Labour Briefing no. 106

change at both domestic and international levels.

These changes present the labour movement and socialists within it with a

. number of outstanding challenges.

@Substantial cuts in arms spending are now a real possibility.

@The changes in Eastern Europe have produced a crisis of all European institutions, leading to a rearguard action

. —led by the United States and backed by the-Labour leadership — to turn NATO into a permanent political alliance.

This move is in sharp contradiction to the hopes for a united, democratic, and non-aligned Europe now emerging across the continent.

@The power of the multinationals has continued to grow; the giant corporations are now able to transfer production from one country to another and rig prices and channel profits at whim.

@British government institutions are as inflexible, undemocratic and unaccountable as they were in the days of Atlee and Churchill — and are increasingly seen as such by the electorate.

@Unemployment is rising for the first time in four years. Accompanying this are growing demands for government intervention from the inner cities, disadvantaged regions, and oppressed groups of all kinds.

@There ts confusion in the establishment over entry to the EMS which locks us into the priorities and policies of

BY REG RACE

the Bundesbank, the most conservative

_ force in Europe.

This will result in further rises in unemployment and (in combination with market forces) will impose a veto on increases in public spending.

@The environmental crisis is now recognised as a global crisis which can only be dealt with by new levels and types of international co-operation and : government intervention.

@Britain is saddled with an increasingly delapidated infrastructure, making it “the squalid person of Europe”.

All these challenges cry out for a socialist response. Instead, Labour’s new policy package gives us “business where possible; government where necesary.”

The leaden-footed Labour leadership may soon find itself outflanked by the Tories on arms cuts and the peace dividend. And on the EMS the Tories may well steal Labour’s only clothing by negotiating entry before a General Election.

The policy package fails to confront the need for control of the City of London and in particular of capital outflows; it has subordinated public expenditure commitments to the needs of “economic growth”, as defined by capital.

It has no radical measures to deal with the undemocratic nature of British society.

INSIDE:

vxWhat kind of Paper does the left need? - centrespread debate feature

vxPoll Tax - Campaign Reports

YeLabour Party: NEC plans for the future

Gorbachev's dilemma

WHFE Bill at rest

Policy Such as the NHS, housing, and poverty are unimaginative and inadequate.

it now looks like the next Labour government will cut public spending, attack workers’ rights and end up merely holding the fort for British capital for four years until the Tories recover enough to win a General Election.

Indeed, in the view of some establishment pundits a Labour government which would take the rap for the harsh decisions required by capital would be no bad thing.

In addition to their “new” policies, Labour’s leaders are trying to change the Party's internal structures to make it more autocratic and less responsive to the rank and file.

Part of their purpose is to render recent policy shifts “democracy proof”. The membership will lose its powers to overturn these policies and replace them with anything more radical.

It is, of course, essential that over the next 12 months the Labour left organises to get a Labour government elected. Our commitment to this goal is second to none.

But it is also our duty to warn the labour movement of the dangerous consequences of following the Labour leadership's current direction.

Labour Party Socialists and the Socialist Movement will continue to develop socialist alternatives to this direction and to organise support for them both within the Party and outside.

Cherry’s red provokes a

wail Dear Briefing, ~. [was pleased to read (Brief ing no. 105) that Davy Jones welcomes Plaid Cymru members” participation in the Socialist Movement.

Less welcome was F.R. Cherry’s letter on the same subject, describing Plaid Cymru in North Wales as “not

so much socialist as National Socialist”.

The decline of the Welsh economy has been speeded up by Thatcherism. Not only coal and steel have felt the blows, but farming also.

In the South, a low wage economy has developed, based around foreign investment in assembly plant.

In the West and North, agricultural decline and house prices way beyond what local

wages are falling further behind the national average: in

£4,000.

‘The threat to the pattems of social life that sustain the Welsh language is one of the cultural problems created by change on this scale at this speed.

‘The immense cultural and

Gwynedd and Mid Glamor-

political loss resulting from the destruction of the NUM is another.

All this is happening in a country which has never had a Conservative majority, and where less than 30% voted Tory in 1987.

Socialists need to understand both the differences between the “North” and the “South” Welsh experience, and alsotheprocesses that bind them together.

This meafs integrating issues of culture, economics, and political democracy.

As Briefing’s report on the Wales Labour Party Conference made clear — Labour has few answers in this respect.

Plaid Cymru, like Labour, has moved rightwards since the Miners’ Strike. But some currents init regard themselves as socialist and reject the process of decline.

Recc

Present experience of large sections of the Welsh population, Labour Party Socialists should enter into dialogue with

.R. Cherry’s allegations (repeating a 50-year old Labourist attitude, beloved of Neil Kinnock) do nothing to make this possible.

Ken Jones,

Hackney, London

Went West!

Dear Briefing,

1 am a regular Briefing reader, but am unable to attend the meeting on July 15th.

1 would very much like

Briefing to continue in its

form.

It is one of the few socialist newspapers which encourages articles from anyone on the left, covers all important national and international events — and is readable!

It never flinches from taking a socialist line, however unpopular.

It is, therefore, a major contribution to left-wing thinking, especially during these difficult times.

hope you will take these views — which | am sure are shared by many of my comrades in the Torydominated West Country —

Brioting history graphic no. 1: Brighton Labour Briefing hits the streets...

into account when considering Briefing’s future. Yours sincerely, David Hasburgh Totnes, Devon

This is not our organ!

Dear Briefing,

In Briefing no. 105 you headeda piece “LLL — Lots of Lies about Labour Party Socialists”.

This was factually wrong.

As far as | know, LLL has never made any comment whatsoever about LPS.

And, as | recently said in a letter to Tribune, the journal Socialist Action is not an organ of LLL.

LLL has proved to be an effective body and has not been sectarian. Please direct your criticisms at the right target.

Yours,

Pete Willsman

South London

PS: As an avid reader, I'll be coming on July 15thi!

Oh for

leadership!

Dear Briefing,

We are a group of keen activists within the local branch of the Labour Party.

At present we are frustrated at the lack of political leadership being given to working class people in struggle with the Tories by the Party.

We feel we could pull many more people into the local branch on an active basis and at the same time counter the stifling effect of the rightwards shiftin policy.

In our attempt to do this the availability of a journal based on a fighting alternative would be invaluable.

Please could you tell us as soon as possible whether it is possible to have you send us a regular batch of Labour Briefing?

Yours sincerely,

Paul Walker,

Evesham, Worcs.

“Bundles of Labour Briefing are available ona sale or return basis, minimum order five copies — just write in! -EB.

Why : Bromsgrove Refuse Staff are being forced to

strike

Dear Briefing, Under the government's privatisation laws, the Con-

PERISCOPE

Send snippets and info to:

Pre-history

“Now, too, we have Labour eminences disowning Ideology and uttering — pompous claims to to be the “natural party of government’ with all of the deluded conviction of Hans Andersen’s vain and naked emperor.

“They invite the con-

tempt of enemies and. .

frlends by generous appeasement of the former and empty flattery of the latter.

“They espouse ‘moderation’ hoping that Its new Implication of calm sagacity will disguise the reality that anyone who can be moderate In the face of unemployment, brutality, decay and disillusionment ts elther too stupid or lazy or timid or terrified to take astand...

“They try to cajole capitalism into growth and responsibility whilst defending it as a virile guardian of liberty and malinspring of development.

“The belief that they can make multinational corporations give priority fo the demands of democracy is as hollow as the Idea that bookmakers are in buslness for the advantage of the punters.”

Nell Kinnock MP in his Introduction to Bevan’s In Place of Fear (1978).

Credit card

charity

Ever wished you hadn’‘t sald what you did?

After the total collapse of War on Want, look no further than the 1986/7 Annual Report by George Galloway, now Labour MP for Glasgow Hillhead:

“Our financial situation Is changed utterly, our Income multiplied, secure reserves, freehold property, and unshakeable financial base.,

“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, and If more were broken than necessary, then |'lltake full responsibility for that.”

Perhaps if War on Want had been a bit less lax with thelr credit cards, and put a few less leaflets out door-todoor In Glasgow, they might have’ dumped a few less “Third World” projects In the shit, for other groups to ball outl

Joke

Q. How many Trotskylsts does It take to change alightbulb?

A. None. We never substitute for the working class.

Variations on this theme (.e., How many LCCers does It take...) are we+ come.

servative controlled Bromsgrove District Council is trying to force its binmen to accept:

*25% increase in daily workload;

reductions of up to £20 per week in wages;

ban on pay rises between September 1989 and October 1991.

Please help by:

»sending letters of protest to Councillor Mrs Margaret

Upper Bann

By-Election The Labour loyalists at-

to join the Conservatives in standing In the North of ireland took a further beating in the Upper Bann by-election.

han 200 __

few who gained less than the Conservative Party.

After a disastrous lost deposit, the Conservative candiate who had roped a number of government Ministers into his campaign, was most worried about being beaten by Sinn Fein — “The disappointment is that Sinn Fein

Taylor at Bromsgrove District Council, Burcott Lane, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 12AA; «sending donations to support the strikers to NUPE, 7/8 Friars Road, Stafford ST17 4AA (che-

ques payable to Bromsgrove General branch NUPE).

Yours,

Bromsgrove Briefing readers

should poll such a high vote.”

An even bigger insult is that they were beaten by the Workers Party!

Poll Tax abolishes

Councils We have long argued that the Poll Tax was < g to ‘al

The extent of been shown In two Welsh villages, Rhoose and Cefn Coed, where: residents have voted to abolish local community (parish) Counclils in order to save themselves the extra Poll Tax that the Councils would cost them. Farewell then, another tler of local democracy!

Contact Briefing

Well, here we are at the end of another year, and here we are, the Briefing production team, penning another last “Contact Briefing” column to the sounds of overnight ITV and the sight of the dawn breaking over the rooftops of Finsbury Park.

Thanks to all who lasted the course and thanks too to all those who fell by the wayside.

Briefing will be back in the autumn, you can count on it. We would like to be back with a bigger, better Briefing — but that depends on YOU. Again, we are looking for new workers. We need comrades who can count, type, or are literate: please contact the Briefing office for further details. Failing those skills, contact us anyway. The only really indispensible skill is to have a sense of humour. We also need vounteers to beef up our paste up team (this is nota

mad cow joke).

Keep in touch by writing to Labour Briefing, PO

Box 1235, London N4 2UY.

Please use the summer break to get up to date with invoices. Send money for paper sales in the “London” area and for subscriptions to the above address; please send payment for paper sales outside the “London” area to 39 Talia House, Manchester Road, London E14 9HB.

You can telephone the Briefing office on 081(and we're proud of it)-809 3927. If that’s not answering during the summer break, make Graham's day and

phone him on 081-985 8892.

Next issue: No. 107: Deadline for articles Tuesday

Sptember 4th.

Published by Labour Briefing: PO Box 457,

London SW2 5UZ.

Labour Briefing No. 106 July 4th-September 11th Page 3

Editorial

TUC on bended knee —

to Kinnock

The decision of the TUC General Council to back Kinnock’s commitment to retaining the Tory anti-union laws was a disgraceful stunt.

Itwas performed for the benefit of the media at the expense of the interests and indeed the policies of the movement which the TUC is supposed to represent.

A few months ago a number of prominent national trade union leaders (Bickerstaffe, Todd, Christie, Gill, Sapper, Jinkinson, etc.) appended their names to a declaration in the name of the Campaign for Free Trades Unions — that Labour must liberate the unions from the Tory shackles when it next forms a government.

Since then, the Campaign for Free Trades Unions has been silent and Ron Todd had to perform some fancy footwork to prevent his own union from pushing the Scottish TUC into calling on Kinnock to scrap the Tories’ laws. And it seems that this may soon be followed by the formal acceptance of the Policy Review by the TGWU EC.

The willing compliance from nearly all the top trade union bureaucrats does not stem from any conversion to the laws, but from a commitment not to rock Labour's (or rather Kinnock's) electoral boat.

Hostile to any revival of left power in the Constituency Labour Parties and terrified of the growth of militancy in their own ranks, the union bureaucrats stumble along in Kinnock’s wake.

They provide finance, Conference clout, and the odd political filip when required — abandoning any and all other strategies for the advance of the trade union movement,

Kinnock certainly needed the boost provided by the TUC General Council members and.the trade union:

anti-union laws ng, for the most part, against their

«=. own union policies.

This is probably the singly most vulnerable plank in the New Policy Review — vulnerable .

Union activists know from bitter experience that as long as these laws remain in force they will be fighting the employers with their hands tied behind their backs.

Getting rid of the Tory laws is no “ultra-lef” demand but a minimum requirement for democratic and effective trade unionism.

For too long, the Tories and the capitalist class have benefited from the artificial division of our movement between the “political” and “industrial” wings.

The Labour right and the union bureaucrats seek to

‘sustain that division, For socialists the opposite is the

case. The Shadow Cabinet is already preparing to use the Tory anti-union laws to discipline its own supporters once expectations raised by a Labour victory are turned into action for concrete demands. The Labour right see the unions as a pre-election embarrassment and a post-election enemy.

The rank-and-file in the unions and the Labour Party must mobilise to force our leaders to honour their commitments on the Tory anti-union laws.

Labour Party Socialists and the Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee have launched a campaign on these lines (details on page 13) which should be a priority for all trade unionists and Party members.

Now beware new tactics

from anti-abortionists

The anti-abortionists were clearly disappointed by the Major defeat inficted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. However, the Bill did not represent the Major victory for a woman's right to choose expected by some.

New Reproductive Technologies (NRTs) as a result of the welfare clause in the Bill, as well as confronting direct action by anti-abortionists.

g the link with the Infant Life

Preservation Act.

The defeat for the anti-abortionists on this issue and on the upper time limits for abortion in cases of foetal abnormality was won by.many years of consistent campaigning led by the National Abortion Campaign (NAC).

However, more than 40 Labour MPs voted against the 28 week limit and so against Party policy for a woman's tight to choose. These MPs must face the wrath of pro-choice activists in reselection.

During the campaign the Stop the Amendment Campaign (STAC) continued to face problems of New Realism and the unwillingness of many MPs to support a Move to allow abortion on demand up to 12 weeks or even to form a register informing women which doctors are anti-abortion.

Faced with parliamentary failure, anti-abortionists may Now turn their energies to “operation rescue” activities — terror tactics used in the US against women seeking abortion — and pro-choice activists must be ready for this.

While the anti-abortionists were clearly defeated, the limited victory on access to DI and the NRTs for the sexual fundamentalists came with an amendment from Ann Winterton to the welfare clause specifically “including a child’s need for a father’.

This clause i attack on a woman's right to choose. Women have always had to prove themselves “suitable” recipients of such treatment — only six out of about 60 NHS and private clinics currently give access to lesbians and single women.

While parliament rejected an amendment specifically denying lesbian and single women access, enormous pressure will now be put on those s

clinics

Pro-choice activists must begin to build a consciousness in the Labour Party and in the trade.

medical profession should be able to abrogate a woman's tight to decide.

Behind the headlines

Italia 90: All power to the Cameroons!

World War Ill kicks off!

What did the media present as the key events of the World Cup upto the quarter finals?

English “hooligans” have received their just deserts from the Carabinieri.

‘And Bryan “Captain Courageous” Robson stubbed his big toe after single-handedly beating the “plucky” Egyptians by a huge one-goal margin.

It should come as no surprise that the English press and TV react in this fashion to the biggest sporting event in history, watched by a record 20 billion people across the globe.

The tabloid press, in particular, prepared us for Italia 9) by pushing the most extreme neo-fascist nationalism.

Not only was one of the most mediocre England Teams in living memory going to win the World Cup from the “Argies”.

They were going to do it by crushing the upstart foreigners with their inbred moral superiority and “bulldog” spirit. Someone should have told

them that it would be necessary to score some goals as well!

The hypocrisy of the same newspapers condemning the nationalist violence by English football “hooligans” (when their journalists eventually found some) can only be wondered at.

By Glenn Sutherland Our Man in the Shed

There are, of course, small groups of well organised fascist thugs who are in Italy for no other purpose than to have a set-to with their Dutch, German, and Italian counterparts.

This should not lead us into the trap of supporting the indiscriminate violence of the police, nor the equally indig= criminate deportation of many innocent fans.

‘The methods of the Italian police are no improvement on those of their British counter-

parts, and socialists should beware of making common cause with Colin Moynihan and Margaret Thatcher in praise of their operations.

Dennis Howell has eamed a lot of respect for his statements on this issue.

Depressing as all this is, we might have expected the actual football to provide some excitement. Unfortunately, we would have been disappointed.

All the South American teams, seeking to conform to the cliche that they never do well in Europe, have — in common with most European teams — adopted “European tactics”.

This is a euphemism for packing your midfield and deferice s0 as to make it impossible for your opponents to score, while leaving a solitary attacker upfield in the hope that a loose ball might hit him and go in the net.

This has worked well in limiting the number of goals and the degree of entertainment.

Fortunately Cameroon haven't read the script! My fiver on (Cameroon to beat England 4-0 went down the drain after a very lucky victory for England.

The form of Cameroon and, to a lesser extent, Egypt is equally welcome as the spectacle of the USA being humiliatingly crushed. The folly of FIFA’s decision to play the 1994 World Cup in America, instead of Africa, has been exposed.

FIFA’s decision is a very direct example of how the in-

*terests of capital dominate

world football. The same thing ¢an be seen in the nationalism which provides the dominant ideology throughout Italia 90.

There is no necessity for football teams to play for “national honour” instead of the. enjoyment of playing football with other skillful teams made up of fellow professionals.

Equally, there is no reason why the main interest of football fans shouldn’t be to watch and participate in entertaining football matches.

“American soccer has some way to go..."

The poison of nationalism makes the World Cup more like World War III than a festival of intemational football.

(While I'm on the subject of nationalism, can any readers clarify for me why socialists should support the team from the 26 County statelet against anyone but England?)

In the long run, the only solution to some of the problems I have outlined is for players and supporters to take control of world football — throwing the time servers out of FIFA and the national FAs.

In the meantime, “One Roger Milla, There’s only one Roger Milla...”

Economic Notebook

The US deep in debt

The start of the Big Squeeze?

World economic growth in the 80s was fuelled by a

Throughout this period, the real rate of interest has been at historically high levels — 6% plus compared to -1% to 1+% in the 70s.

‘This increased the attractiveness to investors of finance capital activity, which was combined with the largest expansion of credit in capitalist history.

From 1975-1986 the proportion of GNP to combined governmental, consumer, and corporate debt, rose from 120% to 167% in the US, and by similar amounts in Germany and Britain.

In Japan, where finance is traditionally easiest and interest lowest, debt rose from 166% to a staggering 240% of

economy tends to concentrate upon the “twin deficits”: the massive trade and budget deficits.

debt crisis.

‘The total indebtedness in the US economy far outweighs the Third World debt.

At the end of 1988 Third World debt stood at $1.3 trillion, whereas total US domestic debt stood at $11.1 trillion, a 105% increase in the period 1982-1988.

The era of raids, takeovers, and management buyouts has left corporate America burdened by huge debts.

Finance capital has now merged with “productive capital” to exercise “command and control” functions.

By Dave Palmer Hornsey & Wood Green CLP

Rising interest payments on net profits to just 7% and absorb 31% of corporate cash flow.

The end of the “debt decade” can be traced to two

the US economy and collapse of speculative property values which threatens the financing of the US debt mountain.

sthe falling liquidity (availability of money) that has arisen from the general increase in interest rates in all the major economies as a response to rising inflation.

Thus, the US economy is coming under increasing pressure from two directions at once as real interest rates rise and growth is reduced.

The world banking system will face a growing inability byUS debtors to meet payments on loans and therefore the overextended financial institutions will risk collapse.

The ability of the intemational financial system to deal with this crisis will depend on the extent to which the central bankers and money mandarins are able to manage the process of writing off bad debt.

Much Third World debt has already been written off on bank balance sheets and is now traded on secondary markets at

yen initiated a rise in Japanese interest rates and bond prices,

In April this caused the largest ever fall on the Toyko Stock Market and a slump of perhaps 20%-40% in the phenomenal Japanese property

values.

‘The period of low Japanese interest rates seems to have come to an end, which will have significant consequences forthe US economy, whose net foreign debt of $544 billion is largely funded by capital flows from Japan.

‘The flight of Japanese capital from US Treasury bonds, following the sharp fall in the dollar, forced down the price of. bonds and in tum precipitated the Stock Market collapse of October 1987.

The reduction in outflow of capital from Japan, and new

oppgciunitiee for the investment of Japan’s financial surplus in Europe, is putting the squeeze on the US.

It has forced the Bush administration to choose between tax increases to close the

dget deficit or putting up in-

For an eco-socialist programme:

What lies behind the “Black Triangle”?

‘The “Black Triangle” is the name of an area of ecological devastation in the heart of Europe.

It centres on East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

Despite the fact that protection of the environment is written into the constitutions of many Eastern Europe states, this area is among the most polluted regions on earth.

In East Germany 70% of energy needs are met by the burning of brown coal — a process emitting more sulphur dioxide per head than anywhere else in the world.

Poland follows close behind with 100 tonnes of SOz emitted per square kilometre. Dangerous air pollution covers almost half of the country.

In Czecholosvakia the burning of brown coal accounts for 60% of energy needs. Sulphur dioxide emissions have killed or damaged half the forests.

The Black Sea around Bulgaria is already poisoned and in ten years the whole sea will be dead.

This bleak record of ecological devastation has made ecology acentral issue in nearly all the revolts against Stalinist rule.

‘The /ow level of technological development in these countries, both at the start of their industrial development and then as a result of imperialist blockade, has contributed greatly.

+Antiquated techniques of processing raw materials, oldfashioned two-stroke engines in cars, and disastrous nuclear technology has produced these unprecedented levels of pollution.

*The suppression of all democratic forms of organisation by Stalinist govermments has led to planning and industrial development decisions being taken without respect for the human consequences.

In the 30s in the Soviet Union industrialisation was to be achieved whatever the price, hand in hand with megalomaniac schemes to divert the course of rivers and the like.

In the Brezhnev era similar pragmatic policies were followed, this time in a vain attempt to buy off the working class through higher production of consumer goods.

In both periods there was an uncritical absorption of westem models of production

and consumption: in the case of Stalin, the techniques of Henry Ford; for Brezhnev, the consumer boom which followed World War Two.

However this problem cannot be exclusively laid at the door of the bureaucrats. Its roots lie deeper in the Marxist tradition.

By Steve Potter Red-Green Network (personal capacity)

Marx and Engels were very hostile to the notion that nature could be treated as a free resource to be plundered.

In his Critique of the Gotha Programme, Marx fiercely polemicised against the view that labour could be seen as the sole source of value:

“Labour is not the source of. all wealth.

“Nature is just as much the source of use values (and it is surely of such that material wealth consists!) as labour, which itself is only the manifestation of a force of nature, human labour power.”

In his early polemic Condition of the Working Class in

‘England, Bagels shares the

anger of contemporary writers like Cobbett at the effects of the industrial revolution, but without lapsing into romanticising a previous Golden Age that was lost.

However, both shared with other political economists of the day absolute hostility to the idea that there was any limits to growth.

Malthus predicted that agricultural production could not keep pace with the population growth. Marx refuted this argument, but failed to see that natural resources — fossil fuels, timber, the fertility of the soil — could be exhausted.

Much of the antagonism between many modem Marxists and the ecology movement can be traced to the former re-running these 19th century debates.

Lenin, Trotsky, and Gramsci all more or less uncritically embraced the creeds of Fordism and Taylorism in the pursuit of growth.

Leninand Trotsky did this in the context of devastation of the Soviet economy; Gramsci, in prison, faced Fascist reactionary utopias of a return to ruralism.

For Lenin and Trotsky the

Up on Capitol Hill, they're sending out for extra sweaters...

acerbate the debt problem.

The latter option could tip the US economy into recession and send shock waves through the world financial system.

Itis not, however, the global size of that debt which is the major contradiction for capital — Japan has the strongest economy and carries the highest proportion of debt.

As any Marxist (or monetarist) would tell you, debt must be financed out of consumers’ incomes, profits or taxes. However, there are many mediating mechanisms in operation within capitalism.

Following the October 1987 crash the US Federal Reserve

uted: the mush to liquidity bj

aim was to boost the productivity of labour, as‘@ a route to increased production as a whole.

Frozen

These ideas have remained “frozen” in the thinking of the Communist Parties of Eastern Europe — and in the revolutionary left today in Britain.

Today, among many on the revolutionary left, there is a reflexive defence of growth as such, rather than the advancing of positive slogans such as a radical decrease in the working day.

Many Greens would agree with socialists that, within the context of respecting the bio— sphere which we inhabit, economic activity’ should be based on meeting social needs rather than the dictates of profit.

However, the collapse of bureaucratic planning in Eastern Europe has convinced many that the market is the only way in which economic activity can be organised.

The problem with the market however, and still more with alternative schemes based on barter offered by some

acting as “lender of last resort”.

Agreement between the G7 central bankers on co-ordinated monetary expansion restored financial stability at the price of increased inflation.

The Fed no longer has this room for manoeuvre; we are now in a period of accelerating inflation and rising interest rates in Japan and Germany.

Moreover, the other OECD ‘countries are likely to try to attach major conditions to any “bail out” of the US.

‘The onset of a US debt crisis is likely to play a major role in the fundamental realignment of power blocs that is now taking place among the major capitalist countries,

Greens, is that they only endorse production decisions already made.

They offer little distinction between, say, compact disc players or kidney dialysis machines — except in relation to the amount of profits (or exchange goods) they command.

Democratic planning, on the other hand, offers not only the chance for the population to control their economic activity and its effect on the environment, but also to meet basic human needs rather than the latest consumerist fad.

Eco-socialists can offer an alternative to the Black Triangle other than the rampant laisser-faire capitalism now in vogue in those countries or a regression into ruralism which these countries can ill afford.

The alternative is a democratically organised society and economy, based on the twin principles of defending and mending the planet and meeting human need. *

However, we must first come to grips with our own political tradition and, through recognising its faults, come to the effective eco-socialist programme which is needed today.

Labour Briefing No. 106 July 4th-September 11th Page 5

Campaign! — Against the Poll Tax

Lambeth

Leaders dither

The ex-Lambeth Councillors surcharged for fighting ratecapping have been dealt anew blow.

They have been subjected to a further surcharge of £200,000, and an additional five year bar from holding Council office (see page 10).

However there is'no indication that the present Council leadership, under Leader Joan Twelves, intend to risk similar penalties by leading a fight against the Poll Tax and the consequent cuts.

The present administration in Lambeth took office in May 1989.

‘The left, who had opposed a massive round of budget cuts in 1988, forged a tactical alliance with a group around exLeader, Linda Bellos (who had initiated those cuts).

This was done to fill the vacuum left by the sheer incompetence, of the previous right wing dominated administration and was based on opposition to the Poll Tax and a commitment not to go beyond the bare statutory minimum in implementation.

This commitment evaporated last summer, when the Council agreed to purchase a computer system to imple~ meat the Poll Tax.

‘illor

Steve French, resigned from the administration in order to remain part of the struggle against the Poll Tax.

‘The Council leadership p

sonal non-payment, on the one hand; but agreed to implement

Join

Some Councils never learn! Just two years ago, Hackney Council suffered a damaging and humiliating occupation of three branch libraries which were threatened with closure.

Now, history repeats itself.

Following Council threats of closure, parents and workers have occupied a nursery in Victoria Grove, Stoke Newington,

The occupation began on June 19th, after parents and trades unionists had been given just two weeks notice of the closure on June 29th.

Workers at the nursery have been given only one offer of alternative employment (rather than two as specified in the Council redeployment policy) and parents have found that “alternative” nurseries offered by the Council are full.

The proposed closure has distastefully racist overtones: all but one of the parents is black, and many of them are single.

Both NUPE and NALGO are backing the occupation and have instructed their members jto continue working at the nursery after the closing date.

the Tax with the other hand.

This line isolated the Council from the Anti-Poll Tax movement.

By ROGER TRENDELL

In spite of a process of “budget scrutiny” which has already reduced Council services, Lambeth set the second highest Poll Tax in England, only to find this “capped” at a level which would imply almost £9 million cuts.

As the legal challenge of the capped Councils has crawled through the courts, Lambeth Council has tried hard not to face up to its financial predicament.

However, on June 13th, the Director of Finance and the Chief Executive used their statutory powers to put a stop on all Council spending until the Council met to consider cuts.

On June 25th Lambeth succumbed to pressure from senior officers eager to shore up money market confidence in the Council’s finances and voted to prosecute non-payers of the Poll Tax.

Leadership

The Council leadership also faces pressure from the local Anti-Poll Tax groups, left Councillors, and large sect

are arguing against continued collaboration with the Poll Tax.

Accurate figures for non-

Joan Twalves: leading the ditherers

payment in Lambeth are hard to come by, but it is clear that the effects of popular opposition to the Poll Tax have been magnified both by the confusion caused by capping and the administrative chaos of implementation.

Support for non-payment among the Council workforce is also high. A recent NALGO branch meeting voted massively against prosecution of non-payers, and. decisively to call upon NALGO’s NEC to ampaign for non-implementation.

Opposition is now being or-

spreading beyond its beginnings in NALGO to draw in leftwingers in NUT and

NATH

————

“Ty Iackstewolvement from the

manual unions, it clearly reflects the feelings of many Council workers more closely

Closure threat to Hackney nursery

than the confused position adopted by some of the union officials,

The immediate prospects forLambeth Council are bleak.

The leadership seem to be preparing justifications for cuts — that the statutory powers of Council officers forced their hands; that the union officials told them that their members will not fight.

There is no majority in the Labour Group for unlawful action, and the most that the leadership could hope for would be further delay, and to continue with the strategy of hoping that something will tum up.

All this will achieve is to deepen the cuts that will eventually be made, as less and less of the financial year is available in which to make “savings”.

Trapped by the same pessimistic defeatism (with some honourable exceptions) union officials are preparing to negotiate deep cuts in jobs and services in the forlom hope that this may avert compulsory redundancies.

Whatever positions the “leaders” of the local labour movement may adopt, the

__ugele agains th Poll Tax,

where. Only the left who have argued consistently for non-pay-

those engaging in this streggle a perspective which shows how, by defeating the Poll Tax, further cuts in jobs and services can be averted.

he occupation!

By Peter Chowney Hackney South & Shoreditch CLP

By June 28th Hackney Social Services had made no contact with the parents, nor issued any instructions regarding new working arrangements to nursery staff.

A Council spokesperson had told the press that closure had been postponed until July 10th, but neither the parents nor the workers have been told about any stay of execution.

Management did make one attempt to meet the occupiers, tuming up unannounced.

Opposing

Cllr Tom Silverlock, one of just three Hackney Councillors still opposing cuts and Poll Tax collection, was fortunately present and refused to allow them to enter, telling them to come back when they had made an appointment with the parents. :

Since then, no Council offi-

cial has been near.

The reasons why Hackney Council want to close this nursery are unclear.

There are strong rumours that the spanking new fortress Stoke Newington police station, which adjoins Victoria Grove nursery, wants to buy the building for use as a workplace nursery.

Certainly, the new caring Hackney Police have made great play of wanting to set up a workplace nursery; but there is also a rumour that they,want to buy it to use the site for a police football pitch!

Cllr Silverlock believes the closure of Victorian Grove is only the tip of the iceberg.

He told Briefing that at least four other nurseries are earmarked for closure, including Hillside and == Mary Woolstencraft.

The Council claims that it is intending to “merge” Victorian Grove with nearby Linden House. But Linden House has a capacity of only 30; Victorian Grove alone had a capacity of 60.

The threat to close Victorian Grove follows a long campaign by Hackney Social Services to run down its nurseries.

All of them operate at below full capacity, some below half. Buteven parents in a “priority” category fornursery placescan expect a wait of two years or more.

Social Services Chair Sharon Patrick has claimed this is due to “staff shortages”, and pledged to sort the problem out after the elections.

It seems she has wasted no time!

Parents at Victorian Grove will shortly be convening a meeting to set up a support group and to find volunteers to occupy the building 24 hours a day.

Bearing in mind Hackney Council’s brutal and violent curtailment of the libraries occupations, a lot of hard work could be ahead of them. Anyone interested in getting involved in the occupation should contact the Briefing office.

If the occupation is to challenge the Council’s overall closure policy, this could be a very long haul indeed.

Haringey Fights Back! organised to stop job losses; now Haringey workers are faced with a further 800 redundancies as the Poll Tax doesn't stretch far enough to pay the wages.

Tories cut equality

work

‘The new Tory Council came z

‘Since then, it has financially demobilised many groupsin the Borough which

tion campaign fought with the subtlety of a rugby player after ten pints of lager.

Some of the most aggressive cuts have been to the voluntary sector and in particular black groups in Southall,

By Pattie Friend Ealing NUT

Southall Trade Union Employment Advisory Service (STUEAS) has played an important role in Southall advising black workers, often the poorest paid and least secure, on employment rights. It is the only group of its kind in area.

The Council has cutits grant completely.

Southall Monitoring Group (SMG) has been afforded the same treatment. Both groups are deemed to be “political” by the Leader of the Council.

SMG is the only group in the area dealing with racial harassment.

Its grant was not cut because its work was unnecessary, as some have suggested. It was a transparent and outrageous rejection of a body which has consistently and very successfully campaigned and raised awareness around issues of race.

By closing its special units the Council has arrested funded work on race, lesbian and gay, and women’s issues. ‘The loss of jobs and redeployment has occurred with little regard for collective agreements.

sexual equality statement in favour of an insipid, two paragraph statement.

The. sexu

schools and so at least helped to reduce the effects of the potential self-censorship induced by Clause 28.

Documented

It is well documented that women and girls are disadvantaged by the education system, with women occupying the least prestigious and the poorest paid posts and girls less likely to achieve their full potential.

The sexual equality statement was part of a strategy to help redress the balance.

The Council is also reviewing its statement on anti-racist education and fears are that this will also be abandonned.

Oppression, in all its manifestations, does not disappear under a Labour administration.

Sickeningly

The sickeningly violent and racist murder in Ealing of the taxi-driver, Kuldip Singh Sekhon, occurred in a period of ideological opposition to racism when work around race was at least publicly sanctioned and funded, as did attacks on lesbians and gay men and attacks on women.

However, the murderers of Kuldip Singh Sekhon and Michael Booth and the perpetrators of other attacks, both physical and verbal, are receiving messages loud and clear from the new Council.

Those messages will exacerbate the situation and increase the already barely manageable workload of the very groups the Tories have decided to cut.

‘PHOTO: Leesa Herbert

Labour Briefing No. 106 July 4th-September 11th Page 6

Labour Party

Mandatory reselection

One member, no vote

Virtually every major policy gain has now been reversed by the Policy Review.

Now the Party Leadership has turned its attention on the one remaining thorn in its side: mandatory reselection.

The campaign for democratic reform in the late 70s and early 80s involved the membership as a whole, not just the left.

Thus the right to reselect or deselect sitting MPs was one of the greatest victories for the membership of the Labour Party. The right policies are useless without the power to implement them, and to remove those MPs who refused to do so.

Less than 20 MPs have been deselected under this procedure — and by no means all of them were on the right.

Why, then, isthe Leadership so determined to remove this procedure when it controls policy making, is about to take away Conference's decision making powers, and has the power to purge much of the left?

Tt is because it is the last way that a left wing CLP can have any real political effect.

CLP delegates have been cut out of policy making; local government manifestos (witness Lambeth and Tower Hamlets) have been written by the NEC and its regional office appointees.

Even membership can now go through Walworth Road without being properly checked at local level.

By Kevin Flack Lewisham East CLP

But CLPs, even under the present ridiculously complicated system, can still remove unpopular and ineffective MPs by a relatively democratic

rocess.

Much of the resistance to the present system comes from the arrogant and patronising attitude of the MPs themselves.

Poor things, they complain about the amount of time they now have to spend in con-

Labour Party Socialists

Making

decisions the regional way

Labour Party Socialists held its first Conference in Sheffield in May.

One of its central features was a declared determination to enable democratic involvement by comrades from all areas, working constructively in a non-sectarian way with campaigns throughout the labour movement.

‘The principle of regional involvement in LPS is not an abstract one.

Norris it just an anti-London blow from the provinces — though it has to be said that almost everyone outside London —and quite a few inside — act as if decision-making rests in the hands of a very few in the capital!

‘The reality is that it is vital for individual Labour Party socialists up and down the country tomeet together andto organise within the Party.

With the leadership openly attacking the principle and practice of activism wherever they find it, real participation is more important than ever for ordinary Party members.

For LPS the challenge is to find ways which genuinely involve the rank and file.

It is not enough simply to try and manipulate a few key conference delegations to vote for one or other candidate for the NEC (even if that was any longer possible).

Capitalism is not going to

By John Nicholson Co-chair LPS

collapse if David Blunkett suddenly loses his poll position in the popularity ratings.

Nor is it adequate to create spaces for regional representatives on some national structure if the real weight is given to “national” organisations with “well-placed” contacts.

Youth

That is why LPS has a national Steering Committee of four people per Labour Party region, plus nine nationally elected places, and three further for each of black supporters and women supporters, and one youth place.

Of the 55-strong committee elected in Sheffield, 41 come from outside London.

No-one has an automatic right to be on the committee, whatever their credentials.

This should not lead to complacency. LPS recognises that active measures must be taken to address discrimination.

Black people and women, for example, must be enabled both to become representatives through the regional structures and to participate fully in the organisation.

stituencies during reselection’

year; of extremist elements daring to question them at GCs about such harmless matters as NATO-funded trips abroad or opposing Party policy on abortion.

The one thing mandatory reselection has done is try to ensure MPs actually turn up in their constituencies regularly.

So what changes are planned to ensure MPs are given a job for life?

Reselection is not to be fully abandoned: it is to be made “more democratic”. It will only be allowed ifthe CLP membership “really want it.”

This is supposed to do away with the wasteful current system of challenges if a woman justs gets one nomination; of ‘expensive balloting systems; of secretaries being inundated with applicants’ CVs.

How will we tell if the membership wants it? By not allowing it unless over half sign a petition or ballot form asking for the process to take place!

Those of us who actually go out and collect membership subs month in, month out,

LPS also recognises that active measures must be taken to develop local campaigning and link it into national struggles. Peopleneed to feel part of their local and regional network, and decisions made by LPS need to be open and democratic.

The aim must be to have contacts and supporters in every CLP and trade union branch,

Regional representatives should be collating and updating mailing lists and contacting all supporters in order to bring people together in their own areas.

‘The national Steering Committee needs to provide support for local initiatives — speakers, leaflets, information packs, sothat ameaningful and accessible regional organisation can develop, suited to the needs of people in each region.

Regional bulletins and mailings should be circulated to keep people informed even if they cannot come to meetings.

Space must be found for regional concems, ideas and practical proposals to be fed back into the national Steering Committee.

Making regional involvement effective requires commitment and cash.

Join us, get your CLP and trade union to affiliate, come to our AGM on October 27th — and start to reclaim the Labour Party for socialism!

know how impossible it would be to get a challenge under this system.

We recognise thé waste of resources under an “affirmative ballot” on a shortlist of one, and have no fetish over this — obviously if only one person is nominated, they should be selected.

The move to one member, one vote (and we should remembers it's one member, one postal vote) is particularly disconcerting.

This would eliminate any real link at local level with the trade unions, the only organised sections of the working class with any influence on many CLPs these days.

We must resist attempts to remove mandatory reselection; but above all we must resist the postal ballot of individual members. Every trade union election has shown that the postal ballot reduces the number of participants.

‘We have to stress that the local link — through union branches and Trades Councils — is vital if the Party is really to represent local working

That the Greater London Labour Party Annual Conference happened at all this year was something.

But happen it did, on June 22nd and 23rd.

It was originally scheduled for March, and then hurriedly postponed once officials realised that was only a few weeks before the Council elections!

Walworth Road officials were obviously terrified of “London Loony Left” headlines appearing before the electorate went to the polls.

Loony

In thesevent, Conference was neither loony nor left, despite the best efforts of some of us. The London Party has been firmly brought into line in the last few years.

The prevailing atmosphere ini the Conference was one of moderation, not rocking the boat, and expecting all illsto be solved by the next Labour government.

So anxious were delegates not to be controversial that they voted not to discuss. a motion calling for support for non-payment of the Poll Tax because the NEC had said that was against Party rules.

The main debate was around the local election and the national Party’s reactions to the London result.

Interestingly, the GLLP was united in undermining the national Patty’s attempts to control London.

Delegates and Executive members asserted that only the GLLP understood London and how to reach voters in the capital.

Four black MPs elected under mandatory reselection: could it have happened under the new system?

people. Ifthe media —TV and local

papers — are not to dictate the “acceptable” candidate— then this fundamental link has to be maintained.

‘The Labour Party after all has a federal structure — it is

not just a bunch of well-meaning individuals who have a benevolent attitude towards poor people. It is a party based on the working class, no matter how right wing its present policies.

an

The GLLP’s finest hour... the left could retum...

Equal opportunities policies were defended as vote-winners in London.

The left had some victories. Conference passed the composite attacking the Policy Review’ s failure to repeal antitrade union laws, and calling for these laws.to be replaced with’ positive rights for workers.

By Liz Davies Delegate, Islington North CLP

A motion opposing religious schools and calling for secular education was also passed.

And Conference unanimously called for the release of the Birmingham Six.

‘The status quo reasserted itself when it came to elections.

Glenys Thomton, current Chair and LCC hack, beat

Jeremy Corbyn for Chair. At one point, though, even that looked unlikely — we thought the left might win, as the TGWU delegation had decided to vote for Jeremy.

Results

The election results show clearly that they in fact voted for Gienys. What happened to make them change their minds?

Two other unions, UCATT and NUPE, also failed to vote for the left candidate despite earlier indications to the contrary.

Right

It was a strange conference. The atmosphere was well to the right, but the left won all its motions and came close in the elections.

Maybe we would stand a chance of winning more in the future — but Walworth Road would clamp down to stop us if we did!

Labour Briefing No. 106 July 4th-September 11th Page 7

Labour Party

NEC Report: witch-hunt; structures

NEC “untouched by human hand”

Labour’s NEC has backed major changes in the Party’s

This, and a decision to force a re-run of the selection contest in Birkenhead CLP, were decided by the NEC’s customary lopsided majority (in this case 28-3).

Though the issues were debated and voted on separately they do have one crucial common element: the Kinnock leadership is trying to make its own ascendancy “democracy proof”.

Labour’s witchfinder general Joyce Gould had been despatched to the Wirral by the NEC following complaints made by MP Frank Field over his deselection by the local Labour Party. —_______.

By Mike Marqusee Hornsey and Wood Green CLP

Gould was unable to substantiate any of the procedural, complaints made by Field (she seems'to have made no effort whatsoever to look into the complaints made against Field).

Nonetheless she recom-

mended to the NEC that the contest be re-run because six alleged Militant supporters took part in it.

However, the selection procedure cannot be restarted until the cases of the alleged Miltant supporters are dealt with which could take several months.

Clearly the right’s plan is to keep postponing the new contest until an imminent General Election requires the imposition of a candidate — who will certainly be Frank Field.

Paul Davies, who beat Field fair and square in the original contest, is a standard left-ofcentre TGWU official.

The fact that Walworth Road would go to such lengths to back Field against someone like Davies indicates just how committed our Party bosses are to maintaining the unaccountable powers of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Gould’s report also proposed action against Socialist Organiser, which has strong. support in the Wirral -and in Particular i in Wallasey

Bein og The idea seems to be to bracket SO with Militant,

make all its open supporters li-

Membership

Numbers set to fall?

By John Hayball Membership Secretary, Chessington South BLP

Comrades may have come across a curious circular from Walworth Road entitled: “National Membership System — Questions and Answers.”

The circular contains 23 questions and answers dealing with the operational mechanics of the dual system of processing membership through the constituencies and nationally.

Itis only at question and answer 23 that 1991 is raised and it is just left as if no problems are expected with this transition. From 1991 each individual Party member will be required to register their renewal of membership annually with Head Office.

This development had been heralded for some years since direct applications first became processed by Head Office. Now it is a blanket situation which may well do untold damage both financially and politically to the Party as well as to our chances of victory at the next General Election.

One thing is certain: the working class is not used to being treated like yuppies. Working class people will not join and pay dues by post.

If there is to be q mass drop-out of members, the loss of revenue coupled with the already soaring £2m debt to the Bank would devastate the Party.

One of the hallmarks of social democracy has always been its apparent will to lose election battles with the bourgeois parties. Under Kinnock this tendency has become heightened — not least by his incredulous contempt for the rank and file.

Electoral activity needs an army of activists on the ground. The worsening state of local organisations in the constituencies during the Kinnock years has rendered victory in the coming General Election almost impossible — bar lucky accidents.

Kinnock’s marketing techniques have ensured a growth in membership recruitment — although not a net rise in Party membership. His new recruits are armchair supporters, whose commitment does not go far beyond the payment by cheque of their subscription.

able to expulsion, and certainly to prevent Wallasey’s PPC, Lol Duffy, from beating Linda Chalker at the next General Election and taking ‘a seat in the Commons,

In a letter to the NEC, Socialist Organiser points out that it has never been formally informed of the existence of an inquiry into its activities, that it has been given nonotice of any charges against it and no opportunity to state its own case in any form.

Gould is expected to bring specific proposals for dealing with SO to the next NEC meet-

Labour Party Socialists and everyone else on the left should take up the defence of SO and of the Wallasey and Birkenhead CLPs as a top priority.

Above all, socialists must not allow themselves to be bludgeoned into silence by these tactics,

If Kinnock and his sup-

* porters were as confident of

their dominance within the Party as they claim they

or the presence in the PLP of ‘one or two dissident voices.

Just how fearful Kinnock and Co. remain of a left revival in the Party was shown by the other key vote at the NEC meeting. :

In backing a package of Conference and policymaking “reforms” the Labour right hopes to institutionalise its latest policy shift (yet to be approved by any Party body except the NEC) which amounts to ling Clause IV by the back door.

Gaitskell was never so clever. He argued his case to Conference — and lost. Kinnock wants to do away with Conference — or at least its role as a sovereign policymaking body of the Party.

The much-publicised reduction in the trade union vote from 90% to 70% (with possible incremental decreases to 40% over the years if CLP membership doubles to 600,000 at the same time) was not actually opposed by the left.

In fact, CLPD and most others on the left (including Labour Briefing) have for many years been calling for a reduction in the proportion of Conference votes cast by the trade unions and an increase in the proportion cast by CLPs.

The unacceptable part of the proposed Conference changes concems policy-making.

‘Ostensibly the package put tothe NEC was the result of the phoney consultation exercise mounted by Walworth Road

on “the future of Conference”.

A “policy forum” is to beestablished to supervise a “rolling policy programme”.

Details have yet to be made available to Party members, but it seems that this forum is to bemade of indirectly elected and appointed members allegedly “representing” Labour Councillors, Regional Labour Parties, trade unions, MPs, and others. .

Sub-commisions of the forum will be set up to work out detailed proposals in dif-

paem noose

Pete Willsman: preparing to guide us through the Conference

ferent policy areas.

The problem here is not the idea of a “rolling” policymaking process nor the suggestion of special commissions to work out detail.

The problem is that there is no effective mechanism forensuring that the forum and the commissions are democratically representative of and accountable to the base of the

almost impossble for Party members to get their policy proposals debated at Conference.

CLPs and trade unions will be offered policy packages like last year’s Policy Review on a take it or leave it basis, without real facilities for discussion and without powerto amend or defeat them.

Under the new proposals, Conference will retain the right to approve the ideas worked out by the policy forum and the NEC will retain the right to amend or delate these ideas

Annual conference. 1990

before they are presented to Conference.

But the reality will be that actual power over policy formation will be usurped by a self-appointed, perpetually self-renewing elite. Conference will be reduced to a rubber-stamp.

There is nothing “modem” or “efficient” about the

ipeopowed Gok Sessa.

Conferences, and securing the power of the PLP to decide what is and is not Labour Party policy.

‘The fact that only Benn and Skinner voted against this

transparent attempttostitch-up the Party's policy in perpetuity is an indictment of that coterie of “yes-persons” whose collective noses are now shoved so farup Kinnock’s asshole it’s a wonder they can breathe at all, no less submit their names to Conference as “left” candidates for the NEC.

Kinnock goes for broke

Many people on the left do not seem to realise how critical this year’s Annual Conference will be.

The left has suffered so many defeats in recent years that people think it will just be more of the same.

This seriously underestimates the leadership's plans.

Kinnock realises that the Party has gone along with the Policy Review because of the desperate desire to win the next General Election and get rid of Thatcher, and not because the revisionists have won the arguments.

By Dorothy - Macedo Hendon South CLP

He knows that once Labour is in power, the honeymoon will be short.

As he has no intention of taking on the City and big business, he will try to solve the economic crisis at the expense of the people who elected him,

and this is when the left in the CLPs and the unions will come to life.

He must act now while he can get away with (almost) anything.

‘That is why we have had the spate of constitutional consultations in the last year on the future of the Conference, the composition of the NEC, the reselection of MPs, and the question of quotas and the Women’s Organisation.

The NEC plans to change the rules this year to prevent the Party expressing opposition in future.

This year's Conference will ‘be asked to approve a virtual re-writing of the Party constitution.

They plan to stop CLPs sending a resolution direct to Conference, while resolutions (and delegates!) will be chosen by membership ballots instead of the GC.

Sifted

As this will not stop all criticism, the resolutions will then be “sifted” by policy commissions.

Next, the amendment stage will be abolished. The NEC will be reorganised to minimise the chances of any leftwingers being elected and the PLP will be given extra representation at Conference.

Impossible

Deselecting an MP will be next to impossible. And if anyone wants to alter the rules in future, it will only be possible at rules revision conferences every three years.

The idea of the Party approving these changes has been likened to turkeys voting for Christmas. So will they do it?

Unfortunately most people find constitutional matters boring (not to mention confusing), and some have been taken in by the claim that “one member one vote” ballots are more democratic than delegate meetings.

Quotas for women may be introduced (though not in the PLP!) to give the impression of better representation for

women.

However, they will actually be usedto divert attention from the demand of the Labour Party Women’s Conference, repeated this year, for real power for women — such as the right to elect the women's division of the NEC.

Sadly, many CLPs did not take part in the consultation process, Their silence will of course be treated as approval of any changes the NEC feels like making.

Resolutions

But some organisations have submitted Conference resolutions opposing the likely changes (a bit difficult since we won't see the final NEC proposals until after the closing date — I wonder why!)

There is still time to submit an amendment postthly your last chance!)

Insist your CLP aes action this year, if necessary by officer action or at its July EC meeting.

Next year may be too late!

Ee es

ory

ns irs. i of print fight

Labour Biiofing No. 106 July 4th-Septomber 11th Page 8

Debate: What kind of paper does the left need?

‘Support the Socialist Movement, but.build

Bryn Griffiths (Briefing no. 103) was absolutely right to open up the debate on possible effects of a Socialist Movement periodical on Briefing.

But I dramatically disagree with the views expressed in the last paragraph of his article.

——— By Hyder Prodhan Barrow CLP

Briefing does indeed have an excellent record as a left wing paper, carrying a consistent socialist analysis of

Briefing supporters have fine records as class fighters, developments in Britain and particularly in local govern- ‘internationally. ment against ratecapping, within the Labour Party junities for women, against the contem| le black people, lesbians and strategy of boss-grovelling, gays. disabled people, and Kinnockite New Realism and most recently against the Poll fighting within the many cam- Tax.

c », Briefing has. consistently

movement, etc.) has always public ownershup wil

been the correct way forward. control, withdrawal from The idea that the wider NATO, and troops out of

struggles against the ruling Ireland.

class can be reflected and fed We have fought for

into the Labour Party in order democratisation of the Party,

totransform itintoavehiclefor defending mandatory reselec-

revolutionary socialist politics _ tion of MPs, defending Party

is an appealing one. Conference and strengthening Briefing has consistently the union-Pasty ties, making

sought to build a united, par- union votes at Conference

ticipatory socialist left within reflect the rank and file’s deterthe Party, whilst maintaining mination to fight back against the Tories.

its own perspectives.

Labour Party Conference Greetings

Once again, Conference season is almost upon us.

And once again, Labour Briefing will be producing a special issue for the Labour Party Conference, and will be including Conference greetings from supporting organisations.

Special rates for Conference Greetings ads will be: £50: Quarter Page £25: Eighth Page £15: 5 column inches £10: 3 column inches =

Please make sure your organisation, trade union branch, Labour Party branch or CLP knows about this opportunity to puts its message across to delegates at Party Conference and to make its views known to activists across the country.

Send your message plus payment (cheques payable to “Labour Briefing”; receipts provided on request) to:

Labour Briefing,

PO Box 1235, London N4 2UY.

Jeremy Corbyn: longstanding Briefing supporter, out canvassing with a copy of The Independent.

All these and more emphasise the importance of maintaining, improving and building Briefing as a platform for a socialist transformation,

(welcome though that will be). Bryn goes ontomention that a possible paper would reach a

wide audience.

It is supported by key Campaign Group figures, such as Jeremy Corbyn and Tony Benn.

Briefing is capable of mobilising large forces and unity on the left but we must build the paper's profile in order to achieve this.

The Socialist Movement fills a vital and much needed role, in particular initiating discussion on the socialist agenda.

Its concentration on trade union: work is also much wel-

comed, especially as the left”

have neglected this at times. All this comes at a time when the Labour leadership refuses to discuss anything other than their own pathetic, class collaborationist policies.

Democratic

All on the left can only benefit from the existence of a democratic, activist led Socialist Movement and this makes it possible to establish a monthly Socialist Movement journal.

Such a journal would naturally be supported and built by Briefing supporters, as we have already done so much to build the wider Socialist Movement.

Tagree with many of Bryn’s arguments — that a socialist paper must be not just about information but must organise its supporters to fight for the policies of the paper, have democratic structures, an accountable editorial board, be agitational in character, and an activist paper.

These are~all features of Briefing which can be built on further to strengthen Briefing and raise its profile.

The current political climate offers socialists great hope. The anti-Tory mood is very

strong, most obviously on the the Poll Tax.

Briefing must raise its profile within the Labour Party, the campaigns of the oppressed and in the struggle against the Poll Tax. We can show the wider movement that our presence as class fighters can inspire confidence and

isacasein

Jane Connor's front page and other articles clearly laid the blame for the events of March 31st where it belonged, the paid thugs of the British ruling class, the police.

Help develop

How to fo necessary

The debate in Briefing the Poll Tax Conference] “What sort of press for _ the Eastern European Co the left?” is about the ference. : system of alliances _!t's why Briefing sup now needed to defend _Perters helped build Labou the working class. betas

What alliances are necessary to defend workers against Thatcher's offensive on

wages, conditions, z set , ROA SS rights and so- Until now the initiatives ¢ cial benefits? the Socialist Movemer What alliances will help have been restricted to the working class take for- tional sectoral conferences ward its struggle against a (such as that on the trad Labour government which Unions, on women’s Ii would be well to the right of tion, and on the Poll Tax any Labour government and a loose national a ince the war, committedas Fegional structure. is to preserving the main Often this has mea planks of Tory trade union nothing for most Social

iclati i Movement membe! ti 7 teaietation, privatisations beyond casionaltad

ing. Alliances The establishment of national network wi The necessary alliances regional and even so are being forged by the local structures, which cz Socialist Movement among _ organise the left in the Pa the left social-democratic _ at both local level and at Al MPs, the Labour left, lead- nual Conference, shot ing trade union militants, the way forward for and mass campaigns, such Socialist Movement. as those against the Poll But in order to develo x serious local structures, en a clearer natio to struggle against the bour- ment needs its own pap geoisie and New Realism. — which can mobilise, a The Socialist Movement and debate. represents the beginning of How should Briefings such a unity. porters view such a pap That's why Briefing sup- _and the consolidation

By Gill Lee Dulwich CLP

Our analysis was sharp and telling, unlike the cowardly Kinnock, who in an effort to grovel to the Tories condemned the protesters, praised the police and wasn’t even on the march!

We must as always seck to improve our coverage of “events in Britain and intema-

tionally and seek the widest range of topics (remember the personal is political!).

Vitally, I believe Briefing must publish a “Where We Stand” pamphlet, more detailed than “Labour — Take The Power”, outlining our strategy for socialist transformation in the here and now.

Such a pamphlet must involve all Briefing supporters in drawing up its arguments in order to truly reflect our views.

It would help raise our profile and reach out to workers and the oppressed as our altemative to the wretched pro-capitalist policies of the Labour leadership.

If launched through public meetings across the country, it could be used to help build local Labour Parties, and local Briefing groups.

Bryn is correct to state that any debate on Briefing must involve all our supporters.

We must continue to build the Socialist Movement, build Briefing and seek to continue and strengthen the fight for a socialist Labour Party that smashes capitalism in the interests of workers and the oppressed,

Witch-hunts will never stop our determination to fight for our class!

porters have beenactivein strengthening of tl the Socialist Movement Socialist Movement? since its formation, playing Our attitude has to be leading roles in Women for —_ more than just support fro Socialism, organising the the sidelines. We need Trade Union Conference, become involved fromits

Labour Briefing Sellers,

Sunday, July 15th 12.30pm-4.30pm 7

Durham Road Community Centre, Durha Road, London N4 (near Finsbury Park tube)

TO DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF LABOUR BRIEFING

Registration: £5 (waged); £1 (unwaged)

Registration fee covers contribution to pool fare. feel it is fair to announce beforehand that we will b

aiming to run a fare subsidy scheme (no one likes

attending meetings with a low registration charge and then finding that they get stung for a huge poo

fare). However, we would not like comrades to be deterred from attending because of special financiz

circumstances: so if these rates are too steep for you, please ask for a concessionary rate at the door,

The registration fee applies to observers too; and

all/any profits will go to Briefing.

The Briefing Editorial Board will be presenting a resolution to the meeting (see below/right). Please discuss this at your Briefing meetings and with other readers! If you would like to submit a resolution of any kind to the meeting on July 15th please contact the Briefing office. Piease heip the meeting run smootherly by providing the office with} advance notice of resolutions and amendments so that we can make copies of them.

“This meeting notes that Labour Briefing has strongly

supported and promoted the Socialist Movement from

Labour Briefing No. 196 July 4th-September 11th Page 9

Debate: What kind of paper does the left need?

the SM paper! rge the alliances

THE

nee DCTALIST :. FERENCE

_ ception and fight to help _ develop a Socialist Movement paper which can suocessfully take forward the working class in action. __ By being fully involved from the start, Briefing can argue for the kind of agitational, labour movement orientated, democratically / accountable paper we know from experience is neces_ sary.

Sectarian

_ Any other approach ~ would be sectarian, retain~ traditional allegiances to “Briefing the paper” as a _ substitute for retaining and : strengthening our allegian_cesto the alliances required to defend and take forward the interests of the working class.

Briefings traditional strength was as an or-

have played an active role in building Women for ™ Socialism, the Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee, and Labour Party Socialists, all of which have been significant positive advances for sociali the labour movement. This meeting therefore welcomes the suggestion to set up a Socialist Movement newspaper and resolves to contribute to the further development of the current proposals, in particular to ensure that the proposed newspaper:

1. Is financially and organisationally viable and will not act as a continuous drain on the resources of either the Socialist Movement as a whole or Briefing supporters

within it in particular.

2. Has a genuine labour movement orientation — this * means not only calling for a Labour vote in elections and covering Labour and trade union affairs but acting as an organising focus in the struggle to build a non-sectarian | left current inside the Labour Party and trades unions. ‘3. Is democratically accountable to the grass-roots of . the Socialist Movement and reflects rank and file political

| Priorities and activities.

4. informs, agitates, and organises its readers — rather than merely commenting on events from a distance; it must reflect the views and experiences of activists at the grass-roots of the struggle for socialism, particularly within the labour movement; it must be a paper which activists can use.

This meeting resolves:

*to sustain, improve, and extend the coverage, production, and distribution of Labour Briefing unless and until a general meeting of Briefing supporters, which will be convened by the Briefing National Steering Committee, agrees that a Socialist Movement newspaper will meet the above conditions;

sthat no decisions about closing Labour Briefing will be taken outside such a meeting.”

Activists gather at the first Socialist Conference.

PHOTO: Leesa Harhert

ganiser of the Labour Party and local government left.

That traditional base has declined, the capitulation of former left layers to New Realism in local government and with the outflow of Labour Party members caused by Kinnock's witch-hunt and Policy Review.

In response: has tried to maintain its traditional strengths while reaching out to new layers; increasing our trade union coverage; debating ecology efforts and attention to the mass campaign over the Poll Tax.

The Socialist Movement represents in many ways the best of what Briefinghas tried to build. Briefing must now take full part in the di: cussions on a new Socialist

Movement paper.

in

Haringey Briefing supporters set up a stall at a local festival: can there be an alternative to Briefing?

Why we stand at

The possibilty of a Socialist Movement paper obviously _raises questions for the place of Labour Briefing.

We claim to be non-sectarian, we have been prominent in building the Socialist Movement —so why carry on when there is a broader organisation to carry ‘on where we left off?

Bryn Griffiths suggests that if we.were convinced that the new paper is even better than Briefing we might make the decision to close Briefing.

What does that mean? A paper which is agitational, activist orientated, democratic and clear in its attitude to the Labour Party, implies Bryn, would be something worth handing over to.

These, various elements must be seen integrally linked, rather than items on a checklist.

Checklist

A checklist attitude will get us into all sorts of difficulties —why just the right attitude to the Labour Party? What about its position on Ireland, on South Africa, on women...?

Rather than count the good and bad attributes of the paper, we need to ask what is fundamental to the project of Briefing and how can it be extended. Only then can we decide our relationship to other projects in the offing.

The first, most basic point is that Briefing must not be seen as simply an exercise in providing information and analysis.

In those well known words, the aim of Briefing is not to interpret the world, buttochange it. Therefore we do not just sell Briefing, we organise Briefing supporters.

Discussion in Briefing is

By Steve Reicher Exeter CLP

oriented to how we organise our political interventions. Thus Labour Briefing as a paper gains itscharacterandits appeal through the clarity of our political strategy.

Itis unsatisfactory tosum up a political position in a few sentences. However, amongst the phrases that we have used to characterise our position, the one that strikes me as clearest is that of “organising at the crossroads”.

By this we mean bringing together of disparate forces in ‘order to pose the central question of state power. In particular, we have focussed on the relationship between the Labour Party and anticapitalist struggles.

We have stressed the interdependence between the two: the need to tum the Party outwards towards these struggles as the main source of their strength, but also the need for activists to bring their struggles into the Party and to seek the structural changes necessary to their ultimate success.

This stress on the Labour Party is because it isthe natural place where the struggles come together and raise the question of political power.

‘The Labour Party is constituted as an alliance of workers organisations and their allies, such as women’s organisations, socialist societies and so on.

‘That is why it is logical to eall for black sections and representatives of other oppressed groupings.

There will be those who scoff and point out the consistently pro-capitalist positions of the Labour Party.

They would be right in their

observations, but wrong if they conclude that one should ignore the Party.

The argument is akin to saying that if the working class “get it wrong” then one ignores the working class or, even worse, one wishes a new working class.

‘The disastrous history of the “Red” unions in Weimar Germany should teach us the dangers of that path.

‘The key point is that one should judge a body, not on the policy it adopts at a given moment — on that basis Lenin should have condemned the Soviets in the-spring of 1917 — but rather on the basis of the social forces it represents.

The Labour Party is controlled by organisations of working people. If that organisation leaves much to be desired, we fight to transform it. There is nowhere else to go but depart the working class.

That is why, for Briefing, Labour Party membership and the fight for leadership at all levels of the Party is not a tactical matter, an issue of coming in while it looks as if Tony Benn might win, but rather a long term strategic orientation.

Strategy

If our strategy depends upon our orientation to the Labour Party, then we cannot compromise on the issue without losing all ability to organise politically.

A paper which gave no clear organisational lead might still contain fascinating debates, butt would be of little use in bring about a socialist transformation of society.

As Bryn himself points out, there is little chance of getting the Greens, the SWP and others in the Socialist Movement to accept our strategic position.

Therefore there is little ‘chance of a SM paper being used to “organise at the crossroads”. Such a paper would destroy rather than extend the project of Briefing.

Now, with the prospect of a Labour government and the explosions which will result as Kinnock seeks to discipline the exploited and oppressed, such a liquidation would be little short of criminal.

In concluding, let me make two crucial qualifying remarks.

Arguing

The first is that I am not opposing the Socialist Movement nor a Socialist Movement paper. Iam only arguing that it does not substitute for Briefing. It isa different, rather than an inferior, project.

The Socialist Movement is of great importance in bringing together those involved in anticapitalist action and in co-ordinating their activity.

The issue of how to give political focus to these forces remains open, but it has to be posed and it givesan important forum to argue our position.

It is precisely because the Socialist Movement complements Briefing that we have done so much to build it. That effort should not stop.

My second point is that within the Socialist Movement we have seen a drawing together of those who regard the position of the Labour Party as central in any social transformation.

Although differences exist, the prospect of a broad strategic agreement is not fanciful.

Now, if the Labour Party Socialists were bring out their own paper, I think that we might seriously discuss the future of Briefing...

PHOTO: Leesa Herbert

ri

Labour Briefing No. 106 July 4th-September 11th Page 10 ,

| abour Party Extra

The left press

i n Va : Ul a b ; e a n LASQUR'SINOEPENDENTWEEKLY VOL59 NO17

their variety! Mili

Thousands of people must have attended their first demonstration as opponents of the Poll Tax.

Like so many before them, they must have been bemused by the plethora of left wing papers.

Think back to your first demonstration. What did you make of the left press? Which papers did you buy? Why?

My first demonstration was for “Jobs not Bombs” in Manchester over ten years ago.

I bought copies of Socialist Worker and Socialist ChalTenge, probably because they seemed less bizarre than the others.

They were well produced and addressed the aim of the demo.

I spent ages pouring over them when I got home. I was quite excited. It was great to see there were so many socialists fighting for nuclear disarmament.

T was intrigued by the differences between the two papers. After much deliberation I decided it had something, to do with the Labour Party!

Which papers would the new Poll Tax activists have bought?

For production quality, they would have undoubtedly plumped for Living Marxism. Professionally produced on glossy paper with imaginative design, this joumal leaves the rest of the left standing.

Unfortunately, our Poll Tax protester would have been disappointed to find that 250,000 demonstrators had made no impression on the Revolutionary Communist Party. There would be not one column inch of Poll Tax coverage in Living Marxism!

By Bryn Griffiths Tottenham CLP

One can only assume that having set themselves the unenviable task of creating a new labour movement to replace the existing one, which they hold in contempt, they have finally lost grip on reality.

It is more likely that the Poll Tax demonstrator would have plumped for a copy of the Militant.

Media coverage, Labour witch-hunts, and its prominent role in the Anti-Poll Tax movement are likely to have made it the most famous of the left press.

Along with Socialist Worker, the Militant must be the sales leader on the British left.

Both papers have lots of Poll Tax coverage, although Socialist Worker does it with a bit more flair.

However, having noticed the prominence given to the fighting fund (Milizant) and self-aggrandising “Go for growth” (Socialist Worker) articles, the new reader might conclude that the main rationale for such publications is “build the party”.

Demonstration

This is the world where the success of a demonstration is judged by the number of papers sold and recruits won. OK if you're a supporter, a bit of a piss off if your main concem is building the Poll Tax movement.

To follow Socialist Worker and the Militant perhaps something a little more mainstream

would be worth a try: maybe the Morning Star, Tribune, Socialist Campaign Group News or even Neil Kinnock’s favourite Marxist paper the “Communist” Marxism Today.

The Morning Staris.a funny kettle of fish. Once the daily paper of the Communist Party, it fed its loyal readers on a diet of apologia for the Eastern block and the TUC.

Today

Today it finds itself all at sea.

Having severed links with its erstwhile Euro-communist allies and suffered a massive cutin its East European orders, it now limps on with one foot in the Stalinist Communist Party of Britain and the other in the TUC General Council!

The unenviable blows to their traditions have made the Star’s political coverage less predictable.

One minute they're criticising Ken Livingstone’s assault in Tribune on Labour Party Socialists, the next minute they're championing the moderate Jinkinson’s campaign for NALGO leadership.

I suppose it’s nice to back winners after such a bad patch.

To be fair, it does come out daily and gives reasonable coverage to campaigns and trade union disputes.

Marxism Today is a success story that has gone slightly off the boil of late.

Built on the back of the demoralisation arising from Thatcherism, it became the think tank for some of the more thoughtful sections of the Labour leadership.

It provides the political ra-

tionale for much of Labour’s soft left and it has championed the post-Miners’ Strike political realignments with gusto.

Its success rests on excellent production, a clear political Project, and an ability to address questions ignored by the more traditional left.

Its superficial openness makes it attractive to many. Unfortunately this openness only extends rightwards to the likes of Edwina Currie; not leftwards to Arthur Scargill.

Socialist Campaign Group News and Tribune function as. the semi-detached publications of their respective parliamentary groupings.

This parliamentary influence makes them alittle dull when placed alongside Socialist Worker.

Tribune has a tremendous history. Launched as a Bevanite joumal way before my time, it was always a thorn in the side of the Labour

In the early 808 editorship of Chris Mullin the paper was required reading for the Bennite left.

The downwards spiral started with Nigel Williamson, now a columnist for Rupert Murdoch.

Today its only useful role is to act as a surrogate Labour Weekly providing in-house Party news about selections and the like.

The rest of the left press is

| pretty marginal. Socialist Ac-

tion attempts to pose as the theoretical journal of Labour Left Liaison, but in factitis the narrow magazine of a particular tendency.

LAMBETH 29

Wer for es

Many Briefing supporters read it for the attacks on Briefing. I'm not sure why — or if — anyone else bothers. An obscure publication, it’s a dif-

weekly asa result of the heroic

endeavours of a few.

Between

It falls between many stools, aiming for a mass audience on its front page and then inside you find huge theoretical tracts that have been known to run for a number of issues.

It’s not for me to suggest changes, but perhaps, a few more of the tracts could be bunged in their theoretical review, Workers’ Liberty.

Unlike Marxism Today it does not have a clear political project or audience. Is it an‘or-

ganiser of the Labour left ora fanzine for its leading thinker, John O’Mahoney?

Atits best it carries informa~ tive news itemssabout the Labour left. At worst, it gets

ly carried away,

abuses everybody else, and doubles as the Labour left's

answer to the Spartacist.

In writing this article I've suddenly realised how much of the left press I read. | agree with Tony Benn that the left press in all its variety is invaluable.

By this point you've probably noticed that two publications, namely Labour Briefing and Socialist Outtook, haven't been mentioned.

I didn’t feel I could offer anything like an impartial view, so perhaps someone else would like to have a go on those!

Another pound of flesh

As they near the end of their “sentence”, 29 former Lambeth Councillors face a £200,000 fine and another five year ban from office.

In April 1986 31 Labour Councillors in Lambeth delayed setting a rate until central government gave more funds to the Borough.

This attempt to prevent massive cuts in'services led to these 31 Councillors being “fined” £320,000 for

surcharge and legal costs plus a five year ban from office.

Since then the former Councillors have been “doing their time” and paying off their crippling “fine” at a rate of £5,000 a month.

This was made possible by the magnificent support of small contributions from working women and men to the Lambeth Fighting Fund. The battle was nearly won — £300,000 paid off, just £20,000 to go.

But no: instead of “time off for good behaviour” the Lambeth 29 (two of the 31 have since died) have just been handed down a new sentence.

The District Auditor has redone his sums and now demands another £212,726 and a further five year ban from office.

While most people will regard this as an affront to natural justice there is obviously no money for further legal appeals. The only answer is to pay off the new

“fine” to avoid further prosecution of the former Labour Councillors.

We are looking for 8,000 individual donations of £24 over the next two years to raise the bulk of the money — either a one-off cheque or a standing order for two yearly payments.

We'd be grateful for whatever you can afford.

For more details contact: The Lambeth Fighting Fund, 081-670 1454.

“Taken from a Lambeth Fighting Fund leaflet

Support for the Lambeth 29 comes from right across the Party:

David Blunkett:

“The obvious injustice of fining these men and women again for something laid to rest five years ago must be clear to everyone. A further disqualification is unique in British legal history. The former Lambeth Councillors who have been surcharged a second time deserve our support. Please give that support by sending a standing order to the fund.”

Larry Whitty:

“We have to see that these 29 individuals and their families do not suffer the grotesque penalties of bankruptcy. | hope that you will do all you can to contribute to the Lambeth Fighting Fund as generously as you can.”

Hugo Young’s One of Us is the most comprehensive biography of Margaret ‘Thatcher to date.

It is now out in paperback with a new epilogue.

One of Us is an important book. Hugo Young may not break new theoretical ground but he comes much closer than many otherwriters to accurately "defining. Margaret Thatcher's approach to government.

He starts by tracing her roots in pre-war Grantham and the influence of her father, a Methodist Town Councillor.

By Mike Phipps Woolwich CLP

This theme of Thatcher as “outsider” has been taken up by many writers, but Young sees here the origin of Thatcher's; ism, hersense of "moral rectitude”, her antiintellectualism and her hostility to much of the establishment — particularly top civil servants and the High Church.

The ideology came later. Once she had married into money and could concentrate on a political career, Thatcher proved herself a mainstream Conservative, an astute stip porter of whoever had the majority — until the fall of Heath.

Only then does an altemalive ideological Conservatism,

Getting away from it all

based around Keith Joseph’s Centre for Policy Studies, emerge in 1975,

The calculated distancing of herself from the beleagured Heath suggests she is much more flexible than her opponents give her credit for.

Indeed one source of her resilence, argues Young, is her pragmatism and her manoeuvrability. In this her deputy till 1987, Whitelaw, was indispensable in tempering her stridency with caution.

Once in late 1980, he had to dissuade her patiently from taking personal charge of the police investigation into the ‘Yorkshire ripper case, so irate was she at the police’s inability to catch the culprit!

As such insights show, this is also a book about government.

It documents the contempt shown by top civil servants for

_ the Cabinet's monetarist dog-

mas in 1979, and Thatcher's equally contemptuous response: “I make up my mind about people in the first ten seconds and I very rarely change it.”

One official noted that she

underlined lists of civil servants with either a dotted®or solid line; Tealised that the dots were for the goodies and the line for the baddies, as she saw them. There were only two categories, and everyone fitted into one or other.”

Behind this doctinaire ap-

BOOK REVIEW

Inside No. 10

proach lay Thatcher's obsession not to be forced into the sort of U-turn her predecessor, Edward Heath, had preferred in 1972. She made it clear she would rather bring down the government than change policies.

In May 1980 the Cabinet nearly split over the European Common Agriculture Policy.

A year later she threatened to resign if striking civil servants were granted a pay increase 1.5% over the Treasury’s 6% cash limit — even though this was in fact the deal struck by the government a few weeks later.

The delay had cost half a billion pounds in lost interest on uncollected taxes.

Two examples of the internal workings of Thatcher's government stand out especially.

The story of how she forced through the huge spending cuts of 1981 against the opposition of Heseltine, Walker, Pym, Gilmour, Soames and the normally loyal Biffen and Nott, has never been so well documented.

‘Walker called for an incomes policy, and Lord Hailsham ‘warned that the consequences of spiralling unemployment could be similar to Nazi Germany.

‘Unable to win, Thatcher appeared to retreat, but instead or demoting the spineless “wets” who went without a

uly oor cpy ra

mumnur.

‘The second intriguing section of the book is on the Westland affair, which brought down both Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine and Trade and Industry Chief Leon Brittan.

Indeed, it came close to bringing down Thatcher herself, so implicated was her office in unauthorised leaks and cover-ups.

Apparently, before leaving Downing Street for the critical Commons debate on January 27th 1986, she said to one associate: “I may not be Prime Minister by six o'clock tonight.”

Young adds: “That was the measure of disillusionment she knew to be present in the Conservative Party.”

In fact, Thatcher's bacon was saved: first by Neil to pin down her culpability clearly in his speeches; second, by Cabinet Secretary Robert Armstrong’s deft evasiveness before the Commons Select Committees

Young

Young observes: “Instead of the Minister being responsible for the conduct of the civil servant, here was the chief civil ‘servant

It was Robert Armstrong who later told an Australian

courtroom in the Spycatcher case that in his line of work it was sometimes necessary tobe “economical with the truth.” Paradoxically it is on the two biggest events of the Thatcher government’s first two terms — the Falklands War and the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike — that the book is weakest. This is chiefly because of the limitations of Young's analysis, alternating from ad-

leader-writer. .

‘Thus statements like “the Falklands War showed her qualities. of decision maki

SUMMER BOOK ROUND UP

DAVE PALMER, Briefing’s bookworm and purveryor of select tomes to the incogniscenti, provides some tips for summer reading on the beach,

POLITICS

The Retreat of the Intellectuals ~The Socialist Register 1990, Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch, Merlin, £8-95,

You never could trust intellectuals — always vacillating and backsliding. This year Geras, Meisling Wood, Jameson, et al take on the post-modernist, post-Fordist, post-deconstructionists, post-office, or whatever they are post now.

Farewell Perestroika —~A Soviet Chronicle, Boris Kagarlitsky, translated by Rick Simon, Verso, £8-95,

Talking of intellectuals, from the man who brought us the Thinking Reed, and is surrounded by people who think that Hayetz and Milton Friedman represent pluralism and Friedman.

The other Boris whips out, his account of the crisis of perestroika. Pretty prolific, this guy: :

Eurocentrism, by Samir Amin, Zed Books, £7.95.

Amin takes on “Europe's present intellectual ascendancy” and “the relative failure .of Third World nationalism and_ its benighted successor Islamic Fundamentalism” and posits the alternative of a truly univeral culture. Quite a task; hope he gets somewhere.

A Dictionary of the Environment, by Steve Elsworth, Paladin, £6.99.

From acid rain to whales and whaling; your easy guide to the greenhouse effect, deforestation, and desertification. Be an ecological know-all at dinner parties with this quick guide to the planet's demise.

The History of Sexuality, Volume Three, by Michel Foucault, Penguin, £6.99.

The doyen of the dis-

course theorists brings us art three of his blockbust-

ing epic. It deals with the “transformation of discourse ‘about aphrodisia from the Hellenistic to the Roman world.”

So now you know. Not a fan of Foucault's posturing on the subject myself, but then I'm just a stick-in-themud Hegelian.

How Safe is Safe? Radiation Controversies Explained, by Dr Barnie Lambert, Unwin Press, £7.99.

It's. everywhere. Official reaction is chaotic and “lacks openess”. Governmental safety standards are unacceptable. For late night reading (and stay away from the microwave).

The Hite Report on Male Sexuality, by Shere Hite,

Optima, £9.99,

1,100 pages with appendixes; started in 1974 and based on 7,239 question-

naires. “Often fascinating,” claims Jeffery Weekes. Easy reading on the beach?

FICTION

A Prayer for Owen

Meany, by John Irving, Black Swan, £5.99.

Irving's latest best seller. Poor little Owen (aged 11) hits a foul ball in a little League baseball game and kills his best friend's mother. Not a good start for a sporting career, but clearly auseful springboard for a novelist.

To Do Something Beautiful, by Robini, Sheba, £6.95.

Indian feminist novel set in Bombay, India’s most industrialised and cosmopolitan city. Deals with the lives of working class women in this pressure cooker city where 60% of the population lives on the streets or in shanty towns.

Summer People, Margo Piercy, Penguin, £4.99.

A ménage 4 trois between Dinah, Wille and Susan among artists on

Cape Cod is Piercy’s latest theme. Sounds like the perfect subject for a Robert Altman movie.

Burn Marks, Sara Puretsky, Chatto & Windus, £13.95.

From the author of Toxic Shock, V.1. Warshawski, America’s well known fictional private eye retums to uncover arson and corrupi mongst Chicago politicians and discovers where the political stakes are -high, friendship is cheap! (You can say that again...)

BIOGRAPHY

Ties of Blood, by Gillian. Slovo, Headline, £4.99.

Joe’s daughter brings us an accountof the interaction between two families in South Africa, one black, one white. A young Jewish woman and her husband (the political activist), Evelyn and her husband Nathaniel (the son of a tribal chief, a leader of the black movement).

Any resemblance to well known relatives and acquaintances is presumably accidental.

SSS zs = a Thatcher: what is the reality behind the enigma?

Reviews

and fortitude at their most brilliant“ sit alongside observations like that of Scottish Secretary, George Younger, "> who said that Thatcher’ s May 1982 address to Scottish Conservatives “reminded me of a Nuremburg rally.”

Hugo Young’s approach is flawed and the passages on the Labour Party are particularly irritating.

But overall this is a highly readable 589 pages with essen~

One of Us, by Hugo Young, Pan, £7-95

Against The Grain — An Autobiography, Boris Yeltsin, translated by Michael Glenny, Johnathon Cape, £12-99.

Big Bozza lays it on the line. Bet.you didn't know he.

used to coach a women's ~ i

volleyball team. Left alternative to Gorbachev? |

hope nobody's still proposing that.

The Cloning of Joanna May, by Fay Weldon, Fontana, £3.50.

New novel from Fay Weldon. Joanna wakes up one day to find that she’s surrounded by faur clones of herself. Her former husband's a genetic en-7—. gineer!

James Baldwin — Artist On Fire, A portrait by V J Wetherby, Michael Joseph, £17-99.

Written by Baldwin's friend of 30 years. Ridiculous that most of Baldwin's work is out of print in the UK due to copyright problems.

| |

Labour Briefing No. 106 July 4th-Septembor 11th Page 12

The Women’s Page

The parliamentary debate

on the Embryology Bill had its Third Reading in the

House of Commons on June

20th-21st.

It was a suitably ignominious end.

‘The first day covered issues around embryo research, new reproductive technologies (NRTs) and donor insemination (DD.

Amendments to restrict research, to put religious people on the Licensing Authority, and to remove the anonymity of the donors were defeated.

By Rebecca Flemming Women for Socialism

However, Ann Winterton’s > amendment to the “welfare clause” requiring account to be taken of a child’s need for a father before doctors decide whetherto provide any woman with DI or infertility treatments was carried by 226 to 174.

There was no whip on the question but both Labour and the Tories indicated which way MPs should vote.

Health Minister Virginia Bottomley “commended” the

Minister for W Richardson, “invited” MPs to vote against.

The majority did as they

were told and the Tories were joined by most of the SLD and the smaller parties.

Hampered by Labour's image as the “real Party of the family”, Jo Richardson's opposing speech was halfhearted almost to the puint of inanity and conceded the central point of the nuclear family as “ideal”.

Some Labour MPs_just silently voted for the amendments. David Blunkett went much further — with a most nauseating and offensive speech which must surely shatter any lingering “soft left” illusions in him.

Blunkett stated that single women who conceive by DI differ only from men who abuse women in the gender of the person they use as a “convenience”!

He went on to advance a ‘variation on the theme of “lesbians and gay menare all right, but don’t let them near children”,

‘Though women have a right to “reject contact with men or to shun any physical contact with them,” he said, “they do not have the right to have

“Childbearing is not a right. It is part of the unfathomable life force. That is why man and woman together must take responsibility for the wellbe-

David Wilshire demonstrated a particularly clear grasp of hisclass interests

HFE Bill

Embryos laid to rest

with his statement that, “For me, the word ‘family’ means three things.

“It means the family as.a social unit, a financial unit, and a biological unit... We tinker with it at our peril.”

Virginia Bottomley spoke less of the financial role and stressed the love and stability fathers provide.

Winterton’s amendment both strengthens the restrictive effect of the “welfare clause” and gives it ideological support. It fits in with the Tories’ general offensive around

fathers’ essential role in the

family. Lesbians and single women will not only find it practically impossible to get access to DI and NRTs but also have their status as “bad mothers” officially confirmed by a law stating that children need fathers. The effect of this amendment on the interpretation of and judicial practice conceming the many other pieces of legislation including the phrase “welfare of children” (Particularly those relating to child custody) remains to be seen. Longstanding demands of the pro-choice movement finally made it on to the parliamentary agenda on the second day of the debate. As the (unfortunately

now under discussion, the like of which I have not heard dis-

After the Act — onto

the offensive

Nottingham NAC is in a The last few months have been full of frenetic activity: petitioning and leafletting, holding public meetings, talking to the media, speaking to labour movement bodies and squeezing money from every possible source.

In contrast, the last few weeks have been a time for quiet reflection.

Where the legislation has left us and where to go next are discussions which will be a priority for NAC up to its National Conference in October. ~ During the campaign, Nottingham NAC attempted to take up both sides of the right to choose issue and decided to oppose the Embryology Bill as a whole since it enshrined state’ control of our bodies.

NAC

This put us a little at odds with national NAC’s and STAC’s position but did not appear to hamper our success at gaining support on the streets and in the local labour movement.

Despite some claims that

this was a particularly difficult Bill to campaign around and that the issues of abortion, embryo research and DI had to be separated, we found that most women readily appreciated the links.

By Tina Yemm Nottingham NAC (personal capacity)

It gave us centre stage in arguing for real choice for ‘women to have or not to have children and appropriately followed on from a recent campaign we ran against the closure of local family planning clinics.

We were pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the Bill for abortion legislation and the scale of the anti-abortionists defeat.

However, despite gains time limits and dectiminal tion of doctors, there remains real apprehension for the future about the legal status now afforded the foetus and the consequences of the Bill for access to infertility treatment

of lesbians and single women.

‘The extent of the opposition to the attempts by pro-choice MPs to make abortion available earlier and easier and to ensure that licensed clinics do not discriminate against unmarried women and lesbians should also warn us against complacency.

There is still a lot to fight for!

As with the original 67 Act, the lack of facilities to implement the legislation properly remains crucial and with the state of the NHS this is more desperate than ever.

During the campaign we lobbied Kenneth Clarke and asked him about provision of services, but he seemed unprepared to discuss this in the context of the Embryology Bill!

Act

We have another date booked with him and if the new Act is to be worth more than the paper it’s written on he shouldn’t be allowed to dodge the issue.

Neither should our token supporters in the labour move-

cussed in this place in the 40 years [have sat here.”

Tha debate packed with facts and figures rather than dripping with blood, a cross party Proposal that abortion should be available on the referral of a single doctor up to 12 weeks was narrowly defeated by 200 to 228.

An amendment which would have created a pubi register (or “blacklist”, as the anti-abortionists dubbed it) of doctors who “conscientiously object” to abortion was more resoundingly defeat by over 100 votes.

‘The suggestion that the new abortion clause should, along with the rest of the Bill, extend to the Six Counties of Ireland was given short shrift by the Tories.

This, the only amendment the Party, was defeated; a clause exempting the 6 Counties won by 267 to 131.

‘The last ditch attempt by the some of their losses by reintroducing a 28 week time limit for abortion on the grounds of “foetal abnormality” was defeated by amere 14 votes.

Atthe end of the day the Bill as a whole was passed by 303 to 65,

It was perhaps predictable that the issues on which both

_ the women’s and labour move-

nights — are which the pro- choice movement has suffered a severe set-

ment be allowed to get away with less than making abortion and fertility services a major priority for pre-election campaigning and the manifesto.

Pill

Self-referral for abortion for women in the early stages of pregnancy and the availability of the abortion pill RU486 could form the basis of other positive campaigns aimed at bringing Britain into line with other countries as European “unity” approaches,

Focus

While we have yet to decide what we want to focus on locally, there seems much more room now for optimism and proactive campaigning, following years of what has felt like continually being on the defensive.

NAC has grown locally and nationally during the past months and clearly remains the best vehicle for taking forward demands across all aspects of control of our lives, our bodies, and our right to decide.

Gillick protestors show the support for “our right to choose”.

back. Tt became almost inevitable after the campaign in defence of women’s rights was weakened and divided by a refusal to link issues and build the broadest campaigo. However, the struggle for n reproductive je Ths

Threats to our hard won (if not yet adequate) gains bring women

out campaigning!

mediate battles to be fought.

Along with these go. pressurising clinics to continue to Provide non-discriminatory access and trying toensure that the liberalising potential of the changes in the abortion law is fulfilled.

issues

wosyoo9 ewiee15 :OLOHd

A summer offensive

Labour: unshackle

unions!

By Mike Marqusee Labour Party Socialists

Labour Party Socialists and the Socialist Movement Trade Union Commitee have launched acamPaign to commit Labour to the repeal of all Tory anti-union laws.

We're asking all comrades in every sector of the labour movement to take part in our summer offensive by: goss the model resolution printed below in their CLPs and trades unions (whether affiliated to the Labour Party or not).

Already several CLPs have put this resolution forward to Labour's Annual Conference. To ensure itis debated, please try to get your CLP or union to submit a suitable supportive

amendment. Sasa ttfBFh (or ¢ any

Getting their trade union or Labouj

other trade union or Labour Partyibedies) to support the cam-

paign and agree to have their names listed in a leaflet to be

delivered to all Party Conference elegans in October (and sibly published in Tribune).

pret A ee unionists are als66ricouraged to add their

names to the list.

Get their trade union branch or other ee to agree to senda eg ett to icin n di

“Senda Sonation 5 the Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee to help fund this initiative.

Circulate all this information everywhere you can in the labour movement. Please contact Mike Marqusee or Carolyn Sikorski, c/o SMTUC, 53a Gere Road, London E15.

The LPS/SMTUC model resolution:

“Conference recognises the necessity for employees to have free, independent and efféctive trade unions.

“It therefore calls on the next Labour government to repeal immediately all Tory anti-union laws.

“It also calls on the next Labour government to intro-

duce legislation based on the principles of the Campaign for Free Trades Unions: “4, The right to belong to a trade union, to recruit fel-

low workers into unions and to have your union recognised by the employer for collective bargaining;

“2. The right to be active in your union and to take industrial action without fear of the sack;

“3. The right to strike, to picket effectively, and to take industrial action in support of other groups of workers, without fear of losing your job or legal attacks on your union;

“4. The right of union members to determine their own rules, in line with the ILO Convention on Freedom of Association.”

Note: The Campaign for Free Trade Unions issued a statement earlier this year consisting of the four demands listed above. It was backed by 33 trade union leders, including Bickerstaffe (NUPE), Gill and Switzer (MSF), Christopher (FTAT), Cameron (FBU), Marino (Bakers), Heathfield (NUM), Christie (STUC), Jinknson (NALGO), Fullick (ASLEF), Sapper (ACTT), Conroy (NUJ), Todd and Morris (TGWU).

Labour Briefing No. 106 July 4th-September 11th Page 13

Trade Union Briefing

Poll Tax and the unions

Organise the

counter-offensive!

Support is growing for the Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee’s antiPoll Tax Conference.

" The conference, on the trade unions and the Poll Tax, will be held on Saturday September 8th in Sheffield.

Tt already has 60 sponsoring organisations, and many other bodies have already elected delegates.

Fourteen million people in England, Scotland, and Wales are now refusing to pay the Poll Tax — an unprecedented mass movement of civil disobedience in Britain.

It represents the biggest single problem to the Tories face in trying to cling onto office and recover their position by the next election.

This level of mass non-payment has serious implications for the trade unions.

By Alan Thornett

Ass'the courts grapple with. the problem of collecting the money, it is becoming clearer that their principal method of collection will be attachment ey : : mented employers. In most cases the attach-

through the

Getting mesmerised by the intemal structures of the unions: not responding to the anti-Poll Tax movement.

ment orders will have to be ad- ing

yers to interfere with or will they take sanctions to stop this action? Mass non-payment also creates the basis for non-collection of the Tax and for effective support to be organised in support of workers refusing to operate the system — including local government workers, postal workers, and civil servants. The Tax is directly eroding living standards and transfer-

There will be mass redundancies and attacks on the wages and working conditions of Local Authority workers, and all workers will suffer losses through cuts in services and loss of local democracy.

‘The biggest area of trade union action, however, is likely to be in defence of jobs directly destroyed by the Tax.

The operation of the Poll

eteClnmanied

Local Authorities — teaching ‘The fight against the Poll Tax will not be complete unless it organises to defend those jobs which are threatened by it, and to support those workers who are made redundant by it.

The gap between the mass popular movement against the Poll Tax and the New Realist dominated trade union leaderships is huge. The gap must be closed, by challenging New

Realism, sothat the unions and the TUC can be brought into the campaign.

‘The TUC should be calling for mass demonstations against the Tax: clearly, if it did issue a call, the resulting demonstration would be absolutely enormous.

Itis with all this in mind that the Conference is being organised.

The Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee supported the trade union Conference called by the National ‘Federation of Anti-Poll Tax Unions on June 23rd.

It was a good initiative and well attended. But it was very brief, effectively only three and.a half hours.

It was unable to provide much of the detailed tactical discussion, sector by sector, union by union, which is necessary if successful trade union action is to be expanded

and made more effective.

Achieved

It will be a full day, with workshops on the main aspects

ia ndvideal micas, to discuss the problems in dustry by indoary. bh willbe addressed by Tony Bena and other leading figures of the Socialist Movement as well as representatives of those who have already taken action against the Tax. By the beginning of September, most Local Authorities will have started operating their chosen tactics for attacking the non-payment movement. Come to Sheffield to help organise the counteroffensive!

Federation Conference

This Conference was timely if nothing else.

The first All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation trade union Conference took place as the pressures of capping and the success of the non-payment movement brought cuts and court actions quicker than expected.

Before..the. Conference, rumours were rife about registrations being sent back and delegations refused credentials. The SWP put out a leaflet to this effect.

In the event, the Conference was huge, with 1,400 delegates from 600 trade union and workplace organisations. It appeared that everyone who wanted to attend did so — at least

By Doug Thorpe Islington NALGO

as an observer.

The agenda was structured around the 23 motions, with speakers spread throughout the day.

From the Chair, Tommy Sheridan, Chair of the ABAPTE,.opened the Conference with a report of the level of non-payment.

Other speakers included Terry Fields MP, a Greenwich striker, and the Trafalgar Square Defence Campaign.

The resolutions were grouped in themes, but there was little time for debate as each separate resolution had to be moved. Many of them could easily

Massive meeting boosts morale

have been composited, allowing more time for discussion.

Most of the decisions were uncontroversial: calling on the TUC and Labour Party to call a national demonstration; for a. one day strike in local government against cuts; for action against wage and benefit arrestments; supporting the people's march and October demonstration.

Repetitive

Thus as they day wore on, speeches became more repetitive and blurred into one another. Workshops could have allowed a useful opportunity for delegates to discuss with fellow union members how to organise to put the resolutions into

practice.

Without such plans being laid, initiatives such as the call for a day of strike action across all Authorities facing cuts or job losses through capping or budget reduction are unlikely to be fully effective.

Indeed, throughout the day the scale of the pending cuts was ignored by most speakers.

Where the Conference did work was in boosting confidence by bringing together so many delegates and in the all too few speeches which gave concrete information about local actions.

This was a useful beginning, which the different structure of the Socialist Movement Conference can try to develop.

International Briefing

Learning from the past

The first ever Christopher! St (Lesbian and Gay Pride) Rally was held in Alexander Platz at the centre of East Berlin on

Saturday June 23rd.

Hundreds of lesbians and gay men from both East and West listened to speeches and bands, and crowded round stalls from a range of different groups — from West Berlin trade unions to East German AIDS

organisations.

The most visible and organised lesbian

and gay pol

al group present was the

PDS (the successor of the SED). REBECCA FLEMMING interviewed

COLIN SHERMAN,

members of t

RF: What have the recent political developmentsin the GDR meant for lesbians and gay men?

CS: By the middle of 1989 there were already groups in all the major cities.

Most operated under the protection of the Church, which gave them space to meet and so on. This was the easy way out: it meant that the State couldn’t touch you.

The non-Church groups had more trouble, from the Stasi, in hiring rooms, etc.

After the “changes” new possibilities for organising opened up.

Forexample, in March 1990 we launched a newspaper, Die Andere Welt, which literally translated means “The Other World” but is also the German title of James Baldwin's novel “Another Country”.

That would not have been possible before. We would not have been able to get paper, to get it printed...

Organising meetings is much easier than before. But now we have trouble from fascists — with the growth in German nationalism that has come with re-unification there has been an increase in “German is Good” ideas.

Fascists have attacked hostels for foreign students, gay bars, and lesbians and gay men in the streets.

We wanted to organise this event today in the other half of Alexander Platz, but we couldn’t — partly because it is full of people selling second hand cars, but also because the Police couldn’t guarantee our safety.

So we are here and the police are keeping their eyes open for trouble. This is very ironic, given that this event marks Christopher St Day when police attacked a Gay Bar.

Many of the groups attached to the Church have separated from it and become more open.

Lesbian and gay groupscan now be registered as “judicial persons” which makes them legally safeguarded. Groups can then ask for money. To receive a grant you have to demonstrate that a group is useful to the community.

If you don’t get a grant you may get premises anyway. For instance, the “Sunday Club” has been given a flat where it

one of the leading

group, at the Rally. eee

has opened acafe and meeting centre.

“Courage”, which is amore political group, of which I am a deputy leader, has offices attached to the “Union of Free Thinkers” (an official organisation) but we are going to apply for our own premises. after monetary reunion on July Ist?

CS: Yes, certainly. Just after the opening of the Wall many East German lesbians and gay men, patticularly gay men, descended on West Berlin's sex shops, clubs, saunas etc and some groups suffered’as a result.

Members were going elsewhere. Ithink this willcometo an end.

Of course there will be many economic problems for GDR citizens with re-unification.

RF: How did the lesbian and gay group in the PDS develop?

CS: It is part of the process of learning from or overcoming the past.

In March a lesbian and gay group was set up to advise the leadership on relevant policies. Since then PDS lesbian and gay groups have been set up in all regions and districts.

The Party stood out lesbian ~

and gay candidates in national and local elections.

RF: Are many lesbians and gay men joining the PDS, and if so why?

CS: Yes, they are, because they see it as the Party miost actively putting forward lesbian and gay equality policies. We helped organise this rally, we are the only Party here handing out leaflets...

OF course, many will not join us.

Interestingly, in contrast to West Germany, all the political parties here have policies which are in some way progressive for lesbians and gay men: the Liberals, the Greens, New Forum.

Even the CDU said in its election literature that it supported partnership rights for long term lesbian and gay relationships and there is an out gay CDU member of the East Berlin Council.

Tt will be interesting to see what will happen when the

East German CDU merges with the West German CDU which is very reactionary on these questions.

In the East, in comparison with the West, lesbians and gay men work together. The “Sunday Club” is about 50/50 men and women and “Courage” is about 60/40. Lesbians play a leading role in the groups in the PDS.

RF: What are your currently campaigns?

CS: We are campaigning against Article 218 of the W. German Penal Code which very much restricts women's abortion rights. In the GDR there has been abortion on demand since 1972 and it must be kept this way.

We are also campaigning against Article 175 of the West German Penal Code which imposes a discriminatory age of consent for gay men. In the GDR the age of consent is equal.

RF; Is lesbian custody an issuein the GDR asitisin the West?

CS: Lesbian custody has not

War government...

been a problem at all in the GDR (I don’t know about the 60s but certainly not since then). The woman almost automatically gets the children in every case. Ofcourse, that makesit very difficult for gay men to get custody, but judges will grant access unless there is some extraordinary reason why not.

RF: Do you have links with

lesbian and gay groups in other East European countries?

CS: The political situation has made it very difficult to develop these links.

There are groups in Hungary and Czechoslovakia and I have heard that there is an underground organisation in Bucharest University in Romania. In Bulgaria the

Middle East

’ The “changes” began with the scaling of the Wall. Now East German lesbians and gay men will

. discover whether the

Social gains of the East

¥ will withstand the prejudices of the West as the Germanies move to politial reunification.

Sexual culture means that noone has yet thought it necessary to start a group.

I know that the West German gay magazine Magnus together with Gai Pied in France and a Dutch magazine are producing a special magazine in Russian.

This will be smuggled into the Soviet Union to tell Jesbians and gay men about the situation in the West.

prepares for new offensive

When seven Palestinian workers were murdered in Rishon Le Zion last month, Israeli leaders were quick to dismiss the event as the action of a lunatic.

They made no mention of the brutality in the Occupied Territories, or of the plastic bullets fired by Israeli soldiers against Palestinian children.

Nor did they mention the deportations and house demolitions, or the thousands of political prisoners incarcerated in the Ansar jail in the sweltering heat of the Negev desert...

Ami Popper, who committed the Rishon Le Zion massacre, is presently undergoing psychological tests in prison — while those who laid the foundations for the massacre have just formed a new government.

After almostthree months of back door negotiations, Prime Minister Sjarmir has put together a cabinet that resembles a rogues’ gallery.

Ariel Sharon, architect of the 1982 Lebanon invasion, has been given the housing portfolio. Rafael Eitan, leader of the ultra-right Tzomet Party, is Minister of

Agriculture.

Rehavam Ze'evi, leader of the semi-fascist Moledet party which calls for the “transfer” (mass expulsion) of Palestinians from Israel, is maintaining the new government's majority with his.two Knesset seats.

War

The government of Israel is a war government.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are bracing themselves for a new round of repression. The intifada has lasted for two and a half years.and the indications ‘are that it will continue.

By BENJAMIN COHEN

It was in response to the intifada that the US began trying to accelerate the diplomatic process, opening a dialogue with the PLO in Tunis.

Now, in an effort to placate the Shamir regime, the US has broken off talks with the PLO, citing the abortive: raid by the PLO commandos on a beach near Tel Aviv, in which no-one was killed, as an excuse.

Only a week before, US

Secretary of State James Baker had bluntly told Israel: “the telephone number [of the White House] is 1 202 456 1414. When you're serious about peace, call us.”

However, the relationship. between US Imperialism and its Israeli surrogate demands that the beat isnot rocked too much.

Whatever is decided in Washington or Jerusalem will not stifle the intifada. The pristine surroundings of a Geneva conference cannot compromise the tesolute struggle of the Palestinian masses for an independent State.

The Israeli government knows that it has, so far, failed to defeat the intifada, and that the uprising might well spread to Palestinians inside the 1967 “Green

Line”.

Zionist

It knows that there is an escalating social and economic crisis in the Zionist State itself, with the growth of Israeli protest movements, and the deep resentment shown by underprivileged Oriental Jews. towards the current mass immigration of Jews from the USSR.

The big debate current among Middle East analysts is whether there will be a war.

Egyptian President Mubarak thinks there will be; the PLO's Farouk Qaddumi agrees; and Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein has made it clear that he is ready to fight.

Arab

The Arab summit, held in Baghdad in May, blamed the US for Israeli policies.

Israel, the only State in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, is also ready for war. The Kuwaiti daily A/- Rai Al Am quoted Israeli deputy chief-of-staff General Bar Kochba as saying that war is ‘inevitable".

Israel has denied that the General made these remarks, but the composition of the new government suggests that a war would give a most welcome signal for a bloody crackdown on the intifada.

Socialists should pay close attention to what hapPens in the region over the next few months, maintaining these demands: full solidarity with the intifada, and defence of the PLO against Imperialism.

EO NITY (VO. 190 ANY TEPC

een ene 7 age oe ’

International Briefing

Beyond the headlines

‘Mob Rule in Bucharest!”

“Ceausescu Smiling in His Gravel”.

The British media once again chumed out its glib formulas.

Unfortunately Mike Phipp’s article on the events of June 13th, 14th and 15th (“Stalinism without Ceausescu”, Briefing 105), though written from a socialist perspective, hardly rose above this level.

It avoided any mention of most of the elementary facts.

Towards the end of March, the Provisional Council of National Unity, with representation from all parties, held a four-day debate on the or-

ganisation of elections. ‘Among other things, the resulting law, passed by 289 votes to 1, specifically excluded from standing anyone: “who has committed abuses in their political, juridicial, or administrative functions, who has. violated basic human rights, or organised or been an instrument of repression on the part of the security organs.” Inthe course of April, rallies demonstrated massive support for the NSF, without anyone comparing them to the stony puppet-shows put on by Ceasescu. Instead, the anti-NSF dailies — Romania Libera and Dreptatea — launched a strident

lon Iliescu: thumbs up to democracy?

Party conservatives prepare new

offensive

The Party conservatives are back on the offensive.

The crucial 28th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU) is about to start as we go to press.

This follows abortive attempts by the Gorbachev camp to put it back to the autumn.

They were hoping for more time to change the composition of the Congress to Gorbachev's advantage. However, it is not clear if this was possible in any case.

They are mortified by what has happened in Eastern Europe and by the increasingly vocal calls at home for denationalisation and a market economy.

The recent conference of the Russian Communist

Party (RCP), the foundation of which Gorbachev belatedly“supported, was dominated by the apparatus.

It presents yet another centre of power to compete with the CPSU and the

By Rick Simon Labour Focus on Eastern Europe

Supreme Soviets of the USSR and Russian Federation. The election of the conservative, Ivan Polozkov, as_ First Secretary of the RCP was a bitter blow to Gorbachev. Moreover, the make-up of the conference was a powerful pointer to the likely outcome of the 28th Congress. The same delegates will comprise some 40% of

Romania

campaign to-cancel the. elec-

toral law, demanding thaf'ex:”

Communist Party activists should be banned from stand-

ing in the next three elections. ©

First to step down, of course, would be Iliescu himself, who had remained a Party member and minor state official, despite having fallen foul of Ceausescu in 1971.

This anti-democratic demand was widely seen as a desperate manoeuvre to revive the fortunes of the two “historic” right wing parties — the National Peasants and National Liberals.

On April 22nd, just as the election campaign was getting under way, several hundred protesters occupied University Square, paralysing Bucharest’s main crossroads.

For the next month, the presence in the square — mainly students and anti-NSF activists, but with a distinct minority of uprooted urban youth — probably averaged around a thousand,

Numbers rose to a maximum of ten thousand for the evening-rallics that called for the blackballing of all former Communists.

The anti-NSF parties and papers lent varying degrees of support, and the so-called Group for Social Dialogue generously offered to “mediate”, while its ewn banner flew prominently on the

‘The “historic” parties simply could not accept that the country did not want aretum to the 30s,

The self-appointed elite of right wing intellectuals could not believe that the Romanian people were unwilling to place

the forthcoming Congress, giving the conservatives a powerful platform to attack Gorbachev's leadership.

Itis already clear that the apparatus has tied up much of the representation at the Congress.

“Democratic Platform” which claims 40% support inside the CPSU, has only 2% of the delegates and seems certain to split.

Ygor Ligachev, the leading conservative in the Politburo, has, until recently, been out of the picture.

Although in charge of agriculture, he has been removed from the central arena of policy-making, which is increasingly that of the Presidential Council rather than the Politburo.

Nevertheless, Ligachev is not a person to be dismissed lightly. At the RCP Conference he called for

themselves under their tutelage.

For its part, the NSF leadership could doubtless have been more subtle and outgoing, particularly in response to the student ferment. But it is to their credit that, for two months, they disregarded the destabilising provocation.

In the first week, the Provisional Council — not a secret conclave of policemen orcabinct ministers — debated ‘the situation for three hours on

prime time television.

By PATRICK CAMILLER

‘There were several calls for the square to be cleared “without violence”, but when the Bucharest police chief pointed out the obvious difficulties, it was decided to leave things as they were.

The election results on May"

20th remoyedrany last doubt aboutthe popularity of the Front. Both the government and some of the protesters began to make some conciliatory moves.

But an intransigent core calling for “a second revolution” remained in the square, and early on June 13th a squad of riot police finally cleared it.

In the afternoon, a crowd of a few thousand drove the police back out of the square, and arson attacks were launched against police headquarters and the interior ministry.

Most alarming, however, was the Molotov-cocktail assault by a crowd of some five thousand on Romanian

Gorbachev's resignation as CPSU General Secretary, arguing that he could not effectively carry on both that role and the Soviet Presidency.

Ligachev's stance has undoubtedly modified as the political transformations have occurred. He now talks of a multi-party system; but essentially he defends the line of the 27th Congress.

Ligachev argues for a planned market economy —as distinct from the regulated market economy of Gorbachev's supporters.

He wants real guarantees against unemployment and a referendum on whether the Soviet Union should be restructured along socialist or capitalist lines.

But what Ligachev means by “socialism” would leave the interests of key

Television —akey installation and centre of the December revolution.

To understand what happened next it is not necessary to believe that there was a fully-fledged coup attempt.

The police —ihad demonstrated its incapacity for sustained operations. Soldiers on duty were untrained and likely either to melt away or to engage in undisciplined gunfire. The loyalties of sections of the officer corps were in doubt.

Western gover its had” made clear their ho:

In these circumstances, Tiescu tumed to the working class to restore the elected government’s authority.

Workers from the giant IMGB complex in southem Bucharest helped to recapture the TV station, and the next morning miners from the Jiu Valley and elsewhere began to arrive.

Violence

This display of working class strength was enough for the insurrection to melt away.

What could have been more normal — or more desirable? But unfortunately the miners did not stop there.

Determined to leave a lasting mark on the streets of their capital, many of them engaged in indiscriminate acts of violence and repression that and political position.

But could this not have happened anywhere in the world, let alone in a country where any kind of public life was frozen for 20 years?

Who were these miners, anyway? The British “quality”

Gorbachev: treading a fine line between conservatives and

radicals.

sections of the ministerial bureaucracy, defence industries and armed forces untouched.

His policies have nothing in common with the

and in the face of huge presgue font WEHET EATST —_—

Papers, on this occasion competing with the Murdoch gutter, were in no doubt.

The miners were scarcely human: “dirty faced runts” - Observer, an “army of warrior ants” — The Independent — in short, rather like the British ~ miners.

Mike Phipps has his own unique explanation of why the miners did what they did. They were not really miners at all: “since 1977 coalfields have been-worked only by handpicked pro-government personnel”. What a joke!

The truth is rather more prosaic.

The Romanian miners, like the great mass of the working class and peasantry, regard the present government as in some sense their own, as their only protection against a ‘hatcherstyle capitalist earthquake with catastrophic social effects. =

That there are also forces in the NSF who want to travel down the anarchic free-market road is a secret to no one.

Moreover, the University Square fever has strengthened authoritarian and chauvinist currents within Romanian officialdom that the Front government has a duty tocombat.

But it is a long way from there to “Stalinism without Ceausescu”.

Against enormous odds,

the Romanian working masses are struggling to overcome the political, economic and cultural legacy of the Ceausescu era.

‘They are trying to do so ina way that retains elements of working class political

economy.

awakening working class but it would clearly be premature to write-off his contribution to the future evolution of the Soviet system.

ao

ar Gust

————“‘—=é‘“Oéf‘OW;”tCd Poll Tax

Twelve arrests

At6am on 2ist June, six flats on the Holmleigh Road Estate in Stamford Hill, Hackney, were raided by police. In all cases, doors were smashed in and the occupants were confronted by screaming riot police wielding axes and gas canisters. Personal belongings were turned over during a “search”, and telephones were ripped out of the wall. One flat was totally ransack-

ducts ripped open.

By Peter Chowney Hackney South and Stoke Newington CLP

In another flat, occupied by a young couple with a ten day old baby, the woman was surrounded by four male police officers and not allowed to dress, nor to pick up her baby.

Meanwhile, her partner was taken outside and beaten up, in front of astonished neighbours.

A few days later, a second raid took place elsewhere in Hackney and another arrest was made.

Police were at first reluctant to divulge the purpose of this extraordinarily violent operation, initially claiming that it was to “evict squatters”, although the flats were a mixture of long term squats, co-ops, and Council tenancies.

Charges made varied from theft of a traffic cone (found in the flat) to criminal damage.

Press reports varied too: some newspapers claiming that the arrests were in connection with Animal Liberation Front activities.

It soon emerged that all the arrests were made in connection with the Trafalgar ‘Square Poll Tax demonstration, and were based on police photographic

« evidence.

None of this evidence has

yet been produced, and even

ITO: Tom Loueas

in Hackney

Police in Trafalgar Square on March 31st: “gloves off” tactics start here!

the police solicitor admitted that he had not seen it.

All those arrested were members of Hackney Solidarity Group, a local anarchist organisation which has been active and very hard working in organising Anti-Poll Tax Unions, as part of Hackney Against the Poll Tax Federation.

Coincidentally, they had also organised a picket of the opening ceremony for Stoke Newington police station, due to be attended by Home Secretary David Waddington on the day the arrests took place.

Hackney Solidarity Group wasted no time in arranging legal representation and a picket of Bow Street Magistrates’ Court the following morning.

Of the eleven arrested, ten were allowed bail of £1,000 each. However, one was remanded in custody due to the “seriousness” of the charge — assaulting a police officer during the arrest.

Predictably, this was the one who had been dragged from his bed and beaten up outside his flat.

After suffering five daysin remand this case was reviewed by a judge in chambers, and bail of £6,000 was allowed.

-Hackney Solidarity Group knew they had been under

surveillance for some time. Odd people, very obviously police officers, had been prowling around the estate for several weeks.

One woman even came

and sat on a wall in the estate leafing through a photograph album!

Two weeks before the raids, flats had been entered by “electricity board officials” looking for “illegal” electricity fittings — no search warrant is needed for this.

Nevertheless, HSG are concerned by the detailed knowledge which police had of those they intended to arrest, including full names and detailed background information.

In one case, police even knew that one of those arrested lived with his twin brother — whom they didn’t want.

The role of Hackney Council in all this must be questioned. HSG believe police had access to a flat on the estate, which would not be the first time Hackney Council has allowed police to use flats for surveillance purposes.

Hackney Against the Poll Tax Federation, Hackney Solidarity Group, and Hackney Community Defence Association (a local group set up to help the dozens of people assaulted and wrong-

fully arrested by Hackney police) are: organising support for the “Stamford Hill Twelve”.

There will be a picket of Bow Street court when the cases are heard on July 13th, at 10.00am.

The broader implications of these raids are very disturbing indeed.

In many ways, those arrested at Holmleigh Road were lucky, belonging to a well organised radical political group that cares about its members.

But without some nifty legal footwork, at least one of them would be on remand. And without £16,000 sureties, all of them would be.

A successful campaign to

guarantee the failure of these |

completely artificial charges is Just a first step — action will then be needed to ensure such police thuggery is exposed and stopped.

To Hackney police, this may be just another raid — but the terrifying brutality with which such raids are now routinely carried out is an indication of the way any kind of dissent is handled in Thatcher’s Britain.

If Hackney police are allowed to get away with these Securitate-style tactics, it will surely catch on. None of usin the Anti-Poll Tax movement ‘van be safe.

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COUNCILLORS AGAINST THE POLL TAX

CAPT supports the fight of NALGO activists to step up the Union’s opposition and action against the Poll Tax.

We plan to hold a national conference on

Saturday July 28th.

We say:

1. The Poll Tax is an unfair and unjust tax imposed on local people against the wishes of the majority.

2. The Poll Tax is a tax which shifts the burden of local taxation from those most able to pay to those least able to pay.

3. The Poll Tax is a continuation of Tory attacks on local democracy combined with other legislation such as privatisation, the Housing Act, and the Education Act. It starves local government of funds and undermines its ability to provide desperately needed services,

4. As local Councillors, elected to defend the interests of our communities, we are not prepared to be part of an attack on those communities.

5. We refuse to pay the Poll Tax and we stand alongside the millions of people in Scotland, England and Wales who simply cannot, or will not, pay.

6. We refuse: rt punitive action against

benefit arrestments, for bailiffs, ee imprisonment of non-payers.We oppose disciplinary” action against Council employees taking industrial action to oppose the tax. " We will fight it cuts in local jobs and

We demand the return of the £40 billion stolen from local government by central government over the last 11 years. Any shortfall in Council revenue due to non-payment should be made up from central government funds.

8. We protest at the enormous powers given to non-elected Council officers to determine Council expenditure and policies through the imposition of Section 114 of the Local Government Finance Act (1988).

9. Above all, we will support the non-payment movement and action taken by trade unionists to disrupt the collection of the Poll Tax, and campaign alongside them to defeat this hated tax.

Contact: Steve French, 56 Ashby House,

Brixton, London SW9 7SL. 071-733 3403.

WE’RE NOT PAYING THE POLL TAX!

Neil Kinnock is trying to drive the anti-Poll Tax campaign out of the Labour Party. Labour Party Socialists believes the thousands of Labour Party members who are not paying must come out in the open. Rush in bulk orders for the new LPS badge for your ward, trade union branch, Anti-Poll Tax Union, etc. Wear

your badge with pride! (And don’t pay!)

Send your name, address and order to: Labour Party Socialists (Poll Tax Badge), 11 Springfield Road, London N15 4AY.

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