The Next Step: No. 9, 28 February 1986

SOGAT •TWU-AUEW- NUJ-EETPU•NGA

the nextstep Revolutionary Communist Party • 28 February 1986 • 30p No to scab unionismsee pages 2 and 4 Will BL drive Thatcher over the top? pages 6,7 SAS murder -report from Ireland page 3 How to end racist discrimination page 5 French elections - report from Paris page 8

OUR UNIONS

HAVE HELPEO THE

BOSSES MAKE

MILLIONS

IT'S ABOUT TIME

THEY STARTED

FIGHTING

FOR OUR

RIGHTS

the next step Revolutionary Communist Party weekly • 28 February 1986 • No 9

NO TO

SCAB UNIONISM!

n 19 August 1900 the men working for the Taff Vale Railway Company in South Wales came out on strike for a two shillings a week rise. The general manager immediately contacted William Collinson's National Free Labour Association, which supplied squads of strike The scabs proved ineffective. Some were intercepted by the union, offered hospitality and persuaded to return home, others were beaten up by pickets. After the employers were forced to back down, they sued the for damages. In unprecedented court case, the railworkers union was heavily fined in a ruling which effectively made strike action illegal.

The events at Wapping in recent weeks indicate a return by the employers to the class war methods of the turn of the century.

However, the unions' response to the new employers" offensive has been moulded by the experience of the past 50 years, in which the bosses have generally refrained from using scabs and the courts in their dealings with une unions. By the twenties, the 'free labour" associations had virtually disappeared. The preferred to recognise trade employers unions and to negotiate with union officials over wages and conditions in a framework protected by the law. Rather than trying to smash the unions, they sought to use them as a buffer between employers and workers. In the prolonged economic stability of the postwar years, this approach flourished. Trade union leaders became respected national figures and union officials and workplace representatives contained conflicts within a network of procedures and agreements.

The much-vaunted organisational strength of the British labour movement is a product of this period. The foundation of this strength, however, was the goodwill of the The two key factors in the employers. - the expansion of union membership closed shop agreement and the check-off of union dues from wages — were both largely introduced on the employers' initiative.

ILLUSIONS OF STRENGTH

What the union leaders regarded as a source of strength, the employers regarded as an investment in stable industrial relations. The re-emergence of scab unionism in the eighties results from a dramatic shift in the employers' of in conditions strategy recession. Over the past decade British bosses have gradually adopted a more confrontationist approach, increasingly by-passing the officials, and taking on the workforce directly. This change of policy in a climate of Insecurity generated bymass unemptoyment has had a shattering effect on the working leaders' class movement. union desperate attempts to cling on to the old ways have rendered them more and more ineffectual in defending jobs and working conditions. Finding their traditional organisations useless, workers have been forced to seek their own survival as best they can. For many workers it now seems to make more sense to try to raise wages by winning local productivity bonuses, than it does to pursue an overall wage rise through the union. To workers who have been forced to seek work as part-timers, sub-contractors, or in other forms of self-employment, the solidarity of the labour movement has become meaningless. As each success against the unions has made the bosses Publisher Revolutionary Communist Party, BM RCP, London WCIN 3XX ® copyright Printer Morning Litho Printers Ltd (TÚ), 439 North Woolwich Road, London E16 Annual subscription rates • Britain and Ireland £19; • Europe £24 • Middle East and North Africa America, Asia and Southern Africa £27 • Australasia £32, • Libraries, institutions £30 All cheques payable to Junius Publications Ltd.

culation 01-729 3771. Newsdesk 01-729 3771. Correspondence to The Editor, the next step, BOM JP don WIN 3XX. ISSN 0144 350 X 28 February 1986. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Of 2 • the next step • 28 February 1986 bolder, the break up of the unions and their traditions has been accelerated. Picket lines have long become merely token and scabbing is now commonplace. The miners' strike was the last gasp of oldstyle trade unionism against the new-style boss tactics. The coal board bosses made clear their contempt for negotiation and compromise and went all out to crush the miners. The miners' union divided between supporters of traditional militancy and those who considered that their only hope lay through accepting the bosses terms and productivity The pursuing bonuses. bureaucratic policies of the NUM leadership ensured that this division deepened and that the tendencies towards fragmentation, which were strongest in the Notts area, became consolidated and finally emerged in the form of the UDM, a fully-fledged scab union. The current print dispute is not so much a continuation of the miners'strike as a brutal confirmation that the old trade unionism is dead. The Fleet Street unions are the clearest example of the weaknesses of organisation' and, 'militant 'strong traditions' in the British labour movement.

The strength of the print unions is based on and thinly the narrowest sectionalism disguised collaboration with the employers.

ROTTEN TRADITIONS

Over the past year all the print unions have responded to growing management pressure by signing sweetheart deals with the bosses and entering bitter feuds with the other unions. In its explicit collaboration with Murdoch's scab operation at Wapping, the electricians union is now extending similar methods from the new technology sector into the print. In tackling the menace of scab unionism two key points must be recognised. First, the UDM and the EETPU are scab unions. They have gone a significant step beyond the traditions of class collaboration that have long prevailed in the British labour movement. In their abject capitulation to the employers and their rejection of any sort of anti-employer activity, they have taken the long established trends towards company unionism to their logical conclusion. Second, the scab unionism of the UDM and the EETPU is only a symptom of the deeper malaise of British trade unionism. It simply organisational focus the gives an disintegration of the old labour movement and the collapse of solidarity that has resulted from the impact of the recession.

The lesson of the miners' strike, confirmed by the print dispute, is that we cannot fight the new employers' offensive by clinging on to the old traditions. The class struggle has forcefully revealed that the traditions are The defence of the working class rotten. today demands new methods and new forms of organisation to fight class collaboration in every union — see page 4 for details.

The Taff Vale dispute had one very Recognising the significant consequence. need for a wider political response to the employers attacks, trade unionists flocked to join a newly formed political party which offered to advance the cause of the working class. That party was the Labour Party. The miners' strike and the print dispute — and the role of the Labour Party in them - show the urgent need for a new working class party. But this time let's make sure we don't get fooled again.

AFTER GILLICK

VALERIE RICHES

A NATIONAL

WOMEN

ast Tuesday brought the launch of a National Campaign for the Family sponsored Family and Youth by Concern, a high-powered collection of new moralists. It is supposed to shore up pro-family, anti-sex ideas, after the law lord: voted against Victoria Gillick's campaign to outlaw the pill for under-16s. It is anothe example of the exponents of 'Victorian Values' churning out hypocrisy and bigotry to attack women's right to contraception, childcare and abortion facilities.

The National Campaign for the Family kicked off with a London meeting, attended by about 100 middle-aged moralists and boasting an impressive platform. A brief survey of what they had to say gives a flavour of the prejudices that now pass for informed opinion on the right.

The new moralists are already out to make attacking women's rights a big issue in the next election First up was solicitor Jeremy Lee, to announce the intention of forming an action committee to "protect children from contraceptive advice. For the moral rearmers, education about the pill is dangerous and ignorance is bliss; presumably unwanted are an added bonus pregnancies "blissfully ignorant' girls.

followed by Captain Shaw Lee was Clifton, legal adviser to the Salvation Army.

Clifton attacked the law lords' verdict against Gillick, asserting that young women do not have the 'wisdom and insight' to judge for themselves on sexual matters.

Bigots like Clinton judge themselves to have the necessary qualities to dictate what young women do, thanks to the wisdom and insight' gained from dressing up in a dowdy dark blue uniform, banging a tambourine and selling the War Cry. Next on was Gillick herself, figurehead for the campaign. She described a fantasy world in which there was no television, illegitimacy or rape — she claimed to have lived in this world in the fifties. Then she outlined the creeping evils of the last 25 years; from 'value-free sex education' to teenage magaand zines promoting "tawdry narcissism, the way funding for clinics had Stalc promoted promiscuity. Gillick's solution was to make parents replace the government as arbiters of moral standards. She was against state intervention and insisted that the government must cut off funds for 'clinics who profit from contraception and abortion'. She had nothing to say about the capitalists who profit from denying women their rights to an equal role in society. And she was not opposed to

CAMPAIGN AGAINST

government intervention if it meant ministers supporting the General Medical Council's move to restrict access to contraception.

After Gillick came John Scotson, GP, representing Doctors for the Family, who wanted a return to 'natural laws' of strict behaviour, which pre-dated Christianity and had been 'recognised by Pagans'. Does this mean it's goodbye Victorian Values, hello Neanderthal Norms? Apparently not; Scotson stressed the campaign's message must be that 'we care' about families, while the left are all into compulsory wifeswapping — an accusation whose Victorian character can be judged by the fact that Marx and Engels made fun of it in their Communist Manifesto of 1848.

The final two speakers were heavyweights; and Youth Concern secretary Family Valerie Riches, and former Tory health minister Gerard Vaughan. Riches wanted to from the cradle to educate people parliament' - to 'postpone gratification, take responsibility for their actions and not rely on the state to pick up the pieces. She sought to 'affirm the truth': family planning meant self-gratification, abortion meant murder and contraception meant under-age sex. Vaughan wanted to put Riches ideas into action: publishing a 'Manifesto for the Family', ensuring that the family is a priority for all parties in the next election, cutting off state cash to family planning clinics, and stopping the welfare state undermining family responsibility. He thought Tory minister Norman Fowler's social security cuts were a good start. Most of these people are too pompously puritanical to build a big campaign. But their ideas about promoting family values have a wide hearing in British politics. There is broad agreement on the need to curtail for young women, contraceptive rights restrict access to abortion, and make women carry the burden of cuts in the health and social security systems. As the moralists get geared up for the coming general election, so must we. Women need free access to full abortion, contraception and childcare facilities if they are to stand a chance of participating equally in the life of society. And the state must be made to provide them. To win those rights, we need to confront the capitalist morality that influences Neil Margaret Thatcher. Kinnock as well as Despite Dr John Scotson says, what National communists don't oppose the Campaign for the Family because we don't We are against it because we care care. enough about women's rights to reject every attempt to make them carry the can Gina Edwards

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'YOU TELL THEM IT WAS

MURDER'

WENT OVER FOR THE FUNERAL OF THE FIRST VICTIM

Ireland

TROOPS SHOOT TWO IN A WEEK

Irancis Patrick Bradley was 21 last F Friday. When I walked into the Elk Bar on the Hillhead Road, County Derry, that afternoon, it was full of his friends drinking to him. But Bradley wasn't He had spent his twenty-first with them. birthday being buried - another Irish victim of a British SAS assassination squad.

An SAS shooting draws a sharp line between nationalist supporters of Irish freedom and Loyalist supporters of British rule. I had got to the graveyard that morning via the village of Castledawson, a local Loyalist stronghold. It looks like every Protestant outpost: just one grim, grey street where the only colour is the faded paint on the Union Jack kerbstones. It was snowing But then Castledawson when I arrived. looked like the kind of place where it should always be snowing.

LAUGHING POLICEMEN

The Loyalists I asked for directions couldn't have cared less about the butchering of Francis Bradley. No, they said, they didn't know of any St James' church, and they polishing a brass were very busy doorknob, or putting up posters for the football club barn dance, so could I stop bothering them. The local Protestant paper put Bradley's execution on a par with the shooting of a mad dog caught worrying Sheep Of course, other Loyalists did come to the funeral; Royal Ulster Constabulary men, who brought machine guns instead of mass cards.

They surrounded St James' church, near the dead man's New bridge home, and Francis Bradley's laughed out loud as distressed family carried the coffin up the 2000 hill from their farmhouse, past mourners lining the lane. Even after Bradley was buried, the uniformed vultures hovered around the cemetery having fun. The Geordie soldiers and Castledawson police I passed, parked near the church, were having such a good time that their landrovers rocked about like caravans full of courting couples.

The snow that blew in through the open back doors didn't seem to dampen their delight at the death of a young Irishman.

'YOU BASTARD'

Nobody was laughing in the Elk, when I found my way down to the nationalist bar after the funeral. The regulars there were Bradley's people. He had spent the previous Saturday in the bar, watching the Barry McGuigan fight with them. And he had been killed just yards away, near the next house along the Hillhead Road. "Those bastards' were the first words I heard, as I pushed my way into the packed public bar. They were 'You directed at the laughing policemen.

bastard' was the next thing I heard, as I ordered a drink. That was directed at me, by one bitter local who decided my accent made me at worst an SAS man, and at best a Brit.

He was restrained by others, who saved their

BRITISH TROOPS SHOT DEAD TWO IRISHMEN LAST

WEEK; ONE IN COUNTY DERRY ON TUESDAY, THE

OTHER IN DERRY CITY ON SATURDAY. MICK HUME

BRITISH ARMY JUSTICE FOR THE IRISH - SHOOT THEM FIRST, LAUGH AT THEM LATER hatred for the hooded SAS men responsible for ripping Francis Bradley apart behind the outhouse up the road. They told me the truth about the shooting. The few lines the London papers gave Bradley's death repeated the Army's version of events: he had been shot while on a terror mission', after which two other terrorist suspects were arrested and two rifles recovered. But the Elk regulars thought that story stank worse than the cow dung caked on the country roads around the cemetery where they had buried him that morning.

When you write it up for your paper, said Pat, the bar's bouncer, 'you be sure and tell them he was murdered.' People told me Pat the bouncer was not a man to be easily moved. But he was well worked up over Bradley's death: "The IRA hasn't claimed him, nobody's claimed him, and they always claim their own. He had no more guns on him than I have now.

The British Army just wanted a body that night, and they got young Francie's."

Donna appeared from behind Pat's shoulder. She had seen Bradley 10 minutes before he died. 'He was joking and laughing, like always,' she remembered. "Francie was the last person who would have been involved. He was 20, but he looked about 14.

He couldn't have harmed a fly walking across that bar.' That didn't stop Bradley being harassed by the British security forces, like every other nationalist youth. 'The RUC picked him up just before Christmas, said Donna, 'And when he came out he said to me, "Jesus, Donna, I'm scared to walk out of my house, they told me I won't see my birthday." twenty-first And he didn't." *That's one thing about those bastards,' said Pat. They keep their promises to Irish people."

THROUGH THE NECK

What about the terror mission' Bradley was supposed to be carrying out on the night he was butchered? 'He was up at that house to buy a car part!' said Pat. The other two they arrested were the boy who lives there, he was indoors with the flu, and another innocent fella. The guns were just planted to make it look right.' "That third fella was my uncle,' interjected Lawrence, who had been listening from a bar stool behind us. 'He was just driving into the cafe next door. I suppose they thought he might have seen the shooting, so they pulled him in to keep him quiet." Somehow 'shooting' doesn't seem enough to describe what the SAS did to Francis Bradley.

*They didn't just kill him,' said Pat: *First they shot him in the legs, so they got him down. Then they beat him up, they smashed his jaw and his nose. And then, when they'd had their fun, they shot him through the neck. A man wouldn't do that to a dog. The bastards.' the rest of his

BESTOCEE

sentence was lost, as he banged down his glass and threw up his hands. Donna took over: *They left his body lying there from 10 at night 'til 11 the next morning. When they gave him up I'd never seen a corpse like it You couldn't recognise him, with his teeth all smashed out and his mouth just filled in by the undertaker. It effected people round here something awful, them doing that to an innocent boy like Francie.'

The nationalists who live around Newbridge will never be the same again. I've never seen people here so united, Pat told me, as they gave me a lift up to Magherafelt to catch a bus back to Derry. 'Francie wasn't a rrovo, because lnere were no rrovos li this place. But soon there'll be 40 or more.

The young fellas used to just be out for a good crack. Now they want to do something to get the Brits back for Francie. People are saying, "If that's British justice, it's about time they tasted some Irish justice."

'THEY'LL PAY'

We drove past the death scene. All that was left as evidence of the bloody event was a piece of white tape attached to a fence, where the security forces had closed the road for a day after Francis Bradley's death. But the memory of a dead boy's face with his icech will ensure that people like beaten out Donna and Pat, and hundreds of others, never forget what happened bernd that house or what government ordered it done On Saturday morning I caught a train out of snowbound County Derry. That evening 24-year old Tony Gough was shot through the neck by British troops in Derry city, as he tried to give them a 'taste of Irish justice by RUC/Army attacking the Fort George fortress. Gough was claimed by the IRA. As we go to press, his people are preparing for his funeral - another young Irishman for the undertakers, another good laugh for the British forces of occupation, and another murder to inspire his friends and neighbours "The SAS had their day when to hit back. they murdered Francie, Pat the bouncer had told me in the Elk, 'But we'll have ours yet. Somebody will make them pay.' I hope the price is right. the next step • 28 February 1986 • 3

MEETING MURDOCH'S CHALLENGE

Labour movement

STRATEGY IN THE PRINT DISPUTE

The print union leaders approach to the Wapping dispute amounts to a surrender to News International boss Rupert Murdoch; the Revolutionary Communist Party offers a fighting response to his challenge to the working class.

• Tea and sympathy The main contribution of the print union leaders to the fight to win back 6000 lost jobs has been to provide a mobile canteen for the Wapping pickets and to launch a national Union officials have poster campaign. cooperated closely with the police, to make sure that the pickets at Wapping make no attempt to disrupt Murdoch's scab oper- The whole thrust of the ation. campaign is to avoid any direct action which might lead to conflict with the scabs or the Helen Swift outlines the way forward in the battle of Wapping The union leaders hope to beat police. Murdoch by winning public sympathy for the plight of the sacked workers approval for the unions' moderate methods.

Token pickets are not simply ineffective, they are demoralising. Even if the unions succeeded in getting public opinion on their side, Murdoch would not be obliged to reinstate the sacked printers. Only direct which disrupts the Wapping scab action operation can put Murdoch under the sort of pressure necessary for him to restore jobs.

• Action and solidarity The first priority is for the sacked workers to get together in a strike committee that cuts across union divisions. This would be a vital first step towards overcoming the sectional traditions and bureaucratic structures that are such a barrier to effective action in the print. A united rank and file committee would provide a power base from which to appeal to fellow print workers in Fleet Street to stop the national press - before they are picked off one by one, by press barons eager to follow Murdoch's example. A workers' strike committee could also cut across union officialdom to appeal to workers - in transport, post and in other unions telecommunications, gas and electricity — to take action to shut down Wapping and disrupt Murdoch's distribution chain. Linked with a boycott of the Murdoch press (see page 12), this approach would soon force Murdoch to choose between re-employing workers and closing down his titles.

• Talks and deals Ever since the print unions got wind of Murdoch's planned move to Wapping, they have been proclaiming their willingness to negotiate. Brenda Dean and Tony Dubbins are ready to accept mass redundancies and conditions. Texis e working Murdoch that they would accept restrictions on the closed shop and on the right to strike.

But Murdoch was too busy getting his scab operation into shape even to listen to the cringing pleas of the union leaders.

Since Murdoch launched his onslaught on print workers in January, the union leaders have simply begged for mercy.

week the union leaders again pleaded with Murdoch to negotiate, and scurried off to the government's arbitration service Acas on the mere hint of talks, even though Murdoch made clear he would never let the print unions into Wapping.

• Jobs are not negotiable Since Murdoch has made it clear that he has 4 • the next step • 28 February 1986 unions

PEACEFUL -

• AND INEFFECTIVE

no interest in talking, what is the point of -and crawling back to be humiliated? While he has declared war on the unions, they are trying to negotiate a truce without any fighting. Any talking on these terms can only mean abject surrender. We should make clear to Murdoch that our jobs are non-negotiable — so there is nothing for us to talk about. As the only deals he wants deals which mean are conditions and union rights, we should make clear that there is no scope for any such deals.

Instead of wasting time talking about talks, now is the time for action to stop Murdoch's papers, so that he is forced to come to us for When we are putting pressure on talks.

CHANGING THE EETPU

ast year, when general secretary Eric Hammond came to inaugurate the London Contracting Branch, he was I surrounded by 100 members, united the sacked in their contempt for his brand of company bureaucratic militants. closing down the branch and walked out of the meeting. This was one of a long series of branch closures, suspensions and amalgamations designed to remove any challenge to the They told power of the leadership. Since the sixties the executive has restructured the EETPU and rule book rewritten

ELIC

computer disk plant in South union executive imposed the company's pay offer on the workers - even though they had voted against it. Only last Although members of the executive are elected, the leadership carefully manipulates the nomination of candidates.

the ation night branches with loyal supporters, sometimes bribing moderates with promises of a week's "holiday" Even if they are nominated, rank and file candidates are not allowed to campaign PRINT UNION OFFICIALS COOPERATED WITH POLICE CHIEFS TO KEEP SATURDAY'S PROTEST negotiating position. • Law and Labour heavily up jobs, giving the Tory strike.

BREAK THESE

ROTTEN TRADITIONS

but appointed by selection procedure includes But the extent of Hammond's qualification. surprised even the He simply announced he was centralise to Only last month, at the Xidex Wales, the On nominofficials often swamp at the union's next conference.

Murdoch's Murdoch's profits, then we will be in a Wapping The courts have ruled that any action the print workers take which is likely to be effective is illegal. The entire assets of Sogat have been seized and the NGA has been fined and threatened with sequestration. The union leaders have expressed their indignation, but have acquiesced to the judges' instructions. Instead of defying law in the present, they have appealed for a future Labour government to introduce legislation protecting the right to within the union. Officials are not elected the executive. The thorough political vetting a record of activity in the right wing of the Labour Party is a valuable Left wingers in the EETPU have long campaigned against the right's autocratic regime. But rather than going out to the rank At A national conference of left-wing electricians last week condemned their executive council for turning the EETPL traditions into a recruiting agency for scab labour. But how can scab unionism be broken? way to go. • Fight for the right to fight!

The use of the courts as an auxiliary arm of scab operation forces print workers either to obey the courts and lose their jobs, or to defy the courts and fight for our rights. The role of the courts over Wapping exposes that the judges are simply agents of the employers. They should have no greater claim on public respect because they try to invest their anti-working class prejudices with the aura of judicial impartiality.

• Relying on the TUC The print union leaders and their supporters throughout the official labour movement have called for the TUC to expel the electricians' union, which helped to recruit Murdoch's scab army at Wapping.

The leaders of the TUC and the other big unions want to use the EETPU as a scapegoat for their own failures. Left wingers in the unions would rather campaign against the most extreme manifestation of company unionism than tackle the trends towards no-strike and single-union deals which are rampant in every union. Rather than put the fate of the strike in the hands of the rank and file, they put their faith in the TUC bureaucracy • Relying on the rank and file The only force that can fight scab unionism is the rank and file. The EETPU has played a despicable role at Wapping, but the problem of scab unionism goes much further. The operation involves memper The EETPU is the several other unions. biggest scab outfit, but is far from being the only union to have done sweetheart deals with the bosses at the expense of other unions. We need a rank and file campaign to fight scab unionism throughout the unions. The struggle against scab unionism is particularly important in the EETPU. Militants in the EETPU need the support of activists in other unions in carrying on resistance against their treacherous union leadership. and file, they have tried to work through the bureaucratic structures of the union.

When Hammond took over in 1984, the left could only hope that he would lead the EETPU back to the centre stage of the trade union movement. Instead Hammond has moved to complete the transformation of the EETPU into a scab union conference most last Saturday's speakers argued that the TUC should take the lead and 'put pressure on our executive" The conference ended with a plea for a rule book that opens up the possibilities of rank and file democracy. 'We need a just and honourable solution to the Wapping dispute'.

preached the chairman, which allows NGA out their and Sogat members traditional work. Our campaign against the menace of scab unionism must begin from a recognition that Fleet Street, like the the traditions of

EETPU,

are largely the responsible for getting us into this mess. To get rid of Hammond and all he stands for, we must break out of the bureaucratic traditions that have allowed the existing leadership to emerge. Last Saturday's conference showed that the broad left in the EETPU has a long Andrew Calcutt

DISCRIMINATION IN LIVERPOOL AND LONDON

RACISTS CANT

FIGHT RACISM

NUPE

PICKET

CLUNDON

A DIVISION

BLACKS WORKING FOR THE STATE ALWAYS SUFFER IN THE WORST JOBS

orst, a member of the house G commons select committee employment, has just "discovered' what black people in Liverpool have known all along — that Liverpool's Labour council has a racist employment policy.

Blacks make up more than 10 percent of Liverpool's population. But there are just 270 blacks in a council workforce of 31 000.

Gorst was joined by other MPs the committee Labour's Ron Leighton, chair - in his appeal for the government to take firm action against discrimination in Liverpool. 'Is it possible for the government to intervene against job discrimination in Liverpool?' asked Tory MP John Gorst last week. No, replies Kenan Malk Tony Millwood, leader Hackney council, also called for government discrimination last action against racial tribunal found the An industrial week. breaching the council guilty of Relations Act, by turning down three white youths for jobs as apprentice gardeners. The council insisted the jobs were reserved for blacks under its positive policies. When the tribunal came out against Millwood called the council, government to change the law.

Parties across the political spectrum are looking to the government to intervene in the employment of black people.

governments have always intervened in black people's working lives - to sponsor and institutionalise discrimination against blacks in Britain. • In the fifties governments ran recruiting drives in the West Indies, bringing blacks to Britain to meet labour shortages in low-paid The government

SECLOLS.

with unions agreements -LO immigrants' employment rights.

• From the sixties governments moved to curtail black immigration. Acts legalised the treatment workers as second-class citizens. A work permit system ensured many immigrants could only work with an employer, and could only change jobs with government permission. deported at the government's whim.

• Since the seventies, and especially since the Tories introduced the 1981 Nationality Act based on a Labour Party blueprint, governments have rigorously in the lives of black workers.

Passport checks and fishing raids' have become common in workplaces with a large number of black employees. Race checks commonplace are now agencies, from housing offices to doctors' - including surgeries. Decades of government intervention have taken their toll. Black unemployment is now twice as high as for whites in every area in Britain. For Bangladeshis and Pakistanis it than politicians still expect us to believe the state can bail out the blacks at the receiving end of racism. Tory MP John Gorst's appeal for the state black workers to solve Liverpool is just a hypocritical attempt to add to the anti-Militant hysteria in the press and parliament. Gorst's record proves he does not give a toss about what happens to black workers. Back in 1977 Asian women workers at the Grunwick factory, in Gorst's constituency, came out on strike in their union recognition. fight for George Ward, a pioneer of Murdoch-style strike-breaking, was backed by the rightwing scab agency, the National Association of lett-wing for Freedom, now the Freedom Association.

The scabs' biggest backer? Local MP John Gorst. He backed Ward and the police who smashed the strike and put the Asian women Race out of work.

EVEN WORSE

discrimination Yet Labour politicians are prepared to join Gorst in using the race issue as a stick the on with which to beat Militant in Liverpool.

Ron Leighton is a good example. He is outraged at the discriminatory policies of Militant-run Liverpool council, yet he seems But British indifferent to the discriminatory policies of council Newham constituency. In fact Newham employs even less blacks than Liverpool - only 200 out of a workforce of 11 000 - in an area where black people make up more than 25 percent of the population. Racial tensions are even worse in Newham than in Liverpool. There has been a series of racist murders, and racist 50 signed firebombings and other attacks have been restrict regularly reported in is over the past year.

Police harassment has provoked a series of campaigns - such as the Newham 7, the Newham 8 and the Pryce campaign.

Immigration saves his Leighton But of black Liverpool and leaves it to the racist state to fight racism in his own backyard.

While East London approved Racism supporters have battled with racists and faced police harassment in Leighton's Blacks could be constituency, he has called for increased that walked off the platform. week condemned by last

SHARING MISERY

council job market. intervened more leadership anti-racist posturing. all official significant against blacks.

WAY TO WIN

Yet three times as high. trade unions are discrimination. problems in gestures the Their boss, black between deepening divisions. debate. Come along! Racism his own 11am - 5pm Aldgate High Street, E1 Details from outrage for Against Workers 3xx, or policing. He expects the official channels racial have institutionalised discrimination to defend blacks. Last year Leighton addressed local anti-racists: I can't do anything', he told them, because no one comes to see me at my surgery' When blacks in the audience barracked him, he As leader of Hackney's left-wing council, Tony Millwood represents another tradition of Labour Party politicians expecting the state to combat racial discrimination — this time the local arm of the state in the town hall. His council has been a pioneer of the positive discrimination policies which were an industrial tribunal. Hackney claims its policy has created jobs for blacks. But apart from jobs on race relations quangos, funded by central government, the proportion of blacks in the workforce has grown no faster since the new policy was introduced three years ago.

Hackney has tried positive discrimination policies at a time when it is cutting the direct labour organisation, maintaining high levels of unfilled vacancies and generally putting the squeeze on jobs. The council has recently been in dispute with refuse disposal workers, parks department workers and the libraries have been closed since before Christmas.

all because of its austerity policies. Instead of creating jobs for blacks, it has tried to give them a slightly larger slice of a shrinking The inevitable consequences of a policy described by one local councillor as sharing out the misery' were fully realised when the three white youths were turned down for gardening jobs. The backlash, now ratified by the tribunal, has thrown the council off balance: Millwood now appeals to the government to legitimise his The whole affair exposes the fact that token anti-racist policies, in the hands of a council prepared to cut jobs and services, can only intensify racial divisions while making no discrimination impression on We do not need toadies like Gorst and Leighton to tell us that Labour councils and racial complicit in Workers Against Racism has been campaigning on both issues for years. Nor do we need any more anti-racist that provoke a white backlash without making any serious attempt to challenge racism. State bodies which have fostered racism cannot play any useful role in fighting it. The only way to ensure that blacks get a fair chance of employment is for to combat unions tnemselves discrimination in the workplace.

Workers Against Racism stands for workers' direct action against all forms of racism. This is the only action that can be effective, and the only sort of action that can build unity of white, instead Next week Workers Against Racism Is holding a special day of discussion in East London. Questions of discrimination and council and government policy, and many other aspects of racism will be open to Council of War how to fight it Sunday 9 March Fairholt House

WAR, BM WAR,

London WC1N 01-729 0414

THE

PROPAGANDA

WAR

NUCLEAR POWER - YES

PLEASE!

The spate of leaks from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria has given rise to a storm of protest against nuclear power. There is no doubt that generating energy from nuclear fission is potentially dangerous for workers in the industry and for anybody who may be contaminated by its waste products.

Equally, there is no doubt that the capitalists who run British Nuclear Fuels with the over-riding aim of making profits cannot be trusted to protect their employees or their neighbours. From Aberfan to Bhopal, history shows that we should assume that all the bosses' assurances are lies, and that the vigilance of workers organisations is the only guarantee of our health and safety. Yet, there is an irrational side to the furore over Sellafield. The most highly publicised recent incident may have resulted in the slight contamination of two workers at the plant, but within limits widely considered acceptable. The 440kgs of purified uranium said to have been leaked' were deliberately discharged into the Irish Sea, where the effect will be indistinguishable from thousands of tonnes of naturally occurring uranium.

Compared with other ways of generating energy, nuclear power has an undeniably superior record of safety. In the four weeks that Sellafield has been in the headlines more than 50 miners have died - some as a result of accidents, and many more from pneumoconiosis and chest diseases. Other industries are even more dangerous than coalmining - on average eight building workers are killed every month. Yet the - in which not a nuclear power industry single fatality has definitely resulted from exposure to radioactivity — is at the centre of public controversy. It sometimes seems as if certain people want to latch on to the issue of safety in the nuclear power industry when they are looking for a soft target, or for an excuse for not tackling a real menace in society.

Take Garret FitzGerald, the Irish premier who expressed 'deep concern' about radioactive waste being discharged into the Irish Sea during his chat with Margaret Thatcher last week. When there is a war - a war in which going on in his country the forces of his host shot dead two young Irishmen last week - the biggest menace coming out of Britain that FitzGerald can find to complain about is (probably harmless) nuclear waste. Or take Arthur Scargill, a strident critic of the nuclear power industry. His real concern is the threat of nuclear power to the position of coal as Britain's major source of energy. But it has been the coal board, not nuclear power, that has destroyed miners' jobs. And it is the coal board's drive to raise productivity and profits that is driving up the accident rate in the pits. But it is easier to jump on the anti-Sellafield bandwagon than it is to fight the coal bosses. Supporters of Greenpeace, CND and the Labour left are united in their hostility to Sellafield. To drum up support in hard times they prey on fears and prejudices against any scientific advance. But the problem is not nuclear power, which offers tremendous possibilities of cheap, safe energy. The problem is the capitalist system that prostitutes every technological advance to its squalid quest for profit.

the next step 28 February 1986 • 5

he inability of the Tories to overcome the T deep-seated malaise of the British economy has precipitated a major crisis of confidence in the government. The result has been two ministerial resignations, a precipitous decline in public respect for the prime minister and a grave sense of insecurity Tory ranks. The most damaging within the consequence of recent events is that Thatcher has been increasingly forced to take pragmatic decisions to guarantee the survival of the government — measures which contradict the fundamental tenets of Thatcherism.

• laissez-faire of Thatcher's election central campaign in 1979 was her commitment to roll back the frontiers of state intervention. A new Tory government would liberate private enterprise from the interfering state and set free the spirit of the market.

*Do you realise that we have just spent two hours discussing the affairs of a company whose total assets are only f30m?' Thatcher is said to have inquired of her cabinet colleagues after a long drawn out session on Westland before Christmas. It was certainly a pertinent question publicly that the government given committed to non-intervention. From this early stage to the last act, the whole affair has revealed that non-intervention is a sham. The government's action in referring United Biscuits' bid for Imperial Tobacco to the monopolies commission has allowed Lord Hanson a clear field to take over Imperial.

This is clearly the government's final pay-off to Hanson who played a vital role — at considerable expense in clinching the government's goal of a Sikorsky rescue for Westland.

ALMS FOR INDUSTRY

The simple fact is that the spirit of free enterprise is so feeble among British entrepreneurs survive without government support. Even the discreet marriage between GN and the British Steel Corporation, which is expected to take it out of the public sector later this year, consummated without £55m of cannot be public money. The furore over British Leyland (see opposite) only draws attention to the fact that without massive state subsidy the British motor industry would have collapsed long ago.

of The best efforts of nearly seven years Thatcherism have just about managed to get British manufacturers back on to their knees, so that they can beg for more state hand-outs as an alternative to selling out to foreign competition.

• privatisation proclaimed her Thatcher has consistently commitment to reducing the size of the public sector by returning as much of it as possible to has been private ownership. Privatisation pursued as a means of promoting competition and cutel prise.

EMPTY TREASURY

Thatcher's recent decisions to sell off the gas and water boards have blown the gaffe on The British gas industry is a privatisation. by will be broken monopoly which not privatisation - not much competition there. In the water boards there is not only little scope for competition, there is very little for enterprise either. Thatcher's recent sell-offs simply reveal the government's desperate need for quick cash to compensate for the fact that public spending is out of control. • public spending Removing the burden of public expenditure on private enterprise was another of the crusading calls of Thatcherism on the rise. The Tories were going to shake out the public services and cut taxation to encourage private enterprise.

Six years later public spending is higher than ever and so is taxation. Thatcher can now be heard proclaiming that we have more doctors, more nurses and more spending on the health service than ever before. Spending on the health service has increased, and spending on social security to keep four million unemployed on the dole has increased even more. The extra cost of the military and police forces for fighting the government's enemies at home and abroad has also helped to blow the treasury's budgets.

Thatcher's attempt to make a virtue out of her failure to implement a policy of austerity exposes the impasse the Tory government has now reached.

SUCCESS STORIES

A glance at the Tories' success stories reveals just how insecure their grip on the British economy has become. 6 the next step • 28 February 1986 • The City Britain now makes more in "invisible' earnings in banking, insurance and finance than any country in the world. But even this success story is a reflection of the lack of dynamism of any other sector of the economy. All the indicators show a frantic level of activity on the stock exchange: just like in the twenties industrial stagnation is paralleled by a buoyant stock the absence of any other profitable investment outlet, financiers turn to speculation.

The Tories have done much to boost share prices. Since they came to office they have lifted restrictions on the City. The financial services bill currently going through parliament will The recent spate of speed up this process. company flotations - Laura Ashley, Body Wellcome and mergers have also Shop, boosted share prices. Flotations have become a popular way for companies to raise cash rapidly without incurring interest rate charges.

The merger boom is a sign of companies trying to overcome the lack of internal growth by taking over other firms.

BURSTING BUBBLES

Moves to deregulate the City are also a threat.

Many investors fear the "big bang' when the new rules come into effect in October. The City will not only be opened up to British brokers, but also to foreign investors. The British stock ravaged by American market risks being The future of the jewel in the speculators. Tories' crown is also threatened by the spate of scandals - Johnson Matthey, Lloyds — which threaten to undermine the prestige that has allowed the City to continue to play a role in world finance out of all proportion to the weakness of the domestic economy. The City of London is a bubble that could very easily burst.

• North Sea oil The Tories have capitalised on the success of North Sea oil by boosting government revenue through taxation. But success in the North Sea has proved short-lived. Oil production is now in decline and the world glut has depressed prices by up to 30 per cent. This has not only reduced profits and revenues, it has also deterred the exploration of new fields.

Government revenue from oil is expected to €7.5 billion, drop from £11.5 drastically curtailing the scope for tax cuts in the impending March budget. Since 1981 the Tories compensate for all the have used oil to weaknesses of the British economy. The loss of revenue resulting from the decline of North Sea oil is likely to have an adverse effect on trade, of payments and government the balance spending.

BUDGET OPTIONS

The Tories face the coming budget with a November of options. Last narrow range chancellor Nigel Lawson gave up all pretence of trying to control the money supply - long a

THATCHEI

central target of 'monetarist' policy. The figures were so far off target that the government scrapped the target and allowed simply pragmatism to take over. Thatcher and her ministers still proclaim that profits, investment, output and trade are all increasing. And it is true that compared with the trough of 1979 to 1981, all these factors register an improvement. But this was the blackest British capitalism in modern moment tor

ON THE RI

history and the recovery from these depths has been so sluggish that, by all these criteria, the economy has yet to recover the position it was in before the recession struck. The Tories used to claim great success in controlling inflation, but prices in Britain are still increasing faster than among competitors, and they are expected to increase even faster. Unemployment is now rising so fast that even the Tories' continual attempts to fiddle the figures can scarcely keep up with the increase. Margaret Thatcher seem

SCAPEGOAT SHORTAGE

survived the leadership c In previous years the Tories had a ready alibi for their economic failures: they could blame the previous Labour government, the Argies or Tory Party, but her crusade This year scapegoats are not so the miners. readily to hand, and, while the wets and the opposition parties can offer no alternative the spirit of free enterpr beyond a return to policies which have already been discredited, the government is in a much It is time their unstable position. more British economy has re compounded by a real difficulties were opposition which made clear its recognition that the only solution to the crisis of British end of the roac capitalism is to get rid of the whole rotten Helen Simons system and build a new one.

PATRIOTISM AND PROFITS

he government's plan to sell off Land Rover British Leyland's truck and division to the US giant General Motors makes good sense from a capitalist point of view. Land Rover has a glorious history of equipping repressive regimes throughout the third world with sturdy vehicles for patrolling restive areas, as well as for providing Sloane Rangers with the ideal Home Counties tourer.

But it has run into stiff competition from Japan in a world market in which the supply of heavy duty four-wheel-drive vehicles now far exceeds demand. Yet, while Land Rover is just about holding its own, Leyland trucks is a disaster area: last year it lost £60m and its accumulated deficit is more that t500m.

General Motors offers a merger with its Bedford operation and access to its vast marketing network. Given that Leyland trucks could not survive independently, and the fact that GM insists on taking the truck division and Land Rover as a job lot, Paul Channon - the Tories new industry secretary — is faced with an offer that is very difficult to refuse.

POOR RELATION

Indeed the plans revealed at the beginning of the month to sell off Austin Rover, BL's car division, to Ford, also had a sound commercial justification. Austin Rover is just about breaking even after years of massive losses, but it is still falling short of its target of a 20 per cent share of the British car market. This is exactly half the share BL held in 1968 when the company was formed as the culmination of a spate of mergers, and five per cent below its share in 1977 when it was taken over by the state to avert collapse. Last year's share of slightly less than 18 per cent only just beat GM's Vauxhall for second place to Ford's leading position at 27 per cent. Austin Rover claims less than 4 per cent of the European market, a poor Fiat, behind Volkswagen, Ford, seventh Peugeot, GM and Renault. As neither a large volume producer nor a specialised car maker, Austin Rover faces an uncertain future. It is being squeezed in a trade war between GM and Ford, in which both US firms are prepared to subsidise discounting deals that mean accepting substantial losses on their European operations, simply to gain a higher market share. The rapid progress towards full production at Nissan's Durham plant is the most obvious illustration of the challenge from Japan. Most experts agree that Austin Rover can only survive by linking up with one of the big foreign firms. Ford, whose attempt to do a deal with Fiat recently came

RISM

unstuck, is eager to take over Austin Rover to consolidate its dominance in the British market and strengthen its European base.

However, a backbench revolt and an anti- American clamour from the opposition forced a government reeling in the aftermath of the Westland scandal to call off its talks with Ford over Austin Rover. Now the same coalition of disgruntled former Tory ministers (and prime ministers), backbenchers in threatened constituencies, and leaders of the opposition parties

OCKS

is demanding a retreat from the proposed selloff of sections of BL to GM.

'THIS CANNOT CONTINUE'

Banging the British drum may frighten the Tories in parliament, but it is not a sensible policy either for investors in motors or for BL workers.

For the Tories, BL is a British success story.

Since 1979 the government has pursued the s to have thorough shake-out of the company begun by boss Michael Edwardes under the last BL Labour government. Some 13 plants have been sis in the closed, militants have been victimised, flexible working methods introduced, workplace organisation has been destroyed, productivity has to restore been raised by 200 per • cent and the manua workforce has been cut from 120 000 to 38 000.

Austin Rover has concentrated production at se to the Longbridge and Cowley and developed a new model range — Metro, Maestro, Montego and the new Rover. Yet it still remains uncomched the petitive and heavily dependent on governme subsidies. How can it be made into independent profitable company?

Earlier this month the prime minister told parliament that the government had pumped THATCHER'S POLICIES MAY HAVE HAD IT, BUT HEATH'S WET ALTERNATIVE WAS DEAD A DECADE AGO £3.8 billion into BL over the past decade: 'This cannot continue,' she declared. Thatcher is not only concerned to fulfil her election promise that BL would be returned to the private sector.

She is also aware that public spending is so far out of control that the government cannot afford to dole out any more to its lame duck •We are concerned that BL motor company. should be competitive,' Thatcher continued. In the quest for a buyer for BL, Thatcher and her ministers naturally found themselves knocking at the doors of the big US companies which have been operating in Britain for years.

Some commentators would prefer a deal with a Japanese firm. But Nissan has just set up its British base, and Honda is quite happy with its existing joint production deal with BLin making the Triumph Acclaim.

Only a massive injection of capital can revive the British motor industry but British capitalists just haven't got the cash Opponents of selling off BL to US companies argue that it is possible to sustain a profitable independent British motor industry. They point out that the concept of the 'world car, a model turned out in millions by uniform obsolete. international car giants, Different national circumstances, varying customer demand, and, most importantly, developtechnology, have ments manufacturing created scope for smaller firms to produce smaller runs of different models without losing mass production economies. The key to the new *flexible manufacturing system' is the use of aided design and assembly-line computer robots. These can be programmed to make a wide range of different models which can be switched rapidly according to shifting market demand. While academics wax lyrical about the joys of Party working with robots, and Labour politicians proclaim the virtues of Japanese production methods which involve such high technology, they never ask where the money is come from to pay for them.

To going to restructure the British motor industry around use of robots would require the capital investment on a scale that stagnant British industry is incapable of generating British entrepreneurs who have surplus cash would anyway rather have a flutter stock exchange than invest in such a high-risk, low return outfit as BL Enthusiasts for new technology and Japanes facts that the would also require more mass redundancies, the further intensification of workplace exploitation and the extension of company unionism.

In reality only foreign companies have the capacity to restructure the British industry. The Tory government's belated recognition of this fact has given rise to a serious conflict between two central components of the Thatcher image. On the one hand, Thatcher has promoted British nationalism more aggressively than any modern prime minister. She has stirred up chauvinist sentiment against the Argentinians, the Irish - and against blacks. On the other hand, Thatcher has continually proclaimed the virtues of her old dad's corner shop; as she repeated endlessly through the Westland saga, a company's commercial considerations must come first. The final success of the US bid for Westland and the likely sell-off of Land Rover to GM show that, when it comes to the crunch, commercialism rules over chauvinism in the hearts of the British capitalist class.

JOBS NOT JINGOS

While Thatcher puts profits first, her parlia mentary opponents take up the Union Jack she has temporarily put aside, and wave it for all they are worth. Heath and his rebel Tories, Kinnock and his "party of production' and the two Davids join in a pathetic squabble to on her Falklands outmanoeuvre Thatcher flank. Their pie in the sky policy for BL merely offers its bosses an early appointment with the receiver and its workers an early appointment at the dole office. While this display of wounded Tory patriotic pride irritating the 15 establishment, it should cause outrage in the labour movement. Unfortunately union officials BL prominently represented in the are chauvinist chorus. But it was their commitment which red to a viable British motor industry them to accept the disappearance of 82 000 jobs five-year period, and all the other in a humiliations that have been heaped one BL workforce. The BL story provides a valuable lesson for the labour movement. It shows that, when it comes to making profits, the capitalists let nothing stand in their way, least of all the patriotic prejudices they sometimes like to stir up to suit their purposes. It shows too that when it comes to defending jobs and conditions, we cannot afford to be distracted by the Keep it British' calls of fools and charlatans. Under the capitalist system there is no future for a British motor industry. More importantly, whether British workers work for British, American, Japanese or any ocher capitalists, there is no future for us unless we fight against them all, instead of taking sides in their disputes about who should reap the benefits from our exploitation. the next step • 28 February 1986 7

PHILIPPINES IN FERMENT

France

ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS

nder Mitterrand's Socialist has France remarkably quiet. Mitterrand has over an unprecedented presided offensive against the working class, but has faced little real resistance. The experience of socialist austerity has paralysed the working class movement and provided new opportunities for the right. The anticipated victory of the right at the polls next month Is, paradoxically, likely to make French politics more unstable.

GETTING TOGETHER

After March the French government is expected to involve "cohabitation' between a left-wing president - Mitterrand remains in office until 1988 — and a right-wing prime minister and parliamentary majority. At a time when bankruptcies are rising, the trade balance is going deeper into the red and the franc sliding, French capitalism desperately needs stable government. The prospect of a descent into volatile Italian-style' coalition politics is causing considerable alarm.

The last 10 days have confirmed that the French establishment would be hard pressed to find a more efficient political machine to affairs than the manage government. The right wing is not likely to get the landslide it hoped for in the French general elections on 16 March. Sabena Norton reports from Paris • In Chad Mitterrand ordered an air strike in a provocative display of French militar- 1Sm • At Versailles he met representatives of 28 nations for the first Francophone Conanswer to the ference' the French Commonwealth upper chamber of parliament • In the senators debated the flexible working hours bill - a Socialist Party measure which represents a drastic offensive on working conditions • Last Thursday, Channel 5, France's first privatised TV network, started broadcasting - in time to tell the people that the Socialists are as enthusiastic about private enterprise as the right. Three weeks before the poll Mitterrand has, with characteristic tactical finesse, shown establishment can rely on the that the Socialists. Since 1983, when his government abandoned the last remnants of its 1981 reform programme in favour of Thatcherite austerity, Mitterrand has shifted steadily to the right. The Socialists' pro-establishment approach has robbed the right's anti-lett campaign of conviction. The government's moderate and patriotic performance has sharply the exposed even more 8 • the next step • 28 February 1986

REBUILDING THE RIGHT

been factionalism and narrow self-interest which leading seem to preoccupy poncians. If the Socialists turn out to do better than expected it will be a result, not of their own popularity, but of the opposition's dismal performance. Last week Jacques Chirac, one of the leading opposition figures, remarked gloomily that the Socialist Party had 'already come a long way towards us'. He complained that this was why a section of the electorate no longer recognises very well. what distinguishes us from the Socialists'. The collapse Socialist of the left and the convergence of French politics around a patriotic, pro-business and pro-law and order approach presents a major problem for the right.

Soon after the left took office in 1981, the right extended the ideological influence it had begun to build up from the seventies. French intellectuals, reflecting the s we go to press, president Marcos of A the Philippines clings on to power in a country on the brink of civil war.

Cory Aquino and her US backers are hoping she transition to the presidential office, from which she was fraudulent elections. Marcos' attempts, since the election at the beginning of February, to make conciliatory gestures towards his opponents have been too little, too late. The armed forces are now all Marcos can rely on — but the events of the past few days have shown that their loyalty can no longer be guaranteed. The biggest blow to Marcos' hopes of survival was the withdrawal of US backing for his regime. Marcos could no hostility, the US switched its support to Aquino. ministration called on Marcos to hand over quietly to Aquino. The coalition of moderate middle class petty

CHIRAC

LE PEN

GISCARD

BARRE

right-wing class, of enterprise and pluralism.

forge coherent of mood racist and chauvinist policies.

late

MARCOS GETS HIS MARCHING ORDERS

offered to negotiate achieve a peaceful from Marcos cheated in the recent defence Washington recognised that longer contain public Last weekend the Reagan ad- Gaulle with measures Socialists. outlook of an increasingly insecure middle have lost their former interest in these socialism. Today political debate is dominated by a 'new liberalism', which consists mainly of an almost pathological hatred of communism and a return to the conservative initiative, private individual However, the right has so far proved unable to use the shift in popular opinion to of right-wing party government. Indeed the left has succeeded in memory. capturing much of the right's traditional terrain. The extreme right Front National on the other hand has keyed into the deepening insecurity created by unemployment and social instability. It has won considerable support for its extreme The frag mentation of the respectable right has been a significant factor in the rise of Le Pen's neofascist party in local and Euro elections in politicians loosely united around Aquino also wants a peaceful transfer of power.

The Aquino, herself little more than a mouthpiece of the anti-Marcos campaign, has even its control. with Marcos overcome the impasse. The latest defections precipitated this which week's crisis - were those of a former contain head of the minister and Ine military, men who had long served under Marcos. The likely inclusion of such figures in any Aquino government suggests that the Opposition deference to the USA and repression of the forces. Aquino may turn out to be not much better than Marcos, writes Andrew move Matthews the past three years. But why is the official right in such a state? One of the abiding problems of the French ruling class has been its failure to create a stable parliamentary party. Most modern French statesmen - notably Charles de have regarded parliamentary politics with disdain. They have relied on intrigue, patronage and charisma, rather than on party machines. Political parties of the French establishment have traditionally been little more than temporary pacts between rival factions without a coherent ideology or programme. Today the official right is split into two main parties - Jacques Chirac's RPR and Giscard d'Estaing's UDF. The picture is further complicated by the fact that Chirac and former prime minister Raymond Barre both harbour ambitions to succeed Mitterrand as president in 1988. Because of the bitter power struggles among these politicians, the official right-wing parties have been unable to capitalise as much as they might on the prevailing disenchantment the Socialist the government. in election campaign there has been no real offensive against the left. Instead the media have focused on sterile disputes among the contending right-wing factions about the pros and cons of cohabitation.

AUSTERITY VARIATIONS

On key political issues — economic and foreign policy, immigration and anti-union virtual unanimity prevails and the between the parties of the right French commentator One summed up the situation last week, saying that 'under objective constraints a minor nation cannot have 10 different ways of dealing with its economy", but 'only one or two, with slight variations'. He added that which variations are the space presently separates right and left.

Whatever their factional squabbles, on the central objective of making workers pay the price for the survival of the system - all the established parties are united.

The Mitterrand administration has performed sterling service for the French bosses. It has carried out the most vicious attacks on the working class in recent impact of demoralising The austerity socialism on the working class has given the establishment some confidence despite the crisis of its own parties. After 16 March Mitterrand's role will be to hold the ring while the right gets organised to resume more direct control over French politics This move towards a more open form of reaction can be halted only if workers act independently of the old parties of the left a matter we will consider further next week.

masses characteristic of the Marcos years will continue. camp is preoccupied with Aquino keeping the mass revolt against Marcos under Aquino has launched a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience which seeks to mass protest and use people's power' as a lever to ease the opposition politicians into office. Aquino shies away from street demonstrations because, as she says, 'emotions are just running too high'.

large leaders try gatherings into "prayer rallies, at which Catholic priests and nuns urge passivity in face of the repression of the pro-Marcos The main concern of both middle class politicians and their Western sponsors is that, in the present turbulence, the masses' aspirations for a better life could quickly opposition's modest beyond the ambition to replace Marcos with another pro-capitalist, pro-US regime.

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THE COOPERATIVE

ALTERNATIVE

Off the rails

SOP

10ку MORTI

Charles Landry, David Morley, Russell Southwood, Patrick

MINS

wrignt, wnal a way to nun a Railroad, Comedia £2.50

DHIND

Some left wingers have spent

WOMENS

the past 15 years trying to

PRIGHIS

failed. have done so by jettisoning much or ine earle! commitment to new ways of

CRICKET AND

REVOLUTION

85 not out -an exhibition of his life and work, Riverside Studios, Hammersmin i James, and Busby, £13.95 victory: and Busby, £4.95 He discussed black self ane can Arcanism wit He has played cricket in the drama and literary critic, with CLR James, celebrating the life of a remarkable man. lectures, and a documentary WE do LIC Ho DELISH production or nis blay Jacobins since Paul Robeson played the lead in 1936. oohues ane cricket passions of James' life both in the news. Haiti, the western halt of the Domingo, is sull sumering une The west neans are i hane as took place, leading to the events and the subsequent

TITST AOOPO.

Learnse wasted effort and disillusionment. construct oases of socialism in with a bit more The authors nas suay won scores or co-oes and 'alternative' ventures have Those that have survived CLR James, Man of the People CLR James, Black Jacobins - a The Black Jacobins: San Domingo Revolution, Allison CLR James, At the rendezvous of selected writings, Allison CLR James was born in Trinidad in 1901; in 1986 he's very much alive and living in Brixton. The vears in between nave been tur determination in the USA with them for so Nkrumah in Ghana in the sixties.

Lancashire league, been cricket corresoonent tor me Guareian.

Caribhean form historian and playwright, and a Whether you agree or disagree there can be no greatest French The exhibition includes films.

reconstruction of James' life as All this comes at a time when Caribbean Two preat are island of San why the current tour legacy of backwardness imposed by imperialist domination and television comprehensively drubbing the England cricket team once again.

successful slave revolt in history establishment of an independent black repuonic. anese momentous Alan Harding organising. More important, the intuence orme arenauve sector has not stretched as widely as its left-wing partisans It is high time that somebody looked into what went wrong.

essons ore yedis or Tallure could prevent Turner What a Way to auna na teet sonnel fails to deal effectively with the underlying problems of the case for more of the same but

COU FIOL

CICH LaUNiC te technica questions duou alternative styles of organisation, or more often disorganisation What contribution did the acoston orleaderess anc structureless organisations,

FILM

(director) degeneration of the revolution are the subject of the play Black Jacobins. untonunaevames is not really a playwright: he seems to have simply pasted together a polemic trom nis manuscript notes. The book itself, however, is a monumental work, a nistonca suev walca remains an important contribution to the wrestling, understanding of political development in the third world.

James returned again and arrival struggle for a distinctive cultural of overwhelming economic and His essays exhibit a wonderful breadth of sensibility to une nuances or une broben or liberation. Look for example at the discussion of Rastafarianism included in his collected writings.

не потес that the kastatanan movement is both a vain absurdity' and a revolt by Caribbean bedoe apa seE British culture which dominated many years and which they felt would continue to cominate mem. roames. Rastafarianism is both the opiate of the masses and the cry or the cogressea in to umeue James not only played cricket to a high standard, but he writes fervour on the subject. Some may think it over the top compare an innings by Kanhai to the poise of the poetry, but then cricket is more than just a game In ine west indies, cricket Is about taking on the colonial oppressors at their own game there was a carnival atmosphere at the Oval in 1976 when Vi Richards scored a double century and the incomparable Michae Holding smasned Greig s stumps to make England grovel. It is also • featuring bonce chion bene doe to look rather small has been effectively censored from British CLR James has addressed the important issues of our time and worKers movement all nis ite t would of wrong to say that this exhibition does him justice, but it's well parity of pay and conditions of work. ane me reecion or hierarchical internal structures make to the eventual failure of these projects? Perhaps the answers are expected to emerge in a 'non-dogmatic' manner from aew excrucialine anecuote: and a chapter on management, but they don't. A more serious weakness of Wlal a way o nun a halload Is its failure to grapple with the vision of those who put their sustaining these institutions. The e pioneers of the sixties and seventies dreamed of revivine a mymical sense of community. nobine to incuee women, blacks and gays, and later, disabled people. looked forward to the election of a Labour government with

ANOTHER FAMILY

Young Ones - Japanese style The Crazy Family, Sogo Ishii Imagine a country where ine where everybody conforms and thank you very much. You'll be thinking of Japan as many would like us to see it. Now go and see ine crazy ramily wich Is a welcome antidote to this sort of thing, depicting a family exploding (at times literallv under the pressures of, well, the family. Not some marginal or oddball lot either, but a family modern Japanese life. On the surface all is hunky dory. Mum is delighted with their new aream nouse in tne suouros.

Dad commutes to his office in the city, Erika is a healthily batty 1s-year old preening nersel To!

pop stardom/professional and Masaki is a Local overLe alle neaconones sheen who likes sticking to his room. Grandad's (and lack of departure) eccentricity is engaging rather than pathological, anyway. The surface doesn't last lone. we are soon into une can of worms, or more precisely white ants, as the father's hopes of a happy tamily future disappear in a dizzying spiral of obsession, paranoia and violence tuelled ov all concerned. not east nimset As a comedy the film is less a bundle of laughs (perhaps some oT me raes contaisate well and more a consistently entertaining succession of bizarre incidents. The camera

REVIEWS

socialist policies with the right amount of internal democracy to ensure natue woe amme was carried out. The cooperative novenes oscar vigour in parallel with the party it Not surprisingly, What a way to nu a naluda avore: contronine mis soluca erosem and limits its critique to the failures of particular alternative venture. It is obvious that good financial management, explicit allocation of responsibility internally, clear joo descripons and seal to he seen are any organisation whether you • build a want to sel ents or revolutionary party. But if you want socialism, why start b selling lentils? AnneLe eKins chases around the crowded house after the combatants, plunging us into the increasingly considerable selfishness and vigour, they all pursue their own private ambitions. At the centre is a massivey insecure and massively determined to make the family succeed as a family, a

I WHICH IS CICCOH

and destroy the white ants which he finds about the house. The outrageous flavour of BBC's The Young Ones and soon Dad is excavating the living room floor with a arill to provide space To Grandad. We have been put on notice recentiv bv Yanagi Machi's Fire Festival and by Paul Schrader's Mishima that the Japanese are no slouches when it comes to lowne mei toos Mishima's case removing it. In Fire Festival the father takes a snote an to ms Kids wHen times get too muen tor nim In The Crazy Family it isn't long before Dad out and the rest of the tamily are kitchen knives and army swords This is not however a tragic work. ane even as comedy i gets stretched between farce and real black comedy. It is about that chainsaw, and that's what a film this needs Compare this film to Claud Makavejev's Montenegro for more gruelling and grisly assecuors o Le lan anne ene too soo sailous his punches at the level of the story. Instead of following mrouen me loge or we force.

which have forced the disintegration, the whole thing is transformed into something approaching a therapeutic family The tensions within the group are displaced on to the •ream nome seas it destruction and their decampment to the wasteland soaces or me motorway: represents some soo alternative or hope Pat Ford the next step • 28 February 1986 • 9

LETTERS

Up against the courts BY the time you read this letter, the five Laing's building workers whose case was highlighted in last week's tns could be in prison. The workers - all members of a bricklaying gang on a site in were sacked four surbiton months ago for demanding secure employment and union recognition. Despite a court injunction granted last week the workers and supporters have defiantly continued their picketing of Laing's prestige British •Library site near St Pancras station in central London.

Fighting for the right to Free the Bogside 3! IN the next few weeks the trials of three women will be taking place in Belfast courthouse. Two of the women - Anna Moore and her 18-year old daughter Jacqueline from the Bogside area of Derry - were subjected to beatings and other physical and psychological abuse in castlereagn two years ago.

They have been accused of conspiring to plant a bomb at a British Army disco at Ballykelly, County Derry, in December 1982. Two men have been held at crumiin Road prison in Belfast on charges arising from this incident. Jacqueline was pregnant at the time of arrest and her baby was born in prison. The baby was released to the Why complain to police? IN the editorial on page two of tns 8 you make the point that labour movement organisations shouldn't resort to the law and the courts to resolve disputes on our behalf. On page three you highlight the victimisation by the police of an RCP activist in the NUM and mention he had to resort 10 • the next step • 28 February 1986 WRITE TO: tns, BCM JPLTD, LONDON WC1N 3XX

LAING

ne Car Part work against an employer who blacklists militants has against the full force of Tory anti-lade union legislation.

Despite attempts by Ucatt the rank and file action, the struggle continues. Trade union bodies from around the country are already giving support. Send messages of support and contributions to the Laing's lockout committee. Po Box 551, London SE5 8SS. London "liberated' section of the family last summer. The campaign used to be called the 'Bogside two, but Anna Moore's sister was later arrested, making it the bogside unree. me bogside three have lodged complaints against the Royal Ulster Constabulary for illtreatment during arrest and interrogation. I hope supporters of the Irish Freedom Movement will give maximum publicity to this latest example of British justice' in occupied Ireland.

Congratulations on the Irish Freedom Movement's mobilisation for Bloody Sunday! Fionnbarra O'Dochartaigh Derry Ireland to the police complaints procedure. You say we shouldn't expect to 'get any joy from this, but there's still a confusion in your argument. If we shouldn't rely on the courts why pourer with the police complaints procedure? RCP supporter Liverpool Labour evictions I AM a tenant of the Southwark Borough Council and have received a notice of eviction if I don't clear my rent arrears. The letter makes it clear that if I'm evicted won't be rehoused.

Thousands of people are eviction after the Labour council's decision to crack down on rent arrears. Our local housing office is only open to deal with rent arrears cases, and not with more urgent oroblems like repairs. I have no means to clear these arrears. Supplementary benefit is my only form of income to support my wife and two kids. Most of the tenants are in a similar position. I have always voted for the Labour Party but their attitude has disillusioned me and other ordinary people in Southwark. The Labour Party claims to be the party of the working class but it is acting like the Tories. Mushtaq Hussain Southwark Parliamentary cretinism? I AGREED with every word of last week's centrespread (tns 8) on standing in elections.

But I am not convinced that it helps the party's election campaign to argue our position in such a formal way. I have campaigned for ine nor in past electors and I'm standing as an RCP candidate in local elections this May. My experience of past campaigns was confirmed during the election work we have done over the ast two weeks. Door-to-door activity requires hard political argument and thorough exposure of the Labour Party.

Our approach has got to be distinctive enough to draw people away from the complacent They're all the same anyway. And we have got to put forward the sort of positive proposals for fighting back that are expected of a party claiming to take the lead. We need a national manifesto to win workers to our side, not 'exemplary' maiden speeches to parliament that pretend we have already won Tom Bruggen Coventry Anglo-Irish dealings I AM surprised that tns has not yet published a more detailed analysis of the Anglo-Irish agreement, because there are aspects of it that remain puzzling. The Government of Ireland Act (1920), which was the culmination of the long delayed third Home Rule Bill, was brought in piecemeal and it had a provision for a Council of Ireland which envisaged cooperation in the future between Northern and Southern parliaments. With the continuing restructuring of British and European capital, Partition is long out of date and Docs soft on Aids THE first national medical conference on Aids held in Newcastle last week concluded with a statement that haemophiliacs should get state compensation if thev contracted Aids. The justification for this compensation of haemophiliacs, as opposed to gay victims of the disease, was that they contracted the disease through no fault of their own, through contaminated bond transfusions. The obvious implication is that if gays contract Aids it is their own fault and they should not receive anv suboort. This focus on haemophiliacs - a minority of Aids sufferers allows all the myths and scare stories about Aids to go unchallenged. The message that 'It's the virus, not the victim' that is responsible for Aids has still not got across to the medical profession. This needs to be spelt out it were to challenge the sort of hysteria which was typical of public reaction to the conference in Newcastle. On the local Metro radio phone-in that evening a stream of callers demanded stern action to counter 'the gay plague' and that gays and drug addicts should be locked up. Claire Foster Newcastle Natural childbirth OK WHILST I agree with what Helen Swift is saying in her article wendy Savage or trial' (tns 7) about divisive lacues in generdl, Dy highlighting the issue at all in une race or cut-backs within the NHS, I must point out that the 'natural childbirth campaign especially where it is aware of the possibility of childbirth without pain, cannot and must not be regarded as reactionary. It is central to any belief in a utopian future for man woman kind that our offspring wll do just that — 'spring' out. If it is mystical to know that ecstacy rather than bain is the by-word tol childbirth then I remain yours truly, a mystic. Laura Shaw East Dulwich presents an obstacle to American plans to get the Southern government to relinquish its policy of neutrality and join the Nato alliance. Does British policy now depend on the middle classes, North and South, beginning to realise their common class interest? With de-industrialisation and severe unemployment weakening the Loyalist economic base, could the lower sections of the working class be pushed into their true class position? Michael Wallace London W6 exchanges? home.

EDDIE VEALE

STEPPING

OUT

After last week's story about Pontefract police trying to frame Yorkshire miner Keith Hammond for armed robbery, Hammond has received an amusing letter from Chief Superintendent Little, of West Yorkshire police's discipline and complaints department. It concludes: 'As you wlll understand(?), until the necessary investigation has been completed, the Issue cannot be prejudged. But I do regret any event which leaves you with a sense of grievance against the police. There Is no truth in the rumour that Chlef Super Little spends his spare time writing this sort of materlal for his brother, Sid.

Speaking of police discipline, Manchester constables were recently called out to deal with drunks causing havoc and setting off burglar alarms at a local disco. But it turned out the St Valentine's Day dance/massacre was being held at the social club, Chester Square - the city's police HQ. And the rowdy revellers were all off-duty rozzers.

On the command floor, police found one of their comrades trying to sleep himself sober. He told the investigating officers to clear off, as he was a member of the force's 'Y' department, responsible for...complaints and discipline. If this sort of carry-on carries on, Support your local police could take on a new meaning.

Sticking with police matters, last year Japanese police arrested 2.48 million suspects, of whom just 121 were eventually found not gullty. This means the conviction rate in Japan's no-jury courts Is around 99.99 per cent, mostly due to the confessions police manage to 'persuade' their prisoners to make.

Perhaps this Is the Japanese 'social strategy that Neil Kinnock wants to emulate In Britain. Or perhaps It's an example of the Japanese learning from the Brits. Apparently, the first Japanese book on the IRA has just been published. Previous Japanese publications on Ireland have all been about British Imperial strategy, used as textbooks on how to repress people with, among other things, no-jury courts and police torture centres. Who said capitalism undermines cultural Here is a Murdoch gem you will all have missed, because you re boycotting the scab Sun. (On my honour as a gent, l have only been reading it in a public library.) The most patriotic of gutter papers was sorely upset over the England cricketers dismal display in the early games of their West Indies tour. So the Sun did a splash feature on England's saviour, David Smith, who was flying out to join the team for the first test match. 'YOU DON'T SCARE ME' Smith warned the West Indies fearsome fast bowlers, in two-inch high headlines Result? He was out for one run in the first innings - and less than one run in the second. Well, they only said he wouldn't be scared. Nobody said he would actually hit the ball.

When I heard Wapping marchers sing the Internationale on Saturday, I thought perhaps the print unlons had ditched their traditions of sectionalism and running their trade as an exclusive family club. Then they started singing another refrain: 'I am a printer, l am a printer's son...' It was a nice thought, Two elderly socialist women overheard chatting at a meeting on Ireland in Nottingham: I don't know why they keep on about the IRA blowing people up.

They're not as bad as the gas board.

The enemy, as we Marxists say, is at

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Supporters speaking *Why are you an RCP supporter? Ann Burton asked at last week's London supporters' meeting. Here are some of the answers she got I've been reading tos for over a year, on and off, but I'd always been a bit edgy about getting further into it.

Then about three weeks ago I saw this white bloke seling nools or nacisi outside Brixton tube, so l went over to take te piss - I couldn't think what he'd have to say about racism, being white - but I was dead surprised. He told. me about a meeting which I went to, which was really good and that was that. It sounded like there was so much going on you couldn't say you agreed with the politics but didn't want to get involved -that d copping out. That was three weeks ago, now i'm in the middle or setting up a new branch in Peckham. It's a good place to start a branch because it's so obvious the Labour Party is rubbish. The council have started letting the police use flats on North Peckham estate to spy on people who live there. And the councillors are inviting pigs to their surgeries so people can talk to them more easily. Most people round here spend most of their time trying to keep away from the police especially if you're black. You know they'll only try to set you up. Anyway the first thing we're going to do is set up a campaign against it. There's loads of other things we're doing as well.

On Saturday I was down at Wapping, on Sunday a load of us suooorters nao a discussion with a couple of RCP members on Ireland, and I've been out selling tns as well.' So said Sid, one of our supporters at the London supporters meeting last week. Tracy's also been arouna tor a short time. but soon found herself right in tne middle or erdrich me Mind you, she nearly didn't get involved at all: To be honest I was getting very cynical, she admitted, 'A lot of people kept telling me the left was banging its head against a brick wall, but l couldn't even see the left doing that. Like this morning I was reading in some paper about some Coventry MP who's supposed to be as far left as they come, and his idea of fighting Murdoch is asking questions in parliament about whether he's got planning permission for the barbed wire at Wapping. It's pathetic and demoralises people. The police are baton-charging picket lines and the Labour Party's consulting surveyors about building rights. That's why I think the RCP can get a lot of new members. There's nowhere else to go — no-one else is fighting.' Since the new year 238 new people have signed up as RCP supporters. Some of our most active branches have had to set up extra supporters' meetings. The best thing is that a whole wave of new supporters have been persuaded to join by people who've only just got involved themselves. And the number of people writing to tns from areas where we don't yet have branches has shot up - we've had to ge someone new into our office to handle the extra correspondence. So if you're waiting for a reply, please be patient. And if you're not waiting for one yet, fill in the box on page 12 now. Boycott Murdoch! keep tos off the streets in the streets everywhere. Last Saturday supporters throughout Britain went out with placards, petitions and megaphones to explain the issues of the print strike to shoppers. The response was encouraging. In Manchester seven supporters sold 101 papers on a 'Buy tns • not the Sun protest, and the branch sold 250 copies in one day. In Newcastle one supporter sold 11 copies of tns in half an hour, mostly to out our views on rebuilding the trade unions. It proved a good excuse to talk to workers about the problems in their own unions, too.

This week we'll be repeating the action. ALL

PROTESTS ARE ON

SATURDAY 1 MARCH unless otherwise stated: LIVERPOOL: meet 11am, WH Smith's, Church St, city cente

CONSTO

LICE STAT

OMES TO

'ONTEFRACT

Police off our streets! Last week's tns told the story of Keith Hammond, a Yorkshire miner and Pontefract RCP supporter

THE PARTYPAGE

NEWCASTLE: meet 10.30am, Monument, city cente NOTTINGHAM: meet 11am, WH Smith's, Broadmarsh BRIGHTON: meet 11am Churchill Square LEEDS: meet 11am, Lands Lane, town centre EDINBURGH: meet 11am, Menzies, Princes St NORTH LONDON:meet 11am, Camden tube station AND meet 2.00pm Islington Upper St, outside Screen on the Green SOUTH LONDON: meet 11am, Brixton tube AND meet 11am, Women's Centre, Peckham High St WEST LONDON: meet 11am, Fulham WH Smith's North End Rd AND meet 2.00pm, Hammersmith King's Mall EAST LONDON: meet 11am, entrance to Arcade, Stratford Broadway AND meet 11am, BR station, Dalston Junction BIRMINGHAM: Friday 28 , meet WH February 4.30pm, Smith's, Union St AND Saturday 1 March 11am, meet Chamberlain Square F

FOR T

who fell foul of the police during the miners' strike.

They've tried to chase him off the streets for selling tos

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• Public meetings Could a revolution happen here?

7.30pm, Trades Council rebrudi Building, MANCHESTER: Thursday 27 7.30pm, Black Lion February Chapel Stree HoTe LIVERPOOL: Friday 28 February 7.30pm, AUEW Hall, Mount peasant COVENTRY: Friday 28 February Stree Hand and Heart, Gostora BRIGHTON: Wednesday 5 March 730mm. The Unemploved Centre Tilbury Place

BRADFORD

Protest against police harassment at local police/community forum 27 7pm, February Clayton Middle School

SHEFFIELD

Tell the Labour councillors debating next years budget we want no rate rises, no cuts and no job losses Monday 3 March 7pm, town hall

• MANCHESTER

Join the mass picket in Mosley to waln naywou strike against Victorian working conditions. ransoort eaves Manchester 7am, Monday 3 March. Phone 01-729 0414 ever since. Last week, you'll remember, the Yorkshire constabulary were trying to fit Keith up for an armed robbery which took place when he was on the Bloody ounday commemoration march in London. This week, just so that Keith didn't feel personally victimised, the police ran in another RCP supporter and charged him with obstruction. These bully-boy tactics are becoming a big issue. The Pontefract and Castleford Express made police harassment of tns sellers a front page story, suggesting it's part of a police campaign to drive us off the streets in the run-up to the local elections, in which we will be standing a number of candidates. Yorkshire supporters aren't prepared to take this lying down. On Wednesday 30 RCP activists joined by other Pontefract left wingers, stormed into the area's police forum' - a talking shop for local police and Labour councillors demanding an end to harassment of tos sellers and an end to council links with the police. It'll need more than the disruption of one meeting to put the police in their place.

We've launched a campaign to defend our right to sell our propaganda. The action begins on Saturday 1 March with a mass sale meet at Pontefract town hall, 11 am.

We'll be approaching leftwing activists and local trade unions for their support. And we're asking for yours.

SEND TO JUNIUS PUBLICATIONS, BCM JPLTD

imS a plant behind barbed wire. He has employed a fleet of trucks sure every family in Britain can get soap and scandal for breakfast. Rupert is out to workers on smash carry on showing off his talent for turning muck into money. Eric 2 doch with an scabs. told the loony lefties to get stuffed and let the electricians get on with doing other workers' jobs and running errands for the bosses. 3 Wapping. tress "get says restrictive practices and Fleet Street free' set and keep backing me for leader of the Tory Party!

their riot-training film set near Heathrow and given them a taste of the real thing at Wapping. fresh from Ken, humble pie over the behaviour of his thugs in Islington, is giving them even better equipment to put the boot in down in Tower Hamlets.

REASONS

Justice Sogat union And now he wants to do

TO STOP

the same to Why should these class warriors in allowed to outlaw anything that employers where it hurts?

GETTING THE

Samantha 6 to make a living - but

SOARAWAY

that's no getting into a tank on the side of the Scantily clad Sam is doing her bit to keep the Sun

SCAB

Bingo going and to boost the morale of the Murdoch forces. wants to play Bingo when there's a war going on? Norman and of support battalions of the TUC for Sun the print wise-cracking tough-talking Todd have put less pickets around Wapping than they have hairs on their heads. With these heavyweight nothings behind the print workers, who needs enemies? Rupert Murdoch has sacked 5000 workers and set up to make Rambo put the dole, and our unions, Hammond has helped to provide Fort Murarmy of Sensible Eric has Margaret Thatcher has given the thumbs up to For- Maggie rid of those Kenneth Newman has taken his lads (and lasses!) off Blue eating Michael Davies has already ripped off the print for f17m. the NGA. be wigs hits the Fox might be a working class girl trying excuse for scab army. But who Willis Todd Ron have pledged the the big But workers. Willis and do- Sun from doorstep. Neil 8 action even more. baiting Kinnock dispute shafting ment. David the hates more.

RCP!

the system; • rights for the contraception nursery facilities; and for against racist attacks; • freedom people from cupation control. your sensational Sun. Kinnock won't talk to Sun journalists, but he hates picketing and direct Red- Hatton-hating wishes the would go away and let him get on with and Militant proving how harmless he is to the British establish- Owen doesn't much like the Sun but he unions even Doctor Death wants the same treatment extending from Fleet

ROP

Fight for the right to fight!

Find out more about the The RCP is a young and growing party. We stand for • a job and a decent income for every worker - and for the right to fight back against including the right to work, right to abortion and and free • rights for black people workers' defence for the Irish British ocand political • Print workers are braving massed ranks of thugs in uniform to try to stop the whopping strike-breaking reaching your • Here's one suggestion for what you might do with her crown. against the gays, their rotten system the print workers! weekly in wrong, why Phone fill in the form below.

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Street to the television unions and beyond. Out- Thatchering Thatcher, unctuous Owen won't be happy until he's wearing The Sun is a dirty little newspaper.It stirs up prejudices blacks, women, Irish, the French, the working class - anybody who stands in the way of the Tories and Boycott the Sun! Support See page 11 for details of action around the country.

Mark Wilding Supporters of the RCP meet cities in most Britain to talk about what's happening and what we can do to change it. If you agree with our assessment of what's not join our movement for a new world?

Fenna 01 729 on 0414 for details of supporters' groups around the country or Send to RCP, BM RCP, London