Labour Briefing no. 51

INSIDE:

@ Chesterfield analysis

@ Livingstone Part Il

@ Trade Union Solidarity Conference report

@ Visit to Albania

@ Russi: Revolution Zi Uiyy

Lessons of Eniskillen tragedy:

BRITAIN OUT OF IRELAND!

The death toll from the Enniskillen bomb is the latest in a long line of Irish tragedies.

That the bomb went off by accident, leaving the IRA to express their ‘profound regret” over the explosion, heightens the tragedy. There were no victors at Enniskillen.

There were those who sought to be. The dust from the bomb had hardly settled before the dead were being used as little more than political footballs. Thatcher used them to demand the Irish government implement extradition. Unionist leaders used them to call for martial law. Loyalist gun-men used them as an excuse

By GEOFF BELL Hackney North CLP

to fire indiscriminately into a Catholic crowd. Such people do not mourn the dead at Enniskillen: they use them. For that reason and for many others — intended indiscriminate violence — they are in no position to give anyone lectures in morality. It remains a statistical fact that considerably more innocent people have died from British/Unionist violence in Ireland in the last 18 years than from Republican violence.

Rather than dwell on such gruesome death counts, or debate what someone in Ireland once called “the politics of the last atrocity”, it is ofitable to ook to the final cessation of political violence in Ireland. And to repeat what was obvious before and after Enniskillen: bullets, bombs, tanks, internment camps, plastic bullets, strip-searching, etc., are not ‘endemic to the Irish but endemic only to the Irish political situation.

The essence of that is that British violence was allowed to triumph over Irish self-determination when Ireland was first divided. Everything that has happened in frish/British politics since flows from that greatest act of criminality, including Eniskillen.

LAWSON STILL HOPES TO MAKE WORKING CLASS PAY.

WAY TO

Chancellor Lawson's pantomime performance as the bearer of giad tidings may have caught the Labour Front Bench on the hop, but close examination of his autumn statement merereveals once again the injustice, irrationality \d dishonesty of Tory ic poli

balanced budget in 17 years. ters but fails to state the obvious: of course, you can always balance a budget by slashing expenditure on essential items

like health, education, housing, industry and the environment while raising income by selling off assets (not only the nationalised monopolies but also Council houses and land) and

THE

PLANET!

By MIKE MARQUSEE Haringey Labour Briefing

taxing one-off oil revenues. ‘© What is the purpose of this balanced budget? And who ‘shoulders the burden for balancing it? People waiting in the dole and hospital queves are not rejoicing over Lawson's ‘coup. Labour should be championing their interests, instead of indulging in QC-style nit-picking over the Tories aileged “change of direction” on public spending.

‘@in real terms, public spending will grow by a mere 0.6% this year. This is substantially lower than was claimed in the March pre-election budget giveaway and in sharp contrast to the economic growth of which the Tories like to

boast,

(©The 1.2% rise in health spending in real terms is grossly inadequate to meet rapidly growing needs. It leaves local health authorities £200 million short of what they asked for and is way below the 7.8% increase recommended by the ‘conservative British Medical Assocation. Health Authorities are being asekd to find £150 million extra from “‘costimprovement” schemes.

A pitiful 0.1% real increase in education will plunge schools and colleges into even deeper Education Minister Baker warned that even this “increase” could only be realised if Local Authorities cut teachers, close and merge schools, and reduce school meals subsidies. The £9.4 million Baker has earmarked for capital spending miserable pittance compared to the im in England alone to bring school .

A derisory increase of £6.7 mi Health & Safet; Commission funding will not allow it to keep pace with the

Continued on page 16

LABOUR-— TAKE THE POWER!

‘Labour Briefing No, S1 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 2

Campaign round-up

The reality of Remembrance

What is celebrated at the Cenotaph?

Remembrance Day is the official state occasion on which we are enjoined to honour those who died in two world wars and scores of other lesser conflicts before and since.

‘As a principle of human decency it is perfectly right fo show respect for those who have died in wartime — whether as servicemen and ‘Women or as civilians.

What makes the whole Remembrance Day celebration so dubious, however, is its entanglement with the militaristic and nationalist ritual of the Cenotaph ceremony with its implicit celebration not only of the fallen but also of the various cauises and conflicts in which they fell

Looking back on the hundred or so wars fought by Britain ‘ver the last century, one cant fel ‘concluding that most of them — with the exception of the anii-fascist 1939-48 war — bad nothing to do with the self

When the Broadwater Farm tials came to an end on October 12th, the Old Bailey may have

breathed a sigh of relief.

But for the Broadwater Farm community the steug-

| sle has only just begun. The trials’ began in July

1986. Except for the murder

trial, in which 6 defendants

were tried together, the youths were generally tried

Gid Bailey

By Benjamin Agwunobi Broadwater Farm Defence Committee

Twenty pleaded guilty and 49 pleaded not guily, oF whom 27 teere acquitted and 22. con victed, Sentences range between 12 months and 30 sears. Mos defendants are appealing ; ‘against their respective Sentences, bul already man’ ap peals have been turned dav. ‘What does the future hold for defendants’ families and friends? What" should ‘the Defence Campaign do next? ‘One thing is clear: as long as 42 innocent youths are in jail there is no way the community can or will give up its fight Although the immediate task is {0 work on the appeals, the fact that the community is still sur fering the effects of the events surrounding the uprising on Oc tober 6th, 1985, means. that there are numerous families and Individuals whose lives have | been drastically altered There are many. childcen, juveniles, youths and parents ‘whose lives will never be the Same again, all because of the itry-stvie invasion of roadwater Farm before after the uprising

defence of this country, or with the preservation of democracy and aman rights there oF anywhere ese

By PETER TATCHELL

For the most part, these wars were either old-fashioned inter Imperialist struggles in defence ‘of Britain's global economic ‘and strategic ‘interests apainst those of rival Great Powers, Sueh as Germany, oF they were Fepeessive counicr-insurgency ‘wars against national liberation ‘movements in such diverse cor nets af the slobe as Malaya.

enya, Cyprus, Oman, Aden and Ireland.

"What British soldiers died for in these conflicts was, alas, fre ‘quently far from glorious. More ‘often than not, they died propping up authoritarian and unpopular colonial regimes by fmcans of undercover assessing tions, psychological "warfare, detention without teal, torture, land the framing of political ‘ponents

The shooting dead of 13 civilian protesters by the Parachute Resiment in Desry in January 1972; the systematic

Broadwater Farm Trials end

PHOTO: Broad

6 Bailey picket during the mus

‘during the period of potice raids many" homes. were forcibly ‘entered, doors were sledgcham mmered, and much damage was done,’ Individuals Sometimes whole bo wwere arrested, many They were

the outside world. Wish

legal advice many were forced

to manufacture the fantasy Stories which the police clearly wanted to hear, ot realising that such seif-incriminatine tales would sentence ‘any’ years in jal inthe courts, once secution sarted describing how Tottenham “row” had the “worst ever civil ise in mainland Bri ry after jury was The atmosphere was made. worse when

Seared always Biakelock was inteod

ticuaely the aspect

Tn the murder trial it became obvious that ia the wake of vulgar, racist pro-coaviction publicity, the courte would be fade to fook ridiculous if it ‘Quittd all the defendants

‘When. Justice Hodgson dismissed the case of the three Juveniles on the grounds that their self -incriminating

torture of political prisoners at El Mansoura Prison in Aden from. 1963-66; andthe “mass round-up and imernment of 16,000 suspected sympathisers of the Land Freedom Army in Kenya in April 1954, are only three examples from 3 lengthy, shameful catalogue

In some cases, this repression wat’ so. blatant” and pervasive

launch their own investigations and to. conde

British governmes perpetrated by persontel.

Allegations

Britain was brought before the Council of Europe in 1957 accused of 49 separate instances of torture during the Cyprus “emergency” of 1954-58,

In 1964 and 1966 respectively, the International Red Cross and Amnesty "International - both demanded, but were refused. permission to interview British held political prisoners in Aden after persistent allegations that detainees were beaten, in rogated naked, refused toile

tion was whether |

Raghip Braithwaite, wh

The Cour

who his

ut the polio

raided the home of Mrs Cy

disciplined,

| for the police and another for | |

the ‘Broad

Carppaign is sill

‘objective & |

visits, and deprived of food and skep.

Following claims of widespread army brutality in the orth of Ireland, the British government was Forced in 1971 {o sei up the Compton Commit. tee. This Committee concluded that electric shocks, hooding, loud noise, and sleep and light deprivation had been used bY the security forces and. that these methods constituted

‘Physical ill-treatment.

In 1976, the European Commission on Human Rights eclared that the British army was guilty of “torture (and) inhuman and. degrading’ treatmeat” in Tretand

‘On Remembrance Day, as Britain's bloody imperial history is sanctified by the bigh Dress of patriotism at the ofFicial Cenotaph ceremonies, we must remember the unspeakable things that the armed forces hhave often done in our name 10 people sriving for in Sependence and democracy in other countries.

Those people were on the side of justice and liberty. British Soldiers were not. Lest We Forect!

Off 16 remember the dead

whose dood?

Economic debate

“Big bang’’ turns to ‘‘astonishing crash’’

The scale and meaning of the astonishing crash of the world’s stock markets is still being absorbed.

At the time of writing, itis estimated that £102 billion hhas been wiped off British share prices.

Because of the interna. tionalisation and technologi cal sophistication of the global stock market no ma.

the effects of the 24-hour trading means that the crash took just 24 hours to hit exchanges around the world,

What's behind the crash? Cenainly, = situation in which stock trading is conducted on

basis of @ diminished and

y recessed productive sx {or could not continue forever Reagan's military Keyne sianism'", runaing an enormous budget deficit based on ever

sing military expenditure, has been causing great concern over many months and reflects the long ine of the US economy,

‘Other causes have beet sug: gested, but one thing i

lever the precise cause, oF

he left

must acknowledge the severity Of the cxash

We need to understand that 1987 is at analogous with 1929 for two major reasons. Fist the postwar period has seen far teater state intervention in the economy than ever before

Despite Thatcher's claims,

state is now intrinsically ed with" the capitalist cconomy. Indeed, the whole long boom period can be direc: ly accredited to the efforts of the sate 10 overcome the market mechanism

Thatcher may alk about nonimervention inthe economy But the stateind the economy hall the” advas

countries, are meshed and the fevers of direct. control still

Crash

Secondly, those who foresee the crash resulting in increased militarism, increased lnter-state fivalry and economic autarchy

al that has occured over the last 40 o¢ 20 years

For instance, motor cars are no longer “Made in Britain” or any other single country — components are_ manufactured and assembled ina variety of countries spanning the globe.

By Mark Cole University of York Labour Club

(personal capacit:

‘Though the crash is severe, we should nat expect the <ol Tapse of capitalism as a result. That smacks of spontancism. What we should be prepared for isa political crisis, aerisis oft state as its veneer of impartiality vanishes, This is not inevitable but is certainly a possibilty. The left should remind itself thatthe benefactors of the 1929 crash in Germany were not the social but the Navis.

‘Most significantly, has been re-established at the head ‘of the politcal agenda. Kinnosk and Gould's “weather vane” politics, constantly ac

smmodating to the prevailing Capitalist wind, ave been Smashed by the hurricane of the 87 crash

Market

But it is Thatcher who will suffer most from these events, providing that socialists take up the correct arguments,

First we must make sure the so-called “free market" exposed #6 “phoney. Ie Is oe!

perfectly functioning Uistibutive entity. {eis susceptbe to crisis and collapse. And, insofar as the "free market” i= the Iynch-pin of the capitalist, system and. its. ideolopical justification, the left needs 10 make maximum capital obt of its patent failure

Tosh

Secondly, the crash, exposes he fallacy of “pop capitalism’. IC would be nice 19 Shink that in the lige of recent vents Hobsbawm and his EuroCommunist colleagues will be embarrased by the revisionist {saddle and empiricist cosh that hey have beet! peddling over the last few years

‘The Financial Times 24.1037) cated a “Plain Man's (sic) Guide co the Crash” sbich advised. small investors, interested in the fortheoming BP share isue, to — in the FT's words — “forget it

All the recently denationalis. ced industries fared badly in the frash and, for the rst time Since the Thatcher privatisation programme began, it is. clear that ordinary people can, in fact lose al ther savings as well as make @ quick buck on the Stock market

Remedy

The °87. crash proviaes socialists with a unique oppor unity. Socialism provides an explanation of the Grash — and aremedy, albeit an exiraos Sinarily radical one.

‘The Left in the Labour Party needs 10 use these events 10 discredit Kinnock’ and his fellow-travelirs by clearly pos ing the only genuine alternative to Thatcher, Outside the Party, wwe need 0 use the arguments Suilined above to undermine Thatcher and, implicitly, capitalism,

This. is an opportunity we cantor afford to mise

Labour Briefing No, S1 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 3

Editorial

Join

Don’t look now, but here comes another fait accompli

Tory plans aim to demolish so much of the |Social Security system by the next election that Labour's “new realists’ will abandon even the promise of restoring it.

Since 1979 more than £10 billion has been cut from Social Security benefits: over £2 billion of this cash has been handed in tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of the population.

Next April will see further huge cuts destroying Social Security as we know it. And as Chancellor Lawson and his City pals pigged it up at this year’s Mansion House dinner, they were toasting the hopes of another £3, billion tax cuts next year — a chunk of which will again be stolen fram the subsistence of the poorest claimants and pensioners.

Few workers, and far fewer claimants, will remember anything of Labour's feeble campaign against Norman Fowler's package of Social Security “reforms”, pushed through in 1986. It was a sweeping series of brutal at. tacks designed to cut the benefits of at least 4 million claimants,

‘Already the Tories have done away with the maternity grant and the death grant. And only last week John Moore announced that child benefit has been frozen — Clearly as a first step to its abolition

But there is much worse to come. Next April the new law will:

‘@SCRAP Special Needs single payments — and teplace them with discretionary loans from @ cashlimited Social Fund, to be paid only after demeaning procedures, and repayable through deductions from ‘weekly benefit payments

‘@ FORCE claimants to pay at least 20% of local rates {or poll tax) and all of their water rates.

‘@WORSEN and widen the poverty trap which

BRIEFING

TASOUR — TAKE THE POWE!

forces to stop social security cuts!

penalises the poorest families for every extra pound they eam.

ecuT disabilities.

‘CUT at least £450 million a year from Housing Benefit payments, with 375,000 households’ (mainly pensioners} losing all benefits and nearly 4 million households getting less.

‘CUT {and for many women abolish) the widow's benefit, to save £100 million a year by the mid 1990s.

‘®CUT the state pensions scheme, with a 20% cutback in payments under the Eamings Related Scheme by 2013 — 26 years time.

‘®SCRAP Family Income Supplement, and replace it with Family Credit, administered by the employers.

‘@ ABOLISH any right for claimants to appeal against 2 decision beyond their local DHSS office.

‘Scarcely a family in the land will remain unaffected by the Tory cutbacks, which bring back some of the worst aspects of the old Poor Law before the Welfare State, when hand-outs depended on charity. Yet the Labour response has been so pathetic that few will realise the horrors to come.

Valuable opportunities to campaign earlier this year in working class areas against the abolition of the death grant were lost as Kinnock & Co. shifted their sights from the working class voter to a much smaller layer of the middle class and white collar workers, producing June's election disaster.

But there is much more at stake in combatting the Tory offensive than chasing extra votes.

‘Nigel Lawson's policy of handing out tax cuts is much more than a short-term expedient to line the pockets of the rich: it is part of the Tories’ long-term strategy of social engineering.

‘As each new penny-pinching cutback on state spending is imposed, and each new state industry is flogged off, Lawson promptly hands out the proceeds in tax cuts — effectively pulling up the drawbridge behind him.

In this way, he creates the spurious, lop-sided “"boom’" for some of those in jobs (at the expense of the low-paid and unemployed): but he also confronts

to people with

the special payments

The coming US recession:

Labour's timid front-bench team with a dilemma.

Do they commit themselves to reverse the cutbacks, and embrace the policy which Kinnock, John Smith and of course Brian Gould have now dismissed as un thinkable — an increase in taxation?

Or do they kow-tow to yet another fait accompli, ac: cepting that a future Labour government would not even try to restore the services and benefits which the Tories have destroyed and abolished?

This double bind for Labour arises because Kinnock's team has not the slightest grasp or adherence to any socialist policy. Of course, a socialist response does not accept that there are only the two choices, nor does it Jepend on simply raising taxes within the present unstable, bankrupt system.

Simply redistributing the inadequate output of productive forces shackled by capitalism can only share ‘out the misery less unequally.

Unemployment, and poverty created by the capitalist system (even more so in the present synthetic asset stripping ‘“boom'") can only be tackled by a planned ex. pansion of the economy. This in turn requires the na tionalisation of the banks, finance houses and the major monopoly firms — precisely the politics rejected by Labour's leadership.

To pave the way for a socialist solution, and combat the electronic embezzlement and computerised con tricks of today’s bankers and speculators, a fight must be waged by the trade unions and labour movement at ‘every level for workers’ control, and the opening of the ‘books of the City to reveal the anarchic workings of the present system.

The latest phase of capitalist economic lunacy, and the latest moves by the Tories to reshape society in their own vicious image, do not invalidate but rather underline the necessity for bold socialist remedies.

The labour movement must not be led by the nose into a defeatist acceptance of Tory policies: workers and claimants must be alerted and urged now to join forces to fight the imposition of the Social Security cuts next Spring,

‘There is still time to make this the one fait accompli that Lawson and Thatcher could not accomplish!

A view from the ruling class

‘The following extracts are taken from an article by leading American financier Felix Rohatyn. Known as the “man who saved New York”, he is the financier mainly responsible for stitching up a deal with merchant banks to bail out the bankrupt city at the expense of the workforce and the poor

‘The article, which appeared in the June 17th issue of the New York Review of Books (i.e. four months before the Stock Market crash}, illustrates th spreading through the ranks of the US bourgeoi recently evident in the desperate — if inconclusive —

‘Washington. The United States today is

that we need to borrow, we have allowed our domestic ‘markets to absorb an ever Increasing amount of foreign ‘goads, largely as a result of a Gross ‘overevaluation of the Sollar during the years bet ween 1980 and 1984. Even though we have dramatically changed course since Collapsing the value of the Sollar with other dangerous consequences, our trade Geficie reached $160 bilion last year and seems to be locked in for years to come. It is ‘worth noting that, even if we ‘were able to reduce our trade ‘aticit by $20 billon per Yeor, by 1995 our external debi would be sbout $1.5 trillion chases of treasury securities, and the interest on that debt ‘mainly by the Japanese. From about $120 ballon annually 2 financial point of view, we ‘our domestic national re being colonized. debi has doubled over the last In prder to provide Japan 5. yesrs. and. is well over $2 and Germany with the funds trilton, intarest ‘on. the debt

headed fora financial and economic crisis. What ap. peared to be only a possibilty Sor 6 years ago became a pro bability more recently, and has new become virtual certainty. The only real questions are When and how. in. addition, when the crisis occurs, It will niall, quite possibly, 3 worldwide recession,

‘We are mo. longer_an in dependent country, For the first time in ourhistory, we do end on foreign capital to finance day-to-day operations ‘of our government. In 1986, simost half of our budget Sefien of about $180 billion was financed by forsign pur

with growth in forsign ‘economies. AS the dollar collapses, the German and Japenese economies will slow ‘own ‘considerably, for both countries depend significantly ‘on sales to the US. Combined with. the inabiity of lessdeveloped countries to grow ‘9s @ result of crushing debt Service, we are coming close to causing a world-wide ‘economic. slowdown without helping ourseives in any real way.

‘alone will be about $125 Bilion. Corporate debt, partly 2s 8 recut. of | unbridied Takeover activity fuelled by

‘the now phenomenon of the junk’ bond market, is at its highest level in 25 years. By the end of 1986, the total long. and short-term debt of ‘non-financial institutions was ‘bout $1.6 tailion,

Debt

the debt of the lessdeveloped countries (LDCs) to ‘governments and banks is ‘how mote than $1 tilion a8 3 resutt of year-after-year rollovers, whereby debtor ‘countries borrow the interest ‘on their debt and add it on the the principal amount

Dwarf

There is no precedent or analogy for the worldwide finencisl structure that has been created in recent years. The amounts of capital that are richocheting sround the ‘world dwar? anything that has been experienced. One and 3 half uilion dollars per day now flows through New York's Clearing House lnterbank Pay: ment System (CHIPS), which processes all the domestic and foreign payments pas

through New York banks. ‘amounts to one third of our an ‘nual Gross National Product. ‘The relationships between ex change rates and trade, between, interest rates and economic activities, between fiseal and monetary policies. ave become. less’ ond less predictable. The potentiat fora

Political

‘There is no purely American solution to any of our major economic. probiems. The US. Cennot afford a recession that would drive our deficits 10 more than $300 bilfon snd possibly cause a crash in the Walue of the dollar as well asin the stock and bond markets The result could be extensive domestic and international banking defaults, 2 world ‘recession, and the politcal in Sabiity in large parts of the lobe

The coming weaknessin the US:seqnomy must be replaced,

maior shock in the credit the additional military cost of

system and the securities having to maintain tighter

markets “gets greater and security on the US-Mexican greater. bora

: in our own country, we

Radical have combined runaway bor

rowing and deficits" with

‘The fallout from some of neglect for our domestic

these problems "goes con- needs and @ climate of

Siderably beyond the deregulation pushed to

economic sphere. The ability of democratic governments in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, the Philippines, etc, to survive in the face of continued reduc

dangerous extremes. For the sake of competition, we have broken up ATST, and the result has been both bad service and higher prices. We tions in the standard of living have deregulated the airlines is questionable. Radical and the resulting price wars political movements will spr- did, indeed, lower fares. Ing up, calling for the fepudia- However, one airline after ton of debts to the Western another is on its. way to banks; whether or not they benkruptcy or to being ac. succeed, they could bring on quired by another. The result fight wing miliary dictator. will be a few huge airlines, Ships that may follow similar with questionable financial Sebtrelated policies. The pro- structures, poor services with biome that would be crested possibly higher pices, and for the US by a tadicalized worrisome safety factors Mexico are obvious. Whether Deregulation of the financial the radicalization i left wing markets has resulted in an ex: or right wing, the result may plosion of private debt, un. be the same: virulent anti. precedented market. specula Americanism and an increas- tion, and the sordid abuses in ingly unstable southern the financial industry that border. The problem of jlegs! have been coming to light in immigration, already extreme- recent months. Deregulation, ly serious, will become even as with most things inife, has greater. The racial snd poltical to be done in moderation; it tensions in the US, especially hes been carved too far. The we are in the throes of 2 free market is not always ecession, will heighten con- right; it surely is not slways Sidersbiy. And. 00 one_has. far. it should not be turned inmade any kind-of estimaie of 10-4 religion, "

Labour Briefing No. 51 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 4

Trade Union Briefing

Unwaged Alliance

On October 31st and November Ist over 100 unemployed delegates from 35 of the strongest unemployed and unwaged local. regional sand national groups Irom all over Britain assembled to forse 4 Jolnt allianee

"Throughout the 80, we have continued fighting to maintain and improve our living standards and secure our basic neods as aright (i.e. decent income for all, lomes, meaningful jobs, elc.), and to ‘demand respect for our voige and full participation in the ie and decisions of the community

“The major unemployed organisations — the Federation of Claimants Cnions (established 1968), the National Usion of Unemployed and Workers (established 1981), the London and South East Federation of Unwaged Groups (et. 1981), the Midlands Unwaged Federation (est. 1986) and the Lothian and Central Soctland Federation (est. 1987) — agreed to unite 10 co ordinate and further their strugsles by establishing @ national ‘Congress of Unwaged Organisations to be held annually. The first will Bein Bradford, March 1988

‘A Co-ordination Network was created, based upon regional and national secretarats

To further our opostion to government plans to force us and the millions of our fellow unemployed on to work foe dole schemes GTS, YTS, Community Programme, ei), 2 national Day of Action Against Slavery has been called for Monday December ath

‘We are calling on all trade unionists to boycott these schemes, for those on them to take industrial action, and for all unwaged g70ups to publicise and take relevant action in theit own areas,

We seek not sympathy or charity but Solidarity and Justice! CONTACT Lothian & Central Scotland Federation, c/o Lothian Claimants Union (Edinbureh Branch), 2 Cranston Street, Edinburgh Midlands Unwaged Federation, c/o Claimants Fightback, 448 Stratford Road, Birmingham 11 London & SE Federation of Unemployed, Claimants’ and Unwaged Groups, c/o Mary Ward Centre, 42 Qucen Sq., Loadon wer Federation of Claimants Unions, 296 Bethnal Green Rd, London

National Union of Unemployed & Workers, 5 Oakwood Road, Lowestoft, Sutfolk

CRE v. NATFHE

‘The CRE has decided to support @ Birmingham Black lecturer's appeal against the National Association of Teachers in Further ‘and Higher Education (NATFHE] scheduled for the New Year,

‘Mrs Bismilah Weaver, an emplayee at Bournevile Calage of Further Education, registered with the Char of Governors 5 complaint of racial harassment against other members of staf, When Mes Weaver, @ NATFHE member. asked NATFHE for advice they refused, choosing to represent the three members, fall officers of NATFHE) against. whom she had made the Complaint. The reason they gave was thought by Mrz Weaver to be racially discriminatory and fo contravene the ace Relations Act

‘The Industrial Tribunal, hold in Birmingham. in June 1987. was extremely critical of NATFHE's role. It enticsed:

‘@the NATFHE Regional Officical who had conducted the Breliminary enauiry on the union's halt, Tort considenng

ue of racial harassment in the report he presented 20 NATEHEs heed otice the NATFHE Head Office Official who considered the issue, for ‘drawing the conclusion that one of the members Mrs ‘Weaver complained about was not a racist

ANATFHE official at the hearing confirmed NATFHE policy by stating that even when an applicant's complaint (including fone of tacism) had ment, NATEHE “would not have pursued the applicant's complaint because it coud have led to loss of tenure for another union member.”

Despite the severe eriicism of NATFHE and the manner in which i dealt with Mrs Weaver's allegations of racial harassment against co:trade unionists, the Tribunal decided that NATFHE, in accordance with its policy, has a legitimate duty to protect the tenure of its mombers and to avod breaches of abligations to members whose tenure is at nsk which outweighs the limited discriminatory effect of the Condition imposed

The decision of the CRE to support Mrs Weaver's appea! can be seen as an important development in the two year svuggie she has waged with NATEHE in her search for both justice as 3 trade union member and accountabilty from wade urvon bureaucrats co rank and file members.

‘Serious questions concerning the rights of Black and women members in trade unions, and im Local Authonty employment have been raised by this important test case.

GEC Coventry

ASTMS members at GEC Telecommunications, Coventry, met oo ‘October 23rd fo discuss the unresolved position of twa colleagues recently declared redundant and the forthcoming merger with Plesses.

‘The membership decided to proceed to ballot.

The meeting was “off the clock" and unpaid — factors which deterred some members from attending and participating in the debate. The hire of the venue cost us £325'— a resull of the ‘company’s unwillingness {0 permit the use of a hall on site.

‘This typifies the bloody-minded obstruction of GEC ‘management, which has insisted that any discussion of this ise by the union side must be in our own time or without pay. The ios! astonishingly insensitive example of this was a decision tO eny paid leave 10 seniot ASTMS and TASS representatives attending a joint meeting with Plessey collegues the day after a Plessey ditestor had been shown around the main Coventry GEC

Th the absence of concrete information from management, the rumour mill is working overtime! Having starved us of facts On ‘which to base realistic assessments, management then exhibits pained surprise when people believe the speculations of the trade And business press.

"Nevertheless, ASTMS will be trying to work with our colleagues {nvother unions. To this end our Conference ceatre at Kautsford is the venue for a meeting of union representatives on November 14th, which will endeavour to gather colleagues from all unions and all sces to discuss the merger

SP ES RRC AE

Broad Left =:

conference

The problems associated with taking control of a major trade union dominated year's CPSA Broad Left Conference.

The Conference, the largest since the Communist Party and Kinnockites left the organisation in 1984, took place in Liverpool _on the second weekend in November.

‘More than 300 activists gathered to discuss future policy after 2 5 month pperiod in which the Union has been controlled and run by @ Broad Left Ne tional Executive Commit tee. Inevitably the perfor mance of the Executive came under close scrutiny.

The two main discus: sions followed a remarkably similar pattern in debating the 1987 Civil Service Pay Campaign and the Executive's role in the recently defeated London Passport Office dispute.

‘The whole issue of pay is absolutely crucial for CPSA. The defeat of the 1987 Campaign has led to widespread demoralisation

By Alastair Wallace CPSA Broad Left

among the membership and has strengthened the hand of the employer.

Despite coming into of: fice too late significantly to alter the course of events, the Broad Left NEC has hhad to pick up the pieces. Within ‘this context. the right wing and soft left (who are becoming increasingly in distinguishable} have had 2 degree of success in forc ing the Executive onto the defensive.

“The debate on the defeat of the 1987 Pay Campaign polarised between 2 motion which blamed the Broad Left (SWP} and one which exonerated it (Mil: tant). The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between.

Mistakes were. made; but they were not the reason for the defeat. The important point is that lessons must be quickly learned before next year. In voting for the Militant resolution it is not clear

that the Conference has done this.

The Passport Office strike, in a Broad Left stronghold, wasn response to management victimisation of | CPSA Thembers in the wake of this year’s pay campaign. Seven members of the Office branch committee were disciplined and one sacked

The membership responded with a 4-week all-out strike, but. were driven back to work after other Passport Offices fail ed to come to. their support.

It is undoubtedly true ‘that the Executive could and should have done more for the dispute — for example, it was virtually unheard) of | outside London.

However, swe. members "unfortunately turned the issue into an at tack on Militant supporter John Macredie, and the emotion was lost, with the debate agian failing to draw the lessons of the dispute,

Both debates illustrated

well the problems facing a hard left union leadership in the current political climate. In addition to the attacks by the govern: ment, the EC have faced a merciless battle waged by the bureaucracy of CPSA, aided by the right wing and the soft left. They have attempted to block the im plementation of policy at every turn,

Too often, however, the Broad Left majority ‘has chosen to back down,

The way out lies in the fundamental nature of the Broad Left. Unlike its enemies itis a rank and file organisation based on democratic accountability and the need for struggle.

It needs to draw. on these strengths, ensuring that the whole weight of the organisation is thrown behind those who are will ing to fight.

‘The coming months see the start of two major cam. paigns in CPSA: 1988 Pay and affiliation to the Labour Party, It is its work around these issues that will determine whether the Broad Left sinks or swims.

A “‘bigot’s charter’’

The National Union of Mineworkers is, worried that British Coal’s new disciplinary code could be used against miners who are gay or HIV positive.

‘The code allows BC to employees for

‘outside the workplace — even if no offence has been committed and even if they have been

jitted in the courts.

Managment will have the power to dismiss a miner if it feels his behaviour renders him unsuitable to do his job or unacceptable this fellow The NUM has described the scode as “a draconian threat 10

FUSE

The privatisation of the electricity supply industry is the biggest sell-off yet planned by the Thatcher government, assets of £50 billion

i could raise in a single flotation more than all the money raised in privatisation from 1979 to 1987.

This privatisation is necessary if the government is to raise the funds for their reactionary programme.

‘On Saturday October 31st a Conference was held in Leeds by FUSE — the Federation of Unions Supplying Electricity — which has been set up t0 oppose this privatisation.

FUSE itself comprises the unions in the electrical supp-

ly industry — but the Con-

sivil_liberties."" The general Secretary’ of the Notts Area NUM, Henry Richardson, sai:

"We ate worried that. the ‘code might affect gay miners

‘those who are HIV postive 50 open-ended, it could be used 10 discriminate against anyone, A homophobic manager could easily use it 10 take ut his prejudices against

By Peter Tatchell

A. spokesperson for BC in Nottinghamshire was evasive:

“It is impossible to give any definite answer about how the code might affes gays and those exposed to AIDS. Each cease Would have 10 be decided

turns

ference was an open Conference with special invitations to the unions in industries directly involved such as coal mining and railways. Both these industries will suffer massive job losses if the flotation oes through.

By Alan Thornett Trade Union Briefing

Principle speakers at the Conference, in which the most prominent union was NALGO and in which the EETPU was not in evidence — were Dave Feidkent, NUM Research officer; Paul Jagger, Secretary, Yorkshire and Humberside TUC; Phil Beeley, leader of, Bradford

However, he did admit that the code could be used against a gay employee convicted of gross indecency — on the grounds that miners have to shower together after each shift!

‘AU BC's London head: quarters, Keith Beeston stressed that the’ new disciplinary code was based on model proposals drawn up. by the conciliation service, ACAS, which had already been adopted. by 20 ther major corporations.

‘When asked” whether pay employees woud be affected by the code, Beeston was also non ‘commit

“tall depends,” he said. “1 cannot give you a clear answer to what is a purely hypothetical question. One could. imagine Sertain circumstances where it might apply.”

When pressed, he suggested

that BC medical stalT who were Fequired to undertake physical examinations of | employees right be regarded as unsuitable to continue their employment if it was discovered they were gay fo had been convicted Of & gay Sexual offence

Beeston alsoconceded

"If other employees objected to working alongside a person, who was gay or HIV positive, ‘management would have fo con Sider invoking the disciplinary code.”

This interpretation of the code is described by Richardson

‘very disturbing... The dlisciptinary code is effectively a bigot's charter because it ill allow people to. be sacked because’ of the ignorance and prejudice of others around them.”

into damp

City Council; John Edmonds of the GMB; John Prescott MP; Mike Jeram, NALGO National Officer! and the Director of the Elec: tricity Consumers Council Although the Conference was well funded, it had not been campaigned for and attracted only 80 or 90 people, despite the enormity’ of the However, it was not that those who ‘did attend were given any kind of perspec: fe as to how to fight the privatisation, It emerged as 2 typical officially-backed cuts campaign — aimed not at mobilising the workers in the: industry against the move, but “influencing public opinion’ ‘Alan Bell, 2 NALGO member from Essborough

power station in Yorkshire, was quickly put down by the platform when he argued that if public opinion was effective in stopping privatise tion of this sort the government would not be able to touch the NHS — which has massive public support!

He called for united action between Power workers, miners and railworkers — starting with a one-day strike,

The policy of FUSE, however, had been decided in advance, behind closed doors; and no decisions were allowed at the Conference,

It is hard to see where the campaign can go. with its present policy, and another Opportunity to start to take action against government policy has been lost.

Labour Briefing No. S1 Noy 10ch-24h 1987 page 5

Trade Union Briefing

One hundred and fifty people attended the Trade Union Solidarity Conference in Leeds on the weekend of November 7th and 8th.

It was called by ex-Silentnight strikers, Oxford and Tower Hamlets jisputes Support Committees; and suported by ex-strikers at Hangers, Wapping and a number of other groups involved in recent disputes and support committees, the Campaign Group of MPs, several Trades Councils and trade union

branches.

‘Tony Richardson (Oxford Disputes Support Committee) outlined the aims of the Conferenc

He attacked the TUC's “‘qew realism" which had led {0 Union leaderships selling out strikes including the miners, printworkers, Silentnight and Hangers.

He called for the formation of a national network of support committees to help break down the isolation that these strikers found themselves in,

‘A. speaker’ from GCHQ outlined the now years-long struggle to maintain trades unionism at Cheltenham,

Roy Butlin from Coalville NUR related the heroic stand of his members who refused to move coal from their depot for a year, despite the fact that only 30 Leicestershire NUM members were on strike,

By PETE COOPER

He pointed out that since the strike’ 3_ neighbouring depots, including Leicester, all of which worked during the strike, had been closed or threatened with closure, thus exposing the tie that collaboration with the employers guarantees jobs.

lesbian and gay rights. Dor from Kellingley Women Against Pit Closures reminded us that WAPC is still alive and well; and they had recently opened up a women’s centre concentrating so far on educational

Ted em ke Hane: NUM), gaoled as a result of their plight. of ir ex- The Conference agreed the miners: strike, old the He settined how 38 sack- mM SIMers spoke of thels ex sea tively debate, to ciect

Conference of his experience ed. miners had been driven Strikes, and pointed out the 1G-person Steering Comin prison and since in his on May Ist this year 10 need to break out of their miles, over 30% of whom campaign for reinstatement picketing out nine pits in jsolation. "This, they said, 37 Women, to co-ordinate of “sacked and gaoled the Doncaster panel of S. could be helped by a na: future Solidarity work and miners. Yorks Area — involving tional network of support (©, produce a regular He attacked the majority 13,000 miners — despite the groups. bulletin. Conference reof the NUM leadership and Gpnosition of the Yorks "Grey a dozen workshops jected a resolution from the the new leadership of Bet- wacheld overthe weekend, Gateshead “Support Group teshanger for. their indi Rdicussion on fighting for demanding a structure ference and inactivity t© Frickley dispute, and 10 new leaderships in the trade agreed 10 by a recent threats of expulsion from unions revealed a range of Solidarity conference in

John Laing

L.was involved in the Pit Support Groups and in the Pit Strike. We were asked to form Print Support Gorups ‘on behalf of SOGAT.

Iwas a member of the ‘Tower Hamlets Support Gorup. Being a sacked worker, | had to liaise with the Tower Hamlets Support Group.

When the dispute ended the group decided to carry ‘on as 8 workers support group, getting involved in focal issues not just industrial disputes, along with several other prominent support groups the idea of @ national support group network emerged.

Wapping was lost due to the unwillngness of the union to spread the dispute and the rank and file membership being stifled in their attempts to form their own elected strike committees Support groups will be able to assist disputes not only on the moral, physical and financial Support but also on the lessons learnt from previous disputes

There should be @

allenge to the existing jeaderships of SOGAT,

the union and consequent opinions. on how to Manchester as a_precondiwithdrawal of financial sup- challenge the current tion for_@ united national

PHOTO: Andres Campbel

solidarity network.

‘The new national network was given an immediate shot in the arm when the delegate from the Hull docks promised boycott action in support Of strikes being supported by the national Solidarity Network. This would also. be taken to the national port stewards committee.

As Terry French said, “This Conference has given ‘me some hope for the first time in a long while.”

The first meeting of the new Steering Committee will take place on December 12th in Leicester. For details of the national network contact Janet. Seymour, 3 Hill Street, Barnoldswick, Coln, Lanes; 0282 812864,

port for the sacked miners. defeatism and betrayals of The Conference en- practically every trade union

tisastically agreed to sup- ledershiy porting (including fnancial- "Most people spoke io ©Wanet Seymour

Jy) Terry's determination to favour of the need for a rank but many activists are not see_that_a conference of and file movement, although At the end of the

only beng victimised by sacked miners takes place (in clearly different things were Silentnight dispute we (oes creas, accordance | wih NUM meant by ths. ig Wanted to build some

it this is also bein Policy) and that decisions on "Workshops were also hel

allowed to happen by the fhe fuure ‘of the sacked on” sacked ‘and gaoled etude peoole as Unions to prevent these tniners happen there Iiners, building solidarity in CTOUP 20, help people members becoming active "Janet Seymour, ex: the Labour “ary, on 8! epee within the union: 'myseltsitnightsrker aad John womesand. black people, Thi8 was printed in 1 have been recently Tang, exWapping striker, nd the rade unions and on etter we sent out to

thank our supporters.

On the strength of that letter the Oxford & Tower Hamlets Support Groups contacted us, and encouraged us to set up @ ‘Support Group and to take it further to learn the lessons of the disputes which could possibly help us with future struggles, and to work directly with established support groups and eventually build up to a national network of support groups. We felt this was a good idea and went Forward.

There are a lot of lessons from our struggle, and they are parallel to 3 lot of other disputes. For instance, there were things that we started doing some months into this strike, that we should have been doing six weeks into it,

The boycott campaign wasn’t started until quite late into the strike.

dismissed by the Daily Telegraph and have received no support financially, which is usually a Union minimum. Twas dismissed for supporting the FOC who was also victimised by management in an attempt to break the

| feel the Conference has been beneficial for many people who have become frustrated by their trade union's acceptance of what is happening within the labour movement. | also feel that people in attendance have realised ‘that class struggles that other people have been involved in are not solely based in industrial disputes.

| think it should fink up by being seen to be there and active. it should be non-sectarian, As individual Labour Party members we should be

involved, Pickets outside Wheelers restaurant

Another was what Terry French mentioned in the Conference — that while finance is very important to sustain the strike, it does not win any dispute.

Hf we could get together with those who have been in and supported disputes, we would find between us where the common things apply and what we could do to change things

If there was a body which could give advice at the beginning of a strike then they would be more successful. | don't only mean strikes but also victimisations of workers, tackling racist issues, etc.

The basic network in the unions is there but it’s not enough. We need extra lielp to win disputes. If the unions changed now, you will eed support groups because people wish to get involved.

Lam pleased with the Conference. People have come, worked hard and debated. Providing we go away from there with a network, | will be more than happy. There is a strong common feeling that we need to work towards something else.

labour Briefing No. SI Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 6

Labour Party

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

Get out your wigs and gowns, comrades!

‘The new electoral college procedure for the selection of _ parliamentary candidates is going to be a nightmare for the Party, and a blessing for the legal profession.

T suppose this has nothing to do with the fact that a large number of Labour MPs are solicitors and barristers. Over 10 you, John Smith, QC.

Make sure you do not end up as a constituency ‘comrades — you could be in for sleepless nights and headaches trying to fathom the new procedure — especially the breakdown of the weighted percentage pro. portional split between branches and affiliated organisations,

A maximum of 40% of the overall vote is to be allocated to _ affiliated organisations. How that 40% is split between those organisations isa _ real spider's web. The Pari Franchise document outlining the procedure offers this helpful advice:

“if an affiliated organisa tion does not send delegates to the General Committee or whose delegates are ineligible they will not be eligibl to participate in the ballot.’

Reassuring, isn’t it?

If less than 40% of your General Committee (GC) is made up of affiliated delegates, then you had better get some large batteries for your calculators, com-

By John Wilton Birmingham Edgbaston cP

rades, because you are in for

in and games working out ‘weighted’ percentage votes.

Under the old procedure a member could vote several times at the nomination stage. Now, in Neil Kinnock’s “modern” electoral college “‘one member, one vote” (OMOV) system you have the real Thaicherite choice of the free market.

‘The “new realism” in the electoral college procedure is that you can vote several times at the selection stage

at your party branch, at your trade union branch, at the affiliated organisations you are a member of (i.c. Fabians, Co-op, Socialist Societies, etc.). What a good idea, Neil: “One, member,

The procedure for af filiated organisations is vague and unregulated. This, of course, has to be so as they are ‘autonomous bodies and as such their internal working cannot be dictated by the Labour Party,

‘Consequently, in the Par-

“The Seeretary of each af-

red organisation will receive a ballot paper for that branch to be completed in order of preference and returned to the CLP. The organisation will determine

i it will hold meetings for the levy-paying members of the trades union or the members of socialist societies to interview the candidates."" (my emphasis)

All this is designed to protect sitting Labour MPs — predominantly white males, ‘which is why the attempt ai Brighton to get the constitutional amendment of “at least one woman on every shortlist” (as agreed by 1986 Conference) incorporated into the electoral college procedure was opposed so bitterly

The procedures in the Par. ty Franchise documents clearly allow for shortlists of ne, in most cases excluding the presence of at least one woman on every shortlist

The document states:

‘When the Executive Committee are recommending a shortist of more than ‘one person there must be at least_one woman on the shortlist where a woman has been nominated.”

The indication here is that where there is a shortlist of cone (the sitting MP) there need be no women (unless, of couse, the MP is a woman). sitting MPs therefore will be tempted to opt for shortlists of one — the sitting MP — rather than enter the administrative, bureaucratic and possible legal tangles of the electoral college.

This is precisely why get ting the constitutional amendment of ‘one woman

on every shortlist” passed by 1988 Conference and incorporated into the selection procedures is of prime importance. Many of the white, male right wing MPs could’ then find themselves opposed only by left. wing

This offers the chance of a real breakthrough for the left, and good ground on which to fight the leadership. The macho sexist leadership can be shown in its true colours and its wheeler-dealing and manoeuvring behind the scenes exposed.

‘Our main response’ to the “unworkable” electoral college therefore must be to fight to get at least one (socialist) woman on every shortlist. But other aproaches must be pursued as well. For reselection 10 be more effective we have to get ‘more people from the left to stane

We have to ensure that those people presented as left candidates at selection conferences are just that. In too many cases so-called left candidates (and subsequent MPs) have acquiesced to the leadership, metamorphosing into Kinnockites or worse! We must also use the Party’s policy review to our advantage and link it to the new selection procedures. We must build broad support among the rank and file membership for existing, and new, left policies, and then use the result of the policy review to test the

Turn the unions into an anti-racist force!

The policy review agreed by Labour Party Conference at Brighton presents the Black Section with an unprecedented opportunity to establish anti-racist socialism as a positive force in British politi

For the last twent years — including its eleven ‘years in government — the ur movement has with the Tories in the Black communiti

These attacks have taken the form of immigration laws and the proliferation of racist practices in all aspects of life

More subtly, leading Labour politicians have rubished the protests made by Black people on a variety of issues, ranging from the lack of police accountability to the lack of multi-racial education,

By Narendra Makanji, Vice Chair, Labour Party Black Sections

“The Black community has resisted all these attacks.

Bill "Morris, the _deputy general secretary of the TOWU, hhas paid tribute tothe politics of the Black communitis, saying

‘Black people could take a lead in revitalising a labour movement that in. many cases fhas grown stale and tired. Great reserves of militancy and com- ‘mitment exist in the Black com- ‘munities. They could be a Driceless. resource for the Unions, ifthe unions could only eam fo open up to them. That feeds structural changes in the ttade union movement.” (My emphasis)

Trade unions hold more than ‘90% of the vote at the Labour Party Conference and are uniuely placed to bring about sn fend to racist practices — particularly in the workplaces — and to deliver anti-racist policies {or the Labour Patty.

The growing ranks of Black

members must speathead this Drocess. Black Sections can help by concentrating on achieving change in the trade ualons, ia ‘luding the exablishment of Black caucuses, an uphill ask.

Success in carrying out such ‘an initiative ‘will require the mass participation of Black {rade unionists, supported. by ‘antivacist ection, not just ‘words.

‘Other strategies on offer to Black Sections only. highlight the problems we face, and do nothing 10 salve them,

The “affiliation” option po: posed recently by Paul Sharma In Tribune is not new. It was ‘considered in 1985 when proosals came from three different sources: Peale Zion, Eric Heeffer (then a member of the NEC), anda minority report from” the “NEC “Positive

working

‘What is proposed is the same steucture adopted by Poale Zion and the nine other socialist Societies and organisations like the Co-op, NOLS, SEA and the Labour” Clubs, "They band

Eric Heffer_ suggested the ‘establishment of a new “diviSion” on the NEC — the same as for women and youth. This Proposal was defeated 16-8 by the NEC on June 13th, 1985,

Since then, significant developments have taken place in the unions. TGWU at iis Bicnnial Delegate Conference this year agreed to set up Black ‘Members Committees and GMB hhas ceserved ten places on its ruling ational executive for women members.

Tf powerful groups like these were fo support any similar new proposals for Black Socialists, Sapable of winning majority Support on the NEC and at the Labour Party Conference, we would be open to persuasion. ‘But there is currently no offer ‘onthe table which ould fuarantee a Black voice within the Party

(One way or another, we have {to organise in the trade unions and use the strength of Black ‘membership to transform them into am anti-racist force.

“credentials”” of candidates at selection meetings,

In this way, we can expose those, both of the right and of the so-called left, who do not endorse left policies. We must judge people by th actions, not just their words.

Rank and file members at selection meetings must be made fully aware of the record of sitting MPs and of all other candidates.

Finally, we must ensure thar our trade union branches and affiliated organisa tions do hold proper metings to interview all the candidates.

The electoral college is Kinnock’s half-way compromise. He, and the right on the NEC, lied to the members in the Party Fran: chise consultation paper about not bringing any pro. posals on selection and reselection to the 1987 annual Conference. His nose just gets a litle bit bigger with each lie

Ultimately, when the elec toral college is seen not to work, he can argue for shift to the “one member, one vote” system he wanted all along. This move is facilitated in the Constitutional Amendment passed at Conference (which delegates ‘only received a few days before, and some never saw until "they got to Conference).

Hidden away in this was the statement “The NEC will have the right to modify the procedure, if required, subject to ratification by the

Narendra Makanji

subsequent Party Conference.”"

And is Party Conference really going to overturn 50, 60 or more selections and reselections carried out under any procedure “modified” by the NEC?

Constituency Labour Parties should use this clause to bombard the NEC now with resolutions calling on them to incorporate the ‘tone woman on every shortlist” constitutional amendment (ie. no shortlists of one ‘man) into the selection procedures, with subsequent ratification by next year’s Annual Conference.

Kinnock wants OMOV and the removal of accountability, The fight over the selection and. reselection Procedure was not completed, or finished, at Brighton. It was only just starting, We have to devise further ways of making MPs accountable. If necessary, for instance, we will have to organise regular monthly or

i-monthly constituency membership meetings.

We also have to make MPs accountable in. other ways. We should. submit resolutions to. 1988 Conference demanding that MPs have one job — that of being an MP.

‘The fight over reselection and accountability is one the left cannot afford to lose. All our policy gains are useless if our representatives are not accountable, and it all gets left to whatever goes ‘on in Kinnock’s wooden head.

Labour Briefing No. S1 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 7

Labour Party

LIVINGSTONE INTERVIEW:

My strategy for Labour

not sure he would allow himself

This is Part Il of our interview with KEN LIVINGSTONE. to be used by the military or Here, Ken gives his views on the Monarchy, and on relations cee ee ee

al Labour government and the State. He fgoverument. And I think they

between a future rac maybe ih

also discusses his current attitude to BRIEFING and the hard

left. questions: Minister?” : The interviewers were JENNY FISHER and CHRIS KNIGHT. ‘Who are the judges?” “Who are the trade union leader Chris: The defeat of the miners, Second, that most of the tisan bias, so that they have to then the question of who exactls the fiasco of the GLC's wealth has slipped abroad out report both sides of the case. the individual is in each case response to rule-capping and its of our immediate control "Then there's the question of Starts to have an impact thefallureto Third, that as i's OUrs, we the judges. Mrs ‘Thatcher and jon and. of want it'back. We would then Lord Hailsham between them Jenny: And Parliament? Are g ‘course the Torles'thirdelectoral need. support Castro's de- have completely packed the Law you wedded 10 this place 5 ‘have all contributed to mand for the abrogation of Lords and the Court of Appeal. permaneatly? & the sombre mood on the left. Third World debts. We can't They've done it without any Ken: The biggest advance the 2 How would you propose lifting impose change on those coun- fuss or nonsense at all, and this working class has made is to $ the movement ‘out of this tries from outside. They've got gives us a Valuable precedent, gain the right to vote. Before H Gemoralistion? What realistic 9 resolve their own internal ['d'be in favou- of immediately there was a labour move & Drospects can you hold up for problems. What wecan dois|ift dropping the age of retirement ment,the ruling class_actually 3 ‘efeating Thatcher? the great millsione we've placed and creating a lot of vacancies. met “here: it was in these £ ‘Ken: There were similar periods around their necks, There are people like Lord Gif- buildings that they planned how 8 ‘of demoralisation in the 30s and ford, Jeremy Smith and others, to govern the best part of a third = late 50s. We came out of the 30s Chris: Tony Bean's emphasis is who, without losing their lefi of the worl. because of the war, which his recent speeches has been politics, have for a long time AS soon as the Labour Party cteated a labour-capital consen- lightly different from yours. meen batting their way inside began winning seals and form- Ken Livingstone at 1987 Party Conference Sus which lasted a generation. He has been talking about the the judiciary ing governments, powsr stared perceived by the media, and across the left, both inside and We came out of the S0s ina need for “‘control™, but he has Then there's the long-term to be dragged away. Weave 10 probably much of the eft, as outside Parliainent, That's why more trivial way, byped-up on also warned us of the im- survival strategy. We'd have to argue for power to be draeeed perhaps our most articulate - I've supported Labour Left Wilson's PR giminicks. ediments to acquiring control. face up {0 the international back here where it belongs Spokesperson. You are seen as Liaison so strongly, and all the ‘Whereas 1945" represented "In pointing to the obstacles pressures and any possible This place should be where potentallyaleader of thelefias component paris of i — even Something substantial —a ge- placed in the path of previous domestic military moves decisions are made — not inf whole, Socialist Organiser nuine deal struck between Labour administrations he bas ‘Dealing’ witb the internal private meetings with members” Whether we in Briefing would ~ In the Campaigs Group they Labour and the ruling class — vividly deseribed the dominance threat involves | completely of the Queen's household or in trantyouln ucBavole afterall are” always, looking beyond Wilson, Callaghan, and the rest of the ‘Whitehall bureaucracy, redefining what sort of constitu. Secret dealings in the boar- that has happened, isuncertain, Parliament, to what can be could negotiate nothing from of the state machine, the armed on we have in Britain rooms. ‘This should be the Do you feel you need the srvst delivered in the Constituencies, the ruling. class whatsoever services chiefs, the monarchy We would have 1 say: “We highest forum of the state, a5 and support of the hard left now what ean be done to strengthen because they had nothing to itself. He has questioned the want 2 proper constitution, 2 open forum where power as much as a decade age? How links with WAC, or with the offer possibility of using their state constitution which defines the resides Seriously do you want to repair miners, or with Black Sections

the There should be other the damage done to your rels-"Anyihing that damaged

‘We can’t conceivably go back machine for our socialist pur- powers of Parlisme in Gonship with Briefing over the Labour Left Liaison I'd fight

to that. I believe Labour might poses. He has focused on the powers of the trade unions. the forums: at the workplace,

have won with an Alleriative question of power. Powers of local government, the local government, a decentralis- past three years? determinedly because its the Economic Strategy-type Ken: There's no difference bet- powers of the individual, the ed society. But the big national Ken: The fracture between us focus of the coalition which will package in a period of world ween power and contral powers of the monarchy.” evisions should be made here. was the most personally hurtful eventually deliver the Parly 10

thing that ever happened to me socialism, It's gota long way 0 in polities. The venom of my go, but it prefigures the labour fesponse showed how much you mgvement as it will clearly be a hhurtme. Yim delighted we're dovade or so from now.

talking together again after all There are forces trying. to this ime. smash it_ We should strengthen

“The fracture between us was the most personally ‘hurtful thing that ever happened to me in politics."”

‘Can you trust me? Put it this i, In those areas whre i's weak ads ft order to sell out, Pd or unrepresentative, we should

we to junk lesbian and gay try 10 bring more people, more rights, the Irish question, and groups in.

evonomic growth, ‘So then you'd come down to

Tt we'd had the Alternative Chris: Exactly. So why mot asking what figure you'd have Economic Strategy in the early speak of “breaking the power as Head of State. An amiable Gs, we might” have done ‘old German-sivle President, or ‘wonders with it. But we're now Charles the Thieg? Honesty, 1 in the fourteesth year of an ‘don’t think that’s a key issue, economic downturn, No varia: I's a question of the powers tion on the AES fs adequate to ‘which they have. the problems this poses for us

‘We can't advocate simply putting taxes up, It was a mad (Chris: And the army? You were error fo go ino the last election ‘accused in Tory election posters promising that. ‘There is no monarchy, and finally the arm- of being. against a standing

‘alternative 10 taking ed services used to legitimise army

conttol of capital; you have 10 such an intervention? Ken: That was a complete lic much else besides. That would take control of enough to fund Beam is mot denying we could bethe precondition and it would Chris: You said your rupture {your programme mobilise to deal with such Chris: I didn’t seem to do you be impossible ‘with Briefing was the fobstacle: but the implication is any harm. ‘Do vou really doubt thas? It somally hurtful thing whi Chris: V've never understood that we must know where the Ken? No, it was damaging. 'd_ Ken: | remember you writing would mean abandoning all I happened (9 you in ‘what this phrase “‘coutrol of dangers lie and be adequately be in favour of Kezping the ar- about that seenario in 1968, balieve in for some personal ad- Would you. now acknowledge Capital” means. If Kt doesn't prepared. my. The point would beto make vancement which has go actual that ia thal rupture we didn’t mean expropriation, -na- Ken: The survival of a radical Sure it was ours. Chris: Doesn't ii coincide with appeal. | don’t find the status- move politically hut sou did? onalisation — Clause 1V'— Labour government would be wehat you've just said? Symbols. associated with this Ken: No, Lwouldn't. This is the en I'm very suspiclous of i decided in two phases. It would Chris: But there's a problem. Ken: No: because you have got place some Kind of ego-trip: 1 problem. What was required of en: Mineans weave to direct be @ national version of what Nothing you have sald so far {0 accept the right of people to Actually find the whole thing mein order that I should remain the. ivestment, Suppose Nat they tried to do to the GLC: would necessarily lead to the remove you. guite boring, I don’t think close to Briefing. was that 1 West has X billions. Wedirect a wisting laws, civil’ servants conclislon that ow understand there's a leader of the left. should get up and Tie. Once I certain propertion of X-billions rebelling, and So on. the mature of the state Chris: Sure, but you take the Clearly, in the run-up to the knew what the GLC's financial “The point is that if you were power first, Thes have elections Bent) deputy leadership cam- _ situation really was, I couldn't oT Ne arvival Of 9 rdicdl Labeer goverment woe! leading's Labour government ppaign, Tony was the person who keep pretending otherwise, Bde tl Moh Rh gin boners i would be the head of a massive mobilisa- had done’ all that’ sork on Enough people knew we were decided in two phases. It would be a ational version of tig, you couldn't really break Policy, who held out in cabinet, in fora growth budget at least a what they tried to do to the GLC." ‘with the tradition of reformist Ker? Once vou start saying “AN and who brought the coalition week before rate-capping in any

fof extra-Parliamentary forces case, Then the whole thing just

‘Administration, coulde't really Power to the Labour Govern:

towards the reconiucion of So when you ass Labour “aateWe' power’; wie! men (he’s cea implica: togcher, aon ‘our productive base, or inner government in, you have to first unleashing a social revolution, tion that once you've got power, It was a clearly-defined issue, I take Tull responsibility for ap pool he ee teeny to ga Nach eae seeltaia od — tare eaminemet sen, Veeoeeeere cr eae Se arenas tae mere fener person eget ng eae eT Figg le greg pence fae oo cee ee Sou ie gine’ woud fat pace PA MAEA AG meMeCiepicacn T Wetnae wiaw ar Gove cen ae cena!

‘woulda’Cit? So why tot say it th ak, because 999% of them are Ken: It just depends whether just people doing jobs. It's in

Labour Government!” there's a clear implication that “Wi

T could never understand was how so many of

You ar theoretical uc, the top iver that the danger _ once you've got power. you're going to keep i forever. gun foci eigerealty alors (is aire Va an inveterate electoralist ike les, a response that I'd sold out, bottled out, and so on. 1 myself. If 1 was running ‘Several of them might work — Ken: | suy ‘it’s a question of Ken: Yes, of course. But we're. - . rs M4 Labour's campaign, I'd have 8 quite willingly for you. But as whether jou siart trom your getting Tar away from reahiy, @XPected that after fighting alongside you for so long, in serie of advertisements simply forthe est they'd have to 20. Sroagest or from your weakest’ rentwe? We sared out by SO many joint struggles, you would say (o yourselves, Saying it was economic treason You'd have to bring in at least points If, when this iateriew asking how we were going t© “Well the track-record simply doesn't square with this Tor these people to be investing ten Labour people we head each Comes oui, the media can point hold the tule bit of analysis." {his money wherever they iked: main Ministry to order to even fo lt_10- scream “Lisinglione we've already got, and in the Ta’ be saying it was Britain's begin to get control, and you'd Says “lang the Queen" "* then Space of a otethour interview, nant Weader-figure, we have aI atare Whe gull and the ki money, Out money — and the have to resource them properly. anything ise which might be we find we've reconstructing the very much strengihened Cam competence in that rexpect, Bul tesage would be quite simple: You'dhavelohaveveryrapd uacful tr Kt would compleidy whole world, sign Group. Srna T could never undersiand “We wam our money back.” action against the pres. Now Forgot is an tnterening academic Tee come into it and wes how 20 many of You euld DDon'cforget the impact of those that ivee Individuals control Whats intresting isthe way exercise. BUNK looked Ike we developed very good worting Spparcnlly” BaleNe the SNP adverts: "70% Scotland's 75M ofthe national press therein which the eaabiuhmens icil_ were geting anywhere ncar any relallonship with Deans skiee_ eréate Eneeserk esponse one has got o.bc an immedisic ex: iy ‘eginniag to distrust the Of this theydimost Bicly bump nef. As soon as you mortify ix [dtold ous bolted Gon ahd 50 tension 10 Fleet Strest of the monarchy. We have all been weal ff anyhow Tories, he's on your side. AS On Jenny: “Ours? Dower” to impose’ political aware of the schims between "Returning to really, we've soon, as 1 mmade< my maiden "expected that afer fighting Kent OF sourse ts ours! Galance which the TBA'bave in. Thatcher and The Queen. And gol toga tone year'Labour speech, he decided I'vas worth alongide you for s0 long. in so relation to broadcasting itmay bea mach bigger schism Party ‘Conference and make Supporting afer al! toany joint struggles, you would Jennyz Bata tot of “our” “As soon as you start talking with Charies the THe Sure that weare stings apen- The appearance of the black Say 10 yourselves, “Well the imoney has been conned out of about a nalionaised press or "Hi poitce are several not- — da. If the agonda which th MPs in the Campaign Group tacksresord simply ~ daesm't ihe Third. Wort We would state control — you've los the ches tothe ft of his mother's. set is taken on board Oy the and of Joan Ruddock and most square with this analysis.” trant to share MN back again, argument. I's just to0 big & itmaynotbe Labour which gets ary leadership, by the trade of the women there — all this vroulda't we jump. fid of the monarchy. may be union leadertip, then we can means that’ he effors to Chris: But then you appeared to Ken "A “Labour government "You've got to start by saying theexablishment which seks 0 win the next ection. If G's marginalise the ‘Campaign align soarself with the ight in ‘would want very ‘rapidly 10 that thereare three unpleasant gct rid of Chars and put Tudged" again, “we will lose: Group have Caled tacking those of us who stood Gevelop those Kinds of links. men and we can Geserite Sid reactionary in bs pa Everything lsthere vo pay for, Is the Tribune Group that's fem! You've got to show people in them in detail who control °'t Gge't think the caablih ail ores she place: ‘Ken: Lam sure over reacted in Britain, first of all, that we are the press. And you have to ment trusts Charles to do the Chris: Although I realise you ‘What's particularly impor- my response. But it was an in-

fabulously wealthy, argue for removing that par- Kind ofthing you fear. They are would dlelalm this, you are tant are the links being made credibly bitter period.

Labour Briefing No. St Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 8

Chesterfield Conference

Mike Elliot at Chesterfield:

1 blame the police for the trouble we're im. There's two at the front of No. 10 and two at the back — and still that woman gets out.

Arthur Scargill at Chesterfield:

New Realism is not new and it’s not real. New Realism is another name for class collaboration; ‘means as it did in the 20s and 30s, that you collaborate with the capitalist system in order to offer palliatives rather than revolutionary change.

po

tical power to smash the cay to change fundamentally the direction of our 3 nation.

We should be revolutionary in our demands.

‘What's wrong with a policy aimed at eliminating that vile disease of unemployment?

We should pay tribute to those in Lambeth and Liverpool who stood firm against the poli government.

WOMEN FOR SOCIALISM

If you would like to be involved in ‘*Women for Socialism” please return this to: Women for Socialism, c/o Mandy Moore, 89 Woodside Gardens, London N17 6UN.

Name

Address

Organisation

Trade Union ...

To cover the costs of administration an initial charge will have to be made of £5 waged, £2 unwaged — please enclose.

The Chesterfield Conference offered the left not only a valuable talking-space and morale boost, but a timely opportunity to begin building a lasting, democratic and determined socialist movement that can brush aside the Kinnocks and Willises on the way to unseating Thatcher and, yes, it must be said, overthrowing the irrational and inhuman capitalist system.

Here we present the views of several participants in the Conference and their visions of the future of the left after Chesterfield.

A vital new venture : for women

develop policy initiatives on the left. In the Chesterfield Conference papers, one section on “The Politics of Gender” highlighted some of the problems we face: “Amy society which aims to provide equal rights for women must haye planned economic and social policies. A central objective of such planning, based on whatever forms of popular e or propriate, must be to from women the burden of

‘An exciting mew organisation, ‘Women for Socialism”, was launched at the Socialist Conference in Chesterfield.

Women organised the first and only fringe meeting of the weekend and hundreds of women

‘Chesterfield, and this will be a major proposal as the structure of "Women for Socialism".

Many other groups of left women are also involved. ‘The sponsors of the launch mecting included Sharon Atkin and Martha Osamor, both of whom provide vital finks with Black Women's

In an extraordinary and

a He'Been Ghuly iccking in home and family care. is | Chesterfield Conferen other ‘Somen's not enough however, © | that began with the Sto By Mandy Moore organisations. ‘hint this burden abet ss | "Ag the bottom fell out d Tottenham CLP Paid employment (0 other | chee seonomie strategy, Sponsors froups of women. pees Sere ee

socialist movement to cl Labour leaders.

The big turn-out was a re spect of another five yt breathtaking inadequacy of 1 ships’ response to it.

Despite Thatcher, Kinnock,| remain tens of thousands q many in the Labour Party, oth tivists in the women’s, Bid movements, and especially i Chesterfield because the ord

‘The aiims of the organisation are to:

‘e promote socialist feminist policies in the labour movement;

Policies

Sharon has prepared a paper on black women and both she and Martha will be prominent in ensuring that the organisation is one in

The paper goes on to raise several pertinent questions: “How do we develop ‘debate and develop such policies which involve men cies and campaigning fm family and home care on tives: an equal basis with fecevelop links with the women?” whole range of women’s ‘What is the importance organisations, incloding les- of community fac tian and. bisck women’s tanteens, laundries, clothes groups and others challeng- mending centres, etc? What Ing racism and imperialism difference would. women's in our society; put make for the planning ‘link up with organised of transport systems, home trade union wome design, leisure facilites, ‘@ provide an international ducation, housing ‘estates, perspective for women: etc? Would women place ‘cotter a forum. where ‘more emphasis on ecological women can exchange ideas 3 iseues? and share experiences Tn these and other areas ‘No. other women’s

By Davy Jones Islington South & Finsbur

‘Some came to bury Che quickly to dispose of the cord Verdict of a “missed opportu friends as did their sectarian itself.

The New Statesman hedged

women have major con. organisation offers this sort S toteies to eae. lack of “realism” , yet

of platform. No other “Women, for Socialism’ | something important had stir ‘women's organisation offers raver wok cd ok Aron The truth is that for most women a chance to develop E sister from Briefing put it, | weekend neither disappoint

aspirations. Just being there mind renewed morale and end proceedings was a breath o managed Labour and TUC C The commitment of the ord

ideas and policies in relation to the labour movement. Consequently, “Women for Socialism” is already gain-

‘We need to re years we have lost

Sharon Atkin addresses iaim the

faunch meeting which black women. can

Open

ing extensive support ticipate. POther sponsors inclide: _ “Women for Socialism” | ing the weekend, to maintain

Proposal Dawn Primarolo, MP; _ is in its infancy, We need to | they had brought together mi Pauline Purnell,” Chair examine options for its | present it had achieved somé

‘The launch in Chesterfield Labour Women’s Action structure so we can build as | with the launch of the Womer enabled us to link up with Committee; Nadine Finch open, cohesive and forceful Of course, there were prob|

an organisation as possible = because women need a doing organisation as well as, a taiking one.

“Women for Socialism’"is ‘open to all women socialists.

women active in Women Against Pit Closures. They had, quite independently, been discussing changes t0 their organisation to widen and develop it, and they

and Mandy Moore, National Labour Women’s’ Committee; Sarah Roelofs, Labour Women for Ireland; Ros Young, SWAPO Women’s Solidarity Campaign; Terry

policy papers were extremel teresting and incisive: others} as a whole was very male

especially on the platforms. were virtually invisible. And any strategic notion of rebuild

welcomed “Women for Conway, Labour Campaign A meeting will be organised | few months of local conferend Socialism’. for Lesbian and Gay Rights; in a few months time to | a recall conference,

‘Betty Heathfield and Kim and Labour Briefing debate the structure and Yet could the conference Young from WAPC ex- Women. elect officers, etc. In the | than a contradictory, faltering

meantime ali women are welcome to get involved in this exciting new venture.

different comrades from diffe social, geographical, and shoulders for the first time i

A UNITED, DE

Pounded their ideas for a “Women's Union” on a number of occasions in

‘The organisation will provide a strong base for women to discuss and

= FOR

% a ees = a ahead aT Se i Labour Briefing No. St Nov 10h 240 1987 page 9 Chesterfield Conference ¢ The litmus . ay test is action! The most important outcome of the Socialist Conference is a new mood on the left. Since 1981 the left, must not be underboth inside and outside estimated. the Labour Party. has ¥ been in retreat. The loss fercrectt fee the re ‘of two general elec- tal Rizmais Ae68 FOr tee geretet Siem Choetetohs contorence i: ‘and political defeats. ang ‘campaigns are conhave created an at- structed by the left but remosphere of frustration main confined to paper and despondency. because they are not firmly Thin hes, been rooted in realty and have murifeaied naccomeseta. iw real reaturtes to back fore betwen cemers cf them up. the left wade unions and What, then, are our the. Pay lontonsip, mt pelrises? poor results for the okt ine We must demonstrate Gre NEC, ond in sxtuene tothe: Whole movement cases, of people leaving that the Chesterfield Con. the Party altogether. ference was ot afl in thapen = end that tie the By Reg Race beginning of a serious, Tottenkam CLP fouled it) tein The Chesterfield Con- policies end” not” around (ferent has fee: ©, cory, poconeiein. large numbe’ of tocialsts, "ewe must mobilise the beep poetical ens aera ooeery Sor ing point. Many now to implement our plans > believe that there is 2 effectively. Sauteed Soh partners Se ie riet ot plas snd detect afew Wil’ Poloy Discussion Groups i ingness to deine and cam- outinedinihe Chesteres | KEN Livingstone at poo ior cust vsti caleeae Tease neen es - and. policies. Ths be ‘established on key | Chesterfield Sevhckigeal cunge palemeeain tae economic policy and green: ee | uerraecee lame el tl oe ACY Pry ee rycen oak etiat dpe rbobem catia fetch ira ox sal Stock markets of the world thls week, a gramme that will pam ‘the imaginations and win Nothing else in our lifetime will have as much political pt coincidence, the __ ference have really been expected to proceed beyond an | the support of the millions | impact as what has happened in the last six days as one wrapped upthe week a gathering together and reatlimeton of socal: | ot working people. whe ae se ee oe pe Makes Cree0. veethe_ cisappointment of some comrades is only = | tees. f the Reagan and That- ‘measure of the high hopes which they quite properly @We have to organise a It is a devastating setback for those who have told us wo thousand socialists brought with them to Chesterfield. We need to harness, | vigorous campaign ‘that Thatcherism and Reaganism and monetarism are ted the need for anew not dampen, those hopes, and get on with the work of | throughout Britain. We some new way of life we have to adapt to. allenge both Tory and building something lasting out of the enthusiasm and | need local and regional sense of purpose demonstrated in Chesterfield. “'Chesterfields” in every | The whole agenda for socialism is back at the forefront “ion to the appalling pro- Jur Suecess oF failure in this will be determined by our | part of the country — and of society right the way across the face of this planet. of ‘Thatcher and ‘the ability to respond to the stock market crash and the new | we need to make sure that ; Labour and union leader- _ situation it creates, by bringing together all those forces | they are well-organised Each time Labour has been in goverment it has failed Willig, and the media there democratic socialist movement that will sustain an | tarian basis. because it did not take control of capital. It used every Feo aRoen cociaints overall challenge to the leadership of the Labour Party | _@We must create the | other expedient and there is no other alternative before unaligned 38 Wel ae oe ee vesvement built on struggle and the common | tory m order to connect all This is not a fantasy or wish-fulfilling daydreaming. As | _ which often exist because Callaghan aj Ken Livingstone rightly argued in his Chesterfield speech, | of erent as well as the crash’ hae changed the: world. I has undermined | political factors CLP BSigan'and hatches Ithas given the labour movement | | ®Decisions must be | We can only win when we convince the tens of millions ferfield and have moved an opportunity to link the inevitable range of defensive | made concerning the that. we know what we want to do with the British se. But Socialist Worker's struggles against the Tories to an offensive struggle fora | resourcing of campaigns ‘economy and we have the political will (o take control of ity’ will win them as few socialist alternative to an irrational, bankrupt system. mounted by the move- it and use it in the common good and no t for the Bill should go hand in hand with building the new Women | support for strikers and London for the last few years. set ocrere OF otteeale ton load dieatty tes tha tite for | m1. battles -ogoleet =the | 1* “pestinger=s prweyiof workers is <imatie ws also eople at Chesterfield the democratic, rank and file left movements in the unions. establishment, and an ac- a epenereny ply Cems Oe d nor satisfied all their The Chesterfield Conference promised to support | tive, practical advice role workplace; we need to defend women's rights, and jth so many others of like those in struggle, to hold local and regional mini-| to assist any comrades especially against the Alton Bill. It is an issue of gy. The spontaneity of the Conferences, to set up policy groups and to hold a na-|_ who may need help. conscience for the women concerned, not Labour fresh air after the stage- tional recall Conference next May. There will be a recall na- members in Parliament. fisers, atrengthened dur- active part in making them @ realty. The local Con- | Year Ton cae fea aes cinta wheal at nd develop the movement _ferences should focus on key policy issues and directly e ‘an America which butchers its way round the rest of the ant that for most of those _involve those in struggle. The national organising com-| Combination Sou sar a ete cease Che, Ming poate paricustly mittee should werk herd in hand with organisations Ike | This programme of activity jad ear narnia rSocissm rgersaton, Women for Socalam, the Broadwater Farm Oafence | wil rot take ploce unlose . Fineven’ Some were in. bodies, and antrimperialist campaigns. Serious local initiatives and | We need to expose the nature of the British state. It is appalling, The conference ‘The policy groupe should be asked to work towards | determined national lead. | the intelligence services which are a threat to democracy. Pree arian ames procclng poley, spline for debate at the recall con- | The conditions for 8 suc Kaverwnelmingly white, Peranter Which Should vete on these and elect a broad: | cessful movement now ex- | Leadership at crucial mes does matter If you've got ftle thought was given to _ based democratically accountable steering committee. ist. We cannot afford to Ramsey MacDonald up front you haven't got a cat in ihe gbeyondshenese The movernent must begin to look Ike s movement — | miss the tide. forage cise te patae bteghopg hh el | Decclaler networeend with dstintive policies anda democratic structure sre teehee ||, eae Eeaiee cote Gharterficl gives us the Gest chore for many years | Won, peskere. for See ve been anything other to develop a serious movement of socialists — in and out | _ meetings. and consultation — frst stop? With ag many of tha Labout Party, inthe union, the movernents ofthe | on establishing local it traditions and different oppressed, and amongst the left intelligentsia — to boa Socialist Conferences, The battle to beat ~, Weal “bases rubbing s\aystomate chellonge to the benkrupt leadership of the | phone Reg Race on O1 808 : decades, could the con- labour movement. 9796. Thatcher won't be won in Parliament.

MOCRATIC LEW! az

Labour Briefing No. 51 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 10

Features: Abortion Law campaigning

As early as

late necessary! ©

Almost twenty years to the day since the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act, Liberal MP David Alton’s Abortion Amendment Bill recei ed its first reading in the House of Commons.

This is the fourteenth at tempt to restrict the '67 Act since it was passed ‘and is one of four anti ‘abortion initiatives currently underway in Parliament

But David Alton, like James White, Corrie, and ‘thers must ‘now realise that he cannot ride roughshod over the lives of women without encountering tough opposition.

By Judith Arkwright Norwood CLP

Already the campaign to fight Atton's 18-wook: time limit ie well underway. FAB (Fight the Alton Bill) now has {groups established in all major Shias and towne and is sponsored by NALGO, | NCU, NAPO, TASS, and NUS na: tionally, with other unions ow considering it.

fea vast number of

‘Sponsors, including celebrities, MPs and. trade

Even Alton's own

(OTO: Graeme Cookson

ry lester (and architect of '67 Act) David Steele has come out publicly against the time limit under pressure from angry Liberal Parey women.

"The antiabortionists camsign in support of the 18 ‘week time limit is as usual basdon a series of false ‘assumptions.

Lie no. 1

Its cleimed that the Act ‘was originally passed in the permissive sixties” and that In today’s moral climate itis Inappropriate

‘This argument shows that ‘the Bill is not simply designed {to reduce the time limits, but is ‘the first salvo ia. campaign to make abortion illegal sltogether. The moral climate may. have changed but women’s lives have not “Three million women have had abortions under the provisions of the '67 Act. In order to control. their own. lives ‘women will always need abor-

tion — especially when con: ‘aceptive and other facilities ‘are $0 inadequate,

@Lie no. 2:

‘The "967 Act provides abortion on demand.

only this were true! One of the reasons for the number of late abortions in this country is the fact that women do not have abortion on demand and must. get two. doctors’ Signatures before obtaining an Sbortion. Following massive Cutbacks the NHS now proVides ‘only 50% of all abor tions ‘performed. in some hospitals there are actually wating lists tor women seek Ing terminations

Lie no. 3:

David Alton's main argument for reducing the ‘time limit to 18 weeks is that by then “a child has sentience ‘and itis no different except in ‘ize and weight from the child ‘at 28 wooks.”"

Picket outside the LIFE rally. Central Hell, London, 27.10.87

Not true! Under 22-24 weeks the tungs of 2 foetus are_ insufficiently developed for it to survive even ons ven- ‘ator. OF those born et 24 wwooks only 25% survive, The

tions is no different from thet in England and Wales.

No woman chooses to have a ste abortion. & 1884 report by the Royal College Obstetricians Gynaecologists shows that the main reasons for delay are ‘the NHS Telerral system and the lack of sex educstion in schools

‘The best way to prevent lato abortions is precisely to pro- ‘ido what the anti-abortionists most fear — abortion on ‘semana

Alton is @ hypocrite. He is not seeking to prevent the suf fering of. the 6,000 plus women who had late termina ‘dons last year, but is merely trying to cut the total number of abortions performed and reduce the effectiveness of the "67 Act.

For this reason, FAB has made clear ts opposition to Soy change in the current 26'week time limit. 1 the Bill is amended to 22 or 24 weeks in Committes we believe it ‘should stil” be opposed. ‘Women should not be punish

possible and as

ee

foe given schon pocsntnage bad Bae a urgently to FAB,

Seca crete See eae" 2 oe

‘when the Bill will get its se- Court. London WC2B SAL. If id reading. On this day Tact with your local FAB goup,

mass feuionel endfor Wocal fing 01 405. 4801. Laahots

organised, including pickets of 34, ps

MPs surgeries and other events which can mobiise re = OOCOOOOORO00

“Amongst the current sponsors of the Campaign a MPs: Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Grant, Ken Livingstone, Alice Mahon, Dawn Primarolo, Jo Richardson, Chris Smith, Audrey Wise Caroline Benn, Tony Gifford, Betty Heathfield, Peter Heathfield, Anne Scargill, Peter Tatchell, Jill Tweedie ‘and many others

Labour MPs known to support Alton’s Bill are: Pale Campbell Savours (Workington}, John Cummings (Easington), Albert Duffy (Attercliffe), Calum Macdonald (Western Isles}, Jack Thompson

(Wansbeck)

A woman’s right to choose...

A recent TY programme on the Alton Bill ended with a doctor producing a test tube from his pocket, waving it in front of the cameras and proclaiming it contained a foetus’ pair of hands — hands that would be writing by now, if it hadn't been aborted.

During the same pro- ‘gramme. Harriet Harman MP accused Alton supporters of “using bandicapped people as a political football” — a valid. point but unfortunately Harman ‘was guilty of the same tactic herself.

In response to. Alton’s propaganda film — part of Which argued about the fall lives that many people with disabilities can lead — Har- ‘man recited a sob story about women being forced to have severely disabled children doomed to early death or in need of continual

special care

Emotive language aside, there are points in Alton’s and Har- ‘man’s arguments which real

‘eed to be considered and ful discussed — but not within the context of abortion rights for women. ‘The issue of what” a woman should do on discovering she is carrying a foetus with abnormalities, in varying posi ble degrees of severity. 1s a highly sensitive and complex

It encompasses a range of problems, including capitalist Society's appalling discrimina tion against and lack of facilities for people with disabilities and a value system that promotes the perfectly functioning. superPowerful body beautiful as the ‘imate physical ideal

‘Whilst it Is right 10 point out that Alion’s 18-week time limit ‘would affect women’s access to tests for foetal abnormalities, the main point is thar this takes away a woman's right to impor {ant information which» she reeds 10 make her om decision 45 19 whether oF not she com tinues her pregnancy; informa tion she can consider along with

other questions that she's likely ~

~ Akon's Bil: werare

to be asking herseif at the same time.

1 was appalled by the line taken by. the Revolutionary ‘Communist Party (RCP) at the event Chesterfield Conference. They argued that we must not campaign around the slogan 2 woman's right 10 choose because itis individualistic and therefore bourgeois. “"No, they insisted, “we must campaign only around free abortion on demand?”

Besides being __ bloody ridiculous — the latter can only be achieved in practice once the former has been established in ‘Principle ~ it displays an alarm ingly narrow definition of ne ee

Have the RCP learned rothing from the divisions that Srose within the women's move: ‘ment due t0 the neglect of the effects of abortion issues on black women, lesbians, women with disables and working lass women in general? What makes the old slogan politically relevant is that, If used correct: Jy, it can encompass these ifterences.

‘Obviously, when fighting

‘primarily

By Emma Tipping Sheffield Labour Briefing

Sonceraad wih a woman's HER

fo abortion — to choose no! to haves child. Here, Harriet Harman rightly argues that 20 ‘woman takes lightly the decision to have an abortion, particuarly 2 late one, and atteation should be focussed on the need for bet= ter sex education, family planning services, ec

However, what Harman and ‘other puble opponents are failng to’ point out, and what the REP line excludes, isthe other, ‘equally important’ aspect of vwoman’s right io choose: the Flabt to choose to have a child "This year bas seen:

‘othe scrapping of the Maternity Grant;

freezing of Child Benefit:

‘Sfurber cuts in child care provision;

f@an escalation of _stripsearching with no exceptions for Pregnancy:

fe increasing” levels of child abuse:

‘@the Campaign for Normal Family- Life's statements on

single-parent families producing Only by campaigning around juvenile delinquents (the root @ woman's right 10 choose, @ ‘cause ofall society's evils); woman's right 10 control_her

‘ihe promotion of married, own body and make her own heterosexual, god-fearing peo. decisions about her life, whilst ple asthe only’ fit parents; highlighting the lack in practice

The contradictions" and of rights and real choice for $0 hhypoersies surrounding the many women, can we be in

question of women “choosing” position to defend women’s to have children should be rights in general. obvious. "The likes of SPUC and LIFE

‘The point { want to stress is will stop at nothing to get the that the decision to have a child Alton Bill passed. They. will before or during pregnancy, is seize on every form of base much easier for white, emotional blackmail to win sup:

Heterosexual, able-bodied, port and attack opposition. middle-class, married women. ‘Black women too frequently Briefing. supporters. and all

have contraception forced upon those forces on. the. left_ who them or ate pressurised into want to fight the Alton Bll must abortions by racist doctors. Les- not be trapped into using the

Bians are Tor the most part same sorts of tactics, nor accept denied the right {0 gel pregnant the false social agenda posed by inthe first place. the anti-abortioniss, Remem

‘Women with disabilities are ber, timeclimit reductions are @ told they cannot possibly faetica! measure paving the way ‘manage children, Unmarried {0 oullaw abortion altogether

land single women face reac- If we do not advance our own tionary prejudice and social agenda in defeating this Bll we stigma will greatly weaken our position faced with a lack of the finan- in resisting further attacks from

ial, practical, and emotional the anti-abortioniss, The Alton Support necessary in a society Bill is not the first such attack ‘which makes life extremely dif- on women and, whatever hapFicult for-women with childrens ~ » pens (0 Kit wort be-the lat

Labour Briefing No. $1 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 11

Features: Soviet Revolution 70th Anniversary

inspiration for

embattied socialists

With this article Briefing begins a short series on the towards obsolete dogmatic gradually | succumbed, to andthe, peculiarities, of the onary sana of the working experience and issues surrounding the Bolshevik Marakm, represents har with pressure’ from their “own” ward Russian society, they clas, learning the lessons of t= cheroiation ia Kaank: Wucure iauaes Will Eaves Ge Mncient predsion been stared Capitalist classes, relapsing ito concluded that there was mio, backs and defeats as well as vic- , iiBctmicia aed demonstrated nationalism and compliciy In Scope for. such a period of ores, Bolshevism faid the founwomen's role in the revolution, the achievement of 5) millerand. ‘colonialism ‘apitalist development dations forthe October Soviet power, and the hideous triumph of Stalinism in "Social Democracy must Pressed by Lenin and Ross The Russian bourgeoisie was triumph, the Moscow Trials. tangs roma pety_of te Lunembourg the 907 Suen soo wea. (00 dependent teller, 1917 the Bolsheviks ‘Congress of theSecond Interma- ternational capital, and 100 renamed their party the Com Seventy years on, the Russian October Revolution Sogal dene tothe semblance of fghtened of the new working muni Pars and called for the Still has rich lessons for today’s battered and bruis- 2 'Marcst position on war and class to carry through any real formation ‘of a new, revolitniicarism, ‘Lenia's sation. tionary Intemational to lead the armen aevereat: icarism,.prefiguring Semocrat International to lead th For those weary of bat- estore capitalist rule in Rus

Defending the Moscow Soviet, October 1917

later line of “revolutionary “The mass peasantry working class, By then the gulf Gefeatism” ‘against the First clamoured "for democratic that had emerged between the

ting for suealat pra. ig Gumany eS ‘Srey Wend war ineratoali eohnary ciples against the odds, it Democrats berayed « working mete tousht tor by tawen. ‘By JOHN LISTER bureaveratised, chauvinist par:

is important to remember ng’ themselves with." the that world history was capitalist state and its. armed fundamentally changed forces to. crush the _newly-

in 1917 by what had been, ore oo ane one

ours, which insisted that: ties of the once Marxist Second Tn case war should break rights, including a revolutionary International was enormous,

‘out ...itistheir daty the work- Solution to the land problem; Though the names have

ing class and its represeatatives) but the only secure route co changed, that gulf continues to

{eriatervene for is speedy t= democratic rights was under the 68st today. only a few years before, 8 ind Licoknccht, tmination, and to strive with alll leadership of the working class, While Bolshevism (and the

small class-struggle "This betrayal helped isolate their power to utllse the which alone had the power to Bolshevik tradition, ‘defended minority within the Se- the new Russian workers’ state, democrat party of reform, and economic and political crisis combine the democratic and since the 1930s by the Trotskyist

= (soci) mines ta ors cio: fRe"teedgn” fo mode ened Sy oe maetnrome he Soca ea Conny ovement, ae ove Cpe Ree: ses workers, Soldiers and Peasants: “Parliamentarism illuminated only the surface of society, z aoe Me akc’ Stuttgart “Comgreas “TO, weckes, Soldi id. Peasant

and even that with a rather artifitial light. In comparison fa rejecting this Ore ee, Sea sci Seal _<--The Soviet authority will at once propose an immediate vith monarchy and other heirlooms from the cannibals and Lenin won Tack to te besic Democratic congress to take democratic peace o all nations, and an immediate truce on Cave-dwellers, democracy is of course a great conquest, but class analysis of Marx. He in- anything like a principled stand all fronts. It will assure the free transfer of landlord, crown it leaves the blind play of forces in the social relations of sisted that as an oppressed class against war. The mass partis, and monastery lands to the Land Committees, defend the ‘men untouched. It was against this deeper sphere of the denied the opportunity, spon. aiming only 0 s<f6"™ Soldiers’ rights, enforcing 2 complete democratisation of the

; tancousiy to develop Rs “ows” capitalism, became more and unconscious that the October revolution was the first to {3nsmat CENCE Ona. Ghote wedded to their “own” Army, establish Workers’ control over production, ensure

raise Its hand. The Soviet system wishes to bring aim and [cded'a vanguard party based Capitalist classes, By 1914 the the convocation of the Constituent Assembly at the proper

plan into the very basis of saciety, where up to now only fe apbeoach, rot of tational patritiam had i

3 on scientific approach, fot of national patriotism had date, take means to supply bread to the cities and articles of

secumulated comsequences have reigned.” capable of combating form sank on dexp ie the Smee first necesity to the villages, and secure to all nationals

History of the Russian Revolution ‘British socialists, ‘smarting thinority stood out against the _livimg im Russia a real right to independent existence.” cna Goud's imaree warvefforts of ther “own” Declaration of All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ ‘Atthe turn of the century, Contrary to popular myth, f0F'S {© import bourgeois ideas capttalists ‘and Soldiers’ Deputies, November 7th, 1917.

the tiny Bolshevik faction of Stalinism fs thur the offspring 310 the labour movement can | ThOw any eine scan Social Democracy of eformiom, rather "than ‘C.gu tbe acuracy of Lena's ako ity sr eae

wwas pitted against the vast Teyoltionary Marxism. Bureaucratic machines, Me jominan in Soci Demeerai parliamentary deputies, and

“EROS: cule the socialist line of combining opposition to 10 expectations, the power of the most implacable opponent ideology te any ‘way, to turn the war with bullding class imperialism could and would be of the capitalist order, the so: Shar'iom it ia the alighiest resistance to the employers and broken at its weakest point — in called “socialist parties" have

ard of the im- since 1914 become a pillar of the

foking of the German, notte, New ce; Soerple cogs. ae print comet Spal esuciteat oa. 6 Fe Sic Sal GEOR TE Gece Tebk wieeveees) (6,00 lot cael We ee me ee ‘ i lsewher, te useful to look The tas in Lenin's view "a5 jopeless dream of “turning the European soial democracy re- the ruling lasses escape the democratic parties. back to the history of the S to build type of party, ‘had been mained dazzled by their new- wrath of the workers through

Soctecr years later, cond International (0 which all which aimed mot to reflect the A into a ciul war” es eat Ba my a a er a ag

feolution, while ‘socal bourgeois parliamens, Lenin, economic. "and. political : patie of is degeneralion. change it and lead the working principles into practice. thspaltem of it degeneration. a and ead the working emocrats across Europe were Trotsky, and the Bolsheviks upheavals and crises,

Sonal Government was Profane 18020 inc ormoaid tap ie epes on ate Petit dua. See ml gverthrow, and ine work's mungtal, soon caine under jowcr and offer icadaahip in | Pehapethemowtdecnivece- Parks Commune

first. workers’ state was mass parties were able to win day-to-day struggies, recognis- the Aagter ee - 4 mind us that yous the ‘Those ‘Russian Social the possibilities of an expanding eXPeriences of such struggles of Lenin and Trotsky to learn appearance in Russia in 1905

arate I or a tomlly vous and the mass media Democrats who stuck with the eaplaliam to make radeumion were the Key fo. developing {fom the developments of the A oGere on of werking.cass etd them today they offer

The anniversary of | the Revolution of 1917 should re

majority line of the Second ins. revolutionary consciousness. class struggle, and to develop em expression of working clas ‘not the slightest hoy for majority line of the Second fae scars an openly ‘Abore all nt party woud Marsinm beyond the tadiional power — the worker, comes SLUM somorroe, Nom; a8 Toxeratonal the Mens oii Rear Aas %CNS concave off the Sragale for Somes they had inher eves) wich posed an im: 0 eran sallow be Fare ty aD tcining siren theorccal expression by Socalm as_an_ international mediate cat to the cenraicd of cans rope minor The capitalists in the Provisional Engels’ literary executor, Ger- 9N€. This internationalism wasa__ Orthodoxy insisted that pro- hile also embodying the seeds 'Y» Preparing the ground for a

{he capitalits inthe Provisional Engels) erary excowoy, Ce; fundamental distecion "bet- letaian revolubon could. only Spe 50 ue ses Bridah October, See Ene ee et Baksice In 198, French ween Lenin's vision and the take place after a “democratic Of,* "e™> Proltaritn, power,

Soviets after the workers had Socialist leader. Alexandre Practice of the mainstream revolution” and a prolonged Gemocracy,

faken power Millerand accepted a postin the | S0cial democratic partes. period of capitalist development 4 After all, tis omly our side of

SeeL\ Democratic partis Press bourses coteact "The mass socialist parties, had created a mass working Creatively applying Marx’s the argument that has ever around the world threw in their Lenin commented: developing inthe relatively class. Yet when Trotsky and method, developing a party and brought the working class 10 Hoot ne imperialist ‘and “What this mew trend, which Pévieged, material conditions later Lenin analysed the events programme based on theinter- power; and it is only our side

eee nit arabe igiting to adopts a ciiieal “sidiade Of the imperialist countries, of the 1903 Russian Revolution national character and revolu- that wll ever do it again!

‘Labour Briefing No, 51 Nov 10ch-24th 1987 page 12

Letters

Building Briefing

LLivingstone’s recipe Tor deal- ‘ng with the economy is to send along.a few socialists to the ‘managing boards of companies. ‘And the interviewers lt him get aay sith this.

‘Surely they could have press ced alte harder. Who isto appoint these persons, who will be

The House Paper of the Ken Fan Club?

Dear Briefing,

T found your Oct 28-Nov 10 issue truly amazing. 1t read at times lke the house paper of the Ken Livingstone fan club Ghgible to serve, 19 whom will

First Alan Thornet's piece on they be accountable and what of the stock market erash devoted the” shareholders, will Their two columns to Livingstone’s shares be converted to. non. ‘speech at the Chesterfield Con- voting holdings, will dividends Terence, apparently setting Liv. continue to be paid on shares ingstone up as the economic and interest on loans?

guru of the Left and brushing “Apparently realising Livaside the man’s appalling ingstone's inadequacy. on this record. topic, the interviewers hurried

Next, the Editorial sarted by on to nuclear disarmament quoting at length from the same Surely here the hero would Speech and ended by calling for distinguish himself? Not abit of @ challenge to the Kinnock it leadership, presumably” inten ding to leave your readers in no ‘doubt as to who Briefings can ‘date will be Finally, to whole pages were devoted fo an interminable in terview with Livingstone. This twas headed bya glowing tribue.

All he did was to defend Joan Ruddock’s betrayal of CND ‘and argue for the use of Trident ‘asa bargaining counter. He pro Seeded to identify with some of the grubbiest carceriss around like Peter Hain and Diane Abbott and brushed aside his per formance “at National Con. ference, when he tailored each

Livingstone, we were breathlessly informed “has speech 1o the tastes of his aureturned to form... firmly diences, left, right or centre

Fealigning himselt with the Left and establishing his credentials, as “our most articulate Spokesperson."

Really! What about Benn, Hetfer, Skinner, Scargill? think Whoever wrote the caption tcannot have read the interview unless Briefing has suddenly ‘eveloned am anexpected sense of irony

Fred Naylor, ideological mentor to the Dewsbury Parents, began a recent

Ken Livingstone is a cynical ‘opportunist, who during his ‘days at the GLC betrayed every important. manifesto commit- ‘meat, eventually throwing in is Jot seth the soft let

Finding this collapse under him, he is now making a cynical bid for the leadership in order 10 ‘mount a challenge to Kinnoc

‘Briefing does no service 10 its

Fred Naylor, Ronald Butt and Ray Honeyford. We now find that we have no effective,

otot the'Tines Eaves. Seto save of ta tion Supplement with: “itis not only Labour's Lett Tig tdeera Ooeey war oe wean “ey casera. te Perens ee etree cece ee ae easges oa ete ae Geen ee Te Bos Ge OG Rig oetees eee ele eens | agen meee Oi ee omnes ee Sr ke sce’ by sineiewaees eamneroat sats aetna as srts: tetten em tee Fee ers ee Se ee Seeger eee intr at ty Head a serail be pieps rare Taeetty oe ae ae

‘Send snippets and info to

Greg Bassett, Periscope.

PO Box 457, London SW2 uz

When in Seronpeue euBe te eomecteet eee ae

‘Council meeting of September 2nd, at which the cus package ‘was finaly voted through: no oube wel aware that her former mipporters from Broad ‘wacer Farm would be present Signa there chant of “Berm — Judes" could not be msinter

Hor aie merchants were thick on he ground in Chesterfield, no one's surprise. The award for the most Nagranty bogus thetorial claim must 39 60 MP Bernie Grant. who. exceeded feven the widest aesercons of

ES RCP in his speech co the preted. eS =< Plugging the eae ese

‘ence enraged by his recent Support for cuts in Haringey Councils and challenged by Ted Knight — ‘Grane chose timply to deny the ‘whole affair

Dospite a break-even budget ‘proposed by. the staf, Labour Weekly has beer shut down by the NEC

ee never voted ‘even members for cuts." he chimed. withthe oi ageiver tne necpeeal breath-taking audacity of the “tay Sean even

born-again careers To set the record straight: Grane persistently stacked Steve King and Martha ‘Qsamor's attempts to lead the Council down the no-cuts road of defiance

(On July 13h in fll Counel, he Voted againse the Labour Group's ‘motion and for the right wing's 3% cuts motion.

Be bothered to farm up tn Sng ateonee of Labour Wookig. Ponty mame Selon ‘sonforencae in seefing intends © pig the exp. in race outraged four" weokiy junkies Gould 0 wtred ts Ac Se crtel Groep mening of uDeTIbe to Briefing at Sepeember 15th. Grane vored with your subs money

he metas co cemre | RD JOUr ube money Scag aatarte Since fall Way’ through te

readers by endorsing his claims To exchange Kinnock for Livingstone is like swopping ‘Tweedledum for Tweedledee ‘By all means let the left put ‘up a candidate to challenge the present leadership, but make Sure that candidate is a person

{3 the licensed buffoon of the Tv, a medium for which his honey charm is ideally suited. Paula Watson, ‘Westminster

An incredible history

Further to review of Ken Livingstone's ‘book, I would like 10 underline some’ of the glaring falsificatHons of history which have been printed in Ken's account of his "ise to power and fame.

in the concluding pages, Ken desperately. tries to" pass the responsibifiy for the atc ‘capping fiasco onto Joha Mebonnell, the former deputy leader of the GLC, claiming that he (that is Ken) had been misinformed abou! the true financial position of the GLC, ‘and that only John McDonnell had been informed.

‘This story isso incredible, so manifestly untrue that even a review in Tribune finds his version of events to be untenable. London Labour Briefing, Socialist Organiser, Labour

‘Heraid and the ten. comrades who held firm during this shab~ by episode are all eraicised for daring to challenge the politics of compromise — and sell out

‘The brutal truth is that the

fon earth has happened 10 | Charlie Rossi, Deirdre Wood, and Merle Amory, to mention bbut a few missing persons — ‘one might ask!

"Among those referred to is myself, where Iam converted into. one of the chief “reac: tonaries of the "73-77 GLC ‘administration.

rhe innocent reader might ‘well be forgiven for imagining me to have been the leader, deputy leader, chair of policy land resources, chair of finance = or at least — the chief whip uring that period!

Ken bleats about the GLC's 1973-1977 cuts, conveniently overlooking the’ fact that the’ Chief architects of the GLC cuts) ‘during that period were Ityd) Harrington (deputy leader) and | Harvey Hinds (chief whip) who ‘were the very people who both Fcltated and hoisted him to [power over the hapless Andrew Mackintosh! What on earth is he complaining about!”

As far as ILEA is concerned, Ken’s selective reporting of his ‘much publicied medial opposition t0 the ILEA cuts of Sir Ashley Bramall, again conve fieatly overlooks the fact that ‘when ‘Charlie Rossi (who is ‘bon-person in the book) and 1 tried to do something about the ILEA cuts by proposing a motion to restore them in carly 1981, Ken refused to suppor it ‘on the grounds that it might rock the boat! — and this from Kea!

‘Ken would be well advised to take a break, and stop attacking somades on the left. His own record on:

1. voting to double the fares after the Denning Judgement:

2. his abject performance in front of the Queen at the ‘Thames barrier;

3 his disastrous handling of the rate-capping_fiasco_ from ‘which we are sill suffering today;

‘and 4. his current failure to ‘condemn outright his LCC frends in Brent, Haringey, Lambeth, etc., foF the swings ing cuts in services which be defended so vociferously in the

tional Federation of Self. employed and Small Businesses, “the Royal Institute of | Chartered

Kinnock “no sell-out” shock

Heary promotion, the hard sel topeaity, and mesieuabie free

ain’t a-

changin’

Comparisons between the ‘rash of "29 and the orash of 87 may be misleading or even dangerous, Dut one similarity oannot. be Staputed: in both cases. the pillare of the estabiishment rushed to defend the market from Fadioal eritiiem of any kind, a2 can be seen in this ‘comment’ from the front page of the Now York Times of October 25m, 1920.

‘Confidence in the sound. ‘pees of the stock market

+ structure, notwitnstan. ing the upheaval of the Ist tow days, was voiced last night by bankers and other “finaieial leadere Sentiment as expressed by the heads of some of the largest ‘banking. in stkutions and” by inSustrial executives as well was distinctly cheerful and the fesling as general that the worst haa Deen. seen. Wall Strest ended the day in an op Eimiotio frame of mind “The opinion of brokers was ‘unanimous that the sell Ing had got out of hand Bot beoalise ‘of any in. herent weakness in the market,

CONTACT BRIEFING

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Trade Union Briefing, Youth Briefing, Student Briefing, Lesbian & Gay Briefing, Briefing Women and International Briefing,

Briefing Editorial Board:

Next meetings: Friday 13th November, Thursday 19th November, Friday 27th November.

Briefing Steering Committee: Next meeting: Sunday December 6th: NOTE 11.30 am is revised starting time.

Deadline for articles:

Issue no. 52 {out November 25th): notify EB as soon as possible, all articles in by Tuesday November 17th,

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Labour Briefing No, 51 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 13

Reviews

Book review

Black

struggle in the USA

Racial Formation in the United States: from the 1960s to the 19805, by Michael Omi and Howard Winnant, Routledge & Keegan Paul

Recently black act as Manning Marable, and now Winnant and Omi, have alfempted to examine the changing contours of racism and black liberation in the United States over the past ‘two and a half decades.

Racial Formation explains how, in the: '60s, race occupied centre ‘stage of ‘American polities in an unprecedented manner with a mass-based proletarian resistance, and how it fused with and’ provided impetus for other social movements such as gay liberation, the Women's movement, and the Vietnam solidarity ‘movement

The book then proceeds Ubrough the 1970s, the years of uiescence and decline, with the unravelling of the movement into various strands: eleccoraljsm/instrutionalism, a marginalised ” Marxist-Leninist Current, and the isolationism of. ‘he cultural nationalist

“The book is steomgest in its analysis of the past decade of Feaction, detailing the efforts of the far ih, "New Right” and that the evonomic and political dislocation of the "70s. were

understood racially. ‘Omi and Winnant show that racial sues were high of the ‘agenda of those forces seeking 2 ightward realignment in US politics. The plethora of ‘teanisations, resentment fel by the skilled blue collar and ower middle clase has an ‘ominous familiarity to readers in Britain, casting a glance over their shoulders at Dewsbury

By Shahid Tilley Haringey Labour Briefing

The authors also atiempt 10 construct an alternative model Of race/racism which em Phasises the social nature of Erace’, its historical Mlexilty, and the secondary imporianc Of physical characteristics in Setermining i. This is welcome fn light of the right’s use of cod: ed language (eg. missing, innerity, reverse-racism, and alien-cultare) which makes litle specific reference to race at all

"The book does noe fully ex plain: why racism is such Strong motor force in the first place, one capable of mobilising [powerful resentment, and this s fan inadequacy. There is also an Absence of any acount of the Hise of neo-conservative ‘lements within the black com ‘munity, and of their relation Shinto: that community as ‘whole and to the state.

The book will be useful nonetheless in helping to break down the parochialism which is 4:0 deeply embedded in the heart, of the British left

The radical Shelley rediscovered

Briefing readers deterred by the very thought of watching an hour-long Sunday night televised lecture by Paul Foot on the poetry and politics of Perey Bysshe Shelley missed a rare opportunity to hear the (original!) Chartists’ favourite poet recited with some of the revolutionary passion with which he wrote.

Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and the poet’s wife, commented after his death:

“Shelley... believed that f clash between the two classes of society was inevitable and he eagerly ranged himself on the people's side.

Expelled from Oxford for publishing a pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Aetheism, denounced and isinherited by his aristocratic father, and pilloried in the conservative Dress, Shelley placed his hopes for change not in middle class social reformers but in:

The Spirit that lifts the slave before his lord Stalks through the capitals of armed kings,

‘And spreads bis ensign in

By Mike Marqusee Haringey Labour Briefing

the wilderness.

In his visionary epic The Revolt of Islam, he imagined a day’ when:

earth's immense and

irampled multitude

In hope on their own

powers began to look In the same poem he raises another question with a dramatic resonance in our ‘own time:

‘Can man be free if woman

bbe a slave?

Chain one who lives, and

breathes this boundless

To the curruption of a closed grave!

Can they whose mates

are beasts, condemned 10

bear

Scorn, heavier far than

toil or anguish, dare

To trample their

‘oppressors?

On television and in print, Paul Foot has done an admirable job of rescuing Shelley from the literary conspiracy which hhas sought to silence this radical poet's real voice for over a hundred years.

BOOK REVIEW

“The formation of the revolut

ary leadership" 1926

The murals of Diego Rivera

In his book My Life. My Art, Diego Rivera, the revolutionary Mexican artist, explained the purpose of his vast public murals:

“to reproduce the pure basic images of my land. 1 wanted my painting to reflect the social life of Mexico as | saw it, and through my vision ‘of the truth to show the masses the outline of the future

Fresco

In his fresco cycle in the agricultural college in Chapingo, near Mexico city, painted between 1924-1928, Rivera depicted Mexico's

egrarien revolution, and took as his theme the dictum of the peasant fevolutionary, Emiliano Zapata:

“Here it is taught to exploit the land, not the

The panel from the Chapingo cycle above is entitled “The Formation of the Revolutionary Leadership” and is reproduced in an excellent new book The Murals of Diego Rivera, published by Journeyman Press, £12:95 in paperback

There is an exhibition of Rivera's work (mainly smaller easel paintings) at the Hayward Gallery in London until January 10th 1988.

Smiths Disband:

“Dream of a Sunday Aftemoon in the Alameda”, detail 1947

The

|The recent announceIment that The Smiths have disbanded is lprobably the most |significant event in popular culture since |the Sex Pistols burst lonto TV screens ten years ago.

The Smiths encapsulated a particular attitude |generated by a particular lsocial system at a particular moment in history.

Emerging from the industrial wastelands of Manchester in 1982, their jsongs articulate the frustrations of working jclass youth who have known nothing but Thatcher

SS SS SESE

For these youth. the times __They saw mainstream pop ‘fe ise aronopciess a fect which as sterleand dvarced tom Who can miss the comedy Goes come way towne storking cass exponence, As in “Griend In'a Coma Seaicatng te group fom Mowrssey singsin "Pan, "“Unheppy Birthday or the the accustoon Sat hey offer theirmont successful single, ines fom “There # Light no hope snd thorafore toca! “hangithe dj'cos the music that Never Goes. Out to socalst action that they constantly Sand a ten ton truckklls oveath the depressing _play/says nathng to me the both of usto de by your surface, the songe Sbout my ine" Sdelthe pleasure and the Sctronstste a more subtle "The Sit freely borrowed privilege i mine’? hd positive ideology in iomueetoower er Perheps li the end The operon storing class Cute of tho Smtharhad to Geband 1850s" n ths way they ikay Boca a panic ot By William West ‘fe presom by returang to'@ Bank Show, Moriasay, Haringey Labour “golden era" of working: ss ose that “‘the death of cseness, whet ths signla the death Lesion acknowledging not only the ‘of popular music."” Mnpossioiey of auch afetum, The Smith took on all the The bond reacted against butalso that such an ers.” cliches of pop and turned the “ator” syrirome probably never excted in the them inside out to show how regurgitated by the pop fist place Teoiculous and explotatve the ands ofthe cay “Bos But allthis analysis ignores whole system ia, They Hence the overly orc the real humour of The pushed pop to the brits tener aeitie merged Sethe: ets mae ood The Chen tony by deeds scifi areceier oom ty Rarteey meee rectcbact tut onlepary/ ae hase

Labour Briefing No, S1 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 14

International Briefing

A LITTLE-KNOWN SOCIETY:

Visit to Albania

‘This should quell any suggestions that Labour Briefing is Londoo-centric! Here we begin an occasional series of Socialist Travellogues, with GLENN SUTHERLAND, Norwood CLP, recording his impressions of Albania, Dismissed

sometimes by the left, even to the point of provi ‘with material, very little is known about this vi

ing Alternative Comedian Alexei Sayle tually closed society; yet there is much to

study about the way a Stalinist state can survive, with apparent popular support.

‘We welcome contributions 10 Soc

ist Travellogue from all Briefing readers.

We crossed the border from Yugoslavia into Albania in the middle of the night.

At first, we were all

ently apprehensive — not

least because we were welcomed on the Albanian side by searchlights and border guards with Chinese uniforms (complete with red starred caps)

and Kalashnikov rifles.

Of course, we had all heard the stories about tourists being turned away form — Albania because of their clothes, and of men getting beards shaved off and hair cut before being allowed in.

‘Our fears proved groundless. We left the Border post minus a few English "guidebooks to Albania, but with the same ‘amount of hair (facial and ‘otherwise) and in the same dishevelled state in which we had left Yugoslavia.

(On the wall of the border post (all faded elegance and crumbling plaster) was @ large slogan in English:

"Even if we have f0 20 without bread, we Albanians do not violate principles. We donot betray Marxism. Leninism — Enver Hoxha.

‘Although the principles which guide the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA) may have Title todo with "Marxism | or {eninism, the Albanian people

have undeniably made enormous sacrifices, both before

economic self-sufficiency.

‘Apparently, these sacrifices are made more or less willingly, fand the results, at least on the economic level, are impressive

‘Before Liberation, Albania was a semi-feudal society which hhad been ruled, directly or indirectly, by foreign powers since the founding of the first Albanan state in 1444,

‘What few industries had

developed there were wholly owned by Italian capitalists Italian landowners owned ali the most fertile land on the ‘coastal plain, and even this land consisted “mainly of malarial swamps.

Immediately after liberation, the Albanian Communist Party later to become the PLA) em barked on a crash programme ‘of building hydro-electric power Stations and draining the coastal Swamps.

"Today, the whole country has clectricity and 40% of the power produced in the hydro-electric Sations is exported. The swamp Srainage has led to 2 huge increase in land productivity and hhas eradicated’ malaria, which used to be the main killer disease

‘Arcolural exports include tobacco, cotton, grapes, an: tice, Albania also exports coppet; iron, steel, cobalt and oil It {5 the second ‘biggest producer ‘of chrome in the world — after South Attica,

From about 1SO0AD, when the Turkish armies overran the ‘country, until the Liberation in 1944, "Albania "was the only Muslim country in Europe. ‘There were (0 main religious ‘minorities: an ancient’ Roman Catholic. community, in the North of the country, and a more recent. Greek Orthodox ‘minority in the South

Banned

During the war-time occupa: tion the leaders ofall thee main, Teligions collaborated ‘with the Fascists and actively "worked against the Partisans who even: tually liberated the country.

‘AS a result, large sections of the population turned against the taditional religions

Copper wire factory —- Shkoder. The gist of the slogan above the main entrance 's “Learn from and implement the historic, Gocisions oF the hint Congress oF ™NO PLA

‘According to the official version, support for religion steadily declined and it was officially abolished in 1967. All the re ‘maining churches and mosques were closed and religious Ser Vices were banned.

in recent years churches and mosques of “cultural interest” brave been renovated and opeaced as museums, whereas those ‘of no “cultural interest” are used.as meeting. halls, sports labs ete

‘Apparently there are still believers among the older ‘generation, but there does not ‘Seem to be much of a movement to legalise religion. Iris imporfant to remember that the average age of the Albanian ‘population is only 26, so most ibanians were children when feligion was abolished in 1967,

‘Much of our time in Albania

‘were compulsory and we had plenty of free time to wander ‘round on our own and try (0 {alk to ordinary Albanians.

Racism

‘The Albanian language is a direct descendant from ancient

lyrian and bears no relation to other European or Near Eastecn languages. Not surprisingly, ‘none of us spoke any Albanian, iy in French or English

Language teaching in the schools and universities appears to be excellent. My grammar twas frequently corrected — both in French and English!

‘Understandably, in a country with such a long history of Toceign domination, extreme nationalism is widespread and is sometimes expressed inthe form Of virulent anti-Slay and anti ‘Greek racism. There seems io be real mass support for the PLA land the government which canfnot be unconnected with its Xenophobic polices.

“Alot of resources are put into traditional Albanian cultural ac tivities and crafts, and feudal lords who fought against the ‘Turks in the sth century are regarded as national heroes.

Support

The PLA’s mass support must also be due to the lack of ‘any political alternative. The of ficial history of the PLA is

repleted with successful strug shes against “Trotskyite genes", “Kruschevite revi

Sioniss* and “British/ Amer cam spies” in the bureaucracy, power struggles mosth

pared ‘with the sears. before Liberation is also a big factor in the PLA’s popular support. The average industrial and ‘Sericultural wage is 0D Leks (bout £40) per month. Bread costs | Lek (about 8p) per ilo.

count, food prices in real terms are probably lower than those in Britain

By ln’ the highest wae fe

Party headquarters — Tiran8. Above the building is written “‘Glory to the PLA”.

‘any enterprise can oniy be a maximum of twice the lowest wage. At the slate farm we Visited in Kavaje, south west of {the capital Twrané, the manager received 1,000 Leks per month ‘and the labourers $00 Leks.

“Anyone with a disability, chronic illness, or injury which prevents him or her from work- {ng will receive a pension of 75% of his or her previous working sage.

Materaity leave consists of ight weeks off work and a fur ther 10-12 weeks on half time, all on 100% wages. Children 20 {fo free state nurseries from birth to the age of four, when education Begins.

Labour Officially there is_no unemployment. We did,

however, see three or four children’ in Tirané going through dustbins for something to eat. Clearly there is a small ‘section of the population which falls outside the social security system, but we were unable 10 find out why or how this comes bout.

‘Although the population has neatly doubled since Liberation,

Ubédl Execitide Offices ~ Dirres. The slogan reads:

and now stands at 3 million, there isa chronic shortage of labour

Arps, which cay the largest employer, iss mostly ‘on-mechanised. Trac tors are rare, and. most transport is by Rorse and cart, ‘The cotton and tobacco harvests are gathered by hand, mostly by

Divorces

Because of the shortage of labour (and, presumably, as a form of social contro)’ large families are encouraged. Premarital sex is illegal — although rarely punished: the male is Fegarded as the guilty party automaticaly. Similarly, homosexuality. is illegal but rarely punished

Divorces, while legal, are aiccouraged. Only 0.7% of mar: Hlages end in divorce, the only grounds for which is “mutual ncorppatibility”.

“The labour shortage is also made up by scheduling one third (of school students" time for “productive labour", which usually takes the form of unpaid agricultural work

‘The other two thirds of

students’ time at schoo! is taken up. ith traditional education and miliary and physical training. "By. the time they. leave school Albanian students know how to clean, assemble and shoot @ variety. of small-arms, and” are familiar with. the Theoretical side of guerilla

Every man does two years n tonal service and there is also 8 large professional ar

‘Albania’s population is well armed, with most families in possestion of a least one rifle or Shotgun, The fields ae liberally Scattered. with pill-boxes and ‘ther gun emplacements. While it is striedy forbidden to take Photographs of military. inSallatons, it is. virtually. impossible not to!

Tleft “Albania with regret, having only scratched the sur” face of a country which is all ‘oo Tittle understood.

AAs socialists, we have a duty to study and learn the lessons from states where capitalism has been abolished, but workers’ democracy is non-existent. It is ogrettable that Albania, as a particularly “pure” form of Stalinist state, is largely ignored by British socialists,

“Lbag live the hinth congress of the PLAY

Labour Briefing No. $1 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 15

International Briefing

An interview with Alexander Cockburn

The other side of the special relationship

ALEXANDER COCKBURN is now widely recognised as America’s leading left-wing journalist and a much-feared scourge of Reagan's corps of tame intellectuals, journalists, and bureaucrats.

A collection of his writings charting, amongst other things, the rise and decline of the Great Communicator and his epigones, entitled Corruptions of Empire, has just been published by Verso and is highly recommended to anyone interested in the contours of the US political landscape.

Briefing supporters DAVE PALMER and MIKE MARQUSEE interviewed Cockburn on his recent visit (0 Britain. In this first instalment, Cockburn discusses the stock market crash and its implications for the US ruling class.

In the folloy

ig instalment, to be published

the next issue of Labour

Briefing, Cockburn analyses the prospects for the American left.

Briefing: Le’s start with the Stock Market crash sit the abSolute end of Reaganism Cockburn: Fits, it the stock Inavket self, there was major : Is it exactly like 19297 There fave leamed a bit. The day after Black Monday" the Federal Reerve announced that i trould support iquicity, unlike Inthe ‘early "30s, wen they denied liquidity.

Bur if you go back and look at history there was a recovery ater 29. the real crash came in's2, So what one would ex: pect at the moment wild pswings and dowaswings

Boom

‘The second thing to realise is tat the Reagan boom was always a mirage. If) you

leulate in eeal terms, using a onstant dollar, if you take the average Dos Jones Index for 1965, which was the peak of the post-war American boom i is 10% higher than the peak of the Reagan boom in August 87,

So you can’s say. there has been 2 huge capitalist surge ‘under Reagan. In fact, there has been fairly steady decline. (LF Stone (Venerable voice of the American left), 10 his great Shame, and a lot of so-called ‘nfberal"" Democrats are now calling for austerity” and bel fighlening. “Stone said “we could do with a dose of much heeded aunterity in the sivle oF

Brazil or Argentina.”

A lot of Democrats, and a of columnists from’ the meoliberal centee right, are making these calls for austerity and balanced budgets, all of which in my siew will induce a severe

Deficit

The deficit, for example, ac counts for about 68% of GNP. You can't remove 6% of spea: ding in the economy without ia- ‘credible effeces. The fact that a ‘major faction of Democratic ‘pinion, including, I believe, ‘Fackson, is calling for balancing ihe budget i an indication of the primitivism of the political spectrum in America

The old Reapan supply siders, who do at Feast know that you don't try ro balance a budget and raise taxes in the middle of a delicate market Situation are caught in an inCredibfe bind. On the one hand the economy in America i not song.

Logie

“The market has gone steadily down since the mid'60s. Real family income has gone down; real wages have gone down. The only thing keeping the whole balloon afloat is enormous per~ sonal and national debt.

Logic would ditate that they should lower interest rates 20d increase money supply 10 increase demand.

Manoeuvre

But they are caught in a con: tradiction between irying t0 i Fate the economy, on the one hand, and on the other keeping foreign investors in the country "which requires high interest rates. They have very litle room for manoeuvre

Briefing: 1s there 2 contradic tiom between America’s role a5 ‘world policeman with its conse- ‘quent nuge miliary spending {Ind ifs financial indebtedness (9 everyone else? ‘Cockburn: { disagree with many fon the feft who say military Spending iin iself bad for the economy. If you g0 10 Los Angeles County. where 10% of all US military production takes place, the wealth is obvious ‘Clearly you can argue that ia the longcrm military spending distorts the whole shape of the ‘economy, apart from the immorality ‘of arms product ut military spending is the backbone of the Reagan boom.

Cockburn: Military spe seral to Tate American captalism. The Democrats

can't cut it, Without political ‘candidates coming outwith a ‘socialist programme of massive ‘wealth redistribution and a ‘major socialist assault on 1 American economy, we don't have a prayer of converting our miliiary-based economy” %0 anything else

"You can't say cut_military spending and build "roads, houses, and. hospitals and everything’ will be all right. It ‘won't be-all right unless you also say we must have an absolute redistribution of weal centralised planning — the ‘hole socialist menu

The Democrats are about (0

‘mistake of 84

The American people told him 10 get lost. Now they are doing the same thing again ‘The Democrats end up sounding like bankers, like the IMF.

Briefing: Will this breed pressures for protectionism and ‘Cockburn: There are enormous pressures. for protectionism. The UAW (United Workers Association) has lost a large part of its membership and they ‘bow call for protectionism. The Republican sites are against it, but the Democrats are Tliing with ie,

But they do remember what happened in the early "30s and they know that protectionism is a disaster. It can't be a proper Suaegy for American capitalism.

Crazy

To sum up: the economy is not in good shape. They are going to have a recession and the measure of is depth will be dictated by what they do. If chey have a recession there will be problems for the banks because All the loans they have out are under serious pressure. From Thatcher through Kobl to the Japanese the US's allies are all saying Reagan must do Something about the deficit They are crazy. It Reagan docs

LCI Employment Discrimination Conference

A section fram the front cover of Alexander Cockburn’s book

‘Corruptions of Empire something about the deficit there will be @ huge crash.

Briefing: Where does that leave the "Special Relationship” bet- ‘ween Britain and the US? ClearTy It has now gone into reverse

‘gear. Cockburn: The Special Relationship is under pressure in a umber of ways, First, the ‘mythic lineaments ofthe special {lationship — Thatcher and Reagan as the prince and princess of ‘revived capital, Striding up the isle of endless prosperity — has now been pro- ¥ed to be horseshit

1 always thought that the difference between Reagan and Thatcher was that Reagan promised joy and Thatcher promis- ‘ed pain. Now if you promise joy ‘and people are to longer jostul thea’ you've obviously failed. That's what's happened to

Reagan, ‘Other factors have changed. Gorbechey is. clearly not

Labour needs an answer to King’s cosmetic measures

Kevin McNamara, Labour's jpposition ‘Spokesperson on Northern Ireland, will be giving the ‘opening address to the trade union conference on Employment Discrimination in Northern Ireland. ‘The Conference will also be addressed by Sean McBride, who helped formulate the McBride Prin. ciples on employment discrimination in the North.

Glaring

‘The overall title of the Con ference, “ireland: The Cause of Labour?" is especially apt in view of the Labour Party Conference's recent rejection — albeit by under a million bloc votes ~ of the composite Condemning the glaring denial fof basic human and civil liber tes in the six countios

“The Conference will discuss how wo can win a majority at next year's TUC and Labour

Party conferences on this issue. Among the contributors will be John Caroll (General President of the fish TGWU), Noiteen Green (Executive member of the IT&GWU from the North}, Oliver Carney (Fair Employment Trust), Christine Crawley, MEP, Clare Short MP. and Ken Livingstone, MP. who will make the closing remarks,

By Patrick Sikorski NUR

The scores of delegations already registered Include the South Wales Area NUM, the Durham. Mechanics NUM, over a dozen Trades Councils {and Divisional or District Com mmittees, and numerous Com Suituency Labour Parties.

Employment. discrimination was ‘of course one of the original. grievances _ which touched off the present period of struggle by Northern Rationatsts

Almost twenty yeers on. the structural nature of | job Giscrmmination hes not. been fackled. Behind Tom King’s Blot snd bluster and his te cent launch of 3 "new" in iative against discrimination the basie facts remain the The rate of unemployment for CotholicsNationalists has varied between two and two and a half times that of the Protestant/Unionist popul

Unskilled

The tormer ste over represented in unskilled and under paid grades, despite an annual tumover_of 100,000 jobs in the Six Counties Mrepresentng some 20% of the workforce) and despite 2 gradual levelling of educa: Slonal attainment between the

The Tory government is only making this new cosmetic ef. fort because the campaign for the adoption of the McBride

ete pe OER

Principles lespecialiy in. the nites States) has forced the Issue into the open

King's exercise is nothing new. in the "70s, the Van Straubenzes Report led the Labour government to pass the Fair Employment Act and establish the Fair Employment Agency.

Toothless

The initial report called tor the use of statistics for pur poses of “monitoring, ‘and establishing gosls and Umetables. By ignoring this ‘Semand, Labour rendered the legislation toothless from the

‘The new Tory proposals are no ‘different. Reference 10 ‘Gaols and timetables is contin. ‘9d to the supplementary docu- ‘ment (Guide to Effective Prac {ice} but only in relation to job applications, thus excluding ‘Stfirmative action from hiring, taining, transfer, or promo. ton. There is ne legal obliga tion to implement-anything in

the guide

Furthermore, the details of the proposals for “contract compliance” make it clear that the 8,000 firms which have signed the present . sham Declaration of Principle and Intent Ge. which qualifies them for goverament grants) ‘wil simply be transferred to 8 register of signatories of the new Declaration of Practice, ‘which will be deemed suff Cient evidence of "contract compliance

Brezhnev. The whole relation ship between East and West Is changing very rapidly

‘Will any ew administration in America see the essentials of the ‘Special Relationship ina few way? don’t think so, One Of the rockhard elements in late capitalist ideology in America is the Adlantic relationship. is largely determined ‘by politics rather than economics.

Brlefing: The inks between ‘Thatcherism and Reaganis are

lose, not only economically but

in victually ‘every aspect of

social and political policy. = Cockburn’: It is closeness not

foaly of speculative capital but

also of the intelligentsia, There

is'a very self-conscious cohort

of intellectuals who. are con:

Stautly. refreshing each other

‘with mutual admirations. and

Shared” ideological objectives

‘These are self-conscious efforts

to form a trans-Atlantic ruling

slase,

Nobody looking at this sorry story can be left in any doubt that only principled and con: sistent opposition. from. the labour movement can force ef fective action

But first tho labour move: ment in Britaif’ (and its ‘300,000 affliated members in the North) must get its own house in order — and at least ‘get its policy right.

The Conference on November 28th will be an im: portant step in this direction.

predictable. The potential for'8

Ireland: the Cause of Labour?

A trade union conference on employment discrimination in Northern Ireland

Saturday November 28th

The Camden Centre

Bidborough St, London WCL

(opposite St Pancras Station) Contact: Labour Committee on Ireland, BM Box 6355, London WC1N 3XX

unui sadaatel alenaaaat: tiaras,

all

Labour Briefing No, $1 Nov 10th-24th 1987 page 16

Sinn Fein Ard-fheis

‘The 83rd Annual Conference (Ard-fheis) of Sinn Fein took place in Dublin from October 30th to November 1: It was hardly the sort of gathering that those who epict Irish Republicanism fs an apolitical, gue-loving, blood.

tion would

t There was Tittle of the leadership-worship associated with the Tory and inereasingly with Labour Party Conferences, even less of the emotionalism which is meant to characterise Irish nationalism, and there was ino attempt to hide the reality that Sinn Fein’s struggle will be long and arduous. Instead, the Ard-fheis got down 16 the routine tasks of developing and articulating {set of economic and social policies.

The wide-ranging discussions

covered "democratic socialist” proposals for youth, education Fealth, emigration, »peivatse: tion, agriculture, fisheries, trade ‘unions and unemployment.

But for the delegates the maint priorities for Sinn Fein over the feet twelve months will centre fe discrimination in the North ff Ireland ‘and extradition of political offenders from the South of freland to the North or Britain

"The resolution passed at the AArii-fheis sii the proposals on ‘tradition as the vlumate in Sollaboration with the British poverment™ and “the most ab Jet surrender io. British emands yet™- Both the résolu tios and speakers 10 it pointed ‘out thar those who had formed, 8 years ago, the party which

i¥4aMOd JHL 3WVL—HNOSVT

By Geoff Bell National Council, Labour Committee on Iretand

o"hianoa Fall — would have Cider the measures the leh

Indeed, the leader of Fianna Fail and Taoiseach (Premicr) ould himeslt be extradited

Of his alleged involve c early 1970s

Although the Irish govern iment Han ett implement the extradition proposals the indica tion is that sooner or later they will do s0. And there i litle doubt that if they do, i wil not be just Irish republicans who Sit suffer, but also Trish Sovereignty

"As Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams MP_pointed out it is ‘one more consequence of the ‘Anglo-rish Agreement, which tras meant to give the South Ihove influence ithe North of ireland bot which is ending up siving Britain more influence in fhe South.

But if Britain faces lit tained opposition from the Ie povernment oa the blems ‘over the an-Catholic {in the North of Irland

The MacBride cam the United States — whic Stressed the need Tor those i

Nesting in the North to ensure theres equality of employment there —— is creating major if

ficulties for the British. Sinn Fein Bas now come out with its ‘own detailed proposals — the ‘iscrimination quesion i mow threatening to upset more than ‘one Beitish applecar.

The Sinn Fein leadership argued that because of the priority given to the extcaition [nd discrimination issues, other Campaigns could not be taken fp. Specifically, they” spoke Against resolutions calling on Sinn Fein actively to participate in defending the Fight to give in formation on abortion, although the leadership did state

its full support for such eights.

‘This debate was one of the most heated, with the leader ‘Ship's position eventually being carried.

Even with the heat this debate caused, the over-riding impres- ‘Son of the Conference was a proletarian attendance and. ‘Setermination to continue Sinn Feia’s politcal development.

Continued from front page

recent increase in industrial accidents or stop the haemorrhage of inspectorate staff into the private sector.

‘@Arts, museums,libraries, scientific research have been consigned to the back-burmer for years. Now the flame hhas been cut off for the foreseeable future. Arts Minister Luce’s generosity te the Arts Council is a cover-up for the much more significant decimation of arts and libraries at Local Authority level.

‘eThe £45 million “windfall” investment in housing ‘comes eatirely from unexpectedly high income from “right te buy” council howse sales and will not make the slightest deat in Britain's housing crisis.

‘@For the fourth time in five years the Treasury's contribution te the National Insurance fund is cut, this time by £650 million. Although this is only possible because of increased income from employee/employer contributions, no reduction in contributions is even considered. Instead, the unexpected extra cash will probably be used to subsidise tax cuts.

‘@At £19.2 bilion, the defence budget, though cut by ‘some 3% in real terms (as compared to the 5% eut originally planned for this year) remains larger than transport, environment, housing and-industry budgets combined, larger than ‘the education budget and just short of the total health budget, and 2 staggering 12.25% of planned public

"eCiearly, the Tories do believe in “throwing money” at some problems, 2s ilustrated by their plans to “invest” ‘several hundred millon pounds, in over 21,000 new prison places in the next few years, and their big new subsidies te the electricity and water industries — fattening up the goose for a big privatisation sell-off next year.

‘©A3% rise in electricity prices next year {followed by a tise for water) to make privatisation more attractive and

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raise Treasury revenues is simply a backdoor tax Increase with no useful soci

‘@Lawson's 70p “floor peculiar form of renationali . the bill and yet gains neither income nor control) gives the fie to his claim that the “‘soundness” of the British economy protects it from the crisis in America.

For once the stock markets may be more in tune with reality than either ministers or financial commentators, who keep ‘scratching their heads and asking why,if all is well in Britain, is everyone getting so panicky about America.

The painful is that US efforts to correct its budget and trade deficits — or failure to do so — will inevitably resound on European economies. Already Lawson has admitted that overall UK economic growth will fall next year from 4% to 2%. The balance of payments deficit will rise from £2.5 billion to £3.5 billon — which, in turn, only disguises what is now a £9 billion deficit in manufacturing trade.

‘The Treasury figures — on the basis of which Lawson forecasts “sustained growth and steadily rising living stan-

growth in the volume of world exports, steady oil even a stable exchange rate! What is Labour's answer to oturight capitalist banditry? John Smith, a dismal flop in his debut appearance as Shadow Chancellor, asks meekly “Is this not the opportunity to cut interest rates?” ©0n Question Time, Jack Straw finds himself inadvertantly defending the Reaganomic of high military spending. @Kinnock tries to make “statesman-like” noises about international co-operation amongst capitalists. it, it seems, Labour's response to the current : jdvocate — in measured tones, of cours kind of unplanned world-wide spending spree, coupled with the utterly uncovincing assertion that a Labour government Sin thing much better.

is catalogue of fraud and

world capitalist system. Now is the time for Labour — in the Commons and outside — to pose the only practical native to it: a planned economy based on public ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange.