The Next Step: No. 44, February 1984

next step Which way against the cuts? review of the Revolutionary Communist Party No 44 February 1984 Industrial action Cuts Privatisation Redundancies → Productivity a- DHA lobby- Closures → Union protest =

TIKT

Organisation = Occupation - Pornography video nasties and the Pill plO 20p

the

NEWS

Racism 2 Poissy strikers speak out 3 Solidarity at Ryton A warning for British workers 'Socialist repatriation' in France British politics Kinnock's first hundred days 5 6 Policing the inner cities Labour movement 7 Shipbuilding: sold down the river 7 Miners divided

FEATURES

Editorial 11 Policing the world Fighting the NHS cuts 12 Tory attacks are crippling the National Health Service. Confidential trade union documents expose union complicity in the cuts. health workers outlines an alternative way to fight. Imperialism and militarism Britain: senile but vicious France: alternative defence Reviews 20 Red Clydeside Labour: looking to the past.

Haughey plays the patriot game 22 Letters 2 the next step, February 1984 next step No. 44 February 1984 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, 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 All cheques payable to Junius Publications. Circulation 01-274 3951.

Correspondence to The Editor, the next step, BCM JPLTD, London WCIN 3XX. ISSN. 0144-350 X February 1984 7 Ford: 'Don't strike now!'

7 Industrial notes Ireland 8 After Harrods: business as usual 9 IRA bombs: the right to fight Women 10 The Pill scare 10 Video nasties Central America Our charter for War in the Middle East 18 Slaughter in the Gulf Bloodbath in Lebanon Poverty and war in Scotland Decline and fall in Russia Civil imperialism in Ireland 23 Activities TAKING CONTROL outlines a strategy for reclaiming our unions and rebuilding them as effective fighting organisations

TAKING CONTROL

A handbook for trade union militants 24 Victory to the people of El Salvador!

JUNIUS

socialist/communist coalition government.

union, the CSL, led the racist scabs.

today. MOHAMMED pointed to a white worker of about sixty with hunched shoulders.

When I got into work yesterday my foreman. I went up to say good morning as usual. He pulled a handful of bolts out of his pocket and began pelting me! from the CSL, the company union'.

Half the black workers at Talbot came to France from Morocco in the sixties to do the dirtiest, worst paid jobs.

bosses sent their Africa to select the best workers.

"They chose men like you would choose They herded us into a hall for donkeys. First the hands, to make sure they tests. were calloused from hard work.

had to show how strong we were.

made you strip and inspected you all over.

They made you build things with bits of metal and bolts. later, *A few weeks They gave me a one-way ticket.

Casablanca. After two and a half days I reached Poissy. I was taken to the dormitories where we all lived - tiny rooms with tlimsy partition walls. "The pay was terrible. Barely 40 francs a month more than I was getting in phosphate mines. away. But I couldn't afford a ticket.

At the time Poissy was little more than a village. The car plant has been owned by Ford, Fiat, Simca and Chrysler.

took over in 1978 and began manufacturing under the Talbot name. *When you started work you were given your CSL card. Everyone had to join. port. you had to vote for it. If you married and needed new accommodation, you had to show your CSL card - and buy bottles of Pernod for your CSL steward.

*Even the Moroccan social organisation was controlled by the CSL!

munist CGT union began to recruit secretly in the plant in 1979. worker of being involved it would hide car parts in his bag and he would be arrested for theft at the gate and sacked.

until June 1982 when everything exploded."

Lahcen explained what happened.

'One day a sacked Moroccan worker was selling mint tea in the parking lot.

thugs moved in and beat him up.

militants, about a hundred of them, respon ded by going on to the floor of the factory with a banner. fire extinguishers and hoses with clubs, squirting a mixture of hot water and white Black workers went to the defence of spirit.

CGT.

The CT then called a strike the which lasted a month. As a result it won recognition." and black workers united So white against the CSL? "In a way. We wanted to break the CSL and some of the white workers did too. But Noth Violence erupted between French and immigrant workers at Peugeot- Citroen's Talbot car factory in Poissy, near Paris, in early January.

company's plans to get rid of 2000 unskilled, mainly immigrant workers provoked a strike and occupation before Christmas.

commando squad, of company scabs and fascists attacked immigrant workers occupying the factory. Riot police finished the job.

Peugeot's redundancy plans won full backing from Francois Mitterand's Communist Party sponsored CT and the Socialist Party sponsored CFDT - have generally collaborated closely with the Government.

however, while the CT went along with the redundancies, the CFDT tried to outflank its rival by siding with immigrant workers. Peugeot's company Immigrant workers from the factory told their story to Gareth Evans, as we report below. Opposite we look at the implications of Poissy for the British labour movement. On page four, we look at the background to the strike and examine how racism has become such a potent force in France "That's we'd had in 20 years. He had his orders lose. get double that. The industrial are united. recruiting sergeants to the

CSL

- he was one of them. Then we took up the story They shopfloor workers. grants. factory on 7 December in more

CICSES

redundancies. them physically. riot police to arrive. the I wanted to leave right workers. redundancies. Peugeot side.' I didn't say that. That was the Talbot pass- Poissy. Not only join,

CGT.

people have of us.' The com- If the CSL suspected a shop. This went on all over Paris. 300 kilometres away. The CGT evacate s the riot police? And the day after? The CSL attacked them 3000 of them. didn't go." Africa. repatriation? The In early January a The main trade unions - the At Poissy, the white cégétistes were as racist towards us as ever. We just seized our chance — the first *The majority of the CT in the factory and all the leaders are white, though there are some black delegates. They have a lot to We get 3500 francs or so a month (£300) - even the white shopfloor members "And don't imagine that all the immigrants There are still a lot of Arabs in The man in the photograph holding a pistol which was in all the papers How had the present strike begun? Ali "The company wanted to get rid of 2900 Nearly all were immig Some black workers occupied the and the socialist CFDT union called a strike.

*The CT was never really against the On 26 December they allowed cars out of the plant and we attacked Two days later they marched in Paris calling for negotiations while we were in the factory waiting for the On the day the riot police were sent in, the CGT attacked the CFDT for refusing entry to maintenance The CFDT kept calling for no It's hardly surprising black workers went over from the CGI to their So the CFDT is a better union?

The CT got in first at The CFDT had to run to catch up

CFDT

They both manipulate us. The wanted a strike so it could win support from They both want to dirty the image What happened on 5 January?

"There had been fighting in the plant the day before. Management staff had used tear gas to try to stop us getting into the paint We drove them off and smashed our way past the CGT officials.

"The next morning we found all the white workers tooled up and waiting for us.

There were scabs there who came from car plants Even from Rennes, more than We barricaded our selves in workshop B3, the assembly plant.

The company refused to bring in coaches to In the end the CFDT called in The mayor of Poissy closed the town down for the afternoon and the CSL, the shopkeepers and the fascists demonstrated.

The unions kept well away.

The CT marched in the centre of Paris.

We During the strike the unions demanded money for sacked workers to go back to Did black workers really call for

ing to lose 'For me there is no going back.

been here the best part of 20 years. But yes, there are a few who would go back if they were given 200 000 francs.

and you lose your job you will never get But there are more than four another one. million foreign workers in France.

can't all go back. politicians are playing on people's despair."

What will happen now? "They will start taking people back a few

PEVGEOT

CAR WORKERS

WORKERS

AGAINST

RACISM

Bosses' gunman: the British media portrayed this armed CSL scab as a striker at a time. I have 'We are only workers. about polities. If you are black wreckers and worse. respected as workers. They backs. But The unions and the except fight?' Building solidarity for the Poissy strikers. French fellow workers. our jobs. fight redundancies here. in Coventry. organising speakers, Poissy workers. motion. This branch/organisation at Poissy strikers Peugeot's at Poissy plant @resolves The CFDT won't fight any more.

We know nothing People call us delinquents, We just want to be This town was nothing when we came here. It has been built on our now the Government, the unions, the ordinary people, the fascists they just want to spit us out. What can we do At Peugeot's Talbot plant in Ryton, Coventry Workers Against Racism mobilised opposition to the bosses and support Ryton workers condemned their union's offer to scab on *They love to go on about the French, or whoever, taking But they never lift a finger to We made our protests outside the TGWU headquarters WAR has been touring the car plants, with eye-witness and building support for the Many labour movement bodies have already passed our solidarity Join us - raise it in your trade •condemns the attacks on immigrant workers at the Peugeot-Citroen car plant •declares its solidarity with the Poissy •deplores the offer by a TGWU official Talbot plant at Ryton, Coventry, to take on the work of the •urges the TGWU leadership to instruct its members not to handle Poissy work invite a speaker from LU Workers Against Racism for an eye-witness account of recent events at Poissy.

The strike at Poissy is a warning to the British labour movement of the way racial divisions undermine workers' struggles.

Fox, the TGWU convenor at Peugeot's Talbot plant at Ryton, near Coventry, said he very glad that those type of scenes was are not repeated in the United Kingdom.

But Fox's response to the Poissy strike confirmed that national and racial divisions are a potent force in the British labour movement.

Only 24 hours after the Poissy strikers had been smashed by company scabs, Pat Fox complained that the strike was threatening British workers jobs.

The Talbot car assembly plant at Ryton is a subsidiary of Peugeot-Citroen.

is dependent upon the Poissy works for 90 per cent of its body pressings.

supplies were cut off during the strike, and 1400 workers from Ryton's 3000 strong workforce faced lay-offs.

the Poissy strikers and offered to take on the work from France: We know we could accommodate it and we would be quite prepared to do so."

Rather than offer to help the Poissy strikers arguing for strike action or blacking at by Talbot, Fox offered to help Peugeot-Citroen smash the strike. The Peugeot workers in France were not the only victims of Fox's chauvinist scabbing.

He was also prepared to sell out the 3000 workers at Ryton. Peugeot-Citroen wants to get rid of 7500 jobs in France.

settle for less if it could sell Talbot's Spanish and British operations. future depends its assembling the new Peugeot 205 model.

Rather than try to unite workers to fight the employers' threat to jobs, TGWU want an alliance with the bosses: We are calling on the company to restore the faith of the people in Ryton with new investment and a new model." This strategy - of uniting with the bosses to demand new investment - has proved fatal Warning signals years. Pat forerunner, government, The BL halved. The factory and These vital for the industry. Fox denounced ability. seek to unite foreign cars. another. workers. But it might British Talbot's Ryton factory unity in the fight for jobs.

Fox and the repeat challenging the union leaders. workers, expense of the bosses Heat and dust: black workers occupy the dirtiest, worst paid jobs in the foundries for thousands of car workers in the last 10 A recent TUC study concluded that past attempts at collaboration between the unions and the state to protect the motor industry 'have not worked well in practice'.

In fact, the Ryder plan for British Leyland, and the planning agreement between Talbot's Chrysler. and the last Labour worked disastrously. Ryton workers need no reminding that the Chrysler deal led to an 80 percent job loss at Talbot workforce has been more than But the union bureaucrats have learned nothing from the last 10 years.

The TUC report ends by calling for import controls immediate recovery programme Uniting with the bosses to safeguard the future of the industry can only mean workers paying the price, in redundancies and rationalisations, for restoring profit- Trade union demands for import controls workers and bosses against The call for import controls ties workers to their own bosses and divides car workers of different countries from one British union officials like Pat Fox urge their members to save their jobs at the expense of foreign workers. Taken one step further, this nationalist outlook labels all foreigners as a threat to the jobs of British The British car industry provides a good example of how nationalism is trans- The lated into racism on the shopfloor.

unions' failure to challenge the ghettoisation of blacks in the worst, lowest paid jobs has fostered divisions between black and white workers and undermined the potential for Poissy highlighted the dangers of racial divisions in the working class.

To avoid a performance in Britain means chauvinist outlook of our all means defending black and white not at the of foreign workers, but the the next step, February 1984 3

Racism THE MITTERAND government began its life committed to the rationalisation of French capitalism and intervention in welfare provision.

his May 1981 victory Mitterand paid off some of his debts to his working class He shortened the working supporters. week, extended holidays to five weeks and raised the minimum wage.

the Socialist government is still committed to restoring French capitalism, but it has abandoned the implementing social reforms.

and his colleagues know that restructuring and reforms do not go together.

the the On contrary, realism dictates economic programme or wage and tax increases. The right on top Government's harsh The measures have demoralised large sections of its working class base. For the last six months unemployment has been rising by 30000 a month and is accelerating fast.

The Government has employers® rationalisation Laurent Industry

HENNECT

given his backing to a restructuring plan which will cost over 200000 jobs over the next year. The steel industry 35 000, 20 000, lose coal 12 000, Peugeot 11000, and construction 100 000.

The unpopularity of the Government's rationalisation measures has enabled the right-wing political parties to go on to the offensive. The right manipulated the fear and frustration born of economic insecurity in its campaign of law and order and extreme nationalism.

The Mitterand regime has not had the courage to fight the right's strident anti- The immigrant campaign. simply protested that the left were the real patriots and ignored the right's racist offensive. With every retreat by the lett, the far right took became bolder. decades the fascists began to win seats in local council elections. Racism is now at the centre of French In the municipal elections last politics. spring the Communist Party (PCF) lost 15 towns and the Socialist Party (PS) 16 to the right. In most cases, racism was the dominant issue. Tourcoing, Poissy and Roubaix with large immigrant populations, 'security' eclipsed all other issues. administrations of Roubaix and 17 other have set up 'councils for the towns prevention of delinquency' with teams of citizen vigilantes patrolling by day CRS riot police by night.

Since the spring the extreme right has organised around a new party called the National Front. In September it won 16 per cent of the vote in Dreux and is now in charge of public security (see the next step, no 40). since, the Communist/Socialist coalition has lost control in four more towns of than 30 000 people, Front National continuing significant gains. town on the outskirts of Paris with a large Citroen and plant the population, communist control after 18 years. 4 the next step, February 1984 The left crumbles political opponents. increased state After to combat it. alism. The been always Today,

SAMS D

pressures. of the French working class.

Pretence Mitterand Government's harsh and cuts, redundancies labour advantage. ing its workforce. austerity company the pean Plaits accepted the programme. Fabius has been militant. shipyards Renault 8000, Flins and Citroen has cleverly The Government We CenTal Test through its Government itional a step forward and For the first time in Jack Ralite private talks with announced which human face. In towns like Since the elections the cies and to the working class. During In council by-elections considerable with the to make At Aulnay-sous-Bois, a large black Party lost The Government recognises that the growth of racism can only strengthen its Yet it is powerless defence of French imperialism paves the way for more extreme forms of nation- Government's policy has concessions to make But the right-wing offensive is not directed simply against the Government. Above all, it is aimed at Racism not only distracts attention from the real problems facing the working class.

fragments the working class.

The events at Poissy highlighted the way that racism influences the relationship between wagecapital, the bosses' In recent years Peugeot-Citroen has proved remarkably successful in disciplin- In the last four years managed push has through 65 000 redundancies in its Euro- 9000 of them at Poissy. Peugeot has launched a new restructuring programme to reduce the workforce at Poissy and its other plants by half.

Resistance to the employers' offensive in the car plants of the Paris basin has During the last two years pitched battles have been fought between strikers, scabs and riot police at Renault Aulnay. Unskilled, immigrant workers have led the fightback.

They are the main threat to the successful implementation of the present round of redundancies in the car industry.

The Peugeot saga has come to see the current Peugeot redundancy package as ability to carry ot its restructuring programme. This is ironical in view of the left's tradantipathy for this secretive, family-controlled firm which has fought to keep unions out of its plants. Nevertheless, communist employment minister emerged triumphant from the company on 17 December. He had reduced by 1000 the original redundancy figure of 2900 and agreement' an included schemes for retraining and redeployment - redundancy with a The Government's restructuring plans created major problems for the CGT and CFDT, the left-wing union confederations sponsored by the Communist and Socialist Parties.

The unions between support for the Government and fear that the redundanwould isolate them from the rank and file and lose them members. For the past two years the unions have been supporting strikes in the car plants while selling Mitterand's austerity programme the past two years communist CT has managed to recruit numbers of immigrant workers at the expense of the CSL, the When company sponsored scab union.

the strike broke out at Poissy the CGT represented 42 per cent of the workforce.

Confident that it could deliver up its members, the CT accepted the need for redundancies. The CGT emerged as the strongest supporter of the Government negotiated package to end the strike.

restricted its opposition to complaints that it had been excluded from the negot- Throughout iations. Stalinist dominated union fought for a to work and bamed

ECLULLE

agitators for the unrest.

The socialist CFDT was in a different position. It has also with the associated But it has managed to maintain policies. organisational distance more Socialist Party than has the CGT from the Communist Party. only eight per cent of the vote at the last elections and has been losing ground to right-wing union federation the Ouvriere. Local CFDT officials therefore seized on the December strike opportunity to make gains at the CGT's This brought the CFDT into expense. sharp conflict with its own supporters in the Government. of fellow socialist Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy, ' when he says shit is jam everyone gets excited and says yes, it's jam (Liberation, 7 January). The CFDT's call for no redundancies was mere posturing. for immigrant support threatened with organised violence, After

CFDT

retreated. invaded the plant on 30 December the CFDT asked Peugeot to lay off the 1905 workers while negotiations took place.

After violent clashes CFDT official Jean Pierre Noual local stated that the lay-offs should continue for three months while

LES

ARABES

ДЕНОКЗ

PLANTL

'Send them back' has become the rallying cry of French bosses, desperate solve the problems industry. All shades have come out in favour of opinion repatriation for immigrant Myriad reports and stories have been published stressing the inability of the immigrant worker to adapt to new circumstances. be 'retrained', the argument goes, it is only humane to send them back to their own environment. wing paper Le Figaro put it more bluntly. It noted that the demand for voluntary repatriation Fighting immigrants instead of bosses: French car workers at Poissy the strike the 6 January). outside the Government. closely been Government's from the The immigrant fought alone. At Poissy it received and thereby against all Force as an The solution One union official said the employers. right with legitimacy. Rather than mobilise not only workers the riot police defence working class. urgent for in early January the fight for survival for terms Socialist repatriation AH! ENFiN

UN PROGRAMME

POLiTIQUE. 'Arabs out!' 'A political programme at last!' (Le Monde) considerable of French 1983). of political behind Poissy, Le workers. Since Africans cannot The rightpreparing a more riation package. 'could have voluntary repatriation are discussed, and other measures for the social treatment of the surplus workers are taken' (Le Monde.

The CFDT distinguished itself by demanding more generous repatriation payments than those offered by In effect, the Peugeot bosses were given the green light to carry on with their redundancy programme.

A bitter blow workforce at Poissy The union leaders ensured that immigrant workers remained isolated blow intlicted a terrible workers in the car industry.

Ten days after the fighting had subsided, Prime Minister Mauroy was in Senegal, offering to assist Senegalese workers at Poissy to return home if they wished' 'socialist repatriation' of worked out at Poissy provides a precedent for dealing with millions of other immigrant workers in the future.

It divides the working class and strengthens the hand of 'Socialist repatriation' endows the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the What is at issue is the plight of millions of immigrant workers, but the future of the French working class. Immigrant workers have shown that they hold the key to the of the whole of the French Never before has it been French •cias: Conscious workers to break with their old organisations and join with immigrant workers in Gareth Evans consequences when the inevitable redundancies arrive in the shipyards, steel and coal' (28 December The liberal press is not far The day after the riots at Monde carried an article calling on the Government to close the doors to Pakistanis, Turks and other "so called political refugees. It advised government ministers to pay a visit to the Paris metro to see the problem at first hand. The left has feebly protested at the cruder racist proposals whilst acceptable repat-

Kinnock's first hundred days Neil Kinnock took over the leadership of the Labour Party last October. After the party's biggest electoral catastrophe in modern history, As the Tories have squabbled forward. and the Alliance has faded, ratings have slowly improved.

has Kinnock himself done to reshape the party's future? As John Dowling reports, it still looks very much like the Labour Party of the past. Forward march with the upwardly mobile On the eve of his election Kinnock joined Eurocommunist historian Professor Eric Hobsbawm on a fringe meeting platform.

Kinnock endorsed the Professor's fashionthat a home-owning, videowatching, high-spending proletariat had deserted the party sons of toil like Foot and Benn, Hattersley and Healey. The only way forward lay, if not through an immediate alliance with the Alliance, then at least direct appeal to the narrow self interest of the middle classes. have since guided him towards a policy of council house sales and a breezy image calculated to appeal to the mobile' petit-bourgeois. of the working class meanwhile continues its down ward

TOCHCHIL

burden of mass unemployment.

Farewell Bruce and Joan On his first day as leader of 'talking left, policy right landed him in the sea on Brighton beach. Ably rescued by Glenys, Kinnock's footwork soon grew Later that day he proclaimed more adept. his quarter century in CND as a suitable qualification for urging Labour's national executive to abandon its vote losing commitment to unilateral nuclear disarm- Under Kinnock the Labour Party has swung away from the unilateralism of

CND

towards a policy Britain's capacity to devastate its enemies.

Kinnock dislikes Cruise and Trident, but wants to hang on to Polaris as a nuclear with which to intimidate the weapon Russians. Hospital unity campaign Kinnock's first speech pledged to unite the Labour Party, and the nation, in a patriotic campaign to save the National Six Health Service. Labour Party acquired a second hand ambulance in which to tour the hospitals.

With Kinnock at the wheel outside the Walworth Road HQ, campaign began. North East it broke (Kinnock was later photographed on a milk float, but that was in a campaign against foreign French UHT milk).

NHS campaign does provide a focus for party activists but has little appeal among NHS workers who remember the cuts and closures of the last Labour government.

Kinnock could only go Labour's But what of horny-handed through a Kinnock's advisers upwardly The mass under the Kinnock's while walking the dutiful Machine Politics Four Channel Tracey Ullman that ensures Labour Party policy. politicians. Labour politicians. Labour's look like a structure rather than for speed. weeks later the Labour's

NHS

On its first trip to the down at Rugby. expulsion the The Ali. field for big business, The same old song: Neil and Glenys Kinnock The first decisive act of Kinnock's new Brian was to rescue him from Walden's probing style of political interon Weekend World and fix him up instead on the trivial late night chat show Loose Talk Kinnock didn't fit in much better with and Townshend Pete but at least nobody asked him about To cope with any future embarrassment of this sort Kinnock has recruited a personal palace guard composed largely of yesterday's student Meanwhile real power in matters of policy stayed with the Shadow Cabinet, composed largely of yesterday's Still desperate for parliamentary influence, the union leaders backed the formation of a new committee designed to run election campaigns.

But committees still built for safety Tariq out - and Tony too?

Kinnock has remained consistent in his commitment to make the Labour Party acceptable to the gutter press.

He backed of Militant's leaders demanded by Fleet Street and personally insisted on kicking out the harmless Tariq When Eric Varley deserted Chester- Kinnock let it be known that he was none too keen to see Tony Benn back at Westminster.

Kinnock machine lobbied first for Joan then for a local candidate, then Lestor, for Phillip Whitehead, but will now have to live with the lost leader of the hard left.

However Benn's diplomatic through the NGA print workers dispute and other important issues show that he will serve Kinnock's project of putting the interests of the Labour Party before the interests of the working class.

while Kinnock has Golding (removed from Labour's national executive by his own union, the POEU, for his witch-hunting activities), to the Parliamentary front bench.

Britain's Reagan In a little noticed speech on economic Kinnock policy acclaimed retreat from monetarism. He propounded Reagan's policies of monetary targets, cutting interest rates, increasing public spending and holding down taxation. Labour government of the future would mobilise capital as it has never been mobilised in peacetime Britain'.

not point out that Reagan's economic expansion is based on rearmament and preparation But Kinnock's perception that a war would provide the ideal conditions for introducing Labour's alternative strategy. New statesman He

WCTU

icanism. and to return stolen marbles. chauvinism continental party. Question time colleagues. been savagely a bored Speaker. silent. graph light weight' Cruising Although The speech than at the end. silence nothing enthusiasm waned. Cruise. Meanalternative fighting promoted John No support for strikers When the defence sat silent. middle class their rights. Reagan's relinquishing Kinnock declared that a He did welcome the economic British politics Now that Labour has realised that there is no future for British capitalism outside the EEC and abandoned its withdrawal policy, Kinnock has become a European Brussels to attend the Socialist International, where he swapped traditional British anti-European chauvinism for traditional European anti-Amer- Then he went to Paris, where he tried to rescue kidnapped lorry drivers where he promised to And now he's off to the USA to meet the butt of Euro- Ronald Reagan. With the Euroelections coming up in June Kinnock is enthusiastic to promote Labour as a Kinnock's long-winded questions in the House of Commons have become a bit of an embarrassment to his parliamentary His garrulous attempts to assert authority at the despatch box have treated by the Prime Minister and have even been curtailed by When big issues intrude Labour's big guns leave poor Kinnock On Grenada and Lebanon Healey did the talking while on home affairs Hattersley is the heavyweight On the national stage Kinnock has established a firm reputation as what the Daily Telesummed up as an irredeemable longer a unilateralist, no Kinnock was there on the CND platform on 22 October at the close of the massive Yet he won national demonstration. more applause at the beginning of his People wanted a lead from the Labour leader, but hearing but the old platitudes. their Kinnock launched 1984 with a pledge to campaign against But a party that is putting most of its policy emphasis into the search for methods of (non-nuclear) wars carries little appeal for people who really want to stop war.

NGA printers fought running picket line battles in November outside Warrington firm that has victimised union members and tried to use the courts and the police to crush the union, they did so without the backing of the Labour leader. When the law blocked the of jobs and conditions, the Labour leadership upheld the rule of law While the Tories drove a coach and horses through a century of union rights, Kinnock Kinnock wants to restore Labour's appeal to middle of the road hostile people who are to trade unionists who fight to defend Kinnock wants to rebuild Party as Harold Wilson's And that natural party of government.

always was useless to the working class the next step, February 1984 5

Policing the inner cities Racism 1 freely admit that I hate, loathe and I can't stand them. despise niggers. don't let it affect my job though. This is what one police officer told researchers from the Policy Studies Institute which published its four volume report, Police and people in London, towards the end The report revealed the of last year. extent of racist and anti working class prejudice in the police force.

findings solicited only praise and a few mild remonstrances from the establishment and the media. explains why. METROPOLITAN police commander Sir Kenneth Newman's TeS DOISC report - commissioned by his predecessor Sir David McNee in 1979 - was cool but Despite unembarrassed. exposure of police bigotry and corruption, Newman insisted that the survey did not reflect a 'crisis of confidence in the police'.

Newman observed that only one group demonstrated extreme antipathy to the - black youth. police stands low key response contrast to the defensive outbursts that characterised the police response to less damning criticisms two years ago.

difference between then and now is that two summers have passed without riots.

The establishment is confident that the forces of law and Britain's hand upper ghettoes. Fissile material' The authorities may be more sanguine about their ability But their leading spokesmen unrest. prefer to err on the side of caution.

The Times reflected, 'plenty of fissile material remains on the inner-city streets'.

The PSI report underlines the continuing social stability from volatile black youth. reading for it confirms that the race issue lies at the heart of policing strategy today.

In many ways, the report is an establishment success story. It shows that half the battle has been won through the creation of a consensus in favour of law and order.

But the PSI report also reveals that: • relations between young West Indians and the police are 'disastrous' 6 the next step, February 1984 and 'human Bramshill. are illuminating: Yet its •Fight racism Joan Phillips to the its graphic Scotland Yard's on people in custody marked •the in with young blacks. The aneganon: order have got the inner-city social contain with deal disorder. with plastic bullets, anti-mugging The report is well worth rebellious tives and isolate the apotheosis in its capital. Helping police with their enquiries: consultation exercises cover up police terror Senior police chiefs have made much of new 'multicultural' courses awareness' ABC of policing 'You must brief your constables: they must not say "Look at those monkeys!"

even if they may think they look like that jumping up and down.

to spoil everything with stupid remarks' Police - community dialogue - smash a nigger in the gob today' Q: 'What's a racist? A: Someone who hates niggers more than is necessary' 'How many of these niggers actually fried in this barbecue at Deptford then?'

Criteria for a stop *Well, the one that you stop is often wearing a woolly hat, he is dark in complexion, he has thick lips and he usually has dark, fuzzy hair' •a majority of black youth accuse the police of using threatening and unreasonexcessive able pressure in questioning, force on arrest, and unjustifiable violence police habitually exceed their powers of stop and search, particularly Police and media alike brushed aside sexism, of police racism. corruption and drunkenness. They arguedthat the report was not just a reasoned call for change, but 'part of a process of change already under way' The reason for this display of ruling class confidence is the success of its postriot prescription for ensuring social peace.

In the aftermath of the riots the ruling class pursued a two-pronged strategy to of outbreaks any First, the police were tooled up Cs gas, not water cannon and Instant Response Units.

This response was legitimised by sustained labelled which my stelld criminals. black youth as Second, the state promoted an elaborate machinery of consultation and liaison to incorporate a layer of black representatroublemakers'. Today, this strategy is steadily reaching Kenneth Newman's "multi-agency' approach to policing the A former head of the Met's Community training at the police training school at The results, documented by the Policy Studies Institute, Relations Branch and the national Police Bramshill, Staff College at acclaimed as the thinking man's policeman. In a television interview about the PSI report Newman declared that racism in the police force would not be tolerated.

Newman recognises that he is dealing with a long-term ghettoes, that blacks are here to stay and that the situation must be contained at a respectable level of violence.

that integrating a appreciates section of the black community society is no longer a for decaying British capitalism.

he has set out to marginalise and isolate black youth by cohering a broad law and order consensus. Social control In Autumn 1981, the Senior Command course at Bramshill adopted a new prog- Policing Inner Senior officers were sent to 'ethnic flashpoints' in Hackney, Manchester and other urban centres. agencies involved in social control to the side of law and order. long been advocated by At community policing Foundation conference in 1977 former Chief Constable for Devon and Cornwall summarised John Alderson approach: Whereas preventive policing tends to put the system on the defensive, pro-active policing sets out to penetrate the community in a multitude of ways. It seeks to reinforce social discipline and mutual trust...it strives to activate all possible resources in support of the common good. acknowledges that the police Newman are not really concerned with preventing crime, but with maintaining social peace: 'It would be better if we stopped talking about crime prevention and lifted the whole thing to a higher level of generality represented by the words "social control": In line with this approach, departmental working group was set up in Whitehall early in 1983 senior officers from the Department of the Environment, the Department of Employment, chaired by Under-Secretary the Permanent Home Office Sir Brian Cubbon.

was to harness the work of the different towards departments approach to combatting crime.

approach focused primarily on the police and local government. ments were to be tapped as rich sources of information At the same time, Newman was pioncorporate eering his management. components: ity consultative committees 'as a vehicle for directing the overall strategy, the cooperation of police, public and local agencies in locations' (ie black ghettoes), and the and intelligence gathering.

Hart Jim these elements. We don't want the Under together, 1983. the cornerstone of the crime prevention the of crime. of a local "block leader".

Newman is problem in the black Newman sizeable into viable option Hence, Police commander Newman Cities' (PIC). the people. The aim was to co-opt all preventing This approach had champions of Ditchley formal Neighbourhood Newman's youth In many housing the police, such as Hackney police to surveillance purposes. been inter- It included schemes

DHSS,

and the at the black youth. *multi-agency The new Council depart- Policy style of police people in London. This has three essential of Londoners, the use of police/commun Volume 2, £5.50 jointly tackling high crime systematic use of surveillance, targetting In summer Newman got together with prominent police strategists, sociologist lan Becket and resource managerial expert Scotland Yard, from formulate a new scheme which unites all Accountable to the police Let's beat crime slogan Watch Neighbourhood introduced across London in September Neighbourhood Watch has been Detroit police crusade in the black ghettoes since 1976 and now involves Essentially, more than 4000 block clubs.

is to involve aim of the scheme the public in the prevention and detection Residents act as the 'eyes and ears' of the police under the coordination Neighbourhood Watch is at the centre of Newman's attempts to establish a new social contract between the police and The public, he has argued.

has an obligation to help the police in Workers in local CLIe government and other agencies have an additional responsibility 'over and above their responsibility as citizens.

This spy network has already been established in many areas in London, often without a Watch scheme. Youth workers in Hillingdon are under instructions to cooperate with the police.

Any information about crime must be passed to the police. Job descriptions for workers have included the obligation to report back on young people's activities, and to liaise with the police.

areas contacts between the police and local authorities are traditional and extensive, particularly and Names addresses of tenants are regularly given to , and left-wing Labour councils frequently allow the for council property use Newman has alsc crime crusade his assisted in by Labour councils like Southwark and Camden which have given full backing to police liaison and alternative crime watch The Labour left's acceptance of the need for effective policing has made it easier for the police to win approval for their schemes to criminalise and isolate The left drew the conclusion from the PSI report that police accountability is an urgent necessity if the police Our conare to salvage their reputation.

clusion is that building a working class movement to combat police repression and the state's law and order offensive must be a priority in 1984.

Police and Institute, studies Volume 1, A survey £6.50 David J Smith, young black A group of people, Stephen Small, £4.00. Volume 3, A survey of police officers, David J Smith, Volume 4, The police in action, David I Smith and Jeremy Gray, £6.50.

Delays and divisions Workers' livelihoods are at stake in disputes in shipbuilding, mining and the motor industry. delaying and divisive tactics of their are a barrier to effective leaders industrial action. Last month union leaders called off a national shipbuilding strike only hours before it was due to start. The strike was called in December, under pressure from workers determined to file rank and fight British Shipbuilders moves for a major jobs shakeout, and its derisory £7 The union sell-out has left the pay offer. 60 000 shipyard workers demoralised. Rather than rally workers in opposition to all redundancies as yard closures loom, the unions are leading down the their members disaster. The shipbuilding struggling to keep afloat in the face of worldwide competition and a merciless shipping slump. launched its 'survival plan'. The new ninepoint productivity plan is jack up working practices to the efficiency levels of the Scandinavians and the Dutch.

The response of the 14-union Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions to the BS plan was to go along with it in the interests of the industry.

As senior union negotiator Jim put it, 'we are the first to recognise that change is necessary. was selling the proposals to the workforce.

mass meetings in the shipyards, At workers voted to reject the BS deal and all-out action. TaKe responded by calling ballot after ballot.

In a cynical gesture calculated to undermine the workers' militancy, the unions postponed strike action Most workers saw this for what it was — delaying device to give the unions time to negotiate a compromise. When the union negotiators emerged from the Acas offices, workers learnt that the strike was off and the productivity 'under proposals were Scott-Lithgow union McNeil said we will sign any bloody thing' as long as BS guarantees the future of the yard. By backing unions had signed away the future of their members. The miners' overtime ban has lasted three National Coal Board chairman months. Ian MacGregor says it could last another 20 years and not harm the economy.

Despite their support for the ban, most miners recognise that the damage it is causing the coal board is minimal.

the end of year revolt by North Staffordshire pit winders damage it has inflicted on miners' unity is considerable. In late October the NUM executive imposed a national ban on overtime in response to the coal board's 5.2 per cent pay offer. National Union Arthur workers' president contested the NCB's claims that the ban has only cost 3.6 million tonnes in lost production. Few million Scargill's calculations. scarcely dented Indeed, it has allowed him to bolster his position by sustaining an aura of confrontation with the NCB. overtime ban is an excuse for not fighting.

An all-out strike would have been a far more effective response to the NCB's pay offer than the ultimately demoralising tactics.

In late December, 40 North Staffordshire pit winders triggered off a split in But the divided and to slipway is corporation In August last year BS of the December. designed roach is needed. supporters it with shipyard workers.

Murray The only problem The

EUROSS

for a month. discussion'. Ronnie down the Once described by the Miners divided working, strike against the ban. Dul, di demonstrated, the earnings. in overtime. Media of Mine- Scargill has scabbing. miners He puts the losses at 5.5 believe miners Yet the ban has were prepared to scab. Scargill's credibility. the members. In reality, the splits NUM's ineffective and winders - Scott Kingston Looking for action: shipbuilding workers on the Lower Clyde are ready to fight to save jobs Scottish National Party as 'the jewel in the crown of Scottish shipbuilding, the Scott-Lithgow yard is facing closure and 400 redundancies, following cancellation £88 million Britoil contract in To fight for jobs and win, a new app- In the Lower Clyde, RCP and argued for went

OUL

We argued that

L2I8 DHY

the union when they voted to defy the overtime ban from 7 January. When the winders attempted to resume overtime most were stopped by pickets.

The winders were then suspended from the NUM after they staged a one-day The pit winders' defiance was prompted by a big loss in who control the The winders, pit shafts, usually earn up to £120 a week pit exploit the attempts Claims that winders' rebellion backfired.

the overtime ban was crumbling were not reflected in support for the pit winders' Sunday Times survey revealed overwhelming opposition among Whatever the revolt. reservations they might have about the impact of the overtime ban, most miners outraged that the winders were The Staffordshire rebellion confirmed defend its union's inability Instead of uniting miners for strike action in defence of jobs and living standards, the overtime ban has led to And while and demoralisation. Scargill talks, the pit closures go on. The miners were clear in their response to the but they have yet to deal with the real betrayers in the NUM leadership.

Lithgow Shinyard the most important lesson of the last seven years is that union collaboration with BS management has won us nothing.

We got a positive response from many workers who are convinced that there is no alternative but to fight back.

McLean, plater at Scott-Lithgow, told us: 'BS are saying that if we go on strike its suicide. But if we don't go on strike it's suicide too. 'Don't strike now!' Farewell Ron Todd!: bureauerats leave to campaign against imports, workers stay to face the bosses On 18 January at 2 pm the Thames Foundry canteen at plant began to fill up. to hear how the unions were going to fight the planned closure of the foundry in April 1985. TGWU chief negotiator Ron pointed. Todd did not offer to lead a fight for Instead, he proposed a campaign to jobs. black foreign imports. Dagenham workers, but Ford foreign imports, their union leaders. Dagenham has lost 7000 jobs since The foundry workforce has been 1979. With halved. have blamed foreign unions foreign imports and lack of Government investment, Now they are denouncing the Germans for Ford's decision to close the foundry and import engine castings from Cologne.

Todd's call for strike month on from the news of the closure was a cynical attempt to demoralise the foundry workers. strike a month in advance intends that it should never take place. is a recipe for disaster.

call for import controls links workers with Ford Uk bosses foreign workers, when our unions should be uniting workers against the bosses.

Ford workers who want to fight for their jobs must reject these divisive tactics and unite to organise an all-out strike.

trade unions interests. aims of trade unionism. challenging any employers Ronnie unions resolve conflicts.

Shah's soon as play, defeat. Liverpool RCP important strike by 400 attempted in crease tion. Ford's Dagenham Workers had come union. They were to be disap The obscure The problem for latest pay offer, however, is not bosses and the every redundancy, workers, for destroying British jobs.

While Peter action one Todd, Anybody who calls a 48, Todd's delaying His left. British against briefing letters. Labour movement Bits and pieces TUC reveals all Most workers believe that the object of workers' is to defend Not so according to the TUC document Launching their new policy Strategy for the future, the trade union leaders provided a novel definition of the They are to reassert the value of trade unionism, doubts held by workers, public at large in the and une changed economic and political climate, about the positive role of unions in resolving the inevitable conflicts df interest at work in order to maximise social and economic gains."

It's official - workers fight employers, NGA bows out, NUJ kicked out On 18 January the National Graphical Association admitted defeat and officially ended its closed shop dispute with Eddie Group. Newspaper Messenger Within hours Shah had sent dismissal notices to seven NUJ members who had been refusing to cross the NGA picket.

The fate of the seven journalists is a grim reminder that if you give the bosses an inch they will exploit it to the full.

they pleaded with Shah for compromise and appealed to him for fair conceded the NGA leaders had Fightback at Scott's supporters have been picketing and mobilising support for an workers at the Thomas Scott & Sons bakery. Scott's is owned by Allied Bakeries, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods. In early January the workers walked out when management and sack the length of shifts. Workers occupied to close down the bakery, but were later ousted by a High Court injunc- The 24-hour pickets are continuing The and no bread is being produced.

workers are confident of victory, despite the lack of enthusiasm from the bakery workers recently received an union from bakery message general secretary Joe Marino saying only 'No action' in response to the bosses" The bakery workers We are need more and wider action.

arguing for solidarity blacking at the ABF plant in Glasgow and elsewhere.

Messages of support to Eddie Pritchard.

District Secretary BF & AWU, 64 Priory Road, Anfield, Liverpool L4 2RZ Spoilt for choice First Lawrence Daly, now Moss Evans.

Heathfield succeeds earlyretiring Daly in the NUM, the race is on for Evans' successor in the TGWU. Ron 56, is favoured by Evans, Len George Wright. Murray and Henry Ford. specialises in sweetheart deals with Alex Kitson, foreign investors in Wales.

62, is the ageing stop-gap candidate of the Tod Sullivan and Larry Smith have already dirtied their tickets by sending cards and Christmas campaigning Outsiders include Bill Morris who is black, George Henderson who is white and Brian Nicholson who It's represents a few remaining dockers.

certainly hard to choose.

the next step, February 1984 7

Business as usual for cover Ireland Between the Harrods Christmas, the Special Branch used the Prevention of Terrorism Act to go on a binge of dawn raids, searches with dogs, and detentions without charge.

police community and portray all Irishmen as potential 'terrorists.

LONDON:

PTA swoops in North and West London pulled four Irishmen into Paddington Green police station.

24 year old Christopher Bennett, them, was woken by a sledgehammer coming through his door followed by 10 police.

whisked off to jail, abused, He was interrogated and held for six days.

Protested supporters Q: When does a left-wing Labour council leader and member of the party's national executive become more right wing than the Tories and the police?

A: When the Irish War comes to Britain Sinn Fein called this Sunday commemoration march for 29 Sheffield. January 1n Harrods bombing, David Blunkett spent the next month trying to ban the march and rally. Yorkshire Irish Freedom Movement spent the month building for the march, organising our regional Making sense of Ireland conference in Sheffield on 28 January and fighting the council's hypocrisy.

The struggle in Sheffield began within days of the Knightsbridge Local Sinn Fein supporter and Bloody Sunday mobilising committee Tony Kelly told listeners to BBC Radio Sheffield that he supported the IRA's campaign but regretted civilian casualties.

Irish Freedom Movement organiser Alan Harding explained to Sheffield's Star that the bombings were part of the Irish War.

British Army terror. early on Tuesday 28 February.

Liverpool.

IFM

8 the next step, February 1984 The IRA car bomb outside Harrods on 17 December sent the British establishment into a frenzy and the British left running The Irish Freedom Movement carried on the fight against British terror in bombing and our

BIRMINGHAM:

The political to terrorise the Irish airport. city's of

SARGUE BOT

One of kicked out of Britain.

IFM

the against student Alan O'Dwyer. Bansandbombs The lines. bar the year's Bloody rallying in the City Hall.

Following the city council leader of censorship. ation was a unique one". about being at war. Blunkett's action. explosion. veteran who member Sheffield Irish issue. two fronts. NW England Irish Freedom Movement Trade union delegation to Ireland Meet the people of Derry and Belfast who are fighting unemployment and The delegation leaves on the evening of Friday 24 February and returns The fee for each delegate is £40 (including transport costs) which can be raised from sponsoring organisations or personal contributions.

detentions at Paddington Green.

When demonstration ended, only Chris topher Bennett was still locked up.

Crossmaglen businessman Martin McAllister was picked up as his feet touched the tarmac at Birmingham He was hustled along to the Steelhouse Lane police station because his cousin Jim is a Sinn Fein the Ulster Assembly. Birmingham IFM supporters picketed the jail on the day of MAllister's release But he was only given a tight police escort to complete his business and then That same day. Birmingham Special Branch raided Irish The local IFM local media went to town with 'march organisers back bombings' head- David Blunkett, Council leader bowed to the press hysteria and moved to Bloody Sunday march from Blunkett's reputation as a democratic socialist made him sensitive to accusations He explained that the situ- Such a ban would normally be out of the question, but this was 'not the case' where supporters of Irish freedom were talking The editors of Sheffield's right-wing local papers praised The Star sent its reporters on to the streets to gauge public They dug up a 75 year old war Blunkett supported and thought 'all rallies should be banned" Freedom Irish Movement launched a campaign against the city council's attempt to restrict democratic rights to assembly and expression on the We fought our campaign on First, we challenged Transport is available from Manchester and Write to Irish Freedom Movement, BM IFM, London WC1N 3XX or phone 01-274 3951 for further details was soon back on the campaign trail demanding O Dwyer's release.

MANCHESTER:

Irish POW Gerry Small into their Central Detention Centre. bounced him The press rewrote history to brand Gerry 'the Birmingham pub bomber' police custody In bombings took place. and tracker dogs were sent round to put the frighteners Gerry's Siobhan. Manchester

MIST

Blunkett's hypocrisy IRA bombing stood in stark contrast to his past Willingness to share platforms with liberation movements, such as the African National Congress, Second similar tactics. 'socialist' council now stood to the right of the Tory government's recent decision not to ban Sinn Fein. efforts to get the march itself banned even went too far for the South Yorkshire constabulary. Challenge the council! Our took su and the barrage and council Irish rally is banned' Sheffield Morning edition front page on 23 December.

the time the paper's second edition hit Sheffield's streets, things had changed Irish rally in graph conceded as the Bloody Sunday mobilising committee arranged an alternative venue convened specially meeting of the council's policy committee passed a motion which drew out the reactionary content of Labour's actions: 'this committee agrees not to allow the hire or use of its premises by any individuals or organisations a) who advocate, support or are involved in the taking of life of civilians of Great Britain, or b) who are involved in promoting racist attitudes or activities." The anti-racist section provided a thin cover for the committee's real purpose of curtailing debate on Ireland.

ment to the explicit: The resolution passed by the committee was amended by the substitution of the words "civilians and members of Her Majesty's armed forces operating in Great Britain" for the words "civilians of Great Britain"' The Bloody Sunday rally acceptable affront to the Labour councillors loyalty to the British state and its armed forces. Irish Freedom Movement

TYK I57S

PTA prisoner: London IFM protest as another Irish victim is driven to jail detention centre. Police bounced former

NORTH

Five days later, they back to the Six Counties he at the time the Explosives experts Harrods bombing. girlfriend at the arrests. supporters His horror at the organiser Sheffield Labour which use Sheffield's way" uency party Blunkett's early Blunkett The the instructive. sibility bureaucracy announced the supergrasses Telegraph's first By city will go on' the Tele- 4 January from the crats pale the suppress An amendmotion made the point lowing day's march. was an unthe fight for Ireland against national council organised a noisy protest outside the Stop press

WALES:

Armed police surrounded a house in the coastal resort of The elderly Abergele on 19 January couple living there were dragged off to answer questions 'in connection with' the Liverpool IFM supporters called a demonstration to protest The couple were released after two days of questioning.

Tompson called Keith on Party supporters censure councillors who supported the bans. In reply, Blunkett warned that any Labour member or branch that tried to do so would be dealt with in the normal and 'disciplined by their constitclaimed it was the Labour Party that was really 'fighting for proper debate and free speech? He cited as an example the council's decision to allow Sheffield Troops Out Movement to use its premises for a meeting on 14 January debate surrounding that meeting is Blunkett first raised the posof banning T@M's meeting about before the furore around Bloody Sunday blew up. TOM's response was to grovel before the council and the wave of anti-Irish prejudice We share everybody's horror at the bombing We want to distance ourselves from the Provos.

Although people are identifying us with the IRA we are not involved in any way."

Sheffield TOM subsequently withdrew Bloody Sunday mobilising committee because the march was linked with republican violence This sort of "solidarity' with the Irish liberation strug gle is acceptable to Labour Party bureau- The council allowed the TOM meeting to go ahead as a lesson to Sinn Fein and the Irish Freedom Movement, whom Blunkett denounced as beyond We Blunkett to a challenged public debate on the issues involved. But he preferred to pursue his campaign to democratic rights from the safety of the press columns.

As we go to press, Yorkshire IFM supporters are making final preparations for our 28 January conference and the fol- We have been out on the streets with petitionsand questionnaires to prove that Labour's ban does not have the support of Sheffield workers.

Some have been won to support the fight for Irish freedom against the British state To win many more, we have to continue of freedom speech on Sheffield's left Labour

'It's war' The Daily Star, calling for SAS in Ireland reprisals Harrods bombing in London BRITISH TERRORISM is the one consistent theme which runs through hundreds of years of British rule in Ireland. Liberal, Tory and Labour governments have run Ireland under 1801 from the arrangements Partition in 1921, to Union, through 1972. Direct Rule since British rule has always political form, rested on the terror of British troops and Loyalist murderers. During the past 14 years of the Irish War, four British prime ministers, seven governments and six secretaries have all introduced short-lived political solutions. Assembly of 1973, the Convention two years later, 'rolling devolution' Assembly (currently collapsing) all came and went.

the stayed and troops continued. Bloody Sunday in January 1972, On paratroopers shot dead 14 un- British armed civil rights Seventeen unarmed nationalists Derry. have been killed by British shoot-to-kill squads since the Assembly elections at the end of 1982. In the past two months alone almost 20 members of the Ulster Defence Regiment have been exposed for their part in sectarian murder attacks on The British establishment is Catholics. preparing for more terror to come.

September, Tory minister Nicholas Scott said he would bring the Commonwealth Belfast in 1994 Games to hence - if the Games' organisers promised "irrespective to come situation'. The Labour Party maintains a common front with the Tories on Ireland.

are two themes to Labour's The dominant right wing gives approach. CND and the IRA When Irish Freedom Movement sup-

CND

approach porters support we are often told that CND is a 'single issue campaign' with no line non-nuclear matters. leaders had something to say about They bowed to establishment Harrods. cancelled and pressure peace marches to leave the police free to find the perpetrators of Saturday's appalling crime. Many CND supporters are sympathetic to Irish freedom. matters, their movement lines up with the British state against the Irish. The fight for peace must opposing British imperialists' conventional wars. people means defeat for the British warmongers. The right to fight after the uncritical constitutional of The left in Act left Whatever its Labour emphasised terror by other means. Northern Ireland The power-sharing Counties. Constitutional and the But the terror has minimum demonstrators objectives. Last persuasion of the security in Ireland. have munity here bipartisan up in the Six Counties. them groups the want submit to fight. Yet

CND

Responses Christmas The terror. But when it ban on Sinn Fein. internment begin now by Counties Victory for the Irish the bombing. azine editorial: "This war is to the end' The IRA, pledging to continue the bombing campaign in Britain.

(Republican News, 5 January) terror. support Labour's last Northern Ireland secretary, Roy Mason, is remembered as "butcher' by the nationalists for his ruthless deployment of SAS assassins in the seventies.

Labour Party has adapted the traditional theme of terror.

Ireland has policy Onl "dialogue' and diplomacy with the republican movement as an alter- But it native to military repression.

amounts to little more than the pursuit of The content of this dialogue became clear last year, when Labour's deputy Irish spokesman Clive Soley led a delegation of MPs to the Six The Labour Party delegates put their cards on the table at a West Belfast meeting with Sinn Fein: They raised the question of an all-Ireland police force and asked what would be the conditions for a Provisional IRA ceasefire. (Irish Times, 22 September 1983) "Terrorism' means the use of violence for political ends. As in all wars, both sides in the Irish War use violence to advance their political rule - so we support the right of the Irish people to fight for it.

The left has tried to achieve by force of what the British Army has Their failed to achieve by force of arms.

common aim is to disarm the republican movement and impose a British solution Radical Labour spokesmen encouraged the nationalist comsham participate in assemblies and forums that Britain has set These institutions exist only to whitewash British terrorism.

Yet the left has urged nationalists to take seriously and get involved in the 'democratic process'. Labour left wingers community nationalist British terrorism without a "The cutting edge' the Harrods bombing to underlined the common ground shared by left and right in Britain on the Irish War.

establishment condemned the terrorist outrage and called for more British Tory backwoodsmen demanded a The Daily Telegraph editor counselled the reintroduction of the Six without trial in The left joined in the condemnation of The Labour Committee on Ireland adopted the tone of a parish mag- 'The tragic deaths in London have shaken us Human life is irreplaceable.

all. sorrow goes on.' Socialist terrorists Labour figures added their regret that the Knightsbridge deaths had helped to 'close off channels of communication with the and movement republican attempts at a 'Livingstone-type dialogue' with Sinn Fein. was worried about were its own efforts to channel the republican movement away from the armed struggle and into electoral politics. The British establishment called on the send in the SAS, Government to We support the goal of a united Ireland, free from British Labour left called on republicans to give up bombs and stick to ballots.

denied the Irish people's right to fight for However, their freedom response to Harrods stressed that military resistance remains at the centre of the republican strategy: The armed struggle is the cutting edge of to remove British forces and the campaign achieve a united Ireland. It will and must continue until the British government withdraws its forces from Ireland.' (An Phoblacht/Republican News, 5 January) IRA bombing campaigns are an extension of the armed struggle into Britain: Our policy is to inflict damage against enemy political and military targets and bring to the attention of the British public that their government is engaged in a war in Ireland, that their government will not allow the Irish people their national rights.' (AP/RN, 5 January) The nationalist community has no alterfight the but to British rule. the people while Irish remain under British occupation.

the history of British terror shows that British imperialism cannot be talked out of Ireland. point for any movement in Britain in solidarity with Irish unity.

The other side of the Irish War: IRA bombs are a response to British terror Misery and democratic right. for self-determination. the unconditional. back set The British The "channels' the left negation of democracy. 1982, the mindless African pursued which decides Both sides IRA's the Yet the movement schemes in Ireland determination. the question: British terror of terrorism There is no future for the Six Counties And (IRA, AP/RN, 5 January) Until Britain This must be the starting right to fight.

AFTER

Tarrods The Irish Freedom Movement supports Irish national self-determination as a basic And we recognise such support must include the right to fight Our backing for people's national rights is It is not altered by IRA bombs in London, even if they cause regrettable civilian casualties.

Fighting for Irish freedom establishment responded to Harrods by condemning the use of violence for political ends' Margaret 'the Thatcher denounced violence as Yet when the Tories sent a task force to the Malvinas in armed forces' violence was hailed as a defence of democracy. British socialists decried the Harrods explosion as Yet when South Palestinian liberation movements use similar tactics, they are applauded as blows for freedom. Clearly, the use of violence for political ends' is not the issue. It is the political end being who is for or against the use of violence. British people and British socialists who condemn IRA violence are taking sides with the state against the Irish liberation struggle.

Anti-imperialists have to challenge the widespread approval for the British state's Even Neil Kinnock Ireland. dismisses President Reagan's claim that US troops in Lebanon are peace keepers leadership of the accepts the establishment's view that British forces keep the peace in the Six Counties. And the Labour left's political negotiated for solution are based on the premise that the British state has a progressive role to play The Irish Freedom Movement is out to break the consensus behind the state and win British workers to support Irish self- That means confronting who are the real terrorists!

Irish freedom is a political end which has to be pursued through violent resistance There be ne War. compromise solution to the Irish is a struggle to the finish: When we put away our guns, Britain will be out of Ireland and an Irish democracy will be established in the Thirty-two Counties.

British is forced out. workers must support the Irish people's Eddie Veale the next step, February 1984 9

Women Who benefits from the most effective and safest contraceptive in human history causes cancer?

LAST OCTOBER The Lancet published two research papers which suggested that taking the oral contraceptive associated with an increased cancers of the cervix and breast. The first paper probably simply association between cervical cancer, early age of starting sexual activity, and number ot sexual partners. established for at least a decade.

second paper claimed that the strength of one of the components of the commonly used 'combined pill' - the progestogen - affected the risk of breast cancer.

Other surveys have not confirmed this association, and the validity of the index of progestogen potency Lancet's research has Yet, questioned. authenticity of these reports and intense scientific controversy around them, they have given rise to a public panic.

*The vast majority of women currently on the Pill are, one way increasing their chance. of cancer asserted the Sunday Times in one of the more sober press statements on the Pill/cancer link. women promptly threw their pills in the bin and opted for other methods contraception or none at three months family planning and advice centres were reporting the consequences: of hundreds women in become unintentionally pregnant because of recent adverse contraceptive pill' (Births and abortions rise after Pill scare, The January). Keep it in the family Medical journals have been investigating and debating the side effects and dangers oral ot the compre became widely available 20 years ago. The risks of thrombosis, especially smokers and women over the age of 35, have been carefully documented. discussions attracted have comment, but nothing on the scale of the Yet in the last few months recent furore. of 1983 two particularly dubious reports have received massive licity. Why? The Pill scare can only be understood as part of a much broader propaganda campaign to encourage sexual It restraint in society. summer's moral crusade against children under 16, which in turn followed the great AIDS/herpes message, that sexual activity approved limits causes lethal diseases and corrupts the young, is at the centre of the drive towards a more repressive society.

Women, together with homosexuals, have the brunt of the latest moral to bear Propaganda against the Pill, and panics. its consequences in a higher birth rate, reinforce the emerging eighties stereotype of woman as dutiful daughter, wife and coping mother. Car driving Walking in the street Home accidents Pregnancy/childbirth (UK) The Pill (non smokers, under 35) The Pill (smokers, over 35)

DUF, 19081

10 the next step, February 1984 The Pill scare scare stories that now today's aged and pill was risk of confirmed the new women are being forced. This link has been The capitulated Pundits from used in The Sixties swinger been widely despite the dubious or another, was Socialist developing women readers. Thousands dreds of direct result. of all. Within class woman. Britain have mean publicity about the Pill Times, 12 cuts. and Cal Cell screening. pill since it staff. These areas ol establishment women dying nationwide pubeffective and has been follows last around the scares. The outside the contraceptive less desirable alternatives.

faithful currently available. The liberated Safer than pregnancy Risk of death per 100000 at risk 17 10 1.3 10 (From Ann McPherson and Anne Anderson, Women's problems in General Practice, woman' image of the swinging sixties is under attack from all sides.

In emphasis is recession the on staying at home to look after infirm parents, working Women husbands and young children.

are being pushed to the margins of the labour market and forced to take on the burden of a shrinking welfare state.

The morality corresponds perfectly the new position of inferiority into which Liberals, feminists and socialists have ideological offento the sive against women's contraceptive rights.

The Guardian women's page to Cosmopolitan have pontificated on the dangers of casual sex and the virtues of stable relationships, and discovered the 'new options of celibacy and abstinence Germaine Greer now sounds like a convent-school teacher: *If I ask young women, "Are you sure it's you he likes, and not just it?" I want them to be able to answer, "Absolutely" Spare Rib found The Lancet's ill-substan- 'Panic' tiated reports 'quite convincing.

Action's advice to its But panic was just what the tabloid press set out to create - hunpregnancies are the un wanted Demand the Pill - or better!

Pregnancy can be disastrous for a working It may mean the loss of a job and an income and it will certainly financial burden. massive Pressure to restrict the availability of the the time as the restriction of family planning and abortion facilities as a result of public spending While the media rant about women the government is further restricting the availability of preventive In many parts of the country doctors are being discouraged from doing cervical smear tests to detect cancer early because of shortage of funds and trained Mammography screening for breast cancer is currently restricted to four small The England and Scotland. is not concerned to stop from it simply cancer, wants to stir up fear and prejudice to strengthen their bondage in the family.

The Pill is two to three times more any other Te laDie method of contraception. As a drug that used by millions of women the world for 20 years it has proved relatively safe, especially in its forms. modern combined, low dosage However it does cause considerable side effects and there are real grounds for concern over cancer risks. Further scientific investigation is urgently required. In best the Pill 1s the have got. can we class women continue to give working some relief from childbearing or other Until we have a safer method of contraception we have to fight to preserve our right to the best Jenny Graham Odds 1 in 6000 1 in 17 000 1 in 33 000 1 in 10 000 1 in 77 000 1 in 10 000 The recent debate Recordings Bill in the House of Commons brought together left and right, feminist and anti-feminist, to root out the new "video nasty'. state censorship must women and the working class.

Over the past four years the number of video cassette recorders in rocketed from 100 000 to more than two million. One in five households now has and a further two million a video, expected to acquire one by the end of this year. As videos cease to be the toys of the rich and become standard consumer goods the state is forced to legislate on what can and cannot be seen.

Graham Bright's Private Member's Bill sailed through its second reading last November. supplies of video recordings.

exemptions to its wide powers are videos concerned with sport, religion or music the modern opiates of the masses.

these are only exempt so long as they do not "stimulate' 'encourage" LOr sexual activity or acts of force associated activity, with such torture', or depict 'human genital organs or human urinary or excretory functions The major attack in the parliamentary debate was reserved for the irresponsible small shopkeepers, who have made the video nasty fare of regular five year November survey by London's Standard revealed that five to twelve year olds are addicted to titles ranging mares in a damaged brain, through The evil dead' to 'I spit on your grave' Honour among thieves The Metropolitan Police spliced together a horrific compilation of video nasties for an uncensored showing at Westminster.

Scenes of multiple rape, warm monkey-brain eating vacating their seats in horror.

olds are apparently National Society for the Prevention Cruelty to Children, paediatricians and child psychiatrists tolerance of young minds to violence has been blunted and immitative behaviour are endless.

MPs joined with Tories to condemn video nasties and demand their suppression by They emphasised their concern the state. with profiteering by video pirates and their distaste at the women in nasties. We are no apologists for pornography profiteers and we have no desire to see their disgusting videos.

ECES

ED HEE PART.

Nasty but not the problem: censorship won't stop capitalism mutilating women Their morals and ours Video the tor three reasons Claire Reilly argues that be resisted by capitalist state. its increasingly Britain has power of demonstrations, violence ment. Its aim is to censor all The only Even 'human Second. "mutilation and degradation simply liberals and parents robbers and thugs the media especially olds. of a society in from - Nightcommonplace have suppressing them. torture, and had MPs Five year for them. unmoved. The The of that the 1984. possibilities for Labour British soldiers degradation of around the world. But we are lives. strongly opposed to giving any support to the current drive to censor video nasties First, we oppose any measure that wil strengthen the repressive powers of the The state often presents authoritarian role as a progressive departure, designed to protect the vulnerable from danger.

But the the state always bears down most heavily on the real source of danger to the rule of capital - the working class For example, in the late seventies the Home Secretary banned a series of fascist ostensibly to protect black communities from provocation and Liberals applauded his judge- Then, in 1981, the government banned labour movement demonstrations all over the country for most of the year By acquiring increased powers of censorship, the state will be equipped to control even further the dissemination of information and argument in society.

Today the target might be pornographic videos; tomorrow it will be our videos and our papers and other publications.

incapable of the state banning video nasties even if it wanted to do so. The function of the capitalist state is to sustain a system based on exploitation The is government collection of well disguised The representation in of and brutality, other against and oppressed groups, is an inevitable feature which such events are The robbers and thugs moral authority over the pornographers and little commitment to Liberals (and Labour MPs) believe naively that banning media representations of the unpleasant aspects of life in bourgeois society will make society itself less bestial Even more naively, they believe that they can trust the robbers and thugs to do this service final point is that the whole debate about censoring video nasties is a distraction from the problems of dealing with the real nasties of life in Britain in The biggest nasty on the television available nightly even to those without videos, is the news.

But British MPs who are horrified by tomato ketchup videos have little to say about the real human blood being spilt in bucketfuls by in Belfast, Beirut and They are outraged at scenes of women being chopped up on film but silent about the real cuts in jobs and services that are destroying women's

Policing the world E arly last month, President Reagan's task man for Central America, Henry Kissinger, remarked that if we manage Central America, it will be impossible to convince threatened nations in the Persian Gulf and other places that we know how to manage the global equilibrium'. Washington is not managing well at all. In Central America, it admits that it has lost the initiative against the El Salvador guerrillas. The world's policeman is bogged down in Lebanon and its Middle East policy has been torn to shreds. Its allies in Europe are beginning to sound less and less like allies.

At home public support for key aspects of US foreign policy is wavering.

America's erratic foreign policy course since the mid-seventies has accelerated into chaos over the past 12 months.

What lies behind the rhetoric of Reagan and Kissinger and what are its implications for the working class movement?

The United States was once the dynamic leader of world imperialism.

is still the leader but it has lost most of its dynamism. The world's policeman is nearing the age of retirement.

senility has approaching become increasingly apparent over the past decade.

America's economic decline relative to its well imperialist has been Vals documented. Numerous articles in the next step have shown that what is at will issue is not whether the USA continue to decline, but which nation will replace it as the leading imperialist power.

In the meantime Washington will do its best to hold on to its privileged role as the policeman of the world. Reagan's failure to pursue a coherent and effective foreign policy is not due to his personal failings. It is due to the fact that Washington is forced to carry out its global role at a time when it is experiencing a downward slide. While its former allies are determined to assert their own national interests the USA is obliged to try to keep the whole system under control. The growth of imperialist rivalries means that Washington has less Even anti-Soviet room to manoeuvre. propaganda is no longer sufficient to hold sway over America's rivals in Europe.

Tensions within Nato indicate that no international institution is immune from the pressures towards tragmentation resulting from imperialist rivalries.

Everybody can see America's overseas problems as Washington staggers from one foreign policy setback to the next.

Yet some still claim that Reagan is doing well on the economic front at home.

Presidential hopefuls in the Democratic Party start from this assumption, and hence seek to make Reagan's foreign the main election issue. policy upturn in the US economy appears to confirm the validity of this assessment.

The US upturn has been bought at a high price. Through a massive injection of credit into the economy US capitalism has managed to enjoy a degree of growth. Consumer spending and arms production have been the main stimuli to expansion. The upturn has therefore a restricted basis. Investment levels remain low and the structural problems of the economy have not been tackled. The US government has had to pay dearly for these limited gains. deficit was the biggest in American history and the proposed budget for 1985 projects record deficits close to $200 billion for the next four years.

scale extension of credit means that US capitalism is living on borrowed time.

The limited scope of the upturn is all too clear to business economists who predict that the upturn will peter out by the end of the year. T he US upturn has had a negative impact on the rest of the imperialist world. huge budget strengthened the high rate of interest and brought capital flowing into the USA from abroad. This in turn has created a worldwide demand for the dollar and allowed Washington to limit the effects of its deficit by off-loading its currency to It America's rivals. It is not surprising that the capitalist classes in Japan and Europe believe they are financing the US upturn Its by paying for overvalued dollars.

advantage of being the leading imperialist power is clearly shown by America's use of high interest rates to attract resources from abroad, and off-load dollars to limit the disadvantages of deficit budgeting.

That's why all sections of the American ruling class are determined to do whatever is necessary to detend its role as the policeman of the world.

To preserve the status quo Washington has to embark on an interventionist foreign policy. No part of the globe can be regarded as outside America's sphere of interest. Deployment Force and a rehauled navy aim to give US imperialism the ability to interfere throughout the world. This strategy inevitably heightens international tensions. This is very much to Washinton's advantage as a climate of antagonism and conflict, particularly if it is directed against the Soviet Union, allows US imperialism to push its allies into line. That's why Nato remains Washington's favourite international forum. America remains particularly powerful in the sphere of top level military-political alliances.

Nato a wider role Reagan can hold off the rising powers of Europe and Japan.

Washington's straightforward strategy of using Nato to ratify the subordinate position of its Western allies makes sense.

But it is not without its dangers.

Activating Nato can bring short term advantages for Washington but it also runs the risk of exacerbating tensions among the imperialist rivals. In its survey The of 1984 the Financial Times warned that Nato cannot long continue in the role it has filled since the Second World War: For more than 40 years the Atlantic Alliance has been the central fact of Western political life. Now, however in 1984, the cohesion of this grouping can no longer be taken for granted....On the more material questions of defence and economics, however, hext step by a common interest.' Last year's budget and unpredictable situations.

This large *multinational America's deficit has power remains to be seen.

U The Indeed, The massive Rapid movement took off. campaign. project 'the flop of the year'.

demonstrate By giving square one. growing became painful. series of clumsy adventures.

Cossary wals. it is by no means so clear that we are bound The other problem with Washington's strategy is that in its drive to interfere in every troubled spot in the world it can find itself in some very explosive Reagan never dreamed that his task force in Lebanon would become such a hot issue.

Yet as a result of US involvement in the peacekeeping force, American policy has been compromised policy. in other parts of the Middle East.

succession of initiatives involving Saudi R Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Israel indicate that Reagan may have bitten off more than he can easily chew.

The Kissinger report on Central America with its recommendation that $8 billion be poured into the region - shows how expensive it is to play with fire. The US strategy can certainly raise internationa tension but whether it can strengthen the global position of a declining imperialist ntil recently Reagan's election prospects looked bright. His predecessor Jimmy Carter lost the election because of his disastrous handling of foreign affairs in 1979 and 1980. In contrast Reagan has managed to convey a sense of purpose, and a convincing commitment to the In fact at Geneva. reassertion of American power.

Reagan's foreign policy has been strong on hype but weak on results. In 1982 Reagan could not point to one success.

the one diplomatic success claimed in 1981, the Lebanese ceasefire, collapsed. Moreover in 1982 Reagan lost significant support for his rearmament programme at home as the nuclear freeze or Angola. And 1982 was a bad year for Washington's anti-Soviet Sanctions against Moscow succeeded more in dividing the imperialist camp than in uniting the West.

The Frankfurter Rundschau called the US sanctions against the Siberian pipeline The balance sheet of America's foreign policy was even worse last year.

True, Washington finally had a victory. But if the invasion of Grenada was meant to of decisiveness Washington nobody was very impressed Within weeks of the celebration of this momentous victory Reagan was back to table. Lebanon was becoming a When embarrassment. Democratic contender Jesse Jackson went to Syria and won the release of a captured US airman the embarrassment To the American public Reagan's foreign policy has come to resemble a The increasingly strident rhetoric of Reagan and his advisers has strengthened the fear that American lives will be lost in Virtually all leading Democratic Party politicians have jumped on the peace bandwagon, forcing Reagan Japan. to make a series of conciliatory gestures.

The American opposition to Reagan's foreign policy is not a peace or anti- None of the imperianst movement Democratic 'peace' candidates bothered to oppose the invasion of Grenada.

The opposition is not to the essentials of Reagan's foreign policy but against its clumsy presentation and lack of success That's why there is nothing to choose among them in the coming election. In itself the debate has little significance It merely exposes the instability inherent in Washington's interventionist foreign eagan's policy is not his own but that of the American ruling class.

Any administration committed to the preservation of US power has no choice but to pursue an interventionist policy. There can be changes in emphasis and style but not in objectives. The American ruling class has set out on a road which leads directly to All the peace military controntation. initiatives, whether in relation to the Middle East or Central America or whether about nuclear missiles in Europe, are simply designed to pave the way for further military activity.

imperialism is the number one danger to humanity. The other imperialist powers are less dangerous only because they have less resources for the pursuit of their ruthless ambitions. The Stockholm peace negotiations follow on from the tradition established They are a three-ring circus designed to entertain fools and anyone else looking for a distraction from the The US real business of rearmament.

administration does not mind playing this game because it leaves it free to conduct its grisly wars throughout the Third World. Nobody in Stockholm is counting the corpses lying in El Salvador, Lebanon The international proletariat should pay close attention to the statements and This actions of the American ruling class.

is not because the American imperialists are any more belligerent or anti-working class than the rulers of Britain or Germany, but because the USA has so much influence over events around the world. Washington's foreign policies are They set not merely an American affair.

the pace for a race which no imperialist power can afford to lose.

America will not give up the mantle of of world policeman at the negotiating Changes at the top of the imperialist pecking order can only take place in an international bloodbath.

Workers in Britain who want to stop the war drive must oppose every bloody US But we intervention around the globe.

must recognise that the buck does not stop at Ronald Reagan's desk in the Oval Office. British imperialists will play their full part in the conflicts to come. Only those who fight for the defeat of their own ruling class have the right to be Our struggle is called internationalists.

not to replace the policeman of the world with a substitute tyrant from Europe or It is to drive all imperialist policemen off the streets of San Salvador, St Georges, Beirut and Belfast.

February 1984 11

Fighting 1 Cuts campaigns TORY CUTS in the National Health Service have killed patients and crippled hospitals.

Six people waiting for open heart surgery died at Manchester's Wythenshawe Hospital in four weeks before Christmas.

road at Tameside General, nurses try to cope with carrier bags for aprons.

are dying in London because the Westminster Children's Hospital has run out of cash for bone marrow transplants. waiting lists grow longer and the old and infirm are foisted on their families as wards and hospitals close and nursing staff join the dole queue. Tory attacks on NHS jobs and facilities many different forms. Take spending and staffing have gone Culs 11 through alongside moves to restructure NHS management and privatise laundry services (see pages 14 and 15).

Last July, social services secretary Norman Fowler announced cuts of £140m in health spending and staff cuts of up to one percent, to include doctors and nurses as cleaners and porters. now working its way through the system.

Last month a national newpaper esumalca me scale or tue Supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party around the country have been actively involved in the fight to save NHS jobs and services. Plans to close the Highgate wing

LONDON:

of North London's Whittington sparked angry protests against union's inaction. workers away from operating with management.

direct action and bringing the campaign under rank and file control. Domestic staff, and the nurses at

BUTTONS

adopted a programme of opposition to all cuts and redundancies and support for an action committee of workers and supporters to run the campaign. reversed their decision to close the Highgate dining room. BIRMINGHAM: Readers of the next step launched the West Midlands NHS Right to Fight bulletin. The bulletin has sold out around the region's major hospitals and sparked off a debate about how to fight the Our supporters have fully

CULS

local shop stewards' demonstrations against closures and losses, while putting the case for upping the and action, arguing that 12 the next step, February 1984 Tory attacks → Privatisation Action charter NHS feature In January Down the leaves nothing for Six year olds below inflation. had their budgets frozen.

Everywhere, specific about clear looking for reductions. is only beginning to bite.

Government administration effectively. cleaning and lined. Roy Griffiths well as Fowler's knife work is to the same nationalised industry: survey cuts to date against Greater Hospital discussed the the local leafleting around build up intervention won Cose's ideas for coworkers. We argued for protest. Whittington demonstration.

MANCHESTER:

Management quickly from support health authority. dismissed members went ahead backed lobbies and health authority job all links redundancies' The National Health Service is under attack from the Tories.

This special four page feature points the way forward for the fight against the cuts at £80 million in cash terms, and 5000 jobs.

Fowler offset criticism of his cuts by giving £83m to 10 The increase underfunded English regions.

It will not even restore last year's cuts.

growth and assumes health workers are due for wage rises well The four Thames regions Fowler was not for future requirements But he made efficiency or manpower cuts.

that the Government would be sustained' 'substantial and The attack on the health service The Tories want to professionalise NHS the cuts more •LO pursue Last year, the Government commissioned several reports on how the NHS is managed and how it could be stream- The investigation led by Sainsbury's was published in October. The Griffiths report was adamant that the health service is no special case. It is subject capitalist economics as any The NHS does not have the profit motive, but Taking on the Tories with management should be broken off.

GLASGOW: Our supporters started the fight Glasgow Health Board's planned cuts of £6m by calling a demonstration outside the board's meeting which cuts. Campaigning and the hospitals helped to among health Union bureaucrats at Glasgow's Western Infirmary had to give in to pressure from rank and file workers and back the A half-day strike at the hospital freed more than 400 workers to support our Tameside Trades Council voted to take direct action against ward closures and non-filling of vacancies. Recent RCP election candidate and trades council secretary Dave Hallsworth led efforts to win Party's cuts the Labour campaign for an occupation of the district Local Labour leaders direct action as 'self-defeating' Dave Hallsworth and other trades council and disrupted the meeting by calling on Labour councillors to oppose the cuts.

We then went all out to build a 'no cuts, no for Labour's contingent it is of course enormously concerned with the control of expenditure. Surprisingly however it still lacks any real performance...Businessmen have a keen sense of how well they are looking after their customers.

Whether the NHS is meeting the needs of the patient, of the community, and can prove that it is doing so, is open to question."

In the wake of Griffith's indictment of NHS inefficiency, Fowler announced Health Services Board to be chaired by himself. General managers will be appointed for all health districts, district health overrule any opposition to cuts. that these management jobs should be given to experienced cost cutters from service and private enterprise.

Fowler's management team preside over more attacks to come. Health workers are losing their jobs, other workers are losing health services, working women are gaining sick and ageing relatives thrown out of closed homes Tory assault on the NHS threatens every section of the working class.

united working class response to stop the rot.

local demonstration against the cuts.

LEEDS:

Revolutionary communist women, Leeds Polytechnic women's group and local health workers are challenging the closure of the nursery James' at st protested at Leeds Eastern Health Authority and visited every hospital in the city.

won workers support for our campaign to defend women's right to work in the NHS.

All our interventions and campaigns share a common approach to opposing the Tory We cuts. fight against redundancies. afford to lose one job, ward or abortion unit.

We campaign for rank and file workers representatives to run the action.

union leaders have proved their willingness to collaborate with management over cuts.

We go out to build the broadest community support possible for the campaign.

recognise that it is pointless to hold back workers' militancy to win middle health class support. and outside the NHS is vital if we are to stop But such unity can only be built the cuts. by arguing the unity of interests between sections of the working class.

campaigning to defend health workers' jobs and the services all workers need.

Fightback continuous evaluation of its the health cuts, and new services bureaucrats with the power to Griffiths recommended the civil defend the NHS will The and hospitals. We need a Hospital. We We and acuts The working class cannot The health But we Unity between workers inside That means The NHS we know and love: people spend their lives h A Labor THIS IS the crucial campaign for the party It's the one where we speak for the people That was Labour Party deputy leader Roy Hattersley's call to Labour's December NHS Birmingham. conference in Labour Party and trade union leaders have set up a national campaign committee against sent a second hand ambulance on a nationwide tour with thousands of petitions and stickers Rank and file union and Labour members have been But their involved in action against the cuts.

leaders' concern is not the defence of jobs Official labour movement have highlighted Government attacks on health services to win public sympathy and pull voters back from the Tories and SDP-Liberal Alliance.

They are more concerned to save the Labour Party than Their gestures, our jobs The leaders of the Labour Party and trade unions are campaigning, not to save jobs and services, but to preserve the principle of a Save our he Public necd not pave Put people fust-save Preaching from a converted ambulance: Labour p

state-run health service.

leaders, the state is the agency for all their plans to invest in, plan and control British The NHS is the proud heritage of society. past Labour governments. only measure of state control around which the Labour Party can hope to win popular For the union chiefs, state ownersupport. ship provides vital backing for their role as negotiators and bargainers.

more crucial than in the NHS.

Council system of union representation has allowed union leaders an influential position within the NHS administration.

The bureaucrats have a vested interest in preserving a state monopoly on health care.

Like any state institution - Workers do not. the police, the army, the courts - the NHS protects the interests of the British establish- The NHS does not meet the needs of ment. the working class either as workers or con- The system provides the employers sumers. with a workforce in a minimal state of health, through a poor 'health on the cheap' service notorious for its long waiting lists, crumbling alla serviceps

NHS

he cuts nging around in scruffy waiting rooms for the privilege of dying in a converted Victorian workhouse or saving device For the Labour Today, it is the Nowhere is this The Whitley middle class sympathisers.

militant working humanitarian bureaucrats approach. ed taped speeches by party notables at the doomed South London Hospital for Women. Nobody came to listen hospitals and crowded waiting rooms.

pays wages and maintains working conditions comparable with the worst sweatshops in the Workers need to fight to preserve every hospital bed and every NHS job. The bureaucrats need only to make gestures of commitment to the institutions of the NHS.

These gestures need to be public enough to identify the official labour movement with the NHS, but not so militant to distance them from Instead of the needed to class action challenge the cuts, the official labour movement has concentrated its campaign on of district health lobbies authorities and patriotic calls to save our NHS' as a great national institution.

Labour leader Neil Kinnock sums up the In his appeal to the electorate, Kinnock the patriot states that this is 'not just Labour's fight' because the NHS "belongs to the British people'. In his first parliamentary speech as Labour leader, Kinnock the humanitarian accused the Tories 'How do you convince the members that we can win when our own regional officer is sitting on the authority that's making the cuts?'. That was one Nupe branch secretary's question following the betrayals by health union bureaucrats in Birmingham. Supporters of the next step who launched a West Right to Fight Midlands

NHS

have come up with some answers.

Labour movement action against the West Midlands cuts has been led by Central Birmingham Joint Shop Stewards' Committee.

stewards mobilised The workers to a recent lobby of the district health authority. But the stewards instructed their members not to disrupt the meeting, so that Labour Party members would be able to The Labour representatives put their case. called for a postponement in announcing the cuts and the lobby came to a confused end.

protest This inconclusive enthusiasm for similar workers" Despite the stewards' efforts, less than 100 out for another people turned protest at the next health authority meeting.

shop stewards met The dejected mood. hospital meetings, and to block the freezing of vacancies, did not get as far as a vote.

The Right to Fight bulletin has pointed of 'using pain as an opportunity for commercial exploitation'. Health and strength The Labour bureaucrats' approach undermines the defence of jobs in the NHS.

notion that the NHS belongs to the British people leads logically to accepting the need for the service to be run efficiently. In reality, efficiency in a state health service means the same as in any other institution run on the bosses' behalf - getting rid of excess labour through job losses. Labour movement representatives in the NHS have proved incapable of consistent opposition to Tory manpower cuts. The official labour movement's approach is equally ineffective in defending services.

The bureaucrats are aware that their attempts to rally support for the 'caring' NHS have little resonance because of most people's bad experience of NHS services.

unions like Nupe have drawn up 'users plans' aiming to appeal to workers' visions of how health democratically-run might operate. enough' to defend the existing inadequate services, the union leaders urge workers to Hackney Health Emergency is an example of a campaign which won support from local churchmen and Labour councillors but restricted direct action by Hackney workers. The campaign St Leonard's hospital was lost as a consequence. September, Last demonstrated Emergency meeting of the City and Hackney District Health Authority due to decide on the closure of St Leonard's, and three other local hospitals, at a cost of 500 jobs.

Nupe leader Rodney Bickerstaffe insisted that 'the health authority can stand up to Fowler' Norman because of support Bickerstaffe saw no need for his union to stand up to the Tories with industrial And the campaign only action. limited support from the the miserable who know St Leonard's - an 1860s workhouse.

demonstration was far smaller than those against the Labour government's cuts in the seventies. workers Health strators tried to force property-developing authority chairman down. vote the cuts Freedman was butted and shoved until rescued from workers' wrath by Hackney's burly Bennite MP Brian Sedgemore, and the police. Health authority member and Birmingham action authority bodies. national management bulletin our weakness to its advantage.'

Right to more than 250 management ingham Children's Hospital.

dampened action. passive at such a meeting. afterwards support. Proposals to organise file action against the cuts.

future. The fight for more and better Labour The cannot fight the Tories. the cuts tee meeting. Does the state have can only In response against the cuts. attempt to system care Proclaiming that it is not Hackney health 'counter 'only harden save and

WOLE

workers' Health Hackney outside the The Health the it had social workers. community. entire the won community, facilities at The passed and other demon- Hackney health Louis Freedman to Millionaire campaign town hall. out the limitations of lobbying health members, no matter how sympathetic some authority members might be: Health authorities and cuts go together like bread and butter. The authorities are management Their job is to implement the decisions of the Government. fall for this approach then management will use Fight campaign supporters have argued for rank and file action against the cuts, and for breaking all links with manage.

Leading militants from the stewards' committee recently attended a meeting with proposed cuts at Birmon The stewards felt that boycotting the meeting would allow management to by-pass them and expose Yet their isolation from the membership.

women workers at the hospital whose jobs are threatened told our supporters they were demoralised by seeing their representatives Some expressed their willingness to fight if they could depend on The militants could overcome their isolation by forgetting about passive protests and going all out for independent rank and campaign for the dream health service of the Yet in reality these schemes are a distraction from the failure of the union leaders to tackle the immediate problems.

When they say it is 'not enough' to defend services, they mean: accept cuts in services in return for a pipedream about the future It may not be enough to insist on preserving all existing services, but it is a start in the strategy of hureaucrats lobbying district health authorities can gain But it their campaigns some publicity.

Whether or not go through is not a technical question of who votes for what at a commit- It is a question of class power.

sack the power cleaners and close hospitals? Or is the working class powerful and organised enough to That question resist the cuts and closures?

be resolved through a struggle But any idea of struggle is bureaucrats far removed from the labour save their own skins, at the. expense of health workers' jobs and the services the whole working class needs.

Mick Hume Steve Scott Labour council candidate denounced the violence as shameful and productive because would of those the attitudes members who favour the closure.

Scott condemned Party Labour might protests because they upset racehorse-owning health authority members such as Louis Freedman.

voted the health authority closures through in December. Hackney that Emergency's picket OI meeting was addressed by Labour council Kendall was leader Anthony Kendall. taking a break from his efforts to crush a strike by Hackney council's residential Kendall fought against workers' claim for residential improved pay and conditions with the same cost-conscious approach which the Tories have used to attack NHS workers.

The Hackney campaign accommodated to the political outlook of efficient managers such as Kendall and union mediators such Once the cuts as Rodney Bickerstaffe. health formality the authority vote, the campaign organisers passed the fight on to health workers.

unimworkers remain pressed by this change of heart from a fight restricted their which for jobs to publicity stunts outside the the next step, February 1984 13

How not to fight the cuts Tory attacks Cuts campaigns Privatisation Action charter The NHS trade unions have widely publicised their hostility to Government plans to privatise sections of the hospital services. Yet in practice the union leaders' been to try to compete with private tenders offering by reductions in job conditions to preserve employment by health authorities.

The result has been staff cutbacks and worse conditions, under private firms, or more often, under existing NHS management. Confidential documents supplied to the next step by health militants in different parts of the the country expose collaboration of union officials in hospital cuts at local level. Feature compiled by Mike Freeman.

LAST SEPTEMBER the Department of Health Social Security circular (HC (83)18) to all regional and district health authorities on 'competitive tendering in the provision of domestic, catering and laundry services. The September circular was ominously headed for action. It asked authorities to test the cost effectiveness of their domestic, catering and laundry services by putting them out to tender (including in-house tenders)'. The circular insisted on the Government's commitment to making the NHS 'as efficient as possible' and getting 'better value for money'.

details of proposed programmes by The inability of the NHS trade unions to put up an effective fight against privatisation follows a long history of collaboration with management. have been further integrated into the NHS machine through past costs and raise productivity.

a servile bureaucracy and a despondent and divided membership. Shop stewards in the NHS were largely a creation of administrators in the late sixties and early seventies.

ment pressure authorities attempted to curb NHS spending by raising productivity in hospitals. duction of work study techniques and the implementation of various incentive bonus and measured day work systems.

employers needed shop sell the new harder work deals to the workers. Full-time also required to play a bigger part in raising efficiency in the hospitals. 'code of requirements' on measured day work systems outlined the joint approach.

Whenever a new measured day work scheme was planned, union full-timers were to be included in work study teams.

The code explained why it was important to involve workers productivity talks: The application of a measured day work scheme may lead to a reduction in the number of staff required...Measures can be taken which include suspending recruitment as soon as the scheme is in operation, timing the introduction of the scheme as far as possible to take advantage of natural wastage, retraining and finding other comparable employment in the NHS for displaced staff." In the seventies the NHS was still expanding and most workers displaced by productivity schemes could be redeployed in different departments. The schemes, 14 the next step, February 1984 → The to health workers. response has conditions. major deal for levels and The direct resolution last year. longer obliged whether by union attack shameful the NHS. contracts issued a are unionists, conditions. and hospital workers. workers, privatisation. It demanded 29 In-house unions Union officials They also measures to cut The result is Under governrates of exploitation. their VisIng This required the introrating conditions. The stewards screw still further. union officials were leaders representatives in by giving even more away.

Many defend ments response to top. February 1984, at the latest.

health service trade unions immediately recognised a serious threat Privatisation means fewer workers working harder in worse It means full-time jobs being replaced by part-time, worse holiday and sick pay arrangements, and an even poorer women and disabled workers.

Tories abolished the Fair Wages Contractors are no maintain and pay conditions negotiated at a national level the NHS unions. Shortly before Christmas the Government issued another circular instructing NHS administrators that they should not specify rates of pay or conditions of service for contractors' staff' (DA(83)40). More importantly for the union leaders, privatisation is a direct on the position of the unions in Threat to jobs and unions The major companies looking for NHS Grand Metropolitan, Pritchards, Trust House Forte, Exclusive renowned for victimising trade employing non-union labour and undercutting union rates and Privatisation threatens to cut union membership and income and oust the unions from their role as mediators and buffers between NHS management The TUC's health services committee, which brings together the leaders of the dozen or so unions which organise NHS has affirmed its opposition to But the union leaders are dependent on the network of committees and quangos through which they collabhowever, encouraged workers to observe one another's performance levels and inform on those not pulling their weight.

introduced group bonuses based on the output of a team of workers.

If such a team is reduced by one member and the rest can increase their work rate to maintain output, then they can secure higher bonuses. The schemes thus offered badly paid workers a bonus increase at the cost of accepting job losses and higher By accepting such punitive and divisive schemes and superimplementation, union officials have spent the last decade cooperating in rationalisations and deterio- Under the banner of privatisation the health authorities are now tightening the Union officials who have helped to jack up productivity now find themselves negotiating over mass redundancies. As the scale of the Government offensive mounts, the authorities are increasingly prepared to dispense with the union officials they have used to such effect to police NHS workers.

This is why privatisation has thrown the union Their only Into such a panic. response is to try to save their own skins workers have become shop stewards and even lay officials in health unions because they wanted to fight to workers interests. They have found that the structure and operation of NHS unions isolates them from rank and file workers and turns them into instruof management strategy. The threat of privatisation and the potentially catastrophic consequences of the unions" indicate the urgent need to transform the NHS unions from bottom

ISE

ECION

orate day in day out with health service managers. They could not lead any large scale action against the Hence union resistance ation has not taken the form of militant industrial action to defend living stan dards. Instead the unions have put forward a two-pronged response.

one hand, they have pleaded that privatisation is not in the interests of NHS management. save money or improve services.

other hand, union officials have offered concession after concession to the authoran alternative to going private lues as They hope that even if jobs are lost and conditions deteriorate, at least the unions will preserve their status and their negotiating rights. Guidelines to defeat The health service union leaders have issued two sets of guidelines to local officials outlining their anti-privatisation strategy. The first emphasises the need to campaign against privatisation, not as a threat to workers' livelihoods, but as a danger to the health service.

leaders warn that undermine *• the quality of staff and services • standards and effectiveness of care and •the flexibility in providing a 24-hour service' The bureaucrats try to outdo the Tories in proclaiming their commitment to standards and efficiency, pleading that the unions can provide a better service than the The contractors. strategy that follows is limited to lobbies of the district health authority, public protests and coordinating information among the unions. of the urgency of defending jobs and conditions through organising industrial action by workers in the NHS and outside.

The NHS union appreciate that their humble pleading against privatisation is hopeless Tores are prepared to accept a deterioration in the quality of public health care in Britain if they can save money on the NHS. Realistically anticipating defeat, the health union chiefs brought out a second list of guidelines for use 'in the event of this battle being lost. relevant to the tendering procedure with the aim of keeping NHS services in-house.

The second document is four times as long as the first and clearly indicates the of the working approach privatisation, behind the bluster of their public campaigns. leaders' determination to secure their narrow bureaucratic interests, at the cost of their members livelihoods.

The checklist on tenders urges union officials to press for rights at every stage of the process.

follows a familiar preoccupation of union bureaucrats. They will collaborate in any attack on workers' rights, so long as their status is recognised by employers in a consultation process. advises union representatives to approach Strike against privatisation: women cleaners in the Medway hospital group fought through December to save jobs. Now a combined private/in-house deal means 100-plus redundancies authorities. to privatisation. whether the On the and safety protection. They argue that it will not any circumstances. On the urges outside submissions. down to viability The union privatisation will trators whose threatened) in the ensure in-house campaigning document There is no mention bullet: bureaucrats fully on many matters. The groups of membership. This raises issues are ready unions It shows the union The full consultation points the This workers. The checklist

CEVICE.

the authorities to clarify and agree on the procedure for tendering and the precise specifications of the job under consider- 'manpower', Under the heading the guidelines advise officials to check specifications provide for union recognition, job training and health The document does not recommend that officials insist that job levels should be maintained in Under the heading 'wages and conditions', union officials are advised merely to inquire about what provisions are proposed. The final section union representatives to 'ensure that they have an opportunity to challenge The union officials should make sure 'that health authorities are satisfied' on a dozen different points that they will get better value for money than from private contractors.

Competitive job sale Union opposition to privatisation comes challenging the commercial In many of private tenders. cases the unions have found that the best way to compete with the contractors is to get together with local hospital adminisown jobs may also be to submit in-house an tender to the district health authority.

document produced by Cohse's Welsh division, entitled 'Competitive tendering provision of ancillary support services in the NHS' urges health unions that the in-house tender always is the most competitive.

To make tenders the most competitive the unions are obliged to go some way towards accepting the reductions in staff levels, increases in productivity and setbacks in conditions that are proposed by the private contractors. In the Cohse you can almost hear the bureaucrats squealing as they bite the 'Yes, we may have to re-think our attitudes Yes, we may have to cooperate on improving the efficiency of some Yes, we may find ourselves in some dilemmas and having to make difficult decisions, but it is NOT, repeat NOT, any indication of failure on our part as long as we retain our ultimate objective by excluding the parasitical privatisation contractors.'

To keep the contractors out and preserve their stake in the NHS the union leaders *to make difficult decisions' that lead to redundancies and slave labour conditions for their members.

The union leaders might say that this is not a 'failure on our part' but it would lead to serious setbacks for the working class.

Frying pan or fire? unions' anti-privatisation strategy way to disaster for health • We report (opposite) on how the unions' response to private tenders at Leeds General Infirmary paved the way for mass redundancies last summer.

was before the Government increased the pressure on authorities to privatise their New hospitals at Maidstone,

Terrace Maternity don wing of the Leeds General Infirmary.

wing were being put out to tender.

not been involved in drawing up an in-house tender.

with the criteria which should mean The answer simple. performance and bodies. Private contractors were, therefore, • 75 BSI performance. assessed rate of 60 minutes per hour (100 BSI).

BRO. J.E. STIRTON

FROM...

23rd August, 1983 Dear Bro. Jones, unfortunate meeting on 19th July, confirm the since in order along similar lines. Western Health Authority Yours fraternally. Milton Keynes, Colchester and Huntingdon have cut back on the numbers previously employed in cleaning by starting off afresh with contract labour.

month only last which had put their cleaning services out to tender had changed from direct labour to a private contractor. lobby accused the authorities of bowing to union pressures and keeping services in-house. The way succeeded in keeping the contractors out making major by staffing levels and work rates.

been hospital level, between administrators and union officials through existing productivity and bonus schemes.

been redeployment and voluntary redundancy, higher work even before the services are put out to competitive tender. the in-house enough to the contractor's to persuade the authorities that a changeover would not be worth the trouble involved.

Shakeout in Leeds At the end of December two Leeds hospitals - Roundhay Hall Women's and Hyde Park — were closed down and their facilities transferred to the new Clarento Hospital Hygiene Services and 97 hospital workers lost their jobs.

culmination of nine months of negotiations between unions and management.

Last April union officials discovered that domestic services in the new acere ed to d too corests foal dission on the rehan i ted rive sanders orial.

acceded to union requests for discussion on the terms of the rival tenders.

the in-house tender. An internal Nupe document takes up the story.

de initially could not understand why the direct labour contract was commercial contractors, agreed to pay Whitley Council pay and conditions.

Unions had. not been involved in the preparation of the in-house tender, Regional Work Study had proposed staffing levels in accordance with national that the tenders were comparable.

to this problem emerged during negotiations and It was relatively The Contractors were expecting had set their staffing level accordingly.

Normally staff who work for the National Health Service, are expected to work at 75 BSl performance.

performance of 100 BSI being equated to a 33% bonus.

simply exploiting labour in order under-cut the direct labour tender which had been submitted on the basis of In other words the contractors were expecting cleaners to work flat out at a work study per hour (75 BSI), with any faster rate compensated by a bonus. Nupe's first response was to move to meet the contractors by proposing reduced staffing levels consistent with a work rate of 85 BSI - with appropriate bonus. When this still left the in-house tender well out of the contractors' range, Nupe agreed to forego the bonus. Under the

NATIONAL UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

BLACKGATES HOUSE, BRADFORD ROAD, TINGLEY, WAKEFIELD

WES 1S0

BRO, BOB JONES

TO..

. H135/2994/JES/AG

Re: Privatisation of NHS Services - Leeds Further to our correspondene concerning the above, I am writing to outcome of the District Health Authority 1983 when a decision was taken to contract to Hospital Hygiene Services for the cleaning of the ne Clarendon Wing of the Leeds General Infirmary.

Very simply, the contractors are able to under-cut our tender price expecting their employees to work at a 100 BSI performance without any bonus payment (straight old-fashioned exploitation).

However, this has serious implications for ourselves in negotiations to compete on an economic basis we have to tender The Unions have now declared themselves to be in dispute with Leeds (see Appendix D) although I doubt whether anything can be achieved at this stage.

The Company which has been awarded the contract 1s Hospital Hygiene Services and I have written to them seeking negotiating rights.

I trust this outlines the 1tuation within Leeds Western health Authority but 15 you require any further information no doubt you will contact me A Nupe union bureaucracy: Yet by one in 18 hospitals won't want to know. The contractors' far the unions have so hopeless." on concessions These have negotiated informally hopeless. The result has productivity and harder When they are, union leaders. close tender is orlen isation The new wing's cleaning contract was given This defeat was the Clarendon The unions had not been consulted and they had management later However, So out bearing in mind that they had the Trade Moreover, whilst their employees to work at 100 BS1 or most other of a bonus payment with a The customary NHS rate is 45 minutes offer a shop circular issued before stewards and branch secretanes Christmas sums up the fatalism of the To begin with your members will probably think there is little the union can do.

Some This is perfectly understandable. In the absence of a clear trade union alternative, the future offers either unemploy- To most of our ment or sweated labour. members, the outlook must appear grim and For hospital workers looking for an alternative from the leaders of Nupe the outlook must indeed appear grim and While the union officials trade workers' jobs to save their own status, they are quick to blame the workers for But the not being prepared to fight.

workers are prepared to fight. They are held back not by their fear of management but by their respect and loyalty for their The draft charter (right) indicates a way forward to fight privat- - and cutbacks under any other slope: The Trade Unions and conditions for alongside chem, Management to worsen to staff). that within five weeks all eight had left their jobs.

FROM BOB JONES - NATIONAL SECRETARY

*HEM REAL RING PLEASE QUOTE PETERENCE

(Dictated on 26/B/1983) 2nd September 1983 Dear Bro. Stirton,

PRIVATISATION OF NHS SERVICES - LEEDS

Thank you for I will study carefully. achievable but 1 will be Service National Committee on 1st September 1983.

Yours fraternally, The privatisation offensive and the unions' complicity in cutbacks requires an urgent response from health service workers. full programme of action must await further

GANGUSO

workers in the NHS, a points are already clear.

contact the next step - address page 2.

We need to reject • cuts in any form - natural wastage, redundancies, vollar ward and hospital closures, schemes or whether private reduce jobs, pay or conditions • collaboration with includes the role of union members in drawing up tenders and specifications and union representatives in negotiating over them

MANCHESTER

Tuesday 7 February 7.30pm Public meeting Fighting the NHS cuts Speakers from Tameside Trades Council, health unions, shop stewards Old Dog Pub, 24 Old Street, Ashton sub-heading 'the dilemma' union officials explained how they slid down the slippery were asked 1f they wished to resubmit a tender along similar consider such a step would mean negotiating less fevourable term for could health perite orreather at empty • group of health service workers thar working arrangements for others.

In the event the Trade Unions agreed to submit a tender based on an B5 BSI performance (without the 13 percent bonus which would normally be paid This was done in an attempt to preserve all existing jobs et the same time as attempting to compete with the two private contractors.

The unions pleaded with the Leeds Western Health Authority that the in-house tender would provide the most efficient service and also save £30 000 in redundancy payments.

HEALTH CARE BY SENSIBLE LOGIC NOT POLITICAL DOGMI

Does ma to heap a rareer to ate 1 hot abl the condure and staff whose qualifications made them District health authority vice chairman Geoffrey Hickman admitted that the administrators 'were impressed by the cooperation and understanding which were evident from the negotiations between our officers and the staff side on the final in-house tender' He conceded that tendering had been 'an extremely valuable exercise in that it had resulted in a considerable saving against the original in-house estimate and demonstrated the importance of challenging some of our existing assumptions'. But at the end of the day there was no getting away from the bottom line.

£193 691; in-house - £233 237. Result - contract awarded to Hospital Hygiene Services.

Rather than launch an all-out fight to save the jobs, local Nupe official Jim Stirton promptly wrote to the private contractor to seek negotiating rights for the union. The final bitter irony was that only eight of the previous hospital cleaners were taken on by Hospital Hygiene Services at lower rates of pay. The new conditions were so bad

NATIONAL UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

CIVIC HOUSE, 20 GRAND DEPOT ROAD, WOOLWICH, LONDON, SE 18,6SF

RLJ/LL

your letter dated 23rd August and for the enclosures, which Disputes Procedure although, Collective Also, 1 had previously directed the attention of the ASC Trade Union Side to the ability of contractors to undercut in-house prices b I at yet hundred steer orange thou a bore i ent.

discussing the matter again with the Health Draft charter for NHS workers sentatives from While the development of a authorities among active •all number of For details •workplace

WORDICE

*temporary that in-house this

CULS

able, effective

LIVERPOOL

Public meeting Hospital Hygiene Services

TO BRO. J.E. STIRTON - AREA OFFICER

YOUR •I.....CT H135/2994/JES/AG

Like yourselr, quoting for The Side one that is We need to withdraw our repre- •all state agencies introducing cuts especially regional and district health permanent negotiating. bodies in the Whitley system We need to set up committees of health workers representing all sections of the • union committees, at district and regional levels consisting of lay representatives, not full-time officials We need to fight • to maintain jobs and services • for a living wage for all NHS workers • for unions that are united, account- Tuesday 14 February 7.30pm Fighting the NHS cuts Speaker Cathy Barratt The Dolphin, Canning Place, Liverpool 1 the next step, February 1984 15

Senile but vicious Conflicts between French farmers and British lorry drivers over lamb and beef imports and rows about UHT milk, Beaujolais Nouveau and Golden ® Delicious apples herald the outbreak Channel warfare. Not yet. Britain and France are second rate imperalist powers, forced to compensate for their declining economic muscle with chauvinist posturing.

the time being Anglo-French rivalries can be contained through diplomacy. Both countries can unite to terrorise the Third In the next step in December we examined Britain's global network of military repression. Clarkson analyses British imperialism in the eighties, while James Wood assesses tarism in France. THE RECESSION has made businessmen even more dependent their stake in. the world Britain's reliance on foreign investment is a sign of the weakness of the home British capitalists export their economy capital abroad because they cannot invest it profitably in Britain.

industrialists and financiers are British It is simply that they know unpatriotic. that they can get a better return on their capital if they send it out of the country.

For more than a decade the rate of profit in British industry has steadily declined, making investment in less and less worthwhile.

manufacturing investment in Britain last year was 38 per cent down on the level of investment in 1970. has poured out of Britain to more lucrative outlets in North America, Europe and the Third World. Gross domestic trading profits 1978 25.0 1979 31.3 1980 32.4 1981 35.5 1982 38.4 Britain's overseas returns amount to a third of its domestic income.

capital exports take several forms, but they have a common characteristics and consequences.

Britain's plunder of the world in concert with a handful of other capitalist powers necessitates an active role in the violent suppression of anti-imperialist movements in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. It also leads to conflicts among the robbers themselves over the shareout of territories and loot. UK Parasites International PLC Last year British assets abroad totalled a massive £140 billion. This total is made up of a number of separate components.

Direct funds majority-owned or all-British subsidiaries, made up f40 billion in 1982.

investment, minority foreign-owned enterprises, followed close £38 billion. behind with and oil companies like BP, government, had £30 billion tied up overseas.

banks had overseas assets of around £32 billion. 16 the next step, February 1984 rapidly £140 billion last year. do not of cross- One source But for like pension companies. assets by £10 billion. World. financiers: Here Andy wealth is welcome, not because it Mitterand's mili- Making money Britain's productive economy. world. British It is not that industry abroad. British factories insurance As a result and advanced Meanwhile capital

COBEROS

sponsoring British domestic and overseas earnings (£ billion) Overseas interest, profits & dividends 5.2 7.9 8.4 10.3 11.0 Source: National income and expenditure, Central Statistical Office, September 1983 industry abroad. Britain's Empire today? we look different number of World. which receives year. investment Asia. Direct USA in each case. stock in the Portfolio British shares in companies, The

CAT110

British British holdings abroad have grown - from £32 billion in 1974 to The composition Direct of this investment has changed.

investment has fallen from 37 per cent of the total 10 years ago to 28 percent.

Meanwhile portfolio investment has risen from 19 per cent to 27 per cent. Banking assets and government bonds have also grown much faster than direct investment.

of increased portfolio investment has been financial institutions funds and insurance Since the Tory government relaxed exchange controls in 1979 these institutions have expanded their foreign One City stockbroker recently celebrated the virtues of portfolio investments overseas for British This £10 billion addition to the nation's only because represents a tidy sum of money, but also not required any serious productive effort. Debtor countries around the world should be drooling with envy."

'any without City speciality. ettort is a London's role as a world financial centre allows British investors to cream profits from the labour of workers around the Where the sun never sets become investment has aiso more parasitic in the sense that less capital now goes into productive manufacturing bulk of direct The investment in recent capital exports has * been channelled into the service sector.

Direct investment goes into banking and and retailing. Investment in non-manufacturing projects now exceeds manufacturing investment in both the backward capitalist British imperialism thus creates an ever expanding army of coupon clippers' in the City of London while less and less productive Percentage 20 25 26 29 29 But where is Britain's annual investment abroad, more British capital goes to other imperialist powers than goes to the Third The most important destination for British direct investment is the USA £2 billion a more than In the Third World most British channelled into former is British colonies, notably in Africa and flows have increased since 1975/6, but remain less than a tenth of the amount going to the More than 80 percent of Britain's stock abroad is in the developed world and the Newly Industrialising Countries.

Britain has the largest share (22 per cent) of all non-oil foreign direct investment Through its 1500

USA.

Britain makes up more than half the $30 billion worth of total foreign But investment stock in South Africa.

the significant feature of British foreign investment today is that it is in the Third World that the biggest return on direct investment is to be found.

Britain's dependence on Third World profits has two important consequences.

First, it will stop at nothing to defend its investments and spheres Second, Britain is intense rivalry with its imperialist competitors as they enter a bitter struggle for survival. Rape and rivalry Africa was once largely controlled by Britain, and British capital retains a major holding in that continent. Last year, more than 150 million Africans in 22 countries faced malnutrition and starvation through a combination of drought and agricultural backwardness resulting from imperialist domination. displaced five million refugees as local agents of the Western powers resorted to and more brutal repression to more contain mass resistance. relaxed after the recent Nigeria's new military rulers promised to honour more than $3 billion of unpaid debts. Nigeria is Britain's biggest export market in the Third World.

While British capitalists hide from the impoverished masses of the Third World behind friendly dictatorships, from growing pressures imperialists. In Singapore, once a British colony, Britain's share in foreign manufacturing investment fell to 16 per cent in Britain's rivals for spheres of 1980. influence are its imperialist partners in the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development the West Germany and France. ced a decline in domestic investment in 1982, which levelled off in 1983.

prospects appear bleak in 1984 and all of them are casting envious glances at one another's interests. for investment outlets, material sources is the driving force behind the rearmament programmes of the big capitalist nations. Coupon-clipping in the city: London's stock exchange exploits the world through foreign investment the one hand of influence. forced into World. the region. interests. retains an At least nine civil wars the Western powers. difficulty British bankers coup when assert themselves. disputes imperialist rivalry. operations they face their fellow Britain protecting its imperialist allies.

USA,

Japan, All experien- But shown imperialism. Growing competition trade and raw any time in its history. The recession produces contradictory pressures in the revival of militarism. On Britain has substantial banking and portfolio investment tied up in other imperialist countries and in joint arrangements with them in the Third Britain is united with its rivals against any threat to their system from Attempts to find a common approach to resolving the debt problems of Third World countries demonstrate a concern to enforce collective imperialist Western military alliances are there to impose these interests against any anti-imperialist movement.

Britain role within the important International Monetary Fund, the OECD and Nato in preserving financial, political economic and military alliances among When it comes to-direct investment, however, the Western powers have more acting because

CONCEIL

definite national interests more directly Trade wars, territorial and diplomatic tensions all indicate the problem of containing inter- When the fickle credit that currently maintain international economic relations collapse, the only wealth that will count will be material assets like industrial investments.

has to pursue any avenue for direct and advancing its investments overseas - at the expense of When every other avenue is closed, Britain will be forced to go to war to secure its interests. So far, British imperialism has been able to play down its conflicts with other Western powers so that it can work with them to smash resistance in the Third World The peoples of Africa and Asia have fight their determination to Our job is to assist their struggle by taking on the beast at home.

British imperialism is still vicious, but it is a much weaker adversary today than at

Alternative defence in action The Labour left advocates an indepolicy foreign pendent strategy defence alternative The socialist government Britain. in France has been actively pursuing for the past two this approach examine Here we years. consequences. France is Europe's odd man out.

its EEC neighbours, it has no mass antinuclear movement. belligerent most world's French military expenditure is nations. rising in tandem with that of the USA.

France has set up a Rapid and Britain. Action and Assistance Force' lines of the American Rapid Deployment Force and Britain's Sth Airborne Brigade, for swift intervention in the Third World.

The 1983 defence budget planned a 24.6 per cent increase in spending on France's independent nuclear strike force. Francois Mitterand's socialist rearmed to improve France's international standing. Carved up France has always been a relatively weak imperialist power. poorly developed and France's economy its banking on over-reliant agriculture remains notoriously French The problems backward. have capitalism conflicts and unstable governments ever since the revolution of 1789.

had more than 20 prime ministers, and experienced a virtual coup has twice d'etat, since the Second World War.

Left out of the post-war carve up by its more powerful allies, France was forced to assert itself as an independent power in President De Europe. France into a much looser relationship to During Nato in 1965. boom, France's economic dependence on its former colonies exposed its weakness compared to the other imperialist powers.

The recession has made France even more defence aggressive interests abroad to compensate for the domestic of its weakness France's first socialist presi Mitterand, followed the has dent, imperialist traditions of his predecessors.

months In recent policy has taken confusing turns.

itionally hostile to the USA, France was the EEC country most in favour of the installation of missiles in Europe in 1983. Traditionally friendly with Russia, the French government has taken a strong anti-Soviet line over SS20 missiles, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and repression in Poland.

Socialist Mitterand has formed a permanent joint commission Christian German Helmut Kohl, chauvinism that permeates French society.

Behind all these manoeuvres promotion consistent imperialist interests. Neither Washington nor Moscow The French government could quite easily approve US missiles for Europe because none were destined for Mitterand was prepared to appear pro- American on Cruise and the 'Soviet threat' counter what he views as a more to immediate threat to France - the rise of the anti-nuclear movement in Germany and its increasingly nationalistic character.

Mitterand went to the Bundestag in Bonn last year to missiles to counter Soviet SS20s.

democratic opponents of the US weapons listened in stunned silence.

wary of US power over Europe.

relies on the contain any revival of Germany's national aspirations. Apart French relations with the USA are as bad as ever. On the economic front, Paris has and an for the Unlike Yet it is among the imperialist along the has government is French industry sector. of French led to intense social France has Gaulle withdrew high dollar's interest rates. post-war the current EEC's Mitterand's national of its above 2.4 percent. economy independent foreign French Tradestablished has Pershing and he met Chancellor 'independent" talks at Geneva, on defence with Democrat Chancellor power despite the anti-German invulnerable lurks French France itself. urge the necessity for US Social- Mitterand is But he US-dominated Nato to from the issue of Cruise, Socialist Mitterand plays Emperor Napoleon: France retains ambitions to be Europe's top power kept up a barrage of complaints about the and high rate, exchange France is the leading force agricultural trade war between the USA and Europe over the Policy. Agricultural Common devaluations of the franc since 1981 have failed to increase French exporters' share of the US market Mitterand blames America for his austerity programme.

Economic squabbles between France and the USA have extended into the Mitterand political and military spheres.

upset Reagan by vetoing Japan's request to be associated by statute with Nato.

hotline' to his own Moscow in case of nuclear mishap. When Kohl recently, Mitterand embarrassed Reagan by obtaining German support for his offer to act as an the between arbitrator USA and USSR over nuclear reduction Mitterand has recently attempted to use France's nuclear arsenal as a bargaining counter against the USA's Effectively Nato. in base to a nuclear first strike, France's nuclear submarines will be able reply to a nuclear attack with an According to additional 150 warheads.

D. MAURITANIA

ED NIGER

NIGERIA!

French militarism in Africa: * French troops US military, the capability to 'unilaterally inflict enough damage on the USSR to force it to launch general war against. the US' (Armed USA, May 1983). Forces Journal, has French indicated that it wants a proper seat at the Geneva arms negotiations.

Mitterand has used anti-Soviet rhetoric to advance his bargaining position with the USA and Germany. It has also played an important part in domestic politics as a stick with which Mitterand his junior coalition allies in munist Party. Communist Party has been subservient to the Kremlin. representative of the French dominant class and, although it has lost working support dramatically in recent years, it influential among remains Hence anti-Sovietism has long workers. been a weapon used by French governments against the Communist Party and the working class. Socialist Mitterand has not hesitated to take advantage of the new Cold War climate fostered by the USA to strengthen his position at home.

not Mitterand ideology damage business.

trading links with Russia that go back

ID LIBYA

D SUDAN

H-BURUND

D French defence agreements before the the Siberian gas pipeline in 1982.

*militarily sensitive' by Washington.

to discuss defence matters.

are far from easy. dynamic Germany. France is time. threat in the future, Third World paratroopers sent interests in France now has the billion to period. The already between 1975 cent can beat Com the For decades the French Until recently it was the the region. blue collar Mitterand's only nuclear issue international one to lel France has talks.

SAUDI ARABIA

munist Party: denounce it.

DJIBOUT

ETHIOPIA

Amencan erialist traditions. will French arms sales Mitterand 1917 revolution. defied Reagan's injunctions against European firms participating in contracts for After spending 1983 criticising Soviet expansionism, the French administration ended the year by selling Leningrad a computerised telephone exchange denounced as Mitterand may now meet his German opposite number Kohl every six months But relations Continual rows over the EEC budget reflect tensions between the stagnant French economy and a more Mitterand's defence minister Charles Hernu has indicated that resolve these preparing to problems in a more traditional manner.

French reports have upset Germany by suggesting that Hernu's helicopter-borne Rapid Action and Assistance Force will make it easier for France to intervene there (L'Express, 17 June 1983). France is replacing the short-range Pluton with 300-kilometre range Hades missiles. These will put East Germany in range of French battlefield nuclear weapons for the first While war in Europe is a serious French militarism is already in action in several parts of the Keeping the natives down France regards large chunks of Africa as its own preserve. In recent years, France safeguard to Zaire, the Central African Republic and Chad (twice). The French African Community or franc zone is a collection of 13 West and Central African economies under French financial control.

With its overall trade deficit rocketing from $1 billion in 1975 to $19 billion in 1980, France needs the franc zone.

Its trade surplus with the area rose from $0.5 the same $1.2 billion over More than half of French aid to Africa goes to French speaking countries.

It is tied to purchases of French products.

Even so, France's share of total franc zone imports fell by 8 percent to 35 per 1982 In and addition, France is heavily dependent on Africa for its minerals and raw materials This is why Mitterand keeps thousands of troops on station in Africa, and others ready to intervene at a moment's notice.

France also has a stake in the Middle East, and it is currently attempting to take advantage of the decline of US power in With the left at the controls of the French state, there is no scope for a CND-type "peace movement in France.

serious critic on the - the Communist Party (PCF) - is also his partner in government.

The PCF has called for France's nuclear weapons to be 'counted in' as part of the West's armoury in the Geneva talks, to demonstrate France's responsible role in and prevent the affairs Soviet Union from walking out of the But such a blend of patriotism and Stalinism has little popular appeal.

The PF could only muster a few thousand at its national peace rally last year.

Just before the Geneva talks broke up, Mitterand went on national television to warn the Soviet Union-and the Com- I am the cornerstone of France's deterrence strategy. My policy is the policy of France.'

The public reception was rapturous and a string of intellectuals and film stars previously associated with the PCF rushed to In France, there is no mass anti-war movement because a reformist government - patriotic, nationalist, anti- The - is already in power. French working class has proud anti-imp- To re-establish them require a political outlook that identifies French workers' main enemy as their own ruling class, not the governments of Washington or Bonn.

the next step, February 1984 17

The West at war in the Middle East influence at their rivals expense.

Beirut in war-shattered Lebanon.

'IT'S ALMOST LIKE the First World War' was one US official's comment on the death toll of four years of war between Iran and Iraq. prevent a Third World War from erupting in the oil-rich Gulf, most statesmen are prepared to watch the stalemate and the slaughter go on and on.

War began in September 1980 when Iraq invaded Southern Iran. A year later Iran drove the Iraqi army out and began a counter offensive. has settled down to trench warfare along the 900-mile border between the two Iran's offensive against Haj countries. Umran last autumn resembled the Battle of the Somme. Fighting over four square miles of territory cost almost 20 000 lives and left thousands wounded. Western estimates of numbers killed in the warrange from.

200 000 to 500 000. million people have been seriously injured, more than 50 000 prisoners of war taken, and hundreds of thousands of refugees driven from their homes. War on the home front Despite the carnage and cost of the war, both sides need to keep it going.

demand and world prices for oil have halted economic growth in Iran and Iraq.

Rising unemployment and inflation have sparked popular unrest.

The Shah of Iran was deposed in 1979.

His successor, Ayatollah Khomeini, has had to deal with further unrest.

President Saddam Hussein fears the revolt could spread across the border.

dictators have tried to quell internal strife by uniting their restive peoples against an external enemy. Since independence in 1926, factions within Iraq's ruling class have struggled for control of the army and government.

Iraq's rulers are divided by traditional loyalties of family and clan.

Takriti clan asserted its dominance.

ruling Baath Party led by Saddam Hussein is a vehicle for the Takriti clan.

Saddam has also religious and ethnic divisions within Iraq.

While the ruling class is Sunni Muslim more than 60 per cent of the population are Shite Muslims. In the north the Kurds have fought a sporadic guerrilla war for independence from Iraq.

Saddam began a scorched earth policy in Kurdish areas. More than 600 villages were razed and a quarter of a million Kurds transported to refugee Southern Iraq. The reverses suffered by Iraq in the war have forced Saddam to offer the Kurds autonomy in order to win their support for the war effort.

During the sixties and seventies, Iraq experienced some industrial development.

The working class became a significant force in Iraqi society. paid for from oil earnings and managed by the state. In the late seventies oil exports accounted for 98 per foreign exchange earnings.

18 the next step, February 1984 The Middle East looks set to be the international hot spot of 1984. Recession has sparked conflicts between the ruling cliques of the oil-rich region.

All of the imperialist powers are keen to restore order and increase their kill thousands on the border between Iran and Iraq.

two of the region's battlegrounds to show how the imperialists' drive to war is driving the masses of the Middle East towards destruction.

capital goods. As long as they can Iraqi boom. Western Since 1982 the war the coming austerity. opposition and More than half a regional power. in the early the Gulf area. Falling the Iraqi army. rampant Iraq's Both

WOLKS

In 1970 the The had to deal with depended on revolution. Republican In 1978 opposition to camps in officers. Guards. Development was provinces Iran's submission cent of Oil revenues the opposition. Western troops patrol the streets of Western guns in the hands of boy soldiers John Johnson looks at paid for machinery, motor vehicles and Foreign construction and engineering firms took advantage of the when state In 1981, spending had already been hit by the expense of the war effort, government contracts worth $23 billion were awarded to Western construction companies.

The Iraqi boom faltered with the decline in oil prices and the reduction of demand for oil from the Western countries.

Iraq's rulers were faced with a growing urban working class used to a relatively high standard of living, which would oppose The 1979 revolution in Iran presented Saddam with an opportunity to head off make a bid for more influence in the region. Saddam had long nursed an ambition to turn Iraq into a This was the motive behind his alliance with the Soviet Union Until 1979, SeventIeS however, the USA relied on Iran to police The overthrow of the pro- American Shah of Iran in 1979 left the USA without a watchdog in the region.

Saddam Hussein stepped forward with He was confident of imperialist support for his invasion of Iran. Only six months earlier US President Jimmy Carter had ordered an abortive airborne commando raid on Iran to free American embassy staff held hostage in Tehran by militant students.

The Gulf states were terrified by the revolution in Iran. Like Iraq they all had substantial Shite populations and they feared the influence of Shiite anti-imperialism on the workers in their oil production plants, refineries and construction The overthrow of the Shah was followed by a wave of demonstrations in support of the revolution in all of the Gulf states. The leaders of the Gulf states backed the Iraqi invasion of Iran.

After the revolution After 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini had to secure his control over Iranian society and restore its relations with imperialism. Both suppression of the Lne The war with Iraq gave Khomeini his opportunity.

His Islamic Party the national used feeling generated by the war to crush its rule. The Iranian president Bani Sadr was blamed for the invasion and initial defeats. In June 1981 Bani Sadr fled into exile in France.

Khomeini increased the Islamic Revolutionary Guards to 200 000 and purged the regular army of liberal and leftist Women not wearing the veil were stoned by mobs led by Revolutionary Strikes and factory occupations Kurdish and other up. nationalities fighting for autonomy were bombed into By the end of 1982 the regime felt confident that it had crushed Khomeini announced an end to the random terror of the Revolutionary Guards and the worst excesses of the Islamic courts in an attempt to woo back almost three million middle class professionals and technical workers who had fled Iran during the revolution.

Control over wartime food rationing has allowed the Islamic Republican Party to reduce the influence of the small shopkeepers of the bazaar, social base. With the allocation of scarce food supplies under the control of local mosques, the regime has been able to mount an anti-hoarding campaign against the bazaar. representatives of the Islamic government were forced to resign after Khomeini denounced their manipulation of food prices as being 'un- Islamic'. At the same time the Islamic courts threatened to shoot profiteers.

With the bazaar's decline, the restoration of the pre-revolutionary social order is almost complete. Shaking Satan's hand All the imperialist powers initially backed Iraq's invasion of Iran. them are satisfied that revolution has been contained. Iran is the Gulf's major market and potentially the region's most powerful state.

keen to improve relations with Iran.

Khomeini has with the USA. $470m of debt to the Bank of America.

More than Sibillion of Iran's disputed claims with American banks have now been settled. pre-revolutionary debts to ations. US exports to Iran doubled last year. Military electronic equipment made up a substantial part of the total.

USA is formally neutral in the Gulf war, so its military sales to Iran remain covert.

This underhand arrangement suits Iran.

Khomeini's anti-American rhetoric is useful in winning him support among Iran's Accusations that Khomeini was Japanese, American Iran. once its mator years. Britain Last August the principal bazaar in the afloat. with yeals Iraq. Nigeria. advantage Today, most of the Iranian France The West is repaired Iran's links Iran recently paid off Gulf oil supplies Khomeini has dealt with US West into economic corpor The with the stalemate. but WIll, tered Carrying on: casualties mount in the Gulf War while the West watches behind the recent Beirut bomb attacks on US marines are also good for his antiimperialist credentials at home.

This war of words does not interfere with improving US/Iranian trade relations.

West British and German, companies have returned to The Iranian market is worth almost bint pan, and this is expected to grow to $2 billion within the next two West Germany exports more than $1.4 billion worth of goods to Iran and $334 million. £150 Britain's million deal with Iranian car company Peykan keeps Talbot's Coventry factory Western predict some confidence that trade with Iran is likely to be the only growth area in the Middle East during the next five Only France remains committed to France stands to lose $8 billion in debts and loans if Iraq loses the war.

French imperialism is as 'overexposed" in Iraq as the USA in Brazil or Britain in France also hopes take of America's weakness to extend its influence in the Gulf.

But cannot replace the USA as the region's major power. French imperialists can keep the war going, but they lack the striking power to step in and end the war.

Ending the Gulf War would present the imperialists with even more problems than they face at present.

More than a fifth of Western oil flows through the serious disruption of any would more than double world oil prices overnight and throw the The West accepts the current bloody stalemate in the war simply because oil supplies have not been seriously disrupted The ruling cliques in Iran and Iraq are also content Neither can hope to the border war helps them contain opposition at home The slaughmasses of Iran and Iraq are the losers in the Gulf's forgotten war.

• "Lebanon" is an artificial, post-colonial last. will not creation that authority has broken down irretrievably and can only be restored by an outside power' (Newsweek, 16 January). All the Western powers agree them can restore East? REVEREND JESSE JACKSON returned triumphant from Syria last month after securing the release of captured US airman Lieutenant Robert Goodman, shot down over Lebanon, in December.

son's rapturous homecoming highlighted growing pressures on President Reagan to withdraw American marines for withdrawal have grown Calls ever louder since last October's suicide bombings at the Beirut headquarters of multinational peacekeeping force' the which claimed nearly 400 French and American lives. The USA cannot pull out of Lebanon until it has crushed or contained local resistance to imperialist control over the Hence Reagan has to maintain region. a token of America's military might on the streets of Beirut while his ambassadors try to negotiate a new carve up of territory and spheres of influence among Lebanon's rival neighbours and warring internal factions. All the Western powers attempt to pursuit of conceal their Lebanon behind an affected concern for the safety of their fighting forces even more cynically, for the welfare of the Lebanese people. leader Neil Kinnock hopes that the lives of British soldiers will not be 'unjustifiably while they are engaged in endangered" multinational supporting Prime Minister Lebanon. Thatcher echoes withdrawal would cause a bloodbath in Meanwhile Beirut. and French air strikes deepen the bloodbath daily. Imperialism at sea More than a dozen men stand behind every soldier in the 100-strong British contingent in Beirut. naval task force in the Eastern British Mediterranean that at times larger than that sent to the Malvinas in Thousands 1982. helicopter gunships and fighters are on standby at the British base of Akrotiri in The other powers in the multi- Cyprus. national force are equally tooled up.

total of more than 100 000 soldiers, sailors and military airmen, stationed on the largest war represents the might of imperialism.

West would like to use this huge armada to restore order in Lebanon.

anese Shites, Druze militia, the remnants of the PLO and even the Syrian army would be hard pressed to resist the full force of Western fire-power.

national peacekeeping force' is a symbol of the military might of the imperialist Twenty tie so a sian of the A neg five years ago the USA rode roughshod protests of its Western allies to stabilise a pro-US regime in Lebanon with 10 000 Today the marines. authority and the power to impose such a solumon on The volatility of Lebanon and country. the dangers of wider Israeli, Syrian, Arab even Soviet involvement hold the Central of Lebanon. but which of order in the Middle Jack- Lebfrom of experience slaughter. American to made a specially influence In Britain Labour to the USA's leadership. US influence terror Margaret basis for unity. Reagan's warning that attempts abound. US heavy artillery that they They wait on a Israeli army incursion into Lebanon. has been None of with more troops fleet ever assembled, The The Leb- The 'multiover local militias and the USA lacks the a Middle Eastern Bloodbath in Lebanon imperialist war fleet at bay off the coast Within the imperialist camp diverging interests dictate different approaches to the Lebanese conflict that pre-empt a decisive US intervention.

America, France and Italy each have around 2000 troops on Beirut's ravaged policeman, the As the global USA has most at stake in the region of the world that seems the most likely to erupt into a third world war.

France was the former colonial power in Lebanon and it seeks to take advantage of the decline of US influence in the area. Italy has important banking and commercial interests in Lebanon and Syria.

Despite its massive back-up the small British contingent of 100 troops is an accurate reflection of Britain's influence in Lebanon and the wider Middle East.

Britain's involvement in the multinational force is simply a recognition of its wealth organising imperialist Britain's main role is to assist British American diplomatic initiatives.

Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe's Middle East tour in January became an adjunct secure an attempts LU imperialist settlement in Lebanon. Howe extended visit to the Syrian capital Damascus, once it became clear that President Assad wanted to put out peace feelers to Washington.

Security plans So far there are no takers for British proposals to replace the multinational The force with United Nations troops.

success of UN intervention depends on the acquiescence of the other imperialists The decline of the other powers OVel during the past 10 years has removed the The relics of past UN at mediation in the region About 300 UN observers still reside in Jerusalem, living out the fantasy 1948 are guaranteeing ceasefire between Israel and Palestine.

In southern Lebanon the 7000 soldiers of the 10 nation UN Interim Forces are still supposedly supervising the withdrawal of 1978 their units after relishes the imperialists the prospect of invading Lebanon. Apart Digging in: no easy way out of Lebanon for the US marines from the military problems involved, a full-scale Western invasion would upset the delicate balance of power between Israel and its Arab neighbours and risk plunging the whole region into a much wider war. A direct Western attack on Syria would also risk drawing the Soviet Union, its biggest arms supplier, into the Middle Eastern morass. may trigger off World War Three, it could also offer the key to restoring imperialist stability in the region. Syria's President settle the Lebanon strife. Assad wants to prevent his neighbours troubles spilling over into Syria. He has moved 40 000 troops into eastern Lebanon and shown bravado against the American air- But Assad knows that his alliance force. Druze with anti-American could forces inside Lebanon conflict beyond his control. The Syrian government has thus become amenable to doing a deal with Reagan.

has been America solution to its diplomatic The latest security plan' on problem. offer from America's Middle East troubleshooter Donald Rumsfeld and Lebanon's President Amin Gemayel provides for the division of Lebanon into three zones, policed by Syria, Israel and the Lebanese Imposing the plan would present army. the USA with further difficulties.

would depend success persuading Israel to occupation of southern Lebanon.

would also want concessions from Israel over its 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights, captured from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967. could cobble a suitable package together, there would be no guarantee that the broken Lebanese army or Syria's forces could contain the armed US State Lebanon. official's comment on the security plan summed up the barriers to a negotiated settlement in the world's most volatile region: Everyone seems to want to do this. But this is the Middle East, remember.'

traditional Israel is the American power in the Middle East. But Israel is unable to play its past policing role in countries such as Lebanon. Israel ructions. unemployment rising The exacerbated under pressure 28 000 troops. the Arab and Palestinian existence. the - Bekaa America's Lebanon Reagan Middle East policy. year's sharp focus for the debate.

the Beirut embassy "military Yet while Syria Assad is keen to solution. from and. Shite provoke to the Lebanese masses. searching for a Other Lebanese draw their forces. America has been misgivings. Its Reagan on continue its Assad troops in place. Even if the USA chaos factions in East. Department ration. tion. ground attack. of imperialists' proxy later, the is suffering severe economic and political Inflation of 200 percent and 70 000 brought government workers out on strike last domestic crisis has been Israeli protests over Yitzhak casualties in southern Lebanon.

Shamir's fragile coalition government is Israel's withdraw to Yet Israel cannot ignore threat to its Israeli jets still launch preemptive strikes inside Lebanon; an Israeli air raid killed more than 100 civilians in But the valley last month. USA's Zionist ally now has only a limited ability to help out the marines in Beirut.

No exit the inability resolve crisis has brought President attack at home for his The run-up to this provides a Presidential election In the aftermath of the Long Commission report on which bombings, called for an end to the emphasis on options, Reagan's leading Democratic Party challengers have called for the marines to be pulled back. The Administration has made concessions to this lobby in its search for a diplomatic But Reagan remains committed to 'aggressive self defence in the Lebanon.

He personally ordered the USS New Jersey to open fire on the mountains around Beirut with its massive 16 inch guns in December., His government could bow to demands for US troops to be pulled back to safer areas. More than 500 marines are already ferried from Beirut airport to their support fleet every night.

But alterations in sleeping arrangements do not remove the threat US forces pose the multinational powers in force have voiced disquiet over US policy.

France and Italy have threatened to with- So far, however, able to limit Westerr France's President Mitterand has announced plans to transfer a quarter They will of French troops from Beirut.

be at the ready if needed.

Even Italian President Pertini, outspoken in his desire to get the Italian contingent out, has Beirut emphasised the need to calm before any Western evacuation.

Britain remains committed to keeping its 100 The imperialists have no easy way out They cannot of the Lebanon crisis Beirut's simply pull out for fear that might spread across the Middle Yet they cannot move in to restore order without causing a broader conflagunsatisfactory The present compromise reflects the West's frustra- While thousands of tons of military metal float off the Lebanese coast, the relatively small imperialist forces on the to guerrilla remain vulnerable Whatever the outcome of the cannot deliberations, benefit the Lebanese people.

Sooner or stalemate will be broken by further military intervention.

the next step, February 1984 19

Clydeside leader John MacLean How red was the Clyde? lain McLean, The legend of Red Clydeside, John Donald, Edinburgh 1983, pp 296, hbk £18.00 THE LEGEND OF RED CLYDESIDE is woven around the unofficial strike movements on the Clyde during the First World War. Promulgated the main by veteran leaders, the legend romanticises struggles that ended in bitter defeat. McLean's book sets out to demolish the myths. Despite their limitations, engineering workers" struggles of marked a high point of independent working class activity in Britain. revolutionary developments on the continent they were insignificant. demonstrations and the proliferation of revolutionary propaganda were a radical departure from normal trade union activity.

The Clyde Workers' Committee (CWC) was set up by militant engineering shop stewards in opposition TIne Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE). The CW took control out of the hands of the During 1915 and again from bu cauclacy 1917-19, the CWC successful mass strikes over pay and against.

victimisation under the wartime anti-strike laws.

In the course of these struggles a number of revolutionary leaders emerged - notably John MacLean and Willie Gallacher.

Socialist Labour Party and MacLean's anti-war section of the British Socialist Party, they exercista considerable pontical inmuence among large numbers of workers.

Why did the Clyde become red? McLean does not even ask heavy engineering, producing armaments during the war.

skilled workers

CHE HOLLE

militancy. The ASE leadership had lost credisupport owly, bou lor its wartime anti-strike regulations, and its failure to defend its members interests in the pre-war Compared to England the working class in the West. of Scotland was relatively young ane nence tess integrated Into labour movement. pinned by a distinct sense of Scottish identity.

This expressed itself both in distrust for London based trade union bureaucrats and politicians, and in an ambivalent attitude towards British imperialism's war effort.

contributed to the widespread influence of two distinctive political trends on the Clyde - the revolutionary syndicalism of the SLP and the McLean dismisses the Clydeside leaders as His main argument against sectarians CWC is that it was a purely sectional, craft orientated, "interest group movement quotes at length from ASE records and gives extensive treatment to one strike at Lang's engineering in Johnstone where male workers struck against the introduction of women. The CWC had nothing to do with this struggle.

None of the major strikes it helped organise were explicitly sectional.

statement on ananon pubusace in January 1916 indicates a broader non-sectional approach to the question. A wasted opportunity Sectionalism no doubt restricted the scope of working class consciousness and action CWC did not foster it. The problem was that ine ewes pontes could not take workers beyond the partial and narrow perspectives of spontaneous strike action. apparent in the attitudes of the Clydeside revolutionaries to the war. consistently agitated for all-out opposition to the imperialist war. He called for the working Class to wage class war at home.

did not fight to forge a clear, united stand on 20 the next step, February 1984 was an outstanding political struggle. the war struck a chord. the CWC. strike movement. the Labour Farty cauca lor annexations, position on the war. struggle, anti-imperialist provide them. the working class. 1919, 10 000 Communist Party the Clyde workers. ation and the Glasgow episode in the class struggle.

1915-19 examine the reasons Compared to the Clydeside movement. Yet the strikes, mass MacLean, the leaders

OTS ING

that the Clyde and defeat is valid. organised a number of why this happened is limited.

Through the Glasgow was a centre tor of The our The shortage of encouraged for the state's The orela This factor was under- Labouring All these factors in the past He Wheatsheaf 1983, Paul Whiteley Methuen, 1983, pp255. Jon Lansman 1983, pp204, £3.95. Indeed, the CWC's conclusion. classes. The This was most Only John MacLean together with a significant middle class- radicalism.

But MacLean together reviews this question among the Clydeside militants.

His talents were unfortunatelv one-sided teacher and orator, but lack an capachy tor party organisawon and Thousands of workers came to listen to MacLean speak because his stand on But the leadership of the class struggle remained in the hands of The syndicalists refused to take a stand on the war because they said this would divide the Finally in 1918, when even peace without adopted a pacifist the CWC The CWC's narrow approach to the class reflected in its stand on the war, limited the scope of the Clydeside struggles.

Although many Glasgow workers were open to politics, the we did not A unique opportunity to forge a real class leadership was wasted.

The *Red Clyde militancy achieved no lasting gains for When the war ended the bourgeoisie felt confident enough to smash the Clyde movement. On Bloody Friday, January despatched te were Glasgow to put down the last major strike of In the ensuing demoralisconfusion the movement "Red Clydeside' became a mere SDP academic McLean is not concerned to for the failure of the Nor is the book a faithful It contains course of events major historical inaccuracies and omissions.

his treatment of political figures such as John author substitutes character eleans main serention is that, prough.

McLean's main contention is that, reforms such as the 1924 Housing Act, the abour Partv achieved lasting gains tor the working class in Glasgow. McLean's conclusion movement ended in divisions But his understanding of Sabena Norton Tony Benn: today's man, yesterday's politics James Hinton, Labour and socialism: a history of the British labour movement 1867 - 1974 pp212, £5.95 The Labour Party in crisis, & Alan Meale eds, Beyond Thatcher: the real alternative, Junction Books FROM DIFFERENT starting points James Hinton and Paul Whiteley end up at the same Its tat the way forward for une Labour Party lies, not in attempting to rebuild proletarian foundations, but through forging an alliance with sections of the middle The new Labour leadership will orientation it has adopted pragmatically.

After a gloomy survey of the modern labour movement Hinton concludes that a further key to the possibility of a mass socialist politics lies with the environmental anti-nuclear and peace campaigns which bring working class politics mobilisation of These campaigns women's movement, Scots and Welsh nationalists and organisations of ethnic minorities, 'may help the left to win over sections of the middle class electorate which would otherwise be lost to the SDP Whiteley plays for higher stakes that Labour should team up with British industrialists against the financiers of the City of London: 'the possibilities for building alliances with industrial capital are immense after the years of monetarist destruction'.

Both Hinton and Whiteley present their strategies as new departures, but in fact they are nearly a century out of date.

egies owe much to the outlook of New Liberalism in the 20 years before the First World War, New Liberalism ultimately failed in its original purpose of securing a social base for the failing Liberal Party. durable as an influence on the ideology of the abouT movemen New Liberal politics It is ironic that Hinton should recommend the strategy of New Liberalism today because his history of the labour movement contains a critical assessment of its impact on the early Independent Labour Party.

the late 1890s ILP leaders were to be found working closely with New Liberal intellectuals formulate an progressive reform. While many socialists were fighting for a better deal for workers, unionists and the unemployed, New Liberal civil servants such as William Beveridge and Hubert Llewellyn Smith measures of limited socialism' to pre-empt working class insurrection.

Through local government and their dealings with the unions the New Liberals helped to house train the emerging labour bureaucracy Together with the more right-wing Fabians, the New Liberals influenced even the most radical of the early labour movement organisations, the Social Democratic Federation. referred to the role of its members in local councils as 'a phase in the class struggle against exploiters and not in any sense a petty affair of local government reform shows, the process of constant deals compromises with the Liberals (and the SDF's lack of a coherent Marxist alternative to radical Liberalism, which Hinton neglects) led to the 1ee0 001ea cunorcination movement to the more radical sections of the middle classes. During the First World War leading New Liberal politicians Lloyd George and Winston nurchi plaved a key role in involving the leaders of the working class movement in the war effort. Their earlier measures of state intervention to provide sickness and unemnlovmen benefit proved popular with the labour leaders.

Such reforms and growing state recognition of the mediating role of the trade unions and the Labour Party helped to consolidate the labour bureaucracy. The further integration of the official labour movement into the system during the war was crucial in rising working class discontent. War a revitalised labour Party emerged as a force. national appealing to both workers and middle clas voters in a way the Liberals could no longer match. Within a decade Labour had replaced the Liberals as the alternative party of government - but it had adopted the programme of New Liberalism wholesale.

While lacking a systematic analysis, Hinton's book provides valuable insights into the process of formation and integration of the British labour movement. account becomes pedestrian and after positively banal. chapter, his first six are well worth reading.

New Liberal theory While Hinton is a historian, Whiteley is a pontical serenist and finding the first half devoted to opinion polls, attitude surveys and theoretical models of voting behaviour' might be tempted to throw Our advice is turn to page 111, because it away. there follows as succinct a survey of Labour's changing programmes from 1918 to the present as you'll find anywhere. The first few chapters are summarised in one sentence in the intro duction. Labour's current crises 'all have a common origin in the failure of the Labour Party, particularly in office, to achieve its goals. In other words, Labour because they have been consistently let down by Labour governments Labour oppositions) pollster Professor Ivor Crewe and a computer are scarcely necessary to reach that conclusion.

Whiteley notes the strong anti-capitalist pressure. struggle downhill ever since. He concludes classical Keynes. programme. Both strat-

*GENERAL ELECTION 1966

Yet it has proved remarkably He notes that by agreed programme

COT

trade were promoting even menon socialism Whiteley, with revisionism. The

SDE

Yet, as Hinton and STOVe economic strategy. drum. the consequences contamine After the of was capable years out of date far advanced. For the divisions in the distraction After 1921, however. his working class. Yet if only to refute his last But why Any reader opening his book Whiteley advocates appeal to employers? from the Labour left. 1982. people won't vote las well The efforts of top tone of Labour and the new social order Labour's first formal programme written by Fabian Sidney Webb in 1918.

Its tone and its detailed and ambitious programme of reforms were formulated in response to working class The labour bureaucracy came up with this radical alternative to revolution in a period of wars and revolution and intense class throughout Europe. It has beer Labour and the nation in 1928 restated the 1918 programme in vaguer and more ambiguous terms, after Labour's first brief experience of government in 1924. After the second disastrous labour government o 1929 to 1931, the party adopted Socialism and the condition of the people in 1934. As Whiteley observes, this programme openly endorsed the bourgeois economic outlook then being promoted in a novel modern form by This approach, combined with the radical Liberal welfare measures proposed by Beveridge, formed the core of Labour's 1945

MANIFESTO OF THE LABOUR PARTY

TIME FOR

DECISION

After the war the revisionism' of Anthony Crosland and others steadily removed all criticism of capitaism trom Labour's manifesto 1964, Labour's appeal to the electorate did not inen came the reces sion and Labour's swing to the left.

For Labour's Programme for Britain adopted in 1973, represented a decisive break In a way it was. It harked back to the classical social democratic programme of 1918, with Clause 4, 'nationalisation under workers control' once again to the fore Whiteley also breezily surveys the bleak record successive Labour governments in the spheres of economic and social policy. He con cludes by posing Kinnock's Catch 22. To win electoral success the Labour Party' needs to that it can implement a successful Yet to implement a successiu economic states about eco first to win a general election.

Whiteley's strategie allance is his resolution or this conun He proposes that Labour should drop those elements of its industrial strategy that miant antagonise emplovers - men as demand for nationalisation and industrial democracy The aim 'should be to try to recruit industrial capital as an ally against finance capital, which real of the enemy Whiteley's alternative economic strategy argument has the virtue of stating plainly the railing against the City. Attacking moneylenders and stock brokers as the cause of economic decline is the common currency of Labour politicians today, from Roy Hattersley to Ken Livingstone.

Unfortunately for them, Whiteley's analysis is nearly a hundred When the New Liberal economist J A Hobson put forward a similar strategy for the Liberals at the turn of the century the coalescence of industrial and banking capital into finance capital was already Labour Party today. inventing capitalist class is simply a its inability the from unite tO Whiteley's revival of Hobson's dogma indulged Kinnock's fantasy that Labour can ride back to power on an all-class coalition.

should middle class people Labour when they have the Tories and the SDP- Liberal Alliance to choose from?

And why should workers vote Labour when, as Whiteley concedes, it has always betrayed them and, as it frames its policies to Yesterday's men Kinnock will find no answers to his dilemma In the early eighties the left won control over the party's policy-making The result was Labour's Programme According to the editors of Beyond Thatcher, a collection of policy statements fron members and former members of the parliamentary 'hard left, that programme and the 1983 manifesto New hope for Britain, were 'the left's The response to the crisis Britain faces now' left's programme was in fact a watered down version of Labour's Programme 1973.

That racical document paved une way lot une govern ments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan,

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Letters Nalgo: bosses' union Mike Hope's article on the residential workers SOc1a1 dispute (the next step, January) outlines the sorry history of the sellout, but its conclusion fails to pinpoint some key problems.

The conclusion contamis Twe main points: end institutionalised closed. shops and sweatheart' deals with Labour councils, and kick the bosses out of the union. I agree with the first point but it is almost irelevant.

400 local are nere OVel authorities but less than 20 unon memoeismip agreements - official closed shops. The real deterrent to union organisation is the fact that the majority of Nalgo branches have negotiated check-off agreements whereby the employers collect subscriptions for the unions when they pay its all Usually on aLOTe This means that COnDULCE where there stewarus. dE C often have no direct Stewares. contact witn tnen memoers.

"Sweetheart" deals are major problem. aigo nas been able to do deals with Labour and Tory

COUNCTS

Teav OTa having to rock the boat. However, it is true that deals with Labour councils are more pern- Nalgo branches are

TOODS.

encouraged to tight the cuts in certain areas only to find that cuts are being imposed else- FOi example where. 30called left-wing Haringey council is now cutting afterschool and child care services.

The second point in your Nalgo that conclusion includes bosses and workers.

niss nor tre eal brobicn.

The civil. unions are service organised 'horizontally" but that hasn't made them any stronger.

The article seems to imply that if there had been a residential worker on the Union's National executive, the outcome of the dispute would beer Baye different. In any case the dividing line between boss and worker is impossible to draw.

In some branches officers in charge of homes scabbed on the They are technically dispute. bosses but they are still badly paid. So far the better paid and right-wing local government officers have been better organand managed keep

HISCU

But contro of the executive. they are such a minority of council workers that they are no real obstacle. The real problem is that the Nalgo the ou caucrals slay. bosses' game of divide and rule.

The residential workers dispute was restricted to the residential workers. Originally the action was very weak, an overtime ban which allowed councils to take exua tempora worKers. and a ban on admissions that allowed councils to put people private sector placements.

The action was not coordinated nationally aTer esca anon was left up to the local branches.

The only way the strike could have been won was by involving other sections of the union.

Your article describes Hackney workers' attempts at escalation of the dispute, but does not explain whv thev dia not take all-out action or involve other memer o TRe D 0 The level of strike pay paid by Naigo is another deterrent to effective organisation. Strike pay is 60 per cent of average earnings more less equivalent to take home pay.

During the residential workers 22 the next step, February 1984 dispute some branches had five or ten people out on strike for Thev weren t losing out wecks. and the branch had no incentive If there had to resoive the Issue. been no strike pay the branches would have had to collect funds from members and tell other members what was going on.

groups of win mue arancaes members became isolated and.

dispirited whereas action should been coordinated and Lave effective. The dispute highlighted the sorry state of organisation The a eveis or tre uno Arbitration Conciliation and Advisory Service is carrying out residential of the

TCVIC W

workers claim the Wildl employers offered in the first No doubt the leadership Slacs, will present its outcome as a victory and forget the history and the lessons to be learned.

Nalgo member, Lambeth Mike Hope replies: -local government workers are going to win the wages and conditions they need, they have to ditch the cosy relationship between management and union officials which has developed over the past half century. It is true that the check off system, for deducting union dues from salaries, which exists in almost every local council, shows the c oseness of management and Whether formal agreement shop elosed exists or not is beside the point.

The union is a creature of the employers and not a weapon of the workers. Workers only contact with the union is the deduction on their monthly pay-slip. employers, on the other hand, have daily contact with union officials through JouL

COLTE

mittees. More important, they have effective control of union Hackney, when

TUTOS.

residential workers took action, the counei oraereu ue mance department to scrap prepared pay-slips and make new ones Normally docking pay. adjustments are mace

L.IE

following month. Of course union dues were cut as well and the union had an unexpected drop in monthly income. This put officials under pressure to strike a deal with the employers. As long as the union is paid for by the bosses, it can't fight for workers. Practical COnSemTOn demand the expulsion of management from the union. During the residential workers dispute it was difficult to plan effective senior counci action because able to attend officials were meetings. They were foreunion action. warned of every They were able to identify mitants and take action agaust them. Of course we cannot decide who to throw out on But simple technical grounus.

in the course of a dispute it soon becomes clear who is with us and who is against. In Hackney, for example, at least three heads of residential homes were in the forefront of the action.

They took a clear stand with us.

Others stood firmly against us.

caiming the A TESE Step In union for workers would be to expel Chief Executives who run Hackney counci departments. residential workers will be calling for this at this year's Nalgo conference. May I first of all congratulate Kate of post appointment to me General Secretary to the Party.

I personally enjoy her articles very much and I hope that she wil continue to contribute tc the review as before. I have only been reading the and BeXT

SLICE

H ULUS!

after, at first, being a bit sceptical of the way T.he only seemed to be aimed at the 'aware" members more society, I have settled down to regularly with reading pleasant saustacuon In my opinion it is one of pregnant woman On behalf of the Derry Irish Socialist Party Republican wish congratulate Kate Marshall on her appointment as General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and wish her and the party every success in 1984, particularly in field of Irish solidarity the work. I should like to draw your attention to the arrest and torture of Ms Anna Moore and her 19 year old pregnant daughter Jacqueline. Anna and Jacqueline Moore were arrested just before Christmas on suspicion of being involved in the Ballykeny puo bombing m pecemoer, 1983 which killed 17 soldiers Hackney Wotker n Council's housing department, it came as no surprise to me that Racial Council for B8 C Equality's three year investigation into racism and housine in that black Hackney showed the families

TOTCEE NTO

the worst slum housing by council's racist housing policy.

White families make up two thirds the borough's residents. but they are sever times more likely to get a new black council house than families. Black families dumped in slum estates like Stonebridge do not need the Council for Racial Equality to tell them they have been discriminated aramast ler veds. Council leader Tony Kendall went on television to sav how 'shocked' he was at the extent of discrimination. In fact he has of CRE's been the d Wal t findings since last June when it served the council with a 'Notice of Tony discrimination. Kendall's bleeding heart is only on display because the report has now been made public.

Council and the Hackney CRE have cooperated to devise a 'solution' to the problem of racism in housing allocation.

They have set up a system of ethnic monitoring. Ihe counci has past experience of ethnic Two vears ago the mor toe. set up a system coltcl monitoring aist altacks housing estates. The monitoring did not stop the aTacKs District clerks In COUnLC Offices have even housing advised victims of racist attacks not to fill in the monitoring Keep up the good work the best, if not the best, "leftist" periodicals. ist the things below which

28OUU

uIOS please me (i) It comes out only once a month. Therefore the people at whom it is aimed have time to "digest" without It Teacana becoming 'swamped". People who have only (ii) just become interested politics do not suffer the kind of jargonistic overkill' sO Ultel associated with other politica journals. (iii) Every article re-ex amines the overall picture of its topic so that new readers are not left RUC torture and civilians. Jacqueline was beaten up in front ot her mother and the Royal Ulster threatened her Constabulary unborn child. After days of this treatment both women broke down and agreed to sign confessions implicating others in the Bally kelly bombing. women

HOTA

denied their confessions through solicitors. But they are still being held in Armagh Women's Prison and are being denied visits by doctors. TS Is ETe British justice reality of torture of pregnant women.

Fionnbarra O'Dochartaigh Derry Hackney's racist landlord forms. They say the police and the racist assailant are often the first to be told that a complaint of assault has been made.

periences like this mean that blacks in Hackney have no faith in the council's assurances that obtained from

HTGMALO

ethnic monitoring in housing will be held 'in confidence'. The police and other state bodies have the power to demand such information. Given the council's willingness to allow the police to use empty council flats as observation posts on estates, black applicants for housing know that any information they give will find its way into police files. At a recent public meeting black tenants rejected ethnic monitoring as 'a load of crap'.

For the past su vears the Labour council has been a slum It has landlora in mackney over conditions presided which racism festers. More than half the council's housing stock is officially classified as 'unfit, in serious disrepair or in need of restoration. The council's racist housing allocation practice has encouraged divisions between black and white workers in the who forced to borough compete for the few decent council houses left. Iwant te see direct action by council unions against the to light council's racist housing poliey.

We have to force the council to provide decent housing for everyone in Hackney. Hackney council housing department worker. (Name and address withheld) with the feeling that they have missed out on something. (iv) The well

ATRICICS

written and quite balanced. And although they can be quite humorous at times do not do so at the expense of the serious themes running through them.

Neither is this humour as 'wet as some I have been acquainted with. (v) I like the way that the next step stays away from the which have scems to

TODIC

possessed most other totally that of PeTEST newsaaocrs. "how many people comparing were on a- march from our camp* to "how many people were there from your camp.

This is a level that is frequently stooped to by other movements notably the SOCaUSES Birmingham. (vi) I also enjoy reading the step book reviews very next much!! Of course, after this list of likes you know I must include a list of things I don't like so much. Here they are: (i) Not enough Gareth Evans!

(ii) Why haven't you got any folders on sale large enough to hold, say, a year's issues of the next step? Why isn't the RCP (iii) 'getting it on' in Birmingham?!

By being slow to bite they're letting potential diffuse before they can concentrate it. (iv) Why is Racial oppression how to fight it out of print?

On 23 November last vear Sheffield Council's 'equal opportunities panel' called for the city council to adopt a policy that 'All parents in the city have a right to accessible and flexible childcare provision which meets their needs for children under the age of five and for children of school age for after school hours and in school holidays.

A few nights later, however, when the counen srunng Laoou.

group met in secret committee to go through the minutes of the panel, the call was removed from the record. The resolution was referred back to the council's "childcare provisions working party' for "more discussion".

Sheffield's Labour Council has several years of experience OSTSCUeSLeI from nursery provisions one quango to another. The "equal panel' is tailor opportunities made for the purpose. The council invited representatives from the local Department of Employment and trade union subcommittees the women's employment forum' (an offshoot of the women's trade union subcommittee the trades council) to tol for discussions of councillors the council's equal opportun- Similar ime panels were set up to discuss housing and unemployment They are the Labour council's idea of injecting a bit of workers' control into council proceedings They are controlled by local Trade unon leaders Labour's suppression of the embarrassing resolution follows of ducking and three vears weaving in council committees by the Labour group. In 1981 - Yes! Suggestions? - 1 Another series of meetings, simular to une ones on war, in Birmingham soon! (ii) Could you get someone to relate the overall RCP politics to everyaay me a bit more as a series of examples in the next step. present F'or exampie miners at several pits throughout country are an tne overtime ban as a way of getting the Coal board to agree to a in In suitable rise wages. such a case I feel the next step should point out in plain English that what the unions fighting for is a shoud be Instead of decent basic wage. fighting among themselves the miners should concentrate all warring energies on the Then Coal Board management. This is an example of the way that I feel that the next prominent step could relate news issues to RCP politics so that people who do not see themselves as political but as wanting oratan peo pie decent life can be brought to feel that they too can identify with RCP politics and join in the fight at their place of work, within their unions or elsewhere.

Keep up the good work. One in mind. Chrissie Williams Birmingham Labour blocks nursery call Nalgo called for the provision of nurseries for council workers The city council ChuTen instructed the chief personnel officer to look into the matter was heard and nothing more until late 1982. Then, under from Labour party pressure members, the council agreed to put up the money to convert a suitable site into a staff nursery but the money for workers and costs would have to running parents out the

COLLLC

pockets. A few months later Nalgo pressed for funding for a development worker to find a site for the nursery suitable The chief personnel officer his then that assured department could cope with the Nothing more was heard job. until the ill fated resolution of a few months ago. in Shef- Nursery TAB ETeS field are hopeless. Thees ain $200 places nov Tewel full-time day nurseries in Shef field than there were 40 years Nursery schools in the area have spaces for a further 200 children but they are only open between 9.00 am and 3.30 pm, and children have to be over There are some childminders but the average charge is £30 a week which is beyond what most women can afford to pay. Revolutionary communist women in Sheffield intend cut through the council's devious bureaucratic manoeuvres and mount a campnurseries that tOT the Sheffield workers in

WUHHCI

need. Jucy smil Sheffield

Meetings unmarried mothers in psychiatric hospitals.

on women's rights. Saturday 25 February 10.30 am - 5 pm (door opens 10 am) Sessions include Sex and the family Dole snoopers and unemployed women Hospital cuts Women and trade unions Govan Neighbourhood Centre 121 Langlands Road (near Govan underground) Cost £1 (50p UB40) Creche, food and evening entertainment.

or phone 01-274 3951

GLASGOW

Wednesday 8 February 6.00 pm Public Meeting Women and revolution Speaker Jenny Graham Glasgow School of Union, 167 Renfrew Street Thursday 9 February 1.00 pm Public Meeting Women and revolution Speaker Jenny Graham Glasgow University Queen Margaret's Union, University Crescent Thursday 2 February Women and the new morality Street WC1 (Goodge Street tube) 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 Women's liberation Anti-contraceptive campaigner Victoria Gillick wants girls under 16 who use the Pill to be taken into care. Soon they'll be back to locking are faced with a fresh round of health service cuts.

communist women are fighting back against these and other attacks ¡ Glasgow conference Kate Marshall, author of Real Freedom, chairs a special day conference details and advance tickets write to Box 34, 488 Great Western Road, Glasgow 12 Exhibition Women and revolution Art Students' discussions

SHEFFIELD

Public Meeting (Fighting for real freedom!

Revolutionary communist women continue a series of public meetings on women's oppression and how to fight it. Every Thursday at 7.30 pm in Room 2F, Polytechnic of Central London Students' Union, Bolsover 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.

REVOLUTIONARY CON

Women hospital workers Revolutionary Babysitters can be arranged. For more 13 - 18 February 11 am - 6 pm Photographs, books, pamphlets, 488 Great Western Road, Glasgow 12 Friday 17 February 7.30 pm Fight for a woman's right to work Sheffield Centre Against Unemployment, Bridge Street Thursday 9 February Fighting for real freedom

MUNIST PARTY

PREPARING FOR

ORSE

PREPARING FOR

POWER

IN YORKSHIRE

Northern readers of the next step!

Come to Bradford for the day to talk about revolutionary politics in 1984! Saturday 11 February starts 9.30 am Bradford Central Library, Princes Way • Morning session Our plans for '84 introduced by Frank Richards • Afternoon session Taking Control: our work in industry introduced by Kate Marshall Creche facilities, food, accommodation and entertainment.

PREPARING FOR

POL

IN 1984 We will be holding our week-long summer school this year in London from 13 July to 20 July. For more information, addressed envelope to: Kate Marshall, BM RCP London WC1N 3XX or phone 01-274 3951 31 January I 7 February 14 February facing the workers' movement today. Every Tuesday at 7.30 pm in the University of London Union, Malet Street WC1

WORK S

enclose cheque/postal order for ..

NAME

ADDRESS.

UNION/ORGANISATION

Tel. 01-274 3951 East End. tube).

COVENTRY

fight it. • New Union Street Central

BRADFORD

send a stamped Room 4, Princes Way Seeing through ideology The working class lives! Communism - the realistic alternative Frank Richards continues this series of public discussions of Marx's ideas and their relevance to the vital issues • Living Marxism 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,

LONDON WCIN 3XX

Activities Afia Begum: Workers Against Racism is taking her case to the European Commission on Human Rights.

For details phone 01-274 3951.

EAST LONDON

Tuesday 7 February 7.30 pm Tuesday 21 February 7.30 pm Stopping racial violence in London's Meetings in Oxford House Derbyshire Street (near Bethnal Green For details more Farehk Afzal on 01-274 3951 Tuesday 14 February 7.30 pm Trade unionists speak on racism in the • National Health Service and how to Hare and Squirrel Pub, Wednesday 29 February 7.30 pm Bradford's racist council Bradford Central Library 800050 Fr

TO LET

cus King CHes the next step, February 1984 23

to the people of El Salvador! hext step Victory Grenada and political pressure people But the their countries domination. Salvador ship. of the capital San Salvador.

were taken prisoner.

FMLN

the with seasonal celebrations.

the provincial ment forces. arms for the FMLN. now faces In the imperialist setbacks at the movements. off a Christmas Honduras-based, Nueva Segovia and duras border. of the Sandinistas. growing steadily. intimidate Nicaragua. Salvador guerrillas Street death in El Salvador: right-wing murder squads won't stop US aid the Contadora group The USA has pulled its marines out of - leaving behind 400 military policemen, 100 'psychological operatives' 450 members of the Caribbean "peacekeeping force'. Now, with the help of Henry Kissinger, President Reagan is trying to secure American interests in Central America through economic and and covert operations short of a full scale invasion of El Salvador Nicaragua fight on, determined to free from The guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El have had three successes recently in their four struggle against their US-backed dictator- Just after Christmas, they seized the command HQ of the Fourth Infantry brigade in El Paraiso, 30 miles north west 100 government troops died and 158 On New Year's Eve struck again. captured and blew up the 'indestructible Cuscatlan bridge spanning the river while its guards were preoccupied last remaining link between the east and west of El Salvador after the destruction of the Golden Bridge last year. In mid- January the FMLN raided the prison in capital Chalatenango. Despite their intensive training by advisers, figures released by the FMLN confirm the low morale of the govern- The guerrillas killed or wounded 7282 soldiers in 1983, took 1757 prisoners and captured 3511 rifles.

Official supplies are the main source of The regular army well-equipped operating over wide areas of the country.

Central rest of sponsored regimes mercenary forces have suffered significant hands of The radical regime in Nicaragua successfully fought offensive by US-financed guerrillas. Nicaraguan troops in Jinotega provinces the 3000 rebels back towards the Hon- • In January they shot down a US military helicopter engaged in supporting the Contra operations.

feat exposed US complicity in the covert war along Nicaragua's northern border and provoked further US condemnation Kissinger to the rescue American impatience with the set backs to its authority in Central America has been Last year the Reagan administration used its display of military muscle against Grenada to good effect to The threat of a US invasion pushed the Managua regime into sending home its Cuban advisors, cutting back on its support for the El and into pursuing more moderate policies at home.

month US pressure succeeded in pulling - Panama, line with military and imperialist by spectacular year ships More than Guerrillas Lempa This was the received annoyance US thousands

FMLN.

the regime. death guerrillas America and popular Sandinista Salvador. the Contra pushed has This They and workers Last Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico - more into region. A peace plan' tour, and by El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, was watered down sufficiently to allow the USA to continue its proxy wars without interference. commission on Central America, chaired by former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, finally produced its report.

Kissinger's report, which was endorsed both major parties proposed a strategy of economic warfare in Central America. billion, five-year development programme to bolster up friendly despotic dictatorin El Salvador, Guatemala. to isolate and contain the radical regime in Nicaragua. was divided only on how to deal with the notorious death squads associated with the government forces of El Salvador Over the last three years semi-official death squads have massacred some 30 000 left wingers, trade unionists, and ordinary workers and peasants merely suspected of sympathies for the guerrillas.

murder campaign has caused both embarrassment and annoyance in Washington.

The death squads have caused embarrassment because gruesome atrocities have world wide of Salvadoreans Death squads big landowners have been terrorising peasant beneficiaries of land reforms promoted by the USA to stabilise 'reprisals against US advisers. Yet the US government recognises the need for the friends' precarious regime in El Salvador.

The Commission was divided but Kissinger recommended that US aid should ahead despite 'human rights' violations because of the 'military crisis.

backed Kissinger requires a growing heap of bodies in El American military continues to keep a high Central America. exercise by 4000 US troops in Honduras been extended American military personnel meet Contra chiefs in the Honduran border town of Las Trojes to coordinate supplies for insurgents inside Nicaragua also organised ships that harass the Nicaraguan port of Potosi in the Gulf of Fonseca, adjacent to El Salvador, and used a sea-launched missile to destroy the oil refinery at the Pacific port of Corinto. Solidarity with anti-imperialists Any setback to the US forces and their allies in Central America is a step forward for the masses of impoverished workers peasants in the region. have every Reagan humbled in El Salvador just as they have in seeing Thatcher defeated in Ireland or the Malvinas. American objectives in the signed by these Costa Rica, In the same week the in Congress, It called for an $8.4 Honduras and The dollar flow will also aim The Kissinger Commission The mass publicity, and because they have driven into the employed by engaged in Some have even threatened squads savagery to sustain its go Reagan American policy interterence profile in The six month 'training indefinitely. reguiarly the planes and British interest in seeing