Scottish Socialist No. 4

[page 2]

Abortion under Attack

Reacuonary attempts to curtail the rights of women to have abortions received a boost on February 25th when Tory MP. Willin Benyon's restrictive Abortion (Amendment) Bill received its second reading in the House of Commons. It was passed by 170 votes. against 132, a majority of 38; it only got through because 46 Labour MPs almost half of them Scottish, defied official Labour Party Conference policy, and in many cases the policy of their sponsoring Trade Union, by voting for the Bill. Most other Scottish MPs including Margaret Bain of the SNI. also supported the Bill, The Bill's proposals include:

Shortening the period in which a legal abortion may he performed from the first 28 to the first 20 weeks of pregnancy:

Requiring 2 doctors with five years experience each, and not working in the same practice, to give consent for an abortion to take place.

Compulsory licencing of abortion advisory services.

The shortening by two monks of the period in which a pregnancy may be terminated plays straight into the hands of anti-abortion gy naccologists to use delaying tactics to prevent women having abortions. It is farcical that the two doctors signing permission for the operation must lave five years practical medical experience: this applies in no other branch of medicine!

Ofall the proposes, the one concerning licensing of advisory centres and clinics would have the most far-reaching consequences for working class women. Many women who are refused abortions on the NHS in West and Central Scotlind where local GPs and hospital gynaecologists are largely use the services of arencies: antFabortion like BPAS and PAS.

The Bill's proposals would not only make it casier for GPs and synaccologists to refuse abortions, bat would also make the job of the referral agencies more difficult; indeed. in many cases, thicy may result in their closure. If they become law, working class women will once main he confronted with the choice of raising children they don| want or resorting to the services of buckstreet abortionists, with all the resulting risk to their health. No such problem, of course, would confront middle class women: for those with money there have always been private practitioners willing to do abortions principles or no! at a price The Bill's message is loud and clears misery and death for workine class women: sofc. casy abortion for the rich. It must be stopped!

For information on the Scottish National Abortion Campaien, contact NAC. clo: Women's centre. 57 Miller Street, Gliscow.

EVE OLDHAM (Glascow NAC)

mainly

NUS CONFERS

To the ironic background of the plush Grosvenor Centre Hotel, Edinburgh, delegates representing 60,000 students met last month for the Scottish NUS conference. No new policy was passed on any of the major issues facing students.

The only signiticant deyclopments. (apart from a widening split in the Broad- Left over devolution) were the initiatives on overscas students and the steps towards left unity launched by the far left and, in particular, by SLP students.

OVERSEAS STUDENTS Overseas students are at present being singled out for particularly harsh treatment under Labour's cuts policy. Enormous increases in ices threaten to put higher cducation completely out of the reach of all sell-financine students includes the bulk of bverscas students.

Already in England activists in local colleges have been forced to bypass the "inspiring" leadership of the NUS. Activists conferences recently held in Sheffield and Middiesex themseives brunched a campaign of direct action which has arcady led to the occupation of 20 colleges.

The main demands of those occupying 1) NO FEES INCREASE for overseas and self-financing students as a first step towards the abolition of all fees. 2) No racist quota restrictions on overscas students numbers. 3) Repeal all immigration laws. 4) No platform for racists and fascists.

At the Scottish conference the SIP comrades, together with the Edinburgh Overseas Student Action Group (OSAG) invited delegates to a mecting aimed it extending this campaign to Scotland. Now, with the sponsorship of the Edinburgh. Herriot-Watt and Paisley Tech. OSAGs, the Grock Students Union and several other student organisations, a Scottish Activists Conterence has been called for Saturday. April 30th in Struthclyde University Union.

NUS DEVOLUTION The issue of NUS devolution provoked The following Scottish Labour MPs defied party policy to support the Benson Bill Richard Buchanan (Glasgow Springburn, NUR, Tom MeMfillen (Glasgow Central, NUR). lan Campbell (Dunbartonshire West. TGWU), John Smith (North Lanarkshire. GWU). Alex Hadie (Midlothian, VUM). Adam Hunter (Dunfermline, NUM). Alexander Wilson (Hamilton, NUM), Harry Swing (Stirling, UPW), James Hamilton (Bothwell, AUEW), William Smalt (Glasgow Garscodden, AUEW), Frank McElhone (Glasgow Queen's Park, USDAW), Jeremy Bray (Motherwell), Dennis Cancian (Stirlingshire West). Jim Craigen (Glasgow Maryhill), Tom Dalyell /West Lothian). James Dempser (Cootbridge and Airdrie), Dickson Mabon (Greenock and Port Glasgow). Gregor MeKenzie (Ruthergien), James Whire

1 category which

2

the most intense debate at conference. Last October at a special Scottish Conference, the Broad Left successfully committed NUS Scotland to "full autonomy" and "policy making powers on all matters:

In explaining the need for this drastic tum to "NUS devolution' an NUS Scotland internal maiting sent to Student Unions claimed that "the Scottish Students wanted change so NUS responded". In reality. the only group which has ever demanded NUS devolution is the red-buiting I-ederation of Student Nationalists, It was in the hope and aligning with this rather irrelevant puppet of the SNP that the Broad Left, in the blind panic which followed the collapse of its trading empire, catapulted the whole of NUS Scotland in the direction of a break-up of the national union.

At the Edinburgh Conference there were cicar sens that sections of the Broad Left had realised their mistake. Stuart MacKintosh. in a very significant summing-up speech said that the whole matter had got out of hand and that it was necessiry to re assess the whole devolution debate.

The Broad Left however, is by no means united, (MacKintosh's own position was in fact defcated at the Special Conference in October). It seems that the fall autonomy position is still being championed by the Communist Party and the Nationalists, with opportunistic support from the Tories.

It is vital that all socialists fight against the Broad Left's cynical sell-out to the SNP. The call must be raised at SRCs and General Meetings, for a fighting NUS Scotland, linked In action with the mass organisations of the Scottish Working class but as an integral part of NUS. NUS Scotland enjoys de facto autonomy anyway, and any further devolution would just undermine the fighting unity of the national umon.

The conference also voted in the Scottish Executive for next session. Apart from the usual mixtore of Labour Party, CP. and Nationalists, conference for the first time clected a far-left candidate of the SLP the other SIP candidates. Bill Ford and Jim Dickson, stood on the platform of a new grouping in student politics - the Socialist Students Alliance.

As a broad grouping open to all Socialist Students and based on a fighting programme, the SSA provides an opportunity to group together all militants prepared to take real action. Scottish Socialist supporters should attempt to build the widest possible support for the SSA, making it a priority to collaborate with the sectarians of the NOISS, whose refusal to participate in joint slates at conferences contrasts starkly with the open manner of many rank and file members who readily participate locally in joint campaigns.

(Scottish NUS exec, Treasurer Paisley Tech.

ELECTIONS

onto the exec.

Huch Stewart Stewart, and

HUGH STEWART

[page 3]

Try to imagine Ibrox, Parkhead or Hampden Park Stadiums turned into concentration camps. Imagine yourself picked up at 5.00 on a nice spring merning when everything the working class has ever fought for has collapsed around

The first thing you see is bodies tied with wire; bodies so badly beaten that their faces

Later you are told that they were workers. picked up for giving support to the last elements of resistance; you will never know for certain. closest friends that her husband, a psychiatrist, former political comrade and friend turned up there as a torturer working for the other side.

The first thing that happens to you is you

falls. You think you are dying. Then the soldiers break out laughing. The rifles were loaded with

After that come two months of terror, insults, abuse and waiting. Waiting in case one often should identify you. Waiting to be taken out and disappear forever like some of the others who shared flour space with you in a crowded dressing room turned into a cell. Waiting for the interrogation you know is coming; wondering

If you recover from your first interogation it may land does) happen again .....and again.

If the Scottish soccer team goes to Chile in June, it will be playing in the same stadium on a pitch covered with the blood of the Chilean working class, And it will be giving a veneer of

(Chilean refugee, previously imprisoned in the

Stop the match

you.

were no longer recognisable as human. You never see them again.

Later you will also be told by one of your died in the Stadium; and, even worse, that a

are put blindfold in front of a firing squad. The soldiers fire and someone next to you

blanks, People had collapsed from shock.

of the masked civilians brought in every so

whether you will survive the systematic application of beatings and electric shocks: never sure if you will emerge alive.

This was the National Stadium, Chile, September to November 1973.

respectability to the junta. STOP THE SFA CHILE MATCH.

R.N.

stadium).

Smash Phase2!

The Social Contract is on the rocks, broken apart by hard economic facts. Price rises in 1976 excecded wage rises by 59. But, to break even against inflation, wages rises would have had to exceed price increases by 20% before tax and insurance. Food prices rose by a staggering 23.5%.

Under the Social Contract, the number of people living on or below the poverty line has risen to 13 million. Under Phase II. the weekly income of the average working class family fell in teal terms by E10.

The "big battalions" of the working class have begun to mutiny. Not surprisingly, fewer and fewer defenders of the Con-Trick speak out from the union top tables. Lawrence Daly declares nis "pride" in the Social Contract, but his boss. Joe Gormley, expresses the real fear of the bureaucrats when he explains that he "could not hope to win a vote at Annual Conference" for another period of wage restraint.

The leaders of NALGO and NUPE have acquired great prestige from their unions" campaign against Healey's cuts. But the cuts are part and parcel of the Social Contruct. And in its hour of need, they have declared their intention of using their prestige to shore up the Contract in return for a few concessions to strengchen their own positions......

Geotfrey Drain of NALGO has publicly offered such a deal: and NUPES Alan Fisher lus striven to postpone and defuse any fight with the argument that, "until we know the lerms of whatever incomes policy is being offered, I don't see how anyone intelligently can say they are for or against it".

The abject capitulation of NALGO bureaucrats before the court ruling against their March 9th strike dramatically showed the dangers of relying in fake "left" leaders. Both NUPE and CPSA have demagogically directed members to build local alliances against the cuts. Public sector activists must seize upon this to build real action committees, like those which have led the struggle, in Stirling and Aberdeen. Such committees have shown their ability to lead the fight for the right to work, for shorter hours, for equal pay, for higher wages. They provide a strong base for organising to force and STUC to break with the the TUC Social Contract.

Above all, they must organise support for all those in action against the Contract. Only such unity in action can break the isolation of those like Leyland's toolroom workers, who have stepped into the front rank of the Battle against wage restraint. Lined up against them are

PRIN

SMASH

ESS SOCIAL SOCIAL CONFLICT

the Lubous Government, the TUC, the National: Enterprise Board, their bosses, trade union officials and plant convenors. Communist Party members such as Derek Robinson, Leyland Combine Convener, have fuelled a massive media witch-hunt, accusing them of breaking "the unity of the movement". Robinson's "unity" however, is unity behind gentle persuasion of the TUC.

But the argument for differentiuls as the way ahead because "everyone eise can then get it and fall in line", is just not good enouch. For the weakly organised and poorly paid, differentials promise only a guarantee of business as before. The toolroom stewards' repented pledge that they do not oppose Phase I not only thies in the face of the reality of their strike, It also widens the divide in the eyes of public sector workers, who will get only a couple of pounds to cope with inflation from the upcoming settlements.

Any sociulist wages policy must hit the Social Contract at If levels, and unite the strength of the whole working class. The Key to stopping Phase Ill lies in smashing Phuse Il. Against quibbling over shillings, we must demand ACROSS THE BOARD INCREASES. TO COMPENSATE FOR INFLATION UNDER PHASE I. Flat rates, like ditferentials, though, cannot break a Social Contract whose strength lies in its posture as a "solution" to economic crisIs.

Neither can keep up on the treadmill of inflation. They offer only a permanent struggle to stay in the sume place. Trade unionists should renounce "blame" for the crisis of capitalism by demanding AUTOMATIC COST OF LIVING INCREASES ON A MONTHLY TRADE UNION INDEX — a sliding scale of wages. Last year, Stirling Trades Council at the STUC and Cowley workers in the TGWU wete virtually alone in this call. Today it is on the agenda of many major union conferences. Militants should take it up throughout the workers' movement.

The "Rank and File TUC"organised by Leyland stewards in Birmingham on April 3rd has great potential for building mass action. But action within the limits of endless "Days of Action" will only repeat the STUCS "Grand Old Duke of York" tacties hill of "pressure polities", down the hill for Mr. Healey's reply!

The polities of "militant trade unionism". too, have been lound wanting. We need i real socialist alternative. And this means openly organising for the policies outlined above, at the STUC, at the "Rank and File TUC"and at all levels of the labour movement.

SocA SOCIAL

up the

IMI MAGES WONT BUY ANI CARS.

Dont play ball

[page 4]

50%

Firstly, the falling rate of profit: over-investment plus a strong working class pushing up wages has reduced the average rate of profit in Scotland. The table shows the share of wages and profits in Scotlish national income since 1964. Despite short-time fluctuations. the share of wages is rising at the expense of profits. (But note the short term improvement in the share of profits in the carly Seventies which so misled the pundits). As far as industry is concerned, a future boom in capitalist investment in Scotland must await a decisive refersal in the relation of forces between Capital and Labour.

Secondly, the collapse of Scorrish science-hased industries: the filling rate of profit is a world wide phenomenon. It represents the end of the post-war boom based on the new light engineering. science-based and car industries, The multinational giants which established branch assembly plants in Scotland in the Fifties and Sixties are facing saturated markets, excess manufacturing capacity and intensified competition.

NCR in Dundee which invested heavily in clectro-mechanical machines now finds its markets have disappeared, NCR needs to go electronic but low profits mean it can't raise the cash. Timex has been hit by the introduction of digital watches. In February, Borroughs announced 400 redundancies at its Strathleven plant following the collapse of the market for mechanical adding machines. Honeywell Controls is scrapping two factories.

Faced with the higher wages won by union strength in the Seventies, the multinationals will jüst close down their obsolescent Scottish plants and move to countries where wages are lower. This was the original intention of Chrysler until bought off by free handouts from the Labour government.

Thirdly, there are the effects of EFC membership: free movement of capital within the FEC und higher rates of profit obtainable in the Paris-Brussels- London triangle will ensure a continued drain of resources out of Scotland. Even an independent Scotland within the Common

74- 73- 72 -

-

70

69

68-

67

196%

--- SCOTLAND GOING SCALE ),

NATIONAL INCOME GOING TO WAGES (LEFT-HAND SCALE) i so iss 1969 1165

4

PERCENTAÇE OF NATIONAL INCOME IN

PERCENTAGE OF

Market could not reverse this coonomic logic. George Thomson, former Labour MP for Dundee Fast and latterly EEC Commisioner for Regional Affairs, underlined the effects of Market membership in an interview in the Scotsman on F'ebruary, 9th. He revealed that the Common Agricultural Policy has in fact led to the poorer parts of the Market subsidising the richer parts.

FARCE OF REGIONAL AID

Those two financial wizards of the Scottish Development Agency, Sir William Gray and Lewis Robertson, announced in a fanfare of headlines in carly February that they are giving away £1.035.000 to Stonefield Vehicles Eld., of Cumnock. Ayrshire in return for a minority interest in the company. This cash, courtesy of the cuts in education and health, will go towards building a "new, specialist heavy truck". Unfortunately, the main competitor of the now truck will be the Landrover. The Landrover is produced by Leyland. Leyland is owned by the National Enterprise Board, the big brother of the SDA!

Meanwhile, last December, the government abolished the Regional Employment Premium which gave £2 per employce to Scottish Manufacturing. Even the Secretary of the CBI in Scotland was forced to admit this would lead to the disappearunce of 10,000 jobs. The threatened loss of these jobs has received much less publicity than the 400 jobs that are supposed to be created by the Stonefield operation. Which explains what the SDA. is really about.

ECONOMIC PROGRESS?

The February issue of the Treasury's "Economic Progress Report" reveals the interesting fact that in 1975 industrial and commercial companies in Britain paid out only 5.8% of their profits in tax! Scottish Socialists and Trade Unionists can obtain the report every month free of charge from Circulation Section (H), Central Office of Information, Hercules Road, London SE1 7DU.

TO PROFITS

IN SCOTLAND

1970 1974 1192

(RIGHT-HAND

1993

1974

19

- 16

14 113

14

10 -q%

SCOTTISH ECONOMIC DIARY

RETURN OF THE JOBLESS GAP

Scottish unemployment rose by 1300 in February according to the seasonally adjusted unemployment figures just published. There are now nearly 180,000 Scots chasing 13,700 jobs. The most significant trend revealed is the reappearance of a widening jobless gap with the rest of the UK, Provisional UK unemployment stands at 6% compared with 8.3% north of the border.

This development has touched offa furious debate in press, government and business circles. During 1971-14. various commentators announced that Scotland had broken out of fity years of regional decline. Male manual carnings were above the avcrage for Britain for the first time. Industrial production was rising faster than in the UK as a whole. With the onset of the world slump in 1975, unemployment at first rose Icss in Scotland than in the rest of Britain.

Yet in its January 18th "State of the Nation" supplement. the Scotsman's cconomics editor, Michuel Fry. could say. "It is time to start getting pessimistic again about the Scottish economy."

In fact, the false dawn of the carly Seventies was based on a misreading of (f) the short-run effects of the inflation- Ted mim boom of Tory Chancellor Anthony Barber, (2) a burst of investment in the nationalised indestries and North Sea oil, which is now over, (3) a switch to wage burgaining al a UK level coupled with more overtime being worked in Scotland. There never was any oil-led "break-out" from regional decline. Now the underlying coonomic problems are reasserting themsolves:

PERCENT

[page 5]

Palace on February 26th.

On February 26th, 2.000 pcople attended a rally in Alexandra Palace. London to assess the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts, one year aftor they became law.

Women who had taken cases of discrimination to the Tribunals set up under these Acts, described neir frustrations with the limitations and loopholes of the Acts. The many stalls, as well as speakers from campaigns and organisations fighting for women's rights pointed to the numerous areas in which women are discriminated against which the Acts do not cover at all nursery provision, abortion, hospital facilities for women, educational opportunities, social security and taxation. battered women, rape, racism, employment, low pay ctc.

The lessons to be drawn from the experience of these Acts in opcration was clearly brought out at the Rally, and demonstrated in action by the victory of the Trico women in West Lond, who won equal pay despite the contrary decision of the Tribunal: women themselves have to organise to defend and extend their rights.

Speakers from the Gunwick Strike Committee, Personna, the EGA Hospital Campaign Committee and Trico emphasised this, and, along with other speakers (and Broadside Theatre's plays), pointed to the obstacles to be overcome in forcing male trade unionists to seriously take up questions of women's rights,

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

compiled for the rally:

on their mailing list, asking for further information.

57 Miller Street, Glasgow.

Build Scottish Rally for Equal Rights

As reported in the last issue of Scottish Socialist, the Edinburgh Working Women's Charter campaign has called a Scottish Rally to mark the first anniversary of the Labour Government's Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts. This rally, which is being organised by a broad delegate planning committee, will take place at the Strathelyde University Union on Saturday May 7th. JOANNA HAYNES explains the purpose and importance of the Scottish Rally and SUE JESSUP reports on a similar rally held in London's Alexandra

1. Get your trade union branch, trades council, political organisation, women's group, tenant's committee etc., to invite a speaker from the rally planning committee. 2. Commit these bodies to support for the rally; elect delegates to the planning committee; make a financial contribution to the costs of organising the rally. 3. Set up a local committee to assess the effects of the legislation in your area. Have there been any disputes around equal pay? How are the cuts affecting women in particular? Send this information to the planning committee so a dossier can be 4. Write to the planning committee informing them of your interest, asking to be put The address to write to is: SDA Rally Planning Ctte.. c/o Glasgow Women's Centre,

RALLY FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS

The Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) arosc out of the commitment in Labour's 1974 election manifesto to "a charter for women". When the Act came into force on December 29th 1975 it proclaimed equality for women in the fields of employment, pay and education. It was to end discrimination in the provision of housing, goods, facilities and services and in advertising.

What Labour gave with the SDA it took away with the introduction of the social contracti a package of cuts in social spending affecting nursery facilities, abortion and contraception services and education. pushing the responsibility for the care of children and the family back on to the woman, tying her securely back to the home. greater unemployment with women more often than not the first out of the gate on the grounds that they are not the real breadwinners.

5

Alexandra Palace, London

continuously rising prices which place an increasing burden on the housewife who normally does the weekly shopping. a drastic decline in real wages. While the Equal Pay Act has brought some exceptional increases in pay, it has been powerless to confront the general low pay situation of working women. In fact, the SDA provides a good front for Labour's continued attacks on women. Like the Equal Pay Act (EPA) it does not confront the position of women at its roots by dealing with the responsibility she has as a wife and mother.

No real choice will exist for women in the fields of employment and education and social life until they are guaranteed fulltime nursery facilities, free contraception and abortion on request, and paid maternity Icave. Such choices can only be sustained by the social provision of child care, by breaking financial dependence on the male *breadwinner* through quality in the areas of social sccurity and pensions, and by securing increased financial responsibility by the state for the upkeep of children.

The May 7th rally in Glasgow aims to examine the position of women in Scotland by assessing the extent to which the SDA and EPA have been implemented and investigating the areas not covered by either act. It will allow the pooling of experiences of fighting around issues concerning women through contributions from a wide range of organisations and indriduals. Finally, it can lay the basis for a serious campaien in the Scottish Labour and trade union movement to fight for equality in all areas of life at work and in the home.

- 26 February 1977,

[page 6]

system.

Scotland Gets the Chop

All around Scotland, the Labour Government's latest rounds of cuts are beginning to bite. And as the wocks go by, the full implications in terms of lost johs and services ate dawning on working people.

In Edinburgh, the rocent announcement by the Lothian Regional Health Board that Leith General Hospital might be axed has followed hard on the heels of Scottish Office proposais to close two local Teacher Training cofleges. Local Scottish Socialist supporters and SEP Left members have been prominent in attempting to organise a broad labour movement action committee to light these attacks.

Meanwhile, at a meeting on February 15th, Lothian Regional Council confirmed their plans to cur services in 1977-8. The old Age Pensioners' free travel concession is to end: the Citizen's Rights Office, which provides advice and legal services for the increasing numbers forced to live on Social Security, has had its grant withdrawn and will have to close; and the Crimillar Festival Society, which provides services ranging from pre-school playgroups to OAP's lunch clubs, has been refused any further subsidy putting these essential services in jeopardy in an arca with an estimated 30% adult male unemployment.

In all three cases the cuts were proposed by SNP councillors and pushed through by a united effort of the 17 Tories, 4 SNP members and 4 Independents on the council. They were all unanimously opposed by the 23-strong Labour group.

In Stirling 300 trade untonists and students lobbied a mecting of the Central Regional Council on February 16th. The lobby, which had been organised by Stirling Trades Council's Action Committee apainst the cuts, made little impression on the council: it decided to dispense with all of the 231 full-time school auxiliaries employed in the repion, 22 other local government employees were also to lose their jobs.

A proposal from SNP councillors that a skeleton force of school auxthanes be maintained was also defeated by the majority Labour group in a 19 to 8 vote. Angry school auxiliaries, who had participated in the lobby. shouted at Labour Councillors as they lel! the meeting that they would never apain vote Labour: particular venom was rescrved for Councillor Tom Simpson, who had referred to them, both in the debate and previously, as trills on the cducation

Although, the SNP amendment would only bave saved a small minority of the auxiliaries jobs - the SNP councillors reaped the benefits of distancing themselves From the cuts, receiving congratulations for their stand from some of the pickets as they emerged.

In Aberdeen a new Trades Council subcommittee on the cuts was recently sot up. In conjunction with the Aberdeen Campain Against Cuts which local Scottish Socialist supporters and SEP Left members play an active part has sponsored a local "Save our Services" bulletin. 6.000 copies of this free 8-pape

a broud united front body in

it

bulletin- which contains articles from every major public sector union as well as NUS and community groups - have already been circulated.

Meanwhile, a committee of women in the outlying Bridge of Don area are organising against a council decision not to staff their newly built nursery, This is just part of a wide range of austerity measures imposed overrecent weeks by the Grampiin Regonal Council. An interview with one of the women involved appears in the Aberdeen "Save our Services" bulletin, which is available from ACAC, s/o Aberdeen Trades Council, The Adelphi, Aberdeen.

In Avrshire, the campaign against the closure of Cripic College of Education is still gathering momentum. At a public meeting held at the college on February 25th, The Principal, Mr. McNaught, pointed to Craigie's pioneering in new fields — adult literacy, job creation schemes, and a large degree of involvement in the local community.

The other speakers, MPs G. Younger. D. Lambrie and Jim Sillars, also argued Craigie's merits as a 'special case" deserving to be spared the government's axe.

But such arguments, which have been put forward by cach of the four Scottish Education colleges facing closure, only serve to set each of them against the others and prevent the development of an effective united campaiyn. As Harry Reid of the Scotsman has noted "Craiglockhart College invoke the might of the Catholic Church, Dunfermline concentrate on their uniqueness, Craigie College deploy an essentially geographic argument and Callendar Park look to the projected population growth in their catchment area', It has even been reported that when delegations from each college met on the steps of St. Andrew's House on the way to picad their respective "special cases", they argued heatedly over whose petitions had the most signatures.

Particularism is not an adequate basis Tar an effective campatien against the cuts. If the colleges are to be saved, it will have to be through the sort of united labour movement activity which has already begun to develop in Aberdeen and Stiring incidentally, students from Callendar Park had a big presence on the cuts committee picket of council.

where,

Nuclear Waste

Ever since December 1976, when the Ayrshire Post first revealed the possibility of highly toxic nuclear waste being dumped at Mulwharcher, Loch Doon, Jocal opposition has been growing.

In Dalmellington, Dr. Frank Feates, head of the Atomic Energy Authority's environmental and safety group, has faced close questioning from residents at two recent public mectines.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the difficulty of asking questions to such a scientifically-minded man who was the only one to understand his answers local opinion has not hardened out in opposition to the use of nuclear fuels, or nuclear dumping as such: "why our town?, is a more prevalent sentiment than 'why anywhere?

Until there is a unified national protest against atomic waste and its dangers, local discontent scems unlikely to have much elect. If it i accepted that nuclear energy is here to stay' (the prevailing local opinion), there does not seem a rood argument against the site. Unless the whole concept of nuclear energy is questioned, the campaign will remain one about decisions already taken and a fate already sealed.

Following a rigorous local campaign, Orkney Islands Council has unanimousty rejected an Electricity Board application to mine for Uranium. The SS/B, who appear to have obtained full exploration rights throngh some sort of deal with Rio-Tinto Zine the original concession holders, are likely to appeal to the Secretary of State.

KATE LONEY

"in case of emergency, repeat after me: Our Father..

ORKNEY

NUCLEAR PONIER PLANT

Conrad/Los Angeles Times

12 miles

Calrsten Mille

[page 7]

Wednesday, March 9th was action day against the cuts. Some 10,000 workers and students marched through the side streets of Glasgow's city centre. Thousands more were involved in strike action throughout Scotland; lurther demonstrations took place in every major city.

The largest contingents were those of the public sector unions which had initiated the day of action: NUPE, NALGO and ASTMS. There were also representatives of the main industrial unions and large student mobilisations from colleges facing cutbacks or closure.

The very existence of such a large demonstration was a testimony to the militancy of public sector workers. Despite a Court of Session ruling against NALGO members striking some 3,000 turned out on the Glasgow march alone. Their exasperation with their leadership's back down before the Court of Session was expressed at the STUC rally following the demonstration when they silenced their General Secretary, Geoffrey Drain, in mid-speech.

The rally, itsell, followed in the sad tradition of previous such STUC jamborces with vast quantities of hot air from union burcaucrats and no perspectives for further activity. It did not relate to the militant mood of the marchers: a further concerted expression ~ frustration 500 voices replying "We do!" Curran's remark that he did not know who had brought the injunction. In fact it had been seven top local government neficials led by prominent Tory party member and one-time prospective MP. Kenneth Ross.

NUPE janitors in Hamilton provided 1100 NALGO members with the answer to Lord Cameron and his anti-union court by locking the doors to the sub-regional headquarters.

Despite the failure of NUPE's leaders to cull for strike action by their members in the health service, there were partial strikes in many hospitals. NUPE nurses in uniform led the contingent. Many of them were student nurses who make up the bulk of ward staff, about to quality with no hope of a job. In all 3,500 NUPE members took part.

The turn out from the industrial unions was not so impressive. The official STUC backing for which the NUPE and NALGO leaders waited so long net result was less support from other unions than if they had gone it alone and given their members time to build support from other trade unionists in their workplaces. And the very GWU full-timers who argued their right to lead the demonstration, had spent the previous fortnight instructing their members to stay away and support the cuts!

The strike and demonstrations showed that, given the slightest opportunity, and despite the intentional or otherwise blunders leaders, public sector workers will respond to the most half-hearted and confusing call to action. Many have already fought isolated battles with little organised support from other workers Highland Cleaners and Ayrshire Hospital Workers. for example.

Where to now, ask those facing redundancies and left with the responsability of icading the lubour movement against cuts in services? For those that were not drawn to the meetings organised by the left to wash away the stagnating influence of the STUC rally, perhaps Glasgow's Southern Hospital gives a lead. A mass meeting there set up a joint shop stewards

NORMAN LOCKHART

What Next After March 9th?

did not deliver the goods. The

- greeted Ron

of their

- the

theasands morE dule

committee to mobilise for the strike which will hopefully be able to organise an ongoing fight against the government's attacks on living standards.

Similar, isolated attempts to unite omanised workers on a locality basis have happened elsewhere. The spreading and linking up of such bodies can lay a real basis for a movement of resistance to the cuts and redundancies. But just organising more days of action will only destroy the remaining impetus of November 17th, Deceniber 7th and March 9th: no-one will give up another day's pay unless they see some prospect of success.

Activists must get public sector workers addressing engineers; delegations from bus garages and hospitals down to local factories, and buroo officers and direct works employees into local industrial estates. The links must be drawn between the cuts and the fight to smash Phase Two and Three of the Social Contract, Support must be built for tnose already taking action at Plessey, Leyland and elsewhere.

Socialist demands like these of Stirling Trades Council's resolution to last ycar's STUC must resound up and down the movement. And a campaign must be organised to force Labour Party members in parliament, local councils and health boards answerable to the democratic wishes of those who sponsored and elected them. They must be forced not only to vote against the cuts but also organise against them.

(NUPE shop steward, in a personal capucity).

TOWU Elections

Following all the hot air of the STUC meeting in Glasgow's Apollo Cinema, the Scottish Socialist public forum against the social contract on the evening of March 9th came as a breath of fresh air. Speakers included two candidates in the then current clections for TGWU General Secretary. Alan Thomett Steward and TGWU 5/293 Branch Chairman and Willie Bennett - TGWU Convenor at India Tyres, Inchinnan in Rentrewshire. Also on the platform was Walter MacLellan, Assistant secretary of Glasgow District Branch of NALGO.

Willy Bennett related how he had stood up against Jack Jones at the previous TGWU Scottish Confcrence. He explained that he would be equally happy for his supporters to vote for Thornett or Tommy Riley the Right to Work Campuien candidate. The main questions, as far as he was concerned, were clection and recallability of union officials, a complete break with Social Contract-ism' and equal rights for women inside the union and out.

Alan Thornett explained the importance of supporting the toolroom workers at British Leyland in their fight for a wage demand in excess of Phase IT. 'No group of workers, he said, "has ever received so many instructions to stop a strike".

British Leyland Cowley Shop

7

Thornett explained the crucial need for * programme around which all those affected by the Social Contract could unite. Such a programme would have to involve centrally demands for a sliding scale of wages, opening of company books, nationalisation under workers control and work sharing without loss of pay.

This was why Bro, Riley's more militancy" campaign in the TGWU elections was inadequate. Bro. Bennett so he could not comment on his candidature. The crucial question in smashing the social contract was the breaching of Phase I!. As for the elections, a big lar-left vote would make it harder for the leadership to manipulate elections and arbitrarily victimise left wing activists and branches.

Contributions and questions from the floor initiated a lively and wide-ranging: discussion on strategy in both the public sector and the industrial unions. Speakers from the floor included members of the Labour Party, the Communist Party, the SWP (formerly IS) and the SIP Left Wing.

SLP members stressed the importance of securing delegation to the Conference on Wage Control and Labour Movement Democracy and the British Leyland Stewards' wages conference in Birmingham on March 27th and April 3rd respectively.

He had not previously niet

[page 8]

Home Rulc Bill.

Scottish Socialist Interviews Harry MacShane

Harry MacShane is a veteran of Red Clydeside and was a shop steward at Weirs of Cathcart in the days of the Clyde Workers* Committee. In 1920, he became closely associated with John MacLean and one of the group of agitators around Maclean who became known as the "Tramps" Trust Unlimited.

In 1922, while MacLean was in prison, Harry MaeShane joined the newit founded British Communist Party and later became a central leader of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement under its direction.

After a series of disagreements with the Communist Party leadership, he resigned in 1953 together with a group of other militants including Matt MeGuins.

Since that time he has remained active as an independent militant in the socialist and trade union movement He is Honorary president of the Jok MacLean Society and a delegate to Glasgow Trades Council

Alan Freeman: To what extent has the demand for Home Rule figured in the history of the Scottish Labour Movement? Harry MacShane: It has always been part of the working class tradition until recent years, Long before the Labour Party was formed, Dr. G.B. Clark, who was associated for a short period with Karl Marx and the International Workingmen's Association. was the Crofters' MP for Cuithness and he moved a Scottish

Keir Hardie was one of the founders, along with Cunningham- Greene and others, of the Scottish Labour Party and later on of the national Labour Party. They were always in favour of a Scottish Parliament. And in 1924, George Buchanan of the ILP. who would never have done anything against Labour Party policy, moved a Bill in favour of a Scottish Parliument.

It was always a principle. If one looks at Forward, which was probably the best Labour paper that Scotland ever had, one finds that right the way through, Tom Johnston advocated Scottish self-government.

AF: John MacLean went further than this and pur forward the call for a Scottish Workers' Republic. And this has led people like the SNP to lay claim to come sort of inheritance from MacLean. How do you react to this? HM: Well, the claim of the SNP is a fraudulent one. Only the other day they were making it clear that they are all for the monarchy. They are looking forward to the Queen's visit and to the Jubilee. They are not against the Kingdom; they are just against unity with England anyway? They want Fngland to have a separate parliament and the same relation to the Queen that they have!

John Mact can advocated a Scottish Workers" Republic: and in circumstances that don't hold today.

First of all, he was concerned about the leadership that was developing in the British Communist Party. He thought that they were opportunist in some respects, and lacked an understinding of a revolutionary situation. On top of that, he had arcady had some trouble with one of the contact nen with Glasgow, Theodore Rothstein, and he fell out with them. He had left the executive of the British Socialist Party (ESP) which was one of the main bodies that made up the Communist Party: (this was why the secretary of the BSP became the first secretary of the Communist Party Albert Inkpin). That was one thing.

The other thing was that the Clyde workers had made history. He was opposed to heir fillure to come out in their opposton to the war; he was opposed to Gallacher because he believed his somersault on this question was not a genuine one.

some of them

He thought that the workers, being more advanced in Scotland, could give a lead to the whole country. Therefore, he advocated 1 move forward, a move in advance of the rest of the country, to a Scottish Workers' Republic.

Prior to that, there had been an article in The Vanguard by Erskine of Marr. He was a descendant of one of the old families of Scotland, and he had written on primitive communism in Scotland - Celtic Communism.

John Maclean was very influenced by this; when he issued the first leaflet calling for a Communist Republic, which was printed in 1920, it included the words Back to Communism, Forward to Communism'. He thought that the Communist idea was deeply embedded in the Scottish tradition.

Also, he had been inovled in the struggle about Ireland. Ireland was about to get a Republic - it had not got it yet - and be protested against the military being used against the Irish: in particular, he was against the use of Scottish troops, the Black and Tans.

He thought that the appeal for a Scottish Workers' Republic could advance the revolutionary movement. AF: Do you think that the slogan for a Workers" Republic was a correct one with some relevance for today? HM: I don't think that it's relevant now, quite frankly. I think that John's instincts were good, that the working class in Scotland was in advance of the English working class.

I'm not convinced that this is true today. I think what has happened now to a great extent is that the kind of leadership that has been thrown up is an opportunist leadership. It's mainly composed of the Communist Party people who have prevented struggle, who have damped down the struggle, and intend to keep damping it down in the future.

I think that the grip the CP has on the Shop Stewards and other elements has a lot to do with the backwardness, or rather the comparative backwardness, of the Scottish movement at the present moment. AF: What do you think of the present debate about the Government Devolution Bill and the defeat of the Guillotine motion? HM: I can't complain about the Guillotine motion very much because I wanted to see the thing finished with. The Bill was holding up a whole lot of vital questions connected with the crisis. I understund ticy had spent forty days in debate: they didn't have much hope of getting any contentious amendments through, and i don't soc anything very much wrong with the idea of cutting down the debate to try and get the Bill through. i think that was the important thing.

8

ALAN FREEMAN

[page 9]

AF: Many of the left-wing MPs were instrumental in blocking the Bill by abstaining or voting against on the Guillotine; how do you think socialists today should relate to the proposal for a Scottish Assembly? HM: First of all, I think that the Left MPs were those in England not those in Scotland. Most of the MPs in Scotland were busy trying to get on to a bandwagon which had to a large extent been created by the SNP.

The Labour Party has changed its tune considerably in recent years; 1 think we must remember that. When Willic Ross was Secretary of State for Scotland, at every Labour Party Scottish Conference he went all out against the SNP. But he never discussed nationalism; he only saw a rival party- And this led him to oppose the principle of a Scottish Assembly. I'm sure that's how the vast majority of Labour Party members in Scotland felt about it. That's why they applunded him. He was the man who first christened the SNP "Tartan Tories.

As far as the left MPs are concerned, I would say that one or two of them have always been in favour of Scottish selfgovernment. This is particularly true of Norman Buchan. As long as 1 can remember, he has had a sort of feeling towards the idea of a Scottish Assembly -a Scottish parliament as he then called it. 1 remember Norman Buchan in the Communist Party and even in those days he had a bias of that kind. I recall, for example, when I was working for the Daily Worker, there was a John MacLean gathering in the City Halls, organised mainly by the Communist Party, at which Hugh MeDiarmid spoke among others.

The meeting went on beyond my deadline with the result that it could not be reported in full on the Monday. I sent it down but it didn't appear until the Tuesday and then it had small coverage: to them it was stale news.

Irecall 1 had adeputation from Norman Buchan and Hamish Henderson. They played merry hell with me; they said I was responsible for the lack of coverage. They were both very keen on it and they were quite right to criticise.

I was not to blame entirely. I recall saying to them I had sent down everything 1 could by five o'clock but there were some things I could not speculate on before they happened. They were getting quite nasty with me, but I said quite frankly that I could not speculate on the effect of a pipe band at a Communist Party meeting! AF: What do you think of the argument that the Assembly will not bring socialism any closer? Does the Assembly have any relevance for Socialists? HM: I think that it is quite true: I don't think that any assembly or parliament can give you socialism. I think that it depends on the masses to get socialism. I think, however, that the principle of the Assembly is quite sound, If the Scottish people want it then they must be quite entitled to get it. That is really the meuning of sclf-determination, though self-determination should not be seen as equivalent to the narrow nationalism expounded by the SNP. AF: What's wrong with the SNP's kind of nationalism? And how can it be defeated? HM: I think it has to be defeated on the grounds that they have no policy of any kind that meets the demands of the proletariat. Just the other night, I heard one of them advocating some sort of representation on boards, profit-sharing and things like that. It just shows how confused they are. They are still at the level of the old pre-1914 Liberals. And they are just putting that stuff forward — it's completely bankrupt and they really have no idea of what to do - in order to try and make out they can meet the demands of the working class.

They claim to have some Scottish Nationalist Trade Unionists just a handful They haven't the slightest idea of what the working class requires, or of its historical role or anything like that. AF: The argument of the English "left' MPs was that, by attempting to grant an Assembly, the Labour Party was making concessions to the SNP. They thought this would encourage the growth of the SNP at the expense of the Labour Party. HM: Well, look what's happening now the Assembly's been blocked. According to the poll in the Sunday Mail, the Labour Party are going to lose damn near all their scats. I don't think that's altogether correct: I don't think that it's a real reflection. But that's what they say today and the Labour Party is in a mess because of it.

but they are about as dumb as their leaders.

Up until now Callaghan could claim that he represented the only party which could bring about the Assembly. But many of the Labour MPs voted against the Guillotine; and this is something that has cut right across and, to some extent, destr-yed that claim. Although all the Scottish MPs except Dayell and this clown from Fife - Hamilton - voted for it.

But the thing is procedure is more important than the principle. And because the Bill has been defeated on this, they say it is dead; that it can and should be defeated. And, of course, it quite probably is dead.

It all shows the inadequacy of parliament on anything. Parliament is in a process of decay anyway. It is discredited to a great extent. It's unfortunate, I think, that this sort of parliamentary procedure has stopped an important measure from being adopted.

9

it'srather a peculiar thing - parliamentary

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[page 10]

its consequences".

influence.

Marxism

the game according to Mr. Gollan's rules, or not at all. Whilst content to ccho the "Morning Star"'s muted criticism of the Soviet exchange of the right-wing dissident Viadimir Bukovsky for the Chilean CP leader Luis Corvalan, CP and Young Communist League officials had no hesitation in publicly closing a meeting called by the YCL's Clyde Shipbuilding Branch to discuss the question in December last year. Since then, several YCL branches have been wound up by full-timers.

Then there is the case of John Foster, a leading member of Glasgow CP and a well-known Labour historian. Despite being an originator of the Scottish CP's annual "Festival of Marxism' and the city Party's education programmes, Foster, who has opposed Gollan' views inside the Party, has been removed this crucial point in the debate - from the Glasgow CP cducation committee.

Closely guarded membership figures for the 1977 card issue reveal the most dramatic decline in ten years for the CP. In Scotland, their membership last month stood at just under 6000; a drop in one year of more than 1200. The YCL has suffered an even greater proportional fall from some 500 to 300, reflecting the increasing age of the party and its failure to attract young people.

The loss of leaders in the top echelons of the Trade Unions the ETU ballot-rigging scandal, and possibly even since Hungary — continues apace. No Jess than seven national figures in the AUEW. including Jimmy Reid, most of them leading Party functionaries as well, have left some for management posts, some for positions as top union officials, some for the political wilderness. Then there was Dave Bowman, NUR President, who left for the Labour Party; Peter Kavanagh, TGWU builders' organiser and Tormer YCL leader - destination unknown; Max Morris. former NUT President, now hiring himself out as a red-baiter to the Sunday rags.

The bureaucratic measures launched in the Glasgow CP merely indicate the Party's endemic failure to break free from Stalinism and the solution of political differences by administrative means. The actions of the party which reflects the political bankleaders ruptcy and cowardice of the Glasgow loyalist" leadership even in defending their own politics will only accelerate the decline of their forces. They will require redoubling every time a Bukovsky is exchanged for a Corvalan, every time a Wolf Biermann is expelled, every time aCharter '77 is brutally suppressed, every time Polish coal breaks a Spanish strike.

But the most glaring contradiction is the stark contrast in which the CP's internal regime stands to its pronouncements about democrucy. For all the attempts at dispensing with the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, the CP lenders have no intention of doing away with the dictatorship of the apparatus; in stark contrast to The democratic norms of the Bolshevik Party under Lenin, in the CPGB today no debate is launched until the leaders are satisfied it will be resolved in their favour.

They control the political balance of contributions to the debate through their control of the editorial boards of the Party Journals in which the debate takes place: Marxism Today, Comment and the Morning Star.

The

Draft

British Road on the Rocks

With the pablication in January of the first new draft of the "British Road to Socialism' since 1968, the Communist Party of Great Britain has launched the second round of an "open debate' on its programme.

Throughout the previous year, a major discussion took place inside the party around John Golian's article "Socialist Democracy some problems", which appeared in the January 1976 issue of Marxism Today. It purported to outline the problems of developing a theory and practice of socialist demociacy in the Light of the experience of the Communist Parties in the twenty years following Kruschev's denunciation of Stalin in 1956.

Ralph Miliband aptly described Gollan's effort in the 1976 Socialist Register: "It is in fact a lamentable document, written In the familiar wooden style associated by long usage with such productions, mealy-mouthed, full of careful ambiguities and euphemisms, and generally content to repeat what have become the most commonplace formulas in the world communist movement concerning Stalinism and

Gollan's document, however, was written with a specific purpose. It appeared at a time when the two biggest of the Western Europeun Communist Parties were embarking on their parallel perspectives of the 'historic compromise with Christian Democracy in Italy and of "Socialism in the cours of France through the Union of the Left in France. And it was written shortly after Gollan's retirement as the General Secretary of the much smaller CPGB which, despite a miserable 17,426 votes throughout Britain at the last General Election, is equally firmly wedded to an electoral road to political

Its object was to gauge the strength of opposition inside the ranks before the leadership openly put its weight behind a redefinition

of the British Party to bring it into line with the concepts of Eurocommunism" of the French and Italians.

The central beadership of the party had already concluded that the way to break the isolation of the CRB was to follow the example of these European parties in distancing themselves from the Soviet bureaucracy and moving in the direction of a more social democratic form of party. In common with their French and Italian comrades, they saw the key to acceptability within the political order of the ruling class as stripping off the few tatters of Marxist theory which have survived the era of Stalin and its aftermath: above all, it was necessary, once and for all, to dispense with any association with Leninist concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In terms of the CP's programme, the problem Is somewhat academic. Already in 1951. Stalin had imposed the concept of a "national" road to socialism through the state appuratus and "democracy" of capitalism, No reference to the dictatorship of the proletariat" is to be found in any edition of the "British Road" since its first publication in the same year. The problem lies rather in the public image of the Communist Party, which is still largely identified with sucit aims, not least because it is a commitment to the aim of Lenin which holds many of the Party's best militants in its ranks.

Despite the publication of 42 contributions to the debate on "Socialist Democracy" in and a special supplement in the course Today of 1976, the "open debate" became a great deal more closed The tour of public meetings throughout Britin to launch the debute hit trouble when Gotlan spoke in Glasgow in February last year, What was ostensibly a public meeting was in practice transformed into a Glasgow CP membership uggregate as 250 members packed into the AEUW Halls.

Gollan made to bonesa bout the proposed conclusion of the discussion: *The possibility now exists of bridging the historic split which has existed in the world labour movement since the First World War".

For much of the audience, however, the prospect of life as radical social democrats did not appear attractive. Gollan's chairman was hard put to find a handful of supporters for his views, whilst the floor was taken by numerous leading Glaspow CP activists. There was little "mealy-mouted" in the attitude of those who attacked Gollan for *elevating and exagerating the cult of bourgeois democracy" and compared him with Karl Kautsky, From then on, the debate, both in Glasgow and in Britain as a whole, became largely internal.

The British CP has had, for many years, a tame opposition of hide-bound Stalinists in the Surrey District Committee, which complains of "betrayal of the Soviet Union" in cach Congress discussion and obligingly retires in between. For the Party leadership, the prospect of an opposition in its membership stronghold of Glasgow, embracing many of its most able and active ideologues and campaigners, is neither attractive nor acceptable.

As the second round of debate commences, moves are being made by Glasgow CP apparatchiks to ensure that oppositionists play

almost from the outser.

10

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[page 11]

And they disarm their opponents at conference time throush the ban on factional activity" whereby one can be expelled for discussing minority pusitions with members of other brunches or privately circulating documents not printed in the official journals.

The political instincts of those who seck to oppose the social democratisation' of the Pare in many ways good ones. Their opposition to the CP leadership's opportunist criticism of the Soviet Bureaucracy is based on their desire to defend the homeland of the world's first socialist revolution; their fight against the new draft of the "British Road" is based on an assesment that it marks the final break with the Leninist concept of proletarian as opposed to bourgeois democracy.

Their political conclusions we may disagree with: Their uncritical support of the Soviet Bureaucracy in the suppression of dissidents is not such a tenable position for people who are starting to get the "dissident" treatment in their own party; and as we noted carlier, the "Dictatorship of the Proletariat' has hardly been a crucial concept in the CPGB these last 25 years!

In their opposition to the 'new liberals of

the CP leadership, those who would stand against the tide in the Party have tended to look back to the most accessible tradition which can provide coherence for their opposition in which they were politically moulded. We believe that history has revealed the counterrevolutionary churacter of this tradition, that it offers no future for serious militants in the CP. In future bsues of Scottish Socialist we intend to consider in greater detail the political issues raised by the debate in the CP within a third framework socialism us practised by the Bolshevik Party and the Communist International in the days of Lenin and Trotsky.

Scottish Socialist invites a reply from the Scottish Committee of the CPGB on the questions raised in this article: Our pages are futher open to contributions on the "British Road" draft from Communist Party members denied a proper hearing Through their party press or from any other of our readers.

the tradition of hard-line Stalinism

STEVE KENNEDY STEWART MeLENNAN

that of revolutionary

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Saturday March 26th. Day School for members and supporters of SLP Left in EIS. Topics: History and Structure of EIS: relations with OPT, R & Fetc. Contact: George Kerevan, 31a, Cumberland Street. Edinburgh, 031-556 4132. Sunday March 27th. Conference on Wage Control and Union Democracy, Digbeth Civic Hall, Birmingham, 10am to 4.30pm. Credentials 50p from: Kevin Lee, 44 Devonshire Road, Handsworth Wood, Birmingham 20. Sunday April 3rd. British Leyland Shop Stewards Conference on Wages, Birmingham Town Hall. Saturday April 30th. Scottish Activists A conference against college fee increases. Strathclyde University Union 10am. Further information from: Hugh Stewart, Paisley Tech. Students Union. 041-889 9940. Saturday May 7th. Sex Discrimination Act One Year on: Scottish rally called by Edinburgh Working Women's Charter Campaien, Details from SDA rally planning cite, c/o Women's Centre, 57 Miller Street, Glasgow. Saturday-Sunday June 11th-12th. Socialism and Dependency. Conference on on socialism in the transnational cconomy considering alternative models of development for Scotland. Details from Scottish International Institute, 58 Queen Strect.. Edinburgh, 031-226 4668.

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Eurocommunism in Action

Towards the end of August last ycar "Il Manifesto"", one of Italy's best known leftwing dailies, carried a headline on page one which read, "Andreotti (the Christian Democratic Prime Minister| has decided on a policy of high prices; the left-wing councils will put it into practice: the peopic will have to pay for it." At the end of December official government statistics showed that Italians took fewer and shorter holidays in 1976, and the Christian Democrat Minister of Labour announced that unless something was cone urgently another 600,000 Italians would be thrown out of work. Already 200,000 adults in Naples alone have no work, or work only on in occasional basis. In addition, 5%a of the total Italian work-force art obliged by the desperate job situation in the South to seck wark in Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. Inflation last ycar was running at 20%. Pensions are to be increased by 5%. Petrol costs £1.40 a gallon. In the pipeline are increases in car insurance (20%), rail fares, ras, clectricity and telephone charges. House rents, which have been, in theory. frozen for the last 30 years, are to be modified to give "a fair return" to the Endlords. Whatever else that phrase might mean its principal effect will be impossibly high rents for working people at a time when they are least able to pay them. In the face of this massive attacked what are the unions and the main party of the left. the Italian Communist Party (PCI) doing to. defend working-cluss living standards? After all, at the last elections the Italians not only gave 35% of the vote to the PCI's policy of reform, but also 5%-and a number of seats in parliament to the revolutionary policies of Democrazia Proletaria (DP) This, however, did not serve to shake the PCI into militant action to defend the class

it represents — quite the opposite. Enrico Berlinguer, General Secretary of the PCI, announced that his party would not oppose the actions of the minority Christian- Democracy government, in return for behind the scenes consultations and vague promises of reforms. So fur the only major have been of the highway code. A recent cartoon in "L/'Espresso" shows. Berlingner crawling through a long pipe to join up with the Christian-Democrats in the centre. When he arrives he is astonished to discover that the Christian-Democrats have, in the meantime, moved to the right. For the moment the majority of workers interpret this as typical Christian-Democratic trickery, and are surprised that Berlinguer has fallen for it. The teal problem will arise when they begin to question Berlinguer's honesty rather than his wisdom. The price the PCI have to pay to get into government could well be the unity of the working-clas in Italy.

ENEY BERUIMCUER

11

R.M.J

[page 12]

Few Socialist Policies on STUC Agenda

The agenda for this year's Scottish Trades Union Congress contains many fine resolutions. Resolution 155 from Fast Kilbride takes up the increase in police repression and calls for the banning of racist and fascist organisations as well as demunding trade union rights for the police. Resolution 150 from Glasgow Trades Council rejects the Immigration Act because the assumptions of this act are at the root of the growth of racism. The resolution also calls for local anti-racist bodies to be set up by constituency parties und trade unions to conduct the campaign. Resolutions 142 and 143 reaffirm opposition to the Chilean regime and call for the Scotland-Chile match to be called off. There are other worthwhile resolutions which deserve support from socialists.

But on the most important issues facing economic policy - the agenda is sadly lacking. Last years STUC divided sharply around two contrasting positions. The majority of rank-and-file delepates opposed ware restraint and supported a 10-point action programme in the shape of resolution 17 from Stirling Trades Council (Sec Scottish Socialist number 1). The block vote of the big unions, marshalled by Jack Jones. secured support for government and TUC

Incomes policy is again likely to be the major debate at this year's conference, to be held in Rothesay from 18th 22nd April What is lacking this year is a fightine socilist programme. This is all the more unfortunate became the prospect of incomes policy being rejected is much greater.

At first glance, it might seem that there can he little chanee from 1976. Most unions

important

incomes policy and

are committed to policies decided by their 1976 conferences which backed the TUCgovernment C4. 5% limits on wage increases However, most unions imposed stringent conditions. What has happened until now is that union officials have used conference decisions as a blank cheqac to support the government. Such is the way they treat union democracy!

As Aln Thornett, candidate for T & G secretary, points out in his clection address. "The biennial Delegate Conference accepted the Social Contract subject to cight stringent conditions including lower unemployment, massive public spending increases and price controls. None of these conditions were fulfilled."

The ability of the leaders to pull it off this year is more doubtful because of mounting dissatisfaction of the membership.

Indeed only one resolution, from the EETPU, offers outright support for government policy. A few resolutions, such as number 37 from the Bank Employees, call for incomes policy coupled to the restoration of differentials But 11 out of 18 resolutions in the incomes policy section oppose wage restraint outright: their mood is summed up by the NUM resolution number 29: "That this Congress is opposed to any incomes policy having as its aim wage regulation through interference from any sources in free collective bargaining."

The lack of a socialist alternative is most noticcabie in the cconomie policy section. Five resolutions numbers 1, 4, 5. 6 and 7 lay down an alternative economic policy and will be composited. All include in onc form or another the programme put before

the Congress by General Council which calls for: (1). control over capital export (2) expansion of the public sector in industry and finance reversal of the cuts and a programme 13) of public spending selective import controls (4) tax retorm 15) 35-bour week and retirement at 60 (6) The idea behind the resolution is.to pressurise the government into changing its policies — to mask the ugly face of capitalism. But how can this secure advance for the Inbour movement? Results in any field have only been won by workers in action. This has at least been recognised in resolution 97 on Equal Pay Trom TASS, which says: says: *experience proves that industrial action backed by support and solidarity from the orjanised trade union movement can achieve equal pay for women workers."

It calls for a combination of industrial strugele and a fight for new legistation to prevent "the attempts of employers and Industrial Tribanals to block women's rights".

The General Couneil resolution and others ate right to call for changes in Government policy as goalsor the trade union movement. But delegates will take nothing from the conference unless they can link any such demand to working class action in the same way that the TASS resolution does.

Unfortunately the demands themseives are often an obstacle to this kind of action because the General Council is looking for a "better way to run capitalism" based on reflation and import controls. Import controls should not be supported by any socialist. They will not enhance but obstruct trade union solidarity by favouring British workers over others. Instead of restoring Tagging British manufacturers by giving them spocial privileges, the labour movement should openly call for the nationalisation of firms creating redundancy, and for Industrial action aimed at opening their books and at workers' control.

And none of the motions in this section puts forward any proposals for defence of living standards except reliance on government action. Stirling Trades Council's call for automatie cost of livine clauses, for cxample, has not been put forward anywhere cise as part of a rounded action programme as it was last year. It will be up to rankand-file trade unionists to forge a fighting programme in the months after Congress, starting hopefully from a clear rejection of the Social Contract and wage restraint at Rothesay.

(Stirling Trades Council STUC delegate, in a

ROWLAND SHERET

personal capacity?

DEVOLUTION

Most of the resolutions on devolution have been rendered valueless by the failure of the rovernment bill. as they all rely on the same approach of politely asking the government to change its legislation. The debate on emergency resolutions may force the STUC to wake up to the fact that here, at least, parliamentary pressure has no chance! Stirling has submitred the following resolution, and many others can be expected from

This conference deplores the blocking of the Labour Government Bill to set up elected Assemblies in Scotlind and Wales, which can only lead to a prowth of right wing nationalism at the expense of the labour movement.

It calls on all affiliated unions to fight for the disciplining of Labour MPs who refused 1o support the Labour Party Conference policy and voted against the government

It instructs the General Council of the STUC and all affiliated organisations to carry out » public campaien in support of the demand for an elected assembly.

This campaign to be undertaken jointly with the Labour Party and all other Labour movement bodies committed to an Assembly, should involve local rallies. conferences and demonstrations.

It -brull culminate in an open conference of delegates from workplaces, unions and Labour Movement political parties to demonstrate the breadth of support for an Assembly and discuss and decide: the action to be taken in pursuit of an elected Assembly the coonomic and political measures desired of such an Assembly by Scottish working peopic means to pursue the fight for such measures by the labour movement.

14

[page 13]

enthusiasm. On the two crucial issues

and vote out the cuts - were defcated.

chumminess which prevails over such

the same side".

is tied to this "unity".

the days have long gone where being a

thing, on the "symbolic issues",

anything.

society never intruded into Perth Town Hall. support for the SNP the only response of the Scottish Council has been to throw apolitical

content to lecture all and sundry on the cvils

Composite resolution number 8 provided

If this demoralisation is transmitted into

An alternative does exist. It exists in the

against the cuts. It exists in setting up Labour Against the Cuts committees in the localities.

with all other Labour movement orginisations If the Perth conference tells us anything,

Is there something going on in your area that readers of Scottish Socialist

STEPHAN PIEKARCZYK (Kelvingrove CLP)

Labour's Scottish Conference

Out of the 379 delegates at the Labour Party's Scottish conferonce, there are very few indeed who can look back at the three days spent in Perth Town Hall with much

before conference, devolution and cconomic policy, safe and acceptable resolutions were passed, which by now will have found a final resting place in Transport House's waste bin. Two resolutions which threw down a practical challenge to Government policy the proposals to condemn the Labour MPs who voted for the guillotine and to urge Labour councils to defy the Government

But this preference For grumbling loyalty to the Government, is only typical of the patherings. As George Robertson, the new chairman of the Labour Party Scottish Council put it: "Despite our disagreements, we have a common cause. All of us are on everyone is a "comrade no matter how uncomfortably the label fits Bruce Millan or Dickson Mabon. This is especially true for supporters of Tribune, whose very existence

Unfortunately for the Tribune Group, "good left-winger" required no more than opposition to foreign generals and support for Clause Four of the party constitution. A good example of Tribune psychology was provided by Brian Wilson. He explained it would be possible to forgive the Government on questions of cconomic policy, if only they would concede at least something, any- "gut sociulism" like penal reform. He could have added, but didn't, that such issues have the added advantage of not costing

- At conferences like Perth.

the issues of

In practice this means that far from Icading any opposition to the "right-wingers"; the Tribune group have now become the chief apologists for the policies of the Government. impotence is a real decline in the impact of Tribune at the conference. Since they had nothing to say to the conference, it was left to supporters of Militant to take on the mantle previously worn by Norman Buchan and Dennis Canavan inside the party. This was seen in debate after debate in the stark contrast between the half a dozen delegates who would clap for a Government supporter like Dick Doulas and the enthusiastic ovations for many young Militant supporters.

The Militant fringe meeting, however, was much smaller than expected. To attract only 50 people after a year of unprecedented publicity can hardly be called a success. In part. this is a product of the general stagnation of the Labour left as a whole; but the politics of Militant must also take part of the responsibility. All too often their

K&S STUDIO

24 ROYAL CRESCENT GLASGOW G3. TEL: 041-332 1643

The end result of this political

speukers it the rostrum merely outlined, for the umpteenth time, the glories of the coming socialist millenium, without ever addressing themselves to the practical perspectives of the fight against the Government and the bosses.

Somehow the real world of Scottish

In face of a dramatic rise in working class

abuse at the nationalists. This is best exemplified by the recently-launched gutter magazine "Attack" whose contents are restricted to dredging up every rumour and allegation ever levelled at the SP without ever addressing itself to a critique of their politics.

Meanwhile, the Labour left has been

of capitalism.

an opportunity to break from this political sterility. Originating from Kelvingrove constituency, it committed local Labour parties to an active campaign with other sections of the labour movement, against the Government policies on social expenditure. Its defeat must have inevitably demoralised some of the socialists who attended the conference, despite the fact that the resolution received the support of the NUM and NUPE delegations.

inactivity, into a passive sleep until next year's resolution, then the conference will truly have been a waste of time.

fight in all the local Constituency Labour Parties to mandate their councillors to vote

And it exists in the fight to involve the unions which voted for action at the conference, in immediate united activity willing to join the fight.

it is that the days of complacent resolution passing ate ovet. The problems of the real world are much too pressing

SCOTTISH SOCIALIST * Up to 4 Copies cost 15p each plus 10p post and packing. * Over 5 Copies 15p each post free. WRITE

would like to know about? Or do you want to submit your point of view for debate in our pages? Either way, we would like to hear from you.

[page 14]

Tribune's not so Happy Birthday

Scottish Socialist supporters picketed a Tribune anniversary rally held in Glasgow's McLellan Galleries on February 27th. They were protesting the presence on the platform of Bedweilty MP. Neil Kinnock, whose abstention five days previously had helped sabotage the Devolution Bill.

Tribune was born 40 years ago in the aftermith of one of the biggest defeats ever suffered by the Labour left" Civil War, The fortunes of Labour's left wing have not significantly improved since; they remain very much the "loyal opposition' to a permanent right-wing majority in the Party.

Some Tribunites end up defecting from the ranks: Harold Wilson, for example, or Michael Foot. Others decline the rewards of high office but remain no less ineffectual: socialists like Norman and Jancy Buchan remain fixed to a crumbling past where opposition to foreign generals and support for Clause 4 was quite sufficient for survival as a left-winger".

The 40th anniversary rally proved an embarrassing occasion. Norman Buchan, who shared the platform with Kinnock felt constrained to defend him agamst the points made in our icallet. Kinnock, he said, had shown great courage in the stand he had taken: although he, Buchan, did not support this stand, he felt that "personal attacks' were out of place.

Kinnock, himself, was more forthright. As far as he was concerned, he supported the demand for the right of the Scottish people to decide: this was why he had fought for the

Meanwhile, Glasgow EIS militant Kenny McLaughlin has failed in hid bid to win a place on the ballot for the EIS presidency. In EIS, would-be candidates have to be nominated by their local branch. Against expectations, Melaughlin came second to a right winger for the Glasgow nomination.

It had been expected that McLaughlin's candidature could have served as a focus around which to unite the fragmented left in the union. Edinburgh Rank and File member, Myra Armstrong was to have been vice-presidential candidate on a common ticket with MeLaughlin. In the wake of McLaughlin's failure to be nominated, Rank and File has withdrawn from the vicepresidential spot.

The loss of a slate is a serious blow to the left. Sources close to FIS headquarters told Scottish Socialist that Gencral Secretary John Pollock had been very worried about such a challenge.

Scottish Socialist will continue to campaign against the fragmentation ol' the left in HIS in the face of Pollock's mancouvring. As a part of this campaign, the pages of Scotrish Socialist are open to contributions from Rank and File, the CP-backed Organisation of Progressive Teachers or any other Socialist Teachers.

Meantime, the next President of FIS is dable to be a certain Terance Twatt, a headmaster from Oban.

13

over the Spanish

referendum. But his constituents were fervently opposed to devolution, and he had acted accordingly. Furthermore, nationalism had to bc "confronted' and the Bill capitulated to it.

NORMAN BUCHAN In fact, Kinnock campaigned in Parliament to take Wales out of the Bill and on this basis opposed the Guillotine motion. We may well feel entitled to ask why the Welsh people should not be allowed to express their opinion themselves, rather than rely on quixotic Mr. Kinnock to do it for them. We are certainly entitled to ask by what right he chooses to arbitrate on a Scottish Assembly.

As the Scottish Socialist leaflet pointed out, 'No Tribunite MP's have used their parliamentary votes to stop the Government's attacks on living standards .....Only when it comes to defying the policy of the party and the TUC and the rights of the working people of Scotland and Wales, does the courage to vote "No" arrive". it was regrettable — not least in the light of Norman Buchan's testimony to Neil Kinnock's great courage tradition at such meetings, no questions or contributions were taken from the floor.

The most important issue under discussion, however, was the Social Contract. Here, 1oo. Tribune scored an embarrassing tirst by giving a platform to Lawrence Daly - the first major Trade Union leader to back the Social Contract in Scotland since the present wave of apposition began. "Tam proud", he said, "that the miners took the initiative in supporting the TUC-Labour Party policies which led to the Social Contract". A fine start to a meccing entitled "The Socialist Alternative'. And Kinnock chipped in to say the working class could not accept wage cuts and unemployment while prices continued to rise. The government had broken the Social Contract: what was needed was a new one with price and import controls.

The only redeeming feature of the meéting was the presence on the platlorm of co-ClA man, Philip Acce. Ironically, Agee himself. is presently under notice of deportation served by the very Labour Government against whose policies the Tribune Group has signally failed to organise any real opposition.

that, in breach of a long-standing

MARTIN O'LEARY

EIS News

The reactionary headmaster-dominated National Council of the EIS, at its meeting of 11 and 12 February, rejected a proposal from General Secretary John Pollock to affiliate to the TUC. Opposition to Pollock's attempt to take FIS into the "corridors of power" was led by Glasgow headmaster Norman Meleod who argued, What we are witnessing if this recommendation is passed is the proletarianising of this Institute" Affiliation was rejected by 60 votes 1o 53 after a recount.

Council sources have told Scottish Socialist that Pollock was very angry with the decision, and had been heard to mutter that "Rank and File are right". Rank and File, the EIS ginger group supported by the Socialist Workers Party, has long campaigned for the abolition of Council as a way to break the power of the headmasters. As revealed in the last issue of Scottish Socialist Pollock is already secking ways to do this. Meantime it is expected Pollock will retaliate by bringing the matter of TUC affiliation to the floor of the EIS AGM in June.

Pollock's attempts to take on the headmasters and affiliate to the TUC will be given critical support by the left in FIS, but it must be understood that it is John Pollock and not the headmasters who is the chief obstacle to transforming FIS into a weapon to fight the cuts and the Social Contract. Pollock's method is that of maneouvring with his Labour Party cronies in the "corridors of power Regional Councils or the TUC or the Cabiet. He fights shy of any attempt to mobilise the membership of EiS aganst the cuts under the guise of constitutional wrangling over the small print of the contract of service.

At Pollock's prompting, FIS chief negotiator Keir Bloomer has made fiery speaches about industrial action over proposed teacher redundancies in the Highland Region. Scortish Socialist has been informed that Pollock, far from contemplating strike action, could well be preparing to cat his words and trade Nexibility on the contract (bigger classes) for a withdrawal of the redundancy threat. Pollock, and not the headmasters, has been responsible for EIS scabbing on the NALGO March 9 anti-cuts strike.

, whether in the

[page 15]

The advent of the EEC

Free Speech The audience take their scats. "Communism Should be Taught in Schools Is the subject for debate. All right. Why not. The children as they have been Taught exercise the right of free spooch. After all it's part of growing up. It will stop. Gaze is cool and clear. I have assured him There are no baby Marxists here. *Madam Chairman ....' a speaker says. I fcel proud, my conscience clear. We are a clean co-ducated comprehensive Planner's dream and vet they will shove their Tampax down the bogs and cut swastikus on The milk machine. .... and if you don't like it here Why don't you go and live in Russia!" There is applause. The evening is drawing To a close. T have been at knowing what is best. Later I Shall compose next week's motion when I'm alone in bed. *THIS HOUSE BELIEVES IT IS IN CONSTANT CONTACT WITH THE DEAD".

And sce how the headmaster's

The votes are taken. How clever

Keynesian cconomics ignored the rise of multinational companies christens the "mese-economic sector". multinationals are little tempted by government cash: their primary need is abundant labour. Block them from expanding their branch factories in the South East by refusing them planning permission. and they are just as likely to move out of the country as to the North Fast. Consequently, labour moves to the multinationals, not vice-versa.

Holland proposes to harness meso-oconomic power. This is achieved by (1) a huge extension of the public sector into profitable new markets rather than merely shoring up lame ducks, (2) using the threat of this direct cconomic competition with the multinationals to force them to invest in the regions. Holland draws heavily on Italian experience to prove his case. He cites the example of liat which refused to expand to the poor Merzogiorno region of southern Italy, preferring to rely on migrant labour coming north. IRL, the umbrella company which runs Italian nationalised industry. deliberately expanded into the medium-range car market in competition with Fiat. Flat moved south, according to Holland, to head off further governmentinspired competition.

For Holland, this expansion of state capitalism is the route to socialism. When the workers see that it is state capitalism that has brought jobs to the regions, they will revolt against the privately owned mesocconomic sector and demand to manage the multinationals themseives.

It is Holland's plans for harnessing mesocconomic power, and the political conclusions he draws from this, which cause ns to be sceptical. He remains trapped in the contradictions of trying to challenge the international capitalist conomy and the muitinationals from a purely national basis. Are the super new nationalised enterprises to compete in the already saturated world markets? IT Holland is merely talking about big state enterprises operating in the home market, then what has changed that will stop the multinationals pulling out if challenged? The multinationals might even resort to political subversion as ITT did in

Later

15

what Holland The

Hobbies Like a whale in a block of ice The Otis T. Peabody sits sub-arctic. Today T-bone steak and french fries: film of the week is Lassic Come Home kid has seen it twice and cried. Nuclear motors pulse gently. The smell of fresh clorophyll fills the air. Once they surfaced to look around. Fog and ice. Saw a polar bear on a floe like Frankenstein's creature drift slowly past its breuth hanging in the air. Deep beneath the Pole there is a bridge class Somcone reads Defoc. Another keeps up with the latest bascball scores: Others play miniature pool or go on quictly leaming classical guilar. Deep beneath the ice passing time with hobbies an unknown man in a locked room paints a picture by numbers: a landscape with trees and green mountains and in the bright blue sky he carefully arranges birds.

Chile. This is especially true in the British context with greater penetration of the economy by multinationals than in Italy The futility of the attempts to defy the laws of the market by do-it-yourself capitalism is. in fact, borne out by the experience of Italian state capitalism. The big nationalised industrial complexes parachuted into the Mezzogiorno are kept going only by massive subsidy. IRI has been opposed to such investment but ordered to continue for political reasons. Few multinationals have gone south. Despite $4.4 billion in aid since the war, only 170.000 jobs have been created in the Mezzogiorno compared to a total loss of over 400,000 jobs in agriculture.

Holland is strangely silent on the current resurgence of regional nationalism. This is because he is a supra-nationalist. In chasing his will o' the wisp. Holland enters down the same road as Allende, He sees leftleaning govermments taking over the mesocconomic sector in alliance with sections of national capital which will act as satellites of the big state industries. He praises the Union of the Left in france, where the Communist Party is already talking about a popular front with the Gaullists against the US multinationals. The result could be a British Chile, with Tony Benn telling his base in the shop stewards movement to hold back the workers lest they frighten their "allies" in the CBI while a Left Labour government is brought to its knces by the CIA and the multinationals.

Here there is a positive lesson to learn from Italy. Holland's scenario leaves the working class in a passive role awaiting the crusading efforts of Lord Ryder's National Enterprise Board. Yet, it was not government pressure which forced fiat to move south. I was a three month long strike in the autumn of 1968 The engincering unions demanded frat expand into the Mezzogiorno. Such action, coordinated on a multinational basis, is what is required to bring the multinationals to leel. The Italian workers have a phrase for state capitalism in the regions. They call it building cathedrals in the desert. It is a fitting epitaph for Holland.

GEORGI: KEREVAN

that frockie faced

JAMES RANKIN

Books

in the Desert CAPITAL VERSUS THE REGIONS, Stuart Holland. Macmillans. pp328. £4.95. THE REGIONAL PROBLEM, Stuart Holland, Macmillans. pp179. £3.95.

If Tony Benn has a guru it must be Stuart Holland. Fconomic advisor to Wilson in the Sixties, Holland has since become the brains behind the alternative cconomic strategy" of the siege cconomy and import controls so beloved by Benn and the Broad Left. In these two new works, one of economic theory and the other polemical. Holland extends the alternative strategy to the problems besetting Furope's backward regions.

Holland's thesis is deceptively simple: the anarchy of capitalism inevitably creates rich and poor regions within a single country as capital drains from areas of low profitability in scarch of a higher rute of return eisewhere. with its free movement of capital will only make this regional imbalance worse.

All attempts to reverse this tendency through redirection of industry have failed because governments and conventional

Building Cathedrals TWO POEMS BY JAMES RANKIN

[page 16]

Dear Editor.

I have seen your December January issue very late, but I hope not too late to reply to the question" posed to me in it by Neil Williamson.

There are a number of questions in lus letter, but they add up to an image of ex-Marxist Nairn turned lackey of the SNP, as proved by his scribbling in the notorious Question. I particularly appreciated the past tense in mentioning my work with New Left Review, and comrades Blackburn and Anderson, having just completed a month's work in association with them. Here I must refer Comrade Williamson to the forthcoming No. 101 of NR, and my book The Break-up of Britain (New Left Books, April).

Seriously though, two theoretical issues are at stake: the national question in Scotland, and the nature of the state. On the former, my view is that Lenin's approach is sounder than Luxemburg s or the Austro-marxists, althouch it does need amendation, and it seems to me to entail giving much more priority to the rational issue than Scottish Socialist nd the IMG) have yet steeled themselves do. This in turn implies alliance on that issuc with other political forces and : tendencies. As long as this struggle remains progressive there is nothing whatever disreputable in such alliance (or in writing for a paper like Q). It goes without saying that I do not agree with other views expressed in that newspaper.any more than Blackburn. Anderson or other comrades do when they contribute to notorious rags like the Guardian or New Statesman.

The second issue may be even more impottant. I have been accused of Imputing "Neanderthal views to some victims of the Stirling purge, and taking the constitutional problem seriously. Guilty on both counts, Your Honour, but unrepentant. Constitutional whether it is pronounced with in Enlish or a Morningside accent, means that the working class does not get a look in*, writes Alan Freeman in the same issue, He goes on to contrast all this "constitutional bickering' with the real answer: workers" control. This dichotomy is a false one. Constitutionalism is not a bourgeois delusion, and anyone who thinks it is should argue the case with to take only the blatant examples comrades in Yugoslavia or Crechoslovakm. Without a viable constitution and democracy in Scotland, there can be no real representation of the working class at all, and to claim that the form of the future Scottish state is none of our business is a Neanderthal stance.

Published by Scottish Socialist, 64 Queen Street, Glasgow. Printed and typeset by Trade Union Labour.

'QUESTION'

TOM NAIRN REPLIES

It was kind of Williamson to say that I have sometimes played a constructive role in the past. But again, I must refuse the past tense. I was willing to Tight for democracy inside my own political party, the Scottish Labour Party, That is why I stayed in it after Stirling. He, and you, must know that this fight is not concluded, and that disagreement with some of the SIP left's views did not. and does not, mean condoning all that happened there or agreeing with the policies, outlook and methods of the present leadership

NEIL WELLIAMSON WRITES:

Tom Nair's lerter doesn't really deal with the issues at stake.

Firstly, on Question. Comrade Nain compares it to the Guardian or New Statesman; many of its editorials on purging the Labour Party of its left wing, or fighting international terrorism' are, in fact, much more reminiscent of the frenzied reaction of the Telegraph or Express Socialists, since Marx, have, howerer, frequently written for all sorts of bourgeois rags, so the precise character of the journal isn't really the point. For none of these journalists have ever envisaged Lord Beaverbrook or iris kind as forces and tendencies' in a common progressive struggle. as comrade Nain envisages the people around Q.

Tom Nair's projected alliance between socialists and our own literary national bourgeoisie is a profoundly mistaken one for these forces are the very least able (to use ins own words) to wage a progressive struggle on the national question. What is more, their impotence is a product of their constizutionalism' wich Tom Nairn so much admires: a constitutionalism which serves merely as a cover for their real class politics When Scorrish workers occupy factories against multinational plant closures, when they demand the STUC leads an orgamsed fight against spending cuts, or when they resist that labour movement representatives implement conference decisions on issues like derolution, then these same constitutionalise nationalists will be the first to scream for Westminster intervention This alliance of Nain's will prove to be an umbrella which can not survive its firsr shower of rain.

Dear Comrades.

Having been present at the Leonid Piyushch public meeting in Glasgow University, Tread with interest the interview by Gus Fagan in Scottish Socialist No. 3. However, it seems to me that some of Plyushch's most interesting ideas have been carefully left out of the published interview, One statement in the introduction scoms highly inaccurate, namely that Plyushch is "Marxist by conviction". Durine the public meeting, he devoted some time to explaining his neo-Marxist views, and he also strongly hinted that Eenin might have

Fraternally. TOM NAIRN

PLYUSHCH OR FAGAN?

16

For this reason Comrade Nairn's polemic against Alan Freeman is misplaced. What Alan was correctly arguing was the ineffectiveness of reliance on parliamentary methods. This at least must be abundantly clear in the wake of the Westminster debacle over devolution. We aiso would refer to the failure of Dubceck (not to menrion Allende) int this respect:

Alan's entire article was an argument against the stupidity of thinking that the national question or democrarie rights are irrelevent to the working class. It is ironical that it is often the very parties most committed to constitutionalism the Communist Party and the Sillars S/P that are the worst offenders in terms of their own internal democracy. And surely this is all the more reason not to put the slightest faith in the constinitionalism and reformism of our elected representatives to actually carry out the wishes of the Scottish people.

While we were delighred at comrade Nairn's reaffirmation of his willingness to fight for political democracy inside his own we remain puzzied at how this tallies with his vote for the expulsions ar Srirling.

Finally, it is because we think that Tom Nairn is a socialist and not a lackey of the SP* that we consider his failure adequately to answer our questions all the more important

sown the seeds of Stalinism, which isn't mentioned in the Scottish Socialist interview.

Plyushch also took some time during the public meeting to explain his view that the USSR is state capitalist important point, and one that could hardly have been avoided in the subsequent interview by Gus Fagan.

Was the point of the interview to present Plyushch's ideas or Fazan's?

Yours fraternally, DAVID BUCKNER

Printed by Buncle Print, Arbroath.

like

surely an

[page 1]

Notices

*This is no longer an issue for parliament. It is the Scottish people who must decide".

These were the words of Norman Buchan after the votes of 39 Labour MPs wrecked the Devolution Bill.

But what ever gave parliament the right to decide? All the parties proclaiming Scotland's right to decide have been busy negotiating that right away in Westminster. And after three years they have got .... nowhere, Does it matter? Decidedly yes. A people have been denied a right they overwhelmingly desire. Alter years of meekly backing cuts and wage freezes, the so-called socialists who opposed the guillotine have decided that 640 politicians count for more than the democratic decisions of their party, of the TUC, and the rights of the Scots and Welsh peoples.

With appeals to parliamentary sovereignty" they have created the best possible conditions for the growtb of the SNP. They have sown the seeds of a disastrous national split in the labour movement. And they have reinforced the hold of "common-sense" British nationalism over the working class.

What now? Waiting for the all-party talks is useless. They are hamstrung by the very forces who sabotaged the bill. Labour movement action is needed. The problem is how to organise it.

The first step is to combat the splitters in our own ranks. MP's who blocked the bill must be called to account, Socialists in England must wake up and fight the stand

of their so-called leaders. Home Rule must be ro-estabiished as a basic demand of the labour movement.

The coming STUC can take the initiative in calling a campaign of public rallies and local actions drawing in all Labour Movement Parties. It can promote a genuinely democratie and open labour movement conference to spell our a lighting policy - not just on the democratic but on the economic and social incasures needed to meet the aspirations of Scottish working people. Without waiting on the STUC, local action can start now.

We do not accept that previous gatherings. such as the Scottish conventions organised by the STUC, can go anywhere. They were not committed to campaign on any issue. And the labour movement cannot organise cffectively il it mcludes its class enemics within its own campaign. We should welcome participation from SNP stewards. But the SNP as a party is out to split the working cluss and has no place in such a campaign.

And our um must be clear. We cannot just fight for the old Bill, It was never endorsed by the Scoltish people. The powers of the assembly should be decided by the people. The call nust be fora Constiment Assemhiv which can determine its own form and powers.

Scottish Labour MPs voting against were Willie Hamilton /Central Fife) and Tom Dolvell (West Lotian), Richard Buchanan (Springburn) and Robert Hughes (North Aberdeen/ abstained.

Text of Emergency resolution for a Labour movement campain on devolution .. See Pace 14.

1

STOP THE SFA CHILE

NUMBER 4 APRIL 1977

LEADERS DOWN IN GLASGOW

Labour's Scottish Conference. Scottish Strike

HARRY MACSHANE ON HOME RULE AND THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

the British Road to Socialism Draft

CPGB

CRACK

Social Contract. STUC; NUS; EIS.

[page 2]

(Glasgow Pollok).

SRO

[page 3]

3

[page 4]

[page 7]

[page 10]

the most dramatic since

at

[page 11]

...AND PLAN

SUNDAY APRIL 3rd SCOTTISH SOCIALIST OFFICE 64 QUEEN ST., GLASGOW.

[page 12]

the labour movement

policy-

other quarters:

quillotine motion.

(i1)

(ill)

[page 13]

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