Socialist Action No. 72, 5 October 1984
The scan: 072-oct-05-1984-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
ACTION Defend the
PREPARE A GENERAL STRIKE!
MONDAY'S High Court against Arthur Scargill and the NUM was brought isolated scabs in Yorkshire. But it shows the entire road onto which the Thatcher government is now being forced.
The aim of the writ is not to imprison Scargill. would be a grotesque miscalculation by the government. The real threat is to seize the assets of the NUM,
For Thatcher now grip around the power stations inexorably tightening. If she cannot stop the NUM in the next few weeks she is faced with the threat of the greatest defeat ever suffered by a British government at the hands of the working class.
The entire British class is determined that this must not occur. That everything must be done to prevent it.
And despite the huge pressure the TUC and Labour leadership is trying to bring to bear for a compromise' solution the leadership has still not moved one inch on the central issue of pit closures. With the militants in the movement swinging strongly behind the Thatcher simply may not be able to create enough pressure to force the TUC to impose the type of defeat she needs on the NUM
That is why the ruling class is now turning to the courts. They want the full majesty of their law, their courts, and their judges to back up their police and their violence. And all before government is humiliated.
Because if the courts can impose their law on the NUM it would be a gigantic defeat for the entire labour movement. And if the NUM defeats a legal attack on it, it is the beginning of the end for the Thatcher government.
Defend our unions
NUM!
writ
by two
That
feels the
not
capitalist CYCl
its assets,
NUM
tide of the legal attack
NUM.
NUM strike. declaration
their any legal attacks. • Pledges
dockers,
action.
SMAKE
VIOLENCE, ALL VIOLENCE - ALL VIOLENCE WITHOU FEAR OR 4VOUR..
Against this scale of attack
the financial and material help of the last seven months is enough. A legal attack on the NUM, the sequestration of
must be met by industrial action by the entire working class. As Denis Skinner says on this page a legal attack on the NUM must be met with a general strike to defeat it. Such a threat is also the best way to head off any
of Thatcher on the
Whatever occurs in the next few days militants must fight for • An emergency meeting of the General Council of the TUC to decide that any legal attack on the NUM will be met with a general
by left wing union leaders and leaders of the Labour Party for industrial action to defend the NUM against
from every possible group of workers - starting with key sections such as Fleet Street,
transport workers that any legal action on the NUM will be met with all out industrial
I P
shows dissimilar
the
same time. Writ
day picket brought
Establishment
in a panic
By Dennis Skinner MP
THE WRIT Scargill
that the state beginning to panic. The important thing now is the trade union response.
In 1972 the Pentonville Five dockers were jailed for contempt of court in not
circumstances.
The TUC threatened a one day general strike and that got the dockers out, putting
Industrial Relations Act into cold storage at the
The writ served yester-
will put the TUC recommendations of support seriously to the test.
The establishment's panic has been building up recently. Thatcher visited the Yorkshire police and told them that they had to get scabs through the
lines; judges were back from holiday
No. 72 5 October 1984 30p over the summer to deal with miners' the Home Secretary made savage references to life imprisonment for miners fighting for the right to work. All of the upper echelons are panicking
they see coal stocks diminishing as winter approaches. Lied
Thatcher lied Over the Bel grano. and the nation knows it. Soon the people will know the ful catalogue of lie which have been told over coal stocks. Thatcher wouldn't know truth if it was sprayed onto her eyeballs. There is no other way now to defeat the establishment on the rampage than the TUC calling a general strike it NUM tunds are se questrated or their leaders are thrown into jail.
(Reprinted from the ference issue of Labour Briefing).
Page 2 scan of this page
The scabs, the courts
2
Scargill: 'I plead
guilty of contempt
ON MONDAY evening Arthur Scargill spoke at a Labour Herald rally — one of the fringe events at party conference. delivery of the writ which demands he appears in court on Thursday. His charge - that he is in contempt of court in declaring the miners' strike is still official.
We reproduce extracts of his speech here. The ruling class have encountered something they never thought they would encounter.
They thought that this strike, which deliberately provoked annid ne over in tw three weeks. When Margaret Thatcher HUES and speaks to the South Yorkshire constabulary. and explains that there will be no compromise, then I can tell her and her gorerument that there will be so compromise on the central issue of pit closures
The ruling class have seen the way our class has
esponded to this attack.
We have seen their tear and anger together. It is a formidable force.
But it is coming against for-
idable force in history
organised working class.
The ruling class is in deep trouble. you remember, they started wite moority op miners The majority miners NOT AlL well before the flying police pickets mov-
We have seen the
consequences...
It is not the civil liber. ties of miners fighting for but the civil liberties of all. When they
for miners today they'll CULIC for you tomorrow...
We have seen the use of belicopters over our villages. The use of searchlights to attempt to spot pickets moving in the early hours. sell saturation policing and
even
SOCiAlist
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN
last week ovecenoci
editorials.
Street London N1 2XP. (Tel: 01-359 8180) to Socialist Action Editurial at the same address.
unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.
Socialist Action 5 October 1984 At the meeting he gave his first response to the
I have been told time after time to condemn violence. I know the facts.
Just under 8,000 miners have been arrested. Three thousand jured. Two are on life support systems. Five have died for the right to work.
Inere is no way I will criticise these young and women who have been fighting for
They have used police, anti-union laws, judiciary, The state's intervention DeCe becoming increasingly hysterical.
At 4.30 today (Monday) High representative, with no delegates badge on, simply walked into the conference hall issued writ against Arthur Scargill seeking his commital Pentonville Prison on Thursday unless he purges his contempt in the High Court•
If its contempt we're talking about I plead guilty. But the only 've committed is to fight Not only ArTor my class. thur Scargill, but the vice-president, the general secretary, the Yorkshire area general secretary and the Derbyshire general secretary have also received writs.
At the NUM special executive committee tonight the executive in full recognition that if we continued to call this strike official that we would be in contempt of court irmed that the strike is official and tnal we call apol no miner to cross picket tunes.
ACTION
Published weekly except two weeks in August and the Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent Socialist Action's views. These are expressed in Send all correspondence regarding subscriptions, sales and receipts to Socialist Action Distribution, 328 Upper
Cend all material for publication (including advertising)
We regret that due to the high cost of postage we cannot return or acknowledge unsolicited copy or photographs
THE GOVERNMENT is now track' strategy for dealing with the miners' strike. On the one hand it is trying to force the TUC to impose a compromise on the miners. On the other hand it is threatening massive legal action to try to smash the NUM. JOHN ROSS looks at how these moves are connected.
fundamental dilemma has existed for the government over whether it can try to use its new anti-union laws against the NUM.
The fight over the NGA at lne stockporl Messenger showed that these laws could be used Workers hollere deserted against small groups by the TUC. But the use of these laws around dispute зOCaI newspaper group thing. Using Inchl agalist the dockers, car workers, or miners is quite a different thing.
It was because he dia
understand this difnot terence that the government. stepped in sharply
Ian MacGregor's against attempt to use the courts at the beginning of the strike obtained a High Court ruling that the picketing carried on by the Yorkshire
NUM was illegal. The Yorkshire NUM refused to back down. MacGregor dropped his action
Exactly the same line was pursued the government over the blockade of steel plants in June and July.
Steel's management was advised by the government not take legal action against the NUM. The successful writs taken out against the South Wales NUM were gained not by British Steel management but by small independent road hauliers.
1 nis government rejection of using the courts against the NUM throughout the was spite of constant calls for
legal intervention from
David Owen and the more
fanatical layers of That-
cher such as
Paul Johnson in the Daily
Mail, and the editorial
writers of the Times.
The reason for the refusal to
back any decisive legal ac
tion was obvious. legal
attack on the NUM must
succeed, it is the govern-
ment's last throw. If the
NUM successfully defeats
or detes, an all out legal
attack on it, then the
government's entire posi-
A PIECE OF THE
ARTHUR
and the TUC
pursuing a 'twin Right from the beginning of the miners' strike a
tion will crumble both on ine strike and on lne alli union laws.
That is why the government persuaded Macuregor io back aown March. The cabinet reckoned, rightly, that legal attack on the Yorkshire NUM at that time would have been successfully defeated. It would have created more support for the miners not less. That calculation is why the government was forcea to rely on tae mel
"back to work' movement throughout the summer.
Dwindling
But the situation which the government faces now
very one. Time is today on the side of the NUM, and not the government. The coal
the grip on the power sta-
slowly tightening.
The government must win quickly or it is not going to win al all. And lacca will
choice the government's attention necessarily turning back to the courts again.
It would in fact be difficult to think of a more perfect plan for legal action than the one which is going courts over the next weeks. This week LIC Durham miners face legal action as
— a pertect opportunity for the government to judge the resistance to another seizure of funds of an area of the NUM.
And coming up at the beginning of October the key case. WILS brought by Ken Foulstone and BOD Tavior the Yorkshire NUM. The timing
perfect for rapidly
mounting legal attack on the NUM.
Why does the govern-
ment now believe it may have a chance of sucACTION
SCARGILL
with this legal assault? Because Thatcher is prepared to match every escalation with an escalation of her OWN.
Three weeks ago the government hoped the strike would be defeated because the TUC would refuse to support the NUM's action
stations. The government was activel drawing up plans for
of millions 01 tons of coal from the striking pit heads to the power stations. cessions "тех tracted from Congre this the government Knows policy can't work. There will be a fight to impose TUC policy the power stations. But moving millions of tons of coal to the power plants, amid huge physical violence at the pits to stop it, and getting power workers to use it, is just not on in the new situation today. Therefore the government must find another way to break the strike before it wins.
Thatcher's chosen weapons are the TUC and the courts. The government is first trying to get the TUC, , and other unions such as NACODS, to impose a 'compromise' settlement, in reality a defeat, on the NUM. That is her chief policy today. But
after that there is anothe
THE
alternative - and another government tactic.
Frank Chapple, Eric Hammond, Lyons and the other right wingers have been explaining thei strategy for defeating the
right from the beginning. The trade union bureaucracy must first isolate the NUM - as they tried to do at the TUC. Then the government can step in with massive repression the seizure of the funds of the Yorkshire NUM. Cover should be given to the entire operation through propaganda about
ballot The right wing wil then block ant solidarit action to defend the NUM
other unions on the grounds unions can't take action when the NUM is denying its members unt "right to vote'. It is this strategy the government is now considering.
For Thatcher was not bluffing whel she said again last week that there can be no compromise for her over the central issue of the dispute pit closures. The Tory govern. ment from this autumn on is going to face the biggest round threats policies which it has ever confronted.
Local government authorities, teachers, and car workers are just some of the groups in line for the biggest battles with the She Tory sincement If That situation ere to sur Tory government fer a defeat, or even be forced make an unsatisfactory compromise, at the hands of the miners then the situation could rapidly become disastrous. Thatcher's government must defeat the miners if it is to retain its credibility.
And on that Thatcher
calculating that if the TUC cannot impose
'compromise' on the NUM it can be counted on
THEOLOGICALLY SOUND
WALKS
ON
WATER!
News
to desert it if the courts step in She estimates that
TUC will back off from a confrontation that literally would be on the scale of 1926. Because. .of course, if the trade unions did not back off then any move to use the courts against the NUM would result in disaster for the government
For the first time in this dispute there is now a real risk - not a certainty but a definite. risk that the government s adopt a legal attack on the NUM its central strategy stake NUM LOUSI repressior and rely or the TUC to block any response. If she does no do that Thatcher faces the danger of a slow and inevitable slide to defeat.
The next weeks are the most vital of the entire strike. The knot the power stations has to be tightened by implementing TUC policy The financial aid to the NUM stepped
must But prepare for a legal the an ovenet assault on the NUM
The demands must be clear. Only massive response by industrial action will roll back the scale of legal attack the govern. ment would contemplate to break the NUM. Such Shither the Tsupon action has come highing toi not. This means
• A declaration by the Genera Council of the
TUC that any legal attac
on the NUM will be me with a general strike. • Pledges by key groups of workers and unions Fleet Street printers, dockers, transport workers, car workers that any legal attack on the NUM, any seizure of its assets or other similar moves, will be met with all out sympathy strike ac LON
•CORMAC
JAw, c'mon, guys! You know you're really on our side!!
Page 3 scan of this page
News
siege
FOR THE LAST seven months Labour Party ac-
tivists have been prominent in miners' support com-
mittees up and down the country. Despite the ob-
vious support for the miners from the party's rank
and file, leader Neil Kinnock has sat weak-kneed on
the fence.
dole out even-handed, high-minded condemnations
of violence 'whatever its source'. Time and again he
has played right into the hands of Thatcher and her
media sycophants, adding
criminalisation of the mining communities.
knocked off that fence, when it voted two to one on
a card vote to condemn the state-organised violence
of the police.
squarely where it belonged. Anyone with any in-
volvement whatsoever in the miners' strike has no
doubt on that score.
Intimidation in Kent
EVENTS AT Snowdon pit in Kent last week shed new light on the causes of 'picket line violence'. A lone miner from Folkestone was bussed in on Monday, following a meeting at the MacGibbon's house. refused to allow the union to speak to him, and virtually occupied the pit - including the NUM of-
saw unic manacel
ponce presence.
Halace!
(al Sulalize eves'. He expressed regret
State of
Week after week he has appeared in public to
This weight to
On the first day of annual conference, he was
That vote put the record straight and the blame well-organised and financed The police
Cartoon: THE MINER
Siege'. A third comes out soon.
aalist une
Me consen a done
no one. and commited to has master nuder donce
current now found that they have
01necessary
miners' obstruction, breacn or une
Have one mata coo!
WHO CREATES the violence in mining areas? For anyone who had any doubt the evidence is now
The police are not 'acting to protect the working miners' but to create the violence, with a conscious strategy aimed at branding miners as criminals. Police tactics are illegal and outside any direct
Martin Walker and Susan Miller, of Greenwich and Islington Police Committees, have documented the evidence in two pamphlets called 'State of
The pamphlets docubroucht horizontalv fron now police have besieged Notts pit villages, miners for simply travelling trom one part of country to another. has no legal foundation whatsoever. And whenminers are accompanied by qualified legal personnel the police have been forced to let through.
State of Siege from Holmes, Greenwich Branch NALGO Office, Borough Treasurer's Department, Wellington St, SE18. Each volume is priced £1.95. cheques payable 'Greenwich branch NALGO'.
Orgreave — police violence on the picket line the mining communities.
Wayne Frost, another Armthorpe striker told me
cameras that overlook the pitvard had been knocked
was built across the gates
CONCICIO By Clive Turnbull
2000 people who had come i400 miners at Markham
Police riot at
Armthorpe
THOUSANDS OF HEAVILY equipped police are being deployed at pits in South Yorkshire to escort a handful of scabs to work. The number of police used is not just to get the strikebreakers into the pityard. The aim is to terrorise the pickets and the people of
One such incident occurred already at Armthorpe, near Doncaster, on 22 August. Guy Bennet, a young striker from Markham Main explained why Armthorpe was singled out. 'When we go picketting there are certain pits from the area that always turn
ington and Hatfield. The police are trying to tie us down to our own areas, and stop us going to Notts
When the police ara vasion
There was an army of
cheons and long clubs. "The pickets tried to
one's house, and watched the riot sauads running ur quickly picked it up? his head as head.
him,
ched up down the streets
what was store them.'
everyone arresting
charging
Willea fray.
'Miners were being
VOTe way her bac
the frame. five
it's another own
Page 4 scan of this page
Socialist Action THE BACK TO WORK movement in Scotland, never more than a trickle, has now gone into reverse. The number of scabs has been shrinking in the last three weeks from 90 to 63.
One miner, David Brown, strike centre that he was offered a f200 bribe to join a working miners' association.
Despite NCB provocation and intimidation turning off power at pits, sacking NÚM officials, and now bribes the strike solid Scotland.
Earlier In the strike Scottish workers were given the opportunity to show their support for the miners by taking solidarity action. Wednesday May the Scottish TUC called & udy of action, when tens of thousands of workers stopped for the day.
Most major engineering. shipbuilding and manufacturing workplaces in Glasgow went on strike, and they were joined by rail, hospitals, schools and factories throughout Scotland. Twenty thousand marched through Glasgow and rallies were held in six other Scottish
Since then, railworkers have moved no coal to Ravenscraig. Dockers have struck twice. Yet this potential for building rea solidarity action to back
miners has not been developed.
The most recent STUC demonstration was held on a Saturday; no stoppage wAS asked and Ravenscraig continues at full production.
This contradiction that the Scottish miners are solid, the evidence for support from other Scottish workers is there, and yet solidarity has not been built up - is explained by the influence of the Communist Party in the Scottish trade unions, and the
Scottish NUM leadership.
DONTUIT MAGGIE.
SAKCHID
BURIALID
5 October 1984
The peoples'
alliance' in
Scotland
has told Dalkeith
Their record in the strike compares favourably with the inspiring example Scargill. The first test was, and is, Ravenscraig.
The
allowed tons week into
Not BSC
the
The decisions,
picket could
but the CP.
talks and Surated on coal
has earned HEVE proven
Maxwell's Daily consistently the miners, Tory
ALLI con-
Line to McGahey's approach.
Sunday theme, combining their with Scotrish workers on the march on 9 May day of action
MICK McGAHEY, Scottish NUM leader claims that MeGahey and the Scottish NUM are try-
view held by the CP that
Thatcherism cannot succeed. In the miners' strike this means a perspective of compromise and sell-out instead of a determined struggle WIl the solidarity necessary for victory.
Mick MeGahey's formula repeated speeches from 9 May onwards - is for a settlement favourable to miners and the Scottish economy. The Bishop of Durham, interviewed in the current Marxism 1oday, who insists that the
must not win outright, could agree with McGahey.
In Scotland, the situation following the TUC
opportunities for the miners to win vital
solidarity Key events the strikes, the strength of the dockers' strike in Scotland - show that important sections of Scottish workers will take action to back the miners.
mile i Call take initiatives translating TUC decisions into action which will assist solidarity throughout Britain. Scottish miners could now
• appeal direct to power station workers;
mount pickets to stop
211(029
• call for a further one day strike;
• organise Scottish
shop stewards conference
to plan and build solidarity
tonnes (metric) new capactiy by 1985.
looks at why.
IT IS NOT a new experience for miners have 'plans coal' There have been many since nationalisation 1947. In 1950 there was a plan based on production reaching 240 million tonnes in the mid-60s.
In fact production has fallen Continuously ste nationalisation there were 704,000 miners producing 200 million tonnes Today, there 180.000 producing million tonnes.
The various plans have done little miners' jobs. Under successive plans, usually of an expansionist
Contulucy 1974 plan slowed down, DUT did not stop, this decline.
A new turn was taken in 1980 when the Tories introduced the Coal Industry Act which was the first attempt to make the coal industry break even. The Plan for Coal, however. remained the formal basis of the board's strategy.
In reality however a completely unfolded. policy was being In
June 1980 a western economic Venice
FOR TEN years now the old role of the Com. munist Party the 'militant trade union' wing of the labour movement has been in sharp decline. The rise of the left wing of the Labour Party, and of Arthur Scargill in the NUM, has seen the CPGB consistently outflanked in militancy and left wing politics by forces within Labour.
The miners' strike is таетое callle ample for anyone who has illusions that the Mornin Star represents any type of militant alternative to Marxism Today.
Right from the beginning of the strike the Morning Star has been carrying
extraordinary line that Neil Kinnock is backing the miners
Immediately following the TUC, Communist Party industrial organiser Pete Carter gave his overall assessment of this congress.
Carter claimed, 'The trade unions emerged more united than for some time. And lney agrced Ur. the need for militant response to the corpora tions, the state and the Nass media. (Morning Star 19 September). The decion or the YUC on the miners' strike, to the decisions of where there was an open fight WIts extreme right, but to other decisions of the Congress.
Carter in fact talked of, "the atmosphere of mutual confidence flowing from the Brighton discussions This was a renort of of the most bitterly divid-
Plans for Coal
THE PLAN FOR COAL has formed the bedrock of the NUM's argument in its battle with the NCB. First drawn up in 1974, the plan aimed at 40 million The plan was revised in 1977 with a target of 200 million tonnes by the year 2000. This meant adding four million tonnes of new and replacment capacity each year. The plan has not worked. PAT HICKEY
concluded that there was a
need to expand coal pro
duction. Coal was now
apable of competing wit
This conclusion
widely reported. Also EEC
policy at the time was for a
big build up of nuclear
power.
Less widely reported
was that the proposed ex-
coal produc-
tion was based
multi-national
couraging
investment in Columbia,
Mexico and Botswana, in
to that already
undertaken South
Africa, Australia, and
North America. At the
same ume EEC produc-
tion was lo
tured "liberalise world markets,
and the criterion was pro-
fitability competition
with nuclear power No
criteria of preserving jobs,
communities, or
miners' wage.
adopted.
Under this new
criterion EEC coal did not
very well. Of the tota
EEC production
million tonnes, only 20t0
25 per cent
profitable Approximate!
60 e 65 cer: 4 di
Fading Stark. Morning Star
Black strikers stop apartheid's gold mines
Doubts grow over NCB boss Picket-line duties
MacGregor
climbdown
on ACAS role
ed TUC since the Second World War!
Of course Carter himself the 'Eurocommunist' wing of the CPGB. So perhaps the editors of the Morning Star corrected his analysis of the TUC? Quite the contrary. The line pursused by the Chaterites was equally extraordinary
The nor famous peech of the Bishop of
in cluded a call for the NUM
back down pit closures as well as its much reported call Macuregor to lesign, was hailed by the Morning Star under editorial courage and compassion 4 headline bishop of (Morning September). Bishop Jenkin's statencil Was greeted as an example of the policy needed mobilise this reservoir of support broad democratic alliance led by the working class.
Even more extraor dinary was the Morning ACAS in the dispute. The
'borderline', and over 15
'un-
conclusion was that the EEC and EEC member states should encourage expansion of coa
production outside
EEC The main beneficiaries of this policy Tre to like Win mel
Tinto Zinc and
Duffryn.
This policy determines
the direction that Thatcher
wants to take the British
coal industry. According
Monopolies and
Merger
in 1982, using
'profitability' as its yard
stick, a staggering 141 of
the 198 pits being worked
at the end of 1982 were un-
profitable.
Only 57 collieries were
operating at a profit, and
these accounted for 42 per
cent output
employed 64,000 miners.
Seventy-one pits were
operating at a loss of up to
Elor er torre losing more
ther were losing more
than f10. These are the 70
pits and 70,000 jobs which
Arthur Scargill has con-
sistently claimed were on
the NCB's hit-list
The NCB has denied
the existence of the list.
But the truth is exactly
what Arthur Scargill has
always claimed
MacGregor's plan to sack
20.000 miners is only the
start in a long-chil restructure the British plan
coal industry, in line with
the EEC's plans. Once
News
Miners lack thi policing to crisis level cut 18 September issue carried the front page lead
climbdown on ACAS role.'
Apparently the tervention of ACAS into
dispute, which designed by the government and right wing of the TUC to attempt to impose
sell-out deal on the
positive miners, development.
throughout this dispute, it has been the Communist Party and Morning which has formed the right wing of
Scargill and its leadership the Labour left which has Dees its militant core. Despite differences on tactics there has s been no fundamental difference of line between Marxism Today and the Morning Star.
The real course for militant of CPGB is to leave that Party and join the ranks of the fighting left wing of the
Party There Labul. they'll find of
politics that neither Marxism Today or the Morning
Star will provide
such a process starts, it is almost impossible to stop.
If the 26 pits in Wales
were to close, the remaining pits become less viable
because of the infrastructura Costs involved
Similarly with Scotland and the north east. The result would be an
dustry concentrated on the
super-pits of the east
Midlands, which are ripe
Ior ovatisallull. and
tempting targets for firm
like Rio Tinto Zinc.
The argument about economic
grounds is therefore cen-
- and has been made
still more so by the
economic crash imposed The issue Thatcher 1979
is whether the
jobs and communities o
the miners are to be sacrit
iced in the interests of the
multi-nationals and
whether an unsafe energ
source, nuclear power, is
to replace coal.
A new plan for coal is
needed, one which aims at which is based on the ex- nuclear
the economy,
palsion and which snares the
benefits of technological
advance with the miners.
It will need concrete plans
and
gasification of coal
sentral to such NUM
must
demands for earlier retire-
ment, longer holidays, and
for the four-day week
The latter demand was
in fact first raised in th
Sankey Commission in
1919! It is time a plan fo
coal made it a reality
Page 5 scan of this page
+
In the Unions
MINERS' WIVES up and down the country are deeply involved in every aspect of the struggle to win the strike. But at the same time the tremendous success of their own consider how they will organise after the strike.
WOODWARD talked to KAY SUTCLIFFE and MARIE COLLINS from the Kent coalfield about
Kay: Over the summer things have gone rather quiet and each women's
Kent has been doing its own thing. The regional gave broken down. So we want to get them going again We are determined to carry on strike.
Marie: What I'd like to see
some kind area
photo: JOHN SMITH
Un
GRAHAM ATWELL, of Cardiff Labour Par: Miners* reviews 'The
Campaign Video Tapes'.
TO COUNTER media bias, a group of ACTT technicians and the Film Video Workshop, working with the NUM, have made a seres orsx amus. "'he Miners' Campaign Video Tapes'
While all the tapes can be highly recommended, by far the most interesting and provocative is Only doing their job? police, the law and the miners.
Most of the film's commentary is provided by a group of Yorkshire miners who give their personal expenerce. police on the Orgreave picket line.
Women relate how they are harrassed and atlackea by lne ponce, and tell of their admiration for the Greenham women who have endured such condi-
"The NUM should
finance a women's
organisation'
movement is making them
A second national delegate conference of the wives is likely to be called soon. JUDE
committee properly set up.
It should be on the same basis the NUM itself with delegates to ared committee and from that to a national committee.
If each group sent delegate to national meeting it would be too big er ups in tent alonemen's — we've tions over four years.
The video shows how the National Police Reporung welle Has cicaica a national, governmentpolice force. orrected shows the brutality of police attacks on unarmed pickets, and then switches to film of RUC and army operations against in the North Ireland and police fighting black people during of 1982. HOLS
Telling
One of the miners tells how the strike has opened his eyes to the oppression of others.
I he miners are convinced that life can never be the same again ailer une strike The most telling points of the tim are made Dave Douglass from the Yorkshire NUM ecutive. 'People who think inal class is a matter of cloth caps or tops hats,' he
conference. The national steering meeting week
•CL. will
body that will
things when the
organise exactly NUM,
BUlL aSO because
bodies jobs and
elsewhere
difficult organise
ng their jok
savs. 'are living in clouc cuckoo land. The real deciding point is ideology. Policemen, whatever their background, have - just ake une Orange men crossed class lines. To think that the police are just workers in uniform is ridiculous.
The film also takes up the question of violence and intimidation by NUM members during the dispute. Rather than duck the issue, it explains why, when threatened with loss of livelihood,
allackcu u police with riot shields, atons and horses, minets fight back. They have no choice.
The film makers have done a fine job. It's now up to us to use the videos. • The videos are each about 10-15 minutes long. They can be obtained from your nearest NUM head Goarters Films, or from Plat-
London (01-278 8394), or Trade Films, Gateshead (0632 775532).
nationally.
Marie: We finances.
the argument be that not all wives are
that any ongoing organisation is up properly. am the Kent delegate to the national steering committee, but I was asked to go at a week's notice with no
• for elections.
We must have elections and so on, otherwise we will be open to the accusa tion of being self-elected and not really representative of the women.
For the national conference we will have two delegates from Kent. The
have three pits. But that's not bad when you realise there will be only four delegates from the whole of Wales.
Marie: I suppose it's noi too bad, as at the beginning we only had one delegate. It's not one delegate from every group. because there are literally hundreds of groups and it would make the meeting too big. and accommoda. tion impossible.
Kay: Also the conference won't Hules wives' groups. It will be 75 per cent miners' wives' groups, and the rest other women's groups that support the miners.
Weat is happening around
'back work' movement? I know there
quite a bit of trouble in Kent.
Marie: Well Tilmanstone there about ten going in or so
on miners
plan devised by Nicholas Ridley in 1978 to smash the
tion, sections of NALGO have squandered £25v,000 in an attempt to ensure that she is successful.
conar power
envoyees NALGO's 1000-plus bran-
IF ZORKSHIRE MINERS UP NOSE AND CO THEN PICRET COSTS AN
GRIMET HONE WOMENS ACTiON AGAINST (Collins)
LAUS
showed the film of 'Silver
NALGO special conference
WHILST THATCHER attempts to carry out the
massive police repression and the threat of starva-
national funds are donated
Усик
CHARBUEN
PiT CLOSUREOPPOSE PIT CLOSURES BARNSL
AND A NATIONAL BALLET
-UNITE AND FICHTA
Birch' going in to work He was
• carrying a brietcase. A proper briefcase He's the only miner I've ever seen going in to work with briefcase You don't need one to dig coal. Kay: Mrs MacGibbon is a
wound-up person When did a phone-ir with her on Radio Kent, when we In the presenter said: 'I suppose WIl need to get the boxing gloves now. I said didn't think that would be saesg. I think she was she was snarling. furious because I was so calm.
offered cigarette and she said she didn't smoke 'because she couldn't afford to'. I took no notice and she had to apologise. All through the phone-in she really worked up and kept interrupting me.
I kept calm, because I'd been told there's nothing she better than getting into some per-
regular They're
anyway. believe Mr
had to be
more than
scabs too. women £250,000.
The first response of the left to this challenge was complacency. It was thought that the call for should be sn conference
smashed out of court. This left the initiative firmly with the right.
As result, the response of many national and branch leaderships was 10 keep their heads
campaign many members were resigning in protest. The daily barrage anti-Scargill propaganda in the media also helped the right.
alist Action 5 October 1984 5
WOMEN
they had been fired on with shotgun The bloke's still got the gun, but the police came round to ask them to withdraw the complaint.
The funny thing is that it's never Mr MacGibbon that " ways his wife and speaks it's They talk about the striking miners hiding behind thei wives. But it's Mr MacGibbon and his like that really do that.
What's the attitude to the Labour Party among the miners' wives?
Kay: Right from the start Kinnock has failed to come out right with the miners. The Labour Party was born out of the trade unions, so it should have more allegiance to trade movement than Kinnock has shown
It's alright to condemn violence on picket lines The NUM does that itself. but you nave lo say were the violence starts, and condemr the police violence as well.
Marie: I'll tell you what a lot of them are around here Kinnock
jacket and stood onkey
jacket stood picket line where no one vall recognise him Then we'll see after that what he thinks about violence when he's seen what is really going on.
The left in NALGO must learn from the right. They organised nationally and fought for their posi tion. They will no doub do the same again.
The only way to com bat the right on this issue is to deepen activity / in support of the NUM. The most successful approach in NALGO is the adoption of a pit.
In Newham Branch this has allowed miners and miners' wives to atteni union meetings and meet the members ace to
• The left wil follon this course at the special conference, 10 tober.
A lobby has been organised for 8.30 am in
morning, and meetin! a leading NUM speaker on the evening before at Friends Meeting House, Euston Road at 6.30 pm
Page 6 scan of this page
SOLDARNOS Says: Stop all coal!
IMPORTS OF POLISH coal are
to double this year.
olish government has abandoned
agreement between Scargill and Polish
iting Polish exports to Britain to 205,000 tonnes. Already, cad of August, 900,000 tonnes of
olish coal had been shipped to witain.
By the end of the year the Financial Times estimates that Polish coal imports will have doubled from last year's 548,000 tonnes to 1.2 million tonnes this year. These Polish coal imports day a significant role in undermining
he miners Suake
y Redmond O'Neill
But the documents reproduce on these pages demonstrate tha: the Polish government doesn't at
have the support of the Polish workers in its strike breaking activities.
now sufficient evidence, boch from Upper Silesia counts for 80 per cent of Poland's coal production, and from other sources, of
support being expressed for the NUM by the underground organisa-
ions of Solidarnosc.
The statements printed here bitterly condemn the scabbing of the Polish government, which claims to support me British miners vet takes advantage of their strike to pump additional coal anto These out the hypocrisy of the official so-called government has reestablished since the suppression of Solidarnosc.
These official unions have claimed to support the miners and yet done sothing to prevent coal exports which undermine the miners struggle. eridence is now overwhelming: the
Socialist Action 5 October 1984
The
Jaruzelski does not.
Arthur
officials
the British press.
by the
Solidarnosc as
Street are publicise
Britain.
"HE INSTITUTE FOR we
which ac-
They prefer to try Solidarnosc as anti-socialist
struggle of Solidarnosc in Poland.
The Solidarnosc stands for.
SOLIDARNO
Solidarnosc underground both in War-
Coves saw and the key mining areas of Poland Poland stands with the British miners, General those
them.
However, the views of Solidarnosc have been systematically concealed by
After building up Tne champion of freedom in Poland, the hacks of Fleet
extremely reluctant L4 leaaing Solidarnose's support for and freedom and workers' struggles here in
press to portray LOO fight to defend trade union rights and jobs here as totally unrelated to the
Fleet Street covers up Solidarnosc's support for the miners because it would strengthen the miners and undermine their own efforts to portray Margaret Thatcher as a champion of everything
But it is not only Fleet Street that
and lies about those in who support the miners and organise scabbing against
The Morning Star has managed for seven months to turn a blind eve to increasing Polish coal imports during the strike. Most recently the Morning Star has banned an advertisement signed by
labour movement figures MPs, and supported by Yorkshire NUM, protesting that: '....if the independent trade union move ment, which might have been expected to black (coal) exports, is no longer permitted to operate, a double burden falls on the Polish government which claims to have installed itself the better to defend "socialism"!
That statement goes on to call upon the Polish government to declare a moratorium on coal exports to Britain for the rest of the miners' strike.
The Morning Star refused to print this statement, signed by Dennis Skinner and Eric Heffer among others, on the grounds that it does not print "political' advertisements! It has to sup-
the about the Polish regime's coal exports and the true positions of Solidarnosc in order to justify its support for the Polish bureaucracy's repression of the independent trade union movement.
When the truth about the role of that bureaucracy, not only in Poland but in relation to the British miners, is
embarrassing. then the Morning Star adopts the same methods of lying and concealing the truth as the Fleet Street hacks.
For British trade unionists, lesson is quite clear: if Solidarnosc were a mass legal organisation in Poland today, the British miners could rely on a force which would take the same stand as the most militant workers here and Stop All Coal!
the the On 17 June the Underground Provisional Co-ordinating Committee of Solidarnosc miners issued this statement in solidarity with British miners.
10am on Sunday 17 June by the Solidarnosc station called We Will Win, based in Upper Silesia, main coal-mining region.
The Underground Coordinating Solidarity miners vigorously test against the present policy of the Polish People's Republic on the management of our major source of wealth -foreign markets prices (ie, at less than world market prices) is first of all a violation of the Jastrzebie Agreements (August 1980) in which established that coal is a national resource which must be used rationally. The pricing policy ment in the mines into a straight economic loss.
Secondly, govenment's policy blatantly contradicts official propaganda which declares respect for the
dignity coal organised the control
The statement was read out at
underground radio
Fact in the country's
Provisional Committee of of it. pro-
coal. Selling it on
al competitive
was clearly
right to work. above-mentioned
transforms invest-
the Polish
miners'
and endeavour. distribution and trade outside of any social The Polish government has no right to behave like a mineowner and to dispose of the national wealth as it pleases. Only the damned capitalists and dictators
this way. Fourthly, the Polish governments policy in this field affects the basic interests of brother miners from other countries who lose their jobs as a result
We hope the Party authorities and parliament - who say they represent the people - explain what is really going on.
To the striking miners of Great Britain: The Underground Provisional Coordinating Committee of Solidarity miners sends you fraternal greetings and our support and solidarity for your struggle for the
We know from our own experience what it means to lose a job. For this reason we will do everything possible to support your struggle, including in action. The protest we have sent to the Polish government and parliament is an initial measure taken in support of your struggle.
Page 7 scan of this page
To the striking miners of Great Britain
The leadership of the provi sional coordinating committee (of Solidarnosc) of the region of tipper Silesia is mandated to send you a motion of support for your struggle and your fight in defence of an elementary human right right to work.
After a discussion and an exchange of points of organisation send you full support for your struggle. We are full of admiration for your stance and your unfailing willingness We believe you will goals.
Neither the British ment's mounted police charges nor its truncheon blaws, anymore than the Polish junta's tanks fire, can break our common will to struggle for a better future for the working class.
We appeal to all Solidurnosc to support your struggle. Only the international struggle of the mass of werkers can decide
David Jastrzebski (President)
For the Underground Provisional Coordinating Committee of Solidarnose in the Region of Upper Silesia
Transfator's note: Upper Silesia is the chief coal mining region of Poland.
The miners' strike in Britain has now been going on for four mon-
They fighting for jobs. At the same time the Polish government is massivels exporting coal to Britain- as usual it is taking the side of the employers in a struthle with eat workers.
appeal the dockers to the Polish dockers unfortunately went to the wrong address. The Polish unionists' are strong on words, but they have carefully hidden dockers' letter.
We do not accept miners and dockers of Poland involuntarily contribute to breaking the strike of their British comrades. We call for the halting of exports of coal to Great Britain. full victory to the British miners who are fighting for their rights and we send them our trade union solidarity.
Political group Robotnik (The Worker)
Editorial Board of Robotnik Robotnik, no 64, 25 June 1984, Warsaw. 1. translator's note: the official trade unions,
To the President of the
on strike in Great Britain
Dear Comrade,
thusiasm. For
view. our
under lotalitarian threats
achieve your security reasons.
govern- other
struggle.
or rifle
our best wishes. members of
with best wishes, David Jastrzebski (President)
For the Underground Provisional Coordinating Committee of Solidarnese in the Region of Upper Silesia
Letter to Arthur Scargill. leader of the British miners
Dear Mr Scargill.
SHOt months thousands of our fellow
struggle for the British British trade union movement.
neo-trade
the
that the
solidarity you
We call for
and our support, Political group Worker)
nosc)
Emmanuel Goldstein group
saw.
National Union of Mineworkes
Allow me to send you the ex-
pression of my support and my en-
many have represented the interests of your trade union with dignity.
At the same time I ask you to consider our own difficult situation
— activity which is clandestine and
which
inezas there are many things we
cannot resolve rapidly. often for
In the coming weeks we will send you greetings
organisations lof Solidarnose| which support your
I wish you the best, and above all victory. I ask you to send our greetings to all British miners and
Personally 1 am convinced that thanks to the attitude of your trade union victory is within your grasp.
ourselves trade unionists have anxiously followed your struggle for the right to work. We know that at the present time your struggle is taking on a new importance and that it is in fact a
survival of the
We have already condemned. and we repeat vigorously our condemnation, of the export of coal to Britain by the Jaruselski regime.
Given that Thatcher gets on so well with Jaruzelski we think that it is time to draw some lessons. We hope that in the name of workers
will change your negative attitude to our movement. We ask you to make known to the British miners, and to all the trade unionists ol Britain, our solidarity
Robotnik (The
Editorial board of Robotnik, journal of the MRKS (Inter-factory Workers Committee of Solidar-
Robotnik, no 68, 23 July 1984, War-
CrOSNO
Robet nike
GLOSNO
Rage 30 RoboL nik*
HANSK
THE UNITED war-mongering has begun to break up cold war attitudes. longer accept without question that the threat of war comes from the East.
However, when crushed Solidarnose, spotlight on tatorship in Eastern Europe, and thus exposed one of the left's principal dilemmas. Is it right, and is it possible, to fight for freedom in Eastern Europe, and still defend it against Reagan's warmongering?
The left often seems to face both ways. It knows what the US is doing in Central America and it knows Soviet Union gives aid (often limited) to liberation struggles. tively backs those,
are fighting for freedom in the East. This leads sometimes to two contradictory approaches
One approach, not confined to the Communist Party, says that SolidarLUSC and the movements in Eastern Europe must be wrong because ley ments under attack from Reagan.
Others back believe that since the West is 'freer', either LUSI alliances such as NATO or, at best, one must demand that the Russians disarm before Western contemplated.
There are two issues at stake. The first is a failure to distinguish between what should be defended, should destroyed Europe. The understand who can bring freedom to the peoples of Eastern Europe and how to create the best conditions for their success.
If Eastern Europe is approached by asking how Solidarnosc achieve its aims, most of these apparent contradictions can be resolved in a consistent. single policy
Where does the most potent threat of war and repression come from! It is the USA that has a military stretching across the globe. that ringed missiles and bases before the Warsaw Pact was created.
The USA bomb. made bomb. Only the USA has used
Socialist Action 5 October 1984 Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill meet to divide the world after WWII.
What attitude to
Eastern Europe?
STATES world every third People no Turkey
Jaruzelski he put
repression and dic-
from the USA's. the economic
But it instine- ting like Solidarnosc, world', OYCH the Europe.
Many
independant peace
peoples, treaten gover
Solidarnosc and
support Western LUSI
and what in Hastern Kurope.
Eastern
second is a failure to
could serI the East.
alliance aggression.
The USA Jaruselski the Soviet Union with workers
made the first atom
the first hydrogen the the world over.
bomb in war. The USA stands behind
world dictatorship from Salvador. It imposes economic blockades on every country. such as Cuba or Nicaragua, that throw off their dictators if the United States considers they represent the slightest threat to Us interests.
This is not just because Reagan is a warmonger, it is a consequence of the USA's economic system, , a result of private capital's insatiable thirst to dominate all markets at whatever cost to human life and welfare.
The suppression of the people of Eastern Europe by the Kremlin leadership follows a different economic logic
It flows not from need bureaucracy's obsession with protec
its borders, its "sphere of the and its political domination working class in Eastern Far from opposing this domination the West connives at it and
really mass movement in Eastern Europe.
Moreover, the excuse for militarising Eastern Europe, and repressing its
is the war threat from the West. This is a real threat, and assists the bureaucracy. Disarmament of the West would deprive the bureaucracy of
powerful political and ideological weapon, but it is the West
opposed any walch nas consistentis moves even to minimal arms reduction in Europe. It is this constant military pressure which provides the excuse for the USSR's continued military presence
If the aim is to support the working
build a force which is independent of Reagan and Thatcher - and directed first and foremost against them. It is the anti-missiles, anti-war, and labour movements in Western Europe which are the greatest allies of Solidarnosc in
movement that backs Solidarnosc against Poland's rulers but which also defends the rights of Polish, Russian and Jast European peonles to defend themselves against US military
overthrown by Polish that's a great step socialism. Jaruselski and the Polish workers both crushed by Reagan's war
that's the tion and the strengthening of reaction
Page 8 scan of this page
Hauling down the flag
8
Hong Kong
Mao declaring the foun-
Peoples'
Republic of China, I October 1949.
South Africa
LAST WEEK saw the unusual sight of the British and South African governments trading insults. On the one hand this arose when six oppositionists took refuge from the regime in the Durban British consulate on 13 September.
then refused governmenl 'businessmen', African Defence Corps, who were due to stand trial in Coventry for arms smuggling.
They are accused of illegally exporting sophisticated parts for an anti-
radar working HASIC behalf SYSICHE of Armscor, the South African detente production and procurement agency.
Coventry CHAJA trate originally confiscated Inel pasports. decision was overturned
leave the country by High Court justice Leonard, who doubled bail and accepted assurances they
trial.
The South African government explained the four were not returning because. refusal expel the six from the Consulate
British foreign office minister Baroness young said that the government deplored the attempt link the two issues and ex-
Socialist Action 5 October 1984 THE RETURN to China of Hong Kong, stolen by British imperialism at gun-point a century and a half ago should be welcomed by every socialist. The reunification of China and ending imperialist control of both Hong Kong and Taiwan has been an objective of the Chinese Communist Party since 1949.
The terms of the deal with Britain, represent a government's rightward move over the past years. Ironically, this deepening of a reactionary course comes almost exactly on the 35th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese revolution it self.
The Chinese-British aureemen smaa auas lo preserve the capitalist domination of Hong Kong's economy. The Chinese leadership Inis as essenual lo Ils own development plans wolcivo ve dscredsing element of capitalist penetration of the Chinese economy. For world cabilausil. .the agreemen1 offers fresh opportunities
exploitation the most populous market in the world.
Bat inorn doss such profit and calculatons are, une core of the agreement
altico al strengthening the existing aCCuCHs between perialism and the Chinese vul caurialy against the revolutionary struggles in Asia.
For the past ten years the Chinese regime has followed an open counterrevolutionary course, in Asia and on a world scale. on the pretext of fighting Soviet "social perialism'.
The Chinese government's record in that time is eloquent. In Africa, China supported UNITA in the Angolan civil war
Thieves fall out
In a tit for tat response the South African
extradite four including a colonel in the South
plained that the situation at the •Durban consulate Wab not of the British government's choosing.
he reaffirmed that the six
leave against their will.
By Tony Southall
Obviously the South Africans used the consular occupation as convenient way of avoiding em-
through detailed revelations
AVULL arms' activities. Cer-
ainly a few collaborator: in Britain would have been exposed.
By the weekend, South Africa seemed to be seek-
rapid resolution of the affair.
On Wednesday last week five of those accused with the refugees were released from detention.
This led to speculation
however, significant deepening of the Beijing
ten
(which placed it alongside South Africa!). In the Middle. East gave sup-
pod in Latin America no
and in Latin America ocel calosuo. Chile. In Europe support was given to the EEC Asia, Beijing congratulated the Sri Lankan regime on its repression of the left wing JVP
By Pat Hickey
The significance of Beijing's onemano Asia can hardly be overestimated This region has been at the centre of world revolution since 1945. There have been five successful revolutions there since World War
in China, Korea, Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos. It remains an area of great MStaDILv JIlperialism, most notably at
the Drescil political struggle against the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.
The Chinese Communist Partv's alliances ir the region for the last ten years have been. with the United States and Japan
the liberation analist struggles. The Hong Kong that the six in the consulate
if they were prepared to cune out.
Attention focussed on this affair somewhat overshadowed the continuing social crisis South Africa. The miners' strike. scheduled for the second week or ine monl, wa: settled by an offer half way between the orieina claim of 25 per cent and
Chamber Mines opening offer of 12 per cent.
Given the present depressed price of gold that was a good result foi the union which held intact throughout the negotiations. It will now doubless spread its membership beyond the DICOCLI 20 cent of South Africa's half million miners and be back for nore men ved
Meantime the Vaal townships, scene of the big protests against the elec-
ions earlier in the montth. have 90,000 strong high school boycott and the beginning of the new term.
bome commentators have speculated that last weeks diplomatic standoff heralds new 'tougher' approach by Britain to South Africa. It's
agreement underpins these alliances both politically and econmically.
Economically the guarantees to Britain that Hong Kong's economic system will remain unchanged for 50 vears atte! 1997 are designed to retain imperialist firms and capital in the colony and to link that to existing capital investment China itself.
China has already four Special Economic Zones (SEZ) open toreigr
that political and LIEC economic developments over the past few months have shown white supremacy in the Republic has a potentially very short lite.
such circumstances the eadins imperialist countries will aim to cut
for influence with the CULLEN " future black leadership. Al a certain stage that could even mean
against the minority regime.
But this would be a far more dangerous enterprise in South Africa than it was
Zimbabwe Firstly the leadership of the struggle is deep in the townships, mines and factories rather
based outside the country Within South Africa it daily comes up
KONG & VISIT,
80.000 TRIAD GANG
MEMBERS
25,000 PROSTITUTES,
300:000 HEROIN ADDICTS:
AND
60.000 CHILDLASORERS
capital in the cities of
Shenhan, Xhuhai, Xiame and Shantou. The govern ment has announced 14
SEZ's al c to bf opened. Corporate taxes in these zones are the lowest in Asia.
The Chinese government hope that these links with the US, Japan and Britain will enable speed up the pace of in-
dustrialisation The capitalist states see juicy pickings in the export of non, sicc ana neavy ln• against the weight of im-
perialist capital. Il WOUIC
be very difficult to con-
vince black South Africans that Thatcher's govern-
ment suddenly becomes their friend by harbouring
Ielgces for fortnight.
Secondly exactly because British capital is still
the biggest investors in South Atrica the
most to lose through the collapse of the racist structures that ensure its profit.
To that extent it's the behaviour Justice Leonard, not the embarrassed reactions Baroness Young, that will
typical apartheid goes to its grave dragg ing with it one of the most
profitable sections British overseas capital.
IN HONG KONG
NOMINIMUN WAGE FLERE IS
-NOMAXIMUM HOURS O
NLA ERMRES OVER 18
INOCÖYPULSORYE DUCATION
NOSICNESS BENEFITS
MINOUACYZOXMENTINSCRAVCE
FAND NOW 90% RATE INCREAS
dustrial goods — sectors
of the economy which
have been hard hit by the
recession - and in the ex-
ploitation of cheap
Chinese labour in light in-
dustry.
Agreements with
capitalist powers that
assist in the development
ol unina s economy are
of course, perfectly ассер-
table. But not when ther
are accompanied by
reactionary foreign policy.
The present agreement
was hardly icveosal y
AZANIA
WORKER
UMS ROENZI MOE FOR THE
UMSEBENZI MOI UMSEBENZI MOBE UMSEBEN? MOBEH UMSEBEN MOBER UNSEB UMSE £1.20
• Mozambique's rapprochment with South Africa • Gold, South Africa and Imperialism • Democracy and Revolution
3 issues for £3.50 from:
(No 1 still available - 90p)
International
SPARHAM /TET
Thatcher could not have 'done Falklands' on Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong had nothing to expect from British rule ana ll ls a aeligni lo ser Britain thrown out of one of its last colonies. But unfortunately those same people have also beer cynically bartered over by the Beijing regime OVLU see the British flag hauled down in yet another part of the world has to be tempered by that fact.
€1.20
DOUBLE ISSUE IKER WORKERS MOVEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA Vol 1, No 2/3 out now — double issue priced
- the Nkomati Accords analysed
• Articles on the trade unions, and more...
Azania Worker. BM Box 4863, London WCI 3XX
Page 9 scan of this page
ned
saaro
Carste de
JOR am nar
MC UR eI
01a/
„ OO HOE
Ar o spaan a
NADO EDUS SAOM
pusas
THIA SISITONRU IO STONRI9U0R DUR MIOS
SOIEREI
Hopuot
AAA I
шаваш Ime Sanem An exко .
vvdç
puE
10J
reads Ino Anun,
SEM DEL
fue, SX[B7 Чр!м
• 10 1 ou sị Y11 1 pur
vn d d
vá vâc vâ v vấ
sanana InO a47 reM
Paul ju d
dd ness d
LPЛ010A9
шеш MoyS
aels
pue Kindap
Isn Aparene • EDOA 1
•O1S
sty sn qaradad cec c pue anf fố v ye
uI baj]e Sn spuewap zz -spesend
Suley pe jo
01 atonaa aissal АТТО SO AYI
IL aM doss suly
peq ACIRA
BISO) pasa-dad
annae
plou e
1 01 88
P I1
JeM op Jou
„vànm „x enne
paren
Add y. sI Jer pund
pue
радоли!
eu
Inad Sn
очм Aue
OnAC no C BINOM
-de
ререала!
шораалу Syb!e sasse 01
rews u0
sannes pue peald CInOnT
Cseu
vne zn de -xa 10u papad 07
annan
v v v.
01 ue
шер pelle pue paysnque
OOL papaja
ривш speo1a,
sappo
34 In 1481 (501 no paseq aq pue "sIa 247,
pue pue
$861 M0 Ie 1e41
spesodod oi pur
suon
sabena insnova • он
Wing che
Owes!p unisoddo PM N
STYL
01 Mau saseq
un stoor tea pinass a4
a41 pue 12 U1
estad a Sane Sali A TR N a47 .
cm c don fer a nn ecs
pue
Page 10 scan of this page
Labour's nuclear con-trick
10 LAST WEEK Ted Knight, leader of Lambeth council, argued that the best strategy for confronting the government was not setting a rate for 1985. week, HILDA KEAN, leader of Hackney council, explains her reservations about such a strategy and why a real fightback rests on mobilising local people in support of Labour councils' struggle. THE ATTACK on local government through ratecapping legislation analagous to Tebbit's anti-union legislation.
The Tories are attempsing to destroy the tradidional base of the Labour
This is particularly obvious with the attack on the Greater London Coun cil, because of its powers io wage a political battle against Thatcher.
There's been lots of legislation to impose rinancial succully UIl local authorities. But ratecapping is the final straw.
Abolition of the GLC and metropolitan counties
allack local capping is more subtle. Bovellich. Rate-
Councils will still exist, but their traditional rignis nave disappeared. Conse-
Labour Under Attack:
Defend Union Political
Funds Campaign Conference Saturday, 1 December 1984
Central Hall, Westminster, London
The latest Tory trade union law aims to end
trade union political funds and affiliation to
the Labour Party by March 1986.
ference will plan a campaign of rank and file
resistance, and consider ways of strengthen-
Wing Labour Party-trade union links.
Registration: £3 per delegate
More details: Labour Coordinating Committee,
9 Poland Street, London W1V 3DG (phone: 01-439 3749)
Copies of a new broadsheet and other publicity
material for the campaign are available from the
LCC. Speakers for Labour Party and trade union
meetings can also be supplied on request.
Campaign sponsors include:
Arthur Scargill Alan Sapper Tony Benn David Blunkett
Harriet Harman Eric Heffer Ken Livingstone Michael
Meacher
Socialist Action 5 October 1984
Local government debate
'Our emphasis is on
RATE
This
quently, the Rates Act is
both about democracy and
about jobs and services.
I ne Tories intend
chop £2½ billion off
Hackney's budget in two
to three years. When the
igures were announced in
July, things didn't look
bad for Hackney There
was fl million difference
between the Department
Environment figures
and our budget for
1984-85.
Fight
However, like all coun-
Clis. we have creative ac.
counting, and our real
budget this year was f106
million. To maintain
penditure, we need f112
Department of Environment figure is f82 million.
To comply with the The con-
money from government'
Kales Act would mean
recine ances ane massive
across the board. Hackney,
unke
areas, doesn't have
balances to UlaW
there is nothing in our cof-
fers. We have no way
getting by, so we have to
fight.
The strategy for fighting was outlined at WHATEVER THE outcome of Labour's annual conference, the debate on defen the months to come. = before conference that party begun to think about the policy statement, Defen
So far the response has been muted. Many prefer to let sleeping NATO commitments lie, rather than risk jeopardising hard-won nuclear disarmament policies.
But they right? More and more the answer is an obvious no.
By Carol Turner
From the start, Labour's so-called multilateralists have happily thrown their lot
statement pointing out that 'firm support JIO NATO membership is the most positive the defence document, and hinting at their future intennons to exproll tae ambiguities' of Labour's
What exactly nuclear base, asks Mr Healey? And just does 'decommissioning' Polaris really mean? Soon we duswers will begin to CHECKIC.
flat refusal to support Labour CND's conterence amend. ment, calling for a reduction military spending within the lifetime of the next Labour government,
Defence Liaison Committee is now supporting an open fudge of a composite on defence.
Cartoon: JIF
the Sheffield local government conference in July. Now we must have a tactical discussion about how to implement that strategy
governmell
The most impor tant thing to understand is that the outcome of this battle will depend whether we can mobilise is only in
impli
the LCND
TGWU
the
is Bri-
and sacking of defence
gives to reduce
much.
enera sec-
position more 12s inCa the defence
and others have struggled
(Tribune, 28 September).
Mr Todd supports the
sinker.
spending could only be achieved
we can
long-held that the
local people, not weal
manoeuvres take place in local council chambers
Take Liverpool. They
didn't refuse
muCe Patrick Jenkin, but they realised the
vulcollie would be determined by
the action of people on Merseywide
The other factor to consart sine wav Labour
councils are seen by people. Many do not have the popularity of the GLC
People have become cynical about Labour promising the world and denvenng very hille
have reservations soon ta strategy of not setting rate. feel doesn't contal clear pore either dies deal ple, neither does with the credibility of local councils.
Repayments
The effect in Hackney
of not setting a rate would be that tenants would be subsidising ratepayers.
By not setting a rate, the whole campaign is concentrated on rates. , But this
is not what the Rate Act is aDOUL.
The Department Environment statement nowhere refers to rates; the concern is expenditure
I m nol sure Ted Knight proposes not setune as das tion or a negotiating one. Some lave argued that April to July 1985 should be a period of negotiations.
Right from the word Be on geting money from our emphasis should Lne government, not power to levy more rates. Soviet Union is the main threat. And, far from thinking the document soft on NATO, the policy of changing it from within seems to him 'more fruitful than leaving America In ContO Or NAlU, Will its finger on the button...'
lie heart of
How we
How can activists
war their
takes
read very same
are Labour's
started the status quo, there
ding nuclear
Confusion
As for the view that NATO changed from within, this simply
the whole point of NATO's existence. From the moment of its inceD tion, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has been war-lighting alliance, with nukes at its core.
At best, Labour's
Whatever we decide, we have to take seriously
question OTI loan repayments. This is the single biggest expenditure of all local authorities.
Loyalty
It seems to me totally absurd that. it we have n money to the local workforce and to run services, that we should continue to finance the City.
vur loyally is to inose who elected us, not to
Having said that, think it we adopt deficit budgetting. and set a rate lilal LOCI budget, then it's clear that Hilda Kean NATO policy is a naive daydream; at worst device and silence opponents of NATO within Labour's ranks.
Until those voices speak out, Labour will be saddled with a pig in poke derence poncy, sold because repeats our nuclear disarmament com mitments, but try loy advocating policy non-nuclear defence which fails to challenge NATO's plans.
Any discussion of defence must begin from
DON'T
News
we are demanding money from central government
We would deal with rates by setting the smallest possible rate.
Last July, every Labour councillor Hackney agreed this policy: 'We will not pas either in the form of rent
rate increases the
people of Hackney any ac
ditional grant penalty the
Zovernment • Illa'
Hackney.
We have reconvened a borough-wide conference for the end of October to discuss our tactics The Labour group has stated its position - it's up to the local parties and the
say how the want us to implement this.
hoto COOKS
the question who are we defending ourselves agalst. Ally solution des I the direction of developing
socialist foreign policy that refuses to take as read the conventional wisdoms of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and the rest or une runng class ll the so-called free world.
Labour activists must start the ball rolling. We must Poreign police that is ge HOr. and win nuinelv in the inferests ot the working class as a whole.
YANK'D
WAR
10
Page 11 scan of this page
News
ABJUR
PANT
YOU FAIL
RESELECTION DAY ONE of the Labour Party conference was a real success for the left. The NUM's victory — over the heads of the Kinnock leadership - was swiftly followed by a defeat of the Evans proposals reselection, by a card vote of 3,592,000. to 3,041,000
Reselection, more than
single issue debated this year, barometer of party opinion. Kinnock's deteat Is a serious setback for all
who sought to protect the seats of Labour's most unpopular MPs and to remove them from the democratic control of their local parties.
By Carol Turner
Moving emergency resolution no4 referred back the proposal on one member one volc
NUM general secretary Peter Heathfield expressed his and other unions' condemn eat they would deprived politıcal representatives 'at the level where it matters
When trade unions and facing the the party alCi Tory onslaught against the political levy. should not be adding to that problem by dividing among ourselves be about maximis- Conference should DEMOCRACY
Tony Benn on
the next steps...
HOW DO WE get a Labour government that's different time? It's very simple:
you elect the cabinet
and the shadow cabinet by the electoral college. That's the only way you have different government.
Michael Foot's book, Another Heart Another Pulse, spells out the alternative so clearly. He says the Labour Party is like the Holy Roman Empire. has two heads: the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.
And that is what's wrong with the Labour Party. It is that you can go lo conference, you can elect an executive you like, you can pass resolutions and get two-thirds majority, you call gel them into
There is a lesson from the
miners' strike, and it
applies to the whole labour
movement: IF YOU FIGHT
YOU WIN, IF YOU FUDGE
on
ing unity in order to build a party more able to deal with the needs of working people.
Conference didn't refer back the proposals.
them out - with the support of the TGWU whose delegation voted 17 to 12 against the Evans amendment, but didn't speak during the debate.
The first day of annual conference was a victory or all lose l struggle against the Tory governmenl. It was a victory for all those in the party who have tought to win and to protect, democratic countability of Labour's representatives and Labour's policies.
LIaL victory must be followed through. The dream ticket's honeymoon
over. The left must organise protect its gains. must begun. map out the policies which
in the fight on behalf of all the exploited and oppressmanifesto but iney will be implemented by ministers who are themselves there by
and not by election.
the oid davs. leader was elected only the leader is elected by Labour MPs. the electoral college. it's good enough to elect the leader and the deputy leader by the electoral college, then it's good enough elect the shadow cabinet by the electoral college.
Until that is done you have no guarantee that you're not simply pushing a bit of string - you can push as hard as you like at one end, but it doesn't move at the other. Democracy about having accountability at the top of the party, at the top of the government, direct to the grass roots.
Conference
round-up
NEC THE RESULTS of the NEC elections means no major change in the political complexion of the executive this year.
MP Robin Cook's attempt to climb the dizzy heights, under the guise of left credentials, met with the success it deserved he missed by over 150,000 votes. If he stands next year, delegates should ensure that his vote is even
Black Sections Yes!
A Socialist Action pam-
phlet. Price 40p (plus 17p
p&p), from PO Box 50,
London NI. Why
Labour needs black sec-
tions, with articles by
Russell Proffitt, Ben
Bosquet, and others...
Black Sections Here to
Stay: the Vauxhall
Experience
A Vauxhall Labour Par-
ty pamphlet. Price 35p
(plus 17p p&p), from 1
Alverstone House, Lon-
don SEII STS. Produced
party
members as a contribu-
lower.
It came as no sur-
late-comer Keith Vax didn't make either, showing the lack of real commitment to positive action for women and blacks. It is further proof, if such is needed, that the battle to win the WAC demands and to establish black sections must continue.
Black
sections tion to the debate on black sections and how to set them up...
Women and
THE RECORD of Labour governments since 1945 is not an inspiring one. Government after government have failed to implement policies which have been agreed by the movement as a whole.
We saw al ine last general election an erosion of working class support for Labour. The reason is
much ine party's failure to deliver for its class as Thatcher is delivering for her class.
am a councilior in ar inner city area, where third of people are biack, and a third are Irish. live in it, I represent it, in fact I was born In Il
What I hear from ordinary working class people there is 'you're all the same' It is that feeling which lost us support. But the tide is beginning to turn, especially in London over the GLC issue.
I believe we'll win the next election and get
But it is important what sort of Labour government we get.
First that should have the right politics. The
WAC
THE LABOUR leader-
ship is feeling the pinch from the demands of women in the party for
more power. The NEC voted to reject all the
proposals for constitutional change adopted by this year's Labour women's conference.
Gwyneth Dunwoody: a hate-object for Labour women
SOCIALIST ACTION succeeded in provoking rage Robert Maxwell's Daily Mirror.
coveragn of the Labour
Party conference Monday with an editorial rant entitled •Facing the ruture • Ine Murror proceeded to wade into the #Sua the NUM, Bent, Ken Til, Tony Benn, Ken ingstone, and 'the piranhas of the hard left'. But the Mirror then passed on to conclude its editorial with a less wel known target. hard left newspaper, Socialist Action, filled its front page last week with the headline: •Kinnock Scargill. "The choice for
"That would be the choice between living and dying • To the sane and casibl it is
Socialist Action 5 October 1984 meeting
woller
becaust
And
ple having more women MPs,
But they talk about LSIC right people, and about
What they are LOKCHSILL.
I don't think
They don't voted the pro-
them prepared to
Dunwoody was left the breach.
Thatcher. made it
you!'
universal hate-object
ty.
WUlllell in
Lero one in asht that it
It is the miners' tactics which are
defeating their cause
Issues
Last General Election
•They
@ the panty and th which was once t
or
choice at all.'
Well it is certainly no
choice for the Mirror.
But we think its attack
means we hit the choice
confronting Labour
11 think we are up to the exact standards set by white
Let's talk about these standards. I voted for Nei Kinnock as leader but was when the miners strike go! really taken aback
underway and Kinnock was still wittering on aboul a ballot.
This isn't what I was expecting of the Labour - leadership. Imagine if Kin-
o serike mie reno have and
ning, might it not have had
effect on Nottinghamshire?
In the same way Neil Kinnock jumped condemn black sections out of hand, and
rate tote the try.
force the Evans ameroniell reselec tion. He is not listening to the rank and file but feeling that he knows best.
It is the left in this party, the grass roots activists, who want to build this parelection comes we'll be the When the next general ones on the doorsteps
Let nobody question our will win We will win as women and as black people, and we will win as socialists.
But the real scandal of the week was Neil Kinnock, talking to Robin Day on Monday night's Panorama. 'Why are we talking about this issue?' ne asked,
woman who raised it. No one else is interested.'
The absurd claim that there is only one woman in
party interested enough to • lobby on these
points is bizarre. • Especial-
as the conference of
Labour women, representing all the women in the agly for eery single one voted overwhelm ingly
the changes!
Neil Kinnock is rattled Labour ‚women will win, and Neil Kinnock will have to eat humble pie. It may not be : this week, but his next already clear.
Mirror Comment
La seanin the needs of ibe
ALL THAT CAN CHANGE UNDER M
Melt the new
Scargill. Not Ken Livin
Choice
Too many of then don" belleve 1l toly: Laurock or Bargil. The choice doe
is no choice at al
is det And i peat to the
right on the head with our headline.
As Chairman Mao tse tung used to say, 'To
be attacked by the enemy is not sach a bad thing
Page 12 scan of this page
shows
THE NUM have rammed home the lesson already taught to the labour Liverpool and the GLC. As Tony you fight you win, if you fudge you fail.'
debate on campaign Liverpool had smashed the myth that the left was an 'electoral lability' Ken Livingstone has done the same in London.
People vote for a party that defends LICH interests. Strong socialist policies, and a determined fight against the Tories, have proved their ability to win support. It is the 'blow hot, blow cold' policy of Neil Kinnock, or the SDPtype policies of the Labour right that lose support.
That is the real lesson of the opinion polls that have come out recently.
Kinnock's popularity began fall drastically not when the miners strike began tor it has
going on for seven but after HORLAS mealey mouthed attack on 'miners' violence' at the TUC. For if the miners, not the police the problem then who needs a Labour Party?
The Sunday Express had the same shock last weekend. had commissioned an opinion poll among miners which it
Inland 6 months E8; 12 months £15.
Overseus (12 months only)
Europe LI%; Air Mail L 24 (Double these rates for multi-reader institutions) end me as special offer
SOCiAList
ACTiON
Scargill
Labour
how to win
movement this year by Benn put it, 'If
Derek Hatton explained the same thing in the
strategy when he said that
obviously intended make its front page lead. beneving us own retoric the Express expected to Scargill deeply unpopular among the NUM members and huge demand for ballot develo pins Instead found per cent miners against a ballot and only 41 per cent in favour.
What is more if a ballur had been held 63 per cent of miners would voted for a strike and only 31 per cent against.
Struggle
It is a long determined (struggle, policies that meet peoples needs, that is the wav to victorv for Labour That is why the policies which Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley are trying LO DUSC on this weeks conferences dic all the more criminal.
SUBSCRIBE
jue/PO payable to Socialist action for €
50, London N1.
For after Monday's
victories the full scale of
ine igal wilci is golig lo
face the left is being
defence
HveCO
document which commits
Labour to a conventional
weapons build up. An
economic policy document
that abandons any
commitment even
renationalise LING major
industries privatised by
SaLONC And behind that
Kinnock has made it clear
that he not going
abandon the attempt
overturn the democratic
gains of the party.
Victory
Because the challenge
which the left faces in the
next year is to turn the
successes gained on
Monday ino much more
permanent victories. To
Orca ISC SUSCE
adopt the policies, that can
throw back the Kinnocks •. and Hattersleys.
Arthur Scargill is
Snowit! Labour RoW lO
win in the fight against the
Thatcher government. The
left must consolidate that
victorv inside the Labour
Party itself.
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
Over our Dead BodiesWomen Against the Bomb
Introductory offer for new readers: Eight issues for just f2!
More
NATO war games.
breached many times.
Exploiting the fact that women peace protestors will not retaliate, the police stepped up their violence and harrassment. ANAHeI pulled at tne fence at Orange
horse galloped TaLC DOLCe straight woman photographer, who was taken to hospital with concussion
Around the base women were randomly arrested T0 I criminal damage. Angry crowds of us saw two women dragged through a hole in the barbed wire, into the base to comments of: 'You wanted to get through, so now you can.'
Meanwhile horses were u seu dut a succu• Halluv and muddy path
block the De HucEC holes and press women in-
police violence
at Greenham
THOUSANDS OF WOMEN have been staying at Greenham during the 10 days' action against the
And tens of thousands arrived for the last weekend. The police and US soldiers were kept busy mending holes in the fence which was
to the fence. Lucky no one was kaned,
An eye-witness report from Ilona Aronovksy, London Region CND men this wayn kete women response to the call for the 10 million women has been terrific.
But the action raises important questuis Camp women are under big pressure in the face of the coming evictions. How SEDDOM that undoubtedly exists be mobilised to ensure • CUl tinuity of the peace camp? national meeting of Greenham groups urgent.
WORK FOR
PEACE
STOP TRIDENT
Given the violence and the abuse from police and
that SOleN
Greenh n at ses te
Greenham. what way forward for the camp? This women's peace movement has ,ELG strength and mass support l HC Hrudk cus vul we must use our militant
unilateralism, stalet NATO and direct action tactics, to confront and make demands on CND and the Labour Party for real support. Blocade
For instance the Labour Party campaign bus, Greenham last cna ave been esem d support the women blockading the main gate, not just driven around
And why has CND nationally avoided this action, and missed a golden opportunity chrepiy against NA oand campaign openly
BEGIN AT
BARROW
SATURDAY • OCTOBER 27
CND NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION
BARROW-IN-FURNESS • CUMBRIA
Assemble Trident Dock 1pm • Rally 3 30
To build the support that the Greenham women need and deserve. we nave within confront attempts CND to water down CND's uniaterais policies, and the tradiction pelweet Labour's unilateralism and its pro-NATO defence policy.
The : Glasgow-Cathcart composite lo unis weck : party conference calling for an end to all US bases nuclear or otherwise — one Stet LowarUs this.
Continued support for the wOlleI . Greenham another.
The concussed woman referred to in our article on Greenhan commor tion is Dana Schuerholz, a 20-year old student photographic journalism who war charged by iwo nolice on horsenack. She t making an official com.
COSt lne COOLIC and taking up her case with the National Council for Civil Liberties
← Socialist Action No. 71, 28 September 1984Socialist Action No. 73, 12 October 1984 →