Socialist Action No. 38, 16 December 1983
The scan: 038-dec-16-1983-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
NGA BETRAYED!
Photo: JOHN HARRIS
12 December is going to remembered in the history of the trade union movement.
The general secretary of the TUC - Murray the scab - has openly sabotaged the decision of the TUC employment committee. Alastair Graham, Alan Tuffin, Len Murray and the right wing of the TUC General Council appeared on television every five minutes to denounce the NGA strike. Less than twelve hours later the NGA National Council called off Wednesday's 24 hour printing strike.
The result is the greatest
No. 38 16 December 1983 30p
SociAlist
ACTION
be ment for fifty years. There should
be no illusions on that.
The Stockport Messenger was ordinary struggle. become the spearhead of Thatcher's attempt to ram through the greatest anti-trade union laws since the 1920s. Eddie Shah is just the first of a series of employers queuing up to smash the print unions.
The trade union movement is now faced with a daily barrage of writs and fines which have shown that the Tebbit laws give the courts virtually unlimited powers to prevent industrial action.
action are in practice becoming a dead letter. By It had
existence of trade unionism.
sion on the
same managing
workers to be illegal.
INSIDE:
Next issue 6 January unions immunities for industrial
simply remaining within the law the TUC is incapable of even defending the circumstances.
Just take the High Court deci-
NUJ and TBF printers. A publisher and printer the NGA. under the same roof, with the
director, are declared to be legally separate and any common action between their trade unions
In Robert Maxwell's BPCC printers have been ordered not to
Who Owns Fleet Street p6 Behind the Athens Summit p5
Women and the Peace Movement p9
This is the last issue of Socialist Action before Xmas.
other even although they are prin-
ting the same magazine. No com-
mon action of the working class
movement is possible under these
Yet these are the laws which
Murray and the TUC say must be
carried out. They have been put
into practice by chopping down
The reality is clear. If the line
of the TUC majority is put into
practice different sections of the
are going to be
defeated one by one. TUC
General Council on this line is
becoming one for the disorganisa-
DEAM COOKSON
movement.
That vote at the TUC employment committee should be marked well. Every single person who voted not to support the NGA is a saboteur of the trade union move. ment. They must go. The trade unions have to be defended at every level from the rank and file to the TUC General Council.
The fightback has to start now. It is not a sectarian fight to divide the movement. It is a fight for its existence.
• After the NGA sell out - see page 3.
Page 2 scan of this page
NGA retreats
2
ACTiON
NGA: Labour's
missed
opportunity
THE NGA's struggle with Tebbit's anti-trade union laws obviously deserved the support of every trade unionist and Labour was an important test - one which they
Not only has it been an opportunity to strike a body blow at the Tories and support workers' basic rights, but also an excellent opportunity for Labour to
general, and skilled workers in particular.
Even from the point of view of Labour's electoral support, the failure of Kinnock and Hattersley to champion the NGA is self-defeating. And this is from a leadership which is supposed
A special poll commissioned by the Sunday Times after the mass picket revealed 44 per cent of trade unionists supporting the NGA and only 34 per cent supporting Shah. Given that the poll was taken in the aftermath of a furious media the 44 per cent support for the NGA is surpris-
condemning Tory laws, rather than giving open support to the NGA, while Hattersley insisted on the need to obey the law. With the support of the Labour leadership, trade union support for the
would have increased substantially, opportunity taken to strengthen Party-trade union links. Kinnock and Hattersley are sabotaging the Labour Party not building it.
The ultimate defeat of the NGA, which is cer-
will be a body blow at the whole labour movement, including the Labour Party itself. If Kinnock and Hattersley think that the weakening and division of the trade unions will aid the
abour Party electorally, they are living nake-believe world. Every victory for the Tebbil
and boosts the Tories. It will have a sure repercussion in the European elections and beyond.
And what about Labour Party support among the NGA members themselves? Labour lost out in both the 1979 and 1983 elections among skilled workers - for example in the print trade where half a million workers are employed, 56 per cent of NGA members opt out of paying the political levy to the Labour Party. The union in general casts its vote for the right wing at the TUC and Labour Party conference.
Here was an ideal opportunity to show the majority of NGA members who don't even pay Tene political levy which party stood by which party represented their interests. But no, the new dynamic another opportunity to extend the party's support and stood passively by.
The NGA however is only part of a pattern. Roy Hattersley is showing a sure instinct for not winning support among workers by insisting on the need for incomes policy under the next Labour government.
At the last election Labour won only 39 per cent of trade unionists' votes. While public sector and lower paid workers voted over 40 per cent for Labour, the vote of skilled workers was down below 30 per cent for the Labour Party.
Labour can only win back trade unionists' support by showing in practice that it will not introduce incomes policy and by fighting for trade union rights. As Kinnock and Hattersley have evidently learned nothing trom the past they are doomed to repeat the old mistakes.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN
Published weekly except two weeks in August and the last week or December
Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily repre- l
sent Socialist Action's views. These are expressed in
editorials.
Socialist Action 16 December 1983
amongst trade unionists do. about 'picket-line violence',
Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
the unions, strengthens them,
Icaucisilip lost
higher paid skilled
THE ROAD to disaster started when the NGA National Council ended the mass picket at Warrington and called only a one day national strike.
A one day national NGA strike was never going to win the dispute with Shah. Nor were a series of one day strikes.
The NGA was up against the entire ruling class. Not just against a small newspaper owner in a north country town.
day actions by
one themselves were seen as threatening another large chunk of the NUA'S LIu million funds without the
Newspaper Publishers Association, Newspaper Society and ine reacraton ol Master Printers were bleed the iven the
light
NGA dry. That just WIldl they threatened to
By Bob Smith (Birmingham NGA)
A one day strike also gave an acai opening 1o1 the TUC right wing sabotage the action
Joe Wade rightly said in his statement on Saturday that 'We
I cousise and acceot that we cannot win this dispute on our own, but we have now got to demonstrate to the rest of the trade union move-
cou
the lunatic fringe
the hammer
TWO court decision handed down last week are even more stunning
in their legal implications for the trade union movement than
Stockport
Messenger dispute.
The NUJ for five years has had an official
dispute with the firm of
Bailey Foreman in
Nottingham. This
followed the sack of 28
NUJ members and their
replacement with non-
union journalists.
T Bailey Foreman has same premises, ad-
dress, telephone number
• director as
the firm of TBF Printers.
It is a purely legal sepera-
tion which exists in dozens
of printer/publishers.
But tne rign court —
under Sir John Donaldson
- has ruled that T Bailey
ment that we are prepared to take this kind of action'
But Ine TUC. and more importantly the rank
movement, was only going
fully JELO backing the NGA if the union took the kind of actiọn that could actually Will.
Elements of the TUC leadership like Terry Duf fy and Len Murray were never going to get to grips with a principled dispute over six workers. They sell out thousands every day.
An indefinite all out stoppage the NGA members employed by the Newspapel Publishers Association, the Newspaper Society and the Federation of Master Printers was the only way to win.
cut off 'And to ensure a balanced and impartial discussion of the latest government measures | have with me a government spokesman and a wild-eyed Trot from
Unions under
Foreman and TBF Printers are 'seperate legal entities'. Therefore any action the NUJ takes against TBF Printers in its dispute with Bailey Foreman is illegal.
The legal implications of this are simply staggering. For legal, tax and accounting reasons numerable companies divide themselves • u• IllU many legally separate Irms. Others frequently change their legal status.
Under the new court ruling even workers in the same factory and can be acting illegally they strike together. For they will be acting against
different "separate legal
entities'.
The same situation is created by the well publicised court decision
against SOGAT 82. The
union has been ordered tc
stop the action being tak-
en by its members in three
munications. The only way to fight to get gas, electricity and water workers to cut off Shah's supplies. The only way to get mass pickets organised at the stores that advertise in Shah's papers.
Only an all out strike coula nave oulica In all lie unions that supported the NGA at the TUC on Mon day. Only an all out strike
British Printing and Com munication Corporation plants. i nis was laken solidarity with SOGAT members at another plant in the same company. The action was ruled illegal despite the fact that all the
ting the same magazine -the Radio Times
The ruling against SOGAT makes solidarity action even the same company illegal.
The aim of these court decisions is clear. Thatcher has often expressed her admiration for the Japanese 'company union' system where a union is not allowed to organise outside its own firm. With solidarity both impractica and legal the Japanese
rule the roost clovel. unhindered.
Donaldson and the
court are taking their
orders from on high.
could have won over the rank and file of the other unions.
The National Council in not calling an all out strike thought it was stepping away from total conTrollation. But the courts confronted the NGA anyway.
Next time the lessons have got to be learned. The offensive against the print
The
smash the
Preparation:
busting the NGA in the
local newspaper industry
started immediatel
following the 1980 prin
ting strike. Then the NGA
Villait man oral
vincial and
newspapers out on strike
for two weeks. Only
around 80 of the 1100 local
newspapers were able to
print.
Since then the
Newspaper Society
which employs around
11,000 NGA members
has been running Project
Breakthrough This con
sists of employers install
ing and training staff for
the new direct-input com
puter technology.
The wolverhampton
Express and Star and Port-
smouth and Sunderland
Newspapers are among the which are believed to be local
actively considering lock-
News
Smas
the Tor
JWS United action could have won the dispute unions is going to go or
meet it with an all out strike sooner or later.
legal. without it the union will be crushed
That's the lesson that's got to be drawn from the dreadful events of Monday and Tuesday.
publishers
and the courts
going ahead with introduc
EY -
The Newspaper Socie
claims that the would be able ts NGA
Barrons
which publishes 10 dailies. 40 weeklies, and 30 weekly
boasted. On the basis of
publish of newspapers. I think it is
there should be a major effort to do 50. More than local newspapers were announced on Monday to be preparing to press despite the strike call
The other weapon being used is simply to cop Shah and smash the NGA through a whole series of court writs, •Norman Walker, the head of austral canon Newspaper Society put it, coverale our member. would clearly consider courts in the
event of industrial action.
The Newspaper Socie ty on Monday decided to encourage 262 newspaper members take out writs against the NGA. They were and arc determined to destroy the union.
national strike, the TUCs
botage of the NGA, BOT threatens every union in
Page 3 scan of this page
After the sell out
FIGHTING
News
WHEN NEIL Kinnock and
Roy Hattersley were elected leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party it was called the 'dream ticket'. It has taken only three months for the dream nightmare.
The NGA dispute is simple to understand. It is over the basic right of a trade union to exist -the very issue on Labour Party was created in the first place. Yet Neil Kinnock, Roy Hattersley, Len Murray and the entire right wing leadership of the labour movement have actively sabotaged this elementary struggle.
It is true the NGA-made a disastrous error in calling off the mass picket. Moreover it was a tactic doomed from the start, to go for a one day strike in a situation where only an all out indefinite stoppage could win.
But that is not where the main responsibility for the defeat lies. The root of the disaster lies in the
of Murray, Basnett and the right wing of the TUC General Council. It was the same with the ASLEF dispute and the healthworkers. Everything the TUC leadership touches turns to dross.
The last few weeks should have dispelled any illusion that the trade union movement can live with the Tebbit laws. The ruling class and the Tory government know full well that to make British capitalism again trade union power must be crushed. They are going for the
Yes, the NGA leadership feared being totally crushed. But the NGA will be crushed if there is not a fight. It will be a crushing defeat for one of the oldest and most powerful trade unions in Britain.
And if the NGA can defeated, imagine what the ruling class has in store for the NUPE's, the NALGO's, the white collar public service unions.
Don't imagine their right wing policies are going to save them. The NGA voted straight down the line with the right wing in the Labour Party. It supported Hattersley and the right wing trade union slate for the NEC. It voted for the very people who have now stabbed it in the back.
And there is no way it is going to stop there. The next target in private industry is already spelt out by the government. demolishing the closed shop.
Trade union membership has already fallen by 2½ million in five years. If defeat follows defeat, as unemployment takes its toll, the trade unions are going to take a continual pounding. The clear aim of the British capitalist class is to reduce the trade union down to only five or six million members only half strength of ten years ago.
become a
which the
Duffy, profitable
be
You must be joking
nowhere to
goes down to defeat.
What makes these
It is bomb are I type of lead is not coming. their
Someone who isn't going to fight Tebbit's laws
Maybe the trade union leaders will be able to hide in their plush offices, but the working class has
hide. Unless fightback begins the future is grim for working people. And it will be the Labour Party as well, together with the unions, which
policies even more criminal is that the working class movement and its supporters are not demobilised. politics The demonstrations against the
the largest mass demonstrations for 50 years. At Fords a majority of the plants might have voted for the last wage settlement but a clear majority of the workers voted for a strike. If a lead was coming out of the TUC and the unions the NGA could
have ut tie problem is that this
The right wing is vigorous and active. Murray, Graham, Tuffin
and Duffy kept up a constant barrage on the television attacking ¡the NGA action. Moss Evans, Scargill and Ken Cameron were nowhere to be seen. There was no call from them for massive supI port for the NGA. They have not even demanded the removal of Len Murray - the first TUC general secretary in history to openly defy the decisions of TUC committees. man whose
make previous general secretaries look like raving Bolsheviks.
It's true that the fightback must start on the shop floor. Rebuilding the shop stewards committee strength and building up combine committees is vital. But it will not in itself be enough. As long as the right wing leadership holds the top positions in the union movement it is going to be able to sabotage every action that comes from below. Trade union left leaders who are not rooted in
FIGH
TERRIT'S LAW forganisations built on the rank and file are themselves helpless against the type of sabotage the TUC general ¿ council is now capable of.
What is needed is a new and powerful Minority which will challenge the right wing at every level in the labour movement. the unions must be built and extended. Kinnock and Hattersley's TUC line has to be challenged in the Labour Party. Because the right wing is openly sabotaging the movement. It is not merely incapable of winning advance for working people. capable of defending the most basic rights of the labour movement itself.
This fightback is going to be a long and arduous struggle. There are going to be no quick and easy solutions. mous defeats are staring us in the face.
Socialist Action 16 December 1983
building ling plates members.
strike HOCCLINS
On 8
unions, going to find CLP.
Fords,
rington picket.
Movement The
The Broad Lefts in
pickets.
cil and
Warrington It is utterly in-
tion
sheet were
But without it enor-
the pickets.
3
How they
voted:
Votes at the TUC Employment Committee:
For the NGA:
Moss Evans (TGWU)
Walter Greendale (TGWU) Ken Gill (TASS)
Alan Sapper (ACTT)
John Morton (Musicians)
Clive Jenkins (ASTMS)
Muriel Turner (ASTMS)
Joe Wade (NGÀ)
Lil Stevens (NUPE)
Against the NGA:
Ken Baker (GMBATU)
Pat Turner (GMBATU Tony Christopher (IRSF)
Ada Maddocks (NALGO)
Roy Grantham (APEX Eric Hammond (EEPTU)
Gerry Russell (AUEW)
Solidarity -
the way to win
BEFORE the NGA leadership's climbdown, solidarity action was
up countrywide. Wie publish a selection of accounts sent to Socialist Action to show what the TUC and NGA could have built on.
SOGAT The print union SOGAT '82 issued blacking instructions to its member for the day of the 14 December NGA strike call. SOGAT '82 circulars told members in provincial newspapers: • not to cross NGA picket lines
• to refuse to handle сору ог prin-
prepared by non-NGA
These moves would have sabotaged many of the attempts by local newspaper owners to break the NGA
East London HACKNEY North and Hackne! Central Labour Parties invited the secretary of the London region of the NGA to be guest speaker at a public
privatisation of British Telecom.
December Levton labou Party held a public meeting on the theme 'defend the NGA, defend the
and a similar meeting was organised by Newham North West
Constituency trade union liason officers mobilised a delegation from
railworkers and transport union members to join the mass war
coordinating committee o
CLP's more meetings, for NGA speakers to tour workplaces and union meetings and for delegations to attend future
Birmingham
THE NGA branch, the Trades Coun-
the Unemployed Workers Association organised coaches for the
picket and demonstra-
10,000 copies of a special broad.
published by the trade union resource centre
Solidarity meetings were held every Monday al .Ju in tne tradt union resource centre. folk and rock were organised for after evells Keggae. Xmas and a special fund established to pay the fines of those arrested on
Page 4 scan of this page
War without end
IRELAND
UNFREE
People's Democracy in conference
JAMES CONNOLLY was the great thinker of the Irish working class. It was he who put pen to paper and proved in an Irish context what Lenin was saying in Russia about the connection between the struggle for national independence and socialism.
He organised and armed trade unionists into the Irish Citizen's Army, and in alliance with the Irish Republican Brotherhood launched the insurrection which has gone down in history as the Easter Rising. The strengths of Connolly's tradition has quent generations of Irish freedom fighters.
But his greatest failing was an uncertainty about what instrument could fight for and lead the process of revolutionary change the need to create a revolutionary party of Irish workers.
Seventy years later, Ireland is partitioned. One half is under military occupation by the British. The other is mortgaged to the hilt to the imperialist powers. therefore still working on the same problem.
The conference Democracy, the organisation born out of the civil rights struggles of the late 60's, now the Irish section of the Trotskyist Fourth International is no exception.
Crises of dramatic proportions loom in the Southern workers' organisations whilst the left advance inside the republican movement is continuing. developments into a force that can sweep
imperialism whilst socialist republic in a united Ireland is a pressing task.
Some delegates were in favour of abandoning the fight to build an independent working class party and wanted to join Sinn Fein, but the overwhelming majority opted for a strengthening of revolutionary marxist influence as the best way of aiding the progressive evolution of the left.
It has already been proved that quite small organisations like dramatic effect on the struggle. It was PD that pushed for the H-block campaign to adopt a united front approach and pioneered the standing of anti-imperialist candidates in elections to broaden the struggle. It was the two PD councillors McAnulty and O'Hare who thrashed Gerry Fitt and Paddy Devlin at the polls, making clear to all the value of this tactic.
On international questions and women's oppression, has number of years to good effect. The next period will however be the most testing.
must now combine the struggle for unity in
action with all forces villing to struggle and
point the direction of that struggle towards
the creation of a mass party that is both anti-
imperialist and anti-capitalist. PD rejected
arguments to centre its efforts to build a 'na-
tional liberation front'.
It resolved to continue to discuss and
work toward the building of a genuine anti-
imperialist workers party that can lead all
sectors of the oppressed. That means work-
ing with both the
workers who reject the pro-capitalist policies
of their existing parties. At the two day con-
ference conducted in a highly democratic
fashion — where all currents of opinion had
the right to organise in tendencies and fac-
tions
PD more clearly in the workers movement,
stepping up their organisation amongst the
youth, and elaborating next steps in fighting
for women's liberation
Abortion Amendment.
do, we send PD our best wishes for success in
the year ahead.
Socialist Action 16 December 1983
informed subseRevolutionaries are
People's The need to fuse these
British occupation and the legacy of
creating a democratic PD can have a campaigned for
It left in Sinn Fein and
- other discussions involved rooting
the Anti-
For a small organisation with a big job to
Lebanon
SINCE the 1975-6 civil war, Lebanon has been in an unending spiral of violence, which has claimed tens of thousands of victims and devastated the capital Beirut. Lebanon's unhappy fate has derived from its position as the northern neighbour of Israel. various powers fighting to East, and in particular the United States and Israel, have attempted to use the strife between the religious communities in Lebanon to divide and rule.
its northern border and to try to impose a 'friendly" government, Syria has forged a constantly changing system of alliances to ensure its position as the dominant power in the country.
Today Israel and the United States are lignting to control the south of the country and to impose the authority of the right wing Gemayel government the north and central zones. To do that, they need Syrian army and defeat the forces with Syria the Druze Muslims and the Shi ite fundamentalists, Amal.
By Phil Hearse
To begin to make sense of the myriad factions and their objectives,
outline of the confessional structure of the state. The
Maronite Christian community has gerheads with the Muslim communities the
Middle Ages. But in the
unluck
protection of the French
the Maronites became the privileged
rulers. In 1943 a National
Pact was signed
distributed the governmental posts belwech lne
different com-
munities. While
like the Sunni Muslim
Portrait of Amin Gemayel in Christian area
The
dominate the Middle
While Israel has repeatedly intervened to protect Maronite bourgeoisie its position the ruling
The
the history break down of National
tionalism the region
those the
which the Lcallull revolt oppressed
between Coll munities,
the late and early
nian The
fighters Palestinian
and of the
The PalestineLebanese alliance
but their victory was
'Arab peace
Israeli battle tank in Beirut keeping force' the Syrian army. Syria's president the
leftTorialiul nationalist state Lebanon. While his soldiers remained the dominant force in the country, the Palestinian guerrillas maintained considerable freedom of movement and organisa-
to The 1982 Israeli inva-
sion of Lebanon • aimed to destroy the PLO as political factor in Middle East politics. the PLO maintained powertul army, the over whelming majority of restinass the territories occupied by Israel looked to the PLO as their political leadership Moreover, the PLO had been recognised the legitimate representative of
governments over the world. But without its armed forces, the diplomatic and weight of the PLO would be crushed. Plebian
To ensure the defeat of the Palestinians and their expulsion from Lebanon, Israel tried to ensure the Creatol callul of strong Lebanese state under the dominance of the Chris-
tian Phalange — the party
established Pierre
Gemayel in 1936, modelled on the fascists.
The installed
Pierre Gemayel's son
Bashir as president. But
Restina not primarily e
representative
wealthy Christian traders
alie bankers, but the
leader of the Lebanese
Forces' Horces the ruthless
Phalangist
responsible for thousands
of atrocities against the
Muslim and Palestinian
communities.
firm ally of Israel, had his
base piedlal
Maronite youth
Bashir's assassination,
probably by the Syrians,
changed the situation. The
new president, his brother
is much closer to
Amin,
the richer circles of the
Maronite bourgeoisie. In-
stead brother's
straight-forward policy of
"smash the Palestinians,
smash the Muslims' he
adopted more subtle
policy. In effect, he tried
TO restore le National
Pact of 1943,
reintegrate the Sunni and
Druze hierarchies into the
and pre-
slalc abbal alus
sent himself as 'the presi
dent of all the Lebanese'
At the same time he pushed ahead with the anti-Palestinian Cana paign. Sis eth Sabra ind massacres Shatila thousands of palestinian laVi been assassinated or imprisoned by Phalangists and Lebanese army.
For period Amin's policy naa some succes. Conservative Muslim leaders became genuinely hopeful of the possibility of establishing social peace
at the expense of the Palestinians and the working class of all religions.
But Amin's policy was blown apart the 'Lebanese Forces
adi lethe followers of
Frem. Frem the faithful follower of Bashir Gemayel, had a straightforward philo. sophy there
victors and vanquished' The 'vanquished (Muslims
Palestinians) should be thrown out. To that allist Frem launched attacks on the Druze in the Chouf mountalis and waged a war of terror against Shiite and Sunni Muslims alike.
deal is elfin became
early concerned about the consequences of a strong and independent Lebanon. Its soldier refused intervene in the fighting between the Lebanese Forces and Druze militias, giving tacit assistance to the Druze.
Finally, Syria began to see the possibility of being frozen out of a new National Pact, and interven-
ed vigorously to aid the
Druze and Shi'ites - the
better to control them. At
International
the same time, Syrian pre nett Assad interven-
in the dispute in the PLO
The objectives of the Israeli invasion have not been completel achieved.
struck a devastating blow, a friendly state in Lebanon has not been created. Syria
skillfully maintained its position by
of the antipatronage Phalangist opposition. The predominantly Shi'ite south country
completely under LU Y Israeli control.
For the Israelis and the United wlales State tun. damental problem remains the strength of the Syriandominated anti-Gemayel alliance The only permanent solution is the expulsion of the 30,000 Syrian troops. The danger in the situation is that Israel's premier Shamir and Reagan may decide to go
- to launch an TOT DOKe all-out war the s
ashu Syrians.
For the workers and peasants of Lebanon, and for the harassed Palesti-
the community, outlook 1S The organisations outside the control of Syria, of which the Communist Party and the Organisation of Communist Action are the
(Daries have been weakened by the exodus of many of their Shiite sup porters to Amal. The anti Israeli, anti-Gemayel forces remained dominated by bourgeois and petty bourgeois nationalism, and in the steely embrace of Syrian 'support' The prospect remains war without end.
• Greek Vrinodo @ Armèniar
Shii
Jewis
The confessional structure
of Lebanon
Page 5 scan of this page
International
EEC summit:
The
ever crisis. West
become a plaything of foreign interests'.
Thatcher
Common Agricultural Policy.
France and the other EEC powers.
As they come across in the newspapers, the rows at the Athens summit seem obscure. They hinge on budget rebates, the Common Agricultural Policy, butter mountains, milk lakes, and the entry of Spain and Portugal into the Common Market.
These are not the types of issues socialists often deal with. They trivial questions to provoke such a big crisis.
But once the basis of the EEC is understood, all the different questions fall
place their significance is obvious.
The core of the EEC is its economic mechanisms, which alC designed wage a competitive struggle with the United States While the rhetoric of the West European powers is almost always directed against the Soviet Union A song and dance at the Athens summit
bandits
fall out
THE ATHENS SUMMIT has brought the Common Market to the edge of its greatest
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl warned that 'a Europe divided and exhausted by renewed nationalism will exert no influence in the world and can
has presented herself as a British de Gaulle fighting for a huge budget rebate and against the wastefulness of the
JOHN ROSS looks at the issues behind the squabbling of Britain, West Germany,
all their practical economic are aimed against the USA At the Athens summit. one of the chief proposals discussed was by put rag a rone 19 putting a tax on the $5 billion a year EEC soya bean imports from the United States. Simultaneously France has been stepping up its natural gas imports from the USSR Germany meantime West has been granting new trade credits to Hast Ger. mally.
Reasons The reasons for the EEC versus United States conflict simple. The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe do not represent an economic threat to the Soviet and East European goods quality that they hope to Culicle WILl of
West Germany, France, Italy Britain. few marginal cases of "dumpSoviet-produced desis ade of Italian-designed, easily dealt with by the EEC
Economically Hasterr Europe only really affects
EEC valuable une source of raw materials
small additional market. Last year's huge row between the United States and the Common Market over the Siberia to Western Europe gas pipeline for example was about the determination to maintain its access to hast Europear fuel and raw material supplies. This policy towards Eastern Europe is bitterly opposed by the United States which would like to sell the oil and materials to Western Europe itself.
Soviet
The Soviet Union only viewed by the EEC states as a military threat. I his is dealt with by the NATO alliance and through Durela up British, French and West German nuclear and con. ventional armed forces. Mitterand's government ir France for has stepped up its imports of oil and gas from Eastern Europe. But it still on about the USSR military threat. The United States, on the other hand, is a direct day-byday economic threat Western Europe.
Second LEe
World War United States dominated what is now the EEC countries by is ds. By 1950 the US tias export industrial exporting more than four times as manufactured goods as West Germany. In manufacturing Laut Western Europe was able to hit back during the 1950s and 1960s. The US share of world exports THE PROBLEM for
petition from the United States. • BRITAIN is specialising as a supplier of energ. and raw materials to the EEC. Oil, natural gas, electricity supply and coal mining now account for over 10 per cent of the British economy far more than any other European state. • Britain also has
efficient farming sector. The level of pro ductivity of British agriculture is one third higher than France and more than double that of West Germany.
Britain fairly similar interests i to the United States. It favours high world prices of oil. Its efficient farming sector Cal compete quite well without the Common Agricultural Policy. Because Britain is moving out of large sectors o manufacturing industry, it
sceptical about things like the European airbus
• FRANCE is more or less the opposite to Britain. Its economy is based
manufacturing dustry and agriculture. It has no material or fuel supplies.
WalLs tough measures to reduce the world oil prices.
It has tried to boost European industrial integration around the airbus project and the pro-
EEC
manufactured goods was halved between 1950
Meanwhile the
West Germany tripled. By the and of the 1970s, Wes Germany Was exporting more manufactured goods than the United States. By 1980 the productivity West German manufacturing was only 25 per cent
Bust up in Athens
the EEC states in coordinating their policies is that each has different interests. In particular each is hit differently by com-
duction of the Arienne rocket. It wanted to build
'European' electronics industry by the nationalised French firm Thompson taking over the West German electronics giant Grundig. Sector
French far less efficient than British farming. It can't survive American competition. France is consequently a defender of the subsidies in the EEC Common Agricultural Policy. Because it fears competition from Spanish Portugese agriculture, France is hesitant on Spain and Portugal joining the EEC.
The directly contradictory interests over agriculture, oil prices and industrial policy make Britain and France traditional antagonists in the EEC.
• WEST GERMA. Y is the great industrial power of the EEC. Its manufacturing industry over twice as large as Britain's and is almost twice as productve. German has only small agricultural sector does not want to build it
German industry plus French farming was the original formula on
Socialist Action lower than that of the United States, whereas in 1970 it had been almost 50 per cent lower.
The success of Western Europe in many sectors of manuracturing industry has meant that there have been tew clashes between the EEC states over industrial policy.
La ne only exceptions are in few declining industries such which the EEC was set up.
West Germany would like Spain and Portugal to come into the EEC as they wond provide g for her industrial goods and supply agricultural products. For a long time West Germany was
prepared to subsidise French farming as a way of maintaining the unity of the EEC.
But recently West German industry has been
overnie Japan and, in fields such ed States. West Ger- the United States. many therefore wants to free resources to modernise its industry by cutting its subsidies to French farming via the Common Agricultural Policy.
West Germanv is also hostile to British policy on
would benefit greatly from a lower price of world oi
which Britain opposes. Britain also refuses
to sup ply oil to the EEC at subsidised rates
West Germany COn• siders Britain is benefitting from pose tion as the sote EEC state
is unsympathetic to British demands to make a lower contribution to the Common Market budget.
It is these differing interests of the EEC powers which led to the bitter ex. changes and chaos at the Athens summit.
16 December 1983 5 as steel. The real crises nave come in those areas
high technology industries, finance, fuel, raw
and agriculture — in which the EEC can 10t with the United States.
This is why the Athens summit exploded around apparently obscure questions such as butter mountains and budget rebates
• Haversement •
International
INTERNATIONAL
November-
December issue out
now
Price 75p
In this issue:
Andrew Gamble, on the
"special relationship
between Britain and the
States
Ken Livingstone, on a
strategy for the Labour
left
John Ross, on why the
left must reject unity
with European
imperialism against
America
Chris Palmer, on
Grenada
Jude Woodward, on
sectarianism towards
women
plus reviews
Order from The Other
BOOKSHOOS London Ni or 137 , 329 Upper St,
Digbeth, Birmingham.
Page 6 scan of this page
Royal roman FLEET STREET is the sharp end of the struggle in the print industry. Its workers are the shock troops of the NGA. Its employers pour out
propaganda every day anti-union of the week. It faces one of the greatest threats from the technology. But who owns tain's newspaper giants?
The number of newspapers has shrunk steadily since the 1920s. As a result, people are more dependent on the national press for their daily paper and they have virtually no choice left as to the local daily they buy.
The national papers disappeared have tended to be those on the left, notably the Daily Herald and the News Chronicle.
This means the national press more conservative than it was with less representation of labour views. Not surprisingly, many people
views are not adequately reflected in the major nationals.
Total circulation in the two major press sectors — national dailies and national sundays — is heavily controlled by three concerns: News Corporation (Robert Murdoch's Australian holding company, Reed International, Fleet Holdings.
Together they. account for 75 per cent of all the national dailies sold and 85 per cent of all the national sundays. Rupert Murdoch's company alone controis almost a third of the circulation in both sectors.
This is not a new situation. Britain has had a highly concentrated national press since the last war.
In addition to controlling the national press, companies who major national dailies or sundays also have a significant degree of control over the regional and local press.
The leading national chains have increased their share of circulation in the regional press since 1947, with a particularly marked increase local weeklies, traditionally the most diversely controlled.
Control
At present, IWO publishers of weekly titles are both national publishers as well: S Pearson &
Son and Reed Internationa
The concerns strongly represented in the market for regional dailies. Three of the 10 best selling titles are controlled directly by companies publish Reed, Associated Newspapers Fleet Holdings.
Two others are published by con-
cerns with connections
publishers: BPM Holdings (in which S
Pearson holds a 38 per cent stake in the
ordinary shares) and Fleet Holdings.
Fleet Holdings, which controls the Express group of papers, was demerged from the Trafalgar House shipping and property conglomerate
Trafalgar House does not have a direct
stake in the new company but there are
still close links.
The shares in Fleet Holdings were
distributed on the basis of one for every
four Trafalgar shares investors held, so
there is a good deal of overlap in the
ownership of the companies.
In addition, one of
founders of Trafalgar, Lord Matthews,
installed chairman
Holdings for five years.
The national press companies' in-
6
rets of jet set lor
new Briis and Rupert Murdoch
publish
wide range of activities.
The large
among the
media sectors.
The
include largest The Economist
are also
children's books.
nationals: Cinema
and
has a 25 per cent stake in
national Television,
ship which cinema and video release.
1982. ment in Sir box office hit Ghandi.
the two
sports service.
Fleet
Socialist Action 16 December 1983
FLEET
terests in the regional and weekly press is part of a wider pattern of diversification whereby companies extend their range of interests from their original base to other areas of activity. This process produces congiomerates - companies with a collection of interests in a
newspaper publishers show a marked tendency towards conglomeration. Several also have significant interests in a range of other key
example is S Pearson, which controls the Financial Times and the largest chain of weekly papers in the
Pearson's other media magazines The Banker, Apollo and a 50 per cent stake
and books:
Longmans, Penguin (the largest paperback firm in the country and Ladybird books, the world's biggest publisher of
In audio-visual industries, Pearson
Yorkshire leading role the Golderest films and television partner-
producing Tor
Golderest helped to put together the financial package for Chariots of Fire and is partner with the Indian govern-
Richard Attenborough's
Pearson also operates Fintel, which provides business news and financial information for the Prestel system run by British Telecom. BPM Holdings, in which Pearson has a significant stake, is also a major information provider on Prestel through its Viewtel 202 system which provides a national news and
In addition, Pearson has important interests in general leisure, through its control of Madame Tussauds, the Lon-
WHOOWNS
STREET
Святамий не let Murderh Ma lee Tem ва віние Lord Matthews
don Planetarium, Chessington Warwick Castle, and Wookey Hole.
Nor does Pearson's interests stop at the media. It also has stakes in a variety of key financial and industrial sectors. It controls Lazard Brothers, chant bank.
It controls the Doulton tableware and glass group; Fairey Holdings, the engineering nuclear and defence equipment. 1Vud•
It has a controlling interest in London Merchant Securities, a leading investment group. It also has significant
PLUNGE STEPY
Zoo, stakes in the American oil company
Ashland, and control of the Blackwell Land Co which has extensive interests in fruit and nut growing in California.
the mer- of the present generation of press con-
glomerates: they their operations. They are either based in Britain and operate across the globe makes or they are overseas companies whose
British interests are only part of their tota operation, doch's News Thomson International.
LABOUR'S Bail s
EXPRESS&
PRIME
these vice. Over
almost double.
Profits
their
wnere
Newspaper
Zealand.
on and with on Reuters'
public company. Stal Bonanza
£1,000m market This illustrates another key feature Reed shares
are international in
wnen
for example MurCorporation
DIRTY DOZEN MAG
THE ONE
MINISTER The first dar
MAGGIES of the rest
The s
of thi
to co
THE NEXT 12 months are likely to bring immense changes in the British newspaper industry - the long-term implications of which can only be guessed at. Underlying
changes, indeed the very 'reason for them, is money. Money in huge quantities.
The source of this new found wealth is at 85 Fleet Street, which is the head office of Reuters. The international news agency, set up by an emigre German in 1851, has suddenly become profitable on a vast scale - thanks to its business and financial information ser-
the past decade this has grown from being a sideline to the main news gathering operation to become the dominant part of the business
Last year the agency chalked up £30 million profit. This year it is likely to be
such a scale make newspaper proprietors' eyes glisten and
palms sweaty. Greed pure, unalloyed greed — takes over. Which is
Lords Rothermere and Matthews and others enter the scene.
Reuters is a trust, the shares in which are owned by the members of the
Publishers' Association, the Newspaper Society and their opposite numbers in Australia and New
The trust was set up during the war, the proprietors nobly accepting responsibility for the agency rather than see it nationalised. Now, 40 years
I the prospect of cashing in profits, planning to turn the news agency into a
Reuters is said to be worth between
and £1,500m on the stock because of the prospect endless bonanza profits.
Even allowing for the lower figure Express Newspapers' shareholding in Reuters would be worth £120 million on the open market. Rothermere's Daily Mail group has a similar stake, with Murdock on about £90m and Mirror Group Newspapers on £80m.
It is this f80m windfall which Reed International, the Mirror's parent company, has its beady eye on. If Reuter shares are publicly quoted, the value of
Jump accordingly.
When that happens, it will become more profitable for Reed to sell their controlling interest in Mirror Group Newspapers than to hang on to it.
of course, keea puns vul, there is no knowing who will step in.
Page 7 scan of this page
E'S
S 6%
TORY
Извне
THIS set for FORGET
LAST
TIME
WINTER
hape
ng's
ne
What is certain, however,
assurances ana protestations by
management that the Daily Mirror's
traditional support for the
movement will be maintained
The Stock Exchange is no
respecter of such empty promises.
Many of those inside the labour
movement do not think much of the
Mirror's brand of support as it 1s.
Nonetheless, if the Mirror goes the way
of the Sun, Express, Mail etc., (
Labour Party will find the next general
election even harder to fight. The Mir-
ror's commitment to socialism has, in
recent years, worn a bit thin, but it was
Postcard: Campaign for Press and Broadcasting
EAN SWEEP
Freedon
is that important politically.
Reed
Society labour
laid by
press freedom will not benefit.
the casting Freedom's
challenge the myth that
Never.
partly CUsIs, With Fleet Street - and Newspaper — managements scrambling to large get their hands on the golden eggs being
Reuters, the next few months are likely to bring about the biggest upheaval in newspaper publishing for many years. The economic, industrial and political consequences can only be guessed at, though it is a fair bet that
The Campaign for Press and Broad-
first aim to only private ownership provides genuine freedom, diversity or access — is as relevant as
PARTLY BECAUSE of the immense variety of its products and
because of its geographical spread, printing is an extremely diverse industry. All but the smallest community in Britain has a printer of some sort to service its needs.
At the same time, specialised sectors of the trade - tradititionally based in the larger cities - have found improved freight transport and other communications, as well as rising city property and labour
an important impetus to move out.
Since the war, a large section of printing production has steadily moved away from central London in par-
while new centres of printing have grown throughout the rest of the country. Nowadays, there are specialised magazine printers in Inverness and Carlisle, book printers in Worcester and Exeter, colour printers in Norwich and typesetters in Elgin - all of whom can run an office in London, an express freight service and can benefit from substantially lower wage rates than the THE OFFENSIVE of the print owners against the NGA has at its root the attempt to bring in the new, computer based, typesetting technology which will elmiminate a
part of the industry's workforce.
Under the traditional system copy is written by journalists, sub-edited and then taken to the linotype machine operators — generally NGA members. The linotype operators then set the copy in the form of metal plates with the letters cast in metal.
These plates, or a relief cast made from the plates, are then inked on the machine for the printing process itself.
The new computer photosetting techniques type material into a com-
via a keyboard attached to visual display unit (VDU). In principle there is no reason why a journalist
The printing giants
metropolitan centres.
Despite its diversity, however, the wide printing industry remains dominated
by a relatively small number of large groups and companies. large, manufacturing printers which account for the lion's share of turnover, output and employment.
Over 50 per cent of companies still have less than although they make up a large part of what most people would recognise as the printing trade, they in fact only employ per covered by the Printing and Publishing Industries Training Board.
The 80 largest establishments, the other hand, employ nearly one third of the entire industry workforce. The vast number of small printshops is therefore dwarfed manufacturing printers who specialise in cornflake packets, colour magazines. The Sunday Times colour supplement and the TV Times, for example, are printed by the British Printing and poration in half a dozen plants spread around the country together worth £17 million a year.
New technology
challenges the unions
DONT WORRY ABOUT
THE REST. WE'LL FILL
IT INLATER.
should dispense altogether, typing the story straight into the typesetting machine.
By Joe Clasky
The news copy can then be rerun through the VDU for sub-editing and correction the push of a button, be transferred to photo-sensitive paper and run out of the type-setting machine.
This copy is then layed out in pages, a photographic plate made, ready for printing on an offset litho machine. The introduction of this technology theretore eliminates a whole laver of the traditional printing industry - the compositors wao operate we totype machines, plate makers, and engravers. The introduction of more advanced offset litho printing machines threatens
And it is the
employees, but
cent of all workers
. On
by the huge
paperbacks or
Communications Cor-
Marshall's Published prepared
takes
The
thousands with paper The corrected copy can, at
paign for
Socialist Action 16 December 1983
*The printin changing giants' is from Alan
the Word by Comedia, 9 Poland Street. London W1. (£3.50). machine minders as well.
An example of this is management plans for the Sun. Rupert Murdoch has
completely new and automated printing plant to print the Sun in Wapping - and when the move
place hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jobs will be lost.
new technology therefore threatens the loss of literally tens of
of jobs. In the first nine months of 1981 alone, 10,000 jobs were lost. It is estmated that 50 per cent of the 500,000 jobs in • printing will be eliminated within 25 years.
The Press
Radio &
Telewision
'Who Owns Fleet Street' is from The
, Radio and Television (£1.80). "The shape of things to come' is from Free Press (20p).
Both are published by The Cam-
Press and Broadcasting Freedom, У Poland Street, Londor W1. Headlines for the articles are by Socialist Action.
7
Page 8 scan of this page
MOLES
EYE
VIEW
Tarzan and
the nukes
Action
asked Michael Heseltine
what he thought.
HOL
should have had the two
they gave to
showing The Day After.
someone could then
have had five minutes to
sum up the film.
You must realise this
film is nothing more than
an attempt to scare peo-
ple off from having a
DIARY
(These listings are free for all maior labour movement and campaign activities - 1n maximum of 50 words. Semi-
waver schiero ep per wora ana must oe para Sociavan Send to: Diary,
Action, Upper sweet. Loncon NI 2XP arrive not inte than Thursday, one week prior to moncalon.
International
• The Politics of Health in a onore cour lone vicco available for meetings or
£10 (payable in tunctions. : advance). sene to books Iol South Africa Fund, PO Box
London N1. • Sn Lankan Research & Information Group will provide speakers on the ciner situaton lucie 101
Write to 9 Grays Inn Buildings, London EC1. • No Intervention in Central America (NICA) is a broad based coalition of solidarity groups, human rights orgs, aid agencies and
More details from NICA 20/21 Compton Ierace, London Ni Vl-42o 6747. • From War in the Third World to the Third World Wa
Solidarity Campaign, 50p Order from EL non PakI N1 01-359 3976. ELSSOC Lave also produced a 1984 alendar showing scenes from life in the liberated zones, f3 from same
• Central America and the Caribbean A series of open aducationals with videos and peakers at Peckham Labour Club, Lansbury House, 41
SES: 10 Jan Guatemala; 17
Action
Join the
fight for
socialism
Socialist Action 16 December 1983 nuclear war. If it suc-
people will just
refuse to die for their
Then what will
CoullLLY. happen tou mink
you think that
people are just a little bit
worried about Maggie's
malc it alone
Grenada and the
Lebanon and think he
might start firing off the
cruise missiles in Britain
without consulting
anybody?
Look, there's a very
simple explanation why
Ronnie didn't know about Grenada.
He intended ringing us
Jan Honduras; 24 Jan El Salvador; 31 Jan Grenada; 7 reb aveme or centra American culture. Admission £1/UB40 free. Organised by Sth London Centra American Group, contact Edwin 01-733 7706 for details. • Reagan's war plans in Central America & the Caribbean Sth West London Socialist Action forum, 8pm, Wed 21 Dec at Clapham Community Proiect. Venn st, sw4 (Clapnam (mmn tube). Further details from Carol 01-359 8371
Culture of Chile, Kenya, Philippines Public meeting, 16 December. Friends House, Euston Rd. 7pm
Lesbian & Gay Liberation • Gay NUR group just forming. , For details of inaugural meeting write to
wyck Hse, Coldharbour Lane, London SW9. • Notungnam Laboul Campaign for Gay Rights meets monthly. Next meeting 4i UCC. Salutation inn. Mala Marion way. Details: Chris Richardson, 21 Devonshire Promenade,
• London Labour Campaign for Gay Rights new ortice al Chippenham Rd, W9 2AH 01-286 9692, open Tues-Thur 11am-7pm. (Westbourne Grove tube. Bad access, help available). • wny Labour shoulan 1
Back on Lesbian and gay rights Islington Labour
Tatchell, , Fri 16 Dec,
Rm 5, Islington Town Hall, Upper St, N1. 16 Dec, 7.45pm. hollower Di London Briefing Xmas social at 3 Davenant Rd, N19 (off Holloway Rd), €1.50.
Civil Rights • Campaign against the Police Bill National march and rally Sat 21 Jan, brockwel rark. London
Name
Amostress
Age . .• Union/CLP (if any) If you want more information about Socialist Action or to be put in touch with local supporters send this form to Socialist Action,
Her Street,
but he had forgotten to take his phone credit card into work with him that day. Do you know he asked everyone of his advisors for some change but nobody, just
had the rieht money for a Washington to London call.
In the Lebanon peace-keeping operation where his planes and ships 'zapped those Palestinians he did try and ring but the line was engaged After that got so excited with that action he just clean forgot. Ronnie is only human, can't remember everything in BaCI doesn't ember much at all.
However, he had given Maggie and me a very personal assurance
He's told us that immediately they
their Russia he will let us
You can't fairer than that. This absolutely guarantees
Details of these and other events from NCAPB, 50 Rectory Rd, London N16 01-249 8334. • Newham 8 Defence Campaign National picket, 16 Dec, Old Bailey, 9.30 am to 1 pm. • Gays Against the Police Bill Public meeting to organise opposition among lesbians and gay men, 19
County Hall, london SFI. Information from Gays Against the Police Bill, c/o Galop, 01
Miscellaneous • Films at work a series of films at Jacksons Lane Community Centre, 271 Archway Rd, London N6. 19 Dec Days of Hope All start at 7.30pm, £1.50/80p UB40.
Anti-cuts campaigns • London Health Service Cantan. 34 vaston Lane London E8 3AZ 01-249
• Haves Cottage Hospital Occupation Cttee, Grange
Hayes, Middx 01-573 5593.
London
Christmas Fund-Raising
Friday December 16,
Room ull lale
3 Davenant Rd, N19
(off Holloway Road)
£1.50, includes food
please bring a bottle
Celebrate 25th
anniversary of the
Cuban revolution
East London Socialist
Action New Year's Eve
social Sat Dec 31,
7.30pm-mianignt.
Buffet, bar and disco.
£4/22 unwaged. For
tickets phone Trina
01-519 0037.
Tel
can go straight into a shelter.
So all of us can get into shelters and be safe?
not exactly all of us. the "cabinet, military chiefs, civil
chaps John Donaldson I reckon LINe owes
and
as well.
and their will
America we
valles
kind of The Day have put across all this hysterical nonsense about the Later to human life. Greenham tactic not
enough
SOCIALIST ACTION is
quite corrente intolted in
current debate
CND. However the centre-
spread article in issue 35
failed in my view to em
pilasise cicarty enougu uila
the 'Greenham tactic' of
*spontaneous direct ac-
tion' cannot by itself
defeat the war drive.
No-one can fail to adthe determination
Invisible assets
CAN anyone explain how supplementary olaimant can fill in the gap
plementary benefit' order to make the total in the 'money you need' col umn?* all admission from the Department of
Tribune's Pink Panther Chris Mullins' Tribune has come a cropper in its first venture into the world of secret agents.
His spies have reported to Control that 'Socialist League member Sarah Roelofs' with other SL 'boys and girls' planned to occupy Tribune's of. fice because it refused to print an interview with Sinn Fein women Dear me, why didn't Chris use the phone and check his good habit for nalists to get into. Even our run down network has established Sarah left the now disbanded IMG three years ago!
But no doubt some of those witch hunters at Walworth Road will be only too keen to take advantage of Chris' stupid gaff. and heroism Greenham However, their objective mpact at present is to ac elerate CND's drift awa from an orientation to the organised workers' movement.
It is not sectarian to
— it may well be unpopular.
In the enthusiasm of
benefit Health and Social Security that claimants will never 'sup- be able to make ends meet!
DAF LINCOLN, Somerset
Write to us!
This is your page. Send us your comments, criticisms or even congratulations. But please be brief -letters over 300 words will be cut. Write to: Letters, Socialist Action, 328 Upper Street, London N1 2XP
Russia anp shos nasser ainho! Socialist Action has got Ine number of prominent
had banner headline saying 'Exclusive Russkis invade Warrington' true to form this was the day after the Daily Mirror carried the above advert for vodka.
It i went on to report 'red spies feeding pickets *° vodka drink-crazed
Len Murray meanwhile appealed for COll and suggested cool the situation should be referred to ACAS. Roy Hattersley
o men UKLETTERSTU
'direct action' movements
we must not lose sight of
the lessons of CNID's own
history • which Socialist
Action has done so well in
uncovering that
need more
money?
ne money you have coming in is
than you need to live on, you ay De able to get supplementar
elit. Claim even if you seen nave a little more than you need. Supplementary benefit is the difference between what you need & the money you have coming in.
can get it even if
" have savings of
1000
our own nome aid national
*Section The DHSS leaflet SBI, issued November '83
Diary
SOVIET SPIES
INFILTRATE
WARRINGTON!
and Neil Kinnock said it had nothing lo ao Wils the Labour Party and they "were against unlawful extra-
whether it was commitBritain Russians.
Eddie Shah says he will probably take an injunction out against the Kremlin. Michael mese nuot insisted proved that Britain needdetenell and he favoured a prethe Warrington picket line.
KLMNOPORSTU
IJKLMNOPORST
without the support the labour movement it will ultimate. ly flounder MIKE HOLBROOK, Co.
Durham
Page 9 scan of this page
A focus for action
News
Greenham:
ANNE KANE is an activist in the Glasgow Women for Peace group. She explains the importance of women's peace movement to all socialists — men and women — and takes issue with those sections of the left who argue against supporting the women.
With the arrival Greenham, the women's peace movement is yet again leading the fight against the missiles. leadership dithered over the freeze, women from Greenham and all over Britain organised to cut down the fence and reclaim the base on 29 October, took Reagan to court November, and held a huge Sound Around Greenham' on I December.
The Greenham women shown that is is not necessary to water down aims to get mass support. The support of thousands of activists in the trade unions, the women's move-
and the Labour Party is what CND should also be building on, up
trying to woo the SDP electorate with half-hearted, impractical demands.
These Greenham actions are only the latest ones in a year which has seen the women's peace movement push cruise and disarmament right to the Iront or bruisa pontes.
December's embracing the through the 24 May Women's Dav of Disarmament. to the July blockade, women have made Defence Secretary Heseltine sit up and take note.
They Heseltine cannot just scare off the Greenham camp. For the second time this year, the government has had to DECLARE propacanda demanding television space to present
the media has done to date. Thanks to Greenham, 'Ministers seem to worried at their failure to persuade the public that CND has argument' (Guardian 5 December).
But socialists in Britain have had diverse, and often negative, responses to this huge and
Tine fight Socialist. Workers the ment for 'excluding men'.
worst scorned, women.
Greenham
cruise
While CND's
Brigades Union.
The
labour on 9
ISUCDa have Greenham. Divisive
What IS
relationship to struggles?
drive?
base, autonomous movements, International
La waole.
week's issue! that
The forbears tarians, in • The offensive,
WU r
be the women's peace lost the what it has achieved.
disapointingly
Weve lived through two world wars
wire here, determined
Therell never be a Third!
Women have always played a leading role in anti-war movements
militant movement of women. While Greenham women have been leading
unle Party has been preoccupied with attacking the move-
Militant supporters in the Labour Party have at best ignored, and at
the Greenham (Presumably, for understanding the central importance of the top 200 monopolies!) This con- pected flicts with the response of the mass 01 trade unionists who have actively supported the women's peace movement: from the limex strikers earlier this year, to national support from unions like NALGO, NUPE and the Fire
women's peace movement has pushed unilateralism inside the
putting the bureaucracy on we spot by uclalding action, not just resolutions. But parts of the left have dodged the main along
to concentrate on attacking
at the root of this hostility? Is it true that the women's peace movment is divisive. or has no
'real' working class
stereotypical views of women, and do we lack a class analysis of the war
Beneath these attacks lie a deepLOVININ especially autonomous movements of women. In addition, Militant derides CND as tion
The arrival of cruise got a brief mention on page two of that
Feminists will find nothing new in Ine claim unal uney are being urvisive:
of today's left secSocial Democratic
Federation and in the Labour Party, turned against the mass movement of
campaigned for their right to vote in exactly the same way. Such critics would do better to judge
Hovellelon
yv nat unites une lent crucs in tel hostility is a failure to understand the relationship between women's oppression in capitalist society and their
leading role in the fight against imperialist wars. Some may ask what this has to do with the issue of the missiles.
war drive is linked to an economic system capitalism which is in crisis. Consequently, lays ever-greater economic and social demands on the working classes of canitalist countries. Women's oppres sion is rooted in the family. We are ex-
to be the unpaid unrecognised providers of system's social needs housewife, mother and nurse.
Austerity
This means women pay the social cost of capitalism's austerity drive in a more direct way than men. The less
appeal to militarism capitalism makes to women goes
with this sexual dIVISIOn labour and the oppression of women in the home.
It is this understanding which explains women's leading role, not just in the fight against the missiles, but in
would left sectarians have said, for example, movemen o women in Britain who organised against the First World War?
At the height of the anti-labour legislation and of industrial conscription, the Women's Peace Crusade led a demonstration of 12,000 through, Glasgow, in July 1917, to protest against the war and send greetings to the workers of the february revolu-
in Russia. This was socialists like Agnes Dollan and Helen Crawford, who were integral to the suffragette movement and Glasgow rent strikes. Would critics also say that this movement was reactionary because it was in the name of women?
Militant
It is precisely women's economic and social position, not biology or innate pacifism, which explains their leading, militant In anti-war
as well as in tionary struggles from the Russian SNOREDDI present day
and
the being which What led by
the
left
movement
Salvador. It is neither reactionary nor particularly relevant, women perceive their role in terms of being a mother.
I's Just socialists to children's pictures fence at Greenham and snap 'reinforrevolu- cing stereotypes'. As socialists, our stalments and actions of individuals, analysis must to the material basis of political currents, and to what they achieve objectively.
share an opposition to a society which can afford cruise missiles but expects them to carry the burden of publi sector cuts. tionary understanding! Our responsibility is to unite behind Greenham as >
€
World View 1984 - £7.95
Socialist Action 16 December 1983
WESTM
APEX
The mass of trade unionists have actively supported the women's peace
that some
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beyond 1177.
Women who support Greenham
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9 a symbol of continuing resolve to fight cruise, and as a focus for those activists who see the need to step up
• Start organising now for the mass
demonstration Holy Loch, on Saturday 21 January, 1984. Further information is available from Glasgow Women's Centre on 041-221
• Following the successful Faslane women's demonstration on 6 March this year, moves are afoot to make International Women's Day 1984
nearest weekend is Sat Women Against the Missiles day of action. Start now by putting resolutions of support for this through your trade union branch.
Dec 24 10-3
Page 10 scan of this page
10 Socialist Action
OK!
HOOKSON
Photo: (M
YCND GAGGED
CND ANNUAL conference took two resolutions on the future of Youth CND: one deploring the dissolution of the elected youth committee and the ad hoc appointment of another, the other proposing a new struciure for the youth section. The latter, passed overwhelmingly by a less-thanyouthful conference, tries to consign YCND to a tame future under the thumb of its parent.
Its annual meeting will decide only* campaigning activity not policy and its elected committee will be strictly subordinate to CND's National Council The crime it commited! Supporting the 'No More Chiles demonstration in September. Hardly heinous, if you consider that Reagan's war drive in Central America Middle East is the thing
— in the here and now to take the world the nuclear
16 December 1983
TRILLE:
YOUTH CND-A FutUr
Without Fear
brink.
The real threat CND's peace was made clear Smith's speech for the Executive.
the newspaper Revolution. he said, 'operating in YCND, who have different aims of those of CND.' And he went on to quote from a document CND claim to have, urging Revolution supporters to Ding of CND to fight the build anti-imperialist
pacifist leadership.
Now wouldn't it be convenient 11 the youth were all of one mind, and that mind accorded with
dyed-in-the-step-bystep-approach its parent? If the 75 youth
attended the voutt caucus at conference are anything to go by, this is not the case
No doubt the youth attending the 1984 annual meeting in London on the weekend February will say so in no. uncertain terms. It's clear that whatever the manoeuvres of the parent, the militant voice of youth will remain.
BASES QUT!
DESPITE HESELTINE'S attempts to discredit and demobilise the anti-missiles movement, support for CND is still growing. At an eve-of-conference rally, Bruce Kent said CND's membership had grown by 3,000 in the last three weeks alone. The arrival of cruise has seen anti-misiles action stepped up, not its widely-predicted collapse.
In this context, CND's annua conterence set the tone for the year ahead.
Unity was the leadership's chosen theme. 'CND is a coalition of different forces, said Bruce Kent, 'all fighting for their different corners. But there's
more important than this organisation as a
The Day After
By Bob Pennington
fessor Myers said after the programme a nuclear
the deaths of two billion people and 'conceivably
the end of the species.
other weary American soap operas.
than immediate death. It's called survival.
else but show a glimmer of holds in store for us, then it did a great job.
was worth my nightmares on Saturday night.
whole'
He's right. But his version of unity. - 'reach out everybody wherever they are through freeze-as-a-first-step policy — did not match the mood of the conference.
On almost every issue, this step-by-step strategy for the campaign was rejected Youth on the march at last May's YCND carnival at
Brockwell Park YOU CAN guarantee a nuclear war will be much worse than anything shown in The Day After. Pro-
war between the big powers would probably mean
But more horrific or not, the film scared the daylights out of me. OK the plot was abysmal and the characters had the vitality of cardboard. It came out of the same stables as Dailas and all those
Who cared about that when the action started? Then triteness was transformed into frightening horror. Being frazzled seems a fate too horrible to think about. The Day After showed that when the great mushroom cloud goes up there is a fate worse
Could anything be more dreadful than slowly disintegrating as the sores eat away your flesh and your hair falls out. If The Day After did nothing
what a nuclear war
I just hope it frightened enough of those 15 million viewers into realising how right the women of Greenham Common are. If so, then I reckon it
/NO CRUISE! DUT TRIDENT!
POLARIS!)
OF
NATO!
Pit.
by the delegates' desire for more mass action. Throughout, the leading role of the Greenham women was recognised. Debate
Fearing that a freeze campaign would deprioritise and confuse the essential aim of mass action to scrap the missiles, the freeze policy adopted by the leadership was thrown out. Calls for anti-cruise action to be stepped up, and for labour movement action including effective industrial action were carried with a big majority.
Last year, despite a call
COBIC CICE for labour movement action, neither CND's leadership nor the TUC or Labour party leaders acted on their policy pledges. This the words of the AST. S year must be different. delegate who upporte
he resolution: 'CND h to be identified with all those people threatened government. With the sult Tory
port of the unions, build of millions which will achieve peace in our lifetime.
Individual actions by trade unionists are already taking place: like the action Rolls Royce workers Scotland against Trident; and the Greenwich NALGO tion against civil defence plans. But the need is to
TUCND News
After conference:
Step up
the action
in '84
Labour and Trade Union CND TOUSI JOIN forces in a united struggle.
Despite CND's temporary demise, this is still possible. Ine electior of LCND Secretary Jo:
Hurcombe CND's four Vice Chairs and reference back (rather than defeat) of the
resolution Labour CND, show that activists do not necessarily share the Executive's view
against sistions sine
TAKES i strong. unilateralism 1S still possible for Labour CND to re-emerge as a mass action oriented specialist section.
By Carol Turner
The international aspect of the anti-missiles movement figured prominently at conference, reflecting the importance attached to the 22 Oct ober actions throughout Europe. Speaking at the Friday rally, the German peace movement represcu tative explained their intenon was hold referendum on the missiles during the Euro-elections, and called on other campaigns to do likewise. This idea came up during the cruise debate, where one generalise nest throughout the labour
resolution called for the Auro-elections to be a ma jor focus for Europe-wide
CND's first wave in the
USAF
Build Trade Union CND in 1984
successful
dustrial against nuclear weapons. ne
polnieu Union Saturday 25 February 1984 TUCND can be contacted at 11 copy) are available from this address.
News
1960s floundered on detente and the test ban treaty. The 'step-by-step' approach espoused by / the then-leadership of CND cut through building mass action against the atom bomb, and through generalising that action internationally. The second callul call move ment has a solid advantage over its forerunners because or ne exstence o a growin peace move ment in West Europe an America, which is fuelled President Reagan's overt aggression in the Middle East and in Central America and the Carib
This creates a climate in which it is increasingly possible for millions people to see that a real threat exists of nuclear war now. This brings more and more people into I activity against the missiles.
View
It was this mood which was reflected in CND con• Terence ceasons All the signs are that the interna Lullal ocal will step up anti-missiles actions in 1984.
CND now has the policies to link up with this, and to build mass ac tion in Britain founded on labour movement support.
It's up to all activists to keep pressure Goodwin Street and to put those words into practice.
Battersea firefighters return cruise to sender and
donate an hours pay for peace
Trade Union CND launched its first issue of Trade Union CND News at the CND conference througl
meeting with an
connected said that CND could find itself in a similar position to the print unions. Leb bit's legislation will affect CND's activities too, he
CND's AGM takes place on All affiliated union.
TUND can be contacted a 1l, min, Lon
Goodwin , LonI don N4. Bulk orders of the bulletin (at 3p pe
Page 11 scan of this page
Defeat for waverers
In the Unions
Trade union
action against
the missiles
Rolls Royce, Hillington WORKERS at Rolls Royce Hillington (Glasgow) threatened to black work on Trident at their plant — and won. Against a background of over 2,000 redundancies at the factory in the last few years, and a threat by management that a further 1,000 were in the pipeline if this action went ahead, the shop stewards committee recommendation for blacking was agreed by a two to one majority at works meetings. And management have backed off.
The Trident contract was to have been a small one, but the carrot offered by management was the promise of more work in the future. The action of the Rolls Royce workers shows it is possible to stop the missiles if you're Greenwhich NALGO GREENWHICH COUNCIL'S community work team held a one-day strike last week to protest the siting of cruise missiles in Britain, supported by their NALGO branch.
Thirty people turned up on 1 December to. picket Woolwich Arsenal, and distributed CND leaflets at the nearby market. The workers decided that actions speak louder than resolutions when it comes to opposing the missiles.
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LAZARUS LAMB
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6 pockmarked throughout by puns,
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determined enough. 1984
ORLD VIEW
and the 34 majorities,
62.95 SEPTEMBER 29
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POEU Broad Left
THE ANGER of Post Office Engineering Union members found voice last weekend, when a special meeting of the POEU Broad Left voted 77-23 to remove from its slate the four Broad Left National Executive Council members who voted to call off industrial action against Mercury. Their votes gave a majority to the NEC's right wing, and led to the recent conference decision not to fight the injunction.
As lially speakers pointed out, this has
the National Graphical Association LIU V stands alone fighting Tebbit's anti-union laws. The meeting sent a message of support to the NGA, and called or • al POEU branches to do likewise. The next NEC
52 arrests
at NALGO
lobby
ON 7 DECEMBER 15000 NALGO members went on strike and attempted to lobby their employers in support of the residential social workers claim for parity with other local government workers. right to lobby the negotiations was denied by a massive police presence. workers were arrested, Horseferry Road magistrates court on 4 January MONICA HURST and DAVE DRAYCOTT from Newham NALGO Socialist Action.
The strike was called to coincide with the meeting with the national local authority employers.
After 5 years the employers still refuse negotiate on the claim.
The aim of the demonstration was to influence the employers with a show of strength, but NALGO nationally immediately backed down when the police banned the lobby from Belgravia Square on the grounds that there was no TOON for such large gathering.
With Ovel 1500 members on all out strike severa branches WelC determined the lobby should take place. In the
A PIECE
(DON'T YOU THINK h THAT NORMAN TEBBIT ¡ IS DOING A GREAT JOB IN HIS ATTEMPTS TO REFORM THE UNIONS? I
meeting will be considering a similar resolution.
The result of the Broad Left vote surprised many supporters. Such a deci sion has never been taken before. In previous years, debates on election slates have centred on whether
not to include non-
Their
52 residential social
and will appear at
explained what happened to
absence of strong national stewarding, local stewards were arrested and rank and file members bundled back into the march.
The next stage of the dispute is a ballot being conducted among residen-
social workers for escalation of the dispute into 'social hours' only -9am to 5pm residential workers. much of the work residential homes done in the early morning and evening, it would amount to a virtual all-out strike.
The NALGO leadership must be forced to respond by a campaign for further escalation to an all-
THE ACTION
REFORM? I THOUGHT h THE IDEA WAS TO DEMOLISH THE TRADE UNION S MOVEMENT....^
OHNO! I'M SURE
Broad Left people, and attempts to mandate NEC members have always floundered.
This time, arguments against names found little favour. Scapegoating hunting were the main threats used against the decision. But they cut no ice against the fact that the NEC had fallen at the first fence because of the four waverers.
'We have fought a long time in change the leadership of this union,' said speaker after speaker. 'How can NOTTINGHAM F
TRADES
COUNCIL
SUPPORTS
SOCIAL
WORKERS JUST CLAIT out strike bv residential workers and other NALGO members.
Without support from th
est of NALGO, the soci workers can be isolated and more easily defeated.
Although Labour Party branches and constimuencies nave given sup: port to the residential social
wOrkers. NOSI Labour authorities have kept their heads down or been openly hostile. This is incredibly short sighted. If this dispute is successful it can only strengthen the local authorities' fight against privatisation and Ine Cuts
• The 52 arrested will appear at Horseferry Road magistrates court at 10am on 4 January. Support for the picket outside welcomed.
POOR MAN!
SUCH AN IDEA NEVER CROSSED HIS MIND.
Socialist Action 16 December 1983
we go back this time round and argue to support such people! Many speakers pointed regardless of the slate, their branch NICHOCT. would not be renominating the four next year.
By Carol Turner
The decision to call off the Mercury action has led directly to an ignominou: defeat for the action privatisation.'
Already, half the 2,000-odd engineers have returned to work. The rest
Asud
KESIDENTIAL
PAY LE
RESIDENTIAL
WORKERS WANT PARITY RAY US
NOW! VOW nalgo 15000 NALGO members on last Wednesday's demonstration Welsh Grunwick
SINCE main!! women worhers have been pickering the Letray factors herberg in South Wales.
They were loched ont after i one-clay srike for trade union recognition. The increasingly bitter dispute
and even families as seah hase cone on working
The workers, member
mass pichels leading 16 police number of arrests. 11:
DO FORGIVE ME! | I-HAVE MALIGNED THE
IS THE NAME OF HIS GAME!
11
will follow this week,
under an agreement which
allows management to re
tain the new technology
introduced during the
lockout, and to redeploy
Ene engineers • at will
Important lessons have
been learned Broad
tion of selective action as a
vinning strategy has bee
settled. The Broar Left
decision represents a big
step forward. In future
there. will oe a cicart
understanding among
miltants or tie mcang o
electing a slate committed
to carrying out a fighting
programme for the union. I HALGO
public meeting lad Thrus
cany Terr
president The south
Wales
full support of the miners
The ІГОЛ
Letray will be grateful for
any messages of support of
financial contributions.
those all ther
porters to inin the picher»
Contact: Carol Honell.
shop seward. i r
TOWN. Transport Hous
Carditt Rel.. hemport.
by Germans
WILL MR REAGAN GIVE uP HIS DESIRE TO REFORM THE GLOBE WITH THE HEALING POWER • OF ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND HIROSIMAS?
Page 12 scan of this page
sound at Greenham
WE ARRIVED at the main gate of USAF Greenham Common, having passed hundreds of coaches from all over Britain. At the camp thousands of women were preparing to sound around Greenham. Walking round the perimeter, the changes since last December's action seemed startling. Row after row of barbed wire, more police and new army presence are the visible reminders of the arrival of the cruise missiles. But we were also walking across wire cut down from older fences.
The mood of the women was stronger and more determined Inland 6 months E8: 12 months E15 Ver0221 (12 months only)
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ACTION
Reflections on Greenham
the main entrance I joined a crowd of women outside the gate. Candles were lit and
get dark. Wool was passed round, creating a massive human web.
more militant. Word went
was inspiring.
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By Sue Laker than ever. On every hour the noise of pots and pans, whistles,
musical instruments and voices echoed around Greenham. At
mirrors held up, as it began to
The atmosphere became
round: 'be as noisy as possible'.
The scenes of women bringing
down the fence, while the police and army watched helplessly, Special free book offer! Take out a years inland subscription and we will send you free one of these books:
Thatcher and Friends by John Ross Hard Times by Bob Sutcliffe or Over our Dead Bodies -Women Against the Bomb Introductory offer for new readers: Eight issues for just f2!
SEXUAL equality
answer given by the Labour MP for Barking
The vote was 118 for and 191 against.
The Bill's intention was to simplify existing equality legislation combining the Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts into one and to sharpen up the law in areas where these ACES have Deer SOURC to be weak. If passed the Bill would have: • allowed workers to claim a pro rata rate of pay with full time workers • outlawed sexual harassment and discrimination against homosexuals work
• given fathers the right to paternity leave • introduced stronger
30,000
Tories throw out
Sex Equality Bill
must be subordinated to the needs of the employing class. That was the Victorian
Tories to Jo Richardson, and Labour's new spokesperson for women's rights, when she moved her private members Bill in the Commons on Friday.
measures positive action at schoo and at work • ended discrimination against women in occupational pension schemes • outlawed discriminanon against women i ex cluding them from private
By Valerie Coultas
pointed out that he supporters were not limited committed feminists, she had also won the backing of the Women's Institute for these measures After detailed ex planation of the measures
of the Bill, she ended attacking the ridiculous prejudices that fuelled discrimination against women in our society. Some men, she said, felt that women should not be allowed on snooker tables because nev would m up the cloth. How absurd this
was when YOU compared it to the clumsiness of men in the home.
mw many mes have I had to wipe up beer rings
home just because men find it impossible to use a mat?' she asked to a barrage of laughter.
But Tory Minister Alan Clarke's reply for the government wasn't so amusing. After a patronising introduction he embarked on nit-picking reply that highlighted legal minutiae that could easily have been ironed out in the committee stage. Then he
just managed to mention that he didn't agree with positive discrimination on
Coulds 'merit should decide
policy. And besides. the Bill was impractical because employers would not be able to afford it.... Nutshell
Put in a nutshell, the Tories' opposition to the Bill is that they are against women's equality in prin ciple and it would cost too much anyway.
If you ever had any COUNTS that Margaret Thatcher's election One MIster Was Hold advance for women, the massed ranks of lories ir the 'no' lobby should dispel your illusions once and for all!
← Socialist Action No. 37, 9 December 1983Socialist Action No. 39, 6 January 1984 →