Brighton Labour Briefing no. 10

Women for Life

The imprisonment of 23 women for

"breach of the peace" during Nov. 82 finally brought Greenham Common into the limelight. Publicity became par amount by December 12 and 13 with an International Day of Action followed by a day of non violent direct

action against construction at the |base. Media coverage continued

through to the New Year when 44 women were again arrested for trespassing

onto the base. Recently,a further 70 women (30 from the Brighton Womens Peace Group) invaded the Commons to demand a public debate about Cruise.

So,after more than a year of camping out under plastic sheets because the local Tory Council conveniently forbids structures ie tents, women at Greenham are now being noticed. Incidentally it is feared that the Government may panick and have the missiles in the base before a General Election. However action at Greenham, and

Subsequent action by Women of Peace,

has remarkable,primarily because it is non-violent and’ women only. The latterrpoint particularly,riles many people.

Firstly the few men at the

International Day of Action attended

for 2 most obvious reasons; either they felt perturbed and wanted to join in too (so there!); or they were perceptive enough to respect the women only action and wanted to support it by supervising creches etc. One told me afterwards that he was approached by the reporters asking secretively who REALLY organised the protest! As per usual the credibility of women acting |confidently is doubted.

The day was a success. The fence of the 9 mile perimeter of the base was completely covered by symbols of peace,unity,haby clothes family photographs ,banners,poems & candles. Alternative carols and peace songs were sung. Pands toured the base,women danced: and viewed each others handicrafts.

Vomen of all ages,races and classes attended,unrepelled by "strictly students" image usually given by CND rallies. Greenham is

accessible to ordinary women,mothers

daughters,sisters etc,who still

possess the desire to live and to preserve the world without killing others. Such an objective overides

any supposed logical,statistical, factual arguments concerning defence or rather offence.

Many women who have survived the first and second world wars,showed support because they didn't want a third. A woman pinned to the fence the one photograph she possessed of her only child who was killed in the blitz. She returned on the Monday to prevent Newbury residents mindlessly. destroying the photograph,as they attempted to clear the 'mess' of the pretty barbed wire fence sorrounding the scenic base!

Dealing with peaceful,singing women evidently confused, embarrassed and angered the Police. Its just not done,you see. These women should react ie beat the police up for beating them up. Its only logical isnt it?

The non violent aspect of direct action at Greenham is another reason for it being women only. Not all men obey their macho aggressive stereotypes,one hopes,but the police only know how to deal with men in one way. They are perpetually confused though by the form of action taken by the women.

Although it is hoped that men will reject more and more the destructive nature of their role in the military and such like,it is women who have an alternative to offer to annihilation,having never been extensively involved or encouraged to Participate in war. Alarmingly the "lust for blood'(Helen Johns) illustrated by the Malvinas War can only be interpreted as an enormous step backwards into the abyss.

However, basically we need to struggle for nuclear disarmament (eventually disarmament). The situation is too urgent.

BRIGHTON LABOUR | BRIEFING

Jeremy

Corbyn

Prosp e Parliamentary Candidate “or Islington, NUPE Fulltimer and Briefing Activist.

There are peace camps throughout Britain not just at Greenham (unlike jobs,American bases are plentiful). Trials against the protesters are frequent and unpublicised.The energy the positive nature and conviction of G reenham women in particular, is unique. They demand to be and are being heard. It is upto everyone to take the initiative to protest nonviolently,in whatever manner possible. It is unproductive to criticise those determined enough to express dissent in their particular way.

KATHLEEN BONDAR

"TRADE UNIONS AND THE LABOUR PARTY"

TUESDAY 1st MARCH 7.00pm Babysitting available - phone Bryn 698111 SxICETON POLY GRAND PARADE

WOMEN—TAKE THE POWER!

Published by Brighton Labour Briefing. Printed by University of Sussex Printing Unit

On Earth

Brighton Labour Briefing page two

Training Scheme Con

Brighton now has plans for its very own "Skills Centre", a forerunner of the Government's Youth Training Scheme (YTS) which is to be launched in September 1983. The YTS is a part of the "New Trainig Initiative" set out, in September last year, in a White Paper: NTI.- A Programme For Action. This was followed by the setting up and reporting of a Youth Task Group, whose Report forms the basis of the scheme and includes the "structure, scope and content of a general scheme of vocational preparation for young people, including how it should be funded, the timetable for introduction and the nature and level of participant's income". It is to be launched under the Manpower Services Commission.

It is important, at the outset, to place this scheme within the context of the attack on the tertiary sector ef public education. There have already been massive job losses and cuts in Further and Higher Education (4,000 polytechnic and college lecturing jobs could be axed in the coming year), and this has meant and will continue to mean, a decline in ' the quality of service offered: bigger classes, subjects dropped and, increasingly, the inability of Further and Higher Education to meet the needs of young people and adults for fulltime, part-time and continuing education. The idea of a comprehensive Tertiary Sector, serving the needs of the communityis, like the Health Service, being thrown out of the window.

At the same time as the Education Sector is being run down, with the connivance and support of Keith Joseph in the DES, the Department of Enployment, through the Manpower Services, Commission, is being handed the control of'training'.

This Youth Training Scheme is being presented as the long-awaited answer

to the problems of training and educating the 16-19 yéar olds. In fact,

it is nothing of the sort and it is important to be aware of the possible implications of the scheme, since it is likely to get a massive propaganda launch, persuading worried parents that, at last, something is being done for

their young people.

The stated aim is to provide an opportinity of training for every school leaver who is unemployed or not in full-time education. Such training will be provided, preferably, by employers. The £1 billion made available is to be channelled and controlled by the M.S.C.

Employers will be encouraged to take on trainees by the offer of an . allowance of (at the moment) £1800. Out of this, they will pay the trainee an allowance of £25 (possibly to go up to £28), and meet any costs

pertaining to the training. The train ing will last one year and there will

be a contract between the employer and the M.S.C. Under the contract the employer will undertake to provide three months off-the-job training for

each trainee.

It is obvious that this is a further step in the dismantling of the apprenticeship system, which is no longer able to provide capitalism with what it needs: flexible 'unskilled' workers. The one-year scheme in no way replaces an apprenticeship, which involves highly specialised training, while the yts is meant to be very broad and general. It poses problems for those wishing to enter an apprenticeship after the one-year traineeship because of the age limitations of apprenticeships. The lucky ones will be kept on by the employer and possibly offered an apprenticeship- which effectively cuts out the raw 16 year old school leavers.

PARDON ME SON! We: e.

uT HAVE You Ev! SIEQR BeUSiDERED TRAINING . >

AN TEGBIT S go A WEEK

eae ‘OR YOUR .

At the same time, the reduction in the numbers of apprentices will add to the problems of the Further Education sector and will provide the excuse for closing down classes and for red-

undancies. It could be supposed that», for their three months off the job

training, trainees will, like apprentices before them, be placed in Further Education. It is, however, more likely that the M.S.C. and the employers will look to cheaper ways of providing those three months offthe-job training than by professional educators- hence Skills Centres. In any event, even when trainees do go into the FE sector for their three months' training} this will be controlled by the M.S.C. and not by the

colleges.

Thus, a whole section of young people will have their entry into the job market delayed by one year - and no longer appear on the unemployment register. Of course, it is not at all clear what will happen to them after the one-year course, when they will have improved their "skills". It may indeed be that some of them at least will be more attractive to employers, but it is more likely that the majority will find themselves back where they started.

Nonetheless, it is likely that young people will be eager to join the YTS - after all, what choices will they have ?...1) to be unemployed, but unable to receive any social security for several months; 2) to stay en for a fulltime course in Education, for which they will receive no grant or 3) become a trainee and receive £25 and have the status of being involved in the world of work as well as the hope that a job will be more likely. It is easy to see what will happen: a further decline in enrolment on full-time FE courses and a further decline in FE; those young people who actually wish to continue their further education will be penalised.

In this case, it is necessary to wonder what sort of'education! trainees are likely to get. Education is, in fact, of little imprtance to the authors of the Task Group Report, the only time it is mentioned, it is prefaced by the word 'relevant', - it is not difficult to guess who will define what is and what is not 'relevant' - the local MSC area board and the employer. In fact, the entire emphasis in the Re-

port and in all Government statements has been on the ‘work preparedness! of young people - as Minister Peter Morrison puts it: "Youngsters also need to be properly prepared for the discipline of the world of work, if both school and home have failed to do this..." As if unemployment is caused by lack of 'discipline'.

Furthermore, it cannot even be hoped that the three months! "offthe-job" training will provide the opportunity to offer young people a broader educational framework. Employers will have control over how much of the Governmenet grant is to be spent on particular elements of the programme, how much they spend and how they spend it:; "There will be no prescriptive rules on how much of the grant is to be spent on particular elements of the programme nor what type of organisation should provide either the work experience or the offthe-job training." Thus, the Brighton Skills Centre will be staffed, not by teachers, but by ‘instructors', who will have temporary contracts and be paid by the MSC, and in this way the "off-the-job" training can be provided much more cheaply than in FE Colleges. Employers can even set up their own "Skills Centres". There are already the beginnings of a flourishing private sector based on providing 'training' - for example the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation and Sight and Sound (Managing Director John Pardoe).

So the whole education and

training of young people is

being taken out of the hands of

the Educational sector and placed

in the hands of the private sector. The implications of this are obvious. To mention just one: the disappearance of any genearal education. Although much of further education has historically been closely tied to the needs of industry and employers there has nevertheless been an attempt to introduce broader aspects of personal and social development - participatory methods, selfdetermination and political literacy, through the introduction of General Studies on all courses. There can be little hope that such elements will survive when the control of the education of young people goes to the MSC and employers.

It must be said loud and clearly that the YTS is not anywhere near the comprehensive tertiary system for. 16 to 19s envisaged in Labour's Programme, it is a convenient way of neutralizing volatile youth, of reducing the unemp-

loyment register and - at the same tine

- of striking a further blow in the demoralization and destruction of the public Education Sector.

Finally, it must be pointed out that, if the YTS is bad news for all young people, it is even worse for girls. There is little hope for a reduction in traditional training and job stereotyping when employers have the say. MSC statistics already show that three times as many boys took part in training workshops under YOPS and that girls get mostly the 'female'work roles such as clerical work. There is little or no hope for positive action here.

Joyce Edmond-Smith (Hanover)

briefing working TOWARDS sumer

NATIONAL TRUCTUR

Political Basis for Unity 10.30 - 12.05 A. theoretical and practical outline

of the political nature of Briefing.

Politics of the Personal

12.20 - 1.40 The importance of sexual and class politics.In particular,the role of

women councillors.

1.40 - 3.45 LUNCH and separate caucuses for men

} and women to discuss the previous

workshop. Feb an rganisation count are 2! hal

5.45

1/ Council and local govt. (Ken Livingstone)

2/ Trade Unions

3/ Community Politics (lesley Lee). ;

4/ Producing Briefings.

Brighton Labour Briefing page three

omen Against Violence

Woren Against Violence Against women (WAVAW) is a sroup which involves discussion and action around issues which affect women which we do not think are directly reducible to class.'this includes pornofraphy,violence towards woren,and all forms of sexual abuse.While we recognise that under capitalism there is yreat economic gain to be made out of objectify— ing women to be sold as commodities,we do not believe the problem can be tackled adequately as only something inherent in capitalism. Sexual abuse of women has existed in all forms of society,

We mobilise around issues which will give publicity to our cause and open up the debate about male violence towards women.It is for those reasons that we have been participating in the recent local council debate around the "Licensing of Sex sstablishment" Act. This gives local councils the power to license sex-shops,or to refuse to licemse any,and hence to prevent sex-shops existing in Brighton.Obviously our aim is to change existing attitudes and actions towards women,so although we do not see legislation as a solution in itself,we see it as a means to an end.It creates an area through which these issues can be discussed,and in our lobbying of local councillors we have brou-

ght the issue to the front of their minds for serious consideration.

We believe the existence of pornograpny and sex shops threatens all women and is a denial of their basic civil liberties,whether they come into direct contact with it or not.It perpetuates the view that women exist only to give men sexual pleasure ans legitimises the use of any means men feel are suitable for possessing women and gaining sexual satisfaction.

We feel the Labour Party should create a space for women to actively engage in their own struggle against oppression.If the Labour Party is pursuing some view of an alternative society in which women will play an equal part,they need to begin to build it now.The Lab— our Party must take a stand against male violence towards women in all spheres;pornography,sex shops,and acts of sexual abuse.

It should have a clear policy which encourages challenging the sexist assumptions this society is based on.

Brighton Women Against Violence Against Women.

BOOKS, PAMPHLETS AND PERIODICALS Mill

THE ODD

DIARIES AND CALENDARS

VOLUME

53 UPPER GLOUCESTER RD BRIGHTON (27845)

1 Sat: ©

6 =5.301

SECOND-HAND BOOKS BOUGHT AND SOLD-

——

Brighton Labour Briefing page four

is interviewed by _ LabourBriefing

Interviewed by Liz Godden & Tony Greenstein for Brighton Labour

Briefing.

BLB How do you see your relationship to London Labour Briefing in the light of your involvement with Labour Herald.

KL Labour Herald and LLB are not Tivals. LH has a wider audience & is produced weekly. LLB is more in depth and 99? of LLB material is supportative. LLB opinion is very varied and therefore bound to be critical.

BLB Do you take political attacks on you personally?

KL Daily attacks from the popular press worry me more than Left criticism. Left criticism can be more hurtful because of the implications of betrayal.We should be judged on our political position over a range of issues rather than on any particular one.

BLB Your coeditor of LH,Ted Knight, (who has threatened to take LLB to court) has a very critical attitude’ to LLB. Would you share that attitude?

KL Heavens forbid that I should be involved in another legal battle, you should take it up with Ted. You have

LEADER OF THE LABOUR GROUP ON THE GREATER LONDON COUNCIL.

to see his position in the light of what happened. Many of his most strident critics are themselves now on Councils and doing what they once criticised him for.

BLB Theres a National Briefing Conference at which you will be speaking

in February.Do you support the idea of Briefing being set up on a national basis.,given the lefts lack of direction nationally?

KL We dont want to put forward a rival organisation to Militant,Clause 4, Tribune etc. My position is the same over 14 years- maximum agreement §& unity around a set of policy objectives.

I often find that when a certain tendency

falls out with me they came back a year or two later asking for support.

BLB Would you agree that Briefing had a marked success in unifying groups such as Socialist Organiser/Challenge etc which otherwise operate separately. Would you like to see that nationally, given the left is on the defensive nationally?

-KL Setting out to build a huge national Briefing organisation is doomed to failure. Once you have an organis-

ation with an agreed set of

policies you tend to lose people.

If a national Briefing acts as a national forum rather than a tendency it will be a great step forward.

BLB While supporting Militants right to organise within the party,can you outline your political disagreements with them,in particular re women?

KL I have always disagreed with them ‘on 2 main issues- Ireland & Women.

On London Regional Executive over

the past 8-9 years when Ireland,Women came up it seems there was an alliance between the Trade Union Right & Militant and usually the broad left lost to this alliance.

BLBDo you disagree with Militants ‘economic determinism and their reduction of all oppression to the workp1ace thereby excluding sexual/national oppression? KL I'd be very close to that criticism. My major disagreement has been over Ireland and for me this is one of the major policy issues.

PALESTINE BLB Do you agree with the swamping of the Labour Committee on Palestine conference by the Workers Revolutionary Party recently? KL Yes I disagree with all packing ‘of meetings whether it is the left or the right. But the good thing about it was that we collected 7 pounds per head from each of them.. The problem is that everybody does it. BLB Even though they were packing a “TABOUR Cttee on Palestine meeting & were members of a party that stands candidates against the Labour Party?

KL Well the PLO & Yasser Arafat have given their support to the LCP.

BLB But only on the basis of work they did prior to the conference in obtaining support from the Labour Party Conference.

KL What matters is who the PLO support. BLB Do you support the de-Zionisation of the racist,colonialist State of Israel just as you would support destroying the apartheid state of State of South Africa?

KL I support the complete separation of church and state just as I do here. BLB But the difference between the 2 states is that in Israel racism is ingrained in the very state that drove the Palestinians out and is now occupying more of their land in Lebanon. This state was set up by the

Zionist movement. Surely you would “therefore support its de Zionisation, which is implicit in the call for a democratic secular state? KL I prefer to say that I support the complete separation of church and state.

cue

BLB Will you go into deficit spending in the GLC if the Govt. grants you only 10 million pounds? KL We have asked for 140 million. It will be impossible to overspend for legal reasons. The treasurer will simply refuse to put contracts out to tender. Legally he would Fees to implement our decisions. LB So you will be abandoning projects? KL We have launched a Catipal gn which Ras upset Parliament and MPs. We will be going into individual constituencies and showing the people a lot of what we would have done if their MP hadn't voted against the budget. BLBWould you break the law if that was possible? KL. Yes if it s possible,I'd be extremely prepared to break the law. The only time in local govt. you can do it is when the govt. instructs you to do something and you refuse to do it. BLB For example on Civil Defense? KL Yes on civil defense you're in a position where your refusal means you're outside the law and the Council Officers haven't got any instructions.

War in the

Qn Saturday March 12th s conference is being held in Brighton at the Friends Centre on 'War in the Third World and the Third World War'.

The conference aims to bring together people from the the Peace movement, the labour movement, the womens movement and international solidarity campaigns to discuss peace and militarism in an international context. Yhroughout Western Europe, the Peace movement has recently become a major point of reference on the political map. In Britain, as Thatcher recently observed, even Dennis Healey now talks like a unilateralist, and Thatcher herself has been concerned enough to put Heseltine in'Defence'. Up till now » however the major sections of the m movement have remained Eurocentris, accepting for the most part the Government view that the major threat to "World Peace’ is a war over the spoils of Western Europe.

The myth of World Peace, (as in 'the Nuclear Deterent has kept World Peace since 195), is easily disposed of. Since Hiroshima there has not been one day of it. At the end of the Malvinas war, 19 other wars were still raging. There has been a tendancy to see these wars, almost all of them in the 'Third World', as politically insignificant in comparison to the lomming threat of a US - USSR nuclear exchange. But if we extend our vision beyond the industrialised world the complexities and interdependancies become obvious.

In 1953 Eisenhower threatened use of atomic weapons in Korea. In 1962, Kennedy threate aed Cuba with nuclear attack. In 1967, during the Yom Kippur war, NATO was put on full Nuclear Alert, and, it was later revealed that N Nixon and Kissenger discussed use of Nuclear weapons in the Vietnam war.

The Conference was initiated by the Anti Apartheid Movement, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Central A America & El Salvador Solidarity Campwaigns. The national liberation movements in the three regions which the

Conference will begin by discussing, (Southern Africa, the Middle East and Central America), are today engaged in

life or death struggles for peace and freedom.

In South Africa, there have ‘been the massacres of Sharpville in 1967, Soweto in 197€ when 179 school choldren and students were killed in July alone. More recently the deaths in detention of Steve Biko and Niel Agget, and the massacre in Lesotho of 19 men women and children. 6 ANC freedom fighters

| currently face execution.

In Lebanon following the latest Israela aggression, 20,000 people have been killed and 600,000 made hoiteless.

In Guatemala, in the |, months, followig ng the Coup of Marcl: last year, 11,000 peasants died at the hands of the new ‘pro human rights' regime.

There is a feeling among some that since liberation movements are often foreed to take up arms, we should not

condider them within the peace issue.

Brighton Labour Briefing page five

3rd world 3rd world war

What we hope to make clear at the conference is that these movements are engaged in defending themselves, with minimal resources, from the coordinated interference of Western Governments and economic interests, via regimes which understand only too well that violation of codes of human rights or UN resolutions are insignificant in Western eyes as long as they remain in accord with Western military and economic strategy. Examples are endless: President Montt of Guatemala, has just secured a massive arms deal with the US. 'He's been given a bum rap! Reagan told reporters recently. South Africa has had only verbal scoldings for its illegal occupation of Namibia. Britain receives most of its Uranium from there. Israel also has had no effective action taken against it, indeed its whole economic and military structure is completely dependent of US aid.

For us, the importance of this international perspective for the peace movement is this: When British and American military activity is taken ae a whole, then their stockpiling of nuclear weapons can be seen in context. It is not a foolish mistake in an otherwise sane and necessary ‘defence! policy, but the pinnacle of a strategy of eryploitation, oppression and violence against numerous peoples all over

Speakers will include: A representative of the Lebanese National Movement, Salvador Moncada; Cheif Representative of the FDR,

Jenny Pearce of the Latin American 4 Bureau, Adrian Crewe among others.

There will be work Wggphops and a discussion, with members of the peace movement, the labour movement and the solidarity campaigns on what the links between x

the '3rd World' struggles and peace and political campaigns here. The main emphasis will be on what we can do in Brighton to extend these connections.

the world.

We cannot build a successful peace movement which allows characters like David Owen to call himself a disarmer while justifying his record of selling arms to the Chilean Junta.

29th Jan

People from many different organisatic ons have come together to organise th this conference: The international solidarity campaigns themselves, Brighton CND, Sussex Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament, the Women's Peace Group, the Anti Nuclear Campaign, Breifing, various labour Party wards, the Trades Council and others. We hope that from this initiate can grow a string commitment to take these issues up in campaigns. We hope also that the conference will prodtice at 1

31st Jan

29th Jan

least the outlines of a strategy on Oth Jan wikk which all these groups can H co operate in future.

INDRA DE LANEROLLE & FADWA OBAID 2th Feb For Anti Apartheid, Palestine Solidarity fth-Feb & Central Amertca Solidarity Campains.

CONFERENCE DETAILS ——— auth Feb

SATURDAY 12th MARCH FRIENDS CENTRE SHIP STREET

10am till Spm

18th Feb

CRECHE, . i 23rd Zeb THERE WILL BE A CONCERT IN THE EVENING AT THE ROYAL ESCAPE (UPSTAIRS) WITH MUSIC AND SINGERS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA AND EL SALVADOR. Tickets available from THE PULIC HOUSE 26th yep BOOKSHOP, THE ODD VOLUME BOOKSHOP and THE PEACE SHOP (Kensington Gardens)

Prices:

(Concert £1.25 adv.) 1

WHAT'S ON

LPYS DEMO'JOBS FOR YOUTH' Assemble 10.30 am Level March to B'ton Centre.

PICKET BRIGHTON DHSS Campaign v Racism/Fascism (051- 225 6886)

CLPD Conference at County Hall. _ LONDON ASSEMBLY to defend and extend social services at Friends House, Eustdn Road,London NW1.

BLOODY SUNDAY MARCH in Leeds. Ring B'ton 698111 for details.

BRIEFING NATIONAL MTG

PLASTIC BULLETS KILL

Mtgein Debating Chamber Suussex Univ with John Rosenhead(LSE). 7.30pm.

CND Public Mtg.Friends Centre.7.30pm.

PALESTININAN CONFERENCE (ring Btn.698111)

THE FIGET FOR PALESTINE LYCP mtg in County Hall London at Spm. Tariq Ali Ron Brown MP, Jeremy

Corbyn,Women's Palestine

BAN PLASTIC BULLETS Conference.11am. UMIST (Manchester) Bton 698111 LABOUR PARTY JUMBLE SALE St.Anne's Hall.

Brighton Labour Briefing page six SS

Comrades,

I make no appologies for any spelling mistakes in this letter nor for the fact that many of your readers may find it lacks the finesse and polish that they so love. It does however try to give you the thing so often glossed over in the name of interlectual debate and that is truth.

First it should be obvious to you that blue collar workers support for the Labour Party has dropped dramatically over the past few years and not for the reasons so glibly put out by the press and the media and their right wing alies in the Labour Party ie. that the Party has gone too far to the left. In fact in reality the contrary is true.

Under a full blooded socialist program with positive discrimination in favour of workers we have nothing to fear. For the millions of us living in substandard council housing at high rents, For those without a home of their own, For the millions in or out of work who year in and year out struggle on poverty incomes, For the tens of thousands who cannot get into hospitals because the greedy few filch their beds, For the old who die of cold ‘each year, For the millions of workers expoited by the capatalist system and then dumped to protect massive profit margins we can only be better of

It may also be obvious to you that for all the lies put out by the media that the workers are not flooding into the polls to vote Tory or SDP they are in fact staying indoors waiting for you to realise that we are no longer stupid,We are no longer prepared to let you use our name to carry out mild Tory policies.

We are begining to question, Under labour we are told homelessnes will be eradicated, Housing standards in the public sector will improve, Wel what has happened? Where are the promisess? Over the last four decades we have had many years of labour government but still

© ==LABBUR PARTY~HOPE-~WORKER

the vast majority live in purpose built sub-standard housing, In many there are no indoor loots, Walls are covered in green mould due to the damp, The list is endless, And that of coarse is only those lucky enough to ha-e a hovel to live in.

What ever happened to the free and readily available medical and dental care that a large percentage of our wages go in payin for? Why did a labour party in favour of the lower paid workers find it necessary to intr-duce perscription charges making those they professed to help suffer the most? Why are wages in a vast majority of cases still so low? Why are we bound tighter by rules, regulations, and laws than the idle and super rich?

/fgunion barons 4m Ue

In other words after all the brave promises aimec at the millions of manual workers why do we still see 1942 in 1982?

When are the trendy interlectuals of the labour party going to stop worrying about their power base? When are the dictates of the Trade union barens going to be queried? And above all when are certain sections of the labour party going to

swallow tere pride and recogn= ise that we the workers have dreams, Not of great wealth and Power, Not of ivory towers and banquets, Not even of the right to determine their future, That they are prepared to leave to the politicians. All we ask is for decent housing, Fair wages Job security, Real’health and safety in our factorys, And above all a lasting peace for the future. As you can see none of which would be to hard to Carry out for a party that truly represents the workers.

Until you can grasp these facts the once great labour party, The workers party in name and inheritance can only continue to fall out of favour with the very people it was created to help and sentance them to continual bondage under the torys.

Colin Avey 156, Swanborough Pl. Brighton.

tom on the move

After a recent quiet phase, Brighton Troops Out Movement has begun to grow both in membership and in activity. Recent developments, especially the electoral success of Provisional Sinn Fein, are helping socialists to see the rationality of TOM's demands : British withdrawal ("troops out now'') and self-determination for the Irish people as a whole.

We now meet weekly to plan our local campaign and te discuss all aspects of the war in Ireland - historical background, current situation, and its links with British politics.

Coordination among branches is especially important when, like TOM, you are a small organisation fighting on an issue which is still shunned by almost all political parties. Delegates from branches meet every two months in an NEC. A key task discussed at November's NEC was TOM's campaign against plastic bullets (which have killed 11 people in Ireland and seriously injured many more). The LP Conference decision in September to oppose their use - largely thanks to pressure ‘from Labour Cttee. on Ireland and OM supporters - is ‘ good news. But’ they're not yet banned. Brighton TOM will be petitioning on the issue locally. We think, more generally, Sussex Police may have a few questions to answer on "riot hardware". :

In Brighton we are preparing the first in a series of regular newsletters on current issues in the Northern Irish conflict, to distribute to progressive groups and individuals locally. If you would like to be on our mailing list, or to know more about our activities, contact us via your Briefing seller.

Sue Briggs (LPYS) Richard Stanton (7 Dials)

BLBhat about the new Civil Defense Regulations being brought in as a result of the failure of Operation Hard Rock?

KL We have no intention of complying with such regulations, we are holding a Press Conference tomorrow because the govt. has screwed upthe regulations. BLB But what if they are able to draft Completely watertight regulations?

KL Given the powers of govt. to direct Council Officers to ignore our orders we can sit down in Council and vote

but it still may happen.

IRELAND Regarding your invitation to Provisional Sinn Feinn. When will you be visiting them? KL If I had my way the first the press knew of the visit would be when I'm on my way back. If they know in advance it'll turn into a media circus and I won't see anything of Ireland or the people I want to see.

It would only aid our opponents if they

Gerry Adams canvassing during election campaign

know in advance.

BLBDo you support the right of the jationalist population, who were & still are under attack from the RUC, B Specials,§the Army from 1969 onwards to defend themselves militarily?

KL I don't think they had any choice

put to defend themselves and what clea- |

rly happened in 1968/9 was that the violence came from the RUC & B Specials. Thats why the British*Army went in but even before Heath came to power the

ar my was turned around and used in’ police operations against the nationalist community and which culminated in Operation Motorman in 1972.

BLB Do you therefore support the right Of the nationalist minority to oppose the army militarily when it is used against them eg. in house raids?

KL All I would say is that the position Tve put forward remains . I've condemned all violence whether its from the Provos or the British army firing plastic bullets at children and I don't distinguish between them but what you get in the British press is hypocrisy given

the publicity given to a dead catholic and that of eg. a Unionist politician. BLB But would you distinguish between the Vietcongs violence and that of the US Army or the Partisans § the Nazis, why the difference in Ireland?

KLThere are quite major differances between the position of the Provisionals & Vietcong. The N Ireland state is

drawn in such a way that the Protestants form an artificial majority which wasn't the case in Vietnam.

‘Brighton Labour Briefing page seven

LIVINGSTONE interview (continued) ™

REFORMISM BLB Would you describe yourself as being in the revolutionary or reformist tradition in the Labour Movement? KL I describe myself as a radical soci- ‘alist. Other people can characterise me either as a marxist or anarchist. 1 would always emphasise that I'm-a radical as well as a socialist. The feminist issue is probably more import-

ant than the have come to BLB But can ‘of the state to carry out

other definitions which mean almost anything.

you reform the institutions which are actually refusing ones mandate?

KL If you can mobilise a sufficient body of support for the elected govt. yes you can make them. I've spoken to Mme Allende about the problems in Chile, she doesn't think you can scrap 120 years just like that.

POLICE Do you think theres such a thing as a socialist police force? KL There has got to be a police force, even just for violence of men vs women.

BLB Structured as a separate body of

mainly me apart from the community: or community policing where people take

their own responsibility for policing. KL Its pretty stupid to ask people to take responsibility for their own policing when they're as weedy as I am or unskilled in self defence. What you

want is a police force drawn from the community it represents implementing the priorities of that community. Its Separation is one of the main weaknesses of the police as presently organised.

STANDING FOR PARLIAMENT BLB Are you breaking trust & faith by trying to stand for parliament ie careerism and are you confident of

winning the battle for selection in Brent East?

KLSince 1970 nearly all my time has

Been devoted to Council I now think that anyone that is being careerist

activity and who says that must be out

of their tiny mind.I came into local government when it was a dead end and those who've actually called me a careerist are now in Parliament. Its a lot of black propaganda this stuff about breaking faith.

BLB Do you think you will win the battle for reselection?

KL You'll have to put that to the Selection meeting.I haven't been invited BLB If you are invited?

KL I don't think I should do or say anything about it. My view is that its up to the individual party members in Brent East to decide who their candidate is. I believe the NEC should keep out of that and let them deal with it in a fair way.

BLB But the left in Brent E has decided to nominate you. Will you accept?

KL Of course but bear in mind no selection has started,no ward has invited me to a selection meeting and it would be presumptious to start talking about it.as though they had. When it happens of course I'd be delighted.

BLB Would you like to represent Brent E if thats possible,as their MP?

KL I've a lot of friends in Brent East and I've always maintained contact with them. I've a lot of friends in the GLC, Its an area I'd find very dist-

ressful to leave.

Briefing

In the past Briefing has attempted

to organise creches at their meetings. Unfortunately the result has been a shambles through lack of commitment and little knowledge of what children need for a creche. Cold rooms on winter evenings with very few toys do not bode well for a good creche. What we are suggesting is that we have a babysitters list. If you want to come to a Briefing meeting phone Bryn Griffiths on 696111 if you want a babysitter. Please phone this number if you would like to add your name to bhe childcare rota.

This issue of Briefing was produced by Anne Bulmer, Bryn Griffiths, Dave Lewney, Richard Stanton, Anthony Clavane, Alick Bridger, Janice Turner, Tony Greenstein, Indra de Lanerolle, Pete Lambert, George Meszaros, Andy Richards & Mark Holmes.

The deadline for articles for the next issue of Briefing is 18th February.

Please send articles to Brighton Labour Briefing, Student Union,

Falmer House, Sussex University, Falmer, Brighton.

21 Little Preston St.,

Brighton BN1 2HQ.

Tel./28387

Brighton Labour Briefing page eight

VICTIMS OF

As President Reagan attempts to introduce MX missiles and more locally, as East Sussex war emergency plans near completion, the secrecy surrounding Britain's bomb-testing and its brutal after-effects, has itself been exploded,

During 1957 and 1958-9, a large number of nuclear tests were carried out at the Christmas Island base.

Both the Atom and Hydrogen bombs were exploded, despite attempts to secure an international non-testing agreement, Up to 5000 people, sevicemen and civilians, were in the vicinity during the explosions.

Now after a 25-year silence, a number of people affected by the radiation exposures and suffering similar symptom-patterns, have come forward to expose the dangerous, although little-known, events of the late 1950's.

The Official Secrets Act have no ' longer deterred two Brighton men, amongst others, from responding to a BBC Nationwide investigation into the affair. Mr Ron Tarran and Mr Colin Avey were witness to the 10 tests that took place in '58-9, alongside 3 ships of crewmen only 5 miles from the blast, and thousands of people further away, but on the island at the time. This followed several tests carried out around the island a year earlier.

"The shock wave of the 1957 test," states a Warrant Officer who experienced the first series, "blew out all the windows at the base and knocked me onto my back." He knows of at least two men who have since died of

el

THE OMB

uptake of such activity by any person on, Christmas Island, was at most negligable and might only occur, if at all, in the remote southern area of the Island; an area to which entry was strictly controlled."

By exclusion zone, they are reffering to an area prohibited to islanders. Yet Dr. Hugh Evans, medical 'expert', denied the existence of such islanders on Nationwide. Entry to servicemen was not,» says Mr. Avey, controlled as soldiers and airmen were stationed there. The MOD allege the explosions "took place a considerable distance from the Base area

m oO

il

I tl

tl

+ «+ethe nearest was about 24 miles away"

and that therefore "there was no need to take any special precautions to protect" apart from those doing "necessary duties."

no protection

This'is in complete contradiction to Dr. Evan's version. He claims that the nearest distance was 15 miles, and that protective gear was issued to those doing "normal" duties.

Mr, Avey, who was actually exposed -to the blast, says "we had no real protection...we changed into long-sleeve

leukemia and he himself has been passing Shirts and trousers" and that his ship,

blood since 1968. Mr Avey describes how the crewmen were placed on the upper deck with their backs to the blast.

He suffers frequent black-outs, and loss of teeth. Mr Tarran suffers from chronic myloid leukemia and cataracts on both eyes,

Cover-Up

Caught on the hop, government spoke-

spersons have been unable to synchronise their responses. In a letter to Kemptown

MP Andrew Bowden, they inform the satisfied Tory that "the tests were carried out (...) such that the direct deposition of radioactivity on, or

HMS Scarborough was 5 miles from the sea blast, which in turn was 5 miles from the island.

. Of course, even if the largest estimate of 24 miles was correct, it is Still incredible to conclude as the MOD do, that "Mr Tarran received no exposure from the radiation during his time on Christmas Island other than due

. to background radiation to which all persons throughout the world are exposed during all their lives."

At least Dr. Evans is in agreement with his government colleagues on this, despite Mr.Avey stating that the ship sailed through the base of the mushroom cloud! Finally, the medical 'expert' claims that the people were allocated with identification film to record the radiation exposure, and that post-

edical checks recorded no effects. The nly comment Mr. Avey gives is that the

film badges "are a figment of Dr. Evans

magination".

Mr, Tarran, who was attracted to the sland by a NAAFI advert glamourising he sea-life in the Daily Mirror, says hat the exposure has ruined his life.

HMS Scarborough was referred to as

"the target ship" which suggests to

Mr, Avey that he and his colleagues were used as guinea pigs. They signed the Official Secrets Act beforehand, as is usual, but there were suspicions when told not to speak of the Island (a crewman was arrested by the Service Investigation Branch fer taking photos),

The government have finally responded by setting up a national inquiry.But if the MOD letter is anything to go by,it is likely to deny the connection bewtween the testing and illnesses.

Locally,there has been coverage of the issue in the media.Yet despite several initial articles in the Argus,the newspaper will only apparently continue to cover the story if there is a 'public response! (letter-writing etc).

To rely on the media alone would be a mistake; the labour movement must support the victims’ campaign. In USA, the American National Association of Atomic Veterans was formed for the victims of the Nevada bombings. But as Colin Avey pointed out, "although many soldiers died of leukemia and cancerrelated diseases, until No. 1 here John Wayne died of cancer they tried to cover-up".

A.CLAVANE (MARINE WARD)

unemployed centre

The current membership is approx. '320. This figure is rising in the wake of the publicity generated through recent projects and activities. In this context,I could mention the successful party for children of |\locally unemployed people or the BBC2 Open Door programme made by the centre to be screened on February 9 1983. We expect that membership will continue to rise in spite of the derelict \sorroundings and severely limited meeting space offered by our current

[premises-civen the staffing problens

& pressures within the @ vernment organisations (DHSS,Dept. Employment) our welfare rights service is increasingly important in the work-load it has to carry. Help is given in understanding the benefit entitlements, drafting letters, sorting out preb lems and delays etc. Our centre also

monitors decisions and events affecting the developments. We have both

a Womens' group and a Youth Group which examine the opportunities and . conditions relevant to these areas. On the social side, the Centre. offers unemployed people a

place to meet. Concessions which we have negotiated for all these locally unemployed, include the half-fare 'job-seeker' bus pass, half-rate use of Council amenities such as swimming pools and tennis courts and cut-price entrance to some concerts at the Brighton Centre.

Although our essential focus is the representation of the unemployed, we also send delegates to other groups in the community which examine related issues. These include Age Concern, Women's Groups and our sponsors the Trades Council.

We badly need an adequately sized premise located in better and ideally more central surroundings so we can successfully continue-our campaigns and activities.

Brighton Labour Briefing page nine

Hitler's illusion was, that he could physically liquidate Europe's resistance against fascism. Begin’s and

Review : "Zionism & Anti-semitism - a continuing relationship" By Tony Greenstein P & P Brighton Labour Briefing.

Well, we couldn't let BLB's first pamphlet go without a major review, could we?

To begin with a word of warning: Tony Greenstein's pamphlet does not make either easy or pleasant reading. Still less can it have been either easy or pleasant to write. Comrade Greenstein approaches his subject with the anger and passion of an active anti-Zionist. Whether despite or because of this, he has sought to understand Zionism from within. What we are presented with are the results of his delvings into the propoganda, prejudices and practice of Zionism from Herzl (its founding father) to the Holocaust. He can be assured of a hostile reception from the Zionists themselves - too many of them are prone to cry "traitor" when confronted with the criticisms of other Jews. That the anti-Zionist is ipso facto anti-Jewish is a common enough argument of the friends of the Israeli State.

Comrade Greenstein's central purpose is to turn the tables on this argument. Zionism, he argues, could never have existed without anti-Semitism, to which it was "the most defeatist and conservative reaction". And this "reaction" he sees as having three characteristic features. First, the development of a racialist ideology of its own, both in its acclamation of supposed Jewish racial traits and its denigration of the Palestinians in particular and the Gentiles in general. Second, an intransigent opposition to assimilationist currents and aspirations among Jews. Third, an active collaboration with anti-semites - including the Nazi regime in Germany - whenever doing so might serve to further narrow Zionist aims and at whatever cost to assimilationist Jews. A not inconsiderable array of references and a fairly aweinspiring one of quotations is produced to back these theses up.

Yet one does not have to be an unrepentant Zionist to find fault with this essay. Indeed- and very regrettably - Zionists will not be alone in dismissing it on the merest glance at its cover, where the juxtaposition of Begin and Hitler. Israel and Germany might be as absurd as a comparison between a petty shoplifter and a bank-robber if it were not in such dubious taste. Nor will

the opening passages encourage the sceptic to perservere - Zionism is immediately lambasted as being ruthless, intolerant and exploitive. An outline of the pamphlet's thesis would have been far more useful an introduction than the strear of invective with which we are confronted. And just 2 pages further on a Zionist is dismissed for using “emotive language". And this is

his generais’ illusion is, that they can physically liqui-

date the PLO and the Palestinian resistance against

Zionist occupation.

irritated by the "opcits" that abound throughout the narrative since first mentions many occur a dozen pages earlier any there is no bibliography - an ommision which, one hopes may be remidied in a future edition. Whatever its shortcomings, . Greenstein's work is invaluable in collecting a mass of secondary literature on Zionism, much of which is not readily available. To the antiZionist activist, it will be more grist to the mill. And the concerned internationalist Socialist, left wondering whether the arrival of Begin and the massacres in the Sabre and Chatilla camps are only a momentary aberation, a blot on the reputation of a generally humane tradition, or whether they do not rather represent a logical continuation of a tendancy in Zionism that has been present since its inception as a political movement, will find these questions clearly answered.

indicative of a serious problem that consistently mars Greenstein's pamphlet. Too often, the novice historian in the author is elbowed aside by the experienced polemicist, nailing yet another opponent with self-evident glee. At its best, the prose is acid and ironic; at its worst, hectoring and bombastic. On -

WIR WOLLEN...

ae a To oppose Begin is simply not enough. 1933-1948 t | eae ? Bub I leave the last quote with

Cde. Greenstein's own conclusion... "The allegation that anti-Zionism equals anti-semitism is nothing less than a blood lible directed against all those who wish to see the Palestinians return to their homeland and the establishment of a secular and democratic socialist Palestine in a socialist Middle East."

occasion, the analysis misses the point of the quotations it deals with. Thus, for instance, in his section on the'Jewish Race', Greenstein fails to point out that, while Herzl and 1920's and '30s Zionists both had a notion of the Jewish People as a seperate entity, Herzl's conception was negative ("the majority decides who the alien is") whereas that of the later Moses Hess was stridently racist ("the Jewish race is a basic one and reproduces itself in its integrity").

Elsewhere, there are simply far too many - and too long- quotations. It is possible to make a point more effectively and more economically than by force of numbers of repetitive quotations. More seriously, the sources cited occasionally appear a trifle suspect. From Hansard, an MP is cited recounting an interview with

a prominent Zionist, in which the latter is depicted as having said of Arabs that "they are not people."

I know of no other circumstances in which Comrade Greenstein would be willing to take the word of a Tory MP so readily. Nor am I certain that

the British Anti-Zionist Organis- DEMONSTRATE

ation's publications - relied on for H

important quotations in the section Brighton, Saturday Jan 29th

on "Zionism & Nazism" is a more Assemble: 10.30 am (at The Level) March: at 11 am

reliable source. Fortunately,

Greenstein also cited freely from such published material as the Herzl diaries and qoutes the reputable Zionist historian Lacquer against himself. Let the Zionists argue with that! The careful reader will be

Peter Lambert (Queens Park)

Labour Party Young Socialists

To Brighton Conference Centre for Regional Conference of the Southern Region LPYS

(Conference on Saturday and Sunday, Guest speaker: Dennis Skinner MP)

wy og a

ie

EE

Anyone remember Brighton's protest march against Bloody Sunday ? An embarrassing memory, even after 11 years. A hundred-odd of us, as I recall, mostly students and far-lefties Little sign of “organised Labour". Tramping sodden and isolated through the February rain, you couldn't help wondering who came closest to speaking for Brighton's working-class : us with our chant "13 dead, how many more ?"... or that office-worker bawling down from his Queens Road window, "Drop an atom bomb on the lot of them !" (He meant the Irish, of course. ) Our feeble protest over, we.scarpered for the nearest cup of tea, asking our-— selves why we'd bothered.

Why indeed ? I'm not sure many of us understood what the previous Sunday's atrocity in Derry had really signified.

EXPERTISE

For a start, no-one yet realised how meticulous an act of political savagery "Our Boys" had carried out. How Stormont P.M. Faulkner - backed and armed by Britain as Northern Ireland's sectarian Unionist rulers had been for half a century - had decided to make an example of the Civil Rights march

in Derry on 30th. Jan. 1972,

a mass nationalist protest /™

against the introduction of internment-without-trial.

How those fine professionals of 1st. Bn. the Parachute Regiment loaded up for the occasion with lead instead of rubber bullets.

How they took careful aim as

demonstrators began running,

fleeing for their lives back/

up Rossville St. ; and ri

proceeded to shoot their

unarmed victims down with

the barbaric expertise of

the world's most seasoned

imperialist army.

Bow, when Barmey McGuigan turned back

weaving a white handkerchief, to comfort

2@ man who lay dying in the roadway, one

of Our Boys saw his chance and put a wllet through Mr. NcGuigan’s head.

loody state

MINISTERS OF MURDER

So maybe it's not surprising if we did

not see, that day, how Bloody Sunday was _

a kind of ceremonial 1970s retaunching of the oldest "Irish policy" in the Imperial book political murder.

Heath was then in No. 10. Would we have imagined Labour Ministers, a few years later, ordering in undercover SAS assassination squads to dispose of suspected Republicans ?

Dennis Heaney for instance : aged 20, a fitter at Du Pont in Derry, arrested May 1978 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Released, with a death threat from a British Army major. Walking unarmed down Harvey St. three weeks later, he was gurified down by two plainclothes SAS men. He died at once. No charge, no trial, yet alone any evidence laid against him. And no media concern either, no Commons statement by Minister for Murder in Northern

Ireland, our PLP comrade Roy Mason.

If you don't believe that one, remem— ber John Boyle ? 16-year-old County Antrim farmer's son, shot dead in July 1978 by an SAS stake-out team when he went to look at a weapons cache reported earlier to the RUC by his father. Rather too obvious a blunder, this time, so Our Boys had to stand trial. They

“were acquitted, of course.

LOCAL TALENT

Under Thatcher, the technique has been tastefully "Ulsterised" current death squads are drawn mainly from the RUC. Can you face a couple mare examples ? 11 November 1982 : three unarmed IRA men shot dead near Lurgan after they had "crashed through an RUC roadblock". Only the pattern of bullet holes suggested that, of 60-odd bullets fired into the vehicle, most had struck while it was stationary, broadside on, at short range.... 24 November 1982 17-year-old Michael Tighe dies in a hail of bullets when he goes with a friend to an empty property near Lurgan to feed dogs belonging to a woman away on holiday. Shot dead in error, appar-- ently, by an RUC ambush team.

And so, no doubt, it will go on, as long as the British state maintains its massive, violent presence in Irish society.

IMAGE OF OUR FUTURE

But what - above all - would have seemed inconceivable to us shivering lefties that day in 1972, was that within the decade these forms of state repression and violence would be starting to cross the water to Britain. Ireland revealing our own future to us ? Ridiculous !

No longer so ridiculous in 1979, just before the Election, when a top Tory invited Mr.Lee Tracey, ex-—MI6 agent, and other ex-security service agents to a London hotel to discuss "plans for an undercover ‘army of resistance’

in case of a Labour victory" (New Statesman 20/2/81). The Tory ? A’,

certain Airey Neave, late bosom-pal of Thatcher, Tory spokesperson on Ni Ireland and tireless exponent of the virtues of the SAS.

Not so ridiculous in July 81. Police firing teargas at English rioters.

David Moore dying under the wheels of a Liverpool police van driven into a crowd in exact imitation of standard RUC methods of motorised "riot control!

Or in winter 1982/3 as the Tories' proposed Police Bill looms over us (power to detain four days without charge, to search anyone's home even if suspected of no offence, etc.), wheeled gleefully forward by Thatcher into the yawning breach in our democratic liberties opened up by eight years of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

And in Jan. 1983 we have the Laughing Policeman, 1980s style, chortling through his gunsmoke as he serves a swift lead sandwich to motorist Stephen Waldorf.... Fear not, comrades. Sussex Police has only 567 officers authorised to use guns, which it issued a mere 171 times in 1981. We're not going to be shot on the picket lines just yet.

But if you still can't be bothered about Irish dead, at least for the sake of your own class — remember Bloody Sunday.

Richard Stanton Seven Dials Branch L.P.