Devon Labour Briefing no. 4 (with infosheet)

No.4 DECEMB

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DEFEND OUR JOB CENTRES | cuix. Teignbridge CLP)

The recent strike of Job Centre staff in Teignmouth was merely the latest chapter in the government's attempts

to bolster its ailing economic policies by hitting, through punitive financial restrictions those who cannot hit back. Thos at the top of the government's hit list for cuts have long been penionsers, the disabled, the sick

and the unemployed. Indeed anyone who has been so degraded by the 'free market' economy that they are forced to rely on state benefits.

It has been said that the proposed cuts in Job Centre services are purely the responsibility of the Manpower Services Commission, but this argument simply will not wash. The proposed changes are the direct result of

la

VISUAL D-SPLAY UNI,

government pressure for ‘economies’ and the Chief Executive of the MSC employment division, Bryan Emmett, whose brainchild the changes are, is clearly a keen advocate of the government's policies.

Teignmout was part of one of three test areas chosen to

try out the first set of proposals which eminated from

Mr. Emmett's office earlier this year. The proposals were implemented without any consultation with staff or, apparently, with much of the management,. and to date no consultation has taken place either with staff or their

union the CPSA. Not surprisingly staff in the other two

test areas struck immediately, in Teignmouth they were

more reluctant and attempted to run the test for four

weeks only taking strike action when they were convinced they

could no longer maintain the standard or quality of their work.

In Teignmout the restructuring required the loss of one member of staff, transferred to Newton Abbot and with him the loss of the Job Centre's ability to handle -dvice or counseelling work. Teignmouth no longer has a Job Centre »but rather a 'Job Shop', under the original proposals this would have been the fate of over halp the ontry's Job Centres. For some the situation was worse; they were replaced by a single unstaffed board in a High Street,

like the one in Exeter's library. This would give a whole new meaning the concept of hard sell. Eventually some of these were to be replaced with Visual Display units on

which the unemployed could play the only game allowed them: 'Spot the Job'.

In Teignmouth the unemployed who are already travelling from Starcross, dawlish and beyond for any kind of job service were faced with an editional demoralising and expensive journey on almost non-existant public transport, to Newton Abbot if they were in neen of any kind of professional advice or councelling. They did, however, have the right to a means tested travelling allowance if they lived more than six miles away, three miles in cases of hardship (sic). During the test period the staff complained that they had not enough time to deal with the unemployed visiting the Job Centre. They were told that they were spending too much time on idividual cases and that after five minutes interviewees should be shown the door come what may.

Following the strikes in .1] three trial areas and complaints from many individuals, organisations and individuals, Mr Emmett revised the proposals reducing the number of Job centres

to be down-graded. The effect on Teignmouth and most other rural Job Centres, will be exactly the same as under the

original proposals. continued....

LABOUR— TAKE THE POWER!

Editorial

Devon Labour Briefing has been set up by members of

the Labour Party in Devon, to defend and advance socialist policies both within the Party and in society generally. the most important purpose of D.L.B. is to widen the sphere of debate on the Left and act as a forum for socialist debate on both local and national issues.

By acting as a tool for increased communication on the left, Briefing aims to help build up a Labour Party capable of replacing capitalism with socialism. The Labour Party must become, IN REALITY, a party dedicated to eliminating racism, sexism andrepresenting the : interests of the oppressed against their capitalist oppressors.

Devon Labour Briefing is always pleased to accept articles and information relevent to both the local and national struggle for socialism.

Job Centres continued

Since 1979 the number of unemployed registering for work, and therefore presumably looking for a job, has increased threefold. In the same period the number of Job Centre Staff has been halved at a time when the unemployed are comming under increasing social pressure, the suicide rate amongst the unemployed is twice the national average, services to help them find employment or to give them professional councelling and advice are being discarded.

Morale amongst the unemployed is already very low; the progrssive down-grading of Job Centres can only serve to further demoralise them. The MSC were due to decide on

the future of the revised proposals at their meeting in October, at the time of writing their decision is not known. Whatever they decide, government pressure for cuts in service for the unemployed is certain to increase. We

need to defend our Job Centres and we need to defend them now.

BRIGHTON ROCKED!

Brian Layng gives his personal view on the effects of the Brighton bombing, in reply to the articles in the last D.L.B. and National Supplement. We hope that this article will stimulate further discussion over the issue of violence in politics, which is currently of such great importance to us all.

It is also worth noting that the National Briefing editorial board have disclaimed last months' article.

(-Editors)

A critcal observation made by republicans and republican syupathisers is that a nation which oppresses another forges its' own chains. The article by Gerald Taylor

in the last DLB and the front page article in the . last national supplement provide further proof of this: the Left has been shackled for too long by the chains

of good old Labourist chauvanism and imperialism. So first let's get rid of the factual mistakes that appear inthe two articles. Gerald Taylor talks of ‘indiscriminate deaths' when it was probably the most discriminate operation onthe mainland since the assassination of Airy Neave. National Briefing argues that it will fuel'propoganda-sympathy' for Thatcher and claims

that "'..few of us ..can have been unimpressed by the.. composure and resolution of the Prime Minister’. Well,

I was one of those who was not impressed, and I was

not alone. Not everybody threw up their hands in horror. Ordinary working class people I spoke to responded

more along the lines of:''bloody Irish - missed again!" That sort of comment, subverting and reversing anti-

Irish racism, hsowed just how much all the government propoganda has failed. People know that it is a war,

and that in war leaders and politicians are fair targets. It is not without significance that people wept over

the injuries inflicted on the army horse "Sefton',

while no-one shed tears for Thatcher and co.

More disturbing than the factual errors are the confused politics of both articles. I will choose just one

example. National Briefing says ''we aresocialists and feminists...we are people...who by our whole upbringing and through all our traditions abhor violence". Even

if this was true, it would not justify Labour Briefing dictating the terms of the Irish nationalist struggle

to the republican movement. For 800 years we have told the Irish what to do, the authors of these articles have ‘> to accept that perhaps the oppressed hahe no reason

to listen to their oppressors. But,more than this,

our upbringing and our tradition do not militate against the use of violence. Ishall clarify this point: Violence has been a central part of our upbringing in a state which artificially divided Ireland, gerrymandered elections in the six counties, deployed the 'B specials', sent the troops in, gunned down 13 protestors on Bloody Sunday, killed Sean Downes etc etc...As for the Brighton bombing being "an attack on democracy", who was it that outlawed the Irish cabinet of 1919 and murdered the elected representatives of the Irish people? And who was it

that let two elected representatives die in the 1981 hunger strike? And, listen carefully Natoinal Briefing, the answer is not "Thatcher's terrorist troops’) it is the British state whether Labour or Tory! Secondly, violence has been part of our tradition as socialists andfeminists: from the Diggers and Levellers, through the Chartists, the early suffragettes, the Anti Nazi League ,the mobilization of black communities, and the self defence of the miners,

Before Labour hacks leap up brandishing 'sollutions

to the 'Irish question', they ought to think first about solving the ‘English question', and rooting out the rotten ideology and politics of national chauvanism and British imperialism.

What the Left must do is clear: we mst defend

unconditionally the right of the oppressed to take up arms, where necessary, against their oppressors. That does not mean support for every individual act

of violence: we can argue with republican comrades, for instance, over tactics, but we can only argue

as anti-imperialists and not as latter day colonialists

telling the natives what to do. Give Ireland peace and their will be no war.

Brian Layng, Exeter C.L.P.

K 2 Women Work ie Together

Pat Marshall Exeter CLP July's DLB included a wrie-up of the HOUSWIVES IN DIALOGUE conference held that month in London. A follow up was organised in Bristol in October under the banner of

Women Count - Count Women's Work

The strength of the discussions and campaigns organised around this title lies in the broad based redefinition

of the women's movement ( too often white and middle class) along the basis of work which women do, and their world wide dependence on men. In world where all women work but few get paid for it - 2/8 of the world's work is done by

women mostly in Thir World countries - we need to redefine aswell what is meant and understood by WORK .

‘The invisable work' which women do (houswork, emotional and physical support and care for husbands, parents, childred, etc,) carries with it no economic status,

This dose not mean that the work is not being done,

or that its value is negligable. If you think about it,

it should be obvious that the world economy, our national economy, and the economy of the family unity is entirely based on the unpaid and uncounted work that all women

- metropolitan and third world - do. cont.

INFORMATION SHEET TWO. THE MINER

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IMPORTED COAL IN TEIGNMOUTH. Vi A Cy hee

As was pointed out in Sheet 1, large quantities of coal are coming into Britain via various private ports an the South Coast. These include Exmouth (details in Sheet 1) ,

Teignmouth , and Plymouth. The South West has no NUM, so it is easier for businesses

t. get coal in here than most other, areas. However, pickevs from South Wales are in the area, and an increasing number of people are offering them support. If you know

of antone sympathetic to the miners ,who can use the information on these sheets, please pass them on.Similarly, if you have any information (especially on the movements of coal), we would be glad to hear from you. (Tel Exeter 218384.) Sorry about the tatty . state of the first sheet, but this one is being turned out in slightly less hurry, and should be clearer as a result.

Picketing,

As in Exmouth, there are two NUM pickets at Teignmouth docks every weekday. They come from Treharris pit, Deep Navigation Colliery (in Gwent), and stay at the Newton Abbot Labour Club. Teignbridge as an area supports them, with food, hospitality, and

fundraising activities. A number of local people have also joined them on picket lines, especially earlier in the strike.

According to Peter Rosenfeld, of the Teignbrodge Miners' Support Group, there is mot a cat in hell's chance of stopping the coal", and miners -as at Exmouth- keep mostly to “compiling information such as the numbers of lorries." the times and dates seen, the registration numbers , and the names of the companies are monitored, and sent to the NUM office in Pontypridd, so that any trade with them can be blacked.Officially, drivers in the T&GWU are also blacking coal imports, but this si proving aifficult to enforce. John Bounds, an NUM picket receytly at teignmouth told me :"We've got a blacklist South Wales area office and they're all in there.‘ The blacklist includes firms from South Weles who come down here due to the lack of coal in their areas.

There is"no money" for mass picketing in Teignmouth, since South Welsh funds have long been sequestrated.According to Alan Burt, an NUM rep picketing Teignmouth , when the pickets are faced with lorries, "you can't stop them...they.race through...When we Fexe) in...I ve been faced with this personally...you stop them.Same drivers, same compani -ies, every morning...I went to stop one - a Devon firm it was- and he drove on while a copper was watching." In the summer there were 52 NUM pickets in Teignmouth ,plus local support, but the coal boats were able to wait offshore for so long that the miner -s - short of resources— had to leave before the coal came in. Since then, the numbers have decreased to tne current token levels.

Docks.

Teienmouth Docks are owned by the Teignouth Docks Company. They were taken over recently by Jeffrey Boyne, who the miners met earlier in the strike.Boyne "jumped on a moneymaxer" , edged other local businesses out of the quay area , and began stepping up imports of clay,fertiliser, animal feed, soya, wheat,etc. Since the, strike began he has added coal to the list. From the old rate of twelve boats a year, activity at the d docks has gone up to "four to six boats a week."

Like Exmouth, there is a problem with dust pollution at the docks. Some lorries have not been covered, which is a breach of health and safety regulations, although the miners say that Teignmouth's mayor was helpful enough to "get onto the uncovered lorries straight away." Alan Burt adds that the coal dust"always blows towards the houses up above the railway lixe.It's terrible." Attempts by the Docks Company to spray the dust down have been unsuccessful, and dockworxers have to wear mas<s because of the dust.

In addition to this health risk, miners claimthat some docks machinery is also unsafe , and that Boyne refuses access to Health and Safety officers who want to check up. The miners have tried to slow him down with the law, as "we learn this sort of thin -ng - it's all exactly the same in our industry." However, when the Environmental officers actually got round to visiting, the docks were closed down and cleaned. Alan Burt suspects thee uate ws all. arranged", and that Boyne received prior warning that “wae more than 7 ve eoth mihers maintain strongly that "the Health and Safety peop= le want to get on to it... He's breaxing the law through and through." Whether this

“will happen has yet sto be seen.

Coal.

The coal comes from.all over the world, including cacist South Africa, and the iron curtain countries (who continue hypoc itically to claim that they support the miners. ) This os also the case in Exmouth. Some is brought in by ships regeistered in a variety of countries, by way of stockpiles - the most important of which is at Rotterdam.

: Pohtypridd NUM say that there are “abouth 2000 tons of 'dust'-that's industrial coal -.on the floor," at both Exmouth and Teignmouth, They have no idea how much is coming

eee over all, A resident clains that "the mound at the docks is the biggest mounu i've ee ever seen" , and confirms the NUM's statement that there is "no agreement" about coal “imports in the area. The coal comes in "seven days a week", John Bounds says that, while \... yumour has, it that there is more coal in Exmouth than feignmouth, there is still "a lot ws of coal in Teignmouth...a hell of. a. lot." . cise The coal goes.to "all destinations." Alan Burt says that "There is domestic, bute. Se “there's also power station. coal" (which is one of the NUM pr orities for blacking. ) The “pickets "don't know where it is going" , although an Exeter NUR man says that some * "comes in from Teignmouth. Docks...", where it is "taken up to a big concentration junc-

». tion at Exeter Junction." There have been numerous eyewitness reports of coal trains < near St David's Station,Exetern,as well, If coal is going by train, it should. theoret-

“tT

\v ically ahve an NUM dispensation, as all other coal movements are blacked by the ratiwe 20 5.3

ay unions.;However , rumours persist that this coal is going to Port Talbot Steelworks, we while others. maintain that it is destines for old peoples homes and thé Like, Hopefully, ,a future information sheet will be able. to. carry detailed information on coal movements by train, especially those in the Exeter area. However, a Signalman told us that he has \ only had "two coal trains in eight months", so it would appear that the main transport ~ means is private haulage companies sending lorries to +eignmouth. |

he

Haulage. : ah Any information on companies bringing coal from “eignmouth would be welcome, cerainly: i here and probably also at Pontypridd NUM. We don't have the detailed information on this . that we.do on Exmouth. One company has been mentioned a few times however, and that is ™ py Clarke of Exeter. South. Welsh companies are also involved, coming to the South West by way of the M. As mentioned carlier, there is 4 substantial blacklist at the Pont# _, pridd NUM office. ae A number of lorries head towards Exeter from ,cignmouth, slowing down to 5mph or so .i1 on the hills. Lowry drivers appear to be unconcerned enough to stop on this route and. ee to. each other, and the need for solice escorts has not been felt in Me Tull 8 igo of the strike. Indeed, although extra police were drafted into. Teignmouth over a separate incident, the miners have had 'no hassle' to date : the police appear to

_ bé Biving them a wide berth. :

Ss 2 Scabs. = : Na Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the coal imports to Leignmouth has peen the

cy expoitation that has resulted of tie Local: workforeé. Initially, most workers at the *“ aocks were in the T&GWU. Alan Burt; says that "The T&G boys atuck by us; and were ~as aja result -- “Put on cleaning up here and there... they lost-a. ?ot/of money." Although ~ ‘Teignmouth is outside of. tue National Docks Labour Scheme, the T&G has. tried’ to’ persuade “ye. its members not to handle coal, and. those: that agreed have seéh casual labour take “over most. of their normal tasks. When one Teignmouth crane operator was asked by the ‘management whether or not he would handle 6oal, they pointed out a scab waiting at

the door; waiting to take his’ job in the: evént.of his saying ‘no".This duly happeried. Of course, these scabs are taken on an a ‘hire atid fire" pagid, and will lose their

jobs in the event of “ektra work. (from the strike) falling off. Meanwhile, their labour helps maintain a system gtruggling‘*to break the miners! fight against one aspect of their exp] -itation.s. conly two hundred miles away ! Nobosy wins this round except the dock and haulage company bossess AS Alan Burt pointed out 3"That casual labour+I think that’s. disgusting. Everybody is trying to break us. Whén you come from the valleys: and see this sort, of thing being done, it's unbeletevable.."-A number of faétors have made this possible: what Burt calls "Terrible" working-class solidarity in the area; high unempoyment; and a failure on our part .to fully recognise the implications of the miners' strike, for both them and the. South West. ,n this instance, everybody who can is being exploited + from South African Miners toBritish %trikers,and the Teignmouth dockworkers -scabs and others.

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| can San a ce ce tm on me SS

SoMTAGTS, Information & Gollections in Exeter, :Exeter 216404. 3,.York Yerrace. © + Exeter Jniversity “liners 'Support Group, Devonshire House, Stocker Road, Exeter.

women continued....

A number of women in Exeter have been working for several years to set up a Women's Centre: a building on Sidwell St. has now been secured and we hope that the centre will be open soon.

Surprisingly, (well, we are told that it is a decade for women) the united nations has taken up the issue of women's unpaid work and resolutions have been drawn up asking world goverbments to include this in their assessment of GNP. The gross national product is the total of all }zoods and services exchanged for money within a country. Think about women's work and you wonder how governments can talk about productive capacity, economic and industrial paanning with such a butchered set of figures. This helps to exolain why, although the servicing, maintenance,

Jand c..e of the male and child population, subsistenc \farming, housework, etc, are clearly underlying props

of the world economy, those who wield the power

| (depend upon it, these are paid workers) cannot afford

Ito talk about the hidden work and its potential economic Ipower. Because of this, we end up with lies about how

Jour society and our world are organised politically, jsocially, and economically. These lies give validity

Jto the world wide exploitation of women: equality without jmoney is no equality atall.

The purpose of the centre will

be to provide access and space for individual women and women's groups and their children to meet exchange and gather advice and information.

Women need a central place to meet, and this could result in a mumber of activities- whether dicussion groups, classes, skill-sharing, campaigns, etc. depending on needs and enthusiasm.

The centre will be run on a non-profit-making basis

and is in the process of registering as a charity.

Until then it is being financed by donations and small charges may have to be made for groups using the centre, depending on their income. Anyone wanting to find out more about the centre, or make a donation (we need furni-

ture and childrents toys) can contact Natty or Michelle on Exeter 219377.

dee

jTo get behind these lies, and to expose the emptyness

of an 'iquality' which has nothing to do with pay packets, but instead sets groups of women against each other,

iwe must recognise and work together on the widest possible common ground. By meeting and campaigning around the issues fof invisable work and our world wide economic dependence lon men, we can start to bridge the divides between metropolitan and Third World women, making the dialogue of the working class struggle one that crosses the divisions

of class, race, and naition. If we recognise the principle jof counting women's work, demanding recognition and fpayment for it, then we are actively working to advance the finterests of all women. A women's movement that does not fsee this as its mst crucial goal is not a ‘women's fmovement' at all.

Exeter women are starting a campaign based around the petition "Women Count - Count Women's Work . will

be sent to the UN conference in Nirobi in July anc distributed to world leaders. We will need as m signatures as possible to confront these govern

effectively.

Women from the campaign group will be talking to women about needs and ideas for the centre at some stage in

the next few weeks in Exeter city centre. More about this soon.

can make it an essential part of their philosophy what

has Labour to fear ?

The Labour Party must cleanse itself of those who still believe that democracy involvolves submission and subservience. It does not. Labour won recoconition by fighting these abominations wholeheartedly. It shirks the fight

now at its own peril.

H.F. James

Like many others of my age, I voted Labour in 1945, firmly believing that electrifying news of Clem Atlee's victory would herald a the beginning of a new Socialist millennium! The experiences of pre 1939, and the War years made us all feel that we wanted a complete f break with the past. We sought an end to the injustices and unfairness we associated with every Tory administration, and the hope that, at long last,the British working man would come into his own,and begin to and to enjoy the sort of life we never shared, but simply viewed from afar, as interested but frustrated spectators] It had taken 50 years of socialist struggle to bring into being the first Labour government with a worrking majority! It has taken another fourty years to bring the realisation that Labour governments have been more interesteted in proving that Labour can govern, and have given up the struggle to establish socialism.

How else can one regard Labour's oft repeated obsession with "capturing the middle ground", establishing “consesus policies'' , or as Harold Wilson tried to do, kidding us that pragmatism is more important than socialism. If Labour is not a socialist Party it is nothing. There have been far to many pseudo socialists who have been harboured and honoured with high appointments in Labour administrations, but who were more

than willing, and ready, to 'put the knife in' when their subversive and sometimes open attempts to swerve Labour from its socialist ideals and principles became apparent.

From Freeman, Wyatt and Lord Chalfont to Owen, Jenkins Rogers and Williams; the Labour Party has allowed

itself to be infiltrated by traitors, whose sole objective was to enhance their own ambitions, and destroy the ideals and principles of socialism in the process!

All this could have been avioded if Labour had remained true and loyal to those great motivating forces which epitomise the real strength of socialist idealism. Labour's future and ideed its survival depends upon its ability to recognise that extremism and militancy

are not dirty words. The entrie trade union and labour movement was forged upon the anvil extremism and militancy, and the readiness of our forbears to not

only challenge the law but to defy it.

If faint hearts need proof that extremism does work, then they have only to observe the right wing extremism which Mrs. Thatcher has introduced since 1979. If the Tories

Exemouth CLP

If the Elders of the Labour Party ceased to believe that they have a perogative on Truth and Ideological wisdom, the Party would be a great deal better off. They should question their strongly held outmoded values,and bring themselves up to date. If they began to listen or debate

it would be a help, instead of defeating the "up and coming'' with effective speech. Neither Britain, nor Politics are the same as they were 10 years ago. The LP is being controlled by the same ''Social Control", that is strangling the Trade Unions. The Thatcherite rhetoric works out of the mouths of Tories and Imperalists-Tue Spirit of the South Atlantic,and such like-but,out of the mouths of Kinnock and Hattersley it is the exact point where the LP begins to lie and waffle. Far better to say everythings a Bloody Mess, and we need to totally

rethink societies own ‘outmoded values'’. The LP is no longer a Political Party,it is, and is

growing more so, a Party of Polity which offers no particular change. The LP lacks a heart, a soul, and has no concept of it's own guilt. The challenge for the LP is now to make up lost ground and time.

The Book of Rules must be torn up, because it stilts discussion and activity. The Elders should either GET INFORMED, or Sove Off, it is easy to see that they are too used to complacency and compromise. It is also obvious that they are jealously ignorant of the changes needed. The Elders are guarded, uninformed, and are conducting themselves as if the old way; their way, is the right and only way. The LP is inert, and does not exist outside it's own membership, and many are dissatisfied with the way the constituency parties are run

by he or she who is cleverist at interpreting the Book of Rules, and have to look outside the LP for action. The way the Elders use the word Democracy within the CP's could be likened to the way Thatcher uses it,and the people who do this call themselves "voices of reason''....well so do the SDP. Please will these people rescrutinise their beliefs and idiocyncracies, because their age?and experience means a great deal less than they think. Get informed,and by that I don't mean reread Marx. Whilst the LP is run by faceless people; who think more of their own status than the Party,and,oppurtunists, it will not be successful even if it gets back in power,

d th ill justice. and there will be no justice Tim Armsby

—— Srna

THEORETICAL BRIEFING: The second part of a two part article by Peter Bowing on ‘What is Marxism 7"

It is argued by some people that Marxism is about

the economy determining every aspect of society; this is not true. It is the case that the system of economic production lays the foundation of society and thus determines the class structure. Politics and culture have an autonomy from the economy; an autonomy which is limited by the fact that political and cultural affairs in society are carried on by people who are organised into classes. Everything in society is interconnected and the economy lays the foundation. Let us take four illustrations.

(1) The state consists mainly of a ‘law applying' civil service and a 'law enforcing' police, military and judiciary. Marxists argue that the state works

in the interest of the capitalist class; firstly, because it administers and upholds a system which exploits the working class, and secondly, because the senior state personnel are drawn from the capitalist class and their associates.

(2) Ideas and conciousness. How classes see the world

is very important in politics. Traditionally the church, but today education and the media are the disseminators od ideas. Most of the media is owned by the capitalist class and the education system is run by the state, so little room is given to ideas sympatetic to Marxism

and socialism. A false conciousness descends over working people (eg, ideas of a people's capitalism).

(3) Class struggle. In practical terms class concious

working class people have to fight on three fronts. Firstly,

they have to fight against economic exploitation; this fight is carried out by trade unions. Secondly, they have to fight the capitalist state; only a disciplined political party can do that. Thirdly, they must fight capitalist ideas which is done through an alternative press, community work and political education.

(4) Socialism is where the means of production are held in common ownership and are used for need, creativity

and social justice, not profit alone. Only working people, numerically the largest class, have an interest in

socialism. Yet when the means of production are held

in common ownership, apart from a political and cultural lag, everyone becomes working class, of the people, sharing common experience. Thus classes are abolished. Under socialism, for the first time in history with the benefit of an industrial society, giving men and women the capacity to free themselves from time con monotomous labour, humanity controls its destiny. Mer and women are what they collectively do; under socialism they are what they collectively want.

one

PRESSURE GROWS FOR A WOMENS COMMITTEE

Will the council meet the demands of Exeters' women? So . far we've had promises since May that Exeter City Counci] will set up a women's committee to meet the needs and serve the interests of over half of its citizens (and voters)....Well done!

But promices as we know from many years of struggle and exclusion,have a habit of getting dumped by those in power. Luckily, the pressure is growing from many directions. For instance, sympathetic councillors

are hoping to organise a meeting for women” early

next year so that we can put our needs ad ideas

across. Polsloe-Stoke Hill ward are putting a resolution to the G.M.C. this month, calling for a full written report on any action taken so far.

Women in Exeter must organise and ensure that this comnittee includes and represents us...there have even been suggestions that the committee will be taade up of mostly MALE councillors!!!

py Ha eR oS ent

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EXMOUTH DEMO

On Saturday Dec Ist around 50 people staged a demonstration at Exmouth docks. This was to protest about the

coal being imported their by private labour.It was good

to see people paying the train fare to come to the dirty docks on a wet, miserable winters day, and high morale made up what was lacking in numbers. Unfortunately no

coal was coming through on that day, but the lorry drivers using the docks were the same ones who deliver the coal,so they were made aware of local feelings. Leaflets were

also given out in Exmouth town centre. A similar event

will be happening soon, so keep your eyes peeled for information.

a CRA A cm A RE CN i TA

WOMENS COUNCIL

As part of the constituency Labour Party, the Exeter Women's Council aims to bring women members together to discuss both policy and ideas and to raise women's political awareness and level of activity within the community. Therefore meetings not only consider feminism but look at a wide range of issues showing

the role of women in sccialist action.

November's meeting, for instance discussed the creeping effects of Tory health service cuts on the residential care of adolescent girls in Devon. Future meetings are as follows:

Wednesday DECEMBER 19 - Christmas social in the Labour Club, tickets on sale soon in the Party office.

Monday JANUARY 28 - Annual General Meeting

followed by "Equal Opportunities".

oO

Monday FEBRUARY 25 - "Women in Labour History".

Monday MARCH 5 -"Exeter Women's Aid and Rape Crisis Line"

The meetings take place in Room 4, 26 Clifton Hill at 8 pm. If you have problems getting to meetings due to transport, looking after dependents etc the secretary can help, telephone Exeter 74141.

tokkikik

* YS * MINERS VIDEOS * YS * MINERS VIDEOS * YS *

The AGM of Exeter Constituency Labour Party Young Socialists will be held at 8pm on Wednesday 12th December at 26 Clifton Hill.

VIDEOS SHOWING THE POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST THE MINERS WILL BE SHOWN. All persons under 25 are most welcome. Meet in the bar.

4° BRIEFING Ry

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The copydate for the January Briefing will be December 25th.

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