~ Australasian '-

Number 112 August/September 1985 30 cents Black Masses Defiant, Class Battle in Mines • o rica , •

AUGUST 3 - On 20 July, apartheid were killed when police opened fire fuhrer president P W Botha declared a on a crowd of 400 demonstrators in "state of emergency" in 36 black the black township of Tumahole townships and cities in South Africa. outside Parys, 75 miles south of The sweeping order includes the Johannesburg, and officially at least heavily indusUial Transvaal around 16 others have been killed. Johannesburg, and the Eastern Cape Priests,lawyers, teachers and politi­ region around the auto centre of Port cal activists were said to be among Elizabeth. Henceforth, any member of those detained as the police moved in the state security, police or military to seize people identified from lists. l1iS"ViffiiiilJy -tihltfulteo - POW-erg to According to . civil rights monitoring' arrest anyone without cause and hold groups, police took hostages - one a them incommunicado without trial for four-year-old boy - to exchange for an indefinite time. Security forces can activists they could not immediately search and seize property without find. The purpose ofthe crackdown, as warrants, seal off any of the areas, the 23 July New York Times reported, impose curfews and censor all news "seems to be to arrest everyone from the specified locations. Violators deemed capable of organising or can be punished by imprisonment for channeling dissatisfaction with apart­ ten years. heid into protests that may involve This was the first emergency decree attacks on reputed collaborators, by the South African regime since as well as labour strikes and boycotts March 1960 - a similar order in the of white-owned shops" . aftermath.of the Sharpeville massacre Police breaking into homes, death Repression sharpens (top); black miners union meeting (above). of 69 unarmed black demonstrators led squad executions of black school to the arrest of 11,503 people, and the teachers, dumping bodies in the sand engagement". In Washington, the while shedding the occasional croco­ voice of anti-apartheid protest was dunes along the Indian Ocean, hippo State Department rushed to endorse dile tear, supports his South African silenced for a decade. Since the order armoured troop carriers rolling Botha's emergency decree: "The junior partner's move to crush the was imposed, security forces have through the black townships spreading situation has deteriorated to the point black revolt, scarcely containing his arrested 1400 of the most visible terror - this is the ' 'free world that the South African Government felt appetite to do it at horne, eg the Philly opponents of the regime, now being regime" Ronald Reagan says will be compelled to institute new measures" inferno. In Australia the apartheid-like held without charge, four black people "reformed" through his "constructive (New York Times, 21 July). Reagan conditions of Aboriginals, sanctioned by the Labor government's arrogant opposition to land rights at the behest of the racist mining ~agnates, is the brutal reality behind Hawke and layden's empty moralising about Nicaragua Defies Reagan Continued on page six

Below we publish a report of a seen throughout the country: "Nic­ lation culminating in the US trade INTERVIEW WITH Spartacist supporter's recent trip aragua victoriosa, ni se vende, boycott, the determination to fight DR BERTRAM WAINER to Nicaragua. ni se rinde" (Victorious Nicaragua to defend their revolution was as won't sell out and won't give up). clear as ever. But there is a sense of MANAGUA, July 20 - More than When the threat of a US invasion loss of direction in the country. If a 500,000 people streamed into the was mentioned, hundreds of thou­ US invasion comes, they know what Carlos Fonseca Plaza yesterday to sands of voices roared back, "No to do. In poor barrios you can see Fighter for celebrate the sixth anniversary of pasaran" (They shall not pass) and hand-scrawled signs like, "Yankee the revolution which toppled a "A qui, alia, el yanqui morira" son of a bitch, we're waiting for bloody dictatorship that had ruled (Here, there, the Yankees ""ill die). you" and "The gringos and the Women's Right Nicaragua as its private fiefdom for The crowd was one of the largest reactionaries will die. Nicaragua almost half a century after being in the Nicaraguan capital since the will be Reagan's grave". But installed by the United States. overthrow of the Somoza dynasty by what is to be done now, they ask, Responding to the speech by Daniel a popular insurrection led by the except wait? to Abortion Ortega, president of Nicaragua and FSLN. If the joy of victory was worn In recent weeks, Reagan has been leader of the Sandinista National down after four years of a terrorist escalating his attacks on the Sandin­ Liberation Front (FSLN), the crowd war by the CIA's "contra" mercen­ ista regime, accusing Nicaragua of chanted the slogan which can be aries and brutal economic strangu- Continuedonpag~two SEE PAGE 4

Registered by Australia Post - Publication no NBF0710 The Nicaraguan people also have Nicaragua ••• guns. Tiny Nicaragua can never match the firepower of the Yankee colossus Continued from page one with its aircraft carriers and battle­ Donate Dollars! CruSh the Contras! ships. But to take and hold a country being part of a band of "outlaw will require armed men, and in We print below an abridged ver­ calating campaign of US-sponsored terrorist states". On the eve of the preparing their contingency plans, the sion of an appeal issued in June by terror ever since the 1979 revolution July 19 celebrations, Washington Pentagon will have to take into account our comrades of the Spartacus which overthrew the murderous delivered a secret diplomatic note to the fact that more than 2oo,OOO guns Youth League, youth section of the tyrant Somoza. They vow to fight Managua threatening reprisals against have been distributed to the popu­ Spartacist League/US. The SYL's to the last man, woman and child Nicaragua if more US soldiers are lation so far in 1985. At a ceremony fund drive to defend Nicaragua has against a Yankee invasion. We here killed anywhere in Central America. July 13 in front of hundreds of soldiers struck a sympathetic chord across "in the belly of the beast" must do After reading this insolent note to the where the promotions of more than America. We encourage readers of our part. At this critical juncture it crowd gathered in Carlos Fonseca Australasian Spartacist is imperative to take a stand in 2,000 officers of the Sandinista to contrib­ defence of the Nicaraguan Plaza, Ortega declared: "Nicaragua People's Army (EPS) were announced, ute to this campaign at the has neither practiced terrorism, nor Revolution. A contribution to the Defence Minister Humberto Ortega address below. supports terrorism, nor has it been Student Committee to Defend declared that: involved in any terrorist activity. Who From "Fort Honduras" to the US Nicaragua is part of the blew up the fuel tanks in Corinto?" he "Because of its confidence in the Army's Southcom HQ in Panama, necessary class battle against asked rhetorically. The Nicaraguans? people and in order to be better American military forces are poised Reagan reaction at home, against prepared against eventual direct inter­ "Who mined the Nicaraguan ports? for an invasion of Nicaragua. The the criminals who salute Hitler's vention, the Revolution has turned Who bombedSandino Airport? Who over, in an organized way, 170,000 US trade embargo is an act of war, SS at Bitburg and firebomb black published the CIA murder manual? AKA, G-3 and other automatic and the next step, now openly babies in Philadelphia. . .. . So who are the terrorists? ' , rifles; 25,000 mechanical rifle!> discussed by the Reagan adminis­ The SYL is assuming all adminis­ popularly known as 'macho-killers' tration, is to send in the troops. The trative costs for the campaign. Defend Nicaragua! [M-44s], about 5,000 of them prepared Spartacus Youth League has under­ Every dollar you give will go to for snipers; 40,000 BZ, PPK, M-23 taken a fund drive to raise urgently Nicaragua. Make your "anti­ Last month the press was full of and M-25 and other semi-automatic needed dollars for Nicaragua's contra"bution now! Make cheques articles about US preparations for rifles and sub-machine guns; and defence ... , payable to the Student Committee direct military intervention in Central 20,000 hunting weapon!> of all kind!>. This is no charity drive. The to Defend Nicaragua. Mail to: America. According to the New York The Revolution has handed over more Nicaraguan masses have been SYL, Box Church St Station, than 200,000 rifles in an organized 3118, Times (4 June), a leading Pentagon courageously fighting the es- New York, NY 10008, USA. expert "asserted that the Nicaraguan fashion to its people in order to defend the people's interest!> .... " people would rise up in support of an American invasion .... " They may be In addition to mass mobilization into "Tachito" Somoza fled Nicaragua. For but we have created 870 new sorely surprised. Speaking to some the army and militia, special mobile one day, a puppet "caretaker" gov­ landowners." of the hundreds of thousands who units, anti-tank and anti-helicopter ernment desperately tried to organize The petty-bourgeois Sandinistas gathered in the plaza to celebrate the units and elite special forces units an "orderly transfer of power". But a have tried to maintain their fiction of victory over Somoza, the FSLN have been created in recent months, mass insurrection surging out of the a "mixed economy", COSEP to the capital's impoverished eastern barrios contrary, as long as their hold on frustrated this attempt to realize the power is not directly threatened. In State Department's pipe dream of practice this means propping up the "Somozaism without Somoza". By the remaining capitalists - hardly the time the Sandinista troops from the program of Lenin on the eve of the Southern, Northern and Northeastern October Revolution when he called for fronts converged on the capital on July "control over the landowners and capi­ 19, Managua was already in the hands talists by the workers and peasants" of the insurgents. As the mercenary ("The Impending Catastrophe and Guardsmen fled in their Mercedes, How to Combat It", September 1917). Piper Cubs and pirated boats, the But as Ronald Reagan ups the voltage. destruction of the dictatorship meant it is becoming harder and harder for the demise of the entire state -appar­ .. the FSLN to--walk· the ·high-wife-without atus of Nicaraguan capitalism. crashing to the ground. And as the What replaced it was not •• Sandino­ local "branch office" bourgeoisie Communism" , as the Reaganites increasingly feels the effects of being claim, but a petty-bourgeois bona­ cut off from their home offices in the partist regime ofthe radical nationalist US, Bolanos' threats (at a COSEP Sandinistas. The FSLN regime was convention July 17) of "decisive based on neither the preservation of battles" will move from the realm of bourgeois private property nor estab­ talk to action. lishing the collectivized economy of a All the while, the threat of direct US proletarian state. From the first days military intervention hangs over the of their victory, the comandantes have "We Won't Sell Out, We Won't Give Upl Nicaragua Will Be Reagan's country like an incubus. Tanks are dug sought to precariously balance be­ in at the approaches to major towns Gravel" Half a million Nicaraguans In Managua's Carlos Fonseca Plaza tween the forces of imperialism and celebrate sixth anniversary of their revolution, 19 July. and cities and around key military the domestic bourgeoisie, on the one installations. Military traffic is heavy, hand, and the mass of working people revolutionary vigilance around the newspaper Barricada (20 July) asked said Humberto Ortega, "to make and the oppressed on the other. This factories and barrios is stepped up and peasants from the northern war zone every town in Nicaragua a genuine program has since been sanctified in security measures were heavy in the about the claim by a leading US intelli­ bastion, a genuine wall, so that an the Sandinista trinity of "mixed econ­ capital throughout the last week. The gence official that an invasion of eventual intervention will be met omy, political pluralism and non­ shortages and privations are taking Nicaragua would be like "falling off a house by house, block by block, street alignment", a formula which Daniel their toll on Nicaragua's small working by street". Ortega repeated once again this July log". They replied, "Let them try it. Continued on page seven Let's see ifthey have balls like us!" An armed people is key to the 19. An estimated 54 percent of indus­ defense of the Nicaraguan Revolution. try is still in private hands. But neither And the Nicaraguan people have real the Nicaraguan capitalists nor their SPARTACIST LEAGUE FORUMS gains to defend. In the field of health: American senior partners have been life expectancy has gone from 53 years much interested lately in Sandinista GPO Box 2339 GPO Box 3473 in 1979 to 60 years today; infant offers to play the game of class Melbourne, 3001 Sydney,2oo1 South Africa mortality has fallen from 121 six years collaboration. (03) 854-4315 (02)284-8195 ago to 44 per 1,000 births in 1985; The Sandinista balancing act cannot State of Siege malnutrition among children has been last, and this is already being felt in cut in half, from 68 percent to 35 the countryside. Last month, the • Smash Apartheid! Black percent. In education the illiteracy rate agrarian reform ministry (MIDINRA) Workers Must Take the Lead! has been slashed from 50 percent in took over holdings of Enrique Bolanos, ($PARTACIST ~J 1979 to 13 percent. But above all there head of the COSEP employers assoc­ Marxist two· monthly of the Spartacist League • For Union Black Bans of All was the elimination of Somoza's iation, near Managua, where a land­ of Australia and New Zealand, section of the South African Cargo! hungry peasantry has been demanding international Spartacist tendency. National Guard, that gang of pro­ EDITORIAL BOARD: Darlene Carlson, Paul fessional killers who ran the country expropriation of the hacienda owners. SYDNEY Connor (managing editor), Doug Flynn, through sheer terror. Now you can On July 16, National Agrarian Reform Andrew 15 August Uni of NSW Giannakis, Steve Hooper (editor) walk the streets day or night, and Day, MIDINRA head Jaime Wheelock CIRCULATION: Jenny Klein 1-2pm Rm 209, Mathews B!dg the police are actually polite - an distributed titles to the former Bolanos PRODUcrION: Jennifer Brown Printed by trade union labour. Registered 23 August Teachers Federation unheard of thing in this region of lands in the department of Masaya, as at GPO, Sydney for posting as a publication banana republics. well as to several other farms pur­ - Category B. Subscription $2 for 6 issues; 7pm Rm 2, 73 Bathurst St, chased from their owners. Coman­ overseas airmail $7 for 6 issues. Address MELBOURNE Complete, Extend the dante Wheelock, once head of the all correspondence to: Spartacist Publications, GPO Box 3473, Sydney, NSW, 2001. 15 August YWCA Revolution! "Proletarian Tendency" of the FSLN, vociferously denied COSEP's charges Opinions expressed in signed articles or 7pm Rm 7&8, Level 3 On June 17. all of Managua gets of communism: "Those who say we letters do not necessarily express the editorial viewpoint. 489 Elizabeth St. roaring drunk to celebrate the "Day of are enemies of property are wrong. (Chi!dcare provided) Joy" - the night when dictator Because it's true we expropriated one, Prmted by Spot Press Pty. Ltd .. 21 Ross Street Forest Lodge. 2 Australasian Spartacist he Hawke government is taking Tevery opportunity lately to show its US big brother and the ASEAN Smash Anti-Vietnam Attacks! (Association of South East Asian Nations) bloc how "tough" it is on Vietnam. By giving a green light to a spate of anti-Vietnam attacks and provocations it's also trying to enforce a hard Cold War line on the labour movement, sections of which remain sympathetic to the Vietnamese Revol­ AVS Conference Bows to ution. In May Vietnamese fascist gangs were unleashed to terrorise leftwing meetings marking the tenth anniversary of the fall of Saigon. All year Vietnamese students in Canberra and diplomats have been targets of Government Provocation increasingly brazen assaults by these. from some of the audience. The us/ Party and SWP within the AVS made prime minister Hun Sen in Vietnam fascists, which the police have vir­ ASEAN-backed Sihanouk and Son their choice over this provocation, this March. "Which side are you on? tually ignored. On 23 June three diplo­ Sann components of this "coalition" staying put with Harris, Hastings and Vietnam's or ours?" asked the Thai mats were punched and kicked in a are no more than a cosmetic cover for their Sihanoukist scumbag. Loyally foreign minister. Hawke's answer was Canberra shopping centre, one requir­ the Chinese-armed Khmer Rouge, the pressuring this imperialist Labor to unleash the Vietnamese fascists. ing four stitches. On 12 July two shots remnant of the nightmarish Pol Pot government is the orily strategy of Nevertheless the Vietnamese from a high-powered rifle were fired regime of 1975-79, whose bizarre, these reformists, whatever their Stalinists pursue the pipedream of into the Vietnamese embassy. The Vietnamese government has strongly protested to Australia and threatened ~ to stop the orderly departure program. The 17 May Sydney waterfront unions .'. meeting for "Solidarity with Vietnam" (see Australasian Spartacist special supplement, 5 June) was an example of the working class action needed to teach these counterrevolutionaries a badly needed lesson. The conference on "Vietnam - Ten Years On" held on 6-7 July by the Australia-Vietnam Society (A VS), which promotes "friendship and

understanding" with Vietnam, .,,~ became the next target of the anti­ ..f;, Vietnam campaign. The conference was originally advertised for Wollon­ gong University, but following threats of more violent demonstrations in Vietnamese rightist newspapers, the organisers announced its cancellation. The NSW police reneged on their earlier assurances of full protection while the Federal police even labelled it "subversive". The Foreign Affairs Department ;initiaUy' .

",~, actio.n was to. ring bo.th the docto.rs and , " abo.rtio.n, that wo.man can, and that is wro.ng. And instead o.f planning a say, look, I'll fly up and I'll keep strategy, a sweeping attack, I tho.ught Greenslo.pes o.pen, because I was well I'll do. this, and everything already registered in Queensland. happened little by little and bit by bit. So I flew up to. Queensland and So. the best that can be said o.f me is, 'stayed in the clinic in Greenslo.pes yes, I cared abo.ut peo.ple and here was o.ffering it an abo.rtio.n service. But the an issue where I co.uld finally do. so.me­ women didn't co.me. I think that will thing. I had always wherever I co.uld have to. be spelled o.ut. have, do.ne things, because I am No.w I'm a fo.undatio.n member o.f related to. poor peo.ple. I mean I was Children by Cho.ice, which is an

4 Australasian Spartaclst organisation we can talk about later on Wainer: Sure, they've been totally there. And many doctors were doing consumer and he has a little house out if you like. I went to Children by dropped. It's interesting that the them, but we regularly received little in the hills - I guess he's very happy Choice and we decided on certain Director of Public Prosecutions, Des things saying vasectomies are illegal. because he's doing what he thinks is actions, and one of them was that Sturgess, who when he was a lawyer And then once we received this right. And he's a great guy. Children by Choice would filter out the gave a speech to the Law Institute interesting doctrine. It said .it may ASp: In your experience have there women. We clearly had a duty to the ' in Queensland and he said, "Con­ occasionally be legal to sterilise a been more attacks on abortion clinics women in Queensland who were spiracy charges are an abomination woman for a number of purposes, it is in Australia? coming to Children by Choice; to say and ought never to be allowed to be never ever legal to sterilise a man. Wainer: We've had a number of listen, you can go to Tweed Heads laid, except with the OK of a court, a Now all that's sort of interesting. You attacks. We've played them down. We for an abortion, you can go to Sydney Supreme Court judge". Now, one of, know, the politicians who make these had a little episode in the mid­ and have an abortion, or you can go to the first actions as Director of Public laws are generally elderly and there is seventies where a car parked out there Greenslopes and see Bert Wainer and Prosecutions is to lay conspiracy such confusion about fertility and was burned down and about a fort­ have an abortion. But if you go and charges. You have to ask, why did he virility. And this reflected the concern night later one of our windows was see Bert Wainer and have an abortion lay conspiracy charges? Now, four that if I sterilise another man in some­ broken and a petrol bomb thrown in, at Greenslopes he's going to tell the weeks before these raids the minister way their fertility and virility is and I didn't pick it up. I don't know police. And I was over at Children by for police, Mr Glasson, had said, "I diminished, the politicians. Yes, it's what was wrong with me, I was Choice as well and some of the women have been advised by the Crown Law illegal but it's openly flaunted. It's probably pre-menstrual or something. said yes, in, which case I would sit Department that it is virtually a bit like prostitution laws. As you The bell didn't ring. A fortnight later down with them and say, look, I'm impossible to successfully prosecute know certain Cabinet ministers have someone actually did break in and happy to do the abortion, it costs a doctor for performing an abortion in had vasectomies. I believe the whole threw a sort of molotov cocktail into nothing, but we're not going to be Queensland" . Having said that, issue is now finished. John Cain [Vic­ one of our theatres. Now they made a driven back into a clandestine situation Glasson shot off overseas to Finland. torian Labor Premier] will not change terrible mistake because they closed here. I'll do your abortion and once In his absence Harper and Sturgess the laws here. He won't even reply to a the theatre door as they went out and you're well I'm going along to the pulled off this raid and I have private letter from me. that contained the fire. The one police and I'm going to have a press sources - and I believe them - that conference. I will not release your the police didn't want to be in this, name but I'll say I did an abortion. that they personally didn't have a Because it's necessary to keep great deal of heart in the raid. But pressure on Queensland cabinet. Glasson had already said you can't ASp: As we understand it the successfully prosecute a doctor for Attorney-General, Mr Harper, abortion, but what can you success­ announced that 47,000 files had been fully prosecute anyone for? Con­ confiscated from the clinics, and then spiracyl There is - one of the law one week later he said that only 21,000 lords of England has said conspiracy is had been confiscated and that 18,063 an engine of government. And if you were retained because they related to look at conspiracy charges in England abortion. There seems to be a dis­ and Australia they're used for political crepancy in the figures, and it remains purposes, eg the Ananda Marga. that the women whose names are on So the doctors were charged with the files are open to persecution. Do conspiracy although there was an you know more about that? endless amount of evidence they'd Wainer: Well, I think the figures are done abortions. They weren't wrong but almost everything Harper denying it. does is wrong and I think he had the ASp: Just one more question on wrong conception. He really ought to Queensland. I believe that vasec­ be back selling real estate. The issue tomies are illegal. of how many histories were seized is Wainer: Well, they've been illegal as Greenslopes cllnlc after 20 May anti-abortion raid. in dispute. The doctors say somewhere long as '" . No-one pays any atten­ in the order of 19,000, and I think tion to it. In 1971 after I went bank­ Harper just stuttered out 47,000 rupt, after the Kaye Inquiry, I went to ASp: There have been fairly wide­ theatre was completely incinerated because I think he's a bit of a puppet Queensland and established a practice spread attacks both in the US and but it ran out of oxygen. Since then I and he'd been told 47,000. But in Caloundra. It was amusing. I Canada against abortion clinics, and I have increased my security. If you look whatever is the true number - it applied for a job running the Caloun­ believe you've read about Dr Morgen­ behind you will see that we have bars doesn't matter whether it's ten, a dra Hospital which had 14 beds. It was taler in Women & Revolution. on our windows, the glass is unbreak­ hundred, a thousand. The reality is advertising the job and I'd previously Wainer: I know him. able glass, the place is computer that the private sexual lives of a run a big army hospital in Brisbane. ASp: Has his case been supported security. I have always lived, since the number of women have been seized The Minister for Police said he can't internationally? days of '69 and police corruption and under the powers of the Common­ have that job, publicly, because he's Wainer: Of course not. I'm a member organised crime, in such a fashion that wealth Crimes Act which is dated criticised the Queensland police. The of the National Abortion Federation no one could really kidnap me as they 1914, and in relation to an offence [NAF] which is an American organis­ did to the doctor in the United States. against an act which was written in Minister for Health said it's nothing to do with the Minister for Police, he sation where people with political or I live well out of the city. I have 1861. The Queensland Criminal Court technological or feminist feelings guard dogs. has rewritten it, but it is extracted can't say that. And they had an emergency cabinet meeting, would about abortion get together. It's a I doubt if we have the crazies in this from a 19th century act. And I don't you believe as I was driving to Queens­ lobby group, and I go there when I can country that they have in the States. believe that the police should ever afford it, to their meetings. Now, I I've been to Right-To-Life demon­ have the right to seize medical land, and they came out of this emer­ gency cabinet meeting and said, well, raised Henry's case in their meeting strations in the States and I've been to records, and particularly not these the Health Minister said I was right, last year and suggested that we raise a Right To Life demo here and there records which relate to sexual life and it's nothing to do with the Minister for money because he had legal fees in the was a total difference. These people the reproductive life of women. But we Police, I will say who will get the job order of 5100,000. I was with him last can be fanatic and frenetic but they need more laws, or fewer laws, one or and Dr Wainer won't get it. So I year in Canada and he was selling his lack the sinister overtone of menace the other. We need laws to protect house to meet the legal fees. A lot of that you find in the United States. histories if they're seized or we need thought stuff them, I don't need the job. abortionists, male abortionists aren't There's something intimidating about laws to prevent histories being seized. the chauvinist mercenary pigs women So I went to Caloundra and opened a Right To Life demo in the States. ASp: The charges against Doctors make them out to be. This clinic The anti-choice people - and I don't Bayliss and Grundmann have since up general practice. And I did five doesn't make me a fortune and Henry think you ever ought to give them nice been dropped, I believe. vasectomies every Saturday morning Morgentaler and I have both gone names like Right To Life or pro-life, J broke on the issue. And I asked NAF to mean that sounds wonderful - support it financially. I think he got they're really an anti-women lobby. SUBSCRIBE NOW! 5300, which won't mean anything. No, In Sydney they play them with kid he hasn't been internationally sup­ gloves, you know, and they try and ported because there is no one to Journal of the Women's play within the law. Commission of the support him. Who is there to support When I finally blew up this one Spartaclat League/ US him? He's supported by his own morning, they invaded' my clinic, I conscience and he's a fascinating called the cops and the cops came here Single Issues - 50 cents human being. He was in a concen­ and said well, we can't do anything. At $4 alrmall/$3seamall - 4 Issues tration camp in Germany during the this stage we had crying women every­ Second World War. He's done 18 where, the Right To Life were chained Order from/pay to: months in jail because of his commit­ to my operating theatre tables and Spartacllt Publlcatlonl, ment. I don't know. We don't have the refused to move. And I said to the cop GPO Box 3473, money to meet that sort of legal well, OK, just get out of my way. And Sydney, NSW, 2001 expense. And NAF gave him humanist I rang the Commissioner of Police and of the year or something. I mean that I said do you want another bloody gets you a little plaque but it doesn't Royal Commission, you get a divvy Name! ______really compensate you for losing your wagon down here in a hurry or else, Address, ______whole, and doing time in jail. But I you know, you won't know what's hit think he thinks the issue is worthwhile. you. Then I went back into my oper­ State Postcode, ____ And insofar as he doesn't come from a ating theatre and I said listen, you've Phone, ______wealthy family, he's not a great Continued on page seven

August/September 1985 5 police compound where the hearing The toiling masses of the world see South Africa is a paradigm of Trotsky's South Africa ••• was scheduled. In order to disperse in apartheid an intensified reflection of theory of permanent revolution: "the this crowd of militant youth, police their own oppression and exploitation, complete and genuine solution of their Continued from page one firing rubber bullets and birdshot and and the red-hot hellholes of South tasks of achieving democracy and South Africa's lack of "human brandishing sjamboks (whips) were Africa's mines are the compression national emancipation is conceivable rights" . supplemented with charges by chambers of brutal apartheid slavery. only through the dictatorship of the mounted troops. South Africa is driving toward civil As long as the struggle in South Africa proletariat as the leader of the sub­ war. The current wave of black resis­ Meanwhile, in black townships near follows white-vs-black national lines, jugated nation" (The Permanent tance to apartheid slavery continues to Port Elizabeth, the Indian Ocean port the whites will win hands down. But Revolution [1930]). mount. So does the determination of city and centre of South Africa's auto the class principle can prevail. As To give conscious direction and the white supremacist regime, armed industry, the auto unions have been South African society seethes on the leadership to the common class bond to the teeth, to drown that resistance leading a boycott of white-owned brink of insurgency against apart­ in the struggle against apartheid in blood. Ever since last August when shops, demanding a price freeze on heid slavery, the combative black repression mandates the forging of defiant black struggle and the massive staples, withdrawal of the military union movement has been propelled proletarian .internationalist parties in boycott of the Indian and "coloured" from black townships and elimination toward openly political struggle. The the US, in South Africa, in Australia (mixed race) communities doomed of puppet local black administrations. strategic power of the black gold and internationally, by combating Botha's "reform" constitution, Pre­ After four days, white civil officials miners is key. South Africa's black every variant of class-collaborationist toria's brutal repression has claimed called the impact of the boycott, set to proletarians, six million strong, must popular frontism and nationalism more than 500 lives. Now it is last for two months, "desperately be the gravediggers of apartheid. (which in the Australian, US and West gearing up for the massacre of tens of urgent" while black organisers In South Africa the most elementary European labour movements takes the thousands. In the face of this dire said the action had resulted in total democratic and national demands - pernicious form of protectionism). threat, now more than ever there must suspension of black trade in shops for the right to vote, for the right to For workers revolution -'smash be the strongest international labour­ owned or operated by whites. live with one's family, for the right to apartheid I Forward to the rebirth of centred protest action against Botha's At the same time thousands of auto strike, for the right to a decent the Fourth International, world party state of siegel Waterside and mari­ workers at GM, Ford and Volkswagen education for one's children­ of socialist revolution I time workers: black ban all South have walked off the job. The exploding mandate a fundamental social over­ black trade-union movement is the African cargo I Extend the bans on turn of apartheid capitalism. By its - adapted from Workers Vanguard critical new factor in the equation. A the Safocean Mildural very compression of social oppression, no 384, 26 July 1985 New York Times article (21 July) com­ Repression and Resistance In paring the present conjuncture with the Townships that of the Soweto 1976 revolt noted, "But some commentators contend the for example (I), Soviet vessels despite The East Cape city of Cradock was scope of present unrest exceeds that of Union Bans ••• that country's internal and external the site of a massive funeral attended 1976 because it has swept up Continued from page eight policies". (We are pleased to report by tens of thousands Saturday, community groups and black trade that on the very day the banned 20 July, for Matthew Goniwe and three unions as well as young blacks." by consecutive 24-hour bans by water­ Safocean Mildura sat idle at Mel­ other leaders of the anti-apartheid side and maritime unions, and further bourne's Swanson dock, not ,more than United Democratic Front (UDF) whose Superexploitation in the Mines actions are planned for Adelaide and a few hundred metres away water­ burned and mutilated bodies were Fremantle. siders were working the Khudozhnik As the bloody armed fist of apart­ Ioganson, a Soviet container ship.) On found along the Indian Ocean coastline heid repression strikes out at the black At today's picket, across from the - victims of the apartheid authorities banned Mildura, some 35 seamen the other side ofthe class line, seamen masses in the townships, a mighty and others at the picket especially or their ultra-rightist henchmen. In giant - the country's strategic black were joined by supporters of the courageous defiance of the apartheid African National Congress (ANC) and appreciated the SL spokesman's miners - battles apartheid slavery in closing remarks: police state, as the coffins were the mines. The National Union of South-West African Peoples Organis­ brought to the stadium where the Mineworkers (NUM) , with about ation (SW APO), a representative of "We firmly . believe the struggle funeral service was held, and later as the New Caledonian Kanak FLNKS, against apartheid in South Africa 150,000 members among the 550,000 must be a struggle here as well. Today the coffins were lowered into the black miners of coal, gold and other and a contingent of 20 Spartacist earth, mourners unfurled the banner supporters, including a group of postal it is the madman Reagan who is metals, is preparing for an industry­ driving towards anti-Soviet World of the nationalist African National wide strike. Upon the grinding misery unionists. Several wharfies were also Congress, and the banner of the War III, who is an ally of the racist and superexploitation of the miners there; many more would have turned fuhrer Botha against the black masses Stalinist South African Communist have risen the giant conglomerates out had their union· given themthe·go­ .:.;:through01i.t ,AfriCjJamf ~.::~e ':.GS..t~.ti. Party. Both organisations are banned like Anglo American and, indeed, the ahead. Ndeutala Hishongwa of this country we know that ,Hawke' is in South Africa and their advocates if whole South African industrial econ­ SW APO spoke movingly of the Reagan's junior partner and certainly captured are frequently hanged. omy. Today, gold still accounts for half struggle against racism and exploi­ no friend of black labour (applause). Under the multitude of "laws" and the foreign exchange crucial to tation in South Africa and Namibia. We are confident that apartheid will "emergency regulations" of apartheid importing the equipment on which the The Mildura's cargo, said ANC be smashed, that the principle of class repression, funeral processions which speaker Terry February, "is the will prevail, and that black South manufacturing sector depends. The African workers must take the lead in until recently were one of the few gath­ South African bourgeoisie talks about produce of exploited labour in South Africa". February called on the right­ that struggle. Smash Apartheid"! erings which blacks could attend, have "reform" as the economy stagnates Thank you.". been regularly and savagely attacked due to the weak internal market, low wing Hawke Labor government to take by the police. On 10 July, South Afri­ productivity and the shortage of skilled action against apartheid, but one can police went on a murderous labour created by the migrant labour placard carried by a seaman hit the rampage in the black township of system. But that system remains the nail on the head: "Workers unite and Duduza, east of Johannesburg, in integral and irreformable foundation crush apartheid I " which 13 blacks were killed. The anger of South African capitalism, and Speaking for the Spartacist League, Union-busters ••• of Duduza was so intense that Bishop neither the pious wishes of former a postal militant counterposed class­ Continued from page eight Tutu was rushed in from Johannes­ Anglo American magnate Harry struggle solidarity action to appeals for burg to lead the funeral procession of Oppenheimer nor a US Congressional imperialist trade sanctions being injustice. When the cops, the courts 5,000. This preacher of "nonviolence" ban on Krugerrands is going to pushed by chauvinist-protectionist and the media start howling about to those facing, unarmed"apartheid's change that. Laborite bureaucrats: "corruption" and "crime" in the armoured cars and machine guns earn­ For more than 20 years the US has "The combativity of the oppressed unions, militants should immediately ed his Nobel Prize that day as he black masses battling savage apart­ smell a rat - these are code words for claimed to support a UN ban on heid repression, particularly the "saved" a black police informant from military hardware to the apartheid government union-busting and inter­ the just wrath of the mourners who powerful and strategic black prolet­ ference in union affairs. After years of regime. But because South Africa is ariat, serves as an inspiration to the sought to use this fink's overturned a strategic anti-Soviet ally of the US, oppressed throughout the world, phone taps and entrapment, all they and burning car as a funeral pyre to Washington has seen to it that its including the working class and had on Gallagher were building transport him back to his maker. racist junior partner has not only oppressed of this country. It compels materials and services claimed to be worth S92,OOO that he got from One week later Soweto, the teeming become the predominant military class solidarity. It is in this spirit that we greet the class action of the black township of two million residents power on the continent but has been able to develop its own arms industry maritime unions - they should be ten miles southeast of Johannesburg, extended. " exploded in the largest anti-apartheid so that it is now the sixth largest protest since its name became exporter of military goods in the world. As one SL placard read: "Hold the SUBSCRIBE synonymous with the black youth Likewise, Congressional "bans" on Mildura to ransom I Freedom for Australasian Spartaclst revolt against apartheid which swept loans and investment will change Nelson Mandela, black union leaders, D8111u.. (1 year) for $2 across South Africa in 1976. As agents nothing. Neither will the Australian all anti-apartheid fighters I" (Includes Spartaclst, theoretical of the apartheid regime, black town­ Labor government's endorsement of Now more than ever international journal of the International ship officials are frequent objects of French imperialism's resolution for an labour-centred solidarity action is Spartaclst tendency) black anger, and on 13 July, more than international trade embargo - a vital. Recently British dockers in overseas rates: a hundred black youth were arrested move to protect the ' 'confetti of its Southampton refused to load a D surface - $2 for 6 Issues and charged with taking part in an empire" of colons from the Horn of container of military cargo for South D airmail - $7 for 6 Issues "illegal" demonstration outside the Africa to Guadeloupe to New Cal­ Africa. This kind of action, like the mall to/make cheques payable to: home of Soweto's mayor Edward edonia - while guaranteeing Aus­ strikes against the Mildura, must be Spartacist Publications, Kunene. Four days later a hearing for tralia's $300 million a year trade with extended to all cargo bound to or from GPO Box 3473, those arrested coincided with a South Africa. Capitalist investment, South Africa - and to ports around Sydney, NSW, 2001 school boycott in 26 cities and towns. whether from Wall Street, London, theworldl Name In Soweto on 17 July, thousands of Sydney or Johannesburg, will seek The shipowners hate the anti­ students boycotted classes, burned the highest rate of return - which apartheid bans by the unions, com­ Address Kunene's home to the ground, translates directly into sweating plaining in their journal, the Daily City ______Postcode, ____ commandeered a dozen municipal superexploited black labour in Commercial News (30 July) that "no Phone ______Donatlon ___ buses and held a huge rally at the South Africa. such action was being taken against, 6 Australasian Spartacist builders he knew personally to build modest houses for himself and his son Right To Life were being arrested. promise to apologise, they'll never do at remote McLaughlins Beach (no Wainer ••• And this father who's always fasting it again, will you not pursue the Surfers penthouses, and the only charges. Now, I had very little hope of houses they own, incidentally). "I've Continued from page five - you know that father, some priest IS always fasting down in the city - he justice in a magistrates court so I said, been set up real good" Gallagher told all right, I'll take their apologies. And the court. goes up to a cop and says I want to got fucking three minutes to get out charge Dr Wainer with assault, look he said, well, I gave it to you and I Corruption, like all moral "absol­ of this place or you'll all be gassed, what he's done to me, he's broken my said, no, that's not good enough, I utes", is a class question. The payola and I turned on the anaesthetic gas. nose. And this was the only cop in Vic­ want each one of them out of there in Gallagher is supposed to have And the copper said you can't do that. toria I expected this approach from, front of the cameras. And they squeezed outof the developers is just And I said, look, we know just where because the policeman looked at his apologised. routine practice in the business world, nose and then said in a broad Glas­ Now since that day I've had no overt from the free lunch on up. As for his you stand, you said you've no author­ ity in here, now get gassed or get out. wegian accent, "Get in there, you're violence. We've had the odd person accusers, the NSW state Labor govern­ lucky it wasn't me or you'd have a who comes and paints graffiti on the ment absolutely oozes corruption at So he got out. And the Right to Life at this stage started undoing their broken jaw as well". So we had them fence at night, we've had no pickets. every pore, and all the Royal Com­ arrested and charged. But if we get it back - look, if they missions and inquiries sometimes lift a chains. They weren't going to be gassed. And as they ran out of the And I went up when the trial was on strike at me I'll strike at them, and I corner on it, but are utterly powerless and they came up. Of course they had know where they are. And I think to touch it. The gifts given to theatre I and a few of the other doctors started hitting them, the best of lawyers, a QC [Queen's every abortion clinic has to take that Gallagher are just petty cash to multi­ Council) - a Catholic QC, Catholic attitude. I'm not suggesting for one millionaire developers like the Grollo hard. And then I turned the tire extinguishers on them and then I juniors, Catholic this. And they said moment that I would break the law, brothers, who the courts let off with a look Dr Wainer, it's a trivial charge, but if the law is broken by other people slap on the wrist. No evidence was threw them down the back stairs and turned the hoses on them. I was beside why pursue it, they'll apologise. I said and the law doesn't defend me then I produced to show how concretely myself with rage. I mean a real it isn't trivial you know. It's con­ may have to take steps to defend my Gallagher had been thus "corrupted" Glaswegian Gorbals rage, you see. spiracy to trespass, going back to what women, because they're not in a and the conduct of the trial was a trav­ And the TV arrived and filmed all this. I said about conspiracy charges position to be hassled. They come in esty - the jury was obviously hung, There had been buckets of water earlier. The QC then realised I knew here, they're already weighed down but the judge kept it locked up for tlowing on them and they said why are my law because they had conspired, with the worries of the world, they're eight days until it came up with a you doing that doctor, and I said, I and conspiracy carries seven years. So pregnant, and all the problems. They guilty verdict. always wash the filth off my steps at he then went back and said, look, don't want fanatics. But it depends on Those "socialists" like the Com­ this time of day. And then there was a Wainer's after you and he's got the how nationally we cope with this munist Party and the BWIU bureau­ great screaming of divvy wagons­ law here and I suggest you apologise. new threat. crats who have joined in the the cops got the message, and the He came back and said, look, they ASp: Thank you .• government/media propaganda about BLF "corruption and thuggery" embody the real corruption in the workers movement - the bought-off reformist bureaucracy that betrays the Left with its important union base. internationalist leadership could have workers struggle in exchange for Cain's assault on the BLF has stirred Nicaragua ••• set the whole region aflame with respectability and influence within the up much discontent in ALP ranks too, revolution following the triumph in capitalist state (and the perks that retlected weakly by the tepid oppo­ Continued from page two 1979 - thus depriving the Yankees of come with it). The capitalist cops and sition by Socialist Lefters in the upper their bases in Honduras and elsewhere courts are the instruments of the class house like George Crawford and Joan class, but the determfnation and which they are now using as a staging enemy and the unions can only be Coxsedge to Cain's Bill - they enthusiasm of the youth who made the ground for attacking Nicaragua. effective workers' tighting organis­ knuckled under of course when it came revolution is still there. Young soldiers Managua was crawling with Ameri­ ations through a struggle for inde­ to a vote. But a class-struggle leader­ and students and even an old woman can "friends of Nicaragua" last week. pendence from the capitalist state. ship of the BLF could have mobilised a in Masaya were cheerful in greetiug But the "solidarity" milieu has been The widespread opposition to this big demonstration against Hawke/ " American enemies of the CIA". And notably silent at home in the face of frame-up among militant workers Cain, both their union-busting, their when a dozen Soviet-made helicopters, the US trade boycott and Con­ cOl!ld have been mobilised in a Cold Warforeign policy and their NCC including several of the formidable gressional votes for "contra" aid. The massi'0e94i.e.\1l~~tt;atiQO ,at.. .tM,,;court rlrts, Such_~ displ~)[&.- .of class _, power MI-24 gunships, flew in formation over reason is not hard to find: the Demo­ when Gallagher was sentenced on 21 could deepen the divisions in the ALP Carlos Fonseca Plaza yesterday there crats, who previously criticized June, many times more than the 300 and shatter the anti-BLF united front. was a lusty cheer from the crowd. Reagan's policy as "counterpro­ BLs who protested. The BLF did circu­ The Maoist politics of the BLF tops Nicaragua is in the throes of revolu­ ductive", have swung over to full­ larise the other union leaderships and their Aussie nationalism disarms tion - what began as a political fledged support for the administration calling for such a demonstration, . the union in its fight against the Cold revolution quickly began to stir up a following Daniel Ortega's trip to which was predictably ignored. A War Labor governments. China is in social revolution as well, which cannot Moscow in April. The FSLN has revolutionary leadership could have an anti-Soviet alliance with Reagan, be contained in the straitjacket of noticed the shift as well: one Sandin­ gone to the union ranks and found the and the virulent anti-Sovietism of the Sandinista "pluralism". Peasants de­ ista spokesman complained that all the class conscious militants who don't local Maoists lands them in the same manding land, women who want the "solidarity" groups ever asked was, like what's going on; but the BLF camp as Hawke and the NCC, eg over right to abortion, workers fed up with "Is Nicaragua getting Soviet aid?" leadership seek an accommodation Afghanistan and Vietnam. Gallagher the bosses' systematic sabotage and Comandante Bayardo Arce said it's with the bureaucracy of which they got his seat on the ACTU executive by mismanagement by FSLN adminis­ time to stop talking about empty "soli­ are a distinct part. Key to rallying a rotten deal with the NCC right-wing trators can't be satisfied by the darity" and start talking about a working class support is a clear in which he joined the anti-Soviet attempts to appease the capitalists, "convergence of interests" in de­ political break with Hawke and his chorus over the downing of KAL-007, the church and the White House. fending the revolution. But they won't Accord: though they try to work since proven to be a US spy provo­ No less than in 1979, when Whee­ have much luck with their fair-weather around its edges the BLF leadership cation. But waving Eureka flags and lock ordered peasants to give back the "nonaligned" friends who boycotted supports the Accord and the Hawke supporting bombing Russia hasn't land, the Sandinista leaders are the sixth anniversary (not one head of government, as does the CPA(ML) and appeased the bosses. You can't defend holding back revolutionary struggle. A state or social-democratic luminary their Chinese mentors. A revolution­ the gains of the working class at home genuinely communist, Leninist­ attended). ary party is necessary, which tights to unless you defend the historic con­ Trotskyist vanguard party is needed in The Spartacist League calls on regroup militant workers into a com­ quests of the international working Nicaragua to provide the kind of American workers, minorities, youth munist vanguard, standing for a class, the workers states in the USSR, leadership the Bolsheviks gave in and all opponents of imperialism to genuine workers government based on Eastern Europe, Vietnam and Cuba 1917. In Nicaragua just as in Russia, if defend Nicaragua against imperialist revolutionary workers councils like the under attack from US and Australian not more so, internationalism will be aggression. The Spartacus Youth Russian Soviets of 1917, not a "Labor" imperialism, the same ruling class that key. A nationalist regime, no matter League recently undertook an urgent parliamentary administration of is out for the BLF's blood. how radical, cannot revolutionize the fund appeal in response to the US capitalism. The year-long strike of the British working masses against the hostile US trade embargo, saying "Now more Key to beating back the scabbery of miners led by Arthur Scargill was an puppet regimes which surround Nicat­ than ever Nicaragua needs hard cur­ the BWIU and NSW Labor Council inspiring example of the power and agua on the Central American rency for everything from arms to bureaucrats etc is a political tight for fighting spirit of the working class. isthmus. medicine to spare parts". This cam­ industrial unionism in this craft-ridden Only the treachery of the union The touchstone for internationalism paign has had an enthusiastic recep­ industry. A revolutionary leadership of bureaucracy allowed Thatcher to in Nicaragua is EI Salvador, and El tion, raising thousands of dollars in the the BLF, by appealing to the trades­ defeat them, but even in defeat they Salvador is the subject almost never space of a few weeks, every penny of it men's ranks on the basis of the are defiant and have polarised Britain mentioned by the Sandinistas. In days going to Nicaragua. Spartacist sup­ common class interests of all building deeply, laying the basis for the of travel only one faded slogan was porters in Nicaragua for the July 19 workers, could undercut McDonald emergence of a revolutionary party seen on a wall calling for support to the celebrations found that people loved and Sharkey and McBean and lay the that can transcend the limitations of Salvadoran leftist insurgents. But the SYL button, "Defend Nicaragua! basis for unity on the job and on the Scargill's militant left reformism. while Ortega simply told the crowd Crush the Contras!" and showed a picket lines. Gallagher's militant but The Australian bosses have taken that Nicaragua has nothing to do with heartfelt appreciation for acts of narrow outlook is incapable of off the gloves and the unions are terrorism, one worker interviewed by genuine solidarity in times when the broadening this tight beyond one taking one defeat after another, but Barricada said, "the Salvadoran going gets rough. For our part, as union to the whole working class. hard class struggle can turn this into patriots should keep on killing Trotskyists we consider it our revolu­ Another missed opportunity was the some victories. For that to happen the Yankees, even if it's used as a pretext tionary duty to take a stand for Nicar­ Victorian ALP conference the next dead hand of Laborism which can only to invade us, because we're going to agua, the No 1 target of the US anti­ weekend. The bitter factional row play by the bosses' rules must be kill them here, too". Hinting at a rev­ Soviet "anti-terrorist" war drive around Hawke's power play in thrown off the working class. Smash olutionary war throughout Central today. bringing back the former NCC union the Accord! Break with the Labor America after the US invades, I'.s FSLN - Abridged from Workers Vanguard forces has deeply split the Socialist Traitors! Free Norm Gallagher!. leaders occasionally do, is too late. An no 384, 26 July 1985 August/September 1985 7 J Australasian ... SPARTACIST Free Norm Gallagher, framed for Hawke's Accord! Break with the Labor Union-busters I

5 AUGUST - Sixteen years after the capitalist austerity measures, at the mass strike which freed Garrie bidding of the bourgeoisie. And inter­ O'Shea, the infamous penal powers nationally it is marching in lockstep have been revived in the form of with Reagan's nuclear war plans section 45D of the Trade Practices against the USSR/Vietnam. While Act. 51.7 million of the Meatworkers talking disarmament, Hawke and his union's funds were seized by the CIA-loving bunch were secretly plan­ federal court to pay a 544,000 fine ning to help tests of the first-strike MX imposed as punishment for union missile. They have forced the re-entry picketing of Northern Territory into the ALP of the NCC/DLP union abattoirs. The government/court drive wreckers and red-baiters who led the to smash the militant Builders anti-communist witchhunt in the '50s. Labourers Federation (BLF) has seen Meanwhile the bosses openly gloat general secretary Norm Gallagher and prepare to toss Hawke aside and jailed for four years and three months bring back the conservatives once on frame-up charges of "corruptly re­ he's done some of their more ceiving secret commissions", after a unpopular jobs. years-long government operation that Real wages are falling, profits are cost 530 million. The Federal, NSW up and this social-democratic "re­ and Victorian Labor governments have form" party, minus reforms, is screw­ legislation ready to "outlaw" the ing the working people and poor who union and legalise cop-enforced raid­ vote for it in so many ways. Like the ing by other unions. The sacked 1974-79 Wilson-Callaghan British 21 June: BLF battles Cain's cops as court sentences Norm Gallagher (top). Queensland power workers and their Labour government, Hawke is paving families have been left to rot for six the way for a vicious Tory regime that government is going down. The organ­ The BLF has long been public months by the ACfU in the face of will swing the axe at social services ised working class has a choice - go enemy number one for the ruling class Bjelke-Petersen's anti-union assault. and government enterprises, and seek down with it, or cut ·loose from Labor and the Hawke/Cain/Wran govern­ Labor politicians seem to glory in to break the strength of the unions in a and rely on its own strength. In the ments because it's a union with a union-busting: Cabinet member John way Malcolm Fraser never dared. ranks of the unions there's discontent history of combativity that has won Dawkins taking his kids across striking Many life-long Labor supporters see and restlessness aplenty but so far no real gains for its members and has Canberra teachers' picket lines on this as a "fake Labor" government - concerted fightback. What is desper­ never been completely housebroken by 2 August baiting them that he'd just a bunch of Tory careerists kicking the ately necessary is a revolutionary party the Accord, the ACTU and Arbitration. love to scab, is par for the course now. workers who put them there in the and a program to turn this discontent So why did the outrageous frame-up The Hawke Labor government is teeth. But that's what the ALP's into all-out, hard class struggle - to and jailing of Gallagher go down with­ turning on its own base, launching always done, from Hughes to Scullin to smash the gathering offensive of the out any real fight? The rest of the ever sharper attacks on the unions and Chifley. And like them, the Hawke bosses and their Labor servants. trade-union bureaucracy has been lined up with the government, leaving the BLF isolated. The "lefts" have been particularly despicable, with the other building unions led by the Building Workers Industrial Union (BWIU) , dominated by splitters from the pro-Moscow Socialist Party of Australia, standing by ready to scab on MELBOURNE, 5 AUGUST - A 70- the BLF and destroy it by raiding. But \r\~t:/'" strong picket was held at South more importantly the BLF leadership, 'f.wm.'/ Wharf today in support of bans by dominated by supporters of the Mao­ ~'" waterside and maritime workers ist Communist Party of Australia against the Safocean Mildura, a (Marxist-Leninist) [CPA(ML)]. has Dutch-registered South African not fought. Instead they've dodged freighter. In the wake of apartheid and weaved, hoping things will cool off fuhrer PW Botha's declaration of a if they keep their heads down for a "state of emergency", the bans while, and looking for a bloc with were kicked off in Sydney in late elements of the trade-union bureauc­ July by the Waterside Workers Fed­ racy also under the gun. While the eration, followed by similar 24-hour ACTU and some union leaderships actions by Firemen and Deckhands have gotten cold feet and opposed the (tugmen), the Seamen's Union and government's anti-BLF legislation, watchmen of the Miscellaneous this is only because they know that Workers Union whose picket line actually driving the BLF off the job delayed the ship's departure when sites will be a whole lot harder than linesmen refused to cross. When passing a new law in parliament. the Mildura arrived in Melbourne The frame-up of GalIagher for "cor­ on 1 August it was again struck ruption" is an object lesson in capital­ ASp photo ist class "justice", that is, blatant 70-strong picket against Sa'ocean Mlldura, Melbourne, 5 August. Continued on page six Continued on page six 8 August/September 1985