The Next Step: No. 49, July 1984

next step Prepare for power No 49 July 1984 Introduction to Marxism For many people, Marxism seems a remote and incomprehensible dogma, which offers no answers to today's problems. This course tells you everything You ever wanted to know about Marx and Marxism and why it's got all the answers.

of the British revolution Many people think that the British working class hasn't got what it takes to make a revolution. This course sets out to prove the doubters wrong.

Problems of everyday life What is culture? Our morals or theirs? Who am I?

This course looks at the way capitalist society shapes everything we do - from getting up in the morning to what we do when we go to bed.

The world economy Slump and stagnation in the West, starvation and terror in the Third World. From dwindling profits in the Western world to debt mountains in the Third World, this course examines how the world economy works and how the capitalists worldwide are trying to stave off the trends towards collapse.

review of the Revolutionary Communist Party Problems debates, films and fun. the dozen specialist ution and the roots of racial oppression.

There are extra sessions - Lesof general interest sons of the miners' strike, Women and fascism, Revolution and creativity, Workers' control, Rearmament, Life after the revolution - 30 in all. For the evenings you can take your choice of film shows, great debates and dancing, all rounded off by a disco-boat trip down the Thames. Preparing for Power is an different education ola organised for kind. It is militants, trade union campaign activists, unemployed workers, members and of left-wing parties people who want to know more about the RCP. Its courses, debates and discussions cover every aspect at of workers' struggles home and internationally - in the eighties. The recession brought class confice in to open. Compelled make ever more swinging In the sixties most radicals threw their copies of Capital out the window. Together with every words. This course is for everybody who wants to understand the system - and to change it.

PREPARING FOR POWER 1984

FRIDAY 13 JULY - FRIDAY 20 JULY

Polytechnic of Central London New Cavendish Street, London W1 Preparing for Power 1984 is the Revolutionary Communist Party's fifth annual summer school.

It is a week-long series of talks, discussions, • This issue of the next step carries details of courses, covering everything from the Bolshevik Revolution and an Introduction to Marxism, to the British revolattacks on jobs, living and workers' standards rights, the bosses have had to resort to the police and courts to force the working class into submission. In a battle which neither side can afford to lose struggle raises the every broader question of which class will win. To unite workers' and win, the movement us come Lo terms with the question of class power. The power of the capitalist class depends on keeping the working class conand demoralised. fused But if we start to prepare now and plan our strategy there is nothing that can match the power of the working class. Come to Preparing for Power to discuss the way forward for the workers' movement: the lesson of every struggle today is that it is never too soon to prepare for power. Marxist economics academic economist, they scorned Marx's theory of crisis - until the recession forced them to eat their 20 p the Soviet Union it's going. Notts miners scabs or scapegoats? p12,13. Making sense of First Brezhnev, then Andropov, now Chernenko Two Soviet leaders follow each other to the grave in quick succession - and Chernenko looks like he hasn't got far to go. Is the Soviet Union moribund?

This course looks at what drives it and where

text step Preparin

NEWS

Revolutionary communist summer school 2,3 Preparing for Power Racism 4 East End terror - racists out!

4 Sari Squad hits Europe Ireland 5 March with Labour or with Ireland!

FEATURES

Editorial 9 Power plays 9 Are you ready? Reclaiming our unions 10 Taking Control Miners' strike 12 The miners' strike has been beset by divisions - they have run deepest in Nottinghamshire. We look at the traditions of the Notts miners and argue that they Reviews 18 The road from 1917 Trade union handbooks 19 Letters 114a Brick Lane, London E1 2 the next step, July 1984 monthly review of the Revolutionary Communist Party Publisher Junius Publications Ltd, BCM JPLTD, London WCIN 3XX.

Printer Morning Litho Printers Ltd (TU), 439 North Woolwich Road, London E16. Typesetting and design Junius Publications Ltd (TU).

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

Correspondence to The Editor, the next step, BCM JPLTD, London WCIN 3XX. ISSN 0144 - 350 X July 1984 5 Free the prisoners! Third World 6 Chaos and carnage Miners' strike Women /"p. are not a special case US Democrats 14 Where's the beef? 16 The crash of '84 Support the Heathrow 21 The Heathrow 21 were arrested in May trying to blockade the airport and stop Afia Begum's i deportation. Now they face heavy fines as a warning to anti-racists. Support their fight against state intimidation by rushing donations to the Afia Begum Campaign Against Deportations, Afia has been deported but the Afia Begum Campaign goes on, fighting for the rights of all victims of the immigration laws. Join us! Drop in at 114a Brick Lane, or ring 01-247 7848.

6 Punjab - the end of India 7 The collapse of solidarity 8 Surrogate mothers and test-tube babies 8 Nursery strike in Islington l0 ALL NOTIS

MNERS WE NEED

TON

YuR SullERT NOW! Latin American debt crisis Pic: Andrew Moore Introduction to Marxism wanted to know about Marx and Marxism: • historical materialism • the Marxist theory of ideology • the Paris Commune • the revolutionary party Problems of everyday life problems: • the problems of the individual • bourgeois morality and sexual freedom • media and culture • work and the sale of leisure • growing up and youth culture Marxist economics capital inside out: • the theory of capitalist crisis • state intervention, credit and inflation • what is imperialism? Making sense of the Soviet Union • the rise of Stalinism • Soviet industrialisation and the Great Purge • the national question in the USSR • where is the Soviet Union going?

Problems of the British Revolution • the limitations of the British left working class action in post-war Britain • Scottish nationalism • building a revolutionary party today The world economy • how the world economy was formed • how international is capital?

• state intervention and the world market • world banking and finance • prospects for the world economy Inside America • the unique class structure in America • race in American politics • US imperialism and its rise • the working class in post-war America • assessing the Reagan administration Imperialism in the eighties • imperialism in a world of recession • apartheid expansionism • crisis in the Middle East • what's at stake in Latin America?

• exploring sub-Saharan Africa Polytechnic of Central L Frank Richards introduces a series of five discussions on everything you ever • scientific socialism and the critique of political economy Youth and age, health and disease, sex and relationships, working and having fun course convenor Alan Harding takes a fresh look at these and many other everyday To take on the system we need to understand how it works. Sabena Norton turns • the origins of capital and capitalist social relations • what is surplus value? How the working class is exploited Sixty years ago Joseph Stalin and his supporters turned the tide against socialism in the Soviet Union. Frank Richards charts the course from the Russian Revolution in 1917 to reveal the forces at work in the Eastern bloc today: • Russian Revolution - problems of building a new society Many people who would like to see a revolution think that it could never happen in Britain. Kate Marshall looks at the problems and explains why they're wrong: • what's special about the British Labour Party?

The world at your finger-tips - Phil Murphy dissects the world economy: Why is anti-Americanism so strong in the British labour movement? Why is anticapitalism so weak in the American labour movement? Course convenor Mick Hume pursues these questions and asks a few more: Convenor Inez Landa shows how war, terror and starvation in the Third World are the work of the West - and how we can help to stop imperialist intervention:

for Power 1984 ndon, 13-20 July Preparing for Power is an education in itself. For the past four years the Revolutionary Communist Party's summer school has been the place to catch up with the Marxist view of every important issue.

there was no President Reagan, there was only just a Prime Minister Thatcher, and nobody had heard of Neil Kinnock.

But we saw them coming. the analysis presented at Our first conference identified the trend towards bitter Western rivalries and bloody imperialist interference in the Third World. That was before the wars in the Middle East, the South Atlantic and Central America or the rows over international trade and debt took off.

Exposed The 1981 Preparing for Power conference took place while the Labour left was on the crest of a Tony deputy' wave. lived. Labour left wingers didn't believe us (and still don't).

But many limitations of the Labour Party's radicalism.

class exposed the left's dream of a return to the strikes of the early seventies, pointing out that the collapse of the official labour movement machine made seventies-style militancy impossible to recreate. The unions' paralysis in the face of the Warrington NGA dispute, the union ban at GCHQ and the miners' strike has underlined our analysis.

Struggles This year's Preparing for Power aims to set the scene for the struggles to come. It's not a question of making predictions or crystal-ball gazing. But by dissecting the events of the year behind us, we can point the way ahead for the workers' movement and outline what needs to be done now to prepare for the future.

In conference: opening plenary, Preparing for Power 1983 For subscription rates see page 2.

NAME

ADDRESS.

TEL.

When the first Preparing for Power conference opened, Time and again over those four years, events have proved Power correct. Preparing for Benn for We expected its success would be shortworkers have since been made aware of the Last year's conference course on the British working Subscribe to next step Please send me the next step every month.

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Send to Junius Publications BCM JP Ltd London WC1N 3XX paring for Power of oppression and exploitation masses around the world. and debate. another year, join us in preparing for power.

FRANCE

On the march: the Revolutionary Communist Party takes to the streets All of this makes the Polytechnic of Central London a very interesting place to be between 13-20 July. Pre- 1984 will centre on the struggles of the international working class (see opposite for course details).

We welcome anybody with an interest in ending the blight which grinds down the We cannot change the world in a week of discussion But we can clarify our ideas. For the other 51 weeks of the year, the Revolutionary Communist Party will be out on the streets putting those ideas into action.

Join us at Preparing for Power. And when it's all over for Ken, 20, bank clerk, New Cross, London I've been around CND but left because its ideas were limited so sort of sterilised politics for the masses. I'm going to Preparing for Power to learn about politics that show we really change things. I've spent too long sitting back and letting other people think for me.

Now I want to get educated, get out and get fighting.' politics please write to: The General Secretary

BM RCP

London WON 3XX 01-274 3951 Kate Marshall will answer all enquiries by return of post

REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST

PARTY

Sean, 20, South miner, Kirby pit, Yorkshire "There's been a lot of problems in the strike lads not coming on the picket line. Everybody talks about them but a lot. nobody comes up with any answers about how to them Arthur out.

SOR

Scargill seems too busy juggling figures about how big an industry mining's going to be, instead of working out how to get all the miners to help save what pits we've got now. I think the RCP's got it right, saying the big issue is our jobs, that's all we should worry about. But I find it hard to get the message across to some other miners on strike. I'm going down to Preparing for Power to clear up some questions and sort out the arguments to use on the picket line.' Join the* ReP If you would like to join the Revolutionary Communist Party or would like to know more about our activities, publications and

FIGHT BIO

THE PAR

Michael, 18, unemployed Edinburgh *The

RCP

has only just Edinburgh started up in so until a few weeks back I thought me and mates were the only communists in Britain. I've al ways thought that people like Lenin were sound men I know the Soviet Union's not communist, but I want find out what it What I'm really interested 1s how we can make British revolution. To help the put message across, myself and some mates have formed a band called Iskra. Obviously, we won't change the world just by singing songs. I'm going to London to find out how the party thinks we can do it. * the next step, July 1984 3

Racism unities throughout Britain.

returned to the streets of Tower Hamlets.

A dozen Bengali families East London boron the ough's Teviot Street and Street Aberfeldy are under seige: • racists used dogs to savage one 60 year old Bengali and iron bars to whip his wife • Bengalis have been stoned outside and mose ues their children beaten up on the way to and from school •whole families are imprisoned in their homes. Even there, they face window-smashing mobs trying to break down doors to get at them. East London Workers Against Racism has been down on the estates to contront the attackers and challenge the racist onslaught at its root cause - the apartheid-style housing schemes of Labour's Tower Hamlets and Greater London councils. Indigenous For years, Tower Hamlets council and the GLC have At the end of May, shortly before Europe's rulers gathered in France for the fortieth anniversary of the D-Day landings, 30 Asian from the Sari Squad invaded Europe for a week-long assault on the *guardians of Western democracy' and their racist immigration laws. The Sari Squad toured the Continent raise 1.0 support for Bangladeshi widow Afia Begum, kicked out of Britain days earlier. The Sari Squad tour hit Paris, Amsterdam, the Hague, Bonn and Frankfurt before reaching Strasbourg for the European Parliament debate Alia's deportation. When the Sari Squad arrived in Strasbourg the French police had the crash barriers up readiness for -In "undesirables' they had been warned to expect. The Sari Squad had made themselves undesirable in the capitals of Europe by case for opparguing tae osition to all immigration controls. Their presence in Strasbourg was particularundesirable Tory Euro-MP Lady Elles. Condemned Lady Elles can't abide people who complain ab- Edout immigration rules ucated in London, Paris and Florence, she has nevexperienced any unpleasantness

CUBLUES

desks. When the European Parliament debate on Afia 4 the next step, July 1984 East London Bengalis under siege Racists out! Racists like the sun on their backs. As temperatures soared in June, the thugs went on the rampage against Asian comm- Racist fire-raisers murdered an Asian youth and maimed seven others in a High Wycombe attack. And the anti-Asian terror that is always a part of the great British summer operated a simple housing allocation policy East London: whites have the right to half-decent housing, Asians have right to what's left. Newer estates reserved for indigenous East Enders'. Thousands of Bengalis were crammed on to derelict, garbage-strewn estates in Spitalfields, E1.

Two years ago, investigations revealed that Bengalis held only one per cent of all 'desirable' tenancies in Tower Hamlets. The Labour administrations responded by funding quangos on race and housing and moving a few Asians on to newer estates. this came OI nothing. In May, the GLC's Housing Anti-Racist Year Working Group admitted that there had been 'almost no progress in opening up the better estates in Bengalis'. E1 to report shows that, over the Sari Squad hits Europe 'Undesirables': Sari Squad rocks Strasbourg looked like going against her, Lady Elles forgot her finishing school manners ane cook to vulgar neck ling. The Tories rustled up enough support to defeat the motion calling on Britain let Afia But the Parliament passed condemning the deportation ous and showing the racist sexist nature of the auce United Kingdom immigration laws. The Sari Squad returned to Britain having put the Tories further on the defensive in the continuing debate about immigration controls. Defiance In a parliamentary debate with Leyton MP Harry Cohen on 11 June, re- David Waddington out that he had deported Afia lenience to Hampshire's Pereira family - whose campaign obeyed the law with the support • the

GLC

made 1000 housing allocations on 19 better estates in El - only seven per cent of them to Asians. few • even Asians -тне housed on decent esTaTes got the worst tenancies. • those on homeless list are targetted into rottghettoes and well over half of the homeless are Bengali. And the councils' attempt move handful of Asians on to new estates has broken down in the tace of racist opposition.

Clashed The councils' token integration plans have been upset by fierce resistance from racist tenants appalled by Labour's attempts to undertheir status as an East London ascendancy position the party granted them in the past.

The hardcore racists have force incoming to Bengalis off their estates East London Workers Against Racism supporters clashed with racist tenants on the Glamis and Royal Mint Square estates in 1982, and the Tarling estate last summer. Meanwhile, unable to contront the racist backof the village establishment because 'nobody can allege that Mr and Mrs Pereira tried to defy immigration control and went into hiding and made clear that they were going try to beat the control'. Waddington's attempt blame campaign to the against immigration controls for Afia's expulsion was MOve disguise the Government's racism. Waddington and his fellow Government ministers were in no doubt the challenge that the Afia campaign posed to the immigration laws. His point about the legal limits of anti-deportation an attempt campaigns intimidate anti-racists who are prepared to go lengths to fight any the immigration laws. But will be W C

LOL

scared off by Wadding lash their policies have created, the Labour councils have gone along with and herded beleaguered As back to the Spitalfields ghettoes. Dumping Today the Labour councils have given up any pretence of creating multi-racial housing' on the newer East London estates. This year Tower Hamlets council has displayed its contempt for isolated and homeless Asian families by shoving them on to the most run-down, with reestates au wante putations for racism. The violence which erupted last month on Teviot and Aberfeldy estates was a direct consequence of Labour's dumping policy after years of pandering to the racists' demands for 'exclusive estates Ducked While the right-wing Tower Hamlets council has laid the Asians open to murderous attacks, the left-wingers run the local race relations industry have ducked the fight. The GLC's Race and Housing Action Committee and the GLC-backed Community Alliance for Police Accountability have got together with the police to set up an incident book' on the Teviot Street estate, so that • Bradford - a case study in British racism • racism and fascism - the German experience details or phone Kate Marshall on 01-274 3951 Families in fear: Asians under attack in Bow need workers' defence, not social work all parties can document Meanwhile, future attacks. CAPA has encouraged Asians to move out and tried None arrange transfers. of this can stop the racist terror: • the left's call the on police 'do something useful in Tower Hamlets offers Bengalis no solution.

East London's Asian commknows from long experience what encouraging police to take an interest in their affairs means: a free hand for local racists whom the police 'cannot identify, and a crackdown on Asians who the police very are keen to identify as 'illegals' and potential deportees. • the Labour left presents monitoring racist attacks as the same thing as fighting It is of little comthem. Bengalis fort to to know that somebody is counting the bricks that sail through their windows and taking note of the streets their children are being hounded out of. • CAPA's call for Asians to be transferred off dangerous estates gives in to the racists' demand for all-white *no-go The areas. only 'alternative accommodation' awaiting Bengalis who move out is the work-

COUNCIS

house-style homeless centres - or the overcrowded slums Preparing for Power special course

RACISM AND IMMIGRATION

Racism has always been a problem. But in the eighties it threatens to become a plague. Course convenor Judy Harrison argues that racism cannot be fought by appeals to reason - only by the power of the organised working class: • from immigration to repatriation - Britain and Europe • racism and the black response - the US experience • three strategies for fighting racism - reformist, separatist and communist Plus many more sessions of special interest to anti-racists, See page 20 for further of Spitalfields Unite Supporters of East London Workers Against Racism have been around the estates fighting for a different approach: • workers' defence, not police Black and white workers need to ganise themselves to defend Asians under attack and reject all cooperation with uniformed racists. • no to 'no-go' areas. We need to mobilise white tenants to defend Asians' right to live on the estates, and drive the racists not move out the Bengalis. • fight for the housing we need. Workers in East London must be united against Labour councils" grim housing record if we win decent homes for all We are campaigning with Bengali families the on Aberfeldy Street estate in a fight for their rights. And we have been busy on other estates in East London helping Asians move in and facing down racist opposition. Join ELWAR's fight to clean up East London and sweep the racists off our Ring

ELWAR

streets! 1 01 01-274 3951 Farehk Afzhal

Taking sides the British forces? Ken Livingstone: No.' (11 May 1984) parliamentary left explained his views on the Irish War.

Complaining of stone sought to clarify his position: What I have said at every I am opposed state to every act of violence, whether that is a member of the Irish National Liberation Army letting oft a bomb and killing people who happen to be the area or whether it is a British soldier who eventually his temper, and under loses provocation fires a plastic bullet and kills a child.' Let's look at Livingstone's statement more closely. Condemnation On the one hand. Livingstone condemns ence of republican the movement. He depicts fighters for Irish freedom as callous and random murderers who let off bombs and kill people who happen to be in the area'. On the other hand, Livingstone regrets the violence of the British Army. He views British soldiers more sympathetically than Irish freedom fighters. He presents the Violence of the occupying forces as responsive and almost Soldiers only kill peoble they 'eventually" the end their OI tether and 'under provocation' lash with fatal

OUT

consequences. The day to day reality of the Irish War contradicts Livingstone's assess- Last Lord ment. month Justice Gibson freed two police assassins who shot on Sight three republicans at a road-block in South Ar- POW Tommy Quigley Since Irish nationalists Tommy Quigley and Paul Kavanagh lifted off were their native Belfast streets by joint RUC/Scotland Yard snatch squads, the Irish Freedom Movement has been campaigning for "Tribune: Do you support the Republicans' armed struggle in Ireland against As the fifteenth anniversary of Britain's military occupation of the Six Counties, draws near, the leader of the extrapast media misrepresentation, Livingmagh in November 1982. violence of police shoot-to-kill squads IS carefully planned and clinically executed part of British military strategy. Gibcommended the son police killers for their courage and determination in bringing the three deceased men to justice, in this case the final court of of justice. Targets The military of the republican are the response of the nationalist people to the British occupation. The targets of the IRA and the INLA are soldiers and paramilitary police officers. As in any war civilian casualities sometimes result from the actions of both sides.

There was nothing random about the selection of the 14 British soldiers and seven policemen killed by liberation forces In the first six of months 1984. And the republican soldiers are no more callous than they need to be to take on the enormous machine of British repression in Ireland. Livingstone's carefully selected phrases reveal how even the left-wing

THOST

Labour leaders take sides with the British ment against the Irish pe- His apparently evenople. handed opposition to every act of violence' disguises his Free the prisoners! their release. On 29 May London IFM supporters held a lively demonstration outside Lambeth Magistrates Court. Inside the court, Quigley Kavanagh were comand mitted for trial at the Old Bailey, charged with involvement in the IRA's London bombing campaigns. The state is out to get a conviction at all costs. It has orchestrated a media campaign against Quigley and Kavanagh, and tried to intimidate those campaigning for the Irish political prisoners. The IFM demonstration on 29 May was confronted endorsement of British terror in Ireland. Livingstone's comments on the freedom fighters indulge the popular British stereotype of the psychopathic republican terrorist.

His understanding approach murderous British forces confirms the widespread view that the soldiers are doing their best difficult circumstances to bring peace to the streets of Belfast and Derry. Labour's Britishsolution Livingstone declares that he wishes to see a political solution and negotiations warring fact- Derweenare ions'. But there are only factions' two at war in Ireland the republican movement and its supporters and the British state and its agents. The only political SOlution that could follow from any negotiations that take place before the milidefeat of the British tary forces in Ireland would be a British-imposed solution.

Livingstone's condemnations of the armed struggle of the republican movement and his pandering to antirepublican prejudices indicate that he would favour such a solution. Indeed this has been the consistent position of the Labour left for the last 15 years. Subservience Three years ago Labour's cringing subservience to the Tory government's stand against the H-Block hungerwidestrikers provoked spread of criticism the party from Irish people and anti-imperialists around the world. The left has been tryby armed police. Two Irish women supporting our protest who went into court were strip-searched and abused by police. Irish Freedom Movement supporters in contact with Tommy Quigley have been interrogated by the Special Branch. But the prisoners' spirit remains see BEDTOKe Tommy Quigley's letter, p19). And the IFM's determination to carry on the fight for their rights is undaunted. Ring 01 274 3951 for further details of the campaign. March with Labour or with Ireland ing to restore Labour's image on the Irish issue ever since The main activities Labour left wingers have been to go on sight-seeing tours of the occupied territories and to invite Sinn Fein speakers to attend Labour Party meetings. The left has used these occasions express sympathy with victims of British barthe barism in Ireland Labour politicians have also publicly condemned the

IRA

and pressed republicans to abandon the armed struggle favour of electioneering.

Yet when it comes LO electioneering Britain, links with Sinn Fein are the last thing the Labour Party needs. Dialogue Last month Euro MP Richard Balfe, a follower of the Livingstone line on Ireland, invited Belfast Sinn Fein leader Joe Austin to speak at his election rally. When Labour leadership got wind of the plan it promptly banned the meeting. Neil Kinnock announced that he was utterly opposed to any such relationship with Provisional Sinn Fein' for building solidarity with the Irish cause in Britain: • James Connolly and the 1916 rebellion • the changing face of the Irish War 1969-1984 • the struggle south of the Border • the anti-imperialist movement in Britain British justice:judge praised police who shot up this car and killed three republicans He assured the British public that 'there was nothing in the traditions or the policy of the Labour Party that justifies such Kinrelations. nock follows the traditional Labour Party policy Ireland: British Army - all the way. The Labour left remains committed to its dialogue' with Sinn Fein. But it understands the Labour Party's need to project a patriotic image at election time Balfe proclaimed his loyalty to the Labour Party and showed Sinn Fein the door. After inviting Joe Britain he was allowed to address only one tiny poorly advertised meeting in North London. Austin strongly advised people to 'think hard' about for voting Labour Party candidates who did not have "a good position on Ireland'.

In fact, it does not require much hard thinking - 110 Labour Party candidates have a good position" on Ireland. The most left-wing Labour Party candidates - people like Livingstone or Balfe - remain staunch supporters of British rule in Ireland.

Preparing for Power special course

IRELAND - MYTH AND REALITY

The Irish have been fighting British rule for generations. In Britain the issue has been deliberately distorted and confused, and misunderstood. Course convenor Keith Tompson surveys the struggle for Irish freedom and examines the prospects • What was the Ulster Workers' Council strike in 1974?

If you want more information about the course or would like to come to Preparing for Power, fill in the form on page 20 or phone Kate Marshall on 01-274 3951 Ireland Taking sides Sympathisers with the cause of Trish freedom in Britain can take sides in commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the occupation and the thirteenth anniversary of Internment. Labour Party supporters are marching in London to appeal to the state that has brutalised Ireland for the last 1 years to impose a po. litical solution that will bring a just and lasting peace.

Supporters of the Irish liberation struggle against British rule are marching in Sheffield on 5 August. The march has been called by Sinn Fein and is supported by the Irish Freedom Movement and many other organisations. This demonstration, unlike the one in London, is also supporting the demands of Irish political prisoners in Britain This August take sides British imperialism in Ireland. Take sides too against Labour's hypocrisy Take sides with the Irish national liberation struggle! Mick Kennedy the next step, July 1984 5

India Punjab - the end of India Bhindranwale at the Golden Temple On 3 June the Indian army stormed the Golden Temple at Amritsar in Punjab, the holiest shrine of India's 14 million Sikhs. More than 700 Sikh militants were killed, including fundamentalist leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

between led to jab and imposing a round the news blackout. The recession has rekindled forces of disintegration always just below the surface of Indian society (see box). Indian Prime Minister Gandhi ordered the Indira desecration of the Golden In the last two years the violpace - India has quickence ened. In 1983 more than 400 clashes between Hindus and Muslims were reported. No region of the subcontinent has escaped.

Last year jungle tribesthrough rampaged

LICH

Assam killing at least 3000 settlers from West Bengal.

In West Bengal, Congress Party and Communist Party supporters have been slaughtering each other for months. Maoist groups in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh wage a bitter guerrilla against the police. In war Tamil Nadu, Tamils are up in arms at the crushof a Tamil rebellion ing in Sri Lanka. Kerala, Hindu rev- In ivalists fight bloody street battles with Communist Party supporters. 30 000 demon- Peasant strators were rounded up in Karnataka state in January. Hindu-Muslim clash- May in Bhiwandi and other suburbs of Bombay, India's largest indust- 6 the next step, July 1984 The assault was the climax of two months of rioting Hindus and Sikhs which left at least 400 dead, 100 000 government troops occupying Punclock curfew and a total Temple to demonstrate her determination to quell the which is ripping instability India apart. The road to Amritsar Punjab is India's richest rial centre, left more than 150 dead and razed Bhiwandi to the ground. Tinder box The recession has shattered the artificial Indian Congress, the party which has ruled India for most of its independence, has continued the British policy of divide and rule.

It has cultivated local power bases and manipulated ethnic, religious and caste rivalries to neutralise oppdifferent osition and pit sections peasant and working class against The Indian working class and the peasantry are split. As much as half the population exist outcash

COOLLY,

while hundreds of thousands starve in the

CUTES

and shanty towns outside the main cities. a tinder box India and the recession has put a match to it. Economic growth slumped to less than two per cent last and hundreds of year Its wealth is based state. on agricultural development the and early in sixties seventies. In 1981 the province earned 58 per cent of its income from farming which employs almost 60 per cent of the workforce. Punjab had better roads and local markets and some farmers were able to take advantage of government governsupport projects, ment credit and subsidised fertiliser and farm seed machinery. In 1972 Punjab had 1020 tractors for every 100 000 hectares of cultivated land; the Indian average was 104.

Food production soared and during the seventies Punjab accounted for India's surplus of rice and wheat and still supplies half India's production of these grains.

Poverty The collapse of Punjab's Revolution' has *Green off the current sparked A series of dry conflict. has reduced yields: At the same time, government policies have lowered cheapen food prices to supplies in the cities. More than 20 percent of small farmers and 31 per cent of marginal farmers, work wage tor on the larger farms as well as working their own plots live below the poverty line.

Thousands of landless labmake up 40 ourers. who per cent of the rural workforce, have been thrown Many have out ot work. moved to the towns where they join the urban employed, industrial WOr kers, and graduates seeking non-existent local government jobs. Manipulation have The richer farmers manipulated the misery rural and urban workers in fight the Punjab to chants who buy their produce, usually acting as middlemen for the government. The majority of the region's farmers are Sikhs. Almost thousands of workers and have been small peasants of ruined. The absence opposition national Indira movement Party Gandhi's Congress that many have means turned to regionalist and for movements sectarian Fight divisions After years of manipulating India's fissiparous ten- Congress itself is dencies, beginning to disintegrate.

The defection of Gandhi's daughter-in-law Maneka, the victory other and party, the Sanjay Manch, elections May's local Uttar Pradesh, Conin gress base and power Gandhi's home state, only the most public of the Party's internal Congress squabbles. India's workers should welcome the disintegration of Congress and fight for of unity the exreal ploited and oppressed, and against the divisions fostered by imperialism and its Congress stooges. 70 per cent live in the rural areas. the other Hindus, on hand, concentrated in are the towns, where they work industry, local government and commerce. In Amritsar, the Sikhs' holiest city, more than 90 per cent of the inhabitants are Hindu. The richer farmers, who make up only 20 per cent of the rural population but own 80 per cent of the land used religion to win have the backing of the poor for their campaign for a betthe governter deal from ment and its middlemen Divide and rule The Sikh farmers party, Akali Dal, has been able to carry on its sectarian crusade and win popular support because of the tradition of communal politics cultivand ated by the the ruling continued Congress Party. In 1908 the British instituted separate electorates for and Muslims and Hindus suggested establishing a sep- Lord arate role for Sikhs. Mountbatten, the last British governor of India, toyed with the idea of creating a separate Sikh state in Punjab. of Congress, the party has India's manipulated local divisions secure agreement tor its programme of industrial expansion, at least to It has paralyse opposition. played up to the ambitions of local cliques. During the 'Green Revolution' it encouraged Sikh regional identity to unite the behind the expanding Cas italist farmer class in Punjab. In the recession, when the state is no longer able to promote development projects, Congress has resorted to granting more power to local government to secure social peace. Return of the Sant Congress strategy has come unstuck in the recession and Punjab. Akali exploded 1n Dal was able to exploit the 'Putting down' the rebels: Indian troops shoot wounded Sikhs of Punjab's Sikhs to fears mobilise them behind the demands of the big farmers.

Akali Dal's principal demands are for the raising of the maximum acreage of land tenure from 17,5 acres 30 acres, more govern- • LO ment subsidies and higher prices. Its leadership is made up of representatives of the large farmers. The Sikh farmers' party won popular support in the countryside by blaming the influx of Hindu farm labourers during the agricultur for high rural boom unemployment and demanded that they be deprived of the right to vote. It blamed unemployment in the towns on the Hindu 'monopoly' of local government jobs and the anti-Sikh policies of the Akali central government. Dal argued that greater local would end the autonomy tyranny of the Hindus. Sowing divisions The of Indira response Gandhi's Congress Party to for the growing support Akali Dal, which formed the provincial government in 1977, was to foster communal divisions in the province. During the period of Akali Dal rule local Conbigwigs tried to engress gineer splits in the party by bribing prominent members The Congress leaders fossplits the Sikh tered community, promoting modernising sects such as the Nirankaris, and fundamentparticularly alist leaders Bhindranwale. Zail Singh, now Indian President, supplied Bhindranwale with money, turned a blind eye of his to the rampages supporters, and backed his unsuccessful bid for a seat which on the committee the Golden ad ministers Temple. At the same time, Congress politicians supported Hindu and took part in revivalist organisations such the Surakhsha Samiti as 1982 movement. In and 1983 Surakhsha Samiti was for burning responsible Hindu shops in Sikh areas Chaos and carnage and Sikh shops in Hindu areas. Before the storm During the restored Congovernment of Pungress jab after 1980, Chief Minister Darbara Singh cont- Bhindinued to promote ranwale as Akali Dal carried for more on its agitation autonomy. The success of Bhindranwale's supporters winning over large sectof the urban unemions ployed, particularly unemforced ployed students. Akali Dal to ratchet up its demands and activities. In late 1982 both Bhindranwale and Akali Dal lead.

Longowal took Sant in the Golden retuge Temple to avoid arrest Outside the Temple bloody rival Sikh clashes between and between Sikh gangs Hindu vigilantes carand eered out of control. the May this year, bitter violence Punjab along with the escalating unof the rest in the rest forced Gandhi to country act. But the storming of the Golden Temple has not solved Gandhi's problems.

Within days of the ass ault dozens of mutinies by been re- Sikh troops had ported, the most serious at Bihar state in- Ramgarh in volving 600 men. More than 15 per cent of the Indian army is Sikh and an even higher proportion of the officer corps. Almost 2000 Sikh peasants were arrested trying to march on Amritsar • from Punjabi villages. Tragedy The assault on the Golden Temple indicates that Indira Gandhi is prepared to use the army to crush the disturbances within India. But crisis the impact of the shows that in the Punjab this be enough may The tragedy of Punjab and Gandhi's Mrs India, and is that greatest advantage, the anger and hatred of the and workers peasants directed against the wrong targets. Kenan Malik and John Johnson

The collapse of solidarity The miners' fight for jobs has won widespread sympathy but failed to generate effective solidarity action from key groups of workers: • power workers their unions' blessing since the strike started in March • transport workers have moved convoys of coal across the country. Some waved union cards as they drove through the pickets outside Scotland's Ravenscraig steelworks • railway workers from depots like Shirebrook in Notts have kept coal moving in vital areas • steelworkers have opposed blockades of the Ravenscraig and bring coal in. Groups of militant workers here and there have taken action in support of the But miners. their efforts have been swamped by the willingness of the majority to continue working. Shirebrook

COLON

train drivers who refused to move coal last month could have little impact while three times continued taking coal trains out. Such isolated action has inevitably been ineffective. The struggle in the steel industry illustrates the militants* problems in pulling other workers out. Damage Many rank and file steelworkers sympathise with the But their CauSe. unions have endorsed solidarity action only so long as it does not damage the position of the British steel industry. This approach makes it impossible for militancy to win majority support for action which would inevitably jeopardise British Steel's market prospects.

The steel unions believe that protecting the British Steel Corporation from disruption is crucial to protect steelworkers' livelihoods. Union leaders like Bill Sirs always insist that they are not just fighting for jobs, but are campaigning for the future of the industry. Many militant steelworkers accept that the security of steelworkers' jobs depends on the stability of the British Steel Corporation. A resolution passed at June's Iron and Steel Trades Federation conference underlined how steelworkers allegiance poration makes support for the miners impossible. The resolution pledged support to the miners, but demanded that they recognise the precarious state of the British steel industry. Steel could British suffer 'irreparable harm of a mechanical or commercial nature if pressure on coal supplies was stepped up. The ISTC resolved to continue giving the NUM and financial sup- "moral port'. But it opposed tempts to stop steel production, for fear that British steel could lose its share of the market. No contest The British Steel executive who addressed the union conference made clear that further any of production would be managerially unacceptable'. The choice presented to steelworkers was clear: support have crossed miners' picket lines with Llanwern plants, cooperating with management to management's plan for covand keep porate survival

STOUUCKON

management, cut back output, and back the miners.

For a union boss like Bill Sirs, there was no contest.

At the start of the strike in March he had announced that he was 'not prepared to see the steel industry sacrion somebody else's altar'. As the leader of one of the parties to the Triple Alliance of coal, steel and rail unions, Sirs has regularly declared his sympathy for the miners. But last month the gloves were off, and Sirs came out fighting as a bosses' man. The union, he said, by management's decision file steel- Rank and workers have been squeezed between a commitment to supporting the miners and a commitment to their own Although industry. their instincts are to take action, the political outlooke they share with their anti-strike leaders has meant they are unable to convince other steelworkers or the case loI solidarity. The militants remain isolated, and the blast furnaces keep producing. The steel unions' explicit collaboration with their employers at the miners' expense has made them the butt of attacks from leftwing union leaders. But the IST's commitment to the industry its members work in is shared by every union including the NUM. Divisions Throughout the strike, miners leaders have declared they are struggling for an expanding British coal industry. They appeal for their bosses to be protected from foreign competition by heavy investment and stiff import controls. The collaboration of the miners' union with the Coal Board is codified in the joint union/management Plan for Coal. But this approach has divided them from other trade unionists who share a similar commitment to safeguarding their industries. The issue of coal imports brings this division into sharp focus. In February Coal Board boss lan MacGregor expressed concern that production lost as a result of the NUM overtime ban might create an opening for cheap foreign coal: *We have been having some battles with the Poles, trying to persuade them not to take advantage of the position in our industry. In this Mr Scargill and I are on the same side.' Today, in the middle of a bitter strike, Arthur Scargill and lan MacGregor are still But Bill Sirs and British Steel Corporation boss Robert Haslam are united in a commitment to keeping the steel furnaces burning with coal from anywhere. Steel unions and managekept the Port ment have Talbot and Redcar running at full production throughout the strike by importing foreign coal. This bitter Has provoked between the NUM and the

ISTC.

Because the miners' union supports the British coal industry, it opposes foreign coal. Because the steelworkers' union supports the British steel industry, it welcomes cheap coal imports.

The unions' loyalty to their industries has created unity between the NUM and the Coal Board, unity between the ISTC and the Steel Corporation, and division between the steel-

SAMURAOM

Empty gestures The miners' leaders have proved unable to overcome these divisions and win efsupport from the steelworkers from other unions with similar commitments to other sectors of industry. Instead, the NUM chiefs have been left making empty gestures. Miners leaders have res ponded to pressure for action from rank and file members by calling steel blockades and setting up ritual conflicts at the Orgreave coking plant. These gestures are meant to provide a focus for the anger of rank and file miners and to save face for the miners' leaders. They serve only to divert attention from the NUM's inability to mobilise action where it really counts - at the power Even in steel, the miners' leaders have made little attempt to win rank and file support. In May, Revolutionary Communist Party supporters set up a

SUCCEE

between rank and file miners and Scunthorpe steelwork- When the local press ers. reported it as an official miners' meeting, the vicepresident of Yorkshire NUM declared that his union had *never made any attempt to Scunthorpe talk to steelworkers'. While NUM leaders make empty gestures, the left-wing union leaders sound off with even emptier rhetoric.

Every three or four weeks throughout the strike, transworkers' leader Moss Poll Evans has called for 'all-out' action to stop coal and close the power stations. Nobody has taken any notice and the lorries have continued rolling. Kent miners. looking for practical backing around the South-East have found that Toothless Scottish wonders: transport union officials are 'unavailable" for weeks at a time Left-wing officials in the TWU fear that too close an association with striking miners, might endanger their champion Ron chances Todd's the union's leadership elections.

Unity Behind the militant talk of solidarity action, the official labour movement leadership has turned its back on striking miners in favour of col laboration with the employers. Union militants need to reject their leaders' approach if we are to unite

PREPARING FOR

PREPAR

POWER

AGITATE

TITi

NUM

boss Mick McGahey have made sure blacking doesn't bite at the Ravenscraig steel works workers behind the miners.

Tying workers' jobsto the fortunes of their industry only spell can disaster. Miners' leader Arthur Scargill is the most militant exponent of this approach Yet under his leadership 30 000 miners jobs have gone - with thousands more threatened - to keep the Coal Board's head above water. Steelworkers have paid an even higher price for defending their employers' market position. And the BSC executive addressing their union conference last month made clear that, despite Sirs"

WN:OPN

Order your copy now! Send 30 pence plus 20 pence p&p to Junius Publications Ltd, BCM JP LTD, London WC1N 3XX. Make cheques payable to Junius Publications.

Miners' strike Chric Black (reflex and traindrivers' chief Ray Buckton grovelling, one of-the big steel plants would have to close if the industry is to survive and compete. Union leaders romantic allusions to past traditions, or Scargill's calls to repay past favours to the miners cannot win solidarity action with striking unity in the working class.

The only way to win real in workers unity among every industry is by renouncing any concern for the bosses' problems and fighting for every job regardless of the state of the industry.

Mick Hume The Programme of the Revolutionary Communist Party the next step, July 19847

Women Womb for rent:capitalism turns babies into commodities Under capitalism everything has its price. select a Third World Call wife from a catalogue lot the cost of an airline ticket, a visa and a marriage licence. British men can hire women's bodies every on street corner at prices held down by the ready supply of unemployed and impoverished women. Foreigners have long been able to buy babies Third World black market from who take cash to mothers save their infants from starvation. that no surPrise some enterprising capitalist has now come up with a new service combining the marketing of women's bowith new - techniques ales of artificial insemination.

A British. now offers women's bodies at £6500 a time for the purposes of conceiving, carrying and delivering a baby.

•Womb-leasing' is a natural

SOCCE

which does business in buying and selling human beings, in whole or in part. Moral panics Entrepreneurs eager to exploit the vast market created by the prevalence of problems of infertility have hit a problem. Capitalist morality has no objection to selling any aspect sex, but it likes it to be - done discreetly. The publicity surrounding surrogate motherhood, scares compounded by about test-tube babies, have produced a backlash from the self-appointed guardians of approved codes of sexual behaviour. The moralists are on the have seized They on one issue after another to create a climate of opinion that reinforces approved sexual norms. Moral panics about video nasties, the pill for under-16s, late abortions, herpes and AIDS, have up to keep been stirred society in line. 8 the next step, July 1984 Surrogate mothers and test-tube babies Money and morality the At the same time, popular press is full of celebrations of the latest stage of Princess Diana's reprod- For achievements. the media women's only fulfilment mothers; 1S as infertility is to be pitied, sexual deviance be shunned. The undeserving In May, the press announced that woman borne test-tube quadruplets at the Hammersmith Hospital in London already had four children prior to being When the newssterilised. papers revealed that Jannie Smale also -WaS workIng class and unmarried the reaction was ferocious: • It was very unfair that 'someone in Jannie Smale's position should take pre- Terence over someone childless, said Brenda Holloway of the National Association for the Childless. • 'There are more deserv- , echoed top ing mothers, doctor Gerard Vaug- Tory han reviving the spirit of the Victorian Poor Law, in keeping with his party leader's well known moral convictions. • 'The desire to have a baby does not necessarily entitle you to have one. declared eminent gynaecologist Professor lan Donaldson, indicating the meaning of the doctor's right choose enshrined in the 1967 Abortion Act. The moral is if these techniques are to be used should be they confined to the rich and respectable and wasted on the undeserving poor. Beyond the pale Test-tube babies were bad enough but surrogate motherhood at any price was just too much take. "There are some which you should not to go, commented British Agencies for Fostering. Others were more outspoken: • Christian Lady Lothian suggested that present techniques could have by the

USCU

Nazis force surrogate Jewish mothers to carry "pure bred Aryan embryos.

• The Queen's gynaecologist, Sir John Peel, warned grimly of horrific consequences' and concentration camp abuses'. Meanwhile, the anti-abortion Life agency caes police to investigate Doctor Edwards Robert following success in growing human embrvo in tube for 13 days. Under growing pressure from a bandwagon of religious and medical prejudice, the Government set up a special inquiry. The comm- Dame Mary ittee, under Warnock, is expected to recommena restrictions on ex periments on embryos and to ban surrogate motherhood agencies. Their system and ours Artificial insemination, egg donation and in vitro fertilisation are all techniques considerable positive with They could be potential. developed to relieve the problems of infertility and give women who want LO babies the chance to have They would also them. make surrogate motherhood uccessary. In society as it exists at present these techniques have only two uses. They can be exploited for financial gain by unscrupulous be agencies. Or they Coll exploited by bigots and journalists as part of their drive to strengthen the of the traditional values family and women's subordinate position within it.

To realise the potential of reproductive

BOU COS

technology we have to get rid of the pimps and the hypocrites, and the system that sustains them both. Kate Marshall For the last three months 150 nursery workers Islington council in London have been on strike. They have widespread supparents and port among other council workers. But the left-wing Labour council has retused to their demands and their Nalgo has union failed to mobilise the allout action they need to win. Labour's radical 1982 council manifesto promisday ed that "the care services should not only for the needs of

CALCI

children parents and but also ensure that childcare workers are adequate- Yet paid'. the ly council has consistently failed on both fronts. The authorities refused for six discuss the nursery

WUL-

kers' demands. They want 20 per cent increase staff, a single wage all scale kers, and substantial rise above the current £83 a week basic. When the council finally refused to meet these demands in April, the nursery workers came outon in. definite strike. We can't afford it' Council leader Margaret Hodge explained that childwas not a priority. care She blamed the workers for the disruption to services and claimed that *we have put an offer on the table sider in the financial circumstances to be reasonable'. Left-wing social services committee vice-chair Kathy Bundred agreed - •We just cannot afford to give the strikers what SE

CION

• why are women oppressed?

• family life and sexual oppression • sexist myths and their roots in society Nursery strike they are asking for. chair service Carol O'Brien took the argument at Turner public meeting organised by the local RCP branch should *Why ratepayers take the burden of funding all working mothers?"

she asked. She claimed often feel that "women provision for all-day that care means that the coun cil feels that they are mothers. inadequate There is little danger of this in Islington the council provides full-time nursery places only lor 10 per cent of the available population of 10 000 children. The council leaders we afford it' the can't 1S familiar cry of Labour politicians telling workers with austerity to put up demanded by conditions Tory government cutbacks Their 'women don't need shows how it' argument feminist councillors are prepared to subordinate the women's interests to harsh terms of the crisis.

Restrictive action Close relations between council leaders and Nalgo officials have stood in the of effective trade way union action against the employers. The strike had been going for six weeks before the union organised 24-hour strike by other council workers.

Three months into the strike held a ballot in selected

COLT

cil departments, including and housing social ser vices The ballot, which asked the workers whether they would be prein pared to

HOTHE

of the strike, support

ASHION OF PUBLIC EMOTER

Preparing for Power special course

SEX, FEMINISM AND WOMEN'S LIBERATION

Women are being kicked out of their jobs twice as fast as men. They are the main victims of cuts in public spending on health and social services. And they are in the frontline of the Tories' drive to reassert a reactionary Victorian morality. Course convenor Ann Burton gives the Marxist view of women's oppression and how to fight it, in what promises to be a lively debate: • when the working day is done - how women spend their leisure time • the women's liberation movement - has it a future?

If you want more information about the course or would like to come to Preparing for Power fill in the form on page 20 or phone Kate Marshall on 01-274 3951 returned a slight majority in favour of sympathetic action. This was followed by a request to the up Nalgo executive committee to call for all-out action.

The strike committee selective argued that ballot was the only way win backing for the whereas a ballot strike, of the wider membership had little chance of winn- But the union's app. ing. of restricting the roach scope of the action to the traditionally more militant departments does nothing advance the nursery workers' cause. The strikers need Boates possible support - from fellow workers and parents - to make the strike effective and hit the employers. All-out action The Islington dispute is an important strike in de. fence of women workers and their right to jobs childcare provision. It is also a tremendous opp. ortunity for building wides opposition to the coun austerity CIl S

HIC SEES

Rather than rely on the union leaders, the strikers and their supporters should put their faith in rank and file and the argue the case for solidarity action in every coun cil department. Only by going to the workforce directly and workers convincing fellow of the need for their support will the strikers win all-out action. And only through all-out an nursery strike will the workers bring the dispute and favourto a speedy able conclusion. David Douglas

Power plays Are you ready? S ince they went on the attack in 1979, the employers have held the initiative. They have won every important battle and tilted the balance of class forces in their favour.

Yet they have not succeeded in making the working class accept the drastic solutions necessary for the revival of British capitalism. The weakness of the British economy has held back the employers offensive and forced them to continue relying on the Labour Party and trade union leaders to keep control. The patterns of collaboration built up over decades cannot be dismantled overnight without the risk of serious social unrest. Fears of growing economic and political instability force the ruling class to tread carefully.

he vacillation of the ruling class is apparent in its handling of the miners' strike. The Government and the Coal Board provoked the dispute, marshalled their forces and went in for the kill. They responded with a wave of police terror to the miners' attempts to organise effective picketing.

At the same time, they have been careful to keep their options open.

The Government has not provoked any major confrontation. It has avoided stirring wider sympathy for the miners by using its employment laws to bankrupt the miners' union or imprison its officers.

The bosses remain uncertain whether to go all-out to smash the miners and their union or to settle for a compromise..A compromise solution would represent a major setback for the miners but would allow the union leaders to retain a measure of credibility. An all-out victory for the employers would have a devastating effect on trade unionism and it would be a serious blow to the working class. A compromise on the Tories terms might save some face for the labour bureaucracy but it would inevitably mean the loss of tens of thousands of miners' jobs.

After the outcry over its ban on trade union membership at GCHQ Cheltenham the Government has tried to project an image of moderation. It has worked carefully to isolate the miners from other sections of workers. Tory leaders have.

spoken cautiously to avoid raising the he European elections revealed T two things. First, the policies of austerity and rearmament being pursued by governing parties in every country are unpopular.

the leading political parties of the labour movement are unable to provide a credible opposition. Chancellor Helmut in Germany. Kohl's Christian Democrats lost ground.

But so too did the main opposition party, the Social Democrats. The beneficiaries of the impotence of the traditional party of German workers were the anti-nuclear, middle class Greens, who won seven seats in the European Parliament. • In France, Premier Francois Mitterrand's socialists lost popular support. But the party which has long enjoyed the backing of French workers - the Communist Party - received its lowest share of the vote for 50 years.

the temperature and spreading the action.The Government has settled with the railway workers, allowed the teachers to go to arbitration and paid over the odds to the nurses. And although rank and file miners have been brutally assaulted by police on picket lines, the Coal Board has assumed a moderate and reasonable public face. It has even allowed press leaks suggesting that the employers are divided over negotiating tactics. Some journalists have even speculated that the miners are winning the dispute. Infortunately, the miners are not winning. The object of the bosses softly softly approach to the dispute is to push the miners into negotiating from a position of weakness.

But there are obstacles to a compromise solution. Neither side can afford to lose face and the strike is too volatile to allow the negotiators to get away with a straightforward sell-out. The Government has no objection in principle to starving the miners into submission. This strategy could bring considerable rewards for Thatcher - Scargill's head on a plate and widespread demoralisation workers. But it is a high risk strategy.

The miners' conflict could flare up and spread. And as long as the strike continues, the Government has only limited room to manoeuvre with other sections of the working class. The TUC and the Labour Party have got even bigger problems than the Coal Board and the Government. The paralysis of the TUC has been mercilessly exposed.

Len Murray has shown himself incapable of supporting workers in struggle - he could not even please the bosses by sabotaging regional days of action effectively. After three months of empty rhetoric the union leaders have more or less admitted that they are incapable of delivering sympathetic action in support of the miners. The union leaders are consumed by fear. They are afraid of strike action that leads to picket line violence, threats of legal action and anti-union ranting from the tabloid press. At the same time, they fear the consequences of a major deleat for one of the most powerful sections of the trade union movement. They have no It ended up on a par with the racist National Front which has taken votes from the communists by outdoing them in chauvinist and anti-immigrant Second, • In Italy, the Christian Democrats lost their majority by a whisker to the communists. But the sympathy gained by the Communist Party, on the sudden death during the election campaign of its leader Enrico Berlinguer, is unlikely to sustain it for long in the absence of any policies for defending workers' living standards. • In Britain, voters registéred their disapproval for the policies of the Thatcher government. Yet even though Kinnock's Labour opposition recovered from its General Election low point, it remained well behind the Tories.

It would have done much worse in terms of seats if the electoral system did not discriminate so effectively against next step cost for the miners T among standing with the rank and file.

no impact on the economy.

symbolic Ravenscraig or Scunthorpe.

weapons. adventures in the future.

great love for Scargill but they sense that if he is smashed, they too will suffer. Like the Government, the TUC leaders know there are now only two ways of resolving the miners' strike. They naturally preter a face-saving compromise, regardless of the he Labour Party's role in the miners' strike has grown as the TUC has retreated even further. It now plays a central part in pushing for negotiations and compromise. At local level party activists have been busy organising support committees and building up working relationships with militants. This work has been invaluable for the Labour leadership, which can now use the party's links with the strikers to boost its role as a mediator.

The Labour Party is isolated from the immediate pressure of rank and file miners, yet it is identified with the cause of the strikers. This places Neil Kinnock and his acolytes in a good position to preside over a compromise. The Labour leaders can cajole the NUM executive into signing the best possible' and 'most realistic" deal - and with luck still retain some Any compromise formula drawn up through negotiations can only be on the terms dictated by the employers behind closed doors. This is inevitable because the miners are negotiating from a position of weakness. The strike has lost its momentum and the militants, although they remain determined to win, are having The NUM executive has no strategy beyond 'wait and see'. Scargill's threat to stick it out until winter is not so much a strategy as an admission that the strike has reached an impasse. The NUM leadership devotes its energies to organising pickets at Orgreave or Scargill's tactics are designed to hold the active strikers together and prevent a drift back to work by the passive majority. Solid loyalty to Scargill among militant miners prevents them from seeing the turn the strike has taken. The strike's failure to hit energy supply and industrial output has turned the battle between the miners and the bosses into committee room wrangles the SDP/Liberal Alliance, which won almost 20 per cent of the vote but no seats. The SDP's by-election success at Portsmouth is a reminder that in large areas of the country, Labour is not considered a serious opposition party.

Throughout Europe the employers are on the offensive. In Germany, they have locked out thousands of metal workers over demands for shorter hours. In France, the Mitterrand government is encouraging a ruthless shakeout of jobs in manufacturing industry. In Italy; the bosses are trying to prevent workers from having guaranteed wage rises in line with inflation. In every European country governments are stockpiling conventional US missiles installing or developing their own alternatives. The recent D-Day celebrations show how they are preparing public opinion for military Everywhere workers desperately need between Coal Board and NUM executives.

The miners have no independent voice pawns in the they have become negotiations. Unless the pattern changes there is a danger that post-strike demoralisation will have a devastating effect on the strikers. ne of the most important contributions that revolutionaries can make at the present stage of the miners strike is to ensure that the policies and posturing of the NUM leaders do not go unchallenged. There is no future for miners in the endless routine of talks, setpiece confrontations and televised slanging matches. We should demand that the NUM leaders give a full account of • their negotiations to the rank and file expose their complicity in secret deals, and prepare militants for the likely outcome of talks with the Coal Board.

The miners' strike is one battle in the continuing war between the classes. At every stage in the dispute the Revolutionary Communist Party has fought for the best possible result for the miners and the We have constantly working class. emphasised the urgency of pushing the action to the limits and mobilising the maximum support and involvement of miners and other workers. It is not negotiations but the demonstration of class power that is needed to save pits and miners' jobs. The will to fight is there and it has been demonstrated with courage and resourcefulness time and again during the strike. But the miners' militancy has been constantly thwarted by bureaucratic policies that direct it towards token gestures Up to now the miners' strike has not altered the balance of class forces in Britain. But it could. If the bosses win hands down the working class will be seriously weakened. If on the other hand, the miners, even at this late stage, took matters into their own hands, they could limit the damage the bosses aim to inflict on their ranks. They could also begin the process of turning their union into an organisation that leads miners in real combat against the bosses instead of using them as cannon fodder in compromise negotiations a party that can lead a fightback to defend jobs and wages and begin the struggle to get rid of the present system before it destroys us all. In Britain, the Revolutionary Communist Party is building a party that can defend workers' interests now and win a better tuture.

This month the RCP is holding a week-long conference in London to discuss and debate all the important issues facing the working class in Britain and abroad. Preparing for Power is about preparing for power. One reason why so few people voted for labour movement parties in the European elections is that traditional workers' parties have given up any attempt to fight for a different sort of society. But never has the urgency of building a revolutionary party been so great or the prospects so favourable Are you ready to prepare for power?

Join us on 13 July. the next step, July 1984 9

A handbook for trade unionists

TAKING

CONTROL

Mike Freeman THE DEFEAT OF THE NGA print union over the closed shop at the Stockport Messenger, the ban on trade union membership the Government's at Cheltenham spy centre and the massive state offensive against the miners - three events within six months which mean that trade unionism in Britain will never be the same again. The 1984 miners' strike began as a fight to save pits. Yet within weeks it erupted into a wider conflict between miners and thousands of police backed up by the full force of the law. The miners have endured nationally coordinated paramilitary occupation of the coalfields and assaults on picket lines by riot police on horseback and on foot. Striking miners have been subjected to phonetapping and intelligence gathering. They have been exposed to plain clothes investigators and agent provocateurs.

They have been stopped at road-blocks, arrested in thousands, detained, beaten, charged with fined and riot, even imprisoned. The miners and beyond The state's onslaught on the miners raises new problems for trade union activists.

But state repression is not the only problem that militants face. The miners' strike has highlighted problems shared by workers in many industries. Militant miners have found that appeals to fellow miners to honour traditional trade union principles - 'don't cross picket lines' - have often fallen on deaf ears. Many miners fear the consequences of strike action for their own future, in a country where four million are already on the dole. Many miners have crossed picket lines because they remain unconvinced by the militants' arguments.

The fact that such divisions have come to 10 the next step, July 1984 the fore among the miners - the most militant section of the British labour - underlines how far-reaching movement this problem has become. The isolation of union activists from their fellow workers is one important problem that Taking Control tries to address.

Miners have discovered that resounding declarations of support from other union leaders are not worth the paper they are written on. At the start of the strike, the steel, rail and transport union leaders all pledged total solidarity with the miners. The steel union leaders then backed away from this pledge and insisted that the main steel plants must be kept in operation. Other trade union leaders played the same game and the miners were left to fight alone.

The miners' strike has underlined the limitations of official labour movement solidarity - something which raises problems for workers in all sections of industry.

Many miners eager to organise effective picketing at pits, steel plants and power stations have become frustrated with the poor organisation and coordination of the strike action. They have been angered at the lack of involvement of the majority of striking miners in much of the picketing and other activity. They have also become irritated at the dissipation of the energies of miners and sympathetic in other unions in fruitless lobbies, demonstrations and 'days of action'. Like workers in many other industries, miners have found their union leaders strong on rhetoric and gesture, but less impressive when it comes to organising action that will really hit the employers.

Militant miners have been disgusted at the role of the party which they have financed and loyally supported for the best part of a century. The Labour Party has been more concerned to mediate overwhelming numbers have - of the miners. on trade union in defence of living standards.

workers government. between the union and the employers than to give its wholehearted backing to the miners. Indeed, when police in brutally assaulted miners' pickets, Labour's leaders have been the first to denounce the violence Time for a new approach It is time to face up to the problems of the eighties and to take measures appropriate for our time. The recession has left its mark 280 pp organisation. Mass unemployment has decimated the ranks of the unions. The aggressive approach of the Tory government has shattered the trade union leaders' confidence. Rank and file militants have found that the proven methods of the past are no longer effective in rallying support or mobilising action The disintegration of trade union organisations and traditions from national workplace level has isolated and discouraged many workers who can see the urgent need to resist the employers' attacks.

Many militants want to fight, but lack the arguments to win the support of their workmates. Often, even a well organised group of activists does not know what is going on in other local workplaces, never mind in other industries. Taking Control is written for them. Its aim is to enable militants to overcome their isolation through a discussion of recent experiences and through outlining a strategy for a successful fightback against the employers and their Taking Control is based on the experience of supporters of the next step who have played an active part in the class struggle in British industry over the past five years.

workplace. Taking Control is based on a series of How we have lost jobs, how we can h about those without them - these a Many people think that it is unrealis but accepting them is certainly unrea working class. Workplace The shop stewards traditions, how establish closed shops and union s subjects of section two. Shop stew management's problems has paralys programmes designed to overcome responsibility for profitability, vial rebuilding in the workplace.

Stri What we are up against from the polic and from the reluctant strikers in subjects of section four. Unemploym strikes have discouraged many work But if we get ourselves together behin still win July 1984 paperback illustrations Order your copy now! Send £2.95 plus 85 pence p&p to BCM JPLTD London WCN 3XX Make cheques payable to Junius Publications Ltd Bulk orders: five or more post free discussions with trade union activists organised over a three year period. These discussions were followed up by a survey of workplace organisation and practices undertaken by the Industrial Department of the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1983. This survey involved interviews and discussion around a basic questionnaire.

It covered a wide range of workplaces in industry and services, private and public sector - a total of 148 establishments in all. This provided sufficient information to enable us to avoid the danger of drawing conclusions from limited sources. Taking Control presents the general experience - though workers in specific industries or services may find that trade union practices operate in a modified form in their

bs ing on to them and what we can do e the themes of the first section.

ic to try to fight redundancies istic from the point of view of the

ICIAL

raanisatio hey were subverted and how we can ructures under our control are the rds" acceptance of responsibility for d them in the face of rationalisation these problems. The rejection of all lity or competitiveness i the key to kes e and the courts, Acas and tribunals are the the union head offices nt and a series of setbacks in major ers from taking industrial action.

da clear plan of campaign we can A handbook for trade unionists

TAKING

CONTROL

Taking Control is a manual for active trade unionists. It is organised according to the broad issues which trade unionists come up against day in day out. There is an immense variety of workplace practices, particularly in areas such as wage bargaining, productivity and conditions. The examples we have selected illustrate general patterns.

We have also drawn from official and academic sources and surveys. We have tried to balance the necessity for thorough discussion with the need to be concise.

Historical detail has been included only insofar as it throws light on current issues.

Each chapter deals with particular problems that we have encountered again and again.

Each concludes with practical proposals on how we can stop the rot, rebuild our organisations and regain lost ground.

Wages How much we how much we how hard we have to sweat for it, and how get more for we can doing less matters are the focus of section three. It also considers the issues of productivity. terms and and health and safety. develops over the coming months.

get need these related conditions Taking Control is written as a guide to action. Workers may find particular sections more relevant to their immediate situation than others.

welcome the views of active workers on its contents and their experience of how our approach works in practice. The columns of the next step are open to continue the discussion of the class struggle in industry as it The unions The unions have become remote and bureaucratic and speak a language of rules, agreements and procedures that seems to have little relevance to the vast majority of workers. Union leaders are aloof and out of touch.

more at home on committees and quangos than in the factories or offices.

schools or hospitals where their members work. We need unions that represent their members and are accountable to them.

Taking control The final section examines how the unions have stood up to the test of five years of Tory rule. It reviews the TUC/Labour Party double-act and proposes a different direction for trade union funds and workers' energies We Their ballots or ours? Who controls the closed shop - and the funds? How to strike to win. How to fight redundancies. Mike Freeman explains how we can get a grip back on the unions: Preparing for Power special course

TAKING CONTROL

• who is the working class?

• what is the labour bureaucracy?

• employment and unemployment • wages, bargaining and shopfloor organisation • trade unions and politics Turn to page 20 for further details about Preparing for Power or phone Kate Marshall on 01-274 3951 the next step, July 1984 11

Scabs or scapegoats? itions of the Notts miners and argues that they are not so special.

Their conservatism is only an extreme form approach that has characterised all sections of the miners union since nationalisation.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

never been noted for their militancy.

They have long had a reputation for moderation and sectionalism. The Nottinghamshire coalfield has traditionally been one of the most prosperous and productive sections of the mining industry. On many occasions the miners have broken ranks colleagues the in course In 1893, in the middle of the first national strike called by the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, they returned to work leaving their fellow miners in a vulnerable situation. Again in the 1926 General Strike the turned to work, strike would be defeated. Following the devastating miners deteat in Nottinghamshire became the centre the infamous Spencer union. Led by MP George Spencer, the Notts Labour miners were organised into a breakaway company umon. In recent years these traditions have again come to the fore.

the 1983 General Election Notts miners voted for the Tories or the SDP/Liberal Alliance.

Party couldn't even win Sherwood constituency which contains 13 collierlittle else but Jes an0 unities. In the regional at the start of the present dispute 73.5 per over wang Notts miners voted against all-out action.

As the strike has divisions between the miners in other coalfields have become more pronounced. In

CYCH

thousands of working miners confronted thousands striking miners the union's Nottinghamshire headquarters after a 'right to work' march in Mansfield organised by non-strikers. kept apart by ranks of police.

were The Nottinghamshire Working Miners' Committee was set up soon after the Mansfield confrontation. With full backing from the Coal Board and the Tories, aims to but maximum those Notts miners who are still on strike.

Committee members have taken over the functions of left-wing union officials involved in the strike. Thoresby, Blid worth, pits and Ollerton - the right-wing committee men have taken control of the union.

The strike-breakers scored some important successes in the June elections for branch officials and inflicted defeat after defeat on long-serving union representatives. Everybody has their own opinion on the peculiarities of the Notts miners.

Journalists, academics and miners have put forward a now familiar litany reasons to explain their conservatism.

Many of the explanations seem plausible and have widespread received acceplance aunng une But do they really make sense?

strike. Let's look at the three main arguments.

"A different breed of men' Many miners and their supporters have expressed the view that there is something intrinsically different about the make-up of the Notts miners. argue that, unlike miners in Scotland, 12 the next step, July 1984 of the collaborative

MINERS

have Notts with their of a strike. Notts miners rethus ensuring that the Wales, Kent or 1926, of will to fight. wide credence true that militant conservanve Wales South many The Labour *fight hard. mining commoffer. shire and cent the acceptance progressed the Notts men and May other early more outside the most They eventually on 1974 national strike. History inherently In a number of Cresswell century have eastern part of the Wales, land, (Robert J Waller, of formed,

OUP,

public course of the DIts 1n operated an They Yorkshire, the Notts miners have no backbone and lack the This opinion, which has been given in the mining unities, is not confirmed by history. It is Nottinghamshire lacks the traditions of the left-wing area. But in numerous instances the Notts miners have demonstrated a determination to fight and to During the 1920 strike over wages, Nottinghamshire was more militant than 16 other districts which voted for acceptance of the Lloyd George government's During the 1921 lockout, York- Northumberland for voted of the employers' offer - Nottinghamshire rejected it. The Notts miners stayed firm even though they had less to gain from the strike than badly paid districts. The Notts miners fought back in the face of intensive police provocation experienced in any coalfield.

More recently, the Notts miners have shown their readiness to take militant action to defend their jobs and living standards. They played a full role in the national strike in 1972. And along with Derbyshire in 1973, they took the lead in implementing the overtime ban which resulted in, the successful shows that there is nothing different about the Notts miners that sets them apart from their fellow miners in other parts of the country. In fact, there is no such thing as a "Notts miner'. Throughout the twentieth of migrants successive waves come to make up the workforce of the Notts coalfield. A recent study of the coal mines opened up in the beneath county Sherwood Forest reveals that most of the miners were immigrants from Scot- Durham and Yorkshire The Dukeries trans- 1983). This tradition has continued in the post-war period.

In the fifties miners from clapped-out Scotland, the North-East and elsewhere packed their bags and moved to Nottinghamshire. In the sixties the NCB Transfer Inter-Divisional Scheme which assisted the transfer of miners from North to South.

Far from being a race apart, most Notts miners are related by blood to those who work in the pits of Scotland, Durham and Wales. It is true that they The Nottinghamshire miners lo ALL NOllS MNERS hE NEEL YuR SullEKT NOW Notts miners for the strike: no less militant, but trom an area more strongly intluenced by the moderate traditions of the NUM do not have the long and stable traditions of the Wales. But then neither do the Kent miners - and this has not stopped them going on strike. It's the money' Many militants believe that Nottinghamshire are because they have been bought off by high bonuses. Under the area incentive scheme introduced in 1978, a considerable portion of miners' wages depends on the output of their pit. This method of payment is clearly divisive, which is why the last the Coal Board were so keen to introduce it, against the wishes of the majority of miners. Tales abound of miners in Nottinghamshire earning hundreds of pounds a week in bonuses. Many groups on the left have taken up these tales to explain the conservatism of the Notts miners.

One organisation, the Group, has even invented Communist show that the Notts miners figures to are a privileged and hence reactionary section of the working class see Fight Racism, Fight Imperialism, While dishonesty is a way of life for the genuinely

RCG,

many others in the myth of the millionaire miners.

NCB Area North Yorkshire Barnsley North Notts South Notts South Wales Take-home pay has Nottinghamshire than in other mining areas. Compared to miners Wales, those in Notts are doing quite well.

However, the has not opened a goldmine in Nottinghamshire. Before its introduction, pits in Nottinghamshire were already working at high levels of producuvily thus experienced difficulties in output. In the first few years after the introduction of the productivity scheme, many Notts miners received high bonuses. But during the past five years this has tapered off and regional differentials have narrowed. The table above, taken from the Incomes Data Services of May 1984 explodes the myth of the labour aristocommunities of South if the bonus rate is Yorkshire miners in strike-breaking high Labour government and miners future. Sutton, green, Revolutionary that young by tered from May 1984) the police believe lose all battle. Average bonus on faces (£) 61 56 52 42 32 been higher in in South Probably scheme is miners Spencerism. and have raising considerable shire. But the crats of Nottinghamshire. The figures from the last week in April 1983 - reveal major differences in area bonuses.

. But the main factor behind Nottinghamshire's conservatism, why are miners in the better off North militant and the Barnsley areas on strike and worse paid Notts miners still at work? The high bonus factor' doesn't explain why miners from bonus pits at Selby in Yorkshire and Bilston Glen in Scotland came out once the strike started. There is simply no direct correlation between the level of bonus payments and miners' militancy.

Moreover, it is not true that the Notts can look forward to a secure Many Notts pits are about as secure as a row of condemned houses Blidworth, Babbington, Moore- Pye Hill Newstead, all are loss-makers under threat of closure.

The high bonus argument is also favoured by the ruling class and the media.

For years the ruling class has claimed miners with mortgages, cars and videos will not follow the path of militancy. This myth has been shatthousands of young miners Yorkshire, Scotland Wales and Kent, who have taken on the Coal Board, and the courts in a win or Colliery bonus average(E) 48 43 38 31 22 'Spencer's men' the most plausible popular explanation for the anomaly of the Notts historical the tradition of Academics and journalists have argued that Nottinghamshire's long history of cooperation has encouraged a moderate outlook in the mining com- The breakaway Spencer union had Nottinghaminfluence in the of strength company unionism wasn't due to the Notts miners The natural proclivity for moderation.

Spencer union derived its strength from power of the - Nottinghamshire mine owners. When the new

coalmines were opened in the twenties, the employers were a form of industrial feudalism. They had complete control over everything that went on in the mining villages. Troublemakers were kicked out of work and hounded out of the villages. The employers also used subcontractors - the butties - to pay and supervise the miners.

The butty system was repressive form of labour control which put the miners at the mercy of the subcontractor. The idea of a separate company union was popular most among In the aftermath of the strike the employers and the butties went on to the offensive. When demoralised miners returned to work they were given the ultimatum of giving up their union cards or their jobs. Active trade unionists were victimised. Lea by the boisover and New Hucknall companies, the employers dismissed hundreds of union men. Wellbeck colliery all the men were locked 1928 and out in membership Spencer union was made a condition of re-employment. one pit in Annesley - 200 miners were sacked for refusing to join the Spencer 1929. Spencerism was strongest in the new pits that were opened in the twenties.

Clipstone, At Blidworth, Harworth and Thoresby, the Ollerton, employers made sure that the Spencer union could run a virtual closed shop.

Company unionism roots support. In 1928, at the height of the Spencer offensive, the TUC organised a ballot to test the views of the Notts miners. The results showed that 32 227 supported the TUC-affiliated Nottingham Miners' Association, and voted for Spencer's union.

ballot result, the employers were able ween installed. to impose their will on the miners and break the union. But this had nothing to do with Notts miners' liking for company unions. It was the outcome of a protracted struggle, which hundreds of miners were victimised and run out of the county.

miners never accepted Spencerism. In the thirties, after a bitter strike at Harworth collery, they managed to defeat it.

Two sorts of politics If we simply look at Nottinghamshire in we will never discover the real

ISO CEOS

for the Nottinghamshire has historically the most prosperous mining region. It enjoys geological conditions vantageous for coalmining. Yet the county's geology is similar to that of Yorkshire it tells us little about the specificity of the Notts miners' traditions.

The above account of company unionism indicated has that, historically, important and distinctive feature of the coalfield was the pervasive power of the This tells us about the He OWes. repressive conditions miners, but it does not explain their sectional and cautious outlook.

To understand the peculiar position of the Nottinghamshire miners we must examine the main political influences on the British mining community. There have always been two distinct approaches to trade unionism in the mining commof industrial the policy oration and the policy of class struggle.

most of its history the miners' union has been dominated by the politics of industrial collaboration. Until the end First World War many of the of the miners" leaders were Liberals. The early union leaders Alexander MacDonald John Normansell, Thomas eсa114 an extremely the butties. 1926 miners' of the alone the lot of their in miners shared Bilsthorpe, had little grassof industrial of with -Ene only 2533 will result to the worker.'

Despite the Despite his 'The old policy of identity of interests betemployers and ourselves abolished, and a policy of open hostility South Wales Unofficial Reform Committee, The miners' next step, 1912 Mineworkers. In in the course of to the Board, The livelihoods. • ally opposed region's conservatism. roach associated been Reform unal are adminers" stressed miners' one the leaders experienced by for Teed pontes. The abolished, instaled collabsupport up to 1926. eral Strike tancy. and Burt the dominant outlook True: but Notts militants have a bigger battle against collaboration than militants in other areas William Crawford - believed in improving members through cooperation with the employers. Like their modern day successors, they believed that a responsibility for the well-being of the mining industry. The union leaders justified claims for higher wages and better conditions by pointing to the employers profits and proclaiming their commitment to the industry.

Spencerism is only an extreme form collaboration. 1948 Spencer explained his point of view: I have always made it a cardinal point policy to show that by a joint effort management material right-wing views, Spencer was not that much out of line with the should be mainstream of the National Union of same year, NUM general secretary Arthur Horner argued at the union's conference for collaboration with the Coal Board: 'we can say "you have done well, but we will continue to help you do much better" ?. Unlike Spencer, Arthur Horner was a man of the left. A leading figure in the Communist Party, Horner believed that collaboration with the Coal Board would guarantee miners' jobs and The collaborative policies of the leaders of the miners' union were diametricthe combative app- LO with the Unofficial Committee South based in Wales. In its historic 1912 pamphlet, The next step, the Unofficial Reform Committee advanced a policy which independent interests. It noted that there can be nothing in common between the exploiter and the exploited, and argued that any gains for the miners could only come about at the expense of the bosses profits. The miners' next step took a hard line against of industrial collpolicy aboration. Its first demand argued the independent working class old policy of identity of interest between employers and ourselves should be and a policy of open hostility The tradition represented by The miners' next step had considerable rank and file The setbacks inflicted on the miners in the early twenties and their defeat in the 1926 Genundermined industrial mili- Industrial collaboration • became in the miners'

MOST

NOT

T LA •AR

NOT

SCABS

union. These consequences in every coalfield, Nottinghamshire included. Notts politics During the First World War radical ideas considerable influence gained Notts miners. A group of anti-capitalist miners led by Jack Lavin propagated the policies of The miners next step in the Mansfield area. Based at Wellbeck colliery, Lavin established a branch of the Socialist Labour Party, became a branch Party. In the early miners united to form the Mansfield District Committee. This committee had considerable rank and about 10 pits. When the union leaders ordered a return to work in 1926, the rank and file at Wallaton, Sherwood, Newcastle, and Bentinck collieries passed resolutions condemning them. The employers' offensive was successful in destroying the influence of the left.

For at least a decade the policy of col laboration in the extreme form Spencerism - prevailed. Outside Nottinghamshire, the miners" union too was becoming The leadership conservative. national union felt threatened by Spencerism and moderated its policies to meet the approval of the mine owners. This conservative approach had a major impact in Nottinghamshire. When Notts miners rebelled against Spencer and fought to build the Miners' region the miners' leaders were pleased.

But instead of helping the Notts miners to get rid of Spencerism once and for all, the union leaders advised them to unite with Spencer's company union. The result was that in September 1937, the two groups united to form the Nottinghamshire District Miners' Union. The President of this new affiliate to the Miners' Federation was none other than George Spencer! When the Miners' Federation bcame the National Union of Mineworkers in 1945 not much had changed. The leadership of the NUM prided itself on fighting not only for its members but also for the mining industry. had a divisive impact on the oration miners. Instead of class unity, miners developed close bonds with and, after companies with the local division of the National Coal Board. The inevitable consequence of this collaborative approach heighten sectionalism. Sectionalism developed stronger roots collaboration. Joe Boatman (reflex) Joe Whelan, developments had serious among which in 1920 of the Communist twenties left-wing file support in Wellbeck, hamshire of increasingly miners look of the depends on Federation in their 'We can say to the (Coal) Board, "You have done well, but we will continue to help you do much better"' NUM general secretary Arthur Horner, 1948 Federated safeguarded This policy of collabperpetuates the the local nationalisation, was to action. in Nottinghamshire than in most other regions because there was more scope for The profitability of the Nottinghamshire coalfield meant that employment was stable, overtime oppor tunities were plentiful and wages relatively high. Most issues of conflict were easily smoothed over by local union leaders eager to establish good relations with the employers. The Notts union leaders were far from being Tories. When Spencer and his colleague Coleman retired in 1945, their places as full time officials were taken by Dai Ley and Harry Straw -both members of the Communist Party The Communist Party was influential on the NUM executive. But Communist leadèrs were bureaucrats first and Communist Party members second. At the 1966 special NUM conference, only the Notts leaders spoke out against the proposal to move away from district to national negotiations. It was Joe Whelan who put the case for Nottingham and argued the divisive case against national agreements.

who was a prominent figure in the Communist Party and leader of the Notts miners in the seventies and early eighties, sums up the peculiarities of the region he represented.

Nottinghamshire miners are no different from miners elsewhere. But industrial collaboration has different effects in different regions. Class collaboration exacerbates divisions and strengthens sectionalism, This sectionalism overrides party ties and union loyalties.

This narrow parochial outlook influences all the mining regions. That's why last year miners in many pits were reluctant to come out in support of their colleagues who faced pit closures in South Wales and Scotland. That's why at the outset of the current strike, miners at some of the super pits' were reluctant to strike.

Joe Whelan belonged to the same political party as Scottish miners' leader Mick McGahey. On most subjects they were in complete agreement - what divided them was not ideology but sectional interests Given the unstable industrial climate in Scotland, sectionalism is quite consistent with outbreaks of militancy. In Notting industrial stability has streng thened the network of collaboration sectionalism in the region takes the form of moderation. In Nottinghamshire many for solutions through cooperation with the Coal Board. In Scotland miners have learned that their future Coal Board. -wighting the Unfortunately, both wings of the movement are politically tied to the Coal Board.

The 1974 Plan for Coal, which the miners executive accepts as its statement of principle, is based on industrial collaboration.

Left-wing miners' President Arthur Scargill and the rest of the NUM executive never tire of repeating that they are not just fighting for their members jobs, but also for the future of the British mining industry. The Notts miners refuse to fight on the same grounds. The only difference is that the Notts miners believe that the future of the mining industry can be better through industrial peace rather than through strikes The only difference between Nottinghamshire and the other regions is that as a result of its peculiar experience, collaboration and sectionalism are more entrenched than elsewhere. But the problem lies not so much with the Notts miners as with the leadership of the NUM, which policy of industrial collaboration through its advocacy of the Plan for Coal. Until the miners resurrect the traditions of The miners' next step sectional divisions will continue to plague the NUM, and the Nottinghamshire coalfield will continue to undermine national the next step, July 1984 13

Where's the Labour Party?

Gary Hart: synthetic crisis among the Democrats.

'I don't see how either of them can win was how one American commentator summed up the dull contest Party's presidential nomin- Democratic ation between former vice-president Wal- Mondale ter and Senator Since the selection process February, both the staid Mondale and The traditionally American Federation Labor-Committee for Organisation (AFL-CIO) has thrown its diminishing weight presidential contender Democratic Walter Mondale, in a desperate effort to compensate for its declining status, and stave off the employers offensive against trade unionism. Since coming to office in 1981, Ronald Reagan has launched an all-out assault on union organisation. In his first year he smashed a strike by America's air traffic controllers by sacking all 11 000 and dragging their leaders away in chains. This year, legal and arbitration decisions have allowed employers to lie about bankruptcy as an excuse for tearing up union contracts, and transfer work consulting the union leaders. This has encouraged the boom in 'runaway firms, which are shifting their bases to southern states where right to work' laws prohibit effective union organisation. The growth of hi-tech industries in the Sunbelt of the has passed the unions by. Unions managed to organise only two million of the 35m jobs created nationally between 1960 and 1980. Private union-busting consultants have joined in the attack. Some employers have had dramatic success in breaking union shops. After 50 years of high pay and unionisation the meat-packing industry has reverted almost overnight to non-union sweatshop conditions.

When the unions have organised strike action, federal and local have had compunction about using police and the National Guard to break picket lines. The openly pro-business American union chiefs are helpless in the face ot this attack. Decades collaboration with employers, 14 the next step, July 1984 'Where's the beef" - a hamburger chain's advertising jingle - has become the catchphrase of the lacklustre contest for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. As Walter Mondale prepares to take the nomination at this month's party congress, Mick Hume looks at what lies behind the capture for the the Reverend Jesse Gary Hart. began in paign. First, non-political of Industrial declining industries. behind today. Far from for profit-sharing employers. competitors without up Japanese cars. South-West collaboration. no of the the synthetic Hart have signally failed America's imagination. The third candidate to last out the long course to this month's nominating convention.

Jackson, has made two distinct contributions to the cammobilised he has black voters on an unprecedented scale while corruption and witch-hunts against militants have left them with a shrinking membership based in the The proportion of private sector workers in unions is down from 26 percent in the early seventies to just 16 per cent taking on the employers offensive, the unions have sought closer identification with the bosses problems. Union negotiators have accepted huge wage cuts in return and schemes corporate shares. Unions have rejected industrial action in favour of million dollar media campaigns and useless consumer boycotts against intransigent Militant initiatives are confined to chauvinist campaigns to protect US capitalism from foreign such as union-sponsored expeditions to smash The labour bureaucrats' economic weakness has forced them to turn to presidential politics for protection.

Since the thirties, politics for the union bosses has meant backing the Democratic Party. Then, President Roosevelt helped the union leaders to contain rank and file militancy by organising new industrial unions from the top down, and establishing a limited machinery of consultation.

Now they are relying on Mondale to keep intact Roosevelt's system of labour bureaucrats' dependence on an overtly establishment politician to defend workers organisations highlights the historical weakness of the official labour movement in America.

Workers divided Unlike their British counterparts, American union leaders have never had a tame Labour Party to safeguard the bureaucrats political interests.

The modern American working class was formed out of a flood of immigrants, divided along ethnic, Where's beef? Mondale and Hart have attracted pitifully low white support. Second, "charisma' an ability a dozen sentences together lined the mind-dulling mediocrity of the two major protagonists. before the election proper the Democrats' challenge to already looks doomed. The lack of both Mondale and Hart reflects Democrats' inability LO a coherent alternative to Reagan's strategy for salvaging American Like Reagan's Republicans, cratic Party is a loyal servant of US private enterprise. Its spokesmen have religious and national lines. Their political affiliations were distorted by competition between different groups for better jobs and housing.

Irish-run political machines controlled the city ghettoes and kept Catholic immigrants loyal to the Democrats.

*Native' Protestant workers tended to vote Republican. The divisions within the working class allowed American plenty of scope for playing off one group of workers against another.

While the Irish formed the backbone of the union bureaucracy, Italians, Poles or Jews could be used to scab on each other. Through a combination of brutal coercion and concessions, employers were able to deal with the working class directly, going over the heads of union chiefs.

They had little need of the institutionalised mediation through reformist politics which developed in Western Europe. American union leaders were never given room to play a role in government on the British model. At the time, sate fragmentation of the working class meant that there was no real political pressure on the union bureaucrats They were not forced to set up a parliamentary wing to insulate them from dangerous political issues. There is no American Labour Party because American capitalism could survive without one. Union leaders have relied on their tense relationship with the anti-working class Democrats to provide a limited political influence.

A rotten bloc Since Reagan's election, the AFL-CIO under the leadership of Lane Kirkland has tried to move the Democratic Party closer to the working class, and win back credibility among the 40 per cent of trade unionists who voted Republican in 1980. Accusing Reagan of starting 'a revolution', the labour Walter Mondale: staid had trouble his to string half - has undermany there are Four months But between President Reagan public enthusiasm for the depended. put together capitalism. the Demo- The the

"GOP'

Mondale. employers of being employers token carried manufacturers, more hope. attempts to revitalise party and Roosevelt's New Deal. against ashington distinguishing themselves from Reagan's austerity programme to revive American business.

This has led radical commentators to label US democracy as a 'one party system'.

important differences Democrats Republicans and The Democratic Party's particular problems spring from the disintegration of the coalition on which its past power Catch-all coalition Republican Party is often called the Grand Old Party of leaders have staked their all on getting a Democratic 'friend of labor" into the White House. Everything is subordinate to the campaign behind At the end of last year, while strikers at the Greyhound bus company fought scabs and police Kirkland could only accuse the 'short-sighted' and call for more solidarity within union ranks for greater political activity than ever in 1984, to return fairness and progress to the federal administration'. But even if Kirkland succeeds in giving Mondale a leg-up into the Oval Office, there is no hope of 'fairness and progress' for the working class. The bureaucrats are demanding more consultation and cooperation from a Democratic administration and the employers.

But the only consultation which interests the bosses is along the lines out by the big car where union concessions over wages and conditions in return for "job security' have been followed by mass redundancies. The capitalist Democrats hold out little During the national Greyhound strike and the ongoing bitter struggle at the Phelps copper mines in Philadelphia, union leaders have appealed for Democratic Party support to resolve the disputes.

Democratic mayors and governors have sought to resolve them in favour of their own class, by sending police and troops against the strikers.

Union support for the Democrats' American capitalism can only perpetuate the divisions within the working class It is 50 years since the American left gave up trying to build a revolutionary fell in line behind Yet today there is a desperate need for a political struggle to unite the working class Ronald Reagan, Walter Mondale and Lane Kirkland.

American Northern together of Southern Coast liberals, supporters. of American of Korea of the uprisings class militancy. sixties, tier and in the inner cities. keep party groups. Their single to reconstitute all-class The harsher the get, debate over workers' jobs win wider support. Walter Fritz' Mondale had the support of the party bosses, and endorsements from such venerable institutions as the AFL-CIO - the

US TUC

National Organisation of could afford to outspend his opponents victory over the the aid canvass prunaly beyond punters. for the past stalesman, fragile coalition West racists. the heyday from the inner fairer America' the union Protectig times of national tries from when they hit workers. outdated, Democrat-led the dale's support. of Washington America's ing his Johnson's Great ectuals, and uates - Yuppies' value soon gave to breaking than business other for While traditional with Jimmy class positive the In the inability to else alliance. conditions groups at the immigration bill infighting And the past are long from illegal too busy to lend the primaries. The own floor

CONSEL

producing Democrats approach - and une Women. us power at and the oppressed. organisers, to outthem on America's doorsteps and telephones. Gary Hart winning the first In Mondale the Democratic vice-president to the security of liberalism. struck But Mondale's approach pocket of "special Hart's unexpected the limits of Mon- Colorado. Hart Emphasis- Hart Coast intellupwardly mobiles for reviving US His novelty Mondale COlU diverse groups puts campaign city In cities such as in election platform This is And even if the "fluke' a win in Were of The Reverend Jesse campaign to build a Rainbow Coalition' of blacks and other oppressed groups has been the one success story of the Democratic primaries. Across the country, he won 21 percent of the popular vote.

This unprecedented support for a black presidential candidate has been heralded as a great leap forward for black Americans. In fact, Jackson's success reflects how far the black revolt of the sixties has been contained and channelled into electoralism. When black inner-city ghettoes erupted in riots in the sixties, the American establishment adopted a two-pronged strategy to deal with them. On the one hand, it used armed police and troops to crush the rebellions and assassinate leading black militants. On the other hand, it developed programmes of affirmative action' to provide a few jobs and integrate a section of the black leadership into the system. The strategy succeeded in heading off the black revolt. Recession put an end to affirmative action. Thousands of blacks quickly lost their new jobs as employers such as New York City - faced drastic spending Today, cuts. unemployment for blacks stands at around 33 percent - 80 percent for black youth in the inner cities. All that is left of the establishment's original strategy is police terror. Shootings and beatings experience of black communities.

Resistance such as the recent Miami rots has been on a much smaller scale than in the past, and has been mercilessly put down. Within the system The crushing of independent black militancy has made many blacks pessimistic about the prospects for progress through violent upheaval.

In desperation they have turned to the electoral process, which appears to offer the only practical way forward.

Here they have found a growing body of middle class black politicians.

Black 'community leaders' who were street activists 15 years ago have lowered their sights, working within the system to suit the harsher economic climate, and joined the Democratic Party. Today, there are more than 6000 elected black officials in America. Black mayors run four of the country's six biggest cities.

Jesse Jackson's President is the logical next step in taking black resistance off the streets and into the city halls and Congress.

In 1984, the old 'integrationist versus separatist' argument has been reduced to a disagreement about whether blacks should support Walter Mondale or Jesse Jackson. Jackson's relations with Mondale and the Democratic Party leadership have been uneasy. Party bosses have recognised Jackson's potential for Sweet nothings for blacks: Jackson chatting up Democrats can't bring freedom Where's black power? harmless acting real the everyday power'. candidacy for urgent. mobilising black voters behind the eventual Democratic candidate. But they are aware of the danger of letting Jackson go too far, and provoking a racist backlash. Last year, the party almost lost its safest mayoralty - in Chicago when white voters deserted its black candidate in favour of a Republican racist.

The tensions caused by housing black radicals and hardcore racists • "boll weevils and cotton' as Jackson calls them - within one party have been exacerbated by his association with Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan raised some electoral eyebrows by threatening to kill a black journalist who reported Jackson's anti-semitic remarks. But Jackson himself has declared his loyalty to Democratic Party traditions, peacemaker between Mondale and Hart and declaring that he is 'running because there are more people locked out of the Democratic Party who are its natural constituents than are locked into it': *So I'm running to defend the poor and make welcome the outcasts and to deliver those votes that are stuck at the bottom, I think that is the salvation of the Democratic Party, the democratic process, and for the soul of America.'

Far from causing trouble, Jackson aims to save the party by diverting black protests into the 'democratic process.

But the next step, July 1984 15

their funds before the doors finally close.

risk premiums. recessionary spiral. confrontation.' The threatened collapse of the Chicagobased Continental Illinois bank in May illustrates the dangers to major banks from the weakness of the economy at home. The eighth biggest bank USA, Continental Illinois was not a victim of any international defaulter. It had to write off a series of loans to America's declining energy supply and traditional manufacturing industries. The US government was obliged to bail out Continental Illinois with a package of $7.2 billion put together with 28 other banks.

Paul Volcker, America's top banker, summed up the philosophy behind the rescue plan: When safety and soundness, broad confidbanking institutions and continuity ence in the provision of money and services are stake, competition achieve these CaLLIOL reneu upon to goals. 16 the next step, July 1984 It could happen this month or next month. The reports would go like this: 'One of the major Newly Industrialising Countries in Latin America has finally gone over the top. It has told the bankers of the West to forget their demands for more interest or repayment of loans. The shock waves are reverberating through the world financial system.

The Bank of America, Citicorp and Chase Manhattan as well as Lloyds and the Midland, are on the verge of collapse. They all have big stakes in Latin America. Now they have been forced to declare that a large chunk of their loans are 'non-performing'. Share prices are plummeting and shareholders are in a state of panic. Depositors are rushing to withdraw *The global inter-bank market, which normally keeps large volumes of short-term loans circulating rapidly, has slowed right down. Every bank is fighting for its own survival. -Credit is drying up and entrepreneurs looking for loans have to accept punitive interest rates and fork out big The wheels of trade - normally oiled by credit - are grinding to a halt. Businesses of every sort that rely on loans to stay afloat are going bankrupt overnight. The debt default has plunged the West into a *The default is having even more catastrophic consequences in Latin America. The West has already declared a credit embargo and trade sanctions. The USA, Britain and other EEC countries are seizing assets, impounding exports and blocking imports. The guilty country is so short of foreign exchange that it is forced to conduct its trade by barter.

"The banking crisis is setting bank against bank and fuelling competitive conflict among the Western powers. The IMF and the World Bank are imposing harsh financial penalties on the upstart Third World regime. It seems a short step now from economic warfare to full scale military Armageddon could be just one bad debt away. This scenario is far from being wildly impossible. The spectre of a banking crash hangs over every meeting of Western politicians and businessmen. It was threatened by Mexico in 1982 and in recent months by Argentina. Next it could be Brazil, Venezuela - or the Philippines or Indonesia. The instability of the financial system is a reflection of the impact of the recession on both the more advanced and the less developed countries of the capitalist world. Two recent examples indicate the intense pressure on the big banks.

So much for the Reagan regime's faith in private enterprise. 48 banking failures

USA

and in the too many more. Less than one week after the Con- The dimensions of debt of the main debtor countries bigger than total exports of export earnings; payment alone Third World. Last year there were circulate in the about the the system cannot afford biggest Western Total Third World debt is expected to reach $812 billion this year: • Argentina, Brazil and Mexico together account for a third of the world total • some 21 countries make up 85 per cent of the total • debt obligations make up between a third and half the annual economic output • debts for the major Latin American countries are between two and four times • debt servicing - capital repayments and interest charges — can take the bulk in the case of Brazil the proportion is 100 per cent Through the mechanism of credit, Western bankers exert a stranglehold over the The crash of '84 tinental Illinois rescue, rumours began to financial centres the around une For ot Manutacturers Hanover, the USA's fourth largest bank.

Manufacturers Hanover is Argentina's money lender with wage ICay CEs the big loans worth $1.3 billion outstanding at end of the first quarter of 1984 the past two years Argentina has experienced a wave of bankruptcies, banking crises, mass unemployment and This cuts. year's desperate bid to expand the economy has produced an inflation rate of 570 per cent. Warning signals that Argentina's rulers might not be able to meet their scheduled interest repayments sent a shudder through the boardroom of Manufacturers Hanover and beyond. If the bank received no for outstanding loans it would be forced to declare that more than half its loans were 'non-performing' Within days billions of dollars would be wiped off share values in the stock markets of New York, London and other financial centres as the panic spread. Again league politicians and bankers

went fast to the rescue. Let's look more closely at the debt problem in the West and the Third World. A fragile recovery It may seem paradoxical that the banking system is so volatile at a time when the American economy is supposed to be leading the world out of recession. In fact, the debt problem reveals the limited character of the US recovery and the persistence of recessionary trends. Last year industrial output in the USA grew by three per expanded by more than eight percent.

This recovery is based on a number of short-term factors rather than any real restructuring of the economy. Rationalisation, destocking, cutting wages and expanding consumer credit have played their part. However, the most significant factor in the American revival has been the enormous increase in Government spending, especially in the military sphere. Four key features of the US upturn expose its fragile basis massive budget and trade deficits, high exchange rates and interest rates.

• The budget deficit - the gap between government income and expenditure heading for $200 billion this year. Like other business, the aLLY has to fill this gap by borrowing money.

Because of the enormous volume of the government's business and the scale of its borrowing, it takes a major share of the available credit. This pushes up the rates of interest at which every punter - in America and abroad - borrows money. • The trade deficit - the gap between exports and imports of goods grown to a current level of $12 billion a month. American industry cannot compete with Japanese cars and televisions, European machine tools and Third World steel and textiles.

upturn has produced a flood of foreign *To apply austerity we need to have the political space and we haven't got that at the moment' declared Adolfo Canitrot one of Argentina's at its June This predicament businessmen generals of of the development. the Latin

COLOC

anti-imperialist. June Latin 'we are avoid paying it. Crisis and instability The problem is that the West's terms for economic cooperation are drastic cuts in public spending and living standards that threaten serious instability in Latin America. Last imports and a further decline in domestic manufacturing. • High interest rates are the price the system has to pay for an upturn based on massive private lending and public spending. High interest rates attract large volumes of foreign. money into Wall Street in search of a quick return. This cash helps to compensate for the trade and budget deficits. However it also pushes up interest rates abroad and the exchange rate of the dollar. A one percent hike in US interest rates raises Latin America's debt-servicing costs by $1 billion. The ten investment per cent January has wiped out all the recent restructuring measures worked out in painstaking negotiations debtor countries and the Western world.

• The high exchange rate of the dollar all is propped up by high interest rates.

The high dollar makes US exports even less competitive and pushes US manufacturers further down the road to ruin.

High interest rates available to beleaguered factory owners in the the North East or entrepreneurs trying to open up new plants in the South West.

The combined effect a wave of bankruptcies. The debtors' burden government Argentine President Raul Alfonsin cently wrote to the IMF indicating his reluctance to introduce policies of deflation and austerity as a condition for rescheduling the country's repayment of other overdue loans. The Altonsin as scrounger and as an irresponsible custodian of US funds in Argentina. In Britain has The Economist scornfully dismissed the around 'can't pays, won't pays' of Latin America who met in Colombia at the end of June.

The Western prejudice that'we are now the prisoners of the debtors' is absurd. It does, The US however, show the growing awareness in Washington and London that the easy Balancing act November Brazil's Figuereido attempted to meet IMF terms by imposing a decree limiting inflation. fostering Altonsin. Posturing necessity for need to be taken by Brazil in order for it to meet its foreign obligations, be imposed by a president who enjoys the support of the broadest possible sector of the be drawing nearer by the day.

foreign investment, rise in US interest rates since between the make less credit lining has produced string their debtors along.

American press Third World. an ungrateful fer' President 1984) relatively sentiment postponed. accept wage 'Yankee puts a of a good night's sleep. credit policies of the past have only postponed a day of reckoning that seems to In the sixties a number of Third World countries took advantage of the growth of the world economy to expand and industrialise. The Newly Industrialising Countries - NICs- attracted substantial direct stagnant especially in the industrial sectors. When profits slumped across the Western economies in the seventies, the banks looked to the NICs.

They loaned masses of cash to pay for imports from the West and financed investment programmes. The NICs debts only became a problem because of the global effects of the recession. The conevery year. traction of trade, the slump in commodity prices and the rise in interest rates combined to make it impossible for Third World countries to repay their debts.

The world recession has ravaged Third World economies that are heavily dependent on a narrow range of agricultural products, minerals or other raw materials.

The NICs fragile industrial sectors have been squeezed between the rising protectionism of the world market and the decdemand of depressed domestic economies. Though Third World countries can no longer afford to service their debts the Western banks keep on lending them money. The creditors have no more promising outlets for surplus cash and they are prepared to go to great lengths to Even when some countries are threatening to default there are still fortunes to be made out of moneylending in the The IMF figures show that last year Third World countries repaid $115 billion in net interest payments to the West. A World Bank spokesman revealed that over the last two years there was a net transfer of funds of $28 billion from the Third World to the Western banks. The flight of money capital from Latin America - 'negative resource trans- - has reversed traditional patterns population. It would be a recipe for instability if an austerity policy were to be imposed on an unwilling country Dy a head of state chosen in a way that most Brazilians found unacceptable.' (18 April the Pressure for Brazil to return to at least token democratic government - la abertura - comes from the imperialist powers. They are also concerned to safeguard Alfonsin's popular regime in Argentina. However, the profound social tensions unleashed by the recession make democracy a risky proposition for the ruling class.

In Brazil the working class is strong and militant - but it faces rampant inflation, mass unemployment and food shortages. After three months of riots and street fighting earlier this year, following Congress' refusal Western to allow direct elections, the return to democracy has once again been As one moderate politician put it, the country is divided into those who can't sleep European because they are hungry and those who can't sleep because they worry about what the hungry may do Bargaining counter The militancy of the working class throughout Latin America is being exploited by the local ruling class already as a bargaining counter against the imperialist powers. Latin American workers must make sure that they are not used as pawns to fight the imperialists solely for the benefit of their own rulers. Opposition to imperialist domination must go hand in hand with the struggle to unseat the ruling class at home. When the masses of Latin America take to the streets to realise this objective no Western imperialist will be assured Charles Longford to believe. over the past couple of years. The bankers also extract hundreds of millions of dollars as the costs for renegotiating debt repayments and organising new loans.

Despite the fact that they did not cause the recession, Third World countries are being forced to pay for it. In the more of countries like Sudan or Tanzania, debts are not at a level likely to shake Manufacturers Hanover if they had to be written off.

Here IMF 'adjustment programmes' bring the impoverished masses down further by cutting food subsidies and restricting imports. Repaying debts ensures famine.

disease and death for tens of thousands In the NICs servicing the debts is a colossal burden. Draconian cuts in public spending and reductions in wages are the IMF's conditions for further loans - or for more time to pay. Last year Mexico cut real wages by 20 per cent and economic output slumped by five percent as a result of the terms of the 1982 rescue package. At the recent summit of Western leaders in London, Margaret Thatcher congratulated the Mexican regime on its 'strenuous efforts' Debt divisions The London summit concluded with a joint declaration on the debt problem. The leaders of the big seven Western powers agreed to undertake ' case by case negotiations to extend the periods for repaying loans. Multi-year rescheduling is an attempt to forestall a major default and any consequent banking crash. It is also, as a senior US official made clear, a device for imposing discipline: It will not be across the board, but only successiu countres... it will be ar important reward and incentive for sue cessful conduct." The Western leaders agreed on the need for tough measures against Third World debtors - but on little else. The summit exposed conflicts within the Western alliance on the debt issue.

French President Francois Mitterrand forcefully expressed the common dissatisfaction of European governments with US economic policies, particularly its high interest rates. High US rates tend to force up the cost of credit worldwide, depressing growth in other Western countries. The summit leaders endorsed 'the central role of the US - dominated IMF in disciplining Third World. However, they also called for closer cooperation between the IMF and the World Bank, in which Japan has been challenging American supremacy.

Both Mitterrand and Germany's Chancellor Kohl are promoting the EEC-financed European Investment Bank. When it comes to the prospect of sharing out losses rather than parcelling out

TO E

booty, every imperialist power looks first The differing spheres of influence of the major world powers lead to divergent responses to problems of debt, behind the harmonious united front displayed at Lancaster House. In terms of trade and direct investments as well as loans, each has its own nation favoured Third World areas. The USA dominates Latin America, Japan has its 'yen bloc' in South East Asia, and the EEC countries look to Africa and the Middle East politicians afford can be complacent about Reagan's problems with Argentina and Brazil. They are more sensitive about events in Africa and even more so in the Gulf. The divergences among the Western powers make all the difference when the going gets rough. The USA's rivals are quietly gloating over its Latin American debt problem. America's embarrassment gives them room to man- While a blow to the oeuvre elsewhere. credit system would hurt them too, the Europeans and the Japanese could cal culate that the USA would suffer more.

Reagan cannot count on his conference pals to bale him out when the debts go bad and banks crash. When the bankers start jumping from Wall Street windows.

spending on rearmament may turn out to be less irrational than many of the President's critics at home and abroad seem Tony Allen the next step, July 1984 17

The road from 1917 1956: Hungarians revolt against Stalinism Istan Eorsi ed, Georg Lukacs, record of a life: an autobiographical sketch, 1984, pp204, pbk £4.95, hbk £15.00 Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller, Hungary 1956 revisited: the message of a revolution - a quarter of George Allen & century after, 1983, pp174, hbk £15 GEORG LUKACS* political and intellectual career spanned more than six decades of the twentieth century. During most of this period Lukacs was closely associated with the commust movement. as an mteuectua ne mad rew equals in the international communist movement. But Lukacs wasn't simply a theoretician: in 1919 he was a leading representative of the briefly established Soviet Republic in Hungary.

For the next 25 years he lived in exile in the Soviet Union. Although Lukacs remained aloof from active politics, his influence as a theoretician was still considerable. In 1945, after the installation of a Soviet puppet regime, Lukas leturned to hungary and became one of the most coherent apologists for the new ordel. Desorte mis long association win stalinism. Lukacs joined the Ime Nagy government thrown up by the 1956 Hungarian revolution.

After brief period returned to his theoretical pursuca wam ms acan in 19/1.

Eorsi has done Istvan collating into an autobiography a series ot interviews that he and Erzsebet Vezeres conducted with Lukacs from 1969 to 1971. What emerges is more tian an autobiograpny. ine inter important provide intellectual history of the official communist movement. Lukacs - the man Lukacs was a remarkable man. His influential works on philosophy and aestheties are testimony to his profound rigour and creativity.

But Lukacs, the Marxist, is more problematic.

There appears to be a fundamental inconsisbetween Lukaes theoretical independence and his slavish adherence to the shifts and turns of Stalinism. Record of a life goes some way towards resolving this puzzle. wat emerges from the interviews is a man who above all was an intellectual. Even as a party activist Lukacs never transcended the narrow social experience of the intellectual.

is one exceptional period in Lukacs' life. The powerful impulses unleashed by the revolutionupsurge of 1917 to 1921 forced Lukacs to come to terms with the problem of working class power. His writings of the period represent an important contribution to revolutionary politics. His article problem of organisation, use English in History and class consciousness, the most complete theoretical elaboration of the problem of the party to this day. The fact that Lukacs subsequently his writings of this his later career than about the status of this WeIK. The decline of the revolutionary had a profound impact on Lukacs.

of Stalinism and the international defeats of the working class engendered a profound conservatism within the official communist movement. Lukacs was no exception. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Lukacs was too rigorous a theoretician to reject communism.

At the same time, • intellectual to fight for an alternative to the dominant Stalinist doctrine. Lukacs resolved this dilemma by opting out of active politics, seeking refuge in his studies and making peace with Stalinism. In one sense, Lukacs personified that modern phenomenon - the fellow traveller.

But Lukacs was too rigorous also to be a fellow traveller. He fully justified his evasions theoretical grounds. the presented the lesser evil. Thus Lukacs had no inhibitions about supporting 18 the next step, July 1984 exIS CLIg purges, waste bose bossee politik. this Lukacs NLB/Verso Unwin IVeS bureaucracy. Lukacs" thrown up by before his death he noted: work which he becoming ever more urgent."

an excellent job Lukacs insights into the There Europe's dissident to say about Stalinism themselves fluenced by Towards a methodology published which they see as its root cause.

There is cratic convictions. denounced period says more about Hungarian cratic aspirations upsurge The rise narrow Teance coom he was too much of an 1956 revolution movement with

TENCOCT

argument was thirties Stalin rewidespread Stalin's showreviews trials on the grounds that Stalin was the only anti-Hitler He denounced revolutionaries like Trotsky who criticised the arguing you must not forget that Trotsky's ideas simply could not be reconciled with the Stalinist policy, which was the only one to hold out any hope of resisting Hitler'.

Lukacs reservations about Stalinism

WOTE

secondary to his overwhelming belief that this From this period onwards Georg Lukacs became the theorist of proletarian defeat.

Despite an intellectual radicalism and theoretical brilliance, Lukacs became reconciled to Stalinist realpresented by as the necessary evil that best captured the objective laws of history. Many of his critics accuse Lukacs of justifying terrible means to achieve positive ends. Lukacs himself liked to portray his evasions in this light.

In reality, Lukacs did not simply justify terrible Lukacs lost sight of the revolutionary objectfought for. After his return to Hungary in 1945 his horizons were limited to choosing the most rational system available within the constraints set by the The questions of working class power and of genuine proletarian democrac had little practical interest for him.

last major political intervention, during the 1956 Hungarian revolution, repres ented the practical application of the outlook that he developed during the previous decades.

He joined the provisional government that was the revolution. But his role was that of a reformer rather than that of a revolutionary. He was most concerned that the *Authentic Marxism is the only solution.

Hence, in the socialist states Marxist ideology must provide a critique of the existing state of affairs and help to promote reforms which are For Lukacs authentic Marxism did not go beyond platonic criticisms of the bureaucracy.

relected the conseduences of Stam ism while accepting its substance. Until his last days he lived with the illusion that bureaucratic domination in Eastern Europe could be overcome to ta ts sore mas Just ification of Stalinism, Lukacs' political journey ence wim a moamed version or eurocommunism. This was a sad end for a brilliant theoretician, a former revolutionary, and the most elegant apologist for Stalinism. Lukacs also bears an intellectual responsibility for the disillusionment and pessimism of those he in- Lost disciples Lukacs' pupils Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller share much of their mentor's pessimism and none of his revolutionary impulses. Their book Hungary 1956 revisited is not about the 1956 revolution as such. Instead, it puts forward e bok ual dominates castern democratic-liberal intelligentsia. Feher and Heller have nothing positive and clearly distance from Lukacs' apologia. But inthe bureauthe experlence cratic regime in the East, they reject not only Stalinism but also the tradition of Bolshevism no need to question Feher and Heller's anti-bureaucratic sentiments and demo- But unfortunately their views are limited by the narrow horizons of the intelligentsia. Their liberal-demo. intelligentsia's express the for individual freedoms.

AS TRO

iduals, Hungarian dissidents have demonstrated a casay tor sacance ame seroism buL their political outlook and social insigniftheir efforts. The authors of Hungary 1956 revisited express this isolation and social irrelevance. Like Lukacs, the authors betray a lack of confidence in the working class and, one senses also, a mistrust.

Feher and Heller correctly argue that the represented a progressive important lessons for the Western left. This is the book's strong point.

Unfortunately, the writers cannot help but revolution from the elitist point of view of the intelligentsia. They welcome the revolution but they would prefer it to have been a peaceful bloodless affair. This tear ol mass action and class violence wa.

intelligentsia during among the the days of the revolution. Many intellectuals who had criticised the pre-revolutionary regime, drawn up petitions and organised discussion.

and debate were shocked when the masses took to the streets Feher and Heller never recovered from this exterence. features of 1956 was the determination of the Hungarian working class to take matters into its own hands. Hungarian not have been as erudite as Feher and Heller, but they knew that petitions and orderly pro would yield no positive results.

LOSES

and Heller are at pains to dissociate themselves from revolutionary violence. In a patronising way they explain that in Gyor a crowd had become violent against the secret police only after they were shot at. The implication is that the poor misguided souls were not that bloodthirsty. Elsewhere they shooting and public execution of hated secret policemen and Stalinist bureaucrats and characterise it as the 'manhunt of the mob'. To make their position absolutely clear they claim that a 'manhunt is a fascist action.

Feher and Heller are well aware of their irrelevance to the 1956 revolutionary process.

Recalling their role they state: 'we signed all impromptu documents drawn up by intell ectuals in protest against these manhunts and lynchings, actions which of course saved nothing except the calm The authors were not merely calming their conscience - they were distancing themselves tunately, the bloodthirsty mob did not listen to their civilised ramblings, So why do Feher and Heller like the 1956 Hungarian revolution so much? Basically in the 1956 events the steadying hand of the intelligentsia. Enter Bibo As far as Hungary 1956 revisited is concerned, the best thing about the revolution was a man called Istan Bibo. In fact, the real purpose of the book is to extol Bibo's virtues and to popularise his views to a Western readership.

The participants in the revolution might be forgiven for not knowing man. As the autors amacate. man 'unknown to all except the elite'. Nevertheless, Feher and Heller assure us that Bibo is perhaps the greatest post-war leftist (nondoctrinaire socialist) Eastern Europe. We are not sure about Bibo's greatness but we are certain that he is the greatest discovery of the Hungarian intelligentsia. Since the seventies the dissident circles in Hungary have made Bibo their theoretician and post humously awarded him the title of a visionary Bibo's career was uneventful. A product of the Hungarian intelligentsia, he leaned towards the populist movement in the pre-1945 period.

In the post-war period, he played a fairly minor role around the Peasant Party and held various insignificant positions in the newly established His claim to fame was his inbureaucracy. clusion in the coalition government of Imre Nagy a few days before Soviet troops crushed the Hungarian revolution. In the aftermath of the Soviet invasion Bibo issued a memorandum which appealed for international and justified the aTel Nagy Government. After the revolution he was imprisoned and released in 1963. He died in 1979. The posthumous rediscovery of Bibo is understandable. Bibo was a man with a re putation for independence Unlike many of his colleagues, he took great personal risks and took a stand in 1956. He thus serves as a model of what the dissolute stences: Furthermore, compared Bibo's writings are a model of coherence and clarity. Bibo's popularity says more about his admirers than about the man himself. Bibo's coherence and clarity are in the service political pragmatism and the art of the possible that impresses the Hungarian intelligentsia so much.

The themes that run through Bibo's writings are the fear of fascism and the fear of the dictatorship. proletarian Feher and Heller) proletarian the ship is svnonvmous with the Soviet bureau What Bibo opts for is a democratic cracy. third way. Of course, there is nothing or iginal in this conception and Western readers are familiar with the hundreds of books devoted to this subject. But what Bibo does is to apply it to Eastern Europe and propose reforms without upsetting the interests of the Kremlin bureaucracy. Hungarian question' uztott Munkai, volume 3).

We have no frontation have become the narrow have left one of the most positive Trade Fehes union condemn the 1984, pp379, hbk £23.95

DONE

Henry John Mellroy, of our conscience'. because they rediscover coalmining much about this Bibo was a cludes Vic Allen. political theorist of the preoccupations invoking immediate not only from reality position the Chooses examses and seventies without and integrity. would like to political barriers to his colleagues effective action. committee, of and compromise. It is refreshments. (as for FOr BIDO dictatorin mates, is silent. This is the message that is eloquently presented in his 1957 document Draft of a compromise solution of the (Istvan Bibo, Osszegydesire to enter into a conwith Bibo's ideas. What we find objectionable is that Bibo's elitist theories for justifying instrument ounook or we Hungarian Inten igentsia. For Feher and Heller, Bibo becomes the means for robbing the 1956 revolution of its revolutionary content. Feher and Heller Lukacs for Bibo. This change of mentor sums up the sad trajectory of Eastern Europe's dissident intelligentsia.

Ferenc Budavari handbooks Arthur Marsh and Victoria Ryan, Historical directory of trade unions, volume 2, Gower Arthur Marsh, Trade union handbook: a guide and directory to the structure, membership, and personnel of the British trade unions, Gower 1984, pp415, hbk £28.95 Phelps Brown, The origins of trade union power, Oxford 1983, pp320, hbk £15 , Strike! how to fight and how to win, Pluto 1984, pp228, pbk £5.95 EVER WONDER WHAT became of the Walsall and Bloxwich association of bridle bit forgers and filers? Or the Redditch fish hook makers trade protection society? The Historical direct ory of trade unions tells you everything you could possibly want to know about workers organisations in engineering and shipbuilding.

fishing and chemicals. It includes useful his torical surveys of the development of trade unionism in each of these industries.

Arthur Marsh's handbook is a useful reference book on British unions. It includes basic statistics on union membership, density in different industries, past growth and recent decline. It provides a directory of trade union offices and officials, and details of union structures and organisation. The bibliography of 'official trade union histories' is a bit thin for example, the section on the miners ex- Malcolm Pitt and recent books by Phelps Brown's rambling survey of ind ustrial relations over the past century reflects of the seventies more than the eighties. Even the Tories don't talk about trade union power' these days. Phelps Brown's discussion of the 1906 Trade Disputes Act explains how the state established a secure legislative framework for trade union activities.

Yet he mentions the Tories' recent demolition job on this system for the voluntary regulation of industrial conflict only in passing. He is illuminating on employers organisations and the integration of the unions into the British establishment. But his proclivity for the British character' to explain the behaviour of both bosses and workers and his emphasis on changing 'attitudes' as the way to social harmony, reveal the prejudices of an elderly professor increasingly remote from the working class but alse John Mellroy suffers from similar weaknesses to Phelps Brown. His guide to strikes could have been written at any time in the past 20 years. To illustrate his arguments, , he freely of strikes from the sixtie any recognition of the distinctive problems of the eighties. For Mellroy a strike is a strike is a strike. He confines his attention to the organisational and tactical aspects of industrial action and ignores the that stand in the way of Strikes! provides a full page of detailed instructions on the requirements for a strike down to la big filing cabinet' 'arrangements for tea, coffee and light British workers have been running strikes for around 200 years, evidently without reference to this handbook. In 1984 militants have little difficulty in organising a strike. The problems they face are in winning the support of the majority of their workmobilising sympathetic action, and in getting around the restrictions and of structions imposed by trade union officials.

On these decisive questions of strategy Mellroy Our advice is - check out Marsh's books in a library, but leave Phelps Brown and Mellroy to their university seminar rooms.

Helen Swift

Textsiep\°LeLetters Jenny Graham and Kerry Dean completely miss all the points in their article Innocents abroad abortion in Scotland' (the next June). it is not reactionary for some workers inside and outside the health service abortions, it just makes economic sense in a time avoid unnecessary ot cuts tc operations. What Jenny, Kerry and Glasgow friends should be doing is campaigning for free contraceptives on demand for men as wen as women al doc and family planjoin the campaign to get contraceptives advertised on TV and to allow all types of contraception training to be included in the secondary school curticulum. Doctors and nurses as workdiscourage ers are rieht expensive and dangerous (mentally and physically) operations durex would have done when job. many workers 100 and unemployed believe they have the right to abuse their bodies, whether with cigarettes, dangerous driving or high cholesterol, low roughage diets and expect the health service to pick up the pieces. Why should they?

Idiots for years who have ignored doctors' advice to diet and give up smoking get free arteries, heart pumps and hearts. Other twits who are too embarrassed to discuss contraception or too drunk to think What has happened to the of revolutionary RCP? Do you really consider the closet vote of the ballot box superior to picket-line politics, the latter, incidentally, backeu up oy an ou per cent majority? It is important learn from history. In 1979, the miners incentive was implemented in denance of a national o1 Tre TeSTIES ballot. In 1984, miners scab would not strike even if a national ballot instructed them to.

As a tactic to secure unity among miners a national ballot would be ineffective and if it went against strike acton the would be lost. would also be a slap in the face or all miners who have seen through the democratic farce of ballot box are 1 was very much impressed with the May issue of the next step the mist one nave read. However, the main reason I am writing is in reply to Les Williams' letter. Williams states that I cannot people who accept kill nonplant bombs and combatants and innocent civillans in the UK or in Northern Ireland somehow waging Does he therefore suggest that te trovisional 1kA turn to a political solution and renounce the right to take up arms imperialist Britain? would like to point out to Mr Williams that Sinn Fein tried this in the all-Ireland elections about it expect workers who know better to end a ue at any late date the mother/ father/boyfriend chooses.

Abortion is not a form of If a woman has contraception. been raped or sicked-up the pill and not noticed, of course she should have the alternative of doorton. but now many women wanting abortions have really tried to find a method of consuits their re- Lace Duon lationship? women have enouge contro or theiraves relationships get inte marriage they should be prepared take responsibility, to with their for conpartner, traception rather than do nothing about it, then expect the the problem State solve Men may not like durex much but most will use them if the alternative is not getting their Abortions can leave OVeT scaTs months

TOT

years, pregnancy sets a nine month hormone programme in action which you tamper with at your own risk. an unmarried mother of two I didn't use contraception, because I wanted children and the was make sacrifices necessary. I have since had an ectopic pregnancy which was terminated in Edinburgh as soon as it was magnosed. *a Now I cooperative method of Natural Birth Control" sometimes called the Billor Khvthm.

LIES

he uncans l fighting because they have no Caronne IvewDy Leeds the next step replies: In every working class struggle revolutionaries have a responsibility to put forward demands that contront problems facing that the and WOrKe Taise question of control. By calling for a national ballot the RCP was the only organisation on the left which sought to address the problems of the miners' strike - the regional divisions, lack of unity and lack of rank and file control - and outline a realistic strategy for winning the dispute. From the start the NUM backed off from renters national ballot for all-out action.

Freedom fighters are not terrorists in 1918. They received over 70 seats in the Dail (Irish Parliament) was• a large majority, only have to Orange state imposed on them by a pro-British minority.

Regarding of cleans "innocent victims', Williams fails to remember, or tries to forget, "innocent victim' Carol Ann Kelly aged 12, Carol was brutally Army plastic bullet while returning from the shops with a carton of milk for her mother. What about Stephen Geddis, also shot dead by a British Army plastic the hundreds of 'innocent victims" of British colonialism have been

WILD

murdered in the occupied North?

Pro-life prejudices need to know when it is safe not and when we have to. The doctor happily provided a chart book for me to write dates in to mina out the cycle. So women and men, educate, control your you can, especially in intimate bodily matters, like contraand diet. There

COBLIOT

libraries are free, it's

WHICH

not impossible even under Thatkids and bad cher, even with public transport. Get your hubby sterilised! Ecology Party Lothian's Euro candidate Scotland the next step replies: Opposition to abortion rights for whatever reason you might like to dream up is reactionary.

is reactionary because it denies the right

WOLICH

control their own bodies and reinforces their subordinate role as wives and childbearers. By denying women the right abortion, you deny them the and participate right to work fully in society. It 'makes economic sense establishment to CU abortion and health for women at a time when public expenditure is being it makes no squeezed. But sense for the working class who need these facilities which are Picket line politics They sensed that they did not have the political arguments convince the waverers in Notts and elsewhere that they out on campaign led by the rank and file around a national ballot for a national strike would have forced militants to question unte uners were owned the effective. and to question ness

NUM

tenders moralistic appeals to think of future generations. It thus had the potential to challenge the broader political problems facing the miners and to involve the mass of miners in the conduct of the dispute. In the early stages of the strike, a campaign for all-out rank and file action led by miners could have swayed thousanas or Nous miners to Join The Provisional IRA does not deliberatelv single out mem.

bers of the public for execution, Crown forces (ie unke the Bloody Sunday). As the "fascists' and 'psychopaths', he ust sue De тетео то тле fascist' RUC who uphold Orange rule with their shoot-tokill policy and the psychopaths murder of of the SAS whose North and South of the Border receives official praise from both London and Dublin. The oppressive measures used in the North of reland today are only a foretaste of what will be seen in ghettoes like Brixton and St Paul's in the near future. No doubt already in short enough supply.

What is 'unnecessary' for the ruling class and the medical profession is a matter of exworking 12U1 class women who stand to lose their jobs and income through lack of abortion facilities. Yes, we want contraceptives - and Deuter contraceptives free and widely available for all women and men. that won't needing

SLUR

Womel

2BO LOTS

Every single argument you forward is and put backward anu-working use economic (abortion is expensive), medical (abortion is dangerous) and moral (workers should be responsible and not behave like 'twits' and "idiots') arguments to justify your own prejudices against abortion. You finish by workers to "control your own lives' yet in the same breath you tell them that there are limits to how far they can go. You wanted children and were prepared to make the sacrifices necessary'. Other wo men don't want children or afford them. to have COlE L Why should they "make sacrifices and accept the inferior role that capitalism assigns to them. All workers have an interest in fighting for free abortion demand part of the struggle a better

-TOT

and against the opp system ression of women. the strike. That opportunity was wasted. By failing to fight for

NUM

national strike the leaders have allowed the divisions among miners to deepen and the strike to settle into dull routine. The NUM leadership's the bureaucrane strike has not been challenged and a large majority of striking miners have played no role in the dispute. If you think that the miners are on to a winner by following the present leadership, then "picket-line politics are enough. If you think that the NUM's area-by-area strike strategy is a recipe for failure, then you need to put forward a co herent alternative that can challenge une union leadersmip and point the way forward for the miners. when a child in Toxteth has been shot in the head by a plastic bullet Mr Williams will be the first to denounce it. But it seems that as long as Thatcher and her warlords confine these Killers to the streets of Derry Belfast Mr Willor Armagh iams will continue to support the imperialist British war machine by his one-sided statements.

This is 1984 Mr Williams, not Christmas Day 1917, when opposing armies played football and exchanged photographs in no man's land. Tony McCartney Govan Glasgow In recent issues of the next has been devoted space

SLED

STate sector in general. there been written has about the for Cole CHees education in particular. The teachers' unions should provide them with an opportunity locate their plight in the wider politics of the recession.

The employers otters are the latest illustrations of a general reduction of monev Ilowing This has led • caucanon a panem or pony m tained, overcrowded classes, lost jobs and an increasing pool of supply teachers competing for a diminishing budget for such employment. The two main unions, the National Union and the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers represent about three quarters of all teachers. Having rejected the 4.5 percent in crease offered by the employers.

their campaigns rely heavily on pressurising for aromanon and an appeal to obtain a 'fair deal" tor protessionals The presentation of such objectives, to a Government which has no intention of guaranteeing that more money will be avalable and when see the demand for professional status as an excuse to pay low wages now, with the promis of future restructuring, doomed to failure. Our pay claim stands in the wider context of a fight for more money to be spent or pupils, for the security of our Jobs and aganst une onslaugan this government is making on other sections of the public services. The welfare state is no long Irish labourer Tommy Quigley has been held on remand in Brixton Prison since he was arrested under the PTA by a joint

SCOTATE

snatch squad in Belfast last December. Charged with consexplosions, Cause Tommy has still not been told when his trial will begin. On 29 May the Irish Freedom Movedemonstrated outside Lambeth

COUT

while Tommy appeared inside for the committal hearing.

Below reprint extracts from histest • letter, begins with an account of IFM organiser Keith Tompson's expulsion from the courtroom.

doubt Keith will have been telling you what happened to him. Just as we found out went and he was they threw him out. I thought the cop was going to have a heart attack. The old fool went blue in the face with rage. I appreciate him being there and the same to evervone who turned up that morning - 1 was able The latest photos I've seen in the papers concerning the miners strike are looking more more like photos from Belfast and Derry. All that's missing is the plastic bullets and tear gas. it thev could get away it they would use them,

WILB

but at the moment it wouldn't Classroom politics er servicing the interests of the economy and accordingly is beprogressively run down In boom years a fit, well-housed educated workforce was •AnO both necessary and affordable During global recession such and unnecessary" services becomes increasingly dangerous for the security of profit.

Although we hear discussion of the threat to our welfare service, it never has been 'ours.

Finance has ebbed and flowed from the public sector in direct relation to economic necessity and today's policies are no exception. We cannot expect by right satisfactory health care, adequate housing or education for its own sake. we accept the common of Teachers | sense of cuts.

redundancies, classrooms and overcrowded low pay, we join negotiations to cut our own throats We have to confront the increasing power of the Manpower Services Commission. In Gwent 500 teachers face dismissal for not signing poor contracts which their LEA declares are not open to consultation. We have to support Nupe in its continuing campaign ag ainst privausauon or its mem defended money e jobs. All jobs must be need to identify closely with the miners' struggle. There are, therefore, apart from our pay still claim, many issues for which we must organise and , other sections of the trade union for which should demonstrate

OUI

W C solidarity. Dave Buck National Union of Teachers Canterbury Association *this letter has been shortened Prison letter go down too well with the great British public. Not to worry though it wil not take the media very as soon as the powers that be Think it is time they need blem I've been watching the deportations with disgust, but won't expect much out of the European *Court. always thought it was a joke, but I never realised just how big a joke and farce it- was until reading the case his- I started When it right -LOnCS. down to it, we just don't have any rights. With a bit of luck the trial might be in October. You never know, it could be before that - the sooner the better. I hope they don't try and drag it out for as long as they - WE hope to push it and get it done.

sure when In not know lon it is until a few weeks from now.

I see Ronnie has been enhimself with his joying mate Maggie. gets re-elected we can all say he'll definitely goodnight kill us all this time It's good to hear everything went so well and I hope you have even more success in the future. All the best, Tommy Quigley 'D' Wing Brixton Prison the next step, July 1984 19

What is there to talk about? review of the Revolutionary Communist Party lasts.' Coal Board boss, lan MacGregor, 21 June lan MacGregor and the Government have no room for compromise in the miners' strike. Ever since the strike began, Mac- Gregor has made clear his intention to close 20 pits and axe 20 000 miners' jobs - at whatever cost. To guarantee the survival of the British coal industry he needs to shut down uneconomic pits, slash jobs and inflict a crushing blow on miners' livelihoods. Militant miners need no convincing that this is a win or lose all battle. To defend their jobs they know that they cannot afford to. give an inch to the bosses. Tens of thousands of miners have matched MacGregor's resolute approach through four months of bitter struggle.

The interests of the Coal Board and the miners are irreconcilable.

They've got nothing to talk about. Yet within a few weeks in late May and early June, the miners' leaders met the employers around the negotiating table no less than four times. Miners' President Arthur Scargill has constantly proclaimed his determination to stop pit closures and defend jobs. But his willingness to enter into negotiations with the enemy camp contradicts this commitment. If Scargill says he is fighting against all pit closures and redundancies, then what is there to talk about?

Negotiations spell disaster for striking miners. In any battle peace talks are the signal that one side has got the upper hand and the other is negotiating from a next step 'Your President talks continually of keeping the strike going indefinitely until he achieves "victory" this will not happen, however long the strike position of weakness. Negotiations never win or lose battles - they merely set down the terms on which one side will be defeated. Ultimately it is a question of power: the outcome of every struggle between the classes depends on which side can muster the strongest forces. Unfortunately, the potential power of tens of thousands of miners and other workers has been dissipated by the union leaders bureaucratic conduct of the strike and their failure to lead effective national action.

Miners have nothing to talk about with the bosses - but they urgently need to talk about the problems the strike has confronted and the strategy necessary to take on the bosses and win. This month's Preparing for Power conference provides plenty of opportunities to discuss the miners strike and to hear miners talk about their Five experiences. special sessions will discuss past traditions and present problems: • the miners and the working class: an historical perspective • lessons of the miners' strike 1912:what • the miners' next step happened to class combat?

• the home front - women and the miners' strike • Welsh miners - the break-up of a community. Come to Preparing for Power to discuss the way ahead for the miners.

on our way to victory! Employed/student UB40/unwaged Make cheques payable to RCP Association Send to BM RCP, London WC1N 3XX Registration: New Cavendish street Marylebone road Sessions start: 10.30am Transport available: 01-274 3951 OR WRITE TO: BM RCP, London WC1N 3XX I would like to attend Preparing for Power 1984:

NAME.

ADDRESS

TELEPHONE

ACCOMMODATION?

CRECHE?

£ enclosed No room for compromise We are not going to talk about pit closures or redundancies with the Coal Board... we are Miners' President, Arthur Scargill, 7 June

PREPARING FOR POWER 1984

FRIDAY 13 JULY - FRIDAY 20 JULY

Polytechnic of Central London, New Cavendish street W1 All week Weekend £12.00 £5.00 £8.00 £3.00 Special reduced rates for striking miners (phone Kate Marshall on 01-274 3951) Friday 13 July, Polytechnic of Cental London 5pm-9pm Saturday 14 July, Polytechnic of Central London 9am-9pm from South Yorkshire, Midlands, Wales, Scotland, Brighton, Portsmouth and many other towns and cities.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PHONE KATE MARSHALL ON