Socialist Action (LSA) Vol. 3, No. 12, December 1980
A different group, and a different paper from the IMG’s Socialist Action of 1983–88. The League for Socialist Action were supporters of the US Socialist Workers Party’s tendency in the Fourth International who split from the IMG in 1976 and rejoined it in 1982.
The scan: Socialist Action v3 no12 Dec 1980.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
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Socialist FIGHT TORIES* WAGE FREEZE
George Hold (Peckham CLP)
The Tories have declared war on public sector workers. Not content with axing thousands of jobs - through social services cuts. -they have now imposed a 6% wage freeze.
However Hesaltine might interpret it, the 6% represents a full blown incomes policy. At a time when inflation is raging at around 16%, millions of workers are expected to accept what will amount to a 10% wage cut.
The Tories action against the firefighters represents the shabbiest part of their new policy. They have openly reneged on the earlier deal which guaranteed FBU members an 18.5% increase. many local authorities are appalled by the governments action.
JOBS
No doubt the Tories hope to ram their policy home by suggesting that - if the 6% pay norm is breached - then this will merely lead to a loss of jobs. They hope that the threat of redundancies Will discourage any fight-back.
But they have miscalculated. Public sector workers are not falling for that hoary old argument. In response to strong rank-and-file pressure, the Executive of the firefighters union has already declared a series of one-day stoppages combined with an overtime ban.
As Scottish regional secretary Mike Jones put it, this was "...the most basic response - the smallest form of industrial action we can take".
ACTION
Moreover, miltancy is increasing
Action
For a Class Struggle Left Wing in the Labour Movement
Even Firefighter's on strike in 1977 in other public sector unions. On hearing Hesaltine's proposals, Alan Fisher (NUPE, leader) declared: "What the government is offering is not a 6% wage increase but a 10% decrease"
Calling a conference of all public
PAI GRE of joint action in the period ahead, of one kind or another" was probably on the cards.
What is not needed, however, is "hints'. Nor delaying tactics
sector unions to work out some form Fisher hinted that "industrial action
HUNGER STRIKERS p8 CARL
POLAND
JOBLESS TOTAL
U.S. ELECTIONS
December 80 which leave the firefighters to go into action alone to 'test the water'.
Such an attitude will only allow the government the opportunity to pick off public sector unions one by one and demoralise the others.
cont. on page 5
p7
Up 3
p2
P4&5
Price 15 p
FIREFIGHTERS
TAKE LEAD
by GRAHAM WEIGHT
Britain's firefighters have not taken
the Tories 6% wage freeze lying
down. Their response was immediate.
Overtime bans were imposed up and
down the country.
Resolutions began flooding central
office calling for an "all-out strike".
While the Executive has decided to
sit on the national strike call - at
least for the time being - the rank-
and-file pressure has been such that
they have been forced to call a
number of one-day stoppages.
DEAL
But why have the firefighters
acted so promptly? The answer
lies in the agreement made with the
Labour government back in 1977.
In that year, the FBU went on a
9-week long strike to recoup a
drop in wages of 12.5% under
Callaghan's 'Social Contract',
AS a result Of the strike - whici
was one of the most bitter of
recent years- the FBU was taken
out of the pay bargaining arena
and guaranteed an average yearly
increase of 20%.
KANKUTING
This year, however, the employ-
ers began to backtrack on the
agreement. They announced that
the BU would have to accept less than the 20% and called for
between 3,500 and 4,000 redundancies
Friction was already beginning to develop when the Tories stepped in and let the employers off the hook by imposing the 6% freeze. Such a freeze means, in effect, that the agreement negotiated 3 years ago has been thrown into the rubbish bin.
ANGER
It is not just the question of pay, however, which has angered the rank-and-file so deeply. As Jim Fitzpatrick (union secretary, Battersea explains, the changes in conditions and redundancies tied to the deal mean that "the whole Juture of the service is at stake".
It is this which has led to the spontaneous imposition of over time bans in area after area and the call for a national strike.
SOLIDARITY
As the firefighters prepare for another 'winter of discontent', however, it is vital that they are struggle against the 6% - and for a decently-staffed fire service - is in the interests of all public sector workers.
The TUC has already expressed its support for the firefighters case as have leading public sector trade unionists such as David Basnett and Alan Fisher. Words, however, are not enough. What is needed is action; What is needed is a united public sector response to the 6% wage нов d ernment in its tracks.
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page 2
ORTH WALES 24
CE COMMITTEE
Mike Rodney (NALGO)
Jobs are currently being shed at the staggering rate of 10,000 a week. As industries are cut back and services axed, whole areas of the country are being returned to the industrial deserts of the thirties.
And it's quite deliberate. As Hetter pointed out in the Commons recently, pushing the jobless total to 2½ or 3 million - the Treasury's estimated figure for this time next year - is an integral part of the Tory strategy.
Creating mass unemployment will, they hope, push wages down and profits up, thus making British industry more 'competative'.
DOLE
Not content with throwing millions on the dole, the Tories have now added insult to injury by launching an attack on the victims of their unemployment strategy.
In her latest 'mini-budget', Thatcher has decided to break the link between unemployment benefits and the inflation rate. What this will mean, in real terms, takes little imagination.
Workers are not only to be deprived of a job - they are to be driven back on to the breadline. Families struggling to make ends meet are to be plunged, once more, into the misery and poverty of the 'thirties'.
By Jamie McLaughlin (EEPTU)
A large audience turned up, last month, to Socialist Action's forum on the Labour Party. The meeting was certainly well-timed. Coming
Mass Action to Defend Jobs!
MILLION ON BOLE THE
HOW LONG BEFORE
3 MILLION?
STRUGGLE
The Tories jobless strategy has not, however, gone unchallenged. On the contrary, time and again workers have shown their willingness to stand up and fight.
The eight-week long steelworkers strike earlier this year - which threatened to broaden into a general strike - is a case in point. The mass turn-out on March 9th and, later on the TUC's 'Day of Action' on May 14th, shows the willingness of the rank-and-file to fight for jobs.
What has been lacking is not the willingness of the members to fight back but that of the Labour leaders. at Number 10 - combined with rhetoric about the return of a Labour government in four years time - has substituted for any fighting strategy.
CAMPAIGN
This is what makes the mass demonstration planned for November 29th so important. Under mass pressure from the membership, the Labour leaders have finally been forced into taking action.
Moreover, they have been forced into action around demands which can mobilise the whole labour movement in the fight for jobs. The last Labour conterence accepted the call - already popular in some unions - for the 35-hour week and for an extension
SOCIALIST ACTION FORUM ON LABOUR PARTY
just after the Blackpool conference - at which major victories were chalked up against the 'right' - the scene was set tor a serious discussion on what perspectives socialists in the Labour Party should adopt.
The opening speaker, Terry Viney (Croydon CLP), explained that the present debate could only be graspea by looking al une La bour Party historically. Castigating groups like the SWP, he argued that the formation of the Labour Party was "a major step forward for working people which socialists support and identify with".
It is only by understanding the deep loyalty of workers to the party they built, he went on, that one can anderstau une Diesele csurge. "It is because workers are loyauto their party that they are seeking to detend themselves against the Tories through it".
Mike Rodney (Finchley CLP) continued this theme. Concentrating on the growing conflict between ine correrence ane une rir. ne explained that "this split is not an
not reduction, in public services.
rallying cry of ever-wider layers faced with the insanity of a system that can only survive by throwing millions on the scrapheap ONGOING
demonstration, however, to stop
The Labour leaders mustn't be allowed to view the November 29th rally as just one more "protest action'.
pressurised into using it as a
ment strategy. Workers facing redundancies and plant closures
The full weight of the labour movement should be mobilised behind them.
Labour councils refusing to implement Tory cuts - which will lead to mass lay-offs -mustn't be allowed to face Hesaltine's penalties alone. They
the industrially strong unions.
STRENGTH
It is by mobilising the full weight of the labour movement Chummy talks The leaders of the TUC and the
ed to renege on this fight any longer.
* For the 35-hour week! Oppose all red indancies with a
of pay:
claim they cannot afford a full workforce, let them open the books to inspection by trade union representatives;
providing jobs - or, are going
over under the control of the workers in the plant.
be extended to provide socially
on the dole.
accidental one. It reflects the attempts by workers to take control of their party out of the hands of a bunch of semi-Liberal MPs who continually ride roughshod over conference decisions"
ed the meeting by explaining how socialists should intervene in this orucess. more to the Labour Party tor a lead", he stressed, "the central task of socialists is to try and forge a class-struggle left-wing against the labour bureaucrats'
Such a left-wing, he went on, can't be proclaimed. It can't be articlany sel up lke Millant dr the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory think. It can only be built Dy uniang lousanas togelner around clear class-struggle positions, and fighting for them through mass
speakers in which other tendencie. took part and a real exchange of views was held. wards the Socialist Action fund drive brought in £ 38.40.
These demands can become the
It will take more than a single
Clear disarmament. the Tory government in its tracks.
COMPROMISE
On the contrary, they must be
springboard for an ongoing campaign against the Tories' unemploy-
musn't be allowed to battle alone. must be given the full backing of that the battle for jobs can be won.
Labour Party must not be allow-
call for work-sharing with no loss
* Open the books! Where tirms CHALLENGE
* Nationalise under workers control! If firms are incapable of electoral stakes.
bankrupt - they should be taken
* Stop the Cuts! Instead of cutting social services, they should
useful work for the two million
Her 'left' ticket.
WOOING
George Hold (Peckham CLP) end-
"As workers look more and with £500.
An interesting debate followed the
A colection to
FOOT: "RE CRACKS?
Michael Foot's election as leader last month was greeted jubilantly by many Labour Party members. It was seen as a clear slap-in-the-face for the Labour 'right' - organised around Healy - and its Tory backers. Correctly so. Foot's victory reflects the radical mood sweeping the party which led, at Blackpool, recently, to some resounding setbacks for the 'right' on issues as diverse as party democracy to nuc-
While a clear rebuff to the 'right', however, Foot's 10-vote victory should not be exagerated. Many MPs voted for him not simply because they felt this grass-roots pressure at their backs.
They also supported him - and not Healy - because they saw Foot as the best person to control and defuse this groundswell of opposition building up against Callaghan's pro-capitalist policies.
GM COOKSON (Socialist Challenge)
In their eyes, Foot represents a 'compromise' figure, one whoby trading off his 'left image • would be able to direct this growing discontent into channels acceptable to the PLP. As the Observer pointed out, his job is that of a 'conciliator'.
Callaghan's decision to resign -shortly after the last conference -was clearly a manoeuvre aimed at boosting Healy's chances in the
Many MPs saw, however, that a Healy victory would inflame the party ranks, who would view it as an attempt to bypass the wider electoral franchise agreed by the conference, and alienate sections of the trade unions still smarting from the 5% norm.
They feared this would lead to a strong challenge from the 'left' when Healy submitted himself -in the New Year - to the electoral college. Above all, they feared Healy might be replaced with a figure such as Benn - strongly backed by the CLPs - on a firm-
It was largely to scotch this threat from the grass-roots that Foot was pressed so urgently to
FUND DRIVE
Last month's fund drive brought
in £1,480 towards our target
figure of £10,000 by next April.
Particular thanks go to LW (S
London) who kicked off the drive
While well on our way, we are
still short of the f2,500 needed
by Xmas if the target figure is
to be reached on time. We there-
Socialist Action
PAPERING OVER
stand. It was felt that his leftwing image - particularly his old association with CND - would gain him wide credibility among union and party ranks.
This would ensure that when he submitted himselt to the electoral college - as he had pledged to -the 'left' vote would be split and the forces around Benn marginalised.
LEFT-WING?
Foot's left-wing image on issues such as nuclear disarmament were clearly a problem but - compared with the prospect of a Benn win - a small price to pay.
Moreover, as Hattersley pointed out: "Michael's not so left-wing as he used to be". Only too true. Foot's real position can be seen in his loyal defence of the former Callaghan government - 5% pay freeze and all - in which he acted as deputy leader.
These were sufficient guarantees that Foot, while credible to the party, would not bow too tar to its pressure. His defence of the PLP - since his election - and his back-tracking on withdrawal from the EEC and unilateral disarmament, show how correct they were.
CRACKS
Foot's attempts to paper over the cracks in the party, however, are doomed to failure These divisions have not arisen by chance.
They have arisen because the rank and file - sick and tired at
overturned by a few unrepresentative MPs - are demanding more democratic control. This is at the root of the differences that have flared up
They will not disappear by Foot waving a 'unity' wand. On the contrary, as the Tory attacks escalate, they will grow sharper. The party ranks will push even harder for it to implement conference decis ions - in the interests of all
working people - and this will
bring them into head-on
conflict with the Hattersleys
and Rodgers of this world.
Carol Rees (Peckham CLP)
fore urge all our readers and supporters to rush in donations (however small!) in the next few weeks.
It's the best Xmas present you could give - and we could get. Please make all cheques/postal orders payable to:
Action, PO Box 65, London, SW 16 INN.
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Thousands Protest Poland: Unions
December 80
LABOLE P YOUR VALIXI SOCIRA Terry Viney (Croydon CLP)
The 80,000 strong demonstration against nuclear missiles, in October, was a major rebuff to the Tory
Called by the CND - and backed by the Labour Party - it showed the growing hostility among British workers to Tory attempts to turn the country into a nuclear "aircraft-carrier'.
Those who marched through the streets of London were only too aware that the siting of Cruise missiles ties us, hand and foot, to the US's agressive military strategy. It makes us a number one target in the event of war.
CUTS
It has not just been attempts to import the American Cruise mis-. siles, however, which has led to anti-nuclear groups springing up all over the country. Equally important is the Tories' decision to replace ageing Polaris submarines by Trident at the cost of over £5 billion.
Their priorities couldn't be any clearer. At the very time they are calling for massive cuts in
by Mark Challen (Peckham YS)
Over 300 delegates and members
of CND met, on November 15th,
to discuss out the perspectives of
the movement in the light of the
mass October demonstration.
Nuclear Missiles
IN PARTY
SOCIALISM
PEACE
social services - unemployment benefits and social security being the latest victims - taxpayers' money is being poured into these nuclear time-bombs.
As Tony Benn, speaking at the enü of the rally explained. workers are not going to be taken in by these attempts to ".. divert attention from injustice at home by conjuring up an alleged enemy abroad".
LABOUR
This is, no doubt, one of the reasons why the campaign has found such a favourable response among sections of the labour movement. The Labour Party, at its last conference, took a clear decision in favour of unilateral disarmament.
Moreover, since that time, the massive T&GWU has decided to affiliate to CND and a major debate on the issue has opened up within the ranks of the AUEW. The Yorkshire area of the NUM, of course, has been opposed to nuclear missiles for some time.
This growing support for the campaign within the labour
CND Conference charts future
Flushed with their earlier success - and the growing interest of sections of the labour movement -the conference decided to move boldly forward and passed a motion calling for a mass rally next May "three, four or even five times this number"
The conference also decided to endorse the call from the Manchester against the Missiles for a labour movement conference in March as a stepping-stone to the nathenal mobilisation.
The fact that such motions were passed is a clear sign of the enthusiasm building up and the awareness that real opportunities now exist
movement shows that workers are not prepared to see money - which should be spent on schools, hospitals and housing projects - squandered in the Tories war drive.
POWER
ahead - and organise a really mass movement against the Tories' 'nuclear insanity' - it is
movement that it must turn.
onto the streets thousands of union members - that it will develop the power to put an
nuciear gamble.
Its decision to call another mass demonstration - and its
beginning to recognise the potential that exists.
NO CRUISE MISSILES!
BRITAIN OUT OF NATO! the Tories.
mass-action campaign, rooted in
unopposed, however. Some del. egates, notably those from the Communist Party, rejected such
MPs, Bishops and other public figures.
- and despite the fact that the motions passed at conference
national council the concensus seemed firmly in favour of a mass, labour-movement based, action
meeting at Kracow:
WALTHAMSTON
SUPPORT year
List leaders.
If CND is to grow in the period
freedom.
THREAT increasingly towards the labour
It is only by deepening its roots in the unions - and bringing out
end to the Thatcher government's
support for a labour movement conference against the missiles alliances". slightly earlier - shows that it is
SCRAP MISSILES - NOT JOBS!
weaken it. for mobilising mass opposition to
The perspectives of building a
the labour movement, did not go
basic rights.
a course in favour of pressurising
Despite this opposition, however
have to be approved by the CND
Win Victory.. Hokin
The Polish workers' struggle continues to advance. Despite attempts to block it, the Stalinist leaders were forced last month to legally recognise Solidarity (the independent union federation).
The victory followed hard on the triumphant tour by Lech Walesa and other union leaders of the steel and coal-mining regions of Southern Poland. The reception they met gave the stainist leaders nitie room for manoeuvre. Bernard Guetta, writing for the French daily Le Monde, described a typical
"The crowd was immense, so large that it was impossible to estimate the number... It was restrained, it did not chant anything, and no lists were raised, it was a tense and disciplined crowd that was not about to storm anything but was determined not to retreat.
Solidarity's support among Polish workers is such that it nas already topped the eight million mark over half of the 13 million in the socialised sector of the economy. No doubt this explains why, last month, the 'puppet' Trade Union Council bowed to the inevitable and dissolved itself.
The rapid growth of Solidarity - born out of the strikes earlier this
- come no accident More and more Polish workers see it as a real tool to combat the corrupt and repressive regime of the Stalin
This was shown only recently in Czestochowa when Solidarity lead ers — representing over 135 actores an elais inreater.ed strike action to force out Governor Wierbicki, accused of intimidating workers and hampering union
The Stalinist leaders in Poland -
and their backers in the Kremlir
ment which points toward taking
command of the government and establishing a democratic socialist
Veiled threats are already being
made. On November 6th, CP bos: Stanislaw Kania went on TV to
attack " people who build oi
maintaining and fanning workers'
dissatisfaction, These are people who
clearly aim at socialism and our
While issuing threats, however, the Polish leaders fear a head-on confrontation with the powerful working class and the impact such a confrontation could have on other hastern auropean counuies.
DIVIDE AND RULE
For this reason they have - at least for the time being - decided on a different course This involves
trying to wear down the new union, whittling away its gains and looking for opportunities to divide and
A clear example of this was their attitude towards the Charter of demands Solidarity put forward. wake leav reconne tae new union, Polish courts tried to rewrite the Charter and omit some of its
The Courts claimed the Charter
was medal because it ole not cont
ain a clause recognisig the "leading
role" of the Polish Communist
Party. They also, for example,
struck out sections that dealt with
proceaures for calling strikes.
BACK-DOWN
The Stalinist leaders have had
little success, however, with these
harrying tactics, Solidarity's res ponse was sharp. Tney declarec
that unless the Courts accepted the
page 3 demands of the original Charter -and started operating other reforms 'guaranteed' before - mass strikes would be callea ior mia-Novemdel
Once more the Polish Stalinists were forced to backtrack. CP boss Kania agreed that the union would be allowed to print its own paper and have access to the mass media. He also accepted the idea of meal rationing (to ensure fair distribution) and improvement in the supply or consumer goous
FEAR
wale valesa and omer union eaders were formalv ready lo accept the "leading role" of the CP. it is clear that the demands raised by by Solidarity undermine the CP's repressive rule at every step.
anis is war senos savers orreal up and down the backs of the Polish CP leaders and their allies in the Kremlin and elsewhere. They know only too well that the fight for democracy and equality by the Polish workers threatens the very core of their repressive rule.
The East German leaders have virtually sealed up their borders to Polish citizens to prevent the spread of the 'upsurge'. They have - moreover - openly threatenec to support the Soviet Union in action adainst the 'enemies of socialism' Workers' leader Lech Walesa
EXAMPLE
Fear of the Polish workers'
struggle is not confined to Stalinist
leaders in the East, however. Desp.
ite the hypocritical 'support' from
figures such as Reagan or Thatcher,
they know only too well that a victory for workers there would be
an inspiring example to workers
here fighting against austerity plans
and attempts to erode democratic rights
tals is way criticism dRine Polish workers leaders - such a
Lech Walesa - is already begining
to find its way into the Western Prors Omes attented Walese for Only recently, the New being "surrounded by the accout rements of power"
Both the Western rulers and Polish bureaucrats have a vested interest in defeating the Polist workers struggle. That is why it is becoming more and more important for the workers' movement every. wnere to be aware or wnat ls al stake and mobilise support for their comrades in struggle.
REVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF WOMEN'S LIBERATION
What are the roots of women's oppression and how best can they fight for their rights? These are the questions Revolutionary Dynamics' answers. It is a 'must' for all women -and men - in the labour movement aware of the importance of the question of women's rights in the anti-Tory struggle.
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Is America Mo
page 4
Socialist Action sees as its central aim building, within the labour movement, a class-struggle left-wing fighting for socialist policies against those which lost Labour the last election and disillusioned thousands of Labour supporters.
of working people but also their allies among the youth, Blacks,
right-wing allies in the labour movement).
around the following demands:
programme for those already on the dole.
living to offset inflation. own future - Get the troops out of Ireland now!
strategy on coal. Explore alternative energy resources.
around concrete issues. They also seek to encourage the widest
their point of view and for decisions to be mandatory on Labour enter
contribute to it - write to: Socialist Action, PO Box No 65, London SW16 INN.
During the last week of the Tory Party conference, some 200 unemployed youth marched 300 miles from North Wales to Brighton in order to demonsttate wen plignt.
There can be no doubting their seriousness of these young people, eager to draw attention to the hardship facing growing numbers. Why then. It must be asked - wiel tree are over two milon on tne dole - did not the campaign gain wider support?
If the Socialist Workers Party, who were the campaign's key backers, are correct in their strategv why was the road to bacon not over was will tens of thousands opposing the Tory 'dole' policies?
SIDELINES
The answer is not difficult to
Work march was not organised in the labour movement. It did not stem out of a real tight - in umon ana Labour rariv oranenes
- to launch a mass opposition to the Tory government.
On the contrary, It was a 'stunt' organised by the SWP oursue or une labour movement with tne al or getting paoncity for itself. Such a sectarian position of 'going it alone' didn't attract many workers who don't see it - or its sideline campaigns - as the answer to Thatcherism.
SWP stunt can be seen most clearly if it is contrasted with the mass demonstration against unemov ment aunched. m Liverpool on November 29th, by the Labour Party.
INADEQUATE
Not only was the SWP campaign a diversion away from the
What We Stand For
Such a left-wing should support not only policies in the interests
women and oppressed national minorities. It is only by showing that Labour champions the rights of all the oppressed and exploited that a really united offensive can be organised against the Tories (and their
Socialist Action believes that a fighting left wing should be built
* Hands off the unions! No curbs on the right to strike or picket! * For the 35-hour week! End unemployment by work-sharing
(with no loss of pay) and introduce a mass public works
* Oppose all wage curbs. For wage increases tied to the cost of
* Open the books of all companies claiming inability to pay a
decent living wage or threatening redundancies. Nationalise those
* Tax the rich not the poor. No cuts in the social services - for
social spending to be tied to increases in the cost of living. * For women's rights. For the right of all women to abortion on
demand, free nurseries, equal pay and opportunity. Support NAC. * Fight racism. Repeal all racist immigration laws. Defend the
right of Black people to organise as they see fit in the community
* For the right of all oppressed nations to determine their own
* For a safe environment. End nuclear reactors and base an energy
Socialist Action supporters, while fighting for the above demands, seek the widest possible unity of all forces in the labour movement
democracy in the labour movement to allow all currents to argue for
If you would like to know more about Socialist Action - Or
RIGHT TO WORK?
by Dave McLeod mass anti-Tory struggles but the focus of its demands was equally maaccuate. The march concent. rated around the call for the Iignt to Work While this is correct, it didn't offer any other demands which would give workers a perspective as to how it could be acheived.
It ignored, for example, two of the key slogans passed at the last Labour Partv conterence: for "A 35-hour week' and for an extension - not a cut-back - in social services.
These two demands offer workers practical - and reliablesolutions to the threat or the cole Why not shareout the amount of work available among the existing workforce without loss of pay? And why not 'soak up' those already on the dole in socially useful tasks - like building hospitals which are in short supply?
ON THE SPOT
Finally, another basic weakness of the Right to Work campaign was mal ll our une onus lor 1120ling unemployment upon those wn are are our ok wołk Drawing together the largely disorganised ranks of the unemployed is not only difficult. It is incorrect.
If the fight against unemployment is to be successful, it can only be won by mobilising the muss vower or are trace uniors and th? Labour Party. collective weight can draw the unempioved benino them ane show the government we mean business.
Mobilising the trade unions and Labour Party, however, -as happened on November 29th means that vou have. first of all to be part of them. And for the we busy on the sde mes or the labour movement, this is a difficult task.
Reagan's 'landslide victory' in the US presidential election is being boosted in newspapers every where as a major swing to the right by the American people. As when Thatcher was elected, America is being portrayed as entering an 'era of conservatism'.
Such a picture is a fraud. While the American ruling class may be shifting right. that is certainly not true of US workers. stemming from the election was not a landslide victory for Reagan but a landslide against both candidates of big business.
The following statement was re leased on October 18 by Andrew Pulley, Socialist Workers candidate for president, as he concluded a tour of Detroit.
Detroit today is the epitome of the inhumanity and irrationality of the capitalist system. Many auto work-i ers still on the line are working 58 hours or more a week, some of them doing jobs that used to be done by a combination of two or even three workers. Yet hundreds of thousands of those who used to work beside them are on the streets looking for work and standing in unemployment lines.
Matilde Zimmermann (the SWP vice-presidential candidate and I have been campaigning with simple and straightforward proposals to put an end to this madness.
JOBS
Like shortening the work-week with no cut in pay to create more jobs. Everyone now working would put in thirty hours weekly instead of forty or more.
US Elections:
ANGER
The major result LOCA - SA)
jobs for the unemployed.
from coast to coast.
This would create
HAWK
Although the press play it down, the 1980 election saw the lowest turn-out in over 30 years, continuing the decline since the 1948 poll.
Reagan won on a lower percentage vote - 26.5% - than Nixon in '72, Johnson in '64 or Eisenhower in '56.
What this low turn-out reveals. above all, is the growing frustration among US workers and their distrust of the two-party system. This tact was partially recognised by the more
US Socialists Ca
USUA
DISIIGT*30
SWANOROES
CHICK FRACKERS
1010 WRKLYS CONT!
Like organising a massive programme of building new schools, housing, child-care centres, hospitals and recreation facilities. We'd put millions to work on this project
Like opening the account books of the big corporations to public investigation. Nationalisation of
Socialist Action astute big business commentators.
The editors of the New York Times, for example, supporting Anderson's independent campaign, cynically observed: "A large body of voters is dissatisfied with a Reagan-Carter choice in November. To deny them an independent alternative risks harming something larger than the two-party system: confidence in the whole political process".
Only too true. What growing numbers of US workers realised was that - whoever got into the White House - the drive towards war and the attacks on their living standards would continue.
Carter, of course, tried to play on US workers anti-war sentiments by painting Reagan as a 'hawk' and himself as a peace candidate. Reagan's hawkish tendencies were clearly evident in his call for a blockade of Cuba and his pledge to boost arms spending
But Carter's attempt to play the "dove' cut little ice with US workers. They clearly remembered his attempted coup in Iran, his threat to intervene in the Persian Gulf and his decision to pump over $100 billion into the MX missiles system.
As correspondent Ellen Goodman wrily observed: "It's easy enough to think of Reagan as a hawk. But it is hard to think of Carter as a dove when he harbours rifle-toting Brzezinski under one wing and the draft registration plans under the other".
ANTI-LABOUR
Similarly, Reagan's open support for anti-union laws at home - and his pledge to fund tax cuts for the rich at the expense of social services - clearly alienated many US workers. those corporations that shut down and throw workers on the streets.
And like eliminating the massive war budget and using that $175 billion for human needs instead of private profits.
Carter, Reagan and Anderson have been stumping the country with a united proposal: that working people sacrifice to solve capitalism's economic and political problems. The parties of big business that they represent are united in their assault on the working class and the rights of the American people.
The American rulers' preparations for wars against the peoples of other countries are the other side of the same battle they're carrying out against American workers. They would send Detroit auto workers to fight and kill Iranian auto work• ers, oil workers and farmers in a war to defend the profits of the US oil corporations.
More and more American workers are beginning to realise that the fight for peace and security in the world, for a decent standard of living, and for social justice requires not only their support, but their active participation.
Page 5 scan of this page
December 80
Carter's attempt to benefit from this fact - and secure his base in the industrial centres — got short shrift however. Workers were only too aware that, under his administration, the jobless total had soared to 8.2 million and inflation was running at 12%.
As leading trade unionist Jerry Wurf remarked: "There's such bitterness against Carter in our union, and concern that he's cut back on services to the needy and he's using unemployment as an economic policy, that our members want to lash out at the betrayal they feel" Nowhere was this sense of betrayal stronger than among Blacks and women.
ALTERNATIVE?
Reagan, as usual, didn't try to hide his credentials. He stood on an openly anti-woman, anti-Black rights ticket. He rallied behind his oppostion to abortion - and thinly-veiled support for segregation in the South - the most reactionary sectors of US society.
But Carter, while picking up a greater share of the woman and Black vote, hat no alternative. Hadn't he cut off government funds for abortion services? Hadn't he refused to lift a finger to support the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (even though professing to support it)?
Moreover, hadn't there been a growing attack on Black rights under his presidency? Although the murder of Black youth - as at Miami - is a daily occurrence, Carter's Justice Department had regularly resisted demands to intervene in such cases.
CHARADE
In this sense, it is quite wrong to portray the Reagan victory as a
Working people are learning that we can't look to the rich and their * liticians to solve our problems for
We need a labour party to lead the eat to put our class in power. * rking people have to run the govecument if it is going to be run in the interest of the majority of Ameriis. Until we take up this task, the e of all humanity remains in the is of the war-mongering agents ::he hig corporations.
ing Right?
'shift right' by the US working
people. On the contrary, what it
represented was a shift right by the
US ruling class as they sought to whip
up support for their war drive abroad
and austerity measures at home.
What it also represented was a re-
jection of these prospects by grow-
ing numbers of US workers who
refused to take part in the charade
of choosing one capitalist candidate
against another.
LACKING
What was clearly lacking in the
1980 elections was a real alternative
which could channel the anger and
frustration of US workers against the war drive, against unemployment,
cuts in social services and racist attacks. What was lacking was a labour party.
Because of the trade union bureaucracy's ties with the Democratic Party, most workers had to express their opposition to attacks upon them either by non-voting or regis. tering a protest vote against Carter. There are signs, however, that sections of the union movement are rethinking this position.
The most dramatic example of this was when the one million-strong IAM (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) refused to back Carter's nomination for president. Despite pleas, the union conference voted overwheimingly to explore the chance ot building "an independent pro-labour party dedicated to the principles of Social-Democracy".
LABOUR PARTY
The decision by the IAM to take their distance from the two-party system is a sign that growing numbers of workers are looking for a party that represents the interests of work-
For Labour
Breaking the monopoly held by their political parties and building a labour party is necessary for our very survival.
WORKERS GOVERNMENT
Only a party of workers can lead the fight to establish a workers' gov. ernment - to put working men and women at the helm of running this country and take political power out
ing people and not big business.
and organise their own party.
POLARISATION
shift by US ruling circles as they
seek to make working people pay
for the growing crisis.
that way. The growing frustration
growing interest in a labour party that Pulley met with on his campaign - shows that US workers are moving in the opposite direction. They are beginning to organise for the big battles ahead.
Party
of the hands of the private profiteers.
A workers' government would mean our representatives in the White House and Congress. It would launch a campaign to end joblessness, hunger and illiteracy. It would re-open the shut down plants in Youngstown, Detroit and around the country.
A workers' government would make the Equal Rights Amendment law and enforce affirmative action on the job to end race and sex dis. crimination. It would put the unemployed to work meeting the needs of society. It would tax the rich, not the incomes of working people. It would draw up an economic plan based on producing for the needs of the country, not the profits of a few.
Workers would be the masters of the factories and the administrators of the social programmes. who work to produce the wealth of this country would make the decisions on how to use and distribute
Aren't these the kind of goals that the majority of working people favour?
These are the goals of the Socialist Workers Party.
Sabina Roberts (Streatham CLP)
This was precisely the ticket that the US Socialist Workers Party (SWP) ran on during the elections. Putting forward its own presidential candidate - Chicago Black steelworker Andrew Pulley - the SWP made its main thrust the need of workers to break from the two-party system
Culs.
Ronald Reagan may have won the 1980 election. His platform - which was hardly different, in essence, from Carter's - may represent a rightward
STRIKE? uary 1.
But working people are not moving
with the two-party system - and the
goverlineil.
STRUGGLE stop the cuts.
UNITY
pool NALGO put it:
tor with the 6%.
Those
Zone'
of the TUC.
way.
Conference says
"NO!" to Tory Cuts
Tim Robinson (NALGO)
Over 700 delegates - and 300
visitors - crammed into the anti-
cuts conference called, last month,
by Lambeth Labour council. Of
those attending, 450 were from
public sector unions (NALGO,
NUPE.etc) and over 200 from
Constituency Labour Parties
The main focus of the conference
was on how to organise a fight-back
against Hesaltine's latest round of
As Ted Knight, leader of Lam-
beth Council, pointed out, Hesal-
tine's most recent cash limit faces
Labour councils with a dilemma.
Either they stand firm and organ-
ise resistance or else - if they accept
the limits - they butcher services
and throw hundreds of local govern-
ment employees on the dole. In
Lambeth alone, for example, accept-
ance of the Tory cuts would lead to
the loss of some 200 jobs.
Knight argued, however, that the
only way Labour councils could
stand up to the Tories was if the
public sector unions led the way.
He therefore proposed that Labour
councils refuse to implement the
cuts provided that the unions agreed
to organise a general strike on Jan-
Knight's attempt to pass the buck
to the unions was sharply rebuffed, however, by Ron Keating (assistant
Gen. Sec. NUPE). Pessimistic about any fightback, he stressed: "There is absolutely no indication that the public sector unions will lead their people into mass industrial action"
Claiming that rank-and-file workers were not ready for strike action, Keating tried to throw the buck back to Labour councillors by calling on them to "up the rates" and then blame it all on Tory central
What both Knight's utopian call for a general strike - and Keating's equally utopian call for yet more rate increases - showed was an unwillingness by either to lead a real struggle against the Tory government.
A third - and more realistic position was put forward in an amend. ment by Lambeth Trades Council The amendment called on both councillors and unions to begin organising now a serious campaign to
WAGE FREEZE from page 1
What is needed is a joint public sector response to the Tory attack. As Al Walker, chairperson of Liver-
"The Tories have declared war on the public sec.
"To fight it, we need an alliance of all public sector workers. The manual workers' claim is in but as yet no reply has been made. The water workers also have their claim
What's needed is a joint fight by all these groups rather than taking on the government one by
What is also needed is the support
The labour leaders must be willing to swing their support -- material as well as moral -behind any action that gets under-
page 5 Vanessa Wiseman A first step would be for local
councils to refuse to implement any
Tory cuts. As Vanessa Wiseman for
the Trades Council explained: "We
have to start by taking a stand now.
No-one should be selling council
houses or planning cuts. We have
to build a movement that can save
our services"
SUPPORT
Such a perspective won the support
of many of the delegates present,
particularly from the union sector,
who openly opposed the defeatism
of Keating's amendment.
They showed, in no uncertain
terms, the willingness of many pub.
lic sector workers to take action in
detence of jobs and services. Largely
as a result of this mood, it was
agreed by a large majority that La-
bour councillors should refuse
both to introduce cuts or increase
rates (at least in this financial year).
This position was strengthened by
an amendment from Lambeth NUT
that a steering committee should
be elected ready to organise support
for "councils or councillors penalis-
ed by the Tories"
FUTURE
Whether or not Labour councils
will be prepared to abide by these
decisions remains, of course, to be
The important thing is that the
conference drew together a wide
spectrum of union and Labour Party activists who do want to fight the
cuts and who are not prepared to
see social services axed while tax
cuts are made to the rich
It is up to them to ensure that
these decisions are carried out and that — if not — a real struggle is be.
gun in the labour movement to
force Labour councils to implement
policies in the interests of the work-
ers they were voted in to represent.
BREAK-THROUGH
United action of this kind would not only break through the Tories attempts to destroy workers' living standards. It could also be a major break-through in the fight against cuts in the social services, drawing behind it Labour councils up and down the country.
By challenging the Tories' axing of schools, hospitals, old people's homes and other social services, it also has the potential of gaining the support of wide sectors of the labour movement.
The public sector workers seriously rocked the Callaghan government in 1979 when they broke through his 5% norm. There is no reason - when the stakes are that much more important - that they can't do it again.
Page 6 scan of this page
Abortion Rights Attack L.PAnti-Racists Meet
page 6
By Jane Ansell (Finchley CLP)
John Corrie's Bill was defeated last November. Mainly through the support of the TUC, the Campaign Against Corrie mobilised such wide forces that the government was forced to back down and Corrie's Bill was thrown in the rubbish bin - where it belongs.
While Corrie's Bill has been defeated, however, the Tories' attack on women's abortion rights has not abated. On the contrary, the erosion of the 1967 Act continues as before.
CUT-BACK
Under the Tories, according to latest statistics, the number of abortions in Britain has declined sharply, from 49.8% to just over 45%. This reduction is not because less women are having unwanted pregnancies or because less women wish their pregnancies terminated.
On the contrary, it is because cut-
day-care centres are being shelved, family planning clinics restricted and waiting lists growing longer and longer.
As the Brook Street Advisory Centre comments in their Annual Report, the increasing shortage of hospital beds is making it ever more difficult for women to be referred for abortions on the NHS.
BACK-STREETS
Cut-backs in tacilities are compounded by cut-backs in staff. When doctors - or nurses to undertake recommended abortions, no alternative staffing can be found.
Perhaps it is these facts which explain why, when the number of abortions per year is increasing, the
By Ann Westcott (Salford YS) Over 300 people marched through kochaale last month - in the pouring rain - to protest Anwar Ditta's continued victimisation by the immigration authorities.
Supporters included Black organisations. wabour rarly aclivists ana oners mooinsed oy the Anwal Ditta Defence Campaign (which is Rochdale based).
ENTRY
Anwar Ditta was born in Birm. ingham and brought up in Rochdale.
becomes a problem -
backs in the NHS mean that promised forced, once again, back to the hor-
rors of the back-streets?
FIGHT-BACK
cuts.
- refuse
Socialist
Action
children.
EVIDENCE
TAL EXECUIIVE COUNCIL
ABORTION Actr LEGAL
OPPOSE THE CORRIE BILL
percentage of them performed on the need, such as day-care abortion National Health is actually decreasing. centres... and therefore it calls for
Many of these are, of course, soak. ed up by charitable institutions. But it is worth wondering - when finance continue campaigning to this end".
- how many of these women are actually being
It is clear that if the National Abortion Campaign is to oppose this increasing restriction of abortion rights, it will need to win support within the general struggle - in the labour movement - against the
The fact that, last year, the TUC was mobilised into supporting women's right to abortion shows that the potential certainly exists This was shown again, at this year's TUC, when a resolution deploring the effects of the government's cutbacks on women was passed:
"Congress notes the reduction in public spending is leading to a reduc- rights being planned by NAC for the tion in health services that women
Let Anwars Children In
She went to Pakistan as a child
where she grew up and had three
In 1974, together with
her husband, she returned to Roch-
dale - leaving her children abroad
until she lound work and a nome
When she later sent for her child-
ren, they were refused entry on the
arounds that it coula not pe prover
that she was, in fact, the mother.
The fact that Anwar has clear
evidence - birth certificates
medical recoras ana protos - le
KEEP IT
CORRE BA these provisions to be properly fund. ed and for the TUC movement to
CAMPAIGN
It is important to build on this growing understanding both to oppose the slow erosion of women's abortion rights and - even more significant - to begin the campaign for positive legislation which NAC is at present drawing up.
The aim of this campaign must be to commit the TUC and the Labour Party to include the right of women to abortion - and the funding of facilities necessary to exercise this right - in their election manifesto, and to stick to it when elected.
This will mean carrying the fight into the trade union and Labour Party branches in the period ahead and winning real support. A first step will be gaining support for the Trade Union conterence on abortion
new year.
show that they are her children cuts no ice with the Home Office.
The reason is clear. Anwar's children are Black. While white immigrants can come and go as they please, the tory government is prepared to use every trick in the book - even tearing families apart - to keep Black people out.
CAMPAIGN
Anwar's heartless treatment has, however, spurred a growing
campaign against the Home Office decision. Since last February -when a mass petition was handed in - a series of actions have taken place.
The demonstration in Rochdale last month was merely the latest of
these actions and shows that Anwar nas no intention or giving up.
campaign will continue until her
children are allowed into the country.
ISOLATED
Anwar's case is not. oi course unique. She is just one victim of the racist 19/1 Immigration AC which the Tories have recently been tightening.
Fighting for Anwar's children to be allowed in is a key priority for anti-racists. Fighting to repeal the
1971 Act -
is even more key
if thousands of Black people are not
to be victimised in this way.
one-day conference of CARL supporters in the Labour Party is being called. The aim of the conference - already sponsored by a wide number of activists • is to organise activity in the party against the Tories' racist offensive.
Since coming to power, the Tories have dramatically stepped up their attacks on the rights of Black people in this country. The Anwar Ditta case, the 'fishing raids' at workplaces, the escalating number or deportations are all cases in point.
Most serious of all is their proposed Nationality Act. If passed, this will give the police the green light to increase their attacks on the Black community and cut across the ability of the labour morement to organise a united response to Thatcher.
BACK-DOWN
Unfortunately, the Labour leaders - far from challenging the Tory racist offensive -have backed down before it. Over the years, they have been only too willing to implement racist laws, like the 1971 Immigration Act.
Figures such as Callaghan actually competed with the Tories in drawing up ever more draconian measures to keep Blacks out and turn the
class citizens.
Tories intend introducing in the next session is modelled on a Labour government Green Paper that would have become law if they had remained in power.
FIGHT-BACK
WOTKIe CaSS
coanton darlics.
REBUFF The
atticult tor eraser to read
alloll
Deer snaroesu
10.2%.
proposals. them. few who did get in into second-
The Nationality Bill that the It is to change this situation that the meeting on Decemb-
Aust: Pro-Labour swing
By Len Wagstaff (Sydney)
Last month's election in Australia resulted in a big pro-Labour swing. Although Fraser's Liberal National Country Party coalition retained its majority, Labour picked up an extra 6% to give it roughly the same share of the popular vote as the bosses' party.
The only reason Fraser is back in ottice is because or electora. gerry-mandering which underrepresents Australia's urban
As Direct Action (paper of the
Socialist Workers Party) points out: "A majority of Australians voted against Fraser and the
That means
they rejected the austerity plans
of the past five years together with Fraser's war-mongering". week
This pro-Labour swing, Direct
Action continues, will make it
"another three years of hard-line, anti-union, anti-worker confront-
The biggest swing against
rraser it notes. washa los
states where confrontations between workers and bosses have
One example is
Western Australia which has been involved in several big
battles (including a fight to
defend Aborigine land rights).
nere the shut to cavour wa
In Victoria, where there has
been growing ferment around 1981'
Socialist Action Bob Swart (Streatham CLP) er 17th has been called. Its aim is to bring together the widest number of Labour Party activists who can begin, now, a struggle to involve the party in a campaign against the Tory
Early next year, CARL (the Campaign against Racist Laws) is planning a mass demonstration against the Nationality Act and other racist laws. Thousands of Black people will turn out to oppose the offensive directed against
It is up to us to ensure that the Labour Party is fully be. hind that demonstration and organises massively on the day to halt the Tory racist attack in its tracks.
If you would like to attend the meeting - or find out more about CARL - please contact: CARL. c/o Lansbury Hse, 45 Camberwell Grove, SE 5.
Sponsors of the meeting include:
Alf Dubbs MP (Battersea) John Tilley MP (Lambeth Centralj Peter Hain (Putney)
Rudy Nurayan (Streatham) Janse Ansell (Finchley) Charlotte Atkins (Battersea) Liz Atkins (Battersea)
Paul Boeteng (Norwood) Terry Viney (Croydon) Mike Rodney (Finchley) George Hold (Peckham)
issues such as the 35-hour week among workers in car plants and
petrochemical works, the pro-Labour swing was 8.8%.
CONSERVATIVE
The only reason the pro-Labour
vote wasn't higher, Direct Action
argues. was because of the
conservative policies of Labour
leaders who offered no cleat
answers to workers faced with
the bosses orlensive
Even though inflation is
running at 11% and the jobless
total nearing 500,000, the
Labour leaders refused to back
the popular call for a cost-of-
living increase or the 35-hour
Calling for a clear vote Labour,
one of the main thrusts of the
SWP was to campaign precisely
around those demands which
Labour should adopt. Under the
slogan A Labour governmen
with socialist policies, the SWP
called on the Labour leaders to
fight for a government 'that
really defends the interests of
working people'
PROBLEM
Even though Labour didn't win
the election, Direct Action
concludes,
against Fraser means that the
workers fight - wnich naa begal
to develop momentum in 1980
- will be given a new impetus in
Page 7 scan of this page
December 80 Steve Randell (Lambeth CLP)
The collapse of Michael Manley's People's National Party government last month was warmly greeted in Western capitals. A Reagan advisor, hearing of Edward Seaga's election in what was called a "landslide victory", termed it a "real opportu nity".
The reaction was not unexpected. Ever since Manley assumed power in 1972, Washington had been gunning for him. The PNP had brought in a series of reforms to benefit Jamaica's workers and small farmeis and had begun to hit out at imperialist domination of Jamaica.
CUBA
These reforms included partial nationalisation of foreign-owned bauxite companies, increased taxation on foreign businesses and a programme to cut unemployment and boost the social services.
These inroads into the superprofits extracted by the US monopolies were bad enough. What really rattled Washington, however, was the PNP's decision to break away from the domination of the International Monetary Fund and to seek friendly ties with Cuba.
Ties between the two islands began to grow as Cuba - asking nothing in return - began to provide much-needed aid for Jamaica's flagging economy and hard-hit social services.
CAMPAIGN
It was at this point that Washington's campaign against the PNP really began to take off. Acting
Frankly, Intercontinental Press carries far more articles, documents and special features than Socialist Action has room for.
If you would like to read on-thespot reports of * the Polish Workers struggle; * the fight for socialism in Nicaragua; * the meaning of the Iran-Iraq conflict; * the fight against austerity in Western Europe, why not take out a sub now?
Regular copies can be obtained from: Socialist Action, PO Box 65, London SW 16 INN
How US Ousted Manley
Jamaican troops. Sectors of army aided Seaga's campaign of terror
through Seaga's Jamaican Labour Party and the Jamaican police and armed forces, they openly moved to oust Manley from power. Their campaign took two forms.
First, they sought to break the Jamaican economy. Foreign and locally-owned companies were persuaded to cut production or shut down operations altogether. manufacturers and merchants were urged to hold back consumer items - such as soap, dairy produce and rice - that were staple items on the market shelves.
Such a campaign of economic disruption meant rising unemployment and erosion of the aiready 104 Ja. maican workers standard ot living. Seaga's JLP used this economic chaos to blame the Manley regime.
VIOLENCE
Secondly, on top of this economic disruption, the JLP were encouraged to set up gun-toting gangs of thugs and unleash them onto PNP supporters in the ghettoes. The security
this or helped brutalise PNP activists
ities.
hoodlums and security forces became totally blatant on the election day and its aftermath. documented innumerable cases of JLP intimidation of voters at polling booths where the security forces -who were supposed to be guarding the stations - turned a blind eye.
Since Seaga's election, this collaboration has resulted in the burning down of PNP constituency headquarters and violent attacks on PNP activists. Gunfire is a regular event in Kingston, the capital.
Intercontinental Press
intercome a
WORKERS' STRIKES CHALLENGE POLISH REGIME
POPULAR
ington views the defeat of the Manley government as a much-needed
Caribbean. it to reverse the revolutionary Other process that has spread from Nicaragua to Grenada.
While a set-back, however, the
La full picture of Jamaica. While support for the PNP certainly
vote.
support of the most militant work.
at PNP rallies where wild applause greeted speakers who emphasised
WEAKNESS
forces basically turned a blind eye to Manley leadership. While putting
forward some important reforms, who sought to defend their commun- it did not advocate a clear pro-
gramme of social change that This collaboration between the JLP could have inspired the Jamaican
the reactionary offensive.
The PNP has Failure to really challenge im-
perialism - and to call on PNP
communities - confused and de. moralised many who had no con-
back the reactionary offensive.
the revolutionary governments of Grenada and Nicaragua who were faced with similar attacks.
Warming the working masses to de-
prest FUTURE
Despite Manley's inadequacy, however, there are many young
and Grenada.
clear class-struggle strategy for
ahead.
Dear Cde,
Tories. was a step forward?
'waste of time'?
There can be no doubt that Wash-
tory. boost for its waning influence in the
They clearly hope to use | Jason Hill, Stoke-on-Trent
Dear Cde,
October election results do not give
life-style politics"
waned - as a result of Washington's terro: campaign - the Seaga opposi-
Win: establish re tion gained only 537 of the popuiar
Moreover, the PNP retained the
ers and youth. This became evident
us. the PNP's stand against imperialism.
more fruitful.
David Biers,
The real problem rests with the N. London
masses and mobilised them to meet
activists to organise to defend their
fidence in Manley's ability to beat
This is in marked contrast with
They Ivelyn Reed
reacted by mobilising, organising and NOMAN'S
feat the Washington-backed thugs.
from patriarcha
PNP members who have been influenced by the examples of Nicaragua
As the JLP enforces its anti-labour programme in the months ahead, it is they who will have to work out a
uniting working people in the fights
POST BAG
Cde Freeman, defending the SWP attitude towards the Labour Party, dismisses it as a 'bourgeois' party no different (in essentials) from the
Such a position has long been held by sectarians who divorce the Labour Party from its social origins. It is a position which Marxists - from Engels onwards - have had to fight against. I would like to ask Cde Freeman a question in this respect.
Up to the end of the last century, most British unions tagged behind the Liberals in much the same way as, today, most unions in the USA support the Democratic Party.
Does or does not Cde Freeman think that the decision of the unions to break from the Liberals
- and to form a party of labour -
Would Cde Freeman, if he had lived at the time have supported the break trom capitalist parties and helped build the Labour Party — or would he have written off the whole thing as a
Cde Freeman and others in the SWP can get in touch with some of your should think carefully before they write off 80 years of workers' his-
The last issue of your paper wrote off the Beyond the Fragments conference as a retreat into "personal,
Like many other left papers, you also sneeringly refer to the fact it achieved nothing.
I: may be true the conference
ever, that it was at least an attempt by many socialists - fed up with the in-fighting on the left - to get together and discuss what we have in common rather than what separates
Criticism based on dogma is easy.
Attempts to really work out a aims clear way forward - that can unite the left - is more difficult. And socialist Action pamphlets
Socialist Action has a wide range of pamphlets/books on the labour
movement, the fight for women's rights, anti-racism and the
struggle against Imperialism. If you would like a full list of works
available, which make excellent Xmas presents, why not drop us a
line at: Socialist Action Books, PO Box 65, London SW 16 INN.
WOMEN'S
LIBERATION AND
THE SOCIALIST
REVOLUTON
/VOLUTION
marianchel clan to
• The nrign
page 7 Dear Socialist Action, Cde Freeman will rue the day he wrote off the current debate in the Labour Party as "irrelevant'.
This might be the position of the SWP leaders - desperately trying to justify their sectarian stance - but it is not the position of many SWP members.
In South London, for example, many SWPers are voting on Cde Freeman's position with their feet. They are walking towards the Labour Party.
Tim Robinson, S. London
Dear Socialist Action, Please send me a one-year sub to SA. I recently bought a copy of it on the anti-nuclear demonstration and was impressed by its coverage of issues many Labour Party papers ignore. Its articles on the racist offensive launched by the Thatcher government was spot-on.
Could you also send me any more information about SA and where I
supporters?
Bob Hilton, Northampton
Dear Socialist Action, A North London Campaign Against Racist Laws group has recently been set up. It has already won the sup. port of a number of Labour Party and anti-racist activists. If anyone would like to find out more about :: - or get involved in its activity -please contact CARL, co Lans!.: House. +1 Camberwell Grera. SE :
Finchley Dear Cde. i would like to echo Frank Viney's point (SA. September 80) that the call for unilateral disarmament still doesn't feature in the statement of
How long can one go on ignoring the importance of the mass movement building up?
Jane Whitmore, Wolverhampton
Women's Liberation and
the Socialist Revolution
edited by Nita Keig
Woman's Evolution
by Evelyn Reed
Women & the Socialist
Revolution
by Mary-Alice Waters
Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Frederick. Engels introduction by Evelyn Reed
Page 8 scan of this page
Socialist Action
By Liz Easton (Hackney CLP)
The 7 hunger-strikers of H-Block are now in the sixth week of their 'fast until death'. According to the Tory government, of course, they are nothing more than 'common criminals' whose suffering is "self-inflicted'.
Such comments reveal - with startling clarity - the Tory hatred of these Irish freedom fighters whose sole crime has been to fight against the military occupation of their country.
They - like the hundreds of other prisoners languishing in N. Ireland's goals - were seized by British troops, taken to 'interrogation centres where the! car be held incommunicado for seven days, and then convicted of terrorism by juryless courts on the basis of statements extracted out of them by force.
HUNGER STRIKE
Their decision to launch a hunger strike on October 10 was an act of final desperation. Having rounded them up and imprisoned them for fighting against the occupation of their country, they were then deprived of political status and treated as convicts.
For refusal to wear the 'convict uniforms', they were allowed no other clothes except a blanket. As violators of the rules, they were then locked up constantly in special "isolation cells' without toilets.
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SENTENCES DOUBLED
Their furniture was taken away, all but a piece of foam rubber lying on the floor to serve as a mattress. They were denied any reading material, a chance even to study or play chess, and deprived of almost all contact with relatives or friends. Every day that they refused to accept convict status, their sentences were doubled.
They were given only a few minutes to wash and empty their chamber pots in the morning They were beaten on the way & had excrement and urine dumped over them. So, they had to refuse to go to the toilets.
The guards would not empty, the chamber pots. They pushed the filth back into the cells when the pots overflowed. They threw it back when the prisoners dumped it out of the windows. Finally the only way the prisoners could get it off the floor of their tiny cells was to smear it on the walls.
BEATINGS
Most vicious of all, however, they were systematically beaten & humiliated. As one H-Block prisoner describes it: "One man at a time was taken from his cell and the warders ran him from the Bwing to the circle. Each man was pulled about by the hair & beard and a thorough search was made of his mouth with a flash lamp.
The victim was then forcibly
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ror, placed on the ground, and beaten by six baton-wielding
im was then subjected to the
a flash lamp was shone up his back passage, a thin metal detector or another probe was inserted up his back passage..
When the search procedure was finished, each man was run into the C wing through a gauntlet of 12 warders who punched him on the head and beat him on his back and his shoulders with batons. Anyone
his new cell"
STRIKE
Unable to bear such physical and psychological torment any
ed to launch a hunger-strike. 7 prisoners took the initiative on
them dies, another will take his place
on criminals but they - and the thousands of Irish people who have mobilised in their support over the past weeks - know the truth.
als' are. The British government
harassed their communities and
of four leaders of the campaign in solidarity with the hunger.
a bitter taste in the mouth.
SOLIDARITY
determined to crush the hunger-
will not allow their comrades to struggle alone.
Already, over the past weeks, mass demonstrations have swept
have begun to extend into the South.
In Britain too, Charter 80 has
the Tory butchers. That support has to be extended and built on
possible layers in the labour movement must be mobilised to stop the Thatcher government committing murder.
spread-eagled over the usual mir-
warders until he fell. Each vict.
latest obscene search and, while
recreation.
who fell was kicked and dragged by the hair, ankles & testicles to
longer, on October 10 they decid-
the understanding that, as any of
The Tories call these men 'comm-
They know who the real 'crimin-
which has occupied their country,
killed those who dare to respond in cold blood. The recent murder
strikers, by SAS assassins, leaves
The Tory government may be
Ireland. strikers but the mass mobilisations of the Irish people show that they
the 6 Counties and protest actions
begun to mobilise support against
in the coming weeks. The widest
Eyewitness Report
"Having spent the whole of
Sunday in the prison, I was
shocked by the inhuman cond-
itions prevailing in H Blocks 3,
4 and 5, where over 300 pris-
oners are incarcerated. One
would hardly allow an animal
to remain in such conditions,
let alone a human being.
The nearest approach to it I
have seen was the spectacle
of hundreds of homeless peop-
le living in the slums of Cal-
cutta. The stench and filth of
the cells, with the remains of
rotten food and human ex-
creta scattered around the
walls, was almost unbearable.
In two of them I was unable
to speak for fear of vomiting.
BLANKETS
The prisoners' cells are without beds, chairs or tables.
They sleep on mattresses on
the floor and in some cases I have noticed that these were quite wet. They have no covering except a towel or blanket, no books, newspapers or reading material except the Bible, no pens or writing material, no TV or radio, no hobblies or handicrafts, no exercises or
They are locked in their cells for almost the whole of
every day and some of them have been in this condition for more than half a year.
The fact that a man refuses
to wear prison uniform or do prison work should not ent-
ail the loss of physical exerc-
Protests Sweep
Northern Ireland
Support for the demands of the 7 hunger-strikers in H-Block is sweeping through the North of
On October 26th - the day before the 'fast until death' began - over 25,000 marched through Belfast in solidarity with the prisoners. Organised by the National H-Block Cttee, it underlined the popular feeling building up behind their courageous stand.
Similar demonstrations have occurred in other parts of the 6 Counties. 1,000 marched in Dungiven, County Derry, and a similar number marched through Derry itself the following day. In County Tyrone, 600 protested through the town of Coalisland.
of Blocks
Cardinal O'Fiaich
ise, association with his fell
ow prisoners, or contact with
the outside world. These are
basic human needs for phys-
ical and mental health, not
privileges to be granted or
withheld as rewards or pun-
ishments.
DIGNITY
The human dignity of every
prisoner must be respected
regardless of his creed, colour
or political viewpoint, and
regardless of what crimes he
has been chargeu with....
Several prisoners complain-
ed to me of beatings, of verbal
abuse, additional punishments
for making complaints, and
of degrading searches carried
out on the most intimate
parts of their naked bodies.
Of course, I have no way of
verifying these allegations.
but they were numerous."
BON'T LE
What is equally significant, the protest actions have begun to extend into the South. On October 25th - the day before the hunger strike was due to begin - several hundred took part in a public meeting in Dublin and a torchlight procession the following day.
Over the past few weeks - as in the North - a series of vigils and meetings have been held in such towns as Drogheda, Monaghan and Dulkalk. On November 22nd, over 10,000 took to the streets again in Dublin and handed in a letter to the Irish Parliament demanding Premier Charles Haughy take action to force Britain to concede political prisoner status.
← Socialist Action (LSA) Vol. 3, No. 10, October 1980Socialist Action (LSA) Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1981 →