The Next Step: No. 16, 29 April 1988

WESTERN POWERS OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST - see page 10

DON'T BELIEVE THE TORIES

MODERATION

¡DOESN'T

ins Support our fighting fund pay the next step-16 for your tns Revolutionary Communist Party Weekly

PAY

WHAT FUTURE FOR

SOCIALISM IN

EUROPE? - see pages 8 and 9 29 April 1988 40p 'MODERATION IN ALL THINGS' is the message of the moment. Everybody from Thatcher to the Labour leadership now claims that the way to succeed is to behave yourself and avoid militancy. The voice of moderation now seems to dominate each debate. • Opposition to the government's benefit cuts is being led by Tory wets, who are requesting slight adjustments to the harsh new housing benefit rules which might help small savers. • The row over the Tory poll tax now focuses on the house of lords, where some peers want to re-raise the amendment which would allow those on the very lowest incomes to pay less. • Thatcher claims that the 'generous' proposals on nurses' pay are a reward for those who refused to take strike action.

All of these debates are about Tory attacks on the working class. Yet we are denied a say in them. The cult of moderation leaves decisions about our living standards in the hands of middle class politicians and peers. They are concerned with protecting the electoral position of the Tory Party, not with defending working class people. Their moderation offers us nothing.

The 'concessions' being canvassed are empty ones for most people. The alterations in housing benefit which the Tory dissidents want would not touch the savage cuts in social security for millions of unemployed and low-paid people. The proposed amendment to the poll tax would not affect

P80 STRIKERS

the amount which the vast majority of us

HAVE

NO CHOICE

will be expected to pay. And Thatcher's pay

BUT TO FIGHT

offer to health workers is in fact a derisory and divisive measure, which will leave most of them in poverty (see page 3).

Even when the Tories do grant such empty concessions, they take them back with the other hand. Last week a leaked document exposed government plans to raise the general level of poll tax to pay for a minor subsidy to the worst-off families.

(Continued on page 2)

AFTER THE MEDIA HYSTERIA, THE SWOOPS AND ARRESTS

LIVERPOOL

We don't owe our loyalty to Labour he struggle against the council's cost-cutting plans in Liverpool loyalty to the Labour Party in the May local elections. • A week last Monday, more than 100 recreation and open SPaces building workers began strike action over compulsory redeployment, pay cuts and natural wastage leading to the loss of 80 jobs. When they put pickets on three council depots the next day, many drivers, tradesmen and labourers stayed out.

• On the Wednesday, scaffolders, flaggers and general labourers from the DLO depot in Long Lane walked out in protest agalst management s seneme CO labouring jobs there. shed more Long Lane depot is losing jobs every The running total is now week nearly 200. Some strikers argued that whatever we did we had to avoid losing Labour votes in the Mai council elections. Some Long Lane pickets even went canvassing for Labour councilors who are cutting jobs at their depot, saying that a Labour employer is better than a Tory or a Liberal. The dangers of this approach became apparent on Monday when council leader Keva Coombes worked out a deal with the recreamon convenors to get a quick return to work before the elections.

The employers got their flexibility measures and we gOL a token increase in consolidated bonuses. A Liberal/Tory coalition in Liverpool is a depressing thought. But nothing could be more demoralising than for Sacrilems our avennoods Labour council which has proved than willing

HUTC

1ory Cuts. Liverpool council worker (Continued from page one) And many nurses will find their miserly pay rise disappearing thanks to housing benefit cuts. The Tories can play these games because they are under no real pressure to pay up from the working class. So long as the opposition is led by moderate figures asking for charity, we will be the losers.

The only gains which mean anything are those wrested from the authorities through struggle and held on to by the organised power of ordinary people. Moderation is of no use to a working class faced with an unprecedented Tory offensive. What will wet 2 • 29 April 1988 350

STRIKING SEAFARERS DEMAND UNION SUPPORT

n its most drastic step yet to end the deadlock in the 12-week old ferry dispute at Dover, P&O has withdrawn recognition from the Seamen notices to hundreds of striking scaldicis Monday P&O became the first big British ferry company to end the closed shop and refuse to recognise the NUS in collective bargaining. It placed adverts for applications in two mass Job circulation dailies 'membership of the Union of Seamen is neither qualification nora emplovment. he company plans make to pull out of the Merchant Navy Establishment, labour supply arrangement reg-

MODERATION DOESNT PAY

British in a surprise speech last week, foreign secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe apologised to the Irish people on behalf of the British government and appealed for a new era of cooperation between London and Dublin. impact on Irish opinion of the shoot-to-kill controversy, the rejected Birmingham Six appeal, the shooting of Aidan McAnespie and the Gibraltar killings, Howe the hurt felt by the Irish in recent months' could not care less about Irish sensibilities. Its sole concern is to prevent any slippage of support

MAKILIME HOUSE

NO

SEL

SOS

P&O FERRY STRIKE

THE GLOVES ARE OFF

ulated jointly by the unions and the employers. industrial relations structure which National Union of has governed the industry for 40 years, mination to smash the union if it stands in the way of change.

On Tuesday dismissal notices 1000 workers still on strike over company's conditions proposals. As we go to press, scab crews are preparing to stating that bring ferries into Dover, and police National are preparing to break picket lines.

bar to in protest at P&O's plans to get rid of 500 jobs and reduce the number of crews working each ferry from the unionised three to two. The media has made much of the fact that the workers MPs or dukes do for the P&0 ferry strikers, who face the sack, and attacks from the law and a scab army because they refuse to accept sweated labour conditions? They have to fight. Yet they, and others like the health workers, have had their angry defiance attacked by Labour leaders who tell us to stop struggling and follow the lead of the responsible opposition in parliament. There has never been a clearer need for a new opposition movement which will fight for what we need.

double-talk Noting the said that he did not 'underestimate In fact, the British government Last month

JESUS

ЛМ This strikes at the heart of the and signals P&O's deter- P&O delivered to more than The and pay The seafarers struck in February national for constitutional nationalism. By speaking out strongly in favour of the Anglo-Irish agreement, the Tories hope to bolster the the hardline republicans. Howe's overtures to Dublin were greeted with outrage by Loyals! politicians in Belfast. But the British had revealed their true intentions the day before, when troops and police swooped or republican areas of West Belfast and arrested 13 more nationalists in connection with the deaths of two soldiers who threatened an IRA funeral in Andersonstown

HELP US

HELP 20N

stand to work fewer weeks in the year than ever before. They fail to point out that the new arrange ments would mean that instead of working the current 24 hours on followed by 48 hours off, which is effectively a 48-hour week followed by a 72-hour week, seafarers would be forced to work seven 14-hout shifts followed by seven days off.

employers have been ruthless in their attempts to smash resistance to the new set-up. Their decision to end the closed shop and sack recalcitrant employees follows a series of unprecedented legal moves against the seafarers' union.

Twice the courts have extended their interpretation of the Tories' laws to prohibit seatarers strike solidarity with the Dover workers.

P&O have shown they will stop at nothing to crush the workforce.

In this situation, the strikers have no choice but to respond in kind, and pursue a no-holds-barred strategy.

Unfortunately, the union leaders have ruled a national strike out of order on the grounds that it will They tail to appreciate that unless there is a national strike the union will be smashed. Union chiefs like Sam McCluskie are living in the past.

They think that contests between unions and employers can still be around negotiating tables, when everything that has happened in the past few months shows that matters will be settled on the field of struggle.

After the Titanic, the Ultimate Dream? LAST week, Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff secured the order to build the world's biggest luxury cruise liner.

usule an esumated seoum the Ultimate Dream will be QE2, and will provide work for for the next four years. Loyalist According to Peter Robinson.

deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, the contract has 'established Harland and Wolff as world leader in the shipbuilding In reality, the future of the shipyard depends on winning a subsidy from the British government. Harland and Wolff has survived the slump in the shipoutains mousty onl because it has been granted over half the total subsidies that London has doled out since nationalisation in 1977.

Since the Second World War British shipbuilding has been in terminal decline, yet Harland and Wolff has survived because of its unique position in the Irish war zone. In the past, Harland and Wolff had been singled out for special treatment because it kept the Unionists happy. Since Stormont parliament in 1972 Westminster, British subsidies to the shipyard have served to allay Unionist fears of an economic withdrawal from Northern Ireland followed by a political pull-out. Harland and Wolff's workforce is almost 100 per cent Protestant and has olaved a leading role in anti.

Catholic mobilisations. Around £100m in government subsidies is needed to clinch the order for the liner, but the Tories have been cool about couching un. There is no possibility of the British state ever letting we Loyalis working class sink: the government will pay any price to prop up British rule. But after the failure of the Loyalist campaign against the Anglo- Irish agreement, Thatcher is under less immediate pressure to throw more good money The Loyalist protest against the accord failed precisely because there was never any question of Britain ditching the Union. Having faced down the Unionists on that issue, the prepared to face them down on this one too. While it is committed to servicing the Northern Ireland economy to the tune of billions of pounds a year, the government would like to cut down on its commitment to subsidising firms like Harland and Wolff, which is losing millions of pounds every year. In 1912 Harland and Wolff lost the Titanic on its maiden voyage, in 1988 it may lose the Ultimate Dream before it is built.

Andy Clarkson the next step

DON'T

workers, argues Tony Kennedy, the government's pay offer deepens divisions he government's decision to implement the recommendations of the review body on pay nas celebrated as a step forward for health workers and a setback for the tories. The increases in nurses' pay averaging 15.3 per cent appear to be more than three times as high as those for teachers, civil and other state sector So Vals workers. In addition, the government has promised to fund the deal adding £749m to the NHS by budget, rather than by taking the health trom mOnCY

CASINO

service resources. On closer inspection it becomes clear that health workers are the real losers from the deal.

For a start, the basic increase is a Whatever censory four percent nurses get on top or thIs depend on where they end up in the new grading structure which will be finalised later this year. Some nurses working in highly specialthe poll tax A t a meeting in Partick last Friday of Stop It', Labour's anti-poll tax campaign, Strathclyde Labour councillor Bill Miller congratulated the Tories for introducing the poll tax as it meant "more public meetings". The meeting provided an election platform for Pat Chalmers, Labour's councillor Glasgow district counch, who explamed now sue was her using election canvasses distribute anti-poll leaflets. tax anti-poll tax campaign might boost flagging attendance at meetings and help to win votes at elections, but it cannot hide the fact that Labour councils are already implementing the Tory tax.

Strathe vde counci has tried to disguise its role as the Tories tax collector by laying the blame on Jack Wood, the region's poll registration officer. Miller plained that Wood's special powers meant that he was not under counci's control. he council mar not control Wood - but it has done its best to make life easy for him.

Wood has the full run of the council access telephones, computers and typists. Miller also denied that the council employed snoopers, claiming that the next step

NURSES' PAY

AWARD IS NO VICTORY

LET THEM

DIVIDE US

Far from being a victory for health ised units in the health service stand to gain the full award, while others who lack special training and skills will gain very little. Thus Deet a new division is being nurses, while health

WORKERS

Even those nurses who get the top whack will still be badly paid, but they will be better kitchen cleaning, dry workers.

SUFFER

Student, auxilary and state enrolled nurses (SENs) make up the majority of those responsible for patient care. Under the review body proposals salaries of student nurses outside between 6.3 and 7.8 per cent. For a will third-year student nurse this will mean a net income of about £82 for the basic 37.5 hour working week.

Despite getting extra money for Scotland smash Wood was responsible for the hiring and firing of his stati snoopers are payroll and the Wood to circulate an internal letter to every department inviting council employees to become official scabs.

'MISTAKE

local Meanwhile, council's "non-cooperation with the tax involves allowing snoopers to council property briefing sessions. mitted that the buildings had been used 'by mistake'. She added that a decision to cancel a briefing session 18 April was the councillors' protests. In fact direct anti-poll action from paigners, not empty rhetoric from the Labour council, tax out.

SHUUUCES

all lettings to snooners had since been cancelled. the have all snoopers received letters on which notepaper them that their "seminar" has been re-scheduled for Monday 25 April "in the same location"? Voters in Partick have a chance on 5 May to show Chalmers what they think about Labour's role as Tory tax collectors. Elaine Murdoch, created the gulf and

OUICI

us Creases off than home tor a basic week's work cent. London will rise €150 national average. not end London, Yet all on Strathclyde's council allowed Glasgow district

POLL TAX FORMS ON FIRE

for their the adcandidate, Chalmers result their election using build tax camsupport drove the to cooperate with the Tories.

Chalmers claimed Why, then, mass working class poll tax: Campaign Street, Glasgow. Carol Taggart

HEALIN"

del For CO

ONLY UNITED ACTION WILL WIN DECENT WAGES

student nurse will reach f100 take- Only a small minority of auxiliary (non-qualified) nurses, mainly in London, can expect a basic takehome pay exceeding € 100, despite rises ranging from 7.6 to 33 per Few SENs (partially qualified) will reach £130, while most (qualified) staff nurses will receive a basic net weekly income of £120 housing below the supplement rules. idl The review body proposals will low pay among nurses. They will still have to work long, The unsocial hours to earn enough to review unskilled nurses decent pay, collective health service.

CHEAPER

system. government Revolutionary Communist challenging Chalmers at the polls on a platform There is of total opposition to the poll tax.

Given Murdoch, and Derek Owen the RCP prevails candidate in Crosshill ward, are unqualified campaign to for Callbald against the tax. Labour councils have already shown their willingness We will only stop the tax by organising a campaign of defiance. If you want to smash the ® contact the Smash the PolTax 6800. strategy • join the RCP election campaign.

Talk to a tns seller or contact the campaign at PH8 340 West Princes rate service.

MIR FELT.

For dece orb decent pa scrape by on. NHS management has already attempted once to impose a flat rate of £1.20 an hour for working extra unsocial hours, to cover all grades. At the same time unpaid overtime is becoming an unwritten law for nurses trying to cope with severe staff shortages.

Many of the lowest paid nurses will suffer from recent changes in the the and income For every extra pound it puts on nurses' pay, the state stands to get almost the same amount back as a result of these changes. new "clinical grading structure recommended by the body involves thoroughchanges in definitions of skills and qualifications and much wider pay differentials among the grades The of nursing result will be to open up a pay gap between nursing professionals and This will encourage nurses to regard individual achievement as the best route to rather than to see action as the way to overcome the problem of low pay which afflicts every worker in the The vast majority of nurses will gain nothing from the new grading There are already long waiting lists of nurses desperate to obtain the qualifications needed to But the increase their earnings. has plans to provide the necessary resources to the required skills. alternative a cheaper the understaffing which for nurses to take on special responsibilities for no extra pay. The government therefore has no interest in upgrading thousands of nurses into higher pay brackets.

The review body recommendations are in keeping with the Tories' plans to rationalise health provision. The divisive character of the pay and grading system complements their longer-term of hiving off wellprovisioned, specialised units to the private sector. Meanwhile, the NHS will carry on paying povertyline wages and providing a third- The new national

OUR FIG

For lottery to raise £50 million a year for the health service shows that lives has become a charity. d The union leaders must take the blame for allowing the government to impose its divisive deal.

Instead of building all-out action by health workers around unifying issue of pay and conditions, the leaders appealed for public sympathy by emphasising the divisive issue of This simply played into the Tories' hands.

PRESSURE

The union leaders pleaded that the health service was a sacred institution and that those who worked in it were special cases.

When this argument was used to justify industrial by staff, technicians and ancillary ambulancemen in 1982, Thatcher took it a stage further and said that those closest to the patient nurses — were the most deserving of all. The government set up the review body on nurses' pay in 1982 stating that they were singling out nurses for special consideration.

The publicity the gaven predicament of the nurses in recent months - to the exclusion of the plight of ancillaries, clerks and technicians who have borne the brunt of the Tory shake-out of the health service since 1982 — served deepen the divisions among workers. Just days after they announced their intention to fund the nurses pay offer, the Tories confirmed that other health workers would have to make do with rises of just 4.8 per cent.

The inevitable consequence of promoting. the issue of patient care is that health workers are paid according to how close they are to the patient, but that none of them are paid well because they are too divided among themselves to put rea pressure on the government To unite our forces against the Tories we have to emphasise what all health workers have in common. If we drew up a set of demands covering the wages we need for a decent living and the safeguards to we need ensure decent working conditions we would have the basis for uniting all health workers together. 29 April 1988 • 3

he working class in Britain and throughout the West has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years. setbacks have strengthened those who argue for moderation, and strategy defensiveness. The Revolutionary Communist Party takes a different view. We believe that these setbacks are the responsibility of the old parties and union machines of the official labour movement. In Britain the Labourist tradition has exhausted itself and can no longer relate to even the most modest aspiration of the working class. The exhaustion of Labourism in no way undermines the potential of the working class to change the world. RCP is committed to the of construction an independent working class movement. Only a movement which recognises that the interests of workers are irreconcilably opposed to those of the can fight effectively in employers the struggles ahead. For the RCP, working class politics cannot be reduced to trade unionism or -the affairs workplace. Workers must take a stand on every issue and express an independent point of view if we are to liberate ourselves. The fatal flaw of British Labourism is that it horizons restricts workers' economic matters, while it allows the employer class to monopolise political debate. Workers ( define every problem from our point of view and light for the rights of every section of society if we are to constitute a politically independent While the RCP supports the fight for real reforms or improvements in the lives of the working class, we believe that no durable gains can be won within capitalism. The RCP overthrow capitalism provides the necessary precondition for the liberation of the working class and of society as a whole. The British state exists to protect the wealth and privilege of the capitalist class. The RCP aims to destroy the state, which maintains the conditions for exploitation. We believe that the state cannot be used for progressive ends. Any attempt to use the soft side of the state, such as local inner-city partnerships, or police authorities, lends legitimacy to the entire state apparatus. It can only strengthen capitalists' of the authority coercive machine. The RCP believes that workers have no nation. British workers share the same interests as the exploited in other countries, British workers have nothing in common with their employers and must resist appeals patriotism chauvinism. As internationalists we recognise that the enemy is at home.

Since Britain remains an imperialist power around the world, the only international role it can play is that of the oppressor. The class struggle is inextricably linked the struggle against imperialism. The RCP supports all anti-imperialist struggles. Workers 4 • 29 April 1988

WHAT WE FIGHT FOR

RCP.

NEW READERS START HERE

who live in the imperialist heartland have a special duty to back those fighting against the British oppressor.

These Thus we fight for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Ireland and for trish of determination. We opposed Britain's colonial war in the South Atlantic, support the return Malvinas islands to Argentina. We oppose British and Western inter- Terence in the Middle support the destruction Zionist state in Palestine and of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

We uphold the same principles in every struggle against imperialism.

The RCP is a fervent opponent of all forms of British militarism, nuelear, and "non-nuclear alike. The RCP believes that the fight against oppression is central to the construction an working class movement. must defend the oppressed if we are to fight for our own liberation. This is why the RCP is wholeheartedly committed to the fight racism. The struggle emancipation of women is another fundamental issue for the working Coars. We unscrimidly oppose ant form discrimination lesbians and gays and call for the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Workers must take a stand on these out because it is in our class interest to fight for the fullest extension of democratic rights. Workers neer reomhat sations capable of defending our interests. The existing organisations labour movement singularly unsuited for this task. The RCP believes that the Labour Party is a bosses' organisation that should be fought and exposed. Despite its working class constituency Labour Party has always followed dictates of the the of Whenever Labour has been in office, it has always betrayed the hopes of workers. The RCP is against giving any electoral support to Labour.

Workers need a party that is 100 per cent our own and only responsive to proletarian interests. The existing trade unions are heavily bureaucratised and incapable of representing the aspirations of their members. The RCP that rank and file trade unionists should fight to take control of the movement. Trade unionists should organise across the workplace anc industry and demand that we run our own allairs. Rank committees organised industry-wide basis could ensure that the unions truly their members. The RCP's aim is revolution in Britain and inter- We believe that perspective is no less essential in and Eastern Europe and the Union than in the West. Only the working class has the capacity to liberate humanity. Our job is to realisation of this objective.

If you would like to discuss these issues further, please write to RCP, BM RCP, London WCIN 3XX • dramatic Britain's selfbranch, of the East. We considerable in issues raised.

FURIOUS

The independent Workers 10 March against -for against of altruism, but Movement supporter speaker organiare even the was outraged democratic rights, The motion was was started. argues town and file on an been paid for the belong to speaker, ( condemning social right wing in this mobilised and the original action. Those to the Hammersmith Nalgo president John Fitzpatrick recounts the left's recent success in were raising the Irish War in his union and branch unionists debate on it' of 122 occupation Ireland shows no sign of abstennons abating in the Hammersmith branch of Nalgo in London. For many years my union composed mainly of white-collar council workers, has had a formal policy recognising the He sa cooe to sea determination, and calling for the press immediate withdrawal of British troops. Recent events in the Irish War, in Gibraltar and at Belfast funerals, brought this policy under pressure, and in- They volved hundreds of trade unionists heated debate branch over the solid first move came O П When two members brought an emergency motion to a branch meeting, to condemn the killings four days earlier of the three republicans in Gibraltar, to send a message of support and sympathy to their relatives and friends, and to pay the costs of inviting a republican speaker from the Six Counties. The motion was moved by Oliver Donohue, whose support tor a free Ireland goes back to his attendance on the first civil rights march from Coalisland to Dungannon in 1968, and was seconded by an Irish Freedom There was a furious debate. One declared that he had relatives in the British Army who were currently tighting the IRA; another replied that members of his family had been killed by the British Army. A white man said he was outraged that anybody could passing such a motion; a black woman said she that thought the British Army should be in somebody else's country. An RCP supporter argued that the Irish people were fighting for their and as trade unionists we should support them.

passed by 50 votes to 19 with 16 abstentions.

As president of the branch I Prat tly sent a letter of solidarity.

when the backlash Over the days which followed, the republican deaths in Milltown cemetery and the deaths Information of the British soldiers in Andersonsmyself gave it added momentum. 23 March a specially requisitioned branch meeting re-debated the motion. Even though the letter backed the had been sent, the money had not Housing republican of Nalgo. had a statement the killings been issued to the press. This time the the branch had Nalgo by meeting was packed and tense. The debate was even better than the first, and speaker after speaker defended the against the motion claimed that we should condemn all violence, and that the IRA were "murdering terrorists'. Others said was irresponsible to call for withdrawal of troops because of the bloodbath which would ensue.

member of the local Irish 19 April.

DEBATING IRELAND

IN THE UNIONS

Workers Group replied that there bloodbaths already, and stressed that there was a war going on in which we had 'to take sides. I defended the Irish freedom fighters that trade had more in common with those fighting the British state than with those who were running This time the motion failed by with 11 but there was demoralisation or dismay on the left. We knew that we had won the arguments and were delighted to have carried as many as 80 fellow trade unionists with us. It was at this point that the Sun, the Daily Mail and the local gutter of the got hold story, denouncing the lefties who back the IRA, and me in particular for the letter of solidarity. Reporters harassed me at work and at home.

started ringing branch secretary Tony Phelan too, but the officers remained rock in defence of the actions which had been taken in accordance with branch decisions. The

600 ATTENDED THE TRADES COUNCIL MEETING ON IRELAND

only person who gave in to any of this was John Daly, the Nalgo general secretary, who issued a statement condemning the letter and threatening disciplinary action.

Meanwhile the debate spread to the wider trade union movement in West London, as the Hammersmith and Fulham Trades Council itself denounced the Gibraltar killings, sent its own letters of sympathy to the families, and held a public meeting in Hammersmith town hall on 14 April. The meeting attracted over 600 people to listen Mitchel McLaughlin of Sinn Fein, Tony Benn MP, Liz Curtis of Ireland, and the Irish speaking • Tor Freedom Movement.

OCLU

The joint shop stewards committee at Charing Cross Hospital meeting, did the Associations branch Before the meeting local Tory councillors continued to whip up their supporters in Hammersmith asking the council to condemn Nalgo's motion and ban Sinn Fein from the town hall. The Labour council, too terrified to debate the issue with the Tories.

dissociated itself from Nalgo's The stand, and said it would happily ban Sinn Fein as soon as Thatcher did, but not before. Emboldened by their earlier success and all the media attention.

the right wing in Hammersmith Nalgo called a further meeting for They now demanded

HAMMERSMITH NALGO

that a public retraction of the letter be issued and that branch policy on Ireland be rescinded. The branch officers moved an amendment against this, and in favour of reaffirming the policy of recognising the right of the Irish people to selfdetermination and campaigning for the immediate withdrawal of British troops. claimed Somebody that the majority in Northern Ireland were in favour of British rule, so that was the end of the matter. Another said that Britain had been very good to Ireland over the years, letting lots of Irish people come here. I explained how the Irish people were denied their democratic rights by partition and British force, and insisted on the of campaigning for importance immediate withdrawal because we wanted an open acknowledgement that Britain had no right to be in Ireland at all. Another left activist denounced the hypocrisy of those who claimed to be in favour of non-violence, but "washed their hands of responsibility for what

NIS TRY

British troops were doing in the Six Counties. This time the vote was 87 to 86 on a ballot in favour of our amendment, after three recounts had produced a tie We were jubilant of course, and not just because we had won by one vote. We know that we have a long way to go to convince all 1700 members of the branch, but winning and holding more than 80 people is a good start. For the first time in years we have drawn hundreds of members into a full discussion on Ireland.

The left has fought together on the issue with great effectiveness.

Only two Socialist Workers Party members spoilt things with a bit of When our SCUld us a branch seeretary asked the branch executive committee to express their support for branch officers.

the SWP moved an amendment blaming the officers for the backlash and accusing them of not conducting an open debate with the membership. The right wing on the executive lined up behind the SWP, but their attempt at sabotage was defeated by the left, by 15 votes to eight. The battle is by no means over.

right wing is preparing motion of no confidence in the branch officers. We are ready for them. We know their arguments are incoherent and dishonest.

We have learned that if you stand your ground and forward your politics boldly and openly it is possible to win wide support.

the next step

the next step Revolutionary Communist Party Weekly

MAJORITIES'

RON BROWN, Labour MP for Leith, Edinburgh, has been suspended from parliament for a month after damaging the Mace and refusing to make an acceptably supine apology to the house for his action. Only 26 of the 650 MPs voted against kicking Brown out, the Labour shadow cabinet has moved to have him suspended from its parliamentary party, and the Amalgamated Engineering Union has cancelled its sponsorship of him. If the leaders of the official labour movement think it a sin to crack such a royal relic as the Mace, we should have no illusions in their ability to break the power of the modern British establishment. The Mace is part of the Crown jewels, the booty accumulated by the thieving magpies of the British monarchy down the centuries. Yet it is revered as a symbol of British democracy, and the commons cannot sit for business until the Speaker is in his chair and the Mace is on the table. In truth, the awe in which this ugly antique is held is a symbol of all that is rotten and reactionary about British politics. In the midseventeenth century, Oliver Cromwell branded the Mace 'a bauble'. In the late twentieth century, the leaders of the Labour Party and the unions regard it as sacred and have expelled Ron Brown for daring to drop it.

The Labour leaders' slavish concern with parliamentary procedure has led them to panic about the number of MPs being suspended from the house for misbehaving. Seven MPs have been suspended so far in this session of parliament; there have been only 24 suspensions during the 40-odd years since the Second World War.

Most of the recent suspensions were of Labour MPs who made futile gestures. In the past, parliamentary firebrands made political attacks on the Tories which led to their suspension. The current crop of trouble-makers among Labour MPs (schooled in the booing and braying of student politics), simply make a noise. The suspension itself becomes their political statement. This trend captures the impotence of an opposition which believes in confining political struggle to the next step

'THERE ARE THINGS

STRONGER THAN

PARLIAMENTARY

parliament, at a time when the government has a commons majority of more than 100. Ron Brown does not properly fit into this category. He has a record of involvement in real struggles; in 1972 he was sacked by the South of Scotland electricity board, for leading an unofficial walkout in support of the miners' strike. His juggling with the Mace was an outburst of anger at the Tory social security cuts. He displayed more spine than other Labour protesters by refusing to read out the cringing apology written for him by party officials. 'Since you want a grovelling statement I am not going to read it, Brown told the Speaker; With regard to the Mace - whatever that is accept responsibility for any damage.

I didn't write this rubbish.

It was Brown's refusal to play the game and apologise which really enraged the Tories and brought the Labour frontbench running to their aid. The establishment demands above all else that MPs show respect for its parliamentary talking shop, and for the Mace and other trappings which serve to mystify the process by which political power is exercised in Britain. The Labour leadership will fall over itself to show that it shares this concern. In so doing, it is falling for the trick used to entrap the political representatives of the labour movement. The British establishment insists that Labour MPs lick the Speaker's boots, but its own political champions are always ready to flout the formal rule of parliament to defend their class interests.

The Tories understand that real power is exercised, not through the parliamentary puppet-show, but by the capitalist state machine army, police and civil service headed by the cabinet. Margaret Thatcher displays her own contempt for the commons by announcing new policies in press conferences or TV broadcasts, rather than on the floor of the house. The Labour Party protests that this is simply an abuse of her big majority. But it is more than that. Thatcher recognises the commons as an empty shell which disguises the domination of the capitalist class over British society.

stronger than parliamentary military machine. their rule. parliamentary protest. the 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) £40 • Outside Europe - Al destinations (surface mail) £33.

All cheques pavable to Junius Publications Ltd Circulation 01-729 3771. Newsdesk 01-729 3771. Correspondence to The Editor, the next step, BCM JPLTD, London WCIN 3XX ISSN 0144 350 X 29 April 1988. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.

No 16 Tory leaders have never needed a majority of MPs behind them to justify bypassing parliament. The most famous occasion on which they usurped parliament's position was in 1914, when they were in opposition.

The Liberal government of the day attempted to pass a bill granting Ireland a limited form of home rule within the Empire. In response Andrew Bonar Law, leader of the Conservative Party, declared that they would 'use any means whatever seems likely to be the most effective' to wreck the government's plans. Bonar Law's menacing observation that there are things majorities' remains a neat summation of the establishment's attitude to formal democracy. The 'stronger things' which he had in mind were the arms of the state and the wider forces of reaction in society, which were soon mobilised against home rule. The bill was killed off when cavalry officers at the Curragh near Dublin refused government orders to move North and put down the Unionists. The British ruling class might try to convince us that authority is invested in the mystical powers of the Mace. But it puts its own trust in the genuine power of its The authorities keep the parliamentary show on the road to contain political protest within the walls of Westminster, while they get on with governing outside. Despite their displays of outrage over Brown's behaviour, the top figures in the British establishment are keenly aware that no demonstration in the commons can pose a real threat to In the middle of the furore leading to his suspension last week, one newspaper reported that Brown was also due to speak at a May rally in Edinburgh, called by a local republican band to mark the anniversary of the death of Irish revolutionary James Connolly. In the eyes of chief constable William Sutherland, this was a far greater crime than anything Brown might do in parliament. 'We deplore the presence of Ron Brown at this IRA march, stated Sutherland; It's a different thing throwing the Mace in the commons to throwing republican bands into our streets. A public display of support for Irish freedom can panic the police chiefs of the British state faster than any This brings us back to the Labour leaders, who don't understand the relationship between the democratic and repressive aspects of the state.

Believing that the Speaker's robes, the Mace and the other ancient rubbish cluttering up the commons are the trappings of true authority, Labour leaders have long tried to restrict working class politics to parliament. Neil Kinnock and his fellow New Realists have taken this doctrine of passivity to new extremes. They are hammering anybody - strikers, protesters or Editor: Mick Hume parliamentary trouble-makers - who 'diverts attention' from their ineffective attempts to debate the Tories in the commons. It was bad enough in the past when the parliamentary Labour leaders told us to shut up and listen to them, while the working class was trying to cope with the employers and the authorities in the real world.

But today, when the capitalist class and its courts and police are launching an unprecedented offensive against our people, the Labour leaders can't even offer rhetorical opposition. Instead they tell us to shut up and listen to dissident Tory MPs, who have taken over as the government's leading critics in the commons. Thus, all Labour frontbencher Robin Cook could do this week in response to popular anger against social security cuts, was to table a quibbling little motion about small savers and housing benefits, deliberately designed to catch the attention of unhappy Tory MPs. On the poll tax Labour is trying to kill off protests in Scotland and to concentrate its 'campaign' on the most archaic and useless outpost of the British constitution - the house of lords. Labour left wingers who are unhappy with Kinnock's submissive approach are putting their energies into Tony Benn's challenge for the Labour leadership. Yet Benn, perhaps more than any other top politician, operates under a naive belief in the authority of those elected to parliament. Thus his argument against Brown's suspension was that such measures might undermine the power of parliamentary democracy, as if that illusory power were real. In looking to Benn's campaign as the solution to all our problems, left wingers are effectively endorsing the idea that parliament is the place to fight our political battles.

Revolutionaries have never harboured such illusions. Lenin described the Tory revolt against parliament over Irish home rule as 'the day when the noble landowners of Britain tore the British constitution and British law to shreds and gave an excellent lesson in class struggle.' The lesson was, as Bonar Law said, that there are things stronger than parliamentary majorities. One of them is the capitalist state; and the other is the power of the working class, organised for action against it.

Parliament can be a useful propaganda platform. But it can never be a tool to liberate the working class. We need a new opposition movement which is willing and able to lead our forces on to the open field of class battle on issues like the poll tax, social security and the fight for Irish freedom. We cannot afford to leave it to a Labour Party which does not know the difference between state power and parliamentary posturing, and which gazes with reverence upon the 16lb lump of silver gilt which Ron Brown had the audacity to drop last week.

29 April 1988 • 5

week in the

IRISH

WAR

Sunday 17 April: Tomas MacGiolla, outgoing president of the Workers Party (the rump of me omicial repubncal movement), urged Loyalists to 'give freedom to themselves' in a new alliance against the IRA.

Former UDR major, Loyalist MP and arch-reactionary Ken Maginnis, praised the party for its services te the Crown. saving there is absolutely nothing that would hinder cooperation between Lovalists and the Workers Party.

Monday 18 April: A contractor working on an RUC base was injured in a booby-trap explosion near Magherafelt, County Tyrone.

Ken Maginnis claimed that privately, Loyalists were saying that if the Social Democratic and Labour Party's objective of a cessation of all military activity could be attained through the current SDLP/Sinn Fein talks, that was well and good. Tuesday 19 April: Harland and Wolff shipyard won a contract worth f260m to build the world's largest cruise liner. The contract for the shipyard with an almost 100 per cent Protestant workforce would require a British government subsidy of £75m. A joint RUC/British Army patrol narrowly escaped a bomb attack in Strabane, Co Tyrone. Thursday 21 April: During dawn raids in North and West Belfast, 13 men were dragged from their beds and taken to the notorious Castlereach interrogation centre.

The long-awaited raids were in connection with the execution of two British soldiers at the funeral in Belfast of IRA volunteer Kevin Brady. A contractor working on the roof of Belfast courthouse was injured in a sniper attack. The IRA again warned contractors to cease work on Crown buildings damaged in IRA attacks. Friday 22 April: In the ongoing saga or taiks aboul devoruton, Southern premier Charles Haughey called for a federal solution to the Irish problem'. On a tour of the USA to win support for his proposals to supplement devolved administration, he made it clear that the intention of pontical initiatives was to disarm the republicans: Violence must first cease as a prelude to political progress. Duban opposition leaders condemned Haughey for not condemning violence strongly enough. The RUC issued a warning to shoot grenade-throwers on sight. Faced with a weapon against which they have no protection, the RUC revealed that the drogue bomb' had been used 79 times since it was first deployed by the IRA last autumn.

In a speech in Derbyshire, Sir Geoffrey Howe acknowledged the 'hurt' felt by the Dublin government at recent events in Ireland. As a Welshman, he said he could appreciate the Irish view that the English are insensitive.

However, real class solidarity lay beyond the mists of pan-Celtic folklore: *Terrorism poses a threat to both the British and the Irish state. Displaying something more than the awareness of a dead sheep he recalled, *We are faced are trying to kill us. My colleagues in government share memories or brigaton thal are a constant reminder of that inescapable fact." Mark Reilly 6 • 29 April 1988 P resident PW South African parliament last week that he intended to give blacks greater political power.

Botha's speech promised a variety of changes including a confederal will which apartheid government nominally independent homelands, giving elected black representatives power over their 'own affairs', the inclusion of blacks in the electoral college which chooses the president, admission of blacks to the presidential council and the creation of the new post of prime minister, deal partly to representatives.

TROUNCED

The speech is the president's first major statement since te rigalwing Conservative Party trounced the ruling National Party in three by-elections allegations that the government was backtracking on its commitment to apartheid. It marks Botha's attempt to regain the political initiative by rallying moderate whites behind the National Party blacks that at east some of their aspirations may be met. Even the implemented in full there will still be no representation in parliament for blacks, who make up over 75 per cent of the population. Botha's planned changes promise only token access the white-controlled decisionto making process through elected black regional authorities which will delegate representatives 'EEC-style' forum.

LE PEN: 'NOW NOTHING CAN BE DONE AGAINST OUR WISHES'

Botha told the The elected councils control link the same bodies with the branded as

VCIC

residents only two years ago.

stategy' Olal eighties. minor WILl with black policy was nationwide repression. of month amid Dalling re-establish a and reassuring the moderates.

'BETRAYAL'

proposals are Botha's proposals have met are a betrayal of the white recognises the rebuilding links to

FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

RACISM TRIUMPHS

AT THE POLLS

RE candidate French Wi now Pen, Front National.

VOLC

coallalon. just ane

BOTHA PROMISES APARTHEID REFORMS

A return to "total strategy' There is nothing new in these ideas. Giving black representatives power over their own affairs means extending the "homelands system.

which will black townships whose members collaborators township out bi Botha's proposals are a return to of the early This combined intense repression to crush black militancy - persuade middle class blacks to collaborate with the white regime. The reform derailed by the black resistance movement which threatened to get out of control by 1986. Botha was forced to stop tinkering with petty apartheid and move towards all-out Thanks to military townships, the clampdown on guerrilla activity and mass detentions of activists and the their organisations, Botha now feels secure enough to try dialogue with with howls of protest from the right. The with the Conservative Party has claimed that increase in they hand over power to blacks and StraLIons whites. In spite of the damage to his standing Botha

COLLIE

of black resistance. importance with moderate Russell Osborne blacks while it is possible to do so.

He knows that there is little time to have acism emerged as the clear victor in the first round of French presidential elections. Francois Mitterrand, the incumbent president, led the field with 34 per cent of the poll. The leading right-wing Chirac, Jacques the prime Canic second with almost 20 per cent and face Mitterrand in second ballot on 8 May. But the the man whe dew arcales saustacuer from the results was Jean-Marie Le leader of the far-right

REPATRIATION

In the 1974 presidential elections Le Pen obtained 0.7 per cent of the On Sunday, one in seven French voters backed his policy of restoration of the death penalty and la France for the French'. Le Pen's 14.5 per cent was more than double that of André Lajoinie, the Communist candidate

CCHE

Raymond Barre, a former prime minister and, until a month ago.

fancied to do well. Chirac scraped home with barely five per cent more support than the Front week National leader. le Pen might begin Pen days

BOTHA: LITTLE TIME

create a new layer of collaborators.

Despite unprecedented repression and the banning of all black political organisations, resistance is again on the increase. In recent weeks there has been a spate of bombings of of government buildings and shootouts well police, strikes and Botha fears the white right-wing backlash to his concessions to black demands. But he fears far more the renewed rumblings of been eliminated from the presidential but established the Front National as a major force in French politics. His supporters will have the decisive the outcome of the say in second ballot. 'From now on', Le Pen claimed on Sunday night, 'nothing can be done without the Front National nor against its wishes. He made it clear that he will only support Chirac in the second ballot if the French prime minister takes harder lines on immigration and Chirac responded almost immediately with a statement that intended to preserve our national identity and to combat illegal immigration'. It is clear that race will be a major focus of the election campaign over the next two weeks.

FAILURE

Le Pen's success was the result of the general chauvinist climate that characterises French politics, and failure ot the candidates to address Tea problems tacing the electorate, In an election where there was little to the three leading cansevaldle didates, Le Pen emerged as the man with something to say Mitterrand made a virtue of his lack of policies. He distanced himself from any party and presented himself as a statesman above the hurly-burly of politics.

In a pre-election interview he told the nation that he wanted to win on Sunday because he had 'enjoyed' his time as president. For much of the campaign Chirac kept a low political profile.

His failure to make up ground on Mitterrand forced him to make an issue of immigration in the final of the campaign. Chirac hoped to capitalise on the racist climate in France and to win votes from Le Pen supporters. Chirac's use ol une lace cara rorcea une other leading candidates to also grubbing around for the racist vote. But Sunday's results show that the tactic backfired. Le proved far more adept al banging the racist drum than a slow-starter like Chirac. Far from winning votes from Le Pen, Chirac strengthened the hand of his farright rival by making racism the focus of the campaign.

DISASTER

The upsurge of violence in New Caledonia, the French Pacific colony which is the scene of a bitter struggle for independence, helped to consolidate Le Pen's support.

When nationalists seized gendarmes and killed three a few before the election, the presidential candidates immediately Pen. condemned the action. Le who has consistently attacked the stood to movemeal, gain most from this pro-French

COLLSCLLSUS

the first For the left, round results were an unmitigated disaster. The combined vote of all five left-wing candidates barely André matched that sot Le Pen. Lajoinie,

PCF

candidate, received just 6.7 per cent of the vote, less than half the 1981 figure It was a stunning rejection for a party that just five years ago was a Dartuel encouraging result was the two per cent polled for Arlette Laguiller, the candidate of Lutte Ouvrière, the main Trotskyist organisation in France. The 596 000 votes for Laguiller inere is a section of the French working class that wants to fight. It makes more tragic the failure left provide real the alternative to the racist consensus.

Whoever wins on & May, the election results have strengthened the reactionary forces in French politics. Until the left in France begins to challenge the chauvinist climate, Le Pen will play an important increasing y role in determining policy. Kenan Malik the next step

DISTORTING SCOTTISH HISTORY?

SELL-OUT

IN

SHEFFIELD

SHEFFIELD Labour concil has used the regulations to try to solve its cash crisis by imposing extra duties and flexible working on benefit workers. The only way to fight it was by building a united campaign with workers in other sections and departments also facing attacks from the council. Previously members of the Socialist Workers Party in the branch had argued that the best way to build a cuts fightback was by spreading sectional struggles intocouncil-wide action. When it came to the crunch, though, they refused to back all-out action and argued we could only win support by being 'reasonable". In three separate ballots, benefit workers voted for strike action and 123 members walked out. The left retused to support any action uless it received olea snellon trom national officials. Since the national executive refused to back the strike, the left argued for a 'defiant' return to work.

The attitude of the union officials and the left has led to more divisions within the union and greater demoralisation. The left calls for 'united action' but fails to promote it and instead tries to fight the cuts section by section through reasonable demands'. This in turn leads to ceredl ane more divisions We will have to endure this cycle of defeat and demoralisation until we ae aale to Take o me arguments for 'realism' by promoting coherent working class politics. Nalgo member Sheffield the next step

COTTISH AREA NUM

SORE NLAL KORA BRAET

LATHO WE STANG DYBED WE FALL

PO SCONE COLLIERY

N NUMAREA

UNITED WE

STAND

THERE are many reasons why I left the Labour Partv. Ihe best issue to concentrate on wo e cene sece and graphic example of all that's wrong with the labour movement: the nea se vse soute The whole thrust of the TUC campaign has been to try and appear as innocuous as possible, organising a series of one-day (or even twohour) gestures, and assuring everyone that the health workers were standing on "protest lines'

COCKCLS

appealing to the respectable pillars of British society, there is no way the TUC could sanction the militant Write to tns, BCM JPLtd, London,

WC1N 3XX

?! ? Letters/page MICK HUME and DEREK OWEN'S book Is There a Class and the Assembly Debate is indicative of the chauvinism that permeates the British left. The authors started off well by making a rigorous critique of the Labour Party, which was excellent but contradictory. The authors rightly state that the Labour Party used home rule to further its own political ends, namely to attain governmental power within the British state.

However, this makes a nonsense of their later argument that Scottish Labour leaders had an inherent 'Scottishness' which hindered the workers' cause. Surely they had an inherent 'Britishness' which used and abused not only the Scottish question but

WHY I LEFT THE LABOUR PARTY

industrial action needed to make the Tories On the 5 March 'Day of Action in Hvde Park London, the TUC and the abour Partv brevided the spectacle of Norman Willis singing wher tre salle come marching in', Clare KOVe USC! experiences as a nurse zu yedis ago, anu Archbishop Trevor Huddleston inging 'We There shall overcome were some 50 000 health workers and bart activists at that demo, Tren-peen without an ounce of fight between them. It was simply an insult. As ine crowa anted dway. their mood utterly changed. finally UNDER the headline 'Behave or get out' our local paper features Middlesborough housing committee's latest policy development. The Labourcontrolled concil is looking to the Thatcher law and order drive for inspiration. Faced with an alleged problem of vandalism on one of their estates, the hosing services committee has a sure solution. "Youths who make life intolerable for ther neignoours will ue evicted," committee chair boo brady unreatens. have no responsibility whatsoever to rehouse them. They are reckless in me geraviar ane would consider them to be deliberately homeless. At a time when even socialism as well. The so-called analysis Scottish Solution? The Working degenerates into one great nation! Yes, the Act of Union led to capitalist take-off but rears its ugly head? Yes, but at the expense of the Scottish nation. In short, imperial expansion. English to that. authors have to find national sentiment can be GOC-Be TGTe traditional labour movement no longer had anything positive to offer the workine cass or me My decision to join the Revolutionarv Communist Party was confirmed. tirst became acquainted with the RCP through their Red Front campaign. From that time I've always had great respect for their arguments. They are directly confronting Tory ideology in a way that can win. That is something the Labour Party has There is really no Mike Saunders membership secretary Southville Ward Labour Party Bristol

LABOUR'S LAW AND ORDER

that hosing and other inner-city problems have social causes the municipal socialists of the Labour Party insist that individuals bear responsibility for these problems, thereby reinforcing the Tories' moral and political crusade. Some people on the estate are threatening vigilante action saying that 'the police do nothing. They would do DeLer l ocanise collective action to put the blame tor themr problem where it belongs - on the rory govenmen and the Labour concils who make us oav tor themr crisis Tom Reynolds Middlesborough distortion of Scottish history.

Scotland is not an oppressed does not imperialism initiate a social revolution wherever it Scottish capitalism prospered Scotland was part of Egland's capital remained the driving force and Scotland succumbed Why is our history distorted?

The simple anser is that the scapegoats for the failure of the 'British revolution'. Scottish Glasgow blamed for the failure of the

FROM THE PAST

-DAVE MURRAY argues that the RCP is wrong to criticise Tony Benn's politics as outdated and contends that we can learn a lot from the past (letters, 22 April). One lesson we can learn from the bast is that Benn's brand of state socialism has nothing to ofter the working class.

C CEC SOE

traditions which we would NO weee eve em the past, but which unfortunately have been enored by manv on the left. Today it is especially Important that we have a proper grasp of the theory appreciation of the nature of the capitalist state. This is vital if we CC CHoeutd. economic trends, and withstand the capitalist offensive. Our aim ought to be to repossess the gains made by the revolutionary movement in the past, and apply them to the changing circumstances in which we find ourselves today. traditions which we would do well to consign to the dustbin of history, but which Tony Benn and other radicals have done much to maintain. By now it should be clear to all but the most obstinate that nationalisation is not British road to socialism. The real reason for the failure frightens the British left. There is no British working class: capitalism did not develop on a British basis. That is not to say that Scottish and English workers are not comrades in the international proletariat, but they are not 'Britons'.

I do not agree with devolution and it can never be a 'solution', but if the Scottish people want it then it is a step forward in the fight for democracy. Hume and Owen disagree because they know better than the Scottish working class: how indicative of a British chauvinism that would make the Conservative Party proud! Gerard J Cairns

TONY BENN'S BLAST

a desirable alternative to private ownership. Ye this remains high on the list of priorities for Benn, even after the experience of the steel and mining industries. It should also be apparent that the state is an instrument of ruling class coercion, not a vehicle through which we can set about reforming society. Yet this basic lesson of history has escaped Benr even as the state tools up for the nineties. Our criticism of Benn is that he steadfastly refuses to learn from the mistakes of the left-wing movement in the past, and consistently fails to face up to the problems confronting the working class in the present. Tony Crawford Greenwich Pandora Anderson 29 April 1988 • 7

propaganda the Return of the AS LIBERAL MP David Alton's Bill to reduce the abortion time-limit reaches its final stages in parliament, the media has added a new twist to the debate. On Breakfast TV last week a panel of proabortionists and anti abortionists debated whether aborted tetuses should be used for brain-tissue transplants.

This debate arose after a Midlands doctor implanted brain tissue trom an aborted fetus into the brains of two Parkinson's disease sufferers in March and April. The discussions have taken a macabre turn in the press and on TV, focusing on whether this technioue mient leao to the creation of a market in human purposes. Alton himself raged against the use of human fire as 'expendable raw material".

the Times revealed a more likely reason for the establishment's fears about the latest development in medical science. It worried that if the mother is seen to be helping medical science by aborting the fetus, then abortion might seem to be less morally dubious. In other words, if such transplants were to become acceptable, abortion might medical operation like any its sanctified status and become nothing more than tissue. What is now widely regarded as morally reprehensible might become medically approved. The possible usefulness of the new technique has yet to be demonstrated in practice.

But so far the recipients of the donated tissue appear to have undergone some tissue regeneration around the site of the implants, and their conditions seem to have made some improvement. The new treatment also has implications for the treatment of other nervous disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. However, it seems unlikely that the technique will undergo much more development, because of the media storm, and because it involves the establishment's favourite moral panic fetal rights. In America, the new technique was banned three weeks ago, pending an investigation by the National Institute of Health. All federal funding for fetal tissue research has been suspended.

This follows a series of attacks on abortion rights in the USA, the latest being the removal of all state funding from family planing clinics which have anything whatsoever to do with abortion from lobbying for abortion rights to sharing carparks with abortion clinics.

The US government has been able to establish an antiacortion consensus because or the equivocal character of the opposition to its forthright promotion of fetal rights. Proabortion healthcare expert Nancy Dubler qualified her 8 • 29 April 1988 war bodysnatchers? support for fetal brain implants by reminding us that 'fetuses deserve respect, and should not be treated lightly. This sort of equivocation from women's rights campaigners will bear no fruit against a concerted establishment promotion of the rights of fetuses. Fetuses can only have rights at the expense of women, and now it appears, at the expense of medical

PIUBICSS

There has been much discussion here and in the USA, about whether women going into hospital for abortions should be asked to fill in forms consenting to the use of the aborted fetus for medical research and experimentation.

If such a development did indeed come about it would prove to be yet another obstacle for women seeking By equating the aborted fetus with a dead human being it would strengthen the antiabortionists' case. By forcing women to listen to a graphic which the aborted fetus would be put, in much the same way as we are now compelled to listen to a blow-by-blow account of the abortion procedure, it could make some more reluctant to proceed with the termination they need.

We should not let the establishment's professed concern for fetal life blind us to the real motives behind the Nobody in America tries to ban blood transfusions because there is a market for blood for transfusions in the USA. Nobody in Britain tries to ban kidney transplants because of the possibility of opening up a market in donor organs. By raising the idea of the creation of a market in 'human life', the autoniues are storis irrational fears. Every time there has been a significant breakthrough in medical science, backward sections of society have tried to halt the march of progress by playing on people's prejudices. So great was the reaction to medics carrying out dissections of human corpses in the nineteenth century, that doctors had to employ bodysnatchers to rob the graveyards. Yet without such elementary experimentation there would have been no advance in medicine. It is one of the greatest indictments of capitalist society that a technique which holds out the possibility of relleving considerable human suffering could be banned hecause a hunch of bigots object to taking tissue from an aborted fetus destined for the The benefits of incinerator. Professor Hitchcock's technique are far from certain.

But we will never be in a position to discover what those benefits might be if we let the neanderthals in the antiabortion lobby have their way.

Sara Hardy the electorate.

MITTERRAND: NOT UNIQUE

socialist parties European socialist parties.

During the political stance centre have Mitterrand claims Mitterrand is unique phenomenon. New the hroughout Europe the traditional parties of the working class are in decline. The classic illustration of this trend is the demise of the French Communist Party, which until recently was considered to be socialist the natural party of the working class. Today the PF's candidate in the French presidential elections is a marginal figure, and the party has been reduced to a rump which contribution can count on the support of only around five or six percent of Ene evident that pattern Kinnock, Throughout It appears that the European have either ask followed the French communists into virtual oblivion or undergone a metamorphosis to secure their survival. Francois Mitterrand, the French Socialist Party candidate in the presidential elections, personifies the approach of the new-look course presidential campaign, Mitterrand has distanced himsell from any which could be interpreted as leftist. Mitterrand and his party have directed their campaign at the political centre.

Leading French socialist politicians are now arguing that the left and

MUCH

Colon unity around the political centre.

by means a Unfortunately In Britain we are all too familiar Realism of the Kinnock-Hattersley leadership of based on the Labour Party. In Germany the

CLASS POLITICS

Frank Richards looks at the shift to the centre in the European socialist parties, and at the refusal of the left to come to terms with this realignment Social Democratic Party is cast in the same mould. A leading leftwing figure in the party recently Place argued that workers should take a wage cut in exchange for a shorter working week. Oskar Latontaine.

who is the symbolic hero of the left in Germany, unabashed. He had no inhibitions working class living standards as a class. to solving the problems of the economy. What Lafontaine recommends Scal problems as a solution to tne facing the German working class Spanish socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez implements trom a position of power The Spanish socialist government imitates the Thatcher model and has no compunction about turning on its trade union supporters When we look at the policies of the social democratic parties on a it Europe-wide scale becomes there is a certain Mitterrand Lafontaine and Gonzalez may speak different languages.

but when i comes to poncy taere is nothing to distinguish them Europe, left-wing activists are debating how their parties lost their socialism. Usually the outcome of this discussion is to whether or not European social democracy Is capable o1 some form of socialist renewal.

For state that discussions about the demise of socialism are tundamenta understanding. All the evidence of

THE REALIGNMENT OF

EUROPEAN SOCIALISM

SOLVING

THE

CRISIS O

WORKING

history confirms that these parties were never socialist in the tirst How has this confusion come about? During the past 50 years the term socialism has undergone a serie of modifications. For Marxists, socialism has always been the product of the liberating impulse of the working For the European left. socialism meant somernme very different. In general, Euroradicals have tended to equate intervention in industry and social life. From their perspective, the more the state increased the scope of its activities, the more socialist it became. In this way nationalisation and welfarism came to be seen as the high-point of socialism Marxists this perspective was fundamentally flawed. There is nothing inherently progressive about state, intervention. The ot industry form of simply an alternative capitalist management. Far from championing the virtues of the Marxists implacably al t opposed to the state. Marx argued the destruction of the capitalist the state was • pre building a com-

TOR

munist society While state socialism has offer the nothing working class. in certain

CIT

cumstances it has been welcomed by the ruling class. Indeed, this explains why state intervention became so popular in Europe from

KINNOC

the thirties onwards. A certain

rapprochement between socialists and capitalists over the issue of state intervention occurred in the late thirties and was systematised decades later. By the thirties it was clear that capitalism could not continue if it simply function relied market forces Individual capitalists were powerless to rebuild their crisisridden economies. As they became conscious of their weakness, the capitalists turned to the state for assistance. By the midforties the capitalist state had become the pivot of economic life Europe. The state subsidised important sectors of the economy and nationalised those industries which coule not survive inel own In these circumstances European socase came bites owe pro-state policies of European radicals corresponded directly to needs of Capitals. intervention became the norm. Keynesianism became the common doctrine of the European left and the capitalist class. In this period a political consensus forged Was between the parties of the left and of the right. In Britain, Labour and Tory governments followed each other without any significant shifts in policy. The left-right consensus on state intervention broke down only in the late seventies. By then the new crisis of capitalism demanded a different approach. The employers needed austerity and a major reduction in state expenditure.

replaced Keynes- Monetarism ianism. In the polarised climate created by mass unemployment there could be no room compromise and consensus.

In of the Britain the onset Thatcher regime signalled the beginning or a new old. Thatcher argued socialism had to be destroyed. By this Thatcher meant that the institutions of consensus, which were now seen as a barrier to the single-minded pursuit of capitalist domination, had to be swept away.

In the conditions of the ejehties the policies of European socialism make no sense. This brand of reformism never anything to oller to working class, and by the eighties it was no longer of any use to the capitalist class. Throughout

FROM STATE SOCIALISM TO NEW REALISM

Europe the traditional parties of the working class were confronted options. either stick to their old outdated policies and risk Alternatively could change their policies and on adopt the new programme demanded by the capitalist class. In the end they pursued both options.

The left wing socialism kept faith with the old policies and paid the political demise. The right wing proved less tenacious almost indecent haste adopted the of programme Yesterday's state socialists became New Realists. today's Mitterrand and their friends are on the result of this process. They are realists who recognise instinctively what is expected of them. The old lett of Tony Benn and Eric Heffer cannot come to terms with the New Realist outlook. close their eyes and dream about a bvgone era when Clement Attlec ran Britain and nationalisation, not privatisation, was the order of Luc day In the course of adjusting to the European labour parties have been forced to shift their political focus.

In the past, at least they had their own programme - state socialism.

Today all they have left is a craving for political influence. political programme of European social democracy is exhausted. It has no relevance for any significant section of society. State

LAFONTAINE: 'CUT WAGES

The exhaustion of a political tradition is rarely perceived by those who represent it. Nevertheless of self-preservation the instinct survives. That 1S for in europe socialist party gravitated towards the centre. In so doing they have adopted the outlook of New Realism and set project an image

OUL

This shift moderation. centre has the potential to do away with the traditional parliamentary division between left and right. It could result in a situation where parliamentary politics is all about who can best occupy the centre.

Whether this Team ent consummated depends entirely the nature of the class struggle in the period ahead. the Ironically, even in this phase of political decline, the socialist parties are still of some use to the capitalist class. They play a crucial rote in absorbing the attention and energy of left-wing could Instead of thinking about building becoming they labour parties which could begin to resolve some of the problems confronting the working class, the lett is preoccupied with reforming the exhausted labour parties and of European largely ignores the pressing issues of the day. of Heffer campaign for the leadership

BICE

of the Labour Party indicates how and with far the left is prepared to go in its refusal to face the real world.

Thatcherism. Kinnock,

STOP

They prefer to capitalist parties, As as announced their leader and deputy leadership of the The Labour Party, the far left declared its total support. It appears that for some time to come this campaign will provide the left with a focus for campaign follows the pattern of left-wing politics established in the eighties. British left has avoided fighting around issues Instead of promoting a political alternative, the left has devoted its energies to reforming the Labour Party and to winning positions inside the apparatus. around the question of inner-party democracy focus for left-wing activity in the late seventies and early eighties.

came in 1981, when Benn narrowly deputy

HOSE

Denis Healey. campaigning is its conscious evasion of the struggle why every alternative. ila. of building support for a political left-wing campaigning invariably of has an inward-looking orientation.

to the develop

ACCES

committee-room rather than on the field of the class struggle. Passions are aroused over organisational matters, rather than over political issues.

is European The internal left has meant that it has become more and more out of touch with reality. The left has been caught in a vicious circle. The more it senses its isolation from the real world.

the more the committed to campaigning inside the world struggle is political evasion. party campaigns is not surprising.

alternative to the discredited In Britain the Bennfight for. apparent campaign. arian style Benn and Heffer urving lo for Lal disa In all essentials the Benn-Heffer For the past decade the of substance.

HOVCHECHL

operation. Campaigns provided the main sustain an The high-point of this activity its own survival. The striking feature of this kind of a political for Since it explicitly rejects the idea alternative to the Labour Party, expertise in manoeuvring, For most entrism is themselves ationally movement. • first to this form orientation of the mainsta in Britain. left becomes campaign Labour Party. This retreat from the class voluntary act of The left's preference for internal official labour

GONZALEZ: IMITATING THATCHER

relevance and it has nothing left to The left's lack confidence in its own ideas is in the Benn-Heffer The focus of the campaign is Kinnock's authoritand the need to democratise the party. Instead of setting out the policies which the working class needs to adopt to beat back the Tory offensive, the left has little to say about anything except the necessity of improving the internal life of the Labour Party.

It is bad enough wasting time reform a party that is wholly committed to the preservation of the capitalist order. It is indefensible to pursue this course when the working class has no independent alternatives of its own. At a time when workers are under attack on everv front. new solutions and policies are more important than ever before The Benn-Heffer campaign has nothing to do with the needs of the working class. The impetus behind the campaign is the left's desire to strengthen its position inside the machinery of the official labour

LOMO

is survival The left understands instinctively that it lacks a credible alternative, and therefore cannot independent political existence. Only by clinging on to the corpse of the official labour movement can the left guarantee Of of the British left, not an option but a matter of life or death. Even farorganisations pride being organison independent the Labour Party operate within the framework of the official labour Whenever a dispute breaks out the far left is always the propose a lobby of thi TUC. In the NHS dispute the left was more concerned with getting the TUC's seal of approval than with encouraging health workers to organise independently. Today 1s. the Dal aSILISEL left-wing politics That is why the main organisations of the far left, from Militant to the The Socialist Workers Party, declared their support for Benn and Heffer's for a less authoritarian The Benn-Heffer campaign will prove to be a resounding failure.

Even if the left had more support it could inconceivable that it revitalise the Labour Party.

The movement is the property of a privileged group of bureaucrats who serve the capitalist class. It also appears that the Labour Party is no longer capable of playing the role of a party of government. At present it even has effective party of opposition in parliament. The Labour Party's policy review is an admission that it lacks purpose and direction It is ironic that just 200u everybody political across spectrum, with the exception of the far left, realises that British politics have reached the end of a cycle.

The Labour Party in its traditional form is dead; it can only survive as parliamentary contender if it becomes a born-again party of the centre. Even if it does this there is no guarantee that it will make it.

There is no objective basis for a party of the centre. Only a party of the right that poses as the party of the centre has any future — and the Tories are already playing that role. Kinnock might have a chance if the Tories commit a series of blunders and allow Labour to default. a government by Waiting for the Tories to make mistakes about all the IS Just Labour Party can do Instead of trying to revitalise the Labour Party we ought to welcome its demise. The present period has demonstrated conclusively that the Labour Party is an anachronism.

the Tories the course are beneticiaries ot thi development. But the collapse of politics Labourist provides compelling

CLOT

COR

structing genuine working class alternative. Our task is to make sure that the lessons of the period are learned by our class. There is no way that we can take Tories the with more compassionate version of capitalist policies. Since capitalism cannot be made to work in the interests of be overthrown society it must Straight anti-capitalist policies are the only ones which have anything offer the working class Organising around such policies will create a movement that can shake the political system. European realignment socialism shows that are WC entering a new era of class politics.

one which throws up new problems and demands new solutions.

underlines the urgency of building a new working class movement.

The problems confronting us in this task should provide the focus for debate in future issues of tns.

29 April 1988 • 9

he British and US governments are using te outcome of the Kuwait Airways hijacking to push for an even 'international terrorism' in general, and "Muslim fanatics' in particular.

Thatcher and Reagan condemned Algeria for letting the hijackers in exchange go the hostages. reicasing message from Downing Street and the White House is we will not let hijackers with next time.

RESISTANCE

In reality neither Britain nor the

USA

particularly concerned about the fate of the hijackers or the hostages. Their priority is to use the outcome of the hijacking to legitimise further Western intervention in the Middle East.

The 16-day hijacking crisis was used in the West to reinforce the stereotypes of 'mad Muslims'.

Since the overthrow of the pro- Western Shah of Iran in 1979, and the arrival in power of Ayatollah Khomeini, Western powers have blamed Islamic fundamentalism for many of the problems of the Middle East. Yet they are quite with pro-Western fundahappy mentalist regimes such as Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. Western newspapers rarely complain about 10 • 29 April 1988

IMPERIALISM

Why do the Western media and governments repeatedly rant against 'Muslim extremists' our response be? Daniel Nassim explains the conservative Saudi rulers who do not allow women to drive. The real concern among US and British not the religion, but the militant resistance Western domination in Middle East expressed by Shite Muslims. Western politicians have have built the image mullahs to justify attempts to deal with this resistance, such asthe The naval intervention in

OT COCHLE

the Gulf.

TERROR

The strict moral and social codes Islam themselves a threat to Western What worries the Reagans and radicalisation of the Shite masses in response to ments in the Middle East. The Shute maionty in ran rose up against the Shah as a puppet imposed by the West. In Lebanon the Shites have taken up arms against the discriminatory system imposed by the old French colonialists and supported by the Western powers. Shiite resistance has driven the US and the from Beirut. Radical Islam has become the dominant outlet for expressing this hostility to intervention in the Middle East.

TEHRAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS PROTEST AGAINST WESTERN INTERVENTION

AFTER THE KUWAIT HIJACK

AND ISLAM

in the Middle East, and what should radical Islamic movement. It has Muslim succeeded the popular anti-imperialist sentiment.

victories in mad radical Muslims. ference rather

BOE

Islam, U11 political develop- Financial Times political shared perialist" powers.' In the eighties Israeli army for tougher Western and Israeli East, support Western to progress.

BARBAROUS

Many East are against by the west formally more often run by the world. responsible No Middle match the it dominates. into conflict liberate the masses. of the order, means at their the bring Iran

SUCECC

The some OI The weakness of communist and traditional nationalist ideas have been major factors in the rise of the reflection imperialism Algerians. displacing the discredited left as a channel for The overthrow of the Shah and the Lebanon were tremendous boost to the prestige of More astute Western commentators recognise that the people of the Middle East are motivated by resentment against Western interthan simply rational religious fervour. Edward the Mortimer, one of Britain's top Middle East pundits and an expert so strong discussed the impli cations of the hijacking in the last week. He argued that the actions of hijackers CYCl 'reflected a political analysis which almost unanimously influence. throughout the region. According to this, the destinies of the Middle Eastern nations are controlled not by themselves but by external "im- For Mortimer, however, imperialist domination is just a myth popular among Middle Eastern peoples. He still ends up arguing Western measures oppression, against Arab terrorist blackmail.

For us, Western imperialism is the real force for terror in the Middle Western terror. which has long sought to hold the masses to ransom. We the struggle against - because imperialism is the major barrier in the Middle regimes But reactionary. should still defend these countries The imperialism Toot cause of the backward character of capitalist countries in an area like the Middle East is their domination The fact that the major capitalist powers can afford democratic systems, while third world countries are dictators or absolute monarchs, has nothing to 'madness' any dinos Middle Eastern or African people.

It reflects the difference between in press world. of imperialism is imperialism is for and

COCLO

oppression, it follows that any victory for the Western over a backward capitalist state can only worsen conditions for the peoples of the third world.

Eastern tyrant can barbarous measures which imperialism inflicts on those Iran is an example of a country that should be defended against Western intervention. The rulers of a country such as Iran have their own narrow reasons for coming with imperialism. They are seeking to extend their rather than to intluence. Yet whatever the character of the regime today, a victory over the Western powers can ultimately benefit the masses Middle East. undermine the Western-imposed popular aspirations for real liberation.

RADICALISM

Iran is not being targeted by the West because the Khomeini regime is viciously anti-gay, anti-women and anti-working class. Since the fall of their stooge the Shah, the Western powers have used every disposal to wear anti-imperialist sentiment of the Iranian people and back under their Western A successful intervention could only consolidate the reactionary character of the regime or open the way for even more backward rulers. Algerian regime shares the leatures Algeria was forged in a struggle against the French occupation in the fifties and sixties. The apparent radicalism of its rulers, the heirs to the FLN liberation movement, is a antiordinary among Yet there are definite the radicalism of the Algerian regime. It has recently been making overtures towards the Western powers, and flight KU422 was allowed to land at Algiers after pressure from France and Kuwait.

LIBERATION

The fact that the imperialists are now targeting Algeria indicates the desperation of the Western powers Middle East. Popular hostility to Western domination is that even essentiall moderate regimes have to make some radical gestures. The Western powers thus become reliant on direct their In the Middle East, imperialism is the perpetrator of terrorism which we should stand against.

The Western powers support israel against the Palestinians, attack the Shites in Lebanon and send their in the Gulf. We should reject their mullahs' justification for the and people of the Middle East in their struggle for liberation from Western terror comes home REAGAN'S latest rampage in the Gulf provided a useful weapon for him to beat his Democratic Party opponents at home. By sending the US navy into action against Iran, and dropping hints about a US mission to capture the Kuwait Airways hijackers, the US administration tried to project a tough and militaristic image.

The aim was to combat Reagan's reputation as a lame duck, and to beef up his Republican Party's reputation as his vice-president, George Bush, prepares for the presidential election. Military conflict overseas is used by Western rulers to hammer home their view that foreign terrorists are a threat to ordinary people. The suffering of people overseas is used to legitimise greater repression at home. Both the Tories and the Reagan administration have become adept at using the carnage in the Middle East to consolidate their domestic support. In both the hijacking and the clashes in the Gulf the Tories promoted themselves as the firmest opponents of foreign terror.

HURD: NEW PLANS

They dropped hints about a possible SAS intervention against the hijackers, and Thatcher stood fully behind Reagan's bully tactics against the Iranians in the Gulf.

It did not take long for the Tories to use the outcome of the паскіь to promote more powers of repression at home.

As part of the planned revamr of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, home secretary Douglas Hurd announced plans to curb fund-raising by "terrorists' or by their front organisations'. The PTA has already been used for 14 years to intimidate Irish people in Britain. New powers on funding would allow the Tories to clamp down on rish solidarity groups in Britain, and anybody else Tney decide to verne as d "terrorist front". • • The Tories' use of events in the Middle East to justify repression in Britain provides a powertul argument as to wh we should take sides with the oppressed there. It confirms that we share a common enemy with the people of Western the Middle East imperialism. The British state now tightening its control over political protest here is the same institution which backs US piracy and Israeli terror in the Middle East. If we let Thatcher and Reagan get away campaigns, it will further strengthen their hands against us. the next step

TRIBUNE OF THATCHERISM

In a period of uncertainty, argues Kenan Malik, Norman Tebbit ast week Norman complained about of talk African tribes as outsiders, as though they had arrived at Cape lown vesterdav. themselves have hardly had time to complete the journey Heathrow Hounslow before claiming British rights." Tebbit, addressing the Africa Club, a.so attackee une 'stinking hypocrisy' of apartheid's opponents who offer sickening racialist excuses for the genocide committed elsewhere by one black tribe against another'.

'OUTSIDER'

These racist comments voked howis ot protest Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Labour foreign affairs spokesman George Foules, accused Tebbit of being 'motivated more by concern for business interests than for morality. Even the Duke of Edinburgh, not usually noted for his liberalism, felt compelled to condemn apartheid. Media commentators reported this wide-ranging criticism further that Tebbit has evluence become the wild 'outsider' of British polities. Tebbit's latest outburst comes hard on the heels of his advice to Prince Charles to stop meddling in politics and get a job, and follows his long-running campaign to tame the BBC. Forsome people Tebbit's high-profile reactionary ventions are : evidence that he still has aspirations to be Tory leader. For others they onfirm that he is (a semi-housetrained in anim olecat' in the words of Michae Foot), not fit to be seen in civilised company. The former Tory Party chairman does not hide his desire to lead the party, and doubtless his table manners leave something to desired. But the reason for his neither outspokenness leadership aspirations nor his lack of social graces. It is his awareness of the political needs of British capitalism. Tebbit knows "business interests" not "morality" will revive the British economy. Át a time when many within the Tory party are questioning the openly pro-capitalist policies adopted by the government, Tebbit reminds the

COUPLETS

tHere is alternative for the British ruling class.

TRIBUNE

Tebbit cut his political teeth as one of the coterie around Margaret Thatcher in the seventies. Thatcherites recognised that to revive British capitalism the ruling class would have to abandon the policy of class peace which had characterised post-war British politics and confront its opponents head-on. They also recognised that this would require the creation of a harsh new political climate.

Thatcher emphasised the virtues of family, race and nation, asserted that traditional morality and law and order were the solutions to Britain's problems, and promoted the ideas of individual rather than social responsibility. She set out to stamp the authority of the ruling class on every issue, and to break all of the old taboos of British politics. Tebbit has long been the tribune of the Thatcherite revolution'. The Thatcherites swept victory first inside the Tory Party and then at the national polls in 1979. Over the past 10 years the Tories have had considerable the next step those They from West South prointer-

TEBBIT: LOOKING TO LEAD HIS TRIBE?

success in redefining the terms of political debate and putting the opposition on the defensive.

was seen only a decade ago as be outrageous political adventurism'.

Tebbit reminded last his *has new orthodoxy, within which parties must exist or be confined to the sidelines.' At the same time Tebbit warned that his audience that the job was not yet finished and they 'establish a new political consensus.

Tebbit's comments indication of the facing the Tories. While the Tories no have easily dealt political opponents they found it more difficult to solve the problems of the British economy.

The superficial economic upswing of the past two years has helped the Tories promote the idea of a "booming' Britain, but it has not The removed the need to solve deeperrooted problems facing the British ruling class — the restructuring of British industry and the need for far harsher measures against the working class.

ASSAULT

Since her third election victory Thatcher has embarked unprecedented assault working class. The poll tax, the new social security regulations, the budget, the attacks on the NHS.

the housing and education bills, the new restrictions on trade union rights all bludgeon the working class. To force these policies through, the Tories need to politicise aspect of society along Thatcherite Thus Tebbit has taken on Thes to established institutions -from the monarchy and the England to the BBC — which have dared to question the new Tory orthodoxy. In lebbit's words, the

NORMAN TEBBIT

points the Tories down the true Thatcherite path 'What any form of dissent. and its impact on society is now year's Tory Thatcherites. become the the new realism but by Michael Mates, a Thatcher loyalist. John Marshall, who has had an

WCIC

problems still with their Have THE Tories devoted their TV broadcast last week to was a Tebbit-style political attack on the opposition. The Tory propagandists understand that this gives them a better chance of pushing through unpopular measures than any wet' attempt to pose as the party of economic fairness bit of the unconvincing statistic-juggling which is now on an a familiar part of Tory on the health service to welfare benefits, attempting to show that cuts will make people better off. Then it was down to business, promoting the poll designed to tax as a political measure to tame the 'loony left' councils.

every the amount of poll tax we will pay depends on the efficiency of our local council. An efficient authority is Church of understood as one which cuts spendine on vital services to the bone, puts the screws on its workforce, and steers clear Tories have to establish a new political consensus which outlaws The pace of the Tory onslaught starting to worry even confirmed The recent poll tax rebellion was led, not by a 'wet, led the protests about the social rebellious security regulations, is also on the right wing of the party. Even the

POLL TAX POLITICS

defending the poll tax. Its tone The broadcast began with a presentation on issues from the put together. According to the broadcast, the future dire Sun thought Tebbit had gone too far when he began knocking Prince Charles. The rebellion in the Tory ranks shows that sections of the establishment are getting cold feet about the social consequences of government policies In the face of this uncertainty, Tebbit's task is to lay down the law for the Tories. He has warned the elements the witnin party that the capitalist class has no option but to follow the current of all radical political gestures.

The broadcast used a traditional English tea-set as a device to illustrate the difference between efficient and inefficient councils. The tea was the council's available funds. First of all a nice Tory even amount of tea into cups representine sensible service.

such as 'dustman'. Then a loony autorty was snow stopping It about all over the table, and over-filling cups representing *extravagant' expenditure on "police monitoring, overmanning' and 'gay seminars'.

The camera closed up for an extended shot of the 'gay seminars' cup receiving more tea than the rest of the service The message was clear. i you have to pay a high rate of pon tax, dont pame the tones blame your "irresponsible' Labour council for spending money on issues like lesbian and gay rights or anti-racism, path. Tory economic policy might Supeest we die not as mice as wo should be, Tebbit noted after the budget. That is all very interesting', he reminded doubters within Tory ranks, the real but question is does it work?

Tebbit understands that the important issue c nor whemel people consider the Tories to be nice or moral, but whether their policies work in terms of intensifying the assaults on the working class.

Since leaving the cabinet, Tebbit has been uniquely placed to float ideas and tackle opponents in a way which would be impolitic for Before ministers. last June's election Tebbit had anticipated many of the themes that now dominate Tory propaganda. His role as a cabinet minister, however.

limited his ability to lash out at will. Pre-election reports that he had told the cabinet that 'nobody Convotes conse cace servative anyway' caused such embarrassment that Tebbit felt compened to sue une orename newspapers for libel. Now, as a backbencher, he feels no such

CO SUCHOS

niceties of convention. He can lay down markers for future Tory policy and test the water for new without directly proposals, implicating the government. This is the purpose of his latest round of over-the-top attacks.

OPTION

Tebbit's attacks on 'dangerous' Prince Charles or 'tribal' black Commonwealth countries woulc still be difficult for one of Her Majesty's ministers to carry out so he steps in to drag the level ol political • debate down another notch, rewrite another section of the rules of political conduct, and make it easier for other top Tories to indulge in such attacks in the Tebbit's increasingly outrageous comments are an indication of the problems facing British capitalism and the Tories' need to push their political offensive against the old ways still further.

Far from being a real loner or outsider, he is pointing out the direction in which the government has to go. The Tories may be able to make small concessions on some economic issues tor the purpose of expediency. But as a general strategy, the wet option is not realistic in the harsh conditions of today. Tebbit's job is to drive that message home. As disquiet mounts over government policy, we can expect the Chingford skinhead to hit the headlines even more frequently. and failing to give its workers a dirty enough deal. To ram this home. the broadcast ended with former ratepayers receiving projected poll tax demands from three authorities • a very low one from Tory Rochester-upon-Medway, above average one from rightwing Labour Newcastle, and an astronomical one from crazy Camden. Over the past decade, the Tories have often used political attacks on the opposition parties and the oppressed to excuse unpopular policies.

Hardliners like Tebbit understand that creating a such debates is still their best line or davance, Iney can't sell the poll tax as an egalitarian presenting it as a political purge of lesbians and gays and left-wing loonies, the Tories stand a chance or moolising Tebbit's army of saloon-bar drinkers behind the poll tax crusade. 29 April 1988 • 11

THE USA:

WAITING TILL

NOVEMBER

Tough economic decisions are being postponed until after the presidential election A merican capitalists hard to torget Black Monday. Last month the financial services giant Shearson Lehman Hutton proclaimed is over' banner *The worst headlines across full-page paper ads. But when the US trade tor rebruarv revealed a $13.8 billion deficit, the Jones stock exchange index fell 101 Painful day. In

DOLLES

memories of October's Crash came flooding back. Evidently the worst is yet to come. Investors and politicians are now voicing their fears of another crash and the start of a recession in the near future.

Even before the announcement of the poor trade statistics the state of the economy provided shaky grounds for optimism. Greenspan, chairman of Federal Reserve, recently congress that there has seldom been a time when the outlook for the US economy was so uncertain.

Most US commentators know that Tine global econome Dances behind the Crash are still present.

The USA continues to depend on massive intlows of capital from Europe and Japan to finance its deficit. The other big budget imbalance between the economies - the US trade deficit and the corresponding and Japanese German surpluses also remains. These deficits' underlie the *twin present instability.

FEARS

The USA needs to reduce cut state spending

CONSUDHOR.

and rationalise industry to start to get to grips with its economic officials, weariess however, have ruled out a squeeze on the home economy for now.

Austerity plans are ponucaly damaging in an election year. The Democrats would find it easy to blame Reagan's apparent George Bush and his Republican cronies for the resulting chaos.

The annolncement OT Reagan administration's combudget package last pronlise November was a clear indication that the USA was not willing to cut spending substantially. The budget deficit will still be above last year's figure of $148 billion. A recession this year would drastically reduce revenues and increase welfare payments.

REAGAN

WON'T

BITE THE

BULLET

AND MAKE

THE CUTS

12 • 29 April 1988 Without a decisive economic policy Reagan officials fret nervously about each month's trade figures and worry about a collapse in the dollar.

Their apprehension is a sign that the economic CrISIS their control. Since 1986 private inflows from abroad have diminan indication that foreign investors have less future of the US Consequently, America has relied on European and Japanese central bankers to support the dollar. The USA is unwilling to raise interest rates to attract private capital. It tried fears that higher rates will lead to and spark recession. Bad trade figures always raise the spectre of a run on the dollar which would make the USA's rivals even less keen to stop the dollar free-falling. news- For the first time in 50 years the USA is earning less on its overseas Dow than earning on their Us investments The US government alone paid $23.5 billion in interest in 1987 to foreigners who have lent it some $270 billion. In addition, American companies and banks owe huge amounts to overseas lenders. In the near future, the USA will have to run a substantial trade surplus just to pay foreigners tor the use of their capital. Alan

TAKEOVERS

the told February's trade figures show that turnaround is such unlikely. American competitiveness has definitely been helped by the fall of the dollar, which hit a postwar low at the start of the year. But the US trade deficit continues to grow. Rising consumer spending at home still sucks in large amounts of foreign-made trade bill passed by congress last major week has been shorn of its most blatant protectionist amendments.

West But Reagan could still sign restrictive, anti-foreign bill by the trade time it reaches his desk.

The controversy takeovers highlights Outside especially the British and more recently the Japanese - have been gobbling up American companies.

Highly publicised foreign 'predators' to acquire US companies have led to resentment and anti-foreign feeling among Americans. Reagan tried to placate these worries by approving a measure to block foreign takeovers if US security is felt to he threatened. But he is not keen to go further because the USA relies so much on foreign investment. Une Reagan and Bush hope that their holding operation can see them through to the November election before next the seven months is a long time. Their and events may force them to act sooner than they would like.

James Malone administration is out of capital Tain e off foreigners are and putting off highly survey the policy goods. The US

JAPAN:

EVERYTHING

over foreign Reagan's

IS NOT

MYCSLOLS

ENOUGH

attempts by growing has done more than international economy on an even keel. But world's strongest economy will not be enough to stave off the recession But downturn. not look promising months of the Second World War. welcomed internationally.

contrast to the sentiment voiced European leaders a its reflationary policies.

Crash, economic role. pluses which the world economy. appreciate yell The stock market Crash of October 1987 signalled a drift back towards a world economic recession. Since then the big capitalist powers have been playing for time the inevitable painful adjustments which their system requires to survive. Here we crisis now afflicting governments from Japan to West Germany Since October, Japan any power to keep the the best efforts of the apan has done best of the big economies since the Crash.

Despite the yen appreciating by 33 percent in the past 18 Japan is growing at almost twice the rate of America.

This triumph over the higher yen has even been compared to the trends today nation's emergence from the ashes Japan's success has been warmly *Zap the Jap This by US and year ago. Japan has been congratulated for world economy. For the last year, and particularly since the increase Western leaders have Product emphasised the need for Japan to play a more responsible global combination All agreed that Japan had to reduce its massive spending, current account and trade surwere responsible for the instability of Japan has responded by opening its economy to imports, stimulating domestic demand and allowing the Banks But loans by the Japanese are not simply bowing to

THE WORLD ECONOMY

PLAYING

Rather, international opinion. Tokyo has recognised that world are no longer se favourable to its trade, and, has switched to a short-term emphasis on domestic reflation. has created a temporary unity between the needs of Japanese capital and the interests of the Japan's stimulation of domestic demand led to a four per cent Gross National in in 1987. Through of easing access to credit, tax cuts and massive state

CCIL

domestic demand creased by over five per cent more than double the rate for the first half of the eighties.

Credit has been boosted through five cuts in interest rates to reach an historical low of 2.5 percent.

increased housing Y4 trillion last year more than seven times the average

FOR

TIME

TOKYO

TRADERS

FEEL THE

PAIN OF

BIDDING

UP THE US

ECONOMY

of the previous four years.

The resulting housing boom has prompted a 47 percent increase in housing starts from the 1983 low Easy credit has been combired with increased state spending. A Y6 trillion (US$45.6 billion) sup- "budget June plementary increased public works projects by 20 per cent. As a result, domestic industrial production rose by 10 percent and domestic investment turned upwards. Having stagnated through most 1986, fixed investment grew by almost 10 per 1987 with for most firms leading the

COS TUCHOR

advance. Unemployment has also fallen as a result of reflation.

and Increasing employment consumer spending have boosted demand. Retail sales rose by five per cent with electrical appliances and electronic goods surging 14 per cent; new car sales rose to record levels. Consequently, the next step

WEST

GERMANY:

THE

LOCOMOTIVE

SLOWS

Europe's largest economy can maintain its vital export markets only by making the working class pay for economic restructuring nil une late seventies Germany was the engine pulling the rest of Europe and other parts of the world economv into recoverv. But since the early eighties, the West duced harsh rationalisation policies which have slowed its economic The US growth. treasury pleaded with Bonn to reflate. But West Germany concerned with strengthening the base of its economy than introducing superficial palliative measures, which could structuring German capitalism.

the West German grew by less than two

CCULUHILY

per cell. This some forecasters doubt that growth will be much more than one percent of real GNP. The poor growth reflects the problem of declining exports and a imports to Japan have increased by almost 20 percent For the first time since the early seventies the real growth rate imports exceeded exports.

Japan also raised its has politically sensitive defence spending. In this year's budget, defence spending has been increased by 5.2 Y3.7 trillion billion). This boost will enable the defence agency to buy 12 more

US F-15

fighter planes. significantly, prime

THISLE

Noburu Takeshita agreed indirectly Western to subsidise the vention in the Gulf. This will be achieved by increasing the amount of financial support the ment pays to keep US military forces in Japan.

TENSIONS

Japan's reflationary measures are, however, not a sustainable strategy. In the end it will have to resolve its economic problems the expense rivals,

OILS

increasing its global interests. For Tokyo has agreed a 28 example, percent rise in this year's budget for third world aid, to increase Japanese influence in parts of the globe powers have which olner traditionally regarded as spheres of interest. Thus, however Japan's short-term reflation might aid the other major economies, its longer-term trajectory can Despite Japan's economic success it cannot stop the recession for long. Tokyo's best efforts have failed to solve the deep-seated problems ot the sA he trade deficit increased stubbornly last year despite Japan's reflation- Neither can Japan ary mieasites. isolate itself from an unhealthy world economy. Japan needs to compentveness maintain its economic position. But if it takes measures which precipitate a US recession, it could damage Japan's own exports. Tokyo is postponing the moment of truth. Charles Longford the next step intro-

HOTE

with boost flagging domestic economy.

December Germany ran a record trade surplus, but future prospects look gloomy. ( As the

FRANCE:

STILL IN THE

of

DOLDRUMS

French economic ($29.1 performance has been sluggish throughout the More eighties inter- 0 n 8 May choose their next president.

The socialist Francois Mitterrand, expected to win term. A continuation of the twoyear old "cohabitation" the president and prime minister Chirac's Jacques majority in the national assembly would be welcomed by French Left-right bipartisan capitalists. rule has enabled the employers to the offensive step up French workers. There is an important difference between the evolution of French counter-crisis policies and those of their other leading capitalist During the world recession of the early eighties most Western leaders adopted austerity economics as the new capitalist wisdom. only however, Mitterrand's May 1981 presidential victory Keynesian-style expansion. Aid to industry state

TUSC

US expanded and nationalised. The strategy France was the only major capitalist nation, apart from Japan total output did not fall in any year from 1980 to 1982. Mitterrand's policies In reality, aggravated France's colonie industrial output fell for the third successive year. capital investment while bankruptcies and unemploy-

GERMAN CHANCELLOR HELMUT KOHL DROWNS HIS SORROWS

In largest exporter, exports a third of its GNP.

prospect of declining exports is a world's big threat to economic growth.

French voters incumbent, another between CO Seave against powers. In Prance was followed

SCIVICCO

were seemed to work.

WHICLE

ment rose. The clearest indicator structural of French economic weakness was 1982 its external position. current account deficit of FFr78 The decline in billion was nearly three times that of accelerated the previous year. Monetary making expensive.

PAIN

growth. Suale Stuttgart nounced cutbacks. now threatens past years. export-led growth. USA and will growth anywhere. Bonn West Germany The mildly 1986. But pressure

FRENCH PRIME MINISTER CHIRAC OFFERS AUSTERITY

endorsed the The 1982 where. By mid-1983 Mitterrand officially External deficits The falling value of the dollar and realignment within the European System

(EMS)

German exports more Exports to the us expanded rapidly in the early eighties, acting as a stimulus to West German But 00121 dropped below DM2 at the end of 1986 German businessmen have been talking about the Schmerzgrenze (pain threshold). After the October Crash the pain got worse.

At present 10 per cent of Germar exports go to the USA and 20 per West cent of all exports go to dollar markets. A decline in Germany of these inevitable unless German industry Is made more competitive motor industry has been hit as nearly a third of German cars are sold on dollar markets. Porsche in have already an- A bigger problem area for West Germany is Europe, which takes more than two thirds of its exports.

The prospect of the revaluation of the Deutschmark within the EMS the the advantage German exporters have enjoyed in In addition, the slowdown in domestic demand within Europe means that exports to the continent will no longer fuel Until 1986 West Germany's expansion in the Europe especially compensated for problems in other class markets. Now German companies find it hard to expand has introduced some reflationary policies since has resisted US reflate -LO stable was growth ycal. 'short,

EVEN

growth

COLL

new

COHOLE

already operative else- French industrialists demanded less state interference and more government backing for the drive to rationalise industry.

weakened tensively. West German capitalists do not depend on the state of the global economy to the same extent as Japan. They are more concerned with their European base, and with getting in shape to dominate the proposed 'open" continental economy from 1992 West Germany's refusal to follow the reflationary road has heightened tensions with the USA. German needs Industry restructure to remain competitive.

I he earlier strength of the German enabled it economy avoid dramatic production shake-outs of the sort imposed in Britain at the start of the eighties. But this left the German economy flabby while its competitors were forced and fitter. become leaner German industry has suffered a declining market share in the more world dynamic sectors or tne economy, such as electronics and electrical goods. Germanv can ne longer rely on the industries of the past to lead the economic recovery

CUTS

The Kohl administration has attempted to cut state subsidies to coal, steel and mıning industries. The steel industry has announced plans for the loss of - 35 000 jobs over two years. Job losses in the coal industry also seem inevitable as plans are afoot to remove coal price subsidies The only way West German capitalists can solve their economic problems is by making the working Oskar Lafontaine, pay. leading Democrat in Saarland, is already arguing that any cuts in working hours must be paid for in wage Europe's

CHES

economic locomotive is running out of steam. Helen Simons franc and threatened the French commitment to currency stability through the European Monetary System. Industrial overhaul and a currency required domestic austerity

CONTRAST

Until 1986 the main achievement of economic retrenchment relation tọ working conditions Real household incomes have risen overall by only five per cent in the last five years In 1988 money wages are expected to rise slightly less than inflation.

French workers also labour longer West hours than their Briusn, German or American counterparts.

French rulers rarely express the optimism about the future that is British common among their This is partly a result of the contrasting economic performances of the past few years. Overall France tor and Britain has been more or less even since 1980 — around 1.7 per cent a However, Thatcher's early sharp shock". policies enabled British capital to benefit from the world economic revival of the past few years. Thus, Britain's economic growth has varied between minus 2.9 per cent in 1980 and 4.8 percent in 1987. The later initiation of austerity in France has meant a fairly even performance year on year. Annual 1980 varied since within a narrow range of 0-2.1 per This means that in France there is no basis for illusions about economic miracles and dreams of being great once again Overriding all this is the renewal of worldwide recessionary trends French capitalism has been in the doldrums throughout the eighties.

Having made concerted efforts to strengthen the domestic economy, the capitalist class now finds that it expect, at best, more the same. Tony Kennedy 29 April 1988 • 13

'PRAGUE SPRING AS SOFT PORN

Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika - New Thinking for Our Country and the World, Collins £12.95 This is a book written for Western consumption. The 'personal' foreword and repeated endorsements of the USinspired panic about 'terrorism' make this clear. The bulk of the book is dedicated to one of the most important aims of Gorbachev's policy of perestroika (restructuring) through glasnost (openness): to exploit the decline of American authority and create a more advantageous international climate for the USSR. To this end, Gorbachev's attitude to Western imperialism is the most conciliatory and apologetic ever adopted by a Soviet leader. Like a trade union official overwhelmed by the experience of being allowed to negotiate with his boss for the first time, he name-drops every reactionary Western leader who now takes him seriously. Writing in We are all platitudes — passengers aboard one ship, Earth' Gorbachev complains that if only the rest of the world was as reasonable and broadminded as the current Soviet leadership, it would be a much safer place. Abandoning all talk of capitalism, classes, economic crisis or any other aspect of contemporary reality, humanity is troubled only of a handful of Western leaders. The proorem Gorby is according to that certain Western leaders fail to recognise that the differences between societies are no reason to assert the superiority of any particular state. If on sounds like a Thatcherite (referring to 'spongers, 'the psychology of dependence and women returning to their purely womanly mission), in the international sphere his sickly pleas for harmony would have gone down well at Woodstock. The book does inadvertently set the record straight on a couple of issues widely misunderstood in the West. First, it becomes clear that glasnost is not the work of a Westernminded liberal faction battling against the Inertia of an intransigent bureaucracy. Gorbachev is categorical that there is no real opposition to the principle of glasnost within the Soviet bureaucracy. The Soviet leaders realise that they have little choice but to try to reinvigorate Soviet society, after what Gorbachev refers to as the profound crisis' of the early eighties, when the credibility of the • Soviet system fell to an all-time low among workers. It is also worth remembering that Gorbachev was appointed by his predecessor Andropov, the real initiator of the glasnost 14 • 29 April 1988 policy. He didn't sneak in while the Politburo was asleep, as some Western commentators imply. The problem he faces The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Philip Kaufman (director) it was never gong to be easy, making a film of a multi-layered philosophical novel. Philip Kaufman says that he tried to capture the spirit rather than the letter of Milan Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. Wisely too, he has while cutting the narrator.

That the tilm Is nevertheless something of a disaster mav nave a lot to do with shortcomings ala COOK itself, but that is another story. own film and should be judged accordingly. Tomas (Daniel Day- Lewis), a young Czech surgeon, is enjoyine lite in the Prague of the late sixties. A philanderer, with many lovers but not much in the wav of relationships, he is soon forced to concentrate his mind. He has to choose between his favourite diversion, Sabina (Lena reviews page

GOES

WEST

lies not in objections to the broad objectives of perestroika, but to its potentially disruptive consequences for the Teusnisuc Dowiel Tal, dil alluring line in underwear and a way with mirrors, and a gauche young newcomer from the country, Tereza (Juliette Binoche), who makes up in directness what she lacks in sophistication. Tereza cuts through his temporising by moving into his flat and then marrying him, although this turns out to present little impediment to his incorrigible womanising Their affair blossoms in the heady days of the 'Prague spring' of 1968, when under the liberalising leadership of Alexander Dubcek Czech society enioved a shortlived cultural and Tereza has no sooner started out on her career as a photographer than ner camera is portig down the barrel of a Russian lank rong down the main streets of Prague on a most unwelcome fraternal visit.

The couple try exile in Switzerland, and then life back home under the newly repressive regime which ensures that Tomas

GORBACHEV

THE SOVIET LEADER SIZES

UP US PRESIDENTIAL

CONTENDER,

GEORGE BUSH

power-bases of individual bureaucrats if people start to expect a rise in living standards, rather than just the screening of

FILM

TEREZA (JULIETTE BINOCHE)

can only work as a window cleaner because of some trifling political misdemeanour. The dramatic centre of the film, and a most uninteresting one, is Tomas' inability to refrain from satisfying the latest woman to nur nerset at him, and the strains this places on his relationship a previously banned film.

As Gorbachev savs. There are people who support the innovation but believe that perestroika should with Tereza. His amorous exploits with Sabina, basically tasteful soft porn. They are justified within the film by the pretentious mutterings about the uniqueness and unrepeatability of each experience. He just can't help it, apparently, he is doomed to sub- Nietzschean existential not affect them.' The raising of expectations where there is little prospect of material improvement is a real problem for lower-level administrators and regional party bosses in the frontline of popular disaffection. Boris Yeltsin even had to question whewer were was ai serious intention of material improvement behind the glasnost hype in order to maintain his credibility in sophisticated Moscow, and paid for it with Gorbachev's book is also useful in highlighting the importance of the intelligentsia in the bureaucracy's plans, an aspect completely missed in the West. Encouraged to an unprecedented extent (and given a section in the book, unlike the proletariat), their nationalistic, antiworking class and backward outlook is being promoted as the exemplary worldview for Soviet citizens. Contrary to popular opinion, the new Soviet policy has not made the world a safer place. Ever since the consolidation of the Soviet bureaucracy in the late twenties, it has been a profoundly conservative force in world affairs. But that didn't stop the Second World War. It was, and still is, Western expansionism that leads to such conflagrations. The fact that the Soviet Union is prepared to go so far in accommodating to an increasingly militaristic imperialism, shows the desperate measures needed to maintain its stagnant and anti-working class society Adam Eastman suspender belts. With the exception of Lena Olin, who carries off her love-making with considerable poise, the actors do not really distinguish themselves Even the talented Day- Lewis seems to pose Devone the considerdole posing of his character; and Binoche is simply the latest in a long line of young, pretty and cute French actresses. Actual footage of the Soviet invasion is blended wit recreated scenes featuring our heroes with great technical skill, but • too self-consciously to be effective. In any event, the political events are strictly background, clumsily introduced by snatches of explanatory dialogue and finally passed over altogether as the couple find true happiness working down on the farm in some misty-focused bucolic idyll. This banal and sentimental resolution is summed up in the laughably tearful funeral of a dog. I didn't really care what happened Pat Ford the next step

SOME supporters have been aute critica of recent articles in tns. Two themes have been the main cause of irritation.

The first is the amount of space we are giving to the Labour Party leadership contest. The second is ast wekse anniversary of Trotsky's Transitional Programme. The content of the criticism is that the articles do not seem relevant to many of the people who buy tns. One supporter complained that while selline the paper he was trying to explain why Tony Benn couldn't change the Labour Party and he found that few people who bought papers even knew that there was a leadership contest in the Labour Party. Some buyers, he explained, had never even heard of Tony Benn. If this problem arises with coverage of the Labour Party, it would seem to be far worse when we discuss the issues raised by Trotsky in the twenties and thirties.

These kind of criticisms or ts, nowever, miss une point altogether. They reved d orobiem not witn tns, but with the way that some understand how the paper should be used. For this reason, it's worth Name. Adress Postcode lary communist Party

AE ABORTION

ON DEMIAN

MOMEN'S RIGHAS

the next step the next step restating who and what ins Is tor tns is the flagship of the RCP. It aims to present our view on contempordly Issues ind clear and accessible form.

tne dsel seeks to sve greater insights into the way society works, to create discussion about how ordinary people can organise to defend their interests. We want our readers to understand how a revolutionary party is essential to this fightback. tns is written for people who want to understand current portical Issues We don't expect our redaers te nave a Tullyfledged Marxist analysis but we do oT society — expect political interest and curiosity. Every week kinds of articles. Some are directed at first-time readers, others are political activists. All the ances noweve ass mne that our readers identify eMSeVes suestablishment, and want politics. vur articles on Tacisin for example, take as their starting point that our readers see themselves as anti-racist and want to fight the oppression of black people. The coverage in tns aims to arm readers with the best arguments and examples to do ust that. Our coverage of the Labour Partv. assumes that our readers are interested in what goes on in British politics. While few people, even those in the Labour Party itself, have the determination to follow the minutiae of internal party manoeuvring, we assume that even people reading tns for the first time will be aware of political debates that are aired on the Iv news. There are many people who can't see the point of discussing Britain's role in the third world, who think racism or the oppression or women nas neting te do with them, who think that politics is boring and perhaps who haven't heard of Tony Benn. We hope that if these people pick up a copy of tns they'll change their minds.

But they are not the people we write the paper for. We know that tns. for a while to come, will be a 'minority interest paper. But the more politicised minority it addresses are the potential leaders of the working class. They

BECOME AN

RCP

SUPPORTER

party page are the ones who do know about onv Benn c challenge to Neil Kinnock.

who, at the present juncture in British politics will be most aware of the need tor a new opposition to the Tories. Arming these people with a Marxist understanding of the world is the key to Glasgow RCP dayschool Revolt ОП the Clyde ..... The best way to make sure you get tns every week is to take out a subscription.

A subscription from anywhere in Britain or reland will cost you £26 a year. So don't miss out - fill in the box today. the mass of the working class. We want to turn the left-wing minority of today into the working class leadership of tomorrow. We write tns to that end, and use it to target a more political audience. The biggest task class movement in the through the consensus political ideas of the establishment. We have to train activists in a new tradition of arguments. Our paper must be a tool with which we do this. To build a working class movement in the eighties wence assimilate the experience of the revolutionar movements of the past. We can learn from their successes and their mistakes. We need to develop a political culture aus oe none0 anu more sophisticated than that of the ruling class.

This is what tns is all about. If a criticism is to be made of tns it's not that it's too difficult, or that it assumes too much from Its readers. tanvthing our paper needs to be even mole substallual. aie te give a wider range of indepth arguments. What do you think? Anne Burton Forum organised by Glasgow Revolutionary Communist Party Sunday 15 May 12.30-7pm Govanhill Community Centre Daisy Street Glasgow 12.30pm Registration: £2 waged, £1 unwaged. Creche available. 1.15pm Plenary: Why we need a new opposition - Frank Richards 2.45-3.15pm: Tea-break 3.15pm: Workshops: The struggle against oppression How to smash the poll tax wials specia about tne Scottish working class? 4.400m lea-break 5.15pm Plenary: Revolt on the Clyde: the movement we need - Alan Harding Tickets available by post from RCP, PH8 340 West Princes Street, Glasgow, or on the door

SUBSCRIBE!

Name Address Postcode Phone Send to BCM JPLtd, London WC1N 3XX

RCP

PUBLIC

MEETINGS

• ••• •

BUILDING A

NEW

OPPOSITION

BIRMINGHAM: Thursday 5 May 7.30pm. Carrs Lane Community Centre, High Street. Citv Centre BRIGHTON: Thursday 5 May 7.30pm. Unemployed Centre, Tilbury Place LIVERPOOL: Thursday 12 May 7.30pm. Trade Union Centre, Hardman Street OXFORD: Wednesday 4 May 8pm. Committee Room 1, Town Hall, St Aldates SHEFFIELD: Friday 29 April 7.30pm. SCCAU Centre. West Streei (opposite The Limit) Bristol Living Marxism series

THE WORLD

TODAY

A course of discussions on international relations, every Tuesday at 7.30pm, armin duo or Colston Street (near the Hipodrome) 3 May: America's Weakness 10 May: The Middle East 17 May: Glasnost and Coracner 24 May: Cracks in the Western Alliance Tickets cost £2.50 for the full course, £1 for individual sessions Available from tns sellers or on the door. Please send me tns for 12 months starting at No...

29 April 1988 • 15

MARCH AGAINST SECTION 28 12 noon, Saturday 30 April, Fight for Lesbian and Gay Rights

BEATINGS BEGIN

the next step-16 Revolutionary Communist Party Weekly SECTION 28 of the Local Government Act, banning the promotion of homosexuality, comes into force in June. But even before the gay-bashing charter is operative, the bigots are on the rampage. • This week Tory councillor Peter Murphy caused uproar when he submitted a motion to a special meeting of Haringey council calling for a clampdown on all lesbian and gay activity in the borough. He demanded that the lesbian and gay unit be disbanded, that local bookshop Reading Matters be closed down because it stocks lesbian and gay literature, and that grants to lesbian and gay organisations be curtailed. Some Tories on the council objected to the strident tone of Murphy's motion, but they all agreed with his three proposals.

• Wolverhampton council has banned local gay activist Arthur Law from showing his video about the antiproperty. Get Your Clause Off Our Lives was to be shown at Lighthouse, a local media centre, before the council ins

THE BANS AND

slapped a ban on it. The video reveals how the council has taken every book about homosexuality off its library shelves, at the same time as it is lending out the violently antihomosexual video The Boys Next Door.

Tory councillor Gordon Jones declared that homosexuality is a sickness which should be medically treated.

• Gangs or thugs nave launched a series of vicious attacks on people at several London nightspots: Backstreet, Heaven, the London Apprentice and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. A week ago a dozen Leeds United supporters charged Support our fighting fund pay for your tns about 600 people. nomosexualty. carer wis yed ON-

STU

AGAINST

ThE Embankment, London

FACE OF

-El 29 April 1988 into the crowd queuing outside Heaven shouting 'poofters' and 'queers' as they punched and kicked the club-goers. One person was knocked unconscious and kicked in the head. On the same night three people were attacked on their way home from Backstreet in Mile End. A week earlier three men charged into the London Apprentice in East London, one produced a gun and fired several rounds into the pub which was packed with • The Independent Broadcasting Authority is following in the footsteps of the BBC by censoring scenes of EastEnders star Barry was 'straightened out by the BBC. Now the IBA has forced the Channel 4 soap Brookside to withdraw a scene showing lovers Chris Duncan and Gordon Collins in bed

TEBBIT: THE TRUE

THATCHERISM -

see page 11 40p together. The authority declared that this sort of thing was unsuitable for Saturday afternoon family viewing The bigots are not waiting until June before they stick the boot in. Yet the Labour-controlled Association of Local Authorities is trying to argue that it is unlikely that Section 28 can be used to stop local councils from supporting lesbian and gay activities. How they came to this conclusion is anybody's guess. Surely It is now clear to everybody that 'queer-bashing' is sanctioned at the highest level.

The Guardian recently revealed that Margaret Thatcher fought to keep the Clause in the Local Government Bill and took a keen interest in its passage through parliament. The freelance bigots in Haringey and Wolverhampton, the censors at the BBC and the IBA, and the thues who terrorise car nightspots are all taking their cue from the sovernment Fighting for lesbian and gay rights means challenging the prejudice that homosexuality is a crime or a sickness.

Convincing people to take a stand for the decriminalisation of homosexuality is the way to start undermining this reactionary view. We have to persuade council workers and ordinary people that a person's sexuality can never be a problem for the working class. It becomes a problem only when our enemies try to use it to divide us.

The Tories have created a climate of intense chauvinism against lesbians and gays. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking a hard line against it. This is the message we want to get across on the march against Section 28 this Saturday.

Supporters of lesbian and gay rights protested at Monday's meeting of Haringey council, were lory councilor Peter murpn proposed a ban on council backing for homosexual initiatives because we must no give such bans legal backing