The Next Step: No. 6, 12 February 1988

VICTORY TO THE PALESTINIANS!

o Ford strike • NHS strikes • Ferry strikes

OUR CLASS IS ALIVE

AND KICKING

ins the next step - 6 Revolutionary Communist Party Weekly Andrew Calcutt

MİCK MURPHY

SLEEPS

WITH

FORD MOTOR

30 three-year pay deal - see page 2 Support our fighting fund pay for your tns 12 February 1988 Ford workers say what they think of their union leaders who accepted management's see page 13

HOW TORY

HEALTH CUTS

PROTECT

CAPITALIST

PROFITS

see page 10 40p ...but our leaders are a dead loss THE Tories tell us that the working class is dead and buried beneath the share certificates and filofaxes of Thatcher's 'popular capitalism'. But the British worker is proving to be an angry and combative corpse.

(Continued on back page)

THE FIGHT IS ON AT FORD'S

FORD'S DAGENHAM LAST FRIDAY: PICKETS PROTEST AT THEIR UNION LEADERS' SHABBY DEAL AND UP THE PRESSURE FOR STRIKE ACTION he lights have gone out in Dagenham, Halewood, and Bridgend, and in 18 smaller Ford plants throughout The biggest industrial dispute in Britain since the miners strike began at midnight on Sunday, when 32 500 hourly paid Ford workers began their first national strike since 1978, pursuit of a 10 per cent wage rise strings no productivity WIth attached. Less than two weeks ago, union leaders emerged from negotiations three-year pay with a productivity deal which described as an 'historic achievement'. It would have meant a seven per cent increase in the first year, followed by per percent above the inflation rate for each of the next exchange for two years, in sweeping changes in

WOIK

tices including further job flexibility, and the introduction of assembly line team leaders' and quality circles to enforce speed-ups.

Rank and file Ford workers made officers national union their words. secret ballot after mass meetings last week, they voted two one to reject the deal, and backed their decision unofficial widespread action culminating in mass pickets at National officers had Dagenham. no choice but to call an all-out official strike from Monday 8 February.

HARDER

Ford workers are in a fighting mood. The two-year deal signed in January 1986 meant a cut in real Before the current strike, grade two production workers in Dagenham taking were "breadline wages' of £120. Manageoffer would have given ment's them less than £10 extra in their pockets over three years.

pay has been kept down, productby 40 per cent. ivity has risen Management's strategy is to make fewer workers work harder.

Four cushion builders in the car seats section now do the work of production nine. One worker described Ford as 'a slave camp': "They are introducing an electronic system

US TO

robots. On top of that they want to 5000 workers. LOSe

COLICE

people leave they are not replacing them, and the long-term sick are pushed into being voluntary redundancy. They are even having a go at the rules of the sick benefit society, so you only get paid if a company doctor says so." Since Ford workers have fought back with a wave of unofficial strikes costing 30 000 company production. Their initiative forced union leaders to take action. But management is equally determined to tough it out.

DISADVANTAGE

Ford managers made themelves more vulnerable to strike action by adopting "just in time' production, (UK) supplies whereby Ford components on a tight schedule to all company's European Yet operations. although current strike will have effect, afford to cannot gIve in. combination of total flexibility and Nissan's new technology expanding plant in the North-east puts Ford at a serious disadvantage.

Drastic changes in work practices 2 • 12 February 1988 and they praceat are the company's only hope of with Although profits are competing. high, Ford managers view dispute death battle. National union officials have left Ford ill-prepared for workers decisive contest. Their collusion in management's job-shedding programme, cut the Dagenham workforce by 14 000 over eight years, has resigned many workers to further flexibility and job losses. Many strikers see home the strike way something in return. concession to management's way of thinking, and it shows how the defeats of the past decade have left While their mark. Yet Ford workers will not win anything worth having unless they stick to their demand for "10 per cent and no strings".

By recommending management's offer, national union utterly discredited themselves, not among plant-level organisers. Now that they nave been bounced into calling an allnational strike. Mick Murphy and Jimmy Airlie If want to use it as a lever in their efforts to talk a bigger slice of the cake out of management. approach fully inadequate.

COMPLACENT

Despite their anger and militancy, local officials share some of the shortcomings of those higher up the the union ranks, including their lost underestimation of what it will the Take Deal Gordon, a well-known militant convenor, casually dismissed the threat of police intimidation in Dagenham. 'I don't believe it will come to that he said vanloads ol police plant, and foot patrols moved in to enforce the 'six pickets' rule.

We can't afford to be complacent when the will the government use every against us. At plant level effective organ- The isation is hampered by the present union structure, which stifles rank and file coordination and initiative.

At Dagenham the panel, made up of full-time convenors national officials, is the sovereign

TAKE CONTROL...

body. It has already organised picketing along strictly sectional lines. Workers from the body plant the and will picket the Chequers entrance, life which and file activists sections. to *get This is a officials have Their Happenng

WUC

advice centres, nurseries and jobs were likely to go after April. We also looking to the organise the fightback - after all the We

CUES

mobilising local people.

BOSSES

JOC

RESISTANCE

In Handsworth we get most of our funding from the Tories' inner-city - just as government and the council poured money into the area to try to prevent a repetition of the uprising. Most of it went into setting up community the and force centres and the like. whole strategy mean that there is no longer the and than defuse it. the engine plant will cover Thames Avenue, and so on. This regimented system has the effect of maintainstrike if they ing bureaucratic control by cutting above, and off direct contact between rank from various The first day's picketing was a hen we set up the Handsworth People's Campaign to fight the cuts we didn't facts and many figures. But we could see what was We knew that if we individual simply sat back our local projects, knew that we would get nowhere by Labour Party to it's a Labour council that's making council cannot that our decided according to campaign would fight the cuts by funding. programme and from Birmingham council. After the 1985 riots both the

FUNDING

council But now the for funding innercity areas has changed. The cuts Area to promote Second, money to fund community projects.

And the authorities have realised projects that many of these projects were helping to build resistance rather nondescript affair, but only because management was waiting to see the lie of the land before planning its strategy. It won't wait for long. The employers know that there are men willing to break the get the signal from Ford bosses won't hesitate to use strong-arm tactics to try to force a submission.

Ford workers who have taken the brave step of joining battle with

FIGHTBACK IN HANDSWORTH

'We won't be skivvies and narks' A report to the council's finance and management sub-committee in October spelt out the change.

argued that current council funding promotes many projects which at level By are very beneficial but the demonstration of the the collective impact of the wide of spread of projects funded is often not practically feasible. In other words, the projects might be vital to the people of Handsworth, but the justify them penny-pinching criteria. From now on only 'projects which are specifically invited to put forward proposals against detailed objectives and criteria for particular initiatives will be considered' for The council wants total Spy contro over every last penny spent What are the objectives that the wants to promote? The report detailed four areas which will be open for funding. First, it wants to set up an Urban Development 'economic regeneration and physical renewal".

the council will support promote 'crime prevention' — neighbourhood watch schemes. The third reduction of stress and prevention Andrew calcutt management must break out of the official union strait-jacket and make the strike their own. The first step to winning the full claim is for activists to make rank and ille contact with their counterparts In other sections of their own plant, and in other Ford plants throughout Britain. Andrew Calcutt of ill-health', and finally, the council support 'promotion of enterprise.

CHEAPSKATE

"economic regeneration' and "promotion of enterprise' the council means it wants to see more the sweatshops which are springing up in the area funded by the Tories through the local Task When talks about the Force. 'reduction stress and prevention of ill-health', the council means that it will support projects which provide cheapskate services, of the sort it is cutting even now. By promoting "crime prevention' the council hopes to persuade people to each other and turn informers. But we won't be skivvies and narks. We want proper jobs and services, and we want the police off our backs. We know we cannot fight the cuts by talking to the people who are The only way implementing them. we can hit back is by winning the support of local people who will bear the brunt of the cuts and council workers to wno will be asked process them Stefanie Boston the next step

the nextstep

THE CAMPAIGN HEALTH

WHO is going to run the health dispute and what are health workers fighting for? These are the two closely connected questions which we must find answers to ir we are to take forward the struggle against the government in the NHS After the state of the health service hit the headlines at the end of last year, the royal coneses wich represent the medical establishment made much of the early running. They lobbied ministers and exposed the worst cases of children waiting for operations. But their alm was only to secure extra finance for the specialist areas of the health service which are closest to te top doctors' hearts. The moderate and elitist approach of the medical dignitaries holds out no prospect of achieving anything for the mass o ordinary health workers. In recent weeks, nurses and ancillary workers have begun to push themselves to the fore in the health service dispute, a trend which culminated in oneday hospital strikes around Britain last week. The direct involvement of the workforce is a step in the right direction.

But the question of who is to run the campaign has still not been satisfactorily answered.

Many on the left have responded to the health workers' action by calling for the TUC to take control of and coordinate the diffuse initiatives. Yet this would be no better than leaving the royal colleges in charge. The top trade union officials and the leading hospital consultants have one vital shortcoming in common. They share a distaste for direct action by health workers the sort of action which holds out the only hope of success. The leaders of the official labour movement never wanted last Wednesday's protests to The Labour Party and happen. been so subdued by the experience of the Thatcher years that even the 24-hour strike is thought of a too extreme to contemplate.

Before the one-day stoppage, Labour spokesman Robin Cook Once Wednesday was over, union leaders breathed a big sigh of relief and quickly assured the was the end of industrial action. Instead, Labour and the TUC would be directing the health service campaign into parliamentary debates and public relations exercises.

leading up to the TUC rally on 5 March carefully planned for a Saturday, so there is no need for anybody to stop work to support it. Tom Sawyer, deputy leader of the National Union of Public Employees and a member of the Labour Party executive dismissed calls for further industrial action. 'A strike is not an end in Itself,' he stated, 'it is a means of drawing public attention and public sympathy to a case which we the next step Revolutionary Communist Party weekly passionately believe is right.

This view from the union action by thousands on a par with an emotional news story about a young hole-in-the-heart sufferer. Both are presented as one-off publicity stunts designed to embarrass the plans. have to take the the and ensure is lost. The way And the

CAMDEN

CALG

NHS'

be a health the health all-out 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 E26 • Europe and Irish Republic £34 • North Africa and Middle East (airmail E34 • Americas, Asia Central and Southern Africa (airmail) £37 • Australasia, Japan (airmail) £40 • Outside Europe - All destinations (surface mail) £33.

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ISSN 0144 350 X 12 February 1988. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.

No 6

WORKERS NEED

латк caring health service puts the onus on rewarding the 'efficiency and professionalism' of those who work in the NHS.

Yet these are the buzz-words which have been used to attack health workers for 40 years. In a health service run according to the dictates of capitalist accounting, 'efficiency' always means speeding up, cutting corners and condemning health workers to deteriorating working conditions. And the authorities have consistently appealed to nurses' "professionalism' and commitment to their patients, to persuade them to put up with poor pay rather than disrupt services. Any funds invested in the NHS on the basis of improving efficiency and professionalism will be bought at the expense of further hardship for the majority of health workers. Prioritising the demand to Defend the NS and demanding funds for caring services can only intensify divisions among the health workers. It is clear that not everybody who works in the NHS can make the same claim to be a professional carer According to these criteria, the further away from the intensive care unit you work, the less deserving your case. Some specialist nurses may win an improvement in pay through Editor: Mick Hume such a campaign. But most nurses. and all cleaners porters and other hospital staff, standard of living. Thus the divisions among health workers will be consolldated, and management's task of driving the cuts through the gap will be made considerably easier.

The Torles are already trying to split the NHS workforce between the professionals and the rest. Last week, nurses were infuriated by leaked reports that the government planned to give tem d miserable three percent pay Increase. But Tory ministers moved fast to reassure them that there would also be extra increases for those nurses considered to be the most important carers. Tory anti strike propaganda has pursued the same theme, declaring that those nurses who really cared for the NHS and their patients should be on the wards, not on picket lines, ir we focus on the defence of professional NHS services and call for rewards for health workers who care, we will be walking into the Tories' divide-and-conquer trap.

There is one way to unite all health workers in a campaign of effective action. That is to prioritise the issue which they all have in common - the fight for decent pay and working conditions. This is a concern which can cross the lines between skilled nurses, students, domestics, porters and others. It can shift the argument away from who contributes how much to caring for patents, towards a discussion of how much all health workers need. Winning a big improvement in wages and working conditions also happens to be the precondition for providing decent services for the rest of the population something we can never get while health workers are overworked, underdald anc demoralised. The way ahead in the health service dispute lies through a rank and file campaign of effective Industrial action, based on the demand for a living wage - to be determined by health workers and improved themselves working conditions. Such a campaign will not win any sympathy from the TUC, the RCN, the Labour Party or the medical establishment. It could, however, turn the immense, but passive, public sympathy for health workers into active solidarity from other sections of the working class.

This Is a development which the authorities fear greatly.

That's why they have tried to criminalise the Involvement of other workers in the health dispute, by broadcasting scare stories about 'extremists' and 'outsiders' on nurses' picket lines last week. But when It comes to winnine asainst the •government, nurses will find such support far more useful than another press statement from Tom Sawyer about his 'passionate belief' in the NHS.

12 February 1988 • 3

Home office bans foolproof' test

THE

targeting refugees adarajah Vilvarajah arrived in Britain in February 1987, Sri Lanka. war in Wednesday, a year to the day since he arrived, he is due to fly out again from Heathrow airport.

He has been sent voluntarily. packing as the result ot an extraordinary campaien mounted by home secretary Douglas Hurd.

Almost as soon as he set foot in Britain, Vilvarajah found himself behind bars; for several months he was incarcerated in the prison ship, the Earl William. The best legal brains in the home office spent much of last year plotting how to get rid of him. Hurd took the case to the house of lords - the highest court in the country - and even threatened to change the law if necessary to kick him out.

Why has Hurd gone to such lengths to deport handful a of refugees? Hurd is not simply being vindictive. Changes in immigration patterns have made the issue of Tory race refugees policies. As large-scale immigration has ground to a halt, the Tories have targeted ever-smaller and more peripheral groups of loreigners to sustain their anuimmigrant propaganda. Attacks on evervone from refugees polygamous wives now play a key in rallying public support Pall behind a Britain "under siege" from immigrants.

MANIPULATION

Throughout the past nine years, race and immigration have been key issues for the Tories. Thatcher 1979 swept to power in on a platform of popular support for tighter immigration controls, promising to end persistent fears about levels of immigration'. The Tories have manipulated these fears to impose stricter controls on black people blame and -LO Britain's social immigrants problems. Tory policies have all but halted black immigration. In 1976, 26 700 immigrants from the Indian subcontinent were allowed to settle in Britain. By 1986 this had fallen to 14 430. Nearly all were wives or dependants of those already here 700 less than men allowed in. The Tories success in stopping primary immigration has presented them with a problem. How can tney generate scares about Hoods of immigrants, if there are none?

The Tories have tried to compensate by turning their attention to other targets particular visitors, dependants and refugees.

4 • 12 February 1988

HURD ORDERS

TAMILS OUT

TORIES NEW

SCAPEGOATS

This week the home office is due to deport six Tamil refugees after fighting for a year to kick them out of the country. Kenan Malik explains why the Tories are In 1986 the Tories created a panic about visitors from the Indian subcontinent, Ghana and Nigeria.

This Immigration officials bumped up the refusal rate for black visitors to Britain and blamed the subsequent chaos at Heathrow on 'floods' of blacks trying to get in.

VIRULENT

Last yeal, switched the focus to Bangladeshi wives. Tower Hamlets backed by the courts, refused to provide Housing for dependants on Bangladeshi men, some of whom had been settled here for over 20 years, claiming that they were a *burden on the ratepayer'.

Immigration Bill published in the autumn institutionalised the idea that dependants of black people settled here are a drain on British resources. It decreed that black people must prove their dependants would have no recourse to public funds'. The bill also introduced a new target — polygamous wives.

According to own figures just 25 polygamous wives have entered Britain in the last 10 years. Yet the proposed law includes special protect Britain from this "flood".

The Tories have saved their most Virulent propaganda lot relugees While immigration has fallen sharply, the number of refugees seeking asylum, though small, has continued to rise. In 1980 there were 3060 active cases" awaiting a decision on their status By 1986 this had risen to 10 089.

The number of Tamil refugees has H ome office minister Timothy Renton will announce this week that the government is to ban I the use of printing to disputes - despite a secret report which shows the technique to be scientifically foolproof.

Genetic fingerprinting scientists to establish whether there is a blood relationship between two people by comparing the DNA genetic material were Samples. groups have lobbied for some time to be able to use the method to settle disputes in immigration cases.

Most immigrants who are refused permission

CHECE

dependants of men already settled here. In most cases the home office refuses to relationship as 'genuine'. More than 50 per cent of 1980, 18 Tamils 1009 active cases. this rise in the numbers of refugees 1980, had fallen to 13 percent.

the authorities council, the government's mcasures - refugees immigrants who want to come basis. establish 'genetic fingerwithout validity of any blood relationship.

settle immigration method for allows from tissue to be "genuine cases. The trial Britain the family Bangladeshi "exceptional allows the risen even more dramatically. In applied for In May asylum; in 1986 the figure stood at of all per cent The Tories have made full use of 64 percent of those living applying for asylum were granted refugee status. By 1986 the figure Two thirds of refugees are now given RUNWAY PROTEST BY TAMILS DESPERATE TO AVOID DEPORTATION LAST FEBRUARY Britain are refused entry on this Genetic fingerprinting could doubt laws and be The home office agreed to use the a trial period Bangladesh. The results showed the technique to be highly effective.

learned that They also proved highly embarrassing for the government. In 80 per cent of the cases, those tested were true relatives. And many of those previously refused entry were shown test lo exposed Britain's immigration procedures as simply a device to keep black people out and to brand immigrants as liars' and 'cheats'. The government's refusal Every to accept the technique shows that it manipulated has no intention of allowing facts to get in the way of its racist policies.

The government's rejection of the randora Andersor

MINISTER OF

ANTI-IMMIGRANT HYSTERIA DOUGLAS HURD

remain', Heave te which permits them to stay but deprives them of all rights.

Tories to keep constant check on their activities increase and thus their surveillance of the black community as a whole. And by not kicking them out straight away, it provides tor a sustained propaganda campaign. 1985, the Tories orchestrated a wave of popular hysteria at the arrival of a few hundred Tamil refugees at Heathrow, claiming that they were a threat to British workers' jobs and standards The Financial Times argued that the last thing the country needs as it tries to cope we recorderesa report has been widely condemned by immigration groups. For many Cases black people genetic fingerprinting appears to be the only way to get reunited with their families and loved ones. However, anti-racists in Britain should have the arguing for authorities to play fair is no way to defend the rights of immigrants The British authorities cannot be trusted to apply any immigration advantage black people. They will use any procedure the right which gives mem distinguish between "genuine" and "illegal' arrivals to endorse the idea that immigrants need to be vetted, watched and policed. British government has the procedures to its advantage, and subjected immigrants to humiliating flood of new immigrants.' The Sun *Keep those simply screamed: Tamils out of here! Last February the arrival of 64 Tamils was the signal for yet another round of racism. Hurd claimed the 64 were not Tial "genuine refugees but part of an 'immigration racket'. Only desperate protest by the men, who stripped to their underpants on the Heathrow tarmac, prevented immediate deportation. Hurd took full advantage of the refugees' subsequent legal battle to remain here. He argued that allowing the Tamils to stay would open the floodgates to 'very large numbers of people who are footloose' and organised a highprofile campaign to kick them out.

In December the law lords gave their seal of approval to Hurd's approach and told the Tamils to get out.

SCAPEGOATS

The Tories year-long campaign against a handful of refugees has helped of paint picture overcrowded Britain besieged by footloose' foreigners Despite the increasingly bizarre nature Tory anti-immigrant propaganda, the strength of racist opinion allows them to win support for their policies At a time when workers are challenging the Tories' economic policies, scapegoating refugees is a useful way of easing the pressure or the government and pointing the finger elsewhere. If we are to be successful in combating the Tories we need to reject every attempt to scapegoat any section of the working class That means fighting for the right of all immigrants and refugees to enter Britain without qualification.

tests to prove that they are 'genuine The most barbaric were the 'virginity tests' which the Labour government introduced the - Asian women had to seventies undergo internal examination to "prove' their marital status. Genetic fingerprinting is a more humane method to establish family relationships, but the Tories would only be interested in using it for the same end - keeping immigrants out, and branding all black people potential "illegals'. We cannot blame immigrants for using every means available to gain entry. But anti-racists should reject the idea that black people have t prove themselves genetically fit to We should forget enter about Tory trying persuade racists to be fair to immigrants, and organise instead against Britain's entire racist immigration system.

the next step

Tracy: *After a brilliant outside University College Hospital, we decided to stick to the roads and Tratalgar Square. There nearly 1000 of us, headed by the Bloomsbury workers' banner which one of us had made."

Jennifer: •We marched down Gower Street and Shaftesbury Avenue, stopping the traffic and "Join our demonstration, singing for better pay." We knew the demonstration was illegal. But we thought having nurses in red capes would insurance be an against the police. It didn't work.

'A senior police officer saying to me "I need to know who's organising this so I can tell them what rules they're breaking.

He kept putting his arm on me, and I was saying "I am a nurse, get lost." He tried to stop me going round with a bed pan to collect money for the strike fund. He tried the soft approach and then he tried authoritative. But nothing being could have stopped us that day.

•We had got this far ourselves, with no encouragement from the trade unions who had tried to downplay it. There was no way anyone was going to spoil it.

*They tried to use a police van to divert us down Northumberland Avenue, from Trafalgar away But Square. we all just walked around the van, and there was nothing they could do. Tracy: 'Once inside Trafalgar Square, we held a rally speakers from hospitals all over London, and from other unions solidarity action. taking night nurses, annester started the whole thing off last month, said "If we can do it, you can do it." •After an hour, we formed up to march down Whitehall. Just as we turned into the road, two rows of police came from nowhere. They linked up and we knew there was no way we would get through. But The beone a me sack couch isee We were crushed between them. the police and the marchers behind us." Jennifer: It was all nurses at the None of front getting crushed. had experienced police The police were nostilty berore. vicious and they were punching us.

My ribs were crushed up against the police van. I became hysterical.

I really thought I was going to die, because they just didn't Nurses were shouting, "How can you do this? We are supposed to work with you!" And they were just laughing. They were getting a buzz out of hitting nurses.

policeman got his knee right up my crotch. It was so degrading.

Tracy: *I hopped on to the bonnet of the police Somebody vall. handed me a megaphone. I said "Did we come here to be stopped demonstrate?" I started chanting What do we want more pay!" and others joined in.

HEALTH union chiefs insist that last Wednesday's one-day strike around Britain was the beginning and the end of Industrial action in the NHS.

Now, they say, the health workers must pursue other methods to win public sympathy, like lobbying MPs and courting the media. But the saoking of two local Cohse omicials tor talking to me press shows that whatever low-key tactics the unions try, management will up the stakes. Health workers at Hill End Psychiatric Hospital near St Albans began indefinite strike action early last month, after management suspended Cose branch secretary Jane Barclay- Taylor and steward Doug the next step rally were policy kept WiTh The who care. One As far as we were concerned, the police were the obstruction, not us they Then enough. sergeant policemen pushed me and pulled me off the van, got me under the arms and took me away. Jennifer: Everybody started Landman for talking to the press about the fatal effects of hospital cuts in West Hertfordshire. Now the health authority bosses have gone a step further and sacked both of them. The victimised St Albans health workers have been left with no option but to retaliate, by trying to spread their action to other hospitals and

HEALTH WORKERS ON STRIKE

The media portrayed the one-day strike and protests by London health workers as a low-key affair exploited by 'violent extremists'. But, as two nurses from Bloomsbury told tns, it was a by health workers. And the violence was done by the police. We have changed the nurses' names

•POLICE WERE GETTING A BUZZ OUT OF HITTING NURSES.

they'd had and two hospital the "You're nicked." local industry. Paul Farmer handed me a January,' says Landman. '1 am authority. SunKe continues. 'After more than a month there are still 20 workers out.

"NOTHING

COULD HAVE

STOPPED US'

determined display of anger over poor pay and cuts etter ditions chanting "Free the nurse, let her go." We were trying to get through the cordon and the police started hitting out. One nurse was bruised all down her left side. She was kept overnight. was winded. My friends pulled me over •We police Other nurses

TWO HEALTH UNION STEWARDS

VICTIMISED

Sacked for exposing the cuts •Psychiatric services manager Meanwhile, the We are bullding towards further gang me

PORKERS

our day sel own clung to me and said "If you take her, you're taking the rest of us.

Eventually they let a few of us go down towards Downing Street. It The was nasty down there. polic were sneering at us, saying "Look at you, you're pathetic."

knew wouldn't be allowed to deliver our letter to action throughout the district, following on from the 24-hout district-wide stoppage in January which 500 health workers took part in. We have also organisea an uter anton meeting to call for support service unions. It will Involve members of the transport workers', engineers' and general Maggie, so we went back to rejoin the march. On the way, we caught sight of a barricade with police in riot gear. I also saw a black boy being dragged across the street by a They poncemen. WCIt calling him "nigger", and I tried to stop them. One of them turned round and punched me in the face.

They locked him up, and we were banging on the van until they pushed us away. Tracy: I was inside one of the green vans, in a four-foot square cubicle. I could hear the police trying to move the demonstration away, and copie were shoulig "Not without the nurse." I was taken to Rochester Road police station. They tried to frogmarc But in. relusea lo manhandled. Inside the station. they subjected me to a body search.

and then put me in a cell with no light. I lay on the concrete slab.

and the blankets stank of urine.

Four hours later they let me go."

Jennifer: The police wanted to get us away from parliament. They made us go south of the river, over Westminster bridge. They

WCIO

openly shoving and pushing at us, whereas at the start of the day they still pleasant. We decided not have a rally in Jubilee Gardens because the police had forced us to go there.

So everyone went to the picket lines, OT Bacone The media said it was extremists egging nurses on. But it was all We told front. reporters what really happened.

We were and they distorted it. shocked that they didn't show what was going on. Now we know it's useless to rely on them.

Tracy: 'Media coverage won't get us what we need to live, whether it's sympathetic or not. But getting own show on the road on Wednesday is something to be proud of. We will build on it.

Jennifer: We held a meeting the arter the strike more people came than ever before. We Bloomsbury strike up committee. We are not going to allow union officials to dampen us down, and we are not going to rely on them. We are going to keep our momentum going, , witn a demonstration and a mass meeting.

We will be showing a video of the day's events, so that people who weren't there can happened *I was shocked and frightened by the police. But it also made me more determined. It has brought us together and made us stronger.'

Tracy: Maybe I was naive in thinking that a nurse's uniform would be an insurance against police brutality. Many people were upset about what happened on the day, but we cannot afford to let it stop us. We just want to make sure more people

SUCCS

involved next time.' and municipal workers' unions from neighbouring industrial plants such as British Aerospace and Marconi.' The St Albans sackings should be a warning to health workers: The softly-softly approach of press conferences and public relations is no match for a management which is determined to defeat resistance to the cuts. The only answer to such aggression like that envisaged in West Herts, which could force management to back down. By telline their members not to take action, the health union leavers are caving people like Landman and Barclay Taylor defenceless. 12 February 1988 • 5

THE JOKE'S ON ERITREA

Behind the jollity of Comic Relief, the West's political use of food aid in the Horn of unit of the Eritrean Peoples A Liberation Front (EPLF) recently destroyed a United Nations convoy outside the Eritrean capital of Asmara for mixing relief work with military activity'. American official Charles Redman called the attack outrageous action' and UN secretarygeneral Javier Perez de Cuellar Despite this fake concern agreed. for famine victims, the West and its aid agencies are helping Ethiopia to pursue its war against the starving people of Eritrea. colony talian The ormer Eritrea lies to the north of Ethiopia on the Red Sea. In 1962 it was annexed to Haile Selassie's empire.

When he was overthrown in 1974, Ethiopia's new military rulers, the Dergue, feared that concessions to the Eritreans might encourage some of Ethiopia's 80 other nationalities to secede. The Dergue has pursued a bloody Eritrea war against More than 250 000 died in the war since 1962, and there are an estimated 500 000 Eritrean refugees in neighbouring Sudan.

MUSSOLINI

The Western have powers bloody history of intervention in the conflict. After the Second World War the USA favoured returning Eritrea to Italy, which had occupied Ethiopia and slaughtered thousands of Africans under Mussolini in the thirties. However, Washington soon Ethiopia's realised that backing claim to access to the sea through Eritrea could prove more profitable.

From 1949, the USA pushed for a UN, under federal solution in the which Eritrea would become unit federated with Ethiopia under the sovereignty of the Ethiopian Crown. In December s Her Majesty's government, for some purpose not so tat divined, positively pursuing a course of provocation of the Trish people and government?

So asked the Irish Times in a week when Anglo-Irish relations came under renewed pressure from two British legal decisions. Attorney Sir Patrick Mayhew Tenera announced that there would be no more prosecutions of Royal Ulster Constabulary officers involved in covering up a shoot-to-kill policy which left six nationalists dead in County Armagh. Then the appeal court in London sent six Irishmen back to jail despite overwhelming that they had eveerce Birmingham framed the

TOR

pub bombings.

CONTEMPT

British This official contempt for Irish sensibilities has angered people. embarrassed the Dublin government, by exposing its subservient role in the Anglo-Irish agreement, signed two and a half years ago.

minister Irish justice Collins responded to the shoot-tokill decision by declaring Mayhew unfit for public office. remark would often eadto a diplomatic breach between two But Northern Ireland Tom King brushed it minister aside as 'understandable' What King understands is that must go through Irish ponticians such ritualised posturing • maintain their credibility at home.

confident King also official Irish retaliation will go no Dublin eager further. Is as 6 • 12 February 1988 EPLF controlled * Nakfa Erota • Barentu • *an

SUDAN,

ETHIOPIA

of UN general the ratified this formula by 46 votes to 10. Nobody bothered to consult the Eritrean people. Selassie was so pleased with this that he arrangement Ethiopian contingent to help the UN invade Korea, the only non-Nato ever country to do so. He also agreed to have let the USA use the British-built Radio Marina outskirts of Asmara as a centre for its global communications network.

In 1952 US secretary of state John Foster Dulles summed up Washingattitude ton's cynical Eritrean question: *From the point of view of justice the opinions of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. Nevertheless, the strategic interests of the United States in the Red Sea basin and considerations of security and world peace make it necessary that be linked with the

COULL Y

ally Ethiopia.' Today the Western powers maintain that their security in the of Africa demand for justice for devastated Since the been HaSe Gerry Such a London to concerning the Armagh killings. A full exposure of the shoot-to-kill that episode would undoubtedly blow the cover on the role as Southern security

FOOD AID FOR AFRICA

Africa is a deadly serious business

ASMARA

on

ERITREA^

assembly

USA

has tacks to increase its influence. But the policy has been contempt for the suffering masses. sent an trained Ethiopian military officers in 1974, the USA was not too upset.

disenchanted become the dent Somalia to attack Ethiopia.

secured its Ogaden turned on the driven back into an enclave.

'Marxist' our its camp. Washington First, still Ethiopia. overrides the seventies, the

DESPITE THE

ANGLO-IRISH AS ISIAL

DISAGREEMENN

with Britain garda (police) have emerge in the press. Irish garda was planted in a shed by the RUC Private Eye, Irishman James arrested by the cover up the truth of the la w of the • forces different tried several one consistent theme in US When Selassie was ousted by US- However, by 1977 Washington had the WIll Dergue's radical policies such as agricultural collectivisation. Presi- Carter incited neighbouring With Soviet and Cuban help the Dergue border, then Eritrean liberation movement, which had managed to liberate most of its country between 1974-78. The Eritreans were largely American aid policy in the Horn of Africa today is designed to entice Ethiopia back

EPLF FIGHTERS

Sudanese border gave limited support to the EPLF, to put pressure As news of the last Ethiopian famine broke in October 1984, the USA started to smuggle the small quantities of food across the

IT'S BUSINESS

Despite warnings that the Anglo-Irish agreement is under threat, Dublin will continue cooperating policing the Border. Already, recently allegations of complicity between British security forces and the Irish begun to events • The Economist revealed that an present as an cooperation. observer when 17-year old Michael Tighe, one of the men murdered in cracking Armagh, was gunned down as he stumbled on some antiquated rifles to-kill and • According to Phoenix, Ireland's the RUC officers involved in the Armagh killings helped the garda carry out its own cover-up operation in the notorious McGovern/Dowra affair. In 1982, to the North. McGovern was RUC before he could cross the Border to give evidence against a garda charged Contauce with assault. The garda in question also happened to be the brother-inthen Irish justice minister Eamonn O'Doherty. The article carried allegations Eritrean extens ve famine.

EPLF

the EPLF- LO controlled region of Eritrea. But the trickle stopped when Addis Ababa allowed US aid agencies access to Ethiopian-controlled parts 1985 Since May the not the that senior garda officers, some had promoted, been recruited by British intelligence for undercover security operations.

The political fall-out from recent and has not affected such Security forces both sides of the Border continue down on those British resist rule Ireland. In the week of the shoot- Birmingham Six decisions, Irish police uncovered a Irish large cache of arms just over the Border in County Donegal. Four republicans are currently detained in the South awaiting extradition The most striking thing about Dublin's reaction to recent events is the absence of opposition to cooperation

SCCUTL

under the Anglo-Irish agreement.

When some backbenchers from his Fianna Fail party suggested that Dublin could use the newly signed extradition treaty as a bargaining Western aid agencies have helped Ethiopia 'pacify' the occupied area food Eritrea large WILl shipments. Because of this deal, the Western media kept quiet about the Dergue's brutal persecution of the people throughout of the covera-s

'DIABOLICAL'

With aid via Sudan cut to a trickle, the Eritreans have come to view the Western aid agencies as allies of the occupying Ethiopians. They have called the Red Cross 'an agent of the diabolical designs of the Dergue*.

After the attack on the UN convoy the Red Cross launched an 'Open Roads for Survival' campaign to secure safe for food passage received immediate support from the Reagan regime.

Since only government-held areas benefit from Western food aid, this 'safe passage' campaign to restrict military operations is directed at the alone. Meanwhile, Ethiopians continue to bomb the few which the

CHECH

liberated areas of Eritrea, without attracting a word of condemnation from the West. Ethiopia has become dependent on the west duringles wal agalst the Eritreans. Aid agencies like the Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children play a part in prosecuting that war. In return for Western help crushing the Eritreans, the Dergue announced last month that it moderate its "socialist agricultural collectivisation and settlement policies - - a concession which the West has demanded for years. The food weapon is in the frontline of the arsenal used against the Eritrean people. Andy Clarkson Irish premier Charles counter, Haughey warned his 'wild men' prove their to republicanism on the radio.

When the agreement was signed in November 1985 it was hailed as a breakthrough for Anglo-Trish relations. Britain promised to deal with overt instances of injustice in North. Dublin In return, promised total cooperation in cracking down on the IRA.

Two and a half years on, Britain has not even agreed to Dublin's most modest proposals, such as the provision of bilingual placenames in nationalist areas. Tory ministers have ruled out any question of reforming the no-jury system Diplock courts. Meanwhile Dublin is playing a high-profile role in Britain's war against the republican movement, seizing tonnes of arms ratifying extradition which nationalists under LicaLy. arrested in the South can be handed over to the murderous RUC With each passing month becomes more obvious that the Anglo-Irish agreement means only a crackdown on those fighting for freedom. and the further submission of Dublin to the will of Whitehall. All Haughey and Collins can do in response is wring their hands and whine, more in sorrow than in anger, about a cultural misunderstanding between the two countries.

the fight for Trish As long freedom is a mortal threat to the authorities in both London and Dublin, no number of British court end Anglo-Irish decisions can cooperation against republicans Mark Reilly the next step

NURSING

GRIEVANCES

AS a second year student nurse in Oxford, I earn 25z0 a montn. out Or this 1 pay £110 rent and 230 ollis. I Tina It difficult to survive on such a pittance. Although 1 am a student, I work as hard as a staff nurse, and do more of the 'dirty work'. I think students should be entitled to a decent living wage. for 18 months. The six wards I have worked in have all been shortstaffed. I am committed to nursing, but l am not Florence Nightingale. Why should i be deprived of a living wage just because l do a job which involves caring for people? 1 regularly go home from work feeling guilty beause patients are not recelving adccuate care. We are expected to stay late and work unpaid overtime. That's what's propping up the health Why should I service. have to do this for no pay? I was a member of the RCN, but I have recently joined Conse because I was fed up with the RC's 'angelic' attitude. We need to strike beause we are badly Dala. u a suike was properly organised it would not harm the patients. We must fight for our future as nurses, and for free healthcare for everybody. Alison Oxford

ABORTION IN CANADA

A FEW years ago l was involved in a campaign in Canada around the defence of a doctor, Henry Morgentaler, who went out of his way to provide abortion facilities despite the restrictions in the law - in Canada you need permission from several doctors and the time-limit is somewhere around the 16-week mark. Morgentaler was sentenced to seven years tor setting up an abortion/contraception Cele Wee you could walk in off the street and get an abortion. He tried on his release to establish clinics in Winnipeg and then Toronto. The police used to raid the Winnipeg clinic in mid-abortion, contiscate equipment seize files and arrest staff. The Toronto clinic was similarly raided but finally fire-bombed out of Write o: tns the next step

HEALTH NORKERS

-DURFIEHI

decent pay) For better conditions ADVIE about providing emergency cover is the last thing nurses need from the RCP at the moment. We have been fed this sort of moral remedy for generations. We are brought up to feel responsibility for human ite, as a morar outy. Outside of these Victorian conceptions of qur 'profession', we are poorly paid, largely women workers who carry the health service on our existence by pro-lifers. The women's movement cause and ended up challenging the laws in the courts. Canada's general moral and political climate is similar to Britain's, and I expected the case to be thrown out.

However, the Supreme Court has ruled that the abortion laws are in

STATE SURVEILLANCE

AS youth workers in Mersevside we have nad check in compliance with recent government legislation. The Criminal Justice Act, which was introduced following media coverage of child sexual abuse, means that anyone working with children, either part-time or full-time, paid or Write to tns

BCM JPLTD,

WC1N 3XX

Letters page

NUPE

BRITAN'S

CARING

UNION

DacKs We are not responsible Tor the provision or care in the NHS according to its present structure. The appeal to nurses' individual consciences is a guaranteed way of immobilising us and ensurine that we do not exercise the massive potential power that we have. Sarah North London contravention of human rights, and it looks as if Canada s laws are about to be liberalised. This goes against current antiabortion trends evervwhere ese s it something to take heart from or merely a jude's brainstorm? onency South London voluntary, must be cleared by the police. In principle, the idea of the law is to Oeve sex ue oca from working with children. In practice it gives the police an opportunity to gather together whatever information they can lay their hands on. At present TRaCeS TaLOS about family background, records of schooling and employment, details of foreign travel, membership of groups or political parties, and brushes with the law. This list is continually being extended. This surveillance has no relevance to the work we are doing. It simply like child abuse can be used by the state to target particular workers.

tns reader Merseyside I DISAGREE with Dave (letters, 22 January) when he says that Scargill is the only option. Neither Walsh nor cargill offer any way forward. Like Roy Lynk, Walsh wants UDM-style talks so he can negotiate six-day working for pathetic pay rises. Whereas Scargill is an old-style militant from the seventies who talks about action but has no strategy for combating employers. I criticise both of them. Dave blames the Notts miners for what happened in the 1984-85 strike. But what we needed to do at the start was raise miners awareness, whip up the militancy that did exist, and then have a ballot - not hand over the running

LAMBETH

UNIONS

SUPPORT

SCABBING

AS if management weren't enough of a problem, officials from other unions have tried to sabotage the strike by eneineers at Lambeth council. Seventy-one venic e ene neers are still locked out of the Shakespeare Road depot in Lambeth, after the abour counci sald it would only allow a return to work if the engineers submitted to a six-month productivity trial on bonus agreements which should have been paid since November. The local leadership of the Towu. Nune and Ucatt got together to write a etter to counci leader Linda Bellos denouncine the encineers for allenating public opinion, ana davisilg Bellos to get their work done in the private sector if necessary.

MOST

NOT

LAD

SARE

NOT

SCABS

NEW WAY FOR

NOTTS MINERS

to Scargill. the ropes. forward. Gary Ollerton

LAMBETH COUNCIL LEADER LINDA BELLOS

Rank and file members of all three unions are furious about the letter.

Within hours of hearing about it, a Nupe branch meeting forced its leaders to apologise and to send anther letter to Bellos stating that Nupe members gave full support to the engineers and wanted nothing to do with the earlier letter. T Scargill may have been right to predict pit closures. But his tactics were all wrong. Now the government has got the NUM on Nostalgia for working class communities - flat caps, pigeons and whippets - gets us nowhere.

What we need is a strong movement in the pits and regular weekly branch meetings. We have to win over a majority to the NUM in Notts. To get it we will have to reject Scargill's backward-looking approach and look for a new way The engineers are determined to stick it out. Other workers are determined to give them support. But if they want to make their support effective, they'll need to take matters into their own hands, and organise a campaien under rank and file control. Lambeth concil 12 February 1988 • 7

ince the start of the year people all over the country have taken to the streets and picket lines in ever increasing numbers protest against attacks by government and employers. A sizeable and spontaneous demonstration against Clause 28 of the Local Government Bill, which seeks to outlaw the promotion of homosexuality, was followed by a series of marches against the Alton Bill which aims to curb abortion rights.

The NHS has been in a state of for weeks, terment some nurses and oler neal workers have organised action over pay and cuts. The spirit of resistance is evident in industry too.

SURPRISE

early January miners at Bentley colliery in South Yorkshire brought the coalfield to a virtual standstill. Last week pit deputies staged a one-day strike which shut the mining industry, and Gowi threatened further action unless management meets their demands.

The seamen went on strike and some have persevered in the injunctions and face court capitulation by their dispute will end. A new mood of militancy is apparent in the motor industry, workers have rejected the pay deal negotiated by.their union leaders and voted for action, forcing their officials to call a national strike from Sunday. This upsurge of militancy seems to have caught everybody by surprise.

There is general confusion about the meaning and significance of the new protest movement. Sections of the notably press, the Sunday Times, have dug out their 1978-79 reference books and portrayed it as the 'winter of discontent, when public sector workers took to the streets against Others the Labour government. have suggested that it represents a return to te trade umon millancy of the early seventies, when miners, dockers and others took on the of Edward Tory government Heath. Many left wingers boast that we are experiencing a longawalted upturn Class struggle, after years of quiescence under the Thatcher regime.

wnat unites an these explanations is the tendency to look for patterns of conflict from the past, and a failure to analyse the upsurge protest relation present Unless we look events from the perspective of 1988 it will be impossible to assess what they mean for the class struggle today.

SOBERING

Since the beginning of the Thatcher era in 1979, and more specifically since the beginning of steady and cumulative been a decline in resistance. The capitalist class has succeeded in containing all forms of domestic opposition, and the Tories have gone from one victory to another. The defeats suffered by different sections of workers such as the printers, and the humiliation experienced campaigns hake the local government anti-cuts lobby, have had a sobering effect the labour

OLE

As the Tories have marched from one electoral victory to another, Thatcher has managed to acquire a reputation for invincibility. As a result the fear of taking on the employers has grown and so too has the conviction that it is not possible to fight. This sense of pessimism and lowering horizons has enabled the leaders of the official labour movement to win a degree of acceptance for their conservative perspective or new realism. So what has happened to change all unis! Up to the June 1987 general election the Tory strategy was based on a gradual and selective offensive against the working class.

Thatcher skilfully attacked one 8 • 12 February 1988 munist Parl

FOR

SBIAN

GAY

GHTS

OLTZA DA

Lory bicols

4 FIGHT 50

2 Stoo

LES

AND

THE ISSUE IS LESBIAN AND GAY RIGHTS

section after another. The objective was to Isolate net opponents and prevent the emergence of a more Tories movementostrile. Tid anxious WeLC provoking wider social conflict, and carefully picked targets one by successive electoral victory was the signal to change course.

DOMINATION

The Tories understood that it would be merely a matter of time before British capitalism plunged into recession. appreciated that such a recession could unleash a new wave of class conflict. prepare conflicts ahead the Tories decided to raise the stakes and strengthen thelposition relauve to their opponents. As a result the ruling class offensive has become more far-reaching. Attacks rights, new police powers, more repression, harsher working conditions and further curbs on employment rights have become Virtually the the norm. legislative Conservative shift the designed towards the establishment of a system morc auluorlaran ponucal dominaton upsurge of the new reflects a growing recognition that Tory policies are going to have a profoundly negative impact upon people'S lives. Work practices and civil rights which used to be taken for granted are now being called into question. A fear of what the tuture holds in store unites the diverse manifestations of protest of recent weeks. A number of different groups in society now know that their backs are against the wall, and have felt compelled to take

SULLEC

of stand. The Alton Bill is the most severe legal threat to women's rights in the past two decades. tary munist Pa ory big

I FOR

ESBIA

) GAY

RIGHTS

01-729 0414 a direct assault on the position of lesbians and gays, and one which extends every into everyday life. avoid the management pay and producoffer means selling their souls for three years. off their Their third face drastic alterations to tradinonal work pracuces and mass redundancies. Health workers are confronted with the collapse of the NHS and the prospect of working in even worse pittance. Tory attacks They new turn for the worse. The upsurge of protest reflects a spontaneous recognition that for the something must be done to stop the Tory offensive. At the moment this recognition is fairly restricted It is confined to an awareness the implications of these attacks for the specific group concerned.

civil Nevertheless this resistance very development. It indicates a crucial shift away from the idea that it is not possible. to entire importantly the current protests of the anticipate the type of reaction to the Tory offensive that will become balance more general in the years ahead.

STAID

The movement of protest is a protest departure from the prevailing departure political climate. Even the most militant expressions coexist with the created atmosphere past decade. In particular the contemporary protests do not challenge the new realism of the movement. The mood of passivity and conservatism which is codified in perspective of the sort labour movement exercises influence over struggles. This is one of the most ironic features of the period, and Clause 28 is one which is common to all the

AND

campaigns we have examined.

official Their campaign. singularly seen 1967 Abortion going on for abortion Pandora Anderson unrealistic. rights. of aspect For Ford workers The seamen conditions for a For all these people the are a qualitatively of positive fight. Most prevailing of protest staid political over the official labour the new

CLASS PRO

Many leading activists in the campaign against the Alton Bill have been preoccupied frate with running a safe and respectable approach defensive, emthis means phasising a narrow defence of the Act, instead of the attack and fighting local on demand. The slogan which most clearly expresses attention the necessity to extend women's rights — Free abortion on demand — has been dismissed by many in the Fight the Alton Bill campaign Typically This defensive realism has even led activists to propose that the campaign should focus on health cuts since this is and celebrities. less offensive to moderate opinion than fighting openly for abortion

ZDA4*

For For better THE POLITE PROTEST APPROACH OF LABOUR AND TRADE UNION LEADERS THREATENS T

ROOD AND EN

TO ALTON AND CLAUSE 2

CLASS PO

Health workers and se campaigners and lesbian and gay and miners - they've all tal action. Now, argues Frank Ricl some political muscle b The same conservatism imbues the campaign against Clause 28.

Some radical activists have argued that the campaign should concenattacking the Local Goverament Bill as a whole. But fudging the issue of lesbian and gay rights in a diffuse campaign against Tory attacks on councils Alternatively campaigners have tried to draw effects of to une Clause 28 on the arts, rather than highlight the dire consequences of the legislation for homosexuals.

the campaign eschews politics' and is keen to project an image of respectability by enlisting the support of moderate politicians The same problems are apparent in the struggle in the health service Instead of putting the issue of

DEM

WAGE

*FIGHT

NOW

OUR FIGU

Окли

FIGH

decent pay conditions

TESTS

NEED

LITICS

en, women's rights ctivists, carworkers h strike and protest rds, we need to put ind these struggles wages and conditions to the fore of their demands, the unions promoting a Defend the NHS' publicity campaign. The needs of health workers are buried slogans which appeal to popular desire for a better health service. In this way questions of vital importance to our class are There reluctance to argue for strikes and other forms of industrial action, and instead the prefer to speak in vague terms about protest. Instead of appealing to class interests the unions are intent on mobilising the medical establishment and other respectable institutions champion LO Politics are campaign. upon and political activists attacked for bringing the NHS campaign into disrepute.

FUSE THE ANGER OF THE HEALTH WORKERS

The conservative atmosphere that influences these struggles that they remain sectional and are In contrast to these campaigns do not seek to change things or to challenge the politically. dominant point which every leader is at pains to emphasise is that their intention is not political and that politics has place movement. course despite protestations the political: they are response offensive. To pretend otherwise is confuse the approach devalues itself, by pinning everything on public sympathy and relying fair play from our opponents.

respectable opinion is no match for the Tories. The capitalist class has never been defeated by publicity stunts. Only the resistance of the working class can force the Tories to retreat.

RESTRAINTS

Despite the conservative influences on the direction of the protest movement, the present wave of struggle has the are more effective. become spontaneous instincts of those in struggle can drive the movement further and involve wider sections in the of workers. The question at issue is whether this spontaneous action develop its perspective whether or marked remain under the influence conservative realism. This is where working class leaders revolutionaries have a key role to play. Our task is to challenge the prevailing political influences so that the struggle can break free restraints it back. the There frowned present spirit of militancy will soon run out of steam. are leaders are hoping that a few days of action will bring the situation

HEALTH WORKERS

ND A DECENT LiVING

AND BETTER CONSTIONS

~ THE N.HS

means the-scenes Party Labour past struggies associated The pre- Labour Party in their too risky to contemplate.

all these

ISOLATION

are press political The Labour government's They struggle. line. the struggle slowing nean workers But Bill. the the isolation campaigns. this experience to politicise potential to The the case for class politics.

Militants could become political activists welter of recriminations.

deal with its enemies. that hold a danger that the The union argument against fighting back

MAKE

THEM.

LISTEN

under control so that they can get down to the business of behindnegotiations. The finds the whole affair embarrassing. As an aspiring statesman, Kinnock does not want with abortionists, strikers and lesbianand gays. He has even criticised the shabby attempts of the Scottish organise to campaign against the poll tax as and trade leaders are putting pressure on all those involved in struggle to fall in have in succccace down the tempo of the struggle and are working overtime to undermine the impetus for action at Ford.

They have dissociated themselves from the fight against the Alton short this

LCIT

unwillingness by labour bureaucrats to support the struggles that are taking place can only increase of the different long term, however, this could prove to be their undoing. Marxists can use the struggles by exposing the duplicity of the Labour leaders and putting Time is running short. There is a danger that lack of progress will soon lead to a loss of impetus.

marginalised as their fellow workers retreat in the face of obstacles.

There is a possibility that the movement could fragment in a Only the politicisation of the struggles can steel the movement to RCP supporters must use every opportunity to make the most of the time that is left. It is important that the experiences of the current struggles become a positive lesson for those going into action in the period ahead - and not another Pandora Anderson propaganda war

THE PERSECUTION

OF THE MOONIES

THE government's decision to drop its high court action to revoke charitable status from the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church caused a storm of controversy in the house of commons last week. Attorney General Sir Patrick Mayhew claimed that the government had insufficient evidence to challenge the group's claim to tax exemption on the grounds that it was a registered charity for religious education. Conservative, Liberal and Labour MPs criticised the government's climbdown and demanded tough measures against the Moonie cult. The Tory government's discomfiture reveals the establishment's difficulty in distinguishing between a cult religion and the mainstream variety. The opposition MPs' calls for state persecution of the Moonies, however, set a dangerous precedent which could have much wider repercussions. In English law, according to the Attorney General, 'there is a strong presumption that any trust for the advancement of any religion, without distinction, is charitable unless the contrary is proved by evidence admissible in court proceedings.' Mayhew was forced to admit that he would find it very difficult to convince a court of law that the Unification Church was fundamentally different from all the other churches which receive official subsidy.

Moonie theology is millenial and messianic just like the charismatic, evangelical style of religion that is currently sweeping the established Christian churches. The Reverend Moon founded his church in Korea in 1954 on a distinctive interpretation of the Bible. The Moonies belleve that the Fall is the result of a sexual liaison between Eve and the archangel Lucifer, followed by further fornication with Adam. Because Jesus did not marry, he could only offer humanity spiritual, not physical, salvation. Most Moonies believe that the Reverend Moon is the Lord of the Second Advent, though he has not personally claimed divine Wacky? Certainly. But, is the gospel according to Moon much more farfetched than tales about Immaculate conceptions, virgin births, resurrections from the dead, assumptions into heaven and diverse miracles which are the common fare of mainstream Christianity? The Moonies are wellknown for their insistence on celibacy before marriage and fidelity afterwards, and for their cult ritual of mass weddings. At a time when the British government and the established churches are all preaching the virtues of chastity and monogamy in the era lof Aids, it is difficult for the Attorney General to justify singling out the marlage-mad Moonies for persecution. Labour left winger John Fraser led the chorus of condemnation of the Attorney General: The essence of the law is that a religious charity should direct itself to the benefit o the public and not positive harm and right-wing political activity.' The Moonies are indeed an obnoxious and reactionary cult. Their list of front organisations includes the International Federation for Victory over Communism and God's Light Infantry and they are well-known for their links with the CIA and right-wing fundamentalist campaigns. But what's new? The Catholic Church is a formidable mobiliser for anti-abortion groups and the Church of England is in the vanguard of the anti-gay backlash. Left-wing demands for government action against the marginal activities of the Moonies are an evasion of the task of combating religious reaction where it has a real impact on British seciety.

They also invite the state to extend its repressive activities in a way that can only give it greater legitimacy to clamp down on any group it decides to label as subversive. The inevitable victims of any such increased repression will be on the left. Our response to the Moonle controversy should be to uphold the freedom of religious worship, while demanding an end to the whole system of state subsidy of religion through the sham of charitable status. We want to see the back of the Reverend Moon the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and all the rest; but we will pay a heavy price if we ask the Tory government to do it for us.

12 February 1988 • 9

M edical consultants, trade union leaders and leftwing radicals are urging the government to forgo tax cuts in next month's of increased budget in tavour spending on healthcare. Opinion polls show that a majority people Britain compassionate alternative to Tory policy. But heightened public concern over dechamg standards of healthcare will not defeat a government bent on reversing the Sentimental concern about the plight of society's underdog is a long associated liberal sections of the British establishment. Indeed the founding of the after the Second wel are state World War suggested a future of officially sanctioned compassion tor the less fortunate. All but atew Sid Was approval for free, comprehensive These attitudes welfare services. extended to the tax system. Under progressive tax policies, employers and the highly paid would give up a bigger slice of their incomes than low-paid workers. orders would benefit from services paid for by the wealthy.

WELFARE

The consensus established around state services affected more radical thinking too. Left wingers principle of stateapplauaca te run 'cradle to the grave welfare.

Nevertheless, aware of its middle class, philanthropic connotations they gave the notion a radical edge.

The welfare state was presented as an historic victory wrested from 10 • 12 February 1988 CHANCELLOR NIGEL LAWSON SHARES A JOKE ABOUT THE TAX CUTS CON AT THE BRITISH BOSSES' ANNUAL JAMBOREE

BUDGET CHOICES

WHY THE TORIES

FAVOUR TAX CUTS

Tony Kennedy examines the capitalist logic behind Tory attempts to cut public spending Britain's obstinate rulers by the working class. Today, slogans such as No tax cuts for the rich and appeals for additional spending exemplify the left's belief that the capitalist state can be a vehicle for progressive change.

of The view that the state can the ensure a decent living for everyone The capitalist state is illusory. responds not to abstract moral precepts about what is humane, but to the hurly-burly world of profit-making. provision are a burden on protits With the capitalist system in the throes of recession, the Tories have with no option but to cul back or StaLe SCIVICeS

TAXES

All taxes are a deduction from the generated exploitation capitalist working class. This is obvious in the case of taxes on business profits (corporation tax). In the 1984 budget the government radically reduced liabilities lower profits. Surcharges on very high profits were abolished. Standard corporation reduced while the profit levels at which higher rates are paid. were increased. For companies annual profits below f100 000, the corporation tax rate now talls in line with income tax. In the last budget fell from At first sight it seems illogical to maintain that income tax too is paid wholly out of the surplusvalue appropriated by the capitalist CB class. Only in exceptional cases is this obvious. For instance, annual populist dividends paid to come out of company profits and are liable to income tax. And since capitalist employers add no value production, incomes must also be paid out of surplus-value. pay packets? Surely this means that taxes come out of workers wages as well as profits?

Taxes and service

VALUE

For capitalists, of machinery. unpaid surplus-value the stretches to videos, foreign holidays. on company the value of labour-power. tax were with 29 to capitalist and, deduction from surplus-value.

absolute.

BRITAIN

BUSIN

term and conflict. profits. cost directly an equivalent HOweveR

TESTICE

OUT

shareholders the rich' working class their personal implicit But what about those taxes deducted from workers" the Industry

OCCLOS

purchasing workers is simply an investment, Just like buying a factory or a piece improving Workers are taken on because of their unique ability to produce new value, in particular, labour costs. However, just like any other component of capital investment, labour-power costs money. The cost of labourpower corresponds to the cost of those goods deemed by society tc surplus-value, be the basic level of subsistence for the labourer, whether it embodies only a few consumption items or cars and This represents the commodity Whatever the rate of income tax, workers wages after tax tend to reflect the value of labour-power.

Hence, a rise in the rate of income tax forces wages up. In effect an increased income tax burden ends up as rising labour costs for the technology therefore, information. Subsidies, Of course this situation is not Capitalists can try to offset the burden of rising income tax by attacking living standards cially and driving wages below the value For of labour-power. But such opportunities are limited in the short risk provoking class even The current upsurge of strikes in civil industry and services is mainly a response to the employers attempts to rationalise wage costs.

Taxes on the sale of goods (value added tax have a similar effect on Employers may incur the by paying the tax prices Otherwise they can raise prices by of the tax. This, exerts unward pressure on wage costs as the consumption goods of the working class rise

WAGE-SLAVES

The fact that all taxes are paid of capitalist profits is better understood by employers than the left. Slogans like "No tax cuts for sustain a belief that the should devote its energies to calling on the capitalist state to reform the tax system. The endorsement of lower Taxes for me poor unites te Jen with British business. Noting that taxes as a proportion of national output have risen under me tories Confederation British and the Institute of for are calling income tax rates as low as 10 per cent. This has little to do with ot Britain's

TE C

wage-slaves. Capitalists understand that lower income tax rates reduce

STATE SPENDING

While taxes are a deduction from spending makes little contribution to raising future surplus-value. Most state spending is unproductive trom the standpoint of the capitalist class.

Forms of state spending that come closest to raising surplusvalue are the various forms of subsidies given to industry.

recent department of trade and industry white paper on promoting small businesses involves plans for a new system of investment grants and financial help for design and marketing however, simply involve redistributing surplusaway sector, through taxation, towards another in the form of grants. In this sense they may aid future profits if the recipient companies are commer- Most subsidies, viable. unprofitable however, go to concerns, as state-run Aid to nationalised industries. industries depresses profit levels since it finances the running of commercially unviable concerns This explains why nationalised industries have been at the centre of the Tory offensive against the working class. Mass job shedding low wages and work flexibility in shipbuilding, steel and mining are essential if British capital is to maintain already poor profits State spending on infrastructure (roads, rail, communications and the sewerage system) is also a direct deduction from existing profits. Business generally favours this higher spending in area reduces production because it For private costs in the future. capitalists, narrow and pot-holed roads, collapsing sewers and faulty telephone lines cost money. Big cuts by the Tories in infrastructural spending are particularly irksome to British bosses. The CBI is urging the government to switch resources ensure that Britain is not shackled with an outdated system which adds to business costs.

BURDEN

Social security, health and education take up nearly half the budget of present state around £170 billion. This spending is a burden on profit-making. Even its indirect aid to profits is minimal.

capitalists there little 1S economic rationale in maintaining millions of unemployed workers on minimal subsistence Likewise, state employment of servants. teachers and hospital workers is very different from taking on labour in the private sector. Since they produce no surplus-value their wages are not a capital investment for the purpose of making profits, but simply a drain on existing profits The rationale for state spending on services rather than economic Unlike private capital, the state must be sensitive to the broader concerns of capital accumulation the needs of Becaus Divale contradict the capital general welfare of the population, the state is responsible ior preventine it: victims from becoming a source of unrest. This is the capitalist logic behind the welfare state.

The state always tries to - the political costs of maintaining the capitalist system.

The quality of service provision has never lived up to the inflated claims its early exponents. Wages in the unproductive service sector have always been much lower tanne putate sector This is especially important given the labour-intensive character of public service provision.

NECESSARY

The Tory offensive against the state sector has little to do with Thatcher's personal affinity for philosophical dogmas popular among nineteenth-century street traders. Twentieth-century capitalism is too decrepit to countenance 'self-reliance' and free-for-all competition. Thatcher appreciates That Slale spending is necessary but she wants to make sure that it is channelled into areas where the benefits for the system will be felt.

With profits ever more scarce there millions of point payıng wage-slaves to provide others with services which reap no profitable return. capitalist class allocates ne spending according to the laws of the profit system. There is thus no point engaging our rulers in a technical debate about how much to spend and where it should go.

our sole concern Shole bee forge a movement to force the state to pay for what we need in the course of fighting to overturn its system of wage-slavery. the next step

STOP CLAUSE 28

THE ISSUE IS

RIGHTS

house of lords. Unfortunately, no match for their audacity he three lesbians who so outraged the lords were protesting against Clause 28 of the Tory Local Government Bill which aims to outlaw the "promotion' of homomilitant sexuality. demonstration part of was movement which is channelling the anger of lesbians and gays into lobbying the rich and famous, the house of lords and various local authority committees, all of whom have no capacity to fight for our rights. The watchwords of the Stop Clause 28 campaign are human rights, civil liberties and artistic freedom, all chosen to appeal to a liberal sentiment that no longer has much influence in society.

The middle ground of moderate opinion on questions of sexuality and moralty is fast disappearing as the climate of reaction deepens under the impact of economic crisis. his trend is expressed most sharply in alutudes to lesbians and gays. A recent Harris poll for Weekend World revealed that approval of legalised adult homosexuality is down from 66 percent in 1979 to 48 per cent today. The survey indicated that 83 percent of those questioned were opposed presenting

SCHOOLS

homosexual relations on a par with heterosexua ones: 32 the next step

LESBIAN & GAY

Last week three lesbians abseilled, SAS-style, into the chamber of the argues Don Milligan, the politics of the Stop Clause 28 campaign are opposed public funding of homocounselling; sexual believed that lesbians should not display affection in public; and 55 percent believed that the public sale of gay lesbian newspapers and magazines should be prohibited. Popular prejudice against homosexually was always been strong But from the late sixties and into the eighties, lesbian organisations gained wider public acceptance of equality. This trend brought Was sponsorship

COVCLBHICHE

Aids panic from the end of 1986.

The authorities have advantage of the Aids panic to whip public opinion behind

ICHCWCO

against homosexuality. Within a month of the launch of the Tories' *Don't Die Ignorance' campaign, New Society, the house-journal of British liberalism and the weekly equivalent the tuaratan, identified lesbians and gays as the source of contagion: But the lact does remain that homosexuals were the people who brought Alds into this country.

Aids was brought homosexuals, British and American, who had their beady eyes caught by advertisements in the gay press which told them, in words, how cheap and easy it was to have a holiday in the sun of Haiti or Morocco native thrown in for the price of a regret to munity. (Sue me.) (20 February 1987) Birchill, former punk chronicler

NME

journalist for The Face, who set out imbue bigotry credibility. More recently 'anti-racism', with homosexuals for 'innocent' with the Aids 'plague: victims, people infected unknowingly, perhaps few who may have knowingly by sufferers the bigoted Burchill and importing ting, disease. 68 per cent and permissiveness. and gays work all establishment. represented by Wilshire, church, mainstream media. and and gay opinion too moral barricades. halt by of the taken into line offensive promotion of homosexuality of court Labour councils for organisations, the police to here Dy Sexual Offences Act. circumstances indecency and "indecency". climate

ESTS

middle - and have a pina colada. That this is so should scale be a matter of great shame and our homosexual comseeks to This piece was penned by Julie The turned trendy with street is fatal. Princess Royal backed up Burchill's stance, the law without trying to cover her tracks by blaming licence infecting the with the surely *The real tragedy is the innocent who have been lesbian a result of a blood transfusion, and a the house been infected dangerous. seeking world of Julie Princess Anne, homosexuals are 'guilty' of contracand spreading Even They have been accused too, in places like Haringey, of recruiting the schoolchildren to lives of perversion against the clause The creation of these nightmares has been the instrument' sections of the The right wing, MPs David Dame Jill Knight and Elaine Kellett-Bowman, has been backed by the royal family, the politicians Now liberal is manning the nature Clause 28: It is in this climate that Clause 28 looks certain to become law. When it does, the 'intentional their lifestyle in by local authorities and schools will studiously be outlawed. The precise meaning of the new law will be established cases brought against better, supporting publications and teaching that put homosexuality on an equal footing with heterothat sexuality. The effect of this law will be to reinforce the unlawful status of lesbians and gays. It will enable impose more see that. rigorous enforcement of the 1967 This is the law that defines gay men's efforts to meet each other as soliciting and 'importuning', and defines all sexual relations between men in as *gross The passage of Clause 28 will fuel demands for the Even suppression of the lesbian and gay press because it preaches 'obscenity this. of reaction attempts by the Stop Clause 28 campaign to appeal to a liberal ground of the supportive human rights, civil liberties and artistic treedom are doomed to failure. A polite public relationsstyle campaign cannot match up to of the state's attack. Worse still, such a campaign can advance the cause of homosexual liberation because it enlist the support of doubt people who do not even believe in clause equal rights for lesbians and gays.

approach opposing Clause 28 because it endangers the artistic depiction of homosexuality Silk, It means evading the threat of homosexuals highlighting the threat to artistic This will not cut any ice will but it autories. sidetrack our campaign away from the central issue of rights. The gay approach of currying favour with of lords is just The majority opponents of the clause in the lords are against teaching children that homosexuality is an equally good form of sexual expression..Almost all are opposed to the complete decriminalisation of homosexuality.

uphold some those who vague concept of civil liberties, like York, voted Archbishop of because only they considered it too blunt an The archbishop went on to assure the house of lords that he had no wish to encourage the excesses of the loony left' fringe.

Robert Kilroy-Silk, failed Labour MP and aspiring chat show host, typifies the right-wing of the opposition to 'It is pointless, productive, impolite, unnecessary and downright discourteous to thrust their sexuality and their social and economic demands and for everyone else's face. To go further and insist in about strident tones that homosexuality is as good, if not way than heterosexual relationships, that it is just as "normal". To go on to insist, as many did, and still do, homosexuality should be promoted in schools, is asking for big trouble. Of course it is. Any sensible and reasonable person can And trouble they've got.' (The Times, 29 January) According to this view from "liberals, lesbians and gays who of their sexual orientation or who are too vocal in their demands for equal treatment, have only themselves to blame for the anti-homosexual backlash.

arch-reactionary like are Digby Anderson, director of the Social Affairs Unit, can agree with life Writing in Times last week, Anderson echoed the liberal know critics of Clause 28 in accusing "political extremists' of jeopardising to position of the discreet, retiring' homosexual Times reader (3 February). You cannot fight for homosexual rights if you concede that lesbians do not deserve equal and gays treatment. Yet this is the basis of much of the opposition to Clause 28. No the moderate critics of the do not want to see backlash against homosexual people, nor do they want tougher laws. But the limitations of liberal tolerance, as expounded by Kilroymean that their differences with the moral censors are only a We cannot afford to hand the struggle for our rights over to people who have no intention of fighting for them. Nor can we rely on Labour councils to take a stand Clause 28. If their capi- Tory tulation to laws against overspending on jobs and services anything go by. Labour councillors are not going to stick out their necks for lesbians and gays by refusing to attend court hearings when they are summoned to answer charges of intentionally promoting homosexuality. Labour councils will do Neil Kinnock's law-abiding bidding and send their lawyers scurrying into court to plead that they had no intention of homosexuality. The promoting Labour-controlled Association of London, Authorities has already set up a programme of training seminars for councillors and voluntary sector groups to prepare them for cooperation with the terms of the clause. The chances of Clause 28 being thrown out by parliament are nil.

The chances of it being amended in a way that benefits lesbians and gays are nil. The of chances Labour councils defying the law are nil. We have to face up to the fact that the Thatcher government has secured wide public support its attack on homosexual people, and have set we changing this state of affairs. We can only do it by winning the support of working people the for fight for democratic rights. win over council We have to workers and wider sections of the working class to an understanding of family promotion values and of the outlawing homosexuality are a device for and disorienting dividing our We have to spell out that the authorities are waging their campaign of moral reaction to focus the attention of society on inward-looking private fears. They promoting a preoccupation with personal morality and family to enable them to control society more easily. Britain's rulers that a nation of private families is a collection of isolated individuals who pose no threat to the capitalist order. Winning ordinary people to the banner of homosexual liberation is essential part of the wider struggle to unite the working class against the system of exploitation and oppression. Campaigning for the complete decriminalisation of homosexuality abolition of all unequal the laws, rules and regulations used by the state against lesbians and gays - is the basis for building such a movement. It is also the only approach that will make it possible mobilise local government workers against the anti-gay laws.

We cannot expect people to take on their employers and the state unless they have been won to the slogans of the Stop , Clause campaign — Equal Rights for All.

Fight for Lesbian and Gay Rights 12 February 1988 • 11

month Soviet foreign ast minister Eduard Shevardnadze visited Helmut Kohl in Bonn and pulled off a major coup. 1 he focused on his attractive offer to rid West Germany of the threat of short-range Soviet nukes; but his real success was in denouncing the USA and getting a standing ovation.

Through the shadowy Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls Cocom America prevents its allies from selling the things they'd like to sell East. Cocom-banned to the technologies are supposed to cover weapons, atomic energy equipment and those civilian industrial goods - robots, machine tools, lasers especially chips, computers and software which susceptible to military application.

practice the inventory gadgets covers nearly anything the USA believes West Germany and other trade rivals can sell Moscow.

Shevardnadze denounced state of affairs to a gathering of 200 West German industrialists and he was applauded.

LAMBASTED

Eager for profitable sales East, opportunities in the president of West Germany's of Chambers Commerce stood up to attack Cocom's strictures. Foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher lambasted American attempts to force Europe to tighten up hi-tech controls as "antediluvian' product of the Cold War fifties.

Given that Bonn's exports to the USSR have dropped by nearly 50 per cent in the past two vears Shevardnadze's polemical fell on attentive ears. But while opinion polls show that almost 70 per cent of West Germans not feel threatened by Kremlin, the USA is furious at their repudiation of Cocom's leaders constraints. The

USA

especially is not concerned about the Soviet Union having access to Western hi-tech goods. bull is viany concerned thal its allies are flouting its authority and opening markets threaten its interests. To whip the recalcitrant states into line, the USA is resurrecting the anti-Soviet rhetoric of the Cold War era.

WEDGE

Moscow is desperate for Germany's technology: the country is the largest single exporter to the USSR. It is also keen to drive a wedge into the Western alliance, and it knows that West Germany, left out of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit, bereft of even France's or Britain's nukes, and faced with a stagnant economy, would like to do business. ror its part. Bonn would like to swap computers for satellite launches, a field in which the Soviets have pulled ahead of the USA since the Shuttle disaster.

And, as Kohl enthused, Frankfurt's banks 'are ready with know-how financing offers' (Time. and February). Nor is West Germany just interested in short-term deals.

In the long term it would like to push Gorbachev into introducing capitalism in the USSR. As West German president Von Weiszacker made clear, instead of Cocom reprisals, the goal should be that the Soviet Union improve its performance at the price of opening its system'.

USA

cannot regard developments such as these with equanimity, particularly since the tango in Bonn follows a diplomatic Washington, offensive embracing Britain and France as well. At stake is the stability of West-West military and economic and, cooperation, the In place, Cocom.

HEGEMONY

Cocom was founded in 1949, the Nato, and today same year as embraces all Nato countries (bar Iceland and Spain), plus Japan.

Like Nato, its purpose was less to 12 • 12 February 1988 media are of the and a words the which West blockade an exhausted Soviet Union, but more to establish US hegemony over its West trade was miniscule, and even today Cocom's secretariat dozen officials hidden in an annexe to the US embassy in the Rue de la Boetie, Paris. Once West European economies became more dependent on East-West trade in the climate detente. in the seventies, however, an America in decline became about it. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 gave Reagan his first excuse to put the frighteners on his allies. The declaration of martial law in Poland in December him his second. At the Western leaders summit at Ottawa that year Reagan made a public issue of Cocom. Reagan allocated $30m of first defence department Project Exodus, contro aimed intercepting exports by US firms in particular and toreign companies in general.

In June the following year the Siberian pipeline controversy exploded. Reagan announced that trade with the USSR - NOT SEEING EYE TO EYE: GERMANY'S HELMUT KOHL GETS A ROASTING FROM RONNIE any US firm, subsidiary, imperialist technology from selling he more than a concealed sixties and 125 US-designed potential, allowed the nervous ends, and 1981 gave Holey "technology programme tunate une dodgy US law on instructed them

HI-TECH

TRADE WAR

Two weeks ago America and Europe fell out over hi-tech Gemma Forest analyses the new antipathies that are likely to follow Its buropean Europeandealings and any owned concern using US-licensed European would be prevented Soviet Union imports equipment with which to build a replied by pipeline to pump Siberian gas to Western Europe. The US president his true behind Cold War rhetoric. Reagan crisis within the complained that Western Europe's continued desire to sell Moscow 25-megawatt turbines bolstered Soviet economic and industry USSR to divert scarce resources to military it did not deserve mortgaged Bonn's future to imports of Soviet energy: The US-USSR accord on Cruise and the SS20s last year confirmed that Reagan's anti-Sovietism does not conflict with his desire to save dollars and presidential prestige by high-profile deals with Moscow.

national But his attempt to use the Siberian pipeline issue as a stick to beat Europe with was only the first of try's ability many US strictures which have Western powers. When Reagan tried to impose European firms, governments from Mitterrand on the left to Thatcher on the right to defy him. Within days Washington forbade these wider, The American firms from further with the offending companies. and threatened 40 per cent duties or of EEC steel. Europe reneging on earlier agreements not to undercut Us farms in agricultural export markets.

Only a sense of the depth of the Western alliance eventually allowed tempers to cool.

But not for long. In 1984 they flared up again, when British trade Norman secretary Tebbit berated Cocom for giving the US judiciary powers in Europe Today West Germany, Britain and France have lodged a joint protest against proposed legislation his to prevent any non-US company from doing business with the USA on the Pentagon's say-so Inter- Herald Tribune, 27 January). In Europe's view such reprisals impair European induscapitalise on US research, allow US firms to catch up with European technology and export their versions to the USSR, gets and of course do nothing to hinder Soviet military efforts Europe argues that by the time the USSR gets hold of Western technology exports they are often

APPLAUSE: SHEVARDNADZE

obsolescent Moreover, ann. the Soviets are not known for their ability to apply Western inventions rapidly or widely. But just when relations have never been warmer, Washington is having none of this. It wants to increase the its

OL COSULT

allies worldwide. On the surface America's hard line appears to be the result of four incidents First the year Japanese Toshiba Machine Com pany sold the USSR computerised milling machines, which, according Pentagon, propellers on Soviet submarines undetectable without the expenditure of billions of dollars. At the same time Norway's state-owned Konigsberg Vaapenfabrikk was found guilty of a similar crime.

Then in November US customs agent Dan Supinck, working undercover on the West Coast, lured Frank Christie, a 51-year old elder of the Church of Scotland and a member of Britain's Institute of Directors, into selling oil pumps to Libya. Finally, in December, Washington stopped Bonn from a 2m selling four-man, minisubmarine to North Korea on the grounds that, despite the export of a similar machine to North Korea in 1983, it could now be used to smuggle in agents to South Korea.

SUSPECT

In fact the military value of all technologies is highly suspect. But that has not prevented the USA from casting its net still pushing Asian computer leaders like Australia and Singa pore to adhere to Cocom rules, and complaining of laxity on the part non-Cocom like members Austria and Switzerland meeting in Versailles a fortnight ago signalled the seriousness American intent; it was led by John Whitehead, second only to George Shultz in the US state department, and involved the highest ranking officials ever to in Cocom negotiations. engage

USA

demanded stiffer penalties, more police and customs officials and a longer period of retrospective action for Cocom rules. Europe demanded a shorter list. An uneasy truce was reached, but the USA is determined to make Cocom an issue in Europe. This could easily backfire given the strength of growing Americanism this side of the Reagan's administration has gone to these lengths because a military focus on its allies export policies is the only way to relieve the economic and political strain of its trade deficit back home Meanwhile European resentment is growing. Only recently British trade minister Alan Clark added voice to the chorus of disapproval. There can be doubt that tensions will multiply over the months ahead, leading to the prospect of major embargoes.

The working class has no interest in siding with European employers against the US militarists.

We hold no brief for Gorbachev but we could not care less who he shiny underwater

IC W

propeller from. Our aim should be to unite our forces against the Western system of global domination that makes war inevitable and expects us to pay the price the next step

FAVOURITE FRAUD

THE INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE BUSINESS MIGHT HAVE BENEFITED FROM THE WEST'S SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY, BUT THE ONLY PLANES THE ISRAELIS USE TO he Palestinian uprising has given an unexpected boost to the international airline Before business monstrations and streetfighting in the occupied territories started on 9 December, the Middle East diplomatic process had been temporarily grounded. Since the upsurge in resistance against Israel, Western have shuttled around the Middle East and Arab leaders busily toured Western capitals.

RANKED

Until the uprising, most of the diplomatic with respon-

CHIVUYS

sibility for the Palestine conflict had stashed away their suitcases.

In the USA it was accepted that Middle East diplomacy would be given a low priority during election The Arab summit yval. November for the first time ranked Palestine below the Gulf War in its list of priority problems. But daily between

COS ORLAHOSS

throwing Palestinians and Israeli soldiers soon brought out the diplomatic bags. Western and Arab leaders have united around the need for international peace conference in the Middle East. Pro-Western Arab leaders were keenest to get a conference off the ground. After Tory minister David Mellor's high-profile attempt to defuse tension in Gaza, the West's favourite Arab leader, Egyptian president Mubarak, toured Western capitals to lobby support for a conference. Jordan's King Hussein followed his Egyptian counterpart. Western leaders have followed Richard Arab inıtiative Murphy, the US state department's top Middle East official, went to London and Paris before travelling on to the Middle East. On Monday an EEC foreign ministers' con- King terence met Hussein and endorsed the idea of an international peace conference. Britain has sought to stay at the foretront of the diplomatic drive. Mellor affirmed that the Tories support for an international conference is well-known and it is not a position which we will easily from driven'. Next week Labour leader Neil Kinnock will try to catch up with the jet-set by going on a late package tour to the Middle East.

BILATERAL

Support for the idea of a peace conference even extends inside the Israeli political establishment. Labour leader Shimon Peres is one of the biggest supporters The right-wing Likud conference. bilateral negotiations advocates with Arab leaders instead.

wings of the Zionist establishment welcome Western diplomacy as an aid to israe Taken together, the supporters the conference idea are dubious for force bullain promoted the growth of Zionism on Palestinian soil before the Second World War, continues to support the next step Zionist state. American prop Jordan's King Hussein massacred thousands of Palestinians in the *Black September' of 1970.

Israel itself has only survived by launching genocidal wars against the Palestinians. credentials indicate that they are not seeking a just peace for the Palestinians. Instead, their phoney 'peace process' is designed to derail the Palestinian resistance to Israel.

The aim of the shuttle diplomats is to hype up the prospect of a Western-backed solution They have no illusions in their ability to construct a genuine agreement between the oppressive Israeli state and its Palestinian victims. But the West and its allies Keep diplomatic solution alive among Palestinians, to draw them away from militant resistance towards talks and compromise.

For the British, conservative Arab spokesmen, 'the process' is everything and peace is only a plantude plenty of support for a conference a preliminary set of negotiations which is followed by "talks about talks'. on, while the Palestinians continue suller the attentions of the Israeli armed forces.

WOOLLY

of a In a typical display of woolly rhetoric, Ronald Reagan told the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram that he Both believes any conference should be the prelude to direct negotiations between Israel and the Arab states (Jerusalem Post, *There must be real movements in the direction of finding a political solution which will end the Arab- Israeli conflict. This matter is basic and vital. What is truv vita toi Reagan is that there should appear the

SOLVE' THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION ARE BOMBERS

money up srael today financial support And remains unchanged. The Their collective legitımising the West to interfere through its stooge Zionist state.

PARIAH

One of the recent open acceptance of Israel by the hope Arab regimes. In 1978, the USA oversaw a formal reconciliation and between Egypt and Israel through the Camp American and Egypt's relations with Israel were widely condemned became the pariah of the Arab But the Thus there is world. establishment of ties with Egypt fear of unrest in the Middle East is bringing them round to the idea of openly recognising Israel.

And so it goes Egyptian was at journalists that his latest diplomatic initiative poses no threat to the security of the Israeli state: Israel nothing has international conference. It should scare no one since it will bring us to direct peace talks (Jerusalem Post, 26 January). The only to fear anything 28 January): process' based on the recognition of Israel are the Palestinians.

Western and containing the unrest in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. For the first time in 20 years Palestinians in

DIPLOMACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

THE WEST'S

Talk about an international peace conference in the Middle East is designed to disarm the Palestinians.

Daniel Nassim explains to be movements in the direction' of peace. Meanwhile, the "basic" fact of Washington's military and forces. for Israel nated. Western powers are also keen on the idea of a conference which could compel Arab rulers explicitly to recognise the Israeli in stamping out. state. Arab recognition of Israel as a rightful partner in the diplomatic the process is a major step towards Western intervention nomy' in the Middle East. By implication.

it means accepting the right of the in the region withdraw from most favourable developments for the control Western powers is the increasingly Then David accord. and Cairo full Arab states' reagainst years later right by Organisation, president Mubarak process. pains to reassure Israeli Camp -2V10 Israeli

FREEZE

froman Ted Mubarak's people who have from a 'peace six-month cooling The primary concern of both is Arab leaders

DICSCHIL

plan wIth demand and the territories have staged a mass rising against the Israeli occupation The demonstrations have their been spontaneous and uncoordi- But they

1CCSCHE

potentially destabilising force in the region, which the imperialists and the Arab elite share an interest Egypt's initiative is a rehash of 1978 Camp David accord That plan for Palestinian autonegotiated between down Egypt, Israel and the USA specifically designed to minimise unrest in the occupied territories.

Under the plan Israeli forces would Palestinian population centres. A Jordanianthey backed ponce lorce would keep of the main Palestinian areas, while the Israeli army would keep contro of strategic locations The original accord promised the granting of 'autonomy to the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza within five years. In reality they denied Palestine the right to self-determination. and endorsed Israel's right to defend itself Palestinians. the Four Israel exercised that

TULCIS

invading Lebanon to drive out the Palestine Liberation while and presiding over the massacre of Palestinians in the By neutralising Egypt the accord freed more forces the crush -LO Palestinians in Lebanon. the updated autonomy plan is mildly more radical than the original version. The Egyptian leader is calling for a freeze on Israeli settlements in return for a off period by the Palestinians. But the Israelis do not have the people or the money many settlements at So the only part of Mubarak's any meaning the that the Palestinians stop fighting By pushing aside the issue of self-determination the politicians to divert diplomats hope Palestinian resistance into diplomatic channels. Western leaders are particularly keen for Palestinians to get off the streets and inves hopes in talks across negotiating tables It would be understandable if ordinary Palestinians who have suffered so much were attracted to the idea of winning peace through diplomatic In reality, means. however. Arab diplomacy has never bothered the Zionist state Israel's real concern is putting Palestinian Palestinian demonstrators cannot be defeated by rifles and tear gas grenades alone. Zionist leaders are happy for the diplomatic process to distract the Palestinians, while get on with the job of containing forceful resistance

SHAM

Western diplomatic manoeuvres in Palestine have gone on for more than 70 years. When Britain carved up the region after the First World War it made contradictory pledges and Zionist leaders, Arab promising both control over the area now ruled by Israel. Since the World War, Western Second have supported Israel's of oppression Palestinians maintaining a continuous sham 'peace process'. The intensity of diplomatic activity depends on the level of Palestinian resistance at the time. Since 1948 every US launched president ha initiative on Palestine. All the diplomatic manoeuvres in Middle East are charade designed to neutralise the Palestinian struggle Israel is happy for Palestinian demonstrators to become passive observers of international shuttle diplomacy. For the Palestinians the peace process is a dangerou diversion from their struggle against Western backers. Diplomacy only benefits the Western powers, and Israel - plus the international airline business. 12 February 1988 • 13

THE FUTURE OF

LAW ENFORCEMENT

ROBOCOP

RoboCop, Paul Verhoeven (director) The scene is Detroit, in the future. A television news programme blandly reports on a presidential visit to a Star Wars space platform and on Pretoria's impending use of the neutron bomb. But things havent changed that much. The adverts are pushing private healthcare, and soon there is news of a good old-fashioned strike against the effects of force. It has been taken over ov domister corporation which sees law entorcement as urban pacification', a precondition tor the smooth employment of two million workers in

THE STALKER AFFAIR

ABROAD

John Stalker, Stalker, Harrap, £12.95 When John Stalker went to Northern Ireland in May 1984 to begin his investigation into the shooting of six unarmed nationalists by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the leader of the force. Sir John Hermon, invited him to lunch at the golf club.

*During the meal Hermon handed me a handwritten note, sketched out on the back of a flattened out cigarette packet. It outlined my family tree on my mother's side. She is Catholic, and her parents were born in the Irish Republic....Before we left the golf club he said to me "Remember, Mr stalker, you are in d jungle now."' The deputy chief constable of Manchester chose to ignore the warnings. The background is wellknown. In October 1982 the iRA. using exo osives from a hayshed surveillance, blew up three RUc men in Armagh. The British state unleashed their RUC Headquarters Mobile Support Units in an orgy of revenge. On 11 November unarmed IRA men Eugene Toman, Sean Burns and Gervals McKerr died in a hail of 109 bullets. On 24 November 17-year old Michael Tighe (of no organisation) was shot dead in a hayshed. On 12 December unarmed and Roddy Carroll were gunned down just outside armagh city. And it wasn't over yet. In June 1984 Lord Justice Gibson 14 • 12 February 1988 building Delta City. The new management's answer to the disgrunt ed workforce and to their longer term neeas Is ine development of a robot policeman.

AN INNOCENT

NAIVE: JOHN STALKER LEARNED LITTLE FROM HIS

ENCOUNTER WITH THE BRITISH STATE

signed mis own dedin warrant when he commended the killers of Toman, Burns and McKerr for bringing the men to the final court of justice.

The warrant was executed in April 1987 when the IRA blew the Tudee up. Stalker was determined to he noticular ting hot Tighe in particular act of a Central American assassination squad truly a police force out of control,' demonstrating his naivety on several accounts. First, the home office obviously wanted him to do a brisk whitewash job, and did not want him playing the If all this sounds serious and heavy duty, it certainly isn't. Paul Verhoeven effortlessly insinuates such issues into what is essentially a fast-paced and very funny boy scout. Secondly, he failed to appreciate that the police were not out of control at all, they were SAS-trained and officially sanctioned. After all, Margaret Thatcher had visited the precursor of the HMSU, the Bessbrook Support Unit, in December 1979 and told them 'I don't want to know what you're doing but are you enjoying it? Thirdly, he can hardly have expected Hermon (who appeared to have been involved in the cover-up himself to stand idly by while Stalker destroyed him. For two years Hermon and the RUC Special reviews page piece of comic strip. He doesn't allow any serious consideration of them to get in the way of the chases and the mayhem which are set in train by the grisly murder of honest cop Murphy. What is left of Murphy's body forms the basis of the robot policeman. it turns out to be invulnerable to everything but the returning human consciousness, seeping back into a brain the corporation had tried to wipe clean. With a very sure touch Verhoeven plunders just about every known movie the vigilante, the futuristic sci-fi, the fantasy, the gangster, the the western, and a horror, few television ones too. Never labouring the point he weaves in themes and references from the likes of Superman, Dirty Harry, Blade Runner, Terminator, The Fly, Dallas and Hill Street Blues. At the same time he carefully maintains the momentum through a plot that is both Branch were simply obstructive, refusing to hand over the tape which MI5 had made of the hayshed shooting. When Stalker persisted, it was decided to remove him. At a Police Federation annual conference on 19 May 1986 Sir Laurence Byford, the chief inspector of constabulary, Philip Myers of the home office police inspectorate and James Anderton, the chief constable of Manchester, secretly decided to take Stalker off the inquiry, and Hermon gave his statutory approval. On 29 May Stalker was told that he was under investigation himself and out of Northern Ireland for good. His removal having been achieved and there being no case against him, Stalker returned to work three months later. But Anderton made it clear he was no longer welcome and in March 1987 he resigned. Stalker seems to have learnt very little from his bruising encounter the British state. His anger is reserved mainly for Hermon and Anderton (a very deserving pair it must be said, while he extends his sympathy to the government which 'has to take a broad view or mese mauters, Laking national security into account. This is no doubt partly a tactical move on his part to lessen the chances of a prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. (John Morris, Labour's shadow Attorney General, has become the champion of this act, condemning the government for being inconsistent' and "irresponsible' for failing to prosecute.) Stalker continues to believe, however, what his political masters know is impossible, that the RUC could be 'honest and neutral in its relationships with all the people of Northern Ireland'. That's why he had to go. Francis Walsh simple and clever. The result is a witty, lighthearted, lightweight adventure story. To be sure, he can wield some very traditional stereotypes. Ine corporation is the slick and callous machine which has been the villain of many a populist melodrama. And we have the usual underclass of slimy, vicious lumpen morons who are threatening civilisation as we know it. In the background hovers the memory of an ideal nuclear family clustered around our fearless hero.

But then as Verhoeven observes with his tongue

REWRITING THE

DAMN LIES

Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens (eds), Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question, Verso, £8.95 This book is first and foremost a demolition job.

Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens, academic and journalist, collection of essays which unravel the lies and dismantle the myths used to defend the Israeli state and justify the oppression of the Palestinian people.

Thev do not sutter trom a lack of material. in her book From time Immemorial Joan Peters, aided and abetted by the American press, it was only in the years 1946 to 1948 that the bulk of the Palestinians arrived in what became Israel. Here, Norman Finkelstein takes her book apart, showing her statistics to be consistent her dialysis illogical and her quotes disgraceful fraud, published in 1984, has been rapturously received in the United States and is now in its eighth eartion Another Zionist myth has it that the Palestinians fled their homes in 1948 because they were ordered to do so by their leaders. evidence and finds not one shred to support such a thesis. On the contrary, he adduces several sources to show how it was the systematic Zionist terror, like the massacre at the village of Deir Yassin, which led to the exodus of 750 000 Palestinians within a couple of months. The hypocritical and hysterical reporting of the Palestinian question by the Western media also comes under the hammer. In his essay Terrorism and American Ideology, Noam Chomsky exposes the monstrous lie of "international terrorism', and its function in legitimising US foreign firmly in Murphy's cheek, 'Role models can be very important for a boy. It is not, however, a film to take too seriously. As well as, and more often as part of the violence and excitement, there is great humour - such as the demonstration of the latest robot prototype to the board of directors, an encounter in the executive washroom between the bitter rivals for corporate power and a robot which can't negotiate the stairs.

The political issues are resolved in favour of the status quo, but then what would you expect - at least uney re unere Pat Ford

HISTORY OF PALESTINE

policy and its client state Israel. He contrasts the Western response to incidents like the Achille Lauro hijack with the state terror of srae and the USA. He remorselessly ists their atrocities tron Israel's involvement in the in Beirut or Tunis to the United States in 1986 the tha cadeters contain a thorough profile of the Palestinian people including their history, their present demographic distribution and their varying economic and the occupied territories underlines the tremendous ditticulties facing their unification.

Nevertheless Said. himself a Palestinian with close ties to the Palestine Liberation Organisation, is at pains to emphasise that the Palestinians , even in adversity, have 'all the attributes of nationhood, save their homeland. Blaming the Victims does a valuable job in exoosing me interectual bankruptcy of the apoloss for te istael state. But when they pass from demolition to construction the authors move on to shaky ground themselves. Said opens and closes the collection with an appeal to the international community for neace and iustice for the Palestinians. The book assumption that if everybody is properly informed by crusading journalism and true scholarship then justice might be done. But the creation of the state of Israel was not the result of spurious scholarship and a compliant media, however trey may neipto sustain it. Its creation was a central plank of imperialist strategy in the region. And there is no "international community sensitive to persuasion; there are everywhere two sides, imperialism and those fighting it, in this case the Palestinian people. Simon Quinn the next step

THIS week three supporters from different parts of the country reported similar problems when they raised discussion on the way forward for current campaigns. In each case, our people were accused of being 'ultra-left and lectured about the need for 'realism'. • One activist involved in setting up a local group to campaign against the Clause 28 of the Local Government Bill (see page 11) told us about a dispute which broke out when he raised discussion on the aim of the campaign. He argued that the campaign had to demand equal rights for all' and fight for lesbian and gay rights. Others in the meeting thought that it would not be possible to win support from people outside the lesbian and gay scene if they used slogans about homosexual rights. Instead they suggested that the campaign should focus on freedom of expression', and should publicise the concern of the Arts Council about the effect that Clause 28 might have on literature by EM Forster, Oscar Wilde, etc. This, they

HEALTH WORKERS

OURFICHT

decent pay For better condi the next step

REALISTS &

'ULTRA-LEFTISTS

argued, was a stand that everyone who values culture would support, and because it was less extreme it would be easier to build a broad-based campaign involving teachers, librarians and journalists. • Now that Liberal MP David Alton's bill to restrict women's access to abortion has gone into its committee stage in parliament, it's possible that all kinds of amendments will be out to it. Some Fight Alton's Bill campaign meetings have already started to discuss which amendments, if any, might make the bill acceptable. A suggestion which drew support from women at one such meeting was that the bill shouie se amences i grant free abortion on request up to 12 weeks, while tightening restrictions on later abortions. Another suggestion was that we compromise and accept an upper time-limit for abortion of 24 weeks. Our supporters present disagreed. We argued that meant agreeing to attacks party page on women's rights. As women need tree abortion on demand, that is what we shot were told that we were being 'unrealistic and that today it is not possible to build support for such an extreme demand. • Last week our supporters around the country were arguing the health strike from other groups of workers Some left wingers and union officials objected that this was 'provocative', counter- It's interesting that the arguments against our demands and the advice 'realistic' have to be more not come from ordinary health workers, women or homosexuals who want to fend off Tory attacks on their rights. The plea for For For better realism' has usually come left-wing organisations, or left-wing trade union ol Labour Party officials Ordinary people have often been the ones to back us up. They demands we put forward are teases meer as they reflect their real needs toddy For lesbians and gays it capitulate to anti-gay attudes. Nor is it realistic to imagine that we can build effective opposition to Clause 28 without challenging the roots of anti-homosexual chauvinism. Any further restrictions on access to abortion will force more women to continue with unwanted pregnancies. caring tor an unwanted child, and carrying the heavv responsibilities that entails, is not a realistic wav for women to live. Anc it is not realistic to expect fight without winning active support from other workers Our demands are not 'extreme, they relate to what the working class needs. And it's clear that workers are prepared to fight for what they need. given the chance. Last Wednesday the nurses who sought support might have been naive but they won backing from many workers. They got results because they knew what ley needed are they went for it. The Tories don't debate whether their actions are

HEALTH WORKED RKERS

OUR FIGHTIGHT

decent pay nt pay etter conditiong litions 'ultra-right' or 'moderate' they do what ter class needs to win. We need to learn that lesson. The debates about 'realism' in the current campaigns do not reflect any 'ultra-leftism' on the part of our supporters Rather, they indicate how left is becoming ultrapressure of the Tory offensive. Left wingers have lowered their nonzons one eve di which they hope they can connect with a public opinion heavily influenced by the Tories. In the process, they are forced to condemn basic demands for democratic rights and working class solidarity as the deluded visions of 'extremists. Defeat is the only thing which the left's 'heads down approach makes realistic. It accepts important premises of the right's case - that right to fight for equality, tal women nave no nignu to fight for abortion on demand, and that health workers should stand alone. By contrast, we are confident that it is possible to campaign unambiguously for lesbian and gay rights, that it is possible to win support for free abortion on demand, that it is possible to build solidarity for the health workers. But only if we use every opportunity to convince people of the need to stand alongside those under attack. If we don't raise the big issues, we'll never win the wide support needed to win. Anne Burton

HEALTH WORKERS

OUR FICHI

For decent pay For better conditions

ORKERS

BECOME AN

RCP

SUPPORTER

Name. Address Tel Postcode Stop Clause 28, No bans on lesbian and day rights.

Thursday 25 February 7.30m

ICC

, Mansfield Road Nottingham Workers Against Racism Benefit with Camels at Play and Mango Groovy Thursday 18 Februan 9.30pm Eden, Greyhound St

IRISH FORUM

LESSONS FOR

WITHDRAWAL: ALGERIA

AND NORTHERN IRELAND

A series of four fortnightly discussions on the Irish War start in London next Wednesday 17 February. The forums will be at 1.s0pm in Room S53, St Clements Building, at the London School of Economics, Houghton St (off Aldwych), WC2, (nearest Temple). 12 February 1988 • 15

OUR CLASS IS ALIVE

(Continued from front page) • Ford workers are out on national strike for a decent pay rise without strings.

• Nurses and other health workers are taking industrial action against poverty-line wages and workhouse conditions. • Seamen have just gone up against anti-union laws in an attempt to repel job-cutting employers. • Others - from teachers and council staff to miners and TV technicians - have been involved in industrial action this year. These sparks of life are a tonic to trade unionists and anti-Tories everywhere. Over the past nine years the Tories have tried to kill off workers' will to fight. They have imposed secret ballots and outlawed secondary action.

They have blamed strikers for unemployment. And they have promised to build a Brave New Britain in which sweating for the employers and scabbing on our workmates would be a rewarding experience. But the current round of conflicts confirms that, as long as the division between the exploiters and the exploited remains at the centre of British society, ordinary people will have to hit back.

The strikes show that the recent victories the

FORKERS

FIGHT

andora Anderson the next step

AND KICKING

government and the employers have won over the working class are far from final. But let's not imagine that things are back where they were before Thatcher arrived. We should not expect a re-run of seventies-style industrial disputes. We are now in a different contest altogether.

The bosses and the state which supports them have raised the stakes. In the last week alone, they have proved willing to use the police, the courts, the media and scab armies to undermine action by health workers and seamen.

The Ford workers can expect the same treatment, as the Tories back up the firm to prevent a trend-setting wage rise. To deal with the intensity of _ industrial struggle today, we will have to up the action and meet the challenge of the new political offensive. The first problem we have to influence of the professional unions at Ford, in the NHS and protests have not only proved that our class is a vibrant and powerful force; they have also shown that our leadership is a For better conditions their members. arms (see page 2).

HEALTH WORKERS

OUR FIGHT

decent pay dead layer at the top of the working class movement. It looks like the leaders of the official labour movement live in a different world from • At Ford two weeks ago, union negotiators Mick Murphy (transport workers) and Jimmy Airlie (engineers) hailed the three-year pay and productivity deal they signed with management as an historic achievement. But all their members could see was an historic concession to Ford bosses. The deal obliged the workers to sell their souls to the company for three years, for which privilege they would have to work harder and faster. They threw the package out in a ballot, and Murphy and Airlie were forced to call the strike from Sunday night. But these union bureaucrats can hardly be trusted to lead an effective fight against an attack from management which they initially welcomed with open • In the health service, union officials are telling nurses and ancillary workers not to take serious industrial action in pursuit of a pay rise or against one-day strike, Tom Sawyer, the deputy general secretary Party fixer, condemned the and 'insulting' to nurses.

want health workers to look harmless and pitiful, to appeal approach might suit the needs of bureaucrats in union head offices, whose idea of a victory is a two per cent rise in sympathy in a newspaper opinion poll. But it is of little use to ordinary health workers increase in pay. The 'crude' authorities who are trying to impose a miserable wage rise, sacking union activists and sending the police to brutalise protesting nurses (see page 5). The real insult to health workers is the union leaders' idea that they should lie back and think of public opinion, while management tramples all over them. • In the ferry dispute, National Union of Seamen leaders called their members out on a strike against sackings with no intention of trying to win it. The officials knew that a national strike would be declared illegal under secondary action legislation, and they never contemplated confronting the law. The NUS officials played a little game of 'now we're on strike, now we're not' as a gesture to try to hold on to some status at the negotiating table. But the consequences for their members in the real world outside have been serious.

Seamen have been victimised, divided and left to face aggressive national companies one local area at a time, while NUS leaders go to court to plead that they told their members to give up and go back to work. • The national leaders of the TUC and Labour Party are even further removed from the reality of the class struggle.

Last weekend, while workers were doing battle with bosses around Britain, the TUC was discussing plans for a 'new unionism' which rejects industrial action and recruits members by offering them credit cards and cheap insurance. Meanwhile, the Labour Party leadership was endorsing a policy document which declares the market forces' of capitalism to be "generally satisfactory' - at a moment when thousands of workers were taking on market forces in a fight for a 'satisfactory' living standard.

It is a fitting tribute to the irrelevance of Labour today that Bryan Gould, the Labour leader most closely associated with the party's move to mimic Thatcher's free enterprise policies, is the MP for Dagenham - home of the biggest Ford plant hit by the strike this week. We cannot win the current battles, or the many others that lie ahead, while we are led by people who think that industrial action is alien to trade unionism. Instead, we need to up the action under our control. The union rank and file have already displayed their dissatisfaction with the existing institutions and leaders of the labour movement - by rejecting the Ford deal, by refusing to obey the officials first instructions to return to work on the ferries, and by organising protests in the health service against the bureaucrats' wishes. Now we need to turn this discontent into a fullscale revolt, and seize control of the strikes and struggles from the hands of those who stand in our way. Rank and file control is the precondition for organising the sort of action which can match the political power and determination of the government and the employers. Our one hope of fanning the sparks of resistance is to get out from under the wet blankets of the labour movement bureaucracy.