the , LPVS marxIsm• &

UNION LEADERS RETREAT

• HAVING SEEN UNIONISATION strength of the major unions is violent picketing on the tele­ drop below 50% of the workforce due to the fact that their leaders vision can undo weeks and the trade union chiefs are getting have not been prepared to stand weeks of really hard work In worried. They have taken to whin­ up and fight. As sections of trying to get our message Ing about how the bosses have workers have been cowed and across." moved the goal posts by getting intimidated by the bosses and She and her kind would prefer tough and even, horrors of horrors, by the threat of the dole queue, to get a big hand for the gallant "militant". the union tops have sat on their loser than shape up for a real They are nursing their wounds hands. When workers have fought fight. after the drubbing they received back the leaders have moved into In line with this thinking the at the hands of an enemy that action only In order to contain TUC employment committee have they never really wanted to resist, and control struggles. just circulated new guidelines on let alone beat. Their only hope In order to restore their public picketing which stab militant was that the Tories and the mil­ image the ranks of trade union workers In the back. They now lionaires would treat them clvllly officialdom are taking further explicitly rule out pickets that and occasionally hold talks with steps to clamp down on any aim "to blockade a . workplace". them. Did they not offer up the action the members might take And they oppose big solidarity NUM for defeat on MacGregor's to resist the bosses' attacks. demonstrations that might be seen terms and only get sandwiches Brenda Dean sees the battle by the police by Thatchers' from Thatcher In exchange? Is against Murdoch as a battle to scabs In blue - as "intimidation there no gratitude in this world? win the public sympathy for the towards those who wish to enter". Is there no recognition for printers. Hence her hostility to The union bureaucrats wlnge and services rendered? the effective picketing and soli­ moan at the bosses' militancy. Most of the union leaders put darity action that could stop Mur­ But they spit blood at the mili­ their present sorry fortunes down doch. As she told the Communist tancy of workers trying to make to their low standing in the eyes Party's right wing rag Marxism their strikes effective. of 'public opinion'. What nonsense. Today, The Tory anti-union laws The______declining size and bargaining "On picketing, one nIght of.... illegal.render Theeffective current trade sequestratlons unionism • of the print unions prove that once again. Yet another sign of FIGHT SCAB UNIONISM the right wing stampede is to ERIC HAMMOND AND his cronies and their wives tu secure victory, be found in the TUC's current boast that what the EETPU does ignoring the fact that it was the discussion on trade union laws. today other trade union leaders treachery of the bureaucracy that The majority of trade union will be doing tomorrow. This Is led to the defeat. This man shared leaders are lining up behind Kin­ no empty bragging on Hammond's vice-chairmanship of the extreme nock and Prescott in pushing for Rank and file must rebuild mass resistance Andrew Wlard (Report) part. right-Wing Mainstream group with a legally enforceable Bill of trade used and agreed procedures stuck the LCDTU provoked a pavement The EETPU leaders have good the UDM's Prendergast. If he wins union rights to be overseen by to. The independence of the trade caucus of Jack Taylor, George reason for being smug at the the presidency it will strengthen a new Labour or Industrial relat­ unions to fight and organise as Bolton and others In the NUM, moment. They should have been the hand of the hard right even tion's court modelled on the Irish necessary to advance workers' who are hell-bent on steering flung out of the TUC long ago. further. example. interests would be sacrificed to the union away from a mllltant Their better members - in Fleet Hammond and Jordan are advo­ the rulings of a Labour court. course. Scargill's fatal weakness Street In particular - could have cates of what they call 'market Faced with the hard-nosed is that he wtll not break ranks done with just that act of support unionism'. Put bluntly this means RETREAT far right (Hammond) and the right- with these elements openly and from the TUC to aid them in that the officials sell their services moving centre (Willis, Edmonds, organise the rank and file against rallying members against to the bosses through single union This represents yet another Dean), the traditional left has them. Hammond. deals and no-strike procedural major retreat even on the i985 become increaSingly marginalised. The task of the day is to Instead Hammond can survey agreements. And they sell their conference policy of non-coopera­ Its silence is deafening. The recent organise rank and file mllttants a scene of official retreat and services to their members too. tion with current laws. It puts Liaison Committee conference In every union. Every struggle capitulation which he can rightfully By services to the members the off the question of challenging was poorly attended. No action that erupts Jleeds to be taken claim to have been the architect EETPU now means cheap car in­ the laws to that distant day when was forthcoming fr m its desultory up and supported by mllltants of. Neil Kinnock is now a firm surance and stock market advice. Kinnock might come to power. deliberations. Tocher's campaign within and across the unions. This and loyal convert to Japanese Collective organisation and strength It also means the majority against Jordan in the AUEW con- way solid rank and file links can Industrial Relations (i.e. company to defend wages and jobs is, they of trade union leaders are more tains no commitm ~ nt to organise be established, and the isolation unionism). It is Hammond's crew argue, a thing of the past. By than prepared to drop demands and lead struggles In the key ques- of mllltants that the bureaucrats that have pioneered this company selling their new wares they gua­ for trade union legal immunities tions faCing engine rs. It is Jordan prey on can be broken down. unionism in 3ritaln, the no-strike rantee the salaries of themselves in order to ease Kinnock's path who is on the offensive in the The basis could be laid for class collaboration trade unionism and other officials in the 'union to office. Quite rightly the campaign hustings. rank and file movements In each that Kinnock thinks contains suffi­ business'. workers' movement has always union, and for a national rank cient worker docility and produc­ The fashion is catching on fought for the trade unions to and file movement, committed tive innovation to woo the bosses elsewhere. The print unions have be free of legal shackles and from PRISONER to a class struggle, anti-bureaucra­ with. just signed a deal with the Finan­ judicial interference. The seques­ tic programme. The TUC's miserable failure cial Times that guarantees the tered funds of the NUM tell us A start can be made by ensur­ to fight Hammond has made the bosses against any disruption of why. Despite formally apologising In the highest reaches of the Ing that every union branch and right In the trade union bureau­ production. Vauxhall has secured to the court the union has still trade union bureaucracy only conference rejects all legal cracy all the more brazen. Witch­ a similar deal which allows it not get its money back! The anti­ Arthur ScargllI dist\lrbed the TUC's shackies on the unions, and -hunter general, John Golding has to replace striking workers with union rulings of the courts under­ recent commltarlive committee commits Itself to breaking the now taken over the NCU. Jordan's scabs with full union backing. line the fact that British justice conference on un laws by de- Tory laws when necessary and present campaign for the presi­ Militants must organise to do is ruling class justice. claring that relations backing all workers who do so dency of the AUEW has none of battle with all of these moves Now Kinnock and Willis want would be better as class with Industrial action to destroy the mealy-mouthed dissembling by the rampant new right. Failure every aspect of trade unionism relations.· He used the those laws. The only alternative that has become the property to resist them now will mean to operate within prescribed legal Liaison Comml Conference to the growth qf scab unionism of the left in the unions. He open­ that the cancer of company union­ terms. Workers will have the right to attack favoured is one that offers workers a lead ly courts fusion with the EETPU ism and de-unionisation will spread. to strike and not to strike. They building broad campaigns in fighting to defend their jobs and sings songs of praise to their * Expel the EETPU from the will be entitled to join a union, as against industrial and living standards. The TUC scab methods. He misses no oppor­ TUC! and not to join. Special courts action. Yet himself leaders' doctrine of retreat can tunity to scoff at the failure of * No single union/no-strike deals! will arbitrate over whether those remains a within the only strengthen the hands of Ham­ the heroic militancy of the miners rights have been legitimately bureaucracy. speech mond, Jordan and the UDM •• 2 WORKERS POWER 82 April 1986

THE 'CRUSADE' LAUNCHED by his agenda. One million of the motives Is a really smart move. Hurd will outbid him In terms working class under Thatcher. Nell Ktnoock at last year's Labour unemployed are to be promised Michael Foot thought that In 1982 of more pollce, m re prisons, more Don't worry, they say, we w1ll Pany Conference - not against a job "within three years". The over the Falklands. Labour soon draconian leglsla ~ lon. Instead of leave you an army of unemployed the Tories but against the left other three million will have to found that Thatcher could play blaming crime on a society where at your factory gates to Intimidate within the Pany la still sweeping wait tl\l the 1990s! In return for BritannIa ruling the waves a good ml\llons rot on the dole and mil­ your wage slaves with. Never fear all before It. this largess Klnnock and Co pro­ deal better than they could. lions more are on subsistence your 1ll-gotten gains from privat­ The overwhelming defeat of mise wage-restraint. True they Workers In Industries threatened wages. Official J abour spokesmen Isation are safe and we won't antl-wltch-hunt resolutions at the haven't yet found the brand new by "foreign" (US and Japanese) are distancing hemselves from seriously Increase taxation on your North-West, East Midlands and phrase to replace 'Incomes policy', takeover will likewise wrap them­ protests at the th ggery and racism profits or Increase welfare spending London Labour Party Regional 'social contract' or 'national selves In the Union Jack at their of the pollce. I at your expense. As for the main conferences shows that the New assessment' that some union lead­ peril. It Is not a harmless cloak The whole logic of this scram­ fetters on the unions we will per­ Right have won control of the ers are stl\l holding out for. But of respectability. It Is a straight ble Is to turn Labour's 'pro­ suade the union leaders to agree Party In all but a dwindling num­ given time the unstoppable verbal jacket that will stop them strugg­ gramme' Into a cdlourless duplicate to new ones just as effective. ber 'of traditional Inner-clty bas­ flow of Nell Klnnock Is sure to llng to save their jobs. Labour's of Davld Owen's "social market Klnnock and Hattersley's max­ tions of the left. yield a suitably slithery specimen. spokesmen have prlorltised "con­ economy" or Mlchael Heseltlme's Imum strategy Is to scrape a majo­ These votes show that the The Labour front bench had tinued British ownership" over "caring capltallslIf"' The Labour rity on this anti-working class great majority of union officials 'an orgy of patriotic Indignation defence of jobs and the national­ leaders are att~ mptlng to win platform. However, should they - at national and area level are over Westland and British Leyland ised Industries. back the benevolence of the bosses end up on the day after the elec­ welding together a very large - only to be outdone by the Tory Gerald Kaufman Is currently trying and their media by assuring them tion with no overall majority they . New Right majority within the back benchers. Doubtless they to steal the Tories' clothes on that Labour will not deprive them need the way clear to do a deal labour movement around Willis think that baiting the Tories by the "crime wave" and law and' of any of the spoils they have with the Alliance. That is why and Klnnock. Between them they accusing them of having unpatriotic order Issue. Again Thatcher and won In their victories over the they need to cow the left In the are drawing up a "new realist" Party. That Is why they attacked electoral manifesto for Labour first Scarglll and the miners, with no reference to conference attempting to discredit militant decisions or policies. Larry Whltty trade union tactics, and then has been assuring businessmen. stabbed Liverpool In the back that "Labour Is Indeed the party LABOUR PART~ In Its resistance to the Tories•• of production". Roy Hattersley has been hymnlng the virtues of "high profits" and assuring the bosses that he puts the fight . against Inflation at the top of WITCH HUNT

THE WITCH-HUNT exists to terrorise and marglnalise the left - to resolutely campaigning for resis­ Benn , falsely > characteris.es · the keep up the process of "re-alignment" I.e. desertion to the right. Livlng­ tance to the witch-hunt they are . policy situation as a vacuum. stone, Blunkett, Meacher and most of the left MPs have carefully re­ satisfied with voting against it Rather than wake up to the fact allgned themselves, 'critically', behind Kinnock leaving Militant open and denouncing It in occasional that Kinnock has demolished most to the blows of the Party leadership. letters, articles or press releases. of the "left policies" gained be­ The way this 'critical Kinnock------­ Benn himselves counsels a 'turn tween 1979-81 and replaced them' ite' fake left operates can be the other cheek' policy to combat with new realism. He believes seen In the pages of Tribune and the right's onslaught: that the Campaign Group should Labour Leader. Peter Hain, vice­ "The fact that the left did occupy the time from now to The Left the next election by drawing up chair of the Labour Coordinating not respond personally In coun­ Committee nicely illustrates how · andthe ter-attack was very wise. It "socialist bills" which they wlll things go in an article on nuclear was very Important that these either Introduce into the House power. What is Labour policy? P events - the vacuum In policy, of Commons as Private Members "A halt to the nuclear power urge the witch-hunting of the left Bills now or forlornly offer to programme and a phasing oat - should be allowed to be con­ the PLP after the next election. · To start with the BlII rather than of all nuclear plants". months they will find Kinnock ducted without the normal press comment that this was to start with mobilising workers What does Labour's energy spokes- coming for the LPYS and for the to fight for the object of It is man John Cunningham say? parliamentary seats of Dave Nellist really the left attacking the right. It was manifestly seen an exercise in futility. Worse It "The Labour Party has supported and Terry Fields before the next Is an excercise in diversion•• the development of civil nuclear election. to be the right attacking the by Dave Stocking power for decades. One con- Even now the right are going left." ference decision won't change for Militant members in every Witch-finder general this and I don't expect It to t't and district they be Included In the next manl- cons 1 uency festo." control. They are establishing pre- Wh t d Peter Haln say about cedents that s~usly undermine, a oes the democratic rights of the whole this? left. They are letting the over- "We all accept that phasing whelmingly right wing PLP off FIG BACK out existing plants cannot be the last threads of the control done overnight •••But simply that the democratic reforms of THE BURNING ISSUE Is how to vote at conference It should really leadership, and Benn Is absolutely to repudiate the whole basis the early 1980s put them under. fight the witch-hunt going on undermine the strength of the clear he will not, then maximum of Party policy In such an The situation on what used across the country. A national right. pressure must be put on them arrogant manner leaves no to be called the far left of the struggle must be waged both In Such a conference should do to campaign against all the expul­ time for such give and take." Party is no better. Here too there the Labour Pany and, crucially everything humanly possible to sions and for a conference resolu­ It's pretty clear who Is giving is indecision, retreat and clear In the trade unions. Involve the first and main victims tion calling the NEC and the Party and who is taking. Hain's 'left signs of 're-alignment'! The Labour Workers Power supporters In of the purge ~ Militant. This wlll leader to heel, and blocking the criticism' is just that these arro- Left Coordination, the Campaign Vauxhall, London, argued success­ be difficult given the latter's fac­ attack on Militant and the left gant Kinnockites won't give a for Labour Democracy and the fully for their GC to fight for tional attitude to their own de­ In general. The poliCies we must fellow the space or time to realign Campaign Group of Labour MPs a national anti-witch-hunt confe­ fence but It should be attemp­ fight for on this Issue must be: with dignity. have been unable to do much be- rence. Similar resolutions have ted. An offensive for a united * Opposition to all witch-hunts. Moving from Kinnock's deceitful yond publish a newsletter tabulating been passed In Hackney North front needs to be launched on No expUlsions. A clear reaffirm­ accomplices to his victims we the attacks of the right. and Hackney South CLPs and re­ Militant. ation that there Is no proscribed find a serious split has opened presentatives from those consti­ list, and a refusal to recognise up. Militant reply to the threat tuencies plus the Witch-hunt News DEFIANCE the NEC's phoney registration of the expUlsion of twelve of their BILLS & BENN Sub Committee of Labour Left of papers and groups In the leaders in Liverpool by restricting Coordination are organising a con- . A central question faCing those party. For the right of all themselves to noisy pickets in ference to be held in June. Better opposed to the witch-hunt Is that socialists to remain In the Walworth Road and resolution Tony Benn and the Campaign late than never! of defiance. Most of the forces Labour Party. passing in the wards, GCs district Group of MPs, only 16 of whom Such a conference however i In the LLC plus Militant them­ * Restoration to Party member­ and regional committees and con­ seem to act consistently together, cannot be limited to delegates selves prefer to shy away from ship of those already expelled. ferences. They are not willing are trying to organise a federation from left constItuencies which this problem, hoping It will go * Right of organised political to launch a real united front resis­ of local groups based on an 'Alms are opposed to the purge. Unlike away. But where NEC expUlsions tendencies to affiliate to the tance embracing the whole left and Objectives' similar to that the earlier expUlsions of the Mili­ are ordered local parties must Party. to resist the witch-hunt. Domina­ Benn has sponsored in the Chester­ tant editorial board It Is not simply refuse to carry them through, * Right of all oppressed groups ted by a pathological fear that field Party. With the loss of NEC dictats we are fighting and where the Walworth Road to caucus and be represented dogged mass resistance might lead Tribune the Campaign Group has against. Now the bulk of the ex­ heavies threaten to disaffiliate In leading bodies at local and to mass expulsions or outright no weekly organ and various papers pulsions are occurlng In right-wing local parties and set up stooge national level. proscription for anyone selling are (or have been) competing to CLPs - any flghtback must unite bodies with sanitised candidates, their publications they are effec­ offer their services Labour left opposition groups from such the left must say In advance that tively agreeing under protest Herald, Socialist Action, Labour areas with the hundred or so CLPs It wlll not recognise these candi­ CONFERENCE - to sacrifice the Liverpool twelve, Briefing and Socialist Organiser who have resolved to oppose the dates or bodies. The parties should as they did their editorial board. have either offered their own expulsions. In addition representa­ continue to operate and stand I f the wl tch-hunt Is a vi tal Militant cover this with rhetoric papers or some form of 'Alliance' tives from the Black Sections, against offiCial, Klnnock-backed and preSSing Issue facing the left about the Inevitable advance of or 'Campaign'. LPYS, Women's Action Committee candidates. others are also crucial In the Marxism but In fact they are In Tony Benn and friends are and other groups should attend We should ask the Cam- period up to conference. The left retreat. If they yield Liverpool obviously very wary of any conflict the conference. paign Group and the left should fight together for resolu­ to the right over the next few with Kinnock and co. Instead of union leaders to launch a cam­ tions to block Klnnock's attempts paign at least as vigorous as Tony to base Labour's election on In­ KEY Benn's deputy leadership campaign comes policy and the scuttling was. Meetings t every union con­ of all progressive conference deci­ But It Is trade union support ference to support resolutions sions. It should also fight to pledge which is the key to the success against the wi tch-hunt committing the Party to opposition In principle of this fight. When expelled mem­ the unions' Labour Party Con­ to any coalition with the bosses' bers appeal to national confer­ ference delegation must be organis:' parties - pre- or post- election. ence It will be the bureaucrats' ed. This Is one reason why Work­ Lastly the left needs to unite block votes which will decide their ers' Power believes that prominent now at all levels to force the fate. And these friends of Klnnock left leaders ~uch as Tony Benn maximum support for the prin­ are not satisfied seeing Militant and Dennis Skinner should stand ters, the Liverpool and Lambeth kicked out of the Labour Party against KlnnO[ k and thus force councils and for all sections of - moves against left wing activists the Issue befor the union member­ o·ur movement in struggle against In the unions are also beginning. ship. Would t e publicity be bad the Tories. Involvement In struggle Rank and file trade unionists need for Labour poll ratings? Undoubted­ wlll strengthen the left against to organise against the witch-­ ly, but Nell K nnock could resolve the right and offset the blighting hunts, join up with Labour Party that by aband nlng the wttchhunt Influence of Klnnocklte parliamen­ activists and attend the confe­ Immediately. tary (and opinIon poll) cretinism•• rence. As part of a struggle to Yet even f the left leaders by Helen Ward take control of the union block wlll not flgh Klnnock for the (Vauxhall CLP) WORKERS POWER 82 April 1986 3 RLEFT'S ECO by Paul Mason aAd Keith Hassell MUDDLE TODAY'S LABOUR LEIT, In com­ 1985). Benn and the Campaign mon with all Its predecessors. Group of MPs have tentatively Is Incapable of drawing-up Its put their names to It. MlUtant own coherent programme. On Its has endorsed It (Glyn himself Is right, Klnnock and Hattersley's a MlUtant supporter). Phll Hearse 'Jobs and Industry Campaign' draws of the International Group greeted Its coherence from being lOO'lb it as no less than "the socialist committed to maintaining capitalist answer to the NEC". Socialist exploitation. Action's Alan Freeman greeted On Its left, the revolutionary It as "the most Important popular programme of workers control, pamphlet on economic poli­ planned production according to cies ••• for many years". need, expropriation of the means Glyn Intended this pamphlet of production draws Its coherence to be a radical break with the from being 100% committed to old Bennlte/stallnlst Alternative overthrowing capitalism. Stuck Economic Strategy (AES - Import In the middle, pressurised on the controls, nationalisation and volun­ one hand by the 'realism' demanded tary 'planning agreements'), but by electoral politiCS and on the he has produced a document that other by the aspirations of millions has more In common with the of workers Is the Labour left with AES than with revolutionary Marx­ Its muddled 'alternatives'. Ism. In the process he reveals With every month that has the reformist content of the 'revo­ passed since the defeat of the lutionary' slogans of Militant Itself. miners' strike, Klnnock and Hatter­ Glyn argues that getting rid sley have taken the opportunity of mass unemployment Is the key to narrow the goals and sharpen task of the next Labour Govern­ the pro-capitalist emphasis of ment. A massive programme of Labour's economic programme. house-building, social services, For Klnnock, giving workers jobs, NHS spending and the rebuilding raising and protecting the real of Industry Involving an extra, value of their wages Is not a guid­ £15 billion In government spending Defending jobs now is the key to fighting unemployment ing principle. over 5 years could create a million departs from Militant Is on the the Implementation of such con­ down. If this programme were His only principle Is doing jobs a year. question of nationalisation Itself. trols would bring a Labour the official policy of Labour then what the financial magnates, the A number of commentators Having posed the question, he Government face to face with Klnnock and Hattersley would stockbrokers and CBI will allow have rightly pointed out that this answers It In an unconvincing and the question of nationalisation. have to be forced to Implement him to do and enlisting the labour Is little more than the strategy equivocal series of formulations. "1be crucial question then it by the rank and file. The task movement's support for this. The of state Investment and Interven­ Dealing with the major financial Is whether the solutions advo­ of revolutionaries would be to leadership's latest Insult to the tion pioneered In the 1930s by insltutlons he argues: cated below are consistent mobilise the -forces to overcome unemployed is to announce that the liberal economist Keynes. It "Taking them Into public with private ownership of the sabotage It would meet and a Labour government can only was a strategy abandoned by ownership seems Indispenslble the major flanclal and Indus­ press on to overthrow capitalist manage to create one million jobs Labour In the Wllson/Callaghan If a Labour Government Is trial companies." private property Itself. In three years and then only If years In favour of a 'deflationary' to prevent flnanclal crisis But the basic weakness of the But this Is not the si tuatlon. there Is some form of wage policy which limited state borrow­ and be enabled to use the pamphlet Is this. Long before The pamphlet reflects the margln­ concrol! ing and therefore state Investment. credit system as part of plan­ Labour had posed the question allsatlon of left reform Ism and Before we look at the fun­ ning for full employment". of 'private ownership or not' by as such Is little more than propa­ CONVERSION damental problems of Glyn's world This hardly rings with the strident challenging the bosses' economic ganda that revolutionaries should It Is worth bringing out the flaws tones of Militant's "socialist policy" power, their political power, which not endorse as the programme In his poliCies which result from regarding the banks. And what lies outside parliament In the needed by the labour movement At last October's Party Con­ his departure from the traditional of the two little words "without army, police, judiciary and in civil today. ference the scale of Kinnock's MlUtant nostrums weak even compensation" which we, along servants like the Governor of the There Is an alternative aI>­ conversion was summed up In the as these are. with Trotsky and previously Mili­ Bank of Englan~, would be used. proach In the here and now. The phrase " ••• we must be the Party First of all Glyn openly es­ tant, have regarded as the crucial Dealing with the question fight to create a mllllon jobs of production". It is possible to pouses Import controls as a short difference between state capitalist of capitalists taking their money starts with the defence of every imagine the advice that the banks term measure for a Labour nationalisation and expropriation? out of the country before an elect­ existing job. In every struggle and the boardrooms have given Government. For the long term It is hardly a small point but Glynn Ion (no doubt accompanied by against closures and redundancies a thousand times to Klnnock: there are fine phrases about "new says not one word about no com­ dire warnings In the press against It Is for workers In the factories "It Is possible for you to bor­ patterns of trade based on the pensation for the banks. Labour, massive price rises, etc) and offlcles to use their collective row more money and raise mutual benefit of the economies The decisive weaknesses in Glyn advocates that labour should strength to Impose demands such more taxes. With this you concerned". But Import controls Glyn's pamphlet concern the "go on the offensive" and make as work-sharing with no loss of could Inject demand Into the carried out under capitalism methods he advances to circumvent It an election Issue. pay, workers' control over all economy to try and create even under a Labour Government the sabotage by the bosses of This squares very well with aspects of the production process new jobs. But It will only which created a million jobs a the parliamentary reform pro­ the official politiCS of Militant - control over hiring and firing, who argue that a peaceful tran­ lead to renewed Inflation year - are nothing more than ec0- gramme. Precisely because the over the Intensity of work. These sition to socialism Is possible pro­ because we will not satisfy nomic nationalism. employers have not yet succeeded measures begin to establish, from Import controls export unem­ In crushing trade unionism to the vided a Labour Government Is below, dual power In the economy, this demand by Increasing backed up by 'mass mobilisatlons'. output. PrIces will rise because ployment to workers abroad, they point where they can re-Invest begin to challenge the rule of Unfortunately It does not square private property and profit. They of bottle-necks In supply." do not fundamentally solve It. without a wages explosion, they very well with reality. The question prepare and mobilise the working To Increase Investment and raise Glyn's arguments call to mind cannot afford a government com­ of what Labour would do If the class for a political confrontation output to expand production those of the Stallnists who Militant mitted to anything but the mildest capitalist state machine was mobi­ with the capitalist state. - the capitalists will have to be so vigorously disagree with over expansion. Faced with any such lised against a serious attempt In the last analysis It Is not convinced that It can be done the AES. Of course under a work­ government they would use all to implement these controls Is even a question of one or two profitably.. Klnnock has not yet ers' state, In a planned economy, their economic and political power never answered. million jobs a year. A workers' convinced them that the Labour all foreign trade Is subject to to engineer an about-turn. government based on and Party can lower wage costs dras­ state control. But so are wages Glyn is not blind to this. accountable to the independent tically and so create the conditions and all aspects of the economy. Indeed In a chapter headed 'Prob­ ALTERNATIVE organisations of the working class for profitable production. But he In the workers' state the eco­ lems - and how to control them' nomy Is being planned to meet he deals with the main ones. As a socialist alternative to - would seek to draw up and im­ Is working on It. plement a massive programme For now his policy Is a mix­ the needs of all workers. Under "1be broad nature of these Klnnock it Is simultaneously not of public works. Only working ture of mindless exhortation capitalism, however controls on problems are clear enough far reaching enough and too dras­ people know what Is needed In "Britain has made It, Britain can trade and wages are aimed at - flights of capital, problems tic. It is not radical enough to terms of bricks and mortar and make It, Britain . will make It" securing maximum profits at the of financing increased govern- meet the Immediate and burning - a desire to match Japanese pro­ expense of all workers. Import ment expenditure, Inflation, needs of working people. Glyn basic goods to begin repairing duction techniques and a deter­ controls, like wage controls, under controlling trade, ensuring has designed his package so as the fabric of working class life mination to attract Investment capitalism can only harm the Inte­ adequate Investment." to stay within the bounds of left that has been shredded by funds back from abroad by ensuring rests of the working class. To prevent Increased demand lead­ reformist 'realism' and parliament­ Thatcher. that: The second point where Glyn Ing to Increased prices, Glyn calls arianism. Yet If mass unemploy­ Glyn's pamphlet falls far short "the return paid on those for price controls. To prevent ment Is really such a priority of being the action programme funds Is equal to what they it sucking In a flood of cheap then why not spend an extra £15 to meet working class needs and can earn elsewhere." Imports he advocates Import con­ billion In one year and create mobilise working class struggle. In short, raise the level of exploit­ trols. To prevent the financiers a million jobs every three months? As such its Ideas need to be coun­ ation of British workers, boost taking their money elsewhere he Most of the unemployed re­ tered, not encouraged. The cen­ profits and hope that this nibbles advocates exchange controls. To sources are there. If £5 billion trists who have hailed it are con­ at the edges of the dole queue. ensure that the banks don't go can be found to I beat the miners, fessing to the bankruptcy of their on an 'investment strike' he £ II billion for Trident, what's own politics. recommends that they should be the problem? A Million Jobs A Of course it is -not excluded BRAZEN obliged by law to lend to a future Year Is not likely to be a ringing that a decisive challenge to capi­ Labour government. In addition slogan for those at the end of talist state power may begin with This is nothIng more than he recommends a drastic attack the queue - black youth, unem­ the growth of action councils set a repetition of the poliCies of on the Income of the rich via ployed married women, the up to defend and enforce the Wllson, Callaghan and Healey In taxation. over-45's. In this sense, then, the reform programme of a left Labour the last two Labour Governments, For those who label him as programme is not really one government and in the process suitably modified to take account Keyneslan he replies: capable of mobilising the mass go way beyond it. But even If of the fact that there Is less room "A Keyneslan expansion Is of people for Its Implementation this were to happen one thing for radical Improvement than one which Is not accompanied against capi talist opposl tion. Is clear. Only the organised might before. It Is also more brazen by such controls at the level This leads t It's other weak­ of the working class In non-parlia­ about Its limitations on account of Industry and the economy ness, namely, t at Is It Is far mentary councils armed to defend of the lowered horizons produced which are necessary to ensure too drastic for the bosses to their polltcal power can break by Thatcherlte victories. success." stomach without ~rovoklng a major the will of the combined might It Is true that the 'controls' he backlash from t elr state mach­ of the City, Whitehall and Parlia­ In this context It Is not diffi­ advocates would, if carried through Ines. Yet Glyn has no political ment. When the working class cult to understand the popularity vigorously, represent a major curb answers to this e entuallty. Is politically the ruling class we of Andrew Glyn's recent pamphlet on the power of capital. He also The truth 0 the matter Is can really look forward to the A Million Jobs A Year (Verso demonstrates In each case how that Glyn's ap roach Is upside total eradication of unemployment•• 4 WORKERS POWER 82 April 1986

Then, after we had agreed the room and we tell them what vlously we can't discuss in detail REPRESENTATIVES OF the Metal and Allied Workers on all this, the government de­ we've decided - how many want or It would give the enemy a Union (MA WU) from South Africa have been visiting clared a State of Emergency which to go on strike, w~en and how. chance to plan ahead. Britain to gather support for 1,000 workers locked forbade any organisation In the So In that wa we are trying On the ANC Charles added: country to hold any meetings un­ to Involve the orkers In their We agree with the ANC and think out by British Tyre and Rubber Company's subsidiary less It made a special application own struggle as much as we can, It Is the organisation which will SARMCOL, in Howick, South Africa. and submitted an agenda. They to avoid our previous experience liberate South Africa. They have also been describing the formation of say what we can talk about, who when a few leaders were detained, WP. What about the threat · of the Confederation of South African Trade Unions can talk, how many people can and that meant the end of tlie general strike action against the attend. It has been very difficult union. pass laws? (COSATU). Charles Makabela, Executive member of and we had to have 'In house' WP. What Is your opinion about I can say something about the MAWU and member of the Central Executive Commit­ meetings In the matchbox size the unions which decided to stay houses we live In. Sometimes one campaign against passes and around outside the federation? tee of COSA TU, spoke to us while he was in the West leader had 20 houses In a night education. There's a possibility Midlands, addressing meetings of trade unionists which to cover our members to discuss of a national stay-away by the were organised through the South African Solidarity the federation. Leaflets and pam­ The other federations, CUSA and end of this month to force the phlets had to be distributed at the AZACTU, the black conscious­ government to pay for equal black Committees of Coventry and Birmingham Trades Coun­ night. But eventually we founded ness unions, are now rather small. education, and to scrap the Bantu cils. COSATU. They did not join us because we Education Act. There are a lot Insisted on the prinCiple of of plans for this year. We gave WP. Can you tell us about the WP. What did you mean by 'worker non-racialism. Ollr Impression Is the regime till the end of June growth of the trade union move­ union. There has been a coloured controlled' organisation? that now most of the workers to scrap the pass laws - then ment In South Africa? union, a white union and so on At the moment we are building want to join COSATU. I want they announced they were getting and when the blacks were allowed an organisation In the local areas to make clear that our differences rid of them on 1st July! But we Our union, the Metal Workers, to join unions, there were three which will allow the workers them­ do not affect making joint, united don't expect they will really get was started In 1973/4 after strikes different unions with different selves to take any decision In front action which has happened rid of them altogether. In the Pietermarlzburg area. Be­ their union. In all the committees and which we consider very im­ cause of the history of South Interests. WP. Can you tell us about the So we fought this problem, of the union, from the shop floor portant. dispute which brings you to Africa, It had been difficult to and managed to bring 33 unions right up to the National Executive, build unions, especially because WP. What Is COSATU's attitude Britain? together by the end of 1984 - there Is a policy that the majority to political questions, to the strug­ until 1976 It was Illegal for black and It was agreed at the last on any committees must be work­ Well, besides the general problems, workers to join. There have been gle against apartheid as a whole? meeting of the unity talks In June ers. So If you've got a committee each union has its own problems. many attempts to form federations to form one broad federation based of 7, at least 4 must be workers, We have recognised that there One of these faces MAWU - the and Industrial unions but these can be no clear division between dispute with the multi-national have been crushed by the govern­ on Industrial unions. There were but It Is likely that more will three main principles: one union trade union questions and political British Tyre and Rubber Company ment and employers. be. If we have to take a serious for each Industry, that the unions decision - like taking any action, ones. We have plans for a lot (BTR), which has subsidiaries In After struggling to form our must be worker-controlled organ­ strikes, stay-a ways, consumer boy­ of campaigns which we are working South Africa and round the world. union we continued Illegally until on now. We are drafting a pr

NOTHING TO LOSE - A WOR TO WIN! IN TIlATCHER'S WAR against fight on the principle of equal . the "enemy within" no group Is pay for equal work. It would fight attacked with greater ferocity for special rates and full rights than working class youth. for youth In the unions and Cuts In dole money for students Labour Party. It would campaign and school le avers and pitiful to unionise all youth and build wages on YTS drive youth hack an unemployed workers' union. Into the family home. Cuts In A Revolutionary Youth Move­ recreation facilities and Increased ment would not relegate the strug­ bus-fares leave youth on the gles of . the specially oppressed streets with nothing to do and because they "disunite the work­ nothing to look forward to. ers". It would recognise, as well The Tories have helped rlght­ as super-exploltatlon In the factor­ wing bigots like Victoria Gllllck Ies, the oppression youth suffer In their attempts to restrict con­ In the family. The family Is a traception facilities for young prison house for youth and for women. Press campaigns have gay youth and young women espe­ whipped up hysteria about "teen­ Cially. age sex". Gay youth have faced a vicious wave of harrassment and persecution. On the grounds of fighting MOBILISE "crime" and "drug abuse" the Tories have sent their police thugs, armed with revolvers and plastic The fight for legal and finan­ bullets, Into the black communi­ cial Independence Is a' socialist ties. Black youth have been at fight. Abolition of the age of the sharp end of this police consent, sex education and special onslaught. centres for youth and free contra­ ception and abortion on demand would all form part of our pro­ gramme of action. CONDEMNED A Revolutionary Youth Move­ ment would mobilise youth In the struggle against nuclear war: not In Thatcher's Britain most with the middle class paclflclsm youth are condemned to a life of CND, but on the clear basis of poverty, boredom and real But youth have fought back. Any number of appearances workers and "project leaders" of defending NIcaragua, LIbya misery on the dole. One In four There were no braver fighters with Tracey Ullman or on The poured Into the Inner cities on and the USSR against the warmon­ under the age of 24 Is unemployed. In the miners' strike than the Tube will not hide the fact that the Inner city area programmes. gering adventures of US Imperial­ All the while the children of young miners and the young women Klnnock and co have done nothing And not the trade union barons Ism. Against "our own" Imperial­ the rich are getting richer. Rare­ who su:;ported them. Last year for youth and promise them n

MILITANT ~ CLAIM THAT they move towards Marxism. are the uthentic Marxist wing This is why M1Utant's of the L bour Party. Kinnock's for fighting the wltch-J THE REAL LESSONS attack on them would seem to based on staying In the lend credi~tl1ty to this claim. Party at all costs, keeplr Howev:-t a claim to Marxism heads down and hoping tt can only ~ustlfied by adherence wing's desire for unity 1 to the st programme. On them off the hook. countless issues MlUtant have In fact this approa< OF UVERPOOL long since departed from this lead to defeats. It will programme. They are a tame the demoral1satlon of in THERE IS NO better demonstration of the fatal flaws In MUltent's poli­ tion, these 'Marxists' claimed that left Inside the Labour Party. tics than the struggle of Liverpool City CounciL On a local scale the NUM should have had a ballot. militants. It will lead Militant had the chance to Implement their strategy of "Labour to power Without a ballot the miners opened They ;,ueve that this party, strengthening of the Righl despite I pro-capltallst leader­ on a ~allst programme". up the real posslblllty of breaking tant's Inability to see this They are proud of the results. by Julian Scholefield Thatcher through class struggle ship, can and wlll Inevitably be that they are an abate Peter Taaffe, writing In Militant methods. With a ballot Militant transformed Into a revolutionary both the building of a r~ International Review, says: of York. Every demo and one avoided a strike and made the party. All that has to be done lutlonary tendency In the "Liverpool Is a model to work­ day strike was hailed as yet Liverpool working class pay with Is to hang on In there, no matter Party and to the buUdiD< ers everywhere who want to another 'victory', yet another proof cuts. what, and eventually "Marxism's" revolutionary party. see a victory over capitalism". that "Marxism goes from strength Militant matched this cowardice day will come. A revolutionary partJ But for revolutionary Marxists, to strength". with a display of tactical Inept­ No matter what happens In can organise and direct t~ the lessons of Liverpool are very Yet no serious preparations Itude that was staggering. To stall the Labour Party, Militant argue different from those drawn by for an all-out strike by the council for time and bureaucratically force of the working class i: that: MlIItant. work force and for the spreading the workers out on strike they Is needed. We say this By getting 'Marxist' counclllors of that strike to the private sector issued 31,000 redundancy notices. "the objective situation is as members of the Labour elected to Liverpool City Council, In Merseyside were made. Mili­ This totally confused and demoral­ moving in the direction of to all those youth, party 11 MlIItant thought they had created tant's, "the councillors must lead" Ised the rank and file, opening Marxism". and trade unionists lookl an 'Island of socialism' on the approach led them to downplay the way for Klnnock and the This Is also true for the an alternative to Kinn()( Mersey. Indeed, compared to the such preparation. ' bureaucrats to stick the knife elections: urge them to unite ane spineless behaviour of nineteen In at the Party Conference. "If the Tories win, as the Kinnock In the Labour other Labour Councils, Liverpool FAILURE Peter Taaffe Is again brought right wing never tires of as part of the fight te did become an island of resistance In to give the 'Marxist' explanation repeating, Marxism will gain. this revolutionary party. to Tory cuts. In the end though, for this action. He Informs us: If Labour wins that will be But when the crunch came, MUitant on the othel that resistance crumbled. ~ position of the council even better. Marxism will all these 'victories' ended In will only whisper this Real Marxists never deceive In this situation Is analogous gain even more." workers about the possibilities defeat. Militant would do well chosen few. If Marxism to the relationship that would It Is also true for the that arise from winning control to remember the words of Rosa exist between a democratic from strength to streng of a local council. While better Luxemburg, the great Marxist: witch-hunts: its own, why bother . bull workers' state and the trade "Whatever action is taken, pay, more jobs and new houses "Revolutionary struggles are unions." revolutionary party? Why are Important gains, they cannot the direct opposite of parlia­ What utter rubbish. A local council the right wing will fall. If fighting Kinnock's purge If be defended without a bitter fight mentary struggles. In the course with a Labour majority cannot they do not witch-hunt us ismR will benefit from w of four decades we have had with central government. Quite be considered to be analogous we will gain influence. If happens? This is the I(J nothing but parliamentary 'vic­ simply, central government, acting to the dictatorship of the prole­ they do witch-hunt us we Mll1tant's politics, but it on behalf of capitalism, wlll try tories' In Germany, we have tariat. Capitalism was not abolished will gain more influence". the logic of real Marxism. to claw back these gains. advanced directly from victory In Liverpool! to victory ••• the result was There Is a clear conclusion from In these articles we E Strike action In Liverpool and More to the point, even these Ideas: as long as Marxists solidarity on a national scale was a devastating political and two key issues LI elementary aspects of workers' can stay in the Labour Party always the key to defeating moral defeat." Council and Ireland - whic control - like the opening of the until the hoped for mass influx Thatcher. The attack on Liverpool In September 1985 the failure books or control of hiring and the extent of M1l1tant's de was part of a national Tory offen­ to get a city-wide general strike firing - were not granted to the of workers takes place, all will from real, Le. revolul sive against local government signalled the council's Inability council work force. Under capitalism be welL Nothing the right wing Marxism.. spending. Resistance In Liverpool to genuinely moblllse the rank­ a local council can, at best, do will affect the 'objective' needed to be spread nationally. and file. Then In November Mili­ become a bastion of struggle But Hatton and Mulhearn at every tant advocated accepting the result against capitalism. It cannot be­ stage preferred negotiations and of a ballot amongst council work­ come a local socialist alternative time wasting manoeuvres, to trying ers which narrowly rejected strike to It. to link Liverpool's fight with other action, rather than trying to build workers'. the strike from below. The biggest and best chance Taaffe bleats that despite local ACTION COUNCILS came during the miners' strike. "Marxist leadership", Labour and But right In the middle of the ijnlon officialdom demobilised the Real Marxists In Liverpool strike, after threatening "mass workers. He concludes: would not have concentrated poli­ civil disobedience" and "general -nte first alternative was to tical power In the hands of the strike" action, Hatton did a deal engage in battle with only District Labour Party as MIlitant with a grateful Patrick Jenkln. a minority of the workforce did. They would have built councils The result? One less worry for clearly understanding the issues of action based on the rank and Thatcher and a 17% rate increase and prepared to fight. The file, on the communities of Liver­ for the workers of Liverpool. other alternative of an orderly pool and on private sector workers retreat was chosen". In the city. Militant never advo­ In one bound Jack was free! What cated this or tried to build such 'VICTORY' Taaffe and Mllltant Ignore Is that committees. In the class struggle the deter­ But they were essential If Militant claimed this was "an mined action of a significant defeat was to be avoided. Rather overwhelmlDg victory over the minority can alter the balance than being kept In the dark, work­ Tory government". On the same of forces In favour of the working Ing people, knowing their own day as Hatton's 'victory', the dock­ class. needs and the mood of their work­ ers launched a national strike Only a year and a half earlier mates could have organised to alongside the miners! But the the mllltant minority In the NUM defend the City Council and to Liverpool councillors Ignored the showed how to do this, by picket­ control Its actions. If MIlitant opportunity to help generalise Ing out the majority of the union. think this Is what happened in these struggles by sitting on their In Liverpool the majority against the Joint Shop Stewards' Commit­ the advance of the working class be constructed peacefully and hands. strike action reflected the votes tee or In GMBATU they are delud­ as a never ending, unstoppable defended constitutionally. It pic­ Once the miners were defeated, of wavering white collar workers. Ing themselves. No genuine com­ process separate from the class tures socialism as something the pressure was on Liverpool The manual unions recorded major­ mittee of workers would have struggle with its twists and turns achieved on behalf of the working again - this time without the pos­ Ities for strike action, as Taaffe endorsed the stupid tactic of hiring could argue this. Only someone class rather than by the working sibility of help from the NUM admits. taxis to break the NALGO embargo who sees every defeat as a victory class. It falls to warn and prepare which was In retreat. Again These workers were decisive. on layoff notices. cO\lld settle with the Tories In workers for the confrontation that manoeuvres and legal loopholes Their action could have swung-over Militant's tactics In Liverpool the middle of the miners' strike. would result from a challenge were used to buy time In prefer­ the waverers. Militant's cowardly were In line with their overall But such a view squares entirely to the economic might of the ence to mobilising the council failure to give this type of lead view of the struggle for socialism. with Militants's view of the world. employers - either in parliament workers for action. Workers In - something that even a mllltant Put Labour In power. Implement Militant's strategy as here or In the council chamber. Liverpool were marched onto the left-reformist like Scarglll was socialist policies. If the bosses advocated In the Labour Party Has Militant learned any lessons streets, off the streets and back prepared to give - demonstrates reSist, call on the working class as a whole and as carried out from Liverpool? Not at all. onto the streets again, just like the hollowness of their 'Marxism '. to rush to your defence. In practice in Liverpool Is seriously They refuse to recognise It the army of the Grand Old Duke In fact, partly as self-justlflca- Only someone who regards flawed. It says that socialism can as a defeat. -nte council was forced into a partial but orderly retreat." writes Peter Taaffe. But this was the refrain of the miners' leaders when they marched their 'victorious' troops back to work. In Liverpool, as well as the loss of a solid Labour ward to the Liberals this 'orderly re­ treat' has meant real cuts. Amid all the flag waving and rhetoric Taaffe admits: ". • • • some cuts. such as the non-fllltng of vacancies. . ete, were Inevitable." In addition, after defending to the hilt, before mllllons of work­ ers, the tactic of sending out redundancy notices, Militant now admits this was wrong. Do they admit this openly In front of the workers they misled? Not a chance. Tucked away In an eight page article in Militant internation­ al Review, their theoretical journal, is the single sentence: Liverpool workers in 1984 - a missed opportunity RGlven these factors It was

t -- WORKERS POWER 82 April 1986 7

IRELAND IS A key question for the left In BrItain. Since 1969 BrItish troops have occupied the streets of Northern. Ireland. Along with the RUC and the Ulster Defence Regiment they have terrorl8ed the Natlonal1st community. Over 2,000 have died In this conflict. Militant's arguments on Ireland are clear. They are wheeled out MILITANT 5 MYTHS time and again at the LPYS conference and at meetings up and down the country. But Militant's position on Ireland has nothing to do with Marxism. It has more to do with the illusions and prejudices of British workers which Militant will not challenge. Richard Gerrard looks at Militant's main arguments and the myths behind them. ON IRELAND

"The Northern Ireland a majority. It Is this state which should be described as 'sectarian'. conflict is a sectarian It safeguards Protestant rule, dis­ o conflict" criminates against Catholics In jobs, housing, wages and educa­ Militant often describe the North­ tion. Through this state, British 11' ern Ireland conflict as "sectarian a Imperialism rules In Northern Ire­ strife", or a conflict between reli­ land, dividing Ireland and fatally gious groups. They equate the weakening the Irish working class. t violence of Protestant paramlll­ Who supports this state? The t tarles with the violence of the Unionist parties, the Loyalist t IRA/INLA. They see both as organisations, the Protestant para­ Y "Increasing sectarian tension". military groups (UVF and UDA) At the same time they admit and the state forces of the RUC "British Imperialism bears respons­ and the UDR and 10,000 British Ibility for this state of affairs" soldiers. r Ir1ah e (Militant Monthly "What we Who Is fighting to overthrow stand for"). But this Is only half this state? At the moment the t the story. y IRA/Slnn Feln are the main force Britain partitioned Ireland In fighting British Imperialism In d 1920. The Northern Ireland state the North. was set up on totally artificial No 'Marxist' can equate the lines, guaranteeing the Protestants violence of both sides In this con­ e flict. Marx, Lenin and Trotsky s were clear, not just In general, n but especially referring to Ireland, a on the need to support the fight of colonised nations to declde their own future. This meant supporting those who were fighting to get British Imperialism out of Ireland, no matter who that fight was led by. The Irish struggle Is a fight for national liberation. It's the duty of Marxists to support those fighting against · British troops and their allies, and to convince 'Workers in uniform' clock on for a shift in Derry Eamonn Q'Dwyer (lFL) workers In this country to support unemployment amongst Protestants "Workers' unity can be no clear position. MlUtant Ir1ah them. to 12%, Catholic unemployment Monthly's "What we stand for" But Militant will never do this. built out of trade union One of their chief arguments stands at 30%. A report In 1981 says nothing about getting the against this Is: showed that there was not one struggles" troops out. On the other hand single Catholic skilled worker at recent YS conferences ha~ seen the Harland and Woolf Shipyard. Militant think working class unity Militant supporting resoofutlons "The IRA are individual Protestant workers dominate the can be built In Northern Ireland which call for troops out nOW, terrorists" skilled labour market, which has by Ignoring or playing down the linked to setting up a trade uErIO been boosted by US and govern­ National Question. They argue defence force. At other t es that struggles around workers' Individual terrorists are those who ment contracts to the main Protes­ Militant argue against "t oops wages, conditions, jobs, etc can carry out Isolated military actions tant employers; Short's, Harland out" on the basis that It would per.manently break the bond with no support amongst the work­ and Woolf and the Hughes Tool mean a capitalist united Ireland. between Protestant workers and Ing class. Certainly we think the Company. For example the composite their own bosses. They give the IRA substitutes military action Another area of Protestant resolution on Ireland at last year's example of the Outdoor Relief for mobilising mass working class employment has boomed during YS conference said: Demonstrations of 1932 as proof action. But this doesn't make them the last 5 years; the RUC, UDR -We affirm our opposition to that unity In struggle is possible individual terrorists. and prison officers now number the use of troops In Northern between Catholic and Protestant. The IRA has the support of 30,000 In Northern Ireland; one Ireland and call for their Im­ hundreds of thousands of National­ In ten Protestant men now works But history shows that this mediate withdrawal. recognising ist workers. At the funeral of in the security services. unity is possible only as long as however that this will only Bobby Sands, a convicted 'terror­ These privileges might look It does not challenge partition be possible with a mobilised Ist' 100,000 turned out to mourn. Insignificant to the speakers at and Protestant privilege. united working class fighting The victory of 1932, when Sinn Fein gets hundreds of thous­ YS Conference. They obviously for socialism and with the Protestant and Catholic workers ands of votes. look minute to Canterbury YS creation of a trade union de­ For years Militant have peddled whose resolution claims that "the took to the streets against forced fence force to protect the Implacable unity of the working labour schemes for those on the workers-. the barefaced lie that the IRA dole and a General Strike devel­ are just "gangsters" wIth no sup­ class" exists In the six counties! What does this mean? If It means But to a Protestant worker with oped all over Belfast, was follow­ Militant will only call for troops port. SInce the election of Gerry ed by a massive pogrom campaign Adams they have quietly forgotten a skilled job for life at Harland out If all these conditions have and Woolf, and to a Catholic on by the Protestant employers. been fulfilled, then it means they this argument. Modern day trade union 'unity' On the other hand Militant the dole In West Belfast the dif­ don't call for troops out now! a mistake we believe for these ference Is real enough. is a sick joke for Northern Irish It means they are echoing British redundancy notices to be sent are proud of the fact that they workers. It Is unity based on are "not pacifist". Good. Here workers' prejudices about the 'prtr out-. sUence when union members are gresslve' or peace-keeping role Is a war. A war of national liber­ Do they try to explain why Mili­ beaten up, jailed or murdered of British troops. Their Insistence ation. The IRA/INLA are fighting tant's 'Marxist leadership' could by the state forces; silence when that these professional soldiers, advocate such a terrible tactic? It. Whatever our criticisms of loyalist paramilltarles organise the IRA/INLA we must support engaged In a brutal and unjust No. They even deceitfully hint reactionary mass strikes of union war against the nationalists, are that It was non-Militant councillors them against the British Army. members such as the one-day strike For a real Marxist there can be "workers In uniform" underlines who were responsible for It! against the Anglo-Irish Agreement. no excuse for refusing to do this. Militant's tendency towards social This admission of guilt has Protestant workers do have But Militant have an excuse. chauvinism on the Irish Question. the same function for Militant a basic common Interest with The armed struggle "serves to As for being In favour of a as confession has for a catholic. their Catholic brothers and sisters. further disunity In the working capitalist united Ireland, we say: They say a couple of Marxist Hall The only posslbllty of breaking class and Increase sectarian ten­ In Britain It Is the duty of all Marys then carry on sinning. The their loyalty to partition lies In socialists to campaign for troops sion" (MlM What we stand for). rest of Taaffe's eight page block­ appealing to this. But any appeal out now regardless of whether So for Militant, Marxist princi­ Reactionary face of Loyalism buster Is a song of praise to the: to the Protestants on the basis this results In a capitalist united -48 councillors who remained ples on the National Question of class Interest must not Ignore can be set aside because of What is true Is that whatever Ireland. To say anything else, to Implacable and unwavering what cripples the whole working say keep the troops In until Irish "workers unity". privileges the capitalists might to the end-. grant Protestant workers, It Is class In the North - the border, workers are ready to throw off Taaffe writes: the working class as a whole which the British presen<;e, the Orange the leadership of ruling class and "1be Liverpool working class "Workers' unity is the suffers as a result of this division. state. middle class nationalists, Is really is fortunate to have at Ita key to the Irish struggle" Unemployment In the of NI to say: British troops, defending head a leadership within which Is second In the league table of "Troops Out Now means a capitalist sectarian state, are the Marxiat supporters of Mili­ Workers unity Is a fine phrase, British unemployment behind liver­ more progressive than a capitalist tant have played a cruclal but what divides Northern Ireland's pool. One In five are out of a calling for a capitalist united Ireland. It is no accident and at certain stages a decisive workers? job In the six counties. And whilst united Ireland" that this is the very excuse given role.- The Protestant workers' antag­ the Northern Ireland working class by right-wing labour politicians In Liverpool Militant's 'decisive' onism to the Catholics and to Is one of the most highly trade Workers Power argues that Bdtlsh for keeping the troops in. leadership led to the redundancy a united Ireland Is not just based unionised work forces In Europe, Troops play no progressive role In Ireland, revolutionary Marx­ fiasco and the failure at the on religion. It Is based on the It Is among the lowest when It In Ireland. They prop up the Ists take part In the struggle for 'crucial moment' to get strike privileges granted to Protestant comes to strike figures. Orange state. We fight In the National liberation precisely be­ action by council workers. In workers by the Orange state. This This Is why any socialist prtr unions and In the Labour Party cause they don't want a capitalist Liverpool thIs meant the difference is another fact about Northern gramme for Ireland must take for the policy of IfIlmedlate with­ united Ireland. They want to turn between a victory and a defeat Ireland that Militant try to hide. on board the question of destroy­ drawal of troops. IWe think that the national struggle Into a wor­ that Militant have yet to admit For years Militant have insisted Ing the Orange state. For Marxists, It Is possible to build united action kers' revolution, by fighting for happened. On a national scale that "any marg1nal privileges the workers unity Is an empty phrase around the call f r "troops out the tactics and strategy of - with a 'socialist labour govern­ Protestants might have had were unless It means unity In action now" even with t ose who don't permanent revolution. This is the ment' Instead of a city council wiped out by the economic reces­ around a common goal. Tne com­ yet support the IR /INLA's armed strategy of Workers Power's frater­ - It could mean the difference sion". mon goal of all the workers In struggle. nal organisatIon In Ireland, the between revolution and counter­ But recent figures show that Northern Ireland must Include When It comes 0 the question Irish Workers Group. It Is certainly revolution. Nothing less•• whilst the recession has Increased destroying the sectarian state. of "troops out no " Militant has not the strategy of Militant•• ._8 __ 70 YEARS ON ______------W-O-R-K_E_RS_PO_W_ E_R_82__ A_pr_il_l_986

This syndicalist answer was ON EASfER MONDAY, 24th April incorrect and abstract since it 1916, James Connolly, founder Ignored the attendant conditions of Irish Marxism, embarked on to be typically expected - the the last great struggle of his AN whipping up of fears of Invasion, heroic career. As vice president chauvinist protection of the of the Provisional Government Fatherland, etc. Lenin's view was and Commandant General of the that only in exceptional circum­ Dublin Division of the Army of TH stances, where the cour:je of the the Irish Republic, Connolly fused class struggle itself might have the resources of the Irish Citizen reached the point of all out con­ Army with the Revolutionary wing frontation, could a general strike of the Irish Volunteers, under the be possible at the outset of war; Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), and that It would have to be part to strike a blow against British of a drive for mass r'evolutionary Imperialism. insurrection in order to succeed. Exactly one week later the Lenin's initial policy for the city centre of Dublin stood in war was to force · the International ruins as the rising was quelled sections to refuse to vote for by the relentless fire-power of war credits or participate in bour­ the armed might of Britain. Its by a member of the Irish Workers Group geois governments,· to organise gunboats on the Liffey, Its artillery underground if suppressed, to sup­ pounded the walls of the half port fraternisation of soldiers on dozen or so points held by the turely, before the revolt of dicalism and the struggle for self the front and every struggle by rebels O'Connell Street, the the European proletariat had determination of Ireland as he the proletariat. That way, as the Four Courts, Liberty Hall (Home time to mature." (Ibld:358) viewed it. Until the defeat of war wore on, the socialists would of the Irish Transport and General Taken as a whole, Lenin's defence the essentially syndicalist battle increasingly win the workers and Workers Union) and various outlying of the Easter Rising had, as Its of 1913/14 Connolfy had assumed soldiers to the policy of defeat posltlons. Outside Dublin City, Immediate focus, the fight against that the 1912 Home Rule Bill of their 'own' bourgeoisie and In the few centres that rose - Imperialist chauvinism which had would be automatically Implement­ to turning the imperialist war County Galway, Enniscorthy and poisoned the right wing of ed. Although it became law in into a civil war for socialism. County Dublin - the officers In social-democracy from the 1914, Carson's Unionists had command reluctantly accepted Hyndmans to the Plekhanovs extracted the concession of parti­ the order to surrender. and . the fight to clarify the lefts tion in principle and the Redmond­ IMPERIALISM Twelve days· later Connolly who had not yet adopted an ite Home Rulers acceded to this was executed as were most of unequivocal position on the right demand. the other leaders of the Rising· of nations to self-determination. The hope that Connolly main­ Connolly's disillusionment with - P.H. Pearse, Tom Clark, Joseph They had an Insufficiently concrete tained in 1912 - of a united ITUC the failure of a general strike Plunket to name but a few. The understanding of the Imperialist and Labour Party going into to emerge spontaneously was not surviving Citizen Army and Irish epoch. As such Lenin's criticisms opposition as soon as Home Rule sufficient to justify the road to Volunteer troops were arrested of the Rising are all the more was granted - was shattered by national insurrection however. and deported to jails In Britain, notable since he was not concen­ this development. It was bad Of key importance was his intel"­ Interned until an amnesty could trating on the role and tasks of . enough that the ITGWU the pretation of the war itself. Unlike be forced from Britain's hands. . socialists In an oppressed nation, syndicalist engine of Connolly's Lenin, who saw all the major belli­ The rising of 1916 took the but on the duty, as International­ apsirations - had been incapacit­ gerent powers as imperialist, Con­ world by surprise. The bourgeois ists, of those In oppressor nations. ated. But the 'decampment' of nolly only saw England as the 'Home Rule' party of Redmond But what of the role of Marx­ the protestant working class falsi­ bastion of imperialism. He identi­ ranted against the rebels. The ists In the Imperlalised nation? fied Connolly's belief that there fied its domination of the seas More concretely what was the was little material basis left to Irish Catholic (published by Dublin James Connolly as the underlying cause of the Capitalist and owner of the Irish nature of Connolly's role in 1916 Ulster Unionism once the landlord behind this condemnation of the and what was wrong about It? aristocracy had been undermined. war: Independent, Wllllam Martin rebellion of small nations was "I believe the war could have Murphy, who unleashed the Dublin While an insurrection was not the sickening chauvinism and only a likely but Indeed a desirable been prevented by the Social­ lock-out of 1913) wrote after Con­ patriotism of the great Imperialist SYNDICALIST ists; as It was not and the nolly's execution: event In the context, we must powers. nonetheless weigh Connolly's role Issues are knit, I want to see "What was attempted was an But for the left, and leftward England beaten so thorough­ act of Brigandage pure and in It In the light of Marxism and Another vi~al development in moving elements who remained the events of the time. He not ly that the commerce of the . simple • • • no reason to lament determining Connolly's fatal course seas will henceforth be free uncertain of their ground In the only participated in it but all . that its perpetrators have met was the effect of the war both to all nations - the smallest transition of capitalism into Its the signs are that he was probably the fate universally reserved on the international social-demo­ equally with the greatest." Imperialist epoch, the Easter the most active and unrestrained cracy and on the working class for traitors." events of 1916 were also a bone (International Socialist Review, advocate of it. of nationalist Ireland. Imbued with They were ·soon forced to change of bitter contention. Lenin had March 1915) their tune. As execution followed syndicalism, Connolly was at first In so identifying England as the throughout the war, and Increas­ horrified that the 'Bugles of war' cold-blooded execution and intern': Ingly In 1916 prior to the Rising, bulwark of imperialism Connolly, ment and deportatlons mounted, PREMATURE did not sound the 'tOCSin of revo­ been re-elaborating his analysis lacking Lenin's dialectical view this apparently Isolated rebellion lution' immediately. Although not of the national question and of the course of the war potent­ registered more and more deeply It is clear that Connolly pre­ a participant in the pre-war Second the nature of Imperialism Itself ially paving the way to civil war, In the minds and hearts of a down­ International debates on what to as the foundation stone of the cipitated an insurrection that was sought to 'end' it by seeing Eng- trodden people. The 'Home Rule' do in the face of war, he identi­ question. The Rising was a factual premature from the standpoint party was jettisoned In the 1918 of the revolutionary proletariat fied with the Vaillant/Hardie call land thrashed. Then, he reasoned, verification of the substance of Westminster elections as Sinn Feln, internationally. But it was also for a general strike call as the the teachings of industrial union­ his criticisms of the left around newly wedded to the Irish Repub­ premature from the standpoint immediate response to war. ism, in a world of expanding com­ Luxemburg, Radek and others, lican Army, rose to dominate the of the Irish proletariat. The Rising, merce - I.e. in peacetime - would because of the concessions they support of the working class and though led by the armed militia penetrate Europe and open the unwittingly made to the Kautskyan rural masses. Sinn Fein declared born out of the 1913 strike and road to the socialist common­ the first Dail (assembly) In Dublin's renegades. lock-out, took place in isolation wealth. Lenin's polemic with Radek, Mansion House In 1919 and launch­ from the trade union it was creat­ Viewed in this light it is not over his article Their Song Over ed the war of independence. Is ed to defend. too difficult to fathom why Con­ on the Easter Rebellion, responds A protracted struggle followed, Since the defeat of the ITGWU nolly could allow himself to preci­ to the effects of such confusion. in which modern 'guerilla warfare' of Larkin and Connolly, membership pitate the Rising. Since he failed Radek's argument rested on the was born. It was to lead to limited plummeted as non-union pledges to understand the imperialist nature fact that the Irish agrarian ques­ Independence, In a partitioned were extracted from the defeated of the war on the part of all tion was effectively solved from Ireland, by 1922. In turn, as the ranks of dockers, tramway men the major protagonists and how above by Britain ergo there most conservative section of the and other workers of Dublin. From to apply revolutionary defeatism was no longer any social basis Irish bourgeoisie moved, with 30,000 members at the peak of within it he had little conception England's military backing, to for a 'national' rebellion. Lenin the strike membership fell to 5,000 of the vital importance of a pro­ rejected this pedantry and Radek's quell the revolutionary democratic in early 1916 - the lowest record­ letarian war programme. Rather conclusion that the rising was republicans, there followed a bloody ed. Instead of the once burgeoning than seeing increasing opportunities a mere 'putsch' which: year-long Civil War In the 26 press - the Irish Worker before for a working class recovery and "notwithstanding the sensation Counties 'Free State'. The dust its suppression had a circulation mass revolutionary assault emerg­ began to settle on the victory It caused had not much ing, Connolly feared that the backing.· of up to 95,000 - Connolly strug­ of the counter-revolution. opportunity for hitting the main Yet Lenin's arguments have, gled to produce and distribute through the warp and woof of some 8,000 copies of the Workers TOUCHSTONE subsequent history, been treated Republic per Issue. as an uncritical celebration of Yet the Rising was no mere Internationally, in the crisis the substance and form of the putsch. For it sparked off a move­ torn social-democracy, the 1916 1916 rising. Stallnlsts who have ment that saw general strikes Rising became In Lenin's words turned against the whole method against conscription in 1918 and "the touchstone of our revolution­ of Lenin In order to justify popular even the embryo of soviets. Tragi­ ary views". Far from being the front Ism, and Irish 'left Repub­ cally these were dominated by pointless project of a bunch of licans' who In the final analysis the re-vamped Sinn Fein in whose romantic dreamers cut off from always Insist that 'labour must Interests Connolly's former collabo­ wait' In the 41nterests' of the the external world, the Easter rators in the ITUC and Labour Rising was fully a part of the anti-Imperialist struggle of oppres­ Party stood back even in the 1918 'epoch of crisis' of Inter-imperialist sed nations are gUilty of such Westminster elections. war and a striking testament to a reading of Lenin. The organisation of the working the role that oppressed nation's In fact, Lenin's analysis of class in the ITGWU also recovered played as one of the 'bacilli' of 1916 was by no means uncritical. its membership dramatically reach­ the decay of imperialism. It was He wrote: ing 14,500 in December 1916 and along with the Indian troops' "TIte dialectics of history are continuing to reach 100,000 In mutiny In Singapore, suppressl:3d such that small nations, power­ early 1920. But not only were by the English; with the rebellions less as an Independent factor the members increasingly hegemon­ In French Annam, the German in the struggle against Imperial­ ised politically by the post-insur­ Cameroons and the bloody suppres­ Ism, play a part as one of rection Slnn Fein/IRA, but sion of the defiant Czechs by the ferments, one of bacilli, Connolly's role in 1916, In sub­ the Austrian Imperial Government. which help the real antHmpe- ordinating the Red banner to the The War had shaken the Second rlalist force, the socialist Green, unwittingly aided this International to Its foundations, proletariat, to make Its process. polarising It into revolutionary appearance on the scene." To grasp why Connolly went and social chauvinist wings. For (Collected Works 22:357) into the General Post Office along­ Kautsky and Plekhanov such nation­ Lenin added: side the IRB under the Tricolour al struggles were not only poimless "It Is the misfortune of the requires some appreciation of the but· downright reactionary. But Irish that they rose prema- process of wavering between syn- · enemy was receding more with every passing day. The International betrayal by social-democracy was bad enough. REVIEW But In Ireland Redmond and the FI NG Irish Parliamentary Party accepted THE PREVAILING REACTION the deferral of Home Rule until to the outbreak of AIDS In recent after the war. The defeated work­ years has been irrational and harm­ ing class, beleaguered and demoral­ fuL ThIs new, devastating and, ised, succumbed to the pressure as yet, incurable disease had been THE MO to enlist in the war. A majority met by a moralistic, accusatory of the Irish Volunteers split to response ID which the III person the right to form the 'National Is not the victim, but guilty of Volunteers'. Redmond acted as creating and spreading the db­ recruiting sergeant and persuaded ease. BA thousands of these men to throw Dennls Altman's book, AIDS themselves into the trenches of and the new Puritanism (Pluto standing of the origin of AIDS, respectable meJjlcal journals British Imperialism with the prom­ Press 1986, £4.95), Is a sympathetic which was based on the fact that churned out slmlla ~ rubbish: ise of 'Home Rule' (for 26 count­ contribution to the discussion the first few Identified cases were "A logical conclusion is that ies) after the war. around the question of the puri­ all in gay men. The cause of the AIDS is a self Inflicted db­ Of the 200,000 original Irist. tanical moral backlash which has disease was automatically assumed order for the majority of those Volunteers, only 12,000 opposed accompanied the development pf to be related to a gay lifestyle. who _ffer _I from It...­ Adler, Middlesex HospitaJ), whereby Redmond's call In September 1914. AIDS. He explores the different Ironically, as Altman points out, Perhaps. theDl homosexuality he tried to reassure people that It was in this immediate context reactions (mainly In the US) to the Identification of a specific la . DOt 'alternative' behaviour AIDS could not be transmitted that Connolly threw every effort the disease from the media, the 'gay lifestyle', which was some­ at all, but as the ancient through social contact, the press into anti-war propaganda and right-wing Moral Majority and . thing activists In New York and wisdom of the Bible states. have been largely silent. Scientific appealed to the 'Irish democracy' the medical establishment. He San Francisco had been determined moat certainly pathologlc". truth doesn't square with their to take a stand a~ainst this capit­ also aSsesses the response of the to assert during the 1960s and (Southern Med1caI Journal, Feb­ gay-baiting proclivities. ulation. The mInority of anti-war gay movement - from Democratic 1970s, had suddenly been turned ruary 1984) Although it Is now recognised Irish Volunteers were politically Party gay organisations through back on the gay community, as A right-wing religious group In that AIDS Is not caused by promis­ cast In the mould of. Irish separat­ the gay 'sex industry' to gay acti­ If In retribution. ' Nevada tried to prohibit a gay cuity. or anal sex or drug use, Ism before all else. Connolly vists like himself. In particular the moral rodeo from taking place as part the gay community has stili been hastened to reach a rapprochement Briefly explaining some of his reactionaries identified promiscuity of a homophobic AIDS scare. One forced to face the reality of a between them and the Irish CItizen own reactions he writes: In gay men as the sin God was of their members - a minister disease spreading rapidly within Army. In doing so he subordinated "Any gay man wrltlng about now avenging. Early media reports - was quoted as saying "I think certain groups causing considerable the goal of the workers' Republic AIDS, at a time when It re­ concentrated on the 'excessive' we should do what the bible says suffering and deaths. The number to that of a Republic. mains both unpreventable and numbers of partners that many and cut their throats". of people with AIDS remains small. He did everything possible to Incurable, will be brought face gay men 'had'. This idea was seiz­ Even when the virus which Other causes of death are still overcome the Initial hostility of to face with questions of his edon by the puritans to boost causes AIDS had been identified more common amongst young men. the IRB to socialism. He failed own mortality and fears.· and their campaigns against promiscuity in 1984, and many groups other But amongst gays In major cities to outline an action programme "I know too many people who In general and gays in particular. than gay men were known to be like London many people have rooted in the bedrock organisations have died." Not confined to ultra right-wing affected, the blame was still seen friends, lQvers or aqualnt­ of the working class. Even though The book covers the false under- political propaganda, so-called placed on gays. They were now ances die from AIDS. AIDS h~ he made consistent propaganda also accused of spreading the had a direct effect on the sexual for economic struggle, the anti-war disease to innocents, by being practices of gays. strategy he outlined was essentially blood donors. This is where many of the directed at the Irish Citizen Army The concept of gUilty groups most acute problems are pose4 which he converted from an who deserve the disease on the "The central dilemma that amateur militia into a uniformed one hand and innocent victims faces gay men as the epidemic brigade primed for insurrection the haemophiliacs, the babies spreads la how to develop 'safe - alone if necessary. or the hetrosexual partners - on sex' without feeding the tradI­ the other, has been widespread It is sometimes argued that tlonal ~moralism that condemns with the outbreak of war Connolly and is associated with Increasing both homosemaUty and sex became disillusioned with the work­ homophobia and discrimination. outside a committed relation­ Ing class and hence 'collapsed' Lesbians, too, have suffered from ship BQd so easily feeds Into Into nationalism. But this is not the general backlash. AIDS has the heightened homophobIa true. He believed In the power been identified with all gays and unleashed by AIDS. " of Industrial unionism even In lesbians. The arguments raised by this the last two years of his life. The media response to AIDS problem are Impossible to recount The national Insurrection was to has been predictable. The crudest In a short review, but divisions break the logjam that blocked sensational headlines occur when exist between those who argue its hoped for re-emergence. 'innocent' victims are affected, for state Intervention to try and But if Connolly thus oscillated when there are scares about Infec­ modify sexual behaviour and those between syndicalism and an tion just through close contact. who wish to rely totally on educa­ accommodation to revolutionary "Gay Bug Kills Gran" screamed tion, discussion and free choice. nationalism he also tried to unite The Sun. However when other Altman himself tries to balance these two conceptions in the revo­ reports came out that "AIDS Is the rights of the Individual / with lutionary vision he sought to propa­ not a contagious dlsel;lse" (Professor the role of the state In protection. p~ In lrelan4 ~oowti~ ~ ~Is r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~' This Is valid in so far as the vision was, It nevertheless lacked state does have a definite role clarity and concreteness and to play. It must be forced to repeatedly it impeded the crystal­ provide funds for research educa­ lisation of a proletarian cadre tion and health care.\ But to grant party. the capitalist state (with its distor­ ted and prejudiced moral values) any rights to Interfere with Indivi­ HEROIC dual sexual activity or gay clubs and institutes would be to hand In the final analYSis, therefore, have already taken over the "But should this be given to them a weapon with which to it Is not the fact of Connolly's THE NORMALLY PLACID local Liberal Party", said one councillor, kids?" Is a question many have attack the whole gay community participation In the Easter Rising, free-sheet, the Leicester Trader, exploded Into fury on 26th Feb­ "and we won't let them do It raised. We say yes. Young gay and any other groups of -whose that is the essential problem but people are the least likely to be sexuality it disapproved. the manner of his participation. ruary. BAN THIS mTH screamed to us". Even the Leicester South GMC able to get sound advice - either Gay men, and other groups Even with a war programme along the front page headline; "I was voted to 'defer' an emergency from school or from their parents. who are also at risk have faced the lines put forward by Lenin, appalled says mother- It continued. The "filth" in question was resolution calling for the Immediate Gay youth now live in fear up to the problem of curbing the Connolly might still have had to reinstatement of the grant. They not just of bigotry at school, at spread of AIDS. Guidelines for participate. But then It would a leaflet produced by Leicester too wanted to see the leaflet home or at work, not just of pol­ safe sex, as developed by gays have been on the basis of prole­ Left Out, a politically active Les­ before making a final decision. ice harassment, but also of catch­ themselves, are an attempt to tarian class independence. Instead bian and Gay men's group. The leaflet, called "Playing It Safe". "We've got a law In this country Ing a potentially lethal disease. deal with the risks . of catching the Red banner was subordinated against paedophilia" argued one Safe sex Is possible. But the and spreading AIDS in a sclenti flc politically to the Green and an contained advice to gay youth delegate. Tory bigots of the DHSS won't and positive fashion. opportunity to clarify a revolution­ on how to have sex safely and The Labour Group and the explain how. They still opt to The · belated government res­ ary minority for the ensuing period reduce the risk of catching AIDS. GMC's demand to see the contents portray gay sex as 'abnormal'. ponse to AIDS shows they would was tragically lost. It was written In straight forward of the next leaflet before deciding It is a contravention of capital­ like safe sex to mean monogamy. Revolutionary communists will language and was given out at on the grant Is nothing less than Ism's rules for a family orientated The recent advertising campaign commemorate the Easter Rising the Red Wedge concert In Leic­ censorship. sexuality based on rigid notions In the British press shows that as both a tragic and heroic episode ester. Following "complaints from Providing Information and advice of the differences between, and they like to pretend that having In Ireland's struggle for indepen­ mothers" and the press outcry to gay youth is an important task roles of, men and women. Gayness only one partner is the best dence. We will strengthen our the police are now investigating for the labour movement and for In fact threate s these rules. answer. But In reality It Is the programme for today by jettisoning the leaflet for "obscenity". The anti-gay hysteria of the Labour controlled councils. It Is Because It is subversive, capitalism forms of contact which determine the mistakes of yesterday. But seeks to portray It as perverse. whether or not the virus Is spread. our criticisms of Connolly do not press should surprise nobody. What a class issue. The DHSS adverts did surprise many was the partici­ wtJlch appeared In the papers It Is up to the labour movement Being monogamous with someone blind us to his courage and his to provide the money and support who h~ or Is Incubating the dedication to our class. He com­ pation of the Leicester City Coun­ recently were Inadequate. They cil Labour Group in this hysteria. gave vague advice, full of medical to groups like Le~cester Left Out. HTL V-111 virus Is no protection. mitted errors not crimes. Such groups challEmge capitalism's Having 'safe sex' with many diff­ The real criminals are those The leaflet was funded by a jargon about 'Safe Sex' and 'Risky £42 grant from Leicester City Sex'. restrictive moral codes and give erent partners can prevent an who butchered the insurgents useful advice to young gays. Individual from contracting or the British ruling class - and their Council. But Council leader Peter The Leicester Left Out leaflet The action of Leicester City spreading the dlse~ grovelling apologists in the labour Soulsby was quoted In the Trader was aimed at working class gay Council should be condemned. Anything which interferes with movement. To avenge themselves as saying: youth. It was given out not only Soulsby now claims he w~ mis­ sexual freedom is a blow to gays, on one who dared challenge their "the grant was moat deflnately at Red Wedge but in gay pubs quoted. but he has yet to issue lesbians and all who want a varied rapacious rule In Ireland, they not Intended for this sort of and clubs. It contained detailed a statement about this. The grant enjoyable sex life. But campaigns ordered Connolly - wounded and publicatlon which we find offen­ advice written in no-nonsense lang­ sive". uage about safe gay sex. It used should be im}Dedlately and which have stressed the positive incapable of walking - to be car­ aspects of 'safe sex', and encou­ ried to a firing squad on a stretch­ Within a week the Council Grants words and slang that working class unconditionally restore4 . Donations, etc, and copies of raged people to "Adapt, enjoy er and shot. His death was then Committee withdrew a planned gay youth will understand. The the leaflet can be obtained from and survive!" must help gay people toasted In the clubs and salons grant of £500 to produce another same advice Is given by doctors leaflet because the group refused and the Terrence Hlggins Trust. to overcome the real Isolation of 'polite society' In London and leicester Left Out and celibacy which many have to show them a full draft of all In fact both the leaflet and the BlackthOrn Books Dublin. Truly, by learning from clo been forced Into through fear. future material. The Estates DHSS adverts were based on the 70 High Street his errors we will ensure that Altman's book Is a popular contri­ Committee refused permission same source, a leaflet written Leicester his murder is avenged when next bution to helping such campaigns.. the workers of Ireland (and Britain) to use the Town Hall Square for in America which Is banned in rise up against their exploiters•• a Gay Pride march. "1bese people this country. by Mike Leece by Clare Hoath

' .J. __ 10 WORKERS POWER 82 April 1986 RAPE, LAW AND O"DER

THE BOSSES' PRESS has been the humiliating procedures and function as defenders of capitalist police powers. Women are being communities should not rely on waging a daily campaign on the attitudes of the police to women society, its laws and its values. used as a stalking horse for 'police protection' but should subject of rape. Seizing on the reporting rape. This "prejudice" can be no more greater repression that they, as organise to defend themselves vicarage rape case and on the Now the police openly admit educated away than a swamp can miners or printers' wives, as peace - both against the criminal ele­ police announcement of a 29% this with their talk of training be drained with a bucket. protesters, as s ~ rikers, will soon ments produced by rotting capital­ increase in reported rapes the officers to eradicate these sexist Women themselves have set be the victims 0J ist society and against its defen­ Mirror, the Sun and the Star have attitudes. Why should this be any up Rape Crisis Centres. They have The socialist response to these ders, the police. been frothing with indignation more successful than their 'educa­ repeatedly called for protective calls should be not a penny, not The miners' strike showed the on the subject. tion' to counteract their racist measures - better public transport, a man (or woma ) for this system' impact that militant self-organisa­ SoCialists, working class women attitudes? Police "prejudice", street lighting, self-defence of repression. e should support tion can have. Multiply that many and feminists will all naturally whether against blacks, women, courses. If the Tories were In the demands for state funding times across broad sections of suspect the sincerity of this pro­ strikers or working class people the slightest bit serious about for women's and Rape Crisis working class women and a real fessed concern over women in in general is a product of their combatting rape they would not Centres, for Increased public trans­ challenge will develop. If women the yellow rags. Their 'page three' have cut central and local govern­ port including women's bus and are seen predominantly in the nudes, their constant stream of ment spending on public services. taxi service, for physical defence labour movement as class fighters, stories which present women as In fact, if there is an actual training easily available to all views of them as sex objects can vulnerable objects for men's sexual increase In rape (rather than in women, etc. and will be challenged.' Once the satisfaction express the values its reporting) then its root cause We believe that women along women are organised, the men of a society which systematically is the increasing demoralisation with blacks and working class won't dare read the Sun! • oppresses, humiliates and dehuman­ and crimlnalisatlon of layers of ises women. the population in the inner cities. Mass unemployment inevitably creates a desperate, demoralised CRIME-WAVE? and atomised lumpen proletariat. DEFEND GUILLERMO LORA! THE PAZ-ESTENSSORO GOVERN­ national workers' movement should: The guardians of this society MENT, as part; of its wave of repression aimed against the Boll­ 1) Protest to the Bolivian Govern­ and its values - the police chiefs JUSTIFICATION ment against the undemocratic vian worken' movement, has in­ and Tory Home Secretary Douglas voked a reactionary electorai law law and fine; Hurd . have rushed forward to ~ The answer to the problem against the Revolutionary Worken 2) Raise funds to offset this denounce the crime-wave in gen­ l5 of crime - including those aimed Party (POR) and its secretary vicious attack; eral and the 'increase' in rape ~ specifically at women like rape 3) Organise the defence of other general GuUlermo Lora. the gov­ in particular. Hurd has promised ~ or "wife-battering" - is not more He was arrested for non-payment militants arrested by ernment after last Autumn's an extra 3,000 police for the :; "law and order" i.e. more police by the POR of the $70,000 'flne' general strike. Metropolitan Force. 8 repression. Yet this is precisely because the POR received under Yet for over a decade the t what the present outcry is designed 50,000 votes in the July 1985 Contributions should be sent direct women's movement has given ample ~ to act as a justification for. elections. Whilst Lora has been to the: evidence that rape is very wide­ e: The crime of rape, like "mugg­ released on payment of the flne International Committee for spread. Only a very small number on a loan basis, Workers Power the Defence of Guillermo Lora, ~ ing", can be used to create a of rape cases, perhaps 10%, are paniC atmosphere - rooted in real believes, despite our serious Juan PabIo Bacherer, reported to the police. One very Mor e police will not stop attacks on political differences with comrade clo G. Bohrt, Vaktarsatan 30-D, fears - with the object of softening Lora - that the British and Inter- 754 22 UPPSALA, Sweden. important reason for this lies In women! up the public for ever greater

logically sound' music.- Labour leadership. It is simply Ions about politics. There is no groups could have been used pre­ So they can play whatever music unreallstic to call Red Wedge contradiction between saying Red cisely to question those leaders, they like but they have to use a cover-up for the Labour leader- Wedge is good but it Is not put forward and debate alternative . theIr public voice: ship. enough, and arguing against the strategies and organise the rank -to speak out against the tralt­ What should be done is to draw Stalinlst idea that art has to have and file. on and bureaucrats who run out the lessons and assess the the 'correct line' to be any good. Obviously it Is difficult to the Labour party.- value of Red Wedge. On this basis If my original article did not go win council workers to strike in How? By confining their politics every opportunity around Red over the top In praising Red Wedge support of an administration which to Interviews and their perfor­ Wedge should be taken to argue it Is because there are enough has presided over declining ser­ mances to the stage. for the need to take up the Issues people doing that already. vices, appalling housing conditions The only sense can make and to do so in the unions, the Socialists should certainly par­ and many disputes with Its work­ of this is that you want them LPYS and the Labour Party with­ ticipate and build Red Wedge, force. That is why, In local unions IDEOLOGICALLY to speak out against the labour out thinking Red Wedge forums but on a revolutionary basis, I.e. and Labour Party wards, Workers leadership and raise the demands are any substitute. Insofar as to try and organise youth to fight Power supporters have consistently SOUND? and support the type of fighting someone like Paul Weller wants back. argued for a massive expansion youth organisations which are need­ to and can come down off the of the council budget, a strategy ed In the Interviews they give stage and join that fight he is of confrontation, refusal to pay as rock musicians and in the Red welcome. Meanwhile, recognising the debts to banks, finance houses, Comrades Wedge debates "whatever kind that what he can do on stage refusal to pay the police precepts. Your article on "Red Wedge" (WP of music they play". This not only Is limited and without fall1ng into We argue that such measures No. 80, February 1986) correctly demands hypocrisy of these singers the trap of arguing that the stage should be backed up by mobilising describes the cynical use being and musicians but it also assumes should therefore be abandoned, industrial action from council made of Red Wedge by Kinnock a completely unrealistic concept what he and others have been Comrades unions and other local workers. and the Labour leadership. In of leadership and an action pro­ able to achieve should be realistic­ In your March 1986 Issue you To carry through such a fight assessing . the pamphlet sold at gramme for youth. ally evaluated and welcomed rightly point out the need for and determine the spending needs the concerts you correctly point Demands on YTS, on jobs, low Insofar as it goes. revolutionaries to support the sur­ would mean maximum rank and out that it contains few political pay, housing, for the rights of In this way the diversion of charged Labour councillors. How, file discussion and control over demands and no call to action. gay youth, etc, wlll only be worked placing demands on rock musicians though, can your alternative stra­ the council strategy and campaign. Such points are important ones out by youth In struggle, and it to give ideologically sound per­ tegy be correct ? You advocate Local democracy must be de­ to make to youth drawn towards Is from the same source that the formances is replaced by what the use of Ted Knight's local con­ fended by the working class, but political debate and action by organisation and leadership for has always been the Marxist ference "as a forum where a stra­ not uncritically. As well as defend­ Red Wedge. youth will emerge. While it is approach of taking whatever poll­ tegy can be worked out to win ing the councillors a fight for It Is also Important to criticise correct to point to the limited tlcal advantage that could be gain­ the battle". Yet of whom does better services, more jobs and those involved in Red Wedge such political content of Red Wedge ed from the arts without destroying this forum consist? The union houses must be waged. Without as Jerry Dammers who have it is utopian to demand of its them in the process with the bureaucrats, who have so often this it is difficult to organise suggested that It can become a musicians that they pre-empt the utopian demand that they system­ Ignored the wishes of the local Industrial action to defend the political voice of youth in the development of the class struggle atically serve the political Interests membership, the councillors who Lambeth councillors, but revolu­ labour movement as presently by resolving those limits. of the working class. This is the have made themselves so unpop­ tionaries must constantly argue constituted. Equally those such This demand ignores the real content of the article by Paul ular with their own work force for what Is needed to win the as Suggs of Madness who are character of the public voice avail­ Mason despite the disclaimer of through their use of bureaucratic fight. involved because it fits In with able to these musicians which such a purpose with which he dlctats from on high, wItness the their music while denying that is extremely Ilmited. Their open protects himself. kangaroo court which followed there Is any way forward for youth support for Labour is a healthy Mo Moloney the Jasmine 8eckford case. If (not a "stupid" just a wrong development by comparison with there Is no grass roots support Dublin position) need to be countered what went before in Rock, not for the councillors among the by explainIng what can be done an unhealthy surrender to Kinnock. Paul Mason replies: work-force surely It Is a mistake SORRY! and what needs to be fought for. Workers Power say vote Labour M. Moloney Is right to criticise to call for "all-out strike action", But your article goes further as part of their struggle against the idea that Marxism demands as this diminishes the credibility Comrades than that. It asks if Red Wedge the grip of reform ism on the work­ "Ideologically sound" music. ThIs of your answers to other ques­ is a vehicle for getting "socialist ing class. But it is wrong to say has been the biggest weakness tions. Clearly revolutionaries must There were two errors in your politics" to youth. The article that those who say 'vote Labour' of SocIalist Worker's coverage never hesitate In taking decisive version of the IWG article "Slnn says correctly that it is not but without such a perspective are of Red Wedge, and I had In mind action in the Interests of the Fein Votes For Cuts" In Worken concludes disastrously: simply being used by "Labour's Martin Hewes' (of the Redskins) working class, but surely at the Power 81. First, Gerry Adams "Weller. Bragg and Sommerville PR machine". Where have Red article In Socialist Worker when same time, we must never rely is attributed with arguing that should stop letting themselves Wedge said it was right not to I made my 'disclaimer'. on the bureauc ats or advocate there was a "radical shift away be used by Labour's PR machine re-nationallse, not to release jailed But there is a difference answers which have no conceivable from 'verbal socialism' to the to promote no-future policies miners, not to aim for full em­ between what an artist or a chance of success? real thlng-. In fact this was our and start using their public ployment, not to disarm unilater­ musician creates and what she estimate of what SF supporters Wllliam Jefferies hoped for not Adam's expressed voice and popularity to get ally? These are Kinnock's no hope or he might say In everyday life. Bradford youth to .fight now." pollcies - Red Wedge have not This Is why It Is possible for total position. This position is confused and supported them. reactionaries to make good musIc. We reply: Secondly, we were told by wrong. They have said, correctly, vote Its also why being In the SWP Comrade Jefferles Is correct to SF that there "had been" no dis­ Firstly, you make no attempt for Labour, get organised. Vague, does not guarantee the RedSkin's point out that we should never cussion on the way SF voted, whereas the article states wrongly to say how what you demand is but right Insofar as it goes. It music is any good. rely on bureI crats. However, to be done. By Red Wedge? By flows from the SWP's undervaluing In criticising what Red Wedge neither should evolutionaries Ig­ that an SF member told us there the individual musicians? In their of such a message that the SWP artists have been saying, we are nore forums wh re there Is a POIr "would be no" discussion. songs? In speeches on stage? In band The Redskins (whose political criticising their politics, not their slbillty of or nlslng oppositIon Please print this letter by way interviews? It is partiuclarly con­ allegiance to the SWP you failed music. It is a shame to see people to the bureaucrats. of correction. fusing since you also write: to mention) should ignore this whose music can Inspire thousands A conference where delegates Yours fraternally, "We don't demand that the and focus on demanding that of youth come over as political were present from local unions, the IWG member who Red Wedge groups play 'Ideo- Weller and company criticise the dupes when youth ask them quest- labour parties, and community wrote the article! WORKERS POWER 82 April 1986 11 IS WORKERS POWER SE TARIAN? JOHN LISfER IS a leading member ing document The TranSitional conference were defeated but of the Socialist Group and a Reformists and centrists readily seize upon every occasion to Programme In Today's Class far from falling to work construct­ regular contributor to Its Journal point a finger at our "sectarianism." Most of the time they have Struggle. Ively with "any number of unaffil­ Socialist Viewpoint. Many WRP in mind not our weak but our strong side: our serious attitude At the heart of this document Iated workers" we helped that members wUl also know him as was the wrongheaded notion than movement produce a paper and publicity officer of London Health toward theory; our effort to plumb every political situation to the an International tendency could carry out a number of activities. Emergency, In which capacity bottom, and to advance clear-cut slogans; our hostility to "easy" be built on the basis of agreement . Where was the Socialist Group's he was recently Interviewed In and "comfortable" decisions, which deliver from cares today, but purely on general principles. Thus, miners to help in this endeavour? Workers Press. One other sideline prepare a catastrophe on the morrow. Coming from opportunists, major tactical ~ uestlons were con­ In fact the NRFMM has failed of this 'man for all seasons' has veniently ignored in the TlLC's to grow Into the type of movement come to light In the latest Social­ the accusation of sectarianism .is most often a compliment. documents. This was supposed we advocated. This does not Invali­ ist Viewpoint (No. 11). He Is a Leon Trotsky to enable them to play the role date either its eariy attempts grossly dishonest polemicist who "Sectarianism, Centrism and the Fourth International" of catalyst In re-grouping the or our call. Indeed If our call substitutes unbridled venom for 'World Trotskylst Movement' which for the rank and file movement political arguments with his oppo­ Included not only the IC frag­ Is "ludicrous" why then did Social­ nents. ments, but also the Mandelltes ist Viewpoint state: The discussion that Workers In the USFI. Because this 'move­ -At the same time It is neces­ Power has had with WRP members ment' was supposedly 'oscillating' sary to develop a militant rank has called forth a torrent of pole­ around the Trotskylst Programme and file movement within the mic against us from the (Declaration of Intent), It could NUM." (Socialist Viewpoint No.6) 'antl-pabloite' groupings. In a typi­ be won back to that programme. Perhaps what Llster thinks Is ludi­ cally childish article the Sparta­ After all that programme for the crous Is that unlike his outfit. clsts describe us spitting on the TlLC was merely a set of prin­ we did not boycott our programme Fourth International. The Brit­ ciples and not principally a guide In order to stay pally with a few ish section of Pierre Lambert's to action. For TILC, therefore, middle-level Scargllllte bureaucrats International outfit - the Socialist the task was always to reconstruct who were prepared to grace the Labour Group have attacked the Flout of its existing degene­ Oxford Miner's Support Group's us In a similar vein. We are gUilty rate fragments. Programmatic platforms. However modestly, we they tell us, of "shallow eclec­ clarity came low down. We said did try to fight for what we ticism" In their Bulletin. The SLG, In 1980 that this was a recipe thought was necessary. of course, do not offer a single for future splits. We were right. Lister Insists that our "bluster quote to justIfy their charge. They When the WSL adopted a and bravado" Is a ploy to conceal rely on the hoped-for-Ignorance SOCial-pacifist, reactionary line our sectarian contempt for In­ of their audience. on the Malvinas war, by Initially volvement in the workers' move­ refusing to defend Argentina the ment. Lister Is, to put It mildly, whole rotten method of the TILC Ignorant of our work in the labour REPLY was exposed. General agreement movement. This does not surprise on principles did nothing to stop us, as our field of intervention the sections moving In opposite In the health service, for example,­ In reply to these polemics we directions. From then on the TILC Is centred In the workplaces and would simply refer WRP comrades and the WSL were bound to spilt. unions where we have fought and to our book The Death Agony Only one year later the WSL led struggles (London, Sheffield, Of The Fourth International and · Itself split with Thornett and Leicester). Llster, on the other our history of the SLL and Inter­ Llster going on to form the nebu­ hand, Is an employee of one of national Committee contained lous Socialist Group. This Is part the GLC's many bogus 'campaign­ In supplements to Workers Power Revolution explaining our break 1960's and early 1970s, joined of the tradition Llster berates Ing' quangos, London Health 80 and 81. Taken together these and presenting an analysis that the International Socialists thinking us for attacking. Emergency. The bulk of NHS trade publications provide the most ex­ maintained Intact the revolutionary It had a serious orientation to Llster's 'Sound and Fury' pole­ unionists have little to do with tensive analysis of the post-war programme with regard to Stalin­ the class struggle. We learnt mic reaches Its poisonous peak this. Fourth International available in Ism. In addition we produced two collectively via a faction fight with his remarks about our size English. six page supplements In our paper and through the Impact of the and practice. He states: Llster's polemic against us critiCising every aspect of the class struggle that the organisation "Hastening to score cheap HONEST requires a separate reply. By using SWP's politiCS, as part of our we were In was centrist. In a points on the numerical decline of other groupings on the left a few quotation marks he attempts own break with them. struggle we evolved from centrist Our size limits our scope of to give the Impression of authen­ Of course Llster may not have confusion to revolutionary clarity. (namely his own - WP). Workers Power swagger, boast and In­ involvement In the labour move­ ticity. In addressing himself to known this. At a debate It was a process In which we con­ ment. And if Lister was honest our own history he seeks to prove we held recently with him on tinued to develop. flate the picture of their own size, with wilfully deceptive he would admit that this Is even that we are hopeless sectarlans. Cuban Stalinism he admitted to We firmly believe that com­ more the case for his group. By charging us with dishonesty not having bothered to read our rades who want to be revolution­ claims for the size of their support amongst miners, and Wherever we are we fight and he hopes that his own lies will book! Moreover, given that all aries can, like us, break from our record of struggle In numerous go undetected. Llster starts with the WSL ever did on this cen­ centrism under the Impact of the their ludicrous slogan of launch­ Ing a new rank and file 'minor­ strikes will stand scrutiny. We a clear attempt to prove us gUilty tral problem was reprint an old class struggle. But to do so means do not expect a pat on the back by association. We are: essay by Tlm Wohlforth and a understanding what centrism Is. Ity movement' in the NUM for this. It Is an elementary duty "no more honest that the rambling piece on Cuba by Adam It Is not, as Llster Implies, a consisting of themselves and for revolutionaries. Only Lister's Spartacists, nor Is their history Westoby we feel entitled to ask swearword. It Is a political charac­ a few close supporters." polemical technique - the unsub­ one of any exemplary practical who Is actually doing the "skirting terisation. Applied to the frag­ stantiated smear - obliges us to work in the British class around"? ments of post-war Trotskylsm draw attention to It. struggle." It recognises that while they have PHILISTINE Llster's parting shot Is to sug­ He hopes, by linking us to the departed from the programme gest that the absence of any Spartac!sts, to score an Immediate of revolutionary marxism they mention of: point with WRP members who, STALINISM The wish is father to the lie In have not yet embraced a this case. Here is what we actually -the fundamental issue of demo­ rightly, abhor an organisation that counter-revolutionary reformist cratic centralism" scabbed on the struggle of the say about the size of Thornett's programme. group and our own In the Open Implies that our approach to Polish workers In 1980-81. Llster then uses our previous Centrism vacillates. As such state capitalist position to deride Letter: the WRP is some kind of The truth Is that our positions the possibility of a thorough break cloak-and-dagger style raid. In on virtually every major question our claim to have had a consis­ "We detail these figures not with centrism exists during because we want to carp In fact it demonstrates the opposite. are the polar opposites of those tently revolutionary posItion on left-centrist vacillations. This Is Stalinism. We would simply point a philistine manner about small Like every Marxist before us we embraced by the 1St. Any quick no 'red blob' theory. It Is the put politics first not organisational survey of our positions would show out that John Llster was a groups. We are the object of scientific understanding of politiCS too much carping on that score methods. Psychologically speaking this. The old WSL, on the other co-editor of Socialist Organiser that guided Lenin and Trotsky which called for the withdrawal to Indulge in it ourselves. No. Llster's position Is explicable. hand, of which Llster was a leading In their relationships with parties of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, we simply wish to demonstrate His battering at the hands of member, served as the womb for as diverse as the German USPD Matgmna's regime has led him two sizeable pro-Spartaclst fact­ argued that defence of the planned that in over a decade Thorn­ and the British Independent Labour ett's poliCies have led to a to elevate the 'democratic' In ions. economy was a non-issue In Poland Party. and printed stalinophobic diatribes diminution of cadres, Indeed democratic centralism to an all by Stan Crooke and John a squandering of cadres." Important level. For us honest TRADITION O'Mahoney. This Is what John Llster calls debate leading to political clarity At the same time we did take HEALTHIER? "swaggering" and "boasting"! Noth-­ can alone lay the basis for a 'consistently revolutionary posi­ Ing of the sort. And neither were healthy Internal regime. There This was a direct product tions'. The moment that defence What Llster Is actually saying we "wilfully deceptive" about our Is nothing more sinister In our of the WSL's attempted rescue of the USSR, albeit in a indirect Is that somehow (he does not support amongst miners. This Is approach than that. of the International Committee way, was concretely posed ill Af­ specify) the IC was healthier than what we actually said: By putting a malevolent con­ tradition. It was and Is a political ghanistan, we formally revised Pablo's IS. Thus the old WSL and "Despite our limited size, our struction on our approach to the premise they - not us - share our analysiS. We denounced the other tendencies emerging from organisation threw itself Into· WRP and by rubblshlng our politics with the Spartaclsts. We say this soviet Invasion but in the war . this tradition can claim that, In every aspect of the strike. and record of struggle Llster Is not because we believe either that followed It argued for a mili­ however a partial way, revolution­ Our work enabled us to launch appealing to the emotions rather the old WSL or the Socialist Group tary united front with Soviet ary continuity has been preserved. and sustain a special bulletin than to the minds of WRP mem­ are a proto-Spartaclst grouping troops in order to defeat reaction. Phew, we can trace our ancestry for miners Red Miner.- bers. A few choice words - 'sect­ but to demonstrate that they are Wherein lies the departure from In the Trotskylst register! This If like Thomas after Christ's arian', 'deceptive', 'blustering' no alternative to sectarianism. a revolutionary line? Is Llster's method. We on the death, John Llster requires 'flesh - and, hey presto, we can be por­ Their repeated inability to break On the Fourth International other hand "springing from no­ and blood' proof we can show trayed as aspirant Healyites. But with centrism feeds sectarianism. Llster states that we have: where", are, presumably the bas­ him the 8 Issues of this bulletin this method of 'Incantation to ward Llster says our Open Letter "the megalomaniac arrogance tards of the left! that we have produced so far. off evil sectarian spirits will not to the WRP: of the 'minute red blob' theory The failure to recognise cen­ On the rank and file move­ cut much Ice with WRP members. "carefully skirts around their of a grouping magically dis­ trism led Llster and the old WSL ment question we gladly plead Our experience shows that these own relatively recent abandon­ covering the elixir of ever­ Into a disastrous International gUilty to Llster',s 'charge' of calling comrades want deep-going political ment of the state capitalist lasting Trotskylsm amid a adventure. In early 1980 the WSL for the building of one. We did debate and to re-look at the FI's analysis on the Stallnlst states." wilderness of centrists." set up the Trotskylst International intervene in he National Rank history. In us they will find honest So we are Spartaclsts and This Is a wilful distortion of our Liaison Committee. In May 1983 and File Miners Movement precisely discussion partners. Judging by perhaps - closet state capitalists! position. It displays Llster's pro­ this body split asunder. The WSL In order to b lid that Into such this piece of vitriol from Llster If Llster thinks our formal break found Ignorance of the nature - then embracing the crude nation­ a movement. That movement's they are likely to find him and with state capitalism over six of centrism. alist Sean Matgamna - and their founding confeGence was attended the Socialist Group somewhat less years ago Is "recent", fair enough. We were not Immaculately opponents, the RWL of the USA by over 100 miners - far more than honest.. . But since then we have produced conceived as a 'red blob'. We and the LOR of Italy, all proclaim­ than us 'and a few close support­ a major book The Degenerated were militants who, In the late ed adherence to the TILC's found- ers'. Our re olutlons to that by Mark Hoskisson AfTER TWO MONTHS the 5,500 printers sacked by Murdoch are no nearer re-Instatement. The blame for this lies entirely with the leaders of the unions Involved, CLOSE DOWN the NGA and SOGAT '82, and the TUC. Their strategy of behind the scenes negotiation and appeals for a boycott of Murdoch's papers FLEET STREET! has been a disaster. , Not only has Murdoch refused go beyond Inconveniencing Murdoch police unl ts. to back down but now Maxwell and have not taken action against Picketing Is an essential part has sacked 1,000 workers, printers the other national papers. As a of the fight against Murdoch. It and journalists at the Dally Record result the focus for militancy Is particularly Important as a focus and is after a sequestration of has become the weekly mass for solidarity from other workers. SOGAT's funds. In Fleet Street, pickets at Wapping. For Dean All pickets should be organised buth The Guardian and Dally Mall and Dubblns these are simply a to halt distribution for as long managements have revealed plans safety valve and a morale boost as possible. But this alone will to bring forward the Introduction for the members. They refuse not win the fight. of new production methods. The to treat the picketing as a serious To go forward now the strike past month has also seen the start attempt to stop the distribution needs to change direction. From of Shah's Today operation which of papers from Wapplng. This has the start Workers Power has argued will Increase pressure on all the led some, notably the SWP, to that spreading the strike to the press barons to attack jobs and pose serious picketing as the key whole of Fleet Street was the conditions throughout the Industry. to winning the dispute. This Is single most Important weapon The shape of a possible com­ dangerously short-sighted. the unions could bring Into play. promise with Murdoch has been The experience of the miners' This remains true. It Is not just widely leaked. It consists of an Great Strike showed that numbers a better way of beating Murdoch, agreement to take back a handful alone are not enough to close It has to be a fight over the of union members at the old a plant against the police. On future of the printing Industry Bouverle Street plant and establish March 15th, the police at Wapplng Itself. a £5 million compensation fund were caught off guard and lost Dean and Dubblns are opposed for the vast majority of those control of the situation - for about to any such widening of the. sacked. ten minutes. They could reorganise struggle. They wish to appear Whether or not Murdoch decides and regain the Initiative but the 'responsible' In the eyes of the to go along with this TUC-Inspired pickets could not take advantage newspaper owners. That Is what treachery, the plan Itself underlines of their Initial success In breaking their jobs depend on. The lead the main priorities of the union their lines. At this level the simple In taking up the fight, therefore, Strike-breaker Murdoch as seen by printers! Andrew Wlard (Report) leaders. What is Important for call for more milltant picketing will fall to the most milltant of up the fight to put the unions' which are slowly developing around them Is that, at the end of the Is unserious unless It Is accompa­ those whose jobs depend on break- own house In order. The TUC the country can be Important In day, they are recognised as the nied by arguments for the creation Ing the power of the bosses. compromise with the EETPU must helping to change the direction negotiators between whatever of picket defence units. Irrespective of which unions they be rejected. The scabs In Wapplng, of the strike. By drawing In workers are employed in newspaper More Importantly, even a well belong to, rank and file milltants and the union that recruited them, workers from other Industries and production and the owners of the organised and defended picket need to get control of this strike must be thrown out of the TUC. unions they can spread picketing papers. Their strategy is aimed at Wapplng could not be sustained before It Is sold out. Joint Chapel Unions like the T&G which are to provincial distribution depots at convincing Murdoch and the for long enough to drive Murdoch organisation would be the best effectively condoning the whole and raise demands In their own other press barons that they could to defeat. The whole area would basis for this but this cannot be scab operation by tolerating their unions for throwing out the scabs run their empires better by co­ have to be turned Into a well a condition for extending the members at TNT transporting the and collaborators.. operating with them. guarded no go area that could action. papers, should also be disciplined. This Is why they refuse to keep out thousands of well trained Militants also need to take The local support committees by Steve McSweeney

In general we want workers tal concerned which Included medi­ affected by our action shifted SUPPORT S. AFRICAN to apply a boycott to goods going FIGHTING APARTHEI) cal equipment. He was sent home public opinion against us. Some to and from South Africa. Some IN PORTSMOUTH and an outside contractor was members were becoming worried METAL WORKERS of you may have been told that brought In. We refused to load so to avoid a drift back to work Inside we carry an Interview with black workers In South Africa Workers Power spoke to Portsmouth these contractors so management we did re-open negotiations. After a representative of the South are against British workers boy­ Hospital Stores' NUPE steward, loaded the lorries themselves. 2! days of talks there was an African Metal and Allied Workers cotting goods from South Africa Andy Lavender, about the action When management also started agreement for a return to work Union (MAWU), on building unions because they will lose their jobs he and his workmates have been unloading lorries coming In, we by the drivers and a partial return in the face of the apartheid and will suffer. In fact black South taking against Apartheid. had a meeting of the membership to normal work for the store men, regime's attacks on black workers. Africans are already suffering and decided that whenever manage­ with 5 people continuing the boy­ Here the representative. Charles and the bosses are In any case WP. Can you tell us what action ment brought In a contractor to cott. Makabela. tells us what help Importing machines which take you have been taking? load or unload goods from a sup­ WP. What is the situation now? MA WU needs from workers in black South African workers jobs plier we would walk out and form Britain in Its present strike against for ever. Most of the action is In the cen­ a picket line for the rest of that We have got two months to lobby SARMCOL, subsidiary of the British The employers are feeling the tral stores. This Is where most day. support and try to escalate the company BTR. pressure and they are trying to hospital equipment, Including food, We'd also put In a grievance action elsewhere In the country First, you can help us finan­ put us up as a shield to defend Is stored. We decided last Sept­ about the way we were being and then we are going to be ask­ cially. Workers, political organisa­ them from the boycott. To clarify ember that we'd like to see an treated. It reached the stage of ed by management to all return tion, students in Britain can collect - we are calling for a general alternative to South African the District Health Authority to work or face disciplinary action. for our strike fund. boycott and you will hear no-one produce In the store. We Informed meeting which we attended to If we try to distance ourselves But, secondly, we need pressure from the black workers' side management that from 13th Jan­ put over our case. But the chair­ from an Internationalist approach on BTR to force them to nego­ against this. We accept the prob­ uary 1986 we would enact a boy­ man of the committee showed we are going to fInd the struggles tiate. We need a boycott of their lems that come with It for the cott, mainly of tinned fruit from his apparant lack of Interest In that we are fIghting In this coun­ products and most of all, we need period until the end of apartheid, South Africa. It was a small moral our case when, at one stage, he try all the harder to win. We workers In the other BTR compan­ and we want to see the complete stand by British workers In solidar­ actually appeared to fall asleep need direct action by other trade Ies to demand that BTR SARMCOL end of apartheid not just reforms. ity with the South African people. in the hearing. He openly boasted unionists In their workplaces, In reinstates the workers and meets The most Important question WP. How many workers were in­ about the number of times he'd boycott campaigns concerning the our demands. Already we have for us in getting support Is worker volved in the action? been to South Africa so It came exports of the companies they spoken to several groups of stew­ to worker direct links and solid­ as no surprise to us that the man­ are working for, where the union ards, and they are going to do arity action between workers In Initially 12 storemen and 21 driv­ agement disciplinary action against funds are Invested ete. The people this. South Africa and In Britain. Be­ ers, members of NUPE and the us was upheld. of South Africa need the support cause I think what we have learnt TGWU. Management pressure led We decided to highlight the of the BritIsh trade union move­ Is that the multi-national compan­ to two people deciding to work Injustice of this by staging a two ment now. Ies move the production from normally. It ended up with 10 day strike. When we returned to country to country looking for people In the stores carrying on work management brought In con­ a boycott and all the drivers refus­ Send donations and cheap labour and nobody can stop tractors so we walked out but messages of support to them, only the workers themselves. ing to drive tins of fruit around arranged a meeting with manage­ If we know they are moving the district. Portsmouth Health ment. At this meeting we were Authority refused point blank to Clo Andy Lavender. work we can try to stop them not' even allowed to enter Into NUPE Offices. doing It and refuse to take on buy alternative fruit and said the discussion at all. We were handed matter was not open to discussion. 93 Lelgh Road, work that has been done by other letters which amounted to a Eastleigh. groups of workers. To challenge WP. What has the management lock-out; return to normal working, Hants. the employers It Is essential that response to your action been? including handling South African we have these direct links between stuff, or be Indefinitely locked­ our unions and yours, and this In the early stage they cut our out. We were locked-out for a SUBSCRIBE! bonuses by 10%. This meant a Name ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Is what we want to build at every further six days. level of the unions. wage cut. From £66 take home The drivers had a two hour Addrees. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• per week our wages went down stoppage and joined our picket ...... Send donations to: to between £50 and £60. Plus line. Management came out, ...... we were sent home early each demanded the vehicles' keys and SARMCOL Solidarity Fund Send £4 to the address below day. This went on for a number threatened the drivers with a lock- and receive 10 leauea of the Lloyds Bank of weeks and then they started out as well. We decid- Earlsdon paper. M~e cheques payable bringing In outside contractors ed that we would the to: WorkeR Pow.- and eend Coventry to move the stuff. When one of one lorry that Invol v- to: Workers Power NC 0260425 Bank code 30-92-84 our drivers refused to move South ed In patient BCM TI50 African produce they were told the drivers London (FULL INTERVIEW PAGE 4) they were not allowed to take Eventually WC1N 3XX the rest of the load to the hospl- Uons that patient

printed by Spider Web Offset, 14-16 Sussex Way, London N7 published by Workers Power, BCM 7750, London WC1N 3XX