Devon Labour Briefing no. 33

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Witch hunters defeated

DEVON LABOUR BAIEFING COMMENTS ON THE RECENT OUTCOME OF EXETER CLP’S WITCHHUNT AGAINST PETER BOWING

Thursday November 24th saw Labour’s travelling circus, its disciplinary national Constitutional Committee, descend on Exeter, it was here to try Peter Bowing, a socialist critic of Exeter CLP. Chester Long, Labour’s City

Council leader, had already made his views only too clear to the party’s General Committee in Exeter saying that he would "sell his house to get Bowing out of the party”. Twice before Mr. Long had tried to purge the party of those with whom he disagreed. Back in

1984, he failed after Tony Benn reminded the party that the NEC would never allow expulsions simply because the left published a paper “Exeter Labour Briefing". Not to be deterred, he tried again the following year through his Whipton/Pinhoe branch and got the party’s Executive to recommend expulsion, but in the process all the rules of natural justice were broken, and those facing expulsion won a High Court injunction halting the proceedings.

In 1987, the expulsion bandwagon started rolling again, Long’s union branch made a complaint against Peter Bowing on the grounds. that he had written articles

which the branch deemed detrimental to the party, i.e. views that Long disagreed with. Glasnost had clearly not

arrived in Exeter. A committee of investigators charged Bowing with "writing articles which purport to describe meet-— ings of Exeter CLP and comment on the conduct of party officers and the Labour Group on the Exeter City Council." Without the details or the evidence ever being given to the General Committee and with a ruling that no party branch dis-— cuss the affair, the charge was forwarded to the NCC.

What was at stake behind the scenes was cleer. Bowing, falsely seen by Long as the leader of the left in Exeter, had argued that Exeter Labour Party was not as democratic as it could be, that the

Labour Party City Council Group dominated by Long held the whip’s hand over the party and worst of all, that the

guiding logic of the City Council Labour Group was “municipal careerism". The legalistic niceties mattered not; Bowing had to go; first, because he had spoken out where it hurt most, and secondly, to set an example. But since the formation of the National Constitutional Committee, a body dominated by the right but designed to adhere formally to the rules of natural justice, the constituencies no longer had disciplinary powers to abuse. Thus it all hinged = on a right wing but non-Exeter based body.

Long does not like Bowing. Nor did the NCC majority, but it was forced to act

within the rules of the Labour Party. The constitution of the Labour Party gives its members a right to “hold = and express views and opinions." Thus, in its judgment, the NCC proclaimed "that individual Labour Party members, whilst having the right to express and write personal Opinions publically, Peter Bowing should not have made individual

and personal attacks on other members of the party which can be used against and to the detriment of the Labour Party”. It is worth noting that Exeter had never even alleged that any personal attack had been used to the detriment of the party, simply because no personal attacks had ever been made; yet of

course Bowing had to be found guilty of something.

Much more interesting was the total defeat the Exeter party leadership suffered. They cried out for expulsion,

Bowing was only "severely reprimanded". They wanted a judgement which blanketed all Labour Party meetings with confiden-

tiality to protect the leadership from erltdeitism; the judgement gave them nothing. The leadership have always

sought in Exeter to answer criticism by expulsion threats, now at least for the

time being this option is closed to them. They are now trial from the pens and mouthes of socialists within their own organisation by means of a right

granted by the very NCC which they hoped would suffocate all their local criticism.

ANTI-APAATHEID MOVES LEFT?

Delegates from Exeter AA to this year’s AAM AGM, while still finding their views in a minority, nonetheless encountered 3a supportive atmosphere amongst left delegates whoa all shared a sense of amazement and outrage at the callous exclus-

ion oF representatives of liberation

movement organisations such as SWANU and AZAPO from the conference hall. ing body of feeling within the

A growmovement calls into question sacred cows of AAm policy such as the refusal to make links with all strands of the liberation movement, not just the Congress movement, SACTU, COSATU and SWAPO and a refusal to step up campaigning, within the trade union movement, for workers’ sanctions. It is important that Exeter activists are represented in discussions thos spring on coordinating efforts to give ever stronger voice to these ideas at the 1989 and future AGMs.

CHARIS CHURCHWAARD GIVES “LABOUR AFTER GOVAN’

HIS VIEW ON

It may well be that Exeter Labour Party’s Campaign leaflet no. 13 was prepared before the shock of the Govan by-election result hit them. Certainly "Campaign Leaflet no. 13” is unlucky for the people of Exeter for it totally fails to address the fundamental issues, preferring instead to promote the ‘cult’ of personality and project the image of a Labour County Councillor. For instance, the poll tax gets the mere mention of being included in a catalgue of Tory malpractices - that "within the law" line of opposition to the poll tax is just what lost Labour oa so-called "safe" seat in Govan, that and taking the local electorate for granted and making it clear that Walworth Ad. had little liking for their candidate, who was regarded as too left wing.

As soon as the Govan result was Labour again started to talk a

nonsense - about it being a

vote, about their confidence of

ing the seat at the next General Election. It is one thing for the Party of Government to talk about a protest vote in a by-election, quite another for’ the opposition party to do so, especially in Scotland where the Tory candidate was never wn with a chance and only two parties really counted at Govan - Labour and the Scottish Nationalists.

Known, lot of protest regain-

Labour deliberately called a snap byelection, with the minimum period for the campaign and this was to stop the SNP from mounting an effective campaign, especially on the poll tax, which held up the Labour Party’s "Feeble Fifty” Cnow reduced to 49) who have been so ineffecutal at Westminster under the

disadvantage of Kinnock’s leadership and

the constraint imposed on them by the "Right".

Jim Sillars, the victorious SNP) candidate, could generally be regarded as somewhat to the left of New Realism. Indeed, he had left the Labour Party some years ago to set up an Independent Labour Party in Scotland. When that did not succeed, he has sought to exploit Scottish Nationalist aspirations, based upon the knowledge that while Labour

consistently votes in a majority of Scottish MPs, they still get the rough edge of the English. Now Sillars seeks to avoid the accusation of "separatism" by advocating an Independ-

substantial

ent Scotland within the EEC. It is a clever, but opportunist idea, for he knows full well that the EEC is not

interested in creating new, small nation

LABOUR AFTER GOVAN

ority

states. An independent Scotland would get no more out of the EEC than say Corsica, Britanny or the Basque country

if any of them did a UDI.

There

are many aspects of the Govan debacle that Labour now needs to confront. The people of Scotland are 85

per cent opposed to the poll tax and 32

per cent favour a non-payment policy, which is just what the SNP offers them. There is no reason to think that twelve months hence the people of Wales and England will be thinking, acting and voting any differently to what the people of Scotland are now doing. The latest opinion polls show the SNP on = 30 per cent, up 10 per cent in a month- and now only 9 per cent behind Labour. Here

in Exeter, where Labour is not the largest Party represented on the City Council but exercises "control” by some kind of arrangment with the rag bag of Liberals and Democrats, there is absolutely no need for the Party to incur the odium which will attach to them for doing the Tory’s dirty work. As Lambeth have done, Labour in Exeter should state quite frankly that they are not prepared to implement the poll tax, give up’ the leadership of the City Council and let the local Tories do Mrs. Thatcher’s bidding.

The consequences of Govan mean there are increased chances to alter policies as he becomes

regarded as a failed leader, little respect,

Kinnock’s increasingly

commanding unable to exercise suthwithout intimidatory threats and totally lacking credibility as a future Prime Minister. We must realise that without a contingent of fifty Scottish Labour MPs going to Westminster, it is unlikely there would be any future Labour Governments and that means it is in our interest to defend the Union (The Act of Union of the Scottish and English Parliaments 1707). That necessitates respecting the legitimate aspirations of the Scottish socialists and it probably

involves devolution; certainly it demands tolerance of a degree which is lacking inthose who manipulete Annual Conference, "steam roller” the left with the block vote and generally threaten and cajole.

Meanwhile, in this locality, the initiative in the fight against the hated and feared poll tax has passed to the Green

Party and Labour stands accused.

PETER BOWING EXPLAINS WHY HE THINKS THE LEFT SHOULD SUPPORT PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

If it were proposed that the outcome = of British general elections were no longer to depend on voting but on 2 lottery, socialists would oppose the suggestion. Yet it’might be that lottery would have in Labour’s best interest when one considers the outcome of the last three general elections.

been

The serious answer to such an absurd and hypothetical proposal is to assert that strategy is based on winning support in the struggle for and winning votes for representation in parliament is part of that process. In as much 8s we are democrats as opposed to gamblers, we should seek to make our representation in parliament as proportionally equal to our votes as possible. Socialist ideology is not just an opposition to exploitation end oppression, but is also a system of rationalwhich plays. no Thus in so far eas we use parliarepresentation in our present capitalist or beyond we must campaign. for parliamentary representat— ion to be based on retional principles.

socialist popular socialism,

ity ain arbitrariness role. mentary

society

The lack of rationality of the simple majority system (SMS) is quite startiing. Often the winning candidate in a seat has less than half the votes, so the defeated candidates in a seat have a majority. There is no guarantee that the party with the mosts seats has the most indeed in the general elections and February 1974 such a reversail occured. Overall majorities in perliament are usually won with a minority of the national vote; the present Conservative government won less than 43% of the national vote in 1987. Large parties usually need fewer votes to win a seat than do smaller ones. Concentrated minority parties, such as the Ulster Unionists, do better than = ones with a dispersed vote, such as the Green Party. Such an electoral system cannot be justified in its own terms.

votes; of 1951

This electoral system provides a field day for the capitalist mass media. When SMS involves a two horse race there is no room for tactical voting, but with three or more serious contestants tactical voting is inevitable; ie. if oan

is clearly a fight between A support for C is bound to be If the capitalist press bel-

bourgeois party X is best placed to defeat Labour it is quite capable of producing a self fulfilling prophesy. What logic is there in socialists supporting a system in which positive voting is sometimes of less value than negative voting?

election and B,

squeezed. ieves that

quite Much is

Socislist support for SMS is irrational in propaganda terms.

made of the Conservatives only having 24% of the vote and ten seats in Scotland, but the Thatcher government won less than 43% of the vote in Britain as a whole, and while the struggle for socialism is not primarily based on an illustration of electoral statistics, were Labour to abandon its support for SMS, the left could further undermine the legitimacy of the Thatcher government. The struggle outside parliament would be ideologically assisted by our stating that the Thatcher government was elected by a clear minority of the. nat-—

ional vote.

PR (proportional representation) has mainly been opposed by much of the left because it would make the election of a majority Labour government considerably more difficult and would lead to coalit-— ion governments which are deemed undesirable. Let us deal with the first point first.

The chances of the election of a

ity Labour government in the early ere not affected by socialist support for PR, unless in the unlikely events that PR is won through struggple on the streets or the Tories are converted to it. So the next general election will be Fought on SMS. Any future majority Labour government elected in the 1990s should strengthen the forces for socialism in society by measures like reforming the capitalist state, extending public ownership and strenghtening the trades unions, not by gambling for ther term of office on a lottery election system. The latter action suggests a far greater subservience to bourgeois parliamentarianism then does the former.

ma jor1990s

ano

More probable perhaps than Labour

winnearly this Opp-

ing an 1990s case

Overall majority in the is aa hung parliament. In socialists should be utterly

osed to with

Labour forming centre

any perties as

coalition such a

the

government would only administer a post Thatcherite capitalist Britain. In this circumstance PR would still be in our interest. First, it would prevent the reelection of a majority Conservative government and would shift the balance within the bourgeois parties, through the election of more Democrat and SDP MPs away from Thatcherism. Second, PR would allow the election of 3 forth

force of Green and Nationalist MPs which would increase Labour’s room for manoeuvre. The only eventuality which would

seem to contradict this thesis is if in a hung parliament which followed the next general election Labour were the single largest party and was able to Form a minority administration. Here Labour could prolong the minority government and extract legislative concessions from the centre parties in exchange for ensuring that the next

election was fought under PR.

It is unlikely, though not impossible, that Labour support for PR could cost us a majority Labour government; nonetheless the heart of my case is that balancing ell potential gains against ible losses, we should be reason, why

possshould support PR. It pointed out, however, that one though not the decisive’ § reason, past Labour governments have not been as effective as they might is precisely because the majority of seats in one chamber of parliament which tained the did not represent voters. While this does Conservative government can relay on the state, the left should rely on popular support. Such a state of affairs made it easier

sus-— Labour government a majority of not matter for a which

for right wing Labour leaders to sell out on the implementation of socialist policies. None of this is to deny the positive advantage of having a majority Labour government over not having’ one, but merely to suggest that when Labour

wins under SMS there is a cost.

Let us briefly put the matter into historical perspective. In the 1951 general election Labour was the single largest party and came within a whisker of winning 80% of the popular vote but the absurdities of SMS gave the Tories a working overall majority and in the period -since then there have only been four years, 1966-70, when Labour has enjoyed and overall working majority; this compares in the same time period with 26 years of overall Conservative majority. Coalitions are not axiomatic-— ally bad. Would a Conservative/Liberal coalition in the 1980s have been as efficient at defeating the forces’ of socialism in society? Would a continuat—

ion of the Callaghan/Liberal pact after 1979 not have helped the left in the party?

S50 far we have characterised SMS in terms of its lottery effect. But there is now strong reason to believe that this electoral system is ‘increasingly discriminating against Labour. The Labour vote is ghettoised in Scotland, Wales, the North and the inner city.

These areas do not add up to a majority of the constituencies in parliament and as the population drift is away from these areas each boundery alteration hurts Labour further. It does not matter what the Thatcher government does in Liverpool, Manchester or Glasgow for example for even if the Labour vote rises, as it is doing, the Conservatives cannot lose any more seats. The other side of the coin is that the number of marginal seats in Britain is declining making the election of a Labour) government even less probable. If Labour is serious about winning power it must struggle for socialism everywhere but in much of Britain the positive effects of such a campaign cannot effectively realise themselves electorally. The present

SMS electorally forces Labour to concentrate on marginal seats to the detriment of building more serious support in the Labour heartlands or breaking tactical voting for the centre parties in Southern towns and countryside.

Any advocacy for PR immediately the question of which should be supported. view should support the party list sys tem over the single transferable vote method. The latter has a number of disadvantages: because it relies on small constituencies without a national pool of seats it does not provide accurate PR; it would also allow voters for other parties to select individual Labour candidates in so far as their vote has been unable to be used to support candidates in their party. Yet support for the principle of PR can be abstracted from discussions of individual systems of types of systems.

raises variety of PR Socialists in my

My argument then is that PR should be supported both in terms of socialist and democratic principle and in terms of socialist tactics. In terms of the next election there is nothing to lose and something to gain. Our advocacy of PR would win support in itself and allow us to practise it in our own organisations thus strengthening their democratic character without a charge of hypocracy being made against us. Support for PA by

the left could win in the Labour Party becuase for different reasons some of the Labour right support it; there is ground for an unholy coalition. Were it

realised the hand of the Labour bureau-

cracy would be severely weakened, because the left would always have the option, though we hope we would never

have to use it, of fighting elections the left of centre

leaving the party and independently without suffering.

the ~

BENN INTERVIEWED

BEFORE THE SUCCESSFUL AND WELL-ATTENDED BENN-HEFFER RALLY IN EXETER ON SEPTEMBER

1ST 1988 ADDRESSED BY TONY BENN, DEVON LABOUR BRIEFING AND ANTI-FASCIST ACTION INTERVIEWED BENN...

TONY BENN ON THE WILLIAM OF ORANGE CELEBRATIONS

TB

When the City Council got involved in this business at the outset they

probably saw it as a tourist affair and were quite unaware of the history and of course if you are going to dig up you hisotry you’ve got to analyse its significance if you’re going to make a proper event. I mean, if you had a discussion about 1649 or 1381 or the Chartist demonstrations or suffragettes, that’s one thing, but to pick something of this order and make it into the occasion for tourist celebrations and then to pretend it’s all about the birth of democracy is absurd. There’s no question of that. I think it’s more an indication of ignorance about our history and I think the

Labour movement suffers most terribly from concentrating on tomorrow’s headlines and attacking each other instead

of really understanding the structures

of the state and how they came to be formed. So from that point of view I think they made a great mistake.

The second thing to say, of course, is that the purpose of your campaign it seems to me, and tell me if I’m wrong, is not so much directed against the Labour Council in Exeter but directed against Fascism and all that it stands for.

(CAFA - that’s right)

And therefore your campaign is educeat-

ional in importance. The very fact that you can be put on a par with the NF - “total impartiality" between fascists and anti-fascists - reminds you of the old story of the Mayor who said would steer a course between partiality on the one hand and impartiality on the other - it’s an incredible thing to do. I think the impact of what you do will probably have to be measured over a longer period and presumably the council will not change their policy now, although TI understand from talking to people that it’s been shifted now to an Anglo-Dutch celebration as if it somehow was something that could be separated from Will-

iam of Orange and King Billy and the Battle of the Boyne and all the Irish connections. Now of course if it’s any comfort to you the only occasion since

the last General Election when the Prime

Minister has spoken in the House

apart from Question Time and the only occasion

since the election when the Leader of the Opposition has spoken in the House has been on 16886. The Prime Minister moved the motion and the Leader of the Opposition seconded it and some of us voted and spoke against it and when the vote came although we were beaten what-— ever it was 250 to 29, when you analyse the Labour votes we had a majority of Labour votes against it. So we even got the Parliamentary Party taking that view.

TONY BENN ON THE LEADERSHIP CONTEST AND THE PROSPECTS FOR THE LEFT IN THE PARTY

DLB

Can we turn now to the leadership election. It’s almost certain that you’ll lose to Neil Kinnock; if you do, do you think the challenge will have been

worthwhile?

TB

Oh, enormously worthwhile. I had doubts at the beginning as to whether this wes the right thing to do but I’m totally persuaded that it was and I’ll tell = you why: First of all it’s had = an impact already: I mean I haven’t seen a front bencher on a picket line in the miners’ strike or at Wapping, but I did at

Dover! I think the “double U-turn" on defence, second half of the double Uturn, was a product of the leadership

election. Thirdly, the polls, for what they’re worth (don’t take much notice of them) but they did say that 7? million people in Britain supported the candidature which is more than David Owen~ and

Paddy Ashdown rolled together. And I think the other thing about it is that it has enfranchised the Party. But I

think it has a very profound effect, changed the direction of the party by one or two degrees, and if you get on a

the course of one the ship’s in a a week later it’s So IT actually do worthwhile.

supertanker and change degree then one later different position and in a different ocean.

think it has been well

DLB One of the most worrying things at the moment in the Labour Party is that des-

pite Thatcher bringing all this repress-

ive legislation, and the balance of Payments -crisis, Labour is still 10 points behind on the polls and Neil

Kinnock is at his since becoming leader. that is?

lowest apparently Why do you think

TB

I think that is the case for the contest in a way. You lose three elections and the left hasn’t been in charge of any of

them. 50 that it may be a case that if you’re going to review everying you’ve got to review the leadership. I think the problem at the moment, not only = on Ireland, but on a whole range of other things, is of bipartisanship. Bipart-

isanship on market forces; bipartisanship on American troops; bipartisanship on the House of Lords (the NEC voted to

retain it); bipartisanship = on trade union legislation. I think unless somebody does something quite soon, the choices which should be open ina democracy will be blanked off by coalition politics, at a time when the. whole Thatcher era, I think, is coming to an end because the North Sea bubble has burst. And the economy is now in very deep trouble so I suppose that’s = why

we’re standing and I have a feeling that the impact of the campaign will be felt over quite a long period.

TONY BENN ON THE WITCHHUNT

DLB

rt is often ssid that Neil Kinnock is one of the most authoritarian leaders thet the party has had for quite some time and one sympton of that is the

massive witchhunt that has been underway

for th last few years. Here in Exeter we have had our share of the witchhunt and Peter Bowing is currently up for expulsion. His so-called crime is that he has criticised the Party leadership locally and nationally for the current direction which it has taken. What would you say to those who hold with these views?

TB

Well, I’m absolutely opposed to it, mind you when you get older 'you’ve seen everything happen before. My predecessor Stafford Cripps was expelled at

the 1938 Conference on the motion of a

young moderate called George Brown if you remember him. I was in Parliament when they expelled Aneurin Bevan in 1955 after he’d set up the NHS. It is a sign of weakness when you use organisational methods to get rid of peole with whom you disagree. It is saying "I cannot argue with you, I can’t beat you in argument so I’ll throw you out!” It’s highly discriminatory too. I mean, nobody has ever done anything about Frank Chapple who sits in the House of Lords but won’t take the Labour ship which 8 breach of the constitution. Nobody has. done anything about him. I’m sure with the EEPTU case coming up it’ll be interesting to see whether Hammond gets the Hatton treatment or not, I know which way the NEC will go on that. So I think you have to keep your nerve and just gO on warning people that this is really an attack on socialism and an attempt to extricate the Party from its historical links with socialism. But it

won’t work.

TONY BENN ON THE PROSPECTS FOR SOCTALISM

IN THE SOUTHWEST

DLB

It is often noted that the South West is a conservative area. What way do you think the Labour Party should go forward in places like the South West?

TB

Well you say it’s always been true-blue; that’s true up to a piont, but it’s also

had a8 good strong radical liberal tradition and people forget that David Steel, @ very popular media figure for obvious reasons, destryed the Liberal Party. He merged it with, in my opinion, the wrong end of the Labour Party.

He made a deal with Owen and Owen is only interested in people dressed up in uniforms who salute him and they’ve had a bust up there and it’s interesting that Owen and Ashdown are both Westcountry members. I would have’ thought that what the Labour Party should be doint would be opening up some of these real old radical questions in the South West and that the liberals in the South West have enough historical. consciousness to respond. I have always regarded the South West as a development area for

socialism, it so happens that it got stuck at the stage of radical liberalism, pertly because industrialisstion never came and the trade unions were never very strong, at least not as strong as they should be, but it’s 3a potentially huge development area and the socialists in the South West who

never had encourage

have kept the flag flying have much recognition and we should them.

IRELAND 1988

RICHAAD KNOTT DEVELOPS A TROTSKYITE ANALYSIS OF THE STAUGGLES INVOLVING THE BAITISH OCCUPATION OF THE NOATH OF IRELAND

"We heave never really had a strategy or

plan since. (1969) We have spent 20 yeers surviving. And we get credit for. LE « We have spent 20 years witnessing

amongst young and old people an amount of courage that is unbelievable in the face of what human beings have suffered. But we are still not clear about where we are going. And I think we ought Lo be.” (Bernadette McAliskey, extract from recent speech in Belfast, reprinted from Troops Out, October 1988).

In 1968, the six county statelet of Northern Ireland wes rocked to the core

by a series of demonstrations by its Nationalist community. On the surace, none of the demands of the civil rights movement were revolutionary, but the essence that the twenty year long struggle has posed is state-power; what it is and who wields it.

For twenty years, the Nationalist comm-

unity hes fought against the state of Northern Ireland, from which it was completely disenfranchised, whilst that state representing Protestant domination and backed up and maintained by British imperialism has hurled everything egainst the Nationalists.

The basic demands of the Nationalist have still not been met and cannot be, for Northern Ireland was set up on the basis of having more loyalists than nationalists. It is not just the laws that are discriminatory, but the existence of Northern Iréland itself, which discriminates against the majority of the Irish nation.

But there is more to it than this. The movement which will crush British imper— iealism and bring about a truly united independent and "free" (i.e. unoppressed) Ireland will be based on and dominated by the working class. The

programme of such a movement will include the nationalisation under workers’ control of all the major industries and banks. That is only achievable by the working class seizing power, Bc @ x by overthowing and smashing the existing state forces both north and south.

This of course will create an immediate and massive crisis in Britain, which is why British governments whether Labour or Tory have been so desperate to hold on to Northern Ireland, building up repressive measures and increasing the size of the security forces.

In fact, as the level of repression is stepped up by Britain, the consequences of its defeat become more catastrophic.

The Irish bourgeoisie is no longer capable oF leading Ireland to national emancipetion. Its own economic inter-

ests are dominated by those of imperial-

ists and multinationals abroad and its independent role is zero. Only a@ movement based on the working class can

sever itself totally from the interests of capitalism and lead the national struggle, which is inseparable from the social struggle, to victory.

This year, a string of incidents has kept the Irish-British war in the news. The British government and its security forces have extended the counter-terror war against the republican movement. The Gibralter three were gunned to their deaths in brosd daylight whilst unarmed by the government’s liquidation squad, the SAS. No hed been committed by these people, although they were IRA volunteers. As soon as the bogey word "terrorism" is evoked by the government and its media mouthpieces, it seesm that no further justification is required for attacking the perpertrators of “terrorism”. Any measures are acceptimposs-—

" . " GCPrPimes

able, murder of "terrorists" is

ible, of course, since “terrorists” cannot have any rights and they are always about to commit murder themselves. What "terrorism" actually means remains open to speculation. However, even speculating about it is deemed undesirable, because that qs being "soft on terrorism". Hence’ the

SAS killers were allowed special rights at the coroner’s inquest, namely remaining anonymous. This put them above the law before the court even met. The hysteria surrounding the trial was primarily to intimidate the jury, which even so did not give the looked for unanimous verdict. Two jurors held out against the intimidation but the verdict was still a. majority for lawful killing.

the British state does not like juries as they sometimes do not give verdicts in line with the judge’s summing-up, which is why they do not exist in Northern Ireland. I think Le is highly likely that British juries will themselves come under attack From the government shortly.

Incidentally,

The funeral of the Gibraltar three was attacked by a loyalist who threw) gren— ades into the crowd at Milltown cemet— ery. The security forces were quite possibly in collusion with the attack because an AUC vanwhich was parked = on the motorway herd = shoulder beforehand disappeared as the attack took place.

The funeral of those killed by the. Milltown cemetery grenade attack was itself attack by two plain clothes soldiers who

were totally justifiably killed by the crowd/IAA.

August 20 saw the IRA’s most successful operation against the British Army since

1979 when eight soldiers were blown up in a bus in county Tyrone. As an obvious reprisal, three IRA members’ were shot dead by an army ambush ten days later in the same county. :

The "criminalisation"” policy which was brought in by the lest Labour government, means that the British government

does not declare war on the IRA and then have to deal with the messy consequences

of political status etc. This allows the security forces to act with an impunity which is unparalled almost any-

where else in the world, Africa.

including South

The sending down of the Winchester three in October for twenty five years apiece has to be the most outrageous piece of British “justice” ever. The evidence? 19 prominent names on five cigarette papers. The counts on which they were convicted? “Conspiracy to murder’ Tom King" and, can you believe it, "“conspiracy with others unknown to murder persons unknown.” There were no bombs found, nor even any bomb making equipment, no guns or weapons of any description, no herd evidence at all. The outcome of this case has virtually criminalised the entire MJIrish community. The British government is saying "we can heve you for anything if you are Trish. ; We don’t need evidence.”

Tom King’s remarks about ending the right to silence in the north of Ireland while the trial was on was blatantly prejudicial to the outcome. All three had exercised that right. Anyone else would have been prosecuted for contempt, but of course the legal system doesn’t work like that; it is subordinate to its political masters.

Moving at a more sedate pace, its own piece of excitement on September 12? when the Orange Order marched, intending to mark the 300th anniversary of

the landing of Willaim of Orange in the south west. Exeter and National AFA organised 3 partially successful counter-demo which kept the Orange march out of the centre, but the biggest police operation in the history of the south west kept the AFA march strictly

to its own route well away from the city centre or the Orange parade.

The last few months repressive

hes legislation

seen even for

more Northern

Ireland, with the banning of interviews with Sinn Fein, or at least political

interviews with them, -also the abolition

Exeter had

of the right to silence for suspects and

the making permanent of the PTA or PTB as it will now be. All of these measures have the approval of Her Majesty’s

loyal opposition, which made a virtue of

abstaining of the cruciel Prevention of Terrorism Bill.

As Trotskyists, we haves position of total opposition to the British occupation of Ireland. Partition, a carried out in the intersts of

measure British

imperialism in 1921-22 was a defeat for the Irish working class which was betrayed by the Sinn Fein leadership. The lessons of that defeat have still not been learned. The partition of Ireland did not create two seperate states, one "free" (the south) and one "unfree" (the north). The British government was carrying out a desperate balancing act, using the Sinn Fein leadership (including Collins) to hold back the working class and meke partition seem inevitable, or make it seem like a "stepping stone" to the republic. At the same time, having backed up the "carnival of reaction" in the north east, the British government had to be careful not to let the pogroms.and murders by the loyalist

gangs against the nationalists to go too

far and to enrage the southern working class, which might jettison the proTreaty Sinn Fein leadership and move towards socialism.

The stepping stone idea has failed, just like the stalinist two-stage theory, and this ais the lesson that has to be learned. Twenty years after the uprising in the north oF Ireland began,

nearly 70 since partition, but the Irish nation is still no neerer to socialism. The republican movement in N. Ireland,

which has large working class support, has shown immense courage, resourceful-

ness and sacrifice and we unconditionally support all their activities against British imperialism. Unlike Militant and others (such as DR O’Connor-Lysaght from PO), we believe thet the armed struggle is not only justified but actually raises the consciousness of the working-class in Ireland and Britain. Without that struggle, the cause of Ireland would probably be on the back-burner for’ the left.

The programme of the Republican movement

is nationalist. The Sinn Fein leadership do not want socialism as Gerry Adams clearly pointed out recently ("Socialism is not on the agenda"). The Trotskyist tradition is weak in Treland and there is much work to do, but the victory of the Irish working class,

which can be the only guarantor of a truly independent Ireland, is bound up with the struggle for sa revolutionary pert of the Fourth International in

Ireland, as in all other countries.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR

OLE’ FATHER TIME TIM PARICE’S REVIEW OF THE YEAR Well done - you made it into 1989. Not

you might think hazardous

a truly remarkable feat, but it has been an enormously

year.

You would have been safe travelling in February, May and June but the rest of the year was pretty dodgy. Particularly in March, July and December. Crossing the channel has not been easy in spite of the attempts to smash the magnificent action of the P&O Dover workers. However, holidaymskers in Greece probably wish they hadn’t taken a ferry what with the early morning machine-gun call on the way to Poros and some dodgy driving by another captain just outside Piraeus.

There were a couple of moments when Neil

Kinnock probably wished he hadn’t gone to Africa when a group of Militant supporters posing as Zimbabwean border troops nearly did British socialists a Favour.

Still he was relatively lucky, unlike

President Zia who took to sky-diving with the help of a bomb. He wasn’t the ‘only person not to. make a safe landing: Lockerbie was recently showered with a Pan Am Boeing 747 and some of Reagan’s chappies mistook an Iranian Airbus for a clay pigeon in the Gulf.

British troops in Gibralter also went in for a bit of sharpshooting as they mowed down three suspected I.A.A. members back in March. Even attending funerals’ has proved less than healthy as mourners of the three were to find out when a loyalist gunman hoiked in a few hand grenades. Three days later, two soldiers were set upon as they tried to gatecrash a funeral.

Back in March railmen struck over safety of brakes; in December, 34 died at

Clapham Junction as trains smashed into each other.

There has also been the risk of being trampled under foot by people racing

against time all over the world, by Ben Johnson overperforming due to an overdose of steriods or troops withdrawing from Afghanistan or Angola.

All in all it would seem that you’ have been better off staying in. Mind . you, that can also be a tricky occupation. Back in May, a report stated that beansprouts and salami snacks were the main causes of salmonella; now Edwina can’t even have a prairie oyster to get over her handovers as eggs prove to be

lethal.

“Students

Edwina Currie, of course, gets the award for coming out with some good “uns; central heating and fuel salespeople were up in arms when she suggested that Old people should get knitting to preent hypothermia. Then she suggested that women remain virgins or become nuns to avoid cervical cancer. Still, she can’t be accused of not being clear about the importance of class: "I’m not a woman. I am a Conservative, she declared in

August.

George Bush clearly is not going to take to the veil; in the run up to his election as U.S. President, among his many gaffs, he admitted having sex with Ronald Reagan, although he was quick to retract the claim saying that they had setbacks not sex.

Neil De Rostron, a delegate to the Tory Conference was less coy about one of his vices exclaiming, "I’m not lager lout. I’ve stuck to whiskey all day!"

Perhaps there may be a similar cause to Norman Willis’ general bewilderment; "When I was 14 I used to have a plan for the next 1000 years," he told Kettering Trades Council. "Now I have enough trouble sorting out what I’m doing to be Going over the next three days let alone

what’s been going on for the last four days."

Arguably, it’s been a fair year for trade unions in spite of ever greater Tory lawmaking to pooklerise them. The nurses are ever on the brink of really helping bash the Tories. Too late the E.E.T.P.U. have been shown the door’ for failing to understend what trade unionism is all about. The Ford workers~ and postal workers have shown Maggie that they have not larnt the lesson she

handed out to the miners and the magnificent G.C.H.Q. loyalists.

tried horse wrestling outside

Parliament as they protested about the

Tories’ plans for them. Student loans are definitely a good idea - they can help get rid of students as wily Norman Tebbit knows: "IT wouldn’t lend a penny to most of you", he told them.

Speaking of pennies, Blip Lawson just

may be on the brink of joining the setting sun as rising interest rates throw away many of the gains that the better made at the last budget. The economy is about as well as the overdosed cancer patients in Exeter or the Cornish teetotalers who had a temporary beefing up of their water supply. No doubt Workers’ Press will be able to say as

they did last January, “as 1988 world capitalism faces a crisis than anything it has known 1930’s, the dimensions of

impossible to guage."

opens, worse since the which are

The breath-taking circumstances in which we live have not gone unnoticed by Marxism Today, who have declared that we live in ’New Times’ Their abandonment of Karl’s notions may lead them to change the name of their glossy journal and Style"? “Post Fordism Today"? or simly "The New Times"?

Meanwhile Militant have led the call for glasnost for Trotsky, (what are sales Figures for the Russian language version of their paper)?

There have been many campaigns the year: Anti-Alton Bill, Scargill’s election, Mandela, Ron Brown’s campaign for a reshaped mace, Scottish anti-poll tax campaign and our own local anti-Orange Celebrations campaign. Much could be said about all of these.

through Anti-Clause, Free Nelson

Then we’ve had some fun perheps Tony should have consulted Ronald Reagan’s astrologer before embarking on his challenge to Neil. Pinochet came out of the plebiscite with something of a bloody nose. Le Pen caused some panic in the French elect-

ions before things were more amicably

SNIPPETS

THE ANNE FRANK EXHIBITION

elections;

Devon Labour Briefing welcomes the coming to Exeter of the Anne Frank exhibition which vividly illustrates the horrors of fascism and racism. The exhibition is at the Cathedral (Jan 12th to Feb 6th) and throughout this period a series of anti-fescist films and talks are taking place.

Readers will recall that the push to invite the exhibition to. Exeter was made in Devon Labour Briefing and was not then supported by some of the right wing leadership of Exeter City Council’s Labour Group. (One even went so fer as to suggest that the Anne Frank Foundation was a Zionist front!)

initial

Hopefully the holding of the exhibition in Exeter will help redress Exeter’s image as Britain fascist-loving city which it earned after the City Labour Group helped promote William of Orange celebrations in the City last year.

Benn called for a red-green all-

Soon Margaret Thatcher gave up serosols and became a fried of the seals. This was quickly followed by some remarkable East-West co-operation to save three whales. One didn’t make it and is being raffled off by Greenpeace.

Tony iance.

So much happened this year that I’ve packed in just a fraction of it all. has not been a safe year, physically polLtiésl.ly . Perhaps we should thankful that they did not manege hang Peter Bowing and take succour from the fact that things may get better. We can hope that the tide will turn and that we will recognise that there is resistance in spite of the media’s attempt to tell us otherwise. Perhaps the biggest clue to this was a slip by Brent Sadler on News at Ten, when relating events on the West Bank: "Soldiers occupied the streets with no signs of protest - except a general strike."

SOVIET EXAMPLE

City Council should follow the Soviet example. Recently all streets, institutes, etc. named after the discredited President and party secretary Brezhenev were changed. It’s high time that Labour did something about all the streets in Exeter such as Pretoria Ad., Buller Ad etc. which are named after Britain’s imperial past in South Africa. Renaming symbols of colonialism, racism and imperialism is even more important than supressing the Brezhenev legacy. So perahps those in Labour’s city leadership who rightly support twining Exeter with a Soviet city should also wake up to the realities where they

live.

Exeter

GTaYOM HHI NI La HNNVY

YIN'

BAD... AACHE

AMTLIAN eB en Aye

TORIAL: THE POLL TAX

what we say

‘AAs the implementation of nearer This the anything, opposition to the Poll popular opposite eppesitien is I more Alliances

such

Poll

Brows

gets clearer. sapecially true in Scotland where election, that

the opposition

by-

prove

Vari showed total and principled will not Quite in England als geb org Anti-Poll Local

drive the the anised. Tax councils themselves Some out Nationally together the

the

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away the

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formed. pledged

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come

are being Lambeth non-cooperation with the branches ring

have

local against this

through Newcastle Socialist

NALGO administe opposition initiatives Conference

wociety.

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that paid

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tax

Ihixeter. Poll

intend to administer the

they

Wo 1aAX

and to collect it, they are actively against any campaign of non-cooperation.

Moreover they don’t even intend to

collect the tax under protest! Gouncillors have stated hat they cannot officially

voice protest against the Poll Tax. Is this seriously meant as the bt t way to build support for a Labour Gouncil’

We in Briefing believe that our only choice 46 total non-cooperation with the Poll Tax. It ais an unfair and reactionary measure that hits hardest at the weakest. Instead of Labour acting as the hand that wields the Tory axe, Exeter Labour Party should instruct its coucillors to refuse to implement the Poll Tax, it should initiate contacts with NALGO in order to support union non-cooperation and it should mount a massive public campaign to get the Exeter people to disrupt the registration process and to refuse payment of the tax.

Of course such an undertaking will not be easily What is more, we should not be cectarian and see the fight against the Tax

limited to the Labour Party or the

movement. There are many others who,

inciple or political belief, this Tory Tax. Indeed hem -e ahead of us in organis spposition to the tax. We must unite with those on th eft, within and without the Labour Part; sho ounion activists, with the Greens and the Quakers and many more besides in order to build an Anti-Poll Tax Alliance in lixeter.

Suilding this Alliance must be our main priority in the coming months. While Thatcher has attacked many sections of the working class over the last decade, this measure attacks everybody at the same time. This presents an unparalleled opportunity for unity. If we can achieve such a unity then the Poll Tax can be defeated and Thatcherism. can be toppled.