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Scanned Image RH! T OCTOBER 9 '76 VOLUME 37 N018 TWELVE PENCE TheFigtToLivep4 -KrggghGoldman&BerkmanInRussrap9 FROM PROTEST URR YS TO POWER still no news At the date of going to press no news has the labour party reached us of the decision of the authorities whether to accept Noels withdrawal of appeal to the Supreme Court . The decision could conference come at any time. THE LABOUR PARTY at its annual The trial of Ronan Stenson, previously too conference in Blackpool last week show- ill to appear in court, was due to begin on ed once again that it is basically made October 4. He is being held in an isolation up of a coalition. The ideas of social cell. and economic justice straddle the polit- The London Defence Group are organising a ical spectrum of the Labour party to 24 hour picket of the lrish Embassy to take such a degree that it is hard to disting- place on October 21, the second International uish between some of the "right" Labour Day of Action called for by the Irish Defence MPs and some on the "left" in the Tory Committee. ( See back page for details.) party. The Tories have been quick to exploit these differences in the Labour M-any local defence groups are now in existen- party and, according to the Sunday Tim- ce, including Bolton, Manchester, Glasgow, es political correspondent the Prime Coventry and Leicester. fiinister, Mr Callaghan, is seen by Abroad, solidarity action has taken place in them "as a man with a lot of right ideas Munich (reported in the Guardian), Paris, ltaly about the economy, but leader of a party and Holland, with future meetings and protests that will not follow him. " planned for October 2lst in many places includ- ing Stockholm, Australia and the U.S. However, a lot of the Labour party NEW FACE OF THE PLUTONIUM AGE. lf you wish to make delegates have the mistaken idea, and Protective mask for U. S. Air Force contact, or help rn any way, please write to the idealism, that they, the Conference, crews on nuclear operations. Delivery Murray Defence Group, Box 2, Rising Free, are there to make the decisions which date l980. l42, Drummond St. N.W.l., their pr-.rty as the lgovernmentwill car- ry out. This as we know, and it's ab- out time Labour party members realis- Nuclear Power And The Environment: ed it, is far from the truth. The lead- ership of the party, as the government, is going to ignore the majority decisions R TORS & REACTI that conflict with what they see as the right course to take in the present econ- LAST YEAR attention was drawn to the fact satisfaction at its findings. However, while omic crisis. They do this even when that leukaemia had developed in several work- anxious to show its objectivity towards nuclear they are not in power. The classic ex- ers at Windscale and other plutonium-using power as a source of present and future energy, ample of this in the early sixties was plants. The widow of one of these workers, the commission makes one clear and repeated when Mr Gaitskell made his "fight, fig- Gladys Troughton, was recently granted an point: ht and fight again?‘ speech against the industrial injuries award by a local officer of "Our basic concern is that a major commit- conference decision on nuclear disarm- the Department of Health and Social Security ment to fission power and the plutonium ament. Of course conference decisions (DHSS). A union convenor at Windscale, Bill economy should be postponed as long as like the one which supports and calls on Maxwell, called the award "A step in the all local councils to resist and not oper- right direction towards obtaining social justice possible, in the hope that it might be avoided altogether, by gaining the ate public expenditure cuts, embarrass for radiation workers. " Now the relatives of maximum time for the development of the party leadership, but it does not other dead or injured workers, or workers who alternative approaches which will not mean very much sinceitis unlikely that have been laid off for medical reasons, are involve its grave implications for man- there are anv councils who will resist claiming compensation, though the outcome is kind. " in the manner of Clav Cross. by no means certain. But while delegates were voting on That there can be a grain of real social Bland Whitehall this and that resolution, other people justice in getting compensation for one's wife The report is critical of nuclear management were taking action which had a far more or husband after dying from radiation at work on two main counts: lack of research into radio- reaching effect than uplifted hands. For is a little unconvincing; and it is to the credit activity r'51 the atmosphere and on the land, even as the Prime Minister was asking of the new Royal Commission on Environmental and the irresponsibility of the AEA and British delegates for understanding of the gov- Pollution report that the social and ethical Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) in failing to search ernment's economic measures, the pou- considerations involved in a major fission pow- for a means of final disposal of highly active nd's rate against the dollar fell 4-fr cents. er programme have been given some - if still waste . .This in spite of their enthusiasm for This means that once again this country inadequate - space. The report has been so a large nuclear programme. Management and has to bcrrow from the International careful and so clever in observing "impartial- govémment also come in for rebuke in a more Monetary Fund to prop up the pound. Tty“ that both the anti-nuclear Friends of the general way. "More is needed here than Doing this will mean conditions which Earth and .lohn Hill of the United Kingdom bland, unsubstantiated official assurance that the international bankers will apply for Atomic Energy Authority (U KAEA) can express the environmental impact of nuclear power continued over page: contrnued on page5 2FREEDOM such a loan. The delegates’ decisions INTERROGATIONS ’ . ee of the whole community in any econ- mean nothing. Raising hands at sea- intemational review of anarchist research, omic system." It is, in other words, a side conference halls does not change in four languages, quite unnecessary description of the the system that daily exploits our lives. Available from Freedom Bookshop - £ l .l0. status quo, lending unmitigated support It is time wasted when many of those and encouragement to the government attending could have been working at a policy of social cuts in housing and food grass roots level at their places of work The Right etc., while threatening theunemployed and in their neighbourhoods. Such is with penalties for laziness,and political the illusion that grips so many well- dissent with increased spending on the intentioned people that "socialism" can Approach to police and so-called "defence. " (Apropos be won by electing governments and is it necessary to recall the extra perks legislating for social and economic jus- being currently given to the party clien- tice. Bankers and the multinational Inequality tele in local government in the form of corporations are not interested in such higher car allowances, and the backing of British 0xygen's £50 fringe benefits matters. They are only concerned with scheme for senior managementi). market s for their goods and a return on Tory Policy Document their money. High unemployment and cuts in social services are just one I'N THE UNLIKE LY event that anyone means of assisting them in this. should still have some doubts about the tone of this week's Tory party conferen- Anarchists will be unmoved bythe But the answers we hear from both ce at Brighton, their consciously right- Tory proposal to abolish that financial i the TUC and the Labour party conferem- wing policy document "The Right Appro- monster the National Enterprise Board, es are capitalist answers. Import con- ach" will reassure them! and by their scheme of "employee part- trols and nationalisation will not solve icipation" meaning profit-sharing sche- Dreary and ‘untalented (hence the att- mes through tax relief, based on bonus- the basic inequalities and exploitation empt to exploit the name of Alexis de which are the daily lot of the majority es from company profits, designed to Toqueville as a substitute for any.native inculcate the capitalist mentality in the of people. The Labour government, or glimmer of genius), even the customary even its so-called "extreme left wing" British worker. They will be equally eulogy of the unequal society lacks insp- unmoved by the promise of less bureau- section, will not change this basic fact iration and style. of life. More state control only means cracy and legislation (for so what if pub- a different employer and another form "The working classes are idle, deceit- lic employees must somehow be shifted of control. In fact as anarchists we ful, inferior and bloody-minded. I'm into private enterrri se, and if even no would argue that this form of control afraid that, deep down, is how she thin- laws at all are added by the Tories to will lead to a corporate state, and the ks" a plainspoken Tory is quoted as say- the weighty statute booki). But the un- present trade union/government social ing of his party leader. But if, as rep- ashamed praise of privilege and necess- contract alliance reinforces this point orted, she had no direct hand in "The ary hardship for the "less able" and of view.
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