The Next Step: No. 40, October 1983

Fight for the right tofight! p8,9.

next step Britain... Malvinas ^ • France..Chad USA... Lebanon.. warmongers! No 40 October 1983 review of the Revolutionary Communist Party Stop.the 20p The softening of the Labour left p17, 18.

The origins of World War Three 4 Racism East End terror Police frame-up Fighting immigration controls 7 Unemployment Policing the unemployed in Glasgow Welfare benefits - the axe falls 8 Labour movement Setback at Britains Fight for the right to fight Battle for NHS jobs begins Hindle Gears - the legal limits Nigg strike - a narrow victory World. the next sten October 1983 the 10 reland Supergrasses are not cricket Trident will be abandoned.

conflicts within the Western alliance.

the world. planet with them in their unquenchable thirst for profits.

The USA, next step No. 40 October 1983 monthly review of the Revolutionary Communist Party Publisher Junius Publications Ltd, BCM JPLTD, London WC1N 3XX.

Printer Morning Litho Printers Ltd (TU), 439 North Woolwich Road, London E16.

Typesetting and design Junius Publications Ltd (TU).

Subscription rates (for 12 months) Britain and Ireland £5, Europe £8.50 Middle East and North Africa £10 America, Asia and Southern Africa £12 Australasia £13 All cheques payable to Junius Publications. Circulation 01-274 3951.

Correspondence to The Editor, the next step, BCM JPLTD, London WC1N 3XX.

ISSN 0144-350 X October 1983 World has become almost routine.

forces in the area. and opened fire with its murderous artillery.

in Lebanon, anti-imperialist activity on Latin America.

Keeping the flag flying

PROTET

SEVE

15 The Brind Beace hovemen: to The British peace movement took a hammering in 'the nuclear election'.

In response CND has adopted the 'freeze' slogan for its 22 October demonstration.

This shows that it is now prepared to accept Polaris in the hope that Cruise and A series of public discussions on international flashpoints The world's superpowers are rearming for a new carve-up of the Third The USA raises the Soviet bogey to distract attention from The lights are going out all over If we don't stop the capitalist powers they will take the the Soviet Union and the collapse of NATO The scramble for the Middle East The threat to the USA in Latin America British imperialism - senile but vicious 12 A world at war When Britain despatched its naval task force to reconquer the Malvinas last year, many commentators regarded this as an eccentric and irrational gesture - a throwback to the colonial past which was inappropriate to the modern world. Since then the deployment of Western expeditionary forces in the Third Earlier this year the USA undertook massive military exercises in Central America in a clear warning to anti-imperialist Then France rushed paratroopers into Central Africa. And now the USA has sent its fleet to Lebanon As the capitalist recession unleashes a new struggle to divide up the Third World, we look at the background to the conflict and the results of war in Chad, and report our

OW HERALD

Morning Star

BOTE

our Future'» 17 Arier Laboris After Labour's collapse in June what is the future of the British left? We look at the perspectives of Peter Hain and Ken Livingstone, Militant MPs David Nellist and Terry Fields. And we ask has the Communist Party reached the end of the British road? 20 Romen: S Women: all in it together?

The personal and the political A German tragedy Can General Zia survive? Missile madness 22 Letters 23 Activities University Street WC1. Tuesday Partick, station). Tuesdays, 7.30pm, Street. Sheffield Conference room.

LONDON

Thursdays, starting 13 October, at 7.30pm, of London Union, Malet

GLASGOW

18 October, then every Wed nesday, starting 26 October, at 7.30pm, Patrick Burgh Hall, Burgh Hall Street, Glasgow G11 Partick

BIRMINGHAM

starting 18 October, Digbeth Civic Hall, Digbeth

SHEFFIELD

Tuesdays, starting 11 October at 7.30pm, Polytechnic Students Union,

War clouds shroud hroughout September the tragic end of the Korean jumbo jet shot down over the sea of Japan by the Soviet Union has dominated the world's media. Despite all the press and television coverage, nobody will ever know the true story behind this controversial incident. Both Western and Soviet versions are riddled with inconsistencies. But the chain of events that followed the disaster reveals disturbing trends towards war.

Western newspapers worked themselves into a frenzy about the Soviet outrage.

American President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Thatcher led the chorus of hysteria in Washington and London. But their concern for human life is highly selective.

When Israeli jets shot down a Libyan Boeing 727 in 1973 leading to the loss of more than one hundred lives, the Western response was Nor are the politicians and muted. pundits of Washington or London much concerned about the thousands of lives lost as a result of imperialist interference in Lebanon, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Angola or Mozambique. The current wave of moral indignation is particularly hypocritical because it is the United States that is responsible for initiating and building up the war of intelligence that led to the destruction of KAL 007. For decades the American intelligence services have used their technological superiority to keep the Soviet Union under surveillance. On the night of the Korean airline tragedy an American RC-135 type spy plane was operating on the same flight path.

However great the callousness and stupidity of the Soviet bureaucracy, its attack on the Korean plane was a defensive reaction to systematic provocation by American spy planes. While confusion remains over who did what during the hours leading up to the demise of the Korean jet, there can be no mystery about who are the main beneficiaries of the incident.

The imoerialist powers have been able to use it to the full to legitimise their rearmament programmes. The Times commented on the immediate advantages to US warmongering around the world: 'For instance, who will resist the President's plans to deploy the MX missile and modernise the US nuclear defences when the adversary has shown itself capable of such cynical brutality?

Will Congress sustain its hostility to the administration's policy in Central America?

It was significant that a day after the disaster President Reagan announced he was dispatching 4000 more troops to the eastern Mediterranean to back up the beleaguered US peace keeping contingent in Beirut. Yet so far not a word of protest has been heard.' While the Korean jet got all the publicity, behind the scenes the United States stepped up its involvement in the Middle East and Central America. As the Sixth Fleet massed off the Lebanese coast and began shelling villages in the Chouf mountains above Beirut the last thing on Reagan's mind was saving human lives.

the T he rising tension between the USA and the Soviet Union dynamic towards a new world war. The United States is in the middle of the most comprehensive rearmament programme in history. defence spending has increased by 57 per cent, to reach a staggering $209 billion in 1983. The Pentagon's outlay on arms is expected to result in a defence budget of $425 billion by 1988. The USA's ambitious rearmament programme is the result of careful calculations by government experts in Washington. stall the decline of American global American capitalism can no Powel. longer sustain its role as the guarantor of imperialist relations around the world.

The stagnation of the US economy in recent years has rendered it vulnerable to competition from the more dynamic capitalist economies. Growing international rivalries reveal that the rise of Japanese and European imperialism over the past decade has been at the expense of the USA. Washington can no longer exercise control over the world economy. Rearmament is part of a complex of policies designed to compensate for economic decline through diplomatic and military means. muscle the USA hopes to keep its imperialist rivals in check.

justifies its rearmament programme by the need to contain the Soviet threat.

That real tensions exist between Washington and Moscow is indisputable.

But containing the so-called Soviet threat is by no means the most important preoccupation of American military strategists. military spending have not been on nuclear arms. Next year only 10 per cent of the Pentagon's budget will go to strategic nuclear weapons. Most of the $274 billion budget is earmarked for 'general purpose forces - the most substantial allocations are to the Rapid Deployment Force and the navy.

The Rapid Deployment Force was set up in the wake of the Iranian hostage crisis to provide the USA with a highly mobile hit squad to deal with trouble in the region of the Gulf. From its original modest conception it has grown into an army 400 000 strong. The extension of the navy has been paralleled by the proliferation of bases in Africa and the Middle East. shows that these measures are primarily designed to bolster America's global power. They enable US forces and their proxies to fight limited wars in backward capitalist countries. It is not the Soviet menace but Lebanon and Libya, Iran and Iraq, Central America and Africa that motivate the arms build-up in Washington.

1 he growth of American military power is also a warning to its imperialist rivals in Europe and Japan. exposed the next step

KAL 007

distracts attention from the real Since 1980 power to carm Rearmament is essential to relations. percent a year in real terms.

points •By flexing its military America are even more intense. Most of the increases in recession. 1 the working class. Even a cursory examination the annual TUC conference.

a stronger national consensus.

considerable impact. Bitter competition has fragmentation of the imperialist world order. The last annual report of the International Institute for Strategic Studies warned that in 1982, the United States and Western Europe managed to split themselves apart spectacularly, and all that Moscow had to do was to sit back and benefit' The world crisis of capitalism has unleashed forces that compel every imperialist policy. According to longestablished capitalist traditions, economic conflict will be resolved, not in the market place, but in the arena of war.

Nor is America travelling the road to war alone. In the short run the USA has the most to gain by militarising economic But all the imperialist powers are committed to rearmament. In France the Mitterand regime has just embarked on a five-year defence programme which left. calls for a rise in defence spending of two French rearmament is explicitly designed to back up its claims to a share of the world market. In a number of global flash- - Chad, Lebanon and Iran representatives of Reagan and Mitterand have already been at one another's throats. Whilst the USA has been arming Iran, France has lent' Super Etendards equipped with Exocet missiles to Iraq.

While French commentators berate Yankee militarists, articles in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post have been denouncing the greed of French arms salesmen. In Africa rivalries As the New Statesman put it, 'French-American rivalry in Africa is becoming as much of a threat to peace and stability on the continent as East-West tensions' (16 September).

Behind the propaganda war against the Soviet Union lies the more mundane struggle to redivide the world. The main protagonists in the drama are neither nation. Moscow nor Washington but a host of imperialist powers desperate to overcome the disastrous consequences of the world he orchestrated campaign against the Soviet Union legitimises the war plans of contending imperialist rivals. powerful ideological device for bolstering up domestic consensus. Denunciations of the Soviet threat serve to discredit those who would oppose the capitalist system.

Anti-communism is directed at militants, future. aiming to isolate them from the rest of Shortly after the Korean airline episode a press campaign against Arthur Scargill's criticisms of Solidarity overshadowed proceedings at The media stir up anti-communism to create a climate where the witch-hunting projects of the capitalist class can operate to forge The Cold War campaign has had Most workers accept the media version of the Korean Africa. airline tragedy. At the same time, scare The stories about 'red moles in industry have taken their toll. Many militants feel the heat of reaction and wonder when their at home. turn will come. Red-baiting is a powerful weapon in the hands of bosses determined to crush shopfloor opposition.

The establishment's anti-working class propaganda is strengthened by the dismal record of the Soviet bureaucracy.

But the main blame lies with the British left.

The left in Britain has never seriously fought for an internationalist foreign It has often criticised the excessive brutality of British militarism abroad, but it has no tradition of serious campaigning against British imperialism.

Successive British governments have pursued the ruthless plunder of Third World countries with little domestic In recent years the British opposition. war-machine has been able to pursue its objectives in Ireland and the Malvinas generally with the tacit approval of the Peace movements like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament have restricted their horizons to opposing particular sorts of nuclear weapons. They have ignored the more profound problems of British imperialism and British militarism. Indeed they have explicitly accepted the point of view that the pursuit of British non-nuclear defence is a worthy enterprise.

Since the aggression of British imperialism mainly takes a non-nuclear form, CND and its followers have kept their peace.

old War propaganda and anticommunism lind a resonance amongst workers because the ruling class is allowed to monopolise the sphere of foreign policy.

The leaders of the labour movement are always ready to follow the Tories in denouncing the Soviet Union or Argentina or the IRA. Thus their enemies are widely accepted as enemies of the entire We have no choice but to fight for a distinctive working class foreign policy. This is not because we are obsessed by some abstract principle of internationalism. It is essential if we are to thwart the drive towards war.

The overseas adventures of British, American and French armies can only lead the world towards the abyss. The relentless drive for profits is pushing the major powers closer to a conflagration which could jeopardise the survival of humanity.

The fight against British imperialism will not only prevent the wars of the It will also expose Cold War ideology and destroy the crippling consensus that thrives under the banner of the Union Jack. Our enemy is not to be found abroad. The best way to counter the imperialist war drive is by popularising anti-imperialist politics in the working class. For us there is no Britain to defend. On one side there is the British ruling class whose remorseless drive for profits leads to the occupation of Ireland, war in the Malvinas and support for the racist regime in South On the other side there is the working class, battered by the recession defence of our class interests requires the defeat of our class enemies

Racism OVER THE PAST MONTH the black community in East London has been subjected to a barrage of While local GLC-funded groups have been busy keeping their files up to date, East London Workers Against Racism has been out on the streets organising physical defence attacks. • In early September, Asian medical student Dipak Amin was set upon by three skinheads Shoreditch. • Dipak suffered a fractured spine leaving him temporarily paralysed, received multiple stab wounds to his face and body and had the initials 'NF' carved into his wrists. local community when the police suggested that the case of robbery. Frank Monti dared to venture that it may have a racial motive' but then went on to speculate about Dipak carving the initials NF' himself! Ashof Ali and his family have lived under siege ever since they moved into their GLC flat in East India Dock. Cricket balls and bricks are the weapons used to terrorise the seven children.

attack was more serious. A large gas cylinof highly inflammable paint Cern remover smashed through a window into a bedroom where three of the children were sleeping. over the bed. hospitalised as a result. families on the estate will not open their doors after dark for fear of being attacked by marauding Just after the attempted firebombing of the Ali family, a young Bengali boy was chased into the road by a white youth and badly injured by a passing car.

estate is covered in racist graffiti - 'KILL ASIANS, NF' and THIS IS NOT A Z00'. Amie Jeng, Shegun Faponele and their 14-month-old daughter Donna narrowly escaped death recently soaked towel was pushed letterbox of their flat in Bow The family awoke in the early alight. hours of the morning to find the fire spreading down the passage.

door was more or less burnt down, the curtains destroyed, and badly damaged. • When Ali Armuss and moved into their flat in Mile End, they discovered that the racists had got there before them. Cans of paint had been thrown over the walls and the rooms daubed with painted slogans - PAKIS

OUT - NF'

Other flats recently allocated to Asian families have also been smashed up with axes and defaced with graffiti and National Front stickers - PUT WHITES FIRST.

Monitoring mania Several organisations who have put themselves forward as the vanguard of the antiracist struggle in East London have been notable by their lack of response to the latest upsurge of racist attacks.

Tower Hamlets Association for Racial Justice - a 'radical' breakaway from the local Commission for Racial Equality - is the archetypal umbrella organisation, provides a cover for a plethora of religious and labour movement bodies and con- 4 the next step, October 1983 Bricks and bottles, knives and bombs Catalogue of terror racist violence. monitoring years of against racist Brick Lane report. There was outrage in the act was a straightforward rehousing. Detective Sergeant 1s the independent The latest independent behaviour, It exploded on the wall One of the children was Many Asian bands of white youths. The when a petrolthrough the and set in with constant harassment estates to prevent attacks.

Their front join us. the carpet Three his family Boateng and and houses ments were record in East London. newer house nearby. side of the mobilising their own defence. For Williams

ELWAR,

Street, London E8. cerned individuals to express outrage at the scale of racist attacks, while they do nothing in practice to combat them. After 'monitoring, THARJ has concluded that both the local council and the GLC have operated a deliberate policy of ghettoising Asians in the oldest, most rundown estates in the borough while the better estates have been reserved exclusively for whites. THARJ's 'plan of action' in response to the increase in racist attacks is to support the creation of yet another committee - the GLC's showpiece Race and Housing Action Team' - whose role will again be to monitor, investigate and THARJ's answer to racial harassment is to 'support the victims after the attack, to visit them, build up their 'confidence' and assist where appropriate with Another local GLC-funded organisation Community Alliance for Police Accountability which is a vehicle for the Labour left's campaign to make the police accountable to the community.

CAPA

devotes all its resources to monitoring racist attacks and 'police over-reaction'.

It wants control of the police force, an complaints procedure, prosecution system, dismissal from the police force for racialist and prosecution of racists when there is 'sufficient evidence' to get a conviction. CAPA believes that the police have a role to play in combatting racism and that the courts can be expected to defend the victims of racist attacks.

For workers defence The difference between radical community organisations like THARJ and CAPA and East London Workers Against Racism is that unlike them, we do not look to the institutions of the state to defend blacks against racist attacks. We organise workers take direct action in their defence.

This means setting up groups of supporters who are prepared to come out and patrol the streets and housing estates in areas where the racists are active.

In Tower Hamlets, we have been sitting tamilies who are experiencing and patrolling the We have also been able to persuade local tenants to weeks after Amie Jeng was firebombed, she was still waiting for the council to replace her door.

As soon as she contacted ELWAR we brought her along to a meeting of more than 300 local black people where Ken Livingstone, Paul representatives from the GLC and Tower Hamlets housing departdefending their housing We managed to put them on the spot and embarrass them into taking immediate action to move Amie out of her burnt-out flat into a Only direct action against the racists can defend black people against attack.

While THARJ and CAPA pursue the impossible task of winning the state to the working class, ELWAR is to take control of Eileen McEvoy further information phone Kirk 01-274 3951 or write Box 22, 136 Kingsland High Narrow escape: Amie Jeng and baby outside firebombed flat BLACK YOUTH in Hackney and Stoke Newington have been in the front line of police terror for many years now.

Saturday 10 September 18-year-old Terry Vital from most cal vacuums At about 9.30pm Terry was standing with his friend Errol Myers outside the Finsbury Park Tavern on Seven Sisters Road, waiting for a bus to Stoke Newing They were approached by two police officers who asked for their names and addresses, which they gave.

then asked to search the youths.

complied, Terry refused. moment, Terry was being bundled into a police van which had drawn up alongside the tootpath. being arrested he was told 'to be searched at the police station. Terry was taken to Holloway Road police station; the arresting officers told the desk sergeant that he was 'a suspected drug character'. The two arresting officers took Terry into another room and began to abuse him, calling him a 'cunt' and a "flash bastard'. When Terry again refused to be searched one of the officers (N431) stood behind him, put his arms around his neck and kicked the back of his legs so that he fell back on to the floor. The other officer (N540) grabbed his legs and started kicking him. Terry was soon lying in a pool of blood after being punched in the face by the officer holding his neck.

eye was badly cut and swollen and needed hospital treatment. cers then began ripping his possessions trom his pockets and in the process pro duced a black lock-knife which Terry had never seen before. Terry's trousers down and made him stand up. sergeant (N23) walked into the room, saw the pool of blood and Terry's badly

HIGHBURY

Terry Vital after his encounter with British justice Frame-up On his head on the chair. Clapton became one of its The police Errol The next in Highbury When he asked why he was and jury. been arranged the shop. especially the frame-up. like animals.' Terry's left The two police offi- The police then pulled and underpants At this point the to demonstrate damaged face and in a well-rehearsed tone exclaimed, 'Don't tell me, he knocked After spending an hour in the cells Terry recéived a visit from a doctor who tried to persuade him to have the deep cut over his eye stitched up. Terry refused Before he was released he was subjected further taunts and threats from the police. They told him not to bother complaining about his damaged eye Just before he left the police station at 12.55am Terry was told to sign a paper listing his possessions; it contained the knife the police had planted on him. Terry refused.

The following Monday Terry appeared Magistrates Court charged with 'possession of an offensive weapon'.

He pleaded 'not guilty' and asked for a Crown Court hearing in front of a judge The hearing date has not yet Terry, who works as a conductor for London Transport and is a member of the TGWU, told WAR members who went to court with him: Every Saturday night on my way home from my sister's I get harassed by the police.

Once I was stopped and searched for "suspicious walking" - I was just running down the road to So this time I refused. I'm really angry about what happened to me that night - The police behaved Workers Against Racism is organising a legal and public campaign for Terry.

The police in the Hackney and Stoke Newington area have got away with their reign of terror for far too long: we'll make sure that they don't get away with it this time.

We will be asking for full backing from the TGWU in support of Terry and organising black and white workers in East London their opposition to police brutality and frame-ups.

POLICE OFF OUR BACKS!

LAGISTRATES

License to terrorise Last month immigration police made a series of dawn raids on the homes of Asian families in the south of England in an unsuccessful bid to track down 20-yearold Afia Begum and her baby daughter who are scheduled for deportation to Bangladesh. The state's remorseless hunt for Afia Begum is a vivid illustration of the plight of black people in Britain Workers Against Racism has been today. supporting Afia Begum's fight to stay in Britain since she received the first of her four removal orders, more than 12 months _She has been declared an illegal • 42U. immigrant because shortly after getting entry clearance to join her husband in January 1982 he was killed in a slum tenement fire in Brick Lane in London's East For Workers Against Racism the End. cause of Afia Begum and thousands of other immigrants who face similar measures of state repression is a vital issue for the labour movement.

EARLY

ON September, Thursday immigration officers swooped

OHEWO

Indian restaurants in Chatham, Kent and another restaurant and family home in Ipswich. In Ipswich they forced their way in, interrogated the occupants and made thorough searches. In Chatham they arrested an Asian man 'on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant' wentyone-year-old Saleh Ahmed, who was visiting his friend Israil Miah at his restaurant, was held Chatham lor eight nours al He was detained because ponce staton. he could not produce his passport.

ine police would not accept his medical or insurance cards as proof of identification.

"illegal immigrants' is Hunting down widely accepted as a legitimate occupation for the police. It is simply another aspect of a broadening offensive against black people conducted under the full authority of the immigration laws.

• PASSPORT

RAIDS

have become Shortly before the General commonplace. Election Home Office admitted a series of major police operations over the previous nine months: 18 people ques- September 1982 tioned in a raid on a West London hotel; "illegal entrants', two overstayers", two four breaches of work permit conditions.

Result - six prosecutions and one deportation. •January 1983 - 30 homes raided in the London area and 35 people interrogated; eight "illegal entrants', 12 overstayers", four working in breach of

VRECA

THE CHEC

No race checks on the dole.

Join WAR's campaign to wreck the government's new scheme to harass black claimants.

See WAR in action fighting deportations and police harassment organising against the checks and racist attacks building solidarity with black workers on strike.

Full colour video • 33 mins ee VHS • £5 to hire from Workers Against Racism BM WAR London WC1 3XX Phone 01-274 3951 for further details.

Guess why these two brothers, pictured here with their mother and grandmother, won a reprieve from deportation. They were born in Barbados and neither their parents nor grandparents were born in Britain. But, as their grandma put it, they were British through and through', coming from a long line of tea planters and missionaries'. You can't get more British than that.

conditions. Result - 15 prosecutions, five deportations. • April 1983 - eight people questioned in raids in Birmingham; two 'overstayers', two working in breach of conditions.

Result - one prosecution, three deportations (Hansard, 11 May).

now a

PASSPORT

CHECKS

are widely implemented means of picking up "illegal immigrants'. A survey recently conducted by Oldham Council for Racial Equality revealed that black people are often expected to produce passports to their immigration status when registering with a family doctor, attending hospital, signing on for social security or unemployment benefit, getting on the housing list, or enrolling at school or The DHSS was found to be a college. particularly important agency in enforcing race checks - they were reported in 63 of the 95 areas surveyed. • DEPORTATIONS are the next stage after illegal immigrants' are detected. In the last 12 months 1130 people have been rounded up as illegals' - many as a result of the use of checks, snoopers and informers. In the same period a total of 1860 people - including 'overstayers' and ordered to be deported others - were Office Statistical Bulletin, 28 Home August 1983). If Tory immigration minister David Waddington's new proposals to restrict access to immigration appeals are implemented, the number of deportations is likely to increase dramatically over the next year. E MÁSS DEPORTATIONS are now threa- *on the d Order the WAR video and invite a speaker for your trade union branch, youth club or college.

•WAR Video tened for groups of workers brought into Britain when their labour was required, but who are no longer needed now that mass unemployment has created a ready pool of cheap labour. The National Health Nurses recruited Service leads the way. from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Africa and the Caribbean by the Newham Health District in East London are being sacked once they have finished their training.

This leads to the denial of work permits from the Home Office and the expulsion of the nurses from the country after three years So far up super-exploitation as students.

to 40 nurses have been affected and 200 more are threatened over the next three At the other end of the NHS hieryears. archy, doctors' organisations have united to demand the repatriation of overseas doctors and even stricter curbs on further entry into Britain. The use of immigration regulations as a means of policing every aspect of the life of black people is backed up by press campaigns which portray young blacks as a menace to the decent values of British At the height of this summer's society. viciously reactionary media onslaught on gays (as child molesters), communists (as "moles' in industry) and deviants of every sort, blacks were once again labelled as violent criminals. A street corner squabble over a few pence between black and white children in Brixton, during which a baby was alleged to have been threatened, was elevated into a national issue. It was featured in prime time television news slots and the pages of the tabloids. A robbery in South London in which two men with Rastafarian hair styles' were said to have slashed a baby prompted an orgy of press abuse of "black muggers'.

The police took advantage of the their surveillance of furore to step up black ghettoes under the cover of 'neighbourhood watch' programmes and specially designed youth training schemes.

Meanwhile, (as documented opposite), racists official and unofficial went on the rampage. Why does Workers Against Racism make such an issue of opposition to immigration controls? For four reasons: • то

EXPOSE

the racist brutality behind the British state's public image of concern for racial harmony and justice.

Leon Brittan Tory Home Secretary recently visited a Bradford mosque to proclaim his affection for black people.

His immigration hatchet man Waddington announced only last month that the government is committed to a racially which black fair and just society in of belonging to people have a sense Britain with a common loyalty to Queen country'. The reality of Britain's and racist laws is the broken families of the 18 000 people in the Indian subcontinent awaiting a decision on settlement applithe broken livelihoods of Newcations, the broken-down ham's Asian. nurses, doors of Afia Begum's friends and relatives, and the broken bones of countless victims of police harassment and racial attacks.

Racism • TO CHALLENGE the complicity of the official labour movement in immigration regulations, and its complacency in the face of intensifying racial strife within the Two years ago the TUC working class. approved a "black workers' charter' aimed unions to take limited al encourag steps to cater for their black members.

But even token measures like courses on race relations and minority language leaflets proved too much for most unions.

Two years later more than half the unions affiliated to the TUC failed to reply to a questionnaire on progress along the lines of the charter. Only a dozen white collar unions had established special committees or conferences to consider the issue of racism in the workplace. Despite the fact that 60 per cent of all black workers are trade unionists only a handful of unions black officials. Yet discrimination have against black workers in employment in car factories, engineering works, local departments and government manual other sectors remains rife.

While the TUC condones racism in its own ranks, the Labour Party approves the operation of immigration controls at a national level. Labour fought the General Election on a manifesto which declared that 'we accept the need for immigration controls'. Left-winger Peter Hain in his post-election analysis indicates that a Labour government of the future would interpret the existing racist rules in a liberal manner' until it had time to proceed with the lengthy business of repealing and replacing' the legislation. The right of capitalist Britain to regulate the movements of the working class isunquestioned.

As long as Labour fails to question that right it will be unable to defend black people against state repression or protect the labour movement from the damaging consequences of racial divisions.

• TO ALERT active workers to the need to take a stand in defence of the rights of black people as a declaration of class solidarity against the capitalist state. In the recession the state leads the capitalist attack against the working class on all New legislation deprives trade fronts. unionists of long established rights; the police and the courts enforce the employers' interests on picket lines and the army stands by to deal with any more serious threat to the establishment. Every important struggle of the working class for for better wages conditions, women's rights or in solidarity with antiimperialist struggles - soon comes into confrontation with the state. The black in Britain has been singled community out as the first target for the increasingly coercive exercise of state power by an increasingly desperate ruling class. Hence it is of vital importance for the interests of the working class as a whole that mil itants respond by making the issue of racism their top prority too.

• TO FORGE working class unity against The ruling class the capitalist offensive.

foments racial divisions in the working class to its own advantage. As long as workers blame blacks rather than the bosses for unemployment, bad housing and poverty, their system is safe. The capitalists can make that a divided sure working class cannot resist the measures of repression and austerity they need to enforce to resolve their crisis at our When workers come together expense. and reject those who point the finger at black people as the cause of the problems of British society, the working class will be well on the way to resolving them at - the the expense of the real culprit capitalist class. The labour movement will only succeed in uniting the working class against the capitalist offensive when it takes up the fight against the use of immigration controls against black people. That is why Workers Against Racism demands your support for the campaign against the deportation of Afia Begum.

Zaro Costello the next step, October 1983 5

Racism ON 11 SEPTEMBER the socialist admin istration of the small town of Dreux was defeated by a right-wing slate which included members of the fascist National Front Party. This town, now has a fasist politician in charge of public security. The right-wing slate ousted the left by making racism the main issue of the election campaign.

Blaming the right The defeat at Dreux was a stunning blow to the ruling Government calition of Socialist and Communist parties. In 1977 the municipality elected a socialist administration and the new mayor Francoise Gaspard emerged as asymbol of the future hope of socialism. Six years later many of the workers who elected Gaspard switched their vote to the French National Front. So what went wrong?

The leadership of the Socialist (PS) and Communist (PCF) parties have been quick to blame the leading right-wing parties, the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) and the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) for uniting fascists. In a major speech on 14 September the leader of PCF accused the Gaullists of coming from the same family as the fasists. But condemnations of the right avoid the crucial question did thousands of workers switch their votes trom the left to the National Front?

Racism France has been on in increase for many years. More than 4.5 million immigrants have faced a campaign of hatred from virtually all sections of French society. Racist violence has become an everday fature of life in the Paris, Marseilles and Lyons. GEReS Armed racist thugs regularly attack groups of immigrants sometimes approval of the local police. The response of left-wing parties to these attacks goes a long way towards explaining what happened at Dreux. Racism and the French left Throughout the past decade. the policies of the PS and the PCF have strengthened natonalism in the working class. The left has constantly sought to instill a sense of popular patriotism into its rank and file.

It aimed to appeal to all classes in an effort to win away the electoral base of the right. This strategy has made French chauvin ism respectable in the working class. The PCF in particular has gone out of its way to popularise its own brand of militant Thus in January nanondusm. 1981 the PCF sought to electoral decline by launching an antiım migration campaign. Party chief Georges Marchais marched at the head of demonstrations against immigrant workers in Vitry. The lo cal communist took the initiative of bulldozing down a hostel occupied by immigrant workers.

This virulent anti-immigration campaign is not typical of the approach of the left.

Reformist politicians understand that a racial explosion would benefit primarily the right-wing parties. Thus the left has tended to combine anti-racist rhetoric with anti-immigrant action. This mixture is well illustrated in a major policy document of the PCF. On the one hand it claims to defend immigrants; on the other it argues that 'the defence of these (immigrant) workers does not at all mean that we favour the arrival of new immigrants in France' (Cahiers de Communisme, February 1979). In reality this opposition to immigration directly contradicts the defence of immigrant workers indeed it implicitly portrays them as a problem.

fighting for the free movement of all workers and for proletarian solidarity, the PCF. gives the French state the green light to interfere in the life of the working 6 the next step, October 1983 Fascist win in France class. police harassment of immigrant workers and fans the flames of chauvinism.

The left's anti-racist posture is very close to Paris, fragile. In general it goes along with popular prejudice and labels the victims of racial oppression as the cause of racial tensions. Thus when earlier this year immigrant car workers struck against their racist employers the Socialist Government denunced 'the dark force of Islam' behind the strike. In Dreux Socialist politicians blamed immigrants for the existence of racism. Before the election, Mayor Gaspard identified immigrant crime as her main concern. She commented: *You see, about thirty of these thugs is all you need to threaten to lose the Monde, 8 September 1983).

No Gaspard

COLDI

anti-racist. But by going along with the view that immigrants are a problem she goes along with the ciminalisation of immigrant workers. open the door to the fasists. The French National Front (NF) finds a resonance for with the its programme of workers have already been educated to im migrants as inals' and a threat to their economic security. The policies of the NF are simply why an extension of the existing practice of im migration control. million unemployed. the igrant workers' says loud and clear what the socialists closed doors. How not to fight racism The restrained chauvinism of the PS and the PCF is no match for the more coherent racism of the right. In the March with the local elections the race issue dominated the campaign in many parts of France.

The left strategy of ignoring racist propaganda did not work - many PS and PCF strongholds fell to the right-wing parties.

Nor did the issue of race disappear after the election. Racist and the Mitterand Government was forced to take a stand on the issue.

The response of the left to these disturbing developments was not to launch a fight against racism, but to join the antiimmigration lobby and demonstrate that it too was patriotic. During July and August state harassment of immigrants was stepped up. Britain discovered, a colour-bar was implemented around French frontier posts.

The immigration minister Georgina Dufoix everse its announced that the decided to expel most of the 3500 illegal im migrants in French prisons.

Four days before the first round of the municıpa elections in Dreux, the Mittmayor erand administration announced a comprehensive proposals. that the new measures would stamp out employment of illegal immigrant labour. Public attention was drawn to new measures which allowed for the swift expulsionof immigrants — with no recourse to appeal. The disastrous results of the first round of the Dreux election precipitated a panic atmosphere in the left camp. On 6 September PCF leader Marchais issued a statement to the electorate of Dreux. Pointing to the new government-sponsored antiimmigration package he argued that 'the recent measures taken by the Government constitute the first step for solving the serious problem' (Le Monde, 7 September 1983). The rest of the left trooped into Dreux - not to fight racism but to den- Instead of ounce the fascist National Front. A leftwing rally uniting PS politicians with a range of celebrities including the leader of the radical left LCR (the French section of the United Secretariat of the Fourth This divisive approach legitimises municipality" (Le sees herself as Politicians like Gaspard repatriation because "scroungers", crimbanned Their slogan "Two Two million immdare only whisper behind in democratic Interior hypocrisy. incidents monted As black turists from home. Government had of public security. package of anti-immigration To the bitter Socialist politicians boasted hearing from their old parties.

at playing the chauvinist game.

French working embedded in Türken raus! AFTER 13 months in police custody, Turkish immigrant KEMAL ALTUN escaped deportation by the German immigration authorities. On Tuesday 30 August, the 23-year-old former leader of the Turkish Revolutionary Student Group hurled himself to his death from a sixth-floor window at the Berlin courthouse where his case was being heard.

of The tragic death of Kemal Altun unleashed a furore in Germany. Ten thousand people took to the streets of Berlin spontaneous protest. The Social Democrats accused the Christian Democrat Government of giving more credence to the Turkish military dictators than to opponents. But their denunciations of right-wing Minister of the Friedrich Zimmerman for harsh policy towards foreigners are sheer The hristian Democrats are merely continuing the course charted by their social democratic predecessors.

Behind the shock-horror headlines that greeted Kemal Altun's death, the German authorities are pursuing a relentless drive against all foreigners. Welcomed in the 'sixties, when cheap labour was needed for the booming German enonomy, they have now become the scapegoat for rising crime and unemployment. Foreign workerswho were recruited in their millions to work in the attacks. land of the economic miracle are now alone. being offered £2500 for each adult and £350 for each child and a one-way ticket The government has promised to reduce International) invoked the lessons of Nazi Germany. Two days later Dreux became the first French town with a fasist head French left end the refused to take up the racist hallenge. Its abstract denunciations of fascism meant nothing to people who were concerned with the pressing problems of unemployment, inflation and economic insecurity.

Those who voted for the NF did not vote for the restoration of Vichy France under the Third Reich. The NF presented a bolder, more decisive and a far more logical version of the message they have been workers A bitter lesson The responsibility for the fasist victory OveLcoe at Dreux lies with the French left. For years the PCF and PS have peddled a cheap radical variety of chauvinism. They have now discovered that the right is far better Dreux highlights the dangers facing the class, particularly its immigrant section. Racism is so deeply French society that even the official labour movement is imbued the number of foreigners by half, to two million in the next five years.

To leave no doubt about its intentions, immigration police have picked up dozens of "illegal' Filipino workers from their homes and and put them wurkplaces on planes within hours Turkish workers, who make up a third Germany's 4.5 million immigrant population, have been singled out for special attention. raids in the Dawn Turkish gettoes of Berlin, Frankfurt and other major cities have become rutine.

Until recently Germany was a magnet for political refugees. But in March 1983 the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the right to asylum had 'no fundamental priority over the duty to extradite.

By August the number of applicants seking asylum had dropped from 108 000 in 1980 to 11 400. The case of Kemal Altun illustrates the determination meet extradition requests from Turkey. Now refugees are only guaranteed asylum if they are facing the death penalty. As in Kemal Altun's case, the Turkish authorities are now withdrawing serious charges political opponents ensure immediate extradition. Immigrant workers are facing daily They must not be left to fight Until the labour movement allies itself with them against their common enemy it will be incapable of defending itself against the attacks to come.

Bernard Braun with it. As a result immigrant workers have become isolated • now they bear the brunt of the capitalists' offensive.

The fact that immigration could become the number one issue at a time of mass unemployment and reduction of living standards indicates the political disarray of the French labour movement.

Instead of resisting their bosses, workers are at each other's throats.

The results at Dreux above all mark a victory for the capitalist class. Racism must be combatted at its roots.

All attempts to control immigrant workers must be resisted. It is only when French unite with their immigrant brothers and sisters against the capitalist class and its state that the paralysis can be It is easy for French leftists to denounce the NF. But the danger comes not from a still insignificant NF, but from the parties of the Mitterand calition that have French popularised chauvinism the 1n The fight against racism working class. must begin with the struggle to liberate workers from the chauvinist influence of the PS and the PCF. Pat Roberts

FIGHTING UNEMPLOYMENT is a top priority for the working class.

ping the stranglehold of the official labour movement is no casy walter.

rience of Castlemilk Unemployed Workers' Group in Glasgow shows the difficulties facing unemployed workers who attempt to organise independently.

Castlemilk Unemployed Group was set up in campaign for a local centre controlled by the unemployed. Communist when Glasgow Trades Council executive member tamonn • Monaghan the contacted suggested it join the ration of Unemployed Groups.

joined the federation in the belief that it would retain its independence.

Soon after the group's delegates to the given the trades council's tution for the running of the unemployed The management committee of

CCHUC.

12 was to be made up of six unemployed members and two delegates each from the district, regional and trades councils.

district and regional councils were empowered to close the to any 'unacceptable activity.

centre nearby Cumbernauld recently threatened with loss of funding for displaying a poster of the First World War Clydeside revolutionary leader John Maclean. Bureaucratic straitjacket Trades council recognition of the new unemploved WeLCOM green light required by the local authority before it would provide facilities for a The group was now completely centre. dependent on the goodwill of the trades council bureaucrats. iron and TUC-prescribed constitution was too loose for the trades council's liking.

It added a clause disallowing any amendof ment approval of the trades council and district council. The unemployed group rejected the 'draft' and amended it to restore control of the centre to the unemployed and to remove the implicit ban on political acti- The group instructed its delegates to the federation to inform Monaghan that it would draw up its own constitution jobs, living standards and workers' right to organise.

appeared a more practicable proposition.

forward to the establishment of communism.

payable to Junius Publications.

Policing the unemployed Yet escaployed. The expe- June, three trades council. Workers' October 1982 to refused to return them. Its problems began Party and and group Strathclyde Fede- The group unemployed workers' new hostility, federation were 'draft' constiwould accept unael protest. The and off their centre in response Another was unemployed centre. police the TUC interference. the was held Was But even this castc/o Phil McPhee 7 Drakemire Drive without the Glasgow G45 immediate reinstatement The secretary Glasgow Trades Council Trades Union Centre Carlton Place Glasgow

PREPARING FOR

POWER

The world recession reveals that the capitalist system is rotten to the core.

survival of capitalism depends on mass unemployment and poverty in the West and famine and mass terror in the Third World. Today the superpowers fight to save their system abroad, while at home they are launching a full frontal attack on The recession opens up prospects for a brighter future.

necessity for a new way of running society seemed so urgent.

creation of a new party of the working class, to get rid of the present system, need to defend the working class against the Tory onslaught and points the way Order your copy now! Send 30 pence plus 20 pence p&p to Junius Publications Ltd, BCM JP LTD, London WC1N 3XX. Make cheques to suit the needs of the Castlemilk unem- At the group's annual general meeting in secretary, treasurer and the delegates to the Strathclyde federation were voted out for their failure to argue the group's point of view with the The five walked out, but not empty handed. They took the finance books and the key to the group's flat (on lease temporarily from the council) and Within days, the council had cut off funding to the Castlemilk group and the five budding bureaucrats had formed themselves into the Dougrie Unemployed Group.

Splitting the ranks In an attempt to reverse the council's the unemployed workers' group informed the trades council that it their constitution, but But the trades council bureaucrats had already decided that the Dougrie defectors were a more compliant vehicle for keeping youth off the streets.

in a house-trained backs, Monaghan completed his manoeuvres by giving the Dougrie gang of five a mandate to proceed with the new The Castlemilk unemployed are victims of the bureaucrats' desire to hang on to their positions by helping the state unemployed. The group determined to fight for its right to organise the unemployed free from state and A successful picket outside the trades council meeting in September and a campaign has been launched to get local and national labour movement support for the group.

The Castlemilk unemployed need your help. Send messages of support to: Castlemilk Unemployed Workers Group Send letters of protest, demanding the of the CUWG to the Strathclyde Federation of Unemployed Workers' Groups, to: Alex Farrell The Never before has the Never has the Preparing for Power begins from the WHILE THE annual conference of the TUC was giving its unconditional support the Youth government's Scheme, the Tories were laying plans for further attacks on the unemployed.

are out to make maximum savings with and other marginalised sections of the working class are first in the firing line.

They are ready to stir up every prejudice about "scroungers" and weaken resistance to the brutal measures for the survival necessary capitalism. No 'palatable solution' The days when Tory against government threats to cut welfare benefits are long gone. cern about the possibility of riots has been tempered by the burden on state spending of maintaining people on the dole. spokesman William isn't a palatable solution to this problem; but palatable or not, some action has got to be taken. Unemployment benetit has already been cut by earnings-related supplement in 1980, imposing a five per cent cut in 1981 and introducing taxation in 1982.

further might cause political ructions; it would also be financially unproductive.

The Treasury estimates that it would only save f13 million for every one per cent cut in benefit - small beer when set beside the f120 billion public expenditure bill.

The Tories have turned instead to cutting the cost of housing unemployed youth, pensioners and low-paid workers.

Housing benefit The new housing benefit scheme is an important step in cutting welfare spending In November 1982, local authorities took over responsibility from the DHSS for the rent and rates of council paying tenants on supplementary benefit. Rent and rates are now automatically deducted from supplementary directly by the councils themselves.

biggest saving to the state is in the DHSS staff numbers have been cut wage bill by 2400. The new scheme ensures that local authorities get their rent.

denies workers the option of using their rent money to make ends meet and guarantees an end to rent and rate strikes.

The scheme entered a second stage in April this year when local authorities took responsibility for paying the rent and rates of private tenants on supplementary benefit. ances and rate rebates was reorganised at the same time. changes are a swingeing attack on those who live in inner-city flats and bedsits the young, the blacks, Irish and the low-paid.

mants who are excluded from supplementary benefit - mainly pensioners - lost Queueing for benefits: now the Tories aim to impoverish claimants still further The axe falls allowance Training They on its inefficiency. Unemployed youth the changeover. tion notices. defrauders of British 'wets' rebelled Ruling class conat home. four million As Tory financial Clark put it, There benefit a week abolishing ment of £3.10. Cutting it keeping allowance. saving. would establish benefit and paid The too loud' It also Thatcher's The system of rent allow- Taken together, these working class. elderly, single parents, Some clai- Unemployment up to 40 per cent of their housing criticism of the Labour movement housing benefit scheme has concentrated More than 100 local authorities have been unable to cope with Thousands council of and private tenants have been forced into arrears: some have been served with evic- Calling on the Tories to 'make the system work' means allowing the state to pursue its attacks on the unemployed more efficiently.

Keep it in the family The Tories have made sure that people who live at home are worse off Deductions in housing benefits are made for 'non-dependants' - anyone over 16 living New proposals to limit the amount of housing benefit considered 'reasonable' will force the unemployed to accept even worse conditions.

There are 721 000 people on the dole and living with their parents.

Those aged 16 and 17 get £15.80 supplementary Those aged 18 receive £20.55 and a weekly housekeeping supple- The Tories would like to cut youth benefit to the miserable £13.15 a week now paid to unemployed parents for each child under 16 They are also considering chopping the f3.10 house- Recognising that this would encourage unemployed youth to leave home, the Treasury is preparing to back up any cut in housekeeping allowance with restrictions on rent allowances for those not living at home.

Teenage screams Picking off unemployed youth is the first step towards a more general onslaught on benefits to the unemployed. A recent editorial in The Times observed that cutting youth benefits was a short-term However, it continued, the cuts a precedent that was 'more important for the long run'. They would 'establish the violability of basic social benefits and do it for a group over which the political screams will not be Attacks on unemployed youth are used to soften up the working class for the real cuts to come. They are justified by popularising the notion that all unemployed youth are layabouts' who spend their time mugging old people and propping up street corners. "They like it' was Margaret latest characterisation British youth on the dole.

The housing benefit scheme, and cuts in rent allowances and other benefits to the unemployed, are an attack on the whole Workers with jobs cannot afford to leave the unemployed to fight alone. The employed working class must unite with the unemployed to determine what benefits are needed - and fighttoget them.

Anne Grieves the next step, October 19837

Labour movement THE STRIKE AT BRITAINS' toy factory Walthamstow is over. On Sunday 25 in September the strikers voted by a narrow majority to end their two-month strike for a one-hour reduction in a compulsory working week of 50 hours.

The strike has been called off despite the fact has not conceded management demand nor given any guarantees against victimisations. At the final mass meeting TGWU district organiser Tom Knowles shrugged helplessly and said nothing more could be done. The senior shop stewards went along with this fatalistic line and collecabstained from voting. strikers left the meeting the mood was of bitterness and anger. one workers threatened to rip up their union cards and denounced the TGWU for selling them out. From the start it was clear that Britains would be a difficult strike to win.

220 workers who came out on 29 July had never been on strike before. For the 13 years that Knowles had been their official he had done little to improve the atrocious hours and conditions of the pre- Asian workforce. dominantiv relationship between the shop stewards and the management has long prevailed in the factory: Having decided to take industrial action, the strikers were immediately faced with a number of serious problems.

a hostile response from 200 fellow-workers (mainly white and non-unionised) who continued to work throughout the There were potentially damaging strike. divisions within their own ranks, principally between the men and because the union had failed to acknowledge the women's demand for equal pay.

And there were major difficulties in organising effective picketting and blacking, given the aggressive policing of the picket These problems could have been line. overcome with enough backing from the In the event, the TWU's conduct of the strike undermined the unity of the workers at every stage. East London RCP supporters got involved in the strike from the beginning and set about tackling the obstacles to winning the workers' demands.

instigation the strikers began to organise the picketting of toy shops. Flying pickets were sent out to secure blacking, particubears the central responsibility.

KD KHAN

M BASHIR

M MANER

R ANWAR

four on the picket line! 8 the next step, October 1983 Setback at Britains larly at the docks. importance of an active strike committee and regular mass meetings to involve all the workers in the conduct of the strike.

We helped to pickets. Knowles condemned all practical action to achieve victory as provocative.

that When the police attacked the mass picket this and arrested strikers and supporters, he blamed the RCP. quivocally rejected this allegation.

It was no wonder that as the weeks went by and the union dragged its feet some strikers became demoralised.

women had been very militant at the start, sit-downs to block the factory As the staging But they inevitably became discouraged when Many them and they began to drift back to The men too began to waver.

work. Financial hardship began to take its toll a factor the union official exploited to The retain control of the strike.

the more militant workers challenged the TGWU's do-nothing threatened to withdraw official backing and cut off strike pay. In the end the union's tactics succeeded A cosy in containing militancy and undermining the workers confidence. strikers were browbeaten into accepting a return to work. Knowles was assisted in his efforts to militancy dampen down the local Socialist Workers Party, There was members occasionally appeared on the picket line. whilst striker after striker got arrested on the picket line - and then went away to write articles about mass pickets! (See letter, page 22).

women, role was to echo the statements of the TGWU official and implicitly endorse the union in strike on the strikers themselves.

The lesson of the Britains defeat is not that cards, but that we have to take over our With leadership of the kind provided by the TGWU at Britains, difficulties and divisions were given maximum scope to grow and undermine the effectiveness of the strike. dent that when workers can overcome the influence At our paralysing leadership, they will have no problem in taking on the bosses and winning.

Statement by

BRITAINS

strikers We the undersigned, condemn the Britains' strike committee for refusing to recommend a continuation of industrial action. We believe our strike has been sold out and that TGWU official Tom Knowles

M ALI

Z IQBAL

W WILLOCK

G MUDDIN

A KHALIQ

J IQBAL

R IQBAL

BRITAINS

arrests fund Seventeen strikers and supporters have been arrested in the Britains strike.

police have made a special effort to please local MP Norman Tebbit by enforcing • The TGWU will not be paying the defendants' fines. Rush donations to BRITAINS ARRESTS FUND, 19 Worcester Road, Walthamstow, London E17 We also urged the mobilise regular Lass of the unions to But the workers une- The with the Government. the union reprimanded the system. Every time Knowles strategy, been met with union leaders. The majority of this way at Britains by whose have They stood and watched ployer. organised' "badly Their new laws by blaming the problems of the strict bers in line. we should tear up our union We remain confiof their existing Judy Harrison for political purposes. more democratic. labour bureaucracy. reveals that the 25 September The Fight for the right to fight! On 29 September the leaders of the Trades Union Congress met Tory Employment Secretary Norman Tebbit to discuss his latest proposals for weakening the capacity defend the working class. At last month's TUC conference at Blackpool union chiefs talked of 'realism', 'reasoned discussion' and 'partnership' In the desperate hope of preserving some of their standing in the eyes of the British establishment, the trade union bureaucrats are preparing to collaborate in further restrictions on the rights of workers to fight back against OVER THE LAST four years the Tories have advanced step by step to restrict workers' rights to organise to defend jobs, working conditions and living standards.

And at every stage the Tory advance has a retreat by the trade The Government has introduced laws to curb the right to strike, by making it possible in a variety of circumstances for employers to sue workers for damages occasioned by industrial action.

the Tories have limited workers' rights to picket and to black products and essential supplies They also made it more difficult for workers to organise a closed shop to en- While force their collective interests on an emare Rather than fight these measures, the Their bureaucrats have backed down.

policy has been to prevent the use of the policing industrial disputes Hence the TUC has issued guidelines on picketting, blacking and the closed shop to keep union memattacks. Union officials have used all their influence, and their control over the distribution of strike pay, to confine the scope of militancy within the limits declared legally acceptable by the Tories.

Two cheers for democracy Encouraged by his success so far, Tebbit now plans further anti-union legislation.

He wants to interfere in workers' organisations to impose new regulations on how unions should decide on strike action, elect their leaders and organise their funds rather Tebbit claims a crusading mission to make the unions Active trade unionists view Tebbit's schemes with the contempt they deserve as transparent attempts to make the unions even less democratic and effective than they already are under the However, the TUC felt obliged to reply to Tebbit in a pamphlet, Hands up for democracy, which are right bureaucrats with Our state. disputes Tebbit: it's time we got him on the run under the bosses' thumb. Workers once joined unions because they wanted to fight the capitalist class, but the TUC has a different conception or tell uncon. They work with employers to increase productivity, to sort out problems of work and to make industry more efficient."

The TUC is concerned that Tebbit's measures will make it more difficult for unions to play this constructive role for British capitalism: *Compulsory strike ballots could be counter productive as well - they could prolong a dis pute and make it far less easy to resolve.

The bureaucrats plead for the Tories to let them carry on in their humble role as junior partners in the exploitation of the working class: Unions can achieve most when they work with government and employers, playing a posi our country torward live role in moving when they can work towards common goals rather than being locked out from influence and involvement.' It is in this spirit that Len Murray and the rest are crawling on their knees up the steps of the Department of Employment.

the TUC talks to Tebbit in Whitehall, rank and file trade unionists already feeling the effects of the heightening ruling class offensive against workers' rights. The climate of anti-union sentiment carefully fostered by the Tories public airing of issues of 'union power and 'union democracy' helps to isolate militants and leave them open to state Workers who go on strike today, as we document on these pages, face the threat of court action or the reality of police repression the moment they raise the stakes by militant action.

The antiunion laws of 1980 and 1982 have scarcely been used because of the effectiveness of the Tories ideological campaign and the Journacapitulation of the bureaucracy.

lists at the Stockport Messenger were the latest victims of these pressures last month Threatened by injunctions against secondary picketting, they called off their action risk prosecution and fines than which the TUC made very clear it had no As the Financial intention of paying. Times commented, the threat of legal sanctions against unions has in some recent cases led to strong pressure from head office to call off - or not to start unlawful action'. The right to fight The spectacle of the TUC leaders in talks Tebbit as he proceeds in his onslaught against the working class provides a dramatic illustration of how far the labour bureaucracy has become a parasitic excrescence on the labour movement.

fight for trade union rights - for the right to fight in defence of living standards must begin with a challenge to the union leaders paralysinggrip over our movement.

campaign must begin with the demand that union representatives not only cease all talks with the Tories, but break off all relations with the capitalist That means pulling union officials off all the quangos and all the permanent tripartite negotiating machinery with bosses and civil servants at every level The fight for the right to fight must be based on the defiance of all restrictions on the action necessary to win industrial against employers, suppliers, It is on the customers, scabs, police.

picket lines and in workplaces - not in the committee rooms - that the battle for workers' rights will always be decided Mike Freeman

WHEN HEALTH MINISTER

Fowler spoke at a conference in Sheffield at the end of September he faced an angry crowd of demonstrators. vious day the Government had announced that regional health authorities had already agreed to more than 3000 of the 8500 job cuts the Tories plan to impose on the National Health Service this year. At the Sheffield conference, police were called to throw out RCP supporters for interr- Meanwhile NHS upting Fowler. leaders seem to be waiting for the NHS to collapse before they begin to mount a fight to save jobs. The best response NUPE leader Rodney Bickerstaffe could manage to the Fowler cuts was to bleat that it was a desperate situation in which the unions had not been consulted'. But now is the time to join the battle for NHS jobs before it's too late.

Making it efficient Supporters of the RCP in the hospitals who have been discussing with workers on the wards, in the canteens and down in the boiler houses have found that health workers are ready to fight. This is despite last year's defeat and despite a lack of faith in their own leaders. They are not held own apathy but by the back by their dead weight of their trade union leadership. WORKERS AT HINDLE GEARS engin- *eering company in Bradford have now been on strike for 28 weeks. In 1979 the company made 80 workers - more than half the workforce - redundant. In mid- March the remaining 70 workers decided that they'd had enough of 14 years on short time, machinery that dates back to the war and an average of £78 in their pockets at the end of the week.

management refused to negotiate their five percent pay offer they precipitated the first industrial action in the 50-year history of the firm. Their response to the call for negotiations was to announce 35 more redundancies. District AUEW official Henry Wilkinson boasted that he could close Hindles down with three phone calls'.

six months later the Hindle strikers bitterly recall his words. When the workers went into occupation Wilkinson Henry gave them backing until management got Wilkinson promptly injunction served. The men, with withdrew official support.

no legal advice and no previous experience, ended the occupation after When the strikers picketted all the gates Hindle-Perkins complex Hindle is located, Gears warned them that this was secondary The workers ignored the picketting. but district secretary wallllis, Pressure on the TUC: Hindle strikers with RCP supporters at Blackpool Battle for NHS jobs begins Reports from all round the country reveal Norman a common pattern. When cuts are threatened union leaders attempt to persuade On the premanagement that consultation with the unions is the best way of making the health service efficient. Management, relieved that it faces no coherent opposition demanding no redundancies and no cuts, picks off section after workers whose jobs and conditions have been sacrificed and those discover that whether a saving is impleunion mented through union cooperation with management or executed by the introduction of private contractors, the result is the same for them. Management has now become so confident of union complicity that it often appeals directly to the workforce. At Tameside General, for example, the domestics were lectured by their supervisor together' then jobs would be on the line.

Leeds General Infirmary management decided to put laundry services out to tender. The union response was to get the existing workforce together and make an offer to do the job with reduced numbers at higher levels of efficiency.

lost the contract to a private firm, then told workers that management had that the existing workers could agreed reapply to the contractor and they would be re-employed. In the event not one of The legal limits Walker called in a special AUEW solicitor from Manchester to tell score. The workers at Hindle's have been prepared to take militant action to win their strike. The strikers' wives have played an active part, organising mass pickets and at Speaking meetings. Communist Party supporters have been When involved from early in the strike, organising blacking, secondary picketting and getting trade union support and donations.

On 5 September conference in Blackpool with the Hindle strikers and their wives to demand real union backing to win the strike.

The AUEW is now staking everything the Industrial More than described by district secretary Wilkinson looked for. workers has been eroded by union officials who are more concerned about upholding official law than doing anything for their an suffer lectures from Militant members who told them not to criticise the AUEW and the TUC at the Blackpool lobby and four days. not to listen to the RCP if they wanted where the union to continue 'supporting' them.

After six long months of betrayals by the the bosses AUEW, the Hindle workers do not need lessons in good manners. Peter is a union that fights.

HINDLE STRIKERS

TO FIGHT TEBBITS LAL

ineffective, section. The that remain that unless they pulled jobs at Edgar Allen. The union blames COHSE, but was being ignored by the lads the militant stewards that Revolutionary we lobbied the

-TUC

Highlands Tribunal hearing, Henry as the victory we've always The militancy of the Hindle accepted a The strikers have also had to free travel £20 on travel alone • free off sheds What they need compensation. workers. stopped yard.

BRADFORD'S

NEED YOUR FELTOO

20 scabs dared go in. Willie Weneed 12%!

COHSE

Health workers: still ready to fight despite the betrayal of last year's strike the 97 workers got jobs under the new The union officials have not only been been downright they have cynical. The case of the Edgar Allen physto cut next. iotherapy institute now threatened with closure in Sheffield is typical of many.

The institute is housed in a Victorian slum - it is an appalling place in which to work or to receive treatment. The workers have no great affection for the institute, but they need their jobs, if not there then somewhere else. The unions have neither supported the demand for no redundanlimited cies nor opposed any reduction in bed numbers. They have done nothing except argue that the workers don't want their Councils, Winning control of our unions Anybody who has spent one day in a hospital knows that the formation of a united NHS union is a necessity to overcome sectional divisions. In every dispute NUPE COHSE blames NUPE

BICC

and they all blame the workers. The picket in the against Norman Fowler on 23 September was organised by COHSE - it was ignored the NUPE bureaucracy. Meanwhile NUPE's own lobby of the District Health Authority scheduled for the 3 October meeting when many of the decisions for the 1983-84 financial year will be made

COHSE.

The RCP mobilised in the hospitals and in other workplaces for both these initiatstruggle. ives. We went straight to the workers in the hospitals. This did not suit the plans of many union officials and stewards. In ingham the last issue of the next step we reported the who suggested back. resisting attacks were accused of rocking the boat. In Sheffield sellers of the next A narrow victory ON 11 AUGUST 2000 workers at the platform Fabrication oil yard at Nigg, Easter Ross in Scotland came out on official strike.

Manage. ment sacked all 2000 workers and offered 1600 their jobs back if they *24-point' cost-cutting programme which was non-negotiable.

When the workforce returned after the summer break the company presented its proposals to withdraw • subsidised canteen, laundry and - workers would lose up to our jobs. orange juice (diluted orange squash), shower facilities and coolingвете. 300 welders for about working in extreme heat and dust It was obvious that management had provoked the dispute to push through return to redundancies without having to pay But their plans were cut short by the militant tactics of the On Monday 29 August a mass picket the management reopening When the coaches full of reemployed workers appeared, flashing car lights and whistles brought nearly company, 1000 strikers from a nearby car park.

The strikers overwhelmed the police and barricaded the road - only 15 to Meanwhile national officials Tommy Gray (AUEW), John Baldwin (AUEW), and Clydesdale

(GMBATU)

Labour movement step are accused by local bureaucrats of spreading rumours among the membership (about the possibility of fighting cuts?)

and giving management ideas about what Fighting the cuts To combat the cuts successfully we need to regain control of our own organisations and use them to fight for us, not for the officials. The union leaders cannot fight because they argue with the bosses that the health service must be 'efficient. The scope of 'anti-cuts campaigns' around the country makes them an ineffective means of defending jobs and services. Whether they are led by the unions themselves, or by the Community Health or fronted by other quangos, the working class is dragged into 'defend the bureaucracy' initiatives. They all argue that Tory strategy is irrational and that labour bureaucrats can be trusted to org anise a cost-effective capitalist health serv- The preservation of the cosy niche state apparatus occupied by bureaucrats and professional committee men in the health service is incompatible with the fight to oppose all redundancies.

While bureaucrats fiddle the RCP has acted, arguing that workers should take matters into their own hands.

Serious discussion of tactics and strategy for action in the workplace and outside is the prerequisite for a successful Around the country at the Whittington Hospital in North London, at Oldham and Tameside General, in Birm- Sheffield of groups an a workers are discovering that if they put working class first they can fight Alan Harding Daniel Carrigan (EETPU) were meeting with management in London.

The deal they worked out was a return to work for all 2000 workers provided they accept a new '21-point' plan.

Although the workers rejected the deal, they had not rejected the outlook expressed most coherently by the union - that workers share a responsi bility for their company's problems.

As shop steward Rab Wilson put it: We are peaceful people trying to protect We have had good management There are no moles relations for 10 years. We are not greedy boys asking for but the company has changed its tactics suddenly. It was these politics which led to the workers accepting the deal for a full work before negotiations began on the '21 points'. Like many disputes in recent years - from Gard ner's in Manchester to Greening's in Warrington the compromise settle. ment at Nigg was hailed as a victory by the left. Unfortunately, the politics of 'making sacrifices in the interests of the went unchallenged which throughout the dispute, will undoub. tedly lead to further redundancies and attacks on working conditions in the Only a resolute defence near future. of jobs and conditions, regardless of the state of the company, can win real victories for the working class.

the next step, October 1983 9

Keeping the flag flying Ireland The recent row at the Moy Meats factory in Charlemont, County Armagh over the flying of a Union Jack would be farcical if its implications were not deadly serious.

The Moy affair is a stark reminder of the flagrant discrimination suffered by nationalist community in the Six Counties under British occupation.

the lie to the 'neutrality' of the official trade union movement. the Six Counties have been complicit in maintaining sectarian patterns of discrimination in employment for decades.

they refuse to take sides in the public, Irish War, but their support for the status quo puts them firmly on the side of the and their British oppressors cohorts. THE TROUBLE at the Moy abattoir began on 4 July. sisted on hoisting a Union Jack outside the factory in preparation for the 12 July demonstrations commemorating the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. who make up nearly half the workforce, objected and pointed out that this display of Orange triumphalism contravened an agreement between management union stewards banning flags from being flown at the plant. steward and former Kerr, the Loyalists threatened to flag was removed without work if the their approval. 'Up the Brits' Management took the flag when the Loyalists re-erected it Catholic workers refused to work and the managedeclared a fortnight's hoping the dispute would fade away.

However, on 25 July when the plant reflag was opened nationalist employees again went home.

The next day management sacked the entire workforce and closed the factory.

Three weeks later, the local branch of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (the Irish division of the British TGWU) had got together with management and worked out a compro- Nationalist shop stewards were not mise. consulted and played no part in formulating the proposals. management would erect a flagpole in the factory grounds and the Union Jack would be flown every year from 1 July to A staggered holiday arrange- 14 July. ment would allow those with strong objections to the flag to absent themselves.

during this time' To sustain the illusion that what had taken place was nothing to do with the war, ATGWU officials claimed that the dispute was caused by unspecified "problems' within the workforce. the 14-year-old war in Ireland to a petty Northern ATGWU squabble, 10 the next step, October 1983 Signing on in occupied Ireland: Catholics are three times as likely to be out of work as Protestants (Irish Times, the It also gives The unions in In Loyalist Protestant workers insince Direct Rule from introduced in 1972. predominantly Catholic workers, be unemployed night, June 1983). and Led by senior shop UDR soldier Tom testant' stop August 1983). down, but discrimination. holiday, still flying and minister and Concannon. nity on the other. These stated that semantics Ireland state. It has suited the the the Six Counties. between two Reducing British Stalinist secretary Ernie McBride declared that the lads will have to learn to respect each other's views' More than 10 25 August). weeks after the dispute began nationalist workers were forced to return to work for fear that they would be sacked if they held out for longer. They did not receive union strike pay and since the Department of Health and Social Security regarded the closure as a strike, they were not entitled to unemployment benefit either.

Bitterly condemning the union's role in the dispute, nationalist workers declared the management/union proposals a blatant move towards the recruitment of a totally Loyalist workforce at the plant.

Jobs for the boys Recent figures from the 1981 census confirm that there has been no improvement in the employment situation of Catholics Westminster was Catholics occupy unskilled or semi-skilled jobs and are three times more likely to than Protestants (Fort- A survey of Belfast's Citybus company revealed that 100 per cent of the most senior and highly-paid management positions are occupied by Protestants, while 86 per cent of lower management including foremen are Pro- (Andersonstown News, 27 Even the Fair Employment Agency, set up by the British government in 1976 as proof to the world of its reforming zeal, has been unable to disguise the depth of Not that it hasn't tried.

In 1977 an investigation into the Ford Automobile plant uncovered widespread anti-Catholic discrimination.

The investigation was soon transformed into a broad enquiry into the Belfast engineering industry by Northern Ireland Office industry backstage magician Don When the findings were eventually leaked last year they showed no improvement in employment prospects for Catholics throughout the "seventies. Undeterred, the investigators urged readers 'to grasp the distinction between unlawful discrimination on the one hand and failure to provide equality of opportu- But no amount of can hide the institutionalised discrimination at the heart of the Northern Across the divide needs of the official labour movement in Britain to obscure cause or sectantan discmanon in For the labour bureaucrats it is the result of religious feuding rather than rival

TATES

British imperialist domination.

Leading commentator on Irish affairs Chris Myant advanced this approach Employment in the Six Counties in a recent series of articles in the Morning Star. In a roundabout way he blamed the British government for continuing discrimination, but his conclusion was not to demand an end to the British occupation but more British government intervention.

After 14 years of war the Party retains its attachment to the progressive potential of British imperialism.

Another myth perpetuated by labour bureaucrats in Britain is that of 'a powerful left grouping of Northern Ireland Labour members on the shop floor' conducting a valiant if unsuccessful struggle against discrimination (Morning Star, 12 September). The trade union movement in the Six Counties is organised through the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, but has very close links with the British Trades Union Congress.

80 per cent of trade unionists are in British -based unions. The Committee has always attempted to disguise its role in the Six Counties' sectarian set-up by disclaiming any But its claim that 'sectarianism politics. stops at the factory gates carries little conviction. Sectarian outbursts and expulsions of Catholics from work may be exceptional. But it is the discrimination which prevents Catholics ever getting jobs in the first place which is the pervasive feature of life in the Six Counties.

unions' enforcement recruitment practices has been the most persistent expression of their subservience to the needs of British imperialism.

The big cover-up The recent furore over discrimination at the Belfast aircraft firm Short Brothers has exposed the unions commitment to eliminating discrimination as a Short's was one of the companies covered by the Fair Employment Agency's survey of the engineering industry.

cline of the shipbuilders Wolff, Short's is now the largest private employer in the Six Counties with more than 6000 workers. shipyards in Loyalist East Belfast, Short's has never employed more than a 10 per cent quota of Catholics in its workforce.

After the FEA concluded that equality of opportunity' did not exist, management and unions put their heads together to decide how to rectify the situation.

The involvement of the union Amalgamated Transport Workers' Union branch run jointly by the Loyalist Ulster Defence Association and the Stalinist Communist Party of Ireland was crucial since it controlled recruitment through the provision cards. This mechanism overwhelmingly Protestant Negotiations were soon cut short when the Northern Ireland Committee of the refused to too far'. Communist Communists and British Around gear. placed a Aviation Northern Ireland interest in be doubted: The British government of discriminatory Workers' down sham. With the de- Harland and Situated next to the - an General and and formable of union guaranteed an workforce. connection. Irish Congress of Trades Unions - also dominated by the Communist Party support tentative nondiscrimination agreement because it went Meanwhile, moves were afoot on the other side of the Atlantic to block a US Air Force order of 18 transport aircraft worth £47 million from Short's because of its anti-Catholic discrimination. The campaign to cancel the order was led by the Irish National Caucus in the US Congress The caucus cited a report by Father Brian Brady of the Belfast Association of Legal Justice which showed that 94 per cent of the skilled workforce was Protestant, as were 95 per cent of apprentices. Fearful of losing the order and of the wider repercussions for trade with the US, the British government moved its lie machine into Washington diplomats in the trade piece in magazine Week and Space Technology, stating that Short's determined commitment to equal opportunities could not Its chairman and managing director Sir Philip Foreman, in an intensive search for Catholic skilled workers, once walked door to door in the Catholic Bogside, area of Belfast (sic), offering jobs.' (16 May) Next, the unions entered the fray. The circulated a letter from Short's shop stewards categorically denying a policy of religious discrimination. Since one of the stewards was Harry Patterson, a leader of the Loyalist Ulster Council strike which brought the power-sharing executive in 1974, this made little impact. To counter the Irish National Caucus campaign, and in anticipation of a visit to the Six Counties by US trade union leaders of the AFL CIO in July, the NIC ICTU redoubled its efforts and agreed to sign an Affirmative Action Programme between the FEA and Short's management. Then, in preparation for a series of visits by US politicians over August, the shop stewards at Short'sagreed to take down the Union Jacks and Loyalist bunting which adorn the factory during the summer months.

The flags may have come down temporarily at Short Brothers but the Union Jack still casts its long shadow over the nationalist community in the Six Counties of Ireland. For Protestants, their material privileges in employment and housing reinforce their loyalty to the British flag continued imperialist domination. For Catholics, the Union Jack at Moy is a reminder of the undemocratic and irrecharacter of the Six County state. As long as it keeps flying it will reinforce their determination to fight for national freedom and sever the imperialist Phil Murphy

Supergrasses are not cricket The systematic use of traitors from the bribed nationalist community, corrupted by offers of cash and protection, is the latest dirty trick in the sordid barbarism in Ireland. record of British And no. British atrocity is complete without the accompaniment of a band of lawand Labour yers, wringing their hands and pleading that the techniques of imperialist domination are just not cricket. THE PHOTOGRAPH of Robert Lean and Gerry Adams on the front page of every British paper last month seemed to sum up the sense of triumph of the British establishment and confirm -Ene fears of every friend of Irish freedom.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary's latest supergrass and the Sinn Fein MP for West Belfast were pictured together less than three months earlier during the General Election campaign.

rities immediately detained around 20 declaring exultantly that these people, included Belfast IRA senior Edward Carmichael and Ivor Bell. Adams told reporters that he expected to be the next to be picked up and charged.

Over the past two years more than 250 republicans have been interned after being fingered by a dozen informers.

has now become the scene for a series of show trials of republicans scheduled to continue for months So far there have been 60 convictions and sentences totalling thousands of years have been doled out.

biggest trial up to now people from North Belfast set up by Christopher Black - the entire leadership of the IRA in the republican stronghold of Ardoyne was committed to prison this summer. Shortly afterwards the trials of 70 people betrayed by Derry supergrasses Raymond Gilmour and Robert Quigley The Irish National opened in Belfast. Liberation Army has also been hit hard.

In July Harry Kirkpatrick was sentenced to almost 1000 years inside after being convicted of five murders and 70 other 'crimes'. But in return for a list of names he is expected to be a free (and rich) man after a token spell (perhaps seven years) in an English jail.

At the end of July the authorities claimed to have 42 INLA men behind bars in the Six Counties Whatever the arguments awaiting trial. about the truth of all the nobody could deny that the republican movement has suffered some setbacks. Conversion jobs of supergrasses, or The use RUC prefers to call terrorists as them, in the Six Counties marks a major departure from legal practice in the rest of the 'United Kingdom'. In the seventies police in Britain used supergrasses to give evidence against gangs of armed robbers.

The most famous was Bertie Small whose testimony led to 25 arrests.

However the reliance of the authorities on the evidence of criminals to secure convictions caused In 1977 the disquiet in legal circles.

Director of Public Prosecutions issued guidelines that effectively put a stop to supergrass trials in Britain.

mended that criminals should be given immunity from prosecution for their own involvement in crime in return for evidence their associates 'only sparingly.

against And he insisted that there should be no further convictions on the evidence of a Because of the unrelisupergrass alone. ability of evidence obtained through bribery and intimidation, such statements had to be corroborated to be accepted before the courts. None of these strictures applies in Britain's Six County war zone.

The exposure of the widespread use and politicians worst The authoof torture in the Six County interrogation centres of Gough and Castlereagh in the officers late 'seventies led to a change of tactics by the authorities. sophisticated interrogation techniques for the more overtly brutal methods of earlier Immense psychological pressures years. Belfast exerted on isolated individuals, sometimes facing their second or third term of imprisonment in an apparently unending which are war, began to produce results.

to large sums of money and informers who have later retracted their evidence have spoken of £50 000 In the and £100 000 - combined with protection that of 38 and a new life abroad for the informer and his family started to erode the moraie of some prisoners from 1980 onwards.

The rot began with Steven McWilliams, a petty criminal on the fringes of the republican movement. to the imprisonment of North republican leader Martin Meehan in 1980.

The influx of raw recruits into the republican ranks in the aftermath of the hungerstrikes seems to have accelerated the process. It may also have laid the move ment open to professional spies, some of whom now pose as supergrasses although they have long been in the pay of the British state. early 1982; now after periods of detention of 18 months and more the trials are well underway. The state has not allowed legal niceties allegations to stand in the way of its determination to crush the national liberation struggle.

Black was given immunity from prose-

SCROUS

cution despite his own evidence of involvement in assassination British forces. converted in an open jail in England seems a very reasonable deal for a man convicted of mass murder. have demonstrated almost total faith in the uncorroborated evidence of supergrasses, even when, as in the case of Black, their account is riddled with inconsistencies and contradicted by dozens of witnesses.

The only doubted a supergrass came last year when Anthony O'Doherty gave evidence against Thomas McCormick, with murder and other serious crimes.

But then McCormick was an officer in the

RUC.

He recom- In British trials where informers have been used, judges warn juries to listen very critically to evidence provided by criminals and perjurers who have every interest in ensuring that their former comrades spend the rest of their lives inside. In the Six Counties, this is not necessary because there are no juries.

number of occasions informers have retracted their evidence in court under the pressure of cross-examination in the presence of family and friends.

to the authorities being obliged to release British terror and its legal niceties Robert Lean and Christopher Black: supergrasses who have squealed - and alarmed British liberals their republican suspects.

They substituted as a Bill of Indictment. takes place. former Patrick McGurk. Offers of more direct. -several prisoners Grew's brother, assassinated. His evidence led Belfast community. cial process palpable The mass arrests began in for disaffection from the is just fine. lishment. attempts on Kirkpatrick's seven years Judges in the Six Counties sy steill. use of informers. instance where judges have who was charged are also alarmed. investigate: in the United Kingdom On a Northern Ireland This has led They have two methods of dealing with this problem.

The first is an ancient legal device known When invoked this allows the case to go straight to trial and avoids cross-examination at the preliminary hearing where retraction usually This was used in the Black headlines case and in the case of County Tyrone in- The second is In September 1982 INLA informer Sean Mallon retracted his evidence and a number of people he had trials named were subsequently released. These included Armagh republicans Roddy Carroll and Oliver Grew. Three months laterthe RUC ambushed a car carrying Carroll and Seamus: both were The British ruling class is at war in Ireland and it has no scruples about using the law as a weapon against the nationalist The The Times recently commented on the peculianties in the operation of the courts in occupied Ireland.

'The question has to be asked', it admitted, 'whether these abridgements of the juditravesty of justice'. Its answer - of course not: "the over the British gains to security and public safety outweigh the exploitable material regime'. In other words, if it helps the war effort any violation of British standards of justice This straightforward ruling Ever ciass view is not shared, however, by some liberal critics of the British estab- Counties. Britain's loyal servants The starting point of most current criticism of the supergrass policy is that it undermines respect for the rule oflaw in Ireland and therefore, respect for the rule of Bntain. Lawyers have a professional interest in sustaining public confidence in the legal Hence criminal lawyers in the Six Counties have spoken out against the They fear 'further alienation from the legal system' as a result of the judges' acceptance of manifest perjury in trials which have become an overtly "political exercise Irish Times, 10 September). Liberal lawyers in Britain The National Council for Civil Liberties-sponsored Cobden Trust has despatched Lord Gifford to Ireland to fast. Whether and in what circumstances the interests of justice can be served by the uncorrobshort term. orated evidence of accomplices in criminal trials What particular considerations arise from the use of such evidence in non-jury trials in What consequences may the keeping of such accomplices and their families in protective Ireland. custody have for their interests and the interests Ireland of justice generally." The concern of these liberal critics is not the effect of supergrasses in undermining the anti-imperialist struggle but that their use may undermine faith in British justice and hence acceptance of British domi with Another professional lobby strong interest in preserving British rule in Ireland is the Catholic clergy.

Derry's Bishop Daly, well known for his strident republicans, of denunciations happy with the use of supergrasses to He considers that it is imprison them. "bringing the law into disrepute".

Father Faul of Dungannon fears the consequences: The supergrass trials will fill the prisons with persons convicted by a deliberate perversion of justice, families will be enraged, the community further alienated from the law and from respect for the judges.... Violence will get worse after a short time, because the motivation for it will be increased by a sense of outrage and despair at the lack of fair play. New Statesman, 23 September) The same concern for the best interests of British imperialism motivates its most abject servants - the British Labour Party.

Left-wing chair of Labour's Northern Ireland group Martin Flannery grabbed the his statement that with the supergrasses had led to 'show trials like those conducted by Hitler and Stalin'.

But Flannery's worry was not that the would weaken the IRA but that they might strengthen it: The use of perjurers and self-confessed murderers is totally unfitted to the situation in Northern Ireland and, although a seeming short cut, it will result in a breakdown which will bring a large number of men and women into the IRA and the paramilitaries in the long run, (Irish Times, 13 September) criticisms of from lawyers, churchmen and British socialists are a complement rather than a challenge While the police and the to the strategy. courts put the boot in, the concerned liberals provide a public display of anguish victims' loss of confidence in fair play and worry that they might respond in the only way possible through the armed struggle.

This has become a familiar theme over the long years of the Irish War. since the British occupation began in 1969 radicals have focused on the excesses of military brutality and abuses of the legal system in the Six But they have generally concentrated on the forms of British rule rather than opposing British rule itself Hence they have demanded modifications to the machinery of British oppression Thus the rather than its destruction. British left mobilised against Internment in the early 'seventies and protested about torture and the treatment of prisoners in the late 'seventies.

More recently they have denounced the use of plastic bullets and now they are uneasy about the supergrasses. But as long as the response to British domination in Ireland is restricted to particular aspects of its policy, it can be easily contained.

We utterly condemn the supergrass show trials currently taking place in Bel- We condemn them, not because they may weaken British rule in the long term (though we hope they will), but because we fear that they may weaken the national liberation struggle in the We appeal to British workers to protest against the show trials; not because they expose the sham of British justice and fair play (though we hope they will) but because it is the responsi bility of the British labour movement to fight against all aspects of British rule in David Douglas , October 1983 11 the next step,

*Aworle 'Peace keeping'- During the 1976 civil war in Lebanon an American State Department analyst tried to He came up identify the forces involved.

with three armies, 22 militias and more than 40 political parties. Internecine strife has continued virtually unabated ever since; over the past month it has reached a new peak of intensity. THE US BATTLESHIP New Jersey cruised into the Eastern Mediterranean in the middle of September. It joined 12 warships of the American Sixth Fleet already stationed off the coast of Lebanon. Its 16 inch guns 'fire shells as big as Volkswagens' and can flatten artillery positions up to 23 miles inland. Before it arrived, US warships off Beirut harbour pounded positions occupied by Druze militiamen attacking the town of Sug al- Gharb, eight miles the Lebanese trom Lebanon: who's who

MARONITE CHRISTIANS:

Roman Catholic communion.

President Amin Gemayel and army commander Ibrahim Tannous are both Maronites.

The 24 000 strong Lebanese army's officer corps is almost exclusively Maronite.

on the Maronite community. It was founded by Gemayel's father in 1936 after his return from the Berlin Olympics where he played in goal for the Lebanese football and the USA.

SUNNIS:

makes up 30 per cent of the population appoints the powerless deputy prime minister.

Many Sunnis occupy lower ranks in the army but they have their own militia, the 5000 strong Mourabitoun. Lebanon. power for 30 years, they have their own heavily-armed and well-trained Amal Militia.

Beirut. resent being usurped by the Maronites.

Socialist Party headed by Walid Jumblatt.

from 6000 to 30 000. During the last round of the civil war they maintained a neutrality sympathetic to the Maronite regime.

Fall-out in Chad FRANCE HAS ACTED SWIFTLY to contain the desert war in Chad. More than 20 000 soldiers from Chad's two armies, from Libya, France and Zaire stare at each other across the Sahara. huts, and the rivers polluted for sixty miles around with fall-out from phosphorus bombs, testify that there is still a war on.

to bring the war under control. Defence minister Charles Hernu flew to Chad's capital Ndjamena to warn President Hissane Habre that French paratroopers would not help him reconquer the North. army launched operation Manta' against the rebel-held villages.

and acting head of the Organisation of African Unity Mengistu Haile Miriam was enlisted to arrange a cease-fire and peace negotiations.

Thomas Sankara's coup in Upper Volta, vital in France's supply lines to Chad, underlines the risks France is running.

sucked into fresh fighting. And any escalation of the war could shake France's ties with its trading partners in the region. As long as its army stays in Chad France risks souring its relationships with Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon and Egypt, not to mention Libya itself.

12 the next step, October 1983 what peace? capital. Sightseers with binoculars can make on the biceps of the sailors manning the massive aircraft carrier USS outside Beirut. Eisenhower looming just The US is ready for war. As well as the 1200 US marines • dug into the Beirut airstrip 14 000 US troops are waiting for orders to land. But the Americans are already falling out with the other members of the 'peacekeeping France and Italy have both canvassed torces. proposals for a Lebanon divided into cantons each with its own militia.

This would be the best way of undermining US influence in the country and would provide more scope for European meddling in Lebanese politics.

The British government has backed the US strategy of supporting Lebanese President Gemayel's attempts to crush local Amin opposition movements. This approach has Originally a Syrian mountain tribe, now part of the They make up 20 percent of the Lebanese population.

THE PHALANGE: Also known as Ktaib, the Phalange is the right-wing party based The Phalange controls 1000 standing troops and 15 000 reservists, armed by Israel Under the French constitution this mainstream Muslim grouping which SHIITES: One million strong, the Shiite Muslims are probably the largest group in They live mostly in the south of the country and West Beirut. Denied political THE DRUZE: The Druze, 250 000 strong, live in the Chouf mountains south of They formerly played an important role in Lebanese politics and their leaders Their main political party is the Progressive Estimates of the size of their militia range Only the vultures picking at the corpses lying outside Oum Chalouba's mud At the end of August French President Mitterand launched a diplomatic blitz designed French troops watched from their bunkers as the Chadian Ethiopian President So far France's diplomatic efforts have only managed to achieve a stalemate. Captain As long as its soldiers remain in Chad they could be come under fire from right-winger Enoch Powell, who has condemned Britain's subservience to Washington, and from Labour's deputy leader Denis Healey, who called for a joint European strategy in the Lebanon.

Both France and Italy have hinted that they might withdraw their unilaterally troops from Lebanon unless Gemayel, and by implication his American backers, adopt a more flexible approach. The US is committed to a war whose effect will stretch far beyond the borders of Lebanon.

A little war Lebanon was carved out of the French territory of Syria and Lebanon at the end of the Second World War. Under French rule the capital, Beirut, and other coastal cities had developed as important commercial centres on the Eastern Mediterranean.

There was almost no industrial development and agriculture remained at the same level as it had for a thousand years - herdsmen with a few goats or sheep. A few Beirutis grew rich on the diamond trade but most lived in miserable conditions. When France came to withdraw, the problem was there was no local capitalist class on which to base a capitalist state. The imperialist solution was based on a rigged census conducted in 1936 which showed the Maronite Christians as the largest single community in Lebanon.

The constitution for the new state, which led to civil wars in 1958 and again in 1976, was originally drawn up by the French. It guaranteed control of the presidency and command of the army to the Maronites.

The French hoped that Maronite rule would guarantee the stability of the new state.

Western commentators and politicians invoke Lebanon's medieval history to explain the bitterness of today's divisions — and to justify intervention. Lebanon has a diverse population because its mountains have long offered a refuge to a myriad of ethnic and religious groups fleeing persecution. But the ferocity of the internal conflicts is the result of the domination of the region by imperialism. Imperialism has kept its hold over the area by maintaining ethnic divisions and by using the Maronites and the In the last month the United States US troops now hold the line in Cen off the coast of Nicaragua threateni anti-Sandinista forces operating from forces backed by US reconnaissance miles inside Nicaragua - and they 1 capital Managua. America has forced France to ful More than 2000 French paratrooper Goukouni against the Libyan-backe strike aircraft and Mirage fighters 1 north of the country. Meanwhile in the Eastern Mediter its complement of 14 000 to mount sit behind their sandbagged lines on the runway at Byblos, just north of the 84 combat aircraft based on the the mainland. European and American troops ha Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean They have had the opposite effect.

been drawn into the fighting thay h major international disputes.

The w of all the neighbouring African states side French paratroopers. In Leban‹ begun to disagree on the way forwar stability of the entire Latin American On these pages we look at the we behind the drive towards a new worl in Britain can fight the war drive - by Sunni Muslims to keep it under contro Rapid deployment Last year's Israeli invasion directe Was against refugees of the Palestinian Liberatic Organisation, but it shattered the Lebanes The Druze who occupy the Chor Stale Mountains south-east of Beirut seized tr opportunity to assert their right, if not to share of government in Lebanon, than: least to autonomy in their own district Twelve months later the Israelis have pulle back to a new front line along the Aw:

at wart one on the warpath. More than 6000 merica. A 19-ship battle fleet stands e Sandinista government and boosting ghbouring countries. Anti-government lanes and artillery have penetrated 450 used US-supplied planes to bomb the its 'responsibilities' in Central Africa.

ave flown to Chad to support President retender Hissane Habre. French Jaguar - knocked out Libyan positions in the an the US Sixth Fleet stands ready with invasion of Lebanon. As the US marines rut's airstrip, US engineers are repairing rut. US Cobra helicopter gunships and SS Eisenhower will soon have a base on been sent into Central America, Central bring local conflicts under their control.

s European and American soldiers have made minor regional disturbances into n Chad has involved the representatives Iready Zairian troops are fighting alongthe European powers and America have The conflict in El Salvador threatens the continent. 's trouble spots and examine the forces ar. We also show how the working class claring war on our own ruling class.

river. For the past eight weeks the Lebanese Phalange the Maronite and battled against the Shiite Amal militia for control of West Beirut under the watchful eye of French, Italian and British soldiers.

In the Chouf the Druze have thrown the Phalangists out of more than 60 villages and begun the bombardment of the gateway to the capital, Suq al-Gharb. army is the only hope for survival of the But the problem for the Lebanese state. Western powers is that the Lebanese army is on the verge of defeat. Before the Israelis left Beirut they supplied the Druze with weapons encouraged them to assert their control over the Chouf area. gist leader Major Haddad with guns, encouraged him to carve out some territory ol nis own. best way to cover their withdrawal was to stir up conflicts among rival factions so that Syria would inevitably be drawn into the Lebanon morass. In 1976 Syria intervened on the side of the Maronites to bring the civil war between the Shites and Maronites to an end.

is less than 50 miles from the Syrian capital Damascus and its trade depends on access to the Lebanese ports. automatically whose forces already occupy most of the northern Lebanon. the present conflict both because it needs to contain the disorder and because it seeks a permanent recognition of its interests in the Syria's President Assad is anxious region. about the large and well organised Druze population in the mountains south of Damas- He has stepped in to replace Israel as the chief supplier of arms to the Druze fighters in Lebanon in the hope that he can influence the course of events.

leader Walid Jumblatt has thanked him for the tanks, rejected the support of Syrian army units.

The Syrians are playing a risky hand. If the pro-Western Maronites succeed in reasserting their supremacy will lose out. cal Druze and Shiite militia and the Lebanese state is overthrown the Syrian ruling elite will be forced to intervene to curb a potential have threat to its position. have Western commentators speculated that Assad may yet find himself on the same side as the Americans. Goodbye Begin The Lebanese The United States pleaded Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin not to withdraw his troops from central Lebanon as his parting contribution to the region.

But the Israeli invasion had achieved its objectives. and secretly They also supplied Phalanand Lebanon The Israelis calculated that the in Israel itself. Beirut bunkers. Any unrest in Lebanon threatens disorder in Syria, by Israel. region's one million Shites.

It has been drawn into well be drawn into it once again.

Lebanon ferment. Britain So far Druze coast. 3000 troops, rifles and heavy artillery, but the Chouf mountains. over Lebanon, sylla But if Beirut falls to the radihad risen to 14. Not without reason with retiring stration denounce US imperialism. The setbacks inflicted on the PLO allowed the Zionist regime to step up its settlements on the West Bank of the Jordan.

The atrocities committed under Israeli supervision in Palestinian refugee camps in south distracted attention from the routine suppression of the Palestinians with- The Begin Government discovered that it was easier to get embroiled in Lebanon than it was to withdraw.

But it knew that retiring behind the Awali river would drag the imperialist powers into the maelstrom of central Lebanon while they kept a safe distance behind newly constructed The plan has not quite worked as Begin intended. Palestinian freedom fighters are already returning to the lands occupied They have the support of the As the fighting around Beirut intensifies the Israelis may The Israeli withdrawal certainly succeeded Lebanon. in drawing the imperialist powers into the The US already has 1200 soldiers, Italy and France 2000 each, and 100. As the Israelis prepared to withdraw, the American Sixth Fleet, fresh from its part in Operation Bright Star II, moved into position opposite the Lebanese The French offered to send another but the outbreak of war in Chad forced them to withdraw their offer.

Within two weeks, three American marines were killed in a hail of bullets coming from That brought the US losses to four while the French death toll British and Italian troops Communist

BRITAINS

strikers Suppürt Chilean workers Imperialism Action against imperialism FOUR HUNDRED PEOPLE joined the RCP contingent on the 11 September demoncalled to mark the tenth anniversary of General Pinochet's coup in Chile.

Chilean squatters linked arms with strikers from biggest and noisiest section of the entire march.

It was also the most anti-British! At the rally in Trafalgar Square Labour MP Judith Hart and Communist Party General Secretary shoring up Latin American dictators.

A week of action leading up to the march included • a successful campaign on behalf of homeless Chilean families (see page 22) message - ENEMY NUMBER ONE IS AT HOME!

also came under fire. The British, French and Italian governments gave their troops instructions to return fire.

The USA first instructed the Marines to fire on anyone firing on them; then on anyone firing on the Lebanese army; then on anyone firing on French, British or Italian positions.

The US also gave its marines permission to call for naval artillery support without further refe rence to Washington. When the Lebanese airforce made its first sortie for 10 years and three of its ancient Hawker Hunters were downed with rifle fire the US promised air cover to the Lebanese regime.

Two of the Hunters landed at British air bases in Cyprus.

Cyprus has already been rocked by large demonstrations opposing the militarisation of the island The US government's commitment to the Gemayel regime expresses its commitment to use its own troops to restore order ir The Gulf is already torn by a war between Iran and Iraq which may drag on for some time. A war in the Eastern Mediterranean could spread throughout the region.

The Middle East with its vast oil reserves and enormous markets is vital to the survival of the imperialist The war in world order. Lebanon demonstrates that the US can no longer guarantee this order through a string The War Fleet in the of client regimes. Eastern Mediterranean shows that the US is prepared to abandon diplomatic manipulation to achieve its ends.

It has no option but to use its military power.

John Johnson Chile 73 no. out Britains' toy factory. It was the Gordon Melennan were content to The RCP raised the role of Labour and Tory governments in By constantly the next step, October 1983 13

Elusive liberty The ruling generals of Brazil, Chile, Arg- Turkey and other Newly Industrialising Countries keep saying they have had enough of political power. All promise a return to parliamentary forms of government in the not-so-distant future.

But can they deliver political liberty to the masses? In the first of two articles on the NICs, we show how the subordination of these countries to the imperialist order limits their progress towards democracy.

THE

TURKS

HAVE a word for it: yumusama. In Chile and Argentina it is aportamiento and in Brazil it is la abertura.

What they mean is the elusive process of transforming a military dictatorship into a liberal democracy. In Argentina the army overthrew Isabel Peron in 1976; now elections are scheduled for the end of leading to a final handover of October, 1984. In Turkey the power in January army which has ruled since 1980 has called elections in November. After 18 years of military rule, Brazil's generals have promised to hand over power by 1985. Chile's General Pinochet has promised to end military rule by 1989. The procedures of can offer a more effective астостасу means of containing social conflict than coercion. naked But conditions of recession, austerity and revolt, democracy is a risky option. This is the dilemma facing the rulers of NICs around the world. The NICs have achieved a high level of industrialisation and economic growth over the past two decades.

They took advantage of the expansion of the world economy in the sixties by opening up their borders to foreign investment. They hoped to establish industries that could world compete on equal terms in tne market. Over the last five years the recession has dashed these hopes as the prices of primary products tumble and the markets of the advanced countries are closed off The 'Newly by protectionist measures. Industrialising Countries' are left with bankrupt factories, impossible debts and collapsing political and economic struc- They are being squeezed between tures. the imperialist domination of their economies exercised through the debt system on the one hand, and working classes more confident and combative than ever before, on tie ourer. Not quite Brazil has been returning to democracy under the 'guidance of President Joao Figueiredo since 1978. The affable Figueiredo replaced the sterner General Ernesto Geisel as the recession began to bite.

The generals who took power in 1964 had laid the foundations for the Brazilian A decade of savage economic miracle. had allowed the ponucal generals to cut workers' wages by half.

During the 'sixties and seventies Brazil enjoyed an annual economic growth rate of almost 10 per cent. But by the late seventies all this was coming to an end.

The Arena party, of the mouthpiece the military, and the Brazilian Democratic Movement, the official opposition (also set up by the military) were torn by internal feuds in the face of widespread opposition from the masses. In the week that General Figueiredo took power Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest industrial city, was brought to a standstill by strikers.

The generals responded to this upsurge of working class pressure by making concessions in the hope of taking the heat out of the situation. They promised the return of elected governments and in 1978 they even held elections. Exiled popular Leonel politicians Miguel Arraes and Brisola were allowed to return to take part.

Trade union leader Luiz Inacio da Silva Lula was allowed to form his own Workers' Party. The most successful measure taken by 14 the next step, October 1983 Brazilian car workers: working class militancy threatens the generals the regime was the introduction of wage rises linked to the rate of inflation for the best organised sections of the working class. Pay settlements based on productivity deals also played a key part in defusing working class anger. And a more conciliatory approach to the leaders of the trade unions led many to identify with state policies. The success of the generals' strategy can be measured in the number of strikes lasting more than a week. At the end of the 'seventies there were about 120 such strikes each year.

In 1980 there were less than 10.

Under the generals Brazil emerged in the 'eighties as a power in its own right.

It could challenge the United States and Europe for markets not only in South America but also in the Middle East and Africa. In 1979 Brazil recorded a growth rate of more than six per cent. In 1980 it was eight per cent. But behind these impressive figures lay the nightmare of Brazil's foreign debt. More than half Brazil's export earnings are needed to pay for its oil needs. Yet its debt servicing obligations demanded more than two thirds. It was an impossible sum. President of the Central Bank Carlos Langoni resigned recently rather than accept the International Monetary Fund's plans for screwing the money out of the Brazilian phenomenal In 1981 Brazil's growth rate finally collapsed.

The generals are faced with a zerosum-game situation. Unless they accept the terms of the IMF and risk confrontation with the working class they may have to go it alone and break with imperialism.

There is support for this option within the ruling class and sections of the armed forces. Respected economist Celso Furtado argues that Brazil is rich enough in resources, has a large enough domestic market, and a wide enough industrial base to strike out on an independent course.

Opponents of the IMF hark back to the nationalist policies pursued by President Jucelino Kubitschek who broke with the IMF in 1959. Brazil's generals are more scared of the mass movement they would need to build if they tried to take on imperialism than they are of the harsh terms of the IMF.

For the time being they hope that they can defuse any opposition to austerity programmes by their promise of political liberalisation Brazil's and elections. working class leaders are doing their best to calm things down for fear of jeopardising 'the return to democracy.

Turkey and Argentina were always a bit of a problem for the imperialist coun tries. They have been keen to keep a tight grip on these two large markets and lucrative investment outlets. Turkey's position at the eastern end of the Mediterranean has made it a key element in military strategy in the Middle East. Both countries have attempted to pursue independent national strategies. During the Second World War they both had the audacity to declare themselves neutral. In 1973 Turkey invaded Cyprus (which it got away with as it was not a direct challenge to imperialism). In 1982 Argentina invaded the Malvinas (which it did not get away with because it was a direct challenge to British imperialism). Rebels During the 'thirties and forties both used protectionist economic policies and heavy state intervention in the economy to build an industrial base. In 1978, 45 per cent of Argentina's gross domestic product came from industry. Turkey is the main grain producer in the Middle East and in 1982 industry's share of gross national product was greater than that of agriculture for the first time in history. Since the end of the Second World War both have been subject to periods of military rule. The Turkish army has a habit of taking over the country every 10 years or so.

Between 1961 and 1962 the army stepped in to crush the opposition of students and the middle classes to the economic policies of the Menderes regime. Between 1971 and 1973 it moved to suppress violent working classresistance. In 1980 the army took control as the working class took to the streets and the institutions of the state began to crumble. New governments were being formed every six months.

Armed guerrillas of the left and right patrolled Turkey's streets, and in northern and western Turkey workers fought with the army and the police in a wave of factory and mine occupations. General Even who led the coup announced that he intended to eradicate terrorism and restore order. Now Evren has committed himself to holding elections in November. So far only three of the seven parties formed to contest the election have been ratified by the The Nationalist Democratic Party junta. led by retired General Turgut Sunalp is widely expected to head the poll. The other major contender - the Motherland Party - is led by former cabinet minister Turgut Ozal. Elections or no, the army clearly intends to keep a tight grip on the reins of power. The generals' plans to join the European Economic Community and restructure the Turkish economy demand tough measures. They have to impose a savage internal austerity programme and increase exports; they need to keep Turkey open for foreign investment and imports and cut back state expenditure. They have already had In 1981

SULLIC

success. Turkey's growth rate had recovered to a healthy four per cent. Real wages have been cut by more then 40 percent since 1977 and unemployment is running at 25 per cent. The generals are particularly proud of the 62 per cent increase in exports recorded in 1981. But they have not controlled social conflict: the daily toll of assassinations goes on unabated.

The number of trade unionists being prosecuted gets larger. Even the middle classes are angry at the competition from foreign imports and are demanding a return to protectionist trade policies. The army knows that it cannot afford to change course. It hopes that the promise of a return to democracy will calm the opposition movement. Pinochet in a corner In Argentina the ruling class has been forced to move more quickly to restore democratic procedures. The mood of hostility to the military from all social classes means that the army will probably step down after the elections in October. But civilian government is unlikely to make much difference to the Argentine masses.

export-orientated Despite its thriving agriculture oil reserves, and its the economy is in a mess. Unemployment stands at 20 per cent while inflation soars above 300 percent. Its foreign debt is $38 billion. Argentina's attempts to money have been snagged on borrow British blocking moves at the IMF in the aftermath of the Malvinas war. All the general election parties contesting the have committed themselves to following the IMF's instructions. Chile is so unstable that the ruling junta has postponed its promised transition to civilian rule until 1989 - in other words, Only 10 years after the indetinitely. end of the Allende democratic government, the Chilean elite is wary of even giving the appearance of liberalising the regime. The militant traditions of the and most politically developed oldest working class in Latin America are a constant nightmare for the ruling class. The scale of the current economic collapse and political turmoil may mean changes in the junta. The generals may have to dump Pinochet who is closely identified with the disastrous policies of the last decade. But they have no intention of .

abandoning military. rule in Chile.

Yet, at the same time, the experience of the Chilean junta reveals the main forces behind the sudden enthusiasm of soldiers in other NICs for a handover to the politicians. Working class opposition to austerity measures threatens the rigid structures of military dictatorships. Pressures from imperialist bankers and creditors reducing the NICs' room for manoeuvre. Offering a gradual restoration of democracy buys time for the generals It allows without costing them much.

them to enlist the support of opposition leaders in controlling the working class.

But the generals are running out of time The working classes of Argand ideas. entina, Brazil, Chile and Turkey are growing bigger and angrier. They are unlikely to be satisfied with sham elections orgganised by generals. The day when the imperialist powers will have to intervene directly in these countries to crush the working class is drawing nearer.

Inez Landa

JUST NOW Michael Meacher plays a useful role in British politics.

He lacks any distinctive politics of his own, but he needs to maximise his following in the labour movement in the battle for Labour's Hence he is the ideal deputy leadership. straw to hold up to see which way the wind is blowing. In August he abandoned Labour's pledge to get rid of the Polaris This was the substance of his statement that a future Labour government should not carry out this aspect of party policy, but hold a referendum on the issue. And Meacher was reckoned the most left-wing of the candidates in Labour's leadership stakes.

The rest had already capitulated, in one way or another, to the climate of realism created by the June defeat.

took Meacher almost three months to make the adjustment on Polaris that the old guard of Healey and Callaghan had already made during the election campaign.

Only 12 months ago supporters of the Disarmament Campaign for Nuclear the conferences of the labour swept - the individual unions, the movement TUC, the Labour Party. Even middle of the road Labour and trade union leaders spoke emotionally of unilateral nuclear disarmament and the expulsion of American bases from British soil.

More radical activists talked of a British withdrawal from NATO and Europe-wide disarma- Today the Labour left ment initiatives. speaks wearily of working within NATO and the word 'unilateral' has disappeared Last autumn Greenfrom its vocabulary. ham Common held the promise of protests that could capture the imaginations of feminists and pacifists and many more beyond Labour's traditional constituency.

This Greenham Common autumn, more likely to witness installation Cruise than effective opposition In response to the traumas of the past the official labour movement's year approach has evolved in two related directions. On the one hand it has moved

WE CAN

STOP

THE

BOMB

Youth march for CND: but CND can't stop war

CND

prepares for nuclear war Before the General Election the Labour Party's commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament seemed to be a popular cause. But the campaign, and the result, revealed Labour's most serious miscalculation. The Falklands War helped to accelerate the readiness of the British public for major military engagements abroad. Opinion polls indicating a widespread fear of nuclear holocaust disguised a deeper commitment among the electorate - to British militarism, whatever the weapons its forces used.

Labour's collapse in the shambles of its disarmament policy has prompted a major reassessment by Britain's peace movement. Stung by media criticisms that it was unpatriotic and defeatist, the movement has turned to emphasise its allegiance to defending Britain even by retaining nuclear weapons towards the formulation of 'alternative defence' policies. taken up the proposal for a 'freeze' on further development of nuclear weapons by the superpowers. Alternative defence The Tory propaganda attack on the disarmers has concentrated that their policies would leave Britain defenceless in an increasingly world. Before the election, CND tried repeatedly to repudiate this smear on its national loyalties: But CND is not asking for Britain alone to have no military defences at all...Britain's defence should be really defensive, concentrating Indeed it On our lentory. policies we could follow.

decide to scrap nuclear weapons and make no other changes. We'd make a straight saving and still be mightily armed. Nuclear disarmament starts here, CND, 1983) Nevertheless the Tory attack struck home.

In the June post-mortem the leaders of the peace movement agreed that their public posture Trident and US bases, alternatives tney them open to the Tory allegations. Hence they heartily welcomed the publication of the report of the alternative defence commission's Defence without the bomb.

The commission included some of the leading lights in the British peace move- Labour's Dan Smith, transport ment Ron union bureaucrat defence expert Mary Kaldor — as well as a member of the Lucas Aerospace shop stewards' committee, several academics, a Liberal, a Scottish nationalist and a bishop.

Its brief was to devise alternative defence of strategies' in view of their collective disto it. deployment of taste for the weapons on British territory.

clusion was that Britain should pursue a "high entry price' policy.

basingSto

/ CND-A FUF-T

On the other, it has The pamphlet that relaunched CND: combination non-violent civil resistance.

on the theme English turf. hostile the consequences of the an outraged the rape of Lebanon. There are several non-nuclear use military We could simply countries. militarism. worthy They legitimise British of being against Cruise, without having perialism. were clearly for, laid Todd, Labour further manufacture, testing of nuclear weapons.

nuclear Its con- This means a would lead to an yea! be expressed in to by the ruling class. "We are A-Z, but do agree from A-K.'

SUA PROTEST

CASUREVE

'freeze brings it closer to wa of conventional military forces with a fall-back' strategy of mass This would ensure that any invader would be forced to pay a high price for trespassing on The peace movement never questions of concept 'defence' for a country like Britain.

Yet while the alternative defence commission has been deliberating, British armed forces have attacked Argentina, maintained the occupation of Ireland and participated in nuclear The 'defence' of an imperialist country means its right to September) might to terrorise other Schemes for alternative defence' simply propose a different style of At the same time the alternative strategists present the defence of Britain (by alternative means) as a cause of labour movement support.

chauvinism and thus undermine potential resistance to the military adventures of British im- Freeze It is but a short step from acceptance of the need to defend Britain with conventional forces to endorsing nuclear weapons.

CND's promotion of the 'freeze' slogan for its national 22 October demonstration London reveals that it has already taken this step. The freeze' proposal originates in the American peace movement.

It is a call for bilateral agreements between the USA and the Soviet Union to halt the deployment and For British CND it amounts to an acceptance of Polaris in the hope that the government will reject cruise missiles and Trident.

It was inevitable that CND's narrow focus on Cruise and Trident over the past even narrower orientation in response to the election debacle. CND is preoccupied with appealing to the masses whose views it considers opinion polls. In reality opinion polls simply reflect a public opinion moulded and manipulated The result is that CND is obliged to restrict its programme to bring it into line with current bourgeois prejudices. General Secretary Bruce Kent explains the CND method: doing our west to broaden our base to involve people who are concerned about the freeze. There are a lot of people who may not have got into the precise arguments about Cruise, Trident and SS20s, but who see th urgent need to stop the escalation of nuclear weapons at all levels. CND should be reaching out to people who may not agree with us from

AND

The consequence of this method is that CND's demands have been frozen at 'A' opposition to further nuclear weapons while accepting the prevailing nuclear arsenals. For Ian Davison, a member of the CND executive and the Communist Party, progress to 'B' is postponed to the distant future: "A wide need is felt for a reply in the medium term to the accusation that a non-nuclear Britain would be defenceless and perhaps the reply has to be well tested and developed before weapon-free Britain becomes a prominent demand again.' (Marxism Today, CND has been obliged to tighten up its machine to minimise internal resistance to its pragmatic policy developments. The leadership took advantage of the summer 'Marxist moles' to purge panic about radical left factions in CND. In June the Council installed four of its members on the executive of Labour CND with the power to veto any decision in conflict with the leadership line. In August it suspended the entire executive and officers of Youth CND and appointed an interim committee in its place.

The first clear indication of the new direction of the cause of peace in the labour movement came at this year's TUC at Blackpool. The composite resolution on disarmament contained no mention of Polaris, unilateralism, or the removal of US bases. These were dropped from an earlier resolution put forward by the transport workers' union at the insistence of the civil servants union. Even supporters of nuclear disarmament were anxious to stress their unshakeable commitment to British militarism. Printers' leader Bill Keys insisted that he 'was not suggesting that we adopt a position of isolation as a nation...of course countries have a right to defend themselves. Tribune has denounced as a fudge' CND's abandonment of unilateralism in favour of 'freeze' and has criticised its curbs on the Labour CND factions. This is rich from the paper that has long promoted 'alternative defence policies and recently proposed the return of nationa service as an acceptable alternative to nuclear weapons (8 April).

Tribune's pre-election issue included a jingoistic article by Labour's defence spokesman John Silkin proposing 'a strong navy and a properly equipped air force and army to make Britain great again.

Both CND and the Labour Party have pursued the logic of the fudge at the centre of their movement for disarmament. They started off by separating British militarism and and they have ended up its weapons accepting both. Fran Eden the next step, October 1983 15

Britain has the third largest machine in the world after the USA and the Soviet Union. sixth as a world economic power, behind Japan, West Germany and France.

Britain lacks in industrial performance it has to try to make up with superior fire- Britain's massive nuclear and conpower. ventional arsenal is a symptom of its decline - not, as radical critics claim, its cause. A RECENT PEACE STUDIES pamphletby Malcolm Chalmers sums up assessment of Britain's arms spending. For Chalmers, British governments since the Second World War have attempted to retain international political through high military spending' served 'only to accelerate economic and industrial decline' by diverting resources from industry and damaging the balance of payments (The cost of Britain's defence, May 1983). Chalmers points out that Britain's arms spending was higher than that of its economic rivals. He concludes that such 'excessive spending could have no economic justification. Its motivation must have been political, based on the fact that the British state remained commica to an imperal role. view is that Britain should have accepted its declining role in post-war international affairs as the economiesof Western Europe and Japan recovered and left British capitalism behind. pouring money into defence, Britain could have withdrawn from the world arena and devoted its resources to strengthening its economy. Irrational imperialism? Post-war British arms certainly been high show that the share of Britain's Gross Domestic Product which goes on defence - the 'military burden been higher that in any advanced capitalist nation except the USA. that arms expenditure pre-emptsresources.

Investing in weapon-production or using scientific personnel in the military sector leaves less resources for making cars.

training engineers and raising productivity.

But the adverse effects of arms spending are not due to irrational policy decisions.

The build-up of Britain's defence system was not a 'policy' or 'decision' made by individual politicians. been imposed on The an irrational capitalist system class by whose locomotive force is competition.

Liberal economists rightly point out that Britain emerged from the Second World War in a position of economic vulnerability..

What they refuse to recognise is that despite this, Britain remained the world's second most powerful imperialist country with huge overseas holdings and invest- To protect its foreign interests, the British state has been forced to maintain a formidable military machine.

In 1950 British industrial output was second only to that of the USA. Britain accounted for 25 per cent of world trade in manufactures and 35 percent of its exports went to backward countries of the Commonwealth elsewhere. British imperialism only occupied this position of apparent strength by The USA had already edged default. Britain out of its spheres of influence in Latin America and the Middle East.

post-war recovery of the German and 16 the next step, October 1983 The real cost of British militarism military But Britain ranks only What holdings to survive. 'sixties relations trade and investments. the liberal built into the standing This has spending. point. Chalmers' as a capitalist power. As the Instead of irrationally imperialism. those of the USA. and trade spending has Chalmers' statistics direct - has consistently It is also true 22 percent in 1979. colones and of these formerly Militarisation has British ruling World. 1963. role in the new state. Shah of Iran. cruise the Third World. capitalist sector is and The British imperialism. Japanese economies put British interests pressure throughout the word.

Britain's domestic industrial base was weak and unsuited to the changed conditions of modern capitalism.

The British ruling class had to rely on its overseas The major issue for British imperialism in the 'fifties and early became the reorganisation of with its colonies and former colonies to maintain profitable overseas The financial ties Overseas Sterling Area allowed Britain to hold on to its former empire in conditions where open economic competition would have benefitted other powers. Military intervention was another method of ensuring British control.

Arms across the sea Britain has been involved in 88 armed interventions in 51 countries since 1945.

The scale of invasions necessary to shore up Britain's declining international status meant a steady rise in British armaments Those who object that such spending was excessive in relation to the size of Britain's overseas holdings miss the The only valid comparison is that between military expenditure and what was necessary to secure Britain's survival post-war boom progressed it underlined the relative decline of British Low profitability on domestic investments encouraged a con- Britain tinual flow of capital abroad.

built up overseas assets second only to After 1960 a smaller proportion of Britain's foreign investment went to its former empire. From 1962 to 1976 the share of Britain's going, to investments overseas backward capitalist countries fell from 36.5 percent to 21.8 percent.

Exports to the Third World dwindled from 32 per cent of total British exports in 1960 to Faced with the decline in the economic importance of its national growth of liberation movements across Africa and Asia, Britain conceded formal independence to most of its colonies. But British capitalism could not afford to give up all protected markets. Britain kept a foothold by building up trade with the new regimes in the military hardware it had used against the national movements now in power in the Third Kenya, for example, gained political independence from Britain in Britain made sure of its continued affairs Kenvan economic supplying arms and military expertise to Britain also sought to extend its influence through arms exports such as the sale of Chieftain tanks to the This strategy has ensured that Britain remains the world's fourth largest arms exporter. Today, the bulk of Britain's Falklands task force is on a demonstrating Britain's military wares to potential customers in The liberal argument that the military 'politically' motivated and operates autonomously of the capitalist economy was untenable even during the boom years of the fifties and 'sixties.

The level of British arms spending was clearly related to the economic decline of The radical left argument that military expenditure actually determines the growth of the economy has been demolished by the onset of the Through crisis. theory Permanent Arms Economy, the Socialist Workers' Party attempted to prove that arms spending prevents crises by slowing down investment in industry and thus offsetting the tendency profit to fall (P Binns, "The new cold war", International Socialism, Spring 1983).

producing both economic collapse soaring arms spending, today's recession has proved them wrong. ting the pace of economic development.

arms expenditure is determined by the crisis and the threat to the international order that goes with it. The acceleration of capitalism's decline in the late 'seven ties has been accompanied by growing international instability.

imperialist powers have had to rearm to maintain control of their system.

El Salvador to the Lebanon, the economic and social collapse of the backward capitalist world means that Western gunships are needed to guarantee the conditions for profitable imperialist Rising tension and competition between the major powers has led to the militarisation of international relations.

burden of rearming has fallen particularly heavily on those states with the largest overseas interests and the weakest economic base from which to protect them Britain and the USA. spending is clearly an unwanted burden Reagan's massive defence bills have been attacked by everyone from union leaders to the IMF. cannot be avoided if British or American imperialism is to survive the conflicts to come. Jobs and bombs Capitalist recession brings mass unemployment and the threat of a new world war.

Britain spent £15.7 billion on defence in 1982. By 1984 military spending will have risen by 19 per cent since the Tories came to power in 1979. has more than doubled over the same Groups like the SWP have conperiod. cluded that these two developments are connected in some way. But their demand for 'Jobs not Bombs' is incapable either opposing of British defending jobs. Mass unemployment and militarisation are powerful weapons for capitalism in Unemployment crisis. working class to accept lower living standards and lays the basis for the restoration Bang goes politics: NALGO's "Put People First" campaign suggests that arms spending isn't in the interests of the British people - forgetting that militarism directly serves the needs of British capital ot the of the rate of against the By competition. and Far from dictaimplies that there capitalism. state The creation, From at workers' exploitation. British The class. "irrational' rection Rising arms But it is a burden which producing admitting its defence and the Unemployment resolve militarism or of disciplines the and not bombs.

BANG GOES ANOTHER

KIDNEY UNI

of capitalist profitability.

It fragments the working class and threatens the proletariat's survival as a social force. Arms expenditure equips the ruling class to defend its world interests against its rivals.

Militarisation fosters a climate of patriotism and militant chauvinism.

It coheres public support for the bosses' offensive working class and foreign Unemployment and rearmament can only be effectively opposed as necessary consequences of the crisis, whose eradication requires the overthrow of capitalism.

The radical left slogan Jobs not Bombs' is a solution within By calling on the capitalist to simply redistribute resources away from the arms sector towards job it reinforces illusions in the ability of the state to resolve the crisis in favour of the working class.

In reality, the state is attempting to resolve the crisis expense through lowering their living standards and preparing them for the slaughter of a Third World War.

The arguments of the liberal critics of arms spending are preparing the ground for a historic defeat for the working Their tirades against Britain's arms spending are always qualified by support for a more rational defence policy and the economic resurof British imperialism. After condemning arms spending as a burden on the economy, Chalmers concludes that 'economic prosperity needs to go hand in hand with political and military security.

A recent TWU pamphlet on converting military installations into civilian factories useful begins by products that 'this country must of course make effective arrangements for

TGWU

therefore accepts the necessity of much of our conventional defence expenditure' (A better future for defence jobs, May 1983).

If workers accept these ideas they will be unable to oppose the sacrifices in working class living standards and lives necessary for the survival of British imperialism.

The working class can only defend itself from the British state's defence policies by exposing them as war policies designed crisis the imperialism's at expense of the international working class.

Defeating the British state and the system it protects is the only guarantee that British workers can look forward to jobs Tony Allen

The thoughts of Ken Livingstone analyse the death agony of British Stalanism.

MOST OF THE Labour Party remains in a state of shock, uncertain which way to move to salvage Labour's declining fortunes. Leadership heir-apparent Neil Kinnock has passed the summer unsure whether to adopt the statesmanlike demeanour of the SP's David Owen or to go for a more radical image in the style of the Young Liberals. Should Labour try to appeal to the 'new middle class, the 'upwardly mobile working class' or to women and blacks, the low paid and the unemployed, pacifists and Most Labour politicians simply do not know which way to turn result that almost anything could happen at Brighton. Two upwardly mobile Labour politicians with some ideas on the way forward for the party are Peter Hain and Ken Livingstone. Hain, self-appointed tribune of the soft left, gave the keynote address at July's Labour Coordinating Committee conference in Manchester.

month he issued his perspective for the Labour Party - The democraticalternative: a socialist response to Britain's crisis €2.50). (Penguin, Hard-left Livingstone has been stumping around the party conferences arguing the case for saving the Greater London Council from the Tory axe. He has given his post-election assessment in a reflective interview with Tariq Ali, published in the summer issue of the New Left Review under the provocative title "Why Labour lost'. The big "but" Hain's book reflects the lack of a coherent strategy in the Labour Party today in its remarkable eclecticism. he bonows community politics from the Liberals, allianthe Eurocommunists, trom policy from the Fabians, incomes policy from Harold Wilson, foreign policy from Aneurin Bevan, and visions of a socialist tomorrow from cranky libertarians.

discern themes in his it is possible to rather turgid synthesis. Like many on the Labour left, Hain is of the opinion that since the working class has clearly given up on Labour, Labour should abandon the working class.

In his chapter on 'divided Britain' he is and Peter Hain The softening of the left As we go to press, Labour's post election reappraisal continues in Brighton.

Here we examine the response of two left-wingers who failed to get elected.

On page 18 we look at two Militant MPs who succeeded. On page 19 we careful to acknowledge the existence of the working class as a part of 'our society'.

Indeed he is so careful that he repeats the chronically point three times within a few pages.

'Class divisions are still very central to British society' he writes, and again, 'class does persist', and yet again, 'class divisions still figure significantly in Britain'.

of the sentences following these assertions begins, 'But.?. around, but class distinctions are less clear cut, 'ordinary people' are less class ecologists? conscious. blacks - and a new sociological category discovered by Hain, 'the ecology lobby" with the Hain identifies the working class only to dissolve it into the mass of British people, a category long favoured by social democratic politicians. the notion of Labour as a class-based party with the idea of Labour as a coalition of interest groups: Labour needs to construct a new form of Last class-based politics, by concentrating on specific class issues, rather than pretending that there is still a single, over-arching working-class consciousness into which the Party's policies can automatically slot.' He then provides the usual list of such issues, reflecting the particular concerns of diverse sections of society, from trade unionists to pensioners, feminists to ecologists. In fact these are not class issues at all; they are just labelled as such as a gesture to Labour's traditions.

course there never has been over-arching working class consciousness'.

In the past some socialists and communists have tried to forge such a consciousness through their intervention in the class struggle. social to 'slot' policies into workers' consciousness as it currently exists.

policies don't fit, they conclude that they must find some more suitable slot. Hence Yet the quest for a new social base for Labour.

However, Hain's energies are not confined to creating 'a new coalition for socialism', but extend to the consideration of the new Labour Party politics appropriate to this alliance. Hain's concern is to give the Labour left's traditional identification with state pretation. pation. In his opening employment. Election pledge •Tal unemployment indefinitely promise million in five years. chapter. cannot son's social contract. ting Each introduced. The working class is still Party. And what about women, superpower rivalry. approves and the EEC Hain seeks to replace licity. direction won't find it here.

dingly they spent And of "a single, leadership. Today's Labour left simply tries 'Crucially', its And if the asserted, the question of capital. portional London. Roy Hattersley. Morning Star Falkla whil intervention in industry and services a 'non-statist' and 'non-bureaucratic' inter- But this amounts to little more than the customary platitudes about extending democratic control, decentralisation and the need for popular partici- Behind these cliches borrowed from the Young Liberals or Tony Benn, Hain expounds the programmatic policies of Roy Hattersley and the Labour right.

Well-travelled roads chapter Hain defines 'the radical socialism of the new Labour Party' by its readiness to give 'more than lip service to full employment.

By chapter four it becomes clear that Hain is not even prepared to pay lip service to full He repeats Labour's Geneto maintain mass - that is, its to reduce the jobless to one The same mood of sombre realism about the sacrifices the working class would have to make under a future Labour government pervades the He warns that whilst socialist Telecom. policies can reverse Britain's decline, this be done overnight. And he ment cautions further that 'even the most radical Labour policies will not be able to insulate the economy from the impact of the world recession'. The message is clear 'the radical socialism of the new Labour Party' is austerity socialism a la Mitterand, or in the style of Harold Wil- To confirm the point Hain endorses incomes policy, insis- 'emphatically' that this would not be 'of the kind normally understood'. We understand - all Wilson's incomes policies were of just this kind, before they were Hain's new-style Labour Party is not much different from the old-style Labour He revives Bevan's concept of a 'non-aligned' foreign policy for poor little Britain trapped in the middle of the And, in passing, he 'working inside both NATO workers The only polemical passage vention. in the book is a savage attack on poor old Militant, which Hain detests for stealing the lion's share of the Labour left's pub- Steel, He concludes by endorsing the 'third road' between reform and revolution, a concept he seems to think was discovered by his LCC pal Geoff Hodgson, but is in fact as old as social democracy.

As a measure of the drift of the Labour left to the right, Hain's book is revealing.

services. But Labour supporters looking for a new Curbing capital Much of the Labour left has quietly accepted the verdict of the British establishment that its policies were at least partly to blame for the June debacle.

Accorthe summer doing penance, and let the right get on with running the party and sorting out the new Not so Ken Livingstone. His paper Labour Herald went further than the rest of the left in criticising the inadequacy of the alternative economic strategy.

post-election editorial "the leadership failed to tackle But how would ment Livingstone tackle this weighty question?

Once he had satisfied his New Left Review interrogator on the burning issue of prorepresentation, Livingstone outlined his approach on economic policy Livingstone proposes controls on the flow of capital and curbs on the City of provide So, as a matter of fact, does And so according to

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Livingstone) do some members of the Institute of Bankers with whom he was recently in conversation.

Clearly this proposition will not provoke a pre-emptive coup d'etat by the finance capitalists Second, Livingstone wants 'an extension of public ownership into the profitable sectors of the economy. This has been Labour Party policy since 1957.

Living stone wants the state to get into information technology and rationalise British But this is simply a return to the approach of the last Labour governand that never tackled "the question of capital'. proposal is for Livingstone's third 'state monopolies based on workers' control and workers' self-management'. What this means he doesn't say and his interviewer is polite enough not to pursue the matter. Perhaps he has in mind workers cooperatives of the sort sponsored by the GLC's enterprise board. When Associated in Brent was a subsidiary of Automation GEC it had a workforce of 400. When it was transformed by the GLC into the Third Sector 'cooperative, 280 jobs disappeared; now it has collapsed altogether.

Livingstone's final suggestion is a mass led by extra-parliamentary campaign Labour MPs, the unions and other activists to combat 'the hostility to public enter prise that undoubtedly exists'. But it will take more than a campaign to combat about state inter scepticism Their hostility is a result of personal experience, not Thatcherite propa ganda. Workers made redundant by British British Shipbuilders British Leyland will take some convincing of the merits of nationalisation.

Workers who have to rely on public transport, social security, state hospitals and schools have become cynical about Labour politicians who sing the praises of these third-rate Workers in London who see London Transport's cuts in jobs and services and the way the GLC undermines fights for jobs by setting up spurious cooperatives will be inclined to say - if this is socialism, forget it!

Labour's dead-end Livingstone's hard-left postures do not stand up to close examination The rest of his interview reveals his drift along similar lines to the rest of the Labour lett.

Like all the entrist left he advocates a vote for Kinnock for leader, after a token gesture of support for Heffer in the first round. He tries to hedge this with meaningless criticisms and conditions - which significantly do not include the reinstateof the Militant editorial board.

Like Hain, Livingstone dislikes the competition from Militant. Livingstone also shares with Hain the sort of rhetorical differences with the right that lead inevitably towards compromise.

Neither Hain's soft face nor Livingstone's hard rhetoric Labour with a way out of its current mess Mick Kennedy the next step, October 1983 17

The Militant myth Morning Star Matene Your Future's at Stake

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IN RECENT years, Militant has emerged as a credible and legitimate section of the Labour left. At its national rally at Wembley Conference Centre on 10 September, Militant acclaimed its MPs David Nellist and Terry Fields.

speakers could hold up Liverpool as an example of a Militant-controlled 'Marxist' The rise of Militant inside the council. Labour Party cannot be what is the significance of its growing influence? Militant's Marxism Speaker after speaker at Wembley emphasised Militant's distinctive policies. In a major article assessing Labour's defeat at the last General Election, John Pickard familiar theme in the stressed a now columns of Militant's weekly newspaper: *If the Labour Party had fought nationally with the same degree of organisation, with the same policy, determination and resolve as was demonstrated in places like Bradford North, Liverpool Broad Green, Coventry South East and Brighton Kemptown, then it would have been swept into government.' (Militant, 17 June 1983) Pickard's message was that the election campaigns run by Militant supporters demonstrated a successful alternative to the Labour Party mainstream.

Behind the scenes, known to be very critical of many Labour Party policies. In its confidential British 1983, Militant Perspectives Labour's programme as 'the dream world, the utopia. In its internal publications Militant has no inhibitions about characterising Labour's manifesto as worn-out policies of the past that have been shown to be completely bankrupt.

public criticisms in Militant are more subdued. Indeed Militant appears to jealous about sharing its criticisms of Labour with the wider public.

Bradford North, torate ot Broad Green Coventry or could be forgiven for failing to distinguish between campaigns Militant-backed candidates and ordinary Labour candidates elsewhere.

that have been shown to be completely bankrupt were transformed miraculously in the course of the campaign into realistic solutions for the working class. Coventry candidate David Nellist insisted on this His election leaflet declared that poit. *Labour stands for a socialist society with a planned economy owned and run democratically by working people.

of a Labour government, he maintained, 'would mean the ending of unemployment, slum housing and poverty.

For which Labour programme did the electorate of Coventry SouthEast finally vote? Did they go for the 'bankrupt" policies described in Perspectives 1983? Or did they put their cross on the ballot paper for the socialist planned economy 18 the next step, October 1983

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'Marxist Its denied - but election literature? Marxism. Militant council. appreciate We Militant is well describes Militant takeover in May: the Royal Family However, its be very Liverpool The elec- Liverpool SouthEast their Dy Policies tember Post, austerity arithmetic: The return Militant's British outlined in Nellist's /embley inphantly arxist ideas ni. Militant Reporters BY

HELE

Since the people of Coventry were not made privy to Nellist's inner thoughts we must assume that the result represented a victory for bankrupt policies rather than a mandate for closet Aday in the life of a Marxist Council The dominant influence of Militant on Liverpool City Council is well known.

supporters derive considerable inspiration from their very own Marxist of Unfortunately the people Liverpool have not yet had the chance to difference between Marxist and a non-Marxist local authority.

detect the our readers Marxist philosophy behind the following resolution passed without opposition on Liverpool City Council shortly after the *That this City Council will: (a) at all times honour and respect the office of H.M. the Queen and pledge their loyalty to (b) at all times when occasion arises, rise to their feet, at the singing of the National Anthem (c) represent the City in the fitting manner when Royalty visits the citizens of the City of (d) not support the idea of substituting the National Anthem.' (Minutes p468, May 1983) When not pledging loyalty to the Royal Family our Marxist councillors are busy Education with more mundane matters.

chairman Dominic Brady has strong views on progressive teaching methods. In Sephe promised that cuts in the education budget will be quick, sharp and painful but they must go ahead' (Daily 9 September). Counciller Derek Hatton, Militant's leading voice in local goverment spelt out the Marxist council's *The clear message is the government has taken £120m off this authority since 1979.

Additionally this year's budget called for 1500 redundancies, the clear choice is to fight for £25m to cover our policies.' (Liverpool Echo, Hatton appears to be so taken with the originality and radicalism of this demand that he repeated it with a flourish at the Wembley rally. Negotiation for £25 million is the defining feature of Marxism in Liverpool. Even a casual observer can see that Militant's electoral success has nothing to do with its 'distinctive' policies. In Coventry Militant candidates and Liverpool but it was the Labour Party that won. In effect, Militant is the Labour Party in Militant's success lies not in Liverpool. fighting for its policies in public, but in the ability of its supporters to advance inside the structures of the Labour Party at the expense of other left factions.

The real Militant Our criticism of Militant is not that it says one thing in private and something different in public. that Militant's policies (even the confidential ones) do not constitute an alternative to those of the Labour Party. Militant's perspective is not based on alternative policies, but on fighting more consistently than Labour's leadership for the Labour Party programme. the fight for this programme will show the masses the need for a socialist society: *Marxists will demand the carrying out of the programme which has been put forward by the leadership. We will fight for the implementation of that programme.

time we will be saying that our demand of a 35hour week, a minimum wage, massive expenditure on the social services, and so on - adequate measures for the youth and unemployed - all demands which are put forward by the Marxists at the present time, cannot be implemented unuer capitalsm, transformation of society can result in the implementation, of Labour's modest programme under present day conditions.' (British Perspec tives 1983) This perspective exposes Militant's lack of political independence. few paragraphs earlier are labelled 'wornout' and completely become 'modest; their implementation, however, would lead to the transformation of society. Militant's perspectives illustrate its repudiation of any attempt to develop a Marxist programme. of the Labour leadership's programme has no consequence, because it agrees to campaign around it anyway irrespective of its 'Marxist MPs and councilsthe socialist alternative Brilliant suco for Militant ra failings. Militant does. i ran. June ment of mankind.' It presents The real problem is itsel as tionary It believes that Labour's leadership. Marxist moles And at the same from programme system. gramme. We will explain that only the Policies which a bankrupt' capitalist Militant's criticism the wrong choice. In one very important respect Militant is even more confused than the Labour leadership. The Labour leadership makes no claims that its manifesto is a But far-reaching threat to capitalism.

Nellist's leaflet for the election proclaimed Labour as a revolutionary force in society: "There are two real alternatives in the future.

Those who defend the profit system of the monopolies, and the Labour Party which stands for a socialist society and the further develop- We can now see the real role of Militant to the public as a socialist alternative a programme that it dismisses bankrupt. Militant offers no threat to the Labour leadership.

Rather it provides a left cover for Labour's reac policies. Militant's role is to appeal to the aspirations of workers and to channel their energies into Labour's election machinery. This is the real Militant that the public sees in Liverpool, Coventry and elsewhere. Militant may think that it is pulling a fast one on But in reality the are doing the labour bureaucrats a favour by winning wider credibility for their policies.

The working class would not benefit the implementation of Labour's Its policies are divisive and are designed to revitalise the capitalist Successive Labour governments have shown the consequences of this pro- Fighting for another version of the same will not lead workers to the conclusion that society has to be transformed It will lead to demoralisation and the fragmentation of the labour movement Capitalism cannot be transformed by The tricks and backstage manoeuvres.

immediate priority is to fight for policies that unite the working class against the system. This requires not secret criticisms, but an up-front struggle against the influence of Labourism in the working class. Militant has lost its way so badly that it has become a component part of British Labourism. In deciding to put loyalty to Labour before the interests of the working class, Militant has made Frank Richards

British road? After a year of incessant internal wrangling the Communist Party enters its 38th Congress next month in an advanced state of fragmentation. According to a recently factional pamphlet, published membership is little more than half the official figure of 15 000, itself a post-war low. The circulation of the Morning Star in Britain is probably less than the party's membership and its survival is constantly under discussion. How has the party founded at the height of the revolutionary upsurge of the European working class after the First World War reached this pathetic state after more than 60 years?

THE

NOVEMBER

AT Congress, Gordon McLennan will general secretary face an unprecedented challenge to his leadership of the party. In formal terms the fundamental division is between the Eurocommunists and the orthodox pro- Soviet wing of the party.

communists are loosely grouped around Marxism Today, the party's monthly theoretical journal edited by The orthodox faction is fronted Jacques. by Morning Star editor Tony Chater and industrial correspondent Mick Costello, formerly the party's industrial organiser.

A smaller and even more pro-Soviet element supports the monthly Straight Left.

Traditionalists V Eurocommunists The two broad camps in the CP are divided in terms of age, social origins and the strategy they put forward to save the party.

However, as we shall see, they have much The Eurocommin common politically. unists tend to be young and middle class, generally employed in public service professions and quangos. They are often active in 'community politics, CND and feminist circles and see the future of the CP as a coordinator of diverse 'autonomous' movements. The constant use of the term broad democratic marks them out in inner party debates.

The traditionalists tend to be older and more proletarian. They are often trade union officials at various levels of the bureaucracy from workplace up to the General Council of the TUC.

believe that the CP can survive through maintaining its links with the bureaucracy, though they differ on the extent to which they think sales of Soviet Weekly can help to build the party. Using the phrase the leading role of the working class' identifies supporters of this tendency in the internal battles. The extent of recent public conflict among leading party members has been greater than at any time in the history of the party. internal debates nave rarely been characterised by such acrimonious exchanges. The current round of squabberupted September ling last over article in Marxism Today which criticised the incorporation of shop stewards into management procedures. organiser Mick Costello issued a strident condemnation of the article on behalf of the trade union bureaucrats in a statement Morning Star. to the He was subsequently rebuked by the CP executive committee which took the unprecedented step of siding publicly with the Eurocommunists against one of the party's leading traditionalists, a man with close links with both the Soviet and the TUC bureaucracies. Shortly afterwards Costello resigned his post 'for personal reasons'.

His replacement by Eurocommunist Pete Carter - described by the New Statesman as pro-ecology, pro-feminist a sexy, building worker -only intensified friction.

A few months later the executive censured The Communist Party of Great Britain End of the Morning Star editor Tony Chater for appointing Costello as the paper's industrial correspondent without due consultation.

Battle for the Star actual Last May it became known to the Morning Star's formal management committee, a body sympathetic to the traditionalists, that the CP executive was secretly circulating its own list of candidates for the forthcoming annual

COESHLICC.

at the Morning Star hit back by publishing a statement in the paper regretting that "an outside body' was seeking to take over the management CP committee, and putting forward its own nominees. ciously viewed the executive's candidates - a bunch of geriatrics headed by retired editor George Matthews - as a sort of Trojan horse for the Eurocommunists.

The Euro- After a series of meetings around the country the orthodox wing triumphed in the elections in June. quently attempted to save the paper by Martin securing agreement from the print unions to open up the presses to commercial printing work. of the print shop reorganisation have been constant changes in the shape of the paper and the colour of its masthead.

Neither content nor circulation seem to have improved. Scarcely had this battle been resolved when the CPs disastrous performance in the General Election prompted another round of internecine strife.

candidates won an average of just over 300 votes each. election agent John Peck put the Eurocommunist view. The left 'would need to involved in mass politics in a wide variety of fields' with the aim of building 'an anti-Tory alliance' among the 17.5 million people alliance' parties and the 8 million who did not vote at all. political correspondent Andrew Murray replied with the orthodox line.

perspective should emphasise the development of the power and strength of the They working class movement. A rancorous debate over the implications of the election result raged in the correspondence columns of the Morning Star throughout the summer.

dent rehearsal for November, contributors divided into those who favoured pursuing an Industrial last letter the dustbin. elections to the The Chater/Costello faction - the CP executive - Congress. Chater and Costello suspiparty They have subsemovement in Britain. party soon The only apparent results the British CP. on the Soviet bureaucracy The CP's 35 on the other for its survival Within the week national who voted for other Within days the Morning Star fascism. The CP's 1945. late the Soviet regime into a liability. In an evisupport post-war years. Flash caps in Trafalgar Square: CP leader McLennan (right) with trade union fellow traveller Morning Star

THE MAGIST P

Falki an opportunist alliance of the CP with middle class pressure groups and those who wanted an equally opportunist unity behind the trade union bureaucracy. The Chater published before declared the debate closed at the beginning of September concluded with a vituperative attack on McLennan and a call for *the consignment of such "leadership" to The next blow came with Jole the publication of a pamphlet signed by Charlie Woods, a CP member of 60 years standing, which made clear that the pro- Soviet wing of the party intended a direct assault on McLennan and his executive at upsurge Disintegration and decay The bitterness of the debate in the CP is a product of the disintegration of the 'national' party after a long period of decay.

The was formed in 1920, inspired by the example of the October Revolution in Russia and driven forward by the revolutionary militancy of the shop stewards?

pations But the young peace. fell victim to the setbacks inflicted on the working class as unemployment soared in the early 'twenties.

The consolidation of reformism in Britain and the subsequent degeneration of the international communist movement under the socialism. influence of Stalinism took their toll on The It never developed an independent programme and came to rely on the one hand and the British labour bureaucracy The CP reached its organisational peak at the moment when its loss of political independence was most apparent and most damaging for the working class - during the Second World War.

alliance of Churchill and Stalin against Hitler, and the total mobilisation of the official labour movement behind the war effort allowed the CP to win widespread support on the basis of patriotic anti- Membership reached 50 000 and returned two MPs to Parliament in The onset of the Cold War in the 'forties and the revelation of the repressive and bureaucratic character of made the CP's links with Moscow, previously its greatest asset, Membership and electoral declined steadily through the The CP's decline was temporarily arr- It is ironic years ago. the better

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ested in the 'sixties and 'seventies by the of trade union militancy and student radicalism. The emergence of France Eurocommunism in Italy, and Spain in the mid 'seventies as a distinct "democratic' brand and of Stalinist politics proved attractive to middle class radicals in Britain too. Many drifted into the CP which in turn became influenced by their individualist preoccuwith feminism, ecology and The new version of the CP's programme the British Road to Socialism adopted in 1977 revealed the influence of Eurocommunism in its tributes to the role of the "broad democratic alliance' of all 'progressive forces' in the transition to Euro shattered recession In countries where the CPs communism. had some influence in the working class - France and Spain - the Eurocommunists willingness to collaborate in capitalist austerity programmes led to a dramatic To consolidate their loss of support. traditional working class base most CPs turned back towards Moscow. The British CP was influenced by these developments and by the general drift of its petit-bourgeois constituency to the right.

The rise of the Bennite Labour left attracted some Eurocommunists into the Labour Party; many simply pursued the logic of feminism and lifestyle' politics and dropped out At the same time the crisis of the trade union bureaucracy in the face of mass unemployment and Tory attacks Wal reflected in the CP. Two brands of Stalinism Neither wing of the CP has anything to offer the working class. Both uphold the British Road to Socialism, each giving a different emphasis to its commitment to a national, democratic, reformist strategy.

Both give broad support to the Labour Party's central economic policy the alternative economic strategy.

This points towards a programme of state-led capitalist revival which would inevitably mean a sharp fall in working class living standards.

Eurocommunists and CP Indeed both traditionalists support the Labour Party.

that the most intransigent pro-Soviet faction in the CP, Straight Left, favours liquidation into the Labour Party.

Wherever it has influence today the CP is a force of reaction. In the trade unions its members provide a constant service for the bureaucracy against rank and file initiatives. On the People's March for Jobs.

the CP organisers welcomed bishops and liberals and suppressed anti-Tory slogans.

In CND the CP leads the peace movement further and further to the right, and co.

operates in the witch-hunt against the It is a sad end for a party

WATCE

made such a promising start more than 60 But the sooner it goes - and takes with it its tedious daily apologist for the Kremlin and Congress House - Mick Hume the next step, October 1983 19

Hospital laundry: no lifestyle politics here Women: all in it together? Lynne Segal ed, What is to be done about the family? What is to be done about Elizabeth Wilson. violence against women? Penguin Books in association with the Socialist Society 1983, pbk £2.50.

ACCORDING TO

THE dust-jacket blurbs introducing a series of Socialist Society paperhese short and simple books will dea BacKs. with the central social and political issues of the In the first we discover the issues Wendy day. Clarke considers central: "Many women are facing the decisions over children, to have or not, by ourselves or with another; others are involved in buying homes and agonising over Highgate or Clapham; others are facing critical crisis points in relationships and orientations, socialist-feminist or feminist and socialist? And sex and sexuality is becoming a key question in our lives again.'

Oh yeah? Which women? There are seven contributors to Segal's collection.

Five are college lecturers, one is a feminist journalist, the other a trade union bureaucrat. For women like these, Wendy Clarke may have identified the central issues. Working class women have more serious preoccupations.

rage one outunes the lving arrangements sexual orientation, and details of the offspring of each of the contributors. Long the norm in romantic fiction, such biographical detail is.

usually absent from political works.

Here it substitutes for a method.

Laying bare the experience of the writer is a technique popularised by modern sociology.

The investigator puts his cards on the table, sets out his bias, prejudices and limited experience.

This excuses inconsistency and empiricism, and allows for an While it appears intinite range of experiences.

it is simply arrogant to serve up self-effacing, personal reminiscences as the thoughttul and stimulating' answers to 'important questions" which the book promises. The great 'we' The book's approach originates in the Women's Liberation Movement. A decade of personal politics read backwards produces a plethora of answers to the questions every right-on kid asks - What did you do in the WLM, mummy?'

The answer is that we went on Vietnam demos, we come me a was macho, warike bardnoid and desperate, "we' tried communal living, we torced men to share tre nousework one would know from Segal's book that we" live in a class society which divides all individuals, including women, into us and them.

The authors accept the founding prejudice of bourgeois sociology that our society is an organic whole. Class is an incidental factor, not a fundamental division. As a consequence not class but working working class men, The WLM. women too, are underestimated.

even in its early days, put minimal resources into supporting the strikes of women workers.

When women were strong, organised and fighting were ignored by teminism.

system tHey Working class women only appear in Segal's book as tne beleaguered vicums or their nusbands' violence, rehabilitated in crumbling hostels by understanding middle class feminists.

What was dramatic about the criticisms (of the family) which came out of the '60s was that for a while, some of us used them to conclude that we must and could change things. We could begin immediately to change our own lives, if not the world'. In fact, the 10 000 communal 20 the next step, October 1983 houses in the USA (and many fewer in Britain) didn't do much to 'change the world": They just made the participants feel they were doing something useful by having endless meetings and discussing the politics of personal life in the local pub. Looking back in a critical frame of mind, Segal and the others treasure the sisterhood and the experimentation. They regret the simplistic slogans of the WL and the way they wrote off the Labour Party. All the contributors accept that the demands of the early WLM for free 24 hour nurseries, socialised domestic work and economic independence for women were unrea- It is an ironic consequence of the rece-

USTRIC.

ssion that the most important gains of the WLM These demands now seen as utopian could have been used to involve working class women and men in the fight for women's eman- Instead the truly utopian side of feminism - the notion that to adjust your brain and open a commune was a strategy for changmig society - is celebrated. This book can only be recommended as sad testimony to the mis-spent youth of angry young women as they reach a complacent middle age. Making a break? Elizabeth Wilson's book is much better. It is a sensible if over-subtle critique of feminism. But her critique is undermined by an inability to follow through the criticisms to a break with feminist politics. she gives undue credit to the WLM, Rape Crisis Centres and Women's Aid.

But in looking at aspects of violence against women from a materialist standpoint she is forced to reject many of the prejudices today stemst movement. Her first target is patriarchy. She explains that the capitalist economy is organised on antipatriarchal lines. Women and children are 'free" under the law to search for employment and sell their labour-power separately from the family. She explains that formal equality within the family and women's suffrage mean that women today are no longer under the tutelage of husband or father. Nor is the bourgeois family a patriarchal institution; the child is no longer supposed to fear and obey the father but to love him. Her second target is biological determinism, the view differences are that male teme simply biological "givens" This reactionary belief means that nothing can ever change because of the eternal grip of aggression, jealousy, territorialism, maternal instincts etc.

Radical feminists share this belief with right-wing ideo logues like 'Naked Ape' man Desmond Morris.

tackling biological determinism Wilson feminism's fundamental prejudice challences that men always have and aiways will oppress The chapters on rape and battered wives are excellent. Wilson explains that in a society in which women are seen as anything rather than they will inevitably be raped and battered. something found in all societies as a function of male sexuality, but is historically specific.

changing 1 herelore it can be eradicatea by women's position in society.

Wife battering is explained as 'an exaggeration of how society expects men to behave.

Wilson demolishes the views of social workers like Erin Pizzey who note that battered women often return to violent men, li a woman posse sses no independent income, has small children to look after and nowhere to live, she may actualv be unable to leave at all, or may be forced to return after a short period because of the dearth of alternatives.

thinks refuges are a good thing, she implicitly concedes their long-term uselessness.

The main point in the chapter on prostitution is borrowed from Engels. Not only is it, so to that makes the modern speak, the lavatory home hygienic, but it is also, in important economic ways, the other side of the coin to Wilson destroys the link between marriage. pornography and male violence.

societies where porn is illegal or doesn't exist.

women is rife, in In some, violence against others non-existent. She therefore challenges censorship, while disapproving of pornography.

We object to pornography This is fair enough. because it degrades the working class; we would never give additional power to the state to deny us access to whatever ine runng Class may consider obscene. Personal solutions The chapter "Feminists fight back' reveals the weaknesses in Wilson's approach. She endorses of the personal solutions outlined in Segal - alternative social work and a narrowly For example, conceived ideological struggle.

she states that "the "cure " for rape lies ultimately not in the individual but in the school and in the home where sexist attitudes are sown.

reviews But even with the most feminist parents and liberal schooling rape will continue as long as All Wilson's solutions precapitalism exists. sume the continuation of capitalist society She ends up arguing along with Segal and the Socialist Society that, If the Labour Party wishes to survive, it mas to bund a wider consu tuency. Despite its reformist conclusions, however, this book is highly recommended.

Kate Marshall The personal and the political Emmanuel Reynaud, Holy Virility, Pluto Press 1983, pbk £3.50 THE 'anti-sexist men's movement' is a creation of the middle class radicalisation of the 'seven- In Britain it consists of about 200 mer Besi who attend conferences, take part in consciousness-raising groups, run crecnes and read tre Anti-sexist men's newsletter and books like Holy. Virility. This book belongs to the personal is political' tradition of the feminists. This statement has been open to several interpretations.

One argues that what society sees as individual problems are in fact social questions: what needs to be changed is not the individual, but society The second interpretation, which Reynaud ad heres to, is that political problems can be resolved within tne individual Reynaud locates the source of sexual divisions in men's inexplicable desire for 'power".

According to Reynaud, power is the ultimate aphrodisiac and is to be found 'at the tip of the phallus". Material gain is only its 'eternal alibi".

Men want power as 'an end in itself" because Holy that is how they've been brought up.

Virility is the mirror image of bourgeois ideology Reynaud leads us from the problems of the oppressed as individuals, not to the social relations which cause them, but to the psychology of the agents of oppression - in his analysis, men. Overcoming oppression The book accepts the feminist dictum that men are the cause of women's oppression. problem then becomes how to stop being a man.

Reynaud argues that all of humanity is trapped within the ideological constructions of male and female; men should fight against sexism, not out or guilt, but because sexism cramps the style of the individual: Only when these concepts (of male and female have been eliminated will it be possible for each person to develop his or her potential as an individual.' Reynaud's faith in the capacity of the individual to overcome oppression is touching. But women will not stop being oppressed as a result of men attending consciousness-raising groups.

Women's position in society and the relationships between individuals are governed by capi- The fact that one class talist social relations. owns and controls the means of production in a system based on profit means that the working class is forced to reproduce itself, free of charge, within the family. social relationship which oppresses women and denies humanity its emotional and sexual potential. Capitalism does not just act as a barrier to the fulfilment of the individual; it is also a barrier to the development of the productive Unless that barrier is smashed the potential for individual fulfilment will never be bourgeois ideology and realised. masculinity and backward notions about femininity is important: the working class must break with all the ideas that tie it to the bosses.

But eradicating the divisions between the sexes requires more than just a description of their It means taking the means of consequences. production out of the hands of the capitalist class and destroying the system that creates them. One of the heartaches of those involved ir the anti-sexist men's movement is that, try as they mignt to be ornerwise, mey remam men We say to them that the • problem lies not in their heads, nor even 'at the tip of the phallus", but in the society that makes us what we are.

Women's oppression is necessary to capitalism.

By fighting for the things we need - tree abortion and contraception on demand, free 24-hour nurseries, a woman's right to work we can begin the fight to change society.

Change that and we change ourselves Richard Tench A German tragedy Eve Rosenhaft, Beating the fascists? - the Communists and political violence German University Press 1983, 1929-33, Cambridge pp 273, pbk ROSENHAFT'S BOOK looks at the attempts of the German Communist Party in Berlin to organise anti-fascist activity in the late twenties and early 'thirties. With a wealth of documentary and anecdotal material it attempts to reconstruct the reality behind formal policy proclamations and party rhetoric. Although the book suffers at times from obscure sociological jargon, and lacks a coherent analytical framework, it provides important insights into the causes of the KPD's collapse Four working class districts formed the backbone of the Berlin KPD in the Weimar period: Wedding, Neukoelln, Friedrichshain and Zentrum. In late 1928, as the depression was beginning to take hold of the German economy, the Nazis launched a concerted drive to build a base in 'Red Babylon', as Berlin was called in National Socialist Workers' Party propaganda.

None less than the future Nazi propaganda min ister Goebbels. was appointed to direct this battle on the home ground of some of the most advanced sections of the German proletariat The Nazi intrusion gave rise to protracted and bitter struggles in the working class neighbourhoods. Rosenhaft draws out a number of objective factors which facilitated the spread of fascist influence and presented major problems for revolutionaries. One problem, which receives little attention in most of the literature on the period, was the fragmentation of the working class. In the midtwenties German industry underwent process of rationalisation and restructuring which led to major social stratification. Closures of unproductive plants on the one hand and the concentration of production in new high technology and mass production units on the other deepened divisions between skilled workers in relatively secure jobs, the semi-skilled and un skilled, and a new mass of almost permanently unemployed casual labourers. These divisions were reflected in working class consciousness and organisation. The skilled upper layers of the working class tended to identify with the reformist politics of the SPD and trade union bureaucracy. The KPD drew an increasing share of its members and supporters from the poorest and least organised sections.

Controlling the youth The depression which started in late 1928 accelerated these trends. By 1931 six million German workers were unemployed. In Berlir unemployment shot up to 32 per cent. The social composition of the KPD changed dramatically. In 1929, 50 per cent of its 135 000 members were industrial workers. By 1931 its membership had almost tripled, but only a tenth were workers. The majority of new members were unemproyed and a sigminicant number wett youths. The influx of militant unemployed and youth introduced an element of instability in the party's rank and file. Rosenhaft cites statistics which show the high turnover in KPD membership: 44 percent of delegates to the Berlin section congress of 1931 had been members for less than a year. A survey of Berlin KPD functionaries showed that out of a total of 24 party employees 19 had been in their posts for three months or les. These developments in the KPD corresponded to the broad polarisation and volatility of German society in the depression, which the fascists used to their advantage. During 1929 the Nazis began to establish themselves ir Berlin's working class districts, recruiting first among shopkeepers, pub landlords and low-

Für die Diklatur des Proletariais Berlin 1931: a proletariat betrayed grade but extending their clerical worKers, among sections of the uneminfluence aiso ployed. Unlike the KPD the NSDAP had access to virtually unlimited funds provided by donations from ruling class circles. As Rosenhaft points out: "In some areas the National Socialists "labour exwere able to establish their own changes", to promise jobs to their members as a result of their good relations with businessmen.

More common was the provision of on-the-spot relief in the form of food and shelter - in its canteens and soup-kitchens and above all in the CA taverns that doubled as dormitories.

Berlin's working class Nazi activity in neighbourhoods provoked a forceful reaction.

Workers organised to beat the fascists off the streets. Street battles between fascists and class- The conscious workers

TOOK

place communist rank and file played the leading role in organising attacks on Nazi taverns, street patrols and other forms of physical combat, often in cooperation with social democratic level. however the decisive. Rosenhaft's response was far from documentation shows that the KPD leaders' anti-fascist strategy was a morass of bureaucratic chaos, sectarianism and political instability. It confirms that the leadership of the KPD under- Other writers have documented the KPD's sectarian 'social fascist policy, which meant that the social democratic SPD, far from being seen as a potential ally in the struggle against une Nazis, was itself presented as fascist. This policy served to divide the working class and undermine the potential for united class action against fascism. The 'social fascist" line also implied a comof the threat fascism plete underestimation posed. Rosenhaft's study examines the motives and pressures underlying KPD policy. It shows that the leadership substituted shortsighted pragmatic reflexes for a political strategy.

The road to ruin Anti-fascist violence was at the centre of KPD debate in the 1929-33 period. It is well known that far from organising effective combat against the fascist gangs the KPD leadership, in particular after June 1930, went out of its way to dissuade its rank and file from engaging in what it termed individual terror against the fascists. Indeed in the latter part of 1930, the Berlin party entered a major crisis as the leadership disbanded the party's youth wing and expelled many militants for refusing to obey instructions not to attack the Nazis. The party's paramilitary wing, the Red Fighters' League (Roter Frontkaempferbund), was effectively put into cold storage, to be wheeled out only for Sunday processions. Rosenhaft does not give a full explanation of the reasons behind this suicidal policy. But she does provide some clues. She identifies control over the membership as a major leadership concern at the time. Her sociological study of the Berlin KPD rank and file shows that the leadership faced a problem of control in the proletarian neighbourhoods. A large proportion of the membership and periphery of the party were unemployed youths who were attracted to it not by its political ideology, but by its militant reputation. Many were members of local youth gangs. Rosenhaft draws out the ambivalence with which the leadership regarded this layer. Uncritical admiration of the young 'rebels' and bureaucratic repression often went hand in hand. Thus the party daily Die Rote Fahne carried articles commending shoplifting expeditions (called "proletarian shopping) and the tough discipline of the youth gangs as man- Meanwhile ifestations of good class spirit.

district and national party officials would issue against individual terror and 'ultracirculars left' radicalism. Beating the fascists? provides many other examples of the KPD's vacillation and confusion.

It is in her attemot to identitv the problems that gave rise to this confusion that Rosenhaft runs into trouble. Whilst making some valuable observations - about the inability to politicise its volatile, youthful membership leading to bureaucratic repression and its ambivalence towards proletarian terror corresponding to its analysis of fascism - the author cannot come to any coherent conclusion. Her final chapter argues inat it was the Marxist concept of the proletarian vanguard party that led the KPD into disarray. Unable to provide any coherent explanation of what went wrong' the text winds up on a confused and pessimistic note.

The real problem with the KPD was its opportunism. The working class vanguard was paralysed because the communist leadership was not prepared to lead the way to class power - the only alternative to the fascist takeover.

At a time when decisive action was needed, the party's leaders were absorbed by opportunist manoeuvres designed to enhance its short-term interest in extending its control and intluence From 1930 this found its most grotesque expression in the PD's attempts to woo the Nazi rank and file by adopting nationalist rhetoric.

Beating the fascists? provides many insights into this process of degeneration. Although it cannot provide a revolutionary critique of the KPD it is certainly well worth reading.

Sabena Norton Can General Zia survive? Tariq Ali, Can Pakistan Survive? The death of a state, Penguin Books 1983, pp237, pbk £2.95 WHEN Tariq Ali's book was first published Pakistan's Chief Martial Law Administrator General Zia ul-Haq was advised by his foreign minister to keep quiet about it. Instead Zia went on television and spent more than an hour condemning it. The result is that civil servants are now able to supplement their income by selling photocopied editions of the book on the rigid regime's black market. The military control of the press, radio, television, publishing and education means that Pakistani starved of information and of workers are criticism of the regime. No wonder they have snapped up badly xeroxed copies of the book so roundly denounced by the head of the army.

But what will they find when they read it?

The Raj Ali is on fairly safe ground when dealing with Pakistan when it was part of British India.

He refutes the notion that the British developed any part of the Indian sub-continent. This is something not understood by many on the radical left. In a recent issue oi the Socialist Workers' Party theoretical journal Barry Pavier argues that the British in India overthrew the feudal rulers that they found there and replaced them with an indigenous capitalist class (Inter national Socialism, number 20). In other words the British did have a civilising mission in India.

As Tariq Ali points out, the reverse was the case.

The British found a land where the power of the old feudal classes was waning. In regions like Gujerat and Sind the merchant classes were showing signs of developing into a fully-fledged capitalist class. Rr1t1ch armles delended the feudal power structure. Principalities and rotten military bureaucracies were saved by the British as the best way of keeping order. Direct British rule never covered much more than half the total land area of the region. They preferred to rule through a network of military and economic treaties with local rulers except where British domination might be threatened by competition from France or the Netherlands. The system of land tenure was maintained at the expense of agricultural stagnation and the immiseration of the peasantry. Local industries were wiped out by laws preventing the export of finished cotton and linen and by the import of cheap goods from Britain. Ali shows how the British had little choice but to encourage religious and communal div isions within the sub-continent. In this they were ably assisted by figures such as Ghand and 'father of Pakistan' Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

There was no local capitalist class on which to base a capitalist state. As opposition from workers, peasants and the middle class grew, Britain was forced to seek a way of creating a social base for a politically independent state in the region. Its only recourse was to create a Hindu state in the centre and a Muslim state in the North West and North East. By the time the British granted independence to the region now called Pakistan there were only three factories of any size - all of them state-owned. But Britain's formula for solving this dilemma has hardly worked. By 1971 Islam could not hold together the two sections of Pakistan, East Pakistan broke away to form Bangladesh after a bloody civil war. In April this year rioting in Sind broke out as a result of tension between Sunni and Shite Muslims. Betrayals Ali's description of the weaknesses of the mostly Stalinist left in Pakistan is also useful. He shows how the split between Moscow and Peking, which wrenched apart many Third World radical movements in the late 'sixties, precipitated the collapse of the Pakistan Communist Party. But he rightly locates the origins of the the 'thirties and 'forties when, under orders from Moscow, the Indian Communist Party opposed the national liberation struggle in the continent and became trusted administrators of the British war effort in the Pacific. They sent thousands of Indians to their deaths in the British army and they lost influence with the mass Indian peasants allowing middle class leaders like Ghandi and Jinnah to steal the show. Nor were the British grateru lor their services. Alter the defeat ol Japan the party was outlawed and its leaders imprisoned or exiled. Indian Viceroy batten was preparing a deal with the more reliable nationalist leaders. Their behaviour during the war meant that the Communist Party's opposition to partition was ignored by the masses. In the orgy of bloodletting that accom panied the British handover to India's new leaders the Communist Party quietly split into three to take into account the changes dictated from London. When he comes to discuss present-day Pakistan Ali reveals that he has little to offer the masses but more of the same. He gives good reasons why the working class should beware the Movement for the Restoration of Democ racy, the main opposition to the military dic tatorship. The eight-party umbrella group Party dominated by Pakistar rcopies founded by former Prime Minister Zulfiker Ali Bhutto. And it still promotes the same political outlook which informed Bhutto's government between 1971 and 1976. Bhutto came to power in the wake of the civil war and the Indian invasion which led to the independence of Bangladesh. His first act as Chief Martial Law Administrator was to orde the army to open fire on strikers and demonstrators. In 1972 he sent the army to crush a wave of strikes and demonstrations. Two weeks of fighting between troops and strikers folladdressing a Karachi Chamber of Commerce dinner, warning them that the government was on the side of labour, his was killing thousands of workers.

Bhutto's last act was to declare martial law in the face of similar disturbances throughout Pak• istan in 1976. He also appointed General Zia ma as me mart Law Ammustrator Zia's Pakistan is the product of Bhutto's policies. The main difference is that Zia has more nerve than Bhutto had. Yet Ali offers little more than a return to Bhutto's politics.

He rejects a violent struggle against the regime, echoing the call of the MRD for non-violent opposition. Having bitterly denounced Ghandi earlier in nis book he implicitly endorses the strategy of MRD leader Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, the man now styling nimsen the unanal or Pakistan. Ali offers the same kind of controlled optimism' he offers workers in Britain.

He see a 'thoroughgoing social transformation' in both countries but he rejects the only method which bring about such a Can transformation. Instead he peddles the same kind of illusions in a peaceful road to socialism that he would like to peddle as a inember of Hornsey Labour Party - if the party's leaders would only let him in. John Johnson Dressing up against Cruise won't stop war Mutiny from stem to stern Paul Buteux, The politics of nuclear consultation in NATO 1965-1980, Cambridge University Press 1983, pp 292, hbk £22.50 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, World armaments and disarmament, Taylor & Francis 1983, hbk £26 Philip Webber, Graeme Wilkinson & Barry Rubin, Crisis over Cruise, Penguin 1983, pp 112, pbk The disarmer's handbook of Andrew Wilson, and organisation, Penguin multary techneogy 1983, pp 318, pbk £2.50 SINCE THE NUCLEAR AGE began, no other weapons have generated as much opposition as Penguin the Euro-missiles; or as many books.

alone has made a mint from the market in antimissile literature. Theatre nuclear weapons American-made tactical nukes for use in the - have been around for 30 European theatre Why the rush into print over the years now. last couple of years? Death is a fascinating subject - especially if it is your own. The peace movement has been built on the fear of middle class people that about to be incinerated in a war they are between America and the Soviet Union.

publishing industry has been in crisis since the In the wake of the rapid resuearly "seventies. rrection of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, publishing houses have discovered radical roots in the hope of turning over a few badlyneeded bucks. All four books contain much of the same information but the paperbacks are considerably cheaper. Penguin's two offerings are accounts of the killing capacity of the various nuclear weapons systems available to the superpowers.

Both are suffused with the politics of CND.

The blurb on the back cover of Crisis over Cruise blows the gaff. Crisis over Cruise, it reads, is aimed at people with no previous knowledge of nuclear weapons, but who might, one day, be We are taken on a whistle-stop their victims". We are tour of the West's armoury of death.

assured that all that stands between us and Armageddon is the 'will of those brave enough The to challenge the logic of nuclear defence.

authors assure us that Britain's military needs could be satisfied with a non-nuclear defence policy. But nuclear overkill is 'too much". All three authors are respected scientists. The pubon issues such as these, lishers pontificate: scientists have a special responsibility to society Philip Webber has contributed an important study of photosynthesis. It's probably a good deal more useful than this study of nuclear warfare. It just goes to show that scientists are no better qualified to talk about militarism than pop stars about tengion. Andrew Wilson's The disarmers handbook is not a different kettle of fish.

This one is supposed to allow us to 'come to our own conclusions about human and national survival in the nuclear age'. The conclusion that Wilson points to is - panic! The only hope Wilson sees is in Wilson's the assertion of an 'ethical pacifism'.

definition of 'ethical pacifism' is revealing: Pacifism, to which the just war and just deterrence doctrines are vigorously opposed, can be seen to have a number of important variants - though philosophers, like many pacifists, would recognise only one, i.e. unqualified paci- Other, selective forms of pacifism, such as opposition to a particular war (e.g. Vietnam) or to nuclear weapons (nuclear pacifism), are not thereby less "honest". It is merely that they cannot be philosophically systematized.

What this gobbledegook means is

- GOT WON

being scared to death by nuclear weapons does not mean you have to oppose British militarism.

Both books see the But the point is, you do.

build-up of nuclear weapons as an irrational policy option, rather than a necessity forced on the imperialist powers by the recession.

their struggle to survive, Britain, France, Japan, West Germany and the United States will use Unless the struggle anything at their disposal: against nukes is taken up as part of a relentless struggle against every aspect of militarism it will fail. The real McCoy Anyone who wants to know about the militarisation of international relations should consult Paul Buteux's The politics of nuclear consultation in NATO. It is wordy and Buteux off his understanding of the enjoys showing technology of the arms race, but it gives a comprehensive account of nuclear strategy from 1952 to 1980. Most importantly it explains America's exasperation at the European peace movements. In opposition, Labour and European Social Democratic politicians have been posing as mentors or the peace moverent.

Five years ago when they were in government they were pleading with America for a more In close succession, the floating of the dollar, a batch of import controls and the Watergate scandal all showed that America was not the power it had once been. In 1973 Henry Kissin ger declared the 'year of Europe'. He called for Europe to stand on its own feet.

The Social Democratic government in West Germany and the Labour Party in Britain panicked at the prospect of the US withdrawing from Europe.

Now, 10 years into the recession, they have i They appreciate that they are different view. going to have to fight with the US for control or me resources or tre planet Stockholm Institute's report is an The annual event. It provides a useful summary of developments since 1980 and should be read in conjunction with Buteux's study.

ITS CHOCK-

full of excellent statistics surveying the arms build-up over the last 10 years.

I COverS Col ventional as well as nuclear weapons and shows how British and French spending on arms has risen rapidly over the decade.

It also shows how the arms trade ties countries in the Third World to the imperialist powers. and examines the burgeoning military blocs which straddle the globe. James Wood the next step, October 1983 21

Letters I have read the short article by Nate Marsnal on abortion and contraception in the last issue of the next step. I am opposed to the pro-abortion stand it takes, because this plays into the hands or ta capitaus rumig cass. tucy actively encourage abortion as a cheap and easy solution to the social problems they have

CIC

ated. Killing off unborn children providing the San BeT alternatives that we demand.

Abortion is a social issue.

not the individual The state, should be forced to pay for con- Lacebuon. DeLLCI caucason. advertising Fighting etc. for these alternauves, irom ine 'morning after pill to adequate care for 'unwanted children, will prove to be harder than getting abortions. Once we've need for abortion may never be completely eliminated, the demabortion will and for rapidly decrease. But abortion is also a moral issue. Pornography is the media coverage of the working class of 'opposing' countrics killing and maiming each other. Prostitution 'our boys', bought by the Kate Marshall replies: We are in favour of free abortion on demand, but we are not proabortion. Abortion is a risky and barbaric method of birth control. It is usually traumatic for women and health workers.

Unlike the capitalists and their kind who fear bringing children

WOTE

working class has everything to live for. We are fighting for a future in which abortion will cease to be the only option facing thousands of women every year. Free 24-hour nurseres and better contracepuve, will begin to eradicate the need for abortion. Seeing abortion as a social question means putting it in the context of women's position in society. A woman's decision to have or reject an abortion is directly affected by her economic status and the availability of quality con maceDon and nurseries. Looking at abornon as a more cueston mvoves tearing it from its social context.

Moral opposition always leads to a demand on the state to ban aborton, regardiess or the con- Workers in Karachi and other towns in Sind province have been against the mil demonstrating itary regime of General Zia ul-Haa since 14 August. So tar more than 150 have been killed by the army. Almost 5000 have been arrested. The riots have not yet spread to Pakistan's of Punjab. Northern province If they do not then Zia can ride

OULLIC SLO

The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, now styling itsel save rakistan, cannot understand why Punjabis have not taken to the streets against the hated military government.

But then they could not under- Sind stand why the riots in happened in the first place. They called for a general strike and demonstrations 14

-UIL

August. It is Pakistan's National most businesses and shops day. closed and the streets are 22 the next step, October 1983 Free abortion on demand to parade in Northern Ireland and the Falklands with and tanks, sub-machine kill ready any oppose British imperialist rule.

Abortion is just another means mutilating the

LICY

working class. our society

A NOTO

unavoidable solution for many women. We must demand 'morning after' pill and the possible abortion for earlest women we are nimmedate difficulties. But abortion should never be seen as an ultimate cure social ills. Unwanted preg. nancies are caused by the state's keep Genoerate on the matter people ignorant of birth control. We do not demand bandages for more accidents caused by faulty dangerous machinery at work; demand better machinery we and more safety precautions. We must see the problems of birth control in the same context. We must demand adequate preven tive methods as the prime solution, not bandages to bind the wounds caused by the state.

Angela Meekin sequences for women with unwanted pregnancies. We have always distanced ourselves from those who want women to have 'the right to choose. We don't believe women "choose' to have abortions any more than they choose to be ripped off by sweat-shop employers, live in a slum or wait for six years for an operation on the NHS. Our only concern is to survive, in order Wal we can fight to change things. Angela Meekin is opposed to abortion because it is not an answer to major social problems.

But nor is the fight for the right to work, to housing, to education etc. As part of the struggle for communism - the only sor ution to all social problems revolutionaries fight for immediate objectives. Many of these are doubled edged. The right to work is conditional on owning nothing and involves the right to be exploited. The right to free abortion on demand is a necessary evil that we must champ.

ion until we abolish the system which makes abortion necessary.

more crowded than usual. The MRD's call was merelv a pub- They licity exercise. surprised as anyone when there followed three weeks of riots in Sind. They were caught off guard responded but they quickly. MRD politicians flew back to Pakistan to get arrested. There are two reasons why the MRD adopted this tactic. First they wanted to limit opposition to military rule to symbolic gestures with themselves as the focus.

Secondly they want to get arrested so that they can talk to the government. I saw MRD leader Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi arrested.

It was almost funny. He adversee seroenanoma newa going to offer himself for arrest.

A small crowd gathered and he began addressing them through a megaphone. The police came and removed his megaphone.

YES-I'M ALL IN FAVOUR

OF WOMEN'S LIB.

MYSELF.

ROUND, I BELIEVE?

Victory for We the Chilean community would like to thank you for all during our fight for housing on Springfield Estate, Stockwell. There is no doubt that without your support we would not have been housed by Council. Our situation here in England has been a ditticult one being forced to leave our homes because of repression in Chile against workers like ourselves by Pinochet's junta. We have 'The council that cares' Springfield Tenants' Association thank Workers would like to Against Racism for its support in the campaign to fight Lambeth Council's attempts evict TO squatters from our estate.

A young Chilean couple, the Urrea living over-

WOTE

crowded conditions so OUr tenants association helped them to squat an empty flat on the estate. Although Mrs Urrea was expecting a baby, Lambeth which describes itself as the council that cares - began th process for the eviction of the couple. A fine way of caring to wow a pregnant woman on to Thanks to tenants the streets. and WAR the couple have now been gen a tenancy On 31 August the tenants* association and WAR held a joint press conference to condemn Over the summer I have been struck by the proliferation of beasts, "muggers", 'red sex moles' and "perverts' of every description who have vied with Royalty and motherhood for the headlines of the gutter press.

One would hardly have guessed from reading the Sun or the Mirror that this was the summer when the US piled into Central America; when France and the US poured thousands of troops into Chad; when the Lebanon exploded; when Britain launched new campaign to smash the No, as far as Fleet Street Pakistan's loyal opposition He had to run after them to persuade them to arrest him. As he was dragged away he kept calling to the crowd not to use violence.

This would have spoiled his martyrdom. He is now detained in a government residence near Islamabad - having talks with Zia.

Jatoi is head of the Pakistan Peoples Party founded Ali Zulfiker former Premier Butto who declared martial law and appointed ago years General Zia as chief of the army.

Zia toyed with the idea of making Jatoi prime minister after executing Bhutto but decided agam st 1t. The PPP is a landlords' party. The Jatoi family and the Bhutto family between them own two-thirds of the land in Sind province. They want to talk to the government about land reform - they don't want it. They are afraid that pressure

40 PINTS OF LAGER

PLEASE, STUART.

IT'S YOUR

Chilean squatters been living in different parts of Scotland and England in total

SO LUE.

in exile is not easy. It Being is with the support of organisations like Workers Against Racism that the Chilean Community has received real solidarity here in England. We hope to be able to support WAR in every way possible and hope that the work you do continues. yours fraternally, The Chilean community Springfield Estate calls for my eviction as the The association's secretary. calls were made by Lambeth Tory leader Robin Pitt but the also tenants' association at the ruling Labour angry Group's policies. Lambeth council tries to blame the squatters for the bad conditions on the estate. In fact they are the result of deliberate decisions taken by the DOTeV "Tadical' council. They have run Gown tense colector lesa and other services on the estate.

The tenants association is prepared to fight the council until it provides decent housing for all tenants and we will resist their attempts to divide us.

Squatters are not the problem.

Squalor is. Terry Stewart Secretary, Springfield T.A.

'Sex beasts and muggers' was concerned, this was. the summer of sex monsters. Hysterical media campaigns are nothing new, but this sum mer's orgy was nothing less than a moral crusade to stiffen the backbone of the law and order brigade and win popular support for new repressive legislation: the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill, the Prevention of Terrorism Bill and Tebbit's anti-union Thank goodness for the next step Bill Covington Haringey *This letter has been shortened from the peasant farmers in Sind might force Zia to consider it.

non miere were ouncernor in Karachi, They also want to persuade political parties contest the local and national elections which he plans over the next 18 months All they want is to have their interests guaranteed. Neither the people of Punjab nor the people of Sind want a return to conditions in Pakistar under the Bhutto regime. But this is all the MRD offer. It is nonsense to suggest that Punjabis have less reason than Sindhis to fight the brutal military dictatorship of General Zia. They simply do not trust the MRD who have done all in their power struggles in Sind. Mr A. Gidoom al Karachi

WOMENG RIGHT

УЧИТІ FOR

NOW! RUP

When DHSS snooper squads officially known Special arrived in Coventry on 5 September they ride. Even didn t get an easy before they landed, 40 people came along to support a vocal Apollo House DHSS offices. The snooper squads are part of the state's arsenal against the Every unemployed. benetit office already has its own fulltime fraud team. But hit squads of snoopers are fast becoming a favourite at Whitehall. Norman Tebbit spelt out why: "The techniques require not so much dogged pursuit of evidence looked for in normal fraud work but a lightness of touch in being able to confront claimants with a few suspicious facts which will lead the suspect either declare work or otherwise leave the register.'

The snoopers' job is to armtwist as many people as possible into giving up their claims.

Their activities used to ale criminaise the unemploved and divide the working class.

In sucet meetings and pro Court and tests outside Park Cheylesmore aole orices have made it clear that we will As a trade unionist and life-long supporter of Irish unity I was heartened by newspaper head that the Liberals lines saying adopted radical new policy on the war in Ireland. In fact, in the traditions of liberalism these headlines were somewhat overstating the case. The word adopted is a bit oi ar exaggeration. In fact the Liberal Assembly Harrogate spent at several hours shouting at each other about a resolution recom mending' support for Irish unity. But what was it about this recommendation that so curdled the blood of Liberal leaders?

Perhaps it is the thought that it calls for the EEC to raise an army to take over from the British in the North of Ireland. Per- In the eight weeks we have been on strike at Britains' toy factory

LEC SUODOLL

both financial and political, we have received from the RCP has been invaluable in keeping the When the strike strike going. began none of us had any previous experience of industrial For most of us it has •acuor. been a case of learning a lot One thing we learned ушску. early on was that leaving the dispute in the hands of our local TGWU official Tom Knowles was going to cause some problems. It took the union over a month to come up with strike Knowles' short and inpay frequent visits to the picket line never informed us of anything or let us know how the blacking was going. He didn't even put up a fight when the police reduced our picket line to four.

problems I read an article in annoyed to Socialist Worker that criticised one of our mass pickets for More being badly organised. than 10 people were arrested on the picket line for attempting to Snoopers out! not tolerate any snooper squads Coventry. Our motorcades toured Tile Hill, Radford, Wood End and Stoke Aldemore estates purung across we message tua claimants have every right to obtain a decent standard living by every means possible Our noisy demonstrations provoked the Coventry Telegraph to "Anyone respond: defrauding the DHSS...or even thinking of doing so must be taking encouragement from the noisy leftwing against its investigators" It isn't good enough just to snooper squads methods as the local Labour Party does. Anyone who agrees that fraud is a problem will agree that there should be a fraud squad. If these squads are to catch anyone they must obviously use underhand techniques to harass and intimidate people.

Our approach is different.

We serene me onto a worker in need of welfare benefits. Our first step must be to take a stand against the state's attempts to brand unemployed workers as scroungers and shift the blame for unemployment on to the working class. Mary Harper Coventry Liberals and Ireland haps Mrs Thatcher would be interested - it sounds like a good way of getting better value for out of Common Market membership! It will not make much difference on the streets of Belfast and Derry. One army is pretty much like another. There is nothing very new about this policy. It is the same mish mash of pro-Irish sympa thising and respect for the reality of Britain's need to keep the trouble in Ireland under control.

At least the Liberals debated the Irish war. It looks like this year's Labour Party conference is going to be too busy with the 'reality' of its pressung decline to bother. David James Lincoln The SWP and Britains stop scabs breaking the strike This kind of attack is uncalled for, especially when members of the SWP were standing idly on the sidelines as strikers, myself included, and RCP supporters were being dragged into police There was nothing disvans. organised about the picket.

police wanted to stop us picketting and moved in to intimidate and arrest us. We were dismayed at this report of the strike in their paper; sing our strike it would have been more encouraging for us if the SWP had joined myself and other strikers and the RCP in the fight to win the strike.

While we • were fighting to ensure that we took control of the strike comments such as these which attack the most positive developments in our into the SunKe can Oly oLd hands of Knowles and company.

He would much prefer it if we simply sat on the picket line and hope 'God will find us some solution'. Zafir Iqbal Britains Striker

Activities take part in forthcoming activities.

Chicheley Street, London SE1 (near Waterloo tube).

LONDON

Tuesday 4 October 7.30pm ELWAR anniversary meeting The battle of Cable Street City of London Polytechnic Coffee Lounge Calcutta House 3rd floor Old Castle Street E1

SHEFFIELD

Thursday 13 October 7.30pm Public Meeting Fight for the right to fight!

Sheffield centre against unemployment Bridge Street Wednesday 26 October 7.30pm Public Meeting The party of the future The Swiss Cottage Pub Newlands Lincoln

COVENTRY

Monday 10 October 12-2pm Picket Apollo House DHSS office No harassment on the dole Snoopers out, race checks out!

The Butts Tuesday 18 October 7.30pm Public Meeting Lebanon, Nicaragua - imperialism out!

of your copy every month.

Individual subscription rates (for 12 months) • Britain and Ireland £5 Europe £8.50 Middle East and North Africa £10 America, Asia and Southern Africa £12 Australasia £13 Workers Against Racism Defend Afia Begum! ON MONDAY 15 AUGUST a group of Asian women - the Sari Squad - chained themselves to the railings of Home Secretary Leon Brittan's house.

against the threatened deportation of Afia Begum and her baby daughter. Five of them were arrested and bound over to keep the peace for a year to the sum of £1000 each.

The Sari Squad intends to carry on fighting for Afia Begum. More women are needed to involved! Next meetings Friday 7 October and Friday 21 October, 7.30pm County Hall,

BIRMINGHAM

13 October 7.30pm Speaker: Digbeth Civic Hall Digbeth Street Meetings Commonwealth Club Church Street Leamington Spa

MANCHESTER

Picket of Terry Duffy Oldham Public Meeting Women and the cuts Millstone Pub Saturday 29 October campaign motorcade under-Lyne 12am Oldham Market Subscribe to next step the next step is sold on streets, housing estates and in bookshops throughout the country but if you can't get it in your area, use this form to make sure Libraries and institutions please add f5 to the above rates.

They were protesting Come along to the next planning meeting and get Public Meeting plus WAR video No race checks on the dole!

Fran Eden Monday 17 October 9.30am Fight British bosses not foreign imports Industrial Display Centre Thursday 27 October 7.30pm Manchester women's right to work Make the unions fit for women to join Meet 10am Old Town Hall Steps, Ashton- 11am Mossley British Rail

* REP *

delegations 22 November. trip. official trade union movement.

platform by

LONDON

Tuesday 18 October 7.30pm IFM activists group meeting Wheatsheaf Pub Rathbone Place W1

LIVERPOOL

Monday 3 October 7.30pm Public Meeting Hands off Ireland - Hands off the Malvinas!

Dolphin Pub Canning Place Liverpool 1

SOUTH YORKSHIRE

Tuesday 4 October 7.30pm IFM video screening I enclose cheque/postal order for

NAME

ADDRESS.

UNION/ORGANISATION

Irish Freedom Movement Trade union delegation to Ireland The Irish Freedom Movement is organising a series of regional delegations to the Six Counties for British trade unionists who want to stop the war in Ireland.

are intended to give workers in Britain an opportunity to see firsthand what it is like to live under British rule.

meetings with trade union activists and anti-imperialists have been organised.

The next delegation will be taking trade unionists from the Yorkshire area. It leaves England on the evening of Friday 18 November and returns early on Tuesday We would like as many delegates as possible to get sponsorship from their trade union branch. NATHE member and secretary of Middlesborough Trades Council Tom Richardson has already signed himself up for the November As the fraternal delegate from the Trades Council Conference to the TUC Conference in Blackpool, Tom recently had a taste of the difficulties involved in raising the question of Ireland and anti-imperialist politics in general within the TUC stewards for committing the emblazoned with the slogan: 'British troops out of the Malvinas!'

Undeterred by this experience, Tom is convinced that there is a ready audience for anti-imperialist politics within the labour movement: I think the IFM delegation is a great idea. It is an opportunity for those of us who want to do something to end the war in Ireland. It will provide us with the arguments we need to convince other workers here in Britain that they should be supporting the cause of Irish freedom. When I come back I intend to speak at as many trade union branches as possible. I hope that many other workers will seize their chance and come with us."

If you would like to join the delegation, or if your organisation would like a report-back, phone Phil Murphy on 01-274 3951. Further delegations are planned for the West Midlands, the North West and the SouthEast.

write to: IRISH FREEDOM MOVEMENT BM RCP London WCIN 3XX IFM Meetings The longest war Broadway Pub

COVENTRY

The longest war Church Street Leamington Spa I want to subscribe to the next step starting with issue..

(please state issue number you want your subscription to start from (make cheques/postal orders payable to Junius Publications Ltd

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SEND TO: JUNIUS PUBLICATIONS, BCM JP LTD,

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Tel. 01-274 3951 Meetings The Tours of Belfast and Derry and Tom was physically ejected from his seat on the outrage of wearing a t-shirt For further details Hatfield Nr. Doncaster Thursday 27 October 7.30pm IFM video screening Commonwealth Club

BIRMINGHAM

Monday 3 October and Monday 17 October IFM activists group meetings Phone 01-274 3951 for details the next step, October 1983 23

the Irish Freedom LIVERPOOL Irish Freedom Movement's Prevention of make the campaign to unworkable has been Terrorism Act gaining increasing support in the city. On Monday 12 September we went along to lobby the Labour Group of Merseyside County Council to demand its support for the fight to make Liverpool a PTA- Already local Labour MPs free (Garston), Bob Eddie Loyden (Riverside) and Terry Fields (Broad Green) have given their backing.

Liverpool City Council, which has a slim Labour majority, recently opposed two amendments from the Tories and the Liberals which sought to nullify our resolution. Now the focus has shifted to the County Council which has the power to withdraw funding from Merseyside Police.

LONGEST

NEW

The

VIDEO

longestwar Order the new Irish Freedom Movement video on Britain's war in Ireland to show in your trade union branch, youth club or college.

British military and political strategy over the last 14 years. It includes extensive footage of war-torn Derry and Belfast and interviews with republicans and trade union activists in Britain and in Ireland.

Invitations for speakers are welcomed.

35 mins VHS colour, £5 to hire.

Irish Freedom Movement, BM RCP London WIN 3XX or telephone 01-274 3951 next step Fight for rish freedom Smash the PTA!

JIMM

REEC

Movement

LIVERPODL

Supporters of the Irish Freedom Movement in Liverpool: campaigning for an end to state harassment of anti-imperialists Irish Freedom Movement speaker Mick Hume addressed 34 councillors. He gave an account of the campaign's extensive work mobilising labour movement support for victims of the PTA and explained why should they support abolish the Act. After a lively discussion some councillors asked questions about the political implications of the resolution Parry - the withdrawal of funds to the Special Branch - and the effects of the abolition of the Act on the Irish War in Britain.

The meeting eventually decided to reter the decision to the Police Working Group of Merseyside County Labour Party, but 10 councillors signed the petition.

Liverpool IFM is continuing its campaign and will be lobbying the full meeting of the County Council to ensure that the

WAR

The video looks at Write to:

SMASH

LIVERPOOL

PTA-FREE ZONE

action soon. Join us! Tuesday 4 October 1pm our attempts to Liverpool

TRADE UNION BRANCH:

will be used to harass Irish people living in Britain.

against zones in Britain.' Irish Freedom Movement Conference Fighting for freedom Liverpool will also be the venue for this autumn's Irish Freedom Movement Conference on Saturday 26 November. Discussion at the conference will focus around opposition to anti-Irish laws and the use of the legal system to put down resistance to British rule, including the use of paid informers in the Six Counties. Workshops will cover: campaigning against the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, a report-back from the IFM labour movement delegation to the Six Counties and how to establish PTA-free zones. After a social in the evening, accommodation is available for those who want to stay overnight to attend the Sinn Fein Manchester Martyrs' Commemoration March on Sunday 27 November.

There will be transport to the conference from Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Glasgow, Birmingham and Coventry. If you would like to attend, fill in the form opposite.

Smash the Prevention of Terrorism Act!

Geraldine debate continues and that we get some comes. Lobby of Merseyside County Council Make Liverpool a PTA-free zone!

Metropolitan House Old Hall Street House

PASS THE RESOLUTION IN YOUR

'We oppose the Prevention of Terrorism We Bill now tabled before Parliament.

PTA's believe that it is an attempt to suppress opposition to Britain's war in Ireland and and intimidate We support the Irish Freedom Movement's campaign this legislation and for PTA-free The terror continues WITH ONLY a few months remaining of •Prevention life, the Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act is still much in use by the British state. The case of a young Irish couple - Patrick and Lenaghan detained and questioned while holidaying in Blackpool, illustrates its main role.

Throughout the nine years since its by a Labour government, introduction the PTA has been used to harass, intim idate and criminalise Irish people, whether living in or visiting Britain. Its victims now total nearly 5700, of whom more than 200 have been excluded and banned from setting foot in Britain To accommodate criticisms made by civil liberties activists, the government has introduced a Prevention of Terrorism Bill to replace the PTA. The new Bill: lists proscribed organisations, banning the IRA and the INLA prohibits the collecting of money intended for terrorist activity Mallows arrest and detention without charge for periods of up to seven days removes the right of detainees to silence allows exclusion orders from Britain or the United Kingdom' A careful reading of the new Bill reveals that it does not differ substantially from the present legislation. Despite the explicit powers of arrest and detention for 'international terrorists, the new law continues to be anti-Irish because it is from Ireland that the main threat to the British state The Irish Freedom Movement in London will be protesting against the Bill when it comes up for its second reading in the of Commons in November As liberal criticism has grown over the past few years, more and more Labour MPs have been prepared to state their reser vations about the PTA. In every case this has been prompted by concern about the civil liberties infringement of rather than support for the Irish freedom struggle. The parliamentary passage of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill gives Labour MPs the opportunity to make amends for we will their past anti-Irish record be watching closely. I would like to attend the IFM conference in Liverpool on Saturday 26 November. Please send registration details

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CRECHE

ACCOMMODATION

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Return to the Irish Freedom Movement,

BM RCP

London WIN 3XX