Socialist Action No. 160, 6 March 1987
The scan: 160-mar-06-1987-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
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Page 1 scan of this page
No. 160
When will
to fight
THE LABOUR right claims it was a left wing candidate, and left wing policies, that lost Labour the Greenwich by-election. To avoid such defeats, they argue, the NEC should have the power to impose right wing candidates in by-elections.
Deirdre Wood's vote in Greenwich fell by 1700, four per cent. It was a serious defeat for Labour. But three months ago the right wing did impose a candidate: George Howarth, on Knowsley North. He presided over a fall of 7500, eight per cent, in Labour's vote. By that logic the NEC should be imposing hard left candidates everywhere.
But of course the real disaster is that we are seeing Labour's vote fall in Greenwich and in Knowley. The comparison these percentage losses are measured against, 1983, was an all-time low for Labour and a catastrophe for the labour movement. We make the point on the two by-elections simply to show the absurdity of the explanations produced by the right wing.
What is taking place has nothing fundamentally to do with local candidates. The situation was summed up by Eric Heffer after the Greenwich poll: If we seek to appear little different from the SDP then it is they who gain
not Labour'
For four years now the leadership has concentrated on fighting — not the Tories or the Alliance - but the left wing. That campaign left Labour defenceless before the vicious press campaign against Deirdre Wood in Greenwich.
A Labour Party that presents a resolutely right wing image to the world will lose votes to its right. That is a law of politics.
ACTION
BUILDING AN ALLIANCE FOR SOCIALISM
The lesson of
Greenwich
Labour start
the Alliance?
Labour is now facing the run-up to an election with its leadership, literally, pursuing a catastrophic political course. It has surrendered the political ground to its opponents, in particular to the Alliance. And Greenwich, like Knowsley, is part of the whirlwind Labour is reaping as a result.
One lesson must be applied straight away.
The Labour right is playing with tactical voting and blocking any fight against the main electoral prop of the Tory government and the main electoral threat to Labour: the Alliance.
The reality of what the Alliance is about is now out in the open with Owen and Steel's statement that they would enter a Thatcher cabinet. The single quickest thing Labour could do to take the offensive — and to lift its support - is to launch a campaign axised at showing the collusion of the Alliance with the Tory Party.
This would dovetail perfectly well with the other key step Labour must take - that is, in word and in deed, begin to support those in struggle against the Thatcher government instead of attacking them.
There is a long history of assaults on working class communities by this Tory government, and an equally long history of Alliance support for those assaults. Above all, the history of Labour leadership's failure to defend those under attack has ground down Labour Party support. ing up the struggle against the Alliance together like hand and glove. Always provide, that is, Labour turns its fire against its real enemies and not against its own left wing.
6 March 1987
• Day p2
30p
The Alliance threat pб 26 Counties election p10 Tories' scabs charter p10 Racist attacks p5 International Women's
Page 2 scan of this page
Socialist Action 6 March 1987
ACTiON Socialist
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 1987
Remember the
women of the
north of Ireland
WOMEN THROUGHOUT the world will be celebrating International Women's Day on 8 March. But we in Britain should highlight one special struggle which demands our solidarity: regime Britain in the north of Ireland and its own
On International Socialist Action gives over its editorial space to support the women's delegation to magnaberry prison.
9AM, SUNDAY 8 March 1987 will see more than 100 women from Britain asssemble at Dunville Park, Falls Road, for the beginning of an annual journey to the all-women Maghaberry jail, miles south of Belfast. Yet again the Women and Ireland network is picket against strip-searching and in support of the national liberation commemorate International 1987.
Returning from Greenham woman wrote: from Ireland it struck me that my experience working in the peace movement has always been a matter of choice. choice about whether to risk arrest or to stay in the background. That choice doesn't exist for the nationalist communities in the north.'
This year, women from Ireland and Labour Committee on Ireland will join Labour Party women's others from up and down the country for this annual visit to the nationalist community of the north of Ireland. The Maghaberry picket has helped highlight the degrading strip-search torture that nationalist women are subject to as part of their everyday lives in jails throughout the north.
Arriving early evening, their accommodation with families from the nationalist community and participate in a women-only cabaret being laid on to greet the delega. tion. The next day, Saturday, events have been organised for the delegation women's throughout the day, followed by a social in the department.
evening.
On Sunday evening, icket, women will participate in a feedback meeting, to periences. The delegations will arive home during the course of Monday. Thereafter, delegation meetings around the country are already planned: in London, in Liverpool, in Newcastle, and in Birmingham.
The the 1987 delegation is a stark reminder of why this annual picket takes place. Women are advised: 'You will be staying in a nationalist area bordered by loyalist areas, and it is very easy to wander into a loyalist area by mistake. therefore very important to tollow directions. It you are told the way to a certain place, then that is the way to go. This is particularly important at night.'
For those who haven't visited the north of Ireland before, daily conditions of life for the nationalist community are hinted at by advice like: 'There are no buses in the nationalist areas. you are cheap.' And: 'It can be difficult to phone home as there are no public call households don't have a phone.
For one short weekend, women from Britain will experience the conditions that nationalist women from the six counties live under every day of every year. Socialist Action takes the opportunity of International Women's Day 1987 to salute women across the world who are fighting for their liberation and for the freedom of their people. Especially, women of the north of Ireland.
End strip-searches!
Self-determination for the Irish people! Britain out of Ireland!
the fight against the inhuman of strip-searching carried out by
Women's Day organising a women-only
struggle in Ireland, to Women's Day
previous visit, one 'After coming back
Choice to be involved, and
Labour Women for
delegations and
women will take up
by Sinn Fein's Workshops
after the Mughaberr
discuss their visit and share ex-
pre-visit briefing received by women on
It is billeted centrally the black taxis are
boxes and many salute the nationalist
THE NATIONAL Organisation of Labour Students (NOLS) national weekend of 28 February-1 March establishment of a new left current in the student movement. It was shown in two developments.
First Campaign Student, standing in elections on a platform of support
the campaigns politics of Labour Left
(LLL), TICI democratic secular PalesLille, Has calle paigning action for grants,
By Polly Vittorini, SOAS Labour Club
received only six fewer votes than the candidate from Socialist Students in NOLS — with 18 votes for SSiN and 12 for Campaign Student. Although not elected, because of the transfer of the Militant vote to SSiN, the vote for Campaign Student signifies that this current is here to stay - and that there is already a sizeable current support VOLS for the politics of
campaign Given that Campaign Student olly been established for three months it was a remarkably good vote.
The second development was that 40 students attended a fringe meeting to hear speakers from the Labour Women's Action Committee Labour Party Black Section and Campaign for Labour Party Democracy supporting their own campaigns and affiliation to LLL. Commitments were made Irom a numoer or Labout Clubs to affiliate to the LLL
Socialist Organiser and SSIN had attempted prevent this meeting from taking place by vetoing the proposal for the LIL to nave a fringe meeting al the conference. ine suc cess of the CLPD, Black Section, WAC fringe meeting however was both a boost for unese campaigns and lays the basis to camnaign tor Nots to atfiliate to the LLL.
An unloul talll feature on the left at NOLS conference was the increasing marginalisaton of SSiN's politics in NOLS as they move towards the politics of Militant. Following up
women's autonomy December NUs conterence. SSiN's main contribution to the
debate propose to delete from the motion the statement 'thal women only. can define their oppression'.
a piece the
Look, Ma! I'm the world!
Tresident of the U.S.A. -!!
A new left in NOLS
conference held on
witnessed the
Since this leaves only men ase oner core for defining women's op-
safely infer that what SSiN meant by their call for 'an objective definition of sexual harassment' at December NUS conference was one which IS acceptable to men. Apparently Socialist Students NOLS 110 W agree with the view that women are incapable being objective and that only men can be!
The debate on women was a crucial conference NOLS voted
work closely with and affiliate to WAC and to add its name to WAC'sappeal for the women's conICE CLICE elect the women's on the NEC. NOLS will be an important ally for WAC in the fight. for representa tion of women in the Labour Party.
also debated the Middle East and voted down tne na tional committee mendation adopting support for two states Palestine. This position which essentially argument for smaller
supported by most of the NOLS national committer and by SSiN. Militant call-
'socialist federation' in the Middle East. But conference rejected the NOLS national committee-SSiN position by votes …LO 61 and adopted support for the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people and unconditional support for the PLO
This position, , and the practical solidarity called for in the motion, lays the basis for winning majority support in NOLS for the objective of a democratic secular state in Palestine where all can live equally; a policy which would be CONS SICHE with NOLS policy of support for the ANC of South Africa, for British withdrawal from Ireland, and for self-determination for the Irish people. It was a major victory that the right wing offensive by SSIN Palestine was deteated.
In other debates con-
decided give total support to the FSLN and to work closely with the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign. It also voted to
The world is on amazed by my
astonishing displa of hypocrisy, cant lies and... uh-oh!!
Campaign for thes bian and affiliate the Labour Gay Rights and support the Lesbian and Gay Bill campaign
debate on racism, the central point of which Labour Party Black Sec was the tion, was knocked off the end of the NOLS agenda This will be an important campaign to mount in the coming YeaNOLS ensure that 1988 conterences lakes a posinon In support of black self-organisation in the party.
Despite the political agreement with abour s campaign left that these politics show, there is still
majority in NOLS
affiliation accults Labour Left Liaison. The
Democratic Left leader-
of NOLS puts its political backing behind Kinnock. This leads to the contradiction having policies which would take NOLS into conflict with the Labour Party leadership if it was to campaign for them. Instead the leadership brought into conflict with of NOLS the membership of NUS for ies radical poCaiep refusing to campaign
Campaign Student's call for NOLS to make its alliance Labour's campaign left offers resolution contradicaiton: by consistent campaigning by NOLS in defence of those in strug-
the Labour Party and in society at I've been rumbled! I've been tumbled!!
News
WIST
large. The potential of ma-
jority support for this
course of action is clearly
shown by the support for
Campaign Student aftei
only three months of ex-
istence.
In the last year NOL
has been locked in a steril
debate between the Kin-
CHUCKLE Democrat Left
on one side and SSiN ar
Militant on the other
Campaign Student, link › the LLL, had an imp such snort time
precisely because it shows
a way out of those twir
dead ends. NOLS con
„тегенсь clear
demonstration of that.
Scam
paigning NOLS which
part of Campaign Forum'
alliance for socialism!
Listen, Ronnie, if you can't behave you can take your. self off to the spare
room!
wha' happen I fergit:
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Where is British politics going?
Politics Today
THE LEFT is used to being in opposition. Denunciation of the Labour leadership is its stock-in-trade. But that is not enough today. The changes now taking place in British politics are of gigantic scope — larger than anything this generation of the labour movement has ever experienced. Kinnock and the Labour right not only fail to understand them but they are leading the labour movement to disaster. The left must cease to be "an opposition' and must use every ounce of its resources to turn round the situation in the labour movement. Because only the agenda that the left is beginning to set can lead Labour out of its crisis. JOHN ROSS looks at the changing shape of British politics.
see by-
shape ATTISE politics. try
main
SDP-Liberal boosted
under
and tied to the Labour: trade union
its
the the union
movement cong 'new realist' lines.
the vote from
Thatcher government,
popularity, able
Conflicts
The task of the ruling class in that situation clear. It must marginalise
the Party and
before the continuing fall in Thatcher's unpopularity makes it impossible for continue in office whether this takes nace al the next general election or
It is by these which involve stabilising the Alliance as a permanent feature:
Botish politics, that the bourgeoisie seeks to ensure that the tremendous changes the Tory government has brought about in
society, economy and politics will be rendered permanent
The chosen means for the ruling class to achieve thailable, is to seek to solit maeea ine only one society, to divide the country geographically, deepen every differential and division which exists.
This process starts in the economy. It creates a core sector of stable, employed, well-paid workers and a 'periphery' of insecure, often temporary or
with WORKCES rew or no union rights.
It extends into deepening and utilising the sexual and racial divisions in the working class. The bulk of the secure core are
The majority of the Inell. pennely are tie wolic.. and black. Beyond even we perpucry are wie dishig ranks of the permanently
among the DACK the
Inese divisions al c
country. and are rising
and the Prosperity
reign, even in large
'he in-
sions simply but also
reflect underlying
ty. capitalism's goal Is to consolidate
better off of the
to aimed against sections of
capital
The
that
divide split the working and the
made because the
of 1964-70 1974-79
class
The and Callaghan governments drove of better
their
Hallue
1966 and 1983 among any social group. supervisory techni-
workers sup-
Rise
These workers moved in huge numbers first to
1979 and then for the Alliance
1983. Wilson and Callaghan by their policies smashed pieces the historic bloc of the work. ing class behind Labour created in 1945. Thatcher and Owen are today the
the tremendous divisions introduced into the working class by capital and by Labour's right wing. How to reunite the working class movement, on a line of struggle against capital, is the task that faces the left today.
That right wing is today pursuing a course that does still further damage to the labour movement.
Golding - and their allies
Parlamentary Labour Party act to
nent minority status. On
this leaflet
the SDP The be converted to "business unionism'
short term only few million best paid
have their organisation destroyed.
right that halt the
the labour movement.
the initiatives undo the tremendous Lead
Given the damage which was done to Labour and the labour movement by the last Labour govern-
this right ana by wing bureaucracy, several million workers have been broken lou Labour alu
vote Alliance as well small fraction
ful rigot Tong bipe has-
right wing been consolidated in the trade unions. Labour has been very much the party of the innercities, of the north.
the black community, or lie council estales and of the unemployed. That is the real situation Labour
One danger for the lefi is that situation. Ideas of the 'allance dispossesed' 'em-
the powerless, are a useless mirror image of the business unionism, or support for the SDP, 01
Golding, Laird, or a Hammond. Yes, must be the party of the black community, of the
Above: triumphant Alliance candidate in Greenwich, Rosie Barnes. Below: the campaign Labour should have mounted -
was produced by HQ only days before the poll
unemployed, of women, and of the council estates. But it cannot be simply
taTo be successful Lbour
must represent the whole working class not only women, black people, , and the miners, but also a large part of the membership organised by the ABU, o the EETPU, and many of whom are now voting for the first time ever for well.
As we already seen, do
- because that will working against
ed 'New realism'
for only a few million of the most secure most
Laird, and Owen' s left:
in the first
that can be built in which
where La-
Alliance. on the
traditional
against Answer
But to build on this it is necessary to grasp the tremendous changes that have taken place in the working class in the last 30 years, and what
necessary for Labour to be a class party today.
Rate
It is here that the left is Breatest leaps forward her make greatest understanding. Since World War II almost three and a half million women and black DCUDIt have entered the labour force The working class today is divided virtually half and half between women and black workers on the on side and traditional 'male white other. It is among these, above all among workers, that Labour has
historical a cales. weakness indeed Labour had won women's suppoll Ill lie way ll la won men's it would have DCCU in office throughout the 1950s and 1960s
To be a class party today, indeed to be more of A all. than it ever was in the '50s and '60s, Labour has to reorganise both its policies and its structure to take account of that reality of the working class.
That is the significance
Socialist Action 6 March 1987
SDP leader David Owen says he'd join a
Thatcher government.
Voting for the SDP candidate is just giving a
leg-up to Dr Owen's ruthless ambition.
A vote for the SDP is a vote for another
Thatcher government.
There's only one way to get rid of Mrs Thatcher
Vote Labour
of what a Bernie Grant is
doing in Haringey, or what
an Arthur Scargill did in
the miners strike. It is not,
as the right accuse, the
idea of constructing a ma-
jority through a coalition
of minorities although
that they
categorise women
shows just how the right are.
What involved
understanding the tremen
dous changes in the struc
ture of the working class
itself.
The reality is the ma-
jority of the working class
in London are women o
black. No one advocates
the adoption of the exact
tactics of a Bernie Grant
everywhere in Britain. But
the basic idea, that Labour
must be brought into line
will une working class as ll
actually exists, does apply
crewice
Grown And that is also the
core of dealing with Owen,
Golding, Hammond and
Laird who in practice
form an alliance. Because
finally the Alliance and the
3 new realists have no solution. Alliance councils make cuts with the same alacrity as the Tories. Golding and Laird's policy of selling jobs cuts theil
base. There is still strong vestigial
Labour in wide sec. tions of their base.
Reality
Labour is now faced with a task it has not had to undertake for 50 years. To fight inch by inch to rebuild its support in the working class - and to do so on an agenda which only the left can provide. The path which Kinnock pursuing; , to take Labour to the right, will only lead to alsaster arter alsastel
This is the challenge that now taces the lett. I1 has to think not like a small embattled minority but like the general staff of the labour movement. Because onlv its ideas and agenda can lead the labour movement out of its crisis
If anyone didn't understand that before Greenwich, they should HUW
Page 4 scan of this page
Scottish Party to discusss women's organisation
Poor showing for Militant at Scottish LPYS
4
London
WAC gets
organised
THE inaugural meeting of the London organisation of the Labour
Women's Action Committee was held on Sunday 22 February.
Called with the aim of establishing a campaigning regional organisation of LWAC, the meeting brought together women from and women's sections,
campaigns and other
sections of the Labour Party, including NOLS.
Introductions on LWAC's approach to the review of the Labour women's organisation, on the theme of 'Building a powerful Labour women's organisation', were given by Ann Pettifor, LWAC national organiser, Munira Thobani, the Labour Party Black
Ihe point was made in the meeting that although the largest regional membership for LWAC is in the London area. unti now that membership has had no meeting or organising Jobs not bombs call from Labour CND UNILATERALISTS in the party are uneasy following the launch of Labour's defence campaign last December.
"hat was the overwhelming message of Labour CND's annual meeting in Sheffield recently Delegates heard guest speaker Peter Heathfield of the National Union of Mineworkers express concern at the nationalstic emphasıs of the Modern Britain in a Modern World campaign, and especially at the Labour leadership's pledge to increase conventional
Those sentiments were be e shared by the meeting. Delerates supported a resolution from the LCND executive which committed Labour CND to a campaign within Labour Women for Ireland LABOUR Women for Ireland, the autonomous women's section of the LCI, held its AGM on Saturday 28 February in London.
It took place in a context of greater potential than ever for broad campaigning action led by Labour women in solidarity with the Irish struggle. disappointing figure of 24 voting members present, largely from London, highlighted the political direction and sumitated debate over LWI's campaigning priorities. Specifically it
Socialist Action 6 March 1987
In Brief
most effectively. As a
result, the campaign for
WAG's demands for
changes in the structure
ot the Labour Partv to
empower women has
not been taken up to the
fullest possible extent in
the London area.
explained that
strengthening this
reglonal organisation
and LWAC's ability to
campaign for power for
women was especially
important this year.
Key to this will be
winning unity by women
in different sections of
proposals for a women's
organisation witn power
— trade union women,
women in black sections, constituency
Munira Thobani
explained that women in
Black Sections have the greatest possible interest
in campaigning for power for Labour women. But LWAC must also take on the demands and terms set by Black women.
The meeting was a
positive step towards
building a campaigning London LWAC fighting centrally for the changes needed to create a powerful and meaningful Labour women's organisation.
the party for a policy L du money veni nuclear weapons would
'creation of jobs and projects of public works.'
Other policies approved included forging closer links with the trade unions, and a unanimous call for Lavour rates te support CND's national demonstration in London on Saturday 25 April.
Delegates also gave
preliminary consideration to Labour CND's model resolunons to party conference. Their themes wil be• the reallocation of all money saved on nuclear weapons to be diverted into welfare programme, including building schools, hospitals and homes; Britain's withdrawal Hom NAlu, ana tne removal of all US bases moil is country.
must step up its work on strip-searching, with the L.CI, and, in London, with Irish women's groups in particular.
(Guest sneakers included Barbara de Bruin from Sinn Fein, who spoke of increased Anglo-Irish Accord was signed. She mentioned in particular the banning of women's demonstrations,
i speaker from th rish Women's Abortion Support Group outlined the support it provides
4000-plus women forced lo come Irom bold tae north and south of Ireland to England for abortions each year.
to campaign against Labour Party Black Sections
has been submitted to the West Midlands regional
Labour Party conference to be held at Opengate
Town Hall, Telford, on 21-22 March. Submitted by
TASS No. 12 division, it says Black Sections are
divisive, would lead
minorities within the party, and would detract from
the unity necessary for a Labour victory. This is only
the latest move by TASS.
previously reported a resolution to TASS conference
from South Wales region also denounces Black Section as divisive and unrepresentative.
The Labour Party
Black Section will oppose
the resolution and fight its
passed. Far from Black
Sections being divisive the
West Midlands conference
shows the real problems facing the party.
Some months ago the regional office asked all
affiliated organisations to submit resolutions on
either the jobs and in-
issue of health For those wanting to take up the plight of black people this was not a problem.
eight years of Thatcher the situation in the West Midlands is grim:
THIS year's Scottish Labour Party conference (13-15 March, Perth) will consider an important proposal on women's representaton in the party.
The Scottish Labour Party executive is proposing that conference
1987 Scottish LPYS conference was held in Portabello town hall, Edinburgh, over the weekend of 28 February-1 March, and attracted the smallest turnout in many years.
By Brian Kelly
Clydebank LPYS and Fraser Taylor, Dumbarton LPYS
Its size reflected the inability Militant leadership of the LPYS to politically
Curlidal tacks launched on Labour's youth organisation by the Scottish party leadership.
That same malaise war reflected in the debate on the Sawvel which attracted 10 resolutions to the conference.
THE Militant leadership of the LPYS can always be relied upon to turn regional ferences of the Young Socialists into dull nonevents with ritualistic calls for the nationalisation of the top 200 monopolies.
The only relief and politics at the Yorkshire region LPYS conference,
Regional round up
West Midlands TASS attack Black Section
A RESOLUTION calling on the regional executive
to the isolation of ethnic
As Socialist Action has
300,000 jobs have disap-
peared, unemployment is
15 per cent, and the region
has fallen from second to
sixth in the earnings
league. But among black
people things
a whole unemployment is
31.5 per cent among Afro.
carribeans, 28.4 per cent
among Asians and 10.9 pe
cent among whites.
By Mick Archer
Even the regional ex-
ecutive recognises the
als panily.
sultative document, The
West Midlands can make
the executive argues
decides that women
should elect The five
women's seats on the Scotlisa execulive.
By Ann Henderson
If adopted by Scottish
conference, would Lene os sureneutel
fight for the same
Seven supported the Militant position and three supported the
views of the Labour Coordinating
Committee.
Contributions from Militant supporters on the 'tremendous record' of the LYS and its role as the biggest youth organisation in Britain were obviously fake. Ine conterence ad
dress by the national chai
of the LPYS, to the effec that any young person at tending this conference
would be 'filled with en thusiasm' for the Young Socialists, was belied by the atmosphere of con-
Militant were also on
the run on a number
of which the debate on Ireland. Of the six resolutions two were favourable to the Labour
LPYS Yorkshire conference
held on 7-8 February, came with well attended
the high point of each was the speaker Alan Curran, youth organiser for Sinn Fein.
A lunchtime Committee . on Ireland meeting organised by YS members heard Bob Clay and Alan Curran talk about training ground in the six the
in the six counties and how police
that 'expansion will not automatically benefit
everyone the region' and that 'the specific needs
of women, the young and
Can inner and call for special measures'
However nowhere in the document does it say what special measures for racial minorities would be.
But affiliates who have submitted proposals on
policy in the current review of the national Labour women's organisation.
resolution trom Stirling women's council also calls for Scottish support for the women's seats on tie Hauolai execulive to be elected by women.
Members of the LWAC in Scotland are
Committee Ireland. One of these, from Dum barton, called for support for the LCI. In a roundabout way LCC delegates called for support for the LCI and voted in favour of the Dumbar. ton resolution.
Militant's position, for a 'socialist federation' of Britain and Ireland, was directly counterposed to the LCI position. For the first time at a Scottish LPYS conference, Mili-
ant supporters openly al
acked the LC
Despite this and despite an attempt by the Scottish party leadership to ban a Sinn Fein speaker Aengus O Snodaigh, tending the LCI fring meeting, that meeting was packca our. The meeting was chaired by Paul Car
National Union of
"techniques' first
nave been tested out on Irish people before being used in Britain.
Atma Singh, for the Labour Party Black Sec tion carried on the theme by talking about the op
Pression brack peein
and building of black self organisation that developing inside the Labour Party. Alan Curan also explained the decision
this have met with
predictable response. In-
stead of their resolution
being included in the jobs
and industry
val dale
have been given an
opportunities their own. Supporters of the resolutions are concerned that they will never be discussed. After all there is a long tradition of arguing that even
drawing up proposals for Scotland based parity
between women's sections constituency women and
trade union women - in line with WAC's proposal for the national women's
The Scottish Labour Party early deadline of 7 June has placed very
1987 for submissions on
Students Scottish convenor A woman from the
Alliance and a Labou Women for Ireland
Party Section attracted from • and
party
these were
Militant
on the Labour Party NE( Linda Douglas, was callec to speak from the platform before the vote was taken. But not once did she refer to Black Section. nor to her own record of
of the ard fheis to stand candidates the forENCONTE! 26 County general election
The evening Youth Action fringe meeting developed the theme of the central role of interna tionalism in ar alliance for socialism, and how, if it is to grow the YS must take on a more internationalist
calvar u perspective, and the YS must relate to the actual
News
discuss special measures to
combat black unemploy.
ment is divisive
Black Sections were
formed to oppose this sort
of unity, which ignores the real divisions between
black and white workers
and discuss effective measures for overcoming
them. The TASS resolu
tion is testimony to hov
eftective Black Sections have been in this fight.
possible changes to
Scottish women's con-
ference.
Organisations encouraged
Scotland are
to consult with WAC, and
submit proposals for pari-
tv of representation. and a
weighted trade union vote
within the women's conference based on female membership.
supporting the scab Black
mittee
The conMilitant a LPYS con-
the Africar ANC. • of five
betweet
South
and calls in of their
debate which
con ference. will the ranks port.
struggles that are developing in Britain today Ireland in the weekend's The centrality events moved onto the floor of the conference Cofne Valley LPS calliom with resolution for withdrawal of British troops from Ireland. Alar Curran was twice denied the he but open the debate, à slalchcli prepared by him was read out.
Page 5 scan of this page
Growing police violence against black communities Death at the hands of Wolverhampton Police
Newington police must answer
News
BLACK ORGANISATIONS in Wolverhampton are calling a national demonstration on 7 March to protest at the killing of Clinton McCurbin. Clinton died from asphyxia on 20 February after police tried to detain him in a city-centre shop. According to eyewitnesses he was beaten and placed in a necklock after protesting at his arrest.
Bystanders objected to the excessive force of lne plice were mind your fucking
several were ar rested after scuffles which broke out when it became known that Clinton was dead.
Outrage
The killing of Clinton has outraged Wolverhampton's black Within 24 hours of his death a 300-strong meeting was held to discuss action.
larger VIl 25 February, representatives from black attended
organisations from London and Birmingham, decided on ine acmonsuladon.
While the details of the route have to be confirmed the targets of the communi-
where Clinton was killed; police; and the local Expres and Star whose racist reporting of the event has fuelled their anger. ington police. The family and friends of Trevor Monerville Campaign statement.
WE are asking for your support for our family's campaign to find out what happened to Trevor Monerville custody. Firstly we would
situation. It is as follows:
• Stoke Newington police claim to be ignorant of how ¡evor came lo gel lne Ijuries from which he is now
They that Trevor was found by member of the public 10.40pm on 1 January 1987. They say he was asleep in a car with a broken window. Police claim have thought he was under the influence of drugs and ar-
Calla damage' to the car. He was taken to Stoke Newington police station to sleep it off.
Trevor is now convalessing. undergone brain surgery. He lost his life. When he admitted to hospital he had
LOC.
Even the soles of his feet were bruised. Me had sui-
head This produced a
head. produced blood clot and a swelling in the brain which paralysed ine ense rais oody
The mystery we want to untangle is how Trevor got into this state. This is what we know:
At 3pm on 1 January 1987 we reported him missing 10 Nellineton police station. They denied any knowiened his whereabouts. Again on 2
In an editorial on 23 February it argued that the scuttles following Clinton's death due 'the assumption among deltall.
By Mick Archer
black people that the police
hibit anyone of their race, no matter what they are doing'. Nownere ca ine Ex• press and Star ask whether racist assumptions amongst the police might explain the recent spate of deaths and serious injuries suffered by black people at their hands. No doubt
The black people at the 25 February meeting were in no doubt about this. Ther saw Clinton's death as the lalest in a chain or ponce assaults on members of the Diack cluding the killing of Cynthia Jarrett in lottenham. the of Cherry
Questions Stoke
TREVOR MONERVILLE sustained horrific injuries after spending some days in the custody of Stoke New-
Committee made the following
Trevor was reported officially missing.
police custody tor at least
/ hours. Nonetheless the police again denied any knowledge of his whereabouts.
On 3 January the police charged Trevor at Highbury
They knew his identity then
had been taken forcibly by six officers on 2 January. Still we were not informed of his whereabouts.
Trevor was too unwell to be put inside the court and he was remanded in custody from his cell Brixton prison for medical reports.
Groce in Brixton, and the savage beating of Trevor Monerville Stoke
As a statement from the Wolverhampton for Community Relations explains: 'The death black people is becoming a regular result of the process of contact between black
and the police.
Moreover, black people have the state's
OCCI response to these crimes. They have seen the 'unbiaseu invesuganons •Ine press and Star talks about alongside the trials of black youth from Handsworth, Brixton and Broadwater Farm. Protest
Is it any surprise in these circumstances that black people take to the streets to protest against this violence?
response of the police to these events has
immediate aftermath of Clinton's death they issued a statement suggesting that drug abuse was to blame. 1 nis raclansi siticulype was seized on by the gutter press which polnica is nnger al the victim rather than the police.
When the post mortem He was only tracked down there due to his father's persistance in finding him. We were eventually able to see him on Monday 5 January, four days after he went missing. If we had not been so persistent he could still be in Brixton prison, or worse, dead.
Attention
Once public attention was drawn to Trevor's conalton me ponce Issuca a statement claiming that Trevor had a brain tumour This has proven to be false under medical examination. The police then suddenly dropped all charges against Trevor.
We do not know how Trevor received his injuries. We do know he was in once DC CCT 10.40pm on 1 January anc Saturdav 3 january Trevor Monerville lies in a hospital bed after suffering his injuries.
revealed no evidence to support this police said this had merely been a possibility and they were sorry they had 'caused any distress to the deceas. ed's family.
Because of incidents like inis lne black community is demanding an inacpenuent pubne cnquly and is refusing to cooperate Will ple Colliplants authority. Birmingham District Labour Party Black Section have come out in support of this demand.
Experience
in a statement they argue that the experience of black people leads them to belleve that the police complaints. authority enquiry will not reveal the truth in order to protect the police, will not lead to the prosecu tion of those responsible for the death. and will not ex amine police racism and police institutionalised, brutality.'
They have demanded Ladl Lne police responsible for Clinton's death be charged with murder and all those arrested for public order offences in subsequent scufTies be released. Black organisations are raising
Trevor Monerville:
need answers to the following questions if we are to begin to know what happened.
* Was Trevor in his present condition when the police found him? Did he have bruises and cuts over the length of his body? If so, why was he charged with an offence? Why was he not taken directly to hospital? Why were these injuries not discovered on Trevor's five "sis or ponce doclois dile two journeys to Homerton hospital whilst in police custody? * If Trevor was NOT in his present condition when found by the police, how did he receive his injuries whilst in police custody?
* Why, given Trevor's condition, did it take six otficers to forcibly take his
funds for such an enquiry
The Wolverhampton Labour-controlled council has also offered financial support. Paul Boateng has taken on the case and Clinton McCurbin's mother has beert flown, at the council's expense, hom der nome m New York. An independent
be carried out.
The stance of Wolverhampton's Labour leadership has LIVE challenged however. Local Tory and Alliance politiclans are whipping up a racist campaign of opposi-
cash valky that Wolverhampton council is to provide
Tory councillors claim to have received a stream of calls from local ratepayers and petitions are reportedly being raised. Tory and Alliance candidates in the Midlands West European by-election, to be held on 5 March, have publicly con demned the funding and claim Labour voters sup. port their view.
Campaign
The constituenc cludes the three Wolverhampton Westminster seats. Labour's candidate is the leader of Wolverhampfingerprints? Why, imInculatcy alici lilis oracar. did Trevor see three doctors within six hours? What happened?
* Why did the police not inform us they were holding Trevor once they discovered his identity on 3 January 1987?
* Why did prison officers destro some of revor's clothes?
* Why did police invent a brain tumour for Trevor?
* Why did Stoke Newington police suddenly drop all charges against Trevor?
•Support to: Family and Friends of Trevor Monerville Campaign Committee, 42 Brooksby Walk, London E9. 01-985 6878
Clinton McCurbin:
ton council.
The Express and Star has loined in this campaign In its 27 February edition it printed 11 letters attacking the council's decision, not one defending it. One letter complained was not working for the
communily while another claimed to speak TOT minorit known as CROWS (Cauca-
Ratepaying Old Wulfrunians).
In the light of this campaign the task an u
trial by media
Court observers and
detence campaign
judicial reporting.
have been presented
youths who murdered PC Keith Blakelock
(Guardian, 22.1.87)
court, was entirely false. (Not reported.)
tee who have sat in the public gallery.
by jury?'
March, Tottenham
proach Road, London N/5.
Police attacks on the
black community
at the sharp
against the Black community.
We are committed
ing to protect
munity.
Socialist Action 6 March 1987 5
racists is clear. The 7 March demonstration must be massive, and il must be sup ported by labour movement vitanisallulls i he stance of Wolverhampton council must be defended and the call an independent public enquiry should be backed As Birmingham District Labour Party Black Section have argued, white socialists HOUS Wolverhampton's black lUld SUJJULE
Broadwater Farm:
AS THE trial of the six defendants charged with the murder of PC Blakelock continues the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign is organising a public meeting to get the truth across against a backlash of media racism.
speakers from the and from Broadwater Farm Youth Association will give an up-date on the situation facing the six defendants and Tottenham's black community. In a statement issued to advertise the meeting BWFDC say: THE trial of three men and three juveniles charged with the murder of PC Blakelock in the Tottehnam Uprisings of 1985 is continuing. As was feared, the prosecution case has been blazoned across the newspapers and TV screens in an orgy of inaccurate and pre-
In any trial, the prosecutions case consists simply of unproven allegations which they seek to prove against the defenants. In English law, a defendant is presumedd innocent until proven guilfr. But. in this case the prosecution allegations
by the media in a highly PHONE MACR ИСС ОТОЧНЫРА00 0
planned to cut off his head and plant it on a pole.'
On the occasions where the defence have succeeded in discrediting prosecution witnesses under cross-examination, this has scarcely been reported. For example, one prosecution witness admitted that he is living under 24-hour protection in accommodation provided by the police, and that the evidence he had given against the defendants in
is interested our version of what has been said in court to date. The information given will be based on the notes of members of the Defence Commit.
• BWFDC public meeting 'Trial by media or trial
, takes place at 7.30pm on Wednesday 1I Town Hall, Town Hall Ap-
LABOUR PARTY BLACK SECTION STATEMENT:
THE Labour Party Black Section is appalled
in police violence The list of maimings and killings has been added to in the case of Trevor Monerville and with the death of Clinton MeCurbin in Wolverhampton. Raids on our community, like the ones in Brixton, Handsworth and St Pauls based on the racist pretext of 'looking for drugs', are an attempt to criminalise Black people.
to throwing our full weight behind campaigns for justice in the face of these police attacks. If the state and its bully-boys in blue are incapable or unwill-
us then we mus defend ourselves by whatever means necessary. The police have proved that they are not even accountable to their Tory masters. We reaffirm our demand that they must be placed under the democratic control of the whole com-
Page 6 scan of this page
The Allial
6 Socialist Action 6 March 1987 underestimated the political threat to the labour
political wilderness ... Their influence on events will be explaining how serious is the political
against it so seriously.
TO UNDERSTAND why the SDP and the Alliance is such a deadly political threat to Labour, and why it is capable of gaining such enormous victories as the Greenwich by-election certain historical facts about the British labour movement must be grasped. Above all it must be understood that anti-Toryism, not anything else, has always been the powerful dynamic of the workers movement.
The fight against successive Tory governments went on when the British working class movement was Creder at of the revolution. During the crisis of British society in the late 1820s and early 1830s the working class found itself fighting against the Tories to secure the first extension of the right to vote. After a brief move to class independence during Chartism the great bulk of the working class movement supported the Liberals against the Tories throughout the latter part of the nineteenth century. When the Labour Party rose to become a mass party around World War I the labour movement found the Tory Party as its enemy. For 30 years after World War II an apparently stable two-party system pitted Labour against the Tories. The labour movement finds itself locked in a struggle with the Thatcher government today. In short anti-Toryism is built into the bones of the working class
and the majority of the working class, by 200 years of struggle.
The consequences of such massive, inbuilt anti-Toryism can be seen over the short term since 1966 - the year of Labour's last real electoral triumph, and the year from which Labour's decline in support is clear. Labour's vote has collapsed drastically since 1966 - falling from 48.0 per cent of the poll in that year to 27.6 per cent in 1983. But none of that loss of votes has gone to the Tories.
Vote
The Conservative vote in 1966. when they lost badly, was 41.9 per cent. In 1983, when hatcher won by a landslide, the Constervative vote was 42.2 per cent. Of the 20 per cent of the vote lost by Labour since 1966 half a per cent has gone to the Tories, one per cent to the nationalists, and almost 17 per cent to the Alliance. The division of the fall in the Labour vote can be seen in Figure 1.
IN THE six years since the Social Democratic Party was formed, the Labour Party and most of the left has greatly
movement posed by the SDP-Liberal Alliance. When Jenkins, Owen, Williams, and Rogers left the Labour Party to form the SDP in 1981 Michael Foot, then Labour Party leader, simply declared: 'those who leave us will become lonely figures in the
virtually nil.' Furthermore the Labour Party has carried out no sustained campaign against the Alliance. Kinnock rejected even the advice of his own campaign manager, Robin Cook, who tried unsuccessfully to persuade the party leadership to take up a central campaign against the Alliance. Tony Banks, writing in London Labour Briefing when the SDP was formed argued: "The SDP is essentially a party created from the top downwards and without resorting to force there is no recent example of parties constructed in this way surviving for any length of time.? Socialist Action has been almost alone in
threat to Labour posed by the Alliance. After Greenwich surely the left, and the Labour Party, must now realise just how central is the question of the SDP and the Alliance JOHN ROSS looks at the Alliance dagger pointed at Labour's heart — and why militants in the labour movement must take the fight
crucial
most
being Shrench Figure 1 Tory percentage of the vote since 1931
The pattern is obvious — and contirms the historical again made. The Tories are incapable of gaindirect ing support from Labour even in a period of the most drastic decline of Labour support. It is only a non-Tory party that has been capable of cutting into the Labour vote.
Anti-Tory But if the British working class is extremely anti-Tory it is not extremely socialst or comparably strongly pro-Labour despite the myths Labour Party and the illusions of those who believed in labourism as a powerful and progressive political tradition.
Every single fact confirms that antiToryism is a far more powerful force in the working class than pro-socialism or even support for Labour.
The 27.6 per cent of the vote recieved by Labour in 1983 meant that Britain had the lowest vote for an independent working class perialist country in Western Europe. It is only necessary to compare the 28 per cent of the vote tor a partv of the working class in Britain to the 40-50 per cent of the vote cast for parties of the working class in West Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Sweden or any other major West European country to less than see the relative historical weakness of elementary political consciousness in the British labour movement.
While 1983 was an extreme case, it was only a particularly graphic il-
points we have
in the world,
dependent working
pean country.
an expression of the same process.
of the which
ment historically
but extremely historically strong
party of any im-
Late historical strength perialism.
France, Level
vantage compared to the ruling class politics
lustraton of the general trend. Even prior to 1983, despite the fact that Britain is the most proletarianised society
the percentage of the British working class voting for an inlower than in any major West Wa- class
The extremely late for- tremendously mation of the Labour Party, its ex-
historical backwardness even among social democratic parties, was
Furthermore Britain is one of the Tory party few countries in the world (the United States and Canada being the others), in
working class parties actually receive less votes than the trade unions have members. The British labor move-
organisationally strong, with one of the most powerful trade union movements in the world,
politically weak. The trade union long as organisation masked an extremely low popular. level of political consciousness — certainly the lowest of any major country in western Hurope. lus was naturaly not a product of genetic peculiarities of imperialism,
British working class but of the
of British im-
votes.
This extremely low level of political consciousness placed the British work- What ing class at an extreme strategic disad-
will always win
and why the right
NATIONAL SE
VOTE TO NE
A TORY MP FOR EVE
organisation in the end. Since 1979 the Tories have been able to mount an increasing political assault on the labour movement and are progressively grinding down its organisational strength.
The role of the Alliance in that assault is clear. While the lores can mount a
denieve assaull working class they cannot, because of the anti-Tory history of the working class, pick up positive support from doing so. That can only be done by a non
namely the Alliance.
Political
The basic features of the situation and the extreme political weakness of the labour movement were concealed, and the left could imagine the labour movement to be politically strong, as
the Tory Party itself was • While the Tories historically could not gain any serious support ir the working class movement they could
substantial minority vote in the working class by bypassing the labour movement. Until the 1970s this working class Tory vote amounted to around one-third of working class
Furthermore the Tories had strong support among higher and lower paid white collar workers, and also
has helped precipitate the crisis of British politics, and made so central the tactical role played by the Alliance, is the fact that the decline of
US 2310 British imperialism means that ¡ores are progressively losing th traditional bases of support. Myth
The myth, peddled by Marxism Te day and the media - that Thatcher's a tremendously popular governmes and that the Tories enjoy mass popular support — is not even remote near the truth. On the contrary Tories are a party whose popular suj port has been declining since the 193 and whose vote in 1983 was very low in
Taking simply the post-World Wa II period, even in elections which th Tories have won their vote has pr gressively fallen from 50 per cent 1955 to 49 per cent in 1959; 46 per in 1970, 44 per cent in 1979, and 42 pe cent in 1983 (see figure 2). Thatchei vote in 1983 was actually lower than S Alec Douglas Hume's when he lost. 1964
There is no evidence whatever ti Thatcher's vote in the next election w be anything except lower than the per cent which was already the secon lowest vote ever received by a par with a safe majority in parliament in pist restore storical deare par in progressive historical decline.
continue. Left to rest on its ow positive support a Tory governme could not continue.
It is the continuing decline in th Tory vote that makes the Alliance
Page 7 scan of this page
nce threat
crucial for the ruling class. When Thatep cher commenced her working class after companied by dramatic Labour support as voters repelled by Thatcher moved to vote Labour. In 1980-81 Labour was regularly gaining 45-55 per cent in the opinion polls and won crushing electoral victories in the local government elections in 1981. If the SDP had not split from Labour then, despite the Falklands war, Tories woeld almost certainly been defeated in the next general election after 1979. Indeed despite the bonus of the war the Tory vote still fell in 1983 compared to 1979. A Labour government elected at that time would have been relatively left wing in that it would have been pledged to try to reverse most of the changes brought about in British society by Thatcher.
Policies
To maintain the essential policies of Thatcher, policies to which the British runng class are tolany commutea. was therefore absolutely imperative for the ruling class to prevent Labour winning the election.' That meant drastically cutting into Labour's support and preventing those disillusioned Thatcher voting Labour.
For reasons we have already seen the Tories could not achieve that task - the working class cannot be won to support Tory party. therefore necessary to reduce Labour's
won't fight it
GET ME
FREE!
VOTE
attacks on the votes, by 1979 this was ac-
rise
SDP-Liberal Alliance.
was. The creation
the have HEUVE C IL, Elections
port fell by
the Tories
was inis
Greenwich with
Wak
Alliance ment
vote, and prevent Labour picking up
non-Tory alternative.
This was the significance of the split from Labour to form the SDP - which
followed by the creation of the
It is still not widely enough appreciated on the left just how stunningly successful that ruling class operation an
Ine oor was among the most successful ruling class attacks ever mounted on the Labour
Between the election of 1979, with the SDP formed in 1981, Labour's sup-
Over ueC HidE vulo.
Not a single one of these votes went to
on the contrary the Tory vote declined by almost 700,000 votes. The entire loss of votes by Labour in 1981-83 was to the Alliance - whose vote increased by 3.5 million in 1983 compared to the Liberal vote in 1979. It
Alliance vote, cutting into Labour, which played the decisive role in ensuring the re-election of 'lhatcher.
The consequences of this role of the Steel, Alliance could be seen clearly not only in 1983 but in a by-election such as
and in a whole series of other areas like it. There is no possibility whatever of the Tories ever winning a selke eenwc o oor e non-Tory vote in the Greenwich by- Party election was 89 per cent and the Tories have not held the seat for 50 years. But the Alliance, a non-Labour non-Tory in
Others (12%)
Nationalists (4%). -
Tories (2%) -
cent. The divisions show where this vote went. party could cut into Labour's potential support like a knife through butter. The 'anti-Tory', but not anti-capitalist, tradition of the British working class movement is greatly disarmed in face of that assault by the Alliance.
Result
The result can be seen clearly in working class constituencies in London such as Woolwich, Bermondsey, GreenAlliance, not the Tories, that is now the main rival to Labour here - and the
threatening these While the Alliance threat is particularly acute in the working ciass bastions in the South, in the North it is also progressively replacing the Tories as the second force in the cities Scotland the SNP and the Alliance vie with each other to attack Labour at the same time as the Scottish Tory Party is threatened with extinction. Transiated into British terms this development means defeats such as Greenwich and disasters such as the 1983 election.
The political role played by SDP-Liberal Alliance is clear. SDP-Liberals cannot form a govern-
only the Conservative and Labour Parties have the institutional strength to form the dominant parts of government in Britain. The present role of the Alliance is to cut deeply into the LabOur vOle. prevent ine Labou movement from benefitting from the hostility to Thatcher, and therefore to keep Thatcher in power desite ever-decreasing vote. If, despite these efforts, Thatcher were to be defeated in
election, then the role of Alliance would be to ensure that the essential structural changes about by Thatcherism were maintainned through either forming a coalition with Labour, and safeguarding Thatcher's changes within that, or through amecuy lommng a coaltol with the Tories to sustain them in office. It is a tremendously effective strategy as 1983 already showed, and as Greenwich has again graphically con-
This combination of the brutally repressive assault by the Tories, and the cutting into the Labour vole by the Alliance, amounts to the most serious ZHAO ned Ol ereamıa0o! movement this century.
For itself the Alliance has botnerea io concedl Ils goals
leader of the Liberal Party, writing in this week's Observer stated once again: "The Alliance. is quietly and effectively geting on with its long term strategy of replacing Labour as the main opposition party by defeating Labour candidates. The Conservative
aoes not even aspire to Labour seats at the next general election. On the showing of Greenwich, we
the Alliance can wIl sores
Where Labour's vote went 1966-83 The total loss of Labour's percentage of the poli from 1966-83 was 20.4 per
Labour seats'
tain the fantasy that the SDP-Liberal Alliance is part of a 'progressive anti-Thatcher bloc' the Alliance themselves have no illusions whatever but that their role is to smash the power of the Labour Party altogether, as that is not possible in the real relation of forces, then to reduce Labour to the point where it has no option but to enter a coalition with the Alliance. Thạt in government to still further weaken the Labour Party.
seats. Crysla caute
before the last election: 'It is important tal nere saouia be a benevable and democratic left-of-Tory force in Parliament towards which by-elections and a while in future general election could then sw-
Wing. It is desirable that it should be of a can form parliamentary force with right-of-Foot Labour. secure enough at future by and general elections to help moderate Labour canaldales 10 capture Tory
the cities, north
The Labour should feel weak enough to
give its help to the Alliance in the suburbs; south England, and the west. coalition of a southern Alliance and northern Labour seems tancitul at ore sent. The worse Labour does in eccles. does, the more possible such a desirable coalition of the left (and the dismantl-
her ing of the Labour Party under its pre-
sent constitution) will become.
The Financial
the editorial produced for the last election,
concluded: "The policies on which the brought Alliance has fought the election are not
exciting but main lines of economic policy we can, with one exception (statutory incomes policy), largely endorse COONV trap, maintaining European links, and political seeking to adress the grave problem of
unemployment ... In a more representative voting system, the Alliance could emerge tomorrow as the main alternative to Mrs Thatcher, which we would count as a strong gain.
Realities
never David right wing will not
despite the fact that it is such a threat to Labour. Firstly about half the Parliamentary Labour Party, cant part of the trade union bureaucracy, actually agree with the policies advocated by the SDP. There is no fundamenta difference
win policies advocated by Roy
and David Owen or David Steel - and it should be remembered that the overwhelming majority
Socialist Action 6 March 1987 Alliance laconne cept unions. many others.
advocated by Ror
pic-
Votes' - Allance (64 /0) representation.
election.
While Marxism Today may enter-
Guardian,
well as the - if not to eliminate it Given
left of the party turn would be
The Economist put these goals with
in its voting editorial
Alliance
an effective below 40
The Alliance needs to feel
seats in the England and Scotland; paign manager for East Anglia Such a geographical with the the and the better the Alliance
Times, in a special
they are appealing. Its
La market the c on the poverly British politics.
These realities explain why Labour's
fight the Alliance
tral campaign and a signifi- paign has to
DeLWCCI the anything else, Hattersley
of the shadow left's agenda.
7 cabinet voted for Hattersiey, , and not even for Kinnock, in the 1983 leadership contest. The Labour right and the
are all pro-Bomb, propolicy, PrO-E Ce and acrestrictions trade
Secondly a whole section of the party, and its bourgeois backers, are actively committed to a coalition between Labour and the Alliance. Within the Parliamentary Party this is openly advocated by Frank Field and Austen Mitchell — and supported in private by
Tactical voting for the Alliance at the last general election was
Grantham, genera secretary of APEX, and Frank Chap-
then general secretary of the EETPU. There is an SDP member, John Lyons, on the TUC general council and Gavin Laird, general secretary of the AEU, heads up the SDP's 'Fair
campaign for proportional At a lower level John Grant, the EETPU's press officer, will be an SDP candidate at the general
Outside the party the tactical voting, coalition line is supported by the
Observer Statesman papers. In short the SDP is intertwined with the entire right wing of the trade union bureaucracy and PLP -
"left' bourgeois press. these links there is no way the right wing is going to campaign against the Alliance.
Refusal to fight against the Alliance however also extends far into the soft
- in addition to the role of Marxism Today as a direct trojan horse supporting a coalition with the Alliance within the soft left. The Labour leadership's own election strategy now relies on a high vote for the
The advice presented to the joint meeting ot the Shadow Cabinet and NEC on 16 February acknowledged implicitly that Kinnock's policies had falled and that Labour's vote would stay
per cent at the general election. On that basis the only way Labour could win an election is with a high vote for the Alliance. This, naturally, means that Labour makes no real cam-
against the Alliance. When Ronager for ie ieader amin, Kinnock's campaign proposed a central campaign against the Alliance he was turned down.
The reality with the Alliance, as
'new realists' in the trade unions, is therefore clear. Only the left of the party has the possibility to make a real struggle against the Alliance. But for far too long it has hesitated to do
Normal
Labour sections of the left have hoped that somehow Britsh politic: would 'return to normal' That the leti could get back to the old routine of denouncing the Tories and slagging off
Labour leadership. That they wouldn't have to undertake the difficult and vital task of fighting a non-Tory deadly enemy of the labour movement - the Alliance.
Greenwich shows once more, for those who had still not drawn the lesson, that there will be no 'return to normal'. That the SDP and Alliance are a permanent structural feature of
And that they are a deadly political weapon pointed at the heart of the labour movement.
The left, every possible trade union, and every constituency that is threaten ed with the Alliance has to make a cen-
attest l • start quite regardless of whether Walworth Road launches such a campaign or not. Because the stakes with the Alliance are far too high to do
and the right will not fight the Alliance.
That fight against the SDP-Liberal Alliance has to go right to the top of the
Page 8 scan of this page
The new trade
8 Socialist Action 6 March 1987 PRESSURE FOR trade controls, protectionism, are building rapidly in the United States: They are accompanying a US defecit which is now running at almost $200 billion a year. month the US threatened to impose 200 per cent import duties on EEC agricultural exports to the United States — a move only averted by the of the Common Market countries. Moves to free trade were a cornerstone of the post-war economic boom of the
EXACTLY ONE hundred years ago, the Birmingham manufacturer radical social retormer JOACO Chamberlain embarked on a course which was to overturn the most sacred canon of nineteenth century English capitalism its unshaken commitment to the doctrine of 'Free Trade'. The policy of trade protection with which he proposed to replace it, known as 'Imperial Preference' was destined to turn British politics upside down.
With all due allowances made of the enormous historical differences between both the centuries and countries involved, the choices now being imposed on US capitalism seem destined to work changes as protound, as longlasting and as dangerous for humanity — as Chamberlain's. Step by step, US capital is deserting the commercial policy on which it sailed to leadership of the capitalist world, opening a new and unstable period of interimperialist rivalry. It is abandoning the flagship of free trade. Talks
On 9 February this year, the latest round of talks under the General Agreement Tariffs and (GATT) reopened in Geneva following a chily start in Uruguay last September. GATT, when founded in 1963, was a vital institution of postwar economic cooperation. Its stated aim was the gradual dissolution of all barriers to trade. This objective of US capital after the war was dictated on their part by an obvious mouver goods cheaper than anyone else's. The less their rivals could restrict their markets, the more profit they would make.
For the US's partners the quid pro quo wasac of US capital had been made available to rebuild their shattered economies. imperialist countries set out in 1945 to build a stable economic world order on the foundation superior technology, estimated by 1950 to be nearly three times as productive as its European rivals. The US would export capital to the world to buy its products and acquire its technology: with the profits of trade, it would maintain reserves sufficient to back this capital. By tying the dollar to the gold standard the dollar, 'as good as gold', could become the trading currency o tne world and the repository of its wealth. And, finally and most convincing, the marines and the nuclear umbrella were on hand to back up the whole new order against any untoward accidents.
GATT's proceedings dominated by two issues which illustrate more clearly than anything the crisis into which this world order has fallen: the dollar, and agricultura. trade.
US agriculture has for decades been the most prodigious in the world. As late as 1981, US farm exports at $44 billion made up 19 per cent of all exports. Thirty per cent of its farm produce was exported and it was even able to engage in "corn politics', using its vast grain surplus to try and extract ponucal concessons mron uie oler countries. Its 1981 trade surplus was $26.6 billion.
In May, June and July 1986, for the
1950s and 1960s and of the Atlantic up Alliance between the United States and western Europe. A turn to protrade tectionism by the would mean a change in the entire Last world politcal situation. FREEMAN looks at how protectionism is being fostered by the deline in competitiveness of the US domestic economy — and how the United States. political and economic muscle to turn the screw on its comptetitors.
first time in modern history, the US imand ported more agricultural goods than it exported. Its 1986 billion has fallen 40 per cent in five years, and its share of the world market from 59 per cent to 41 per cent.
US reaction to this was an indicator. of the shape of things to come. Three months before the GATT preliminary discussions began it threatened a two hundred per cent tarift on a range of spirits, food and drink from Europe. It went to GATT demanding that Spain and Portugal agree to US quotas of 2 million tons of corn and 300,000 tons of wheat respectively, and for Portugal to drop its policy of buying 15 per cent of its grain imports from the EEC. It won its demand.
For several years now the Reagan administration has gradually been raising tariff barriers against its rivals while at the same time demanding that they droo their own trade barrers against it.
Originally this crusade took the guise of a 'liberalisation' campaign, protesting against other countries' barriers and threatening retaliatory action. The latest proposals Democrats, now the hawks on trade protection, drop this mask and simply call for barriers against any country Trade having a trade surplus with the USA. This covers almost every country in the world.
The case of the GATT negotiations show that this process has now reached a new stage: The 200 per cent tariff was an instrument of economic blackmail to acquire the trade terms which US caola necaco. redaroress oi wno erse were got hurt. The administration's fouryear arive lol trade against its commercial rivals — all of whom are its political allies — has turned into a more or less naked drive, through political force and economic blackmail, The favourable to US capital.
Muscle US
This doctrine is, in effect, Imperial Preference by another name. It is an attempt to use the financial and political muscle of US capital to conquer, and retain by political means guaranteed markets and spheres of influence which are slipping from its economic grip. This means that the economic rivalry between the USA and its imperialist partners is being shifted to ine ponucal spnere calculable consequences.
Agriculture is not an isolated case.
All areas from the highest to lowest technology are affected. Only last year were the US concluded a trade pact with Japan to stabilise the price of silicon
chips because its own producers were literally being driven out of the market.
International Business Week on 13 OC tober reported fears that 'the entire US
semiconductor maustry, memory-chip producers, will sag into second-rate status by the early 1990s. A $2 billion deficit in high-tech trade is
forcast for 1986.
In traditional staple industry the story is the same. By 1990 nearly 5 million US cars — nearly S0 per cent —
will have Japanese transmissions. Were it not for trade pro-
tection, the figure in completed cars
would be the same. In mid-1986 the US
United states
ALAN
is using its
2.04~
output at $26.5
2.02
2.00
1.98
1.96
1.94
1.92 L
DEC. 8 T5
1986 AWEST GERMAN MARKS
from the
cent below those in the US'
vanished 11
of manufactured goods ports by a liberalisation'
cent. During
llauc panies have gone out of business.
these weaknesses is
deticit. doubled in
Yen and 48 per cent against the D
previously ple means: foreign borowing.
WIln Hu- trading currency of the world.
of the dollar.
Blackmail
just ald Far
Many previous government.
engines and government income
war
THE DOLLAR IS FALLING FASTEST AGAINST THE MARK
:163 U.S. DOLLAR'S VALUE - 162
- 161
• 160
159
- 158
J 157 22 29 JAN. 5 1987 JAPANESEA YEN -DATA: BW
forced the Canadian government to impose a 15 per cent export tax on lumber and paper and the government recently revived an 1891 law to prevent US publishers putting out work overseas, where 'costs run an estimated 20 per February,
The previous US surplus of $45 billion in capital equipment trade has
five years, following a doubling of foreign imports. Imports
exceeded ex- tually valued record $12.7 billion last November. Imports of machine tools now account for 43 per cent of the US market. Five years ago they were 25 per
the bast four vears a quarter of all US machine-tool com- Rivals
The accumulated expression of all
of course, the dollar. In 1982 the US ran its first trade
This deficit trebled in 1983, 1984 and by last year estimated at the staggering total of $175 billion. This is what lies behind the sixmonth slide in the dolar's value, which has now fallen 42 per cent against the
continuing Mark. It has been financed by one sim- minisummits
Why is US capital able to do this? enough yet?" The dollar is a unique currency. It is the then boom,
That pichligs means the US possesses unique financial power, because the fate of every capitalist, throughout the world, is tied up in one way or another with the value concerned
It also permits a unique financial blackmail which we can understand by looking at what Reaganomics actually
from turning its back on Keynesian policies of pumping money delining dollars, into the economy, it pumped more monev into the Us economy to acheve the explosive growth of 1981-1984 than
But instead of financing this with
LanCo tinanced it by toreign borrowing. in short, it got the rest of the world's capitalists to finance its own expansion
— the exact opposite of what happened during the postwar years. Now, however, it can force the rest of the world's capitalists to pay the price.
According to the Economist of 7
every worll of dollar-dominated debt purchased by the Japanese since 1985 has lost 36 percent of its Yen value. If the US debt was denominated in foreign currencies, that debt would now be $580 billion. It is ac- US
at $410 billion. The devaluațion of the dollar, without any change in trade relations, has made the United States $170 billion - almost an entire year's trade deficit.
The value of the dollar, once 'as the good as gold', has thus become an weapon in the armoury of US capital against its rivals. Business International explains it pithily: 'A statement by US Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldridge last week makes it quite clear that the US is not satisfied with efforts to date ... the markets will have to endure
series OIL economic - long-distance phone calls where Baker says "You guys had
If the answer is "No", another five or ten
The forces involved are not just economic but directly political. That is, it is the state policy of the governments
which increasingly inuchcc crouc cauwus uciwcc. the major political powers. According to David Hale of Kemper Financial Services, foreign governments bought fully 40 percent of US securities — IC debt. 'It is hard to believe this is simply the invisible hand beckoning Japanese investors to a sate haven of steadily
comments Robert Kuttner, Economics correspondent of the New Republic. 'More likely, it is the guiding hand of the Japanese Finance Ministry, desperate to avert a collapse of US markets for Japanese exports.
It is an ironic epitaph to Reaganomic philosophy, which co-authored a world assault on government spending, that the administration is now, with a
Analysis
new world slump setting in, crusading to force West Germany and Japan to spend money to reflate their economie: in order to stimulate demand for US CADUILS.
West Germany and Japan unsurprisingly, have so resisted the US demand that they prop up the ailing United States economy not simply by donating their savings but by sucking ir
goods. The US has therefore decided to wield the big stick. threatens, first, a devaluation of the dollar that will force West Germany and Japan out of the US market and US goods'into theirs, and then, if that does not work, trade protectionism tha would cut down Japanese and West German exports, 'Squeeze them until
pips squeak' the current philosophy of US trade officials.
The danger in all this for the US Japan and West Germany is that the free trade system which marked the international capitalist economy since 1945 will collapse. And if that happens there will be a recession which would make the present level of unemployment look like an era of prosperity. It would also threaten to bring crashing down most of the interimperialst aliances that have beer built up since World War II.
What is now taking place is like a
The United deadly game ot poker States threatens its rivals with a degree of protectionism sutticient to make them submit. On the other hand if it is actually forced into full-blooded pro. tectionism the entire capitalist world order as it exists will disintegrate. The stakes are literally enormous.
Pressures
Worse still the entire mechanism is under no one's control. Huge competitive pressurcs. rational calculations, dictate the positons taken by imperialist governments. Indeec nothing in the world today shows the deadly logic of capitalist competition as clear v as the looming trade war: across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They threaten to throw capitalism into the greatest crisis in its entire history
Page 9 scan of this page
International
proposals
THE SOVIET UNION'S latest proposal, that all intermediate-range nuclear from across Europe as a practical first step towards the elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide, is to be wholeheartedly supported. announcement on Saturday 28 February
implement an outline treaty reached at Reykjavik and that a separate agreement on medium-range nuclear weapons from Europe could be concluded 'without delay'.
In essence, the Soviet
would mean: vival allie
Soviet United States would ceal
intermediate cruise and Pershing out of
• each would keep 100 of
warners their own territory, that is sited in the Asian part the territories of the USSR
respectively.
Gorbachev said: 'The Soviet Union still
highly considers important to reach agreement on substantial limitation and Inen elimination of strategic
Of the conclusion •of such ducalcull. as had been repeatedly emphasised, should be conditioned by a decision on preventing the deployment of weapons in outer space.'
However, he made certaintendercce range nuclear force (INF)
the Soviet Union would not be made conditional reaching agreement on Star Wars.
Ai the Iceland talks last allene. SD research and used research and development as the excuse
turn down Soviet proposals for the total elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Western reaction these latest proposals has been mixed. France Britain, the so-called independent powers, have so far taken
fere
Ice
THREE HUNDRED and forty people assembled in
the conference, along with the Labour Party, the TUC and the Parliamentary Labour Party.
The delegates came from movement, with the strongest delegations from
Labour Parties, speeches from Yose Lopez NUM. heard or the Nicaraguan. trade union federation, the CST, from Hector Oqueli of the political-diplomatic
of the FDRLOSINAST FMLN of El Salvador, from Peter Heathfield of the NUM and from Labour's front-bench spokesperson on The region, George Foulkes Audrey Wise, a member of the Labour Party NEC chaired the conference.
Jose Lopez explained the two priorities of the Nicaraguan unions were defence of Nicaragua against US-backed military aggression, and a campaign LO DOUSE DIU duction and to defeat US economic aggression and trade embargo.
'We stress US aggres-
Support Gorbachev's
missiles be removed
In an unexpected Mikhail Gorbachev said that the USSR and USA should
eliminating
opposite positions. foreign minister Jean-Bernard
Hulerviewcu on French television he said that proposals contained new' and that any agreement should not upset 'military
foreign ministry statement was quite exoncil. said: 'bearing in mind the lack of balance in conventional and chemical forces Europe the objective must he to de nuclearisation of Western Europe' (our italics). Thus France is maintaining the sallit pro-nuclear stance adopted in response to Reyjavik.
This position has been backed up by General Bernard Rogers, out-going NATO commander-in-chief in Europe. Rogers relected the Soviet proposal which, he said, be taken in isolation from issues such as short-range missiles and conventional forces without weakening NATO's positivi Europe.
Both Margaret Thatcher and Geoffrey Howe have taken a different line in public. Howe declared that an INF agreement 'could transform for the better the whole atmosphere which arms control talks and relations
ple
Yes SU
TUC's Congress House in London for the peace entral reconstruction America'. Six unions were nationally represented at
sion,' he said, 'because it is the fundamental factor hindering the economic, political and social development of the
people.'
Lopez detailed some of the
of the six-year Dolled on seriousty contra war: 38,580 wounded, peasants forced be
economit cost of nearly $3 billion. By Jon Silberman
He pledged that 'with our sweat and blood' the Nicaraguan people would continue to deepen unel own revolution and contribute to the worldwide revolutionary struggle. He said that their endeavours had brought great progress in health care, education, agrarian reform and a new constitution whose drafting we all had the opportunity to parțicipate
explained how the workers movement had grown 'in strength,
between East and West are Colence.. LOO has publicly
at the
British
mowever Lne
response
Downing Street has
mischies European
end
Thatcher is
there are
because, well as the
the conventional
The Labour Party however, has taken a clear position. Defence spokes person Denzil Davies said Thatcher must not try Monday that 'Mrs link any agreement to other issues'
David Owen for the Alliance 'warmly welcomed' But like the tory posals.
rt for
with 90 per cent of the working class organised in 5763 local unions in the in-
La Care anc service sectors.
Lopez concluded by calling for a major campign US funding of the contras and explaining how Nicaragua were gains the and world working class: Nicaragua overcame, so El
The regional character of the conflict was taken up by Hector Oqueli. 'The Central American region came to be rediscovered with the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship Nicaragua,' he said. With the build-up of Us forces, US economic and military aid repressive regimes and Grenada: t is asiar that invasion
the present Central American conflict has reached a regional character.'
He showed that the Duarte regime in El Salvador not only conducting a civil war against the people of his
but also:
COULE Y 'something more than ac complices of a direct policy against self-determination and peace
That The
proposals result the West
tion
He took
ClOt Labour to its
and
any deal with
condi-
sof nuclear weapons
Mitterrand and Chirac,
West Ger-
tion to any deal which
British
keep their nuclear arsenals.
At end November and
Thatcher's Camp discussions
terrand an Anglo-French of
ference followed
matter
Thatcher, weapons can't be dealt
Nor trol ple 1o Elos.
Oqueli over been civil war. the most
the Duarte
in
0 уеат
how the tragic
10,000 were people
displaced as
the cent
Oqueli
for the
trade union federation
of the
the Salva-
army Britain was
by all
with in isolation and that there must be stable overall balance at all times
Margaret Thatcher • Lo lake a voic face in the light of the latest Soviet proposals. She is merely judging the best war fend off pressure to accept these proposals.
With one eye on the forthcoming British
is already claiming that her cole-warno atte Reykjavik has helped pro. duce this latest Soviet offer. Of course, she is back-
in this claim by the
Opinion
Gorbachev himself has
West European opinion
his and to
ween and capital within the European bourgeoisie.
immediate
thcoming Reagan
remove INF from
La way
the Iceland
public already across
Issues
by Thatcher, Mitterrand, Kohl and the rest of the West European political leaders to and turn down the third offer by the Soviet Union in 12 months to take steps in eliminating nuclear weapons.
must support Gorbachev's proposals.
erica
Labour government
was well-
conference
of idea
our strike was and
support from the Nicaraguan
called on
an on the Nicaraguan and
His ap-
Practical plans for solidarity discussed
and solidarity with UNTS.
Liberation Organisation (PLO). Israel, and its allies. intervened on the side of the Maronites. to
Iranian Hezbollah organisation stay out of the southern Beirut suburbs.
given support to the Syrian initiative, sharing scheme is likely to do so.
Socialist Action 6 March 1987 9
World
in action
Syria in Lebanon
WHEN SYRIAN TROOPS rolled into West
February, Syrian president Assad claimed it was to establish 'order'. But the 'order' it was designed to establish is that of Lebanese forces opposed to the Palestine
Syrian 'political solution' announced on 2 March, reduces the role of the traditional Christian forces in Lebanon and gives a greater role in official Lebanese politics to parliamentary Muslim forces and to Amal -the pro-Syrian Shi'ite organisation under the
Supplied with arms and equipment including tanks by Syria, Amal not only prevented food and military supplies from going into the camps, but also subjected them to a bombardment which continued well after the Syrian intervention. It wasn't this 'camps war' that worried the Syrian government, but the fact that Amal was losing and a new pro-Palestinian coalition was taking shape
The last time Syria intervened in a similar way was during the Lebanese civil war eleven years ago. The protagonists then were the ruling Christian Maronite forces on one side and a coalition of forces representing the overwhelming majority of the population on the other. In April 1975, when the civil war broke out, Syria gave support to the Palestinians forces, who were under assault from
coalition looked to be winning the civil war Syria
But Assad's objective of a 'balance' between the Christian-Maronites and the Muslim-Druze forces, in which the PLO under Yasser Arafat was to play an entirely subordinate role has proved
The Syrians were first pushed out of Maronite East Beirut and then, in 1982, Israel intervened in Menachem Begin's attempt to inflict a total defeat
Within four years, the PLO were back, weaker
growing in strength as they defended the Palestinians in the refugee camps. Al the same time, Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank renewed their struggle and gave clear support to the Arafat
Fearing the emergence of a similar coalition with the Palestinians to that of 1976. Syria's intervention today is designed to establish a more permanent political solution which would allow it a place at any Middle East peace talks. Syria's hope is to negotiate the return of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since the 6-day war in 1967. Its aim is to bring the PLO fully under control and use it as a bargaining chip in any negotia-
Imperialism has fully backed Syria's intervention. Israel declared it would support it as long as Syria did not threaten their stronghold in south Lebanon. It has now been revealed that a US en voy was in Damascus the weekend that Syrian is no solution at the The Syrians have been unable to disarm the vast jority of the militias, especially the radical pro.
with Amal for hegemony over the Shiite com munity. Hezbollah led a demonstration of 30,000 people in southern Beirut suburbs on 25 February following the massacre of 23 Shi'ites by the Syriar
Syria is an ally of Iran in the Gulf War and receives cheap oil from Tehran. Top Iranian officials have been in Damascus throughout period and seem to have negotiated a 'non aggression' pact in which the Syrian troops will
Although Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has
forces are certainly no reliable partner of Assad's
diminution of Maronite influence contained in the
Most important of all, no political manoeuvring can resolve the demand of Palestinian people for a homeland, for a democratic secular state in Palestine. It is that which gives the continuing sup port to the PLO leadership in the camps. If a full-scale assault by the Israelis couldn't eliminate the PLO from the country for more than three years, then no Syrian imposed Maronite-Muslim power-
Page 10 scan of this page
26 Counties - "an election
10 tion war was marked
All the major
Charles Haughey leader of Fianna Fail (translated: Soldiers of Destiny) asked the electorate to give his party a clear overall majority that he could 'raise morale', 'provide leadership', 'harness talent', and
'There is a better way' promised the posters.
Newspapers and television found it hard to drum up enthusiasm for the four week election campaign caused hy the final break up of the Fine GaelLabour coalition.
At last, said a Channel 4 commentator atter the showing of televised debate two main party leaders, Irish election has an issue' The issue was not the Angio Irish Accord, which
establishment had agreed should not be sue in une the shock discovery that in their allotted four minutes to deal with the matter, the absentminded
protessor.
Garret FitzGerald had managed to wrong-foot
Wheeler-dealer, Mr Fix-it, Charles Haughey.
Issues
This was not an election without issues, but an election without answers. It didn't even have the offInternational Viewpoint carries news, documents and analysis of working class movements from around the world and is indispensible reading for all socialists.
International Viewpoint is available from most left
rom Other Books, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. Subscription rates: 6 months £9.50 (12OFF); 1 year £18.00 (200FF). Make cheques payable to PEC and send to
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Socialist Action 6 March 1987
without answers"
general election
determined to keep
the-cuff answers that
Charlie Haughey can nor-
mally deal out like there
was no tomorrow.
The County
economy is in debt to the
tulic £23.1 billion
Ulc of the highest per
capita national debts in the
world. Unemployment
stands at a ot a
million 20 per cent.
46,000
youngsters are on training
schemes. . 40 per cent of the
ovulaliul
some kind of welfare.
Dublin is watching the
rise of the money lender
specialising
term high-interest loans
that reduce the poor to the
the homeless walk
Wonder
Is it anv wonder that
given all this, an election
whose watch-word
'fiscal rectitude' got
treated with scepticism?
Was it any wonder that the
Government
whose collapse was presag-
ed by a budget proposing a
£210 million cut in public
was any wonder that they did not LUSI either put faith in Fianna Fail's 'better way' when its election campaign made a virtue out of trying to say as little
plans?
ment 10,000
tery to
world, there were plications Ireland.
su a chance of a Event So it was not for lack of issues that the election failed as a media event. But rather politicians had decided that the issues welcenous. nev were much better left until after the election was over. In recent years, there have been reterenda on abor. tion and divorce which succeeded in the grip of the Catholic hierarchy, and the conSILICO over women's bodies and women's lives. Politicians had become used to dealing with issues of sex and pretending thev were talking about something completely different. Perhaps they might say something tive to prevent the spread of AIDS? The Bishops weighed in with the novel
theory that since condoms promote (SO says the Pope, then they must also promote the spread of AIDS. Charlie Haughey said he was going
lake advice from the doctors.
But thev al. agreed it would be much better to
tion.
the (cal has reduced 'advanced' capitalist
poverty, as CYCLY know, to the
crusade Charlie nalutev
embassy in was burning.
But partition was hardly an issue for an election either.
That Fianna Fail consider the Anglo Irish deal to be contrary to the Constitution does not necessarily mean that the
scale taken at his word when he says going renegotiate it.
After all, Fianna Fail is the arty of the people and if the opinion polls seem to indicate that the Coalition government has managed to package and sell the dea successfully, it might be better
sectarian
bullets,
Well,
parties.
Democrats
the British Dessie breaking
of Fianna income tax
Put like SCOL quite
The and Union
working vole.
attacks,
plastic
searching,
be
Progressivi
for the
Social
Their leader
most
mould. the
and Fine
the Civil
the Anglo
CuL'
didn't so mould-
Transport
Workers'
how
tions how their
rate
The Party, Workers
Fine the PDs probably the letter
first „vote tol Labour.
tion raising
ment precedented levels and slashing
This is the party that had participated in coalition government raising taxes, allowing unemployment rise to unprecedented levels alle slashing public expenditure.
As if to compensate for the peculiar logic of this proposal, the union went on to counsel workers to give their lowest preference to Fine Gael or Progressive Democrat candidates and suggested that: 'Candidates
trom other socialist parties are worthy of consideration
(after Labour) next highest preferences'
Since (by the process of elimination) this must mean the Workers' Party anow has made a point Sinn Fein, the
Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act denies.
News
Inside
the unions
The scabs charter
AT THE centre of the green paper, Trade Unions and Their members, is 'the right of the individual to choose to go to work despite a call to take industrial action'.
Every union member' the paper goes on 'should be free to decide for himself (sic) whether or not he wishes to break his contract of employment and run the risk of dismissal without com pensation. No union member should be penalised by his trade union for exercising his right to cross a picket line and go to work'.
The green paper proposes that this so-called right to cross picket lines' be enshrined in law: Unions would be unable to take any discipline against members who scabbed during a dispute. Individual members would have the legal right to seek compensation against unions:
By Jon Silberman
Potential scabs would be given legal redress even before the union took action. Under the 1984 Trade Union Act, unions lose their immunity from civil action unless they ballot their members over strike action. What the green paper proposes is that union members would now be given the right to prevent their unions taking industrial action if a ballot has not taken place
As Financial Times labour editor, Philip Bassett commented on 25 February, this is the 'key issue on which many of the legal actions brought by union members in the 1984-5 miners strike rested'.
The green paper is peppered with references to the NUM. The CBI described the green paper as 'clearly' aimed at action such as that in the 1984-5 miners strike. It underscores how the government and the employers are determined to try to exorcise from the labour movement's memory the lessons ot that strike and to prevent similar action in the lulure.
A specific set of proposals — to stipulate that the election president. general secretaries must be held by secret postal ballots -is explicitly aimed at Arthur Scargill. Workplace ballots, or pithead ballots in the case of the NÙM, are opposed by the green paper, despite their legal imposition having been enacted by a previous peice of Tory government legislation.
The green paper also proposes controls on union trustees, referring to the NUM leadership's taking the union's money out of the country to
The principle of 'scabs' rights' is also applied targetted by earlier Tory anti-union laws in 1980
government attacks combined with the closure of branches of industry where the closed shop was more prevalent has cut the number of workers covered by closed shop agreements from its high point of 5.2 million in the mid '70s to about 3
Now the government intends to go a huge step further: to legally protect individuals who refuse to join a union even where closed shop agreement
Last month a sit-down strike in the Stockport engineering firm of Simon Engineering needed just one-hour to ensure the removal of a 'man with a
who lett the union. Under the pro posals specified in the green paper, the industrial action would have been illegal and the individual
Just in case aspiring scabs don't feel sufficiently self-confident to proceed with legal action, or in case they haven't securred financial backing from
as the misnamed 'Freedom Associaltion', the green paper has a
"The time has come' it states 'to consider the need for a public authority to play a role in observance of the law'. The proposed 'public authority' would be a new commissioner who would have a statutory duty to support complaints, underwriting the plaintiff's legal costs. The commissioner could also act in his or her own right.
If the new proposals are a 'scabs charter
and Labour Party leadership is a clear commit. ment of support for any unions that come under the legal hammer and a pledge to take the unions out of the hands of the courts and to return them
now faces a veritable legal minefield constraining effective action, summarised by Eric Heffer as a
Page 11 scan of this page
TGWU recruitment drive must link up with black self-organisation
In the Unions THE TGWU has launched a national 'link-up' campaign aimed at recruiting temporary and part time
union's politics. Women's and black organisations in the party have particularly welcomed the campaign and temporary workers are women and many are black. This campaign is going to force the TGWU to face up to the fact that it remains resolutely opposed to women's and black self-organisation in the union and the Labour Party — a position which weakens the ability to campaign among workers. calling for full support to the TGWU campaign,
rally of the campaign Ron Todd and Neil Kinnock.
THE Labour Party Black TGWU's 'link-up' campaign aimed at recruiting into union membership temporary and part-time workers. Many of the six million people. who are trapped in this highlyexploited part of the workforce are black peo. ple and women. Some of them sweat shop conditions.
The T&G leadership must
NUM
Vote Sammy
Thompson
Area, Hatfield Main NUM on 20 February.
platform. The ballot for NUM vice-president takes place on 17 March for the post that becomes vacant with the retirement of Mick MeGahey in July.
Thompson was responding to a question from a retired miner who deman-
the other candidate, respond to Observer, stated
nock were trying to
anti-general secretary.
to them.
Neither right wing's past leading
election. wing dominated such
and clerical COSA
Arthur has argued 'accomodation' 'attempts
ColleCte 'Only
principles embodied so magnificently in the miners' strike can combat and defeat the attacks mounted by the Tory Coveracul azallist the people of Britain.'
scargill took up ine alternative to this strategy that had been advanced by
workers. It is an important development in the
— as the overwhelming majority of part time
women and black The Labour Party Black Section, which is
produced the following statement for the opening
— which was addressed by
build recognising the 'link-up between the icululal y workers' and
Leadership to
VIeWs 'I CAMPAIGNED for Scargill as compensaton agent. I campaigned for Scargill as Yorkshire president, and as national president. I'm standing as vice-president to work with Arthur Scargill, not to control him' declared Sammy Thompson, Yorkshire
NUM secretary, at a meeting organised by
Eric Clarke, Scottish Area NUM secretary and Eric Lippitt, a sacked miner from Staffs shared the
the Eurocommunist CP Scottish icaucas NUM, George Bolton and Mick McGahey. dustry. noted
paign' involved 'several Tories
alternative
defeat of Gartcosh campaign
haustive thạt all the miners' strike did. One crucial
this
persuasion, test from a
was quoted
cited above: 'It was the
unable pplau presidential for had meone through Sir suc later Lord Gormley, who beat
Icy in 1971.
leading officials again
without any debate at rank and file level. The GWU's ill thought out position on the subject
ittered with contradictions. ror instance. despite
The Campair Press
Campaign and Broadcasting Freedom, which has championed the 'right of reply', the union leadership have refused to print the Black Section's response to a big article in TGWU Record about our issue.
A NALGO motion in support of black
• caucuses was backed by all the large
including the TUC 1984. This encouraged all affiliates appropriate structures - like
lack members groups
Had quately represent black yorkers In the same year to the London Labour the TGWU delegaParty regional conference voted in favour of black sections. And. later at national party conference the Agricultural Workers
NATIONALUM MINEWORNERSE
CENT Kent miner Terry French was 1
date The Coal Board axcu 2,000 jobs
pits.
and Call vacuud agallisi
president, for
ing South Wales which led call for 1053
Thompson reminded Hatfield Main how nate the NUM's
that the also opposed the
11ai
ly after. been used, Thompson
'the return normality' that the
Both and Thompson the need
the Sammy
YorkShire Area NOLLS
and Dyers and Bleachers
ade groups supported t
he luwu executive n since imposed its will the huge block vote wield-
by delegates Black self-organisation
Resolutions in favour of black sections were on the agenda of the last biennial delegate conference (BDC). Yet the leadership did not see fit to get them aeDalca. decision could not be defended by new deputy general secretary Bill Morris. He admitted the union's position 1 moral legisenacy black sections lacked until it had gone before a BDC.
Bill Morris's reverse, when he failed to get on the TUC's General Coun-
despite the backing of TGWU Ron Todd, proves that i
1 diack you chant
you build a base on an all white
Caulive You must have base among black workers who
union. This was factors in
Areas his
viceHumulalon 101 president.
ing from the Wheeler up
Arthur and
• a vigorous
cial Times cluded: that the prospects reaching some form enabling
look poor, the manage-
trate on persuading level that will best modern in-
of new and equipment. The more
wages the better.
million in a new pit Margam South al C being
are the lowest paid and least represented and you must fight
Called black self-organisation which gives them a voice and a means of articulating their grievances.
The TGWU has advisory committee struc-
for and LUIC youth but nothing for black card holders who make up 20 per cent of the membership NALGO Black Workers conferences prove that large unions are tinallv up to the need to help their
defeat racism Indeed, general secretary Norman Willis LOTe special black workers conference that
should 'unofficial black members groups' as a threat to their constitution He warned that if black workers felt unions did not care about their problems they would turn to other organisations. made the
Arthur Scargill de-
: blackmail'. 'We WaLL the Margem
on BBC and we
don't to be
into unfair
to get it. see
of hours
of the national policy, Dutfield. South ucul there
cording to
dent until then.
this "They for
The
explained
comYorkshire
breaking on
Socialist Action
Teachers strike ballot BALLOTING is currently taking place in the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of womer Teachers for joint half day strike action against the Baker Bill. The Bill will remove teachers' night to conectivel bargain over wages and conditions. Indications are that there will be a massive vote in favour of the action
It is the first time that joint strike action has been organised between the NAS/UWT and the NUT. NUT general secretary, Frec Jarvis, stressed its importance at a 2000-strong joint lobby of parliament on 26 February
Labour's education spokesperson, Giles Radice has pledged that a future Labou government would Caterpillar A MASSIVE lobby of parliament in support of occupation has been called for 5 March. It follows on the highly successful local denise onl Saturday 28 March.
contingents from LeTHAN I France and Belgium will be on the lobby of parliament it was pledged, as part of the move to build a strong
UNIONS in Ford's, Britain's biggest car maker, have forced the company to phase out all trade with South Africa.
Shop floor workers at Dagenham have stopped production on several occasions when they discovered they were using South Africanmade parts.
In January, mass shop floor meetings decided to black all supplies to the KD export plant until trade with South Africa Manchester engineers A SPECIAL meeting of shop stewards has been called by Manchesterbased district of the
Monday 9 March will hear calls for action in support of the seven Senior Colman in Sale
Ninety workers took strike action in response workers who refused to fill out new time-sheets policy. The company promptly sacked all the
workforce.
CPSA ballot victory BY 57,553 votes to 21,497, the CPSA voted lo establisi a pollica. fund. The union will proposed Labour Party affiliation
The CPSA is also involved with three other unions in the civil service — the SCPS, IRSF and NIPSA - in a joint campaign for a
6 March 1987 11
repeal the Bill
NUT executive member Bernard Regan said it is important that to be more than just promises of better dav to come. Teachers will be faced with the realities of the Bill long before any general election.
The left-wing Socialist Teachers Alliance, he said, 'will be arguing that Labour-controlled local education authorities give a commitment now that they won't implement the new law, and that refusal to cover schools and refusal to work outside of school hours and in the lunchbreak be generalised and built nationally by the union. The united ½-day strike action gives us the opportunity to launch this campaign.'
international combine. The French plant is considering solidarity strike action on the day
CONCID OIl Brannan has declared his determination to go ahead with plans to give a 'Pink Panther' tractor company has threatened Bob Geldof with legal action for receiving stolen goods' if he accepts the tractor built by the occupying workers. Unions against apartheid was stopped. All meetings were unanimously in favour of the action which involved some workers stopping overtime
The NUM has launched a national campaign 'Miners united against apartheid'. Over 100,000 copies of a special pamphlet have been produced and distributed - one for every NUM member The union has also issued a poster.
Wide backing has
been won from local engineers and from miners as far away as Durham and Northumberland.
Strikers' wives have initiated SWAG, the Senior Women's Action
who are organising street collections, sending speakers to labour movement organisations, and accompanying strikers
Striker Tony Lowe called for 'maximum solidarity' with the strike. 'We've seen for ourselves what the miners and Wapping strikers went through he said.
flat-rate increase of £20 a week, a f115 minimum wage and a 35-hour week.
The combined union membership of 300,000 will be ballotted in the week beginning 23 March. Industrial action plans include withdrawal of goodwill, an overtime ban and selective strikes.
Page 12 scan of this page
20 years of the '67 Act...
under attack
THOUGH THE courts ruled against the legal action brought to prevent a young woman terminating her pregnancy, anti-abortion rights organisations were not entirely downhearted. ding the case, they said, had brought to the fore the centrepiece of their present campaign — the use of an obscure law, the Infant Life Preservation Act of 1929 to outlaw abortions.
Just days before the court action f Bishop Montefiore Birmingham was admitting defeat for his attempt to amend the Act through the House Lords: oneword change would have cut the time-limit for legal abortions from 28 to 24 weeks.
The case of the Oxford student s muganon brougnl the issue from the relative obscurity of the House of Lords to the front-pages of every tabloid.
The headlines descended below even their usual miserable gutter standards into the sewer. Readers WEIC sensationally told that the foetus was really a live baby with all its functions in tact, just waiting to be saved from 'death by a loving father.
The real object was a tar crv from mending the broken heart of an agonised father. It was a well thought out campaign to undermine the 1967 Abortion Law Reform Act.
If it had been successful the court action would have established in law that the foetus (in this case of 18-week pregnancy) was capable of being born alive; and to establish the precedent that a third party (in this case, the father) could take legal action on its behalf.
The litigation was financed by LIe 41Labortion rights organisa-
SPUC. The prosecuting lawyer, Gerard
Wright, was founder member of 'The Association of Lawyers for the Defence of the Unborn' Wright first came into the public eye when he
Name .
Address
I enclose chec te/PO
Action for E
„nonar with the Post Cfrce
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SOCiAList
ACTION
Abortion rights
The publicity surroun-
WE WONT
LET ANYONE
CHOOSE FOR
US
OURBODIES
OURCHOIE
acted on behalf of Victoria Gillick who sought to make it illegal for doctors to give contraceptive advice to the under 16s.
Wright gave the game away when he declared after the final judgement that the decision had been 'a setback for our campaign'.
The 'campaign' will HOL CU ANkY Last year a Norwegian man, Robert Hercz took a similar case to the European Court after the Norwegian Supreme Court rejected his attempt to stop his roer coo ceng her pregnancy. The case still pending In the US a mother who gave birth under commercial surrogacy deal wallls keep the baby facing
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litigation by the 'father'.
Rulings in these cases will invitably be accompane Banner hea dines
banner headlines LUC women to chose.
The campaign to reduce legal time-limits has already had its pay-off in the form of a voluntary agreement which effectively prevents abortions after 24 weeks. The Department of Health has made it a condition of granting licences to clinics that they do not perform abortions arter uis unne. Statistic. reveal that there were just 31 such 'late' abortions in 1985.
'Late' abortions are never of course the choice of the woman. They are social pressu of hostile
pressure especially on young women who are overwhelmingly the largest group to have late abor-
Bureaucratic delay LU1O is also responsible. Here the NHS is particularly at Taull — mere are lar lewe. "late' abortions in clinics.
The time-limits Colfpaign has nothing to do with the number of such abortions let alone an attempt to rule out further
to 'early' abortions. It is a campaign aimed at restricting through legally defining the foetus to be a 'baby' the right of all WURCH decide for themselves.
Whether the attack takes the form of Powells bill on embryo research, Bishop Montefiore's. amendment to the Infant Life Preservation Act, or a father's dragging his 'loved one' through the courts in the midst of media much-raking, the object is the same
And labour movement leaders should end their deafening silence and defend labour movement policy in defence of the democratic right of women to decide.
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THE NEWLY published Tory anti-union proposals are literally implementes scabs
they would: • Legally indemnify and protect strike-breakers • Empower individual union members to prevent ulul. calling industrial action without a ballot, • Effectively end the closed shop and outlaw industrial action to enforce one, • Prevent unions protecting their funds from sequestration, • Eliminate workplace baos nerenae mien with postal balloting for
Previous trade union legislation enacted by the
A IT IS AT times like the present that our newspaper is most valued -when it is necessary to get out the truth about what is happening.
The latest Tory green paper on trade unions pro-
further altll
drastic restrictions on working people's righ to organise and protect LIcIsCIVes.
Union leaders like Brenda Dean have helped sabotage the struggle
Wapping and John
Golding worked to defus‹ the NCU's struggle. Neil Kinnock's line led Labour to disaster at Greenwich -and is preparing defeat at the general elec-
Tories
unveil scabs
charter
1980,1982 and 1984 Tory
and 1984 have all been justified on the pretence ing the unions.
Under veil of 'returning unions to their members' the government
By Jon Silberman
has taken significant steps to legally curb effective action striking especially hard at the movement's ability to take solidarity action, weakening the closed shop, imposing prestrike ballots and opening up the unions to extremely
court penalties.
The new green paper lifts veil of 'democracy altogether
day's wages for Socialist Action
tion et the press, incuding
the supposedly "pro. Labour SUTCD explains that this is all due to
extremists! It is left wing always the logic of capitalism to blame those who have ICVCl had power, and not those who do have it.
A paper which tells the
situation facing the workine class in this country is at a premium
The attacks at home are part of the broader attacks that are taking place against the working class and their allies internationally in South Africa, in Central ,America, in the Middle
TUBLISHING CHAPEL and exposes for all to see
IMHOT NUM, SOGAT and the TARe any Ncoyered the previous laws to be: part of a wholesale and cumulative assault on the
Al ine centre the paper are measures to preverl uic SOIEI • of militant class struggle unionism used bv the their historic strike of 1984 5.
No longer will it be up simply to individual union members to take civil action. The green paper provides for a new commissioner who will underwrite
Huenek burden legal action or act where
nave taker action at all.
green paper im-
East, and elsewhere. Socialist Action is a paper that tells the truth about workers MElUAS the world - a paper that arms its readers with the analysis that is necessary to organise the fightback at home and solidarity with workers struggles internationally.
Maintaining our fortnightly schedule of production is indispensable. To do that Socialist Action is launching a special ap peal to all our supporters
give a day's wages to help us meet our publication fund target £10,000.
We believe that this is a sacrifice that will be well repaid in the yeats to come.
DAILY EXPRESS
DAY MACHINE
CHAPEL
SOCAT 82
mediately won the backing SDP-Liberal Alliance who legitimately claimed that many of its provisions stemmed from their own proposals. The Alliance has consistently argued that the Tory government
Fortr ten its radee
forthright trade union 'reform' univers paper hennetied The condemnatior from labour movement representatives. Labour's employment spokesperson, John Evans described Il as 'petty, vindictive and miserable attack' on trade unionists adding the scabs charter introduced by government :"ove) the past eight awful years' Scabs charter in detail and how to light it, page 10.
FREE MEL O MAN
← Socialist Action No. 159, 20 February 1987Socialist Action No. 161, 19 March 1987 →