BA LOT SPELLS SELL-OUT ONCE AGAIN PRINTERS sacked by Rupert Murdoch are to vote on his 'final offer'. Apart from a few percent on the 'compensation fund' the latest offer Is essentially the same as the last one In May. The scabs will remain In work, the sacked printers will remain out of work. What was rejected In May must be rejected again now. But why Is It even being put to a ballot again? The reason lies with the union monthly paper of the Workers Power group No.S7 October 1986 ISSN 0263-1121 3Op/1Op strikers leaders, Dean and Dubblns, rather than Murdoch. Nothing has been done to make him change his position and, therefore, he has done . nothing more than re package the terms of surrender that he offered in May. In effect the union leaders' pOSition has not changed either since Mayor even January. They are 'New Realists'. Or, to put it another way, they cannot see how workers can expect to win a dispute against a determined boss. They have never expected to win at Wapping in the sense of getting back jobs and union rights. Compensation was about as far as they could see. For them, the purpose of the dispute was not at all to win back the jobs but to convince other Fleet Street bosses that 'doing a Wapplng' was, in the end, less cost effective than nego tiating away jobs with their co operation. This is why Oean and company have opposed effective action impartlal between factions and to the working class - apart from against Murdoch from the very groups within the party and In the promise of attacks on wages start. That would have involved a line with natural justice." - are meagre. fight that would, inevitably, have That's good. We're going to have The real message of this con spread to Fleet Street. It would a 'democratic' witch-hunt next ference is clear. Whilst looking also have meant open confrontation year. longingly at the middle class with the law. Instead, they argued What the proposals also contain voters, hoping to steal them back , for a boycott campaign - to con are the grounds for a much wider from the Alliance, the Labour( vince 5 million Sun readers to purge if Kinnock wishes. There are leaders are diSCiplining the class become good class-conscious trade· new grounds for expulsion suc!} as: they claim to represent. The cam unionists. "Involvement In financial sUJr paign literature on the NHS sums port for and/or the organisation it up, "Be Patient." JULF of and/or the activity of any Why should the working class, organisation declared to be In suffering years of growing unem The I prlnters themselves had eligible for afflllatlon to the ployment, worsening services and other The pickets grew at party." benefits, the Imprisonment of our ,,~e~s. This means any supporters of left Wapplng, support groups collabor class fighters, be patient? Because ated In picketing provincial depots, papers and tendencies could be we are waiting fo r a Labour gov Dean was publicly humiliated at expelled, whereas at the moment erf)m ent. No need to str, uggle now, a maes meeting and the demand membelshlp v . alio ," h ;~t organisation no messy strikes which embarass for more mass meetings grew. By has to be proved. For Kinnock this the Labour Party and TUC, just May the gulf between rank and file is all part of his 'new style' hang on in there and the Klnnock and leadership threatened to THIS YEAR'S LABOUR Party con move is fuelied by a combination Labour Party. At a meeting In in shining armour will rescue you. become unbridgeable. This was a ference In Blackpool Is the launch of personal ambition and fear of Manchester he explained: The TUC has accepted this development that neither the union of Klnnock's final push to get Into Dennis Skinner, who ' should be "We -shall . be Implementing argument lock, stock and barrel. leaders nor Murdoch wanted' and. Number Ten. His 'revolution' In the chairman, being in the post In democratic socialism, ensuring Many workers are accepting It, they found themselves suddenly party Is well under way. The left election year. the Irrelevance of the ultra hopeful for better times in a able to put together a package. Is In retreat. The right control the Kinnock has steadily gained left •••" couple of years. Even the left wing Since the rejection of that deal shadow cabinet. The TUC Is eating ground In the party this year. An He went on to say that: councils such as Lambeth are talk Dean and Dubbins have concen out of Klnnock's hands. obedient NEC has been in place "••• production In plenty and ing of everything in terms of not trated on wearing down the deter The delegates will be treated since the left was marginalised at with efficiency Is the precon going for a confrontation over mination of the strikers. They have to a parade of new campaigns, a last year's conference. With this dition of satisfactory levels of budgets but scraping through until gone along with every demand of new, pretty rose logo and a series backing Klnnock felt able to carry provision. We seek democratic Neil is in Downing Street. the bosses' courts to demobilise of anti-working class policy state- through a witch-hunting exercise power in order to plan ration the pickets and to distance the ents as the Whitty-Kinnock elec to rid the party of its image of ally and Invest prudently In such unions from the demonstrations at on machine shifts up a gear. 'disunity' which he, like the press, production. " FOOL'S GAME Wapplng. Since the SOGAT con It is looking as though these blamed on the left. His Idea of democratic power and ference In June they have also aspirant statesmen will have few planning is to ensure a tri-partite isolated the strikers within the serious worries about a fight from agreement between government, This is no answer for the work unions. the increasingly enfeebled left. The GAMBLE bosses and unions for more effici ing class and oppressed. Workers The last act In their scenario left's only concerted activity Is ency (job cuts and speed ups), less must fight back now. Waiting for was the shadow boxing at the Labour Is a fool's game. Struggles around the question of nuclear industrial 'strife' (legal shackles TUC. As Workers Power predicted His gamble of Increasing that are taking place, In the print, in power, judging by the number of on the unions and wage restraint), the huffing and puffing about disunity for a while, by Investigat the public sector, over the re resolutions on this from the con leaving the power of the bosses ,Hammond and the EETPU was ing the Liverpool DLP and expell instatement of sacked miners and stl tuencies. firmly in place. These policies are calculated to draw strikers' atten ing some leading M1Utant support contained in the various statements the release of class war prisoners. tion away from the central ques ers, in the hope that In the long which will be put to conference Trade unionists are taking action tion of why their own leaders were RE-VAMPED term this would cow the left, has for ratification. in solidarity with our sisters and refUSing to fight. Just to make paid off. There is unlikely to be brothers in South Africa. These sure that the TUC did not, none a big fuss at this conference over fights must be supported and ex theless, act as a focus for mili Since the electoral debacle of the purges. Only eight resolutions NO RED FLAG tended. Our leaders must be put tants fighting to set the strike on 1983 the party has sought a re and amendments have been submit to the test - we must demand that a militant footing, the union vamped image which will show the ted on the Liverpool expulsions. they support these fights and leaders ensured that 'delicate voters (especially those who had If Militant had seriously tried These documents will no doubt organise solidarity action now. negotiations' were In progress been lured by the Alliance) that to fight on this issue they could be opposed by some on the left, In the Labour Party the left throughout the entire period. ali the 'electoral liabilities' have have won much more support, but the -union bureaucrats with should get up off its knees and Weeks of secret discussions been dealt with. The extreme left, including some of the 35 resolu their all-powerful block votes challenge the right. Dennis Skinner (secret from the strikers that Is) who scared off the SDP, have been tions and amendments put forward wielded by unaccountable and un must stand against Kinnock for that were supposed to show how and continue to be expelled with on the narrow question of the re representative delegations will Party Chair. Local parties who tough the bargaining was and what little or no resistance. Those instatement of Kevln Scally and ensure Kinnock is victorious. Other have members expelled must defy a good job the union leaders were embarassing left poliCies on such Amir Khan. But Militant decided campaigning documents show the the NEC and conference and con doing were clearly a complete questions as disarmament have been to keep their heads down In the new image In full. No red flag, no tinue to operate with them as charade. The resulting proposals, buried beneath a mound of glossy hope that Kinnock will eventually talk of socialism or of a radical members. Liverpool Labour Group If accepted, would represent com campaign literature on safe topics leave them alone if they behave shift in the distribution of wealth. must continue to meet with Derek plete victory for Murdoch. Of such as health (we all want a bet as loyal party faithful. Instead we get genuflections to Hatton and Tony Mulhearn in course they must be rejected. But, ter health service don't we?), and Militant are in fact handing Individual freedom, law and order defiance of the NEC. The LPYS as the last four months have law and order (we all want to be Kinnock unity, on his terms. But and cooperation. should clearly show that it will not shown, rejection alone Is not able to feel safe In our houses the leadership wili not stop. Kinnock is using Alliance be wound-up or shackled by the enough. poliCies and the smoothie Alliance don't we?). Recommendations put forward by party but will carry on - indepen To go forward against Murdoch, Neil Kinnock took on the job the NEC for a tidier disciplinary Image to try and win Alliance dent of the party if necessary. even at this late stage, Is still of leading Labour in its new style, procedure look set to be passed. voters. Labour's message to these possible. What Is needed is a electorally palatable Image. In They prqpose the establishment of people is simple: we are in favour • No holding back on struggles dramatic change of direction In the many ways he has made a success a National Constitutional Commit of home ownership and sale of now, In the J:i8me of an election strike. of the job and mincemeat of the tee. This would be elected by council houses so don't panlcj we In the future! • No more secret negotiations retreating left. The sweet taste will give you grants to put bigger conference with the job of carrying • Support the prlntworkers! of success has whetted his appetite out any further expulsions the locks on your doors, and we'll put • Regular Mass Meetings of all for absolute power In the party. leadership feels are necessary. The up better street lighting. Of course • Reinstate the sacked miners! strikers He is no longer content with being Kinnock rounds this off with the report explains: • Re-Imposition of all picket lines party leader and Prime Minister "The party needs the moral and promise to put more police on the • Release all class Iwar prisoners! In waiting. He now wants to be political credlb1Uty of its pro streets. The promises to the middle • For workers' tlons against • Spread the strike to Fleet Party Chairman (sic) as well. This ceedings being seen to be fair, class are plentiful. The promises South Africa! Street 2 WORKERS POWER 87 October 1986 KINNOCK'S STUDENTS FOR STUDENTS RETURNING to proposals complet with abstract SSiN purposefully avoid stating or starting college this term the arguments for s udents to "get specifically what actions, tactics prospects look bleak. Norman Fowl stuck into the labour movement". and methods will be needed to en WORKERS' er's vicious social security cuts In reality, this means joining a sure that the cuts are not Imple package means that students will Militant controlled Labour Party mented. This is not nit-picking. If receive no rent rebate for the Young Socialist branch and being students are not warned In advance Christmas and Easter vacations. recruited to the Militant. As the that direct action tactics such as SANCTIONS Yet again universities and general election gets closer Mili indefinite occupation and rent colleges are putting up rents above 'tant's current "unity against the strikes will be necessary then many the rise of the pathetically low Tories" argument will be increasing will be scared off just when the student grant. The future for an ly used against them by Kinnock real fight begins. NEEDED Increasing number of graduates Is as his NOLS lieute nants try to gag Similarly, it would be irrespon the dole queue. any criticism or calls for further sible not to make clear before hand INCREASING DISCUSSION AND activity around the question of The record of the National action against the c uts. that strike action by campus South Africa In the trade union movement shows that many Union of Students (NUS) in resisting The fastest growing grouping workers will be vital if attacks on workers do want to see effective solldarlty action. A lobby of the these attacks has been lamentable. within NUS is Socialist Students In jobs and facilities are to be defeat Trades Union Congress called by Lambeth Trades Union Council NUS's strategy has centred on the NOLS (SSiN), initiated and political ed. The key to students linking up ly controlled by Socialist Organiser. · held on 1 September drew support from engineers, bus and rall tried and failed methods of a pres with campus workers is that col At the last NUS conference at workers as well as hospital, local government and other publlc sure group. Signing endless peti lege unions have industrial muscle tions, writing letters to MPs, and Easter SSiN succeeded In geetlng while students do not. sector trade unionists. A number of Trades Councils have set up three candidates elected to the special sub committees. Union branches and district committees calling the odd demonstration, all However, for SSiN a strategy in the aid of arousing public sympa National Executive Committee. At are holding meetings on the Issue. In two areas, West Midlands designed to attract those left thy for the plight of education. The that and the Christmas conferences and East London, Labour Movement conferences have been called wingers around the "Democratic NUS has excluded organising any SSiN was largely responsible for to discuss action. The South African Monitoring Service set up by Left" is much more important than militant resistance to the Tories' shifts to the left in some NUS poli a strategy of occupation and strikes Birmingham Trades Union Resource Centre has been receiving assault on education and the public cies. The union Is now formally necessary to defeat the cuts. enquiries from shop stewards anxious to get the Information they sector. committed to calling on university Furthermore, "non-implementat need to make a contribution to trade union solidarity. NUS is presently controlled by and college administration not to ion" can mean all things to all What has the TUC done to give a lead in this situation? the misnamed "Democratic Left", implement the Tory cuts. On Ireland people. While for left-wingers It can Produced an advertisement for cinema audiences urging them not the Kinnockite majority within the NUS's last existing policy was mean militant direct action, for the to buy South African goods! However much this tugs at the heart National Organisation of Labour "Peace jobs and Progress". However NOLS-NUS leadership, precisely strings, and however clear Dame Peggy Ashcroft's narration may Students (NOLS). Indeed, Phil the Easter conference passed a because of its ambiguity as to be, there should be no doubt that this is a cop-out of the first Woolas, until last Easter, the NUS policy condemning th\,! Anglo-Irish specific tactics, it can mean simply order. The TUC Is avoiding a clear call for the one really effect president, played a virtual repeat Accord and calling for the phased applying the usual diplomatic and ive form of solidarity - workers' boycott action. performance in the student move wi thdrawal of Bri tish troops. verbal pressure on the consciences ment of Kinnock's role in leading As a result of these apparent of college administrations. MINERS DEMAND ACTION the Labour Party. successes SSiN boasts, Like Kinnock, Woolas has a re "SSIN has arrived. We must now cord of, at best grudging sympathy ELECTION When South African Mineworkers' leaders Cyril Ramaphosa and work to become SSAN - Socia for those in struggle, and at worst lists Students Are NOLS and lames Motlatsl spoke to the British NUM conference, what they a venomous hostility to such action asked for was for the TUC to lead British unions In Imposing transform the student move lest it be used by his bourgeoIS As with all centrists in the sanctions themselves. Only the most cowardly leadership could ment" (Socialist Organiser enemies as a sign of the irresponsi 17.4.86) Labour Party as the General Elect Interpret this as a plea for an advertisement asking for individual bility of the labour movement. ion draws near the pressure to action well away from the workplace. "Our workers are beglnnlng Kinnock's purge of M1l1tant sup huckle under the leader become,.;>- to doubt the TUC" said james Motlatsl last july. No South porters and other left-wingers from OPPORTUNIST irresistable. For all Its rhetor' African trade unionist, and no l1rltlsh trade unionist who wants the Labour Party has ben comple about a "socialist campaign fOI _ to support brothers and sisters in South Africa, should now have mented by the NOLS leadership's. Labour", SSiN has made peace with any doubts at all. You cannot trust the British TUC to fulfil even persistent attempts to keep control Getting mildly left wing policies the Kinnockites in the NOLS-NUS the most basic tasks of trade union Internationalism. As well as of Labour students by bureaucrati passed at NUS conference is one leadership. stepping up demands on the TUC, rank and file trade union cally excluding left-wingers from thing; forCing the NUS leadership "now anyone In the labour members must start organising the action themselves. There is no decision-making. At the last NOLS to fight for the needs of students movement who does not consi time to lose. conference in March around 50 is quite another. In fact the only der winning a labour victory In In the present situation we ought to be able to expect the leftwing delegates were ruled out major action SSiN has organised· the next general ejection to be major solidarity organisation in Britain, the Anti-Apartheid Move of order on ' spurious technical was the lobby of the Tory Party our task number one In the ment, to be leading and organising a campaign for an effective grounds. conference in A1ackpool last year period ahead Is poUtlcally dis workers' boycott. But once again the activist looking for a lead which caused no disquiet amongst oriented: severely disoriented." will be disappointed. The AAM did not take part in the Lobby of the NUS bureaucrats. In fact SSiN's (The Case for Labour, SCL V) the TUC called by trade union bodies but organised its own leaf PROTESTS main efforts over the last year For a revolutionary opposition with letting. That in itself would not have mattered too much if its have been devoted to standing in in NOLS and NUS our task number leaflets had made a clear call for effective boycott action - but student union elections. ThIs is not one must always be defending that's exactly what they didn't do! The AAM sees pressure for bad in itself. However, if we look student and working-class interests government sanctions as the way forward. It sees its role in the With the prospect of a general more closely at SSiN's political in the here and now. This does not election looming on the horizon trade unions as one of encouraging the 'left' leaders and its platform, we find not an action mean keeping our heads down and 'friends' to do behind the scenes lobbying. Out front, noisy and NOLS' strategy for NUS rests on programme to transform NUS into waiting for a Kinnockite-Ied precise demands on these 'friends' might be embarassing. keeping fingers crossed for a ' THE RECENT 'INTERIM agree to provide a common front against ments' on pay and cover have been employer attacks. hailed by the NUT leadership as the Secondly we must demand that "most significant advances for the NO-COVER NOW! the Executive call a special salaries teaching profession since the conference and mandate our dele Houghton report In 1974" (NUT for lower paid teachers. But they When we look at conditions the What then should be the res gates to vote "no" to the deals and pamphlet: A New Deal For Teach now link pay with conditions, thus picture becomes even worse. The ponse of teacher militants to these to plan a serious fight against them ers). Quite apart from the fact that opening the door to the employers working year has been extended by new agreements? Firstly all schools In order that we do not have per the proposed deal has been pushed increasing work with no extra pay. five days and hours per day are and associations should pass motions manently worsened conditions of through with absolutely no consul Removing the bar at the top of being negotiated. It's no secret that committing themselves to continuing service. tation with the membership, a scales has been hailed as a great the employers want five hours per no-cover action. This must be done Finally, militants must realise serious look at what has been victory - in fact a teacher at the day contact tIme. All teachers will in the knowledge that such action the urgent need to build a genuine 'gained' soon shows that most of top of Scale 1 now will reach the now be assessed. On the question is likely to be unofficial and could fank and file movement that can the so-called Improvements are only giddy heights of £14,500 in 11 years of cover the agreement smashes well be attacked by the employers eventually wrest control of the "In principle" and contain no speci time! past gains with the employers in terms of deductions and suspen union from the present leadership· fics. A new 'Entry Grade' has been committed to using their best sions. This can only be fought by and turn it Into a democratic class Some teachers have been lulled created. This will create a pool of endeavours to supply cover as soon struggle union that truly reflects into thinking the new pay scales second class low earners subject to as practicable, while teachers will co-ordinated strike action. To this ~he needs of It~ membership•• are a signi ficant improvement. To 'assessment' before they can ad cover Indefinitely if they don't end schools and associations should some extent they are, especially vance up the scales. manage to. set up action committees In order by Adrian Swaine • 4 WORKERS POWER 87 October 1986 NOTHING NEW FROM BRIEFING adequate. Does it stand up any better as a united front of struggle , in the period ahead? Like the rest of the Labour left IT IS FIFTY years since the fam which it claims to oppose, Ariefing ous 'Battle of Cable Street' In starts from the idea that the key London's East End when Mosley's to the next period is kicking out fascist Black-shlr s were smashed Thatcher as soon as possible and by 250,000 workers. ThIs mobilisa replacing the Tories with a Labour tion of workers to physically smash government. In the editorial they the fascists - a mobilisation that say: the Communist Party leadership "It Is clear that Labour needs very nearly aborted in the name to unite and show itself united of Its popular frontlst politics of If we are to win the coming alliance with liberal bourgeois ele election; it is equally clear that ments put paid to Mosley's the fate of our movement on attempt to build a mass move the industrial level may to a ment. large extent depend on our It demonstrated the correctness by Pat Spackman success in ousting Thatcher's of Hitler's own assesment of how Tory regime and putting a his rise to power could have been eoisie's point of view, can only be Labour government In Its prevented. Speaking at a Nazi rally restored by the physical destruction place." in Nuremburg shortly after his tri of the labour movement. To ach Unlike the 'realigned left', how umph in 1933 he sa id: ieve this it turns to fascism. ever, Briefing insists that this "Only one thing could have bro The distinctive feature of fas goal: ken our movement if the cism is that it is not only commit "cannot be counterposed to adversary (i.e. the working class ted to maintaining bourgeois soc pursuing a militant class strug - WP) had understood Its prin iety over the bones of the working gle policy against the attacks ciple and from the first day had class, but that it has as an inte of the employers and their smashed with extreme brutality, gral feature, the perspective of government. " This month sees the launching controlling the movement of the nucleus of our movement." building a mass movement, to ach of a new fortnightly Labour Brief capital. In starting from the question of ieve this. The raw materials for ing to "organise a campaigning, The same evasion and equi the need for a Labour government, this mass movement are the mas fighting hard left current in the vocation surrounds the question of the Ariefing programme skews its ses of the petit-bourgeoisie caught, demands towards that goal. Symp LAST RESORT Labour Party and the trade who is going to take 'real power'. as in a vice, between the prolet tOIlHltically. when it deals with unions." Th!"! new Briefing is th!"! The action program me thunders: ariat and the bourgelosle. In the wages, the programme is already outcome of a 200 strong con "And we believe that if our The Nazis remain a model for event of the proletariat proving talking about fighting Hattersley ference in May where supporters leaders in the trade unions and every fascist movement around itsel f incapable of resolving the and boosting the mIni mum wage, of the original 9riefing plus others the Labour Party will not lead today. Indeed, their rise to power CriSIS it will turn to fascism. protecting pay with cost of living from Socialist Viewpoint and the the fight to take the power, reveals in the clearest manner the Analysing the Nazis, Trotsky clauses. I"ine, but what about the International magazine agreed to they must make way for those real dynamics and nature of fas wrote: next t wo years when we're faced the new format and programme. who will." cism. Fascism is the last resort "The pauperization of the\ with the unfortunate hut unavoid The project of Briefing was out How polite! If the current leader of the big bourgeoisie in the im petit-bourgeoisie, by ties and able task of fighting Thatcher? liner! in :l July pilot issue. TIH' ship will not take the power? We perialist heartlands in its attempts socks of artificial silk, eroded Their programme says nothing comrades seek to huild unity of know already that the reformists to solve the crisis of its economy all -official creeds and first of about how to organise such a the hard left "focused around an of the LP right and left wi 11 never and preserve its political rule at all the doctrine of democraf' fight, on wages or anything else. action programme which highlights take significant steps against the expense of the working class. parliamentarlsm • • • The sha.. A programme for such issues would the main issues in the run up to capitalism. Rut to say so might In extreme circumstances the grIevances of small proprietors have to take up the organisation the next general election and which lose Ariefing friends and influence. 'normal' means of containing the never out of bankruptcy, of of the rank and file in the unions offers a way forward for the work Hence the si lence. working class - via a parliamentary theIr unIversity sons without as Cl militant minority to challenge ing class and the oppressed." Ariefing fai Is to warn the work regime and a social democratic posts and clients, of their and replace the existing leadership. I This is a worthy aim in a ing class about the true nature of party are rendered obsolete. daughters without dowries and It would need to argue for strikes, periorl when the rest of the Lahour the Labour Party and its leaders. ParalysiS in the economy breeds suitors, demanded order and an left is husy re- Into fourth place py the NF who be a banner or It may just be polled I 00,000 vote~ . the Impression of a crowcL" This , success w;as not to last (Quoted In The National Front, . very long. The electoral tactic Martin Walker) backfired in 1979 when the Tories, Despite this Impeccable fascist under the leadership of Margaret outlook Tyndall was held respons Thatcher, presented themselves as Ible for the 1979 electoral debacle. the respectable racist party, the and subsequent organisational dec party that could curb Immigration. line In the NF. Fascist support dwindled after Sensing the need for a new Thatcher made her Infamous re order a young faction of the NF marks on TV claiming that British began to work for a change In teen year exlstance. It Is particul people were afraid of being style. In 1980 Tyndall resigned cit arly Important to focus on the NF 'swamped' by people of a different Ing the exlstance of a "homosexual today because of Its 'neo-Strasser Gulture and race. In the same TV network" In ' the party and "too Ism'. That Is It has opted for an Intpr,vlew she openly admitted many sklnheads on marches" as his orientation towards the working wanting to win back support the reasons. In reality he wa!! ousted class, hand in hand with a 'polit Tories had lost to the NF. In 1979 In a bid by younger elements In ical soldlerlng' or terrorist she did. the Front to move away from the approach to politics. In the mid to late 1970s the Hltlerlte style of a one man lead In the mid-seventies the NF, NF never abandoned the 'street' ership. Tyndall went off to form under the leadership of self-styled aspect of fascist politics. It con the short-lived New National Fuhrer JQhn Tyndall, attempted to ducted a series of brutal attacks Front, now the British National bill Itself as a 'respectable' party on black people. It staged intimid Party, leaving his old sidekick using electioneering tactics. In its atory marches through black areas Martin Webster alongside Richard, campaigns and marches, Its papers In towns like Bradford, Leicester Verral and Andrew Brons. This and pamphlets in this period it and Rotherham. Tyndall himself trlumverate leadership was highly concentrated almost exclusively on realised that this presence on the unstable offering nothing new to: Its racist policies. It stood as the streets was essential In building the fast dwindling membership. The, anti-immigrant party. All social a mass movement, based on an new young faction led by Derek evils were blamed on the blacks. appeal to the Irrational and Holland and Nick Griffin was Influ Its fascism - once manifested in emotional Instincts of the most enced by the Ideas of the Strasser ugs on pa uniform wearing and military exer prejudiced elements in society: brothers, Goebbels, jullus Evola and This Is why, despite recognising cises - was downplayed. ~at Is It that touches off a the terrorism of the Italian "Third tatorshlp of the proletariat. The The results of this tactic, with Stallnist KPD, in the grip of "Third that fascism is Imperialism's last chord In the Instincts of the Poslton" Group (so called because resort, we reject the tendency of Its attendent party political broad people to whom we.seek to ap of Its claim to reject both capital Period" ultra-leftism, spurned the casts and media publicity, were tactic of the workers' united front many on the left (the SWP for peal? It can often be the most Ism and communism). By December example) to underestimate fascism relatively successful. The member simple and primitive thing • • • 1983, It had enough support to sack against fascism. Social Democracy ship rose to a figure approaching bleated impotently but would not on the grounds that "it Is not a It may be Just a nag; It may Webster as National Activities threat at the moment". This 20,000 and in the 1977 Spring GLC be a marching column; It may Organiser and finally expel him In lead a fight. The ruined petit- Elections the liberals were driven bourgeiosie, dragging with It the method Is quite wrong. As Hitler be the sound of a drum; It may February 1984•• dregs of the working class, the pointed out above jf we (the work lumpen proletariat, turned to the Ing class) had understood the prin party of "cpunter-revolutionary ciple of fascism we could have despair", the Nazi Party. crushed It at Its root. The Nazi Party appealed to the There are many far right and fascist groupings in Britain today, WHAT 15 sTRAssERlsM? petit-bourgeoisie with nationalist demagogy, not a clear programme. from the fringe Tory groups like The NF today adheres to a owning the land and leasing It out Strasserlsm was useful to the It had no real programme indepen 'Tory Action' and WISE (Welsh, 'political soldier' orientation. This to private citizens: Nazis and their bourgeois backers 'ent of the needs of German Irish, Scot tish, English) to the out mixes the blood and soil mysticism "All were to do as they liked during the stage of building a Anperlallsm. But its racist ideology right fascist organisations like the and cult of the warrior of Jullus with their own land, but no one reactionary mass movement. Once was Ideally suited as a means of League of St. George, the British Evola '- where Japanese Samurai, could sell or sublet state prop In power, howJver, the 'socialism' enlisting the support of the middle National Party and the National Roman Leglonalres, Greek Spartans erty. In this way we hoped to In National Socialism was abruptly , classes and the lumpen proletariat. Front (NF). Whilst we must have and Iranian Mullahs are set as combat state proletarlanlsation dropped. As Trotsky noted: Together with its promises of a firm grasp (round their necks!) examples of self-sacrifice - with and restore a state of liberty "Such slogans as state control 'strength' in government, its racism of the entire right and its work the 'socialism' of Strasserlsm. This to our fellow citizens. No man of the trusts and the' elImina - in the case of the Nazis vile Ings, we are concentrating here on pseudo-socialism manifests Itself Is free who Is not economically tion of unearned Income were anti-semitism ieading to the the National Front. In the NF's new style slogans such Independent." (0. Strasser. thrown overboard Immediately Holocaust - seemed to the despair as "Smash Capitalism, Smash Quoted in Fascism In Germany) upon the assumption of power." ing middle classes a ready-made Communism" and "Tax the Greedy Otto Strasser proposed a federal The Strasserltes (excluding answer to their problems. Trotsky SOLDIERING Not the Needy" and (shouted on system of government consisting Goebbels who was a , Hitler loyalist) explained: marches In Bury recently) "The of representatives of corporations were purged and executed en masse "As the ruined nobility sought Workers United will never be that would be divided Into five In june 1933 - not because they solace In the gentility of its The National Front, founded ' in Defeated" (!). It needs to be ruth groupings workers, peasants, were In any way real socialists blood, so the pauperlsed petit- 1967, has been to the fore of 8rl lessly exposed for the hypocritical clerks and officials, industrialists (they were fascist to the core) but bourgeoisie befuddles Itself with tlsh fascism for most of its nine- vomit It is. and liberal professors: " because their demagogic orientation fairy tales concerning the While Strasserism likes t04 "1be prosperity of the country to workers had become redundant. special superiorities of Its emphasise the 'socialism' In would be assured by the nation Today's NF looks to the Stras race • • • The pogrom becomeS National Socialism It makes no alisation of heavy Industry and serlte tradition and to the values the supreme evidence of racial , attempt to hide its anti-semitism the distribution of great estates and warrior Ideals of the SA (the superiority. " and general racism. Writing In as state flefs" and "Reconstruc early Nazi militia). It takes Its Nationalism Today Derek Holland tion could only be brought Inspiration less from Meln Kampf lays out a plan for re-patrlatlon about on the basis of a new and more from a novel, The Turner over ten years. Holland says It order which could nHlStabllsh Diaries, written by Wllllam Pierce, THREAT would take Heathrow a mere ten harmony between labour and the leader of the USA's fascist minutes and three plane loads to capital and betwee~ the Indiv outfit the National Alliance. The fly 1500 'Immigrants' per day to Idual and the community... .book glorifies the "political soldier" The Nazi Party was not unique. "their own countries" :- 500,000 per there would be no dictatorship Ideal and depicts the triumph of Its essential characteristics - the ,annum. either of class or race." (0. the fascist New Order as stemming mobilisation of the middle class Strasserlsm was epitomised in Strasser. Quoted' in Fascism In from the ruthless pursuit of this In a mass movement to smash the the politics of the National Social Germany) Ideal. working class - were shared by Ist Working Association (NSWA) The Strassers and Goebbels had The National Front, active In Mussolini, Franco, -the "French_ fas wing of the Nazi Party through Its argued that despite the huge gulf the Six Counties with the UDA and cist leagues etc. They are the central organ NS Brlefe edited by separating nallonal socialism from UVF, have recently established characterlsltlcs that the fascist Goebbels. communism they should attempt headquarters there with paid full- movements of today seek to Their base was Elberfeld in the to obtain military aid from the timers and an Ulster paper - the emulate. Goebbels Ruhr, an area of Germany with Soviets In order to aid German Ulster Sentinel. Head of the oper radical labour movement traditions. Inperlallsm for war against the ation in Ireland Is fohn Field. I30th ------1 The author Robert Black In his Fa- Entente powers. After 1925, with he and Nick Griffin were recently War n. In other words they are scism In Germany referring to the the rise of the bureaucratic caste pictured marching alongside Ian Fighting Fascism commemorating the Imperialist NSW A's "thoroughly pettybourgeols of Stalin and his theory of 'Social Paisley on the Loyalist night march slaughter that was conducted to eclectic nature", was right when into Hlllsborough. Leaflets recruit The only national anti-fascist ism In One Country', the 'left' boost profits and divide the world, he described: Nazis expressed some sympathy Ing for the UDA are distributed organisation In Britain Is Anti not to fight fascism 'at all. "1be petty bourgeoise enragee, with the developments in the by the NF and members are sent Fascist Action (AF A). Workers Such arguments are grist to the noisy radical who, denied USSR. Stalin's anti-semitism was "across the sea" for weapons train Power is affiliated to AFA and s fascism's mill. Against all national what he thinks Is his rightful drawn on and the 'left' Nazis ing, marches and meetings. upports many of its actions. How Ism we need to pose International place In the ,bourgeois sun, gloated that the United Opposition Eliminating dissidents within the ever, AFA has tried to copy the Ism, which means supporting vents his anger on those above "was led almost entirely by Jews" NF also seems to ~ In order, populist (In fact It was popular workers In all lands, and opposing and below him. He admires (and (Trotsky, Zinovlev, Kamenev, judging by the recent car bomb front 1st) orientation of the Anti- the British bosses in their attacks fears) the discipline, heroism Radek). NS Brlefe carried articles at~ack on Ian Anderson, former Nazi League of the 1970s. While on us and on workers In other and dynamism of the revolution on Stalin's purge of the Bolshevlk chairman of the NF. Unfortunately AF A Is more prepared to physically parts of the world. So, while con ary workers movement; Just as Lenlnlsts, sometimes addressing Anderson was asleep In bed when confront the fllscists than the ANL tinuing to support AF A actions he despises Its Internationalism them specifically to KPD workers: the bomb (similar to those used was (It did not want to upset Its against the fascists we will retain and 'class exclusiveness'. He "Never has a suppressed class by the UVF) exploded under his car middle class allies who refused to our right to criticise Its nationalist borrows from communism that liberated Itself through Internat In Barking. The bombing seems to condone violence against the NF) positions and argue for our policy which he finds useful Intim Ional protest, but only through be the result of a current faction ' It does try to use nationalist argu 1Q of building a genuine workers' Idate the big bourgeoisie In nationalistic will for the fight In the NF between the ments against the NF. united front against fascism, within Griffin/Holland ruling pro-terrorist It does not pose the fight order to compel It to bestow future." (Goebbels. Quoted in which we will fight for: on him the privilege ana-,power group and the Anderson/Wlngfleld against fascism in clear cut class Fascism In Germany) he deserves; while from . the A similar approach to the left group who advocated toning down terms. In a leaflet issued by AF A • No platform for fascists. same bourgeoisie he takes the the links with Italian terror. for the mobilisation against the was attempted (unsuccessfully) by poisonous Ideology of chauVinism The NF and other British fas fascist Remembrance Sunday • No Immigration controls. today's NF In their open letter to and anti-semitism, using It to Militant supporters In Liverpool. .clst organisations cannot be Ignor march, the NF were condemned • For black self-defence squads, ed. Their turn from elections to supported by the labour move divert the proletariat from Its By · exploiting the -bet'rayals of for their "act of sickening h)'pC} revolutionary path thereby violence simply means that their' ment, now! the social democracy and Stalin crlsy" in their "attempt to pass rendering It a passive object ism, the Working Association made tactics have shifted, not that they themselves off as respectable • Fascists out of the unions. under the tutelage of Its social cillnsiderable gains amongst the have ceased to be a threat. The, patriots". Subsequently AF A decided and Intellectual betters." more backward and lumpen sections, working class must be mobilised to hold an anti-racist, anti-fascist • For a central orientation of. the to defeat fascism wherever It trade unions with the goal of Otto Strasser advanced a theory of the working class. The Nazis, Remembrance Day rally themselves raises Its head, and physically a workers' united front and that "was opposed to Marxism and ,claimed that they were the 'real' on November 9th in Trafalgar .defend those who are targetted fe> workers' defence squads to capitalism". Strasser had a vision socialists as opposed to the Marx Square, to commemorate those who of 'state feudalism' with the state· Ists. attack by the fascists •• died "fighting fascism" in World defeat fascist gangs. ____ HUNGARY19S6 ______------~------ IN OCTOBER and November of Stalin's death, the gang warfare 1956 the workers and students of in the Kremlin and proletarian Hungary took up arms against two resistance provoked a political successive waves of Soviet military crisis in the ranks of Hungarian intervention. They toppled a hated Stalinism • . Since 1948 the 'Hungar Stalinlst government. They created ian Stalin' - Matyas Rakosi - had workers' and revolutionary councils set course to industrialise Hungary "WE that became the real power in at break-neck speed along the lines T STOP H' every factory and mine and most pioneered by the IJSSR in the localities. Only after at least 1930s. Workers living standards thousand who had perished as the 20,000 had been killed and after were driven down. The peasantry 'Tito-ite Fascists' i.n. the various the aerial bombardment of its were driven at gunpoint into col 'Peoples Democracies'. major proletarian strongholds was lective farms. Political repression In Hungary it reopened the case the Hungarian revolution eventually was probably more severe then of Lazlo Rajk, a prominent party drowned in blood. anywhere else in Fastern Europe leader who was shot after 'confess The Hungarian uprising of 1956 with the apparatus of repression ing' that he was an imperialist contained the potential for the being in the hands of an extremely agent. Th grisly . story behind this revolutionary destruction of Stalin privileged uni formed security force was that Rajk had bravely resisted ism both within Hungary and - the AVH. Rankers in the AVH repeated torture; refusing to con beyond its borders. It opened the received at least three times the fess, until none other than Janos prospect of destroying the political average industrial wage; officers Kadar (now Thatcher's favourite rule of the Stalinist bureaucracy received twelve times that wage• . 'communist') went to see him and and replacing it with the direct In addition the newly established pleaded with him to confess to pnlitic:al rule of the revolut.ionary Hungarian People's f)emocracy was save hundreds of other lives and prolL!lariat. obliged to pay massive reparations offered him a deal - secret exile f)espite the ceaseless torrent to the lJSS~ for the war that the in the USSR. The confession having of lies and slanders poured forth Horthy regime had waged alongside been made the Stalinist gangsters by international Stalinism the Hitler. In 1948 25.4% of Hungarian kept their word as only they know Ilungarian workers were neither national expenditure went on repar how to! Clgents of the restoration of capi ations. That figure dropped to 10% In February 1956 however the talism nor the dupes of such in 1<)49. 20th Congress of the Soviet agents. They were in their over Little wonder then that the Communist Party (CPSU) heard the whelming majority determined to Rakosi regime was amongst the most detailed denunciat ions of achieve two things. They wished most hated by its own people in Stalin that J(hruschev had del to defend the socialised and plan r':astern Furope. Fully aware of this ivered. Of necessity this fortified ned economy against the restora and fearful of the consequences, all opponents of the various 'little tion of the capitalists and land the Kremlin and Malenkov in Stalins' who had ruled in Eastern lords, and they were determined particular - moved to improve the Furnpe. Opposi tlon to Rakosi to destroy the filthy tyranny that image of the regime in 1953. continued within the lower ranks denit~d tht; proletariat the slightest Rakosi had to stay as Party Sec of the Party. In 1956 members of democ racy, subjecting it to a caste retary, but there was to be a new the Communist Party's Youth of highly privileged and upstart Prime Minister in the person of organisation (0IS2) reactivated a bureClucrats. Imre Nagy who was given the disclJssion circle established in 1954 The tragedy of the Hungarian green light to inaugurate a 'New under the name of the Hungarian r"v()lut ion was that the workers Course' in Hungary. national democratic poet of 1840 were unable to create - in the - Petofi. tilne available - a leadership and The leaders of the Petofi circle NAGY'S NEW COURSE included pre-war and war time CP a programme of action that could Sta/inist secret po/iceman gets a taste of workers' justice establish a government and the members as well as young party intellectuals such a Aalazs Nagy armed forces necessary to de fend Given his role in 1956 and his over ~oo,ooo people attended the ional theatre Inscribed with the who was deputy secretary of its Ilungary's political revolution and popularity with large sections of public reburial of Rajk in internationally understood W.e. A ", provisional bureau.: (In exile Aalazs t() extend it to the rest of Eastern workers and with oPPositional intel Audapest. Students with red flags workers left factory shi fts an Nagy was later to .. become better Furope and the USSR. That the lectuals in the party it is necessary and national banners first raised joined the demonstration its ranks know in Trotskyist' circles as potential for this existed is clear to characterise Nagy's polit ics. ~y a slogan that was to be heard spread throughout the city. Troops Michel Varga.) from every serious study or eye training Nagy was a loyal Stalinist. ,much more frequently in the weeks joined the crowds and, in many In June 1956 the Petofi circle witness acount of the events of He had spent 15 years of his Ii fe ahead: cases, distributed arms. held a series of meetings attended 1956. as a Comintern functionary in the "We won't stop halfway, Stalin On day one of the Hungarian by thousands which heard Julia The falsity of the Stalinists' USSR. On Stalin's death he deliver ism must be destroyed." revolution the demonstrators wrap Rajk demand . the. ftili and whole slanders breaks out of the vast ed the standard eulogy to Stalin f)estabilisation and disorientation ped themselves in national colours. hearted rehabiUtation of , her majority of workers' statements as 'the great leader of humanity'. in the Stalinist ranks first opened This was denounced over the radio husband arid which. endorsed a ill this period: However within the spectrum the toad for the student youth to by Party chief Gero and by sub programme primar.i1y· demanding the "Soviet soldiers! We the workers of Stalinist politics Nagy was also organise. In mid-October student sequent Stalinists as evidence of freedom of the ... press and the from the railroad factory In decidedly a Rightist. His 'New youth in Szeged demanded the return to power , qf Nagy. Rakosi Gyor inform you that in ou&: Course' was aimed at achieving a right to form t heir own organis the chauvinist character of the ordered the Pe,tq.fi CirCle to be democratic state workers are slower pace of transition along the ation independent of party control. Hungarian revolution. As the closed and seems to have been r the guardians of the socialist lines of R.ussia's New Economic They alsu struck against the demonstrators took the streets of prepared for a new wave of achievements. That means with Policy (NEP) of the 1920's. He compulsory learning of the Russian r'udapest, Gero declared on the all their might, they are speak attacked the politiCS of the Rakosi arrests. language. The students of radio: ing out against returning factor era for having more in common Fludapest's Technological University "We condemn those who wish ies and banks to the capitalists. with the programme of t~e Left followed suit by calling a demon to spread the poison of chauvin At the same time we are Opposition than with the actions WORKERS ON .THE stration for 23 October in solidar ism among our youth and have against any Rakosite - Stalinist of ' Stalin during the N~~p. He was ity with Poland, where Gomulka used the democratic freedom restoration." (Quoted in M. J. an ardent devotee of the Popular MOVE was now firmly i n power and had assured to the working people I. .. sk y (ed) The Hungarian Revo Front alliance that the Hungarian faced down Kremlin pressure. by the state to organise a lution p 211) demonstration of a nationalist CP had maintained with peasant, The workers ·Of tbePeople's The death of Stalin in March 1953 The 2:1 October demonstration character." (Quoted in M social democratic and outright f)e mocracies were .. to prevent him. served to destabilise the whole was the spark that lit the Ilullgar Molnar: ~udapest 1956) reactionary parties from 1944 to The indignation of ' the. Hungarian political system he had ruled over ian revolution. The authorities were 1948. To that end he attempted proletariat was abotrt to boil over. in the ussr~ and in the 'People's to breathe life into the corpse of not strong enough to ban it. In June and July there were a ')clI1ocraci<,s' of Fastern r:urope. the still existent Peoples Patriotic Instead they asked the Party THE FIRST SHOTS In the higlJest r clllks uf the Kremlin Front, attempting to turn it into series of strikes in Csepel and members of the Petofi Circle to there was Cl murderous struggle for a mass organisation. Nagy talked Greater Rudapest. Workers were lead the demonstration the In its turn Cero's attack served puwer which, allhough eventually openly of Hungary as having its reported to be expressing their Stalinist Antal Apro begged war to render the crowds more angry won by Khruschev, extended over own national road to socialism and, hatred of priveliged bureaucrats time C:P militant Tancss to assist and increase their resolve to hear sevl,ral years. l1erea, Khruschev, mused in 1955 on: by openly spitting at their lim him: their demands and arguments Malenkov and their rival cliques "the possibility of neutralising ousines in the streets. On 28 July, "You must lead the demonstr broadcast by the radio station. The batt led for power occasionally Hungary on the Austrian in Poland, the workers of Poznan ators ••• and save the situ first serious fighting took place at ation." (Ralazs Nagy: quoted in bei fig forced to take manoeuvres pattern." struck, demonstrated and were the radio station where AVH The Truth About The Nagy onto the terrain of international brutally fired on by the internal guards opened fire on demon Nagy stands in the tradition of Affair 1959) pol i tics. security forces who killed 54 and strators who returned fire from Rukharin and Rightist strands wounded at least 300. In the At this time the Petofi circle, As. Jlart of this factional strug arms provided by fraternising within Stalinism. More recently the aftermath the oppositional Stalinist composed as it was of critical gll' Khruscllt!v was obliged to Hungarian troops. model for his policy was Tito. Slalinisls, was indeed very anxious dl'1I01Ill"" 'tlw .:rlllles of Stalin'. Gomulka rode to power promising In general the political horizons However during his time in power reforms and a break . with the· to avoid any serious confrontation In fact he carefully restricted him of the increasingly proletarian writers and journalists were less with the regime. As ~alazs Nagy self to revealing the dictators' methods of the past. demonstration were fixed on the restricted by censorship, real wages .put it later: crimes against the bureaucracy Roth incensed and terrified, return to power of Imre Nagy. He were increased, peasants were Rakosi fulminated against the "At this time, and subsequently itself. The political opponents of had refused an invitation to attend freed to leave collective farms and meetings of the· retofi Circle as also, the Petofi circle curbed '>talin - against whom the mass the demonstration and only the grossest trappings of Rakosi's rather than encouraged the t l~rror was unlt:ashed - were not being "Hungary's Poznan" but he belatedly agreed to address the dictatorship were scrapped. movement, considering that the rehabilitated. In a laughable stand was unable to stop them. Neither ' thousands who had marched to hastening of events could lead ing on its head of the personality If this alone was not sufficient were his Kremlin patrons convinced Parliament '>quare calling for him that he was any fanger ' able to to a catastrophe." cult, the slaughter and imprison to give Nagy a degree of popular to take power. His initial speech mt'nt of hundrcds of thousands was ity his ousting from power by a hold the line for the bureaucracy. The demonstration had an extra to the crowd showed just how alien passed of as tll trappings of a coalition with . the ex-leaders of the bourgeois parties. This was a trusted tactic for defl ecting the working class from the fight for its own political power. In turn, as the old parties were AY - STALINISM MUST reconstituted from the top down wards, and as horsetrading for Despite this enormous potential office recommenced, so the call the actual politiCS of the workers' for genuine free elections was in movement in the last days of Oct creasingly raised from within the ober were those of sceptical workers' councils. After all the Nagyism. The complete inadequacy Stalinists had maintained the of these politics was to be tragi charade of parliamentarism. with DESTROYED" out the substance of a multiplicity cally revealed. In most areas the frontier: "We don't mean to go back to workers' councils busied themselves of competing parties. Stalinism "After eleven years of 'Peoples capitalism. We want socialism with local or factory problems could never pose the political ai Democracy' It had come to in Hungary." involved in maintaining the general ternative to parliament of genuine this: that the security police While the proletarian base of the strike and gave different forms of soviet power. was so remote from the people, party and certain elements of its critical support to Nagy. The lead The workers' movement posed so alien to them, so vicious and apparatus went over to the insur ers of the councils saw them as the potential of workers' council so brutal that It turned its rection its leading circles sought potential organs of management power. Its predominant demands weapons on a defenceless crowd desperately to diffuse the crisis in the plants. They saw their com included the public trial of the and murdered the people who and restabilise bureaucratic rule. mittees as potential alternative most murderous bureaucrats of the were supposed to be masters In late October. as workers' coun local government but blindly ceded Rakosi regime. the repiacement of of their own country." (P Fryer: cils mushroomed and the security central political power to Nagy. those responsible for faults in the Hungarian Tragedy) forces melted away. this was a This was well expressed recently planned economy. the publication Little wonder then that insurgent task they attempted to do behind by a Audapest Workers Council and revIsIon of foreign trade workers showed the least mercy Soviet tanks. However the Nagy Militant in Sandor Racz who agreements as well as wage rises for the AVH officers and in most government was to find it imposs explained that it wasn't until and management rights for work towns had to fight a bloody battle ible to restore an order to its moves were made against Nagy by ers' councils. Nagy and co tried with them. In Miskolc. for exam liking so long as it was shielded Kadar that council activists began to divert this movement into the ple. the AVH attacked a prolet by Soviet troops. And in turn those to think about national politics or channels of a bogus popular front ari The recent Non-Aligned Conference he declared had "completely moved gave Alan Garcia, the President of away from International Monetary Peru, a chance to refurbish his Funrl theories". The reality of Peru radical image. This image had been Is very different to Garcia's severely tarnished by the recent rhetoric. Military repression and massacre of hundreds of Sendero massacres of prisoners exist along Luminoso militants in Peruvian side massive poverty and destitution prisons. Garcia in his speech to the in town and countryside. Peru is Conference lambasted the inter suffering from a long term eco national capitalist system "i ts nomic crisis typical of an impov unproductive and profiteerillg erished semi-colony which Garcia's nature, its parasitic tendency ex "new economic order" hardly pressed in the enormous inter touches, let alone solves. national debt as u meun:; of dom One symptom of this crisis is ,ination". He held up the Peruvian the growing guerilla Insurgency economic strategy as a model to among the Peruvian peasantry and be followed by the other "non the repression it has provoked from aligned" coun.,ies, a model which the military. IN 1980 THE militants of the Communist Party of Peru, "For the shining path ('Sendero Lumlnoso') of Jose Marlategul", Initiated an armed struggle In the countryside and started a series of bomb attacks which Increased In audacity In the urban centres. Sendero established Itself In the national life of Peru, paying a high cost In young lives. In 1982, after they assaulted the Ayacucho jail, and released around fi fty prisoners, the govern only be moved to Canto Grande ment decided to move the trials if they were dead! against terrorism to Lima, moving On 19 June the Socialist Inter the prisoners to the capi tal "for national's Conference was due to security reasons". The island called open in Lima. Chosen to show 'El fronton' was equipped to their support for the Aprista's new accommodate the Senderista prison conversion to 'democratic social ers. ism' the Socialist International ny 1'184 200 prisoners were willingly held its conference in a accolllmodated in the "13lue Wing" city where a state of emergency of this prison. In another jail - prevailed and where the military Lurigancho the largest in the controlled the streets after curfew. Alan Garcia country, a whole wing was e<.juipped At dawn on 18 June the Sen 2. Negotiation over the removal advance justi fication for the huge Clearly it was the duty of the for suspected Sendero prisoners. dero started a co-ordinated upris of the j,lrisoners to other jails number of deaths and for the left, both in Peru and internatiun This wing was known as the ing. In El Fronton they disarmed 3. Medicines horrific brutality. Wlwn military ally, to condemn unreservedly the "Britllnnico 'Ning". Here, in October 3 Republican Guards, took their 4. Cleaning of their cells - clean battalions are thrown against un Aprista Government's actions and, 1985, the government of Alan ri f1es and used them as hostages. conditions armed prisoners then 'it corresponds whatever the di fferences with, or Garcia ordered the suppression of In Lurigancho they took a clerical 5. r::lectric light and water to a conscious deCision to annihi criticisms of, Sendero Luminoso, a mutiny that left 30 Senderistas worker hostage and in Santa nar 6. Better treatment of prisoners' late the Senderistas. to stand for their defence against dead. bara they took the governor and visitors and relatives In El Fronton the Navy had 3 the massive repreSSion di recled After this repression, the 2 assistants hostage. 7. Disciplining of jailers who mis- casualties and one hostage was against them. However the leader remalmng Senderistas were 'noved treated prisoners. killed by his 'rescuers'. This attack of the United Left nU) in Peru, (around 124 of them) to the indus For Alan Garcia any dialogue was was led by the Chief of the Navy, the 'Marxist' Barrantes did preCise trial/workshoj,ls wing of the jail. a sign of weakness. The govern Rear-Admiral Victor Nicolini. Only ly the opposite. He not only en This wing had high walls and roufs RIFLES ment felt 'obliged to put the prin 22 Senderistas survived. Photo dorsed the government's actions and was without internal divisiolls ciple of authority over every other graphs show that the rebels were but spoke in favour of all and in this way was without any The rebels locked themselves consideration. killed on the floor with their hands "anti-terrorist national unity" saying means of defence in the case of in their wings of the jails, with In mid-morning on 18 June a on their heads - i.e. shot in the that the main enemy of the hour eventual intervention from outside. the exception of 1::;1 Fronton, where cabinet meeting took place chaired back. It is not known exactly how was Sendero which was "trying to ' In the little jail of U Calla", the capture of the ri fles allowed by Garcia in the presence of the many were killed as the victims provoke a military coup". known as Santa l1arbara, 70 women them to take up positions - though Commander in Chief of the Armed were quickly buried in mass These statements provoked an Sendero prisoners were 'lccom mo they had only 36 rounds of forces. That meeting dt~cided on graves. immediate crisis in the IU, Cl coali dated in three small rooms that ammunition. With the exception of a solution by force of arms. The In Lurigancho the prisoners had tion of reformist and centrist should not have huus(~d more than those 3 ri fles the rest of the jails were declared military zones no means of defence. Among the organisations. It was clear that two d07.en. prisoners had no firearms to defend - a clear signal that a free hand forces of order there wen~ nu Garcia's actions had increased the Held in overcrowded and insan themselves, only a few blow pipes, was being given to the armed casualties, not even light injuries. con fidellce and control uf the m i li itary conditions and deprived of sticks and weapons they had made. forces. In this prison not one Senderista tary over political li fe and had adequate medical attention, the The mutiny was above all a politi On the eve of 19 June the survived. According to some opened the road for a growing Sendero j,lrisoners used thei r i ncar cal action, which trIed to hit at scene was prepared for the mass accounts the survivors were leaving militarisation and repression of all ccration to continue their struggle the government and to ublige it acre. The prisons were surrounded through a hulc in the wull IIlcHI" the left. In the cnd after intense against the goverllment. They used to negotiate, in a situation where by the combined military amI' by the military, where they were discussion between the parties uf their organisation in the prisons the Apra Government was preparing police forces. The TV and radio killed straight away either by being the IU a communique was agreed to demonstrate the high morale and itself for the International Con repeated the government's 0 ffici;)1 shot in the mouth or by firing that condemned the government discipline of their cadres in the gress. communi<.jues that claimed a large squad. It appears t he Senderistas and military massacre hut still same way as the Republican Pulitically checkmated, the scale operation by the Senderistas died singing and chanting thdr own referred to the mutiny in the jails prisoners used the H-nluck struggle government ignored the demands was under way that involved attacks slogans. as a "j,lrovoca tion" - a characteris in Ireland. The jails, they declared, of the prisoners, that were as a on the Church, public huildings and In the women's prison of Santa ation which Garcia quickly seized were "shining barricades of com matter of fact very mini mal and the police. At Ilw saln" ti 111(' t1wy Rarbara the Airforce and the upon to justi fy his actions. bat" and "liberated zones". reasonable. These were: claimed that fierce battles were Republican Guards entered the Neither was the left wing of The government of Belaunde I. Respect for the lives of the taking place in the jails. prisons via the roof, killing two the IU willing to challenge Rarran Terry, and after that Garcia, had prisoners Of course all this was merely women and leaving many injuries. tes as the candidate of th(~ United their own reasons for allowing the This joint military oj,leration in the Left in the rc-election for Mayor concentration and organisation of three jails which was named of Lima. Not withstunding hi<; well the Sendero prisoners. At first they "Operation Savage" by Its own known overtures to Garcia and his used it to demonstrate the intran organisers ended at dawn on 19 thinly disguised calls for "national sigence and "funaticis,ll" of the June leaving nearly 300 Senderistas unity", none of the centrist groups guerilla muvement, tu justify the dead. (which include the dissolved USec brutal repression heing meted out A few hours later Alan Garcia group of Hugo manco) were willing in Ayacucho pruvince by the mili-' inaugurated the Congress of the tu challenge flarrantes and his tary. Later they were to use it to Socialist International! The events dominance within the I'J for fear argue that despite being in j,lrison of the night before were, however, of "splitting the left". Barrantes these militants still represented a too ' blatant even for the worthies of course has no such fears and serious threut tu society. of the Socialist Internatiunal to will split to the right as soon as By 1984 there were over 400 ignore. The conference ended in it suits him and his supporters. Sendero prisoners in jail. After the disarray without agreement on an Indeed he has already gone so far mutiny at Lurigancho in 1985, the agenda. as to only register three of the goverllment promised t in brief ... THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION In the period of dismantling Pino- of Chilean dictator Augusto Plno chet's dictatorship. The General ex chet by the Manuel Rodrlguez ploits this to the full with his slo Patriotic Front, the armed wing of gan "Pinochet or chaos". But the the Chilean Communist Party, has other factor preserving his regime FRANCE had three principal effects. Firstly, Is the compromising and vacillating It has greatly Increased the CPs leadership of the 'p<1pular' and IN TWO WEEKS in September popularity amongst the workers and 'democratic' opposition. 5 bombs have exploded in Paris shanty town dwellers as a result In the final analysis that comes killing 8 people and injuring of Its daring and near success. down to the leadership of the two over 160. Secondly, It has led to Plnochet main workers parties - the CP and The Chirac government has letting the death squads off the the SP. responded with a security leash and Intensifying repression. clampdown - 1000 extra soldiers Thirdly It has nevertheless led to at airports, the banning of some a flurry of speculation as to what NEGOTIATIONS 'political demonstrations and would happen If a future attempt requiring all non-EEC nationals were to prove successful. to have visas to enter France. Leaving speculation to the read The assassination attempt of The world press talks of ers of political fiction, Manlists the MRPF in no way marks a this as the work of mindless should look at the political and change In the strategy of the Arab terrorists. They are whip economic contradictions wracking Chilean CP. Indeed it has as its ping up racist anti-Arab hysteria Chile. The military response to the objective the removal of the obdur against the many Arabs living recent proof of the vulnerability ate Pinochet in order to facilitate in Paris. of their strong man - the dis its objective of negotiations with In fact those probably appearance and assassination of the leaders of the armed forces. behind the bombings are left-wing opponents - shows that Fanny Pollarollo, the CP's spokes , demanding the release oE pri the regime's social support has person In Spain, said In an interview soners from French jails. dwindled to the 200,000 men under with the Spanish paper D1arlo 16 Georges Ibrahlm Abdallah is a arms. The effusions of sympathy "No negotiation Is possible with Lebanese militant imprisoned for the General have been cool the military while Plnochet has not for firearms offences. He now even from the strata of the bour said he will give up power". , faces Israeli and US backed geoisie closest to the junta. I'.:ven The CP is not fighting for the Mass protests rock the regime attempts to charge him with US imperialism whilst expressing dictatorship's expulsion from power 2 murders. its regret at the attempt immedi and the overthrow of the military bage pilfered from the rubbish bin shanty-town unemployed, the peas France is centrally Involved ately urged in the very same regime but for his resignation and of history. It takes form today as ants and the farm workers. The US in the Middle East. com munlque the opening of a pro- for negotiations to Install a the "National Assembly of Civil will not voluntarily allow the grip Until the ImperIalist powers cess of dialogue with the (bour clvlllan-mllltary government. The Organisations", a body formed of of the military on Chilean society are forced out of the Middle geois) opposition. CP naturally builds into this grand 18 "social organisations" including to be released. The Chilean econ East, countries such as France alliance the Christian Democracy all the Chilean trade union federa omy which suffered the full and will inevitably be targets for which the above spokesperson said tions and In which the parties unhindered experiments of the such attacks. Prisoners such ·as must play "a suhstantlal role" ill participate informally through "Chicago Boys" (disciples of Milton Abdallah must be released and CHAOS the "grand alliance of the centre various prominent individuals. This Friedman, Reagan and Thatcher's the French troops withdrawn and the left". The CP is playing body involves prominent represen monetarist guru) has been In deep from the Lebanon. out the bankrupt and blood-stained tatives of the bourgeoisie - from crisis since 1982, kept barely afloat The regime has lost bourgeois policy of popular unity but this business, academic and legal life by loans from the International support within the nation and now time in an even more right-wing and the church. Its purpose for the bankers. Chile has punctually and 1111111111111111111111111 AUSTRIA the White House definitely wishes form. It must Include as a prc-con bourgeoisie is to give centralisation faithfully paid Its Interest and re THE RULING COALmON In Pinochet to announce his forthcom ditlon the very forces that murder and expression to a bourgeois alter payments. Austria between the Social ing withdrawal. In this Reagan, the ed Allende and installed the dic native to both Pinochet and chaos. Democrats (SPO) and the tiny 'Chief Contra' is of course not tatorship - the Christian Democracy This can be seen in Its statement, liberal Freedom Party (FPO) has motivated by any yearning for and the high command of the armed "If the situation remains as It FIGHT-BACK collapsed. There will be an human rights. forces. Is It Is very easy to see that early general election, In Nov Rather Reagan fears that a growing confrontation wlll ember. SPO Chancellor Franz destabilisation and chaos could develop Into which the armed The willingness of the workers Vranltzky said there had been threaten the military and economic forces wlll be drawn In such and urban poor to fight, to risk Interests of US imperialism. Recent STRUGGLE an "unacceptable shift to the an Irreversible way via large their lives Indicates that the masses right" by the FPO. revelations of the MRPF, who kid scale repression that the result are accumulating an explosive Vranltzky Is' not sorry to napped a top US military aide who wlll be In a definitive separa In these conditions the road of charge sufficient not only to get call an early election. It Is had been in secret discussion with tion of the army from the struggle to bring down the dictator rid of Plnochet but also to blow likely that he wlll try and build top figures In the Chilean armed people thus putting the forces' ship leads also to political and pro- up the whole military dictatorship. a new coalition with the con forces, demonstrate that the US own stablll_ty In danger." grammatlc struggle against the, US imperialism and it's Chilean servative, Waldhelm-Ied Peoples wish to replace Pinochet. US Stallnist leaders. Nor should anyone bourgeois lackeys want a "Brazilian" Imperialism sees the highly discip Party. A similar 'grand coali Imagine that the leaders of bank or "Uruguayan" solution to their tion' governed Austria for 20 lined and massive Chilean army as rupt Social Democracy are one COLABORATION problems - a right wing conservative a key element of Its strategy in years after the war. The SPO grain better. The different currents parliamentarianism at gun point. are looking for a similar South America. Chile significantly of the fragmented Socialist Party The treacherous Stalinlst and Social national government to Increase aided US imperialism artd its British of Chile (CSP) In one way or With the creation of the Democratic leaders are offering Its attacks on the working ally during the Malvinas war helping another put forward similar poli "National Assembly of Civil Organ themselves for hire on this very class. the Anglo-Saxon allies to punish cies. At the Fi fth national plenum isations" the emphasis of the CP, project - justifying it as a 'stage' Galtieri for his unauthorised assault of the Socialist Party (Briones) that of the Socialist groupings and of to democracy, which In turn is a on Imperialist property. Right-wing took place in Santiago on 31 May the leaders of the CNT (Chilean stage towards a distant 'socialism'. Spy STORIES dictator or not, no one is allowed and 1 June 1986 they approved TUC, whose leaders are Socialists, The Chilean proletariat must to do this In Central or South amongst other resolutions the Christian Democrats and Stalinlsts) free Itself from this disastrous pro PRESIDENT REAGAN AND his America. Also Chile's Paci fic following _ has changed. From the mass strike gramme and set tle accounts with closest political allies seriously possession, Easter Island, is to be "In relation to the Christian action of limited duration - several the whole popular front dead end believe that the USSR has the used in the US space shuttle pro Democracy the CSP has made of which were called in the 1984-86 that has, cost it so much in blood, means to milltarily defend itself gramme. many great efforts and we are period, the emphasis has shifted to in human suffering and in grinding because it uses an army of persisting In attempting to esta a "Philippines style" mass peaceful poverty. Its own struggles give it spies to steal US technological blish new relations of mutual protest approach - hoping to use the possibility of launching a know-how. RETIREMENT C passed a worthless resolution criti-' bing their hands with glee as the cising the General Council for not spineless left received another set telling Mr Hammond to stop his back in the vote for the General BLANK CHEQUES activities. The General Council has Council. The EETPU should have intention of doing anything been kicked .out of the TUC. The about the resolution. That made only alternative was that which has it all the easier for the soft left now come to pass. It is setting the FOR KINNOCK to vote against sin in the know pace and the agenda of official ledge there would be no action trade unionism •. THE TUC CHIEFS enjoyed them on anti-working class policies. taken against the sinners. The smug grins of the union functionaries at their annual get selves In Brighton this year. They Chief scab-herder ' Hammond Hammond and his allies like together should be a warning to wanted a quiet and unanimous Con looked in an assured mood. No Jordan in the AEU are quite happy all workers. The TUC tops hope gress. That Is more or less what wonder. Last year he was making now that they are pulling the TUC they got. threatening noises about leaving their way. They estimated that the soon to be back in the business of To the relief of all, Norman the TUC if it tried to clip his TUC 'left' was not prepared to put selling jobs and conditions In. return Willis shambled through the Con wings. He had no . need to make served Murdoch as a scab recruit its offices and salaries where its for consultation with a Kinnock gress without forgetting to read such threats this year. ' After a ment ' agency, Congress refused to mouth was. They had the measure government. . E;xcept ' for · the last his speeches. To the relief of Nell year in which the EETPU has take any action against him. They of their opponents and were rub- days of the great miners' strike Kinnock Congress wrote him as they haven't had too much practice many blank chel\ues as he cared at making the trip to Number Ten to ask for. The TUC promised not recently. At Brighton . they read to oppose pre-strike ballots. in vertised their ·'services•• return for empty promises on indi vidual rights. It welcomed Kin nock's Trojan horse for an incomes ORGANISE policy - a statutory minimum wage agreement which everyone knows They are prepared to deliver will be linked to a wage restraint the 9.6 milllon membership of the deal. trade union movement to a future government bound and trussed. In SILENCED fact they are prepared to do this whatever the political complexion of that government. A future pact When Kinnock told Congress with Klnriock means a continued that his government would take truce with Thatcher in the here hard deciSions, offer no easy and now. That is why militants uptions and offer the unions the must organise to spoil the bureau- · chuice of backing him or shutting crats' celebration party by calling up the delegates gave him a stan them to account in every union and ding ovation. They were patheti forcing them to fight now or be cally grateful for the measly pro cleared out of the way by those mise of being consulted by a Kin who will •• nock-Ied government and being given the chance to put their seal bV Dave Hughes chapel organisation as the death a campaign for a ·flghtlng demo knell sounds for Fleet Street. In cratic union with all officials 1976 production workers said "no" directly accountable, all deals and ONE BIG PRINT UNION in overwhelming numbers to the negotiations open to the members proposals of the Joint Standing and outright opposition to sweet With the very basis of their power PRINTWORKERS WATCHING the respective bureaucracies now Committee, a body for trade union heart agreements in return for and privileges under threat both EVENTS at the recent TUC will fear the eclipse of their own roles. collaboration with senior manage recognition. SOGAT and NGA leaders want to have witnessed a carefully stage The press barons' control of new ment to resolve the Street's Workers Power has long argued technology has swept away the be in a position to offer slngle managed display of unity by the chronic crisis of profitability. for industrial unionism in the print NGA's Tony Dubblns and SOGAT's once real hasis for the old forms union agreements to employers In as the alternative antidote to Brenda Dean. Together they led o f union organisation in the pro the print. They want a union deeply engrained and crippling the chorus of disapproval against duction chapels and also allowed structure that can compete with SECTIONALlSM sectlonalism but It is for prlnt EETPU and together they moved the likes of Murdoch to bypass the I-Iammond on his terms. workers not a bureaucratic coven a toothless motion In an attempt top officia ls at the bargaining The dangers for ordinary print to decide Its future shape. to conceal the accelerated pace table. Wi t h the floodgates now workers in such a marriage of Ten years on and sharp sec Workers Power would very much of their capitulation to Murdoch ope ned the leadership of the NGA conve nience imposed by a handful tional differences stili persist. But welcome the views of print workers and News International. In partic ular feels a renewed of union leaders are obvious. At the division of labour which threw on the form of an Industrial union Behind the apparent show of urgency to move towards a single the same time, printers can ill up the earlier forms of organisation and the content of an action unity lies an earnest jockeying for union once and for all. Its purpose afford to reject the idea of Indus is now a thing of the past. Thus programme with which to do battle bureaucratic advantage as top in a dramatically altered, post trial unionism on the basiS of craft print workers in Fleet Street and against the multi-national press offiCials from both the NGA and Wapping conte xt would be to and sectional allegiance. This is elsewhere must recognise the nec magnates •• SOGAT prepare to construct a compete with but not against the especially true for those confron essity of a single industrial uI]ion single industrial union in the print business unionism championed by ting certain attacks on staffing built from below. They must oppose from above. The leading lights of I-lammond and Jordan of the AEU. le vels, wages, conditions, and a cosy bureaucratic stitch-up with bV George Binetti WORKERS POWER 87 October 1986 11 RIVIIW, MARGARETHE VON TROTIA'S film, Rosa Luxemburg, Is moving, ROSA MBURG Intelligent and thought provoking. In a world dominated by Rambo re-makes, slasher movies and human democratic soclallsm, but crises that we go through here speclal-effect vehicles that get I know that It Is utopia. When In Berlin every two weeks, or passed off as films, the cinematic I see the power games of the even more frequently, seriously depiction of the life of a great big nations and the posslbllltles limit the course of systematic revolutionary Is welcome Indeed. they have to destroy the world educational and organisational The film is not a complete bio I feel that I would be very illu work, but at the same time graphy of Rosa Luxemburg. Von sionist to think that we might they are themselves an excel Trotta has called it a "fragment" still have a chance." lent school for the masses." so that anyone who expects to find As In one of her previous films, This letter was written on the day the whole of Luxemburg's polltlcal The German Sisters, this standpoint the frelkorps - righlwlng volunteer life covered will be disappointed. produces a powerful cinematic soidiers raised by the Social Demo Its technique is to look backwards, critique of the traditions of Prus crat Noske to smash the Sparta sian authoritarianism and the ava not always in chronological order, cists - opened fire on the Vorwarts over Rosa's li fe from the vantage riCIOUS outlook of the German building (the editorial offices of point of her cells in the bleak bourgeois of the post-war boom. the SPD's newspaper). On 14 and prisons of Wronke and Breslau It is a critique full of well founded 15 January the Communist Party's where she was Incarcerated during rage. In The German Sisters the daily Rote Fahne (Red Flag) car the first Imperialist holocaust. rage is expressed through the sym ried t wo articles, one by Rosa, An important theme - in fact pathetic treatment of an imprison "Order reigns in Rerlin" and one the central one - is the problems ed Baader Meinhof style terrorist. by Karl, "Despite Everything!" that Rosa faces as a woman In Rosa addressing German workers In Rosa Luxemburg it is expressed Rusa's article contains a cool and both her personal and political life. through the rehabilitation of Rosa precise evaluation of the causes usiast and optimist. The desolate Her companion, Leo Jogisches, is to the strains of the struggle, Luxemburg as a great humanist, of the defeat: scenes in prison are beautlfuliy and shown as a committed revolution while Sipping wine, and at the a counter-point to the historical ary, but one with little Imagination same time openly berate her movingly portrayed but they colour dri ft to authoritarianism in Ger or sensitivity either in his political friend's husband - "Luise your hus it with a most pronounced pessim many. work - his articles are dull and band Is a coward." ism, a pessimism about Rusa's suc But in both cases von Trotta lifeless - or in his relations with A very effecti ve scene shows cess in personal and political life. can provide no solution to the pro her. As Rosa develops politically Rosa and Clara Zetkin arriving late The basic problem is that whilst blems she observes. In both, des and beelins to outstrip him as a at a dinner party at which the von Trotta can sympathise deepiy pair expressed through personal writer and a leading figure on the main leaders of the party, Bebel, with Rosa as a woman fighting the angst, takes the place of a solu left wing of the German Social Kautsky and Auer are gathered. maie philistines of the SPD leader tion. The Rosa Luxemburg of Democracy their relationship be The two women have been delayed ship and can understand much of Spartacus, gives way to an angst comes ever more stormy. It event by stumbling upon soidiers involved the conflict between her political ridden projection of von Trotta's " ually collapses in ruins in the in manoeuvres and tell of their activity and the problems of her Imagination. aftermatil of the failure of the 'narrow escape'. The men joke, personal relationships with her In jail Rosa is not allowed to 1905/1906 revolution. raucously about what would have friends and lovers before the war, hear of the outbreak and triumph The break comes ostensibly over to be put on their tombstones and the last, tragically short phase of of the Russian revolution. After Leo's unfaithfulness. But in reality Rosa interrupts with "put here lie Rosa's life is a closed book to her. her reiease from jail the deepening it is because of his failure to take the last two men In German Social It is closed because von Trotta shadows never lift for a moment. their relationship seriously. Rosa Democracy." The faces of Kautsky, does nut share to the slightest The Spartaclst leaders meet in makes the break and Leo obviously Bebel and Co are as they say - degree Rosa Luxemburg's scienti deep gloom. Leo, amongst them \ ) grets it bitterly. a picture! No wonder that iater fic, materialist, communistic out is the most gioomy apparently \.. in the conversation Rebel effect look or her deep revolutionary having little hope for the Germans ively tells Rosa she should have optimism. This optimism is not in as revolutionaries. The sharp dis ! PATRONISING stuck to women's work In the the slightest degree Incompatible agreement between Karl and Rosa party. with the tiredness, the pain of over the occupation of newspaper The difficulties Rosa experi The arguments rage on around personal ioss, the effects of Isola offices and their armed defence, ences as a woman and as a genuine the dinner table and at one point tion, the yearning for rest and the so-called Spartacist uprising, J revolutionary amongst the leaders Bebel says jocularly to Luxemburg recuperation that are expressed In is twisted to suggest that she was Kar! Liebknecht "When we come to power we will her prison letters of this period. opposed to It because it involved of the SPD are a1:;o well portray "The contradiction between the have to shoot you". Yet in the But von Trotta <1r'aws on these as needless violence rather than ed. On the one hand leaders like powerful, decisive agresslve comfortal;>le dining room, between if they were the whole of Luxem because It was a premature and Karl Kautsky and August Bebel performance of the Berlin 'comrades' this jesting prophecy burg's consciousness in the last Isolated rising. obviously at first appreciate the masses on the one hand and the force and stature of her as a revo still seems a world away from any phase of her life. The impression Is given of a possibility of ful filment. Von Trotta says that she was Rosa for whom life, Including poli Indecisive, fainthearted vaclIla lutionary writer and activist but, tlon of the Berlin leadership on right from the beginning there is The film in these scenes vividly "never In a polltlcal party" but tical life, has gone badiy wrong shows the descent of the party into identified with the very left wing, and who is not only ageing, III and the other." a patronising air to this. Also von It ends with the immurtal words, Trotta shows well the contrast be philistinism and opportunism. It also the "social democratic left wing". tired in a physical sense but Is so shows Luxemburg's struggle, which And herein lies her problem. She In a politicai sense too. However "'Order Is restored In Berlin!' tween the Polish "real revolution You stupid lackeys! Your 'order' aries" and the already dessicated she ultimately lost, to halt and sees Rosa as some sort of human nothing in Rosa's letters or articles reverse th is prucess. Ist utopian. The implication is that of the last weeks of her life Is built on sand. Tomorrow the and bloodless leaders of the SPD in the late 1960s at the time of indicate that this was the case. revolution wlll 'rise up again who shy away from any form of the SDS (the ex-SPD student move Her last letter to Clara Zetkln is clashing Its weapons', and terri action. Their message to her is PACIFISM ment) she herself held such views full of optimism about the young fy you with the clarion call: increasingly that "Germany is not but now she Is clear that these comrades of the new Communist I was, I am, I shall be. " Russia". Luxemburg fights to let The middle phase of the film views were illusions - noble and Party, despite their ultra-left Karl's article likewise expressed 'he fresh air of the first Russian deals with Rosa's struggle against just but unrealisable. mistakes: the same optimism in the dark .. evolution into the stale closed Imperialist war. This is a struggle In an interview with Soclallst "On the whole our movement hour of defeat: rooms of the SPD. She Is shown that brings her into contact with Worker Review (September 1986) Is developing magnificently and "Whether or not we are alive fighting at the party congress for Karl Liebknecht, with Paul Levi she says, across the entire country at when It arriVes, our programme the general strike tactic. She fear - her lawyer in the trials which "I am still fond of the idea of last • • • The fierce political will live and It will reign In a lessly confronts even Rebel, the are the response of the Imperial world of redeemed humanity. grand old man of the party, faCing government to her anti-militarist Despite everything!" the massive hostillty of tlJe dele agitation - and draws her closer In the film Karl and Rosa read gates. Only a handful rise to to Clara Zetkin. these passages to one another applaud her, while Kautsky remains And it is here that the limit without conviction, perfunctorily. sheepishly in his seat as Rosa de ations of Margarethe von Trotta The atmosphere is of unrelieved fends his resolution. begin to colour her depiction of defeat. But this mood is vun Later Kautsky turns sharply to Rosa Luxemburg. Whilst It appears Trotta's not Luxemburg's. the right when the chips are down that she was not responsible for The brutal savagery of their and refuses to publish her articles the English language opening credit deaths is powerfully and movingly arguing for mass agitation against which ca lis Rosa Luxemburg an shown, right down to the dumping the Kaiser and for a republic. She ardent paCifist, the sections of of Rosa's battered body into the centres on the fight for mass Rosa's speeches against war are Landwehr canal. As the ripples die strikes against the undemocratic those that von Trotta, who Is a away the film ends In deep despair voting laws of the German Empire. paCifist, would sympathise with. - powerful to the last but with a Kautsky counter poses the forthcom The connection between Rosa's message that is not Rosa Luxem ing elections to Rosa's programme earlier advocacy of militant class burg's. of action. struggle and revolution Is not Go to see Rosa Luxemburg and Barbara Sukowa gives a fine linked to her anti-war stance. be stimulated by a beautifully performance In these scenes ex Rosa's anti-paCifist Peace Utopias made film, powerfully acted. But pressing the full fire of Rusa's is written out of history. Also von be inspired to turn again to the words. Two short scenes show Trotta's deep pessimism comes to works of this wonderful woman for Luxemburg as an orator In front dominate the whole last phase of whom life was far from being In of the. rank and file worker the film. Rosa Is shown as unable vain, who left an imperishable members of the SPD. In one she or unwilling to speak at the last legacy to the working class, her speaks on what a revolution really 13russels gathering of the Second works, and her Indomitable spirit. is and in the other on the ap International In July 1914 because She stands with the greats in the proaching danger of war. In these of demoralisation. The defeat and tradition of revolutionary Marxism. we get a glimpse of Rosa's isolation of Luxemburg and Ueb A part of this tradition Is her and marvellous oratory as she rouses knecht are the themes stressed in Karl Liebknecht's last struggles and the German workers from the the portrayal of the 4 August their sacrifice. It Is a tradition routine of party and trade union decision of the SPD to vote war that today still Inspires others to life to the great dangers which credits not the betrayal of the struggle and If necessary to die threaten them and the great tasks party and the International. under the same banner. that are confronting them. Neither Is Rosa's anger and The friendships that Rosa forged Indignation against this betrayal Rosa Luxemburg, directed py Mar through party struggles, as with, faithfully expressed - an anger that garethe von Trotta Is currently Clara Zetkin, or in spite of them, made her write that the Social showing at the Lumlere cinema, as with Lulse Kautsky, Karl's wife, Democracy was "a stinking corpse". London and will be showing at are cleverly used to portray Rosa's From this point on much of the selected cinemas In other cities personal and political thoughts. fight goes out of Luxemburg, and In the near future •• With Lulse she can relax and admit Llebknecht takes over as the enth- by Dave Stock ing KENT MINER TERRY French got a four year prison sentence during the miners' strike. His crime - defending the right to a job. This 'crime' earned him the hatred of the Coal Board. They knew he was a militant and stood at the forefront of the strike. They were out to sack him. The police knew of his role as well and were gunning for him. Terry has suffered badly in prison. The prison authorities have consistently mistreated him. Attempts to send him reading material have been blocked. Parole has been denied, despite Terry never being 'in trouble' with the warders. Now his painful saga has been given an even more cruel twist by the vindictive authorities. I)uring an authorised weekend's leave from open-prison Terry visited the TUC Congress in Brighton. This was not in contravention of any prison rule. \ V Yet, on his return, he was punished for this 'political' act. MOVED THE CAMPAIGN TO Free Eleuterlo the bosses and their parties in He was moved out of open Guttlerez, a jaUed Bollvlan miner, Oruro. No doubt the fact that he prison and into Wandsworth, where has made a good start. On 20 stood as a candidate for Oruro in he was locked for 23 hours a day September a meetlng of miners In the 1985 national elections on the in his tiny, miserable cell. British the Broad Left agreed to support list of POR (Lora), an organisation prison conditions are infamously the campaign and the Durham which proclaims itself as Trotskyist bad. Terry is receiving no relief Miner Is going to carry an artlcle and revolutionary, further marked from them. on Eleuterlo In Its next Issue. The him out for special attention by A - picket had been called of the This treatment shows the reality North East j ustlce for Mine the authorities. Bolivian Embassy in London for 30 of British justice. It is a class workers' Campaign, voted not only September to protest his first year justice which wreaks _spiteful to support the campaign, but also in jail without trial. A fund has revenge on all workers who fight to Immediately communicate their STATEMENT been set up in Oruro both to help for their rights against the bosses. protest to the Bollvlan Embassy support Eleuterio's wife and family Every militant in the labour In London. and to pay for legal and campaign movement must raise Terry's case Various Labour MPs have also In the middle of the general strike of September he was arrest ing activities to get his relief. Any continue to protest against the agreed to take up the case with donations will be sent on by the nment of him and the other the Bolivian government. The ed and charged with stealtng theodolites and levels from the Free Eleuterio Campaign to Boli iners jailed because of their role impositon of the State of Siege in n the strike. mining offices. The sole 'evidence' via. Get your Labour Party/trade Bolivia makes it all the more union body to act now! important to take up this case. The against him was provided by a well JAILED MINERS! majority of miners and militants known petty-criminal from Oruro • Free Eleuterlo Guttlerez! Terry French during one Victor Rufino. This 'star REINSTATE VICTIMISED MINERS! arrested during the recent protest • Free all those Imprisoned and the great strike march to La Paz have been re witness' claimed to have seen two figures jumping from the window Internally exiled under the state leased, but Eleuterio remains incar of siege! cerated in Jail almost a year after uf the techllical office and, from his arrest, with no date set for a a distance of 25 yards, in heavy court appearance. rain, heard the name "Eleuterio" An MRCl delegation which was being used. Rufino later withdrew in Oruro recently visisted Eleuterio a second more eleborate statement in the San Pedro jail. Conditions saying he had been pressurised to there were appalling. The prison give it by the Oruro police! is an old Spanish fort, with very The police, who failed to find few modern facilities. Tiny cells anything in a search of Eleuterio's are maSSively overcrowded. There house, originally claimed he stole is little protection against the the equipment to raise money to freezing weather of the high pay the electoral fine of Guillermo Andean plateau. Lora (who it seems must have sent Sitting in the bleak open court out his instructions from the prison yard of the prison, with an armed where he was at the time for fail guard close by, Eleuterio explained ing to achieve enough votes to the background to his case. He avoid a fine that could not be worked for 12 years as a miner paid!!). in the Bolivar site in Oruro. Later, So weak is the case against having studied on his own in the Eleuterio that they have not dared evenings, he qualified as an assis to bring it quickly to court - but tant topographer in the same mine. neither will the authorities allow He was one of the leading mili the miner out on bail preferring to keep a well known militant tants in the mine and was elected Oruro, Bolivia's mining centre, homet~wn -~f Eleuterio regularly as a delegate to the Boli locked up. Eleuterio meanwhile is vian Miners' Federation congresses. deprived of earning even the tiny He was also well known in the wage paid to miners in Oruro. He region for his work in the struggle cannot even afford legal represent to nationalise the privately owned ation. His wife and children have to survive in a country where there THE GUILDFORD Totural mining site. The miners' union having won the struggle for is no social security and one In the lWELVE YEARS AGO three Irish hecause in carrying out its war of natiollallsation of this site were grip of a dramatic economic crisis. men and an Englishwoman were national oppression against the faced with a situation where the Wages average at 25 dollars a arrested for the pub bombings in anti-unionist population the Ilritish technicians in the mine were boy month. Yet a single short taxi ride Guildford and Woolwlch. A year state considers all tactics legit cotting and obstructing plans of costs 35 dollars! later they were handed out the imate, all Irish people as potential Comibol to take over the mine. Eleuterio is one of the many longest sentences in British legal enemies. (At this time the miners' union in miners, internationally, who is history. Justice is on the side of those Bolivia had a majority on the board languishing in prison because he They did not plant the bombs. who fight this oppression as much of the state mining corporation has put up a militant fight in At the time only their families, a as those who are victims of it. Comibol). As a result Eleuterio was defence of the interests of his few voices on the far left and the Many (unlike the Guildford Four) asked by the union to use his skills class. Like other miner class war I~epublican movement argued this. IRA supporters are locked up in as a topographer to prepare the prisoners in South Africa and in Fewer still defended them whether British , jails for c arrying out legit they planted the bombs or not. imate acts of resis tance. They too necessary surveys. For two months Britain, Eleuterio deserves our full Gradually as the orchestrated Eleuterio worked at the site, with support. Campaigning materials for deserve our support. hysteria died down more and more out pay, to ensure the success of use In trade unon branches, Labour Anyone who is outraged by the people came to realise their inno the project. Parties etc. are available from the sheer hypocrisy of Bri tish justice cence. Not surprisillgly Eleuterio's Free Eleuterio Guttierez Campaign should campaign for the immediate In 1977 an IRA acti ve service activities earnt him the enmity of c/o BCM 7750, London WCI 3XX. and unconditionai release of Paul unit admitted their role in the Hill, Carole Richardson, Ger-ard bombings and provided detailed Conlon and Patrick Armstrong. evidence of this. It became obvious Socialists and anti-imperialists must that the Guildford Four were con take up their case in the Labour victed only by forced confessions, Party and trade unions. It was, the intimidation of defence wit after all, a Labour government and nesses and wilful ignoring of a Labour Home Secretary who pre cast-iron alibis. I)espite all this sided over this outrage. THE NATIONAL JUSTICE FOR MINEWORKERS CAMPAIGN their plea for a re-trial was turned down in 1977 by a no-jury Court For information, publicity and Organisation of Appeal. speakers contact and affiliate to A travesty of British justice? the FREE THE GUILDFORD FOUR No, more its trademark. The Guild CAMPAIGN, AM Box 6944, London ford Four were among 16 people WC} 3XX. between 1974 and 1976 who were Enclosed Affll,.t1on Fu : "Hio".1 Org.niution [SO 0 conspired against by the British PICKET THE HOME OFFICE Rpgion.1 Organ' s.tlon (25 0 state so as to further their dirty loc.l Org.niution £ 5 0 war in the Six Counties. The In support of C~ues ".y.ble to -".tion.l Justice for Mineworkers C.. ign- ple.se Ilirmingham Six were also among THE GUILDFORD FOUR Pluse retu", to "'li~.l Justice for Mineworkers C'!llpl ig"_ the victims. CID NUM Ou,.." ... _d'lln-,cs .ssodatlon, 26 The Avenue. Dum •• OHl 4£D Why did it happen and why does Monday 6 October. 5-6pm it continue to be ignored? Simply