUM's struggle for jobs will lose Labour votes, is wrong to the core. First it
is Labour's duty to sup
port jalled all vit
did lose votes. But second.
Carter's argument
toral terms.
Labour's vote actually
went up during the middle of the miners' strike. It
went down when Kinnock
a UNION a SYN: CATS MINEURS ETAM _ NORD P.
SOLIDARITE AuX MINEURS ANGLA
WELCOM TO THE LI
began to stab the miners in the back.
1ne idea that 'radicalism' by Labour loses votes is Just false The largest vote the Labour was in 1945 when it had a manifesto which seemed to most PeOpleur ten in radical. Labour won 1974 wnen lt nad unt most left wing manifesto since 1945.
To suggest that in Thatcher's Britain, with the SDP stealing the clothes of Labour's right wing, there is any advantage in Labour dropping radical policies, and its stance of support for the miners, makes no sense al all even in ine crudest electoral terms
working people's votes because it attacks on working people and their living standards, not because makes radical commitments and sticks to them.
After the NUM's resolution passed at the TUC conference Kinnock said that the vote 'wouldn't make any difference to the way in which
programme to present to the electorate' Inese ar-
words are the clearest statement vet thai whatever the party decides Kinnock wants to return to the Wilson/Callaghan era of right wing leader party rule
Carter just the right wing's argument. He portrays the miners case as 'moral blackmail'
How low can the Communist • arty stoop! Ink most elementary concepts or class struggle scem now to have disappeared even
Delegates at the Labour Party al t thankfully unlikely to heed Carter's advice although the trade leaders who voted for the NUM at tne TUC are under intense pressure from Kinnock.
key problem that Labour Party activists face is that even if the resolution is passed then Kinnock will leave amnesty out of the party manifesto. The battle to defend the NUM and the victimised miners is going to have to go on against Kinnock -and against his new Communist Party allies.
Socialist Action 20 September 1985
EIGHTY ONE Labour Councillors in Lambeth aer Liverpool now face surcharge and disqualification from office because of their refusal to implemen Tory cuts in local services imposed by the 1984 Rates Act. Jack Cunningham, Secretary, is annoyed by their stand and has urged them to comply with the Tories legislation and 'get off the agenda. to the Party leadership at last year's Labour Party conference.
charges immediately they come to power. Another repeat of Clay Cross
in Lambeth Ted Knight
councillors
ALL 32 LAMBETH
they are barred from office for five years.
they could appeal to a higher court.
Ted Knight, attending after she corers ad bestr a press conference
received, pointed out that
job losses Lambeth
would have reached
Crime
figure of 1,500 if the terms
laid down by the govern-
ment had been accepted
COMES LOUI
the resources necessary to
provide a decent standard
of living and meet the very
severe needs of a section of
the population which
disabled, young
elderly. Accusing the
government of demanding
ballots in other situations
he said the lores were us
ing the district auditor, 'an
unaccountable to change the con-
=2=i:o0nil without
miners agains ine Tones
he said 'Like the miners we
are victims of political op-
11 Shadow Environment
This runs directly counter to the mandate giver
It is vital that this year's conference backs those councillors standing up for local services and pledges a Labour government, if the court appeals are unsuccessful, to lift the bans and sur-
where former Labou ministers now in the SDP — betrayed their comrades and refused to lift their fines — cannot be all owed to occur. GREG TUCKER looks at the situation
Tories surcharge
counciliors have received notices saying that they have been surcharged. Thi means collectively they have to pay £127,000 ane
They now have 28 days to appeal to the High Court against this ruling. Following any such rulin
pression. We will resist this major constitutional threat and prevent any fur ther step along the road to dictatorship The cost of the court cases for Lambeth are ex pected to reach £100,000 Town Hall trade unions it Lambeth are preparin their response. On 16 Oc the lambeth Joi Shop Stewards Committee proposing a London wide day of action. Thi will undoubtedly involve a strike call and loca IT Lambeth. public meeting is planned with Tony Benn and Anc Lilburn in Lambeth town hall. Following this action planned around the court cases themselves
Send tom
For peake reetings tel 274-7722 2312
Page 12 scan of this page
Pretoria's fake reforms
EARLY LAST WEEK the South African government announced it was to grant 'citizenship' inhabitants of the homelands. Two days later the influential president's council recommended scrapping South Africa's notorious FREEMAN exposes the fraud behind the claims of reform.
ON THE day the press hailed the "new reforms',
Financial Times reported five people shot
Capetown, 8. black students shot Soweto, and the murder of an Azapo supporter Durban. So much for reform.
Neither of the steps announced last any rea prospect of advance for black 2O1LO Africans. They simply represent a policy shift in favour of a wing of South
PUNICSS WIIUSC aim is to create a bigger black workforce closer to the industrial centres.
The new measures closely follow proposals from the Urban Foundation an organisation set 1976 to study ways to head off a repetition Soweto uprising of that ycal • long advocated The steps have been by Harry
Oppenheimer, Ine most authoritative spokesperson of South Aircan business.
The aim of the changes is to create a larger black worktored the townships for the benefit of South African business.
Hence such magnanimous steps as guaranteeing tnal
'no one' will hve to travel for more than an hour and
Inland 6 months £8; 12 months £15 Overseas (12 months only)
Europe £17; Air Mail £24 (Double these rates for multi-reader institutions)
Name..
Address..
Please send me as special offer.....
Pablished by Cardinal Enterprises, PO Box 50, London N1. Revistered as a newspaper with toe Post UTtice.
Printed By Laneridge Led. (TU), London E2.
ACTION
No change in South Africa
'to the
pass laws. ALAN
La half to get to work'.
Granting 'citizenship' to people forcibly deported to the 'homelands' does no than recognise which state attairs already exists. As the regime's opponents were quick to point out, from ting a status which already belongs by right black person born 01 LI Africa. will not affect apartheid's racist - because these are drawn up so as to apply to people who are not white, whether or not they are citizens.
Freedom
Most important of all, black people will not receive the one citizenship right which would alter the situation: vote. Black people will still be governed by they cannot remove. OpHas always been, and remains, oppos ed to one person. one volc in South Africa as does the South African government.
Pretoria's promise abolish the pass laws has received wider publicity internationally, and created
SUBSCRIBE
I enclose cheque/PO payable to Socialist Action for 8. Send to: Socialist Action Subs, PO Box 50, London NI 2XP.
bigger illusions in change. But black people are nightly cynical about governHOPE ALCOOTS.
The pass laws suspended atte Sharpe ville but only in the context
be reaffirmed later when the resistance was crushed. This time, is possible that the hated 'passes' will be phased out period of time - but their place the movement of black labour
the so-called 'Book of Life'.
"'his is an identity document or internal passport
introduced after Sharpeville and
the president's council proposed should
the basis of a new SYSLCIA neory. all people, of control. black
and white, them but it is obvious that only black ‚peoples' movements and rights will De restrictea Dy wien
The new measures are not intended to ameliorate the situation of black people, but to put a cosmetic gloss over the explosive
that black resistance to the apartheid regime created. The aim to appease American and British capital, fearful for stability of their profits and the Pretoria ment.
Botha's measures are no change for South Africa's DIacKs.
• Reagan's fake sanctions: see page 8.
Special free book offer!
Take out a years inland subscription and we will send you free one of these books.
Over Our Dead Bodies -Women Against the Bomb
Introductory offer for new readers:
Eight issues for just $2.
VICTORY
TO THE FROM NEXT Monday this call. VALERIE COULTAS reports.
THE Militant-dominated Labour council in Liverpool, fall support of the JSSC, has created over 2000 new jobs and built 3,500 new houses
office in HILE COHL- E 1983 Despite threats 'illegality' Labour won an increased majority 1984 council elections and had a clear continue improving services.
But since 1979 the Tory government taken away £350 million in rate
Support some orit because
— some of it because the counci has reluseo lo increase ashe rate of inflation. rates more than If Liverpool had obeyed government targets would have had to increase rates by 100 per cent and sack 6000 workers.
Liverpool has refused to do this and gone into
Defend
Liverpool!
week 30,000 council employees in Liverpool could be on all-out indefinite strike action. The Liverpool council joint shop stewards committee has called for this action in the light of threats of sackings and redundancy posed by the huge cuts in spending dictated by the Tory Rates Act. Mass meetings will take place of all Liverpool council unions to decide whether to support
£117 million deficit. Councillors have also been surcharged for setting an "illegal rate.
Last week Liverpool council's industrial and public relations committee decided that from December would be 'unable to honour con tracts of employment' because of lack of funds This galvinised the trade unions into action and as the full council meeting was about to take place on Monday they barricaded the town hall and stopped the redundancy notices beIng Issuel. 'As far as we are concerned the counce nave & financial problem because the government's policies - which are part of their attack on local services and democracy', explained
Bob Blundell of Liverpool NALGO.
'We are not prepared to accept redundane!
have voted to call the en-
workforce out strike demand Tories resetre the cuts,' he continued.
The council has a legal obligation to pay workforce. ItLiverDoo promised not to sack the workers it wond becom
financially liable. Forty nine councillors would have to foot the bill for f million a week!
There will be an intense debate at each mass meeting in Liverpool this week about the tactics necessary to win this campaign against the Tories.
The strongest unity needs to be forged between the councillors and the Liverpool workforce this battle is to be won.
NATIONAL
DEMONSTRATION
Saturday 2 November
MARCH AGAINSI
APARTHEID Details to follow
Stickers, posters and leaflets from: Anti Apartheid, 13 Mandela Street,
London NW1; phone 01-387 7966
← Socialist Action No. 113, 13 September 1985Socialist Action No. 115, 27 September 1985 →