Labour Briefing no. 33

INSIDE

@Les Huckfield on Knowsley

@ John Macreadie interview

@ Education

@ IRELAND

@ Debate on feminism

@ Health struggles @Visa scandal

prtinGaste coo!

The Queen’s speech on November 12 announced Tory proposals to force local councils to put a range of services out for tender.

Council employees will have to compete for their own jobs against cut-throat private firms: the idea is to force down wages, axe jobs and break up union

organisation among over 1 KeepitPublic. million local government workers while carving up

lucrative contracts among the Tories’ pals.

‘The services involved include the dust, street cleaning, cleaning buildings, catering and maintenance of parks and of vehicles.

This move follows over two years of competitive tendering for ancillary services in the NHS, which has led to the loss of thosands of jobs and massive cuts in hours and wages for lowpaid largely female workforce at the expense of plunging standards of patient care.

Alll the policies for fighting this type of privatisation are

The Government wants to use British Gas to cook

John Smith IFL

we about to be put to the test, after a year in which Neil Kinnock’s rightward evol has brought:

at:

@ Escalaton A cascade of

supposedly privatisation w

successionof U-turns by unions (most recently NUPE, headed by Tom Sawyet) now agreeing to participate in drawing up “in-house’’ tenders.

Each of these developments points away from any cosordinated — fight —_ against privatis

John Chapman

Ignoring the isolation which brought defeat for the ratecapping fight and the heroic strug-

and other hospi strikes against pri i line of all the trade union and

Labour leaders is to argue;

@ The rate-capping campaign

“showed the — futi of challenging the government and

“should be a

© Privatisation fought on

local rather than a

national basis”

vicious in attacking present con- no By Dave Benlow ditions. This has frequently proved the case in NHS tender-

compliance wth legistation, in any form. If the Tories atack individual

nts should be this “responsible”

leaders —_ negotiate

fattsson/Frame

told not to act like Tory auctioneers for council jobs, but to joint the fight for pul

asonable”? terms with employers (at the expense of cuts in their members’ jobs, wages and conditions).

will make it impossible for the direct labour force to compete ‘on equal terms with private contractors.

ing,where many in-house contracts have been won on terms so bad that existing staff leave and new staff cannot be found.

authorities, then public. sector unions and labour coun across the country must back.

services,

In Tory boroughs, the antiprivatisation campaign must be stepped up, with closer

John Edmonds, GMBATU

able goal of preventing

Many allegedly “left wing” The Queen's speech helps So where is the ‘middle Campaigns, involving monitoring of the contractors, privatisation before the next councils have made this worse _ clarify this point: the Tories will ground" now? It has long since councillors, local government closer links with users, and élection, and electing a Labour by using the tendering process in only allow councils to accept the disappeared. If public services and other unions, Labour exploiting the series of fiascoes government,

the past to award contracts to direct labour, creating real confusion.

In fact the new Tory legislation — learning the lessons of the “pilot run” in the NHS —

wage cuts and redundancies suggested by the unions if no private firm can be found offering to do the job cheaper!

The only “‘successful’” inhouse bids. wil be the most

and jobs are to be defended, this must mean a fight by unions and by coun

Labour authorities must close ranks and insist as a starting point upon 2 comon policy of

Parties, tenants and other user goups are urgently needed in each area to work on plans for defending and improving servies without worsened conditions. Labour councillors must be

in NHS tendering to back up their case.

These initiatives should all form part of a major national campaign by the — labour movement aimed not only at the

It must also ensure that whatever Labour government does take office, it does not dare to duck the restoration of all privatised services to the public sector.

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 2

Home News

PHOTO: David Hoffman

Heathrow airport, October 1986. Bengalis question Asian man who has just arrived 48 hours in

Immigration.

Though the cabinet decided on September 1 that visa restrictions would be imposed, it was not until October 6th that any date was set for the start of the new rules. Visitors from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were given a mere 8 days notice that the regulations would commence on October 14th: written details of the new arrangement were —_—not. circulated for another few days. 3 People in Britain expecting visits from relatives, and Asian people wishing to visit Britain had been left in complete uncertainty, and then faced a sudden announcement of minent and unknown restrictions. misinformation and _ stony silences, many people brought

By Harry Sloan

forward their holidays and even paid black market prices for air tickets in order to beat the deadline and avoid the restrictions. British residents who are Indian, Pakistani or Bangladesh nationals cut short holidays in Asia for fear of not being permitted to return here.

The atmosphere of panic, the increase in last minute journeys and the concern of relatives here to ensure the safe arrival and entry of travellers combined to create the crush and chaos of Heathrow from October 11th onwards.

This havoc was not the result of any uncontrolled tide

Private medicine

By Geoff Martin Merton councillor

Take a trip down to Guy's Hospital South East London any day of the week and talk to rank and file health workers and the story you'll hear is one of ward closures, overworked staff and of a service teetering on the brink of collapse. Cross over the road and the picture is one of a class divide so stark-and so obscene it will take your breath away. For here, in what used to be a docklands grain warehouse, is the new

private. London _ Bridge Hospital. The irony is particularly

galling for those of us who have roots in London's decklands. It’s the ultimate two fingers to the organised working class systematically to destroy the London docks and turn them into a symbol of wealth and privilege.

Private medicine is a parasite which leeches off the NHS in teims ofynicking staff and in allowing ‘consultants, surgeons, etc., to line their pockets whilst our people are dying on hospital waiting lists.

But private medicine is also very much a part of the strategy of trying to draw those who've got jobs and a bit of money in their pockets into becoming division four capitalists, It’s part of the same strategy as flogging off Telecom, British

Gas, etc. Private medical insurance, no matter how limited, is being sold in the same

way as washing machines and compact disc players.

Private medical treatment is no longer aimed simply at the rich. Pensioners have blown their life savings on a hip replacement operations because they couldn’t face the prospect of three years of agony on the NHS waiting list.

‘These are our people, not the merchant bankers of the City of London who take _ private medicine for granted. This is the really sinister side of private

medicine and it’s one that’s already taken root

The socialist simple:

@ the performance of private medicince should be outlawed and made a criminal offence;

@all private hospitals and clinies should be taken uner the wing of the National Health Service without compensation;

@private nursing homes should also be commandeered and where the facilities are usable they should be handed over to Local Authority Social Service departments.

response is

This solution may well appear simplistic but 1 challenge anyone to prove that it’s

unworkable, It could also be a massive vote winner providing that it’s linked to a substani injection of cash into the NH! and programme of work on refurbishing existing hospitals and the building of new ones where necessary.

So next time you see that BUPA advert with the little kids stacking up the building blocks for every new private hospital don’t get the hump, just remember that every’ new hospital they build is another one that we can nationalise

Don't get too excited about Chancellor Lawson's electioneering decision to hand out an extra £600m for health spending. Prior to his announcement, the far from radical National Association of Health Authorities had argued an extra £650m would be needed next year just to stand still and avoid further cuts in the face of rising demand for health services from an ageing population.

Many health authorities hae already dug themselves into huge financial deficits which would consume the whole of their share of the extra cash and still force major cutbacks.

The £50m allocated to reduce waiting list figures spread over 200 health

manner to use maximum distress. and confusion.

The subsequent deadline for viasa restrictions on from Ghana went by without any comparable disturbance — because the 24-hour notice given by Douglas Hurd ensured that the tide ot suffering was contained at Ghanaian airports: sufficient had by then been done to stoke the fires of racism.

(information from _JCWI, 115 Old St, London EC1)

Gutter press “visa’’ coverage

The Liars!

By Terry Smith

The Tory election campaign will not only exploit share issues, tax cuts and anti-Soviet

hysteria: it also

depends upon stoking

up the fires of racism which have always played a central role in Thatcher's campaigns.

Hurd’s brutal on of visa regulations upon visitors to Britain from the Indian subcontinent offered the

Tories an each-way bet:

@by denying visitors without visas any opportunity to come to Britain, they eliminated many of the embarrassing exposures by MPs of racist practices against black visitors arriving at Heathrow and other points of entry and denied those excluded any right of appeal;

@by triggering a panic surge in numbers of visitors — through the device of announcing a date for the new regulations while doing nothing to inform people of their rights — the Tories created the huge queues and dramatic scenes at Heathrow which triggered a predictable wave of fanatical racist hatemongering in the tabloid press.

This is turn created fresh confusion and tides of ignorant prejudice among sections of the white electorate.

Of course. the scab muckrakers of The Sun led the pack of gutter journalists attempting to foment hatred against the innocent men, women and children who had been deliberately herded like cattle into delays, expense and acute discomfort for the “crime of seeking to. visit their relations in Britain before the Tory gate swung shut.

The tabloids, despite their anti-Communism, bat not an eyelid at the arbitrary, cynical imposition of visa restrictions which are as repressive as those for any Stalinst state, against a section of people chosen purely because their black skin makes them easy targets of racial hatred,

Despite their hostility to public spend it the tabloids do not stop even for an instant to query the £14m extra expense of administering the new visa system, compared to the relatively simple and cheap expedient of increasing staffing at Heathrow

Nor indeed do the racist immigration staff at the Immigration Service Union, so often quoted by The Sun and other gutter tabloids make any call for an increase in staffing.

Instead they have consistently helped fuel the tide of ignorant prejudice by demands for tighter restrictions on black‘ visitors.

Though the banner headlines may have susbsided, the Tory initiative has stirred up a ready pool of racism, keeping the issue bubbling beneath the surface.

There is little sign however of Labour's Parliamentary leadership of 15 white men being prepared to make the immediate repeal of this rule and other racist legislation part of their insipid grey election campaign.

The irony is, of course, that for all her efforts to exploit racism, and despite the enactment of the Nationality Act, Thatcher has not felt any need to amend the basic restrictive law on Im i

the 1971 Act, whi shamefully left "intact and implemented by the last Labour government.

Black and white activists fighting racism have no option but to campaign for a Labour victory — but they have no choice but to fight at the same time within the — labour movement against a -wretched tradition of accommodation to racism, and for their demands to be given priority by a future Labour government

Viraj Mendis must stay! ©

By Kate Adams Hackney North CLP

For 2 years the Viraj Mendis Defence Campaign have fought to save Viraj from deportation to Sri Lanka.

Early in November after all avenues had been exhausted an eleventh hour postcard campaign was. launched to bombard David Waddington with messages supporting Viraj’s right to stay. A weekly protest outside the Home Office has been organised. It has been very vocal and well attended and the CPSA Home Office Branch have joined in solidarity.

Viraj came to Manchester to study 13 years ago. When he ran out of money and could not renew his student visa Viraj was forced to work to continue his studies. Exposed to the racism and intolerable working conditions experienced by many migrant workers, Viraj was politicised by. these experiences and as a revolutionary communist has fought many — successful

campaigns against deportation. In this sense Viraj Mendis poses a severe threat to the Home Office.

Their campaign against him began in

1984 when the

authorities, is unlikely to be noticed by patients.

oo0o0o0000

Of the £626m ‘new money” announced by Lawson, no less than £390 is already earmarked to cover inflation expected to run at 3.75% next year. Another £94m is immediately swallowed up by the government's underfunding of the latest pay awards.

In factonly £102m extr: cash is included in the package

ind this to be spread acros: 200 health i

300-400 health workers and campaigners. — including a strong contingent from the Hangers strike — turned out on

Manchester Police visited Viraj information that he was an overstayer. Since then Viraj has suffered a barrage of abuse and intimidation from the Home Office, Police and DHSS. He has appealed against the decision to deport him on the grounds that because of political opposition to the fascist regime in Sri Lanka he will face

Health round-up"

a working day to support the national demonstration called by COHSE on November 10. The march — from the DHSS headquarters at Elephant and

Castle to the Maudsley psychiatric hospital. in Camberwell — had — been

campaigned for by Maudsley workers and focussed primarily upon health cuts in London. However, the turn-out from London " branches —_was embarrassingly small and the event was saved from fiasco only by strong contingents of militant members from Yorkshire and Newcastle. COHSE’s insistence that the march had to be under their own banners and control allowed NUPE, GMBU and ASTMS to ignore what might

detention and quite possibly death. The Home Office adjudicator rejected the appeal on the grounds that Sri Lanka is a democracy where the rule of law applies.

A report from Amnesty International in 1985 shows evidence to the contrary. It documents the kill torture of Tamil people by the police and army with many

eye witness accounts.

Britain has enormous economic interests in Sri Lanka through the Tea Trade and major companies like IC! Lloyds, Pearl Assurance. Britain has a defence agreement with Sri Lanka dating back to 1948 and has supplied military aid to assist atacks on Tamil towns. The British Government's appalling treatment of Tamil Refugees refusing them the right to stay and detaining them is further confirmation of Britain's support for Sri Lanka.

Viraj Mendis’s fight against deportation is representative of a broader struggle against racism and imperialism. It is very important that we support this struggle on both levels. by opposing all immigration controls. _ and deportations and by giving assistance to the Viraj Mendis Defence Campaign. Viraj Mendis’s MP Bob Litherand is to meet David Waddington in a last attempt to appeal against his imminent deporation.

In the meantime support the Campaign by:

@ attending the Home Office protest each Friday 1-2pm at Queen Anne’s Gate, SW1 — St James Park tubs

@order postcards _ from

VMDC London Support Group, c/o BM Box 5905, London WC1N 3XX;

@invite speakers to your Labour branches.

Party and union

otherwise have been a substantial focus for opposition to Tory health cuts.

London health districts, already facing cuts totalling £210m in real terms since 1982, and further cuts of £135m facing London’s 30 health districts by 1994 have been allocated a mere £30m extra.

In the hope of buying votes, Lawson and pals intend to forge ahead with a further stage in the. rundown of the NHS: a two-tier service providing a “‘skid row’’ fallback for the poor while

pushing everyone __—else towards private medical insurance.

Hospital workers staged a 24 hour sit in at Rhiwfelin Hospital near Pontypridd, after the shock announcement that it will close by December 31st to save Mid Glamorgan Health authority £160,000

COHSE branch members believe that Rhiwfelin, a 28 bed long stay geriatric hospital, has been singled out for closure because of the successful 9 month campaign to save the nearby Pontypridd Cottage Hospital

Campaigners are particularly concerned about Rhiwfelin patients, some of whom have been at Rhiwfelin for over 20

years.

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 3

Editorial

Not the way to win!

The electorate in Knowsley North have delivered their verdict on George Howarth and Neil | Kinnock’s brand of “‘socialism’’. When compared with the thumping majority which should have been achieved, it was a damning indictment.

It now appears certain that the Labour

Party in Knowsley North will be suspended.

Their crime? The heinous offence of daring to insist on their right to choose their own parliamentary zandidate as against the

candidate imposed upon them by the National Executive Committee.

Indeed, the casual observer might be forgiven for thinking that what happened in Knowsley North was a farce rather than a byelection. The Labour candidate flat on his back in hospital, the local Labour Party refusing to canvass for him, while the Party leader insisted that everyone was united.

Unfortunately, many of us did not feel like laughing. The Knowsley North debacle is yet another episode in the vicious witch-hunt —_ prosecuted by Neil Kinnock. The imposition of a candidate on a constituency for no other reason than that the

Party leader doesn’t like the CLP’s own likely choice, strikes at the roots of democracy in the Labour Party. It is now abundantly clear that Neil Kinnock will stop at nothing in his attempt to re-mould Labour policies so that they are acceptable to the ruling class.

Every source of opposition, and therefore embarassment, to the leadership is being eliminated. The Young Socialists have come under vicious attack in the guise of “‘re-structuring” because of the influence of Militant in the YS; the Women’s Organisation has frequently supported left demands. They are now faced with a consultation process designed to rid them of

what little power they have.

The expulsions of Party members continue apace. It is no longer Militant supporters alone. Under the allembracing term ‘‘bringing the Party into disrepute’ the witch-hunt has now extended to leading members of Black Sections (Amir Khan), Labour Committee on Ireland (Kevin Scally) and the European Parliament (Les Huckfield). We warned that this kind of thing would happen.

The right wing, of course, continues to ignore Party policy with impunity. We are told that the new Constitutional Committee, which will act as an appeals court, will demand a hefty time commitment from its

Knowsley North and the right to choose

Because they fought for -

their right to choose their own Parliamentary Candidate, Knowsley North CLP now faces disbanding and expulsions.

This is not the first time they have had an imposed MP:

‘@When they embarked on their re-selection last year, the process was suspended, and the main left contender, Mulhearn, expelled. _@When for a third time — following Kilroy-Silk’s defection to Fortress Wapping and the BBC — they had almost completed the process, despite

7-7 -------- 7-9

\Trade Unionists for 1Democracy in Knowsley

i North

I chair: Dave Kerr (GMBATU) | Secretary: Alan Kelly (TGWU)

I Trade Unionists for democracy in Knowsley North is a

[ group of rank and file trade unionists who are fighting to raise funds to pay for the legal costs we have

I! incurred in the struggle for democracy. It has cost us

up to £14,000 to date.

I As you are probably aware, the NEC of the Labour

1 Party imposed a candidate in the Knowsley North byelection. We strongly believe that every CLP has the

[ight to choose their own candidate.

VAn Appeal to the Labour Movement!

I Knowsley North has never been allowed to select its j OWN candidate. In 1983, Robert Kilroy-Silk was

imposed upon us by the NEC. In 1986, as well as Texcluding L. Huckfield, 4 other people who had [received nomination were excluded from selection. | Your own CLP could be next!

I Resolutions.., Get your Labour Party and trade union [ branches to send resolutions to the NEC condemning [the attack made on democracy in Knowsley North.

[Please send donations to: Mrs | Rowe, Treasurer, Trade Unionists for Democracy in Knowsley North, 12

[linsdale Crescent, Northwood Kirkby, Liverpool.

[Please make cheques payable to Trade Unionists for Democracy in Knowsley North. A receipt will be sent

Tho all contributors.

{Defend Democracy! |Support Knowsley North!

De paca al cn fe ae oe ee

Tony

I What you can do to help us

We need money urgently... Please do all you can to |

ensure that your CLP or trade union branch makes a I donation. Copies of our appeal leaflet are available [from the Secretary, 7 Hall Dr., Kirkby, Liverpool. [Speakers will be provided on request.

Joyce Gould’s previous promise that there would be a proper selection, once more, the NEC stepped in.

During this latest selection, despite stories of open discouragement from Labour Party officials, I received 27 nominations, including 7 out of the 10 wards, and 14 out of 16 of the TGWU branches.

There were no complaints from within Knowsley North about this year’s selection process. So.on September 24th, the

NEC ed to set up an Inquiry into a “pr ‘which 1 was

not to return to the of

Commons; the circumstances in which I was supposed to have

he a a at es ce cs Sas es sc ce se a SS SS SS SS

By Les Huckfield, MEP

Secured my “release”” from this promise; “the effect of this on my standing with the Knowsley North electorate; and matters surrounding my sponsorship from the TGWU. Ample evidence proved that all these

accusations were without foundation, : These “‘complaints’” had

come from CLPs within the Merseyside East Euro Constituency, though they had never ‘been bri fficers or

een brought to its of its meetings. Most delegates from these CLPs — Wigan,

Leigh, Makerfield — had never attended a Euro CLP meeting since the Selection Conference of January 19th 1984.

From the start, Knowsley North CLP maintained that the relevance of these complaints was a matter for the Knowsley North Selection Conference and not the NEC.

When the Inquiry Team at short notice turned up to hear evidence in the constituency on Monday, October 13th, a total of 17 of our supporters. were turned away. It was only after I had. threatened to withdraw, unless they were heard, that Ken Cure returned by himself. So though the complete Inquiry team had heard alll the evidence presented against us, only he had heard the evidence for us!

69 out of 118 delegates to the Euro Constituency signed the following statement which was presented to. the NEC:

“We are satisfied with the running of Merseyside East Constituency Labour Party.

“We always receive proper notice of the meetings of Merseyside East CLP, especially that of August 22nd, and are in agreement with the action taken at that meeting.

“We do not believe that Les Huckfield has ‘broken any pro- "he may have given about seeking for a Westminster Constituency

“We believe that he should be allowed to stand for Knowsley North,”

In the face of this wealth of factual evidence presented to them, the NEC resolved that I had given an undertaking; that the meeting to “release” me from it was irregular; and that under Clause IX (4) of the Party

Consitution, giving the NEC powers to adjudicate in disputes, that I should ‘*not be fuither considered for nomination as Labour. Party Candidate in the forthcoming by-election in Knowsley North.””

Knowsley — North __ were ‘advised’? 10 select George

Howarth as their candidate. In pursuance of the NEC’s powers under Clause IX (4) to adjudicate upon the dispute which they claimed had arisen “within the constituency machinery in Knowsley North CLP ( shown by the unanimous resolution of the Knowsley Park Branch of 14 October 1986) in the event of the EC of Knowsley North not acting upon the advice of the NEC, then George Howarth is endorsed as the Labour Party Candidate for the _ by-election.” Even the “Constituency Party did not know there was a dispute on! ‘The Constituency and I went jointly to the High Court on October 23rd. Mr Justice Hoffman said that the NEC’s powers were “arguable”. The rules were not clear. However, deciding on the valance of conyenience”’, he said that even if he ‘granted an injunction against the NEC, he would be throwing the Labour campaign into disarray without doing me or my supporters much good’’, for I would still have to receive the endorsement of the NEC, and that“‘appeared a most unlikely prospect."’

By moving the By-Election Writ with the tightest possible timetable in the Commons while we were in Court, the NEC obviously hoped to reduce the scope for further legal action.

An angry. CLP endorsed further court proceedings by 58 votes to 9 on Sunday afternoon, October 26, and were back in the High Court, asking fora

Capitalism’s human face?

members — up to two days a week!

It seems that a wider purge of Party membership is being prepared, so that the Labour Party can be ‘‘cleansed”’ in time for the general election and emerge sparkling clean and moderate.

The left must stand firm in the face of these attacks. We must unite in opposition to all witch hunts and in support of the rights of CLPs to select their own candidates. Most crucial of all, we must continue to fight for socialist policies as against Kinnock and Hattersley’s ‘‘capitalism with a human face’’. We will not win elections by attempting to persuade the electorate that we can manage

speedy trial on the NEC's powers, on Monday morning, October 27. Again, Mr Justice Hoffman ruled that, even if the NEC had been wrong, and the CLP went ahead with its Selection Conference planned on Sunday November 2nd, they would still have to face the NEC. He said that “‘endorsing a different candidate would to say the least make the Labour Party look extremely foolish.””

On the afternoon of October 27th, in the Court of Appeal, Master of the Rolls, Lord

George Howarth on the doorstep.

capitalism better than the capitalists. Similarly, we will not win any victories by over-riding the wishes of local Parties. To believe that we will, is to treat the working class with contempt.

Even Neil Kinnock couldn’t stop some people voting Labour in Knowsley — although he had a good try. Labour won Knowsley North because the most loyal of our supporters were given’ no alternative. This was no victory for socialism. We must continue the fight for our class which we will have to wage if and when a Labour government is elected.

Les Huckfield

Donaldson, and Lord Chief Justice Dillon ruled against the CLP, relying - on Justice Hoffman's contention that it was most unlikely that the NEC would change its endorsement They seemed reluctant to be accused of interference in the internal affairs of the Labour Party.

So, though the Justices gave good hint that the NEC’s case was thin, Knowsley North's case was never heard. The CLP still believes that the Party’s rules give it the right to choose.

PHOTO: Labour Party Photo Library

PHOTO: John Harris (IFL)

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 4

Trade Union Briefing

Durham

strikes

By Ed Fredenburgh NJ£MC, ex-officio

The Durham Mechanics are spearheading a revival of militancy amongst the NUM rank and file, by carrying out a_ rolling programme of one-day strikes at selected pits each week throughout the area.

They decided on a 2 to 1 ballot to strike:

@for the reinstatement of Mechanic Geoff Hartwell and all the sacked miners;

to force the Coal Board to pay back the money stolen from the miners;

@to restore the industry's conciliation machinery;

@to stop the closure of Seaham colliery

The separate Durham NUM Area reacted to the Mechanics decision with a two-thirds majority in their own ballot, to ban all mid-week overtime. (South Wales has been operating a production-only overtime ban for 3 months.)

The strikes by Durham Mechanics began on September 22nd at Murton Colliery, and the picket line was respected by 100% of

NUM members and 90% of UDM members! Dave Temple,

delegate from Murton, Mechanics, wrote in Workers’ Press:

"Two mini-bus loads of police were quickly rushed to the scene but in the absence of the huge numbers they were accustomed to, they were forced to take the taunts and jibes of the pickets and could only passively appeal for ‘common sense’ to prevail “The atmosphere was further electrified as wives, girl-friends and well-wishers joined the men on the gate and stayed talking till the small hours of Monday morning... Not a defeatist soul to be seen." Subsequent strikes at Westall and —_Tursdale Workshops, with _ higher numbers or percentages. of UDM, were in that sense alone even more successful Mechanics secretary Billy Etherington has proposed at several public meetings that other areas need to consider spreading the Mechanics’ action in the fight to defend the union and the industry. How this can be achieved, particularly in Areas with weaker organisation and leadership than Durham, is a major task facing the NUM.

Polmaise:

Victimised miners

By Rowland Sheret Chair, Central Region Miners’ Support Group

During the miners’ strike, four Polmaise men — Alex McCallum, James O'Hare, James Graham and James Rennie — went down the pit to prevent it being sabotaged by flooding. They were all sacked on the spot.

Between them these four miners have 96 years service with the Coal Board. They are now “time-barred’’ from an Industrial Tribunal hearing.

Elsewhere in Scotland, Bogside was flooded just before the strike started, and Polkemmet flooded during the strike. There can be no doubt that the survival of Polmiase is very much due to the courageous action of these

four men.

Five other Polmi miners, with a total service of 127 years between them, remain sacked. Four of them are also ‘‘timebarred’’ from a_ tribunal hearing. The other lost his tribunal case.

Frank Weston, the oldest of the sacked Polmaise miners, died this year of cancer. He had 44 years service in the coal industry and remained sacked at his death.

The victimised men await the outcome of a further review of th cases by the Coal Board, which is taking place now. Meanwhile, the labour movement must continue to fight for the reinstatement of all sacked miners — we cannot forget their struggle for jobs, for their communities, for the future of their industry.

PHOTO: Wayne Edginton

Saturday November 8th sa people march through fee winds four miles to the Wharf at Flixborough.

The Yorkshire Area of AntiApartheid and the Yorkshire Area of the NUM — were protesting against the landing of South African coal.

These unregistered _ ports brought in scab coal throughout the miners’ strike and today are bringing coal covered in the

The Justice for Mineworkers Campaign, now 1 year old, has set. up — regional

in the North East, North West, Notts, Yorks, West Midlands, South Wales, and eyen the South West.

It has now — at last — a ~South East Region, stretching from Oxford to London, to Brighton to Kent,

Billy Etherington, NJMC national convenor, said at its launch meeting

“This campaign must try to do what the NUM has been unable to do because of its industrial weakness. The NUM has not been able to carry out @ national policy of defending its members. The Coal Board and the state have carried out a classic divide and rule strategy: and so the NJMC has been necessary and successful. The South East can form the biggest and most powerful region of the campaign.””

Terry Harrison, speaking for Kent NUM, outlined the stark realities facing Kent mine still victimised, Terry Fitch still in jail, Tilmanstone voting to accept closure. “This vote has eroded our confidence in ourselves and = in our

NUM and Anti-Apartheid banners on the march

No South African coal

By Garth Frankland Leeds councillor

blood of South African miners,

Daye Douglas from the EC of the Yorkshire area of the NUM stressed the solidarity of the Yorkshire Miners for the struggle in South Africa. He declared the revolution had begun and that the “fascist

Soto

regime’ of Botha was on the run, This theme was echoed by rom Women Again: ‘Hosures and —Anti-

no plans were for any effective f the South African Coal coming into this country. This must be one of the themes for the December 13th Conference for Trade Union Sanctions on South Africa.

By Garth Frankland SCPS, British Library

The Society of Civil and Public

Servants, British Library Document Supply Centre branch, has passed a

resolution for the continuation of the boycotting of requests from South Africa.

The Centre is South Africa's leading source of information on high technology areas such as electronics and electrooptics as well as atomic energy. The boycott, opposed by the management, has not yet had complete success but information has slowed down considerably.

The National Executive of the SCPS has given complete support to the branch and hopefully the boycott will get more successful.

South East takes off

_—<—<——<—<—<—<——_—_—_—

By Ed Fredenburgh NJfMC, ex-officio

organisation,” he said. “Profitability is not the issue. Rather it is that the Coal Board wants British coal to compete with South African coal, and also with nuclear power: hence - significance of the decision which will axe ers’ jobs and 3,000 He asked bitterly what had happened to our trade union and labour movement. “We are in a different reality to the ‘60s and ‘70s. Our ‘movement must be rebuilt, a ‘movement that can inspire workers’ confidence. It was lack of this confidence in the movement that led to the aceptance of Tilmanstone’s closure.’” Now miners are being interviewed for Restart at the Kent Job Centres. The next major focus is the NJMC’s second national demonstration and_ rally in London, on March 7th, which will be ‘followed by a major Heroes concert at_ Wembley (thanks to £4,500 sponsorship from Brent Council). ictimised miners —_are available to speak at meetings. Contact the London Miners Office, c/o Hammersmith Unemployed Workers Centre, 190 Shepherds Bush Road, London W6; phone 01 603

Polmaise, story of a Scottish pit

By Rowland Sheret

Scottish Labour Briefing

Polmaise colliery, near Stirling, has struggled for years ‘against management's _ closure plans. It has stayed open, despite everything, but the fight is far from over.

1979 NUM & NCB agreed to stop existing production and begin a £22m new development which would link the pit to the Longannet complex.

1983, July Albert Wheeler, NCB Scottish Area Manager, locked out

the workforce during a dispute. After arbitration, the Polmaise miners won

£40,000 in back pay covering the lock-out period.

1983, October With £15,.8m of the

development funds already spent, the two new tunnels met with faults. Wheeler ordered work to cease pending = an investigation.

1984, January Wheeler orders closure of Polmaise

colliery. Workforce goes on strike and are already out when national strike begins in March.

1985, October Coal Board allows development work at Polmaise to resume. Within days the faults are cleared.

Since the end of the strike, early retirement has led to cutbacks in the workforce. Investment restrictions mean that only one mine at a time can be worked on. Nonetheless, it

is already obvious that vast coal reserves are available in the Polmaise and Longannet complex. The low sulphur content of this coal could help reduce acii pollution from power stations.

In the interests of the miners of Polmaise, the illage of Fallen in which is located, and the entire Scottish Central Region economy, we are continuing our campaign for more investment and more productive jobs at

Hangers’ contingent on November 10th COHSE demo

J.E. Hangers

By Kathy Pick Wandsworth councillor, Putney CLP

Hanger’s 300 sacked art limbmakers have entered the third month of their dispute with __ the management of this BTR subsidiary at Roehampton.

Management had_ increased productivity levels in September with no consultation with the two main unions — TASS and FTAT. TGWU shop stewards were sacked when they informed the weekend shift of a union meeting’s decision to ban overtime.

All the workers voted to go on a one-day stoppage the following day in support of the four sacked men, on September 17th. 14. hours later, 300 dismissal notices were served — even to workers on holiday.

Workers at branches in Dundee, Oxford, Brighton and Richmond have been threatened with dismissal if they come out in support of their sacked comrades or even if they refused to handle the 500 limbs which were transported up to them by scab labour. Members of ASTMS are using Rule 27 which says not to do the sacked men’s work, but are still crossing the picket line.

Two offers have been made by management recently. The first gave 80 men their jobs back at a lower wage, a few men jobs at Dundee (and to be bussed home on weekends to be with their families) — and the rest to receive redundancy pay of £130 per year for each year worked with a maximum of 20 years. The second offer just removed the maximum limit. The dispute has recently gone to ACAS. TASS and FTAT are standing firm that all 300 workers are reinstated.

These men are highly skilled and were producing 500 limbs a week, about 55% of the UK artificial limb production. Patients are experiencing delays and being shifted around the country by ambulance without

Polmaise.

being told of the true

5 ii g 5 Fy 6 8 2 é

‘implications of this dispute. The disastrous effect upon patients was highlighted last week in the national press when one man attempted suicide due to delays and one Welsh policeman had to wait in hospital be are no limbs ava sacked workers thems artificial limbs.

Attempts to get the Hanger dispute discussed seriously on Wandsworth — Cour have failed. The Tories believe the Council shouldn't be involved in this dispute regardless of the facts that it is the largest “manufacturer in the Borough ‘and also the largest private employer :

The recent McColl Report has caused the JE Hanger management to set up the London School of Prosthetics where, interestingly enough, one Wandsworth —_ Tory Councillor works. In fact, 1 understand that the London School of Prosthetics will be receiving a DHSS contract in the new year which in the past would have gone to JE Hanger’s. Both Dr Hiddleston and Stan East are on the Board of Directors of Hanger’s and the London School of Prosthetics, which is located next to Hanger’s, Roehampton, and fully funded by Hanger’s.

BTR, which is now being picketed by the sacked Hanger workers, is one of the major UK employers in South Africa and caused worldwide outrage when they sacked 920 workers and when pickets were shot on the picket line last summer.

A Women’s Support Group has been set up by some of the wives, girlfriends and mothers of the men in dispute. Some 30 women attended the launch meeting when Yorkshire Women Against Pit Closures and SOGAT Women from Wapping shared their experiences

‘An all-women’s picket has been called, in addition to the round the clock pickets held at Roehampton and Richmond

Messages of support and donations to S. Blease, The Hangers Strike Appeal, ¢/o TASS, Wessex House, 520 London Road, Mitcham Surrey, tel 01-788 9598.

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 5

Trade Union Briefing

Halifax

news from sweet

bosses

By Alan Scott

On the yery same day the Tory goverment released their (fiddled) jobless figures for September 1986, Halifax Rowntree Mackintosh boss Derek Sandall told TGWU shop stewards of his decision to axe 380 jobs at the Albion Mills plant.

Local Tory MP Roy Galley wasted no time in giving his full backing for the company’s decision: job losses are a “cruel fact of life’, he said.

Since November 1983 more than 450 jobs have been axed at Mack's in Halifax — 143 in 1983, 270 in 1985 and 40 in April this year, The latest threatened job losses amount to about one in five of the total workforce. With unemployment in the Halifax/Calderdale area standing at 10,521 (or 13.3%) there's little chance of finding alternative employment in the area.

Another reactionary aspect of Rowntree Mackintosh practice was exposed a couple of years ago by Labour Euro MP Dr Barry Seal when he refused to accept a ‘gift’ of a large tin of Quality Street_toffees, ‘*with compliments’’ from Mack’s. He returned it and told them what they could do with their “gifts”

Obviously such ‘‘gifts’’ are sent to many local ‘eminent persons”. But who are they? Is Roy Galley on the list? Are there any local trades unionists on Mack's gift list?

Meanwhile the local Tory rag Evening Courier has reported that TGWU works convenor Steve Smith is now seeking talks with Union officials at national level. Bearing in mind the cowardly performance: of the TGWU national leadership over recent years and the sharp move to the right of former “left”” Ron Todd in particular, it's difficult to see how this can result in anything other than a do-nothing sell-out,

As local supporters of Labour Briefing we must warn workers at Mack's: @ refusal to fight only serves to strengthen the hand of management.

Halifax Labour supporters say:

@A Jobs Defence Action Committee should be set up comprising shop stewards at the plant and ordinary shop floor workers from each department threatened. An, action plan of industrial action should be worked out — a ban on all overtime work, organised mass walk-outs, 24-hour and all-out strikes.

@ Advance the demand ‘Open the Books!" for examination of the firm’s accounts by members of the defence committee. Let’s see where the profits really go. Let’s find out who is on Mack’s “gift list”.

@A Jobs Defence Bulletin should be published — weekly if possible — to keep all Mack’s workers fully informed of the fight.

@A local liaison committee

Briefing

should be set up comprising |

members of thé — defence committee, the Halifax & District Trades Council and the

Halifax Constituency Labour Party @Demand =the ~—_ Union

leadership at national level pledge full support for any action taken and give an undertaking to fight for full support from the wider labour and trade union movement. Employees of Mack's in York and Castleford must be fully informed of any developments,

‘““My position Is to preach basic union principles”

On July Ist this year John Macreadie, the candidate of CPSA’s Broad Left and a Militant supporter, was elected general Secretary of the Union. Since that time the controlling right-wing faction on the National Executive Committee have overturned his election and forced a re-run.

In doing this they have ultaneously changed

———

Briefing: You haye said that you think CPSA’s right wing is the worst in the TUC. Yet it has not been as closely analysed as the Electricians or _ engineering unions. John Macreadie: | would agree. The first problem we have is that the right wing call themselves Moderates. The majority of civil servants do regard themselves as moderates and therefore they fall for that label. Secondly, the _ millionaire press which support the right wing tend to uphold the view that they are the democrats or moderates and that we're the loony left and that has an effect.

who through their consistent work of defending members terests and openly stating what they believe in, _ members through their own. experience see that it is the Broad Left who are the democrats and who defend members’ interests.

Briefing: So what would you say about the importance of election in the CPSA and the Tuc?

John Macreadie: The implications of the Broad Left victory was firstly to show that a Broad left supporter — and by the way a supporter of Militant — could win elections. The implications for. the movement is that socialist policies are popular and can win. It rejects the view of many in the Labour Party and the TUC that you have to water down your policies.

‘The second point is that many CPSA members who have seen me on television, or listened to me, or read what I have written, have said to me that they think I'm a very reasonable and moderate person, That’s a major task I’ve got: to show CPSA members and other workers that the policies of the Broad Left are reasonable. All we want is a decent living wage, to defend jobs, a free national health service, Trade Union and. civil rights.-The majority of workers support these policies and that's why the Broad Left should be supported

In terms of the Trade Union movement; firstly in the Civil Service I hope to be a focus for unity among Civil Servants and Civil Service trade unions. The precise nature of this unity needs to be discussed, for example whether you go for one union for the Civil Service or whether as a more immediate step you go for amalgam

If that’s true for the Civil Seryice it’s even more true in the TUC. My position as a General Secretary within the TUC will be to try to preach the basic principles. of the movement: unity and solidarity. 1 believe the new realist philosophy has actually undermined those principles, That doesn’t mean that overnight Civil Servants are going to come out in support of other workers. But 1 would hope that through discussion and through their own experiences CPSA members will

CPSA’s ballotting procedure and instituted a near postal voting system in a clear attempt to bias the result in favour of th candidate John Ell

On the eve of the s ballot JOHN MACREADIE spoke to ALASTAIR WALLACE (CPSA Broad Left) from BRIEFING.

cond

start to rebuild those links between workers and organisations of the working class: claimants, tenants’ associations, community groups, etc.

Briefing: 1s the silence of the Labour Party and the TUC throughout the period when your election was being overturned indicative of our current leadership?

John Macreadie: The tradition in the Labour Party and the TUC is that they don’t comment or intervene directly in internal union affairs; but every activist

indirectly.

I think the Labour Party and TUC leadership were amazed and embarrassed by my election because it contradicts their views, particularly that the movement car do nothing until the election of a Labour government. I reject that view; we've got to fight to defend our

“members’ interests now.

The same is true for the Labour leadership. At a time

Tory law

One of the laws passed by the Tories on taking office was to introduce a limit of 6 pickets as a means of handcuffing workers forced to take industrial action.

The leaders of the TUC subserviently declared that this should be “‘voluntary’’. Whether by Tory legislation or TUC consent, anyone in the recent period who has had to

face battalions of batonwielding “lawmen’’ will be very much aware of the

consequences of this stacking the odds in favour of the reactionary state machine.

if further evidence were required of the TUC's compliance, then it was provided on October 22nd. 500 sacked printers and their supporters were _ lobbying Congress House, demanding the TUC "implement Conference policy to back the printers’ fight for reinstatement, and take action against the scabbing at Wapping.

when they are trying to expel socialists — some of whom are supporters of Militant, some of whom aren’t — it was an embarrassment for them,

Of course it’s not me_personally they fear, it’s the ideas of the Broad Left which I represent’ in the: CPSA. The bureaucracy of the TUC are opposed to the election of full-time officials, they are opposed to the view that full-time officials should live on a wage of no more than that of their members, and they are opposed to democratic accountability.

Similarly with the Labour Party, they don’t want someone coming forward with ideas that the Labour Party is the party of the working class and must introduce socialist policies. They know that as General Secretary of CPSA if a future Labour Government were to attack CPSA members I will stand with my members against the government.

Briefing: Let's move to union”

. The General

democracy in order to stop the Broad Left coming to power. How do you view the importance of union democracy?

John Macreadie: \t is regrettable that some of the arguments that Thatcher has put forward about unions being undemocratic has struck a chord with many workers because their experience of their own unions has been that they

Tuc enforces

By Brian Prince Brent South CLP

While EETPU scabherder Eric Hammond walked freely into Congress House, TUC assistant general secretary Roy Jackson made clear by his own actions where he stood in relation to the sacked printworkers.

It should go without saying that trade unionists have the right to stand on property paid for out of their union dues. Not so, it appears, from the point of view of trade union bureaucrats unwilling to have their tolerance for scabbing brought home to them by the rank and file members who are being scabbed on.

Jackson took jit upon himself to enlist the services of those angelic Boys in Blue to clear the area in front of Congress House of striking printworkers. They were made to stand on the opposite side of the road, while the cops

heavily asserted the order of 3

the day from commander, sorry, Assistant. General Secretary Roy Jackson. The decree? — that the number of lobbyists outside Congress House be restricted to six!

have little say in the running of their own unions or control over their own leaders.

The Broad Left in CPSA has, however, been arguing for union democracy for many, many years — long before Thatcher. It was the Broad Left who argued for the election of senior full-time union officers and is now campaigning to extend that franchise to cover all full time officials. it was the Broad Left which introduced election addresses; it was the Broad Left who campaigned successfully for the political groups in the Union to be open and to tell the members who they were.

We have seen in the context of this election that it has been the Broad Left which has defended the democracy of the Union and it is the right wing which has tried to trample on that democracy. Our record shows that it is the Broad Left which stands for maximum involvement of the members, maximum members’ control of coustabiiy of anton ottiials countability of i 5 That’: the bureaucracy are

of the Broad Left

to power.

Briefing: Proper accountability means not only representing the interests of the members but actually having those interests yourself. You are — widely publi as saying that you won't take the salary of General Secretary if elected — is this part of a similar conception of democracy which you have?

John Macreadie: | believe that Union officials must be absolutely honest in their dealings, they must led by example and earn the respect of members. | believe they must be accountable by means of election but also by means of recall. It is not just a case of being elected once every 5 years. We've got to be subject to the members that put us there. If they don’t like what we've done they must have powers to bring us back and

PHOTO: John Chapman

PHOTO: Labour Party Photo Library

John Macreadie

make us account for it. If they accept our views fine; if they don’t then they should be able to replace us.

The other thing is that even though most union officials start off being very sincere and honest, because they become isolated from the workplace and the membership, because of their economic lifestyle, they become isolated from the rank why it’s must not have a lifestyle which is different from that of their members as a further check that they carry out the wishes of those members.

That’s what I'll try to do and have done over the past 20 years. By means of that ‘accountability we'll strengthen the workers’ movement which potentially is still the most powerful force in society. It is that force which will introduce a socialist society both here and internationally.

John Macreadie: Obviously the major power within the Trade Union movement still lies with the major industrial unions. However, CPSA, and public sector unions in general, have got an increasing potential power in society. It’s vital that white-collar unions affiliate to the Labour Party and that. we join with the industrial unions to fight for a socialist society.

If CPSA went onto the floor of Labour Party conference it could have a tremendous effect because we represent a larger proportion of youth and women than are found in most other unions. We would be a force for a much more radical Labour Party. Clearly they would rather not have us; but CPSA will reaffiliate.

DocCooDDoDoOoDoDoOoOooOooOoRooOooooo000g

o oO ia ; 3=Ca oO a o oO

So jittery have TNT scab C drivers become because 1 of continuing action by G print workers, that they C are installing the latest in 0 dial-a-pig equipment. O _ The scab lorries have been (J fitted with radio phones for some time now, along with instructions to dial 999 at the © first sign of a “Murdoch is © Bad News” badge. TNT had to extend tie O cellular telephone to their 0 vans in March. They were 0 fitted by Manchester Communications and Gerard hell Communications from Surrey. Each one costs Fy over £10 per week to run.

+ Calls can, in certain circumstances, cost up to 40p a minute.

DO _TNT, mindful of the

Oo0000DoDobooDo0o0o000oOoOoooooo0000

expense, has just secured its own VHF frequency for mobile radio which is much cheaper to run. Range is restricted to about 60 miles. But this is enough for the scabs to stay in contact with the regional depots.

So plans for all the TNT fleet to be fitted with cellular phones have been scrapped thanks to the timely allocation of their very own frequency — courtesy of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Enterprising telecommunications butts have been calling TNT at no expense to themselves on freephone overnight to chat about the system, or alternatively to tell them what a scabby bunch they are.

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rom Or

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PHOTO: John Chapman

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 6

Se

Labour Party

= o

gS ee eaten

Dora Russell addressing WAC fringe meeting: on platform (L to R) Frances Morrell, Ann Pettifor,

Jo Richardson, Diane Abbot.

Making links with trade union women

to the Action

A resolution put Labour Women’s Committee’s 1985 AGM concerned the imbalance between Trade Union and constituency delegates representation at Labour Women’s Conference.

The West. Midlands delegation called for remittance in order that the whole issue of the block vote could be given consideration by the LWAC EC over the forthcoming year.

Many LWAC members in the Midlands are actively involved

their Trade Unions at grass roots level. They believed that it was essential that discussion took place in order to examine the issue of the block vote and its potential influence on

Labour women are facing an enormous challenge over the coming year.

Not only is there the ity of a general election which will involve women in working for the election of a Labour government (including the 101 mudane tasks which women get landed with during an election); but we also have to organise around the consultation process between the NEC and the national Labour Women's Committee, making sure that the voice of rank and file women activists is heard.

The desired outcome of these consultations for some members of the NEC is a women’s organisation stripped of the le power it currently has. They believe that this will be brought — about by the introduction of the trade union block vote at the National Labour Women's Conference: the trade unions will safely block the CLP women when they get off on their feminst

kick ~ and start passing resolutions for the withdrawal ish troops

from Ireland and an end to the

Labour women: our challenge

By Pauline Purnell West Midlands Organiser, LWAC, and Theresa Davies Secretary LWAC

Women’s Conference.

‘Two meetings were organised in Birmingham which generated open debate between trade union activists, including shop stewards, chairs of trade union branches, rank and file members of trade unions and WAC. The main issue tackled was that of how women can make or influence policy within their unions and how representative of views _ the

witch hunt. The women’s organisation will return to their traditional tasks of _ licking envelopes and making tea. Well it’s not going to happen that way!

The Labour Women's organisation does need changes. For a start if women were to be given power proportional to the amount of work which we put in we'd be able to outvote the trade unions and the CLPs combined. While the National Conference resolution is not the way forward many of us would have chosen, we must now make sure that the debate is on our terms.

The National —_ Labour 's Committee, in ssions with the NEC, will be putting proposals as the basis of the consultations. Hopefully, there will be plently of opportunity for — women’s sections to participate.

Trade union women will have an important role to play here. The officials and bureaucracy do not speak for rank and file activists. Many women. trade unionists are eager to see Women’s Conference given more power and would welcome

block vote would be.

The passing of the resolution on women’s __ organisation proposed: by APEX and amended’ by Putney and Glasgow, makes it even more essential that the debate broadened in order that consitutency women who do not have a voice through WAC or their union enter the debate.

If a conference is held next year (depending on the election date) women need to start the debate now in all sections of the Party and encourage sisters to formulate ideas as to what needs to result from the amended APEX resolution. This can be done by following West Midlands’ LWAC initiative and making links with trade union women.

Compiled by Jane Prust -_

an opportunity to participate in its policy making. Jean Travers of APEX is not representative of the majority of trade union women!

A weighted vote/block yote at Conference will give women an opportunity to organise and demand that it is used to represent their views; as well as campaigning to stregthen the women’s structures in the unions where these exist, and working towards setting ‘them up in the unions where as yet there is nothing. These structures should be accountable to rank and file women members. Imagine the power of a block vote which is truly and democratically controlled by union women!

The campaign —_ around consultation could also encourage CLP and trade union women to build alliances and learn to work together. If the Labour Women’s organisation is to be a focus for mobilising women to fight for socialist demands, then it must be strengthened, and it must build in the Party and in the union:

Come to

The WAC AGM on December 13th in Leeds will be the most important meeting of the WAC membership for a long w! because it will decide WAC’s strategy and policy on the consultation procedure on the women’s organisation.

If WAC is to have any impact on these consultations {and they must), then the campaign starts quickly, The

Leeds!

right wing on the NEC and the union leaders will have thei ideas worked out before the consultation begins: we must aim to shift the balance of the debate to the left. By putting forward a coherent plan we will be in a stronger position when negotiations begin. Clearly there are certain basic principles on which we are not prepared to concede

anything, for example, the 5 Women seats on the NEC

must be elected by the National Labour Women’s Conference.

It is vital that there is a good tur out at the AGM. Women’s Sections are being contacted and asked to send delegates. This is the most important debate to take place for Labour Women in a long time. It has been forced upon us, but now we must make

sure that we set the agenda.

Labour Cam

bian and Gay R

Major new campaign launched

The Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) and the NCCL have launched a major joint campaign around demands for new legislation to advance lesbian and gay rights.

A national meeting to kick off the campaign took place in Nottingham on\ October 26th and drew backing from wide sections of the lesbian and gay movement.

The climax of the campaign will be a National Conference in May next year. It is hoped that the conference will be able to draw on the experience of the movement internationally, in particular the recent partial victory of the New Zealand. law reform campaign.

Between now and then we need to stimulate a wide-

ranging debate throughout the lesbian and gay community and among all other interested parties. This poses a largescale practical and political challenge. Since its rebirth in the late seventies, the lesbian and gay movement _ has diversified enormously. There are groups organised around switchboards, social and cultural groups, _ caucuses within trade unions and political parties, as well as a range of separate lesbian groups, lesbian and gay black groups, groups for people with disabilities, and youth groups

By Terry Conway LCLGR This development _has

strengthened the movement and drawn in many people

who were not previously involved.

On the other _ hand, communication between

these groups is weak and

there are big

political disagreements among them. It is hoped the new Campaign will deepen the discussion in a productive manner and enable

us to come to agreements

This project is the most ambitious in the history of the lesbian and gay movement in this country. It has been made possible by the recent victories in the Labour Party and trade unions and the political situation opened up by a general election period.

We want the Conference in May to have delegates from labour movement bodies up and down the country. LCLGR has produced a series of concrete legislative proposals in pamphlet form as a basis for discussion

For further information on the new campaign write to Rm 221, 38 Mount Pleasant, London EC1, Copies of the LCLGR pamphlet can be obtained from the same address for £1 each.

effective

The ruling Labour Group of Birmingham — City Council decided = on November 3rd to remove Councillor Philip Murphy from the Race Relations and Equal Opportunities Committee.

Cllr Murphy was Vice Chair, and one of only two Black people on the 14-strong Committee — in a city where one in four is

Murphy is also Vice Chair of the recently formed Birmingham Black Section and is a Briefing supporter, He has been sacked because his strong stand against racism had embarrassed the right wing

al who control the Labour Group. His ‘‘crime’’ is that he has attempted to implement the District Labour Party's policy ‘on race relations which was

passed prior to last May’s Council elections but which Labour Group leader, Dick

Knowles, refused to include in his personal version of the manifesto.

Phil Murphy (centre) at Birmingham Black Sections launch meeting

Sacked — for fighting racism!

Phil was _ instrumental in pushing the Council into setting up the Race —_ Relations Committee and the Race Relations Unit and’ recently succeeded in getting the Council to adopt a 20% target for the employment of Black people on the Council's staff. He is also known for his work on the excessive use of suspensions against Black school students,

By Birmingham Black Sections

Last month, he presented a petition to the Council asking it to support the Campaign against the deportation of a Black Handsworth resident, Metso Monerieffe, and for Metso to be given the ‘freedom of the City”. The Council refused even to receive the petition

This refusal produced chaotic scenes in the Council chamber and in the fracas a white Labour councillor punched Phil, This Councillor has yet to be disciplined; Phil” has , been sacked.

“have been removed,” says Phil, , “because 1. represent

defiance to established white power. There is a lot of white racism out there which the Labour Group are not prepared view is that by ‘opposing racism I am increasing

Birmingham Black Section has launched a campaign calling for Phil’s reinstatement. We need to defend a Black comrade who has been victimised for fighting racism, and also to force the City’ Council into taking a lead in the battle against racism.

“We have to go into the community and show them that we are fighting,” says Phil “We have to explain that | am being attacked because we're forcing the Authority to face the real issues. When the Black community sees that Tepresentatives are not just fighting for their own self interest then they will come out in support and this will increase the involvement of the Black

community.”” Letters. demanding __ the reinstatement of Cllr Philip

Murphy should be sent to Cllr Dick Knowles, Leader of the Council, Council — House, Birmingham

PHOTO: Kevin Flack

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 7

Labour Party

The going gets dirty in Deptford

The long struggle by Deptford comrades to select a candidate representing and accountable to the local community, Labour supporters and Party members nearing its conclusion; but not

without another bizarre twist.

On October 23rd, the local Mercury newspaper ran a fivepage “exclusive”, under the front page headline ‘‘The Rape of Deptford Labour Party”, claiming to uncover a “13 year plot’ by militant infiltrators to take control of the Party and oust Silkin. Quoting Silkin, it alleges that the _ Militant Tendency and other Trotskyist groups have ruled Deptford Party since 1981.

Much of the material was derived from the 15-month NEC membership investigation. But the extensive quotes from Silkin demonstrates the level of collusion involved. Comrades at a meeting of the Party EC noted

prose in the Mercury articles was ‘classic Silkinese.’” Most Party members are viewing the article as Silkin’s valedictory address,

By Nick Long Deptford CLP (Marlowe branch delegate)

Party members thought that

when Silkin said he would not:

seek re-election (ducking out of the selection conference at which he would have been humiliated) the way was finally clear for the selection process to go ahead, The 15-month membership investigation demanded by Silkin came up with only minor administrative errors by branch officers.

Silkin has not attended a GC of the Party in months and has long ago given up providing a Parliamentary report.

In early October a timetable was agreed with the NEC, fixing the selection for December 14th. However even this timetable is still dependent on regional organisers checking branch confirmation meetings.

Deptford:

natural selection?

Selecting a prospective parliamentary candidate for Deptford CLP has not been easy. Interminable membership enquiries, procedural innovations and, most recently, scandalous attacks in a _ local “‘newspaper’’ have all helped to confuse the issue.

Meanwhile, CLPs up and down the country have been picking their _ parliamentary hopefuls. Once the hot air had dissipated, it became clear that most Labour PPCs were — surprise, surprise.— white men.

The National Executive Committee is embarrassed by this. Indeed they have even

endorsed a rule change to ensure that all-male shortlists are

» contenders”

By Steve Savage Deptford CLP

“past. Liberals

things of the (Unfortunately, the beat Labour to it!) Despite this advance, and despite the successes of the Black Sections, it is no surprise to see that in the Knowsley affair all three of the “main — the outgoing MP, the ‘favourite’, and the NEC’s choice — are white men. Equally, it is no surprise that Deptford’s General Committee haye called for a shortlist which would exclude white men. For a “safe’” seat such as Deptford to select a white man at this stage would be a disgrace. There are

many white male

in safe and in winnable seats.

who Deptford

Deptford Labour Party banner on Anti-Apartheid demo, 1985.

The feeling of many Party members in Deptford is that these latest developments are part of the attempt by the right and soft left in the Party to circumvent Deptford’s right to select a candidate of its own choosing. It is a further attempt to influence the _ selection outcome by frightening the Party into selecting a candidate “acceptable” to the national leadership.

It is obvious that through the local media Silkin is attempting to plant the seeds that could

germinate into _ another “Bermondsey” or Knowsley North.

Party members have been

disturbed by a report from our National Conference delegation of rumours circulating at Blackpool that the NEC was looking to impose Joan Ruddock on the Party.

To date no clear favourite has emerged, although along Joan Ruddock, Valerie Wise

and local black — councillor Clifton Graham have been recurring names in branch

shortlistings for nomination.

been besieged by eager candidates ever since John Silkin, the present. MP,

announced he would be retiring. Many of them would be willing to live in Deptford. However, few of them have chosen to. The spectacle of all these people — all these ‘names’ — turning up in Deptford to display their profound desire to serve the people of Deptford must make Party members wonder if perhaps, just pos it might be possible to find a candidate — not among all these people who haven't managed to get __ selected elsewhere and about whom we know little — but among. our own comrades in our own CLP. Assuming the __ selection process is not — once again — suspended, all should be decided by the end of the year. There is hardly likely to be anyone in Deptford CLP who thinks it a moment too soon,

Left slate for

NCC

CLP Mandy Moore Ken Slater

Women Vera Derer Margaret Vallins

Trade Union Owen Briscoe Johnny Jones Alan Quin

Our slate in the trade union section is chosen on the basis of support for the best nominations made, where the candidate can be supported for this particular committee. Inclusion does not imply automatic support for that candidate on every occasion.

The Labour Party has suffered a dramatic si to the right. This year’s Party Conference saw socialist principles cast aside on a range of issues not least the fundamental principle of public ownership. The whole tenor of the Party leadership is now one of accepting capitalism not attempting to defeat it. To maintain this shift away from socialism, the Party leadership has to

By Mandy Moore

break the power of the

left in the Party. Part of their method of doing this is the witch hunt and wave of expulsions that are currently taking place. The constitutional changes pushed through Conference paved the way for further expulsions and an even firmer clampdown on the left in order to limit our ability to defend our policies and

Mandy Moore challenge the right. We must reassert our

i iving debate ‘on economic policy — the most crucial feature of any socialist analysis. At the same time we have to fight the expulsion of socialists from the Party. That means trying to gain representation on the national consitutional committee; representation that will fight for the left and be accountable to the left.

Snap, crackle and pop-ular politics

“Talkin ‘bout my generation” turned out to be a wonderfully ippropriate title for the

‘Left Unlimited’’ debate on youth politics.

The (white, male 43 year old) chair wrung his hands and apologised for his generation's legacy to the youth of today. “But what can | do?’’he cried despairingly, “give up my job to let young person through?"

Big mistake that — ‘‘Yes!"’ shouted back the youth

«mbarrassed silence

followed as the chair fumbled for the next item he thinks

\ regular column trom

Labou

_ people

By Fran Rayner

response to Thatcher's

Youth Briefing

should be on “the new agenda

for youth’. Surely young today have more pressing things to do than deal with middle class guilt and comfort the pot-bellied generation as they turn 40? Things didn’t improve.

An invited FCS maverick was, quite rightly, heavily abused; but what was he doing at a left debate anyway? Vital issues like racism and self-organisation had only minimal discussion because the Tory right was set up as an easy target, thus limiting discussion on the left’s

Against the Witch Hunt ’8

Learn Knowsley

attacks on youth.

i's interesting how discussion on youth has been pushed into the side-lines since the 60s, and to see how vacuous this debate was, as the we shemasives: Seno behind the class struggle for the credit card.

Debates like this are the belated, inadequate response to having left youth in the political wilderness in the ‘70s, an attempt to catch up in the '80s by jumping on every available bandwagon. The class struggle is on compact disc this year and youth politics, it seems, was last year's trend.

North lessons

Not content with imposing a by-election

candidate upon Knowsley North, Kinnock has _ signalled his determination _ to

close down the CLP

itself because of its boycott of the campaign.

Luckily local Party activists have refused to lie down and keep their anger under wraps in the interest of Party unity.

It hardly matters whom the NEC came up with to replace Les Huckfield,: the candidate the CLP would probably have chosen. The result was a triumph for the Party machine over grass roots democracy.

With a 17,000 Labour majority, Knowsley was hardly a marginal seat

threatened by the “’spectre’’ of Militant.

In fact, Kinnock’s fight with the local Party has proved a god-send for the — ailing

Liberals. The media rejoiced to see police and Party officials united in their attempt to prevent Knowsley activists from hearing the Party leader speak!

By Helen Ward Publicity Officer, LAW "86

During the by-election campaign the Tories climbed back into top position in the opinion polls. Days before the vote the CBI conference declared openly for the Tories despite all the honeyed phrases from Hattersley and Smith about Labour's concern for manufacturing.

This year’s conference in Blackpool showed __ that Kinnock has persuaded a majority of _ constituency activists that witch-hunts and

abuses of democracy are necessary in the name of a Labour victory. Knowsley

shows that this is not so. Working class families on the estates of Kirkby want jobs

and improved council housing, not witch-hunts. Labour Against the Witch-Hunt ‘86 (LAW '86) aims to bring this message home in a big way in what is likely to be the year of the General Election — 1987.

We need united resistance to NEC expulsions, disbandment of CLPs and refusal to endorse candidates. We have to resist any attempt by the new National Constitutional Committee to extend the purge in election year.

Early in 1987, LAW ‘86 will be holding a public meeting in London and in February a national conference (details to be announced). To prepare now for these, all CLPs and trade unonists should affiliate to LAW (£10 __ per organisation), take copies of the LAW petition, and support the right of socialists to argue their case in the Labour Party — without fear of expulsion.

Contact LAW ‘86 at 39 Talia. House, Manchester Road, London E14 HB.

PHOTO: Ann Flowers

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 8

Education

Positive images in Haringey

By Alan Holder Finchley LPYS & LCLGR

——_—_—_.

The Positive Images campaign In Haringey was set up for two reasons: first, to counter the Tories’ disgusting attacks on lesbian and gay rights

through the “gay classes’ issue; secondly, to put

pressure on Haringey Council to implement its manifesto commitments on lesbian and gay rights, part of which was concerned with introducing an education policy into schools that would encourage the positive presentation of-lesbians and gays.

This would stop the present isolation of lesbian and gays in schools who are afraid to “come out’’ because of the adverse pressure and abuse

they would receive in being labelled as abnormal.

Explain

Although only set up at the beginning of September, “positive images’’ has been seeking to explain to what exactly a_polic positive images of * lesbi: and gays would mean in Haringey’s schools. It has of course been opposed by the Tory-backed parents’ rights group, who have been using some very dirty tactics in their campaigns. One such tact was to encourage a makebelieve campaign of dissent in the schools towards the policy, by telling children and their parents that teachers were on strike when they weren't. The idea was that if enough schools were closed down because of nonattendance, the parents’ rights group could say that parents were keeping their children away from school because of the policy.

Concerted

At council level, a concerted campaign of lobbying and letter-writing has taken place

to get the issue talked about amongst council members and to find out what they are going to do t plement the policy.

This resulted in discussion of the policy at the Education Committee. Unfortunately, it was only discussed before the full council when five Tory councillors put forward a motion calling for the disbandment of the council's lesbian and gay unit.

Picket

This brought the whole issue to a head. A ma: picket of the council mee on October 20th was organised by “positive images’. It was hugely successful. To their credit the council strongly re-affirmed all

aspects of their lesbian and gay rights policies inclu the policy on _ positive representation of lesbians and gays in schools.

Consultation

Bernie Grant, Davina Cooper and many other councillors spoke strongly in support of lesbian and gay rights. They also said that consultation would now take place between the council and other interested groups on how to implement the _ policy. Everyone in the lesbian and gay community will now be looking to Haringey Council to implement these policies. It is very important that Haringey is upfront about this issue, because it is very much a

“test case’ for the future development of lesbian and gay rights across the country.

Going strong

“positive "’ is going strong and is continuing to leaflet schools about the policy while action is awaited from the council on the issue.

Public meeting

“Positive Images’’ intends to hold a public meeting soon. For more information about the meeting and the “positive images’’ campaign, write to: Positive Images, c/o Reading Matters, 10 Lymington Ave, London N22.

Plain speaking at ILEA

“If you want equality, you'll get it. We shoot from the hip. The Boys’ Own wild west fantasy language would possibly bring a smile to your lips if you read it in the comic section of the Daily Mail. You might with some smugness confirm to yourself just how far the Supporters of the ruling class have to go before they can be right-on equal opp-ers like us.

One of many

If fact the remark was one of many bawled across the floor of room 142 at County Hall, the bear garden of the Inner London Education Authority's Labour Group, on Monday November 3rd. The progenitor of course was a man — and a weighty individual at that. The target was a woman. For conoisseurs of ILEA’s Equal Opportunities Policy in action, there were also:

@ “Shut up you bitch”;

@Never mind your ILEA committee, you

woman’ (an exclamation);

and, to a woman who was trying to correct a point on which she was__ being represented:

By Keith Lichman Delegate from REC to ILEA Labour Group

‘1 am making my speech and you can sit down and listen to it. I can block every bloody

shout by you — I can shout louder."* (And he did). Degenerate

The meeting was degenerate. Party delegates sent to observe the meeting, notably women, walked out’ in disgust. The immediate perpetrators were a relatively small number of men but the problem goes much deeper. Leading members of the ILEA are prone to parade their Equal Opportunities Policy as one of their _greatest achievements. In reality the policy resides between the covers of glossy PR documents but not in the hearts of most members and certainly not in the operations of the service. But why should they expect it to operate in their institutions when it does not even operate in their own Labour Group?

Ominous

For ILEA’s 800,000 employees, the meeting was

PHOTO: Keith Hawkins

ominous, Leading members of the Group. are under considerable pressure. This probably accounts for the thuggish behaviour, although it doesn’t excuse it, The ’87/’88 Budget requires something like £150 to £100 million in cuts if its is to be “legal”. The out-turn for °86/’87 will be a large deficit. 70% of the organisation’s costs are its workers. If there is a pay settlement for teachers and the Government maintains _ its record of not helping ILEA with finance, then the situation will be even worse than thi

Resignations

At the ILEA Liaison Subcommittee on October 281h, Steve Bundred, the then Chair of the Finance Committee, admitted that the shortfall was so great that jobs would inevitably have to go. On Tuesday November 4th, the day after the squalid Labour Group meeting, both the Chair of Finance and his Vice Chair, Carlie Rossi, had resigned their positions, ostensibly over issues that between them amounted to no more than £2.4 million. New Chairs are to be elected as we go to press.

“Brain death”’

One of those unfortunate enough to have to deal with the bureaucracy at County Hall has diagnosed the condition as “brain death”, On any issue more serious-than guessing the day of the week or the date, no officer is prepared to commit him/herself one way or another. Apart from the internecine warfare taking place between former GLC staff transferred to ILEA and the longstanding ILEA officials, determined to hold on to and expand their empires, an _ all-pervading, possibly terminal, paralysis has set in. Rumours of total collapse are rife and vital services such as Supplies are barely functionin

Homework

For those who are interested in the decisions taken at the Group, 1 will be preparing a more detailed report for the ILEA Liaison Sub-committee and that will no doubt eventually get circulated to Parties. In the meantime, I leave you with a question for homework. Which member of the Labour Group had his room refurbished at a cost of £10,000, with furniture from Heal’s and by having the wood-panelled walls tastefully French polished? I'll give you a clue; it wasn’t a woman, Why not ask your ILEA members if they know?

From 1979 to 1985, the Tories pursued a consistent education programme: making cuts and restructuring schools to respond to “the world of work’’ and to the pressure of parents schooled in the Tory virtues of ‘‘standards’’ and ‘‘competition’’.

By Ken Jones Socialist Teachers Alliance

Eighteen months of teachers? pay action threw the government onto the defensive. Teachers’ pay was seen to be just the tip of a huge problem of educational resources. Parents began to mobilise around the issue of money for education.

‘Alarm bells rang, Kenneth Baker promised more money

for education and more pay for teachers — provided that they accept greater management control, tougher conditions, longer hours and the end of anything resembling free collective bargaining, Baker's extra money won't restore pay levels, nor meet the needs of schools. But they deflect public discortent, and allow the smoother operating of the Tories’ educational programme.

This progrmme is as

stemarkable as it is dangerous.

Remarkable because — much more than the Labour Party and the teaching unions — it makes a political issue out of the content of education, and in doing so breaks up a forty-one year consensus. Dangerous because it is quite systematic in its intention of dismantling every strong point of opposition to Tory educational values.

In the past, “*progressive”” or “militant” teachers have been the target of Tory campaigns: Now they are joined by Labour education authorities — Brent, Haringey and the ILEA.

Baker aims to centralise

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 9

Education

trol over what is taught in 901s, while at the same time bilising~ popular pressure inst radical educational stice. This double strategy is ind the Tory/press offensive inst Labour LEAs. At the y Conference, Baker ounced the setting up of 20 ty Technology Colleges”, by private trusts. He also eked LEAs which have eloped anti-racist and antist policies. he press had a field day. nt Council, reported The jl on Sunday, “has decided appoint 180 Race mmissars for its schools.” ringey, wrote the Daily ress, is devoted to spreading ymosexual propaganda”. founcils with policies that |to change education, so that ssists the self-understanding | confidence of’. oppressed ups, are accused of a meful politicising of the sroom. The Tories have reased parents’ representaion school governing bodies ely in the hope that the ry “consumers” of

PHOTO: Keith Hawkins

PHOTO: Keith Hawkins

education will use their new power, keep _ irresponsible teachers and councillors in check. Squeezed between the pressures of centralism and of parental opinion, the Tories hope LEAs. like Brent will abandon their programmes — and other councils will never dare to start

The left — andthe Labour, Party nationally -— needs to make a political issue out of what is taught, how it is taught, and for whom it is taught. Local initiatives on class, race and gender need to be supported — not greeted with embarrassed silence. If Labour remains silent on these issues, the Tories will set the education agenda much as they please.

These initiatives need preparation. Support for them has to be earned, not commanded, There is an urgent need for a project which unites local Labour Parties, teachers and community organisations in developing policies on what should be taught in schools, and in winning grassroots support for them,

The McGoldrick affair

By Colin Adams Brent East CLP, Brent NUT (personal capacity)

The Maureen McGoldrick affair has caused much dissension over the past two months.

The Brent — Socialist Teachers Alliance and Brent Black Teachers Collective have condemned _ the campaign mounted by the NUT. It is important to examine the motives behind the dispute, while not judging the innocence or guilt of Ms McGoldrick.

The disciplinary procedures of Brent Council allow for school governors to hear allegations, deliberate and then for an education subcommittee to consider the findings. The sub-committee can hold its own hearing, if they wish. The NUT have challenged the fairness of this procedure, and Brent Council appealed ‘against the High Court ruling supporting the NUT. Whatever the merits of this procedure, several teachers in the past have been dealt with under this sytem, but the union has chosen this case to challenge it

As a trade union member, Ms McGoldrick had every right to legal advice. What has amazed most socialists in the NUT is the vitriolic campaign launched by the Union against

Brent Council. Had this campaign been limited to Brent's * disciplinary

procedures it would have been more understandable. But in September hardly a-day went by without a Union officer appearing in the media claiming that Brent's antiracist policies had created fear amongst teachers. This was siezed upon by the press and TV — the past two months have been open season for Brent (amongst _other councils). ‘The union's campaign, seriously questions their professional commitment to anti-racism.

Despite the media coverage, NUT officer ruled that a motion condemning the Union's campaign could not be discussed at a union general meeting. Several schools refused to go on strike at the beginning of November,

questioning the motives behind the strike The Brent ‘Teachers’

Association (BTA) officers rely for their electoral support on a machine revolving around headteachers. They leap to the support of heads more rapidly than other members. It is normally very difficult to get approval for strike action in the NUT — in this case officers have been falling over themselves to promote strike action.

In the past, under previous Labour administrations, the BTA officers had a close relationship with _ Labour Group officers and Education Chairs. In the past few years, as Labour has begun to challenge the stranglehold that the professionals have over schools, the Union has been most vociferous in its criticism. Most of the Union officers have positions near the top of the hierarchy in schools. While claiming to be progressive, they are in fact trying to preserve the status quo.

In the past, Labour allowed

the BTA to have a virtual veto over education policy in Brent Itis the loss of this power that the BTA officers resent. Of course, they say they support the Council's anti-racist policies, but oppose the way they are being implemented. They find it very difficult to accept that _ institutional racism operates in education — many of them are running the institutions, after all.

The effect of the Union -campaign has been to undermine the cause of antiracism in Brent schools and nationally. So what can a Council do when under attack? The obvious answer is to appeal to those parents, teachers and members of the community committed to fighting racism. Unfortunately councillors tend to spend too much time in the committee rooms and on TV, neglecting grassroots activists who want to get involved.

Councillors also have a habit of agreeing policies and doing

very little to implement them. Of course, these policies involve far-reaching change and challenge the education power structure.

If the Council becomes more outward-looking and encourages. those —_ who support its policies, these past two months may serve as a galvanising force. If it chooses to fight its battles only in the Town Hall, disillusionment will set in.

As for the Union, it has managed to mobilise its more reactionary elements —_ in defence of the status quo. It has also clarified in more people’s minds where the vested interests lie in education and whose interests the Union is honest to fight for. If the Union had fought for black teachers in the past as vigorously as this campaign, then the cause of anti-racism would be much further advanced. This has not been a straightforward employer v. union battle — far from it.

Full support to

Brent

What the McGoldrick affair points up more than anything is the extent to which racism in Britain is not only alive and well, but rampant throughout the land.

Sadly, at a time when countless thousands of black families are mercilessly driven apart on a daily basis by racist imigration rules — some “suspended” to appalling prison conditions at airports — and thousands of black youth condemned to the hopelessness of the dole’ queues because of Thacher’s economic madness, the nation finds itself obsessed with the McGoldrick affair and Brent’s race policies. Why?

Frankly, that is the way most black people see the entire McGoldrick afair. And, unless the Left begins to see it in

similar terms, then talk of building alliances with the black struggle for a multi-racial socialist future had better be forgotten.

By a member of Brent NALGO

Let us be clear. Brent, by itself, did not create "the McGoldrick affair. The Left has. In all that rhetoric about “‘stamping out racism’” and the need for ‘‘firm and positive action’” the Left has created conditions in which McGoldrick-type situations are bound to occur.

And that, frankly, is no bad thing — unless, that is, we really don’t mean anything should follow in terms of action when we pass those wonderful resolutions calling for “antiracist. action’’, or make passionate speeches _ about

Another way forward for teachers

At the time of going to press, the outcome of

the teachers’ salary negotiations remains uncertain.

As the leadership of the NUT and the employers struggle to reach agreement, it is becoming more likely that Secretary of State Kenneth Baker will attempt to impose his plans for a_ teacher's contract and the abolition of teachers’ traditional negotiating machinery.

The intervention of Baker,

while a direct attack on the 9 rights of unions, has been

ated by the antics of the NUT leadership over recent months. Of a dispute that has

By Martin Allen Socialist Teachers Alliance

gone on for nearly two years. Their decision to call off industrial action and enter the ACAS talks (supported by the anti-trade union Professional Association of Teachers and Head —_, Teachers’ jations) was\a ditching of Union policy.

The talks, endorsed not only by Labur authorities bufalso by the Labour — Party leadership, were established to tie future pay rises to tighter (and worse) conditions of service for teachers, in line with Sir Keith Joseph’s plans for a more “‘adaptable”’

teacher force. The NUT had opposed any trade off ‘of conditions and had demanded a £1,700 pay rise in 1986 for all teachers.

The recent weeks have seen the NUT Executive under heavy pressure from large sections of the membership not to “‘sell out’’ on issues such as “‘cover’’ for absent teachers and compulsory attendance at out of hours meetings. The lack of progress at the recent Nottingham talks was a cnsequence of this. Yet the NUT leadership is arguing that a package with the employers is the only alternative to Baker.

There is another way forward. In Scotland the EIS have rejected the attempts to worsen their conditions of service outlined in the Main Report and are likely to be

resuming strike action. South of the border, the Socialist Teachers Alliance will be calling for the resumption of industrial action around a flat rate pay claim and for unity with the EIS and the other TUC affiliated —_ teacher organisation, the NAS/UWT whose leadership — though largely for opportunist reasons — opposed the Nottingham talks.

The success of any campaign depends on the support teachers are able to win from other trade unions and also from Labour Party activists.

Local CLPs and_ Briefing groups should invite NUT/STA speakers and demand that the

next Labour government throws out any — ‘Tory legislation on _ teacher contracts.

“rooting out racism’ in British institutions. All Brent is trying to do is to put these words into action, recognising that conflict will follow. And for that Brent deserves full support.

‘So before we run for cover and start talking of vague ‘“‘class solidarity before race”’ or become experts after reading the hyped-up versions of the issue given by the right wing press {not noted for its stand on the rights of the labour movement, let alone the rights of black people) let us ask a few questions.

First of all, why is the Stalinistled Brent Teachers’ Association so afraid about the truth about McGoldrick coming out that it is using all the powers of the capitalist courts to prevent this?

It appears that McGoldrick said ‘‘no more black teachers’? becausesome governors were pushing her in that direction. So the governors’ hearing was biased.

The Council must be able to satisfy itself on this — thus the second disciplinary.

Secondly, should we take a differnt view of suspensions and hearings when allegations of racism are made about headteachers, as opposed to, say, manual workers?

Not so long ago, a manual worker was not only spuspended but sacked by Brent for racism. There was nothing like the current _ press. controversy about that or the public statements and postures, as we have seen with McGoldrick.

Frankly, if I’m right in what 1 argue that this issue merely shows up British racism at its worst, then, given the need to tackle institutional and personal racism, this clearly will not be the last time a council finds itself in the firing line.

Take away all the clap trap about “race spies” and “‘classroom commissars"” and the red herring about Kuba Assegai, and what we are left with is the central dilemma the Left must face.

Do we really mean to create the conditions in which black people can participate in Society as equals (which will mean taking painful decisions and sticking to them) or do we wish to see race equality created, but nicely and without fuss.

oh i SOE RP MD Sed SAPS) OO) a Sep aay ae set

: |

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 10

Building Briefing

Briefing: fortnightly in the New Year

Thanks to the support of all our sellers and readers, the last National Steering Committee was able to agree that Briefing should go fortnightly in the New Year.

There will be a further issue of the paper in

December — a week earlier than usual — and then, after a Xmas

break, we'll start our new schedule.

Our supporters club now stands at over 200 standing orders coming in each week — watch this space in the next issue, for details of the first winners in our weekly prize draw!

Of course, if you haven't sent in a standing order form yet, your name won’t be amongst the winners! So clip the coupon now, and post it in.

To:

At (address)

From: ...

(your address)

My account number is:

.:. (your name)

Taking the decision to go fortnightly doesn’t mean Briefing supporters can rest on their laurels, though. We sstill need more standing orders, more orders to sell the paper, and = more financial support. Going

fortnightly will need creasing resources.

So in the next few weeks, please redouble your efforts to build the campaign to launch the fortnightly on a sound financial footing. With an election now so much nearer, the

political need for a fortnightly paper of the left, uniting workers, Labour Party activists

and activists campaigning against special oppression and imperialism is even greater.

Remember: together

we can turn the tide! — Watch this space.

We welcome the campaign to launch Labour Briefing as a fortnightly paper to organise theleft in thi

soci unions, the Labour Party and the campaigns of the oppressed:

Kate Adams, Leabridge branch LP

Steve Barton, Brent East CLP Kevin Carey, Victoria branch uP

lain Coleman, Hamniersmith & Fulham Labour Group Shaun Cohen, Leeds NE CLP Lesley Courcouf, Secretary, Hackney LGC

Clir Steve Eling, Warley East cLP

Lyn Gregory, Warley East CLP

Tim Gregory, Political

soe, (bank name, sort code)

Education Officer, Brigg & Cleethorpes CLP

Chloe Hood, Worley East CLP Grant Keir, Hackney North cLP

John Lawson, Glasgow Keith Lichman

Terry Mcalister, Hackney councillor

N. Martin, Agent, Hackney North CLP

Brian Murch, AUEW, Holloway

Chris Murray, EETPU LSE Alan Porter, Tower Hamiets councillor

Sally Powell, Hammersmith & Fulham Labour Group

John Robinson, Erdington cLP

Maire O'Shea, Victim of PTA, Irish in Britain Representation Group, Sparkbrook CLP

Please debit from my account each month the sum of £4, in favour of Labour Briefing No 2 account,Co-operative Bank, Stratford £15, Code 08-90-76, Account No. 50349957

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Left group launched in Lewisham

Briefing is pleased to report the setting up of Lewisham Left Forum, launched at a meeting of 40 people at the end of October.

Nine branches —_— were represented, along —_with members of the Councillors’

Left Caucus and the Prospective _ parliamentary

Share cropping

Gas consumers with cash to spare get the chance to buy shares in British Gas.

Virgin record-buyers (and buyers of Virgin records) are offered a grinning slice of greasy Richard Branson. ‘

Now hot-air consumers get their chance — with the flotation of shares in New Socialist, the tediously trendy mag for armchair socialists,

Of course the union bureaucracies are expected to pick up block votes to help keep out the left and ensure space for John E monds — by spending more of our subs buying shares.

They want all the hot air in New Socialist to be passed by the management

Send snippets and Bassett, Labour Briefing, 26 Crofton Road, London SE5.

Candidate for East Lewisham. The group aims to organi: the left in the Labour Party in Lewisham at a rank and level. We will be holding a fringe meting on the witchhunt at the Local Government Conference and producing a newsletter to give left wing coverage of local issues. -

Above all, the comradely debate at the opening meeting bodes well for a non-sectarian,

fo to Greg iscope Column,

Pe

Making tracks for Whitehall

No it wasn’t Warsaw. Pact manoeuvres in East Anglia!

The noises you heard would have been the tank-brigade — Stalinis leadership of TASS artiving in

Bishop's Stortford for a cosy get together with the ASTMS NEC as part of their merger talks

The TASS forces. were under orders to leave behind their iniforms and wear Jaruzelskistyle iwvy suits and ties for the weekend

ession at the ASTMS Whitehall

TASS NEC was told to wear a frock. (She refused),

TASS hatchet men, ice picks in Vest pockets, celebrated the 1956 Hungarian invasion by airing their

welcoming organisation that all comrades on the left will feel has a valuable role to play.

The meeting heard from workers under threat at the London Strategic Policy Unit and voted to lobby Lewisham Council and call for the union’s full demands to be met.

The next meeting will be on Wednesday November 26th at 8pm at Deptford Town Hall in New Cross Road, with a discussion on Ireland.

views on how ASTMS should deal with its hard left “Trots

Ken. ’Gorbachov’’ Gill coolly in formed the ASTMS NEC that the entire TASS leadership is controlled from top to bottom by a “Broad Left

The rightward-moving Clive

Jenkins (who until recently hysterically attacked Trots Broad Lefts” and "Votes against as a simple concerted challenge to his personal rule) simply smiled

benignly. No doubt he was mentally totting up the extra subs to flow

from a merger, and was not displeased at the arrival of Stalinist reinforcements to help prop up

ASTMS' rather tired bureaucracy. Sore points — such as ASTMS

scabbing on TASS, members in the Hangers Strike, and the TASS vic timisation of anti-apartheid veteran David Kitson were skilfully avoided.

But there is hot debate on the name of the prospective merged union, The front runner appears to be the Stalinist Health, insurance

and Technical Staffs,

Today — or was it not today?

Who was further to the left — Derek Jameson or Peregrine Worsthorne? Crowds of Yuppies at the Marxism Today “Left for Dead” jamboree appeared to give barely critical support 10 Royalist

lan Sewell, Spelthorne CLP Alun Severn, Abbey branch LP

Chris Severn, Abbey branch uP

Malcolm Speake, Ladywood CLP.

Cyril Spector, Erdington CLP Helen Shaw

H. Stock

Tim Staten, Tower Hamlets councillor

Rod Sweeney, Coventry SW cLP

Clir Brenda Taylor, Warley East CLP

Godrey Webster, Vice chair, Abbey LP

Brian Woodbridge, UCATT Abra Quin, Sussex University Labour Students

Ros Young, Islington South cLP

Tokenism at trade union

colleges

Dear Briefing. The recent fuss about David Selbourne at Ruskin College raises general questions about the role of so-called trade union colleges. Obviously I have no sympathy for him (I am more worried about David Kitson) but I write to highlight the hypocrisies of Coleg Harlech.

It is largely funded by the Welsh Office and the DES. Various unions _ provide scholarships — including my own — but they have no say in how the College is run. 1 received a nasty shock on my first day when they gave me the remnants of my grant with a Barclay’s cheque!

However, it is the lack of a workable Equal Opportunities policy which really worries me. The college has a_ bi-lingual policy but the handful of Welsh speakers here won’t translate for the union.

Our main concern is the lack of creches — the subject of our motion to NUS Conference this year. Whoever heard of an Adult Education College without creche facilities?

Inspired by their lives

Carlton ward of Brent East Labour Party suffered two tragic blows with the sudden and early deaths of its Secretary, Ray Bladen, on October 21st and its Treasurer, Rosemary Deane, on October 30th. Both comrades were supporters of Briefing.

Ray was 35. He died of Pneumonia in St Mary's hospital, Paddington. Despite only joining the Party in 1983 he had served as a GMC, EC and LGC delegate and as ward treasurer last’ year and secretary this.

Ray naturally _ inclined towards the hard left in the Party. His incisiveness led him to sniff out hypocrisy and dou: ble standards very quickly and he was intensely suspicious of all politicians

Rose was 30. She died of a brain haemorrhage in the Royal Free Hospital. She had been active in Brent for some years, both in the Labour Party and on the issue of single homelessness. She was one

“man of the people” Jameson as a progressive section of the bourgeois media.

Perhaps the Communist Party should draw the logical conclusion, drop the divisive (and misleading) word “Marxism” from the magazine’s title, and think about a launching middle-brow daily paper in full colour?

Out of this

world

Ifever a silk purse was made by the temporary creation of Alastair Graham — lifelong nonentity and

ime CPSA General Secretary as an authoritative voice of the trade unions, Promoted as the voice’ of the new realism’, Graham won the hearts of the media chiefs for his tireless opposition to class struggle nt. his empty gestures 3CHQ and his support for tr Now he struts around his padded cell as the proud but boring rec pient of a £5@000 salary as boss of the ittle-known “industrial Soci: ty “His job is devising silly ideas to popularise capitalist exploitation Peering down on the world from the serene heights of his wallet am. has announced that the lution to unemployment

would be for workers to take a wage cut — so the bosses could

of the first on the hard left'in Brent East to see through Ken Livingstone’s sham leftism in his campaign to become PPC. She campaigned —_ without respite for the hunger strikers and was one of the first to raise the issue of strip ‘searching.

Rose was a Republican, Socialist, and a feminist, who fought hard in the oppressor nation for the freedom of her country, her class and her sex

A dear friend and comrade, Jan Rebane, died suddenly of natural causes on Sunday November 12th.

Jan was well loved and known throughout the labour and trade union movement, not only in Lambeth where he worked and Lewisham where he lived but also wherever else he went across the country.

Without Jan’s efforts, there would not have been a Trade Union Resource Centre nor an Unemployed Centre in Lambeth as he was

ford to hire more workers. (Ideally of course everybody would work for nothing — then everyone could have a job — or two, or even three!)

Graham also wants to persuade us of “'the crucial use to which profit can be used to create increased

market share" (sic — as quoted in the Guardian) The fact that Graham's own

salary could provide a living for six or seven nurses, teachers or other useful human beings seems to have escaped him — as has all confact with material reality

As he stares wildly and babbles on, you realise looking into his eyes that through the lights may be on. there is no one at home

Moles wreck COHSE plan

COHSE leaders are expected to launch a major inguiry into the leaking of leaflets advertising their national demonstration against NHS cuts on November 10th.

Rigid security measures had been taken to ensure that General Secretary David Williams would have the 3 mile route through London largely to himself.

But infiltrators or irresponsible elements allowed word of the event to get out, and 300-400 determined marchers (a good 30% of them from Yorkshire) turned out to witness a classic demonstration of half-cock organisation fouling up

We have managed to organise fone, but the SU is apparently hard-pushed to spare the necessary £200 a term. If that runs out, we will try and run it with volunteers. There’s no way we can persuade the management to help us.

At the SU AGM TI argued unsuccessfully that the creche was an absolute necessity and that we should __ailocate unlimited resources. We are trying to work something out with the village playgroup (and possibly Gwynedd County Council) but the _local community has: been uncooperative.

We are asking NUS to take equal opportunities seriously. We would like them to campaign for state-funded creches in all colleges. But you would expect better in a TUCsupported college. Equal opportunities should be a practical necessity, not a token polic

Andy Gibbons,

Coleg Harlech SU Chairperson

This double tragedy has stunned all who knew them. Let us all take inspiration from the way they lived their lives. We ask other comrades to honour their memories by building a socialist movement.

Brent East Women’s Sec tion have set up a fund for thé Campaign Against Strip Searching in memory of Rose. Donations should be sent to Jackie Brown, 76a Hanover Road, London NW10.

instrumental in the Setting up of both.

His death is not only a great personal loss to many of us but also a severe blow to the movement.

A memorial fund is being set up and donations are to be sent to: Jan Rebane Memorial Fund, c/o Lambeth Trade Union Resource Centre, Unit 117, Bon Marche Building, 444 Brixton Road, London SW9 8EJ, telephone 274 4000 x 372

what had been a strong initiative by COHSE members at the Maudsely Hospital

Leaflets were as rare as a bellylaugh in“a crematorium, while the handful of posters are reportedly fetching Rembrandt-style prices at Sotheby's.

“The Archer’’

(An everyday story of millionaire philanthropists) Episode 16

‘Hallo... I've never met you, of course. It must be terrible for you. | know — why don't | give you £2,000 to get away for a short holi: day? Yes, I'll send it down to you at Victoria Station. Thank goodness that's all sorted out

The empty place

As he departs to collaborate with Cecil Parkinson on the definitive Tery sex education textbook for ILEA schoolkids, Jeffrey Archer leaves Thatcher with a problem of succession

Harvey Proctor is too “tied up” with other things, and is apparently dead beat at the end of the week.

Bill Wyman is too old.

It could wind up a flip of the coin between Edwina Currie and the versatile but dependable Dusty Bin,

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 11

Debate

The Hindawi affair: How should socialists see it?

By Phil Hearse The severing —_of diplomatic relations

between Britain and Syria was the dramatic culmination of the El Al bomb plot affai

The prosecution claim during the Hindawi trial was that Hindawi had been in the pay of the Syrians, and that the bomb, carried by Hindawi’s unwitting girlfriend, had been provided by the Syrian embassy. The guilty verdict gave Thatcher the opportunity she wanted to break off relations with Syria, with the gleeful support of the Reagan administration.

Legitimises

The whole business fitted in perfectly with the Reaganite political offensive which posits terrorism as the major enemy of the West, and which legitimises the US cold war posture, Thatcher has toddied along behind this political offensive, oblivious to the fact that its main intention is to bring Europe to heel behind US leadership.

The reluctance of the EEC to fall in behind the British position on Syria was symptomatic of West European refusal, at least for the time being, to have its own positions in the Middle East further compromised.

Thatcher

For Thatcher taking a tough stand against “terrorism” serves any number of useful political objectives, reaffirming the image built up during thes Malvinas war, and cranking up reactionary sentiments at home. The declaration of a 200-mile fishing cordon around the Malvinas serves much the same purpose, with the added bonus that there might be some nasty little clashes in time for the election.

It might be tempting, therefore, to see Hindawi as a victim of crude _ political calculation, with the British courts helping Thatcher create a new, “terrorism” scare. But things are rather more complicated than that.

Long shot

Any “frame up’? thesis is frankly a long shot in this particular case. Hindawi’s defence was exceedingly weak, consisting of the assertion that

he thought he was smuggling drugs, not planting a bomb.

Even if the real facts are at this stage unknown, it would be entirely characteristic of the very nasty Syrian security service to utilise a Palestinian like Hindawi to carry out dirty work.

Weakness

Terrorist actions, like random bombings, air hijackings, and attacks on Jewish restaurants and synagogues, are a symptom of the weakness of the Palestinian movement. Even when carried out by sincere Palestinian militants, driven to desperation by the blows which the Palestinian population has suffered at the hands of Israel, Shiite fundamentalists, and others, many of these actions cannot possibly be supported from either a political or moral point of view.

Reactionary

Bombing a synagogue in Istanbul is simply a reactionary act, based on a confusion between Zionism, the zionist state, and the Jewish people. Apart from being an attack on innocents, such activity only strengthens the Zionist equation between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. In the Hindawi case, how can it possibly be claimed that anyone travelling to Israel onan El Al plane is a legitimate target for assassination? That is to adopt the morality of the oppressors of the Palestinians,

To state these facts bluntly is not at all to excuse the hypocrisy of Thatcher and Reagan who keep quiet about the hundreds of deaths among the Palestinians over the past five years at the hands of the Israelis, and the Shiite movement Amal in Lebanon, which is keeping the refugee camps under constant seige. But random terrorist attacks are no solution to the problems of the Palestinian people, and_ in certain cases even set their struggle back,

Secrecy

Another problem —_ with terrorist tactics is that by their very nature they require utter secrecy. They are carried out by groups not under any kind of democratic control. This renders them wide open to manipulation and provocation by state security agencies.

The Abu Nidal group, responsible for many terrorist actions, is based in Damascus, and kept under tight Syrian

Grosvenor Square: demonstration against US bombing

control.

Terrorist groups, especially those under the control of reactionary governments, very easily degenerate from having clear political-military objectives, to simply trying to carry off “successful” operations — generally measured by the degree of international publicity, and not by whether they — actually succeed in promoting the struggle of the oppressed.

Every day

Every day the Palestinian camps in Lebanon are under attack from Amal, the Shi’iteled movement. And who is behind these attacks? None other than Assad, the Syrian leader, the main political and financial backer of Amal. Assad does not want a strong independent Palestinian movement. On the contrary, he sees it as a threat to his own control of Lebanon, It is a sad commentary on the fate of the Palestinian resistance _ that desperate militants now align themselves with a mortal enemy like Assad.

Problem

Terrorist actions pose a particular problem for socialists in the imperialist countries. They are magnified out of all proportion by the imperialist politicians for their own ends. Moreover, socialists _ have generally" supported — and rightly so — armed struggle by oppressed peoples _ against imperialism. But we have to face the fact that many terrorist groups, from the Red Army faction and its successors in Germany, to the Red Brigades in Italy| to the Palestinian splinter groups, have nothing whatever to do with popular armed struggle, which requires mass mobilisation.

Abu Nidal

Abu Nidal has little in common with the original fedayeen fighters or the active service units of the Irish Republican movement. If that is true for small terrorist formations, it is doubly true for the ruthless state _ security agencies of countries like Syria and Libya.

Our enemy’s enemy is not always our friend. We should be wary about giving any credence or support to reactionary terrorist activities, just because their perpetrators carry them out in the name of “antiimperialism’.

Hezar Hindawi

4 regular column trom

Socialist Society

Who’s against

terrorism?

A visitor from Mars listening to the current pronouncements of Western leaders might naively suppose that they were all pacifists.

President Reagan and Mrs Thatcher have declared ““war’” on terrorism, and the airwaves are loud with righteous denunciations of the use of violence for political ends.

All this is, of course, sheer hypoerisy. There are no pacifists among the current crop of world leaders (have there ever been?). All of them without exception are perfectly prepared to use violence, or support its use, when they think it necessary. The woman who gave the order to sink the Belgrano, and the man whose planes were bombing Tripoli only six months ago, are in a poor position from which to lecture the rest of the world on the wickedness of violerice

This obvious point needs to be made, over and over again, because one of the purposes of the Reagan-Thatcher propaganda campaign against “terrorism”? is to stifle rational discussion about _political violence, and silence all’ those who might dare to dissent from their position and their policies. Those who refuse to join in this crusade against the “men of violence” are smeared with being their accomplices.

We socialists must not be cowed or shamed lence on this subject. What is at issue, if we are not pacifists, is not whether we are for or against violence, or even terrorism, but under what circumstances and for what reasons we might,

however reluctantly, be prepared to support it.

It is clear tht neither Reagan nor Thatcher have renounced violence. But what about terrorism? Although _ people seldom stop to define it, terrorism is usually used to refer to two rather different kinds of

By Anthony Arblaster

killing, or threatened killing. On the one hand, there are acts of political assassination, or attempts at it — like the Brighton bombing.

On the other, there are the random killings of the relatively innocent, which can result from ahi-jacking or a bomb placed in a pub, theatre or cafe.

Of the two it is the random killings which are the more dreadful. They shock and frighten people, quite rightly, far more than attempts at political assassination. The random killing of ordinary civilians is surely very hard to justify, however just the cause for which it is done.

But random killing was exactly what was involved in the American raids on Libya last April; and random killing. is exactly what is involved in the Contras’ attacks on_ villages, schools and hospitals in rural Nicaragua. For all this random killing Reagan is directly responsible, and in the Libyan case Mrs Thatcher was his enthusiastic accomplice. What is the moral difference between dropping a bomb and planting a bomb — if both kill innocent civilians?

There is none. The one difference might be that the one is _state-authorised _ violence,

which is supposed to be legitimate, while the other is, as it were, private violence, which is not.

But Thatcher and Reagan have deprived themselves of that argument, since they are campaigning against what they call “state-sponsored terrorism”’, The activity of the Contras is also state-sponsored terrorism, and the sponsoring state is the USA. Other states that sponsor, or organise, terrorism include South Africa, Chile and Israel; but Reagan has no plans, so far as I know, to bomb Pretoria, Santiago or Tel Aviv.

Like the denunciations of violence, then, the Western campaign against “Terrorism” is a dishonest propaganda exercise, based on hypocrisy and double standards, What Reagan and his international supporters are trying to do is to stamp out, or at least punish, one particular strand of political violence: Palestinian and Arab terrorism directed against Israel and the West. To Right wing terrorism in Central America and elsewhere they either give active support or at least turn a blind eye.

It is possible that bombing Tripoli, or breaking off relations with Syria, may have some marginal effect on the level of violence in Europe and the Middle East. But the root cause of Arab terrorism is, of course, the wholly unresolved question of Palestine and the Palestinians. Until America and the West address themselves to that question, and put serious pressure on Israel to come to terms with the Palestinians, there is little prospect of an end to this particular current of terrorism:

PHOTO: Labour Party Photo Library)

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 12

Reviews

nal

FUTURE

SOCIALIST OR SDP MARK 2?

Why

BRYN GRIFFITHS of Brighton Labour Briefing reviews ERIC HEFFER’S book Labour's Future — Socialist or SDP Mark 2? (Verso, £4.95).

The title of Eric Heffer's new book poses the central question facing the Labour Party. Unfortunately its publication coincided with Eric's removal from the National Executive Committee surely another step away from socialism and towards an SDP Mark 2°! The main reason for Eric's removal was that as Merseyside MP he supported the struggle of Liverpool Councillors (to whom the book is dedicated)

the left must g fight Kinnock

and was vocal in his opposi tion to the expulsions of

socialists Labour's Future outlines

how a Labour left, that grew in ngth after the appointments of the 1974/79 Labour government lost its momentum — and allowed Neil Kinnock to emerge as an_ autocratic leader. The book is made all the more readable by its auto: biographical style. It is the testimony of a committed socialist’s struggle to extend the Left's influence within the Party

For new or younger Party members (or for ex-Lefts with short memories) the book usefully recounts the key events in Labour's recent past. It recalls the dismal experiences of the last Labour government which culminated in defeat by Thatcherism and

how the Left then began the process of repairing the damage

In one of the most illuminating sections of the book, Eric outlines how the Right counter-attacked the left by reducing the role of the Party Conference and the National Executive Committee. Policy making was wrested from Conference and the NEC and power was concentrated in the Parliamentary Labour Party

While the Party as a whole gave consistent support to the miners, the — Parliamentary leadership was “’...lukewarm, and often privately hostile,’* according to Eric, ‘to Arthur Scargill, the NUM Executive, and even the strike itself.’’

Refreshingly, Eric places great emphasis on socialist internationalism. A strength of

his politics is his combination of anti-imperialist_ opposition to. NATO with an uncompromising critique of Stalinism. His activity in the East European Solidarity Cam paign has helped keep the cause of workers in the Stalinist states on the labour movement agenda

The book concludes with chapters on “Socialism and the State’ and “Democratic Socialism and Revolutionary Reformism”. | disagreed with some of the political points ad vanced in this section. In a review as brief as this, it would not be possible to do justice to Eric's position. Perhaps it would be a good idea to start a debate with Eric on these points.

Nonetheless, 1! _ strongly recommend this excellent and readable book.

Those TV

memories...

November saw an interesting coincidence of events in the world of television. Channel 4 quietly reached the age of four. BBC TV celebrated its fiftieth aniversary with a weeklong wallow in memorable — moments. And the Conservative Party Central Office launched its attack on the BBC, charging it h “political bias’ against the Tory Party and ‘‘our allies’’ the USA.

The cumulative effect of all this may be to rekindle fondness for the broadcasting services we have all known and loved and moaned about for so long. In the face of such manifestly manic vitriol, the status quo can seem like a radical alternative worth fighting to preserve.

The BBC’s birthday beano proved how large a role television has played in the formation of popular, collective and personal memories. The “festival of remembrance’ was kicked off by “That's TV Entertainment”, a 3-hour long montage of clips from old programmes, interspersed with recollections from people involved in making them, and celebrities recollecting _ their early hours watching the box

To Norman Tebbit, the “Golden Days’’ are probably those of 1926 when, during the General Strike, pressure was exerted over the BBC to ensure that only _the government's point of view was transmitted in news broadcasts, and the voices of opposition were effectively stifled. As everyone knows

Provos,

pKe. ' protestants, and

beat! working class

politics

THE DEBATE ON IRELAND]

A unique confrontation bet ween views on the left, What sort of united Ireland could win the support of Protes tant workers? What way to working class u'

By Alix Lee

injunctions are still_ regularly served on __ broadcasting organisations to prevent the

transmission of _“‘politically sensitive’’ * material, most notably and _ frequently

concerning Northern Ireland.

In this recent affair, Tebbit seems to have been taken over by the spirit of his “Spitting Image’ facsimile, giving his claims such a ring of rabid vitriol that he may have swept the ground from under himself

Tebbit’s notion of “impartiality’’ starts and ends with loyalty to government policy. This is, in many ways, just an extension of the way that ‘balance’ and

“impartiality” are generally applied by broadcasting institutions, i.e. within the context of mainstream

parliamentary politics, which leaves countless groups and oppositional ideologies out of the equation

Channel 4, the bearer of so many different (and conflicting) hopes for change on this front, had undoubtedly made some headway in increasing the alternatives available on British television. But anyone who saw Jeremy Isaacs, the Channel's Controller, on the anniversary edition of “Right to Reply’” must wonder how far we've got and how much further we'll be able to go.

In the face of some rather mild criticism from. viewers in the Videobox and the RTR studio, Isaacs __blustered, hectored, and shouted them down, virtually foaming at the mouth with smug assertions of self-satisfaction end superiority. | was _ talf expecting some magnificent symbol of megalomania to burst out of the top of his head, or for him to stand over his critics waving a whip and demanding penance for their affrontery, but it was not to be. “Spitting Image’ has a lot to answer for.

What’s it all about, Norman?

After a summer of public rows about the BBC’s alleged left wing bias, the Westminster season opened with a bang.

The BBC dropped its defence of the Panorama libel case amidst allegations that witnesses had been pressured into withdrawing their evidence. The dust had hardly settled when Norman Tebbit, with Cabinet approval, issued his report alleging anti-government and anti-American bias in BBC TV coverage of the Libyan bombings

Alistair Milne, the BBC's Director General — a man not known for — radicalism declared that ‘the Conservative Party is attempting to intimidate the BBC.””

The broadcasting unions, Labour, Liberal and SDP MPs, even the right —_ wing Conservative Party backbench Home Affairs Committee, have in one way ot another condemned Tebbit’s _ overt attempt to bludgeon the BBC.

By Tom O'Malley Information Officer,

Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom

But it would be wrong to see the anti-BBC campaign as just another ‘‘on yer bike’ blunder by Norman. Recent events are best understood as part of a move to soften up public opinion and win wider support within the Tory Party for the idea that the BBC should be dismantled and privatised.

The Peacock Report — published in July — was expected to provide an alibi for introducing advertising on the BBC, but bowed to the overwhelming weight of evidence and opposed the idea. The rest of its recommendations, however, are designed to promote a privatised broadcasting system: selling of BBC Radios 1 and 2, auctioning ITV franchises,

AIDS: no t

compulsory tes

There are now an estimated 50,000 people with the AIDS virus in Britain, and if nothing is done there are likely to be one million by 1990. At least 15% of people with the virus contract AIDS. A Cabinet committee has been established as the Tories now realise that AIDS is going to start killing a lot of people outside the “marginal” groups like gay men.

For the last five years there have been no new funds to the NHS for the extra burden involved. Nor has proper informa tion to all — the one and only thing that can stop the spread of the H IV virus.

A recent survey showed that 50% of people think the virus can be transmitted from drinking from the same cup as so meone with the virus. As a result of this ignorance, large majorities are in favour of com

By Jamie Gough

——

pulsory antibody testing of the whole population and__of visitors to the country. 38% are even in favour of compulsory isolation of people who have the antibody — concentration camps of hundreds of thousands of people Compulsory testing of any groups of people is a useless measure. There is at present no cure for the virus or for AIDS. It is also a gross attack on civil liberties, and one which inevitably leads to discriminan. The test will be used to discriminate against the groups which are presently “high risk’. Already some employers and nearly all insurance com: panies have started to require the antibody test from men known to be gay. It will be used to discriminate against people who are antibody positve.

Under the LaRouche referendum proposition _ recently defeated in California, they would have been sacked from jobs in hospitals, schools and catering

Testing of visitors or immigrants to. Britain would pander to chauvinism and racism — particularly if visitors from ‘high risk’ Africa were targetted. A labour movement response to AIDS needs to be thoroughly anti-racist. The campaign against LaRouche showed the way, by rallying with black groups who were opposing a racist proposition to make English California's ‘‘official language’’

The government will probably not introduce large scale testing if only because of its high cost. But as a populist electoral move it may well be tempted to test particular groups of workers or ‘‘high risk’’ groups, or into promoting voluntary testing. These should be absolutely oposed

i §

The government should bring in proper health and safety measures for workers who are at risk measures which should anyway exist to guard against infection from diseases like hepatitis. It should fund a massive TV advertising campaign for safe sex for all. This needs to be absolutely explicit if it is to work — no concessions to — bourgeois morality! It should provide extra money to the NHS, including funds for issuing condoms free.

The defeat of the LaRouche propositions shows that a Getermined campaign can overcome popular ignorance and defend elementary civil rights. But the lesbian and gay movement cannot fight alone Itis time that the whole labour movement made its voice heard on this issue.

AIDS — A Trade Union Issue pack available free from ATUI, 15 Highstone Mansions, 84 Camden Road, London NW1

increasing the amount of independent productions bought by the corporation to 40% of output, etc.

A re-elected Tory administration would almost certainly move swiftly to introduce the _legislation necessary to privatise the BBC and lift public controls “over commercial broadcasting,

But the Peacock exercise revealed widespread public support for the BBC, as well as strong sympathy for _ the Corporation inthe Tory Party itself, Hence the need to undermine confidence in the BBC. The furore over The Monocled Mutineer, the BBC's coverage of the struggle against apartheid, the appointment of Duke Hussey (a director of Murdoch's Times) as Chair of the Board of Governors, the row over Casualty, and recently the Panorama and Libyan affairs are all designed to have the cumulative effect of damaging the BBC’s reputation,

These interventions have managed to shift the debate about broadcasting onto Tebbit’s chosen ground. How can we assert that the BBC is fundamentally —unsympatheti to progressive ideas and practices (which it is) when precisely those elements within the system which are worth defending strong trade unions, the practice of providing a wider range of views than exist in Fleet Street — are under attack?

Nonetheless, it is important to respond to this attack by supporting the broadcasting unions, NUJ, BETA and ACTT, in their defence of workers within broadcasting, John Foster, Broadcasting Organiser of ‘the NUJ, has called for the election of the Board of Governors and the publication of the minutes of their meetings. The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, in its Media Manifesto*, is attempting to develop an’ alternative strategy for media reform, which would build public accountabi industrial democracy, and equal opportunities into a restructured broadcasting system.

By developing ideas for media reform which can win widespread support, we can put Tebbit’s plan for our broadcasting future into the dustbin of history! Watch this space!

“Copies of the Media Manifesto can be obtained free of charge from the CPBF, 9 Poland Street,London WIV 3DG. 01-437 2795.

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 13

International Briefing

LABOUR COMMITTEE

ON

IRELAND

Anglo-Irish agreement

One year on

When Margaret Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, she said that she did so ‘‘as a Unionist

and a Loyalist.” Tom King declared shortly afterwards that the Agreement meant there

would never be a united Ireland. But Labour spokesperson on Northern Ireland, Stuart Bell, wrote in Labour Weekly that it was ‘“‘a

bridge to Irish unity Not surprisingly, many Labour activists were confused.

The Labour Committee on Ireland organised a major rally against the Agreemeent. We said it was yet another attempt to achieve an internal settlement within the Six Counties, and that its real purpose was to undermine support. for Sinn Fein, The Labour leadership denounced us when we suggested. that the Agreement was, in fact, incompatible with Labour's policy of campaigning for trish unity

In a recent interview, Garret Fitzgerald gave his version of nglo-Irish Agreement_on the. occasion of its first birthday:

“We have no desire to be involved in. the process of Northern Ireland any more thanis necessary to tackle the problem of the IRA and ‘eliminate it... 1 would be very happy indeed if the parties could sit down (...) and arrive at agreement on devolution that would enable us to withdraw from all the devolved areas and leave it to the people of Northern Ireland to sort out their own affairs.”

Talking to the Unionist Assembly in January, Stuart Bell said that Labour saw the ‘Agreement not as a step towards unity, but as a step towards devolved government in the Six

Counties. If the Unionists accepted it, and set up a devolved power-sharing

assembly, they could get Dublin off their backs alltogether. Meanwhile, for the nationalist working-class communities of the North, life has become worse over the past

tion and discussion

lear petition

Foot,

rate £12/USS14)

LABOUR FOCUS ON EASTERN EUROPE

a socialist journal of analysis, documenta-

Issue No. 3/1986 out now: © Voices of the Hungarian Revolution © Chernobyl - The First Forty Days © Thinking Big after Reykjavik. Anti-nucEast Germany. Ukrai- : nian History. Enver Hoxha — the artful 4 Albanian? Book reviews. © Contributors include: Eric Heffer MP, Taras Lehkyj, Oliver MacDonald, Paul or Haynes, Ji David Pallister, Gyérgy Krass6, Tamara Deutscher, Anna Paczuska. Subscriptions (three issues per year) £9 from: Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, c/o Crystal, 46 Theobalds Road, London WC1 8NW (Multi-users £15. Overseas airmail

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year. The Agreement has done nothing to end strip searching,

repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, abolish the Ulster Defence Regiment,

reform the RUC, end the Diplock Courts, the shoot-tokill policy, and supergrasses. The paid informer system is now collapsing because of its ‘own weaknesses, not because of the Agreement. The level of sectarian violence against Catholics by Loyalists is now at its highest since the early 70s —

as a direct result of the Anglo-Irish deal. Catholics are being petrol bombed,

intimidated out of their homes, and killed at random as the Loyalists search desperately for ways of reasserting — their supremacy.

By Cllr Richard Chessum Press Officer, Labour Committee on Ireland

In late October, the Labour Committee on Ireland organised a tour of Sinn Fein Councillors to Britain. They met with eight Labour Council Groups in London and a number in the Midlands and the North. Another tour is planned next year.

Until recently it would have been unthinkable that Sinn Fein could be hosted by so many Labour Groups and activists. The success of the tour confirmed that more and more people in the Party are accepting the LCI view. They recognise that there can be no genuine progress towards Irish unity unless we engage in continuous dialogue with those who have been elected to represent the communities which have borne the brunt of Loyalist violence and Britis occupation over the last 17 years.

We call upon the Labour leadership to end their support for the dead-end Agreement. There will be no self determination for the Irish people until both the signatories of the Agreement are defeated, and Irish Republicans are given the place they have earned through sacrifice and struggle. When our leadership takes them seriously, we will know our

leadership is serious _ about Labour policy.

Nicholls,

: LFEE,

Sinn Fein Ard Fheis A mixed result

“Abstentionism’’ dominated this year’s Ard Fheis, Sinn Fein’s annual conference.

In his Presidential speech, Gerry Adams explained:

“We have said many times that even the most successful armed struggle in the Six Counties. — and the struggle jot merely an armed one Pest cannot achieve the

lic... we must develop a ide

struggle.

‘Adams successfully took Sinn Fein forward into the electoral arena in the 26 Counties, and minimised the expected walkout to a mere handful of delegates.

By Steph Grant

The leadership brought with them support from the IRA Army Council and —_key individuals from the ‘‘old guard’. In a S-hour debate delegates put forward the arguments for an end to the old policy of abstaining from the Dail, the Irish parliament; for a political means to extend the struggle in the South and win popular support; for continued armed struggle; and for unity inside the movement after the vote.

Many speecbes came from the newly-elected Councillors, who

have carried forward Sinn Fein’s electoral strategy in the past year. The —pro-

abstentionists lost the debate, relying on emotive arguments about the _collaborationist history of the _ Southern government, but offering no real political alternative.

The other main debate focussed on last year’s policy decision on abortion, endorsing a woman's right to choose,

The leadership had not campaigned positively on .this and the result was twelve resolutions on the agenda

calling for a reversal on abortion policy. It was women activists who led the debate to clarify and develop this policy. They were criticised by the leadership for going “too far, too fast”, and despite winning the debate, which they did forcibly, the woman’s right to choose policy was reversed.

At least, the debate is now out in the open in the Republican movement, and has already changed ‘people’s opinions. There is now only a small section of Sinn Fein who are completely opposed to abortion

on any grounds. The debate will continue, and the leadership will have to organise to defend and extend this policy.

Nevertheless, Adam’s leadership role was confirmed throughout the Ard Fheis, bringing a political maturity and responsibility to the movement:

“We must change our strategies but must never let this change our objectives or our aims.””

The Sinn Fein councillors’ tour of Britain was. seen as political success and will be

extended with a new emphasis ‘on the trade unions and the black community. We can continue to give practical support to the Republican movement by following up the councillors’ tour with organised delegations; by continuing the dialogue with Sinn Fein which cuts across the Labour leadership's attempts to silence discussion on Ireland; and by building the ‘Solidarity movement in this country for troops out and... selfdetermination.

Is Zionism racist?

Palestine — absent from NUS National Conference agendas since 1977 — seems set to hit the Conference floor this December.

The Zionists are _well prepared; not that they have successfully campaigned for student support for zionism and its aims — quite the reverse. They have, as usual, been conducting a slander campaign against’ anti-zionists. in an attempt to discredit them, while ensuring that zionism_ itself never gets discussed at all.

They have been greatly assisted in this by a dual development within Socialist

Organiser: on the one hand SO’s turn to students which has greatly increased its influence within the left of NUS, and on the other hand its continued political trajectory towards accommodation with zionism, which has led SO to adopt the politically undefined term ‘left wing anti-semitism’? as an all too familiar tactic to protect their retreat from attacks from the left.

Furthermore the Zionists have also benefitted from tactical errors made by students fighting for —_anti-zionist positions, e.g. the banning of the Jewish Society at Sunderland Polytechnic.

Because zionism — unlike apartheid — is not widely recognised as a racist ideology, the action taken against the Sunderland Jewish Society for

SS LABOUR MOVEMENT CAMPAIGN for PALESTINE

its explicit support of zionism simply opened up Sunderland’s student union to (entirely cynical) charges of ani semitism, while doing nothing to help expose the racism ot zionism within the student movement.

Supporters of Israel could then ensure that a discussion on the nature of zionism at no point featured in the subsequent discussions ‘over the “Sunderland affair”

‘At the present time the zionists can only gain from being denied platforms — as the Sunderland banning demonstrates. But in the majority of institutions they can only lose if they are forced to defend their racist positions on public platforms, and it is for. this reason that the LMCP seeks to engage them in such a debate where and whenever possible. It is for this reason also that they seem determined to avoid such debate!

In the first week of October we received an invitation from the National Black Students Alliance at Essex University to take part in a conference on

zionism scheduled for November, along with the Union of Jewish Students

(UJS), an NUS representative

and someone from the General Union of Palestinian Students (a line-up, incidentally, that would mean we were alone in arguing an explicitly anti-zionist position).

We replied at once that we welcomed the opportunity for such a discussion and were very keen to participate. The time of the conference is already here, but arrangements for it have still not proceeded because the organisers cannot get a reply from the UJS.

By Anna Wagstaff Secretary, LMCP

Also in October, our student officer Tony Greenstein was invited to address Thames Poly Labour Club. The chair of

NOLS. (The National Organisation of Labour Students — an organisation

with a longstanding support for the Israeli state) wrote to the Labour Club President, David Lee, more or less instructing him not to let Tony speak on the grounds that he is a racist — with no evidence at all to back up this accusation.

Lee cancelled the meeting and asked the NOLS. chair, Ben Lucas, to take part instead in an open debate with Tony, the NUS racism officer, and & Palestinian Student on “Is Zionism racist?” This time the UJS tried to get Tony banned. When they failed with

the student union executive, they took the issue to a union general meeting, and were again heavily defeated.

Similar performances were subsequently repeated by the UJS, using the backing of NOLS, as SOAS, and most recently at the LSE. Both times the attempts to ban Tony failed, and the LMCP was given the chance to address very well attended meetings in which perhaps a majority of people there were able to hear and discuss for the first time a political analysis of zionist ideology.

Zionism is a racist ideology. And yet we have no interest at all in preventing zionists from having a platform. We know, and it would appear that they know, who it is that would gain from a genuine debate.

NOLS and UJS_ branding anti-zionists as anti-semites so as to prevent genuine debates taking place in the run up to NUS Conference must be unequivocally condemned. NOLS and UJS should be challenged on every campus to defend their positions in public debate — a debate that the LMCP would be delighted to participate in.

If you would like a speaker from the Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine or would like to know more about the Campaign, please contact the Secretary, BM LMCP, London WCIN 3XX.

Labour Briefing ‘December 1986 page 14

International Briefing

Arms control after

With the end of the Vienna talks mutual recrimination, immediate hopes of a breakthrough in arms control appear to have been dashed.

The sticking point is, of course, the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) — Star Wars — a “protective shield’’ behind which it can conduct a policy of nuclear blackmail against the Soviet Union.

The attitude of European governments to the arms control process is erratic becaue in the first place they want to maintain a US commitment to European “‘defence’”. Secondly, however, they want to have a measure of policy independence from Washington and thirdly they need to calm domestic public opinion.

Star Wars and the prospect of an INF deal have exacerbated these tensions, Thatcher, for instance, having _ publicly oppsed SDI in a rare breach with the White House, has nevertheless come round to suporting the programme whilst retaining-a strict position on anti-ballistic missiles.

The $17m. in Star Wars research contracts. so far awarded to British firms no doubt makes it easier for her to change her mind.

Since the Westland affair, it has been clear that the Thatcher government is unwilling and unable to mount a serious challenge to the US Star Wars policy. This does not mean, of course, that Thatcher, Kohl and the other West "European leaders are not unhappy with some aspects of the US proposals at Reykjavik.Both the proposal to make deep cuts in strategic arsenals and the zerozero. option on INF are profoundly worrying to the European governments.

‘One of the reasons that the West European governments were prepared to accept Cruise and Pershing 2 deployment was that it was what they were given by the US in response to anxieties they had voiced publicly for some time.

Given -the assumption of mutually assured destruction (as a likely consequence of a superpower nuclear exchange rather than as a_ strategic doctrine) it was unlikely that the US would commit suicide in the event of a conflict limited to Europe.

INF deployment could be presented to West European public opinion as tying the US

The ‘’green movement’’ has now become one-of those groupings h which radical socialists are supposed to ‘‘have a relationship’.

On the one hand, this new ecological awareness among socialists is welcome; on the other, it is dangerously short sighted in that it takes for granted, first, that there is a “green movement’’ in Britain, and secondly, that socialists should support it.

If ‘‘green’’ is simply a word that implies a general concern for the environment then there are certainly a lot’of “‘green"’ people about — more than enough for a movement, to be sure. By this definition the Countryside Commission is “green’’ — and if it was possible for the analysis to stop here we would be left asking how socialists should relate to a popular but diverse and largely _non-socialist movement

However, there are those who see ‘'green’’ polities as a radical new spiritual expression; as the politics of a “New Age’. For the Greens, it implies a philosophy

PHOTO: Bob Naylor

Red and Green

Not seeing red

Reykj

avik

By Chris Bertram

November 1986. Cruise missiles convoy blockaded on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border for one and a

half hours.

into European defence to a greater extent than before, but also exacted a price of greater military and = economic subservience to the US Star Wars solves the problem of the impotence of the US strategic arsenal and simultaneously gives the US the political initiative and a war fighting capability within Europe.

This is not to say that the zero-zero option does not represent something of a concession from Washington. In particular, giving = up Pershing would make some of the Pentagon's war fighting scenarios less viable. However, the loss of offensive capability would be minimal and if the

By Andy Porter SERA

embracing all aspects of human life, with an emphasis on self-awareness, planetary awareness, _non-violence, sustainable economics based ‘on renewable or ‘recychable resources, and an overall commitment to harmonious relations between humans and between: human society and the environment,

Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But Green politics also generally implies a denial. of the importance of _ class-based politics and expects change to come through a major shift in individuals’ perceptions and an unprecendented development of consensus overriding class divisions.

The Ecology Party (now call ed the Green Party) Manifesto of 1983 states quite clearly that "the old fashioned politics of class conflict are grinding to a halt’’ and that we must move from the “politics of class interests to the politics of life interests.’’ The same theme emerges in Seeing Green, the widely acclaim ed book written by leading

trade-off is Star Wars then the Reagan admininistration will have got what it wanted.

For Thatcher and Chirac however the zero-zero option would place more pressure on them to reduce or fail to modernise their “‘independent”” nuclear forces and thereby reduce the relative weight of those forces. In any case, if ABM was breached those forces would be even less relevant than they are today.

What Reykjavik _ confirms above all is that the hawks are firmly in the driving seat in Washington.

For the Soviet Union, Star Wars represents a_ potentially

Green Jonathan Porritt. Here class divisions are seen as “notional’’ products of an “‘old-fashioned’’ way of seeing the world. Porritt sees changes in __ individual awareness as the key to the Green revolution and apparently believes that such changes will come as part of an inevitable and, natural process.

Holding ideas like that must make him feel very secure when he tucks into his muesli every morning but unfortunately it neglects the little item of the role of the ruling class. Whilst individuals within that class may undergo radical changes in their approach to the world, the class as a whole is bound to continue striving to maximise its power and pro: fits. Since there is no prece dent in known history of a class as a whole simply voluntering to give up its power and privileges, we are forced to concludealong with Marx) that radical change will necessarily come through con flict rather than through in dividual enlightenment

Other green theorists (e.g Raymond Williams and André Gorz) have approached the

mortal threat. _—_—_—Either Gorbachov must attempt to match Star Wars with a comparable system, and it is unlikely that the Soviet Union has the technology for that, or it must attempt to overload American systems by building up its strategic arsenal.

For socialists in Britain the lesson that must once again be drawn is that NATO is a warmaking machine under US domination and the central priority has to be withdrawal. Both cruise missiles and US bases are important objects of attack for the left, but the Pentagon has more than one card up its sleeve — and the ace of trumps is Star Wars.

issue of ecology and social change from a more socialist perspective. In West Germany the green movement has a strong anti-capitalist element within it. In Britain, however, the Porritt approach has become dominant amongst those who identify themselves as ‘Green’. When we talk about the “‘green movement” we therefore need to make clear whether we are referring to. the environmental _movement or to "New Age"’ Green pe ics. It should come as no surprise that green politics has been so uncritically embraced by the ‘‘soft left’ — after all it’s not just in the Green Party that class struggle has become unfashionable

Faced with this situation, the task of cfeating an eco socialist theory and practice which ‘is as uncompromising about class as it is about the environment should be a priority for all of us.

(Sections of this article have

previously appeared in a

longer form in The Energy Fix, Porter, Spence & Thompson, Pluto Press.)

Socialist | International:

back- peddlin on Nicaragua

At the end of September, the Regional Committee of the Socialist International met in Panama.

The meeting went virtually unnoticed, but its resolutions reflected ' the — increasingly ambiguous attitude of many Socialist Parties to the Nicaraguan revolution,

One “‘special _ reSolution’® expressed “unreserved support’ for Costa Rica’s neutrality, in the face of the charge taken by Nicaragua to the International Court in The Hague that Costa Rica was favouring the US-backed aggression of the contras, The meeting censured Nicaragta for taking its complaint to The Hague rather than dealing with it within the Contadora Group.

The best that can be said of this is that it is pious hum-bug. It completely ignores the fact that it is Nicaragua which has continually tried to secure a peace agreement _ through Contradora, whilst the other Central American governments, including the —“‘social democratic” government of Costa Rica, have consistently bowed to the wishes of the State Department and blocked any such possibility.

In any case, it is now clear that the Contadora peace process was one of. the main targets of Regan’s $100m contra aid package.

At another point, the chair at Panama referred to Nicaragua as “‘both protagonist and victim” of the conflict in the region. All this represents a big retreat from the forthright support for Nicaragua by the Socialist International over the last 7 years.

The minority within the SI , which has openly been hostile to the Nicaraguan revolution, led by Portugal’s — “‘socialist’”

The death toll, injuries and tremendous suffering which the recent earthquakes have caused and will continue to cause in El Salvador is the result of a __ natural phenomenon.

It adds to the intense misery already suffered by the poor

jority, the result of 6 years war and decdes of in and repression.

The war, clearly not a natural phenomenon, _ has caused 60,000 deaths, 6,000 “‘disappeared’’, 500,000 inernal refugees and 500,000 exiles from a population of just 5 million. It sprang from social injustice and the efforts of the Salvadorean people to resolve that injustice. It has been prolonged by massive US interference.

Solidarity | El Salvador

By Iain Bruce Colchester North CLP

president Soares, seems to have grown recently, ‘with the most important shift in Spain. Here, as US pressure built up on the PSOE government to renege on its election pledge to leave NATO, so — less visibly — the Spanish socialists’ support for Nicaragua has become increasingly embarressed.

The SI's ‘Committee in Solidarity with Nicaragua’, of which Spain’s Gonzalez’ is nominally the president, has all but ceased to function, In March 1985 Spain cut off

agua’s credit on the spurious grounds that part of previous loans had not been paid back — in fact, they had not yet reached maturity.

In January, Spain’s foreign minister, Ordonez, swept through’ Central" America, offering support for attempts to pull together a dialogue between the Sandinistas and the contras, echoing calls from the US and the Vatican.

Leaders of the socialist parties. of northern Europe, notably the German SPD and the British Labour Party, have not yet followed down the road of submitting to the-diktats of US foreign policy in Central America. Their bargaining position with —_ American imperialism is rather different to that of their southern colleagues, to saysnothing Rica. Also, for the time : they are in opposition at home!

Nonetheless, the danger should not be overlooked. If the kind of change in attitude demonstrated in Panama spreads to the majority of the SI parties, it would bring very much ‘closer the prospect of total war in Central America.

The El Salvador Solidarity Campaign’s Earthquake Appeal will provide direct relief to those poor who have suffered most from this recent catastrophe. It offers hope to precisely those people who have not been reached by and distributed through the Duarte government.

We hope that thosé who do not already know the causes of the war will now inform themselves through us. We are convinced you will then want to continue your support for the people of El Salvador.

Send donations to: El Salvador Earthquake Appeal, 13-16 Borough Road, London SE1 OAL, or pay direct into the bank account, Elephant and Castle Natwest, no. 27761880.

Labour Briefing December 1986 page 15

International Briefing

outh African The farce of War against Mozambique

An International Commission of Inquiry has been set up to investigate ; the circumstances of the shocking crash, on October 19th, in South Africa, in which

Mozambique’s President Samora Machel and 33 others died.

Whether they will be able to prove South Africa’s culpability for the disaster or not is secondary to more fundamental considerations for —_antiapartheid campaigners and socialists the world over. The facts are that:

@South Africa has, since 1981, been waging a devastating

war’ againt. Mozambique through ——the_-—_—_so-called Mozambique National

Resistance (MNR), created by

Rhodesian counter-insurgency in 1976 and taken over by Pretoria when Smith’s regime was replaced by independent Zimbabwe.

@South Africa’s campaign against Mozambique has also included direct bombings and commando raids by the SADF, as well as less visible undermining economic pressures, mainly through the strangulation of Mozambique’s railways and ports system.

@Having forced the Frelimo

government. into signing the notorious “‘non-aggression”” _-N6komati Accord, March

1984, South Africa itself never observed the agreement and — when exposed to the world by the undeniable —_ evidence captured with the MNR’s Gorongosa headquarters, in central Mozambique, in August

1986 Labour Party Conference unanimously supported composite 28 on Central America, which called ‘on'the NEC to:

@put sustained pressure on the United States to withdraw support for the Contras and to condemn the us administration every time there are proposals of action damaging to Nicaragua and its revolution;

@ put pressure on the British government to reinstate all trade links with Nicaragua;

@organise an appeal for increased aid including goods, volunteers, skilled workers, investment, etc What you can do:

@Affiliate to the Central America Labour Group (CALG) and assist CALG's campaigns for stronger links between the labour movement in Britain and in Central America, and for greater material aid to the

people fighting against. repression and US intervention. Send £4

individuals (£2 unwaged) or £10 organisations to CALG {address below).

@Send a delegate to the CALG Annual General Meeting which is 10-5, Saturday December 6th, LSE SU, Houghton St, London (Holborn tube): send £4 (waged), £2 {unwaged) to 13-16 Borough Road, London SE1 OAL for registration, cheques payable to CALG.

@ Affiliate to the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign (NSC) and EI Salvador Solidarity Campaign (ELSSOC), which campaign to support the liberation struggles in Central America.

@Ask CALG, NSC or ELSSOC to send a speaker to your Labour Party or union branch meeting.

By Erica Flegg

1985 — moved the main logistical base for their MNR operations into Malawi

@In response to __the neighbouring Front Line states’ pressures on President Banda, in September this year, to end Malawi’s role in South Africa’s campaign against Mozambique, an intensified invasion of MNR bands swept into the Mozambican provinces bordering on Malawi, paralysing agricultural production, destroying economic structures, disrupting transport and communications, and occupying villages and towns, sending new waves of refugees to join the one and a half million people already displaced by the war.

@in the very week before the fatal crash of the Mozambican Presidential plane, South Africa had radically escalated its attacks on Mozambique with a propaganda campaign blaming Maputo for alleged ANC landmine explosions in South Africa bordering on Mozambique;

- and, more seriously, forbidding

further migration of Mozambican workers onto the South African mines, which will mean the loss of about 50 million US dollars annually to Mozambique’s plummetting foreign exchange earnings, thus exacerbating its general economic crisis.

Despite this succession of blows, culminating in the loss of a popular President — and 31 other valuable cadre — Mozambique has —_not “collapsed’’ as anticipated in so much of the press. The cohesive collective leadership of Mozambique, in the Frelimo Party's 12. man — Political Bureau, have chosen the new President of the Party and the state, Joaquim Chissano, and he ' has “declared their determination to continue the struggle to the end, to completely eliminate the criminal MNR bandits (as they are known in Mozambique).

If there were military and political circles in South Africa

aiming to weaken Mozambique to such a degree that the Frelimo government would be forced to come to an agreement with the MNR, and even incorporate them into the government, that macabre plan has not succeeded. Even less feasible is the idea that South Africa could impose an MNR puppet government _—_ on Mozambique and sustain it here without seriously straining the resources needed to deal with the deepening revolutionary struggle within South Africa itself.

In fact, the dominant South African ' strategy against Mozambique is to continue and intensify the campaign of military and economic destabilisation in order to keep Mozambique in a_ permanent

state of crisis. This is an important part of South Africa’s regional strategy to

hold all the countries around it in the firm grip of economic dependence... or force them into compliance.

Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia are already in this _ situation. Mozambique and Angola — situated along the Indian Ocean and Atlantic coasts of Southern Africa — could play a vital role in enabling Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Zaire to find alternative outlets to the sea, to South Africa’s transport and harbours system, and begin to withdraw from’ their general economic dependence on South Africa.

This is why _ both Mozambique and Angola are the main targets in the region of South African aggression and destabilisation. Of the two, Mozambique is more important to South Africa, as well as the closer and weaker target

It is vital for all antiapartheid campaigners and socialists throughout the world to argue for substantial political, economic — and military — aid to be given to Mozambique (and any other country in the region) as part

and parcel of the struggle against the South African regime.

Mozambican workers’ appeal

The Mozambican trade union movement, _ the OTM, has appealed to workers throughout the world to step up their solidarity with

Mozambican workers in the face of growing South African threats.

In a statement from the

organisation's secretariat, the OTM poi

s to the possibility

attack against Mozambique, and accuses the Pretori regime of trying to strangle the Mozambican economy.

The statement —_ refers particularly to the South African government's recent decision to cease the movement of Mozambican migrant workers into South Africa, and to expel those alrady in South Africa at the end of their current contracts. The OTM notes that there are about 61,000 Mozambicans working on the South African mines.

The OTM statement thanks

the South African National Union of Miners (NUM) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) for their expressions of solidarity with the Mozambican miners. It pledges the OTM's continued support to South African workers in their struggle against apartheid.

The OTM also calls on

Mozambican workers “to organise ourselves in the defence of our country threatened by racist

barbarism. In all workplaces let us prepare to defend our economy and our sovereignty.” The Pretoria regime, says the OTM statement, wants to export the conflict between itself and the South African people to the neighbouring states and, to this end, Pretoria ‘finances and infiltrates bandit gangs to destabilise our country and to sow destruction and death.’”

AIM (Mozambican Information Agency), 14.10.86

Disinvestment

According to the Financial columns of the British press, there has

been an “‘exodus’’ of multinationals from South Africa.

Coke, General Motors, General Electric, IBM, Honeywell, — Warners, all corporations with . parent

companies in the United States, have pulled up stakes in recent weeks. Spokespersons for these multinationals have denounced apartheid and claimed they were leaving because the pace of Botha’s reforms was not fast enough

But before anyone takes their word for it, they should examine the facts. For example, by selling its South African operation to a new company formed (according to a full-page IBM ad) ‘*for the benefit of the employees of IBM South Africa”, IBM has actually strengthened its base there and given its offspring the freedom to side-step the Sullivan Code, which prohibits the sale of products made by US companies to South African government, police and military agencies, Indeed, the announcement that the Sullivan Code was to be toughened brought a storm of protest from American companies operating in South Africa.

All the companies who have announced that they were “pulling out” of South Africa have been quick to reassure South African customers that, in the words of IBM, they “will continue to get the service

By Charlie van Gelderen Brent South CLP

excellence which is only associated with IBM Products.””

These companies, far from withdrawing from South Africa because of their repugnance for apartheid, are simply changing the form ‘of their involvement. Like IBM, Coca Cola and the giant Waner Communications Group, will also continue to supply the South African market through new conduits.

General Motors is selling out to the executives of its local company. But General Motors products will continue to be produced in South Africa. Components and kits will still be supplied to the local company. The parent company will receive licence fees for the use of its trade marks and will actually gain substantially by its alleged ‘‘anti-apartheid’” move. The company has not made a profit since 1981. With access to a major new market — the South African military establishment — this situation could now be remedied.

Apart from the new and lucrative access to formerly prohibited * government and military markets, the supply of technologies, components, and assembly kits to newly independent subsidiaries is a highly profitable business.

1BM, for example, will receive financial compensation for granting the exclusive IBM franchise to the local company.

It will. also be rewarded financially for granting a three year renewable contact for spares and services,

Royalties will also probably be paid to IBM for the supply of new technology. Thus, the much-touted “exodus” of the multi-nationals is little more than an apparent concession to the anti-apartheid movement.

A recent issue of the South African Metal Worker points out that ‘‘... disinvestment is a far larger issue than just creating or destroying jobs. Workers need to talk about this issue in a different way. For so long as workers have no say in how money is invested — into what industries and"what areas this money should go — they will be bound by decisions made by the government and bosses (local and foreign). Surely the issue for workers is not the amount invested or where it comes from, but how workers can begin to control these investments so as to:make a real contribution to the struggle to ‘create a South Africa which is free from capitalist oppression and exploitation in the form of apartheid... to ensure that social wealth of South Africa remains the property of the people of South Africa for the benefit of

Two nations in struggle

The “Big Red Diary” is

produced every year by

Pluto Press, always a good

ign of credibility and an

easy present to give to a t friend.

While some people move to the right and others take up filofax, Pluto Press have moved their themes to focus on the central liberation

struggles in the world.

The 1986

theme was gui ry was a success for the Nicaraguan Solidarity Campaign. The “Big iary’’ for 1987 has been tly by the Antipartheid Movement and the Namibia Support Committe, with the title ‘Southern Afri ‘tory is Certain’.

By Gareth Mostyn

The format has changed: sleek, black, and modern, it will fit more easily into pockets.

The diary includes a short history and background to South African and Nai

and is a weekly reminder of the struggle in Southern Africa. Important historical

events and anniversaries are included, with pictures and quotes from the leaders of the ANC and SWAPO. At the back there is a useful directory for the activist as well as 16 blank

notes.

too easily marginalised by the attention given to South Africa. Photos and comments from Pendukeni Kaulinge of SWAPO Women’s Council and of included as are of the famous Tambo and Mandel

The Diaries are available from bookshops but a good gesture of solidarity would be to buy it straight from the AA or the NSC. Your local AA group should sell it or the NSC is offering a set of 4 very good solidarity postcards if you buy it through their mail order service, all for the same price of £3.95. The address to write to is: The Namibia Support Committee, PO Box 16, London NW5 2LW.

Southern Africa

VICTORY IS CERTAIN

+ set of 4 solidarity postcards

for only £3.95

MAS — 4

PLUTO BIG RED DIARY 1987

Order your copy now from the Namibia Support Committee PO Box 16, London NWS 2LW {cheques payable to NSC)

Solidarity Postcards. lenclose £.

Name

Address ...

. for the diaries at £3.95 each.

Please send me ...... copies of the Victory is Certain diary and ..

- set(s) of

Lawson’s sudden mini-budget of increased public spending are both timed as part of a corrupt

Going for greedy vote — Thatcher

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while few manual workers earn anything approaching —_ the laughable “‘average’”” wagé of

and cynical Tory pre-election By Harry Sloan state-owned assets among those. ““4Per OK

peepee \ with ready cash to spare together with the trade unionists ey have caught Labour’s sop to worried Tories alarmed underlines the Tory electoral __pogeanter with the trade unionis

leadership flat-footed, exposing at ‘the collapse of NHS and — stratgey of seeking the smug, eee na a

yet again the ‘need for what Arthur Scargill has called a leadership as committed to our class as the Tories are to theirs.

After luring millions of prosperous voters towards the bait of British Telecom and TSB shares, the Tories now hope to

education standards in the runup to the next elections — and a hand-out to CBI chiefs looking for profitable “infrastructure” contracts.

So while Kinnock apes the Alliance with vain, vague talk bout consensus” and

Southern, selfish vote at the expense of the unemployed and the millions in poverty Thatcher is also eager to exploit every division she has helped open up within the working class. The lastest Douglas Hurd’s

attacks on their conditions, the black communities, women in the home, lesbians, gay men and other victims of the Thatcher backlash, must be the bedrock of the fight back. If they are not enlisted as the basic forces in the fight to get rid of this Tory government and _ prevent

draw up to 20% of the adult “‘national interest’, devising regulations

: : ‘ » another one, and if their n Population into the scramblefor new and not-so-new schemas imposed as a deliberate move to angther one. and if thelr needs Shares in British Gas — giving for “planning’ British rekindle racist reaction by Labour’s leadership of as many as 8 million people a —_ capitalism and playing down the But while Thatcher makes a

vested interest in returning a

Thatcher government. Lawson’s latest £5_ billion

pakage of spending is simply a

real class divisions, the Tories are shamelessly exploiting and widening those divisions,

The whole carve-up of the

clear and unambiguous bid to e the well-to-do, and foster on, the Labour leaders!

any comparable

wealthy white middle class men, Kinnock could hand Thatcher a new victory on a plate — while her pals laugh all the way to their banks!

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