Socialist Action (LSA) Vol. 4, No. 3, March 1981
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 v4 no3 1981.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
Socialist
NO NATIONALITY
ACT!
CARL)
THE Campaign Against Racist Laws (CARL) has called for a national demonstration in London on April 5 to defeat the racist Nationality Bill.
Unless mass opposition is mobilised, this bill could become law by June. This would mean not only tighter controls on Black immigration, but also the loss of basic civil rights for Black people already resident in Britain.
The bill provides three classes of people. Only one - "British citizenship" - gives rights to settle in this country. Many thousands of Black Commonwealth citizens would become effectively stateless while Black settlers will be unable to acquire citizen rights.
Even Blacks already in Britain could be denied voting rights and jobs in the civil service.
A groundswell of activity against the bill has been growing.
75,000 DEMAND
'MAGGIE OUT!'
by JIM KUBINSUN (Lambeth CLP)
"Fantastic - it's the biggest demonstration Scotland's seen since the General Strike." That's how Helen Riddel, Scottish Labour Party Secretary, described the anti-jobless rally in Glasgow on February 21.
Organised by the Scottish Labour Party and TUC, almost 100,000 braved the bitter cold to protest Tory policy. Iney came not only from Scotland. which - like other areas of the NorthEast - has borne the brunt of Thatcher's jobless drive.
They were joined by thousands more who had travelled there by special bus or coach from all areas of the country. One of the largest contingents - one of 4,000 from Liverpool - hired two
Action
For a Class Struggle Left Wing in the Labour Movement
All out April 5:
By MIKE RODNEY (North London Local campaigns are springing up throughout the country. South London, Bristol and Birmingham CARL groups which had been leading the way are now being joined by CARLs in Bradford, Swindon, Southall and North London.
An upsurge has also taken place among the Black community.
In an attempt to conceal the racist nature of the government proposals, and to pacify Black people, Whitelaw has announced plans for an "enquiry" into "extremist and racialist organisations".
The timing of this move is no accident. In a scheme designed to offset the anger among Black organisations about government legislation, Whitelaw is planning to set up special police investigation units into racism.
While some Black leaders have welcomed the news, many Black people will see this as a sick joke.
Continued on Page 3. trains and 50 coaches for the day.
One of the aims of Thatcher's jobless •rive nas been to demorause workers into accepting wage cuts and speed-ups. If so, this strategy hasn't worked.
The 100,000 who turned up on February 21 were not demoralised. They were angry -
As the contingents of car-workers, firefighters and engineers marched through the streets of Glasgow, "Sack Thatcher not workers" and "Jobs not bombs" were the slogans that rang out
The mood of the marchers was expressed by a young nurse (from Glasgow Royal Infirmary) who said: in secure jobs, but we feel as strongly ahout it as everyone else
By JANET ALSOP
youth, turned out in Lewisham, on March 2, to protest growing racist violence.
grant community.
hoed up and down the route. "We'ru
we re Continued on Page 2.
CND
7943
THOUSANDS PROTEST
RACIST VIOLENCE
Over 5000 people, mainly Black
Supported by anti-racist activists January 18. in the labour movement, the march made its way through Lewisham to more hospitalised. the obvious support of the immi-
The mood of the marchers was summed up in the slogans that ec-
"End Racist Violence", "For Freedom" Out: and "This is Black Peoples' Day" were the main slogans chanted by
CONTENTS
UNEMPLOYMENT
CUTS/ RATE INCREASES H-BLOCK LABOUR PARTY EL SALVADOR MINERS
March 1981 Vol.4 No.3 100,000 Black people marched for their rights in Washington, USA, on January 15. Similar mass demonstrations, uniting the labour movement and Black community, are needed in Britain. Black youth, many of whom had obviously taken the day off school.
The march followed a series of meetings and protests over the firebombing of a party in New Cross on
Thirteen Black teenagers were killed and over two dozen
The firebombing and police inaction have outraged the Black community. As New Cross Massacre Action Committee chairperson John La Rose told the February 27 Time
"Did you see the reaction in Dublin when they had the fire in the
2
4 & 5
6 Price 15 p
•A Jailsioo?
disco there? They had a day of mourning, the prime minister spoke, it was all on the front pages. The Queen even sent a message of sympathy. Compare that to what happened here - right in the heart of London."
If it had been a white party, of course, most of the local Black com munity would have been harassed by now, and a frame-up probably organised as well. But when 13 Black people are killed, the cops can't come up with anything.
A meeting of local Black people
Continued on Page 3.
Page 2 scan of this page
...Glasgow shows way forward
A fighting strategy against unemployment
PAGE 2 Continued from Page 1. marching for the others".
It was this sense of unity - this sense that the Tories' jobless drive is of concern to all workers - that best summed up the feeling of the marchers and their determination to do something about it.
It was reflected in the speeches at the end of the rally. Michael Foot, in particular, spoke of the "rising fury" over the jobless total which is now reaching a postwar peak.
He called on the labour movement to unite against the Tory butchers. "Rise like lions," he told the marchers, "We are many but they are few."
RESPONSE
The Labour leader's passionate speech clearly found a response among the marchers, who are seeing jobs disappear at the rate of By DAVE BELL (Hackney CLP)
WITH the jobless total now the worst 11 nas Deen since me sus. usE monuns Socialist Action public forum on unemployment took on some of the key questions in the class struggle today. What are the causes of unemployment! Is there a way that workers can stop the
Liz Faston (Tottenham CLP) showed that unemployment is not just an unhappy accident. Just as Thatcher advised Reagan recently that the only way lo cure malon is to but up will unemployment, capitalists and their governments nave no solution to the prod• lem except by attacking worker's living standards.
True, Britain has one of the worst-hit economies at present. This is largelv due to lis outmodea macninery. bur unem ployment throughout the West is rising
from Labour
Shirley Williams and David Owen led split from Labour Party.
By BOB SWART (Streatham CLP)
THE "gang of twelve" has finally split. On March 2, Shirley Williams and her cronies announced that they were renouncing the Labour whip and sitting in Parliament as "Social Democrats".
So concerned with democracy are they that they are not even going to resuommit themselves tor election. much for the thousands of Labour voters wno put them into office in the first place and who, with consumate hypocrisy, they claim to represent.
But how have the Labour leaders reacted to their desertion? Have they denounced their attempts to split the
12,000 a week.
While passionate, however, Foot failed to spell out exactly what
Socialist Action forum discusses
sharpely and, as a recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicted, is due to reach 21 million by 1984.
SACRIFICES
Attempts to win sacrifices out of workers is not new. Both Torv and Laboul governments nave altempica to squeeze living standards.
Heath in the early 1970s applied a wage freeze until the miners kicked him out. Mandated by his party to promote free collective bargaining. Wilson brought in a "voluntary prices and incomes policy".
pay norm lost Labour the last election.
SOLUTIONS
Does the Lavour rarty as yet orler any solutions to bring back jobs and boost
Right-wing splits
Labour vote?
un une contav. comments or tael leaving seem more tinged with regret tal neste This is, of course, no accident. While many MPs are not willing to join Williams and her allies in the "wilderness", they share the same hostility as them to the step forward in democracy achieved at the last party
conference.
The clearest sign of this was last month when, under an initiative from Roy Hattersley, a new grouping was set
Backed by over 100 MPs from Neil Kinnock to Denis Healey, the "La-
FACTORY
CLOSURES-
OCCUPY!
Glasgow march showed growing militancy of working people.
steps could be taken to curtail the mounting dole queues. pay?
(ALs) pul lorwara as tne radical alternative by the TUC and the Labour Party NEC sets out to reilate the economy.
plained that such a policy was the basis of the Wilson government in 1974. Backed by Tony Benn, the AES suggests that economic problems can be solved within the framework of capitalism.
IMPORT CONTROLS?
controls, financial aid to flagging indistries and a "prices and incomes policy".
As Robinson explained, import
would encourage British workers to ally
workers.
ahead to build the struggle against
une lores.
Thanks to our readers and sup-
has been achieved and last month
Centre in South London. A larger
and better equipped Centre repre-
Action, since it provides us with a
much more solid base on which to
of our expansion - a fortnightly
Socialist Action.
offices and production rooms, we
hope to be able, in the near future,
to fully equip a photographic room
as well as a reference library.
IN-DEFIH ANALYSIS
in a more frequent production of
the paper. Just as important, it will
enable us to improve the quality of
Socialist Action.
far wider reporting of issues and
events in the class struggie, we hope
to bring our readers greater in-depth
coverage and analysis of the main
Tories.
focussing more deeply on the union
front to provide our readers in the
unions and CLPs with a sharper tool
Continued on Page 5.
reverse the process.
ORT
ACTION
ARTY
axe this month. ity payments
ernment in its tracks.
While backing the miners' strike The "Alternative Economic Strategy"
Tim Robinson of Socialist Action ex- workers again!
STRATEGY How? By propping it up with import
controls would lead to a trade war. lhes
dacs themselves with the bosses against foreign By TIM ROBINSON (SA Organiser)
LAST Christmas Socialist Action announced plans to move full steam
porters, stage one of that expansion
Socialist Action moved into its new
sents a big step forward for Socialist
move ahead and complete stage two
Having already moved into the new
A new Centre will result not only
Name...... battle-fronts being waged against the
Specifically, we shall be Address.....
in the fight for class struggle policies.
All this means more cash. It means I enclose the sum of £.
- as the best way to defend jobs
- his main thrust seemed to be to
wait for the election of a Labour
government which could begin to
But workers cannot wait that
long. In Linwood (Glasgow) over
5,000 jobs are threatened with the
Whole areas of the country are
faced with similar close-downs
and redundancies which are turn-
ing them into industrial waste-
lands. Young and old alike face a
bleak future living off social secur-
Waiting will not solve the prob.
lems of these workers. What the
marchers in Glasgow wanted was
action today to stop the Tory gov-
The regional rallies called by the
labour leaders - of which Glasgow
As socialists, shouldn't we be trying to
destrov the massive monopolies which
control our lives? Clearly Benn sees worKers
his task as providing artificial respiration
for them so they may resolve to exploit
Socialist Action takes a totally different to provide services and to create jobs.
view. A capitalist crisis always results in
the bosses mounting a fuli-scale attack on RACIST
workers. They try to divide workers
nationally and internationally.
Tunes
The only strategy to fight this offensive
must be to mount a mass movement
which can unite all workers.
Demands for the 35-hour week and
for work sharing with no loss of par ofte
workers a genuine solution to job short-
We should call upon the bosses to Open
the Bonks! Bosses who maintain that
Building Socialist Action
that we have to ask all our readers
and supporters, who have already
given generously, to dig a little bit
deeper into their pockets to provide
us with the resources to carry on
Last month's fund-drive brought in £843 towards our target figure of £10,000 by the coming Easter. That means that the total collected so far is f4,203. Already Socialist Action has made use of these extra resources. Your contributions have made it possible for us to purchase a typesetter. This will ease pressure on production and enable us to maintain the paper on a regular monthly basis.
Particular thanks this month are due to the Stoke-on-Trent supporters of Socialist Action who contributed £100 towards the fund-drive, and to DB (North London) who gave £50 and LW (South London), £100
While we are almost halfway to the target figure, however, it is clear that we will need an all-out effort in the remaining months if we are to reach the total needed to bring out Socialist Action more frequently.
For this reason, we once again urge all supporters and readers to dig deeply into their pockets and give generously. Socialist Action - unlike the bourgeois press — can't rely on advertising revenues to cover the cost of inflation. It is only by relying on your generosity that we can keep ahead of costs. Please complete the form below and send today.
As well as providing To: Socialist Action, PO Box 65, London SW16 INN.
SOCIALIST ACTION was the second - can play a major role in this process.
35-HOUR WEEK
Such mass action around the demands passed at the last Labour Conference - for the 35-hour week and an extension of public services - can become the rallying cry of ever-wider layers of the labour movement.
They can give real backing to workers facing redundancies and councils fighting the cuts. They can give them confidence to take on the bosses — as at Gardners -by showing them that they are not alone in the struggle but have the support of milions up and down the country.
Most important, they can unite the labour movement in the face of the Tory offensive and lay the basis for an early return to a Labour government committed to defending workers' interests. they cannot afford to provide jobs must have their accounts scrutinised by the
such companes wno tall to satisI) workers' needs should be nationalised.
The public sector should be expanded
In discussion, it was pointed out how racist laws sucn as the Natonauty Bul are used to divide workers along racist
workers for the dole queues.
Attempts have also been made to divide women from men by mounting an ideological assault on working women, suggesting they should return to the domestic household. building Socialist Action.
Please send all donations (cheques/ postal orders to "Socialist Action") to: SA Fund Drive, PO Box 65, London SW16 1NN. .......as a contribution to your Fund Drive.
Page 3 scan of this page
Labour anti-missiles conference
Labour anti-racists to meet ...New Cross killings protest
MARCH 1981 By TERRY VINEY (Ravensbourne CLP)
1980 was the year CND jumped out of the history books and became Britain's fastest growing campaign. By Christmas, CND had emerged out of nothing to a membership of 20,000.
Government intentions to import US-controlled Cruise missiles and to spend £7 billion on Trident led to protest on a massive scale. Last October, 80,000 people demonstrated against nuclear missiles. Included in that demonstration was a large percentage of Labour activists and many young people.
The campaign swept swiftly into the heart of the Labour Party. At its annual conference in the autumn a clear majority voted for unilateral nuclear disarmament. Unlike the right-wing Gaitskell in the early 1960s, Bill Rogers and his gang have been incapable of swinging the party back in the opposite di-
MILITARISM
And no wonder. The US arms build-up is taking place on an unprecedented scale. Brushing aside the SALT II agreements - which have not even been ratified by the US Senate - Reagan, like Carter, is drastically increasing military spending. Clearly Reagan does not feel bound by his electoral platform to make cuts in detence.
By TONY ROBERTS (Streatham CLP)
SINCE coming to power, the Tories have dramatically stepped up their attacks on the rights of Black people. Fishing raids on factories and the increased number of deportations are cases I DOHL
Most serious of all is their proposed Nationality Bill. If passed, this will give the police the green light to increase their attacks on the Black community ana cur across tne ablty or the labour movement to organise a united response to the Tories.
BACK-DOWN
Unfortunately, the Labour leaders -far from fighting 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 like Callaghan have actually competed with the Tories in bringing in ever harsher curbs to keep Black people out, and turn the few who do get in into second-class citizens.
FIGHT-BACK
It is to change this situation that -last December - a mccle or Labour Party anti-racists was called. Bringing together a large number of party activists, its aim was to struggle to involve the party in a campaign against the Tory orobosals.
The meeting passed a motion com-
...No Nationality Act!
Continued from page 1.
Wasn't it the police who raided factories and workplaces in search of "illegal immigrants"?
Haven't the police used the "Sus" laws and immigration laws to harass the Black community?
An inquiry into racism in the police force might be less distasteful.
BUILD APRIL 5
The heroic struggle waged by Anwar Ditta and Nasira Begum and the march and lany ol duo rupios deprved oi their rights by the immigration laws must be built on.
For the labour movement, the stakes are just as high as for the Black commu-
This strategy is explained away by inventing a "missile gap" which supposedly leaves the Soviet Union at an advantage. shows the West "defenceless" against a Soviet juggernaut ploughing through Afghanistan on its way to America's oil supply in the Middle East.
As usual, that is a lie. lied in 1956 about a "bomber gap" demning the Tory attacks and pledging to mobilise support in the labour moveuncil aralist ine lones. as une state ment pointed out:
"..if the Labour Party cannot defend the most disadvantaged sections of work ing people, it will not be able to defend any working people from te 1 ones attacks on our democratic rights and Living conditions.
"Racist sentiments would continue to be fostered and wreck the ability of the labour movement to organise the strong. est possible fight-back against attacks on working people."
RALLY
The meeting elected a committee -made up of activists from a number of CLPs- with the task of organising support for the proposed mass CARL demor slanon on April s.
Aside from calling on LP branches to invite speakers and pass resolutions against the proposed Tory Bill, it also called on them to organise public meetings to whip up local support. North Finchley CLP, for example, is doing just this.
Most important. in order to gain the widest support for the demonstration, it is planning to nola a mass one-day Le conference on March 29. bers are invited to attend. For details, contact Jane Ansell, c/o Lansbury Hse, 41 Camberwell Grove, London SES. nity. By blaming unemployment on Black people, for instance, workers can be divided in their fight for a job.
The Black communities must be given backing from the broad ranks of the labour movement. The call for support for the April 5 demonstration must be taken up in every trade union and Labour rarty branch.
It is no use complaining that such a struggle is a waste of time because the parliamentary opposition is in the minority.
It is precisely because the parliamentary fight cannot be relied upon that a mass struggle on the streets is
NUCLEAR
BASES
NUCLEAR
TARGETS
Labour movement is decisive for winning anti-missile fight.
In 1960 Kennedy lied about a "missile gap".
Such an argument sweeping through Europe or the
Middle East.
Eastern European countries like Poland are too hot to handle.
Reagan chooses to impose a nuclear policy by fear.
Eisenhower
seeing Britain as part of a "Euro-
Continued from page 1.
the sound of breaking glass. The man then sped off in a white Austin Princess car. as the whole front of the house went up in a blaze.
racist attack is also backed up by the lies of the victims. A series of letters gloats over the deaths.
growing campaign of violence against Black people.
Labour and Tory MPs has reported a big increase in racist attacks over the past months.
London. it is literally unsate Ior Black
Black homes have also been organised by local racists.
TORY GREEN LIGHT
comments from MPs like Jill Knight that Black parties are a problem, the fishing raids, the deportations, cop All LP mem-
Nationality Bill, all encourage violent attacks by racist thugs.
Assemble Speakers Corner, Hyde Park 1.00pm. March
Called by the Campaign
tion of major Black, labour movement, civil liberties and left organisations. information, contact CARL, Lansbury House, 41 Camberwell Grove, London SE 5.
off.
working people.
4,000 houses. just doesn't add up.
STRATEGY ACCOUL
Not only is Russia incapable of
is an excellent start.
Right now even
manifesto.
Increasing numbers of people are after the fire set up a fact-finding commission. Its preliminary report pointed out that a person leaving the party had seen a man throw something, then heard
Inal ine Illedombing was a dellberate
racist hate letters received by the fami-
The fire also comes in the midst of a
A parliamentary group of
In some areas, such as parts of East
people to walk the streets. Attacks on
The racists have gotten the green light from the Tory government. Its talk of being "swamped" by an "alien culture",
harassment of Black vouth and now the
The labour movement must respond
ALL OUT APRIL 5!
NO TO THE NATIONALITY
BILL! around une country.
2.00pm to Trafalgar Square.
March 4.
Against Racist Laws - a coali-
For further committee.
pean theatre" in which the US can play out - and hope to win - its nuclear war. By having the largest Stoke. number of nuclear warheads per head of population, Britain is the number one target in such a play.
In any case, at a time of cuts in living standards and jobs, an arms expansionist policy is suicidal for
At a time when three-quarters of all current social spending cuts will go in housing, one Trident will cost
For workers, it
Allowing the warmongers themselves to sit round a table and plot out our future is not likely to get us very far. After 15 years of detente, the world's arsenal of nuclear weapons can destroy us more times over than ever before. What is needed is a clear strategy which brings these madmen to
The Labour Movement Conference Against the Missiles - to be held in Manchester this month -
Not only is it a chance to build for the necessary two-thirds majority at Labour Party Conference to get uniiateralism written into the election
The Labour Party delegates can begin a drive to win local councils to the policy of a On March 2 protest against racist violence, police inaction and official silence. The protesters held placards with the faces and names of the 13 Black youth who were killed in New Cross. attacks is the CARL demonstration against the Nationality Bill on April 5.
to these attacks by co-operating in the defence of the Black community and by giving the strongest possible support to
North London CARL
LAST January, at the National CARL Conference in Birmingham, (reported in last month's Socialist Action), a call went out for local CARL groups to be set up
Answering that call, a new branch has been formed in North London.
It held its first public meeting on
About fifty people turned up to hear John Plummer and Sue Shutte from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Liz Atkins from the Labour Party Race Action Group and Mike Rodney of the CARL mobilising
A mood against the Nationality Bill has been growing rapidly in the area.
February a meeting called by Haringey
PAGE 3 nuclear-free zone as has already been adopted in Manchester and
Meanwhile, union delegates can begin to develop support for CND among the ranks of the union movement. Such a task is essential. Without the muscle of industrial trade unions CND will be incapable of stopping Cruise missiles from getting into Britain. Once won to unilateralism, trade unionists can boycott work on missiles or stop their entry into the country.
Stoke CND
By MIKE HOPKINS (Stoke-onTrent CLP)
STOKE CND is an excellent example of the campaign's strength. Starting 7 months ago, the branch has swelled from 7 to 300 members. Recently it had to split into 14 local branches.
Support comes from individual union members - ASTMS donated £l00 - and CLP affiliations. The council has declared Stoke a "Nuclear-free Zone".
Activities include a monthly newsletter, visiting speakers, getting signatures and building for national mobilisations. Developing CND through the labour moremen? is seen as a ke! objective.
The next step in the fight against racist
mass anti-racist actions such as the April 5 national demonstration against the Nationality Bill.
labour activists to oppose the Bill attracted over 100 Black, Labour Party and trade union supporters.
The Haringey meeting and other activities in the area have shown the need for a united campaign specifically to defeat that Nationality Bill and to repeal the 1971 Immigration Act.
The task of local CARLs is to ensure that the fight to repeal all racist laws is carried into the grass-roots of the labour
This will make it even harder lot ine labour leaders to go back on the pledges they are now making.
Already a positive response is coming from organisations in North London fo: the launching of the CARL branch.
Page 4 scan of this page
No cuts — no ra
Tories gain from Lal
PAGE 4
Karolyn Kerry
ON February 5 Karolyn Kerry, a
veteran leading member of the
American Socialist Workers Party, died of an unexpected heart attack in San Diego, California. She was
70 years old.
Coming from a poor Southern background, Kerry was deeply af-
fected by the depression and joined the Trotskyist movement in 1934.
In nose days tne movement was subject to Stalinist goon attacks and Kerry, an enthusiastic seller of the Trotskyist press, would take an umbrella to defend herself selling on the watertront or outside union meetings.
She was involved in a series of union organising drives in California: unionising waitresses in San Francisco, building support for maritime and ship-building workers and initiating a women's auxiliary to help fight the bosses, being involved in the agricultural workers' struggles and organising fish cannery workers.
During World War II, when many party ieaders were jailed, Kerry and her husband Tom began full-time work for the party in New York. rouen une aneum vears or une Cold War and witch-hunt they were part or the unsnakeadle core of the Trotskyist movement.
Karolyn Kerry subsequently managed swr election campaigns. or ganised promotion for the Trotskyist Pathfinder Press and was business following demands:
on the dole.
to offset inflation.
* For women's rights. o be uto to mcrease
free nurseries, equal pay and opportunity. Support NAC.
* Fight racism.
the troops out of Ireland now! * End the war drive! For unilateral nuclear disarmament.
on coal. Explore alternative energy resources.
to be mandatory on Labour leaders.
and return the form below.
6/12 months.
Name.
Address
SW16111
Karolyn Kerry in 1974 manager for the SWP weekly paper Militant.
Over the last 20 years she drew particular inspiration from the rise of the Black struggle, the Cuban revolution and the women's liberation IT SAMAR COM AS ATA AA A GET Socialist Action extends its most
and friends of Karolyn Kerry and to the SWP in the loss of this meticulous and determined battler for humanity's free, socialist future.
What We Stand For
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.
Such a left-wing should support not only policies in the interests of working people but also their allies among the youth, Blacks, 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 right-wing allies in the labour movement).
Socialist Action believes that a fighting left-wing should be built around the
* 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 programme for those already
* Oppose all wage curbs. For wage increases to be tied to the cost of living
* Open the books of all companies claiming inability to pay a decent living
wage or threatening redundancies. Nationalise those that put profit before * Tax the rich not the poor. No cuts in social services - for social spending
in te cost or living For the right of all women to abortion vil demand, Repeal all racist immigration laws. Defend the right of Black
people to organise as they see fit in the community and labour movement.
* For the right of all oppressed nations to determine their own future - Get
* For a safe environment. End nuclear reactors and base an energy policy
Socialist Action supporters, while fighting for the above demands, seek the widest possible unity of all forces in the labour movement around concrete issues. They also seek to encourage the widest democracy in the labour movement to allow all currents to argue for their point of view and for decisions
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of the rate support grant.
passed on from central government
to the local authorities.
mine how the money should be spent.
But not only has the grant been savagely cut, so that there is £158 million less paid out than three years ago. It is now based on an es-
vices cost.
that a greater proportion of it must be used to prop up the forces of "law and order". control the anger expressed by workers as they get to see what is happening to their jobs and services.
to find any dodges. which have avoided making cuts face an impossible situation.
his vicious plans to punish councils that don't play ball. ers" who avoid making the proposed cutbacks of 5.6 percent face further drastic reductions in the grant.
is seen clearly by the move to drain the poorer urban areas of money and to divert a greater proportion of the grant to better-off rural areas.
WHAT IT MEANS
The effects of these moves are disastrous.
Wandsworth have a field day in slashing services, many Labour councils such as Islington have followed suit. In short, they are pass-
LIKE many other Labour coun cils faced with the Tory cuts, Lambeth decided that the only way to avoid axing services was to raise the rates.
have been raised three times - the latest by a massive 20p in the pound.
Attempts to maintain jobs and services by making working class tenants and rate payers pay through the nose, however, has boomeranged back in their face.
PROTEST
Only last month, a major 3000strong demonstration against the council's rate increases took place. Organised by the Tories, it drew its support not only from small shop. keepers but also from the council estates where the idea of a rate and rent strike is gathering force.
The workers backing the antiKnight rally were not Tories. They were working people who, at a time of inflation, are hard-pushed to fork out the extra £6-8 a week Knight is cemanding or them
By JANE ANSELL (Finchley CLP)
ONE of the first acts of the Tories when they took power nearly two years ago was to give huge tax concessions to the rich. higher earnings, the wealthy took to the bank up to £100 extra per week.
Tory strategists ever since have set out to get working people to pay for people. those increases. One direct result of This means that: these tax cuts is Heseltine's slashing
all spending cuts.
This grant - traditionally worth nearly half of all local spending - is had been taking place.
This has always left local councils free to deter- ready been stopped in some areas.
at risk.
timate of what local authorities' ser-
It is also coupled with the demand
- presumably to
Wing over 21 years?
Nor are Labour councils expected
Those councils
Last Christmas Heseltine revealed
"High spend- decent home."
CAMDEN
The full meaning of these actions
While Tory boroughs like which could lead each councillor to
have backed down.
By JAMIE MCLAUGHLIN (EEPTU) which the Tories are cutting.
CRIMINAL
Over the past two years, the rates
Lambeth.
thrown on the dole.
FIGHT? soaking other workers.
Because of their
ing on the Tory cuts to working
* housing takes up 75 percent of
There is a stop to the small building programme that
* services to old people are threatened. Domiciliary services have al-
* the young are to have less nurseries than ever before and school budgeting is tightening.
* services to the handicapped are
* and all this means that at a time of 2½ million out of work, thousands more jobs will disappear.
In two Midlands councils alone, 900 jobs seem likely to be axed.
Is it surprising that Shelter, the campaign for the homeless, predic: council house waiting lists stretch-
As Shelter's Neil Mcintosh says "We are already well on our way to the shortage of half a million predicted by the Select Committee on the Environment... these shameful statistics will mean an effective end to millions of people's hopes for a
The London Borough of Camden at first sought to challenge the cuts. According to the distict auditor, Camden Council awarded its National Union of Public Employees manual workers an increase "so excessive as to be unreasonable in rupt. law". The increase actually raised wages to f60 per week.
Under threat of High Court action,
paying €60,000, the councillors
They have an nounced a package of spending cuts amounting to 813 million. Rents
The fact that the Tories have been able to move in and exploit this discontent is a clear condemnation of the council's policies.
Trying to bail out one sector of workers by making others pay through the nose has only succeeded in splitting the working people of
It has played into the hands of Heseltine and the local Tories who are saying the only way forward is to ensure cuts are made and workers
By floating the idea that rate increases are the answer, however, Knight has also turned council workers against rate-payers.
He has made it appear that the only way the services can be maintained and their jobs protected is by
This is why so few workers turned out on the "week of action" called Ior b! Lambeth council. Only UNITY? inio unions our the four - the T&GWL and the NALGO - stopp.
Why. indeed. bother co
SOCIALIST ACTION
Stop
CUT S Wandsworth workers protest cuts
are to go up by $3.50 per week.
Some councils have resorted to other methods of paying for the cuts. The London Borough of Lambeth has opted to prevent cuts by imposing rate increases.
Ted Knight, leader of Lambeth council, argues that the better-off business people will have to shoulder the increased burden of higher rates. As they own or live in bigger premises, they will be paying a higher rate. This is said to pass the buck back to the better off
Advocates of this line of argument will also say that unless rates go up, local authorities will go bank-
This would open the path to government commissioners being sent in to "sort out the situation"
What is actually being said to workers is "Hold on. It's going to be a bit tough right now, but just vote us in next time and something will get done.
Right now, many traditional
TEACHER!
FIGHT
ALL
CUTS
manners Only by opposing all cuts - includ ing rate rises - can Labour defend working people
protest if the problem can be solved locally by squeezing tenants and rate-payers?
The net result of Knight's policies are. in this sense, a disaster. He has suireeded in pitting the working
Page 5 scan of this page
MARCH 1981
e increases
Labour supporters in Lambeth don't
want to take that chance. Faced
with a supplementary rate increase
of £4 a week and a mammoth 49.4
percent increase in April, Labour
supporters are becoming easy prey
to the Tories.
A startling example of this was
shown last month. In an area with
a high percentage of Blacks and
manual workers, a demonstration
called by the pro-Tory Lambeth
Ratepayers Association was so
large that 300 went to an overflou
meeting outside the Town Hall.
At a time when the racist Nation-
ality Bill is passing through Parlia-
ment. many Black people were at-
tracted to a Tory demonstration
wearing badges such as "Ted
Knight Out".
The point is, it is not just the af-
fluent businesses who are under
attack from rate rises. Ordinary
working people are having to pay huge increases with less capacity to people in Lambeth against each other and alienating the Labour council from both.
WARNING
Warnings that this would be the result have been voiced in the Lambeth Labour Party for over a year now. They were raised even more forcefully at the recent Crisis in Local Government Conference which called on all Labour councils to adopt a no-cuts/no rate increase positon.
It was argued there that, if Labour wanted to retain the confidence of working people, it would have to stand up to the Tories in a head-on fight and not make one sector of workers the scapegoat for another.
ACTION?
If Lambeth had adopted that position, the situation would be different today. It would have been able to unite both tenants and local government unions in a common fight against the Tories.
It could have explained to them that they both have a common interest in fighting the Tory plans and it could have - at the same
do so.
If tax concessions for the rich
led to cuts in the Rate Support
Grant, it is workers, through their
rates and rents, who are being asked
to pay up. The Tory attacks on
workers' living standards are be-
ing carried out by Labour
councillors.
FIGHTBACK
Putting the rates up doesn't chal-
lenge the basic assumption that
working people must shoulder the
burden of the crisis. Socialists
argue, however, that workers should
not be made to pay for a crisis not
of their making.
You cannot fight the cuts and
threatened redundancies by making
Peter pay Paul. Asking council ten-
ants to prop up council workers is
self-defeating.
A council which defends its ser-
vices without rate rises can cleariy
show who is making the cuts. If
commissioners try to take over,
they are clearly seen as Tory com-
missioners implementing Tory cuts
for a Tory government.
Winning local tenants and trade
unionists to mass action against
the commissioners would unite
workers against the real enemy, on
clear class lines.
In the long term, the only sure
way to defend our services is to
kick out the Tories.
happen so long as workers are con-
fused by their own party leaders.
Labour and trade union leaders have to build a struggle against the
Tory cuts without raising the rates. Until workers and tenants are won to such a struggle, there is no longterm solution.
Heseltine's cuts coupled with Labour rate rises can actually lead to demoralisation among Labour ranks and allow Tories the opportunity to pretend that - with workers - they are fighting a common enemy.
our confusion
time - drawn local shopkeepers in behind them.
If the Tories at Westminster had sent in the commissioners, it could have developed a mass campaign against them and sought to draw in workers in other areas hit by the Lul too.
FIGHTBACK
The fact that Labour has squandered its chances, however, should iot be a source of pessimism. On the contrary, it should show growing numbers - who were previously unsure of the need to take on the Tories - that this was the only way forward.
Activists in the local unions, tenant associations and Labour Party should be fighting fiercely now for the no cuts/no rate increases position.
They should be arguing that the Labour council should reverse its disastrous policies, turn around and fight the Tories. signation of councillors who refuse to adopt this stance - and the election of those that will - should be a central part of such a campaign.
cratic rights and control over the
economy.
eastwice.
local governor.
PARASITES
a 150-page long report.
ernment property for their own use;
constructing summer villas instead of
cars to the secret police instead of to
Solidarity, put it: resignation we are demanding did not
parasites."
SUPPORT
- on February 9 - a further 300.000
factories were brought to a standstill.
demanded the dismissal of Stanislaw This cannot lot live years. Iner aiso called tor the conversion oị an Interior Ministry
sanitorium into a public hospital
Similar struggles have burst out in Walbrzych, in the heart of the Silesian coal-mining region, and in the southeastern city of Rzesnow.
ANARCHY?
Although the government has been forced to give way on many issues
Bielsko-Biala • rearguard action.
By JAMIE MCLAUGHLIN (EEPTU) istration announced its decision to advance a S50 million loan to the Polish
But why, it might be asked, are they backing a regime which they have spent so much time attacking for its lack of "democracy"?
the Guardian with cynical frankness: "The crucial issue for Poland now is sta-
clear indications that the government intends to govern - something which has not been done with any degree of conviction for the past six months."
Continued from Page 2. bour Solidarity Committee" declared as its aim reversing the special conference vo The grouping has won support from the right-wing union leaders of the AUEW and POEU who feel that the step forward in democracy could begin to undermine their own bureaucratic grip.
RALLIES
The new grouping is busy holding rallies up and down the country to win support for their position. Naturally enough, such a campaign has won the A call for the re- uncritical backing of the Tory press. forced into such a campaign, however, is not a sign of their strength.
On the contrary, it is a sign of their growing isolation in the party as they find themselves increasingly out of
ahead with struggle
By STEVE RANDELL (Lambeth CLP)
THE Polish bureaucrats are finding it ever more difficult to suppress the demands of workers and peasants for demo-
No sooner do they patch up ar. agreement with striking workers in one part of the country than strikes break out
On February 6, for example, an elevenday strike occurred in Bielsko-Biala, a textile manufacturing plant in southern Poland. Over 200,000 workers struck in protest against the corruption of the
The governor, his aides, the chief of police and other officials were accused in
The charges included: taking over gov-
building houses for workers; allocating
doctors; and giving out coupons for the purchase of cars as favours and bribes.
As Lech Walesa, a central leader of
"The officials whose look after the workers' interests. They weren't public servants at all, but social
political opposition."
Hardly had that strike been won when
struck in the region around Jelania Gore. CHALLENGE Protesting corruption of the bureaucrats wno rule the country, an estimated 450
The strikers - backed by sondarity -
society, Closek, who had been the local CP boss
decision-making. dismissing, for example, the governor of WORSE
- it is fighting a desperate ONLY last month, the Reagan admin-
the West.
The answer was given only recently in
threat to them That means, on the official side,
.. LABOUR PARTY
rank-and-file workers. ployment.
CAMPAIGN
The fact that the right wing have been
bloc vote is undemocratic.
Polish workers press
Discussion at Lenin Shipyards last August
Threatening the use of Soviet troops if
Solidarity goes "too far", they have
denounced its leaders as "instigators" out
ho chanenge Ine socianst basis of society
As CP leader Stanislaw Kania recently
"We cannot ignore, let alone accept,
the fact that, under the direction not
of the workers but of instigators, Solid-
arity is being steered in the direction of
This line has been echoed by Moscow,
which has accused Solidarity of creat-
ing "chaos and anarchy"
Such accusations are, of course, nothing
more unan stainist double-talk. Kania knows only too well that Solidaritv is no
out to challenge the socialist basis of
It is merely saying that the country's economic and social problems should be
freely discussed and decided upon demo-
dicamy. I is merely trying to transiorn Poland into a real workers' democracy.
ine bureaucrats understand onlv toc well, however. that such a struggle challenges head-on their repressive rule and the privileges they gain from their mono poly over the political and economic
What has worried them still more is the fact that Solidarity's bold stance has
Reagan helps Stalinists
What the Guardian is saying is crystal clear. It is saying that curbing the fight for democracy is not only in the interests of the bureaucrats in Poland but also in the interests of big business in
They know only too well that - while they hypocritically pretend to back the fight by Polish workers for democracy -It woula, ll successiul. be a maior
It could provide an inspiring example to workers in the west who are also dangerous fighting attacks on their living standards and democratic rights. It would show them that the labour movement - unitea and nim - can repel these attacks
positions. touch with the aspirations and needs of
They know that, as pressure from tne grassroots mounts, tnel room Iol implementing pro-capitalist policies -as they did under the last Callaghan government - will be ended.
They know that, as Labour leaders become accountable to the rank and file, they will not be able to ignore conterence decisions and cut social ser. vices, Ireeze wages and foster unem
county
This is why, though not joining their chums in the "gang of twelve", they have decided to launch their campaign against the special conference decisions.
They have maintained, ot course, that the election of the leader by the union
Such a claim is not only hypocritical coming
PAGE 5
drawn wider layers of the population into
fighting their repressive rule. Already,
Rural Solidarity - representing over
350,000 farmers - has demanded recog-
Polish students have been drawn into
a month-long sit-in to demand the right
to form a union and to have a say in the
country's education policy.
Moreover, this upsurge has even begun
to penetrate the ranks of the Communist
Party itself. More and more rank-and-file
CP members are identifying with the
demands of Solidarity. At a recent Exec-
utive Committee meeting, a document
was submitted calling for "the broad
masses' right to free expression" to be
"guaranteed in law and in fact".
MA.UEL V KES
While the Stalinist leaders may twis
and turn. they are finding it ever mize
Iticult to deal with this growing
opposition.
1 nell bureaucratic manoeuvres .
backed up with threats of Soviet inter-
vention - are not likely to curb the
nave grown as the! have seen the poure:
they can wield.
As Solidarity enters into ever more
struggles for democratic rights, more and more workers will realise that the only way to achieve socialst democracv is to
sweep away the parasitic caste which masquerades as socialist. and solve the economic problems in the interests of the vast majonly
Worse still, it would give the lie to their claim that socialism must, inevitably, end up with the repressive-type rule that exists at present in tastern turope
It would show that workers can take over the country and run it democratically in the interests of all. At a time when they are faced with growing militancy in the West - because of austerity programmes - such a message is doubly
That is why the so-called champions of democracy are pouring money hand over fist into Poland to back up the bureaucratic regime that exists there.
from figures who, in the past, never complained when it supported their
It is also a lie. When they attack the union vote, they are attacking the right of working people - who founded the party - to determine what its policies and who its leader should be.
They want those rights reserved for a tew unrepresentative Mrs working lt collusion with unelected bankers, civil servants and maustrialists
If the Labour Party is to fight off the challenge from the right - and extena the gains in democracv - it wil have to rely more and more upon its working class support up and down the
It will only grow and develop if it shows these layers that it is prepared to fight for their interests. It is by building opposition to the jobless total, fighting the cuts and pioneering women's and Black rights that it will gain the backing of rank and file trade unionists whose support is vital.
Page 6 scan of this page
H~Block: new hunger strike
McAliskey: 'I live for the mass movement"
PAGE 6
Hunger strikers won mass support last year.
By SABINA ROBERTS (Streatham
CLP)
launched their second hunger-strike The decision to protest their inhuman treatment at the hands of the British government came after the latter reneged on the deal it made last December.
By GERRY FOLEY
BERNADETTE and Michael McAliskey are recovering rapidly from the wounds inflicted on them on January 16 by woud ve assassins.
The McAliskeys' spirit is undaunted. Bernadette was particularly angered by a report in the rebruary l issue of the Dublin Sunday Tribune that she was going to discuss her political future on February 2 at her first meeting with Michael after the shooting.
1 he implication was that she was thinking of leaving politics.
MOVEMENT
But, she told me, she had never con-
"I live for the sidered that tor a minute. mass movement", she declared. "It's when vou're lust sitting back doing nothing that you start having personal problems and getting scared.
"When vou're involved in a mass movement, when it's going forward, when you leer you te accompusning someuning. By LIZ EASTON (Tottenham CLP)
LATE in 1979, in the fight against the Corrie Bill, the TUC made labour movement history by calling the first ever national trade union demonstration in support of women's abortion rights. Thousands of trade unionists came out onto the streets in defence of the princupie or women s control over their own Doctes.
Despite Government support for the Bill and the vociferous anti-abortion lobby, the combined strength of the trade union movement and the campaign launched by the National Abortion Campaign (NAC) made sure the Bill was soundly defeated.
inere nave so lal been seven attempts to restrict the already inadequate 1967 Abortion Act. Every attempt has met wiln lallure; out in the same period no new abortion rights have been won.
EROSION
In fact, many of the gains of the 1967 Act have been eroded. There is no overan poncy tor the provision oi abortion facilities throughout the NHS, ana now spenaing culs are aggravating the difficulties women face in getting avortons in tneir own localty
In addition, there is the constant
Smasl.
The
Death
BlocK
On December 19 - three months after the strike began - Tory minisON March 1, the H-Block prisoners ter Humphrey Atkins conceded most of the prisoners' demands. It was agreed to treat them, in all respects, as political prisoners and not common criminals subject to constant degradation and harassment.
Clearly, the Tory back-down was all your personal problems and fears fade away."
PRICE
Like all leaders of the oppressed and expioca, bernadelle laces parucural dangers. The enemy tries to impede the struggle of the masses by striking down its foremost leaders.
But the British government knew it would have to par a terrible price it Bernadette were allowed to die. tact is shown by the solicitude the autnonues nave snown lor ner In nospitai, despite tne brutanty and callousness with which they generally behave towards the Irish people.
Bernadette also owes her life to her own fighting spirit. She never stopped fighting. She did not trust the British doctors, and only stopped struggling against the insertion of respiratory tubes when a surgeon trom the Gaellcspeaking area of Donegal explained the procedure to her in her own language.
Abortion conference
threat that there may at any time be a Iresh attempt to restrict the abortion laws.
It is not enough to defend the '67 Act; the pro-choice lobby must begin formulating demands to extend the provision already in existence.
In this connection, the NAC/LARC Trade Union Liasion Committee is holding a Labour Movement Conference on Abortion and Positive Legislation on March 14, 1981.
The key objective for the Conference 1s lo plan une moonsanon or tne laooul and trade union movement to extend abortion rights. ine amIs to will support for making this extension a part or tne Labour farty s maniesto
The Conference marks a turning point in the abortion campaign.
TUC and the Labour Party have passed paper resolutions in support of a women's Igni lo choose, tne Conterence must de the first step in calling on them to put their industrial and political muscle into action.
Faced with strong and united opposition, future attempts to restrict women's access to free, safe abortion facilities will be consigned to the dustbin, along with the White, Benyon and Corrie Bills of earlier years.
the result of the mass movement
oners' treatment.
RENEGED
According to Bernadette VICI H-Block/Armagh Committee -
the prisoners and they were to be
clothes.
were forced to make.
civilian clothes to the prison were turned away.
be moved to clean cells.
REPLY
ous action that on February 5 the
hunger strike. for national liberation.
"He knew that I would see be was a friend if he spoke in Irish" she said.
STRUGGLE
Bernadette's mind is occupied now with the question of how to carry forward the struggle against repression. In particular, she is thinking about how to use une us-comme local cectors m That the North and the general election expected in the South to extend the
national support will be decisive in the next phase of the struggle against the formation of broad action commit-
people. (Abridged version of an article that first appeared in Intercontinental Press, February 16 1981).
KEEP IT LEGAL While the Fighting attacks on right to abortion. Laboul movement conterence can nelp win freely available abortion.
building up in both the North and South of Ireland where, on December 6, over 40,000 marched on the British Embassy to protest the pris-
Tionally.
McAliskey - leader of the National
clean cells were to be prepared for
allowed to wear their own (civilian)
Having defused the mass movement, however, the Tories are now clearly going back on the deal they
The first signs of this was when relatives bringing
Since then, prisoners have been told that they will have to abide by "prison regulations" before they are allowed to wear their own clothes or
It is in response to this treacher- their own clothes.
prisoners decided to re-launch their
Plans are also afoot to re-launch the mass movement that was so key the language of the Irish people's struggle movement against imperialist repression.
Bernadette also recognises that inter-
She is appealing for
tees evervwhere to mobilse the maximun support for the human rights of the Irish
ABORTION
KEEP IT SAFE
CORRIE BILI union organisation
and speed-ups.
PAYOUTS
closure.
funds this year.
to winning the original demands.
The Sein Fein newspaper, An
Phoblacht, has called for the re-
setting up of H-Block committees
throughout Ireland and internat-
They see this as central in expos
ing the Tory government's treachery
and winning wide support for the
Prisoners' statement
"ON December 18 and 19, 1980,
the hunger strikers in the H-Blocks
and Armagh prison were ended.
When this happened we were ex-
pecting that within a few days all
protests would begin to be de-
escalated and that the first hurdle,
the blanketmen receiving their own
clothes, could be got over in the
sequence described by Atkins in his
December 19 statement.
"Obstacle after obstacle was
placed in our way, but we felt
morally bound to explore every
avenue betore giving in to exasper-
ation and anger. The pettiness of
the British administration was wel
demonstrated on January 23 when
the prison goveror, acting under
orders, refused a number of men
"The twenty men had taken part
in successful wing-shifts from dirty
lo ciean cels ana naa degan stopping
out, then washed and shaved and
had their hair cut before applying Michael and Bernadette McAliskey.
Birmingham brewery
workers fight sackings
By GEORGE HOLD (Peckham CLP)
EIGHT hundred workers face the sack at Aston, Birmingham, with the announcement that Allied Breweries Ltd plan to close their Ansell's brewery.
Coming at a time of ever-growing dole queues, this represents a direct attempt
Lesistance by management to undermine trade
Not only does Ansell's have the best gase worktorce In the Allled group nirm The decision follows a month-long strike against short-term lay-offs, redundancies
Management have breached all agreements with unions and have forced many workers to lose up to f40 per week.
The employers blame workers for the
They moan that "the brewery has suffered industrial conflict over many years", and that the workers' attitude has caused a loss of profitability.
This is nonsense. It has not stopped the brewery passing f500 to Tory party
Nor did it stop more than £ 60,000 being passed over to Tory front organisations, such as British United Industrialists and Industrial
SOCIALIST ACTION prisoners, whose sole crime has been fighting to rid their country of foreign oppression.
Such a call has to be answered. Building mass support will not only be key in Ireland but also in Britain in the months ahead if the prisoners' demand for human rights is to be won.
for their own clothes.
"It is a fact that ordinary pris-
oners in conforming blocks are
generally wearing their own clothes
unchallenged, and we were angered
that the Brits were more intent on
humiliating us than on settling the
corson Cr
"We, the blanket men and women
prisoners of Armagh, have had
enough of British deceit and of
broken promises. Hunger strikes,
to the death if necessary, will begin,
commencing March 1, 1981, the
fifth anniversary of the withdrawal
of political status in the H-Blocks
and Armagh jail.
"We are demanding to be treated
as political prisoners, which every-
one recognises we are. We call on
all those who supported us during
the last hunger strike to again rally
to our cause, and we call upon
those who sat on the fence to now
see the intransigence of the Britis!
and the justice of our cause".
Workers ridicule management's crocodile tears. The decision to close the plant came only after the attempted use of scabs from the employment exchanges failed to halt the strikers
Arguing that "we will not grovel and we won't leave the micket line unti ou union says so", workers are standing
BACKING
Backing the actions of the brewery workers must come from wider sections •le labour movemen nowever Threatened engineers at Gardners in Manchester have already shown how a united struggle can beat back the present offensive on jobs launched by employers and their Tory government.
It took a seven-week occupation at Gardners to break the threat to make 590 redundancies
The broadening support from other secrons or tne laoour movement - as. for example, shipbuilders and engineers in van chester - neweo une caroner. workers to force management to cave in and offer a f20 per week increase.
Page 7 scan of this page
Socialists and the Labour Party
The class nature of the Soviet Union
MARCH 1981 Labour Party.
The Labour Party - Which Way? 4 League for Socialist Action Pamphlet, 1975.
The Labour Party has caused great confusion on the left in Britain. The result has been either to enter the party and soften your politics or stay outside and denounce it from the sidelines.
Some people seem to think the Labour Party can actually implement socialism - through Parliament - while others believe its really just another capitalist party. It is partly because of these confusions that no socialist group has been able to really grow among working people and challenge the pro-capitalist leaders of the Labour movement.
This pamphlet, however, is firmly based in the method which revolutionary leaders like Lenin and Trotsky used to analyse the party and help revolutionary socialists understand it. It looks at the deBy GARY ERLISKER
IN a recent attack on t'iose fighting for democracy in the Labour Party, railways union leader Sid Weighell conjured up images of work in salt mines for anyone disagreeing with Tony Benn.
Weighell was using the capitalists' lie that socialism equals totalitarianism. and playing on the lack of democratic rights in tae soviet Umon, to smeat lellwingers in the labour movement.
But what does the repressive regime in the USSR really show about that country What kind of societies exist in countrics like the Soviet Union?
To answer this it is necessary to go back to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In this historic event ordinary working people took power in their own hands, sweeping aside the ruling class exploiters and tyrants and their stooges - like today's "gang of three" - in the workers'
They began to build a society of freedom and equality.
HISTORIC GAINS
Workers began to run the factories and the state through elected councils
Oppressed nationalities were grantea tne rignt to deciae tnell own futures. Abortion was legalised and special measures taken to put women and men on an equal basis. The antihomosexual laws were repealed.
It is important to remember how deep and how historic these gains were, as the runng class — wich Is agamst au tnese rights - tries to submerge tne gains beneath layer after layer of lies.
Australian
socialists
hold
conference
Recently, the Socialist Workers Party, Australian section of the Fourth International, held their two-yearly national conference in Sydney. Len Wagstaff was myed to une conteresce.
The 8th National Conference of the SWP(Australia) was lively, interesting and well-organised. It was regarded as a big success oy au tnose wno parucipalca
With six days of activities scheduled between 9 am and midnight, the agenda was able to cover all the main features of the political situation and the party's role in the next period.
As well as all the usual discussion of
Below, Dave McLeod reviews a pamphlet which has become essential reading for all socialists. Written six years ago, it is more meaningful than ever today. The Limehouse plotting, the battle for democracy and accountability, is all predicted in this important analysis of the
velopment of the Labour Party, its origins and its class base.
UNDERSTANDING
The break of the unions with the Liberals, it explains, showed an increase in workers' political understanding: that we need our own party to fight for our interests against the Tories and the Liberais, the parties of the ruling rich.
Thus Labour is quite different from, for instance, the Democratic Party in the USA, a straight ruling class outfit with workers' support, but which workers did not found nor have any control over.
The Labour Party, however, has another side. Its leadership, like that of the unions on which it is based, is committed to the capitalist system. capitalism more "humane".
But capitalism rests entirly on
nowever. the revolton che not take place in the most favourable circumstances for the working class and its Bolshevik leadership.
Russia was an extremely backward county, winch meant tnere were vast objective difficulties to overcome. It was also devastatea by tne worla wal, wilh millions of workers losing their lives, production falling and many factories being destroyed. sened by the civil war launched by the dispossessed rulers and their allies. Fourteen foreign armies contributed to the
the international and Australian political situation, the party's political programme, youth activity, building the party's weekly paper Direct Action, industrial and labour party work, and building the party, there was a special item devoted to the unfolding revolution in the Caribbean and Central America
Another special item evaluated the party's recent campaign for Jobs For Women in Wollongong, a town where the sole major employer is a steelworks. The
on 150 women. This success was partly aue to the overwnelming support ol the existing (male) workforce, contrary to prior claims by the union bureaucracy Lilat the men would see the campaign as a threat to 'their jobs.
Severar films were shown, including El Salvador - Revolution or Death, and there was a hularious Cabaret - a tradtion at SWP conferences. greetings were given by the SWP(USA) and the SAL (New Zealand section of the Fourth International).
VALIx the exploitation and oppression ot working people. bour leaders who defend capital-
They want to make cushy lifestyle, inevitably attack
workers interests.
Bolshevik demonstration in 1917. Workers won big gains through revolution.
destruction. Famine also stalked the land.
rating programmes of the Bolsheviks.
CRUSHED
Led countries - which would be able to This situation was wor- ald reconstruction in Russia - were
crushed by the capitalists. Leading socialists like Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered, along with
Real face of
ruling class
'democracy'
By RALPH WOOD (NUPE)
two years ago, Airey Neave was por-
In fact, Neave was one of Thatcher's closest allies. He was a staunch right-winger who planned covert methods to suppress the labour movement.
Statesman, MI6 electronics expert Lee Tracey has exposed the ex-MP for plotleading a Labour government.
Internationa
RESISTANCE Neave feared that Callaghan might retire early and leave a clear path for
METIEL TE LABORE A YOUR AVA PARTY SOCIALISM PEACE
Socialists should seek to turn Labour Party into a fighting party.
Thus the La-
ism, which also guarantees them a DEMOCRACY
Whenever policy in our interests
1940.
cratic rights.
Ins meant inere were lew resources for carrying out the ambitious and libe-
Al une same ume me crucia racor oI revolutions in more industrially develop-
ugenice nelwork
ASSASSINATED by a car bomb attack
stopped". trayed by the press at the time as a harmless politician killed by mindless terrorists. reliable - was quite clear that these plans
SILENT
In a sensational interview with the New have kept silent.
ting Chile-style tactics to stop Tony Benn
Benn does".
is adopted by the party as a whole,
these leaders just ignore it.
This makes the issue of rank-and-file control over the party and unions so important. It's why many workers, by the forerunners of Williams, Rodgers and Owen in Germany.
In reaction to all these defeats a layer of people in the Bolshevik Party gave up the revolutionary perspective. They be-
selves and their families scarce goods and services, at the expense of everyone else
This layer, led by Stalin, developed into a hardened bureaucratic caste. It grew as Stalin opened up the gates of the party to hordes of self-seekers, many of whom had opposed the revolution.
Because of the decimation of the working class and its growing passivity, Stalin's opponents were defeated. Lenin, who had begun the fight, had already died in 1924. Trotsky, who carried it on, was expelled from the USSR and mur-
As the U'SSR developed, the bureaucrats appropriated more privileges. In order to do so, they had to crush demo-
COLLECTIVE PROPERTY
Many of the gains of the October revolution were turned back. But the collective property relations established by the Bolsheviks remained. To have overturnca inese woula nave requirea a massive counter-revolution. posses.
Private ownership of the means of mass production does not exist and so production is not based on enriching the ew a moe exoeuse or zoe maav nas the USSR is not any kind of capitalist
Benn to take over as leader of the Labour Party. Just before the last General Election, he discussed with security service agents plans for an "army of resistance" in case of a Labour victory.
One of the agents he contacted was interests Tracey. According to Tracey - an experienced intelligence operative - the contact was made through a world intel-
Neave asked Tracev to ioin a team of agents who would "make sure Benn was
Tracey - whose past statements have always turned out to be
included the possible use of violence
Not surprisingly, the bourgeois media
Even on BBC telivision's Panorama ın which Iracev was allowed to speak out, the programme was shown omy allet severe Interventon ana cultig.
Despite the fact that Benn refused to Deneve mne sioiv. ure vew azotesman published it because "we know the source and the circumstances better that Mr
PAGE 7 Williams and her cohorts - including those sticking with Labour -are so opposed to democratic control of the movement.
This pamphlet explains all these things with almost uncanny foresight precisely because it applies the Marxist approach.
It lays out the strategy flowing from these conclusions: socialists work in the ranks of the party to involve all levels of the party in campaigning for demands which
defend and advance workers' interests, for Black rights, for women's rights, for solidarity with people in struggle in Ireland, in Central
America and other countries.
CONSCIOUSNESS
This will not only assist those struggles, but will also raise the political consciousness of the ranks of the workers and show them the unwillingness of today's "leaders" to champion all strug-
gles for freedom and equality.
It is out of these developments that masses of workers will be drawn to a revolutionary perspective and organisation. state: it's a workers state. In the lons run, the workers are the ruling class
Because of these facts, education. health and social services in these countries are far superior to those in
Moreover. their cur rent aims include expanding governmen: sociai wellare tatner than towng back the frontiers of the state" like the British government. Also, unemployment and inflation are very low
But as the Soviet culers did push the working class out of political power. ite country is best described as a degenerates workers state. What is required is a political revolution in which workers take political power in line with their basic
EXAMPLE
rolana - wnieh was delormed by sta• linism from the beginning - is an instructive example. For instance, the demands oi tne workers there are, trom the out set, far more advanced than any demands raised by unions here seeking to defend their interests.
This is because the nature of Poland as a workers state means the workers struggle begins on a higher level. They are not still at the stage of fighting to limit their expolitation at the hands of the
They' ve already abolished that.
Their basic demands are aimed at ending bureaucratic rule. for ful political rights and for, as their leader Lech Walesa put it, "control over economic decisions at every level"
It is of course no surprise that Benn is unable to accept that the state would use anving orner unan democrane mean. by which to remove him or any government which sets out to represent workers
1 hose who argue that socialism can be attained through Parliamentary reform 1smore. lor instance. une roener-e• coup which overthrew Allende's democratically elected government in Chile.
But for the workers' movement as a whole the lesson must be learned. Any attempt to remove the powertul tamilles who sponge off the labour of others will meet bloody resistance
MASS MOBILISATION
That is why Socialist Action argues that the detence of a workers' govern ment or of any gains for working people can come ony tmouga tae mass moou isation of workers themselves.
Winning elections is a tine obiective But this should never replace the winning of workers to mass struggle and defence of their own interests.
Page 8 scan of this page
Masses fight repression
Miners deal major blow to Thatcher
Socialist Action
El Salvador:
FOR
OF EL SALVADOR
El Salvadoran people need support of workers everywhere.
By BRIGID MULRENNAN
THE freedom fighters in El Salvador have made important gains in their battle against the brutal US-backed junta which rules the country.
On January 10 the mass organisations, the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR) and the popular army known as the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN), launched a general offensive.
Since then, the FMLN has taken effective control of one-quarter of the country and holds many key roads and rail bridges, including the main highway into El Salvador *.m Guatemala and Honduras.
The news of the rebeis successes was confirmed by Washington Post correspondent Christopher Dickey in a January 17 dispatch:
"With the war erupting in city slums and villages, around military garrisons and in the sugar cane fields, the guerrillas have prover By JASON HILL
in its tracks." That was how Ivor England, secretary of the South Wales Mardy Lodge, described the outcome of the miners' strike last month.
Within days of announcing that 50 pits would have to close, the Thatcher government was making a humiliating U-turn as it faced the angry response of the backbone of Britain's labour movement.
It pledged that the pits wouldn't be closed and agreed to pour up to €500 million into the mining industry. Cabinet member John Biffen admitted on radio that they were frightened of taking the miners on.
MISCALCULATED
Clearly, the government's earlier decision to back the Coal Board's decision to close 50 'non-viable' pits was a major miscalculation.
They no doubt thought that with unemployment at nearly three million - and having notched up a series of victories as at British Leyland - the miners would be reluctant to make a stand.
If so, they were sorely mistaken. Within hours of the pit closures being announced, over 24,000 South Wales miners downed tools for an all-out stoppage.
Typeset by Bread 'n Roses /TU, 01-485 4432 & Printed by Spider Web Offset (TU) & Rusemont Ra., .VW3.
NO MORE U.S. SUPPOR
THE KILLER JUNTA
they can mount co-ordinated actions virtually anywhere in this overcrowded Central American country and operate almost freely in the rural areas."
STRIKE SUCCESSFUL
A three-day general strike called for January 13 by the FDR showed the overwhelming support for the popular forces.
In the industrial areas of the cap. ital San Salvador, it was 70 percent effective. More than 40 of El Salvador's largest factories were paralysed. Bank workers also joined the strike, as did many others from government departments
Pror to the strike starting much of the capital's transportation had already shut down because the bus owners' association announced its support for the FDR
In the three largest cities outside Sar Salvador - •Santa Ana. San Miguel and La Union - industrial
The call for similar action spread to "The government has been stopped other areas such as Scotland, South Yorkshire and the Kent coalfields where plans were already being laid to picket the power stations in defiance of the Tory Employment Bill.
It soon became clear that even attempts by right-wing union leaders such as Gormley to restrain action until a national ballot was held were talling on deaf ears. Incensed at the attack on jobs, miners nationally were responding with direct action.
Moreover, support for the miners was beginning to escalate among other sectors of the labour movement who saw them as the spearhead of the fightback against the Tories. Both the steel and railway-
any large-scale dispute.
FUTURE
The explosion among rank-and-file miners was undoubtedly due to, in part, the government's rundown of the pits over the past few years.
Over 6,000 workers have been lost th one year alone through 'natural wastage and lack of investment means that many pits were destined to die.
It was not only for their own jobs, however, that they struck.
activity was reported to have been totally at a standstill by January
on strike in massive numbers with many joining the FMLN armed forces.
On January 11, Lt. Colonel Bruno Navarette of the government's National Guard announced his de-
day, an entire unit of the army went over to the FMLN.
On January 29, two top economic officials
Coffee Institute and Carlos Federico Paredes, the government's vice-minister of planning - declared their support for the revolutionary forces.
REPRESSION
In the face of this popular upsurge the junta has stepped up its violence and repression.
The clandestine radio of the FMLN, Radio Liberacion, reported on January 16 that more than 30 trade union leaders had been arrested in the preceding days.
The Salvadoran Air Force was reported to be indiscriminately bombing the civilian populations of the towns held by the FMLN, and it has already begun to use incendiary bombs, similar in effect to the napalm used in Vietnam.
On January 16, the Legal Aid office of the San Salvador Catholi Archdiocese said that government forces had raided churchoperated refugee centres in San Salvador, capturing peasants who had fled militarised zones in the countryside.
Accurate information on the situation in El Salvador has been
JUIVILL
SUBSIDISE DUE
COAL NUR
ANT FURTHER
JOB LOSSES workers had agreed to back them in They were aware that their fight was a fight for all workers faced with the Tories' offensive. As Kent miners explained "unless we show an interest in the unemployed, we'll be joining them".
It was this understanding of the miners' that frightened the Tory government. the spectre of the Heath government looming up before them.
What they feared above all was the possibility of the miners' strike escalating into a head-on col lision with ever-wider sectors of the labour movement which could
13. Agricultural workers also went
controlled network.
Another aspect of the offensive has been defections from the junta.
fection to the FMLN. On the same
housed.
Nelson Romero, the general manager of the National
La "total failure"
The claning people. lution there in 1979.
MINERS..: FIGHT
IY FIRTYER
Miners' determination forced Thatcher to back off.
lead to their defeat. every point.
They began to see VICTORY
especially difficult to obtain because of the repression by the regime against journalists. All radio stations in the country have been forced to join a single government- claim.
Journalists were ordered on January 13 not to travel outside the capital without official permission.
Right-wing thugs were reportedly circulating lists of journalists they had condemned to death and making threatening phone calls to hotels where foreign reporters were
The drive to intimidate the press and tighten censorship is necessary for the success of the junta's ettorts to present the image that El Salvador is "calm", that the government forces are in "total control", and that the revolutionary offensive is
But nothing could be further from the truth. The offensive is continuing, and the overwhelming support that the FDR and the FMLN have shows that the junta only survives with the massive military aid that the US government pours in. There is little doubt that Reagan would like to back up this aid by sending in troops. What is preventing him is the deep anti-war sentiment among American work.
While increasing aid to the E Salvador junta, the US State Department has taken the opportunity to suspend a $ 75 million loan to neighbouring Nicaragua. which is in the process of building a just and free society following a mass revo-
The reason given for the suspension was that five boats carrying 100 Nicaraguans landed on a beach in El Salvador on January 14 to fight against the dictatorship. The
MINERS. FIGHT
-ANY FURTHER
JOB LOSSES-
INERS:
ANY FUR
J0B LO
This is why, within days of throwing down the gauntlet to the miners, they beat such a fast retreat. Union leaders were invited to emergency talks in which the government capitulated on virtually
What the miners' victory shows is not only that the British labour movement is not demoralised by the Tory offensive. It is also a vital lesson on how to combat that offensive which has led to over 3 million all.
MARCH 1981 Nicaraguan government has denied this "categorically and absolutely" and not one scrap of evidence has been produced to back up this
The general offensive launched by the FMLN on January 10 marked the opening of an all-out civil war — a war the revolutionary forces believe they can win if the people of El Salvador are left alone to determine their own future.
SOLIDARITY
To help them do that, the people of El Salvador need the support of an international solidarity campaign which can play a part in stopping US intervention and preventing El Salvador from becoming the Vietnam of Central America.
The people of that country know what they are up against and are determined to win. As one FDR representative recently explained:
"The Salvadoran people have been fighting for 50 years and we understand very well that the final phase of the revolution can last a few days, or a few weeks or even a few years. But we also know that in the end the Salvadoran people will win."
From the New Zealand socialist biweekly Socialist Action, 20.2.1981.
SOCIALIST ACTION
PUBLIC FORUM
The Struggle for Freedom in
El Salvador
Wed. March 18, 8.00 Camden Labour Rooms 8. Camden Rd. NW1.
Speakers: El Salvador Solidarity
Campaign and Socialist Action. unemployed
It exposes more clearly than ever before the weak-kneed attitude of the union bureaucrats whose sole answer to date has been to launch a few protest actions combined with pleas to be admitted to Number 10 to talk to Mrs Thatcher.
It is not talk that will defeat the Tories. It is force - the force of the labour movement. The miners' strike was the clearest example that, faced with a determined section of labour, the Tories dare not take them on.
EXAMPLE
The impact of the miners' victory has already been widespread. It was reflected on the mass Glasgow demonstration, on February 21, when over 75,000 protested the Tory jobless strategy.
It has also been felt among other groups of workers, such as the gas, electricity and water workers, who have all lodged claims above the government's 6%
Such action will give renewed confidence to the rank and file nationally and give a real boost to the attempt to make the Labour leaders lead a determined struggle to remove this government once and for
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