Socialist Action No. 88, 8 February 1985
The scan: 088-feb-08-1985-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
miners
ALL OUT 11 FEBRUARY!
ACTiON
No. 88 8 February 1985 THE NATIONAL Coal Board and the Tory government are sit ting tight waiting for the magic 50. per cent of miners to return to work, But after 11 bitter months the majority of miners are still out on strike
In the militant strongholds of South Wales Kent and South Yorkshire the return to work is still only between 1 and 10 per cent Very little coal is actually being produced in these areas as few of those return: ing are face workers. The miners will not accept unconditional surrender terms:
They are not prepared to sign a blank cheque on pit closures. They are not prepared to abandon 600 miners victimised during the strike They are correct to maintain the struggle. Despite the stabs in the back being delivered daily by the Labour leadership, they recognise that there is more to be gameo to manatang une struggle than by accepting the NCB's current terms.
SoCiAlist
30p
Stand
by tho
Their courage has been an inspira
fion to the whole movement for thi
past 11 months, It is even more so
now.
The Tories are determined to
smash the NUM to prepare the way
for more attacks on the working class.
As Arthur Scargill put it, they are
coming for the NUM today, but they
will be coming for you tomorrow
Now is the time to rally round the
miners as never before, and to show
that the labour movement is with the
miners all the way.
A massive display of solidarity
With the NUM is the best answer the
movement can give to the Cories, In
Condon schools, town halls, print-
workers, transport workers are
among those planning action There
will be mass pickets of power stations
in the South East, the North West and
Yorkshire and elsewhere.
The action on 11 February should
be used to revitalise the campaign in
support of the miners. The message
must be loud and clear, we stand with
the miners all the way!
Page 2 scan of this page
2 Socialist Action 8 February 1985
ACTion SOCiALS
'Scargillise' the
labour movement
THE CLASS struggle is seldom illuminated by the goings on in the House of Commons. Last Monday's debate on the miners' strike was therefore an exception to the general rule.
For the sisted that the closure of uneconomic pits must be 'number one item on the agenda' before there can be agreement to resume substantive negotiations between the NUM and the NCB.
For the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock and Stan Orme begged the government to accept that the NUM's offer of negotiations without preconditions was a formula which covered the closure of uneconomic pits.
whole thrust of the Labour Party's front bench was to plead for peace around
'reasonable' formula uneconomic pits - a position which was quite clearly intended to distance the front bench from Arthur Scargill.
The Tories seized on this to quote Kinnock's statement that 'commercial must be included in deciding on pit closures. They were also quick to play off the TUC against the NUM.
In fact, the real debate was Tories and 'Scargillism'. Only the Labour left oftered any serious opposition ment's attempts to smash the NUM.
The Tories concentrated their attacks on Arthur Scargill, while Kinnock and Orme carefully avoided the issue. Tony Benn defended the NUM leadership. He pointed out that the only way to end the strike quickly was to the NUR, ASLEF and the NUS by providing industrial support and further political action.
The issue was not uneconomic pits, but the fact that the government had starved viable pits of investment, so that money coula be put into high-productivity mines 'with the intention of selling them off'.
The real line of divide in the debate was not between the but between those who support the miners and those who capitulate before the Tories.
The direction that Kinnock et al have decided on was reinforced at the weekend, with their explicit rejection of 'illegality' in the local government fight. This will continue to be the divide on every major question in the class struggie.
The positions of Kinnock and the right on these questions are not even capable of standing up to the Tories in the House of Commons, lel alone in struggles such as the miners' or defence of local government.
The left has the responsibility, in the next period, of fighting for the leadership of the whole abour movement, against betrayed the miners and will betray any other major struggle that emerges — and there will be many of them.
There can be no truce with Kinnock and those who have failed to support the miners, because they will also fail in every other struggle. must be called to account in every section of the movement.
The task for the left will be to take the class struggle methods which have been followed in the miners' strike, and which will be necessary in the defence of local government into the labour movement itself. The fight to remove Labour's misleaders must be pursued as vigorously as the fight against the Tory government. In the fight against the Tories ment needs the miners have had in the last 11 months.
The parliamentary debate proved yet again that those Labour leaders who do not stand with the class struggle stand against it. They are an obstacle which must be removed.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weekly except two weeks in August and the last week oi December Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent Socialist Action's views. editorials.
Send all correspondence regarding subscriptions, ane receins Io socaiAcoe isaoulon sro vooei Street London N1 2XP. (Tel: 01-359 8180)
government, Peter walker in
for closing
considerations
between the
to the govern-
'follow the lead of government and the opposition.
those who have
They every section of the movekind of leadership that the These are expressed in
sales
AS THE LEVEL of mass unemployment resumes its upward trend under Thatcher's regime of savage deflation, the last fortnight has witnessed a rise in interest rates to their highest levels, in real terms, for at least 150 years. At the same time the pound has plummetted and forced the government to mount a technical U-turn, by intervening in the foreign exchange markets. Are Thatcher's economic policies falling apart?
The mood on the 'serious' side of Fleet Street is suggesting that they have, but a more fundamental class analysis shows that her policies have had a mixed showing so far, and may yet be successful.
To understand what nias beennaiooentac must reject the rhetoric of the Tories' ideology and
behind the technical couiluilll jargon. The policies were originally posed as aiming to reduce inHln dan lns oojeclivo seems to have been achiev-
as it has now aroppeu below five per cent
Yet inflation as such was never the fundamental problem for capitalism. It
quite possible for capitalists to continue to make profits when prices are rising. Rather, the antiHaidON Mietosd smokescreen for a massive Collliactol the onomy designed to weaken the working class.
Similarly the "technical' objectives of
Ah! The House of Lords!
Televised!!
Why Thatcher's
economic policies
aren't working
controlling the money sup
ly and the PSBR (Publi BeCO DOILOWIIZ are incidenta Requirement) to the Tories' real agenda
By Francis Green
Hor example it has beer shown conclusively and several times over by bourgeois economists that it is quite irrational even from their point of view to try to target a given level of the PSBR. Yet it does help in the ideological presentation oi strategy. by providing a mysterious cloak for their defla tionary objectives.
The method behind their apparent madness is to be found in the political philosophy of Margaret Thatcher's guru the
conomist FA Hayek, who
concerned not with monetarism or any other technical "ism' but with the twin long-term aims of dismantling the welfare state the power of unions. Her real
APIECE 9f the AGTION
In less enlightened times it was regarded as an entertainment to visit the lunatic asylum and view the inmates...
objective has been to restore the conditions for profitable accumulation.
The task however was never going. easy. Unlike President Reagan WIlU set ott on a similal road in 1981 Thatcher had to contend in the early
opposition sid in par-
opposition, particular with a labour torce which was already half unionised.
In the US unionisation was steadily decreasing in the 1970s and it did not take long for Reagan
deliver substantial blow through his defeat of the air traffic controllers. It was not until 1982 that Thatcher seriously began nerassalll Do stereo the enormously divisive impact of unemployment.
There is little evidence of any
succes terms) so far. Profit rates plummetted initially in the wake of her artificially created recession By the beginning of 1984 they had recovered only to about six per cent, the same as they were in 1979, far less than the returns capitalists could obtain in other countries
Productivity after dropping initially, rose sharply from 1981 to 1983, an achievement which has been hailed
practice?
An historic occasion!
capitalism. Yet much or capitalism. much that was due to cyclical factors and the once-and-for-all effect kicking out backward capitalists. This rise was unlkelv to bi repeated, and indeed pro-
levelled off wucvil 1984.
Meanwhile, despite the extraordinary economic repressions of the CuSOvCu she yet succeeded in making widespread cuts in the rea wages of those still workIng.
Her problem is that she cannot afford to let up on unemployment if she is to Contnuc her offensive after the miners' strike is UVCE Yet the massive deflation of the last few
destroying the ycal s
economy. Major public infrastructural vestment been postponed to meet the demand for cuts: yet what is to happen when in the future the sewers start col. lapsing?
Private investment remains low. Small businesses have been desdestroved in their thousands. The skills of the workforce have been squandered and are not being replaced. In the long term, Mirs Thatcher could
Don't you think that you are indulging in a latter-day version of that obscene
News
The British stock exchange succeed in restoring profitable accumulation buLall. DuL lIc : capitalists who benefit will be the multinational corporations who will treat the British economy as one among many backwaters in their global empires.
More immediately, she has to deal with the present contradictions her strategy She has already destroyed large chunks of the economy, which, now weakened, seems a bad bet for international capital despite Britain being the fifth largest oil producer in the world.
u sarato see wiete d recovery could come from. The beleaguered econom!
therefore disproportionately threatened bý the unstable world oil market and the strong dollar. If,
some analysts predict, under S2r by the middle of the oil collapsed to
year, situation could become critical.
Mrs Thatcher is still
pruning the tree of British capitalism down to a few short branches. Some of her allies in the British up
per classes may hope thai
the frost will not weaken it further. But multinationa capital will be merely inconvenienced if this curs, for they have other soil to grow upon.
25 LOCORMAC-
Nonsense! It's quite different -
— Now you have them in your living-) wy room? - now they run the asylum..
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Campaign group begins to organise
News
Photo: JOHN SMITH (IFL)
Picket at Agecroft NEIL KINNOCK has provoked a lot of anger in the Labour Party throughout the miners' strike.
nearly every crucial stage.
triumphs of disrupting Parliament and forcing a debate on the strike, are now discussing how the anger of the ranks in the Party can be built into a constructive opposition to that right-wing drift.
Neil's recent pIece sound advice to the NUM, that commercial
should Sectalous taken into account in the closure of pits, is the latest in a long line of attacks on the Scargill leadership Ine NUM.
Whether it was for the hallot. against violence on the picket lines, against the ¿clicial silikc al calil Dulli he aided the campaign of the ruling class to isolate the miners.
Now he is singing a difterent the same song. in the battle to save the cities.
Last weekend in Birmingham, the Local Government conference, he avoided backing the SlalICC LilC 10llcompliance of the threatened authorities.
'Public dramas' and 'exciting excursions' not what was required he said urging councils to stay In power al all costs. bel-
He has thrown his lot in with the right-wing at
The Campaign Group of MPs, fresh from their
ter a dented shield than no
These statements have LODe KOOKCO in close association with the policy ICUICAL that Neil's are trickling into Labour party policy
By Valerie Coultas
They didn't get away with
overturning reselec tion at the last party conterence but vou can be sure they'll have another try at the next.
they have been ANO successtul watering •OWE ment to withdraw from the EEC, seriously cut defence spending, return to full employment
All this has been achieved in the name ot in. creasing Labour's
winning the wobularily. next general election.
Yet as many a rank and file party member knows
Labour was higher in the opinion polls in the summer unan It is today.
A very large number of
just do not believe that the stance of the Party leadership in this strike has been correct.
Indeed the overwhelm. ing feeling at the Labour Partv conterence last veal went in the opposite direc-
I HARRIS
Kinnock
The Labour Party ranks were behind the
heart and soul.
Illics They wanted the leadership to be there with them.
Neil may be pleasing the press but he's not
Phe regional conference
regional conference season of the Labour Party begins March the rank and file will once
press their vious to ex-
their views on
mouse
well short of the NCB's hopes.
than 10 per pit.
The overwhelming majority of those who Hee! March are still out. since To
HAKC the board's problems worse, the majority of those returning are not the face workers, who continue to be the solid core of the dispute. As a resuil very little more coal is behas pursued NCB
pursued tactic of howing hot and cold witt the NUM in order to confuse and demoralise the
By Pat Hickey
In January, for example, MacGregor stated that à simple verbal agreement to discuss the question of uneconomic pits would suffice. Later was changed to demands for written commitment to accept closure of
pits Alongside that, the NCB was declaring that there performance.
The Campaign Group of MPs, which has made no secret tion and support the leadership of the NUM, is organising meetings every regional conference jointly with the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and Labour Briefing.
If these meetings create the kind of alliance that we
Skinner
Socialist Action 8 February 1985
'Cat and
game fails
THE HOPES OF the Tories and the NCB that the miners could be starved back on total surrender terms have been dashed by the bitter determination of the striking miners, and the clear stand on the NUM executive. While the media will claim that the back to work movement is turning into a flood, the fact is that the return on Monday and Tuesday was
Last weekend Michael Eaton was predicting 5000 new faces on Monday. In the event less than 2000 turned up. In Yorkshire, where the board had hoped for a major breach under 500 returned - less
would be no possibility of reinstating the : 600 miners sacked during the dispute. Sacked
After the meeting between Ned Smith and Peter Heathfield the NUM ex-
an agenda for talks. stepped LIC into head off the possibiliof talks. Again, last week arter talks welween Heathfield and Merrick spanton for personnel) talks seemed again possible. But by Friday the NCB had issued a letter demanding that the NUM accept in advance, a pit closure procedure.
The board's cat and mouse game has not produced the results that they wanted. In fact, the normally right wing power group has called on its members the saw come to fruition at Labour party conference between the Labour left, miners, the ratecapauthorities, women, blacks, and gays and the nationalist minority in the North of Ireland will certainly eclipse Tribune meetings Indeed both Parliamentary and at grass roots level Tribune's decision to distance itself
3 strike, while the pit deputies union, NACODS, believes that the board is renegin he agreement reached las October. The demand that the board is making on the NUM is that it accepts the board's definition uneconomic something that NACODS has not agreed to.
The response in the coal fields is a flat refusal by the overwhelming majority of strikers to give the hoard a blank cheque. Ihe strikers are also determin-
stand by their vic ed to timised colleagues. In addition, there are a large number or miners cases have yet to be con sidered and would face disciplinary action on a return to work. Response
In the Doncaster агея about 160 miners
suspended at pre cann sent. Despite the efforts of
the Tories, the media and mamv in the labour move ment to advise the miners that the strike is over and the union must accept unconditional surrender, it is clear still much to be gained by con. tinuing the struggle, forcing the Tories to back off from their attempts to humiliate the NUM. For the rest of the movement the task if still solidarity with the miners. from criticising the Kinnock leadership through-
out this strike has meant
losing any
credibility as a left force
IT's Careign en is
wants strengther
links with the rank and file
of the Labour Party by en-
contact
between MPs, Councillors and activists through for-
ming local groups and by
the possible production o a Parliamentary newsheet
that would inform CLP activists of the work of the
Party in Parliament.
The behind
such organisation is clear
- the left of the Party is
not going to allow the
political victories of the
last five years to be over-
turned wi ranusa fight the
Labour Party, with
whole new influx of miners and women from the min-
communities want
Labour government that
will implement different Photo: • policies than the Tories
and the SDP, not the same dressed up different
JOHN HARR clothes.
Steps by the Campaign Group organise their
support followed through will be
with enthusiasm En Party at this time.
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MWDC conference 9 February
4
Doncaster says
DAVE DOUGLASS is the NUM delegate from Hatfield Main, and is a member of the Yorkshire NUM executive. In this crucial week for the miners' strike he has been busy on the picket line arguing for continuation of the solidarity action.
Action about the current state of the strike.
What do you think about the negotiations and the attitude of the NUM leadership?
Firstly, I think that the leadership is responding to strong pressure from below, in its talks with the NCB. For example there were two resolutions from the Yorkshire area council
the NUM, from Cortonwood and Hatfield Main which clearly called for talks without precondlnorthere
war strong feeling about this from the membership. So it's
actually neen
Yorkshire position that has been conveyed to the NEC and has become the NUM'S DOS LIONI any negotiations.
was also a call from Northumberland delegates for an expanded executive, that
greater participation
Was by the membership in the negotiations. More people should have a say in what
the Executive does and
says.
The same Northumb-
erland delegates two weeks
earlier were arguing tor a
Solidarity tasks
field.
and the Baker's Union.
The attendance is likely
to be smaller than the last
Camden
Town Hall in ecember
not it will entatile be
more representative
trade union support. for
the miners. Trade unions
have been invited to send
delegates and other
bodies one.
its last meeting
however the MWDC voted
to allow all organisations
attending send two
The conference is open all members of
NUM and women from
the pit communities.
where ail the tury of the
Coming the
Tory government has been
the NUM
because the NUM ex-
ecutive nave rerusea to
sign statement that
would endorse the closure
their une OILS Lilal
Socialist Action 8 February 1985
STAND
FIRM
Interview with Dave Douglass
GRAHAM TOPLEY spoke to him for Socialist
general strike to win the dispute.
What about the position of the hundreds of miners who've been arrested and ten sackele Our attitude on that is there can be absolutely no compromise on their reWe demand that central the negotiations. It's actually 700 miners now.
The collusion between the police and NCB is incredible. The NCB point out individuals on picket and tell the police who immediately go and arrest the targeted people.
We've got two miners from Asken pit who've been charged with breach of the peace - the most. minor onence - who've been sacked and people at Edlington who were tound not guilty but have still been sacked Eaton, for the NCB, has made it clear in public that iney won t compromise on this so it will be a big fight because we won't give in either.
What do you think are the FOUR national unions have now sponsored the Mineworkers Defence Committee conference on 9 February to be held at the Octagon Centre in ShefThey are the National Union of Railwaymen, the National Union of Seamen, the Fire Brigades Union
members have fought to keep open for 11 months, it is vital that the solidarity movement decides on concrete and Draculal itiatives that can help the miners win.
By Valerie Coultas The first way in which this can be achieved is by backing the call that Arthur Scargill has made to step up mass picketing to show the Tories that their intransigence over will be met in full by a hardening of the pit communities and by rallying support from other trade unionists. Three workshops will take place after the opening rally, one on trade unions, one on solidarity groups and one women Against Pit Closures.
next steps for militants to take in the strike?
Those people who are going back now are making the situation much worse than before. They're tak-
chance of ally those who've been sacked
re-employed after being the strike.
Secondly the role of NACODS will become more important again over the coming week. They're against the closure of pits
uneconomic grounds the same as the NUM, ex cept they call for outside arbitrators to decide and that each case should be taken on ils merits
NUM on this would make our position
What role do you see for the days and solidarity tasks?
The davs of action on ll and 24 February should be
ana ouill the solidarity action should bé stepped up while the talks are going on.
But there's more that can be done. We don't need to wait for the leaderships to call for action People should be taking strike action themselves and walking off the job. The rank and file should take the strike into their own hands.
There are still big possibilities for the
The trade union group will discuss a model resolution to be Laker all organisations calling for stepping up industrial sup-
port and for the active implementation TUC guidelines.
It's likely that a central
part of the discussion here
will be how to deal with the
TUC leaders who have sat
on their conference deci-
sions and done nothing to
fight for support for the
miners.
The solidarity work-
shop will want to discuss
stepping up the fundrais-
through appeals both
in Britain and abroad but
it will also have to concern
1use.T number with of the miners mounting and
women who
have been imprisoned dur-
ing this dispute
The vicious sentences
they have received have little
with the actual
'crimes' they have com-
mitted and rather more to
do with the stakes in this
struggle.
The Women's
March demonstration and shop call discuss the
sabotage of scab coal. We're still in a strong position in the strike.
Yes, but the solidarity action still has to be fought for and led by the leadership, it can't be substituted for by the rank file. What about the disgraceful role of the LP/TU leadership for example?
Well, I think that this is an Tensina dispute and hasn't got much to do with the Labour Party. It will be won by the miners and other people on the streets.
What about the role of the solidarity groups now in the strike?
The solidarity groups should be transformed into Councils of Action that's their role now in the local areas they have that potential. We won the is et
people to join
ines as they did at Cortonwood this week.
We had a mass picket at Hatfield Main of about a thousand strong called
the Women's Support
Group
This is what we should
be doing now. If the media gave as much attention to the strike from that point
of view as they do to the balance of payments or the
falling pound we'd be very
pleased
other initiatives that en-
courage the selt-
organisation of the mining
communities.
In the final plenary ses-
sion there will be an op-
portunity for floor discus-
sion and many amend-
ments have come forward
to the statement agreed at
the last conference.
The last issue of the see solidarity committe
solidarity committee
into 'councils action'
will undoubtedly be pos-
ed. Action
While Socialist Action
supporters will by then
have worked flat out
make 11 February a day
when as many workers as
possible do take strike ac-
tion in support the
miners we do not believe
that the call tor a General
Strike can come from
The MDWC is not an
alternative TUC. It is not
strongly implanted in the
unions. It is_ an alliance
between the Labour left,
Left MPs
fight right
THERE HAS been a change Parliamentary Labour Party. pushed back a bit, shown by the fact that the Labour front bench agreed to a debate
sure against the government.
We had one debate in the House of Commons in July, ana that was forced on the PLP because the NEC demanded such debate. Apart from an adjournment debate, which gave MPs an opportunity to raise the miners' dispute in the eariv hours of thi morning (again back bench effort) that has been the only debate till now.
The left have been criticised because demanded that parliament carry out its duties. If you want to look at it in parliamentary
were saying use parliament for what it's supposed to be used for, debating matters of grave importance to the country!
The running has been made by the back benches by left wing members the party. What was hap pening prior to that - the silence in the House - - has been knocked back a bit.
That doesn't mean we have io arop our guard. but there's a unity in the
party now
because of our actions
months
ago there was a feeling on
the right that they ought to
begin a campaign to root
out the left That has been
pushed back. Whether it's
temporary depends on us.
Party miners are ques-
tioning where their
stand on issues like the
miners' strike. They are ry ite right. When the par-
determined
policy conference
par strugglon incene
struggles like
miners' members have
the right to ask their MPs
where they stood. And, if
they feel dissatisfied, they
also have a right to reselect
tnem. I've delenaca Wal
the solidarity movement
and sections of the trade
unions which can play a
vital co-ordinating role in
centralising support work
for the miners.
In bodies of the trade
union movement we car
step up the campaign fol
industrial activi around
focus like
rebruary or around
Coalville on 17 January
and support for the
LCDTU-called demonstra-
tion on 24 February.
But if the MWDC is to
continue to be of use to the
NUm it should not pas:
grandiose resolutions that
it has no hope of delivering
on next weekend in Shef
field.
Delegates credentials with
the relevant material will
be available on the door.
£3 per petermie. Miners
and
creche
extn 215. More details are
available from 127,
George Lane, …condor
SE13 or tel 01-981 3289
of mood in the
The right has been
the miners' dispute, and the fact they've put down a vote of cenright and I intend to defend it now.
By Eric Heffer MP
Neil Kinnock has giver a 'guarantee ' that the next time enemie next conference or the next TONIO reselections don't know) that the whole situation would be changed: there would be one person one vote in the constituencies
We all favour the extension of democracy but in the minds of some peo-
way of trying to avoid the
of being reselected if they are un-
National
Recall Delegate
Conference
Sat Feb 9
Octagon Centre, Sheffield
11.00am - 5.30pm
of Railwaymen, The National Union of
Seamen and The Fire Brigades Union
SPEAKERS: Peter Heathfield, Tony
Benn, Betty Heathfield, John Tocher,
Phil Holt, Paul Whetton
Firefighters Say The miners fight is OUR fight!
News
popular among the activists of the party
The last NEC of the Labour Party decided to expel Brychan Davies from South Wales wasn't carried by a big ma-
NEC reversed the position. te preveral one that quite powerful one
would like to see an all-ou
left-wingers throughout the country. This decision could be a green light for those constituencies dominated by the right to begin the pro-
of weeding out Mili. tant first, others at a later stage.
vriginauy the proposa to the NEC was that a
should be Commutte established to look into Militant and others in the party and statement on democratic
of such a kind Militant and
couldn't
That was changed by the NEC
We did agree establish committer (which has good people on it) to look at the • best wa!
projecting democratic socialism. This has to be based on the constitution
and Clause 4.
If there's an attempt to
use that for a witch-hunt it
will be seriously resisted.
SPONSORED BY: The National Union
IRE
Page 5 scan of this page
News
KAY AND PHIL Sutcliffe live in Aylesham in Kent. They have both been working day and night since the miners' strike began for an NUM victory against pit closures.
Pit Closures. Phil works at a Snowdon pit and is a member of Kent NUM.
state of the dispute on Thursday 31 January after an Aylesham Women's Support group meeting.
VC: What do you think of the towards negotiations with
NCB preschl time?
KS: As as Arthur
ciples. came to
What has done
dispute is stick, to 1983 con-
pit was with
If he was
Scargill not the NUM. carrying
redundancy money any 1U1C.
to carry
There men that
dispute when they
ly.
working and the NCB's it to dismiss the striker. any other
job.
How do
back
relurills WOrK right now.
It's those workers with
material, The younger been the fighters in dispute.
the strike.
faceworkers.
working Kent SUCC September but
few under-
they
'Scargill's
carried out
his mandate'
Kay is a member of Aylesham Women Against
They were talking to Valerie Coultas about the
Michael Eaton television saying that they wouldn't
viness NUM willie statement saying that the strike is over.
It's ridiculous for the NCB to put his conditions • on the negotiations.
VC: How do you see the next steps in the dispute?
KS: I don't think that the other trade unions have done enough LOTS dispute.
If the TUC were going to do anything constructive they should have started to campaign for solidarity at the end of last March.
PS: The NUM should
the rank and file in other trade unions to support us. we should nave gone OU I and explained the case for
KS: They all know what is going on. But it's different when you ask other workers to take an active part.
the
•ve been
Then
came out
picketing coal
line.
governhas done their homework since those
worked on people.
allowed buy
They've
working them into so they have ties and commitments.
attitude and untest uauc
this.
In my own union, which tion,
women have been 3¼ per cent.
alright' The employers able to
VC: But VOu have had support from the railwayworkers, the dockers and the seamen.
KS: Yes and the railwayworKer rid of Weighell but they haven't really done much they could have, these left leaders.
are baying They know
Some have more in
VC: What about the Women Against Pit Closures movement. How do you see that going forward?
KS: Well I'd like to
see more organisation on the grouna. women's to 100 male members, had
were hardened politicians
and the other two walked out in disgust! Clearly the meetings were not attrac ting the significant numbers of lesbians SUD porting and radicalising around the strike.
Out of this situation came a new and important development: Lesbians Against Pit Closures.
While this group started as a way of maintaining sanity for women in LGSM, it now involves a majority of lesbians who are not organised by LGSM.
Kay Sutcliffe groups are spread
at the Womer Pit
most
Mining
communes
The
parties. cuse for
weren't political.
need an get together,. these
it's way of organising.
weeks
That's why we demon-
women the STAY TE CLUE LESBI
Lesbians against pit closure
still though 20/30grom is. this represents at least 300
The group is growing all the time and has just twinned with Rhodesia Women's Action Group in Nottinghamshire.
While friendly relations with LGSM, which continues to be a mixed group (ust), we are also beginning forge links with other
groups like Greenham
Nomen for a miners vic tory and the Mineworkers' Defence Committee women's group.
Although some baulked initially at the idea of an
Phil Sutcliffe
a very vital part of this strike.
We're planning an anniversary demonstration in Coalville on 23 March
• one year since we first had our demonstration.
PS: It's quite amazing really when you think how women have kept up their momentum In us strike. Women who weren't inlerested l ponlics save
tonight. partly for
1 casulls
political meeting and
KS: Yes we've got to work to organise these women in to the labour and the Labour Party.
We've got to get them to understand politics so that after this strike we are still organised.
We need to have more contact WITT omne groups. We want education. political education so that we can learn from call Utile I
Photo: JOANA
Lesbian March
autonomous lesbian group in the gay
movemenl self-organisation within self-organisation - the ex perience of the last few WCCKS alone positive proof of the need for such a group and the opportunities it provides.
While lesbians have a
fight Will women's movement and the gay male movement. we also face oppresion in both, which is why this autonomous lesbian
like labour movement lesbians before it, represents such a positive step forward.
While there are miners who actively oppress lesbians and gays it's vital that we support the miner against the Tories, who pose the real threat to lesbian and gay liberation. LGSM has already shown
support lesbian and gay LIZILS
It is links like these that have been crucial building support for the miners' strike so far. No to the oppression of lesbians and gay men. Victory to the NUM!
Lesbians Against Pit Closures meets every tri day at 6.30pm in the Dril Hall, Chenies St, WCI.
Socialist Action
PENRHINOI Come to Penrhiceiber
16 February
By Nigel Bevan, Penrhiwceiber NUM
tight-knit mining communities. per cent have been with us all the way.
volved in this strike. They
current is developing with
new nave experienced the birt of the Women Against Pi Closures movement, the massive support from certain parts of their communities and the left-wing • me abour overe Kimella and treachery o villages now see that thet People have to become involved in politics and fight toI create a party that will really represent our views.
The meeting Socialist Acuon 1s organising in Penrhiwceiber will take place on , 16 January in the heart of the Cynon Valle where 6,000 and their families are on strike The discussion and the atmosphere will be electric if
last Socialist Action Miners meeting held at Bold in Lancashire in October is anything to go by.
Second
Train from Cardiff to Mountain Ash
8 February 1985 5
2 SOUTH KALES AREA NUM THE SOUTH WALES miners have been solid throughout the strike because we face a life on the
The few that have abandoned the strike — one per cent — have been miners who do not live in the
The remaining 99
place in a totally different necessity taking the commitment shown in this
movement and organising
who have shown they have nothing in common with workers in struggle.
That includes joining the Labour Party and removing those represen tatives who have themselves to be traitors to the working class. highpoint of. the meeting will be the larg number of international guests who will bring home the point that interna tional solidarity has been indispensable to sustaining our strike In the evening the will be a social giving people the opportunity treat these days) evening out. scene Make sure you are there.
'CIO
Miners' International Solidarity
Meeting
An opportunity to meet miners from every coalfield and representatives of the worldwide solidarity movement with the
Saturday 16 February 12 noon
Penrhiwceiber Miners' Institute Penrihiwceiber Cynon Valley south wales
Speakers Dai Davies (South Wales NUM exec)
Tower Lodge num Roy Butlin (Coalville NUR)
Loraine Johnson (Bold Womens Support Group)
malcolm Pinnedar Leicester DIrty Inirty Kay Sutcliffe (Ayelsham Women Against Pit Closure) Anne Jones (South Wales Women Against Pit Closures)
Joe Mohammed (Notts striking miner)
Plus speakers invited: ernest Mande and speakers trom Japan, Australla USA, France, Belgium and many other countries
Evening:
Social with Bar An, Minibus shutie from Mountain Ash to Penrhiwceibe
Page 6 scan of this page
Through what sta
WHEN SPOKE recently Sokolniki, at the jubilee gathering of educational workers, I was asked a question of great importance in relation to principles, a question closely connected both with the international situation, in the widest sense of the word, Fifth Congress of the Communist International, which is now taking place.
And instead of making hundred-and-first and-first attempt to describe comprehensively the so-called 'international situation', I am give, even though only outline, an answer to that question of principle which was put to me at Sokolniki and which I will now tell you about.
The note I received is in my pocket - here it is: 'Comrade Trotsky, please explain why the most capitalist countries have the weakest Communist Parties (USA, Britain) and are furthest from the social revolution. This problem worries me very much and I request you to explain it. the question.
The answer to it is the key to the international question,
that is, standpoint of the relations between the various states and the relations between the capitalist states and Republic and from the standpoint of the development ot tne throughout the world....
How then can it be explained that the most advanced and cultured coun tries have weak Communist Parties, while, on the contrary, which cannot. untortunately, be called the most cultured in Europe, strong Communist Party, the state?....
We know that international Menshevism, starting with our own Russian Mensheviks, builds tradiction its chief 'accusation' against international communism and against the Soviet Republic. contradiction be taken in a simple way.
so speak mechanically, vou are not tar from the conclusion that communism is an expression of backwardness and barbarism.
backward a country is,
deduce from your first glance at the problem, the stronger is communism in
that country, wilercas countries nke nilamn and Amenca nave very weak Communist Parties, in proportion, as it were, to the small amount
of survivals of barbarism in those countries.
At the congress of the Communist
International one of the weakest of the European parties is certainly the British
Communist Party. The American party
is even weaker, true, but we are talking
the moment only about europe
The strongest party is our party. Then
Food convoy, 1926 General Strike
Socialist Action 8 February 1985
at French.
that in such a
mere propagandist society,
and with the
In Britain there is -forget it
thousand-
going to
in broad
in all spheres of life..
alongside of the munist Parti
not matters of indifference
tremendous intluence
affairs.
That is barous and broadly Europe is Britain. both from the
the Soviet
one-sided, as false.
revolution
our country,
human life. has a very
which rules contradiction?
other, monarchy, this conover people's minds.
You see, if this
then sphere, and The you Development is contradictory.
dous successes, super-civilised
ment in other spheres
and wull. thanks
nineteenth bourgeoisie Inis fact,
comes the German party, and then the
What in reality explains the fact
powerful, cultured, educated, civilised country as Britain, the Communist Partv stil exists as a
HOL yet possessing the power. to play an active part in politics? In order to answer...l will recall a few other phenomena and institutions in the life of Great Britain.
— I ask you not to • a monarchy, whereas there is none here or in France or in Germany...In Britain there is still to this day an aristocracy enjoying distinctions of rank. There is a House of Lords. In Britain, finally, the church, or rather the churches, wield tremendous influence
Thus it turns out that in Britain,
fact that the Comis exceptionally weak, there are to be found such other facts,
IoT Us, as the existence of a monarchy, an artistocracy, a House of Lords and a
religion in politics, in social life, and in everyday
Ana 1 you approacn brilall one-sidely from this aspect,... then you would doubtless say that the most bar-
backward country in cient That would be as true as the statement of the Mensheviks that communism is a product of backwardness; that is to say, it would be as untrue, as
Can one really agree that Britain is the most backward country in Europe? BONS No, this idea cannot at all be fitted into the framework of our general picture of Britain. In Britain technique is at a very high level, and technique is decisive in
How can one find a way out of this For contradiction stares us in the face: on the one hand, high technique, science, etc; on the
aristocracy, House
of Lords, power of religious prejudices
What conclusions can be drawn? WaN
This conclusion, that there is no single yardstick with which one can measure the development of a country in every
on the basis of that
measurement make a uniform evalua-
tion covering all aspects of social life.
In cer-
tain spheres a country achieves tremen-
but it happens quite
often that by these very successes that
country holds back its own develop-
Let me speak concretely about this
matter. Britain was the first country to take the road of capitalist development
to that fact, the
hegemony of the world market in the
century. The British became, again thanks to ine nicnest, strongest and
most enlightened of the bourgeoisies.
These conditions enabled it, as we
know, to create a privileged position for the upper strata of the British working class and thereby to blunt class antagonisms. The British working class is becoming conscious of itself as an independent class hostile to the bourgeoisie much more slowly than working class of other countries with less powerful bourgeoisies
Thus it turns out that the growth of the British bourgeoisie, the most advanced bourgeoisie in Europe, having taken place in exceptionally favourable conditions, has for a long time held back the development of the Britis: proletariat.
The British bourgeoisie developed under the protection of ancient institutions, on the one hand adapting itself to them and on the other subjecting them to itself, gradually, organically, evolutionary way'. The revolutionary upheavals of the seventeenth century were profoundly forgotten. In this consists what is called the British tradition. Its basic feature is conservatism...
The British working class developed quite differently from ours. Our young proletariat was formed in a period of some 50 years, mainly from peasants and handicraftsmen who had lived in the countryside, along with their fathers and grandfathers, in an-
surroundings, economic backwardness, amid ignorance religious prejudices.
Capital ruthlessly seized the peasant lad or youth by the scruff of the neck and at once flung him into the cauldron of factory life. The change in his condi-
took place catastrophically. When the young peasant felt the blast of the factory's steam he at once began to think about who he was and where he was. It gained ascendancy over him all the more easily because he had no conservative ideas: the old village notions did not fit at all; he needed a complete and radical change in his whole outlook on the world.
With the British worker things went quite differently.
For him, the British worker, there
not this sudden, catastrophic transition from the closed little world of the village to modern industry;...
Technique
British technique is a fundamentally
capitalist technique. It was not brought in from outside, destroying national economic forms, but has developed on the basis of these national forms. The consciousness of the working class reflects this 'organic' growth of technique, while lagging very much behind it.
It must not be forgotten that human consciousness, taken on the scale of
society, is fearfully conservative and
slow-moving. Only idealists imagine
world forward through the free initiative of human thought.
We speak frankly if we say that
classes and peoples have hitherto not
shown decisive initiative except when
nistory llas thrashed them with heavy crop. Had things been different,
would people have allowed the imperialist war to happen? After all, the
war drew neare under the eves of
everyone, like two trains
towards each other along a single track.
But the peoples remained silent, watch-
ed, waited, and went on living their
familiar, everyday, conservative lives.
The fearful upheavals of the im-
perlanst war were necoco lor certall:
changes to be introduced into con-
sciousness and into social lite.
working people of Russia overthrew
Romanov, drove out the bourgeoisie
and took power. In Germany they got
rid of Hohenzollern but stopped halfway Think over this process tahe extent
necessary to understand the profound
difference from •III development
which was extremely delayed
therefore extremely contradictory.
Take our metal-working and
mining south: boundless expanses of
steppe, thinly populated steppe set-
the
TODAY IN the eleventh month of the miners' strike, contestable that the British labour movement is undergoing found transformation. One aspect of this has received the greedy attention of a host of university professors, trade and Neil Kinnock's cabinet. That Labour's vote following the creation of the SDP-Liberal Alliance, 'in an
to only 28 general election.
On this basis an unholy alliance of extreme right wing trade union bureaucrats like has professors like Eric Hobsbawn and
the majority faction of the British Communist Party forces to campaign for Labour to turn sharply to the right in order to create a popular Thatcher with the and Alliance.
Of course these forces have, at best, sharp,
tlements with deep mud around them in and autumn....and huge metal-working enterprises arise in these steppes.
its They did not of course develop out
of our own economy upon us thanks ic From the backward villages, Huroneat hurtling American) capital
cadres of workers, tearing them from the conditions which Marx once called 'the idiocy of rural life'
And there you had these fresh proletarians of the Donets basin, of Krivoi Rog and so on, not bringing with them into the pits hereditary traditions, any craft conservatism, any fixed and firm beliefs. On the contrary, it was in these new, unfamiliar and stern conditions that they only for the first time properly felt the need for firm beliefs, which would give them moral support.
To their aid came social democracy, which taught them to break with all
and their old prejudices and so
revolutionary coal class which had been born in a revolu-
tionary way.
Most bourged
been deeply in-
mered out by
new realists alliance kitchen the decline memory.
per cent in the last
shown
Frank Chapple, Labour
have joined for jobs
front against SDP-Liberal
trary
KOM
suddenly to be,
foreign capital and scattered cand assembled fresh Il nas caucalcu Let
because in MacDonald
and the factories any
'we nave in gave
consciousness IO this
It is possible to put the matter like
embarrassed, at worst viciously hostile, to the titanic struggle of the miners and to the forces that are leading it. Because what has been ham-
the sheer scale of this struggle is a class struggle wing of the labour movement prepared to break the law and to forge the most advanced
of the oppressed with the noveltell in living
Not only have the young miners of the NUM not been 'bought off by mortgages and cars, but they have
politically advanced mass force that the labour movement has created since the 1920s. Hobsbawm's Forward March o)
Halted looks somewhal ridiculous when you see the NUM com ing forward not ony as militant fighters
but as champions. the demands of women, of blacks and of gay people in the labour movement
What has been revealed over th past 12 months is two facts about the British labour movement. First it is noi particularly advanced but on the con
the • most politically
this: the richer, STOLSC mightier,
cleverer, firmer a bourgoisie has proved
the more it has succeeded in
holding back the ideological and conse.
quently the revolutionary development
of the proletariat. Here is another ex
pression of the same idea. The British
bourgeoisie has got used to the servility
of the so-called workers' leaders whom
me interrupt myself to in-
troduce a very interesting quotation
from the British newspaper the Sunday
The complains Britain today, under the
strikes are taking place, and it says:
Great Britain the fines
body of Labour leaders in the world,
men of experience and patriotism, with
a real sense of responsibility and a wide
knowledge of economics. But they are
rapidly being thrust aside by the avow-
ed revolutionaries, whose influence is
increased every time the government
capitulates to uncil.
Of course, revolutionaries are in-
creasing in number in Britain too, but
unfortunately they have still far from
sufficiently "thrust aside' those leaders
the Sunday Times calls wise
Page 7 scan of this page
ge are we passing?
backward working class movements in Europe with fewer workers voting for the Labour Party than for virtually any other mass workers' parties in the major countries of Europe.
But, contrary to the claims of Professor Hobsbawm, this does not represent a 'forward march' that has been "halted'. It is the basic character of a labour movement created in what was the richest, powerful imperialist power world.
As Engels wrote to Marx in 1858: The British working class is actually becoming more and more bourgeois so that this most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming at the possession of a bourgeois aristocracy proletariat as well as a bourgeoisie.
this is justifiable in a country ploiting the whole world.'
In creating the SDP the ruling class were simply exploiting whilst the majority of the working class is anti-Tory this does not at all mean it is permanently attached to the Labour politicians, filled to the brim with
wisdom and patriotism.
How has this come about? In our country there have never been leaders
bourgeoisie, even if we bear in mind
that at a certain period the Socialist
Revolutionaries ana lne played a considerable role because our
bourgeoisie - discounting the sharpest
MOSL decisive molncils.
things were at their most critical — was
dissatisfied even WILO the
Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks.
Leaders •
What is the cause of such satisfaction with the workers' leaders on the part of the bourgeoisie over there in
Britain? It is due to the fact that the
DOCCO SC themselves trained these leaders.
How did they get the opportunity of
training 'labour' leaders? This was due
to the circumstance that
powerful and cultured, being the ruling
class of an advanced capitalist country.
As fast as the working class advanced
is of nations
Party and still less socialism.
politically
demands of
MUSL minority
in the Benn, Scargill and Livingstone.
traditions they are based upon. and bourgeois
Of long struggle extent obstacles it is necessary which is ex-
that
movements. on them,
from
What the Mensheviks
Switch
has influenced Socialist
surrounded
workers' leaders.
cultured,
have work upon who
they were
every factory,
the country.
that it supports
The second fact revealed in recent months is the creation of a minority within the British working class which
advancing, becoming more pro-Labour, more committed to defending the cities, more in solidarity with the miners, more in support of the
WULCH. against nuclear weapons and so on. It is this
gives is support to
The past eleven months of struggle have revealed both the power of this current and the obstacles it confronts in the form of the majority Labour Party and TUC leaderships and the political
In order to arms ourselves in the
to overcome these to grasp the true historical character of the British labour movement. It is to help in that objective that we reprint the following article of Leon Trotsky dealing with precisely this question by comparing the Russian and British working class
BrITISH before of OU! young leaders from its ranks, all sorts falling of political 'specialists' in the service of the British bourgeoisie at once settled
won them over, brought to bear on them all that could be imagined by a powerful bourgeois culture...
British bourgeoisie has been able to achieve is a sort of hypnotic fascination for its culture, its world-historical importance. By means
of this skilfully-organised hypnosis it
the workers' leaders whom it has known how to keep always
by its reporters,
lecturers and so forth, all cunningly turned on to each newcomer among the
And in this hypnosis of a way of life lies the art of a ruling class, a powerful,
hypocritical, base, greedy class — an art wulen consists in exercis-
ing an everyday influence whereby to
and subject to itself CONICS forward from
among the working class, everyone who
stands a head taller than the other in
in every ward and
borough, in every town and throughout
Other British newspapers are not so solid as The Times, but they are built on the same model, so as to capture the reader's attention from every direction and lead him to genuflect before the
national traalhon, that the bourgeoisie. And workers' press is very weak; besides which, with the exception of the communist publications, it Is permeated through and through with the same hypnosis of bourgeois culture...
Ine so-called Labour government headed by MacDonald is also a product
the age-long education of workers' leaders in this way. That is the reason, in the last analysis, why British Menshevism is so strong and munism so weak. Now let us repeat our question: is the weakness of communism in Britain a symptom of the country's high level of civilisation or is it a symptom of backwardness? After
analysis we have no grounds for into the trap of such mechanical presentation of the question. We say it is at one and the same time a symptom of very early develop
and or greal ' backwaraness because history operates mechanically but dialectically: it combines during long periods advanced tendencies in one sphere monstrous backwardness in another.
If we compare, from the standpoint of world-historical development, the 'Labour' government of MacDonald and the bourgeois-nationalist government of Turkey, the conclusion we draw is not in MacDonald's favour...
There is now in Britain a government of Mensheviks and in Turkey a bourgeois-llaulolaust government
And this bourgeois-nationalist government of Turkey has found it necessary to abolish the Caliphate. The Caliphate is the central institution of Pan-Islamism, that is, one of the most reactionary trends in the entire world. But the Menshevik government of Britain has re-established the Caliphate in
of the bourgeoisie its Moslem
History's conclusion Menshevik government of Britain, in spite of the British civilization, etc, is playing in this conjuncture of forces a reactionary role, bourgeois-nationalist government the backward Turkey, as of a nationallyoppressed country, gressive role. Such history!...
There is no abstract yardstick applicable to all spheres necessary to take living facts in their living historical interaction. If we master this dialectical approach to the question, the latter becomes much clearer to us. Germany, for com- not by accident, as regards this question of the relationship forces of the Communist Party and of social democracy, between Russia and Britain.
This is to be understood by the course of development of capitalism in Germany. It is necessary, of course, to investigate concretely the history each separate country, discover more exactly the causes of the delayed or not Communist Party. In a however, conclusion: the conquest of power by with the proletariat in countries which have entered the path of capitalism very late in the day, than in countries previous bourgeois history and a higher level of culture.
But this is only one side of the matter. A second conclusion, portant, declares: socialist construction after the conquest of power easier in countries capitalist civilization than in countries which are economically backward, like ours. working class to break through to real proletarian power, to dictatorship, wil be incomparably harder than it was fol us. But once having broken through to poster. it will advance much quicker and much more easily than oursetes
Socialist Action 8 February 1985 is that the
whereas the of his Is playing a pro is the dialectic of
It is
example, is placed
between the
to correspond.
of in order to
hastened growth of the
general way, tures we can draw the following
last analysis,
decisive force like our country, is easier
with an
relationship , no less im-
will with higher
This means that for the British the
politics, preponderance
to socialism
Sokola
7
Such is the dialectic of history. Politics has held the British back, has for a long time, so to speak, hobbled him, and he is advancing with such timid, pitiful, MacDonaldite little steps. But when he frees himself from
political trammels, 40 e racehorse will outstrip our peasant nag
To generalise theoretically what I have said, in the Marxist terminology which is familiar to us, I should say that the question itself boils down to the interrelation between the basis and the superstructure and to the interrelation of. bases and superstructures of different countries with one and another. We know that superstructures - state, law, politics, parties and so on — arise on an economic basis, are nourished and determined by this basis. . Consequently, basis and superstructure have
And this happens in fact, only no simply but in a very complicated way.
powerful development of one superstructure (the bourgeois state bourgeois parties, bourgeois culture) sometimes holds back for a long tim the development of other superstruc
(the revolutionary proletarian party, but in the last analysis - in the
not immediately - the basis reveals itself nevertheless as the
We have shown this by the example of Britain. If we approach the problem in a formal way, it may appear that the weakness of the British Communist Party contradicts the Marxist law of the
between basis superstructure. But this is certainly not the case. Dialectically, the basis, as we have seen, will, in spite of everything. secure its victory. In other words: a high level of technique, even througt
barrier of ultra-conservative nevertheless will manifest its and lead socialism sooner than in countries witt a low level of technique
That, comrades, is sha: I coat the fundamental ansare to be = t
which
Page 8 scan of this page
Interview with murdered independence leader
8
Brazil
Brazilian:
metalworker
speaks
Luis Inacio da Silva, or 'Lula', metalworkers' leader and president of the Workers' Party (PT), visited Britain briefly in late November. He met with Peter Heathfield and Mick McGahey, addressed a miners' picket in Kent and spoke at a large London public meeting.
talked about the hand-over to civilian rule in Brazil and how the PT sees it.
BROTHERS and sisters, comrades, The political, economic and social situation Brazil hasn't changed much. A huge number norkers are still unemployed. huge
of workers hungry today.
we have iz mıllion rural workers with no land to work. We see the people in the north east dying as a result of the drought. They zo on dying when it rains because they have no land io cultivate. And they die when they've got land because they haven't got the seeds credit they
We see illiteracy continuing, with 18 million illiterate people LOOV Housing problems
COtinue.
This is the situation in which the presidential succession is taking place, in a country where minimum wage Is aboul Lio a week, and where almost 15 million Brazilans earn inis or less.
When began,
elections, He Knew through vote thạt
problems, that the
help the •OLC
ward in more freedom.
campaign, raised
the people.
have W C
that the workers still aren't
10: impose their political
Once again what is happening throughout the world is repeated. The oligarchy, the bourgeoisie, the politicians, succeed in deciding the path the KT271121 people are take. The fight is abandoned in the middle of the
** We in the PT unders-
tand that Maluf (the regime's ultra-right ofwe cancere - 50 20 the regime are not one and
Maluf is just one tooth on the cogs or mercure snaccry. and the wheels of this machinery
Call ulte happily without one tooth.
That's why we insist that the regime has to be defeated as a whole, and not just one part of it. This great chunk of the regime
Socialist Action 8 February 1985
the Brazilian
We print here parts of that speech, where Lula
which now supports the Liberal Front are people who, for 20 years, have supported the regime, who made a pact with corrup. tion, with repression, with Canes Cus allu they've been redeemed to serve a few people's greed
we think Tancredo Neves is better than Maluf, but we don't want the Brazilian people to yet again have to settle for the best of a bad lot. We want the Brazilian people to have the right to choose the best.
Neves has
that to change
Woll the 11ldependent union
interests the interests oI
big landowners' be the
Those
electoral TanCred Shas already had with the
mised colonly.
help stronger.
with producers promised
mised and
time. He's
But, whose
recovery,
for the bankers, the workers
that
like the child
The par-
Brazilian what
the struggles
to the PT.
ELIO MACHORO Caledonian Union, the largest of the independence organisalous Socialist Liberation which was formed in September 1984. On the morning of 12 January this year he, together with Marcel Nonarro, was assassinated by forces at the end of a large-scale military operation
tally killed orders
wound.
that the
were in cold blood b National
GrouD In close
were on al ine time. The was
The for this
perialists in New
Thio, following Kanak
The action conducted
is your ex-
we could
We preterred to conduct an
forces.
7 Civilian rule OK?
New Caledonia
was general secretary of the
the Kanak Front (FLNKS), a coalition
French colonialist
November,
the
scale to off violent the right-wing settler population.
French portrayed him,
colonial
Viewpoint. took on 6 December
do a suita Caledoniar tional Party.
Moreover, this region there was a crucial question to be settled, particular since party, like the other
trom several places in the region settle the problem Thio, to ensure that the Kanaks, who are the majority in the local popula-
tion, had control of the town in their hands.
What was ; the attitude of the FLNKS towards the
volulalol the Thio when the town was occupied?
We asked for a meeting with the Europeans in the town to explain to tem the meaning of our action.
thev WeEt afraid, and only about a dozen of them came to our meeting.
We made it clear that we had one specific aim for this town — 1o make Elio Machoro
sure that the town was run by people who wanted to work together for the benefit of everyone not to gain their : own persona eus. as was lnc case of the mayor, Roger Galliot.
Galliot was the one who obstructed discussion among people. Everyone knew that he belonged to
He banded together a half-dozen 'super-hards' We gave a list of their
to the non-Kanak Halle inhabitants of Thio
We also explained to them that their tranquility depended their
the
alcohol fuel.
Yet now, just one year after the huge mass demonstrations against the dictatorship for free elecuions, never will moving into the presidential palace not through the ballot box via tightly controlled electoral college, pretence at resistance from le millary. How done?
The answer is 'pacts'. In the course of 1984 the PMDB opposition wound down the movement for direct elections which it had led and set about stitching together pacts everyone possibly could.
The PMDB was itself already a mixed bag that included the Brazilian
Party, firmly led by politicians
with business interests and sec-
of the government machinery.
this alliance to include all ine malor sections of the business class, including multinational capital, tions they maintained with the Kanaks
We also asked the gendarmes Thio not to come out or their racks, promising them that
AS regards the negotia
the representative of the French overheat Edgard Pisani, you may be offered a referendum determine the future of the territory with the right to vote accorded to the Euro peans and immigrants who have been here for example for more than six or more than ten years. What do you think about that?
Such a proposition by the French government would be a bad one ten years and why not the vicms or astory as we nave described the European
winose fathers
mothers were born in New Caledonia? And, i take it further, why not the ¡ Kanaks alone!
In fact, the ment's problem is that it does not want to take a position. It does not want to adopt our pomt or view so as not to be accused of letting the FLNKS drag it around by the nose
But, the French government should decide either to stick by the French constitution or to carry out a decolonisation policy favourable people.
We have always demanded a reform of the electoral register to ensure
habitants of the territory who decide on its future.
International
PEOPLE CELEBRATED in the streets up and down Brazil in mid-January at the news that the country would have a civilian, Tancredo Neves of the PMDB liberal opposition party, as its next president. The 686 delegates at the usually tame electoral college 'elected' Tancredo by a big majority over the military regime's own candidate. At the same time three striking cane-cutters were shot by police on the vast industrial plantations that produce sugar for
most of the national state machinery and a torrent of
their servility to the dic latorsip
To the military hierar chy this new 'Democratic Alliance' promised no turning over old stones to set-
WILl responsible for torture 'disappearances' and wholesale corruption. And
it promised not to touch the retired officers who head up many of Brazil's huge nationalised corporations and who make up an important part of the new oligarchy ns in doubt: the nost mains in doubt: the important one. This is the social pact that t Tancredo is proposing with workers' organisations.
Tancredo can only deliver • on the promises to all his friends if he can persuade the Brazilian people especially the organised
_ class, accept even more searing austerity exchange for civilian government! for well ...in exchange
This request has been rejected by the National Assembly (in Paris) as unconstitutional.
present, we are fighting for selfdeterminatior of the Kanak people alone, and we have legal grounds for this.
Article 75 of the French constitution recognises the special caracte of the Kanak people by granting them a special status
In order to take up the discussion with Pisani, we made a lot of concessions, such as releasing the subprefect removing the road blocks.
In return for this, they are still killing us, as in Hienghene In the inCOCAL red, the Kanaks have never been the ones to start it.
Everytime they have fired, the Kanaks have done defend themselves. In Thio we took over the town without firing a single shot at a European.
The Socialist Party government has been car
OU! right wing policy here because the right is helping the government keep the territory under the domination o
The government does not want to let New Caledonia go because of the strategic
holds and Dustil
ecause of its riche
Gc ully vass U1 Du port for such a position here is the colonialist right. mains on the agenda, it has decondon
Slallcu.
Kanaks, the colonial situa tion has not changed.
Page 9 scan of this page
Surplus Value
THERE IS A widely held belief that some sort of arms negotiations are going to begin in Geneva on 12 March. Except in the most superficial sense, this is simply false. There will be Russian and American diplomats talking about all kinds of weapons, but there won't be any negotiations about any thing that really matters, such as interncontinental ballistic missiles and space weapons, for the simple reason that the two sides are further apart than ever before on such issues.
In case anyone had any doubts about this, Reagan in his usual genial way has dispelled them. He declared last week that he thought it unlikely that a deal would be agreed within the next four years - in other words it may happen only over his dead body, under a
president. And a few days earlier, in his inauguration address he explained why no deal will be achieved: he devoted the core of his address, which is supposed to outline a president's main aims, to a lyrical and uplifting song of praise for his Star Wars project.
Now the whole purpose of Geneva is supposed to be negotiating away Star Wars and without an agreement to end the plan there is no possibility of a deal to reduce or control intercontinental missiles. Star Wars is supposed to shoot down enemy missiles before they reach their targets, combatting such a system requires the other side to maximise its missile arsenal, thus ensuring adequate penetration of the Star Wars screen. Thus Star Wars and intercontinental missies cannol oc ticalca separalely, but must be tackled as a whole.
At the Geneva meeting of 7-8 January, Gromyko seems to have persuaded Schultz to agree to the includion of Star Wars in the negotiations and to the common sense notion that other aspects of the negotiations must be linked with Star Wars. brought a swift, public repudiation from Weinburger, the Pentagon boss, and the subsequent confusion has still not been cleared up. So even to get the Geneva panto on the road at all has been an extremely tricky business.
By Oliver MacDonald
But one of the most amusing, and at the same time touching, sights in what promises to be one of the longest-running pantos this side of Broadway, is the attitude of one part of the audience: the British media pundits. Anyone who takes a three or four year old child to the panto will know how they take every word literally, and easily forget that the dame isn't a woman at all, but a man masquerading as a woman.
So it is with our supposedly hardboiled media experts. laughing jeering at the latest patently absurd piece of buffoonery, the way an eight year old would, they solemnly note it down and repeat it. Reagan, they are told wants to get into history books as a peace maker.
"Experts' on Reagan here repeat this, to the point where the Financial Times has to devote an editorial to leung Dig ousiness ulal unis Is a piece of nonsense. Then we are told excitedly that Mr Paul Nitze is not only a dove but also designated to be the surpemo in charge of the negotiating team. Until we learn that Nitze hap. pens not to be a dove over Star Wars and also happens supremo at all. (Nitze is actually a hawk with bad nerves, who lost his nerve during the cruise and Pershing talks and is no longer taken seriously in the Reagan administration excent as a PR sop to the West Europeans). Then we find that Reagan has actually appointed extreme hawks negotiators in the Star Wars and intercontinential missile talks.
Unable to deny this, our media pundits produce the following brilliant idea: the fact that hawks
The
@12/90/84, 144PHUNS2LATA INQUIRER
175 NASHINGION POST WACHERS GROUP.
AUTH
This have been chosen proves that Reagan is serious about reaching a deal that sticks — he has appointed hawks to ensure that the Senate is more keen on making concessions to the Soviets than Reagan is. Even Senator Goldwater has casually remarked that he is fed up with all these US nukes and feels like scrapping Reagan's beloved MX missiles. Horrified
The reality is that the only serious arms negotiations that will be taking place during the next year will be in Washington, not Geneva, and will be between the congress and the president over Reagan's military budget. Reagan's enthusiasm phoney arms negotiations going in Geneva is in large measure a product of his fear that he will be forced into arms reductions in his tussie with congress over the budget deficit. And one of the oldest tricks for combatting congressional efforts to military spending is to say that such moves will undermine the Us nego tiating position with the Russians — it will be a stab in the back to our boys in the negotiating front line. And by appointing ex-Senator Tower to head Ine negonlaling team. ther arming himself for the coming top battle with congress.
There is thus overwhelming cumstantial esidence to indicate that the White House will use the Geneva talks as nothing more than a public
Geneva
Panto
domestic and West European
Deadly Gambits magazine journalist makes abundantly clear,
shing, explicit guide-line 'should not stand
for cruise and Pershing.
Change
for
to lengths to
Culi US this is not the full explanation.
must understand that they convince their
Reagan 1s fur-
Washington. cir- The
Tor! defence
confusing
STAR
WARS
opinion, while pressing ahead with Star Wars and the rest of the arms programme. In other words, the talks will be managed like the earlier INF talks Deadly Gambies nig. The Times
Times Strobe Talbot the Reagan administration never had the slightest with the USSR on cruise and Per
operating throughout on the that the talks in the way NATO's modernisation programme' such endor to contradic she
contradict facts? The obvious answer is that they want to combat the peace movement and the much larger sentiment here that Reagan is a dangerous man. But
At a deeper and more pathetic level we 'Chaos'
want to own Tory elite sup porters as well and they even want to
themselves Convince themselves what? That it is, or really before Christmas may be, possible for the British state to exert influence on policy-making in
fact of the matter is that Whitehall and the great bulk of the with Reagan
and foreign policy establishment, as well as the bulk of deployed: he -ilitary here are opposed to Star
Schultz Reagan's military policy. The reason is that this policy will make British nukes an irrelevant joke, while it has finally sunk in that cruise missiles here will have the effect of totally destroy. ing the decision-making power of the British state in the event of an East-
there are signs of a deeper alarm over Reagan's entire political and military strategy towards the USSR, as well as
drive to bring Western Europe to heel for its programme of economic war-
quieting in the Tory leadership or in
days is that in this period Britain can
within Washington for a change of policy to bring it more into line with the requirements of the British righ
This is the terrible state secret which Thatcher's trip to Camp David
was designed to obscure. She came out of that meeting waving a bit of paper to the press say. ing that she had carried off a grea diplomatic triumph: she had agreed
that there should be negotiations before Star Wars was
all empi! pledge irom Reagan in return :3: he: Tearing::
Socialist Action 8 February 1985 9
support for something concrete -continued work on the Star Wars pro-
good guys and bad guys is similarly an exercise in self-deception. Thus reviews in the mass media here of Talbot's Deadly Gambits fall into
Richard Burt as the good guy, while Richard "Perpe as
Cot
Was DulL lUl rci taking the hard line for deployment,
whatever nuances of disagreemene they may have about Reagan's policy, is prepared to be cast in the role of champion of West European security interests. Haig used to play the role of Western Europe's champion and fo that very reason he lost his job. So il such champions don't exist, they have to be invented. And the doubters here must be served up with idiotic claims by such US pawns as Woodrow Wyatt
The Times and Sir A Burnett on ITV that far from Britain being impo. tent to influence the US, it virtually dominates the Americans through the
have been floated on the right, here. Western European Union, if not as an
foreseeable future — then at least as something that could make sections of public opinion here believe it was some sort of force because at least it
This has so far turned out to be pure
resolution from a Dutch MP callin for a freeze on all further cruise and Geneva talks get underway. Conster. nation! Apart from an inch or two in
Pundits
Europe to enthusiastically cooperate with the US in developing Star Wars so that the hardware would have a label on it. Consternation! Another
(though it couldn't be since the Tory MP by the name of Hill involved in
Times and Telegraph hailing the idea and declaring Star Wars should be usting Soviet missiles before they'd left
much for the WEU. The second idea on the right is for Britain to leave NATO and become a 'neutral armed-to-the-teeth with recent backing from a book by a Cord etc. This has he merit, from foe right's point of view, of asserting Bri-
Britain's role as a capitalist and militarist bastion of imperialism - it is a formula that would win strong popular right and centre of the electorate, bu
capitalist interests now tied in to the US. It is significant
policy crisis in the British establish-
neutralism can only be a socialist one ready to break with capitalist power in Britain and ready to link up with The Geneva Panto makes the elabora perspective al the =01 me: ==
Page 10 scan of this page
Labour's defence policy flawed says Scottish LCND
Local government workers demand a fight
10
among other things
Britain.
That's why Scottish LCND organised a fringe at the recent Scottish Perth, and why Labour CNID chair Jov Hurcombe (also a vice-chair of CND) invited to address the LCND annual meeting.
Activists at the AGM noted that Labour's comWILL Cal defence was within context of continued support for NATO membership - which means a continuing debate is needed to sort out Labour's policy.
THE DEMOCRACY for London campaign is the trade union body of the GLC set up to fight the Tory attacks on local government. It's central focus has
en abolition.
Fast approaching, changed. If Thatcher's plans to axe the spending of
hit-list authorities aqainst the abolition of the GLC and metropolitan counties will be severely weakened.
With that in mind, DEL heid an activists' conference on Wednesday 23 January CLO both aspects of the campaign.
The conterence ended abruptly. with industrial
undiscussed. when the chair ruled eight resolutions out of order and closed the conference at lunch-time.
On the surtace what is al issue is the constitution under DFL operates. In reality the
involved stop and con-
will the OT Ine campaign, what activity TOCa authority
alployer. committee of the TUJNC DFL subwhich controlled primarily by officials and
ay officials of the unions
All delegates must be fully
Socialist Action 8 February 1985 SCOTTISH LABOUR CND held its annual meeting on 26 January in Glasgow's city hall, considering
the ambiguity of Labour's defence policy posed by Defence and Security for
The annual meeting passed a resolution pressing concern that 'the document:
• continually insists support for NATO, from its origins an aggressive US dominated nuclear pact;
• asserts that only nuclear bases the thus allowing the continuation of communications facilities like that at cozell that are an integral part of nuclear war-fighting strategy; But with the rate-capping deadline its emphasis has increasingly
are successful, the fight
concerned. Shop stewards' organisation at the GLC is relatively new phemomena In September, DFL's aCLIlY scuiclal y Jimmy Fitzpatrick gave an under-
Labour CND Annual Meeting
Saturday 20 April o 10 am till 5 pm
County Hall, London SE1
Afternoon workshops with members of the Parliamentary Labour Party defence team
voting entitlement: (all organisations must be affiliated to CND nationally)
5 delegates branch parties - 2 delegates Latesur Party and of national CerS Of the
Please try and let LUND know your delegates by 12 April
Resolutions must be in by 30 March
more wormenon om.
Kate Edwards, secretary LCND, c/o BBC, 2 Eaton
Gate, London SWI
• fails to make a clear
commitmene dinureducing
arms expenditure poses non-nuclear defence impacily as creased conventional defence spending. ex-
Delegates considered that these flaws were as 'potentially disastrous' 1983 manifesto. They reaffirmed their determination campaign full programme within the unilateral US disarmament and full withdrawal from for
the nuclear alliance.
The annual meeting also considered me lack Or active support for LCND from GUIDOT Young Socialists. taking that shop stewards «convenor would be integrated into the camBallel At the TUJNC meeting prior to the January that undertaking was thrown out and he subsequently resigned
By Carol Turner
The difference in view was wieme ference was consultative
acsignca to lllpall Iformation to the union ac-
Militant organise
Pollok witch-hunt
MANY
year. On the issues of women's rights,
blocking with the right against the left.
Militant members ot
Pollokshields ward have taker® this even further
they
sulated an open members
SUllie members claiming the left had abus-
ed the constitution to take *. over the ward. Such letters are by now familiar in right CONCILI tuencies which looks as if thev're moving left.
What are the
especially important as youth are a big component in the anti-missiles moveWell.
Campaign
Last year's sucess getting through
the Labour Party conference a
resolution
seen to be largely a paper victory. Electing members to Britain LCND committee
prioritising meeting at this year's Scottish conference to build the 1-2 June YCND anti-Trident demonstration were ways Party overcoming is pro This is blem in the future.
tivists — or whether those
same activists, ultimately
responsible for bringing
their members out against
the government, have a
real say in the campaign.
When conference closed feelings ran high. Many delegates protested being treated what they regarded as a fundamen
tally undemocratic way
Of the 119 stewards at the meeting, 80 reconvened
after conference closed to
discuss the business con-
ference refused to take.
I WAS the campaign officer who gave the to the shop con-
that the shop stewards' we
into the
and extend Equally
the letter soliciting resolutions for Labour Party activists will have noted strange alliances in their local parties over the last
black sections, self-determination for Irish people local supporters of the Militant tendency have been carrying their paper's wrong line to its logical conclusion and
plaints of Militant in the Consuluci Pollock? That longhard-working office bearers' were being ousted at the 1985 allild meeting. And that this was being done unconstitutionally because the ward treasurer collected memhalf way through the meeting and : at the beginning! 10U The fuss is explained
Scottish
- was
active Scottish and
part!
The fight against the Tory onslaught on local authorities will be of major importance in the coming months. Unity within the unions on clear
of effective industrial action to combat the attack on jobs and services will be a significant factor contributing to
Success the fightback.
At last Saturday's local governmen Cone call Jack Dromey LNE TGWU made clear the
Jimmy Fitzpatrick told Socialist Action:
Those two points
were overturned on the
day. That made my posi-
tion untenable.
dicated on the eve of the
conference that although
I would interpret those
the
ACCOOIN LUI
ference that would be my
final act on behalf of the
campaign because
couldn't go along with
the decisions which had
been made.
So having explained
to the conference what
the position was, I also
explained that had
resenced as of the cone
ference. the nine
secondees we originally
by the fact that Pollok
one of the safest seats in the countr - is about to select itsell an MP Militant are hard
work • touting around their own candidate.
By Annie Brady
Jean Mackenzie Vice
of Pollokshields told Socialist • Action
some contades were tol that if we were elected we would vote with the right wing. In contrast, it was an alliance of Militant and the right that outvoted the
'We don't want to start a witch-hunt. In fact we have been foremost defending the Militant comrades But we think comrades should
aware of the lengths Militant are prepared to go
Of MINKERS
ABOUK
position of the union officials when he said he wanted 'the best possible' for his members. It is this approach aLtempting to compromise WILS government that has shown itself to be comDielel) which reveals why tensions
union ofOCLWCCI ficials and activists.
Talks
Thatcher's attitude to
had, seven have been
suspended by the GLC
because of the City of
Westminster legal action; the last two of us
decided we could no
longer continue as cam-
staff and have
Jala
resigned also.
Through the DFL we
have facilities to meet
and discuss abolition and
rate-capping. We have
facilities for JSSCS
meet, for shop stewards'
conferences, and struc-
tures whereby activists
get together. We
must continue within
and try Suructure
and amend the constitu-
tion to accomodate the
get their candidate selected for MP'
Militant Pollok have learned nothing from the national attack launch-
When the Right Wing n0k..ued Dt
Militant
News
the dispute of the miners makes clear the only 'deal' seas is total capitulation to the Tory
smash the labour movement. Those activists at the Dru con-
who stayed to discuss a fighting strategy got it right.
In the months to come an all-out fight against the government onslaught is
suraley which will turn the tide on jobs and spending cuts. The only 'deal' to do is stand up and fight.
aspirations of the shop stewards and convenors who want more democratic orientation one lad.
The difference between the GLC and the London boroughs is that the boroughs are shop steward and convenor controlled while GLC predominantly
Play official controlled. Understanding that, the Democracy for London campaign will continue because there is no alternative for fighting for to protect local governmen jobs and services.
ed on their own tendency
• except perhaps how to
use the same methods for
their own witch-hunt when
the time is right.
TRIBUNE 2
KEEP LEFT-TO WIN
Page 11 scan of this page
News
Manchester
launches
campaign
ON 22 JANUARY Manchester city council launched its official campaign against the Tory government's attacks on local government. On the platform of the public meeting, alongside council leader Graham Stringer, were local trade union and community representatives as well as a couple of TV personalities supporting Labour's fightback.
Stringer spelled out the facts concerning Vanchester: that has the highest neve of deprivation outside inner London. 'As need been increasing we have lost over tl milion ever week since 1979,' he said.
•n the last tive vears there has been tremendous
SCI VICEs. the rates have been increased and we have lost 6000 jobs in local government. want to j with the peonie of Manchester to sav enough is enough?
Dick Pickering GMBATU underlined the problem job losses when he said that: 'For every three direct jobs lost in the public sector we lose a further two in the private
women organise
through CND.
This is why the meeting
saw the fight of NOUS
miners' wives and of the
NUM as our struggle and
agreed organise
sondarity action In Lon-
don and a delegation to
By Ilona Aranovsky,
London Region CND
It was also felt that we
needed Greenham women,
communicate and be
organised across London
to overcome the isolation
groups nave el CO-
ordinate support for the
camp, plan actior
cluding International
Womens Day, and cash in
on the policy won at CND
conference, for material
sector. Total unemployed
Manchester stands at 23.3 per cent and the worst
al car inner city regions like Moss slac where it's 50 per cent, of which 24.6 per cent are women and 40.4 per cent
Central district has an unemployed level of 34 per cent. Both these areas
disadvanTeneci severe tages among ethnic
The city council is committed to improv-
employment among women, ethnic minorities and the disabled
More than 40 per cent
Manchester's unemployed have been out of work for more than a year, ano WOrS hit age group is the 25-54 band
London Greenham
THE MORE the government tries to suppress our protest, the more women need to organise, was the conclusion of a well-attended meeting in London a week ago, of Greenham groups and women, called
and practical support for
Greenham.
It was decided that we
urgently needed new office
space for the Greenham
groans, as the Caledoning
base being by Islington
council, and the campaign
will have its own office
near Greenham.
We will approach
CND, the London Labour
Party, the GLC, and
for
assistance. Meanwhile
London Region CND will
be the temporary address.
The next will
be at County Hall on day 17 January at 5030 pm,
to discuss finance,
transport, rota, telephone
trees and achon ior miel-
national Womens Day.
which is a staggering 47.6
In 1985-6 Manchester will be hit even harder on
First there will two tronts be big cuts in the Rate Sup-
Grant. The Tori DOlL will keep around £53 million that should be used to pay for jobs and serVICES. There will also be cuts
in capital spending. If the government had only strike we can expect to
The women's organisation inside the Labour Party is growing and its debates, unlike the TUC Women's conference are not confined to issues of specific
CONCEI women.
At the last national conference the resolution passed on strip searches of the became national Labour Party policy at conference.
By Valerie Coultas
Despite all the thusiasm and energy that is directed by women into the Labour Party however our conference and our concerns are
seriously by the party as a wroe
The conference is not
minuted; it only has an ad-
visory status; and above all
women are not considered responsible enough
elect their own women representatives
NEC.
This why the
demands of the Women's
Action Committee
greater representation of
women command an over-
whelming majority every
year at the women's con-
ference.
Only the Militant
tendency darea to ge
and oppose them at last
year s concienice
WAC has concentrated
on explaining to the Party
as a whole that it is the on-
maintained Investment at only levels, there would have available to be spent: one £50 million more equivalent homes built every week. calling on the governmene council are to return the monev it nas taken from the council and to restore focar ucluciary to Manchester and all other councils.
WAC plans for
executive
THE NATIONAL Labour Women's Conference takes place this year in Bournemouth on 16-18 June. Given the tremendous rise of activity among working class women in the 11-month long miners'
ting its represen-
the elect theirs. the elects
the male
right-wing, avie the
behalf.
its terence own slate NEC
than votes. with nearly
year.
Now plans up its campaign to
ding that ElecOUL
technical
This first priority resolution
Council leaders lobby MPs
• All information from. Manchester city council in. formation roon steel
TOTallOn Room 305B, PO Box 532, TOWN Hall, Manchester M60 2LA; phone 061-234 3057/3024. The unit has copies of a pett tion for signatures and can provide speakers Jor ing their members to put through their women's SECLOIN for this year's conference.
The second resolution
has been the to chattie
been done to change parliament trom a while, male, middle class institution and that sex, race and class barriers still exist continuing to prevent ordinary men women from entering parliament.
Express numbers at
the numbers women parliamentary candidates it calls upon the NEC and the PLP to campaign for a normal working day.
The third resolution welcomes the change
to allow CuPs with once
allow CLPs with over 400 women have one extra delegate and urges the trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party to adopt a similar principle to be added numerically tionately according to the number of women in each trade union
This would change the face of trade union delegations attending Labour Party conference
One small paradox should be noted however about the unions that sup ported WAC's slate at the
conference ACTT AUEW (Const ruction); TASS; NUM; POEU; and
NUPE). They are, in their majority, male dominated unions but they are also of the left.
The closing date resolutions is 1 March, for amendments 26 April, for delegations 10 May.
Socialist Action 8 February 1985
Photo: JOHN CHAPMAN
Fred Jarvis, NUT General Secretary
Teachers pay
fight starts
By Bernard Regan
Committee.
In an unprecedented
February.
claim.
the claim to arbitration.
The National
win the claim by Ist April 1985.
tion and withdrawal Wednesday.
NUT teachers who are ill.
expected to marking and preparing
teachers.
which they are not paid
rent plan of action. of
fighting the miners,
strike action and a levy.
tempts to limit pay increases.
ment for pay increases.
best form of solidarity with the NUM
It will also
MacGregor's book. for
real fight.
11
Phot. CHRS DAVIES (Report)
MONDAY 11 February sees the next round of talks on teacher's pay in the Burnham
move, however, members of the National Union of Teachers will begin national action on Wednesday 6
It is a real sign of the real determination which is building up around this year's pay
The claim submitted by the teachers aims to restore the 35 per cent decline in the value of their pay which has taken place over the last 10 years.
'On 28 January, 3 months after the claim was first submitted the employers offered 4 per cent.
The teachers side unanimously rejected this and further opposed the bosses attempts to move
Last year the teachers agreed to arbitration and saw the employers' meagre offer of 4.5 per cent turned into an award of merely 5.1 per cent.
Union Teachers Special Salaries Conference in September rejected any moves to go to arbitration and instructed the Executive to organise 'escalating stages of action' to
It is under this pressure from the membership that and entire of all come a
'goodwill' from this members will no longer cover for
Normally if a teacher is absent they would be
look after extra classes instead of
The NUT is totally opposed to this — at a time when there are an estimated 40,000 unemployed
In addition they will refuse to do other 'out of hours' voluntary duties, like parent evenings for
At a series of regional meetings throughout the country last week, briefings took place on the cur-
However, recognising that teachers are going to be confronting a Tory Government already
many union activists were demanding that the executive organise escalating
What is needed is a united campaign by all public sector workers against the Government's al.
Teachers in England and Wales need to persuade Scottish teachers already involved in action for an independent pay review to abandon that goal and set up a united fight against the Govern-
Such a review would simply be arbitration under another name — an employers' con trick.
The Socialist Teachers Alliance has been arguing that teachers will stand the best chance of winning their claim by fighting now whilst the miners are continuing to fight and that this would be the
The Lambeth and East London NUT branche are organising a recall Salaries Conference on 9 March to organise within the union to fight for the £1200 flat rate which is at the centre of the claim.
be necessary to prepare for a counter-offensive by the employers whose leaders have taken more than a leaf or two out of
Above all it will be necessary to organise independently to force the union executive to lead a
Page 12 scan of this page
AcTioN The 'dented
'THE BUTCHER'S Apron' is an old name for the union jack among Irish nationalists. It came into common parlance at the end of the last century, associated with British Cumberland's highland clearances. It has recently been used as an excuse for Belfast council to permanently debar attending any council meetings.
In December, People's Democracy. councillor John McAnulty used the
where the Tricolour was called a 'rag' and after one anionist councillor ex-
for the SUPPUll Shankill Butchers unionist gang who engaged in indiscriminate killing of Catholics).
B! Carol Turner
•revous council meetings not a word of
Wab uttered when death threats were made
John McAnulty, вог when a pro-unionist SDLP councillor phyiscal-
People's Democracy cother
cillor Fergus O'Hare.
Both McAnulty and O'Hare stood for election to Belfast council on an anti-H block, socialist republican ticket. During
H-block campaign the! refused to take up their seats protest Exist tae nationalist prisoners.
council meeting which threw out McAnulty, Sinn Fein councillors were excluded from a council delegation aad the people of West Belfast were theatened with closure of their leisure centre if a Tricolour was BOt removed roof. Paddy Devlin, regarded by the North's leading socialist impassive v through the proceedings.
After the exclusion Clor McAnulty •Daily we see from the alished by Carenal Enterprises, O BoX, London NI. per with cue rost Urice Do be do, London ba.
SoCiAlist
'Butcher's Apron'
councillor launches
democracy campaign
General 'Butcher'
of its members from
British and Unionists further attacks on democratic rights: first on Sinn Fein, then imperialists like PD, and finally on the whole antiunionist people. Someone has to take a stand and fight back and that's what I'm doing.'
Since that meeting John McAnulty has been evicted from counci meeting February by the RUC when he asserted his right attend meetings to represent his constituents, despite the ban.
People's Democracy is launching protect the democratic 00°OF
John McAnulty
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rights of anti-imperialist
representative, aluddli
McAnulty is challenging
his exclusion from Belfas
council in the High Court.
People's
say of the campaign: 'We
want to launch a campaign
nock on Pose tell
tack on a councillor
but also and more impor-
tantly to fight the "creep-
Sinn
which both British and
Hree State governments
are promoting.
PD have set up
fighting fund and need to
raise £1000 by March to
fight the case. hey will
also be organising a con-
forces who are
Debated
democratic rights.
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and messages of support
Motio
John McAnulty c/0
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dented shield than no shield at all
Tories Rates Act,
and file.'
The crucial question up for debate is whether or not the 16 Labour councils threatened with ratecapping. and the 9 authorities winch are neavily pellans ed under the government grants system should continue to pursue the policy of protecting jobs and services by taking illegal action, including a refusal to fix rates and defaulting on local authority debts.
This speech, deliberately set out to avoid the issue of confronting the government by stressing the issue of staying in office under any circumstances.
delegates pointed out it would be impossible to protect jobs and services if Jenkin's spending himits were met.
Alex Wood, leader of Edinburgh in-
Counci. tends to introduce an illegal budget. He said that Kinnock's speech was less
shield'
NEIL KINNOCK'S dented shield speech caused controversy among delegates at the Labour Party's local government conference in Birmingham last
Urging councillors to stay in office at all costs 'to negotiate the best deal they could' he said 'better a
Ted Knight, furious at Neil Kinnock's deliberate fudge on party policy of non-compliance with the
retorted that this speech was 'totally inadequate and out of touch with the rank
than constructive Edinburgh councillors are disqualified office there are 30 people eager and ready to take their Dial.
Absence
The absence of offic ịal from the TUC the conference, despite the plans early march for democracy week of action called by the TUC's local government committee, reveals halfheartedness, about the Cortunel such rebel Labour
While Ken Livingstone has backed Kinnock's anpeal for Labour councillors lu slay office, he has turned the issue round to make it clear that the reason for this to make
LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE
controversy
Urging councillors to CuCk their manifesto commense pointed out that paying wages and providing services were higher priorities than paying back the banks.
The City of London would have to wait for its money while the GLC presents the 'case to the government for the money we are owed', he said.
alre clearly emerging in the Labour Party over how to fight ratecapping.
One involves defending conference policy and
NALGO
Photo• IFEE RIGGIN
the jobs and services. The
other involves selling them
down river with
shield at all.
John Walker, leader of
Greenwich, made it clear
parliamentary
leadership faced the same
test over the cities as the
had with the miners.
'In fight for
minimum services we call
support the parliamentary party and the party leadership, sup port that has not been for. thcoming for the leader-
ship of the NUM.'
HANDS
OFF
THE GLC!
nulgo
← Socialist Action No. 87, 1 February 1985Socialist Action No. 89, 15 February 1985 →