For Fighting Rail Unions We believe that it is necessary to form a broad based left wing movement comica lo nighling Tol these sorts of of policies side the unions michiseives. such a movement is not a new idea.
1934 the Railwar Vigilance venuell was set up in response to the stagnation of rates of pay working conditions • 26 November Cardiff that had been steadily worsening since the victor!
1919 national rai strike which had established National Conditions of Service.
The movement's greatest strength was that it included all railworkers regardless of which union they belonged to.
The foundations for such a movement today • Sheffield • Birmingham 25 November Swansea Lobby of Parliament On 30 November those who have pres will in the Mops.
could be laid by campaigning for the policies we have outinea In oppos tion to the productivity ex ercises.
Such movement would also need to support and defend the democratic gains made the Labour Party and to campor the continuation of the continuation that process.
Newcastl Jobs for Youth Festival November Finst try uring top rock bands March and Rally It would also have to support the forging of links at rank and file leve between the unions of the Triple Alliance.
A broad-based left wing movement founded on these policies would be able all railworkers who wish to be members of fighting rail unions.
By Geoff Bell THE meaning of Anwar el-Sadat was there for all to see as they buried him . on Saturday.
Those who mourned gangsters, the rich and the powerful of Western capitalism — Richard Nixon, Lord Carrington, the new. self-styled Shah of Iran, Charles, Menahem Begin and many others of their ilk.
Those who were not there were the ordinary citizens of the country which Sadat ruled. As we sunday times reported, All egypt, une na tion in which by the time of his death he was no longer a hero, remained as steadfastly indifferent to his internment as they had to his passing.' Those who celebrated the burial were the Arab masses who poured into the streets in their various cities.
The British media reported these scenes in tiel usual Sadat was 'The man who died for peace', or 'A martyr to peace', or 'Sadat: the man who cried out to the world: "'Lay down your arms".
I nis canonisaton was contrasted with Die. tures of Arab masses as they danced and waved their arms in celebration. reporting was trying to put across was as obmanaged to rise above the senseless passions of the ignorant, fanatical Arabs.
What is the real reason for the celebrations? The 1980 Report of Amnesty International provides a clue: 'In Egypt, there are repeated arrests mainly of left-wing opponents of government policies who are held under security legislation for several weeks or months before being provisionally released... the arrest and imprisonment of people whom Amnesty International regards as prisoners of conscience stil takes place under legislation introduced under the state of emergency which has been in force jor many vears Aline en or Apn lyov a new law, tne law on the Protection of Values from Shameful Conduct was approved .. Many of its provisions appear to impose further restrictions on the rights of freedom of opinion and expression.
'In Tora Prison disciplinary measures include being strapped to a device called alhim were the Prince style. According to Fleet Street, The message such 1978. Aroussa, the doll, a wooden cross-like pillory with a locking device to keep the head bent forward over the horizontal bar of the cross. In this position the prisoner is beaten on the back. and legs.
Such is one aspect of the Egypt of Sadat who, in his autobiography in 1978, have never been lured by tions, nor did lever build my happiness at the expense of others. In every decision I made, in every action I took, I have been directed by my firm belief in the dignity of man and his right to freedom, peace and to honesty like that it is hardly surprising that Richard Nixon attended Sadat's funeral.
The repression by which Sadat ruled was growing at the time of his death. At the beginning of September this year over 1,000 opposi tionists were arrested in the course of three hours. It was no coincidence that this purge came just two weeks after the start of another summit between Begin and Sadat. For it was this 'peace process' which more than anything led to Sadat's unpopularity.
The Camp David accords of September 198 nad agreed on the phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from occupied Sinai, and the 'resolution of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects'.
The first had been proceeding on course when Sadat was killed. But this was to the advantage of Egypt alone, in that it was the return of territory lost by Egypt in the 1967 war. Sinai was only a by-product of the Middle East conflict. Its cause was, and remains, Israel's oc cupation of the Palestinian homeland. And in this area the goals outlined at Camp David were as far away last week as they were in September In some respects they were further away. Within the last three years tens of thousands of Israeli citizens have been moved into the ocmayors have been shot by Zionist gangs, and deported by Israeli authorities. Palestinians in retugee camps in Lebanon and eisewhere have been bombed by Israel.
Yet Sadat clung desperately to the illusion that he could still solve the Middle East problem, although whether he really believed this is another matter. Those who exposed his and Begin's protestations of good intention ranged wrote: any wordly temptaequality.' duly elected Palestinian The company they keep: Sadat and the Shah of Iran The moment of reckoning for Sadat far and wide. They even included Israeli foreign minister Moshe Dayan who resigned because of his government's refusal to make any concessions towards the Palestinians.
It says something of Anwar Sadat that even Dayan appeared more appreciative of the rights never would have. of the Palestinians than he did That is why the Arab masses rejoiced dur:: Sadat's funeral. In his autobiography he r. promised freedom and peace'. His regime! delivered neither when he was was shot, anc
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• Bristol 27 November •London
24 November • Manchester
23 Novembe Edinburgh •Glasgow • Liverpool