Labour Briefing no. 34

Reagan: guilty? or incompetent?

FOOTSTEPS

The ghost of Richard Nixon is again stalking the __ Even before this scandal

White House as scandal of Watergate proportions z roke, Vice President Bush a ae " former director of the CIA,

engulfs the Reagan administration. It could yet had been implicated im lead to the impeachment of the President. illegal funding of the Contras; it is impossible that

Not only has Reagan confessed to selling arms to aale nections! of the CIA;

“terrorist”’ Iran, but it has since emerged that the cash Donald Regan's White from the sales was funnelled back via CIA bank House staff, the State accounts to the Nicaraguan Contra terrorists, in Department and Pentagon defiance of a specific vote of Congre: did not know; it seems

almost. certain Reagan

Despite a reported 48-hour session at a White House shredding machine prior to

himself knew of the plot. Despite Congress haggling over funds to the CIA-run

By Phil Hearse

his sacking, the junior ‘fall Contras, Reagan had no guy” for the operation, — dirty tricks, intention of scaling down or Colonel Oliver North, But the claim that only stopping the flow of arms described by Reagan as ‘‘a one other top Reagan aide and cash. So the US true patriot’, has felt — Security Advisor Admiral “loaned’’ material and

st = John Poindexter — knew of the intercontinental arms and cash scam is quite incredible.

obliged to stonewall the hearings of a Senate inquiry, and may yet ‘‘sing like a canary”’ about his and other

equipment to the Contras; they funded them from CIA slush funds; and then they laundered huge sums of money through Israel and the Iranian arms deals and Swiss banks.

Reagan now claims the arms shipments were part of a plan to make links with “*moderates”’ in the Iranian government He unconvincingly denies they had anything to do with buying out — American hostages taken in Lebanon (so much for Terry Waite!).

But the fundamental reason seems to have been acceptance of Israeli

guidance: the Israelis have backed Iran throughout the brutal Gulf War with Iraq, supp! bombing an Iraqi nuclear power plant to forestall a

“TNSIDE

@ Bolivia @ mi5

@® CND

@ UCATT ®@ Local government

possible Iraqi nuclear bomb. Israel's Zionist rulers would prefer 2 military victory by the further distant, non-Arab Iran, though they have no love of Khomeini’s fundamentalism. The USA also appears to have been gambling on the likely outcome of the Gulf War,

and seeking to forestall increased Russian involvement with Iran.

Whatever the reasons, Bush: tied in with Contra headbangers Reagan’s ‘‘anti-terrorist’’ —_ Presidential ambi of has said “‘It looks like Ollie credentials have been dealt'a George Bush for 1988 have North has shot _the shattering blow in the USA bitten the dust, while President's Nicaraguan

itself, where the hysteria over the Teheran embassy seige helped get Reagan elected.

‘As the plot unravels, remains to be seen who will survive and who will be thrown to the wolves. Reagan's only real defence appears to be to plead ignorance — and therefore total incompetence. The

operation in the foot.””

If that turns out to be true, then it will be the best possible outcome of the whole affair.

Democratic hopefuls find it hard to believe their luck.

Almost certain losers are the murderous Nicaraguan Contras.

One US Senator

a] a | el

Labour brieying Dec tv-dan 145198? page’z

Home News

The Wright Affair and the disintegration of the Mandarinate

The chief of the Civil

Service, Sir Robert Armstrong, went to Australia to defend a

principle: the need for trust among public officials as the only sound basis for public life within the British state.

He and the Government were claiming that former MIS official Wright had broken that trust by seeking to publish his memoirs.

In the — event, the Australian Court has demonstrated that there is no basis for trusting Armstrong himself: he has perjured himself and has sougit to smear and destroy the career of one of his political ‘‘masters’’, Sir Michael Havers. When Havers blew the whistle on the Thatcher-Armstrong clique, Armstrong was revealed as a lying buffoon.

The Wright Affair has thus turned into a farce. But is it also a joke? The way the media has presented the whole episode, only crazy right-wingers hunting Commie spies can take the whole’ thing seriously.

Armstrong correctly says that the running of the British state is based upon trust; not law. There is no constitution governing what the British state can do and anybody who knows anything about the British judiciary knows that when judges are called upon to rule on serious cases involving the government, they are as thick as thieves with the mandarinate.

As Armstrong argues, the only basis for Labour hoping that its programme of reforms will be carried out, if elected, is trust that the madarinate will co-operate. The Wright affair shows that trust is not enough, since in the 1970s the

No, Prime Minister!

was turned down by the immediate beneficiary of his demise, Callaghan.

Now, we are asked to focus our attention upon the spy mania about Roger Hollis: something both mind-boggling — because it is an allegation that the head of state security was working for the enemy — and trivial, because it focuses on individuals and ignores the really important issue, the degeneration and disintegration of the security and intelligence apparatus, and the inner sanctum of top mandarins who run it.

Why did loyalties and aims fragment in this inner sanctum in the 1970s? The answer offered by Guardian feature

——— ere By Oliver MacDonald

———

writers is that a group of intelligence officials got ensnarled in an hysterical and delirious _anti-communism,

these.

But if. Wright was so hysterically anti-Communist as to see Wilson as a KGB agent, why has he exposed the plot against Wilson?

First we must appreciate what MIS and MI6 are mainly involved in: they are bureaucracies for giving policy

vice and for helping to

plement policy. Following from this is the obvious peculiarity of the — British security apparatus: it is not only right inside the inner sanctum of the Cabinet office, it is also intimately linked with another state machine: Washington. There is a whole system of centives for working with — even for — the Americans, especially truein MI6. Yet on the other hand, there must be plenty of officials within this apparatus strongly suspicious of the Americans. Such officials could be especially prevalent in

mandarinate — or a key section of it — sought to destabilise and get rid of Prime Minster Harold Wilson. And they succeeded, We know now that Wilson — of all people! — was pushed out for political reasons, wanted a Royal Commission to

investigate the whole affair, and

MIS, presumably less dependent on Washington for its work.

Here then is the political and institutional basis for the disintegration of trust within the mandarinate, that would be fee by issue after issue over policy orientation.

ING

BRIEFING.

LPYS proposals

Not for the first time in Labour's history, a rightwing NEC is attempting to control or close the Party's youth organisations.

Tom Sawyer's proposals: for reorganising Labour's youth wing may be a little more subtle than in the past, but in essence they represent the same old witch-hunting we've seen before.

If young socialists are looking to the YS‘s Militant leadership to organise in defence of the YS they will be sadly disappointed. While the LCC and right wing quietly organise (e.g. the Fabian Tract pamphlet Labour and Youth by Woolas and = Mann__ is apparently into its second run, with trade unions taking bulk orders of the first) there has been little or nothing from the YS National or Regional Committees’ in response.

In the latest Socialist Youth (the YS‘s paper) an article by

Andy Bevan, a Militant supporter and the Labour Party’s National Youth

Officer-tries to draw -a positive balance sheet of the

Party conference debate on youth. Bevan argues it is a “misinterpretation’’ of conference decisions to see them-es the green light for an attack on the YS which ‘'the Party rank and file won't stand

By John Tuite Norwood LPYS

for." Again, ‘’Conference appears to be serious about improving its youth

organisation."” Meanwhile,. it appears, ‘‘the bitterest critics of the LPYS’’ are only “contemplating closing the youth organisation down.’ The truth is far less pleasant. Unfortunately, the “bitter critics” are in the ascendency for the moment and they are doing a lot more than merely “contemplating” They are organising. They are eager to achieve their goals and will not be deterred by ambiguous resolutions or avoidance of the issue. Militant supporters argue that the best defence is building the YS. True. But the YS at the moment is at best

standing still, at worst diminishing. Militant’s triumphal rhetoric hides a

complacency and retreat in

Wright being the chief among_

All those in the anti-Wilson

plot were allegedly fervent supporters of Gaitskell. So was McDermott — he even wrote a

book on Gaitskell. Wilson's predecessor has always been viewed, rightly, by the Left as an extreme right-winger in the labour movement. But as Williams, his biographer, also reveals, he too was suspicious of the over-close links between Whitehall and Washington.

In short, there is strong evidence that a section of the mandarinate has been what might be called Gaullist — right-wing anti-Communists who also wanted to build a strong state in partial rivalry with Washington.

Heath, the last great hope of this current, failed catastrophically. Any wonder there was an inclination towards desperate schemes _ against Wilson? Wilson sensibly pleaded with Washington to tell him what was going on in Number 10 Downing Street — where better to find out?

Of course, this penetration of the inner sanctum of the British state by the American state would not have occurred at all, but for the catastrophic decline of British power and the amateurish buffoonery of Armstrong’s. predecessors in their pathetic (and of course criminal) attempts to stop the rot, for example over Suez.

Armstrong’s feeble attempts to tell a pack of lies to an independent judge and a competent lawyer finish him, In any self-respecting _ political system in a serious state — like for example the USA — he would be summoned home, slaughtered by a __ select committee, then tried on various charges of abuse of power.

But that leaves the entire mandarinate in place, albeit divided, demoralised, infiltrated by Thatcherites, penetrated by American agencies and no longer even able to do its minimal job of keeping the population and . Parliament totally in the dark about what is

subversion of the Wilson government be placed before parliament and public.

No issue of security, except

going on. the security of the criminally The Labour Party. should guilty within the mandarinate, is demand: involved in this demand.

@All the documents on the

Students

At the end of November, students dealt an important

eThat a new Labour

‘The Bill that he proposed is the sort of policy Kenneth Baker

blow to the right wing Pee. SOR By Patrick: Baker After hundreds of N. London Poly

thousands of _ students mobilised all over France on the streets and on campuses,

Labour Club; Labour Briefing Youth

——

Education Minister Devaquet withdrew his _ would love to implement here. It would have denied students

threats.

be built in the Party, the trade

facing the witch-hunt which be the death of the YS. The YS needs to reach out to those in the Party willing to fight the general witch-hunt, especially those in LAW ‘86. From the regional conferences a broad-based campaign must

Model Resolution on Sawyer Proposals

“This regional conference sees the Sawyer proposals on reorganisation of the Labour Party's youth section as an attack on the independence and politics of the LPYS and as part of an overall witch-hunt against the left in the Party. As such this conference commits itself and the regional committee to fight the proposals right down the line.

We note policy passed by national conference to participate in broad-based campaigns against the witch-hunt and therefore will affiliate to, and participate in, Labour Against the Witchhunt ‘86, as well as taking initiatives to build and defend the YS ourselves, such as lobbies, petitions, and marches. We will organise regional meetings, and actions in conjunction with LAW ‘86, involving all other labour movement bodies which oppose the Sawyer proposals.””

The Briefing Youth Commission recommends this resolution as a priority for Briefing supporters to get sent to the forthcoming Regional Conferences.

unions and the student movement. At national LPYS Conference defence of the YS must be a central debate, all leading up to a major mobilisation around next year’s Party conference.

Robert Armstrong, Secretary (0 the Cabinet.

Government should plement the suggestion from Thatcher's former adviser Sir John Hoskins: sack all adminstrative Servants over 40 (he said 50,-but 40 gives them a chance to start a new career). This policy should be started

the right to choose their own course, and severely reduced student representation of governing bodies. The left minority of the Socialist Partyled student union, UNEF-ID, played an important role in this extremely successful campaign,

Faced with talk of . the introduction of “loans” to replace the grant system — a massive step towards

pauperisation of students — the

first in the security services,

@ The setting up of committees of civil service trade unionists throughout the Civil Service to monitor loyalty to the democratically elected government on the part of the bureaucracy.

here?

question is will NUS fight? While NUS fairly good policy in a number of such as Ireland and les! gay rights — it has done shamefully little to mobilise

students on the streets.

Socialists in NUS and NOLS must fight for NUS to take on the lesson of the Devaquet campaign: the best way to beat back government attacks is to mobilise on the streets.

Marion must stay!

Marion Gaima has lived in Britain for 13 years. Britain is her home. If she is forced to return to Sierra Leone she could face persecution because of her political beliefs.

Our government's

By Kate Adams Hackney North CLP

racist

immigration laws are being used against Marion to deprive her of her basic human rights.

Marion is a member of Hackney NALGO, which has pledged its full suport to campaign to stop her deportation.

NALGO has waged two successful national campaigns against deportations. Now we must fight again to gain wider support for Marion to

Marion *G review ' of her appeal for

‘Lane, London E9 6LG.

political deferred until the New Year. If

asylum has been

the appeal is not granted, she faces immediate deportatio

Hackney NALGO and the Hackney Anti-Deportation are therefore organising an active campaign to get support, affiliations and donations from as many organisations as possible.

The Campaign also plans a demonstration for February or March 1987.

Regular planning meetings are to be held each Monday from December 8th at Liberty Hall, Kingsland Road, ‘Dalston,

For further _information contact HADC, 01 254 6689 or Hackney NALGO, 01 985 7134.

Please send all petitions and letters of support to Mari Gaima Anti-deportation campaign, c/o Environmental Health Division, 205 Morning

Ol0Ug AUEd 4NOG27 OLOHd

Labour Briefing Dec 10-Jan 14 1987 page 3

Editorial

BRIEFING

LABOUR — TAKE THE POWER)

Our answer to Tebbit and Ridley

It’s not only Thatcherite hit-men like Tebbit and Ridley who are gunning for left-wing Labour councils in their new propaganda war.

Neil Kinnock, John “Chernobyl” Cunningham and Roy Hattersley have been only too eager to hand ammunition to the Tories with smears of their own.

Of course, the Tory attack is cruder and more vicious, with their ludicrous accusations of left councils using intimidation ‘‘more like Poland or East Germany” to impose totalitarian rule.

The Tory strategy is cynically to whip up anti-gay and racist hysteria = — bolstered through their handling of the AIDS campaigns, the Heathrow visa restrictions, ete. — to crush those councils which show even the slightest signs of leading resistance to Tory cutbacks. And it is over the trampled remnants of that

resistance that they hope to march to electoral victory and use a further term of office to crush the labour movement for good.

It is no accident that at the top of Ridley’s hate-list have

been black-led Brent, Lambeth and Haringey councils. Black activists

have only to begin to break through the ‘‘whites only’’ traditions of British electoralist politics to find themselves bearing the full

brunt of the Tory government’s media onslaught.

It is no accident that the

Tories have seized upon the campaigns on lesbian and gay rights, and by women’s committees. Sexism and _ heterosexist prejudice provide a fertile soil for ‘‘red scare’’ tactics and taunts about the ‘loony left”. On the issues of black, lesbian and gay and women’s rights, Kinnock and Cunningham have neither defended Party policy nor the Labour Councils on the frontline.

They have backed up the Tory case!

And what have they been doing on the economic front? After starting with Liverpool and Lambeth, Kinnock and Cunningham have now proved they want to stop all Councils from defending services and defying Tory cash limits. Cunningham may _ well complain that the Tories have slashed billions from council spending since 1979 (not to mention boosting the inequalities’ between the shires and inner cities) — but he and Hattersley refuse to contemplate restoring a mere £2 billion to those councils that have borrowed heavily to avoid making painful cuts.

Our so-called ‘‘leaders”’ in the Labour Party are clearly alarmed at the prospect of coming to office amid a major financial crisis for the

Councils, and facing a possible borough revolt against Hattersley’s first

round of cash limits. They seem quite relieved at the sight of the Tories’

“softening up” —our resistance = Under this scale of threat, we need to get our act together fast. Thatcher intends to impose competitive tendering for council services, with the aim of compelling Labour Councils to issue the sack on her behalf to literally thousands of local government workers — and all this in the middle of a national election campaign. Combined with the challenge of cash limits, a huge and growing housing crisis and pressures on social services and education — not to mention mass unemployment, chronic poverty in the big cities, domestic violence and street violence against —_ black communitites the scenario is menacing. of taking a principled stand on aspects of anti-racism, yet retreating from local manifesto pledges and moving towards cuts in spending on basic services, will not serve as an adequate model. Just as there can be

no working class liberation without liberation of all the oppressed, so there can be no black, women’s, lesbian or gay liberation outside the struggle for socialism. Anti-racism, _anti-sexis: and the defence of the of oppressed groups absolutely central to ability to galvanise support and gain

the strength to resist the Tories. But policies relating to those specific oppressed groups

become discredited and easily isolated if they are allowed to become divorced from a defence of working class _ rights, power and organisation on all levels.

Supporters of Briefing in local government will not collude with any such divisions. Among the first to spearhead a serious attitude to anti-racism and sexual politics in local Government, we see the attacks on the ‘‘loony left’’ by both the Tories and the Labour leadership as directly targetted on us.

We also spoke out from the start against the ‘‘wait

for a Labour government” policy. Now any remaining illusions have been dispelled by Cunningham himself. There will be no blank cheque to restore Tory cuts; not even a £2 billion cheque to stand still with. We will have to fight for every penny

from a Kinnock government. There will never be extra resources

from a Labour government unless we have been organising to fight for it.

That fight must be a united fight: we cannot afford the spectacle of any more Labour councils turning on their workforces ‘one minute, and expecting to fight with them on privatisation or ratecapping the next.

Labour councils should spend all the money they can lay their hands on now,

there is nothing left to wait for, And from now on, every battle — over ratecapping, over

privatisation — is in deadly earnest.

-2_$

Briefing is a very easy paper to sell — why not take a few for your workplace, Labour Party or campaign meetings?

Bulk orders of Briefing are available on sale or return (minimum order 5 copies).

| would like to be sent5 copies of Briefing on sale/return.

Name ..

Address :.

Send to 26 Crofton Road, London, SES

Next issue out: Wednesday January 14th

Deadline for articles: January 2nd

Next steering committee: Sunday

January 18th, 1.30pm, Polytechnic of Central

London, Marylebone Road, London NW1 (opposite Baker. St tubeyr"" inn es

Teachers: what next?

On Saturday November 29th, NUT teachers met at Blackpool, to vote on the deal cobbled together by the NUT leadership and employers.

The right wing leadership intended to deliver their proposals for securing “peace and calm’, in the schools: swallow what we've stitched up for you with the labour employers, or have Baker, he's far worse.”"

However, militants speaking from the floor, explained that neither Baker nor © the Employers (ACAS) deal is capable of — delivering an acceptable package, since both are based on the principle of worsening the conditions of teachers’ work. in return for more pay.

The extremely narrow vote to support the local pay package, is a signal that a very large number of teachers feel that no existing offer is acceptable. Even the Guardian of December Ist 1986 had to admit that:

“The NUT vote should serve as a warning Lo government that the teachers’ sense of grievance is still strong and that an imposed settlement by _ the Education Secretary would run a strong risk of provoking

further industrial aciion in schools."" The current balance of forces

within the NUT, is such that a highly organised campaign for a

No’ vote, in the national ballot, could result in the rejection of the deal and show a demonstration of commitment to continue the struggle to nd jobs and conditions, inst’ Tory attacks and: right wing ACAs packages.

de!

The proposals contained in the ACAS deal amount to:

1. An increase in the bours worked by teachers on the hools site of 10%, ic. an incrase of 21 working days added to the schoo! year, by adding $ hours onto the working week in schools, as well as making teachers work another‘S days. atthe end.afithe school’ yédts (making -volutitary

—— wt

rn S baba Re eae

Nottingham: lobby of teachers’ negotiations

meetings Compulsory).

2. Worsening class size, by proposing a class size maximum of 33 and more, if new children arrive in the year. (The NUT policy since 1982 has ben 27 asa maximum

3. Making covering for absent teachers compulsory/contractual. Cover has been one of the biggest issues that-union members haye been united on for some time

The current salary camp: needs {o be put in a longer term perspective if its. real fi is to be understood. The last decade has seen large sections of the — NUT memebrship reject traditional “*professionalist”” strategies in favour of industrial action as a

smethod . of . defending. their -interests. These years have been

ones of continued education

SERGIO G53 Se REE ES

cuts and attacks on_ teacher living standards, More recently Tory education strategy has attempted tc cntralise not only control of the curriculum, but also. create amore tightly managed teacher force through notions of assessment and rigid contracts, compulsory meetings after school, etc.

By Veronica Held and Martin Allen

Socialist Teachers’ Alliance

Yet there” remain massive contradictions in the strategies of the NUT. Firstly, the NUT is prevented from building the necesary alliances within the bour movement as a result of its “archaié “constitution ® ‘thar preveiits the Union atfitiauingsto:

the Labour Party.

The NUT~ leadership is dominated by — what_is misappropriately named the “Broad Left’, a semi secretive P-type grouping. The Broad Left has opposed the necesary rule changes as well as unity with the NAS/UWT to form one TUC-affiliated ‘teacher organisation

Their current tactics are to try to restore a privileged place for the Union under the next Labour government's education policies — a return to. the partnership days between the NUT bureaucracy and right wing social democratic politicians, Yet, there is unlikely to be an expansion of education under Labour and the current Education spokesperson, G Radicg:is on the, far right Of Party.

(74) SueH UYOT <OLOHE

The strategy of the “Broad

Left’ will lead to disaster. Their reading of the current situation in the dispute is that the membership have “given up’. Despite the fact that the action has been wound down by the Executive in favour of ACAS negotiations, the. arge vote against..the Executive at the Conference is an indication of the determination. of . the membership.

Whatever the result of the members’ ballot, the Socialist Teachers Alliance will continue the fight, the campaign has seen considerable gains by the left in the NUT over a range of issues and union policy. In what could be a difficult time for socialists, these must be defended.

LEGG LATA IHS PA VAIS OTR IT FA IEE

| ;

Labour Briefing Dec 10-Jan 14 1987 page 4

eee

Trade Union Briefing

GCHQ — New penalties follow clampdown

Sixteen trade unionists in GCHQ have had their pay cut by £80-£100 per month for two years. They are being penalised for

“in breach of their conditions of service by being a trade union member.”

These latest penalties, imposed by GCHQ management in July, follow the first significant climbdown by the Government when, earlier this year, Sir Geoffrey Howe made it clear they would not dismiss any of the remaining trade unionists at GCHQ, now fifty in number.

Unfortunately, a campaigning opportunity is being missed by the civil service unions at GCHQ. Despite the fact that the sixteen trade unionists are in effect being fined some £2,000 each solely for the “‘offence’’ of being trade union members, no effective protest has been mounted.

Waiting for a general election — the strategy apparently adopted by many of the unions involved — is not sufficient. We should use the TUC march and rally called for January 24th — third anniversary of the ban on unions at GCHQ — to call on Labour spokespersons to reiterate their commitment to lifting the ban, and as a springboard for further action.

Hugh Lanning, Civil Service Union

Hangers

Two weeks ago, when 35 Hanger’s women and children attended the first women’s picket and demanded to see management, Mr Tom Finnegan slammed the door in their faces. A freelance photographer photographed this event and Finnegan exploded. He punched the photographer in the face and threw his camera on the ground. Summons have been served.

On Decemiber 3rd, when the women from the Women’s Support Group asked again to speak to management about the dispute, they found the woodshop in a dreadful state. All the workbenches had been ripped out during the night and their tools strewn on the floor. Photographs of their children and families were destroyed.

Surprisingly enough no one from mangement or any of the foremen admit to any knowledge of how this happened. Surely poltergeists are not that strong! Or capable of sending the workbenches up to Kelly’s, a Hanger’s branch in Dundee?

As well as attending the picket line the Hanger’s Women’s Support Group have been fundraising and speaking at local meetings. They raised £455 at a recent jumble and Xmas bazaar.

Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council are holding a benefit social for. the 300 sacked’ limbmakers and their families on December 10th at the Civic Suite, Wandsworth Town Hall. An appeal from the TC to provide Xmas dinners for the 300 families has gone to all the Wandsworth Labour Parties. There will be a children’s Christmas Party on December 20th.

At the union’s meeting on December 4th it was announced that the ACAS talks have completely broken down. No further talks have been planned.

Funds are desperately needed, Please send donations to Steve or Sue Blease, 231 Tildesley Road, London SW 15.

Kathy Pick

NCU take action on pay

National Communications Union clerical members ‘are taking action and the union's engineering members are balloting for the second time to follow suit in response to British Telecom’s derisory 4.5% plus strings productivity ‘‘offer”’.

The new hardline BT management is unsurprisingly treating the NCU General Secretary John Golding and his right wing engineering executive with contempt. The scourge of the left is said to have opened negotiations with ‘‘What are you prepared to offer us?”” in return for selling conditions. These have tradi ly. The strings include total job flexi open entry, and flexible hours.

The Broad Left dominated Clerical Executive ballotted its members and has initiated a campaign of industrial action including an overtime ban, and a well supported walkout.

The Engineering Executive, however, decided to engage ina futile and unnecessary consultative ballot which rejected the offer 3-1. Now a second ballot has had to be organised to authorise action. The most ely form of action will be an overtime ban, unlikely to start before January — 6 months after the July Ist settlement date and 6 weeks after the clerical members.

The Broad Left is campaigning for a special conference, and the militant London branches are pushing for all-out strike action as the only way to beat a determined BT management. A measure of their intentions is their proposal to cut pay rates at BT’s South Wales Cwmearn factory from £129 pw to £80 with the support of the responsible right wing NEC member,

ity, abolition of higher grades,

Pete Cooper, NCU London West

Chinese workers strike in Brighton

About 4 Chinese kitchen staff at the well known restaurant firm Wheelers, in Brighton, have been on strike since November 10.

They had attempted to negotiate a pay rise (5% is traditionally given every April, and was given to.all other Wheeler workers). In an effort to provoke them, management asked the chef to introduce a new dish. He refused unless the pay deal was negotiated first. He was summarily dismissed and the other staff joined him.

With assistance from the Chinese Information Office, the TGWU's Ron Todd, the entire Brighton Council on the picket line and two 6 minute TV programmes, the action has become a big thing in Brighton.

The workers at Wheelers joined the T&G, but management refused to recognise it. Wheelers is a typical union busting firm, and wants to stop any unionisation of Wheelers 2 or so restaurants. They have even attempted to get a court injunction, costing about £20,000, when that would have paid the pay increase the kitchen staff has been asking for for three years.

In Chinatown the strike has made a big impact, because it symbolised the situation of Chinese workers generally, and most workers have responded positively to a levy of £1 a week to assist the strikers.

The kitchen staff work a 47 hour week, with gross pay about £180 a week, but compared to white staff on similar work they are badly exploited. Most Chinese workers in London, many of whom can hardly speak English, are condemned to this kind of work, and pay and conditions.

A solidarity committee has been formed in Brighton, and is campaigning that no goods be delivered to Wheelers. Supporters and pickets alike have suffered top-heavy treatment from the police.

Send messages of support and donations, payable to ““TGWU Wheelers Dispute’’, c/o TGWU Office, 20 Church Road, Hove. Sussex. For further information please contact T&G office, Brighton, or phone the Chinese Information Advice Centre in London (01-836 8291 or 379 5098).

s\n Bennie Burisee, Black ‘Section§

nally been negotiated separate- J

The strength of UCATT affects all building workers.

Defend UCATT

democracy!

It is a very significant time to be writing about the state of democracy within UCATT.

As UCATT has by far the largest membership in construction, private and public sector, then the state of t! union is of particular relevance to us all and directly affects the wages, safety and conditions of

many building workers besides their = own membership.

UCATT in fact is in a dreadful state of decline in terms of the democratic rights of the membership being ignored and in many instances actually being trampled into the ground by the full-time leadership.

The most telling example of the dreadful bureaucratic degeneration in UCATT is seen in the officially inspired ballot rigging which took place in the Republic of Ireland.

It was proven by the diligence of a few principled officials, concise investigative journalism and the Irish High Court, that ballot rigging had taken place ‘on a widespread basis.

For example:

“In Limerick where 204 people were supposed to have voted, the room for the meeting measured only 12 feet by 12 feet."

Irish Press, October 1985

We are led to believe that in 8 UCATT branches with a record of low attendances (which is the norm for UCATT branches) 1,504 people voted for B. Veal (the Executive favoured candidate) and only 1, yes 1, voted for D. Miles.

The election was for a vacant post on the UCATT Executive Council

Since the proven ballot rigging the Executive Council and General Secretary have steadfastly refused to take any action against the ballot-riggers. Why? The only action taken is against Dominic Helier who resigned his position as a London Regional Organiser in order to expose and condemn the ballotrigging. He was suspended from holding any UCATT office for 10 years. Why?

Over here, the UCATT General Secretary Albert Williams, in secret negotiations with John Laing. and the Building Employers Federation, sold out the UCATT Laings Lock Out Committee who were engaged in a major struggle for implementation of UCATT Conference policies of oppasinto the Blacklist and the Tory anti-union laws, to the,extent of being in contethpt of the High Court’for two months.

In coilaboration with _ site management at the Balfour Beatty/Fairclough construction site at Sellafield in Cumbria, Albert Williams arranged a meeting on site of the new UDSOO UCATT branch. The meeting was paid for by management. It just happened to be a voting meeting on union elections and coincidentally over 400 building workers were advised to and voted for an executive favoured candidate. This was and is contrary to all known and accepted practice, It in fact cancelled out all the other branch votes in the N.W. Region of UCATT!

For reasons of space we can only give these few examples. But there are many, many more examples of offically inspired ballot rigging and gross interference with the democratic rights of the UCATT membership in other parts of the UK.

An important political point is that the UCATT Executive, all but one, the General Secretary, were elected on a Broad Left ticket. ,

Realising that there is an obvious political dimension and degeneration in the present state of UCATT democracy and that any campaign to restore and advance it will have to be political, as well as industrial, a few

By The Building Worker Group

We would like to thank Labour Briefing for inviting us to write a Building Worker

before going on to the writing

united front of workers of differing politics who campaign and organise around

licies for our unions and industry. We of course support all principled campaigns and democratic struggles within the class struggle where and when possible.

«CATT members accompanied by. Labour Briefing people,

went to visit Eric Heffer, UCATT sponsored MP, at the House of Comons. He provided the following excellent statement:

“Some rank and file members of UCATT have been to see me,

and haye indicated their concern ‘at certain developments in the union from the democratic point of view. | am in favour of the fullest democratic control of the union by rank and file members.

If there is any ballot rigging at any time in the union, not only should it be deplored but action should be taken against any members involved.

I would like to see us have the sort of democratic elections, on

(Associatetd Society of Wood. workers) in the 1940s. The full time officials, the management committee | and District Secretary were elected every year.

A very positive statement and approach.

But we will only.ever be able to restore and advance democracy to and in UCATT when we can form a Political and Industrial united front of all those forces prepared to fight around a programme of action which will lead to the ending of corruption and the besmirching of the good name of trade unionism associated with it and restore democratic control to the rank and file membership of the union.

(uodey) prey meipuy OLOHd

As engineering industry employers press ahead with sweeping, fundamental attacks on the working conditions of millions of workers under the guise of “flexible working”, AEU General Secretary Gayin Laird has been talking not to

his members about a fightback, but to CBI leaders ‘about increased collaboration.

As star speaker at an

otherwise tedious. CBI conference which lined up even more unequivocally than usual behind the policies of the Thateher government, Laird delighted the bosses ' with a memorable . display of boot! 2. “The fact that the CBI saw fit to invite me to address their annual conference and my ready acceptance of that invitation speaks eloquently of the real relationship between unions and employers in our country.”

Rather -it- speaks: ‘volumes about the employers’ cynical exploitation of the extreme right

Gavin Laird delights CBI His master’s voice

By Jack Doberman

wing “business

embraced by

leadership of the AEU and -thinkers of the scab EETPU

ions problems. This is profoundly different from that which is projected by the media, being one of conflict between warring

both the CBI, the Engineering bosses and the AEU are united in waging war on the AEU membership at shop floor level in the fight to increase

Under the impact of years of on pay and jobs, and the demolition of much of the shop stewards’ movement that formed the backbone of the engineering unions, the AEU has been able to hold down strike action — to the extent that Laird boasted to grateful bosses that:

‘Our strike fecord is’ dround

‘thé order of | oné anda’ halt

hours lost per year per employee.” He complained however that

“high unit costs" — inadequate management resources devoted to speed-up on the shop floor — rather than high wages were the main obstacles to a competitive British industry.

AKU members’ aspirations are not so far removed from those of CBI members, he claimed.

They, too, would like huge salaries, company cars, business lunches, big houses, tax fiddles, days on the golf course, etc!

“We are all too often entrenched in our own redoubt, blaming the other side for our own failings (!) whilst our foreign competitors walk away with the prize — namely market share.”"

Laird’s unconditional of assistance to employers ag competitors was

whether Labour or the Tories in oft was clear statement of the level of class collaboration: that has now sbecome. the, most: coherent Heading force in the TUG...»

Briefing spoke to Liz Short, Deputy Mother of Chapel, Times Clerical SOGAT, and Mark Sullivan, Chair, WH Smiths Hammersmith Chapel, SOGAT.

Briefing: How would you compare women's involvement in this print strike with the miners’ strike?

Liz: The main difference is that there are women strikers. They are from the clerical branch and the RIRMA branch — the lady cleaners.

There has been a move by the printers’ wives to get themselves together, and they’ve formed a group called Women Against Murdoch (WAM). The problem is that unlike Women Against Pit Closures it’s quite difficult for them to organise. In the pit strike most of the women were in small communities. Here, everybody’s —_ fighting _this problem of isolation.

Mark: As in the miners’ strike, the women didn’t just want to be in the soup kitchens, but also to be on the picket lines, and speaking at meetings.

Briefing: Have the unions counteracted the idea that thi strike is about white, male, highly-paid workers defending their privileges?

Mark: Maybe we are tarnished with that image. People forget about the cleaners, the telephonists, and the canteen workers.

Liz: The image of printers as overpaid is very persistent. It’s a very curious attitude, of envy and resentment towards a well-

Printworkers still at the sharp end

paid group of workers. Because of that, the right to organise, the issue we're fighting for, gets lost. But are we really only going to support nurses and health workers, and say they are deserving because _ they're absolutely impoverished? Are

we not going to support other workers who are under attack simply because they earn decent salaries?

As secretaries go, 1 was decently paid. I had a nine day fortnight, six weeks holiday,

Hammond escapes

Eric Hammond must have laughed all the way to Wapping.

Despite barely bothering to deny new evidence confirming EETPU collaboration Rupert Murdoch's unionbusting moves against the NGA and SOGAT; despite the

vote at this y TUC Congress for disciplinary action if that — collusion continued; despite the

surprising support given to the print unions by right wing delegates from the ISTC and GMBU, Hammond still escaped scot-free from November's General Council meeting by a 23-21 margin.

New Cynicism, TUC General Secretary Norman Willis had -atgued that though the EETPU -were clearly: guilty, they had

By Harry Sloan

not be tried again.

Tell that to the High Court judges who have brutally fined unions and individual militants for persisting in a course of action which judges deem contempt of court!

If anything is contemptuous it is the attitude of an arrogant EETPU to a spineless TUC leadership which has now publicly abandoned even the

pretence of — implementing Congress policies. Yet this same TUC

leadership which refused to take action against EETPU scabs is persisting in a harebrained disciplinary action against ASTMS over the representation of thousands of

nce- workers» at~ Sun ASTMS, having merged with the _ staff

PRAM Ray TSR RAH KAA MANNA

there: the right wing banking n BIFU (supporters of llis over Wapping) a small minority. Yet the TUC has consistently intervened in support of BIFU and threatened to —_ suspend ASTMS for insisting on ‘its right to represent, its own members!

This two-faced attitude by the TUC bureaucracy will continue as long as Hammond, Laird, and the hard right are allowed to make the political running.

What printworkers will be looking for is Tony Dubbins and Brenda Dean turning some of their indignation at the TUC decision into practical moves to step up the Wapping fight and invoke the support of those unions which backed them in the General Council vote. i + Printworkers

<Not to. hold their breath waiting s

are - advised

and decent maternity leave. But the reason we had that was because we fought for it, and people went through an eleven month lockout. Before that they were on absolutely lousy wages and dreadful conditions.

When I was in work, 1 was a trade unionist. on the committee but not particularly active. It’s only being in a dispute like this that makes you realise what youre up against. I went to a meeting of Hanger’s wives formed to support their husbands. | said to one of them “When I was at work, I didn’t really know what was going on for other people.’”

She looked at me and said, “Yes, you don”* are, do you?”

1 never knew Silentnight existed before this dispute. We're at the sharp end of everything the capitalist system can throw at people, and we have to be supported.

Briefing: What is your assessment of the tactics pursued by the print unions during the Wapping dispute?

Liz: The leadership's main aim has been to avoid sequestration of its assets at all costs, Brenda Dean said it would mean the end of the union. It’s obviously not anything that anybody wants, but you can’t win an industrial dispute at the moment without taking onthe law. 5

Mark: Only * the Wholesale-workers *havestood sie. Af SOGAT~ Wholesale

Labour Briefing Dec 10-Jan-14 1987 page 5

Trade Union Briefing

branches outside London have to close because of sequestration they might start backing up London and their own union. We can still win this dispute.

Liz: Right now there’s a minority of voices crying in the wilderness. The way to tackle this dispute is to get our fellow workers, particularly in Fleet Street, to stop handling News International titles in London. Our difficulties are being used as a weapon against employees of other titles. “Look what's

about their livelihood to take redundancy.

Briefing: How does this affect the dispute now?,

Mark: | welcome the levy, but it’s eight months too late. Under the SOGAT rule book you could have made it SOp per week, which would have brought in £100,000 per week, without a ballot.

gone for a no-strike deal. At the Mirror, Maxwell has two floors closed off for his new London evening newspaper. He’s got non-union staff working in there, The people in the Mirror

think he’s going to do a Wapoing on them come January, with possibly four

regional centres to print his titles.

The only way of putting pressure on the leadership is through the rank and file having a strike committee and’ mass meetings; but when there were mass meetings the London leadership just ignored them,

Because SOGAT was organised in fairly small units, people knew their fellow chapel members. Unfortunately, in this dispute it has led to a lot of sectarianism. and a lot of

7uodey) PIIM MeIPUY JOLOHd

division. As a result there hasn’t been sufficient unity amongst the strikers to push for the kind of policies that could take the strike forward.

Mark: We should have a strike committee elected by a mass meeting, and if, after a month or so, we don’t like them, we should replace them.

Briefing: What role has the

Fleet Street Support Unit played? Liz: The FSSU has never

pretended to be anything other than a pressure group; we're not an alternative ip. We want to remind people that there is an alternative to boycotts and futile marches. It has been particularly opposed by the Communist Party, who don’t believe in rank and file groups.

Briefing: What do you think of the Labour Party’s role in the fight with Murdoch?

Liz: didn’t expect’ much of Kinnock or the Labour Party leadership during this dispute because of their attitude during the miners” strike. 1 think that the Labour leadership see supporting a group of people in struggle as very damaging to their electoral chances, a view which I think is misguided.

1 think that. most printworkers used to fall in with the view of Tony Benn that’s peddled in the tabloid press, that he’s some kind of “loony” who should be shut away somewhere. But nobody will ever think like that after what he did for us on May 3rd. There he was in the thick of it, giving a running commentary, supporting us to the hilt, and then standing up in Parliament, saying exactly what had gone on down there.

Mark: Another group which has been very supportive are the gays and lesbians. We can’t isolate people, which is what the Sun tries to do.

London *

Factory bosses cut & run in

the Midlands

On November 12th, over 200 West Midlands trade unionists joined with the sacked workers from Borderway Factory in Aston, Birmingham, to assert their right to join a trade union of their thoice.

Banners from Tass, Metal Mechanics, Firemen’s Union, NUPE, and Birmingham Trades Council hung outside the factory wall.

Former Longbridge Convenor Derek Robinson, speaking at the rally,

said the workers were sacked for j

ing the Manufacturing Union

Tass. The company has since replaced them with scab labour. Robinson told the rally ‘What we need to do here is go out to the factories} which deal with Borderways and ask workers not to handle its

products.”

Jerry Bartlett, for NUPE, called for more cash to be collected for the sacked workers, and the local vicar, Rev. Richard Bashford, also spoke in support of the sacked workers, saying it was time the church got off the fence and joined people such as the sacked Borderway workers. “If J don't speak out on this matter I’m not doing my job,”

he sai

hours of the close of the rally, Borderway’s management

called in the Liquidator. Mr Terry Pye, Midland District Organiser for} the Metal Mechanics sector of Tass, said ‘I find it deeply disturbing! that the company solution to.solving the. prablem is not, to sit down} and.discuss the matter, but to.cut and run."*

the sacked workers and their union are now seeking legal advice. John Robinson, Tass NSMM Craft Section

{ R

Labour Briefing Dec 10-Jan 14 1987 page 6

Local Government

Support local jobs and services

Pressure is mounting on Labour’s Front Bench to come clean on their plans

for local government finance. Labour councils

throughout the country hae been forced into ‘‘creative accounting”’ techniques in order to implement Party policy of defending jobs and Services.

Waiting

_. They are waiting for a pledge from the leadership that a Labour Government — would reverse Tory policies sufficiently to make it possible to pay for these loans,

Ideally, a Labour Government ought to take these debts over itself, as they are only necessary because of Tory cuts in central government assistance.

Repeated

But even if Tory laws on local government funding were all repealed councils would at least know that they could meet the cost of servicing these loans when they fall due, without cuts in services and jobs, or massive rate increases.

However, the only pledge that Cunningham and Straw have given is that Ratecapping and direct capital controls will go.

Rate increases

But without a pledge to scrap the Tory system of “‘clawback’’ which has robbed some authoritites of all the Rate Support Grant, this could mean rate increases of up to £7 a week or more.

Hattersley is urging Labour Couneils to draw up investment and spending plans to help create the ‘one million jobs in two years’ that Labour promises. Are Labour councils meant to sack staff now, and tell them to comeback in two years when we can create “new” jobs for them to count towards Roy’s million?

Divide and rule

Chief Environment Spokesperson Jack Cunningham obviously takes

the Party’s policy of opposition to cuts in jobs and services as seriously a3 the commitment to

PHOTO Labour Party Photo Library

John Cunningham

Our answer to Tebbit and Ridley:

By Stephen Marks

phase out nuclear power. He has played the Tory game of

PHOTO: John Chapman

Roy Hattersley

Kinnock

By Alf Filer Brent East CLP

One has to expect populist attacks from the racist media, whose interest is

served in defending and maintaining racism, but

what purpose is served when Neil Kinnock, Giles Radice and John Cunningham call on Brent Council not. to pursue its right to the truth through holding an inquiry into the McGoldrick case.

According to Kinnock and the shadow cabinet, an investigation into alleged acts of racism is an obvious vote loser. At one fell swoop, Labour’s promise of fighting racism if elected is reduced to empty rhetori

Rather than attempiing to show any understanding of the Black commuity in Brent, the needs of Black people regarding education, and how to challenge institutional racism, the Labour

with racism

ide and rule by using this issue to play off MPs and Councils in the North against those in the South and SouthEast — so far without much either case.

South East

In any case, without Labour gains in the South East there won't be another Labour government, And — Labour councils carrying out Tory cuts — the only immediate alternative {0 —_creative accounting — won’t win votes,

Bombard NEC

But that is to put the issue too much in Cunningham’s own terms. ‘Creative accounting” has been used by Labour authorities all over the country. Party members all over the country must bombard the NEC with demands for a clear commitment to back up those

who are bearing the brunt of the |

Tory offensive on local government jobs and services.

sides

leadership has sided with racism and once again put a false concept of electoralism before principles.

Committed

Pushing ahead with an inquiry is neither a vote loser locally or nationally. On the contrary, it shows that Labour is committed to policies that

meet the needs of _ the Community, both Black and White, and this is what we

expect’ our leadership to be explaining, Kinnock’s advisers should remind him that Black people also vote — mainly Labour.

When the leadership’s action is seen alongside their support for the police, immigration controls, opposition to Black sections and autonomous rights of the oppressed, then _ party members. should start asking what type of anti-racist policies will emerge from the next Labour government.

NUT leadership

The NUT leadership stopped at nothing in their rush to get support for their reactionary position in Brent — not even stopping long enough to consult their rank and file members. We have heard little from them or Kinnock in defending the attempts by Brent Council to improve equal opportunities.

The issue is not McGoldrick as such, but the need to look into serious complaints regarding racism, which must be treated as cases of gross misconduct. Are Kinnock, Fred Jarvis, and the Brent Teachers Association now saying that acts of racism should be reduced to minor offences?

Long way

Yes, of course Brent has a long way to go in achieving changes, and must be willing to take its campaigns out onto the streets and to the public Policies must not finish at the Council chamber. Whatever valid criticism one may make about the implementation of policies, criticisms by Kinnock & Co. are destructive and only serve the racists in society.

For this reasons, Brent East GC has. passed a resolution welcoming the Council decision to have an inquiry and condemn the intervention by. Kinnock.

By Greg Tucker (Chair, Lambeth Labour Group)

and Joan Twelves (Chief Whip, Lambeth Council)

in their personal capacities

Major attacks on Labour local authorities, particularly those innercity authorities led by the left, have been launched by Nicholas Ridley and Norman Tebbit.

The serious press quickly identified these attacks as part of a Tory pre-election strategy. Senior Tory Party officers have recently toured Conservative Associations in Lambeth to tell the faithful to dig up dirt on the Council, Labour councillors,and local Labour Parties.

Meanwhile, the Queen’s speech unveiled plans for the forced privatisation of many major local government services. With ratecapping still in force, this represents a further tightening of the screw on local democracy. If local councils complain loudly, then new laws on “propaganda on the rates” are to be introduced to silence them.

DHSS crisis

The inner city is in a state of collapse. One example is the current crisis in the DHSS An increasing number of ner London social security v.tices are being closed and/or workers are going on strike, because they are not being given the resources to meet the demand caused by the ever-increasing number of claimants. Instead of doing anything about the problem, the government’s response is to blame local authorities for informing claimants of their tights. Thousands of claimants and their children are being left penniless.

Trap

Instead of rising to the defence of local democracy and the people of the inner city, Neil Kinock has fallen into the trap laid for him by Tebbit — supporting “the 99.90% of Labour Councillors who do not attract the headlines”’, but then selling out the rest, whom he accuses of “zealotry”’. Trying to blame the left for the failure of his. rightward-moving policies, he attacks ‘‘a_ few councils who obscure the efforts of so many.”” Larry Whitty has written to every- Labour Group telling them to shut up and toe the line, or else.

Ritual phrases

Front bench spokespeople like Cunningham and Straw, while mouthing ritual phrases against privatisation and ratecapping, have in practice stood with those “‘good”” Labour councils who have tried to implement Party policy. The

witch-hunt is “justified” on the grounds that it is Conference policy. It is also Conference policy to fight ratecapping and privatisation. When is Larry Whitty going to launch investigations into those Labour-controlled councils which have privatised services? When is he going to write to Labour Groups (as instructed by Conference) urging them to resist and campaign against privatisation?

oo ty

The Front Bench is busy promoting “Jobs Programmes’’. The aim is: to

show the lead role local councils will play in implementing Labour’s pledge of ‘a million jobs in two years””. Councils are being encouraged to draw up plans, such as Southwark Council’s “A Working Community”, which show how jobs can be created quickly through a mixture of capital schemes (e.g. building new homes) and revenue expansion (e.g. taking on more ,home helps).

Aside from the 3 million left on the dole by this exercise, many other questions remai unanswered. Are these low paid, low status jobs the sort we want to create? How do we deal with the lack of training opportunities which have left many unskilled or deskilled and unable to take up meaningful work? What priority should be given to equal opportunities? ‘And, most importantly, how do we pay for this expansion?

£2 Billion

To start with, there is the problem of the £2 billion which would have to be found just to get local councils out of the tangle caused by the creative accounting measures they have been forced to adopt over the last few years.

Asa draft report Prepared for the Cabinet points out action to tackle their problems, it is very unlikely that a programme for job creation involving local authorities could get off the ground.” That £2 billion is needed just to stand

being

Fight privatisation! —

Lurry Whitty attracting the usual comments on his policies while ente

FRONTLIN LABOUR

still.

Many local authorities in the inner city are already unable to fulfil their statutory obligations in social services and property repairs. It has been estimated that it will cost £40 billion to bring the country’s housing stock into a reasonable state of repair. Beyond that, how much will it cost to build enough houses to house the homeless? How much will it cost to knock down the inner-city slum estates

and rehouse the tenants in houses with gardens?

With Hattersley reluctant to put any money on the table, or even to promise to loosen central government controls on local authority capital expenditure, the success of any job creation programme will depend on ability (o raise money in the City. So, how will local authorities pay the interest charges? And what happens when we have an tment strike as happened with the last bour Government?

Battleground

It is clear that, alongside Labour’s non-nuclear defence policy, local government will be ‘one of the main battlegrounds in the run up to the General Election. How should the Left respond?

First, we must have a clear alternative to the half-promises, which raise more questions than they answer, and the lack of commitment from the Front Bench. We must demand, not what may be possible if the City lets us do it, but what is absolutely essential to meet the needs of working class people in the inner cities: jobs, training and apprenticeship ‘schemes, resources put into education, decent affordable homes, nurseries for the under-fives, etc. Conferences on improving service-delivery are mere cosmetic exercises. without a commitment to providing necessary resources.

Guarantee

We want an unequivocal guarantee that elected regional authorities will be restored to

No

Labour Briefing Dec 10-Jan 14 1987 page 7

Local Government

-OUNCILS

ndon and the metropolitan unties — the problems of the ner cities are not the problems

individual boroughs. They

ed to be dealt with at a ategic level, not least to sure redistribution of sources.

Conference Conference has more than

\ce supported the demand that te support grant should be

But this brings us face to face

with the central issue — if an incoming Labour government is to do anytl

the inner cities then it will have no choice but to take control of the financial institutions so that we can raise the capital to meet our needs.

Prince Charles has recently announced his Inner City Trust to “revitalise the Inner city”. If Lambeth Council were to take over the land in the Borough owned by his Duchy of Cornwall we could finance our housing needs — and still have money left over.

Major questions

Labour local authorities face immediate problems, and local parties in the inner city have to

defensive. However, there is a world of difference between being on the defensive and giving in. We must oppose “tactical retreats’? which end up as redundancies and cuts in services.

Rebuild unity

Faced with the latest Tory onslaught, Labour councillors have to rebuild unity with their trade unions. After the climbdowns: and defeats during the ratecapping struggle, most trade unionists rightly refuse to place any great faith in council leaderships. Alliances have to be built’ which involve sharing information in order to develop collective strategies to defend services and protect jobs.

Over the next few months,

Trade unionists picket Hackney Town Hall, February 1982, as part of fighting ratecapping.

o to tenders: i call toaction!

The of the There was considerable

policy

confront major questions over council workers have to be 4 By Joanna Fawkes iis thenext few months, Whether it closely involved in drawing up J Mational Party and =) tt eee onEN wane + eine 3 ; Co-Chair, London. conference, with some is the threat of privatisation or next year’s budgets. And if we J unions —_— to : is delegates warning that the effects of ratecapping on . are to resist privatisation — ff privatisation as a local i agreeing any changes would next year’s budget, there will be when all the arguments of the Bl igsue ( as out Chair, Camden be colluding in our own those who will argue, along with _fatecapping struggle about non- Hf Haye Benlow NALGO downfall; others felt that — Larry Whitty, for tactical compliance and illegality will Ht onth’s Briefing) has with — workers _, retreats in the run-up to the come to the fore again — there = , ould use the opportunity to general election. has to be-a firm campaigning J Meant activists are know that 2 “‘no compliance” —_improve some aspects of their Bee Nicedess” “does abi win partnership between [J campaigning in a __ stand was unlikely to protect jobs, while protecting their = votes — we have to make people councillors, workers, and users ff vacuum. us for long from the multi- existing hours. pay and 2 eon Te nationals. so the final draft conditions. This latter vi § confident that they can believe of services. perry gon - view > standing by manifesto promises. National Campaign scepticism coupled with #070 Cc: Reese jority. EW means refusing to make — 16 th be any loca f the national silence has demands on Councilors, does Alerti there are to be any local " r 5 cuts— whatever effect that 2. chorities’ services left iby the @ feinforced the message so without high expectations. creng. 8 might have on budgets. time Wes: get=/ans Labour that tendering might just . However, for these y Major swing government, there needs to bea [J 99 away without any Priorities opportunities to be realised, it i} major national campaign fj @ffort from us. Certainly It is necessary for us we |S Clear that much work must 5 Themajorswingto Labour in exposing the problems of the jg OUr local Councillors don’t agreed, to have our own ¢ done in the immediate = the May elections in Lambeth inner city and supporting those J Seem too bothered, so priorities. tactics and “bottom tre — not least in alerting A after the surcharge and councillors — all of them — | Why should ordinary trade fines” in order to proceed. te Labour Party left to whatis ng Labour Party HQ. disqualification of | 31 who are attempting to solve § unionists get excited? ~ After all, managers are right 90879 On. We can’t very well councillors showed that people those problems. If the Tories” Coon - now reviewing service and job Complain = the respect those who keep their election strategy is to be ‘ounter apathy specifications in the most Cunninghams Straws stored to 1979 levels. Weneed promises: However, it has to be challenged and defeated, there threatened areas with a view a ee 10 to demand the return of the recognised that the has to be a united fight. It _ 't, Wes to counter this to making them more Sng Solttle to take up these ions stolen from local disqualification of those _—_ would be all to the good if spariy | and fo svolve "competitive: ew uncils since 1979, f y ‘ould be all to the good if the practical approach to resisting ¥ “). or prepared to fight was a defeat. —_ Labour leadership were part of [| contractors. that Lond . ample, the £300 million in The Rates Act has not been that fight for a ch: b : ‘ ribet pit and housing. investment e See aee ee rete cent f Bridge organised its most ———-U FAT FeSOMtOn— thheld or withdrawn from Gestroved, and it would be “‘unity’’ and “fighting” seem to ff successful conference for Sa beth, foolish not to admit that we have been written out of Jf over a year. London Bridge seeks the c) refusing to work with . have been forced onto the Kinnock’s lexicon. Over 80 delegates fror 10 expansion and improvement contractors who win tenders

London Authorities attended the conference on November 21st — and the whole day

was approached ~=— with seriousness and a sense of urgency.

What should local union

activists be demanding from Councillors and fighting for with the membership? We

Brighton ratecapped

This year we have our first ever Labour Counci Brighton. Ridley has responded to this by rate-capping Brighton on the basis of last year’s Tory budget It is hoped that the Council will be able to continue to implement the ~— Labour manifesto with the aid of creative accounting. In

a leafletting and pe

raise public awareness of the £2¥2m or 20% cut the council has had to face. The most portant aspect of our work has been the development of a relationship between the Party and. the Local Government unions. At the November Council meeting the Party and the unions held a joint lobby of 200 people to support jobs and services and against ratecapping.

Dave Stewart

umbeth and Liverpool councillors outside the High Court, January 1986.

cuts in jobs and services! —

of local government services, and will oppose any attempt to sell these services under the

terms of the _Local Government Act (expected Jan 1987).

London Bridge resolves to resist any attempt by local authorities to use compulsory tendering as a method of cutting jobs, hours, pay and

conditions, and will oppose the redrafting of job descriptions and work

specifications if this is used to adopt a more competitive position at the expense of pay, custom and practice and the quality of the service.

London Bridge resolves to campaign to bring all local government services into the

direct employment —_—of Councils.

We call on Council

1. To declare __ their

commitment to defend jobs and services from compulsory tendering legislation under the new local government act by: a) ensuring that no change in any job description or work specification will involve any loss of pay, hours and conditions; b) refusing to submit tenders that would entail such losses even if this meant defying the law;

against the Council's workforce, even though this could be illegal.

2. _ London committed to: a) Ensuring that Councils fully consult with the trade unions on the expected new local government act, and that managers do not develop privatisation strategies outside Council/union agreements.

b) Working with managers and councillors to develop new specifications based on the improvement of the service and no loss of pay, hours, and conditions of _ service. Establishing the rights of the

Bridge is

workforce in _—_ contract documents will deter contractors.

c) Refusing to submit in-house tenders and actively frustrate the submission of in-house or

other tenders by industrial action. d) Taking industrial action

appropriate to protect existing Council jobs when a tender is awarded to an outside contractor.

e) Campaigning among the users of the service so that the implications of _ privatisation can be explained, and to work for improvements to services. f) Involving the membership at all levels and ensuring that workplace meetings have the opportunity to consider the above policy.

Fight racism! — Fight sexism!

PHOTO: John Chapman

_f “

Labour Briefing Dec 10-Jan 14 1987 page 8

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TURN BACK THE GREY TIDE!

Bankers Order form for Labour Briefing 500 Club

Please complete every section of this form, and then return it to: Labour Briefing, c/o Jane Kelly, 26 Crofton Rd, London SE5.

Dear Comrades,

In the two articles on the “McGoldrick affair’ Colin Adams and the Brent NALGO member write in support of the stance taken by Brent Council, While Colin Adams points to some of the problems that have arisen in the implementation of anti-racist policies, the comrade from NALGO simply berates everyone who might have doubts about the policy.

The Council was correct to suspend a headteacher who was alleged to have said she wanted no more black teachers in the school, was correct to challenge the ruling that it could not hold an enquiry after the school governors had absolved her, and is right to open an enquiry now. But that is only the bare bones of a policy. A correct policy is far more than the right decisions by a small group of Councillors.

For socialists good policies

are not simply imposed from on high. While not tailoring our policies to what we can get support for, that doesn’t mean we don’t want. support for them! Indeed, there is no point in having good policies if we don’t attempt to convince the working class community they are right. 1 am not talking of press coverage. Of course we cannot hope to get anything but hostility from the Tory press when we are serious about antiracism. Nor is it a matter of electoralism. Those who are only concerned with winning votes back off from policies that go beyond fine (or not-so fine) speeches, which is why Brent Council, together with other Labour Councils, is under attack from Kinnock, Cunningham and Radice.

The comrade from Brent NALGO mentions the sacking of a manual worker by Brent for racism. A few years ago a town-

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Please debit from my account each month the sum of £4, in favour of Labour Briefing No 2 account,Cnoperative Bank, Stratford E15, Code 08-90-76, Account No. 50349957.

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councillor — without any reference to disciplinary procedures. This produced the ludicrous situation where the left in Brent NALGO had to reluctantly support a ballot on industrial action in defence of the disciplinary procedure even though they did not want to defend a racist. The attitude of Councillors has. been similar in the McGoldrick case. Take a decision, impose it and stand back while. the flak flies. Throughout this case there has been no attempt by _ the Couscillors involved to inform Party activists of what is going on, let alone the people of Brent. In the face of attack from the media there should have been a sustained campaign throughout the borough in defence of this policy. Nothing. Is it any surprise that people whose only source of information is the media are at best confused about what is going on?

Even the Labour Group of Councillors have been kept

Dated ....

Lesbian & Gay Briefing group

commission on the same lines as other Briefing commissions. The main aim would be to plan and organise the writing of articles so as to provide a regular coverage of lesbian and gay issues.

Could comrades who are interested in participating in this work please write to “Lesbian and Gay Brief ~7 Group”, c/o Briefing. Ple. tell us what lesbian and gay issues you are particularly interested in, and if you are involved in any lesbian and gay groups.

By Theresa Conway and Alan Holder

Up until now the lesbian and gay input into Briefing has not been organised to the same extent as other aspects of the paper. Articles on lesbian’ and gay issues have until now been written by only a few people. We feel that this arrangement is undemocratic and inefficient.

We would therefore like to see lesbian and gay Briefing supporters set up a

for frustrated Labour activists. Whilst many labour movement bodies appear more dead than alive, others continue to offer stiff

doubts over the level of “democracy” involved arise with every vote taken under the system.

main unanswered (and unasked)

Can contract labour empty the dustbin of history — or is it all a load of rubbish?

tte:

totally in the dark. McGoldrick was suspended in late July, yet despite court cases and the media barrage the first time the affair went before Labour Group was in October when a majority (including, mistakenly, the hard left) voted only to take a report with no discussion. How are a ists meant to defend a policy when they are not told what is going on?

Even on their own terms, the councillors’ handling of the case has been abysmal. The disciplinary procedure allows for a case to be heard first either by the school governors ( with later reference to a disciplinary sub-committee) or a disciplinary sub-committee. Councillors chose to refer the case to the governors even though rumours were already circulating about their antagonism towards black teachers, thus making the later fuss a certainty.

The reactionary role of the Stalinist/Liberal leadership. of Brent NUT was rightly slammed by the two writers, Of course socialists oppose and try to break a strike in defence of an alleged racist. But why the silence about the record of Brent’s chair of education, Ron Anderson? Until a few years ago he was himself part of the BTA clique. Fine, you might say, but people change. Yes, but only last year Anderson was censured by Brent LGC for putting out a leaflet in a Council by-election (without mentioning: it was from the Labour Party) which strongly implied -that planning permission for” a mosque went through against the wishes of the Labour Councillors when in fact Labour supported it. Needless to say, the by-election was in one of the leafy suburbs of Brent North,.where. the. white residents opposed the mosque.

The role of councillors has bureaucratic, (and often

have acted throughout as employers deciding on policies and implementing them. The problem for serious socialists is that this limited role is not only inadequate but —_counterproductive when it comes to issues (such as _rate-capping) where they have no choice but to turn to the community for support.

Colin Adams points to the problem of Councillors sitting in Town Halls deciding on and imposing policies. | agree, but it is not simply a matter of how they spend their time, but whether they see themselves as part of the labour movement fighting to win mass support for policies. Their whole concept of socialism is of imposition from above by well-meaning people.

While supporting the policy in the McGoldrick case we have to reject a version of socialism which has so much in common with Stalinism.

Pete Firmin

Brent East CLP

heavy-handed

easier to get up your nose. @Resurrection: (not to be

confused with _reselection)

method by which the old (e.g,

Labour

Road, London SE5.

iscope Column, Briefing, 26 Crofton

Call me El Al

Whatever happend to those American tourists scared off by fears of Libyan terrorism? While Britain's stately homes and chilly museums enjoyed an unexpectedly relaxed summer season, - where had the —_checked-trousered, luggage-toting hordes vanished to?

Periscope can reveal that thousands were whisked away on a special ‘Admiral Poindexter Mystery Tour’, which included @A_ 2-week kidnapping in a Beirut basement

‘A photo-call with Terry Waite ©A brief stopover in Teheran @An El Al flight to a “contra”? camp in Honduras, for a week's sunbathing, murder and bestiality.

Last seen in Miami, sporting bags of ‘*Contra'’-brand cocaine and souvenir severed appendages, the globe-trotting _ punters were reported well pleased with their unique holiday opportunity.

Laid out

The recent reports of a supposed corpse found to be still living in a hospital: morgue willing "a "bell

opposition to the left, though they remain more cadavers than cadres. But as optimist “Briefing Activist of the Year” Ivor Slogan told Periscope: “This is a grave matter — we must undertake the fightback.”

Tell Sid

Those who can’t afford shares in the industries the government are selling off (or who can't understand why we are being given the chance to buy something that we owned in the first place) may be interested in the figure 22,644,000.

That's how many pounds of your taxes the government has spent just on advertising the sale of theseindustries. And that’"Wwithout the trillions spent On British Gas. If you see’Sid, tell him

One Vote For All

While Kinnock and the right wing.embrace the Tory. call for postal ballots:in-unions, fresh

Outside the glare of national press publicity, routine postal ballot elections are drawing everdeclining participation from those “ordinary” union members who were supposedly clamouring for a vote.

A recent ballot in the Union of Communications Workers drew a return of only 135 votes out of an electorate of over 2,000.

If this trend continues, the chances of standing an unknown chimpanzee and having him/her elected get better every day. They like to call it “one person, one vote” — we didn’t realise it meant only one person would vote at a time,

Putting» Themselves Out

Tory plans for competitive tendering of local government services have. alarmed the big. contract firms,.. who ‘believe, the odds are not sufficiently. stacked in. their favour. But’ otherquestions: re-

@Will your services become somebody else’s business?

Will private caterers cook the books — or drive the gravy train? Or both?

Will slower councils be left with a tender behind?

Harold Wilson's. in Place of Strife) reappears as the new (e.g. Neil kin nock’s Rights and Responsibilities) @Clerical reaction: Briefing office staff after receipt of latest 2,000-word hand-wrtten polemic to be edited and typeset by follow. ee The Briefing slate and model Yes, Minister? —jecchitions tor the nest. Sod, with an analysis of Runcie’s. ‘cen.

Briefing has been bashed by a few __trist’” campaign against Jenkirts and "Broad Church” socialists over its Leonard wil appear in the New

lack of coverage of religious affairs. Year Periscope has risen to the challenge.

Sid’s Cock-up?

Sid does not appear to have been trampled in a rush for shares in London Rubber, despite the un-

To dispel ignorance and prepare the ground fortmore regular coverage including a forthcoming Red Pulpit” column from Michael Meacher and the LCC (Lelt Curate’s Caucus) we begin this _Precedented free government sales sue by explaining a few. basic Promotion for:condoms — second er only to the British Gas flotation. @Holy: prickly leaves used for Though LRC seems well placed Christmas decorations to collect windfall profits from the @Altar: new, high-risk brand of | AIDS scare, management apcigarette parently show little but contempt @Cross: mark on pgstal-ballot., . . {or Jast-minute cabinet converts to bbey habit: wanking their product — described by one @ Monastic: solvent give -'giving . . ‘ive. . as. . “‘Johnny-come-

a better:high than Pritt Stick, and» <-latelys? ~

Labour Briefing Dec 10-Jan I4 1987 page 9

Labour Party

Defend Meale:

Alan Kick

out the UDM!

Alan Meale, _ formerly secretary of the Campaign Group of MPs and newly-

selected PPC for Mansfield, is under attack from the Union — of

Democratic Mineworkers which has the core of its ever-dwindling membership in the Notts coalfield.

The UDM Area Council, fresh from its total capitulation to British Coal in allowing four Notts pits to close without a ‘murmur, has decided to stand a candidate against Meale at the General Election.

Meale’s selection was a

~ tribute to the hard work of the

left inthe. Mansfield Constituency which has endured over 20 years of Don Concannon — famed for his stance over Bobby Sands and a supporter of both Notts scabs and the UDM. Concannon has publicly stated that he would not vote for Meale and there are no prizes for guessing where his little

cross is going come the Election. Alan Meale must be

defended against the attacks of the UDM which could pose a real threat to a Labour victory. Unfortunately, Meale has not helped his cause by increasingly accommodating to the UDM, claiming he is not left-wing, the Miners’ Strike should be long forgotten and his only interest is in getting Neil.into Number Ten.

This will do no favours to the left in Mansfield Labour Party, which has been strengthened since the Strike by an influx of militants from the NUM and Women Against Pit Closures, helping to inflict

Trade Unionists for Democracy

North

further setbacks for the UDM — three district councillors have recently been deselected.

By Rick Simon Secretary, Nottingham East CLP

(personal capacity)

Meanwhile, the NEC has expelled those in Liverpool trying to fight the Tory government, yet __ allows. members of the blatantly antiworking class UDM, which has. been in cahoots. with British Coal and the Tory Government, to remain in the Party despite their clear breaking of the Constitution.

UDM members’ should be given a clear choice — rejoin the NUM or be expelled from the Party. Hucknall Labour Party have shown the way by expelling members of the UDM and, speaking to miners in Clipstone and Ollerton, NUM President Arthur Scargill has called for the expulsion of Concannon and Frank Haynes, another UDM supporting MP. He has also called on Stan Orme, Labour's energy spokesperson, not to make a proposed visit to the UDM.

Briefing supporters throughout the country should be rallying:

@in defence of Alan Meale against UDM attacks

@for no representatives of the Party to have any dealings with the UDM — (including opposition to Orme’s visit)

@for UDM members to be expelled from the Part

The continuing isolation of the UDM is a prerequisite for

building a strong, campaigning Labour Party in Notts and for the rebuilding of the NUM.

Knowsley

We are a group of rank and file trade unionists fighting to raise funds (£14,000 to-date) to pay the legal costs incurred in the

struggle for democracy.

An Appeal to the Labour Movement! Knowsley North has never been allowed to select its own candidate. In 1983, Robert Kilroy-Silk was imposed upon us by the NEC. In 1986, as well as excluding L. Huckfield, 4 other people who had received nomination were excluded from selection.

Your own CLP could be next!

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 donation. Copies of our appeal leaflet are available from the Secretary, 7 Hall Dr., Kirkby, Liverpool. Speakers will be provided on request. 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

Ul cent,

Northwood

nists for Democracy in Knowsley North, 12 Linsdale Creskby, Liverpool. Please make cheques

payable to Trade Unionists for Demcracy in Knowsley North. A receipt will be sent to all contributors. Defend Democracy! Support Knowsley North!

Representing

Labou

women

The Labour Women’s Action Committee AGM on December 13th will probably be the most important WAC has ever held.

Women will be debating and voting on proposals to form the basis of WAC’s campaign around the reorganisation of the Labour Women’s structures. It must produce proposals which women will be able to unite on and take back to their women’s sections to organise around.

The main discussion will centre around restructuring National Labour Women’s Conference and, within this, the proposed weighted vote for trade union delegates.

The principle of trade union women having more say is generally agreed,and women’s conference will gain from being more representative of all women in the labour movement. The question is how the vote should be structured.

There are several different ideas being put forward. One proposal is to split conference votes 50-50 between trade union and women's section delegates, thereby giving “‘parity”* between the two wings of the movement. The advantages of this system are giving trade union women a bigger share of the vote, without greatly disadvantaging CLP women. However, there are some points

By Jane Prust Labour Briefing Women

which require further debate and clarification.

First there is the question of the affiliated organisations, which should have a proportion of the votes, for example the Co-op, or the Socialist Education Association. Figures of between $% and 10% have been mentioned, with 5% seeming to be the most popular. This 5% would come out of the CLP section, reducing their share of the vote to 45%

There is an opportunity here for Labour Women to campaign for the rights of autonomous socialist. women’s organisations to affiliate. It would be a victory for working class women in Women Against Pit Closures, for example, won

representation at__ National Women’s Conference. Secondly, and of vital

importance, is the queston of the election of the Women’s Section of the NEC.

It has been suggested that the number of women’s _ seats should be increased from 5 to 6, with the trade union women and the women’s sections electing 3 each, maintaining “parity. But given the usual reluctance of the NEC to increase women’s representation, they are unlikely to agree to:this,

But again this ignores the affiliated organisations. Would they elect their own . NEC women’s representative (as they do at Annual Conference)? In addition to. the 6 seats, or included in them?

Another proposal is to elect all the women’s seats by an electoral college of 50% trade

Scally

One year to the day after

expelling us from Sparkbrook, the CLP officers have backed down and reinstated us in the face of a legal challenge.

By Amir Khan and Kevin Scally MEMBERS of Sparkbrook CLP

They have decided not to

begin the expulsion process again because of the massive political hostility it has provoked inside the Labour Party. The decision is regarded by both of us as a vindication for the left in the Party nationally.

The decision to recommend.

our reinstatement was taken at the Sparkbrook CLP meeting

on November 25th. The previous weekend Roy Hattersley had been told by

Larry Whitty that the NEC had been served with a writ demanding that Amir Khan be immediately reinstated.

Whitty told Hattersley that the Labour Party hadn’t a leg to stand on, He was given the option of persuading Sparkbrook to overturn the expulsions or having the NEC impose it on them. He decided that the’ former alternative was less humiliating and came to Sparkbrook to tell his stunned and angry supporters to reverse their previous decision. They unanimously U-turned, and the

ight wing majority did the same the next day at the NEC.

The expulsions had deeply Givided the local: Party, and demoralised__ many hardworking Party members. Of course, this is the intention of

all the attacks on Party democracy, which since our expulsions, - Have. -spread’- to

‘Knowsley. and-now threaten the

right of constituency parties to select their own candates.

We hope that the success of our campaign will give the right wing caucus on the NEC pause for thought, and dissuade other hard right =CLPs — from embarking on their own witchhunts, We hope that our success

give heart to the many socialists who may feel that they are battling against the tide at the present time.

Although it was the prospect of legal action that finally made the leadership back down, it was the political campaign that made them decide not to start the process of expulsion all over again. It had won support from all sections of the left, which enabled us to mobilise for annual conference, where we managed to win 2.7 million votes in favour of our immediate reinstatement.

The political lessons for the left are therefore clear. This is only one of many issues on which the left can and should unite, The various groups that comprise the left need to stand back from the sectarianism and splits of the last few years and

who benefits _ from ertainly not the left!

‘consider

them,

union women, 45% CLP, 5% socialist societies." Still maintaining the idea of parity, this would allow left women in the women’s sections and unions to elect all the women’s seats — and may be preferable.

This leads into considering how the block vote will operate at women’s conference. If the votes given to unions reflect the proportion of their women's membership then there will certainly be major differences from the way in which the union votes divide at National Conference.

The traditionally right wing unions, such as the EETPU and the AUEW, have comparatively few women embers, and this will be reflected in their voting strength. But NUPE and COHSE, with their large women’s membership, will have a greatly increased share of the vote.

The left will be in a better position with regard to the block, vote’ ats: women’s conference than at National

CLP Mandy Moore Ken Slater

George Linfield Women

We recognise the major role played in this Campaign by Briefing and Briefing supporters, without whom we would not have won.

Left slate for NCC

——— BRIEFING

Conference; but some women’s conference "policies will still come under threat. None of the unions are likely to vote in support of withdrawal of British troops from Ireland, for example,

The major — and crucial — issue behind all _ these discussions is whether the NEC and trade union bureaucrats decide how women __ will organise, or women themselves.

The weighted vote could encourage trade unions to send their full quota of delegates to women’s conference, and to discuss policies with women members before the debates. Obviously this implies women in the unions taking more direct control than they have at the moment, but it would mean that the Women’s Conference would have more accountability to women in the labour movement as a whole.

The debate has started, socialist women must now set the terms.

Trade Union Owen Briscoe Johnny Jones Alan Quin

(quodey) prey, malpuy JOLOHE

Amir Khan (left) Kevin Scally (right)

ea

Exeter’s Orange Labour Party

Not content with its pact with the Liberals, the minority Labour City Council in Exeter is linking up with the ‘William and Mary Tercentenary Trust’’ to celebrate the heritage of William of

Orange.

According to the right wing Labour Councillors, the planned

festival for 1988 will lead to the cre

ion of jobs and to a new

understanding of democratic rights. It is hard to believe that such

statements are made seriously.

An LPYS motion to the last GC pointed out that Orangeism is the cornerstone of British imperialism in the North of Ireland. The links between the Orange Order and the National Front were brought to the attention of the meeting. The motion was carried against the

advice of the councillors.

Yet we now understand that the council has no intention of changing its mind and the right aim to overturn the LPYS motion at the next GC. Whether the right is successtul or not, Devon Labour Briefing will campaign vigorously against the council's new means of creating jobs and leisure in Exeter.

Peter Bowing, Exeter CLP

Labour' Briefing Dec 10-Jan 14 1987 page 10

International Briefing

Bolivia: a struggle

without parallel

There are very few countries that have suffered the impact of the crisis of international capitalism as severely as Bolivia.

By James Dunkerley

‘As a result of a chronic indebtedness built up in the halcyon days of carefree borrowing by military regimes encouraged by the banks in the 1970s together with the subsequent collapse of mineral and oil prices the country is now as bankrupt as it is possible for a sovereign state to be.

Between 1980 and 1985 exports fell by a third, mineral production by nearly’ a half, disposable income by 40 per cent, and imports by a massive 60 per cent while inflation established a hemispheric record by reaching 9,500 per cent at the end of 1985.

The situation deteriorated most spectacularly following the collapse of the London-based International Tin Council in October 1985 which effectively withdrew regulation of the price of Bolivia’s strategic export commodity. Today the average wage of the country’s traditionally militant mineworkers is a paltry $40 a month whilst a doctor in the state sector receives less than $75.

Small wonder that infant mortality. has. risen to unprecedented levels, malnutrition is as widespread as in many African countries, and tens of thousands of "dispossessed workers and their families are seeking survival in petty peddling or involvement in Bolivia’s only buoyant industry — the cultivation of the coca leaf for processing into cocaine. Haiti is still the poorest country in the Americas but the pauperisation of Bolivia is much faster.

US domination

The historic struggles of the Bolivian labour movement are not unknown to British trade unionists, although they have traditionally been brought to our attention through campaigns against military dictatorship and” requests for trade embargoes to bring them down. Unable to resist worker mobilisation against both autocracy and reactionary economic policies, the army left power in October 1982, but it has not. disappeared from the scene and currently oversees the second state of siege declared in the space of a year by the Conservative regime of Victor Paz Estenssoro.

The latest suspension of constitutional guarantees took place in September and was a direct response to the miners’ refusal to accept an unqualified neo-liberal. programme — for continued wage freezes, unrestrained prices and, most

“The current struggle of the Bolivian masses (...) deserves our attention, applause and active support.””

important of all, the dissolution of the state mining corporation and firing of at least 8,000 of its 20,000 workforce _ without guarantees of compensation or hope of alternative employment, which stands at over 25 per cent.

Mass march

By staging a mass march “for life and peace’ from the mines to La Paz, the workers generated considerable support from the peasantry and middle class barely less hard hit by the government’s Harvard-drafted Programme for deflation, denationalisation and “‘economic discipline’’. In view of this and his longstanding desire to destroy the miners’ union, Paz happily dispatched the tanks and jailed over 150 union and political oppositionists. oppositionists,

However, even _this trenchantly reactionary regime

dedicated to an economic programme well in excess of what Thatcher has managed to date failed to halt opposition by suspending the very constitution under which it claimed a mandate.

Resorting first to the traditional means of clandestine struggle and then, once the freedom of political prisoners was secured, to renewed negotiations based upon directives from a_ series of workpace assemblies and an emergency congress, the union has continued to resist any sector.

‘Suport for this is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that many workers are no longer being paid at all. Most pits have been declared ‘‘closed’”’ and depived of working capital and technical support, and supplies of basic necessities to the isolated Andean communities were cut off long ago.

Review

No “goodies and baddies”’

BOB PENNINGTON reviews War and the International. A History of the Trotskyist Movement in Britain 1937-48, by Bornstein and Richardson, published by Socialist Platform, available from Houseman’s, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1,

e its predecessor*, this is a work to be welcomed. At the moment, it is the only serious attempt to write a history of the revolutionary movement in Britain following the degeneration of the British Communist Party.

itis a history with more than its share of dog days. Defeats suffered by the labour movement in Germany, Austria, and Spain confirmed the analysis of the Trotskyists, but militants did not flock to their banner. The betrayals of the Stalinist and reformist bureaucracies, weakened the workers’ organisations, and

many militants were demoralised and driven out of olitics,... Others. . became

ealists'’. and,. joining: with

either Stalinists or refors Ss. gave up the class struggle and hoped that an alliance between western capitalism and the Soviet Union would roll back the fascist threat. Such difficult circumstances __inevitably fed to disputes, factional struggles, splits.

But despite all these difficulties — and with hindsight they appear almost insurmountable — the Trotskyists were not found wanting. When the biggest crunch of all came — war! — they stood their ground.

The Labour Party shut: up shop, hoisted the Union Jack, and entered-a coalition with the Tory Government. After Hitler invaded Russia in 1941, the Communist Party danced the tune of jingoism, berated workers who did not work hard enough for the ‘patriotic war’, and demanded full support for Churchill and his Cabinet. When the Trotskyists supported young apprentices on strike, the CP's Daily Worker demanded that “...the government. deal with these saboteurs..."’

In the war years the Trotskyists kept. alive the -traditions. of Marxism and. insisted that working people must

never subordinate their terests to those of the ruling class. As a result, they grew in numbers, their paper. Socialist Appeal increased its. circulation, and they got some valuable recruits from the labour movement,

However, they were unprepared. for the great postwar wave of . reformist radicalisation. At this crucial moment, they failed to take their cadres into the Labour Party where they could have exerted maximum influence on that radicalisation. The leaders of the movement insisted that the only way ahead ‘was to continue to build the independent Revolutionary Communist Party.

A minority, led by Gerry Healy, argued that a gigantic slump was on the way, that Labour would founder on its inability to solve the econor crisis, and that Trotskyists must therefore go into the. Labour Party and-wirvits left to revolutionary politics. Although the majority had more sane economic perspectives, they were wrong to insist on trying to build an open party.

In the following: years; their.

meriibérs" dropped’ out, “their

paper's sales declined, and most. of their leaders left revolutionary politics. Healy took over the mantle of British Trotskyism and his barmy catastrophic —_ perspectives were to dominate his organisation until the crisis that blew it apart in 1985.

Here | must add a note of caution. The Trotskyist movement made lots. of erors in those days — just as it does today. Unfortunately, the authors have an axe to grind, and are too prone to blame | these errors on one faction or ;

another within the . Fourth International. That's a mistake. The

history of British Trotskyism is not simply about goodies and baddies. It can only be understood by. recognising that small movements, under disadvantageous circumstances, short of working class leaders and-lacking train-

ed intellectuals, will make more than their share of errors.

**Against the Stream. A

History of the Trotskyist Movement in Britain 1924-38, available. from. the ...same adress ‘ an

It is no rhetorical exaggeration to describe this struggle as one for immediate physical survival. As such, and in a country lacking any vestige of a social security system, it is distinct from even the most severe experiences of the British working class under the Tories. Yet there are remarkable similarities in the centrality of the defence of jobs and the popular economy —_ against

foveramens rationalisation” Historic struggle

Moreover, Paz is scarcely less ardent than Thatcher and Howe in his unctious acceptance of US domination. In the case of Bolivia this has gone well beyond a dutiful compliance in foreign policy (the harassment of Nicaraguan diplomatic staff; threats to scrap vital Cuban assistance for the children’s hospital).

In August US troops took charge of a noisy and extensive, but unsuccessful, anti-cocaine operation in which the Bolivian consitution was freely ignored and residual persecution of peasants who legally cultivate the coca leaf markedly increased.

Opposition to this shameless intervention was not based on any defence of cocaine trading, the leaders of which were never threatened and are encouraged

to recycle their dollars through the Central Bank under the new economic policies that have also driven thousands of redundant workers into the cocaine sector which, of course, provides handsome profits to the big US banks to boot.

Rather, denunciation of the operation was centred on a repudiation of the typically imperialist decision that a domestic US problem should be

” sas Spied Pi ERE

impoverished peasants instead of through confonting the US mafia, yuppie consumers and the, necessary... costs of alternative crops.

This campaign has stressed the threat of greater escalation of the US military presence, similar to’ that in Central America, and its close relation to Washington’s arduous support for Paz’s neo-liberal destruction of the popular economy, similar to _ that essayed by Pinochet in Chile.

The current struggle of the Bolivian masses is not as well known as the anti-imperialist mobilisation in Central America or the anti-dictatorial campaign in Chile, but it combines elements of both with a fierce resistance to“ an economic offensive without parallel in the Americas. It deserves our attention, applause and. active support.

Marchers rally at Mendiola: August 1985.

Philippines Ceasefire

The government of President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines

seems to have thwarted the

minister Juan Ponce Enrile to stage a coup.

an agreement for a 60-day coas

attempts of the former defence ith the signature of fire with the Communist National

Democratic Front-as‘@ preparation for more inclusive peace talks to halt the 17-year-old civil war, the prospects for a stable bourgeois democracy look brighter than for some time.

Of course, the defeat of Enrile and his cronies has to be welcom-

ed and any return of the Marcos regi

e would represent a tremen-

dous setback for the Filipino people. That should not disguise the

esentially pro-Ameriéan nature

of the present regime. Few now

believe that Aquino will carry out her promise to remove US bases by 1991 and the generals clearly regard any ceasefire with the New People’s Army as a temporary breathing space.

The situation is very fluid, Watch this space!

“By. Chris, Bettram

Labour Briefing Dec 10-Jan 14 1987 page Y ee si w SES aN

International Briefing

Strip search rally

defies

By Alison Clarke Labour Women for Ireland

A rally to protest stripsearching in Maghaberry

prison (formerly Armagh) was finally called by the National Labour Women’s Com

held in November 15th.

It is Labour Party policy to oppose strip-searching, and though a decision to organise a demonstration was taken at this year’s National Conference of Labour Women, it took months before any support materialised and the rally itself was finally endorsed by the NEC only a matter of weeks before it was scheduled to be held.

The organisation of the rally was beset by a catalogue of difficulties too convoluted to explain here, but some of which were

NEC

reflected in the statement (below) issued to the NLWC

by Labour Women for Ireland (LWI). This was prompted by NLWC’s

refusal to accept speakers from the Irish in Britain Representation Group. (IBRG) and from SWAPO Women’s Council on the platform at the rally.

Despite the obstacles, the rally took place as planned. The speakers included + Margaret Holmes (Kent Women Against Closures), Pauline Deery (ex-Armagh — prisoner), Liz Woodcroft (National Council for Civil Liberties) and Maire O'Shea (pyschiatrist~ and president of the IBRG)' It was ably chaired by Mandy Moore

of the National Labour Women’s Committee. Discussion from the floor

covered a wide range of issues, not surprisingly, but overall a feeling of frustration was expressed with regard to the Labour Party’s attitude to the rally. A number of speakers made the point that the Party should have given its full support to a demonstration (which was the original

intention, not a rally) against strip-searching, with no prevarication. Such an event can still be organised in the future.

There is a large body of opposition to strip-searching which needs to be tapped. Indeed, in the light of increasing use of strip-searching in Britain (as one member of City AntiApartheid pointed out), our efforts to end its use must increase.

It was heartening to see that a large number of comrades from outside London attended the rally. Out of about 200, there were coachloads from Leicester, Sheffield, Watford, Birmingham and Nottingham

present. Appropriately, the rally finished with’ a _ musical

contribution from a five-piece women’s ceilidh band, the Five Sheelahs. They entertained and moved us with their jigs, reels and haunting solos. Some comrades were even inspired enough to participate in Irish dancing, led and directed by a member of the band.

Finally, our thanks to those who sent in the many solidarity messages and who brought their stalls.

‘In sisterhood and solidarity’ @ LABOUR WOMEN FOR IRELAND

LWI statement

Labour Women for Ireland wish. to. .make...clear.. that, although we will continue to support, publicise and build for the rally against —_stripsearching, we must condemn the decision of the NLWC to deny a speaker from the IBRG and SWAPO Women’s Council ‘on the platform.

Our distress is all the more acute given that the reasons advanced for not inviting the IBRG showed ignorance of the identity of this group. It is outrageous that the NLWC are sufficiently arrogant_—to consider their own ignorance just cause for exclusion. This attitude smacks of the condescension to which we, as women in the Party, are normally subject by the male hierarchy

For the record, the IBRG is one of the largest community organisations representing the Irish in Britain. It is nonrian and —_non-party political. Its major concerns are todo with the preservation of the Irish way of life; trish youth and the — elderly; anti-lrish racism; travel and links with Ireland; media representation; the Prevention of Terrorism Act; housing, employment and social services: In particular, it has waged a sustained campaign against the strip-searching of Irish women prisoners and as the voice of the Irish in Bri should warrant ‘an automatic place on the platform.

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Moreover, a __ significant number of IBRG members are in turn members of the Labour Party, which has traditionally relied on the Irish vote. The NLWC’s decision will do nothing to encourage Irish people to join and, indeed, will only serve to highlight the futility of membership.

Nor does the decision to exclude SWAPO from the platform lie easily with the image of the Labour Party as a socialist, internationalist organisation. Strip-seraching is a form of sexual harassment used around the world to humiliate, degrade and undermine women’s resistance. If we are to highlight the implications of its growing use in Britain and Ireland we must link up with the experiences of our sisters elsewhere,

The timetabling for these decisions gives us further cause for concern. There was no discussion of the rally at the NLWC meeting — in September, which took the Mobilising Group (set up in August to organise __ it) somewhat by surprise. There was no indication of dissent from the “NLWC at Labour Party Conference to a leaflet produced by LW! which indicated the proposed platform of speakers and specifically identified the IBRG and SWAPO. LWI_ then requested to, attend the October NLWC meeting, but was fefused. Our secretary was, however, in the building at the time of the meeting and could have answered any queries: | NLWC — merely communicated their decisions to her and made no attempt to discuss them.

The outcome has placed LWI, as @ group campaigning on freland, in an_ invidious position. It has severely strained our relations with the IBRG and has caused embarassment with our sisters in SWAPO. We-have no option, therefore, but to publicise this statement which will be copied to the NEC, Front Bench spokespersons, women’s spokespersons, the

Irish media, Irish women’s organisations and Labour women. We are sending

written apologies to SWAPO

and the IBRG, along with this statement.

We will continue to support the rally and attempt to ensure its success. The issue of the continued. strip-searching of Irish women prisoners is much too important for us to do otherwise. We strongly urge everyone to give their full ‘Support to it, called in protest at four years of this degrading practice.

Paul Jones (Chair of CND) addresses CND Annual Conference, 1986.

CND conference National movement

in the doldrums

This year’s CND conference was an anaemic affair. Only five motions were debated and most of the weekend was given over to workshops.

The membership of CND has now been largely excluded from crucial deci-

This is the latest step in a process which, over recent years, has dissipated the strength of the campaign and_ sidestepped “‘contentious’’ issues like Britain's membership of NATO.

Behind this development lie the ideas (and members) of the Communist Party. The CP seeks to keep CND as an incoherent —““broadly-based'

organisation rather than to radicalise its members. Voting at conference illustrated the confusion sown by this strategy. CND will now work with anyone opposing nuclear’ power — including reactionary, obscurantist, or isolationist groups. It will campaign for a “non-nuclear, — im other words a nonnuclear defence _ policy. possibly involving huge expenditure on conventional arms. And it will’ ‘‘balance’’ its demands on the US by calling upon the Soviet Union to take unilateral steps to move away from nuclear weapons. — despite the fact that Britain is in NATO and not the Warsaw Pact. So the peace movement is developing a “defence policy”, trailing behind anyone vaguely opposed to nuclear

By Lawrence Ashelford Peckham CND

power, and calling for Soviet

unilateralism while demonstrating outside US bases| Trying to please

everyone eventually pleases no one and leads to paralysis.

Nonetheless, unilateralism remains CND policy and the ““freeze’’ movement seems to have died. We must use this as @ basis to secure the Labour Party's

tance of NATO.

There is likely to be a national CND demonstration in April 1987 against US bases. We must build support for this in the Labour Party and Trade Unions and then build upon its success to make the Labour Party adhere to its unilateral commitments.

In the next edition of Briefing there will be a more detailed look at the state of CND in this pre-election period.

Campaign for non-alignment

STEPPING OUT AGAINST NATO

By Dani Ahrens Youth Briefing

The launch conference of

the Campaign for NonAlignment will be an important event for the peace movement and for the left in the Labour Party in the run-up to the next general election.

The conference is scheduled for January 24th, Hlam to 6pm, at Kingsway Princeton College, Sidmouth Street, London. The Campaign for NonAlignment has been set up by the Campaign Group of MPs, as part of its opposition to NATO and work toward a future nonaligned Britain,

There is no escaping the fact that defence will be one of the main issues in the coming general election. The Labour Party’s commitment to nuclear disarmament is one of the few left policies remaining after this year's conference. It is the task of the left, not only to defend that policy and force the leadership to campaign positively on it, but also to fight for-atruly non-nuclear, nonaggressive, and_internationalist foreign policy for the Labour Party.

The Campaign initiative in

Group's the

Farnborough Air Show, 1986.

pamphlet by Ben Lowe, Peace Through Non-Alignment, must be followed up in the constituencies and trade union branches. Without constant pressure from labour and peace

movement activists, the leadership will sacrifice the Party's commitment —_ to

eralism on the altar of their allegiance to NATO.

The pressure that is already beginning to be ap the USA will increase tenfold if the US administration is faced with a Labour government determined to get rid of nuclear weapons, At. the moment,

Reagan has a trump card — how can a non-nuclear Britain be loyal to NATO if NATO

y demands nuclear ons in _ Brit: Removal of that contradiction from Labour's defence pi would mean a real challenge to US interests, and the interests of our other NATO “allies", and indeed the ~ whole capitalist world.

To be able to make such a challenge demands more than the passing of a law. It demands the real support of the mass of the population, and it demands a government and a leadership that will not back down in the face of economic or even ary pressure.

To win such support, we need to start working now. January will be the first step in

g the kind of campaign we need. Briefing supporters should make it a priority to attend the conference and initiate discussion and action on this issue whenever possible:

PHOTO John Harris (IFL)

PHOTO: John Chapman

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Labour Briefing Dec 10-Jan 14 1987 page 12

The politics of AIDS

A socialist view *,

With 565 known cases already in Britain and the

prospect of millions by

the year 2,000, AIDS is

becoming a threat on the same scale as a nuclear

holocaust.

minority groups.

For this reason it problem, not just one for politicians, me

is everybody’s 's and

For socialists it is important to understand the facts

about AIDS — then the people can be dealt with.

Myth 1: AIDS can be caught by any form of social contact,

AIDS is caused by a virus which is only found in blood and sexual secretions. The only way of _ infecting someone is through a sexual act or exchange of blood. Myth 2: AIDS is a “gay” disease.

In the west, AIDS first

surfaced within the gay community, but in Central Africa, where it seems to have originated, there are several million cases. AIDS is thus primarily =a heterosexual disease. Myth 3 AIDS is a new sexually transmitted plague, the like of which we have never seen before — we are paying for promiscuity and liberal morals.

But syphilis was a worldwide epidemic in the 19th Century (a result of Victorian values!) which led to death and madness for

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By Judy Atkinson

millions. It was eventually controlled by preventative measures and cured by the development of antibiotics.

The solution to AIDS is not a return to ‘‘Victorian Values’. The right, of course, intend to capitalise on the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Bourgeois moral attitudes will be re-enforced, and sexuality of all kinds will come under attack, Already there are serious suggestions that the preferred option is “no sex at all’’, and that AIDS victims should be isolated in special camps or

centres. There will be attempts to role back the limited legalisation of homosexual achieved in 1967.

In contrast to moral exhortations _ ‘promiscuity kills’’ — and

attacks on sexuality, little is being done of practical value. Fowler’s £20 million campaign is of no use when he refuses to give extra funding to the Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) clinics to which people will turn for advice and treatment. An estimated extra £100m is needed for treatment, prevention and cure.

“A2T”’ (the only known cure) cannot be produced in sufficient quantities by the British drug company that discovered it, due to lack of funding. Large-scale screening has been rejected because of the cost, even though it would identify those who are HTLV Ill positive and enable them to take the precautions to prevent the development of the full disease. Effective chemicals which kill the virus in sexual secretions are not being used as preventative treatment, despite medical opinion that it would give us a valuable breathing space.

It is vital that socialists do not allow AIDS to become the property of the right wing moral backlash. We must be seen to be campaigning for the provision of far more money

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nDooooooDoooDon0000000000000nn0 All Briefing supporters are invited to a public meeting organised by the West London Socialist Health Association at Hammersmith Town Hall on January 14th at 7.30pm. The speakers will include Brian Kennedy of City Limits magazine, Judy Atkinson, and Terry Cotton, Hammersmith & Fulham Council's AIDS officer.

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and resources to establish a

national screening —_ programme, and for treatment, research into vaccines and new drugs, and counselling programmes to help those suffering from. the

Published by Labour Briefing, 26 Crofton Road, London SES Printed by MPS Lid., 159 Acre Lane, london. SW2