The Next Step: No. 12, 25 March 1988

SCOTLAND: THE POLL TAX-see page i Funeral violence in Ireland

THE FURY

WHICH GROWS

TROOPS OUT NOW!

ins the next step - 12 Revolutionary Communist Party Weekly

FROM

GREF

dead by the IRA. in 1969 by the British forces.

HOT SMASH

INSIDE

Support our fighting E1 fund pay for your tns 25 March 1988 NEARLY 19 YEARS of pent-up anger among Irish nationalists exploded in Belfast on Saturday. Two plain clothes British soldiers who drove into a republican funeral cortege were attacked by mourners and then shot Many in Britain were shocked at how bitterly the mourners reacted against the Army intruders. But the level of nationalist anger reflects the scale of suffering inflicted on their community since the Irish War began - and especially this month.

On Wednesday thousands of nationalists went to Belfast's Milltown cemetery to bury three IRA members shot dead in cold blood by the SAS in Gibraltar. Those three joined the roll of more than 300 Irish people shot dead The mourners were attacked at the graveside by a Loyalist murderer with guns and grenades, who killed three of his pursuers and maimed scores of

ON IRELAND:

• EYEWITNESS REPORT

FROM FUNERALS

•A WEEK IN THE IRISH WAR

• LOYALISM AND THE BRITISH

CONNECTION

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

40p

SATURDAY: REPUBLICANS DISARM BRITISH SOLDIER

other mourners. These victims were the latest of 600 nationalists killed by Loyalist paramilitaries. On Saturday the nationalists of West Belfast turned out again for the funeral of Kevin Brady, a republican victim of the Milltown massacre. When the soldiers careered into the procession, they sparked off the fury which nationalists feel at what is being done to their people. When they fired at the mourners who surrounded their car, nobody should have been surprised by what followed.

The bloodshed of recent days has nothing to do with the 'mindless violence' which the media talk about.

It is all a consequence of the political conflict between the British state and Irish nationalists who want their freedom. The only solution is to remove the cause of that conflict: Britain's military occupation of the North of Ireland.

There have been one of them

MONDAY

14 MARCH

returning the The BAC-111 jet Mairead Farrell, bodies of Sean Savage and Daniel McCann, the three IRA volunteers shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar, touched down at Dublin airport at 4.40pm.

At 7.42pm, while the funeral cortege was making its North, way British Army shot Kevin MeCracken vorteen Turf Lodge, Belfast, a distance from his home and that of Sean Savage. Shortly after 9pm, Gibraltar cortege reached the Dundalk on the Border, where more than 6000 local people had waited four hours in driving rain to pay their respects.

TUESDAY

15 MARCH

A masked Loyalist gunman shot dead 25-year old Charlie McGrillen as he was working at Dunnes Store Embankment in Annadale South Belfast. The Ulster Freedom Fighters claimed responsibility for murder. Charlie sectalall McGrillen had no involvement in the republican movement: he gunned down because ne was a Catholic.

WEDNESDAY

16 MARCH

At the funeral of the three IRA volunteers shot dead in Gibraltar, Loyalist Michael Stone launched a gun and grenade attack in Militown killing three mourners cemetery. and maiming many more. That night old Kevin Mulligan, 22-year Belfast Catholic shot by Loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association in August last year, died in hospital after suffering a relapse.

THOMAS MERLEAN

JOHN MURRAY

KEVIN BRADY

2 • 25 March 1988 almost 1000 weeks in the Irish War...this was the

MAIREAD FARRELL

DANIEL McCANN was

SEAN SAVAGE

THURSDAY

17 MARCH

Thousands of nationalists attended the funeral of Kevin McCracken, the IRA volunteer shot dead by the British Army on Monday night.

Following a tense burial ceremony in Milltown cemetery. joined the traditional St Patrick's Day parade as it made its way up the Andersonstown Road to a rally in Casement Park. At the head of the procession marchers carried banners strung out across the demanding freedom for the Birmingframed for ham 6, Birmingham pub bombings, and for political hostages in British jails.

FRIDAY

18 MARCH

Charlie McGrillen, killed by the sectarian Fighters Freedom supermarket on buried. So too was brave young nationalist Thomas McErlean, only yards from where he was shot dead giving chase to Michael Stone in Milltown cemetery on Wednesday. The IRA shot dead 21-year old Han Conson wounded her fiance Stanley Leggett at Tonaghgorm, county Fermanagh thinking Leggett was Johnston's brother who served as a part-time soldier with the fence Regiment.

SATURDAY

19 MARCH

Two British soldiers were executed by the IRA after they threatened the funeral cortege of Kevin Brady, the IRA volunteer killed in Milltown cemetery on Wednesday. Saturday's shootings brought the death toll for nine: week nationalists, one Protestant and two British soldiers. member on Saturday. the insisting that they members of the from one Monday Tory two corporals

HOULICIS

the funeral. coleters or as freelancers. street,

THE FACTS

the 1974 Whatever their these. The Instead the Catholic Belfast along the Monday, Severa. Loyalist gunman path of the funeral shot. The rest is well-known.

These ••• Ulster Desix Irish

CORPORAL DEREK WOOD GETS OUT OF HIS CAR GUN IN HAND

AFTER WEDNESDAY,

WHAT DID THEY

EXPECT?

here has been much specutwo wHat British soldiers in civilian that clothing were doing driving into the funeral of an IRA Early news reports at Saturday lunchtime said that the Army had admitted the dead men were an SAS undercover team. By Saturday Army was instead were simply Royal Corps of Signals, travelling incognito On another. post lo Northern Ireland secretary Tom King repeated this explanation, and added that the probably were taking a 'short cut'. This last is an unlikely story given that they had to avoid the motorway to drive down the Andersonstown Road to More credibly, observers have suggested that the were there snoop around the funeral, either officially motives might have been, the known facts are corporals Cal stopped in front of the funeral procession by republican stewards.

of turning back, they swerved around a line of black taxis and sped towards the cortege, pavement, at estimated 40mph, badly injuring The soldiers tried to drive down what turned out to be a cul-de-sac, and then reversed their car back into the procession. They were surrounded by angry mourners, pulled a gun and fired a be events can only .... understood in the context of what preceded them. The nationalists in procession were the same people who had been attacked by a Loyalist with guns and grenades a another funeral three days before (see opposite). They had come out to bury one of their number who died in that assault. When unknown car came at them, they had no reason to doubt that it was of an attempted repeat performance.

If they had known these men were

A TALE OF TWO

FUNERALS

I AM not a violent man. But when I saw a group of Sinn Fein sympathisers chasing the man responsible for this attack, i hoped they would catch him. I am not proud of those feelings.' Peter Bond has been covering events in Northern Ireland for the Sun for 15 years. Like most of his fellow pressmen ne nas concocted most of his stories in snug hotel bars, away from the war-torn streets of Andersonstown and Turf Lodge, Bogside and Creggan. At the graveside last week we heard their plummy voices telling storles about how they managed to grab the claret from the dinner table before they were evacuated from their hotel after a bomb scare. Last Wednesday's massacre at Irish Freedom Movement Dayschool

TIME TO END THE IRISH WAR

Sunday 17 April, Central London Sessions include • From Gibraltar to Belfast: Britain's war strategy today • The problem of Loyalism • The myth of the religious conflict' • Ireland, South Africa, Palestine: British imperialism against the oppressed Tickets priced £3 waged/f1.50 unwaged, available from BM IFM, London WIN 3XX For further details, ring (01) 729 0414 than Loyalist soldiers paramilitaries, it would not have altered their suspicions; republican mourners have suffered enough attacks from official British forces in the past (see page 4).

When the soldiers pulled guns, they sealed their own fate.

The unarmed mourners reacted just as they had to the Loyalist assailant Wednesday. They went after those who were threatening their funeral with firearms, and overpowered them. The IRA then shot the soldiers, reportedly with the same guns which the troops had drawn against the civilians.

The reason for the ferocious violence was not, as many now claim, the lack of a police or Army It the funeral. presence happened because there were two too many military personnel there, threatening a procession made up had Irish nationalists who buried enough of their people that week to last a lifetime. Milltown cemetery was the nearest they have come to losing their lives. And many more than Peter Bond had cause to swallow their pride and salute the courage of the republicans who ran after Michael Stone. When two armed plain clothes soldiers drove their car at the funeral on Saturday of one of the republicans killed chasing after Stone It was back to bigotry as usual for the British press corps. The republican heroes of Wednesday became the 'murdering mob' of Saturday.

There is nothing like a grenade attack in a graveyard to clear the mind, and nothing like another bottle of claret to put the Irish War back into British Joan Phillips .... the next step

phil Murphy

DERRY SINN FEIN LEADER

MARTIN McGUINESS DISPLAYS A SPENT

CARTRIDGE AND SHRAPNEL FROM A

THCNCIRECSBE

twas twenty past one and many mourners had already left the cemetery. The only hitch in a day when everything had gone better anybody might have expected was a delay because the single grave was not deep enough to hold the three coffins. RA volunteer Dan McCann was about to be laid rest when the silence shattered. You could almost hear the hearts stop beating as the first grenade exploded, sending a pall of black smoke into the cold air above The the cemetery. throngs mourners froze for a moment, as the echo around screams the gravestones. In that first split second before their minds got control of their senses, many people standing away from the carnage mistook explosion for an IRA salute to the fallen volunteers. Most had not even heard the two gunshots which rang out seconds earner. but waen the second grenade went off, and then a third, and a fourth, everybody knew, no matter where they were standing, that somebody was out to kill them.

After the second grenade landed, everybody dived for cover.

SCREAMS

From where we stood and scanned the cemetery you could not see what was causing the explosions. It could have been a mortar attack from the expanse of waste land adjacent to graveyard, or the cemetery the could have been mined. There were desperate shouts of 'get down, stay from Sinn Fein stewards, down' clashing with cries for help from the injured, and terrified screams from all around us. At this stage we did not know how many people had been injured, or whether any had been killed. But the horror of what happened was etched

SHOCKED AND BLEEDING

the next step was of on the faces of the men, women and children who came stumbling the with tears streaming faces. Long after the initial blasts little children were still crouching, their faces pinched with clenched tear. the gravestones. By now all eyes were fastened on the figure of a man running towards the perimeter the clutching a gun, with hundreds of young men closing in on him from all directions. You could feel the mood of the mourners minutes from bewilderment to outrage and anger.

across the cemetery cries of From "get the bastard" chorus of kill him, Nobody standing amid the devastation the gunman had wreaked, not even pressmen, could have disagreed with this sentiment.

CASUAL

Moving down the sloping cemetery towards the motorwav, a good war behind the young men leading the chase, was like slow motion video. The anonymous intruder making WaS progress towards the path leading out of the cemetery, with an almost casual disregard for his pursuers. As he walked and ran he turned and lobbed more grenades, reloaded his gun and opened fire indiscriminately, occasionally taunting behind him. Later, people from the media said they found it hard to comprehend the courage of those young men who risked their lives on that half-mile chase though the cemetery.

forget that those same people have spent every day and every year of their lives defying the armed might of the British state in the struggle for Irish freedom. going to be cowed by a lone Loyalist gunman who came to defile their dead and send more of the living to the grave. The pockets of his blue anorak were stuffed with grenades, guns and ammunition. grenades stashed at the corner of the fence, at the entrance to the path leading to the motorway. He had Joan Phillips and Phil Murphy were in Milltown cemetery on the Wednesday when Loyalist Michael Stone made his murderous attack on mourners at the funeral of the three IRA

MOURNERS RUN FOR COVER AS ANOTHER GRENADE GOES OFF

or police past Army down their and hands behind

QUARRY

cemetery change within one of shock and prevent him hijacking kill him'. crowds CemeterY chanting

"I-I-IRA'.

watching halting youth They They were not He had more OF volunteers shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar been told that there would be no given a presence at the funeral. He knew that he was armed before to the teeth against unarmed and defenceless mourners. He reckoned a police road-block. that nobody would have the nerve to give chase. That was his mistake.

Bullets and grenades were never going to be enough to save him.

Three young men were killed trying to stop him, and others were injured running into exploding grenades as they closed in on their quarry. But none of this deterred the rest. Young boys blockaded the motorway to a vehicle, while the rest pursued him along the M1. His flight ended when his to be seen. gun jammed and people jumped him.

20 yards A huge cheer went up, and in the of youth began grenade After being dazed.

A YOUNG WOMAN HIT IN THE BACK BY SHRAPNEL

EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT

MURDER AT MILLTOWN

DEATH AND

DEFIANCE

were where going-over, the man was bundled into a car and driven off, from into custodi Delng laken when the drivers were challenged at The hundreds of youths who had one joined the chase were coming back Some were saying •We stiffed him, others said "We danced on his head.'

The faces of some of the younger boys were streaked with tears, sweat and dirt. they nau caugnt tel Wran.

but they had seen their friends cut down in front of their eyes. Suddenly panic surged through the crowd, as everybody started running back up the cemetery, weaving their way through the gravestones. It was a false alarm, the police were nowhere has Back near the republican plot, the first trom still landed, people were Many of the injured had

IRA

where, way. time, leave them. ever black already veen taken to hospital li funeral cars, taxis and private cars.

Ambulances were just arriving. This part of the cemetery resembled a battlefield; the ground between the graves had turned to mud; there blackened Crates the grenades young boys bleeding from shrapnel wounds in the legs, stomach and back waited patiently to be attended to: some were in a state of hvsteria shaking uncontrollably, not knowing where they were or what had happened One thing was clear to everybody — whoever the attacker was, he had acted on a tip-off. It was the first republican funeral in five years which had not been hemmed in and the Ulster by narassed Koyal Constabulary and the British Army.

Nobody would have believed it if you had told them the night before, when soldiers and police were swarming outside the houses of the three dead volunteers, that there would be no at funerals the the

DICOCHEC

following day. The last thing we expected as we drove into Belfast Derr that morning, Army roadblocks and RUC checkpoints, was that we would not see single throughout the four-hour journey to Milltown cemetery. The two British Army helicopters overhead were all they sent. It had been a set-up, people said, it was as simple as that.

thai press Wednesday's massacre would frighten people from Thursday's funeral Kevin dead McCracken, shot by the British Army on Monday, they were wrong. The spirit of defiance which sustained the nationalist community through nearly 19 years of British bloodshed and violence day. on display the turned their Mourners thousands to pay tribute to the fallen volunteer. The mood

WEN

but determined as sombre

LITE

funeral cortege snaked its way from the McCracken home in Norglen Turf Lodge, down the Parade, winding route to Militown cemetery.

TENSION

Sinn. Fein stewards were everysearching and scouring the streets. They took up positions all around the cemetery, and toid people to be vigiant needed telling. As the Nobody ceremony started the crowds of fidgeted,

JOOKINS

their shoulders towards the motoratmosphere was tense. Everybody stayed to the end this but everybody was glad to the gates behind cemeter, But they'd be back they had another republican funeral to go to on Saturday — and they wouldn't happened forget what on Wednesday. That morning as we drove into Turf Lodge eight-year old Deirdre had asked 'When will they take the flags down daddy? Good "The way question, came the reply. they'll be things They'll come down for good when the red, white and permanently removed blue tag Is from Irish soil. 25 March 1988 • 3

MADE IN BRITAIN

Official terror at Irish funerals The murder of three republican mourners last week was the latest act in a longrunning campaign of sectarian violence by Loyalist supporters of British rule. THE BRITISH MEDIA were at pains to emphasise that Michael Stone, the Loyalist gunman who murdered three mourners and injured many Bellast tunera ast Wednesday, was a crazed loner.

They pointed out that Stone had an unhappy childhood, developed psychopathic tendencies, became such a maniac that he was even turned awav bv the ster Defence Association. Crazy or not, Stone was far from alone. His attack fits into the longestablished pattern of Loyalist paramilitary violence against the Catholic nationalist community in Northern Ireland. The first killing in 'the troubles' came three years before the conflict proper erupted.

It was carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force, which gunned down tour young Catholics Eighteen-year old Belfast. Peter Ward shot dead. was Around 600 Catholics, the majority of them ordinary civilians, been killed by navense Loyalists. Members of the British forces in Ireland have often been complicit in Loyalist assassinations. Usually this cooperation is informal. Individual Loyalists who serve as members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Ulster Defence Regiment may double as gunmen gun-runners paramilitary organisations like the UVF or UDA when off duty. Last February, Ulster Defence Association gang raided an Ulster Defence Regiment barracks at Coleraine and escaped 170 guns.

UDR

serving officers were charged with complicity in the raid; both admitted to being members of the UDA. Offduty members of the British forces are not above launching Stoneof their own. Last May, an RUC man raked a chip shop with gunfire in the nationalist Castlewellan, County

LOWE OU

Down.

COLLUSION

On other occasions the British forces are more formally involved with the Loyalist groups. In 1984, example,

TO T

officer military intelligence Fred Holroyd revealed how MIS agents worked alongside Loyalists in organising attacks on Catholic targets. These included the carbombing of Dublin in 1974, which 25 civilians (the largest number of casualties from any incıdent and the war), of the Miami machine-gunning Showband County Armagh in 1975. Michael Stone's assault on the republican funeral last week also raised questions about collusion.

On Wednesday morning, people in West Belfast still did not know whether or not the Army and RUC would force out in surround the funeral of the three IRA members killed in Gibraltar.

Stone, however, was evidently confident that he would be able to gain easy access to the graveside and throw grenades around, which suggests he knew something about police plans that the

LOUCIS

didn't. One of the guns he used, which was recovered by republicans, was a Ruger pistol, issued as standard to the RUC.

SECTARIANISM

The killings committed by Stone claimed by were later Protestant Action Force, which said that it had supplied his arsenal. The PAF was prominent in Armagh in the early eighties. It responsible, was among 4 • 25 March 1988 atrocities, for the Catholic civilian Adrian Carroll in Armagh City in 1983. Carroll was deaf; he could not hear the gunman who sneaked up and shot him ir the back of the head at point-blank range. The Protestant Force Killer turned out to Ulster and

CODE OLLIC

Regiment, who had been spirited away from the murder scene by other members of his UDR patrol.

Whether or not any particular Loyalist attack involves the British forces occupation, sectarian campaign is a consequence of British rule in Northern Ireland.

Britain divided created the "province of Ulster' in 1921, Sua macuse au Du Protestant 'majority. in Northern Ireland have been guaranteed privileged access to and power. jobs, housing return, they have acted as loyal defenders of British rule over the vast Catholic nationalist community.

During the last 15 years or so, the the British authorities up the continuing system of anti- Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland. But they cannot disguise the fact that Catholics are still about three times likely unemployed as Protestants. These privueges, mougn ouen margmal for in material terms, have created a social division between first class Protestant citizens class Catholics. This Loyalist support for Crown rule and hostility to with ressed nationalists.

INDISCRIMINATE

The Loyalist paramilitaries are simply the most militant defenders of Protestant privilege. Loyalists rely on the British state for their status, and view all Catholics as the enemies the state. sectarian attacks die indiscriminate y at members of the nationalist community, regardless of whether or not their victims have republican connections. Last week. a group which is trving to assume leadership Defence Association announced that it wanted to be more selective and to target known republicans.

This idea was immediately rejected by a spokesman for the Ulster t was no surprise that the arrival ol two britisn soldiers in the middle of a republican funeral Ton Saturday should cause such bitterness. The reland have attacked mourners or many similar occasions in recent years. Their campaign of harassing funerals CaVe Michael Stone a licence to commit Milltown slaughter last Wednesday. The policy of heavy policing at republican funerals was initiated at the end of 1983. On 4 December

IRA

volunteers Brian Campbell and Colm McGirr were shot dead an SAS ambush. pictures of the funeral showed their coffins being masked and uniformed IRA men, followed by a large just yards from

LHOULICO.

Royal Ulster Constabulary fortress in Coalisland, County Tyrone.

the This embarrassing republican support impotence seemed to decide the authorities in favour other hardline approach. murder of which the UDA commits its worst they would sympathy with They Action then Catholic in Belfast last Monday.

be a Defence The half-hearted condemnations

SCOLANS

reality they accept it as a necessary of the Part violence serves a useful purpose for the entire Ireland and Protestants In have made be to and second ensures the Their directed of the Ulster Army have 30 Irish funerals. opened British forces in plastic bullets, as at the funeral of IRA volunteers Eddie McSheffrey and year. Loyalist gunman mourners at private funerals, like that of 61-year old cemetery veteran James Spotter Murphy Television carried by of crowd the display of and police of

LOYALIST MURDERS IN BELFAST

Freedom Fighters, the name under une nanosauses. murders. The UFF confirmed that continue killing conflict, Catholic civilians, and expressed Stone's actions. admitted killing conflict British authorities make keep apart. OI But British in set-up Northern Ireland. Indeed, Loyalist to Since then, the RUC and the attacked around They have fire on mourners with armoured cars, hijack Paddy Deery in Derry last supporters of They have trained guns on republican

BRITISH FORCES OPEN FIRE AT A DERRY FUNERAL

the British government. It terrorises it also distracts attention from the real cause of the and allows the British carry authorities to claim that the Irish War is just an irrational, religious between fanatics whom the Crown forces are trying to In typical fashion, the British media responded to Stone's attack with dire warnings about Catholic retaliation' and 'another round of tit-for-tat killings'. This is designed difference disguise the big the I am a Loyalist' - Margaret Thatcher, November 1985 in 1986. They have baton-charged him. crowds at many other republican funerals, charged mourners with threatened to hearses, tried to hijack coffins. Last April the family and

IRA

Larry Marley fought street-battles with the RUC for three days before they were able to get his coffin through the police ranks and bury his

RUC

Stone. force between by Loyalists and by republicans in Northern Ireland. The Loyalists out sectarian attacks on civilians because hate thev all Catholics. on the other hand,

IKA,

its concentrates attacks on the British forces of occupation because enemy identues British state. The republican movement has always distanced itself from of

SUCCOUS

SCUL

arianism against Protestants. Most people killed by the

IRA

are Protestants - but that is becausi more than 90 per cent of Ulster Defence Regiment and Royal Ulster Constabulary members come from the Loyalist community.

These soldiers and policemen are shot as agents of the British state not as followers of the Protestant religion. Instances of Catholic ordinar SCCLallaHISI •acalls u Protestant people are extremely rare, and almost always retaliatory Michael Stone's murderous foray into Milltown cemetery, just as surely as it was behind the SAS of assassination Gibraltar. members in I am a Loyalist' Margaret Thatcher assured everybody after she signed Anglo-Irish agreement in November 1985. it was an admission that the British government is on the same side as a murderer like Stone in the Irish War.

Some people are just more Loyal than others' — Michael Stone's neighbour last week Finally, earlier this month, the Army used massive Chinook military helicopters to ferry in forces to attack the funeral of IRA volunteer Brendan Burns in Crossmaglen, South Armagh When the British forces decided to withdraw from last Wednesday's funerals of. IRA volunteers Mairead Farrell, Daniel McCann and Sean Savage, Michael Stone took his guns. and grenades and moved in to replace them. He took lead from the systematic violence which the Army and the inflicted Irish have mourners in recent years.

On Monday, Northern Ireland Tom King told the secretary Commons that the policing of Tebuolcan lucras was review after the killing of two This may soldiers on Saturday. well mean a return to large-scalt confrontations between the RUC and republicans around coffins.

For nationalists, it is hardly a welcome alternative to Michael the next step

the next step

THE FURY OF

THE OPPRESSED

the British press, the Irish do not suffer from blood-lust. The people of West Belfast are not psychopaths.

They do not want to smash car windows with their bare hands, dodge a bullet fired by the occupants, pull them from their vehicle, beat them and shoot them.

But they will do It, because of all that has been inflicted on them by the British forces of occupation, of which those two soldiers killed on Saturday were a part. If the media want to report a truly grisly glorification of death, they need look no further than the leaflets currently being handed out to trish nationalists by British Marines in Newry, which depict two dead local republicans as meat hooked up in a butcher's shop run by the SAS.

Tory MPs and British reporters have branded the nationalists involved in Saturday's funeral confrontation as 'the scum of the Earth' among other things, and compared them unfavourably with hate figures from Adolf Hitler to Idi Amin. This fever-pitch exercise in playing on British people's emotions is designed to disguise the reasons why the Belfast mourners reacted as they did. It was an outpouring of the fury of the oppressed. It was a moment when people who live under military rule and are denied democratic rights lashed out against the representatives of those responsible for their plight. It was an explosion of the same anger which leads black youth in South Africa's townships to 'necklace' collaborators with blazing tyres, or provokes Palestinians to take similar measures in the Occupled Territories. These oppressed peoples around the world seem to suffer from the same blood-lust' and "lynch-mob mentality' which British commentators claimed was on display in Belfast on Saturday. In reality It is an expression of their burning antagonism towards their oppressors, which drives them to face up to military might armed with little more than their anger, as the young republicans did who chased the Loyalist gun-andgrenade attacker out of Milltown cemetery last Wednesday. The hysteria which has been the next step Revolutionary Communist Party weekly killings reflects the fear which the British authorities feel when confronted by the fury of the oppressed, and particularly the fury of Irish nationalists. Such an attack on the British armed forces is an affront to the state Institutions on which the authority of the ruling class rests throughout the United.

Kingdom'. The state machine is the most precious and powerful Instrument which the British establishment possesses. Popular acceptance of the sovereignty of the state is the precondition for the smooth running of capitalist society. The British establishment has had considerable suecess in selling people the idea that the state exists to serve us all, and in persuading them to submit to Its law. Except, that Is, within Ireland. Thousands of nationalist people trapped within the colonial hell-hole of Northern Ireland do not recognise the sovereignty of the British state nor do they respect its laws. They want their nation to be united and free from British diktat. They refuse to be bullied or bought by the foreign authoritles. Last week, for example, the Royal Ulster Constabulary promised not to.

harass the funerals of the three IRA members shot dead in Gibraltar, If their familles would make public statements swearing that there would be no 'paramilitary displays' The families would not make such a declaration. They knew that the IRA would not attempt any show of armed strength at their funerals, having already fired its traditional salute to its fallen volunteers: Yet the bereaved refused, on principle, to make any public gesture of submission to the will of the British government and Its police force.

This attitude among Irish nationalists terrifies the British authoritles. It undermines the legitimacy of their parliament, their police, their laws. It leaves them with the dangerous resort to armed force as the only way to remain in control. This is the path every British government has pursued in Northern Ireland since 1969, when Labour sent in the troops. They have sought to conceal the extent of the threat they face there, by telling popular revolt. Jurisdiction of its state.

rule, and be seen to rule, parliament. Publisher Revolutionary Communist Party, BM RCP, London WC1N 3XX © copyright Printer Morning Litho Printers Ltd (TU), 439 North Woolwich Road, London E16 Annual subscription rates • Britain and Northern Ireland £26 • Europe and Irish Republic £34 • North Africa and Middle East (airmail) £34 • Americas, Asia Central and Southern Africa (airmail) £37 • Australasia, Japan (airmail) E40 • Outside Europe - All destinations (surface mail) £33.

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ISSN 0144 350 X 25 March 1988. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.

No 12 conflict is caused by a handful of hardened terrorists. But a televised clash such as happened on Saturday forces the authorities to face the truth; that the power of their oppressive state in Northern Ireland is being challenged by a On Monday, the Guardian caught the mood of horror which this reminder of Irish realities has created in Britain's ruling circles: That most people who joined the pursuit must have been ordinary Belfast people, not the trained paramilitary killers of earller atrocitles, makes these events especially chilling. A chill runs down the British establishment's spine at the thought of ordinary Beltast people, or ordinary people from anywhere else in the UK, beating its soldiers in the street and trying to secede from the This is why there has been such a panic this week about the idea ol no-go areas for the British forces In Northern Ireland, about the fact that the soldiers' bodies lay out of reach in republican West Belfast' for some time, about the way in which Sinn Fein stewards have taken control of the streets during recent funerals. The state muste throughout Its jurisdiction, or risk suffering irreparable damage to all of its structures and its reputation.

The fear which Saturday's killings struck into the heart of the British establishment is behind the rash of demands for a new crackdown on Irish republicans. No doubt the Tories will bring out the SAS again that fact. before lone to try to reassert then authority. But they are unlikely to bow to the demands for a ban on Sinn Fein. Such a move would achieve nothing, and would only serve further to expose the myth of British law and order In the North of Ireland. You cannot ban the fury of case, the oppressed with paper acts of No doubt many people in Britain will have gone along with the official condemnations of the killing of the soldiers. Pictures of bloodstained bodies are always a powerful pull on people's emotions.

But we should take a step back to do it. Editor: Mick Hume from the immediacy of events, and place Saturday in the wider context of a war which has been raging In Ireland for almost 19 years a wal in which the British forces are the aggressors rather than the victims.

Anybody who seriously wants to end it should work to remove the cause of Irish fury — their oppression bythe British state so that they can exercise their right to national selfdetermination We should also, however, place the debate about Ireland in the wider context of British politics: The fact that the Tories and other champions of reaction over here are so scathing about Irish nationalists should raise suspicions about where the true Interests of ordinary British people lie In the Irish War. Why should we find ourselves on the same side over treland as the very forces which we have to fight against to defend our own rights and living standards every day? How can Thatcher be a ruthless executo of capitalist Interests on this side of the trish Sea, yet become a peace loving democrat on the other? The British working class has far more in common with the ordinary Belfast people' of Andersonstown that it could ever have with their enemies in the British establishment. The state whose authority is on the line in the Irish War is the same body which leads the Tory offensive agalnst our class in Britain; Our Interests in the lrish War lie with those strugeling against the capitalist state which dominates us all. We should not allow the graphic pictures or mob murder headlines to blind us to It is one of the great tragedies of British working class politics that a force which could be among our best allies, the Irish Ilberation movement, is widely seen as our worst enemy. While this remains the the fury of the oppressed will be a big, but containable, problem for the British ruling class. Our job is to change this state of affairs, by making state violence against Irish nationalists a cause of fury. among the ordinary people of British citles.

Take sides in the Irish War; there will never be a more Important time 25 March 1988 • 5

Aslef activist Steve Forey spoke to Andrew Calcutt about getting the sack T he charge was that I was seen distributing copies of On Line, the the King's Cross branch newsletter. The disciplinary hearing was a farce, and I said so. We were in there for three hours, but from the outset it was clear that the area manager was under instructions to sack me. At 7.30 on Wednesday that's exactly

CYCHIE.

he did. alleged Forey Was distributed literature calling drivers to solidarity action with striking This would have health workers. *beyond the been sphere legitimate union activity, under of Tory But the planned onelegislation. day strike never happened. Management applied for a court injunction against six Aslef branch members, including comHalee Forey, forced them and withdraw the strike picked on Forey, as the activist with the most militant record. His sacking was a warning to every activist on the railways.

All six committee branch members are still under threat A letter from Trom tse comes. management to every King's Cross worker stated that 'anyone foolish enough to go on strike with the health would Workers Tace sack. Managers removed copies of On the Line from drivers' pigeonholes, and told staff they would be sacked if caught reading it. Someone broke into the King's Cross union office and stole computerised records including lists of activists.

On the day of Forey's hearing, scores of police swamped the station.

*They rarely come on to British Rail property. The railway police

DUL LEC

Met were there in force that day.

They were lining the staircase to the manager's office, and I had to wade my way through them after hearing the verdict. And since we began a campaign to reverse the decision, we have clear evidence of phone-tapping. 6 • 25 March 1988

IT WILL BE STEVE FOREY'S LAST STOP IF MANAGEMENT HAS ITS WAY

KING'S CROSS

ACTIVIST SACKED

VICTIMISED

and his campaign for reinstatement This intimidation campaign is scaring the Aslef leadership. *To apply industrial tribunal, I must submit a letter signea by a officer of any union stating that I was sacked for carrying out trade union activity, and I must have it within seven days of dismissal. So far, the executive officers of Aslef what are refusing even to sign that letter.

*Our branch feels under siege. At the emergency meeting immediately have after my nearng, take people wanted to walk out there But six then already under court injunctions, and we didn't want to set ourselves up. Tactically the best option is to build a campaign in the depot and explain the issues to people explain that if management away with this they'll be able to walk all over everyone when the new rule book comes into effect in June. And protect those threatened They by the law by having a ballot for a legal strike. That is what we are doing now, with open meetings for railworkers, and meetings to let people know what it's about.' As we go to press, the ballot result has yet to be announced. But offers of solidarit already arrived. *The response has mendous, from National Union of Railwaymen branches as well as Aslef. Some branches have said, "We'll be out with you when you get the your result." Others have said, "Put half a picket line on our place, and we'll join you." people seriousness of the issue.

British Forey sees intimidation defiant response, worKers evidence that the gloves are off in workplaces today. thinking that there must be a of fighting back, and possibility management are setting out to challenge that. In most industries, there is a real to and fro going on.

This is one tussle that I think we A workers, conditions hospital worker improving, could force the Tories to give way. This week's conference of health union delegates must work hiery al out how to build such a campaign before it is too late. days of action, a parade of public relations exercises and a succession of national rallies. All of these protests have been organised under control of the leaders, not to put pressure on the government, but to appeal to middle class sympathy. chiefs have the making conditions the campaign, preferring to emphasis requests for funds to make the NHS more 'efficient. They have sought to restrain any outbreaks of militancy by angry health workers, so as not to alienate middle class public opinion.

By elevating underfunding and tailoring

RACH

For ecent pay r better pants off the Aslef conditions for "responsible" number of officers

WELC

get G lose his pre-ballot have been tre- Two Telegraph homosexuality. There are plenty recognise Rail's tactics, and rail- Labour's *People are assistant education But full authority to students" united campaign of all-out action by one million health focused on the issues of pay and working members, increasingly which every has a stake drag on. huddling We have had a series of desultory which trade This Union review avoided studiously among issues of and health service. pay focus prioritises the the ancillary issue their campaign to suit the prejudices of the middle classes, the union leaders might have held on to mainstream

HEALTH WORKERS

OUR ECHI

ПОРЕ

CARING

For decent pay

FOR

: For better conditions Gay teacher faces sack ay teacher Austin Allen may job Bradford confidence because he refuses to deny that he is gay. His suspension shows that Labour councils are stay in the closet. implementing the terms of the antihomosexual Clause in the Tory Local Government Bill, before it Allen has even reached the statute books.

weeks ago the Bradford Argus printed an interview with Allen, in which he said he would not lie to kids about Bradford education authority suspended him, and told him that his contract as a supply teacher at Grange upper school would not be renewed at the headmaster end of term. Allen was compulsorily transferred. to Grange school in December, after telling students at ing. Eccleshill upper school that he was gay. Last time he got off with a warning. Now he faces the sack.

The education authority hounding Allen is run by a Labour council.

opportunities equal chair John Ryan insists that Allen aciegales was not removed because he is gay.

director Nils Purser was speaking with the of the Labour council when he said that 'Allen's statements that he has responded Cueston. 2008l

HEALTH WORKERS NEED...

UNITED ALL-OUTACTION

support. But they have made no impact on the government. The only people they have hurt are their own staff. who divided and deneeds moralised as the ineffectual protests of nurses image These the under umbrellas outside focus the house of commons, straining to hear ine budger devate on tel transistor radio, sums up the way in health workers have been excluded from playing a direct role in the action. After the budget it should be clear that there is no point pleading with the Tories to have a will week Thatcher receive the recommendations of the body, which are much guaranteed to exacerbate divisions workers across

PRIORITIES

We urgently need a campaign that concerns of every worker in every hospital, so that we can involve those who have so far been left out on a limb - especially workers and nursing auxiliaries. These people have no interest in supporting calls for government investment in 'efficiency drives which mean harder work for

LABOUR COUNCIL

AGAINST HOMOSEXUALS

homosexuality must affect public in professional his capacity.? Labour's policy is that it is okay to be gay, as long as you Bradford council has sacked gay teachers before. What's new about victimisation is the brazen way in which it was carried out. Only last December, Allen's compulsory transfer from Eccles- But this time hill was hushed up. the council was keen to advertise Yor shite Evening Post endorsed victimisation Bradford's action, and called on Leeds city council to sack a Leeds was suspended and then reinstated after appearing in court on charges of importun- There is no doubt that the advent of the Clause has bolstered the bigots' confidence and given more scope for their witch-hunts.

There are obstacles in the bigots path. At a meeting of Bradford District Labour Party last week, voted unanimously against Allen's sacking. Bradford teachers have voted to strike for half a day to lobby the education authority's next meeting. As we go to press, it seems likely that Allen may be disciplined but not sacked Labour delegates and local NUT them. Nor is there anything for them in a campaign that emphasises only the angelic efforts of top nursing What every health worker wage rise and an IS improvement in working conditions.

-are for building united campaign. The way ahead in the service dispute lies through fighting for all-out action - with emergency cover under health workers control - in support of health workers' own demands on pay and conditions. This means taking control of the struggle out of the hands of the union leaders who have done so far to undermine i

TUC

Instead of looking to the health workers should set about forming their own action committees at rank and file level. These provide would forum for overcoming longstanang alvision: among different groups of hospital staff and for organising unified effective action. Local committees would be the nucleus for building a national campaign of hard-hitting action to make the Tories deliver on our demands.

WORKERS

TEALTH

TAND A DEST LiViNG FIND BETTER CONDITiON MA leaders have pointed to the growing atmosphere of vindictiveness against lesbians and gay men.

But they are basing their opposition to Allen's sacking on the fact that the education authority did not follow correct disciplinary procedures. Bradford NUT secretary Ian Murch protested that 'there is no evidence that Allen has sought to promote homosexuality.'

Murch's apologetic approach cannot defend lesbian and gay teachers against the charge of "corrupting the youth'. The only effective way to take on the bigots is to fight for the right to tell kids it's okay to be gay. Some teachers in West Yorkshire have been doing just that. At branch meetings in Leeds, we have raised motions calling for non-cooperation with the Clause, and got them Now passed. we must into schools and involve a new layer of teachers in the fight for lesbian and gay rights. If we don't, the next time teachers are seen on a demo against the Clause, we might get than whispers in the staff more room and shouts of "lezzie' as we walk down the school corridors Leeds teacher the next step

THE POLL TAX IS COMING

resistance A re you responsible person"? Under poll tax legislation each household must appoint a responsible person' who is legally bound to provide information on all members of the house in which he or she resides. The law defines a responsible person' occupier, whether the premises are occupied by an owner or a tenant.

If he or she fails to provide the information by the specified date or if he or she gives information, the authorities will impose a civil penalty of €50.

these offences repeated penalty will be $200.

BOUNTY-HUNTERS

Teams of canvassers will make doorstep deliveries of the forms, followed by a collection visit from Interview

A CLICI

Community Charges (Poll Tax) Registration Office of Strathclyde council is

VILLAG

from council applications ployees to take part in The letter canvassing operation. informs prospective canvassers that 'no set hours of work are allocated, but that work must be completed within a set timetable. It advises that the best results will be obtained from Spm to 9pm and at weekends, and payment will be 40p for each completed call. Local newspapers have carried adverts for canvassers and anybody can walk into the Assessors Office in Cochrane Street, Glasgow, to fill in an application form. The Scottish Labour conference at Perth a fortnight ago pledged to repeal the poll tax when Labour returns to governmeat But where is already in •about power in places like Strathclyde, it is setting up the machinery implement the poll tax. Convention of Scottish Local

UNITED

ACTION

by workers who are being told implement the community charge and working class people who are expected to pay it is the only way to beat the poll tax.

READ

THIS!

£3.95 plus 80p p&p Available from Junius Publications, BCM JPLta, London WC1N 3XX. Cheques payable to junius Publications Ltd the next step

IN SCOTLAND

Next week squads of snoopers will be knocking on your door if you live in Scotland, to enforce registration for the poll tax. Carol Taggart explains below what we are up against and how we can organise Authorities noted in a press release in February that local government officers in Scotland are actively engaged in implementing processes and procedures required as a result of this legislation."

By recruiting bounty-hunters to collect completed registration forms 40p time, the surrendered any opposition to the poll tax. The Labour Party says it is keeping open the option of nonpayment. But Labour officials in false local government have John Maxton MP has closed it. pledged to resign as local authority the spokesman if Labour votes for Lothian non-payment. Eric Milligan councillor pointed out that a successful nonpayment campaign will necessitate or action by the local council to the payment." compel refuse to pay, Labour councils will fine them. If the fines are unpaid, the sheriff's office will take further emaction against the including warrant deductions from income. Party The

HOW TO BEAT IT

• ACTION STARTS

council

NOW

to Building a campaign of nonimplementation does waiting until the tax is about to be levied before we do anything. We

IS THERE A

SCOTTISH

SOLUTION?

The working class and the assembly debate Mick Hume and Derek Owen oppose the poll tax, and up to a million presently payment. The Labour Party fears the that their anger could well channelled against local councils with responsibility for collecting the poll tax. Wilson explained that Labour set Labour has up the Stop It campaign to prevent this happening: 'There 1S enterence i between the government which already introduces the legislation and the local authority which implements it. And it seemed to me to be a matter of greatest urgency to our party that we should be distancing regional ourselves a great deal more from the legislation...because otherwise, and elections, If individuals rebounding not against the Tories the but against authorities.' cynical exercise to cover up for refusenik, Labour's complicity and sales THE FACT IS THAT LABOUR'S LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEADERS ARE IMPLEMENTING POLL TAX LAW building Start implementation now.

• COLLECTIVE

RESISTANCE

Many people not mean agree build a maximise our impact.

• BREAK THE TORY

LAW

commitment to legislation anu

• A UNITED

CAMPAIGN

in the home and the unemployed.

• NON-

COOPERATION

WHeTHer ing further The majority of Scottish people When Scottish MP Brian narrow very public

OCICCOLON

to feel welcome. to rule in by the time of the district the poll tax will be Stop It campaign is a against the in implementing the Tory tax. It is designed

POLL

TAX

The facto must use the registration process to opposition to demand their will express their

SNOOPERS

anger by burning their registration form, or by filling it in incorrectly.

Council workers But it would be far more effective if people who want to fight the poll tax got together in their own areas to local on a collective response to registration and to discuss how to non-implementation cam- If we act together we can working defy Tory defend those victimised for non-implementation or non-payment must be the starting point of opposition to the poll tax.

The campaign must be built around suggested here. united action by council workers.

community groups, women working

WULACIS

Council workers drafted in to process poll tax registration should to put up a show of resistance, without breaking the law. Hence the campaign advises people to write to the authorities questioning they should the "responsible person, and requestclarification. stipulates that people should not refuse to fill in the form because this could result in a penalty of £250. It is ironic that Labour is advising people to obstruct the registration process, at the same penalties for poll tax evasion.

poll tax snoopers start knocking on doors next week they will get a hard time from local people who have already had enough and who are not prepared to take Binds will be banged anc whistles blown to warn of their arrival. Some people will retuse to open their doors to the bountyhunters, others will chase them out of the area. They will not be made A party which claims a mandate Scotland, which

SOUT

cannot direct the anger of ordinary people into a collective campaign of resistance to the poll tax, has no right to lead the working class. It's up to us to smash the poll tax by getting together to work out a plan of action that can unite council workers and community activists bounty-hunters and me Labor bosses. We should refuse to cooperate. redeployment into departments which are understaffed should be vigorously fought.

• DEALING WITH

should release information about when snoopers are going to hit certain areas so that anti-poll Call organise against them. There are many ways in which we can keep them from coming back. We should be clear that people who accept the blood-money of 40p for every filledin registration form are making a conscious decision to scab on the class. They should be treated accordingly. All those who want to build an effective campaign against the poll tax should get in touch with the Campaign, which is organising along the lines We are holding regular meetings involving council local people, and and organising door-to-door work on the streets and housing schemes. Get in touch by writing to the Smash the Poll Tax Campaign, PH8, 340 West Princes Street, Glasgow.

FORD'S

DUNDEE

NEW

LOW FOR

NEW

REALISM

AEU CHIEF GAVIN LAIRD

THE Inter-union squabbling over Ford's decision to abandon plans for a new site in Dundee reveals the bankruptcy of the New Realism which has overtaken the official labour movement. Ford established a singleunion deal with the Amalgamated Engineering Union last October. Before the Dundee plant had been built, union leaders Gavin Laird and Jimmy Airlie had signed away the right to strike and agreed rates of pay 50 percent below those in other UK plants, in return for the union dues of a few hundred new members that would come with recognition.

When the deal was made public other Ford unions were up in arms. Their gripe was not against the principle of sweetheart deals, but against the fact that recoenition went to the AEU rather than to them.

Why the engineers, complained transport union official Bill Morris, 'when we are the union with the largest number of members in Ford UK plants?' The TGWU does not object to the AEU surrendering Its members' rights for the sake of a few quid in the union coffers and a few seats around a negotiating table. • On the contrary, it wishes that it could be so lucky. Now that Ford has used the row over recognition as a pretext to ditch its Dundee plans, the TUC has intervened to act as a broker between the employers and the unions. At a meeting on Monday motor union chiefs met with leaders of the TUC and the Scottish congress. The TUC voted to accept the ABU deal in a shabby attempt to entice the company back to Dundee.

It is prepared to ditch longstanding agreements at the employers' whim. The Ford fiasco reveals the new low to which New Realism has brought the official labour movement. The union leaders have gone further than ever before in prostituting the labour movement before an employer. It is ironic that their subservience and petty squabbling has allowed the same corporation to brand them as trouble-makers who have thrown away the promise of jobs for their members.

Joe Hall 25 March 1988 • 7

the propaganda war 1

LITTLE

NORMAN TEBBIT has accused Neil Kinnock of being 'a boy trying to do a man's job'. Some might say that this is rich coming from Tebbit, who is surely me pre ekampre or a lower life-form trying to act like Nevertheless, the former Tory Party chairman does have half a point. Neil Kinnock is behaving like a little boy; not a boy who pretends to be a man, but one who is looking for a mother or a father whose legs he can hide behind when bullies like Tebbit start pushing him around. Some recent political debates illustrate the point. Before Christmas, the Tories introduced Clause 27 (subsequently to become Clause 28 and then Clause 29) of the Local Government Bill, which seeks to ban the *promotion of homosexuality by local authorities. Confronted with this, without notice, in parlament, the Labour leadership panicked. It had no idea how the big boys in British society - the bishops, the press barons and so on would react to the Clause. So Kinnock's team accepted it. It churchmen and actors and other public figures criticised the Clause, that Labour felt it safe to do the same. Even so.

Kinnock was scared of getting class. He has stuck to accusing the Tories of "bishopbashing' in their conflict with certain C of E notables over morality and the Clause. It was left to fading Liberal leader David Steel to point out that the people who were in fact being bashed were homesexuals.

PARANOIA

From January parlamentary conflict centred on the argument over the NHS, supposedly the strongest string to Labour's bow. Even here, however, Kinnock has proved petrified of going it alone.

keeping in with public opinion on the health service reached its high-point recently, when it was revealed that the Queen Mother was unhappy about a hospital ward being closed shortly after she had dragged her hat down there to open it.

The insecure Labour leadership leapt at the chance to hide behind the apron of 'Britain's favourite granny. The govemment nas tenored us.

bleated Kinnock's aide and health spokesman Robin Cook, "but perhaps it will listen to the Queeh Mother.' This belief that anybody with a big house must be more atractive than you is certainly better suited to a teenager on a first date than to a political party which is supposed to represent the organised working class. Then came the SAS shootings in Gibraltar. The Torles were all cheering the deaths of three irish republicans in parlament and, 8 • 25 March 1988

BOY LABOUR

like many a youngster, the Labour leadership was scared of not being invited to the party. So Kinnock encouraged his people to join in the celebrations. No doubt through the mists of his hangover, he too far the morning after, when Max 'Hitler' Hastings, editor of the Tory Daily Telegraph, attacked the Labour Party for being too right-wing in its response to Gibraltar. When David Owen stepped forward to call for an inquiry into the killings, Kinnock gratefully accepted the lift and echoed the Doctor's request. Now it's the economy and, specifically, the Lawson v Thatcher debate over the exchange rate of the pound.

This is always a tough subject for the adolescent Labour leaders, who have not got an 0level grasp of the issues between them. So Kinnock seized upon the apparent disagreement between the two top Tories. He sided with Lawson, rather as a puny schoolboy might hold his class toughie'secoat during a playground scrap, in the hope that some glory might reflect his way if the fight is won Perhaps this new affinity for Lawson explains why Kinnock was so anxious to distance himself from those Labour MPs who dared to heckle the chancellor during his budget speech.

CHILDLIKE

The bishops, the Queen Mother, David Owen and Nigel Lawson; all of them have been adopted by Labour as its foster parent for the duration of a debate. Each of them, however, has responded to Kinnock's childlike affection by letting it be known that they want him Labour leader has been left to Neil Kinnock does not really belleve that the elder statesmen whose shadow he walks in are on his side. He is simply terrified of stepping out from behind them, and belleves that being seen with such notables is his safest passage to political success. In fact it is the guarantee that he will remain a fallure. He is like the boy who thinks that smoking with the older kids is the best way to be big, and only discovers too late that it has stunted his growth. Politics is not like Bob Says Opportunity Knocks; you do not get the biggest score on the clapometer just because you are cute, 15 years old and your school cap is askew. It is a war, against cut-throats like Tebbit. If Kinnock thinks that the Queen Mother's pinny provides sufficient protection, that's his problem. The rest of us are surely grown-up enough not to hide behind him while he is hiding behind the has-beens

TRYING HARD TO BE

A PERSONALITY:

NEIL KINNOCK

of the New Realism which come to dominate the outlook of the official labour movement. The cecorales pragmatism. interpretation OT suggest that the left has vacated the middle ground, and moved on to the right. Experience has shown that the inescapable consequence of New Realism is the effective political opposition to the Tory government capitalist class. Over the past nine months the Tories have become more daring in their attacks on the working class. They have launched a series of campaigns on several fronts, from social security cuts to a shake-out in the civil service Lawson's 'you are what you earn' budget is just example of the new ruthlessness of the Thatcher regime (see page 13).

At present the Tories have little to fear. For some time now they have faced no political opposition. It is a sign of the times that the only source of parlamentary pressure Thatcher on backbenchers. Labour has failed o put up a credible fight agains the new budget. After the budget the editor of the Financial Times commented that Labour's loss of impetus appeared to be permanent: 'Nothing in the response to date suggests, however, that the focus of opposition in Britain is about to shift rapidly backbenches to the Labour frontbench."

SIMILARITIES

The absence of a coerent focus of opposition to the Tories is the significant

BOSU

contemporary British politics.

Without such a movement of resistance is doomed to isolation. More importantly it means that our class has no means or aruculaung is owa materests The presidential election campaign now going on in France suggests that this is a problem that aflictsworkers across the Channel too. It is worth examining the French experience to consider the lessons for workers in Britain. The French presidential election campaign has striking similarities to events in Britain last June. In the Eddie Veale that Same way general election here ignored the key issues, so too in France none of he traditional conflict the real between left and right in working Britain has been superseded by the politics of the middle ground. This is the meaning of political debate. has falling living detentoraling commonscisc charitable law and order, less events would In britain last year,

CVCH

the terrain of is siludhiel of any right-wing or to the leader of the UDF. the socialist PSF Mitterrand has the most recent nounced his candidacy, striving to project clear of all controversy.

comes from her pose of a statesman. The choice left, personalities. French from the Tory the early feature on working class voters.

OCUS

DEVOL

of cent PCF's rignt rront Nanonal the June 1987 the working class? problems facing the class in Flectiou campaign. The French ruling class has succeeded in setting the agenda There is no discussion about unemployment, standaes social services. Instead the only notable debates in the campaign centre on race anc Labour's new-style election campaign meant that in the end the choice was one of personalities. In France the much the sallic although arguably it is even worse There are three main presidential contenders. The two well-knowr candidates in the are Jacques Chirac, prime minister and leader of the Gaullist RPR, and Raymond Barre The third candidate is Francois Mitterrand, the current president and leader of

PERSONALITIES

not yet anand is an image of somebody who is above the roughand-tumble of electoral politics. In his desire to appear as the father of the nation, Mitterrand has steered He has even distanced himself from his own party and has assumed the France is not between candidates of the right and but between different Mitterrand is under no pressure to adopt a left-wing stance.

1 he Communist Party, the traditional party of the working class, is facing disintegration. In the

PCF

eighties collaborated closely with the Mitterrand government and was fully complicit in its attacks on the working class. These betrayals had a protounary demoransing erect The PCF was the main casualty of this experience. Since the early eighties its electoral base has been steadily eroded. At one time it had the support of more than 20 per the electorate. Today opinion polls suggest that it is down to around tive per cent. The presidential candidate, André Lajoinie, has more or less conceded defeat. He has tried to distinguish himself through peated denunciations of the far- As things stand it appears that Mitterrand will win the election.

But what will this victory mean for Mitterrand has made a major Frank Richards loo at the lessons of t French experience British worke and argu that conditio for buildi an anti-capital moveme here have ne been bet 4 contribution to depoliticising the To those campaign. inclined towards the philosophy of New Realism this is seen as a master-stroke of a political genius.

Neil Kinnock must be green with envy. Mitterrand nas succeeded where Labour has failed. He has avoided political debate and cut

FRENCH

st his ties with the working class.

But while Mitterrand is a role model for the Labour Party, he is a danger to the French working class.

depoliticising the election campaign, Mitterrand has ensured tnal middle class pubic opınion The perremains unchallenged. sonalisation of the election campaign mean that does nOT politics are absent. It means that the political strategy of the French capitalist class is taken as given.

HANDS ACROSS THE CHUNNEL: MITTERRAND DISCOVERED

HE HAD MUCH IN COMMON WITH THATCHER WHEN

THEY MET IN 1986

OUR CLASS NEEDS A VOICE

LESSONS

FOR BRITAIN

Since nobody is questioning the bourgeois character of the politics, amounts to little more than a clash personalities. personal confrontation, political consensus prevails. Mitterrand has French to uphold this consensus.

Behind this political the oralnation

COUSCESUS

offer is the of Mitterrand.

ILLUSIONS

one Kinnock But for change. the same The working boosted climate. interior, done as much as Chirac and Barre campaign, The French political consensus and youth. Call Marie Le Pen's alcunauve This Britain, political simplisuc lo the right. political entity.

NOVEL

Many analysis light outdated ist class. longer David Rourke any questioning capitalism. It narrows the terms of debate acceptable from the point of view of the establishment. The result is marginalisation of working and their sub- Interests, to the capitalist There is nothing on offer for workers in this election.

All that the parliamentary left can perpetuation of the status quo, through the re-election sense the French situation todav is worse than tha in Britain during the 1987 general election. At least it was possible for many on the left to argue that the election of a Labour government would be a step forward. Of course would simply have continued where Thatcher left off.

many workers, at least Labour held out the illusion of French workers are under no such illusion. They know that Mitterrand offers only more o absence of an effective cass the confidence of the French ruling class. The Mitterrand- Chirac regime may not feel as omnipotent as Thatcher, but it feels it can get away with almost anything in the present politica The minister of the Charles Pasqua, is presiding over a vicious law and order involving police harassment of immigrants The law and order campaign is designed to outflank the Front National. French voters whether accept Chirac's police repression or Jean-

HUTC

mirrors developments where the focus of opposition to Thatcher is to be found among her own backbenchers, and debate is reduced differences of opinion about which right-wing policy option to pursue.

The French situation puts a new perspective on the problems facing workers in Britam t would be that suggest the problems are identical on both sides of the Channel. But it is certainly the case that in Britain, as in France, the lett no longer even pretends to offer an alternative to In both countries the working class lacks a movement which can voice its aspirations and interests. In France and Britain the working class does not count as a people have drawi pessimistic conclusions from their of contemporary conditions. But it would be wrong to portray the situation as merely one of doom and gloom. The collapse of the traditional left exposes a reality which is far from new: the lack of a working class alternative to the capitalist class. The novel development which has come to recent months is the traditional left's abandonment of any pretence that it is committed to the independent interests of the working class. Today it is possible to see the old left for what it is —an movement which entirely subservient to the capital- In the short term the collapse of the left can only demoralise the working olass. Many workers will interpret the demise of the left as a defeat for their class. • But In ine term the absence of a coherent - left-wing alternative opens up the possibility of building We should movemen been recognise what has that defeated is an alternative that had anything

DOSITIVE

offer the working class the first place For revolutionaries it is (im. portant to distinguish between the exhaustion of the traditional left and the potential of the working class to change the world. Until now, that potential was actively suppressed by the left. Although it would be foolish to think that the left will no longer play this stifling role, it is clear that its capacity to do so has been weakened in recent This provides an opening years which revolutionaries must learn to exploit. This is the main lesson that we should draw from the French experience.

JEAN-MARIE LE PEN

opening offered by the new history does not provide automatic answers for those who wantl destroy the capitalist system. It only provides the conditions for challenging false solutions and projecting a fighting alternative. It demands that revolutionarie develop a perspective which gives those who are ready to fight for our class a political focus. The problem of demoralisation cannot be solved through argument alone. It can only be tackled by those who organising are prepared to fight. present the isolation of Al working class activists undermines their ability to influence their workers. This is where a revolutionary party makes all the difference. Through organising class fighters the party can guide each individual with the arguments and policies they need to influence others. The party maximises the impact of anti-capitalist forces and through its organisation offers an antidote to demora isation The Revolutionary Communist Party does not pretend to cater for everybody. single-mindedly directs its work and arguments those towards are not prepared to submit and who want to fight for their class. We believe that building such an organisation is the most important task facing our class. The working class does not need false promises or fancy policies, but an organisation that of the class struggle. 25 March 1988 • 9

REAGAN'S "BACKYARD'

BECOMES THE FRONTLINE

No peace for Nicaragua ast week Ronald Reagan 3126 troops sent Airborne Division to Honduras. He claimed that their mission was to defend the Central American republic from by the The Threa or avasIon radical Sandinista regime neighbouring Nicaragua. In lact the US troops were sent for reasons which had little to do with local border incidents. Their mission was to reimpose US authority in its unstable backyard, and to shore up the status of Reagan's ailing Washington's regime at home. crisis focuses on the fate of the Contra guerrillas based in Honduras. early February Democrat-dominated congress voted to end military aid to the right-wing Nicaraguan Contras Reagan's stooges Central America. The vote put the Contras in a very shaky position in their campaign to undermine the Sandinista regime. It exposed the post-Vietnam fear which important of the Secret establishment still feels becoming embroiled in third world trouble-spots. Congress was worried that a vote for the murderous Contras would further alienate Washington's other Central American allies, and give the Sandinistas the perfect excuse to drop the measures they have been obliged to concede under the Arias 'peace' plan. President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica won last year's Nobel peace for his Central American prize plan. It calls for ceasefires in El 10 • 25 March 1988

MEXICO

Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua; political dialogue with 82 unarmed political opponents; an amnesty for prisoners; freedom of the press, television and political assembly; and an end to all aid to the Contras, including tarian' aid. in LaSt Nicaragua, of presidents Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica signed the accord.

doing, they Reagan's orders to throw out the and expressed independent attitude to Washing- Reagan has

LOL

undermine the plan and to keep the Contras in business.

CONCESSIONS

the Under pressure from Union and Mexico, Nicaragua accepted the Arias plan, ended its state ol emergency. the LaKs February, business were improved in Nicaragua when the Sandinistas austerity programme involving the an US of government elimination sidies on 33 basic products from about rice and beans to cooking gas and electricity The concessions the wanestas were orcce to make under the Arias plan seemed to fulfil many of Reagan's demands.

Yet his attitude has only hardened against the Nicaraguans. Reagan nas wooed une stakes al every stage before finally sending the troops to Honduras last week. Reagan wants to destrov the Arias plan because it leaves the Sandinistas in power. He cannot stomach the Sandinistas objection

GUATEMALA

HONDURAS

Tegucigalpa

EL SALVADOR

PACIFIC OCEAN

and in Nicaragua in unsettled 'humaniand August the America. El 1980, Reagan Guatemala overrode new He has staked worked to ability the Soviet and entered Contras. conditions

- HEMOCIS.

ADVANTAGE

introduced The US congress sub- Central American profits that the their ceasefire

CRISIS IN CENTRAL AMERICA

Whoever wins the US presidential election will have more problems than they can cope with in Central America. Andy Clarkson looks at the crisis of US authority across the region

NICARAGUA

COSTA

RICA

PANAMA

to playing the old docile banana republic' role. They came to power 1979, after the overthrow of the brutal pro-US Somoza dictatorship. Their victory inspired a revolt in El Salvador, all of Central Even before he was elected in make Central America the test of the USA's world leadership, the place ShOW where he would draw the line' against upstarts like the Sandinistas.

Washington's credibility as a global power on its Central dominate cooperate America. The Arias plan, however, ratifies the Sandinista regime and Honduras shows the spread of sullen revolt among Reagan's Central American stooges. Under the plan, Honduras had begun closing down Contra bases, forcing them to remain on Honduras hostile Nicaraguan soil in large Lostdy vote against aid to the Contras encouraged ever since the more surly towards Washington. It was also widely regarded as a big blow to Reagan's loyal freedom fighters'. The Contras would stil Since Operation receive f26m in "humanitarian' aid — and could get extra via the drug October CIA channels to

OCCI

them. But the appearance that the Contras' major ally might be on Honduran the point of deserting them gave a major boost to the Sandinistas in that lasted negotiations with the right-wing rebels. Last week's Nicaraguan operations against the Two naa Lo that stooge by the critics, sional,

CARIBBEAN SEA

trying Panama Canal and, Contras on the Honduran border were designed to strengthen the Sandinistas' hand, and to turn the talks to their own advantage Despite Reagan's bluster about a Nicaraguan invasion of Honduras, the US troop movements are an exercise in sabre-rattling.

They are designed to limit the damage done by the anti-Contra over vote and the Arias plan, and to and Central

ACTICO

congress that the White House is still the seat of regional power. The fact that Reagan even had an initial problem persuading Honduras to indicates how much ground he has lost. used to be better known as the Pentagon Republic.

Last year, a defence department spokesman told a senate hearing that the US military presence in was 'temporary but indefinite, with the length of stay Call dependent on 'our own public will the course in Central stop America'. Honduras has been the armed camp of the US military Sandinista insurrection in July 1979 knocked out Washington's main client in the area - Nicaragua.

TUB-THUMPING

Falcon's Eye in 1981, the Pentagon has

CULTUOUS

programme of 'exercises with the army. Dwarfing the present effort, the Big Pine series throughout 1983 involved 7000 US combat troops.

10 000 Honduran troops, tactical air groups and two aircraft carriers complete with battleship escorts.

US-piloted years ago, Chinook helicopters ferried Honwith duran troops its border fake Nicaragua another invasion scare. Last week, however, Washington Honduran twist the government's arm to get it to 'request the US military inter- The Financial Times vention. report revealed that the Honduran government initially accepted Managua's claim that no invasion had taken place although in a harder response later, it demanded Nicaraguan troops cease threatening its border.' Even the Tegucigalpa regime had Reagan's difficulty swallowing invasion story at first. US armtwisuing nau, however, Obtained di Honduran air-strike on Sandinista positions within 24 hours, followed belligerent Come acoi threats. The US offensive boosted Contras, undermined this week's ceasetire talks, and brought the Arias plan close to collapse.

Reagan's sabre-rattling over the Sandinistas and troop deployment in Honduras was also designed for domestic consumption. He hoped that a show of strength against 'communist subversion' in Central America could silence his many and give his Republican Party a boost in the presidential Despite much congreselection. cynicism first, the at militaristic tubadministration's thumping did manage to put-the Democrats on the defensive. But in Centra Bad ou are for political American affairs Reagan is playing purposes, The potential dangerous game. problems are illustrated by the Irangate scandal

THREAT

Last week 23 criminal charges were filed against Colonel Oliver North and others for their part in the Iran-Contra affair. North has resigned his commission as it was defence 'inhibiting a

VILULOUS

swipe Reagan, threatened to subpoena the testimonv and records of the officials in our highest-ranking government. Reagan's response compounded the admini- The strauons embarrassment president pointed out that one o North' confederates who has confessed to breaking the law, was only guilty of misleading congress and T've done the same myself.' The Iran-Contra revelations remain a threat to the Republican election campaign All these problems are symptoms of the decline of US power in its own "backyard", and the loss of the complete control it once enjoyed Central American states. In 1986 Colonel North arranged for a European shipment of Eastern arms to be captured in El Salvador so they could be produced as proof that Nicaragua was still exporting arms and revolution to the FMLN fighting guerrillas

HIS

collaborator in this conspiracy to frame Nicaragua was none other than Panamanian dictator General Manuel Noriega. Noriega was then a CIA stooge and North's partner- Today he is a thorn in Reagan's already-aching side. If he ask worried turn rogue, Washington officials, what is to USA's other allies

SERG

going astray? The deployment of US troops in Honduras is meant as a warning to those who might consider following the Noriega line. Reagan has no wish to involve his forces in a Central American war. But once they are on the ground in Central America, accidents can happen. So long as the instability continues, a small incident could draw the GIs in further and become the spark that the "backyard" turns

HUBILC

frontline that stretches all the way up to the Alamo. the next step

El Salvador THE SITUATION in El Salvador shows how the USA is having to drop the pretence of supporting democracy in Central America, and throw its weight behind the rule of the death squads. Sunday's election in EI Salvador was won by the rightwing Arena Party, which fronts for the army's covert death squads. This has isolated Christian Democrat president Jose Napoleon Duarte. The national assembly elections were boycotted by the political wing of the Farabundo Marti Nationa _beration Front who have been guerrillas, fighting the US-backed regime since 1981 Back in 1984, Washington supported Duarte's presidential campaign against the A we go to press the fate of strongman General Noriega remains uncertain. But happens, his conflict with Washington has done further damage to US policy in Central America.

When Noriega ousted Panama's president Delvalle last month, it gave Reagan the excuse to move against the 'undemocratic general.

Yet Washington has no objection to in principle; Delvalle coups

CIGI

himself was put in office by Noriega in similar fashion. What has upset Reagan this time is the anti-US which Noriega, gestures win popular support. At a time when authority is being challenged across reciol. evel

LURCH

from Noriega resistance IS unacceptable affront to imperialism. Reagan cannot afford to have any more of his surrogates following the Panamanian's example.

HAVOC

A military intervention against Noriega would expose the USA to many risks. It could endanger US interests in the Panama Canal, and provoke a backlash elsewhere Central America. The USA has thus sought to use economic strangulation to isolate Noriega. Since Panama's tied is tightly economy international, and particularly US, capital flows, Washington was soon able to destabilise Noriega's regime.

Reagan's people have since alternated between encouraging attempts and trying to buy Noriega They would rather he went off.

CIA

quietly. In the past, supplied Noriega with dossiers on US politician of note, every with copious details of complete their political and private problems.

If he decides to hang out this dirty washing, Noriega could wreak havoc on the US presidential election.

desire to sort Despite its Noriega with the minimum of fuss, Washington's economic sanctions against Panama have stirred up a dangerous level of instability.

FURIOUS

Noriega The squeeze on → some would say too successful successful. It has plunged Panama into economic chaos and brought the masses out of their homes last week.

Their furious protests against Noriega forced him to drop his phoney anti-US pose, and to turn on Panamanian people. dockers, power workers, health and teachers struck in workers protest at not being paid, Noriega's Doberman police force tried baton them off the streets and the army locked them out of their jobs.

the next step Death squads rule challenge of Arena Party leader Roberto D'Aubuisson. But Arena has been making strenuous efforts to clean up its image under Washington's direction.

Since Duarte signed the Arias plan last August Reagan has wanted him out. The bitterness between Reagan and Duarte came to a over what is known as the *Pink Zone Massacre'. In 1985 three FLN anti-government insurgents were jailed for allegedly killing 13 people — Including four US marines - in San Salvador's fashionable Zona Rosa. Under the Arias plan, however, all political prisoners must be released.

Duarte has been releasing both death squad members and leftwing insurgents. When a Salvadorean court After Noriega, what next?

his

NORIEGA HAS TURNED ON THE PANAMANIAN PEOPLE

To retain his grip, Noriega has been obliged to urgency, suspending civil rights.

For over a year now the middle Crusade class campaigning to get rid of Noriega.

But it was only after the USA imposed its sanctions that things began to go the way of the BMW to revolutionaries, as Noriega scornfully calls them. had Crusaders previously marginalised by popular working class support for the general's anti- US gestures. coup The Civic Crusaders welcomed the public sector strikers ranks of their campaign against the general. Yet the middle class movement against began when they accused him of being too soft on these same workers after a highly effective nine-day general measures two years ago. Today the Civic Crusaders are prepared to out strike

BROK

general Noriega, but only to help them win the power to smash the public sector workforce themselves. That is why i Que they chant vengan Gringos! — 'Let the Yanks come!"

They want Reagan to do a 'Grenada' on Noriega, because they understand that a civilian regime in Panama will not be able to tackle the working itself once Noriega class by has gone.

DANGER

Last week's working When against Noriega's cops had nothing in common with the Civic Crusade independ commented campaign. Carlin disparagingly on the Civic Crusade demonstrators' tendency to flee at

DUARTE: ISOLATED

decided in January that the Pink Zone Three were political prisoners, the US state department threatened to cut off all aid to El Salvador if they were released. Rumours of the corrupt use of US aid by Duarte's party were spread before Sunday's polls. With Arena and its death squads now making the running in El Salvador, there will be less talk from Duarte about releasing left-wing prisoners, talking to insurgents and implementing the Arias plan. the first sign of the riot police, while the working class fighters motivated 'state by stomachs empty Dobermans: threw been hospital protesters, some of whom said they had never heard of the Civic Crusade, grew more combative salvo of tear gas or wiLievery pellets....Every time retreated a step, the phalanx moved forward so as not to lose range."

Civic - been Now that against his working class base, he is in more danger than he could ever have faced from the middle classes.

He is isolated and vulnerable to have coup attempts.

HUIC

without doubt anti-working class.

Even so, it is impossible to remain neutral about who overthrows him.

Noriega Reagan wants to Panamanian crisis as quickly and possible. However, he quietly may be forced to intervene against austerity Noriega. If Reagan ousts him in a coup, or even succeeds in buying him off, this will strengthen the USA's against grip over the region. There might then be a brief breathing space while Delvalle pays out the wages that are and economic los owed. recommences. But this will only be a prelude

LCHE PUL AR

imperialism and its new Panamanian stooges turn screws regime installed Reagan could only make worse for the working class. That is why drug trafficker and former CIA-employee Noriega class riots defending against Washington.

shown itself more than ready to light working Panama's in defence of its interests. This is the that can commented only force Noriega in the name of progress.

the MANY British politicians and the South African authoritles' but Insisted they were guilty purpose' with those who did.

purpose' rule outraged Western Times called the decision 'a is little more than a charade the state. this country. Its legal affairs but escaped the death penalty murder for encouraging him, and hanged. repeatedly encouragement is enough' to *The police the of the crime, it is clear, under Noriega has turned Noriega books. I doubt If Dominic settle the member of the Irish National activity before by things worth class killings occurred. The British overthrow propaganda war

A COMMON

PURPOSE

newspapers have protested against treatment of the Sharpeville Six, sentenced to death for the murder of the deputy mayor of Sharpeville in found gullty. 1984. The court accepted that the six had not committed the murder, because they shared a 'common This extension of the common opinion. Even Margaret Thatcher was moved to appeal for clemency. The disgraceful plece of chicanery. The South African judicial system, it argued, 'hardly deserves the name. It designed to deter and intimidate terror tallored to the purposes of The Independent was sure that the common purpose rule could not be applied in similar circumstances in correspondent Robert Rice quoted from Craig and Bentley, a celebrated case from the fifties, to prove his point. Craig, who shot and killed a policeman, was convicted of murder because he was a minor. Bentley, who egged Craig on and told him to "let him have it, was convicted of This, wrote Rice, was the closest English law could get to 'common purpose'. Even if 'the slightest act of condemn someone, nevertheless 'under English law there must be some action by an accessory before he becomes criminally liable. He added that If a defendant just happens to be present at the scene English law at least, that he cannot be convicted of being an accessory.

I am sure that Mr Rice is a very learned man who has read all his law McGlinchey or Winston Silcott have heard of Craig or Bentley, never mind read their case notes. Yet have little doubt that both would beg to disagree with our legal correspondent's informed opinion.

Dominic McGlinchey, a leading Liberation Army, became the first republican to be extradited from the Republic of Ireland to face trial in the North. The main evidence against him at his trial in 1985 were some affadavits he signed in the South some years earlier, admitting to membership of the South Derry brigade of the IRA. The Northern judge decided that this was proof of McGlinchey's involvement in a killing In County Antrim. The South African police showed that the Sharpeville Six were in the crowd when the authorities could not even prove that McGlinchey had ever been to County Antrim - which is nowhere near South Derry - never mind that he was there when the killing occurred.

But, not to worry, McGlinchey was a self-confessed republican who desired Irish freedom and so shared a 'common purpose' with whoever pulled the trigger. So he was Winston Silcott was sentenced to life Imprisonment last March for the murder of PC Blakelock in the Broadwater Farm unrest of October 1985. No witnesses testifled against him. The prosecution produced no photographic or forensic evidence.

He confessed to nothing. Once again, the police could not even prove unal olicort was I tollehlarl on the evening of the riot. Again the court was not swayed by such minor from Broadwater Farm and, like everybody else on the estate, he hated the police. Quod erat demonstrandum; he shared a common purpose with the killers and was found guilty. The cases of McGlinchey and Silcott do not prove that Robert Rice has falled to read his textbooks properly or is ignorant of the British law. They show that the British legal system distinguishes between Individuals who break the criminal law and those who belong to any section of society which presents a political problem for the British state. Individual criminals have no common purpose beyond successfully carrying out their crime Even If they are members of an organised gang the law accepts that their rights as Individuals must be protected. If Bentley had kept his mouth shut he would have lived.

Dominic McGlinchey and Winston Silcott, on the other hand, are not simply individuals who happen to be of a particular nationality or colour.

The Irish people's struggle for freedom and the resistance of black youth to the police pose a political threat to the British state. This marks every Irish person or young black as a target for the authoritles.

The treatment of Dominic McGlinchey demonstrated the basic rule of British law in Ireland: If you are a republican and there is a killing in the Six Counties, then you must be responsible.' The conviction of Winston Slicott confirmed the view of Basil Griffiths, former deputy chair of the Police Federation that the only way the police can protect soclety is quite simply by harassing these people and frightening them.

If you are a member of any section of soclety with which the state Is in political conflict - be it Irish nationalists, black youth or Yorkshire miners - • you have a 'common purpose' in challenging the state and will be treated as a criminal. Like the man from The Times says, such a legal system Is *little more than a charade designed to deter and intimidate terror tailored to the purposes of the state.' Kenan Malik 25 March 1988 • 11

THE END OF

THE RAINBOW

James Malone examines how the black presidential candidate Jackson has changed esse since he last stood for president four years ago. In 1984 he put himself forward as the representative of American blacks, who could build a rainbow coalition among the oppressed sections of US society. Today he is pushing hard to win white support.

So far in the Democratic Party primaries, Jackson has won 90 per cent of black votes cast and 10 per white votes. cent or managed to pick up 20 per cent of the total vote in Minnesota, where only 1.3 per cent of the population is black. But his white support is still far too smarto pose a serious Chanenge for the top spot. All opinion polls show Jackson's liberal traditional wing OT Democratic Party. Eight years of aggressive Reaganism have led to a collapse of American liberalism.

This no year

LUCC

candidate in the old liberal mould, so Jackson has become a surrogate champion for those few class white voters who still await the second coming. of John F Kennedy.

GOSPEL

The main difference Jackson today is not the fact that he has won a few white votes, but the political accommodation he has made to try to attract more.

This year he has become a more aggressive advocate of American populism, focusing on traditional small-town values about family, the flag, and the local church and community. Jackson preaches a gospel of unity which stretches beyond black and white workers to tarmers and small businessmen. He stresses the need to defend 'the small man' and foreign threats to American interests. The black preacher picks on memes when present min as te defender patriotic of ordinary Americans. Jackson's favourite theme drugs. 'Stop drugs coming in, stop jobs going out' is his slogan. Asked why he dwells on the subject of drugs, Jackson said, It is the one threat to every American housewith children that hold all lines.' By find an entirely trying with which to Jackson has ended up

SUUUULL.

tail-ending the anti-drug crusaders of the white American right.

Drug abuse is undoubtedly rife in America's no-hope ghettos. But the hysterical drugs panic Reagan's America is not aimed at solving the problem. The authorities have exploited popular drug revulsion Ovel promote all manner of reactionary ideas. In particular, the phoney war on the drug thugs has served as the excuse for a racist police crackdown in US inner cities, and for pressurising Latin American 12 • 25 March 1988 even the middle about the states to submit to Washington.

Jackson's campaign goes with all this - indeed, he wants it is to go further. The Reagan administration has condemned Panama's strongman Noriega General trafficker, campaign to oust him. crosses wants Reagan to put sweepers where his mouth is and teach the Latin Americans win lesson: We put minesweepers in the Persian Gulf. I will put drug sweepers in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jackson has also against other world states. drugs propaganda points the finger at Latin America as the source of social ills. This can the encourage only against the millions of Hispanics living in the USA. Jackson's talk about building a 'rainbow alliance' is forgotten, asse conservative opinion which campaign crippling racial and ethnic

JESSE JACKSON

has adapted to traditional American politics

JACKSON DRAWS BACK FROM MENTIONING RACISM

divisions along ing class. equally divisive. drug mania ane. for Jackson Americans his minewhole yuppie culture. traditionally insular demanded for third and workers to the backlash of a return

VISIOH

US

SUSCENE

chases with nationalism, US reinforces the declining foreign competition. within the US work- Jackson's economic populism is on He is always attacking the big abroad. barracudas" of Wall Street, 'merger the raiders'. corporate This goes down well among many reacted Have against Wall Street crime and the But his alternative economic policy is a newly backward-looking appeal to the of outlook Middle America. Jackson appeals Despite decent American employers unite against Wall Street and the multinational corporations, which are merging.

purging workers and submerging His that he American economy. selfto a economy with strong manufacturing base may be a dream; but it has produced a nationally dangerous programme of economic designed to protect capitalists from base Sandinistas, there entry

DOOL

Jackson wants stiffer import on foreign

COHTTOSTOLECEOS

government export subsidies and American investment His protectionist ideas anger of America's dispossessed away from those who exploit and oppress them at home, towards foreigners. In particular, with the USA running a substantial trade deficit with Japan and Asia's industrialising countries, Jackson's campaign can only further increase popular hostility the to Asian-Americans. his reputation as a moderate in foreign affairs the black candidate's patriotic politics extend overseas. His more radical supporters are quick to announce to cut defence wants spending. But Jackson is equally quick to counter accusations that he is 'soft' on communism. On a televised debate, he asserted that there could be no foreign military advisers, no Soviet in Nicaragua; "And if the in their selfdetermination, choose to relate to the Soviets in that way, they must know the alternative. If they are there are us, tremendous If they are not with us, benefits. are tremendous sequences." Jackson understands that Cold Warrior credentials are still a necessary qualification for the pol- American itical mainstream Jackson is a fervent supporter of the reactionary moralism which the Reaganites have monopolised over recent years

'DIVISIVE'

His liberalism always comes a his religious second endorsement of traditional prejudices women and the family. On abortion, he says that *women should have freedom of choice but should make the moral choice.' collection of in his speeches, Straight from the Heart, Jackson quotes disapprovingly the lyrics of Mick Jagger's Some Girls.

•We must call pornographic music what says Jackson, lt Is child abuse. his attempt make populist appeal to white America Jackson has all but abandonec anti-racist Despite the gestures. phoney "positive action programmes of the sixties and seventies, the position of black Americans worsening; black male unemployment is twice the level for whites. Yet Jackson now avoids the race issue as 'divisive' and tells blacks that they become good American entrepreneurs — 'the marketplace is the arena tor our development through self-help and positive thinking. While racist attacks are Jackson distances the rise, himself from He Protests steering demonstrations, like that which followed the lynch-mob murder of a black youth in Howard Beach, because they are too contront ational for his clean-cut image.

LOYALTY

Jackson's political accommodation sums up where conmne led black stitutional road has politics in the USA. Since the state crushed militant black movements focus has the sixties, the switched electoral politics Middle class 'community leaders' have sought to channel black unrest off the streets and into the chambers. Today parliamentary there are some 7000 elected black officials, and many major cities in the USA have a black mayor.

These were never more than token figureheads, whose elevation made little difference to the vast majority of impoverished blacks. But the Reagan years have created a more climate, and and black politicians have come under pressure to toe the establishment line. Jackson's election campaign, as the black candidate who won't dare to racism, Is the result. Jackson has no chance of winning the nomination. The strength of racist feeling in the USA - which he ironically challenge reruses to sane guarantee of that. His relative success so far is largely a reflection of the unattractive character of the other Democratic Party hopefuls.

Whatever he might hope to achieve the white population, among Jackson's true role for the party is to ensure the continuing loyalty of all-important black vOLC Around 90 per cent of blacks who voted supported the Democrats in the last three elections, compared to just 39 per cent of whites. Jackson's job for the party leaders is to keep the black vote safe while they veer to the right and try to win back conservative white support.

The dream 'rainbow oI a alliance' built around capitalist politics has ended up in a campaign which can only deepen divisions among ordinary Americans, and aid the authorities which oppress them. the next step

Tony Kennedy reveals the hidden meaning of the Tory budget M any people have objected the inegalitarian character of Lawson's budget, gives tax cuts to the rich and more immiseration to the The most important thing

DOUL.

about this budget, however, is not the specific measures it includes but the message it imparts. The budget's tone helps to create a climate in which no-nonsense capitalist economics are the order of the day. It signals the start of a new Tory offensive. The central focus of this offensive will not be on taxes, but on attacking wages and working conditions in the public and private sectors. This is the Tories response to the critical weakness of British capitalism — a confirmed by the WcaKess budget itself. The treasury's Financial Statement and Budget Report reveals the dilemmas of Tory strategy. The Tories rising Unal settlements threaten inflation and endanger the competitiveness of the British But conomy. report states that recent private sector pay settlements have been markedly lower than the recent growth in earnings which reflects overtime working and bonus payments'. In fact pay settlements in manufacturing last year show a fall of about one percentage point compared to the previous year. In other words, pay settlements have fallen and longer hours and productivity rising wage increases. Trends in unit labour costs the labour cost element in the overall production costs of each the next step Nigel which unit of output - confirm that talk about inflation is hype. According to the treasury, unit labour costs in were unchanged', while in the service sector they rose marginally. The service sector rise has nothing to do with the level settlements, which have been lower than in mandelung. structural difficulties in raising labour productivity explain the rise in unit costs.

ADVANTAGE

Labour costs cannot explain a UK inflation rate of just over four per cent in 1987, nor can trends in pay the of prices imported materials and capital goods.

strong pound and a depreciating dollar have cheapened the the imported

COSE

Inflation is the result of capitalists taking advantage of consumer demand to hike up sales prices and improve profit margins.

The level of wage settlements alone cannot explain Tory fears about bay. ihe government 1 aware that the recent rapid growth of labour productivity, which has allowed profits to higher wages, is set to slow down.

Gains in productivity have come TOr through intensifying investment in modern technology.

With little prospect of increasing the level of capital investment, the capitanst class nas lo mount an offensive against pay.

AFTER THE BUDGET

GET READY

FOR THE TORY

OFFENSIVE

"broadly the hard against the working class.

a greater extent than ever on the economy profits, it lacks the economic clout Greater to manipulate international trends in its tavour. The treasury report that world shows moving against Britain. assets fell by a massive f20 billion as a result of the world stock market decline. Flows of interest, profits raw and dividends from expected to tall. growth is expected to slow in the rapidly second half of the year, while UK goods. imports will continue to rise faster than exports. oil trade will fall by more than a growing productivity has improve British industry's competitive position. labour costs in UK manufacturing are expected to grow marginally this year, rise despite growth is forecast in other major industrialised countries.

DRAW

than through The restricted options available for countering these adverse trends in the international arena dictate a renewed offensive on the home front. and hatcher over exchange rate policy is instructive in this respect. to walls operation while the attacks bear fruit. By holding down sterling he hopes to preserve British trade competitiveness. The prime minister is worried that such a policy, reducing interest throwing more pounds on to the money markets to take the heat off sterns, capitalist offensive. pounds about, Thatcher fears that British business inflation rather than class confrontation to boost profits. The outcome of the duel was a draw.

Lawson his interest rates, but sterling remains higher than its deutschmark limit. conflicting that the debate is likely to resurface.

Lawson's package, involving a f4 billion tax give-away Britain's wealthy, has been dubbed a rich man's budget. But about the radical nature of his tax reform measures, more modestly he admitted that it was not a taxcutting budget. not reduce the tax burden as a of poicellard product for the fiscal year 1988-89 - it remains at about 37 per cent of GDP. Lawson was able to give away £4 billion because existing rules mean that private incomes rise faster than themselves.

HICOLES

sequence the tax burden has risen from 35 per cent of GDP in 1985 Lawson has simply removed this accumulation. state

OTT

business. ing cuts in particularly The vulnerability of the British economy to adverse trends in the scIvIces. world market is another reason why Tories are compelled to go in While British capitalism relies to jobs and as a source of are The UK stock of net overseas crash and the dollar's rather than World trade year's election,

MARGINAL

Britain's surplus on The celebrated surge little to done While unit no unit labour cost The row between Lawson The Britain's freeing The chancellor have been marginal. mount a holding success stories rates and borrowing billion, undermine the With more government's might for opt taking in hardly the economy. reduction

IMPENDING

previous three- The problems that the capitalist balancing these been considerations mean earlier favouring international boasted Lawson The budget does fundamental gross domestic British capitalism. taxes As a coning system. "fiscal drag' from the tax system in an effort to moderate the rate at which revenues rise automatically in line with economic growth.

The Tories' achievements on the tax front have been modest. Since all taxation is a reduction from the profits of the capitalist class, state revenues are a barrier to capital The governen needs more ambitious tax cuts to deliver on its promise to get the the back British Tax however, CuLs require spending cuts. The Tories have recently announced swingepublic spending on welfare, social security and state employment having failed to implement earlier plans for reducing state spending In The promised to slash financial outlays on public the Since

COSL

providing even a static level of services rises due to inflation, this meant decimating public service welfare provision Instead, state spending spiralled out of control as the Tories tried to hold together an economy ravaged by world recession. By 1983 state spending accounted for 46.7 per cent of GDP, compared to 43 per cent under Labour between 1978 and 1979. After the 1983 election victory, Tory ministers pledged to keep service provision constant, slash spending. Lawson announced a further concession in time for. last real promising increases in spending on services in line with economic growth.

While the Tories have delayed an all-out crackdown on state spending, workers in nationalised industries such as mining, steel and shipbuilding have suffered nevertheless. The government has kept the health service going, not by giving ll more monev. making health workers sweat. The government has held down public sector pay settlements well below those in private industry. Despite public spending successes still accounts for 42.5 percent of GDP, only 0.5 per cent lower than wich une fores came to power Tories' achievements British capital from the constraints of central government Another of Lawson's supposed balancing the accounts and ending government borrowing - has nothing to do with his policies. A year ago the predicted a £4 billion requirement, Has November this was revised to £1 and in the budget zero borrowing was declared. While the final figure might look good, the prior ignorance about how much revenue it was inspires confidence in its ability to manage It would be more accurate to say economy has managing Lawson. The Tories have been blessed with a period of growth based upon the shake-out British ot industry, a revival in world trade and the enormous expansion of capital flows. All these fortuitous trends over which the government has no control, have allowed Lawson to become a celebrity in capitalist circles, but have done nothing to confront the problems The impending social security cuts, plans for further restrictions union rights, the introduction of the poll tax and the imminent restructuring of the civil right with British capitalism.

realistic assessment of the state of the economy is the precondition for the only realistic response building a movement that can rid us of this decaying and degradthe other side

CROSSFIRE

THESE IRA men will stop al nothing. saw them on the BBC news last week. They showed this IRA Army Council meeting. Most of the men at It had English accents (they're cunning, these Provos). They said they wanted to take the war to the very doorsteps' of the British people. So they organised a secret bombing campaign. They made these exploding milk bottles, hijacked a milk-float, planted them on doorsteps in Finchley, and blew up innocent housewives. The bombing campaign was carried out by these undercover IRA men who had been living in London for years and years, one working as an amusement arcade attendant and another as a ticket collector on the underground. Apparently, this bloke came over from Belfast, flashed a 'Yeats Country" postcard at them as a signal, then off they went on their murderous milk-round. Except that most of them got caught because this brilliant bloke called Freddie from Special Branch intelligence had this computer with a trillion Irish people's movements on it. He brilliantly noticed that one İrishman in London had returned to his house at 20 past six every day for about 700 years, but then one day he didn't go home until 20 to 11. So he had to be the bomber, and they nicked him after an exciting milk-float chase. Brilliant. What do you mean, that wasn't the news? Crossfire? A new, appallingly ignorant BBC drama series about Northern Ireland? No, no, I know it was the BBC news. They have brilliant news stories like that all the time. The other week they had that brilliant news story about the IRA gang in Gibraltar, who planted that 500lb bomb and then made it disappear into thin air. They were so cunning and evil that even after the SAS shot them, they still made threatening movements so that the SAS had to shoot them some more in selfdefence. Then on Saturday the BBC had that news story about how the IRA ambushed those British soldlers who were Innocently going off on their holidays, driving backwards down the Andersonstown Road in West So don't tell me that wasn't the news. Don't give me all that garbage about Crossfire.

I don't need to watch BBC dramas about Northern Ireland. I know all about the real thing from what that Moira Stewart says. She's almost as brilliant as Freddie.

Eddie Veale 25 March 1988 • 13

FRANKENSTEIN

Frankenstein, Jonathan Pope (director), Citizens' Theatre. Glasgow, until 2 April Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. Penguin. £3.50 The Citizens' Theatre company are justly famous for the choice and quality of their productions and for the fact that they usually try rather than indulge them.

forthcoming piece, The History of Celtic Football Club, will work out, but l can assure you tel Frankenstein is well up to scratch. In 1816, 19-year old Mary Wollstonecraft spent the summer beside Lake Geneva with her lover (later her husband), the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. She was nursing their second baby. The first, a daughter, had died within days of birth. It was the coldest summer on record in the northern hemisphere. Their companion, Lord Byron, suggested that they employ themselves by each writing a ghost story. tired of constructing Shelley's passion for scientific enquiry and their collective discussion of Luigi Galvini's experiments with electricity and the possibility of imbuing inanimate matter with life provided the spark for her imagination. She came up with Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

MARVELLOUS

Before the story was completed the following May, Mary's half-sister had committed suicide and Shelley's first wife, Harriet, had drowned. Little wonder that Mary described the writing of her marvellous story as a creation out of chaos, attempt to give form to substances'. But far from

ACCOWE

suffering, she grappled with her experiences. The result was an act of creative imagination which used the idea of creation itself - the creation by science of new life. In so doing she important themes; the nature of self-know edge.

the struggle for control over our environment and the legitimacy of scientific enquiry, all central concerns for humanity at the threshold of modern capitalist society. Indeed it was only the development of the productive forces of society which made such a discussion possible; and it was only the separation of people from the truits or tel labour, of the creator from the created, which made it necessary.

COMPLEX

Mary Shelley allows each of the three main characters - the sclentist, Victor Frankenstein, the being which he has created, and an explorer, Captain Walton - to relate their own experlences. Walton, Journeying towards the North Pole, has come upon the sclentist in frantic and fruitless pursult of his creation, which having been rejected as a monster has turned on Its creator.

14 • 25 March 1988 The complex structure complements the complexity of the different perspectives as each character tries to come to terms with their lot. It is fitting that Frankenstein should reveal the extremes or his own experiences when he is at the limits of the physical world, surrounded by the grandeur of the light. In this suitably awesome setting the two men share the 'madness' of pursuit and enquiry. For Walton too 'there is something at work in my soul which I do not understand.

MYTH

This Romantic habit of associating feeling directly with nature may strike the contemporary reader as lamer odd and precious, but the sense the work (and owes much TO Sale Coleridge's Ancient Mariner') will be more familiar. The guiding spirit, however, hails not from Romanticism but from the Paradise Lost of Jonn wilton, and tie theme derives from the myth of Prometheus. The Miltonic struggle

MUSIC OUT OF AFRICA

PUT A WIGGLE

IN YOUR STRIDE

Talking Heads, Naked.

EMI

Ali Farka Toure, Ali Farka Toure. World circuit Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, Thokozile, Earthworks 'Put a wigge in vour stride, Mr Jones, loosen up, sings David Byrne. After two disappointing years Byrne and Talking Heads return with a stunning new album, Naked, possibly their best work, certainly their most inventive. The album was recorded in Paris, which is fast becoming the new international centre for music. For a long time the jazz capital of Europe, it has become over the past decade the home for African musicians of a variety of styles, from highlife to rai. Many of the African records now finding their way to Britain were recorded there, and more recently it has attracted Caribbean styles such as zouk. 'All this can be found in New York City as well, says Byrne, 'but there's a different attitude from the reviews page between good and evil is clarified here as a struggle between the lost Eden of nature and ignorance, and the pain of knowiedee and consciousness. Prometheus stole fire from the gods for the benerit of humanity, which made him for Karl Marx the foremost saint and martyr in the philosopher's calendar. But the light he held up revealed not bliss but the struggle and the pain of human existence. Frankenstein took a step forward too, but he found that his monster embodied (or had audience in Paris. There, it's accepted that these various styles of music can be for everyone. London and New York may only just be discovering these styles; Parisians have been jiving to them for a decade.

HYBRID

It was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that the Heads would be drawn strength has always been Mis dolly to dusors new styles and influences and My to anue ale uends Life in the Bush of Ghosts, his collaboration with Brian Eno, experimented with sampling seven years before it became a chart commonplace. Byrne's creativity sets Naked apart. Naked is not an album of 'African' music as, for example, Paul Simon's Graceland attempted to be. Simon simply appropriated particular styles as a backdrop to his songs. Byrne seamlessly fuses the Heads' jagged, paranoid white funk with various styles to produce a scintillating hybrid.

THEATRE IN GLASGOW

AND THE

FUTURE

ugliness, rejection and allenation which he was trying to transcend.

VALIANT

Clearly Shelley's Frankenstein is a long way from the Hammer House of Horrors with which we are all too familiar. Congratulations then to the Citizens Theatre for making a valiant effort to reclaim the tradition. In a packed house at the free preview some 40 Peter Cushing fans left before the end of the performance but the vast majority of us stayed to applaud. There

BYRNE: 'SCINTILLATING HYBRID

Rather than write carefully structured songs, the band laid down improvised rhythm tracks in New York. Twenty five of these tracks were taken to Paris and formed the basis for what were effectively extended jamming sessions. The vocals were finally added in New York. It sounds hopelessly anarchic

- OUT

the result is a set of tight, conerent ane mamens attractive songs. The album features such familiar names as former Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr, the Pogues accordionist James Fearley and Kirsty McColl. But it is the catalogue of Caribbean and especially West African artists - guitarist Yves N'Djock, trumpeter Angel Fernandez, Mory Kante on kora, Abdou M'Boup on talking drums are, it is true, still some rough edges to be smoothed out. The Henry Clerval character is too much a stilted prig to inspire the devoted friendship of Victor Frankenstein. It is unfortunate too that the saint-like Elizabeth Lavenza should sound like a cross between an Oxford English graduate and a Barbie doll.

FEARS

But these are minor problems. The production succeeds because it grasps the story as the elucidation of Mary Shelley's own fears and - that infuses the music with such spirit. From the opening funky brass, through Fernandez arrangement of the horns on 'Mr Jones', to Moussa Cissokao's hypnotic oil , and as anean Yves N'Djock's high-life Flowers' you are hooked

MESMERIC

Ali Farka Toure provides another reminder that the assimilation of musical stvies is by no means a one-way process. Ali is a Mese acousti guitarist from Mali, now countryman Salif Keita, wnose album core was one of the highlights of last year, All Is equdily steeped in the musical traditions of his homeland and in the work of such blues giants as John Lee Hooker and Robert aspirations. In dramatic terms this is brilliantly achieved by making the only narrator who stands outside the action of the play a woman mourning Mary herself.

TORCH

There is no doubt that there is an ambivalence to the pursuit of knowledge at the heart of that Mary Shelley felt we should all know before going forward. She wrote in her journal some five months before her husband was lost at sea in 1822, that she would fearlessly descend into the remotest caverns of my own mind, carry the torch of self-knowledge into its dimmest recesses; but too happy if I dislodge any evil spirit or enshrine a new deity in some uninhabited nook. She knew there was no going back, and that the only light she would have would be that cast by her own struggles and experiences. The Citizens Theatre has given her a new audience. For those of you unfortunate enough not to live in Glasgow, read the book. Alan Harding Johnson. Ali's piercing voice and the souldrenched feeling his sparse, hypnotic guitar style creates make you think that the blues came down from Mali. Thokozile is the best mbaqanga album released 'the indestructible beat" - is the infectious South African township-jive music. The album brings together three of its best exponents. The stirring vocal harmonies of the Mahotella Queens have long established them as the top female vocal group. Mahlathini is mbaqanga's most alsunctive male groaniel The Makgona Tshole Band - The band that knows everything - is mbaqanga's hardest backing band. The mix of Mahlathini's rasping street-growl, the Queens sweet harmonies and the Band's compulsive rhythms is irresistible. It is not the first time they have recorded together their debut single Orlando Train came out in 1965 and they are featured prominently on Earthworks previous mbaqanga compilations The Indestructible Beat of Soweto and Thunder Before Dawn. What sets Thokozile apart however is the brilliant production which really does capture the effervescent rhythms. Put a wiggle in your stride? Kenan Malik the next step

THE

FAMILY

Policing the Family could not be more timely. "Traditional family values' are a constant propaganda theme accompanying the rights. The Tories claimed hey were protecting our children by introducing Clause into the Local belief that women's primary role is as childbearers and rearers lies behind Liberal MP David Alton's anti-abortion bill.

The ban on promoting homosexuality, and further restrictions on women's are both likely to be on the salute book perore long

PANICS

Policing the Family indicates that this is oniv the start. The book shows how the different. seemingly unconnected panies deoul te lamily TIE together to play a vital role for the Tories. It explains how the recent discussions on censorship, child abuse, abortion and drug abuse die all used to create a political climate that is lavourable to te ones and anti-working class. explain what the are up to. It also clears up COLo Conusions maT have arisen on the left. The right has been able to consolidate its authority

POLICING

Sood controln THE Thatcher's Britain

FAMILY

£3.95 plus 80p p&p Cheques payable to Junius Publications Ltd, BCM JPLtd, London WC1N 3XX the next step

POLICING

and is pushing bigoted laws through parliament. Yet the left has come to accept some of the premises on which ine right bases its policies.

Many of our supporters around the country have noted how left-wing activists have abandoned the fight for the rights of homosexuals or women when put under pressure by the right. Many of the groups set up to oppose the Clause have effectively demobilised themselves in a bid to be uncontroversial. When our supporters have argued the need to campaign for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, they have met opposition from people who argued that this was unreasonable.

RESPECTABLE

For example, at one college our Charter for Lesbian and Gay Rights was opposed by those who said they were against the Clause, but were also against fighting for the decriminalisation of homosexuals because it implied that we would tolerate the sexual abuse of children! These radicals have effectively accepted the assumption that homosexuality equals child abuse. In the Fight Alton's Bill groups there has been a similar tendency to try to Tind a respectable middle ground. One of the most popular current arguments Joan Phillips is that if Alton wants to prevent ate abortions he should accept an amendment to his bill to compel health authorities to carry out abortions up to 12 weeks. This would mean that women genuinely wanting early abortions could get them while those trying to get late abortions would be screened even more closely. The left's approach adapts to the right-wing prejudice that allowed late abortions if they are particularly "deserving cases.

DOOMED

Joan Phillips shows that these attempts to appear moderate and appeal to the middle ground are doomed to failure. The midele ground. which could accommodate a few concessions 'deserving cases' in the seventies, no longer exists. Now the establishment is going allout to destroy democratic rights. In these Circula co. we canoE sweet talk the government into makis concessions. We will have to terrorise it i want we need. These arguments have been come by our recent experiences. One FAB steering committee meeting was marked by a heated debate about whether picketing MPs might alienate them. An activist from East London told how an MP had explained to local students that his conscience would not let him vote against Alton. The students explained that if this was the case mel consciences would force them to mount an all-night protest at his house. They gave him 45 minutes to make his mind up - his conscience lost its grip in 45 seconds. This is the kind of attitude we need to win in 1988. Policing the Family shows we are up against not only individual bigots, but a moral offensive from the whole capitalist class. We need to understand their strategy if we are to develop the strategy anc the tactics to win. It's vita to discuss the issues with all left-wing activists. If you haven't read Joan Phillips' book sure you order it now. Anne Burton party page RCP Public Meetings NEWCASTLE: Thursday 24 March, 7pm. Their Morals and Ours Soeaker Joan Phillips. Central Library, off Northumberland St HACKNEY: Tuesday 29 March, 7.30pm. Fight Now to Stop the Tories' Rose and Crown pub Stoke Newington Church Street, N16. The best way to make sure you get tns every week is to take out a subscription.

A subscription from anywhere Address in Britain or Ireland will cost you £26 a year. So don't miss out fill in the box today.

PREPARING FOR

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25 March 1988 • 15

THE HANGING JUDGES

The Sharpeville Six have been granted a temporary stay of execution. Russell Osborne examines their case as part of a legal strategy of victimising political activists Moses Diniso Mojalefa Reginald Sefatsa THE SHARPEVILLE SIX were granted a stay of execution until 18 April by the South African supreme court. Lastminute evidence suggested that a black state witness had made up evidence against them after being beaten by police. They were originally convicted two years ago of the murder of a black township councillor in Sharpeville, Jacob Diamini.

None of the six was proved to have caused Diamini's death. But under South Africa's draconian laws, their presence in the area was sufficient for the judge to send them to the gallows. All were held to have shared the 'common purpose' of about 100 people who stoned and burnt Dlamini as a collaborator with apartheid.

The judges' postponement of the hangings came after president PW Botha turned down pleas for clemency. But this should not suggest that the South African courts are opposed to apartheid terror. The government and the courts have established a division of labour to deal with black opposition to the state.

Until last year, South Africa's courts were still something of a barrier to the government's more extreme emergency regulations. Judges who like to think of themselves as sophisticated legal experts on the Western model, rather than third world-style state stooges, were unhappy about rubber-stamping government orders. What the government decreed under the emergency was often dismissed or overturned in the courts on technical grounds. This only meant, however, that the judges were acting as friendly legal advisers to the regime, and pointing out legal loopholes in its repressive regulations. Once the government accepted their advice and closed the loopholes, the courts were the next step Theresa Ramashamola

SHARPEVILLE SIX STILL ON DEATH ROW

OF APARTHEID

happy to carry out the bidding of the white supremacist state. The government rapidly reimposed draconian restrictions through reworded regulations or after appeal court judgements. The state can now do more or less what it likes under emergency provisions. The 'common purpose' stipulation under which the Sharpeville Six face execution is just one repressive measure among many.

Appeal judges have ruled that, given the state of emergency, extraordinary powers are demanded. Botha can issue any orders to allow for the smashing of resistance, even orders which might normally be declared void on the grounds of unreasonableness.

In the wake of the appeal judges' decision, even the right of a detainee to be heard in court has been removed and lawyers are no longer allowed to visit their clients in prison.

Civil rights lawyers have remarked on the similarity between these repressive judgements and similar controversial measures in the fifties and sixties rulers faced mass resistance. South Africa's law-makers won particular notoriety during the Defiance Campaign organised by the African National Congress in the fifties. They introduced mandatory flogging for all participants arrested during the passive resistance demonstrations.

The state is taking an equally hard line today. • Until recently the charge of high treason - for which the death penalty may be Imposed - was reserved for cases where the state attempted to cook up grand conspiracy theories.

Now day-to-day political activity is sufficient for a treason charge.

The current trial of trade union leader Moses Mayekiso and others for Involvement in people's courts and Duma Joshua Khumalo Francis Manentsa Mokhesi - the last time apartheid's remote. accomplices. the township committees could set a precedent for many anti-government activities to be declared treasonable if Mayekiso is convicted. In a parallel trial, eight young activists are charged with treason for their involvement in people's courts. If they are convicted, the thousands of township residents who participated in people's courts and township committees throughout the country could face charges of treason and the death penalty.

• In an atmosphere of intense censorship and with the ban on all political meetings, the witness-box had become one of the few avenues left for the expression of opposition politics. But new emergency regulations closed off even this avenue. Court records of such trials can now be published only when there is a final judgement and many cases take months or years to complete.

• The state now transfers trials of those accused of terrorism to near the site of the alleged deed. Special court sittings are held in remote rural areas where land-mines have exploded. The chance of a fair trial in a courtroom with a public gallery packed with the white relatives of land-mine victims is The Botha regime is ruthless in the measures it imposes to put down resistance. The courts are its willing The death sentence imposed on the Sharpeville Six is just one of many judicial horror stories in South Africa today. Anybody who still has illusions in the independence of South African courts need look no further than the recent case of Benjamin de Bruin of Stellenbosch in the Cape Province.

De Bruin was sent to jail for six years, three years suspended, for furthering the aims of the ANC. The evidence against him was a tattoo on his body.

Victory to the Palestinians! W hen the Palestinian uprising started 15 weeks ago Israeli politicians said it would be over in a few days. Since then well over a hundred Palestinians have been shot dead and thousands wounded in battles with Unable to crush the Israeli troops. revolt, Israel is now seeking to contain it. The new Israeli Strales outlined by chief of staff Dan Shomron last week in an interview in the labour federation daily Davar. He explained plans to use a combination of repression and economic pressure to sap the determination of the Palestinian population. Recent measures include banning fuel oil supplies, cutting international telephone links to West Bank and Gaza, severe restrictions on foreign travel and a night-time curfew on the whole of the Gaza strip. Israel's tactics are partly a response to a more coordinated Palestinian campaign than in the early stages of the uprising. Palestinian policemen and tax collectors in the West Bank and Gaza have bowed to popular pressure and resigned. General strikes by Palestinian workers are biting into the Israeli economy. At the weekend the first Israeli soldier was shot.

While Israel emphasises economic pressure, army brutality continues unabated, taking a daily toll in Palestinian deaths or injuries. Now Israel is systematically banning the media from trouble-spots. Palestinians are being shot and beaten away from the television cameras and press photographers: The length and intensity of the uprising confirms the strength of the yearning for freedom among Pales- Israel can only survive by tinians. denying Palestinians everything from the most basic democratic rights to fuel oil. There can be no peace in the Middle East until the Palestinians win their freedom. Daniel Nassim