IT IS quite true that I have not ssed the Challinor Board L-level examinations in the Challinor school of theoretical understanding, but I trust this will not alsqdany me nom canymg a few matters of fact about Jim Murray and the Tyneside Socialist Centre. See jeltes Iv aoll.
Jim Murray is not 'a of the Socialist Centre'. He Is on uc cclue s co-ordltall" committee as a representative of the Vickers Elswick shop stewards COmlCe.
If Ray Challinor really felt so strongly about the struggles within he Labour Party then the most enccuve way or removing Murray from the Centre's committee would have been through the shop stcwarus commalicc, Oy icatieing the Vickers workers, the shop stewards quarterly, etc, at the uHc o uc aly colecice.
They are the people with the power to remove him and if these stewanes mave ecele amast dss opportunist' then surely the most important thing is to have the arsuncu wil ucl.
Secondly, the Socialist Centre is not a party or a substitute fo the revolutionary groups. All the main socialist parties and groups of Militant are affiliated to the cente on tne basis or a very general commitment to all struggles against oppression and for a sod kust socct. a conmunet lo organise secilisi debate and education, and to provide pracaca r esources Tor local sucaes Clearly even on this basis there could be occasions when the Cenue wowe savero corere member's behaviour or reject his or her membership. But the basis ol bac allance is not yel soecinic enough for the Centre, as a body, to condemn a member's vote over a particular reform of the Labour Party.
Murray's case for voting the way he did on the election of the endersolo - wille volna les the left on re-selection and the manifesto was that the proposais pur forwara tor elecung a leader would only have increased the power and status ot the trade union leaderships. He argues that a leader elected by MPs who would be subiect to re-selection would be more democratic, given the present undemocratic structure of the unions.
A bogus argument, I agree, bulletin and through an open TeNOr c icec once eneres to the Labour Party conference. Jim Murray and a number of orner acicgates gave inelr reports I and many others at the meting expressed our strong alsa ccmcut waw Murray. Challinor did not bother to turn up to the meting. Neither did Andy Strouthous put his resolution calling for public disassociation by the Centre.
It was not until a Socialist Centre meting in February five months later that Strouthous decided to put his resolution. Unalinor ala not botner to turn up to that meting either Finally, though Challinor micht well have been too obsesser with Jim Murray to notice, the Centre, far from being a 'squalid mess'. has been nretty successfull recently within the limited aims it sets itself.
The Centre's bookshop, Days of Hope, has overcome a major financial crisis with contributions from over 150 individuals; its oookse nice Pikes socaiis literature to a growing number of trade union metings and schools which would otherwise have only official trade union 'literature' avalldulc The Centre organised a very successful day school on the Labour left, with the majority of senkers dene rom ane revo ltionary left. It has raised money and organised a social for the steerworkers ano nas nao reauyau monthly forums on Zimbabwe, repression Soviet-style, represBritish-style. and the crisis " in the NHS, with a regular attendance of over 70.
I would be the first to admit that there are tremendous problems in creating a socialist alliance of this sort -been working at them for five Socialist Challenge readers will be tamilar with such problems in their own areas.
One of them is indeed the one which Challinor touched on of how to go beyond general agreement to a more specific pro. gramme and vision of socialist chane ard ute dantes or conpromising that process in order to (nallinor s personalisea put-down TENSTOC DOSe RN LIC Coll EL SL ICS 01 1C11 10l O Ho auye Cucs io ulc Hocova alc alca maly Wolcl As a supporter of the Tvneside nol apolo sc lor lal. wc tave surct uc me exstcnce ol d backed action in Scant.
general propaganda. atouel 1 choose.)
ting to show that the middle the left to organise and conmonths. are forced by the Tory attacks and pressure from below to back action. It is also a logical exten sion or tne Nol 's backing Tor tne The executive is not ITEC OHO VE ZITA TITE ATINTOTTN sense as, say, the EEPTU. It has many area Afganistan. against the cuts; it has shifted ToweTes coser incs winh me tat unions than a few years ago. Such actions are small but not insignifi3. Executive members argued for (not against) the strike fund being dissipated into financing This move was overwhelmingly deleated 4. John Perry is not 'an exMilitant supporter'. I said that he was an 'ex-Trotskyist' and 'ex.
of both the SWP and the IMG (Incidentally, he also opposed a molon ol a woman s ucul lo 5. The headline Teachers' leaders get a kick up the backside was extremely regressive. The bourgeois media constantly uses 'images of corporal punishment to describe any actions of teachers. This is particularly offensive given ulal uc communust rarty ana al forces to the left of it are strongly opposed to corporal punishment.
Such alterations gave the artice a oreromnanty execunve- last year. bashing tone. I was also attempground of the conterence hac shifted and that it was vital for ON': article does not anywhere reveal, that the purpose of the NF marct as advertised was to protest asamist mc palsunaly lor lly so• called campaign against the police and also against Jim Lamond, th other Oldham MP , because of hi views on te cuss am lavasion or Clearly I would not seek to colsor anoody make dudac their objection to my views, and I felt it would be doubly inap•oonae to uyo cere borce to call off a march whilst it was directed against what are sup •osce to be mry views ane monves in regard to the police temselves.
However, 1 am of course aware that there have been some savage and unprovoked attacks against members of the Asian culmusuty l aly colsutucucy oll several occasions over the last few weeks and months, and for that reason, because it was all toc cea lal me maco moni o used in fact for racist propagand purposes, I did write to the Chie useninchdenl or tre ond police drawing his attention to these violent attacks on Asians ze ce dn co done marc if he had any evidence or reason to believe that the march would be usea tor oler tan tne pudlc ly stated purpose As to the events at Southall el me make l aosonre ly clear that I am on record several times as supporting that demonstration and calling for th toRi olse memeni or e ru and indeed Ishall be saying exactOF TH TD EGICH BARBARISM OF THE NAZIS.
Firstly, its a pecuhar concop of failure To take Scunthorpe as an example (since I knov something of what went on there) the Real Steel News began in 1978 as a montniy bunleln. It wa: produced for a long time by an SWP steelworker and anothe SWP member Towards the end of last year a number of Labour Party members as wel as mor-arce steelworkers joined the RSN 'group so at the beginning of the strike there were about 8 › producing the weekly bulletin. During the course of the samke rem aree vews amacter many supporters - - about 50, which is quite good for an area wiln no ucull omutacy Incidentally, the SWP branch grew from 4 members to about The Steelworkers Charter is an RSN initiative which has won the support of the Sheffield and •ocksoro e sunike committees ak well as other militants in several areas. It is intended as a focus zom we e c be launched on closures, job losses and for the democratisation of the What will the IMG do now -keep calling for a national strike committee or support the charter?
To conclude. the SWP launched Real Steel News two vcar verore me surke ara ore would have to 'bend a stick' beyond breaking point to say that lt nas lalled. Ine argument abou
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to us polical value nere on ANNIE HUDSON, Newcastle 9 Manche emenire ion.