National Supplement no. 7

1. TIPPLEMENT NAI TONAL SU r PLEM orn MINERS’ STRIKE:

WE WILL WIN!

*¢ It’s going to be won. It’ll be won because of the solidarity between miners and by extending that solidarity to other sections of the class. It doesn’t matter if Neil Kinnock doesn’t give us full support because the cheques coming in from local Labour Parties shows that the members of the Labour Party do support us. We'll appeal directly over the heads of the renegades to the workers.

The right-wing in the unions should be ignored. It would be a disaster to hand over our struggle to the TUC. Len Murray’s been on his backside for so long he’ll only get involved to sell us out.*?

Jack Collins, President of the Kent Area of the NUM |

LABOUR— TAKE THE POWER!

dimes (as sap

outstrip their leaders in the extrenity of uien puoi...

fields.” The same writer warns the City that the miners’ delegate conference in Snettetu i wun, into “a real miners’ soviet”, and that even the hesitant TUC could prove unable to stem the tide now pressing in the direction of “serious revolutionary socialism” and an all-out General Strike. Brian Walden in the London “Evening Standard” has been warning for weeks that he sees no way of avoiding a General Strike. And the “Sunday Times” (15 April 1984) — accurate reflection of the ruling class mind — advises Mrs Thatcher in brave words:

“|. . Mr Scargill is bent on a revolutionary challenge to the government. So it is hard to see how the strike can be settled by the usual fudge. The odds are that the strike of 1984 will end like that of 1926.”

The Sunday Times brags that a General Strike could be beaten now as it was in 1926, and that — with the spine of the trade union movement broken — the “economic benefits would be substantial.”

In reality, we have every reason for confidence that the struggle now beginning to unfold can be won. It is true that the Tories have been arming and training their police and troops for use against us ever since we humiliated them in 1972-4. These armed men present a formidable force. But our side must prove a superior force in terms of numbers, initiative, organisation, physical resistance where necessary and the ability to split. paralyse and demoralise the enemy through the sheer scale of our popular support. A year ago, such a struggle could not have been won. Now, in the trail of a series of disastrous blunders made by the government — GCHQ, the attempt to gerrymander next year’s metropolitan county elections, the attempt to impose rate-capping, etc. etc., — the most favourable political conditions for an all-out offensive are ours.

This is not entirely a struggle or a moment of our choosing. It is being forced on us by a vicious government that intends decimating the mining industry, crippling trade unionism, destroying local democracy and attempting to rescue capitalism by driving ordinary people into poverty and despair. But if this is to be the hour of decision, we must measure up to the scale of the tasks we face. A struggle for power is a struggle with no holds barred. It may be that events over the next few months will determine the balance of class forces for the next generation.

Sirs scabs on miners

Bill Sirs, the General Secretary of my union, the ISTC, has brought the whole of the membership into disrepute. By scabbing on the recently formed Triple Alliance of railworkers, miners and steelworkers, his actions stand in stark contrast to the massive support given by the National Union of Seaman, ASLEF and the NUR, who have refused to handle any coal for the NCB.

Sirs knows that the miners’ dispute is the most important working class struggle since the war. He knows that if the miners are defeated, the huge amount of legislation planned by the Tory ‘think-tank’ prior to the general election will be put into operation — with all the disastrous effects for our health and education.

But even if he was bone-headed enough not to understand the political realities of such a defeat, he must

BILL SIRS

understand the effect his scabbing will have on the steel industry. Plans are afoot for further cuts in steel jobs in England, Scotland and Wales. And when they come and have to be resisted, what support will other unions give to those they regard as scabs,

Sirs will no doubt get his well deserved place alongside Joe Gormley

in the House of Lords but we must not allow him to gain that dubious honour on the backs of defeated coal, steel and railworkers. We at grassroots level transformed the ISTC into a left wing union during the post-1980 period. And it is now up to us to build support for the miners and help ensure their vic-

fory. Ray Davies ISTC

David Fowler.

Coughing and heaving prot o..

Lungs of dust being laid to rest.

Work to do, the burdensome tasks, Teams of men with ebony masks, Nerves and solidarity the day demands; Coalition of brains and sinewy hands. The work’s routine, the relief is slight; Feelings hidden, lamps shing bright. Colliers cutting at the earth’s womb, Foetus position, deep entombed. Strata broken, bloody gash;

Screams of pain as bones are smashed. The dust has settled, the way is clear. Mates are clawing with abject fear

To free their comrade from his cairn; Porrected, such is their prime concern As the broken body comes into sight, They realise they’ve lost the fight.

The pit has claimed another life,

Grief for a mother, a son, a wife:

Still the footsteps echo through the night.

As the media argues the rights and wrongs of the miners actions, support from the whole Labour Movement is crucial. This’ support should take the form of:

i. Financial aid expenses and communities.

. The opportunity for miners to speak to trade union and Labour Party branches, tenants associations, community organisations, This is very important in order to counter the| media’s disinformation. \

3. Organised visits to mining areas to show solidarity.

Contact your nearest National Union!

of Miners Office.

Or in London, contact:

Kent NUM

clo TEWU

Headland House

308 Grays Inn Road, London WCLX 8DS

Ph: (01) 278 7801 ext. 39.

assist

The antics of the police during the miners’ strike confirm what the NCAPB has been saying since its inception, last year. The Tories in their attempt to weaken the unions and conirol Britain’s severe economic and social crisis will seek not only to pass anti-trade union legislation and attack local government but will also need to strengthen the repressive forces of the state. Police powers are being increased to be used against the labour movement.

This strategy includes increasing the police’s hardware-plastic bullets, CS gas, water cannons, machine guns — and increased use of intelligence gathering. The Police Bill is a central and essential part of these moves. If it is passed it will legalise the road blocks and stop and search employed against the miners. It will legalise detention without charge for four days, intimate body searches and searches of the homes and workplaces of people who are not suspected of any offence.

Despite its clear antilabour character and despite unanimously passing a resolution at the last Labour Party conference against the Police Bill and supporting a campaign against it, the Labour Party and trade unions have been noticeably absent on activities against the Bill. To put this right and to discuss how the Police Bill will be used specifically

National Labour Briefing Supplement, page

THE POLICE BILL AND THE MINERS STRIKE

Police and pickets at the Leah Hall Pit in Staffordshire, 28th March.

against the labour movement, the NCAPB has calied a labour movement conference on 12th May. Supporters of Labour Briefing are also urged to support and build the National March against the Bill on 19th May.

National Campaign Against the Police Bill, c/o 50 Rectory Rd, N16

Tel: 01-249 8334

LABOUR MOVEMENT CONFERENCE AGAINST THE POLICE BILL

1-6pm, Sat May 12th

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London {near Holborn tube}

Speakers from the Labour Party, NUM, NGA, CPSA, NUR and others.

NATIONAL MARCH TO OPPOSE THE POLICE BILL

Miners’ dispute: Solidarity is spreading

In stark contrast to the Labour leadership’s hesitancy on the miner’s strike the rank and file of the movement has swung behind the militants in the coalfields who are out to defend jobs.

In South Wales police have been tapping phones to try and stop South Wales miners going to Port Talbot to stop the movement of coke and coal. When Keri Evans, a Swansea LPYS member, was arrested on the NUM picket line, he heard Superintendent Viv Brook admit that snatch squads were being used on Port Talbot picket lines. South Wales Labour Briefing has a new issue out on the miner’s strike.

Nurses from Rotherham have been on the picket lines at Cresswell pit. Accused by police of secondary picketing, the nurses at first refused to budge and only later moved off. ‘They were obviously frightened of what would happen if they arrested nurses in uniform’, explained Gwen Mellors from Badsley hospital. A delegation to the coalfields is planned by the Sheffield Labour Parties and a support committee has been established.

In Dundee trade unions have already agreed to a day of sirike action in support of the miners, probably April 18th. At an emergency meeting of the Scottish TUC, an NUM resolution cafls for a day of action across Scotland in support of the miners. A thousand people at a Glasgow STUC

rally donated £15,000 to the miners. Sammy Gilmour, speaking from the floor, felt it was ‘unfortunate that the in-

itiative for strike action in support of the miners came from Dundee rather than the platform’. The STUC is largely

By Valerie Coultas

from Hyde Park {Speakers Corner) to Jubilee Gardens Saturday } 9th May, ASSEMBLE 12 noon

responsible for future solidarity action.

In Merseyside pickets from Yorkshire and South Wales were joined by striking refuse collectors and dockers when they came to Birkenhead’s Vittoria Dock to stop coal imported from Rotterdam leaving the Quayside. NUS members are refusing to pilot in shops, and Liverpool railway workers have refused to move coal.

The West Midlands TUC has launched a support committee and held a major meeting on 4 April. Birmingham Trades Council is also organising support on the rank and file level. In London Labour Party rallies have been organised in Brent, Hackney, Camden and South London in support of the miners with speakers from the Kent NUM. Railway workers are organising to stop the movement of coal. On 7 April over 1,300 people assembled at Camberwell Green, South London when 30 Kent miners arrived on the first leg of their 130-mile march to Nottingham. When the Kent coalfields were first established people had marched inéo the Kent coalfields and now they were marching out of them to defend their jobs. A big rally greeted the miners when they arrive in Nottingham on Saiurday 14 April. On that same day the North and East London Labour Parties visited the Kent Coalfields to take money and express solidarity with the Kent miners.

All over the picture is clear. The miners are in the vanguard of the fight to defend jobs and the right to have effective trade unions. No-one in the Labour Party must be allowed to scab on this strike. Every Labour Party should be organising solidarity demonstrations and calling on the NEC and the TUC to name the day for National Action.

Lneete

Bnefine National Supplement page <

WOMEN SUPPORT THE MINERS

Kay Sutcliffe is a miner’s wife from Kent. On Thursday 22 April she, along with two coachloads of women from

Dover, arrived in Leicester to demonstrate their sup women from Kent not only changed the rainds of some Le

self-confidence from their actions. Kay was talking to Valerie Coultas.

‘In the 1974 strike we had a small women’s sommittee to organise distribution of food parcels to the miners, We kept our

section going for a short while but when

the mining industry got on its feet again we split up. We still had the basic structure when this new trouble came up.

The first Meeting we held was last Tuesday, 40 women turned up. We weren’t quite sure at first what to do, So I said I would like to take our Snowdown banner and march through Nottingham. Everyone thought this was a@ good idea. We approached the union and Jack Collins, Kent NUM, said he wouldn’t tell us what to do but he made a suggestion that we might g0 to Leicester coalfields because they were Part of the South Midlands coalfield with Kent.

When we arrived in Coleville several men met us, It was our plan to do everything ourselves, carry our own banner and march as women like ‘a women’s peace march. But two of the men -- one was my Nusband — pointed out that the Snow-

down banner was rather heavy, and we Jet them carry it,

‘WE'LL BEAT MACGREGOR’

We assembled at Scotland Road Playing fields and the march went ahead. ‘Black is the colour, Mining is the game, we'll beat MacGregor and send him home again. We'll march on through the wind and rain, because Snowdown is our hame’, we sang as we were walking through the streets. Several local women abused us urging us to get back home but we ignored them and kept on with our march.

At the end, after | and one of the Yorkshire women had spoken, some Coleville women came up and confronted us. They were under the impression that when the pits were closed in Kent everyone had been promised a transfer to another pit or large sums of redundancy money, The Kent area has never been given such a guarantee. Women thought everyone had a job to go to. We finally vonvinced a couple of them that our men nad no jobs to go to if all the pits were sniut and they were very sympathetic.

A CLOSE COMMUNITY

I can’t really say that the response of the Kent women has surprised me entirely. We've got a very close community down mere. Women have responded who are not only wives of miners but any woman who

is closely involved with the community, On Monday night we had another women’s meeting. Numbers didn’t dwindle, even more women turned up after they had heard what we’d done. We're ready and waiting for the next event. In 1974 it was different. I was 10 years younger and I had small children, Women were in the background receiving instructions, [’ve never known women get involved like this before. I think it was that silly photograph of a woman with a plastic gun in the Daily Mirror, saying that she wished she had a real one to shoot at Arthur Scargill that angered me most. Anyone who makes a threat like that should be taken to court! It was so important to me to show people that women supported

port for the Kent miners and the NUM. As her story reveals the icester women about the dispute but they gained a new

Cr ee

the strike and the union.

MY ANGER MOVED ME TO ACTION

It was my anger that moved me to action. Previously I’ve always taken a back seat and let others speak for me. My husband wasn’t at home when I started to think about doing something — a good thing because if he had been I’d probably not have surprised myself so much, If someone had told mea fortnight ago that I'd get up and motivate other women I'd

never have believed them, It just came

so easily and J really enjoyed it.” This article also appears in the current London Labour Briefing special issue on the miners’ strike.

Briefing National Supplement page 5

WOMENAND THE STRIKE

The mobilisation of wide support will be crucial to the outcome of the miners’ strike. Women are involved in organising support groups for miners’ families, in raising money for strike funds and in small numbers attend rallies and solidarity pickets. There is much support from the women at Greenham, many of whom see themselves as involved in the same broad struggle as the miners. But the fact that the NUM is a male union raises difficulties for women who wish to express their solidarity and there is some unease among feminists on the left about women’s involvement.

The women most directly affected are miners’ wives and it is on them that the attention of both right and left press tends to focus. The right make the most of those wives who oppose the strike, the left counters with an equal emphasis on wives supporting the strike. Both tend to portray the wives in terms of female domesticity, as motivated by concern for their families and this is compounded in the left’s case by women being cast the traditional role of backing-up their menfolk.

The reasons why some wives do not support their husbands, and why they don’t take a more active part, go unexamined, On a miners’ march through Blackwood, Gwent on March 31st, I was struck by the strong support expressed by women on the streets, many of whom obviously knew the men involved, but only a handful took part in the march.

MALE BONDING

It may well be that the affairs of the union appear to be part of a male sphere from which women are excluded. It should be recognised that the supposed traditional solidarity of the miners, much tomanticised by the Left, is based as much on a machismo male bonding of tough men doing a tough job as on a sense of class consciousness. How many miners treat their wives as comrades in struggle rather than as dependants for whom they are responsible? How many of them see their wives’ work as just as much part of the labour process as their own?

One of the major problems for other women, felt particularly acutely by feminists, is the miners’ sexism. Women are likely to face sexist comments, be treated as mere appendages to men they happen to be with, or ignored completely. One very commonplace incident which I found particularly disturbing was when miners picketing the Port Talbot steel works suddenly lost interest in the coal being moved out and surged towards a passing woman runner, jeering and whistling and causing her visible distress. (‘Much more interesting than coal’ was one comment — how’s that for evidence of miners’ political consciousness?) As the one woman present I felt powerless to act and extremely unnerved at being in the midst of concerted male aggression towards another woman. That this is only to be expected from men is precisely what deters women from joining picket lines.

Not all my experiences have been so negative. I’ve found that women have an easier time, are taken more seriously, and

are more able to challenge sexism if they are with other women as part of a solidarity picket. In any case strike leaders I’ve talked to say they prefer people to turn up in numbers, as representatives of identifiable organisations, rather than as isolated individuals.

SEXIST STEREOTYPES

One category of women who are always welcome in picket lines are nurses. Miners have supported health-workers in the past and this solidarity is being reciprocated. Health workers are not all nurses, but union activists are well aware of the propaganda value of the image of nurses and miners side by side. But the appeal of this image rests on the crudest of sexist stereotypes — the miner, all that is tough and masculine; the nurse, all that

‘We reaffirm our instruction to members not to cross NUM picket lines. Further we instruct all members to refuse to deal with the movement of coal or coke unless a specific request is made by the NUM at the central coordinating committee. This decision to take effect immediately.’

These instructions from the National Union of Railwaymen, together with similar instructions from the train drivers’ union (ASLEF), the Transport Union (TGWU) and the Seamen’s Union (NUS) are vital if the miners are to win. Banning the movement of all coaj both gives essential solidarity to the miners and because it defies the Tories’ anti-union laws, confronts the government head on.

Many railworkers have been refusing to move coal even before such instructions were issued. Some have been sent home. Yet, in the same week that the NUR stated the position of the union, the leadership seemed reluctant to defend a freight guard at Stonebridge Park depot in North West London who was sent home for refusing to work a coal train. All railworkers should immediately respond to any such attack on a member. Manchester drivers stopped all trains, including passenger trains, after one of their colleagues was sent home. At Tinsley, management have been unable to carry out disciplinary threats because both the ASLEF and NUR branches have stood firm.

FURTHER ACTION

The national leaderships of the rail unions should now take further action to ensure

is caring and feminine. Male nurses simply don’t have the same impact.

These criticisms are not meant to detract from the importance of the miners’ struggle, but merely to point out some of the causes of the uneasiness which many women feel about taking action in support of them. Women need to organise as women to challenge the sexism of male trade-unionists, to make them realise that solidarity is a question of political commitment rather than machismo brotherhood. It might help if organisers of solidarity meetings and rallies ensure that women speakers are involved, but so far in South Wales there has been considerable resistance to this idea.

Stevi Jackson, Cardiff Central CLP,

Cardiff and South Wales Briefing.

NUR & THE STRIKE

that raitworkers do not move coal.

* Inform management that any disciplinary measures taken against any members carrying out union instructions in support of the miners will meet with action taken by the union(s) as a whole.

* Encourage all union branches to invite a miner to address them, so the NUM’s case is fully explained. Depots should be flooded with literature spelling out the miners’ case te counteract the lies and distortions in the media.

* Monitor any movement of coal on the railways and immediately inform other railworkers and the NUM so appropriate action can be taken.

The miners strike and the joint pay claim submitted by NUR and ASLEF (the first time this has occurred) has strengthened the Federation of Rail Unions, particularly at local level. Many are beginning to hold joint branch meetings both to discuss solidarity with the miners and to inform members on the latest stage of the pay claim. The pay claim includes:

* A substantial increase on the basic rate

* The minimum earnings level to become the minimum enhanceable basic rate

* A reduction in the working week from 39 hours to 35 hours

* Annual holidays to increase from 4 weeks to five weeks.

20,000 JOBS TO GO

The British Rail Board is demanding that any improvement in pay and/or conditions

(CONTINUED OVER)

Briefing National Supplement page 6

The miners’ strike and the trade

union left

THE miners’ strike has clearly radicalised the political situation in Brita and is giving a powerful lead to the working class in how to confront the gang of asset strippers and union busters who mascarade as a government. At the same time the stand being taken by Arthur Scargill and the left in the NUM is providing a well-needed pointer to the left in the rest of the trade union movement.

The reality is that, despite very important electoral successes, the trade union left has been in serious crisis over its failure to assert any credible independence from the right wing or point an independent way forward for the workers in the unions where it has won the leadership.

The Broad Left leadership of the CPSA floundered over the DHSS strikes in the winter of 1982/3.

The Broad Left majority in the POEU leadership floundered with an elitist, legalistic approach to the privatisation struggle. Their policy of selective action and strike pay based on full wages linked to a consistent failure to challenge the influence of unelected full-time officials like Bryan Stanley led to the collapse of the PQEU when faced with the Mercury injunction — creating a major breakthrough for the Tebbit laws.

The Broad Left leadership of the NUR had no more answers to BR’s workshop closure programme than the AUEW leadership.

Serious Mistake

In the NUM itself the failure to back last year’s South Wales strike under pressure from the right wing — the calling of an emergency executive meeting which led to a national ballot — was a serious mistake by Scargill. The betrayal of Kinneil was a disaster. After that. every pit which struck was left in isolation, despite the militancy which was obvious amongst the rank and file.

The TUC swung further to the right in September, entering into talks with Tebbit and consolidating a big right-wing majority on the General Council. They gave Thatcher the green light to push forward the Tebbit laws and then turned their backs on the NGA, creating the conditions for the attack on trade union membership at GCHQ.

Throughout this there was no serious chailenge from the left to stop the sell-out — at least none which was based on a drive to mobilise the membership against it.

NUR & the strike

(CONTINUED)

can only be met by agreeing to the extension of guardless trains, reducing the number of second drivers and getting rid of station staff. The Board is planning to chop 20,000

jobs in the next two years. On these conditions, the Board is offering 4 per cent of the

total wage bill. In other words improvements in the working week, annual leave etc can only be met by taking it out of the 4 per cent ‘on offer’. Railworkers must

The BLOC conference failed to address the problems — despite a keynote speech from Phil Holt of the POEU Executive, which stressed “the crisis of leadership in the unions” (!). (Not the POEU, of course, that was the model we should build on).

The conference was big, which reflected the important developments taking place in the broad lefts to the left of the Communist Party. But the chance of a serious discussion on the real problems the left has encountered was lost in the desire for a popular rally.

Equally, nothing approaching a serious analysis of the miners’ strike took place. Yet the miners’ strike is the most important stand a left union leadership has made for many years. It stands in stark contrast to the retreats of the last year.

Driving Force

It is true that the driving force of the strike has been a powerful movement from the rank and file of the NUM — but within that Scargill’s stand has been very important. He has not been stampeded by the scabbing in Nottinghamshire or the right-wing campaign for a ballot.

The direction of the strike has also been good. The decision to write to the TUC asking them not to intervene and instead turning to the transport unions has kept the right wing out (and split the TUC). The cali for a national

pay for their own wage increase. ASLEF and the NUR refuse to negotiate a wage deal based on productivity deals. Certainly the NUR is under that instruction from its own Annual Conference.

But the Rail Federation nationally has suill not decided what if any action is to be taken by the membership despite the fact that the anniversary date for the pay claim is 16 April.

We can show the real strength of the trade union movement united against this government in support of the miners. But it is not enough for our union leaderships to wait to see the outcome of the miners’

strike or a general strike can be made later if the conditions are created for it.

There are serious dangers, of course, like Mick McGahey’s deal over Ravenscraig. But the example of a left union leadership basing itself on the rank and file and leading a confrontation with the Tories through a fight against their own right-wing is like a breath of fresh air.

The miners’ strike is an historic strike in that its outcome will largely determine conditions in the labour movement — the Labour Party as well as the unions — for a long time to come. It raises the question of what kind of Labour Party we want. Neil Kinnock wants a ballot because the strike might interfere with the May elections. Our job should be to bring the Labour Party into the fight alongside the miners and other sections who may join them if things develop.

A defeat of the strike would create a very serious situation. But if the strike is not headed off by the right wing at tomorrow’s executive and the signs are it won’t be — it can be not only the most important challenge to Thatcher since she came to power, but an important opportunity for the left to reexamine its role in the struggle for leadership in the unions.

Alan Thornett

strike. The rail unions can play a decisive role in determining that outcome, not only through stopping all movement of coal but taking action in defence of our own jobs and living standards.

That would show what the Triple Alliance really means in action. That would show this government that finally we have said ‘Enough is enough’. This time we stand together. This time we wiff win.

Tessa van Gelderen Marylebone NUR Brent South CLP

Labour Party Photograph Library

GLASGOW:

Glasgow’s transport workers staged a 24hour strike on 17th March in protest at the decision to close three of the City’s nine bus garages. The closures of the Ibrox, Langside and Maryhill garages will involve the loss of 140 jobs and redeployment for the vast majority of workers. George Petrie of the TGWU’s Regional Office explained: “We are fighting to save jobs and this is just the first phase of a campaign to meet that end.”

So what is the background to this action which brought Glasgow’s transport to a standstill? Ten years ago the City’s bus services were incorporated into the Strathclyde Region. Since that time the City’s bus workers have suffered job losses and worsening conditions. The unions themselves tried to accommodate the cuts by accepting various productivity deals. The result is that the number of buses in operation has been reduced from 1400 to the present 650. However, this latest attack is regarded as completely unacceptable. The TGWU and. the AUEW, the major unions involved, have begun to organise a campaign to retain the garages which together employ over 1.000 people.

The success of the campaign can be seen at Maryhill Garage. This is the largest employer in Maryhill. Seventy per cent of its workforce live locally. Right from the start the union went out to explain the issues to the local community. Speakers were sent to the tenants associations and community organisations.

Each garage has organised a public meeting to get the message across. In Maryhill a further

Workplace Branches and Trade Unions

It is increasingly clear that Labour Party Workplace Branches (WPB) are the future key to the political rejuvenation of the trade unions.

* A muiti-union WPB can break down artificial barriers to communication.

* Issues can be debated and followed through in the trade union branches.

* Members can be recruited far easier in the workplace.

The Trade Union Bill proposals to break the link between unions and the Labour Party can be countered by effective campaigning within the workplace. Unfortunately there are too few WPB’s in existence for this campaign to be relevani — at the moment. It is a race against time. The NEC, Regions and CLP’s should be working to establish WPB’s everywhere.

* A full-time campaigner should be appointed by the NEC to carry through a rapid development of WPB’s.

*The Trade Unions political commitiees/officers should be promoting WPB’s on all occasions, particularly in trade union journals.

* Money should be made available by every union to finance these projects. Perhaps the slumbering TUC might wake up long enough to do something!

* Trade Union Liaison Officers (TULO’s) in the CLP’s should be encouraging WPB’s to speak to Party Branches, GMC’s, Shop Stewards Committees and anyone else they can think of.

FIGHTING GARAGE CLOSURES

public meeting was called by local demand so that Regional Councillors and Strathclyde Regional Transport Executive directors could explain their decisions to the busworkers and the local community. Only two Regional Councillors attended (Lawrence McGarry and John Gray) and both these Labour Councillors had already declared their opposition to the closures. The other councillors refused to attend on the grounds that ‘The decision had been taken and would not be altered.”

However pressure is mounting on the ruling Labour Council. All the District Councillors

NO GARAGE

CLOSURES Freeze Fares!

oppose the closures and representations have been made to the Highways and Transportation Regional Committee from every level of the Region, although so far to no avail. What ankles the unions is who is taking the decision and the authoritarian manner in which it was made. As Bobbie Stewart, full-time shop steward at the Maryhill Garage put it: “Al the thanks we get for Maryhill’s total commitment to Labour in the whole of this century is this stab in the back .. . We are being closed by a Labour Council.”

The local Liberal Alliance has not been slow to fill the political vacuum and has thrown its resources behind the campaign, giving assistance with the printing of handbills. It has even helped prepare a policy statement on behalf of the union for presentation to the Regional Council.

The intransigence of the Regional Council will make this a hard fight but the unions are under no illusions about the difficulties they face. They know that unless they put up a fight now to save these garages they can expect worse to follow. Indeed, there are proposals to close two more garages within the next two

years.

* TULO committees in each town, borough, city and county should be established to coordinate this work. The Broad Left Organising Committee (BLOC) should spearhead this work. The NEC must provide the facilities for existing WPB's to spread the message and the experience.

Those of us in WPB’s have had one conference (see March Briefing) and the Institute for

Workers Control held a Workshop at the March 24th Conference in Nottingham. An interim report is available plus a draft document on “How to set up a WPB’’. We are now planning a further conference on May 12th at Camden Town Hall to develop the ideas.

There will be enough material to form a pamphlet with a practical guide to setting up WPB’s, how to avoid pitfalls, what a WPB should be do-

Briefing National Supplement page 7

The problems Glasgow's busworkers are facing can be put down to both the reduced funding to local authorities and the favouritism shown to private bus operators. The Scottish Bus Group (SBG) which notched up a hand-§ some £10 million profit last year runs over many of the same roads as the City’s buses. Recently the SBG and other firms received permission for 88 route extensions compared with 16 for the City! Perhaps the best example of this favouritism is the response to the unions’ proposals for route extensions. Manage ment estimated this plan would bring in £800,000. The scheme was duly presented to the Regional Council. The response? The Council rejected the plan with the advice that the unions should confine themselves to the City boundary and think of other ways and means of raising revenue. Here in London. the Regional Transport Bill is presently wending its way through Parliament. So we should be taking special note of the situation of our fellow busworkers in Glasgow — we will soon be facing the same attacks.

The final word however should go to Bobbie Stewart:

“Go back and ask for London Busworkers' full support, to see that the Council adopt a sensible attitude to our demand for the reten tion of all garages... What’s more you've got Parliament on your doorstep, so you should take up the fight as far as Great Britain is concerned, and the fight should be expanded to show what is really happening to public transport. What we demand is, it’s time to call a halt, a time to ask the Transport Minister for a reassessment of the whole of the bus industry. and for a fair crack of the whip as far as finan cial assistance is concerned.”

ROBERT JONES Conductor, Stamford Hill Bus Garage and Trade Union Liaison Officer

Hackney South & Shoreditch CLP

Suggested Model Resolution. This branch condemns the decision by the Labour-controlled Strathclyde Regional Council to close the Ibrox, Langside and Maryhill bus garages with the consequent loss of jobs and a worsening of the bus service. We pledge our full support to the union’s campaign against closures and call upon the Labour members of the Regional Council to retain all garages. Resolutions and messages of support should be sent to Bro. George Petrie, TGWU Offices 216 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2.

ing etc... The NEC should publish such a pamphiet written by those of us who have the experience of WPB’s. They should provide us with the facilities to take the message to the whole labour and TU movement.

If you want futher information you can do one or all of the following: 1) Invite a speaker to your LP/TU meeiing. 2) Write or phone for information on setting up WPB’s and have your name and address added to the mailing list. 3) Come to the conference on May 12th or send a delegate (fee £1). Most importantly get your Trade Union Branch to send a delegate.

All details are available from Geoff Dixon, 1 Pelham Court, 44 Hatherly Road, Sidcup; Kent.

Tel:-01-302-7983. Geoff Dixon

Briefing National Supplement page &

Black sections here to stay!

BLACK SECTIONS are here to stay! Plans for an historic National Conference for Labour Party Black Activists to be held in Birmingham in June are now well advanced. At a press conference held at County Hall on April 11th, comrades from black communities in the Labour Party from as far afield as Birmingham, Luton and Greater London announced that they intended to proceed despite all the obstacles and foot-dragging

that appears to have beset their efforts.

At a press conference held by Neil Kinnock the day before in the House of Commons it was made perfectly clear that there were reservations at all levels of the party both left and right to the formation of black sections in the Labour party.

The ignorance that appears to pervade the party right up to the top is perhaps the result of the failure of the National Executive Committee of the party and the PLP’s Shadow Cabinet to consult the ethnic minorities within the party directly. We seem to be controlled by surrogates who speak on our behalf without taking the trouble even to bother to inform us. The days of middle men, brokers and selfappointed spokesmen for the black communities are over. It is a pity that the media are trying to exploit the problems connected with the formation of the Black sections to drive a wedge between the black activists and the party. Contrary to misleading reports that have appeared in some of the newspapers it is untrue that Erie Heffer has refused to countenance the formation of black sections within the party. He has already assured a group of comrades

who met him with me that he along with other comrades on the NEC will be willing to meet and discuss the issue of black sections within the party.

We are faced with opposition to our just cause from a number of quarters. And I think it is right to refer to them. First of all we have those in the party who are opposed to Black sections within the party because they are out and out racists. Fortunately these are a very small minority and we can cope with them. Then there are those who genuinely believe that the party embraces women, blacks and young people in one undifferentiated whole. Just as they objected and still object to the existence of women’s sections on the grounds that women should play their full part in the CLPs so they feel that black comrades should have no need to resort to the formation of separate black sections. What these well-meaning comrades fail to understand is that racism pervades the party as a whole and that only by the formation of black sections is it possible to create a situation where black comrades feel they are participating in the party to which

they are naturally allied. But most serious of all is the concealed opposition from those comrades who seem to see in the Black sections, a threat to their own credibility and careers.

We have no doubt that the party has to seize

the opportunity now to accept the principle of black sections at this year’s party conference.

Otherwise there is the danger that the black communities will draw their own conclusions. No longer will the black communities be prepared to be simply a voting fodder. Neil Kinnock’s performance so far leaves much to be desired, And his advisers, whoever they may be, had better seek advice of those who are in a better position to know what's going on first hand, in the grassroots of the black communities in London, Birmingham, Merseyside and other cities in Britain.

ds it too late for Walworth Road to begin to tap the resources and much needed advice which is available in abundance in the black sections of the party which are now being formed?

Vidya Anand,

Chair (Personal Capacity), Community Liaison Sub Committee of the Greater London Labour Party, ford South CLP.

STOP THE DEPORTATIONS NOW!

MUHAMMAD IDRISH MUST STAY!

On Wednesday 9th May, Muhammad Idrish appears before the Appeal Court in London to appeal against his deportation. A demonstration and rally are planned in his support. He is threatened with deportation if he loses this final appeal.

Muhammad came over from Bangladesh in 1976 to study at Bristol University. While there he married a Scottish woman and applied for permission to stay. After two years the relationship ended. Within weeks of this he was informed that his application to stay had been turned down.

Since leaving university Muhammad has worked as a social worker, voluntarily in St Paul’s, Bristol and in Handsworth, Birmingham and also at Dr Barnardo’s in West Bromwich where he was a founder member of his NALGO branch.

LETTER

Dear Editor,

While I think that National Briefing gives a good coverage of the current debates of interest to the left of the Labour Party, and acts as an organiser in its own right, I feel that 1 must point outa deficiency which has become apparent to me.

It seems that there is underway a tendency for black people to begin to organise themselves inside the labour movement, which shows

Muhammad’s case is an illustration of the present government’s offensive against black workers in their community and unions. Over 250 black people are deported each month as a result of current immigration legislation. All such cases must be taken up in the labour movement as part of the struggle against racist laws.

NALGO passed a resolution in support of Muhammad at its national conference. They have backed his defence campaign ever since, giving practical support by building a 3,000 strong demonstration in Birmingham and by printing thousands of explanatory leaflets. No other union has gone so far in backing a deportation campaign.

Muhammad’s defence campaign has taken the issue into the labour movement and the inner city areas where he worked.

signs of deepening over the near future. This is manifest in such structures as the BTUSM, the Black Activist Group, etc. This is a significant change from the methods of organising that black people used to adopt before, where much emphasis was placed upon propaganda and pressure politics from outside the main structures of the labour movement, and the main aim was to achieve a measure of black unity and awareness. Now it seems that the accelerating tempo of political developments in general are posing new objectives before the

Many Labour Party branches and trade unions have backed us.

* Coaches leave the SHAHEED UDAM SINGH CENTRE, Soho Rd, Handsworth, Birmingham at 8.30am on Wednesday 9th May and also from Bristol.

x Assemble for march on 9th May at 11.30am at Temple Underground, London. Rally at Jubilee Gardens at 1.30pm. Speakers: Ken Livingstone, Clare Short, NALGO speaker and victims of racist laws. * For further information contact:

Barry Lovejoy, 30 Antrobus Rd, Handsworth, Birmingham 21 Tel: 021-523 8923.

Graham Reid, 62, Bedminster Parade, Bristol 3. Tel: 0272-667933.

NALGO, 1 Mabledon Place, London WCIH 9AT. Tel: 01-388 2366.

black community in particular, releasing new forces in consequence.

If continued, I feel that this could be one of the most dynamic aspects of the future development of the labour movement and Labour Party in particular, and should be addressed as such by journals inside the Labour Party such as Briefing.

I look forward to some further coverage on this theme,

Yours sincerely,

M.A. Wongsam

Manchester.

OOFLESS DETERMINATION BY GREENHAM WOMEN

Briefing National Supplement page 9

At dawn on Wednesday 4th April, the British Government attempted to wipe out the most famous anti-nuclear protest in the world. There were more than 100 women outside of the Main Gate USAF Greenham Common when the Under Sheriff of Berkshire, his bailiffs and 400 police arrived to evict them. The Women’s Peace Camp has been protesting the deployment of cruise missiles for more than 242 years.

Many Women were woken by this invasion, some refused to leave their shelters, others set fire to theirs rather than let the bailiffs demolish them, and everywhere women were singing. None of them were leaving Greenham Common.

NO SURPRISE

The attempted eviction was no surprise. On 22nd March, an injunction had been granted by the courts to Newbury District Council empowering them to remove the camp so that the land could be used for a toad-widening scheme. Notices were put up at the Main Gate warning the women that builders would begin work on Monday 2nd April. The Government were billing 2nd April as the date they would close the women’s peace camp forever. Consequently, entries were made in the diaries of women’s groups and press people throughout the country. The Government had effectively invited thousands of supporters and the world’s press to Greenham Common to witness the end of the peace camp.

What they actually saw was the Under Sheriff and the Assistant Chief Constable of Berkshire take one look at the number of women on the land (600) and the number of TV crews, and back down. They could not evict such large numbers, they admitted. The Government had not only failed to achieve their object, they had unwittingiy promoted the camp and the issue to the headlines. The women held out for two days, a symbolic victory for which the women’s actions are famous, was won. Once again the world was reminded that nuclear cruise missiles are being brought to Greenham Common by the US Government and that the majority of the British people

The National Executive Committee has, at last, agreed that the London and Scottish regions of the Labour Party can implement rule changes passed last year and increase women’s representation on their regional executives.

Needless to say this is only after much agitation by women members.

It was before the March 1983 conference that myself and Valerie Wise and others put forward an executive amendment to standing orders that had three main components. The amendment to add to the executive ‘8 members elected by the Greater London Labour Party Womens Conference from amongst their duly appointed delegates’ was passed by the 1983 London Labour Party Annual

How to increase

do not want them. By midday on Wednesday, the site had been cleared and a fence had been constructed across the land in front of the Main Gate of the base. More than 30 women were arrested.

During that day attempts were also made to evict women from peace camps outside other gates. Regular (sometimes daily) evictions of these smaller camps have been taking place for months. They have been strikingly unsuccessful. As soon as the bailiffs leave the site, the women return and rebuild their polythene homes. The women have been helped by thousands of others who have streamed down to Greenham over the past week with fresh supplies of equipment, food and moral support.

womens’ representation

Conference. However, the amendment was delayed at National level until it was too late for the Womens conference to nominate for the 1984 executive.

Bui the NEC did endorse the amendment early in 1984 after much lobbying by Greater London and Scotland and the 1984 Womens Conference will be electing the 8 reps.

Cynics may realise that as these were & extra members, men did not fear that they might lose their own places. ~

There were 2 further parts to the amendment which sought to ensure that at least 4 out of the 16 trade union places and 4 out of the 16 CLP places were reserved for women. These measures were not passed by conference but need

The official reason for the eviction of the Main Gate was a £150,000 road-widening scheme. However, many will remember a document leaked last December which gave details of a meeting between the Ministry of Defence the Ministry of Transport and the police. The object of the meeting was to find a way to rid the Government of the embarrassment of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. The scheme to widen the road was dreamed up as a good excuse to remove the Main Gate camp with minimum fuss. That they believed that this would be accepted by the women was extraordinarily naive. It was a serious underestimate of the intent and determination of the women’s peace movement.

to be pursued as they aim to change the present imbalance of representation more

fundamentally. Womens sections, CLPs and trade unions in all regions should start to

debate the need to ensure women are offered full representation with 50% being the eventual target.

On the Greater London executive it has been noticeable that as more feminists have been elected onto the committee, womens rights gained a firmer place on the political agenda. Once again this proves, unfortunately maybe, that it is ultimately those who have first hand knowledge of discrimination that will have to’ fight for

ightofrepresentation. ,. ,, . the right of rep Nadine Finch

National Labour Briefing Supplement, page 10

LIVERPOOL MUST WIN!

Kevin Feintuck, Liverpool Disirict Labour Party

MARCH 29th was an important day in Liverpool. While the likes of Neil Kinnock and Len Murray were singing the praises of ‘Democracy Day’, more than 20,000 Liverpudlians were out on the street to show what a real fight for

local democracy means.

Massive support from the council workforce and from many other sections including dockers, hospital workers, and busworkers, made sure that our Labour councillors realised that election pledges are meant to be taken seriously. Of the 50 remaining Labour councillors, 42 followed District Party policy and stood firm on a position of a 9% rate increase with no cuts in jobs and services — the illegal budget which the Tory media so feared and loathed.

Only the action of the “Scabby Six”, misnamed the “Sensible Six” by Fieet Street, prevented Liverpool Council from openly challenged the Tories’ policy of starving the city of the cash support which it needs so desperately.

If the establishment hoped that the delay on March 29th would force Liverpoo! Labour Party to retreat their fantasies will have been short-lived. The will to fight is stronger at the grass-roots in the movement in Liverpool than it has been for many years. Many thousands in the city understand the issues at stake.

For months the Labour Party has been explaining that the restoration of some of the £120 million taken from the city since 1979 is the only way to avoid disaster. On the other hand the opposition Liberals had been talking about a single figure rate increase coupled with clever financial management.

Liberals’ Lies

At the budget meeting the facts behind the Liberals’ lies at last came out into full view. Unless the government was prepared to retreat, the Liberals’ good housekeeping really meant a 30% rate increase coupled with a total freeze on council recruitment which could only mean a collapse of services.

This message must be learnt throughout the Labour Movement. If Liverpool is

their words.

Neil Kinnock and the Parliamentary leadership clearly find Liverpool council an embarrassment. Perhaps this accounts for their suggestion that Labour should propose a rates increase of 60%. Certainly such a move would guarantee that our Parliamentarians could get down to the serious business of losing vote after vote in Westminster for the next four years without the encumbrance of a Labour councillin Liverpool. The people of Liverpool need a 60% rate increase about as much as they need a Liberal-Tory council with a healthy majority. The proposals from Jack Straw would ensure that we would enjoy both these delights.

LIVERPOOL District Labour Party experienced its own version of the grand old Duke of York

following the budget meeting on 29th March.

On Friday 30th the EC of the DLP quite correctly decided to withdraw support from Paul Orr

The election on May 3rd will be a crucial test for Labour in Liverpool. If we gain as few as four or five Liberal-Tory seats we will have not only an overall majority but also enough seats to allow the remnants of the Scabby Six to betray to their hearts’ content without having any effect on the vote in the Council.

The Left must make sure that these seats are won. Afterwards we will have to make sure that both the national and local leaderships act on behalf of all those who want to see a Labour Party based on people’s needs and not on maintaining a system which is prepared to countenance Liverpool’s irreparable decline.

the only one of the six traitors seeking re-elections this May.

John Smith (LFL).

allowed to lose this year there will be less hope for those councils pushed into the front line next year.

At the rally on the 29th one of the speakers talked of the Labour Party leadership having ‘“equivocated” about supporting Liverpool. This discreet and parliamentary language might be intended to coax support from the current leadership, in which case there are no signs of any great success.

In fact Neil Kinnock and his proteges Straw and Cunningham have passed the equivocation stage many weeks ago. They are in favour of the Labour councillors betraying the party, betraying their election manifesto, and betraying all those in Liverpool who were beginning to think that we had actually got a Labour party in the city whose deeds would match

At an urgent ward meeting in the ward concerned, Vauxhall, on the following Sunday, some 24) members endorsed the EC action although the pro-Orr ward officers had attempted to block the! meeting.

On Monday 2nd April papers were duly submitted for Chris Williams, the convenor at the local British-American Tobacco works, to stand as an official candidate against Orr.

Meanwhile Orr had appealed direct to the NEC and the National Organiser had subsequently con-| tacted the President of the DLP to insist that Chris Williams be withdrawn and that Orr be recognis-| ed as the official candidate. This was argued on very dubious constitutional grounds.

At a meeting of the Riverside CLP, which includes Vauxhall, on Wednesday 4th, the CLP supported the decision to stand Williams by 60 votes to 6. At a further meeting of the DLP EC held jater the same evening the decision of the constituency was ignored and the EC committed itself to withdrawing cde Williams’ nomination, which was done the following moming. The final decision

F was endorsed the next night by a full DLP by a narrow majority.

The decision by the EC to leave the Vauxhall voters with no genuine Labour candidate left many on the Left in the Party angry and confused, It is of some concern that at the EC which made the eventual decision it was hard-core supporters of ‘Militant’ who successfully moved that the DLP should bow to pressure from the party bureaucracy and leave Orr with a clear field. In fact, only the casting vote of ‘Militant’ supporter Tony Mulhearn decided the issue,

This retreat has served one useful purpose. Many of those who have supported ‘Militant’ as a consistent and principled left wing will be keeping a keen watch for any similar strategic withdrawals in the fight against the government and against the traitors in our own party.

National Labour Briefing Supplement, page I]

AUTONOMOUS POLITICAL

ACCESS

Karen Newbury Holborn and St. Pancras CLP

‘Autonomous political access’ — three words which appear in the Labour Party manifesto. The majority will take them to mean that there should be equal access to politics, but for some, myself included, they mean that there should be physical access to meetings

and conferences.

It was in this context that these words

were written, In other words — on paper ~ the Labour Party has a commitment to enable people with disabilities to play a full part in the local community and within the Labour Party both locally and nationally. But how seriously is this commitment taken? Certainly at last year’s Annual Conference there was not much evidence of it. Delegates with disabilities were given the bare minimum support — a list of accessible hotels (all in the most expensive bracket} and a place on the floor of the Conference. Visitors did not even get this consideration unless pressure was put, A group of visitors with hearing iifficulties were not allowed more than one interpreter on the floor at any one me, and the interpreters were not owed into the hall prior to Conference atting so they could work out the best positions to stand to be seen by their deaf colleagues.

Perhaps the Conference organising committee could learn some lessons from the SDP/Liberals, who I understand take steps to see that both visitors and delegates with disabilities are made comfortable and welcome, and that provision is not given out of charity!

IS THERE AN ADVISER ON DISABILITY?

Conference certainly brought home to me that these three words need a lot of working on! For example, does the Party have an adviser on disability? If so, perhaps they could let local parties know about it, and if they haven’t perhaps they should have! There must be members of

aa

Karen Newbury meets Jack Ashiey at lobby of Parliament by disabled people, 17th November 1983.

the party who would be more than willing to offer this service in a voluntary capacity — hopefully members with a disability, since they are the experts!

Not everything is as bad however.

WHO TO CONTACT

London: Graham Bash, 23 Leghorn Road, London NW10 (01-961 3803).

Brighton: Dave Lowney, 35 Quebec Street, Brighton, E. Sussex (0273 607944).

Merseyside: Stuart Marshall-Clarke, 8 Ashford Road, Meols, Wirral (051-632 3840).

North Staffs: Andrew Dobraszezyc, 4 Robert St, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent (0782 822574).

South Wales: Graham Atwell, 53 Clive Street, Grangetown, Cardiff (0222 35916), or Stevi Jackson (0222 496792),

Exeter: Peter Bowing, 42 Powderham Crescent, Exeter, Devon EX4 6BZ.

Strathclyde: Gordon Morgan, 59 Durward Ave, Glasgow G41.

Preston: Karen Bradley, 128 Tulketh Brow, Preston (0772 727720),

Leeds: Paul Hodgkinson, 31 Hillcrest View, Leeds 7.

Manchester. Dick Withecombe, 93 Ewan St, Gorton, Manchester 18 (061 223 44790).

(wozoya) $9980 OLN

Some branches have taken this commitment to heart and are paying more than just lip service. My branch is one of them, and perhaps other branches and the national party could follow their lead,

{t was all very simple and hasn’t seemed to involve a great deal of expense or time, First the branch made it a priority to meet in a place that a person with a disability could have access to with ease and dignity. The branch then sent a motion to the GMC asking other branches and. the GMC to follow their example, and asking the Labour Group to make sure that all the council committees had representation from the field of disability, When a vacancy arose, my branch voted me onto the GMC so that the motion would be put into practice there, Members of my party have shown solidarity in other ways too, for example going to the antidiscrimination lobby in November.

IT MAKES SENSE

Giving political access to people with disabilities makes sense. in London alone, it’s estimated. that there are between % and % million registered disabled people, and whilst the Labour Party does not do enough, it is the only party which whilst in power has tried to da something. However unless the Labour Party makes efforts to positively discriminate, people with disabilities will be unable to participate in the Labour Party, because they will be doubtful as to whether physically they can get to meetings. Personally, 1 want to be integrated inte the existing party machine, and not in a ‘disabled persons’ socialist group’, though it’s not to say that such a group does not have its part to play.

Docs- autonomous access mean yau have to be fit and strong to be an active member of the Labour Party? I feel my branch and CLP are doing something to offer autonomous access for all, but what is your CLP or the Party nationally doing? Just think of the members you could gain. We need their support!

NEXT NATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD Sunday May 20th at 12 noon im Stoke-onTrent. For details ring Andy Platt on 0782 274815.

Next issue out: May 17th. Deadline for articles: Saturday May Sth.

‘e244!

LABOUR WOMEN AND FEMINISM DAYSCHOOL The next planning meeting for this Briefing dayschoo] will take place on Saturday 19th May at A Woman’s Place, Hungerford House, Victoria Embankment, London at 4pm. All women are welcome to attend.

For further details contact: Jane Stockton, 110 Agar Grore, London NW,

National Labour Briefing Supplement, page 12

The case of Sarah Tisdall

By John Palmer, a member of the National Steering Committee of the Socialist Society.

“] just felt that someone had to take a stand in view of the frightening things which I could see going on. Perhaps others will take courage from what I chose to do.” This was.the calm and measured way in which Sarah Tisdall explained to a fellow prisoner in Holloway Prison — a Greenham Common woman — just why she did what she did in leaking Heseltine’s Cruise missile PR plans to The Guardian, when they met just after Sarah was sentenced to six months at the Old Bailey.

The fact that this courageous step was taken by a woman like Sarah ~— who freely admits that she is no political radical ~ is highly significant. It is one more reflection of the extent to which Thatcher’s semi-Bonapartist style of government is driving more and more people into embittered opposition.

Of course the trial, sentencing and imprisonment of Sarah Tisdall is a major scandal. Of course the government reeks of hypocrisy as well as bullying as any journalist who has received ‘authorised leaks’ at the hands of ministers and service chiefs can testify. Of course the affair demonstrates what a myth talk of an independent judiciary really is. Of course The Guardian should never have even contemplated doing anything other than destroying the leaked document.

Real Significance

But the real significance of Sarah’s imprisonment is more than the sum total of all of these points. Its significance ties in the pattern of growing and increasingly open repression being unleashed by the Thatcher government as its headlong drive to emasculate opposition to its strategy runs into growing opposition and resistance.

The Tisdall affair does link with the GCHQ union ban, with the impunity with which official murder gangs can ‘take out’ republicans in Northern Irelland, with the sweeping powers given to the police to make mining

Privatising Brighton beach

Last year’s local elections in Brighton saw a swing to Labour with the party gaining 20 seats to the Tories 24 and the 4 of the SDP/Liberal Alliance. The Labour Group on Council then took the initiative proposing many innovative schemes, only io find that they were to be thwarted by the Alliance voting with the Tories. The Liberals have seen that their ineffectual grip on the town is dwindling and have reacted by exploiting the balance of power that they hold on Council. Not even the Labour Party fully estimated the extent of their panic until 23rd September 1983 when al a fuil meeting of the Council the Liberal leader proposed that part of the beach be privatised. The only explanation for this extraordinary moves is as a last ditch attempt by the Alliance to take the fore as the party with ‘new ideas’! This was an opportunity that the Tories could not miss — a policy that they had long wanted fo implement proposed by a supposed political opponent.

PUBLIC RESPONSE

What neither group accounted for was the public response the ‘‘private beach’’ was to evoke. The people of Brighton were not impressed by the idea of continental plage. They had seen how the Tories’ delusions that Brighton is in the South of France and not England had failed — a Marina with nowhere to sail to, a conference centre which regularly loses money being the most notable examples of this policy. In a local paper an opinion

*Alvsiqr] 004g Alseg NOgeT]

Sarah Tisdall arrives at Court, 23rd March.

villages “no go areas” to pickets, with the arming of the police with submachine guns, and with the increasing use of the law against trade

unions. . We are now witnessing 2 major threat to

our limited democratic and civil liberties. It is not an exaggeration to say that the offensive is reminiscent of the attack launched by the Conservative right in Austria during the early 1930s in the years before the fascists stepped in to finish the job.

PRIVATE BEACH

BY ORDER

OF THE SDP/ TORY / LIBERAL ALLIANCE

poll registered that 19 out of 20 people opposed the scheme.

For the Labour Party the benefit has been twofold; in Brighton the alliance between the SDP/ Liberals and Tories has been exposed, as has the self-interest of Conservative counciflors (one owns a hotel opposite the site of the beach). More generally we can use this issue te educate the electorate about the Conservative motivation

That is what makes the muted protests of the Labour leaders such a scandal. They should be organising a massive national campaign in defence of democratic, civil and social rights and in support and solidarity with ail those resisting the fist of state repression.

It was in the absence of such a lead that the Socialist Society decided at its recent AGM to initiate such a campaign and try and set up democratic rights “monitoring groups” to alert the wider movement to what is happening. The campaign looks for support to all sections of the left, inside and outside the Labour Party.

Of course ‘no socialist can be satisfied to defend our present rights. The left must go on the counter-offensive by pressing demands for the radical democratisation of all state institutions (including the judiciary) but it would be a sectarian folly to conclude that defence of existing rights — to say nothing of’ bodies such as the GLC — was in any sense irrelevant to the struggle against the Tory government.

Anyone wanting to help the Socialist Society campaign or to help organise meetings in all the major localities is invited to make contact with our office at 9, Poland Street, London WC1. In the meantime it is vital that the left supports protests and demonstrations of solidarity with Sarah. Her example — she may rest assured — will inspire many others in the crucial months and years ahead,

for privatisation and extend awareness from the beach to broader issues.

The graphic which accompanies this article (a poster designed by a member of Brighton Labour Party) provides the catalyst for an emotional reaction which can be channelled into a political response. The image of the pier with the barbed and barricades dramatises what the beach will be like.

Last bastion

The beach is the last bastion of public right, it isa simple pleasure which can be enjoyed by most. The Tories and Liberals have reacted (to this accusation by voicing the standard reply that people will still have freedom of choice. But, as people have grasped, il is now that we can exercise that freedom. Many of the facilities which are sup- | posedly going to make the beach special already

exist (drinks, icecreams, deckchairs). At present one can still go on the beach and then decide

whether or not to pay for these services. This argument maybe extended to the NHS, education and other services provided by the state whether locally or nationally that are being privatised — there is a difference between paying for extras on top of a basic service and paying for that service itself.

If the people of Brighton can recognise the self-interest of the Conservatives in selling off a natural asset it should not be difficult (o extend {hat awareness to other areas. In Brighton the beach has become an emotive focus for such arguments, showing clearly (hat if we can relate Tory policy to everyday experience an effective grassroots opposition maybe mobilised.

Sarah Cullen, Brighton Labour Party.

Eric Heffer and Tony Benn have protested to the French government against its plan to expel the prominent Polish socialist exile, Zbigniew Kowalewski, from France.

The French police have told Kowalewski to leave the country by April 28th on the grounds that he cannot prove he has the means to support himself. But the real reasons for the expulsion order are a good deal murkier.

The Socialist party daily, Le Matin, suggested 4th April that the order was connected to a new thaw in Franco-Polish relations following an exchange of official visits in February and March. Le Monde added (6th April) that the French government was hostile to Kowalewski’s activities in France. A glance at the work of the former Solidarnosc leader suggests that bath explanations may be correct.

Kowalewski was a member of the Solidarnosce presidium in Lodz, Poland’s second largest industrial city and was well known within the movement nationally as a leader of the self-management movement and as the proponant of the tactic of the “active strike’? — strike actions to impose workers’ control of production. His writings on this tactic circulated widely and

his ideas were implemented by workers in many regions of the country in the last months of Solidarnosc’s legal existence. Kowalewski was also notable amongst the movement’s leaders in being an avowed Marxist. This record makes him a serious threat to the Jaruzelski regime and his comrades on the Lodz leadership, Andrzej Slowik and Jerzy Kropiwnicki, received savage 6 year prison sentences under martial law.

When martial law was imposed in December 1981, Kowalewski was in France on an Official visist sponsored by the CFDT and CGT printers’ unions. He organised the French Solidarnose co-ordinating committee and was elected its president. In the meantime both the AFL-CIO and the ICFTU were devoting considerable resources to drawing Solidarnosc exiles under their wing and there were efforts by the right in the West to use the symbol of Solidarnose as a club against the Left. The Paris committee under Kowalewski cut across such efforts by reacing out to unions like the French CGT, the Spanish Workers’ Commissions and left-wing unions in Latin American like those in El Salvador.

Briefing National Suppiement page 13

Mitterand Threatens Polish Socialists

A smear campaign was launched against him by pro-American elements in the Polish emigration, accusing him of being a Communist, and on the suggestion of some Solidarnosc leaders in Poland, he withdrew from the Committee in Paris, But some forces in the Right are clearly interested in pursuing the hunt against him, by getting him expelled from France. The Solidarnose Committee in Paris has denounced the expulsion order.

In February 1982 Kowalewski came to London to speak at the Labour Party’s rally in support of Solidarnosc and he was a visitor to the party conference that autumn.

Both Eric Heffer and Tony Benn have sent telegrams to the French Interior Minister expressing shock at the expulsion order and urging it should be rescinded. The Bertrand Russell Foundation has also expressed its deep concern over the case. Further protests are urgently needed. They should be sent to:

Monsicur Gaston Deferre, Ministre de ( Interieur,

1, Place Beauveau,

Paris 8,

France.

Oliver MacDonald

Blood in The

The toppling of the Shah of Iran by a mass uprising of the Iranian people in 1979, was greeted enthusiastically by the Left inside and outside Iran. The Shah, supported to the hilt by Labour's Foreign Secretary David Owen, was the only overt supporter of Israel in the region. The Palestinian movements also welcomed the Shah’s over-

throw as Yassir Arafat was Khomeini's first Foreign visitor.

HOSTAGES CRISIS

When in the midst of the hostages crisis, Iraq invaded claiming sovereignty over the Shatt al Arab waterway, the Left supported Iran perceiving correctly Iraq's attack as being a cover for US attempts to reverse [ran’s conflict with US imperialism. Iraq's supporters included the Guif states, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who feared the spread of revolution in Islamic clothes. Iran was also under a trade and arms embargo.

But 4 years on the situation has changed. The main threat to the revolution comes from within. Western trade links have been resumed, the Bazaar is back in business and the Left and Mojaheddin have been crushed as the most reactionary aspects of Islamic law are used to legitimise a regime which uses religious coercion and nationalistic rhetoric to survive. Although banking and

Gulf

much trade has been nationalised, capitalist Property relations remain, as even the most limited bourgeois democratic reforms have been abolished. Bani Sadr, Barzagan and Sadeq Ghotzabeh (ex President, PM and Foreign Secretary) have fled, been deposed and executed respectively. The execution of homosexuals and the flogging of adulterers and prostitutes have accompanied mass executions and torture in Tehran's Evrin prison. Because virgins cannot, in Islamic Law, be executed, they are raped before being killed. The Workers Committees, whose strikes helped cripple the Shah, have been taken over by the Mullahs as basic trade union organisation is driven underground. The first victims of Khomeini were the Kurds who have fought a tenacious battle against the Revolutionary Guards.

MORE STABLE

In human rights terms, Khomeini’s regime is not only worse than the Shah’s but is also more stable, with a petit bourgeois base not unlike that of a fascist regime, except that it arose in opposition to US impe! ism and multinational capitat. Today imperialism is divided with France (and the USSR) supplying Iraq and Britain and Israel supplying [ran and the US hedging its bets. Iran's tame Communist Party, Tudeh, and the Fedayeen Majority act as the main apologists for the regime's barbarities as they pursued the line

Tony Greenstein

ihat the Islamic Republican Party was divided into ‘progressive’ and ‘reactionary’ wings. Just as in Iraq and Sudan, both wings of the IRP turned on the Tudeh. Since ihe initial Iraqi attack and Iran’s counter attack, the Islamic regime in Tehran had considerable opportunity (to settle with Lraq. It has refused, using the war to crush its opponents internally, settle scores with the Iraqi regime and re-establish Iranian supremacy in the area.

But there are signs that as the casuallies mount, resistance fo recruitment is growing as (he ruling IRP itself is dividing with the Majlis Speaker, Rafsanjani. leading the pro-war wing fone of the Tudeh’s ‘progressives'). But

whichever way the war goes, and stalemate is most likely as the war ironically reinforces Iraq’s regime, the attitude of sociatists should be resolute opposilion io both bloodstained regimes and support for the opposition in both countries. In short, revolutionary defeatism.

LABOUR MOVEMENT CONFERENCE ON PALESTINE

Saturday May 19, County Hall, Waterloo

Speakers include Moshe Machover (Labour Zionism), Uri Davies (Histadrut), Jeremy Corbyn MP, PLO Representative, Colin Talbot, POEU, Peter Tatchell.

Registration £2 per delegate 2 delegates per labour movement organisation

Brictine National Suppienient page 4

POPULAR POWER IN NICARAGUA

Labour party members often cast a sceptical eye over revolutions, anticipating the party monolith which reduces mass organisations to meek mouthpieces, and the mass of the people to a suilen subservience. Nicaragua has proved to be something else.

The 41 of us — mainly Labour Party members — who journeyed out in late February found ourselves enveloped by the Sandinistas’ revolution: by its social achievements, by the growing sophistication of its political practice, by those prepared to die to defend it.

Our visit coincided with the announcement of the governmental elections to be held on 4 November. In Mariagua’s Plaza de la Revolucion, where 100,000 gathered to hear the news, the square echoed to Sandino Vive and Poder Popular, popular power. It was the first time, said a young woman in our group, that she had ever demonstrated for something.

The election (when did a revolution last have one?) will be held two days before the citizens of the United States vote for their president — the relatively few who bother to vote. And its timing indicates more than the Sandinistas’ sense of humour. Once the election takes place, the White House will be extremely hard pressed to concoct a pretext to invade.

The word in Managua was that the election is primarly for foreign consumption. lt has been on the Sandinistas’ (FSLN) agenda since shortly after they came to power, but the government and their supporters state a simple message: Our election was on 19 July 1979 — the day of the Triumph of the Revolution when the insurrectionary general strike finally despatched Somoza and his cohorts to Miami.

The bourgeois parties, lacking a grassroots organisation, never mind popularity, are deeply upset about the election.

They have railed against the vote going to youth, though the minimum voting age of 16 could hardly have been otherwise when so much of the revolution has been by and for young people. They resent the fact that the army and militia will have the vote. Yet

GUYANA:

In Guyana, on the South American mainland, the People’s National Congress government of executive President Forbes Burnham has performed the remarkable feat of turning that country of less than % million people in possession of extensive mineral and agricultural resources into a destitute land. Historically and culturally a part of the Caribbean, Guyana’s debt of £1 billion makes it the most indebted country per head of population in the Americas, ahead of such debt

dinosaurs as Mexico and Argentina.

Forbes Burnham, in power since the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States helped

since the government has brought to life Sandino’s dictum — ‘We don’t have an army, we have a people in arms’ — it would be absurd to hand out guns but not ballot papers.

They decry the official censorship of the media. which is mainly on military and economic matters. It will be lifted for the election.

A boycott of the election by the opposition parties could be on the cards. But this ploy has already been weakened by the fact that the Independent Liberals, one of the three parties which together with the FSLN make up the Patriotic Front government coalition, has declared that it will stand in its own right. As it happens Sandino was a

Liberal, and the party anticipates a healthy vote.

The irony of all this is that the Sandinistas wish they had a decent opposition. Voting — for the president, vice-president, and 90 deputies — will be by PR, so that small parties don’t get wiped out.

To underline the point, when we asked Sergio de Castro, editor of the FSLN’s weekly paper Barricada Internacional, whether he considered that the existence of La Prensa, atabidly right-wing daily, was of some benefit to the government, he commented: ‘It represents a sector of society (mainly the business community) which wouldn’t cease to exist if the government shut the paper down.

‘Pluralism means allowing the people as a whole to express themselves. The limits,” he added, ‘are that they must recognise the

propel him to power in 1964, has intimidated his opposition by considerably expanding the armed forces and police and simultaneously securing their loyalty to his ruling party rather than the state. Just as important, and even more operational, has been his subte manipulation in his sole favour of all elections since then, through legislation that effectively removes any possibility of free and fair elections under his regime. This has also meant that Guyanese have been burdened with a government which they can neither speak to nor sack. A government which greatly irritates its workers and near 40% unemployed, with its insulting claim to be acting in the interests of the country’s development while precipitating a total and crippling production crisis and food shortage by policies conceived in the narrow interest of the ruling clique.

THE PEOPLE PUNISHED Starting eight years ago the government has

by Geoffrey Sheridan

fact of the revolutionary process, so this freedom isn’t extended to the Contras, who seek the military overthrow of the government’,

The Sandinistas’ magnanimity is remarkable. Their first act was to abolish the death penalty. Then, towards the end of the last year, they declared an amnesty for everyone but senior officers of Somoza’s National Guard and Contra leaders. Nearly a thousand have taken the opportunity to return to the country.

None of this, of course, has been sufficient to deflect Washington. Large-scale raids, kidnappings, and bombings are now being supplemented by the mining of the ports. Outside the Ministry of the Interior in Managua a banner reads: ‘What they’re afraid of is our joy’.

Whatever reservations the Sandinistas may entertain about the value of an election to the revolutionary process, there’s no doubt that it will advance the standing of the Sandinistas and deepen political discourse — Reagan’s worst efforts allowing.

The trip was organised by the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign and New Sociatist. Watch out for a forthcoming pamphlet ‘Nicaragua Impressions!’ For a speaker, contact the campaign at 20 Compton Terrace, London NI. Tel 01-226 7647. Individual membership is £5, organisations £10.

There is an urgent appeal for supplies for the many thousands of people displaced bj the Contras’ activities. Donations payable to ‘Nicaragua Support Fund’, te the campaign address.

COMBATTING THE

‘completely prohibited’ an impractical and exhaustive range of imported but essential food items supposedly to conserve foreigr exchange. Under the same guise, local agri culture has been starved of fertilizer anc imported machines while imported foods anc liquor, luxury cars and lavish foreign trips have been retained for the elite. Today malnutritior afflicts half the child population — those wh: die are relegated to statistics of Guyana’s infar: mortality rate recorded as the highest in tregion for 1983; those who survive, doctsay, would have resulting physical and mer 2 probiems lasting a lifetime.

To survive, the population relies enur:~. on the ‘parallel market’ — the source f which they must garner scarce commodit imported at a price. They constantly ex> themselves to harassment by the police. pr by a ruling party anxious to blame the sox problems on this non-state importa essential items, whilst being noticeably sie-

CHILE’S DEEPENING CRISIS

HIGH ON a hill overlooking Santiago, General Pinochet has built himself a new Presidential Palace, surrounded by security cameras and an electrified fence. Built at a cost of US $20m, the scandal has so embarrassed Pinochet that the ‘house’ remains empty.

Only a few weeks ago. one of Chile’s popu: lar opposition magazines suggested that the vacant property could serve as a retirement home for the Chicago Boys, the monetarist economists who have taken Chiie’s unemployment rate up to 40%. They did not appreciate how soon it would be needed. In the first week of April the Chicago Boys were cursorily sacked for the government, and replaced by industrialists intent on reflating the economy.

Illusory Boom Ended

The dramatic switch in policy does not mean that Pinochet is a new convert to the cause of social welfare. The real conversion occurred when Chile’s illusory economic boom ended in 1982. As industries collapsed dragged down by a bankrupt and corrupt banking system Pinochet’s support amongst the ruling class began to be eroded. Isolated from the interests of the ruling class and confronted by dissent within the armed forces, the threat from popular protests for democracy has loomed ever larger in Pinochet’s eyes. A new alignment with the ruling class represented Pinochet's only chance of survival.

The switch in economic policy may provide a temporary respite for Pinochet. But the political movement for democracy has acquired a momentum of its own. Pinoch this can only be to increase reprz

Day of Protest

On March 27th a day of pr ised by the Workers National! Co: brella trade union organisatic: anisation were two politica! Popular Democratic Mover alliance of Socialists and C. MIR, and the Democratic A. 2 coalition of Social Democrats and Chrsstia~. Democrats, Fearful of the growing sce-zh and courage

FRAUD

on their own excesses.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Meanwhile, the foremest a: task of a political opps restoring democracy in Guyana. is to tread a path of formulating and pursuing a campaign against this virtual dictatorship whilst operating in a constant state of police emergency. They have to battle against an electoral system that offers no wins for the opposition, and work with an electorate bewildered and demoralised by recurring ‘election victories’ by a patently unpopular regime.

The next date for general elections in Guyana is December 1985. and the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) of Guyana — a political party which since its formation in July 1979 has had three of its members assassinated by the police, or agents of the ruling party — is of the opinion that appropriate efforts to avert another fraud by the PNC should begin immediately.

Tesponse to

Briefing National Supplement page 15

by Jeremy Abrahams (recently in Santiago)

Lo Curro, Pinochet’s empty palace

of the protest movement, the government resorted to heavy repression in advance of the day of protest. An opposition leader was brutally attacked by the secret service. the number of arrests rose considerably and the level of polic ing in the shanty towns became ever more con spicuous. Three days before the protest a state of emergency was declared and as the troops moved into Santiago a curfew was announced.

Heavy Repression

The heavy repression produced the effect the government desired. and the protest passed off far less combatively than had been expected. Nevertheless. four peopie. including a 12 year old boy, were shot dead by the police

With a generai strike planned for May the conflict between the popular demand for democracy and the repression of the government can only intensify. Stilt. it is commonly said that the last act of every dictator is to build a bunk er. Underneath the house on the hill fies one of Pinochet’s several bunkers...

WPA Support Group (UK)

The WPA conceives the first essential element of such a campaign to be a statement of professional legal opinion on the effect of postindependence electoral laws accompanied by an investigation in Guyana by a team representing states or recognised important international organisations into whether free and fair elections are possible under those laws. The other important element is a full disclosure of all the findings to Guyanese at home and the international community at large as a basis for a demand for entire reform of the corrupted electoral laws of the country.

The Guyana government has always regarded any interest in its elections from outside of Guyana as interference in the internal affairs of the country. However, since last October when President Burnham recommended a fact-finding mission for sovereign Grenada the inconsistency of his policy has been displayed.

The Working People’s Alliance has already called on the Guyana Bar Association to

Labour Day Solidarity with Workers in Guyana CARIBBEAN WORKERS RALLY Sunday May 6th 1984 10.30am—1.30pm

Film Premiere: In The Sky's Wild Noise

Documentary of Walter Rodney and his analysis of Guyanese Workers’ Struggle.

Speakers: Donald Rodney Richard Hart on Caribbean Workers’ Struggles.

Fr Malcolm Rodrigues, S.J. and Clive Thomas

(WPA Executive Members) on the current crisis in Guyana.

Poetry: Mark Matthews accompanied by Pan

at: Ritzy Cinema, Brixton Oval, SW2 Admission: £1 waged, 50p unwaged.

provide a preliminary professional opinion on the electoral laws of Guyana as they stand. It further appeals to individuals, political, human rights, and labour organisations inside and outside of Guyana to join in this most important lobby for a fact-finding mission into what concerns the vital interests of a disenfranchised and victimised workforce and population of Guyana against a fraudulent and discriminatory regime,

The Working People’s Alliance Support Group, a group of mainly Guyanese living and working in Britain in support of the policies of the WPA, would be pleased to hear from individuals and organisations interested in

contributing to the lobby for a fact-finding mission to Guyana.

The Support Group may be

contacted at: BM Box No. 3898. London WCLN 3XX.

deremy Abrahams

Briefing National Supplement page 16

Socialism on

On April 4th the preliminary hearings in the murder trial involving Bernard Coard and 19 others were held in a small private room in Richmond Hill Prison. The prison, high on the hills above the harbour of St Georges, the capital of Grenada, is under the fierce regime of Mr. Maloney, a Barbadian police officer. Beating and torture are regular occurances and detainees are denied access to visitors, letters and lawyers.

BLATANT ABUSE

The abuse of normal human rights is blatant. After her first court appearance, Phyllis Coard was taken from the prison to a nearby police station and beaten, despite defence lawyers following by car. The 39 detainees have been held since October and it was only the embarassing presence of internationally known lawyers, such as Tony Gifford and Sarah Burton, and the fact that they applied for habeus Corpus that 18 of them were finally charged on 22nd February.

Seven ex-members of the Peoples Revolutionary Army were charged with the murder of Bratt Bullen, a local businessman who had taken militia weapons to defend Maurice Bishop. Eleven members of the New Jewel Movement Central Committee were charged with conspiracy to murder Bishop and three others.

It is interesting to note that these charges were brought under the 1980 Terrorism (Prevention) Act, passed in fact by the Peoples Revolutionary Government. This is despite the fact that the present Interim Government and the Americans maintain they have reverted to the 1974 constitution, with Sir Paul Scoon as the Queen’s representative giving legality to the unelected interim government.

But, then, very litte of what has happened in the investigation so far has been to the benefit of anyone except the CIA and Caribbean security forces leading the enquiry. Prisoners have been interrogated principally about their political beliefs. Those questioned have been those politically active under the Bishop government, not those present on October 19th.

LITTLE ACCESS TO LAWYERS

The prisoners have had little access to lawyers. Jacqueline Samuels-Brown from Jamaica is defending 18 of them. British lawyers have been denied permission (o heip with the defence, although a British lawyer was retained by the interim government to prepare the prosecution case. The defence have now 3 weeks to prepare their case with only one hour or two for each prisoner,

There is every possibility that hearings will continue to be held in private, thus depriving Grenadians of even their rights to hear the evidence and accounts of the events. This will be a final repudiation of any chance for those most affected by the deaths to have any part of the proceedings. Grenadians are not in charge of the prisoners, the investigation or the trial proceedings. I1 now seems they will not even have ac-

Trial in Grenada

Members of the PRG at the Budget Presentation in 1982

cess to any information coming out in court.

Visiting human rights’ activists deny that the detainees are in danger from the Grenadian people, which is the excuse for holding proceedings *in camera’. But is is very difficult for ordinary Grenadians to make their views known with the US and Caribbean Peacekeeping Forces continuing to patrol the island with jeep and helicopter. Any question about human rights would be seized upon as a confession of ‘communism’ and complicity in murder.

It is therefore very important that questions are raised over here. For no matter what did lie behind the deaths of Bishop and others, the suppression of thet truth will not aid the Grenadian people or any attempts at socialist government.

NO RIGHT

The US have no right to be trying Grenadians for crimes against their own people. The call for the US to withdraw and for the trials to be held in public with full human rights for the detainees must be made. This is not to say that support should not be given to other progressive initiatives such as the Maurice Bishop and October 19th Martyrs Fund. But the fact of the US occupation and their consequent control of the law and information distort all the events past and future.

There must also be a continuous analysis of the actions of the US. Why for instance are they so keen not to have a public trial? Despite the enforced confessions, their contro! of the media and their physical control of the island, they still ap-

pear to be afraid of these 20 prisoners. it begs the question of US involvement in the events leading up to the 19th that they do not want to be exposed in open court.

A Committee for Human Rights in Grenada has been established and can be contacted c/o Coop Hall, 129 Seven Sisters Road, London N7 7QQ. Offers of materia} help and requests for speakers are welcome.

Nadine Finch Islington North CLP

National Campaign Against the Berufsverbote

265, Jersey Road, Osterley,

Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 4RF Dear Editor,

This year has seen GCHQ, Official Secrets trials, suggestions that political activity is incompatible with being a member of the Civil Service, the vast threat to basic civil rights to follow trades disputes and the attack on local democracy.

All these issues relate to BERUFSVERBOT in one way or another. In West Germany, every public employee can be expected to be vetted to see if they are loval to the constitution. To ensure loyalty, the Secret Police have assembled over three million files on employees which has been used in over one million court hearings. Over five thousand people have been dismissed from teaching posts, railway driving, postal workers and even gardeners and swimming bath attendants.

We are holding a delegate conference in London May 12th and Glasgow May 19th to discuss the wider issues. Speakers in London include a Berufsverbot victim, Richard Balfe MEP, Tony Bunyan and two trades union speakers. May we appeal through your newspaper for branches interested in sending a delegate to contact us at the above address so we can forward the requisite papers and details.

Yours Sincerely

Jack Tyrell (For the National Campaign against BERUFSVERBOT)

Published by London Labour Briefing, 23 Leghorn Road, London NWI1O. Printed by Wernham Printers Ltd (TU), Forster Road, London N17