technology for 'safe' nuclear power stations does not yet exist - as the numerous near-accidents to date have proved. As long as they continue to function. there will be continual threats of radiation leaks... nuclear waste... and, worst of all, 'meltdowns'.
JOBS Nor only do nuclear reactors threater lives but they also -contrary to IliC logic- are a direct menace to jobs. One job in the Nuclear Energy industry costs at least £600,000 in investment, as compared to as little as £150,000 for a similar job in coa! or electricity Not content with seeing thousands of jobs go to the wall, the TUC also seems to be prepared to sacrifice hard-fought for union rights as well (which is one of the reasons Thatcher is promoting nuclear plants so fervently). Workers employed in power stations can be denied all rights under the Health and Safety Acts.
Moreover, they can be denied the right of free speech - under the Official Secrets Act - and, most important of all, they can be denied the elementary right to strike. Wasn't it Tony Benn himSimilar resolutions have been pioneered in other unions such as NALGO and ASTMS (which posed last year a sharp criticism of the TUC Energy Report).
Such opposition has to be coordinated and carried into the labour movement against those who proclaim that there is no alternative to nuclear power. Nuclear power, it must be stressed, is a threat to life, jobs and democratic rights.
There is easily enough coal to provide the basis for energy needs for hundreds of years ahead, during which time research could be developed into alternative sources such as solar power.
MASS ACTION It is not enough, however, merely to pass resolutions through union and Labour Party branches against Thatcher's attempt to tur Britain into a mudlea: timebums. What is needed is a mass campaign on the streets.
Last year, Arthur Scargill helped sponsor a mass conference of anti-nuclear activists in London as a beginning of such a campaign. Trade union and Labour Party branches should be urged to affiliate to the campaign - or its local groups - and to take an active part in building mass action on the streets.
Nuclear power is not just the concern of environmentalists. It is the concern of all working people and it is working people who should take the lead in demanding:
NO NUCLEAR POWER! FOR A SAFE ENERGY STRATEGY BASED ON COAL the Cuban revolution, Washington the plight of the several thousand Cubans at the Peruvian Embassy in Havana.
clamouring to escape Cuba for the the almost 10,000 freedom-loving Cubans", declared Carter late last April But what are the facts? Is Washingten genuinely contemed with these would-be emigres or, on the contrary, are they being used merely as a pawn to discredit the Cuban revelurior?
LIMITS Cuba who do want to get out and cannot be placed, however, at the door of the Cuban leaders who - have freely allowed those who want to leave to do so.
provided them with food, water, toilets and medical supplies. It has As part of its smear campaign against and criminal actions are then praised has gone out of its way to 'dramatise' from the jaws of communism!
AIM They have been portrayed in the Western press as victims of political persecution by a 'totalitarian' regime, clear. They are not really concerned 'free world'. "Our heart goes out to Cuban leaders.
important a Cuban revolution.
It is true that there are people in who can't. The responsibility for this the "free world'. from the beginning of the revolution EXAMPLE The Cuban government has told the people at the Peruvian Embassy that they are free to go to whatever country will take them. They have offered them safe-conduct passes so they can travel back and forth to the refugees' The reason why these people can't and other governments simply - capitalist governments are Writing in the New York Times last month, Jo Thomas pointed out only countries accepting immigrants compound"
VIOLENCE The 'lack of opportunities to leave is a polite way of saying that the USA and Spain severely limit the number of visas they will allow. To date, for example, the Carter government has only been willing to allow 3,500 Cubans into the United States.
This means that thousands of Cubans who want to leave have no way out unless they hijack boats -often taking the crews hostage - and to continue guarding the Embassy as force their way past the US Immigration authorities. These dangerous by Washington as "heroic escapes' The reason why, of course, Washington imposes these quotas is with helping the "freedom-loving' Cubans but with manipulating the issue of Cuban immigration as a propaganda tool to discredit the This has bedeme particulen tionary ferment throughout the area - from Nicaragua to El Salvador -when working people are looking By holding down entry quotas -thus forcing desperate acts on the part of Cuban dissidents - they can portray Cuba as some sort of 'island prison' denying its citizens access to The way Washington has used the incidents at the Peruvian Embassy is the clearest example of this. Cuba, Peru and other Latin American governments have an accord under which their respective embassies may grant asylum and safe conduct to those they consider 'political In recent months, the Peruvian - no doubt inspired by Washington have made it known that those who entered their embassies by force would, by virtue of that tact, be accepted as political refugees.
As an Agence-France press report recently stated, as regards the Colombian government: "(it) will only accept those would-be refugees who crash their way into its Clearly, such a move was designed to incite violence among Cuban dissidents and paint the Cuban leaders as a repressive force. They were not disappointed. On April Ist, six Cubans stole a bus and crashed it through the gates of the Peruvian Embassy, killing a guard in the process.
The Cuban government's refusal a result - and their call on anyone wishing to leave Cuba to report to the Embassy compound - drew thousands more there Despite the fact that the Cuban government was clearly willing to help all those wishing to leave the island, the Western press turned the event round to create the opposit: effect. The descending of thousar: :: on the Peruvian Embass! was ra: as an attempt by 'freedom-loving Cubans to escape trom the laws a totalitarian regime.
RESPONSE
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