The following is the text of a letter (slightly shortened) received from V. Sharma, secretary of the Southall Indian Workers! Association: "It is with deep regret that we have learnt of the decision of the West Indian Standing Conference to leave CARD, Immigrant workers are deeply concerned about the racial situation in this country. We believe that it is imporative that we should all rally together and strengthen our organis~ ation, CARD, through which we can effectively join forces in the struggle against racialism, "It is particularly unfortumte that critics of CARD are accusing it of be being middle class....organisations of working class immigrants such as ours are fully participating in the work of CARD and building it up. We particul-~ arly welcome the initiatives which CARD has taken, in close association with us, precisely in the field of the struggles of immigrant workers. "The critics are expressing the very real sense of frustration and resentment prevailing in the immigrant community today, This mood is particularly marked amongst white collar workers (and) amongst immigrants who feel isolated and vulnerable. The worker on the factory floor, on the other hand, is — learning to fight his battles and to make an impact on local institutions the trade unions as well as on local politics. We cannot fight racialism in this country by isolating ourselves. We appeal to 411 our brothers to join with us and to come together in CARD, We all have a place and a role in it. "The issue of the National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants has been dragged into the debate now, although the controversy is as old as CARD itself. The fact is that a large mumber of immigrant organisations are actively participating in the work of the National Committee because we see it as a vehicle through which we can resist some of the illconceived policies in the field and to promote positive policies. If the Natioml Comittee were not able to fulfill this role, we would see no reason to contime to work with it. But this is not the case, “Finally, may we take this opportunity to thank you amd your readers for the valuable support which you have given us in the recent strike at the Woolf Rubber Factory. We shall do all we can to establish and maintain firm links of solidarity with workers everywhere."
A Programme for a Programme Continued from last week's issus
Large local disputes could be covered by personal contact between CSE and the workers concerned; and any small ones that are of special interest (e.g., involving imaigrant workers, office girls, or previously unorganised sections). The aim here must be, in all modesty, to offer servicing facilities: publicity and documentation, personal help with strike relief, welfare and legal briefing if needed, contacts with local Labour. For instance, every CSE branch could be contacting the nearest NUR in connection with the impending strike. (NB: This paper was written before the recent settlement. The reference has been left in as a typical example of the opportunities available). Though many such topics have a local or immediate origin, wost of then cannot be pursued to a successful conclusion in action within the locality alone; herein lies their importance in Socialist educational work. Beginning with a direct, sense~informed, behavioural approach, we can draw conclusions that go beyond immediate reality. It must be admitted that on many of these matters little or no reading~list can yet be provided. The CS nationally will attempt to provide guidance as rapidly as possible; discussions are being undertaken with the Socialist Medical Association, on the invitation of the latter, with the aim of providing study material in the general area of social/industrial medicine and welfare, as well as of developing other coumon activities. Socialists can do mich to mitigate this inevitable delay by using their own eyes and sears over the whole working class scene. 2) Local Labour History Working-class history will be much more appealing if it has a local connect~ ion. The work of E.P. Thompson derives its strength largely from its powerful sense of place and situation. There is a vast amount of archive material awaiting Socialist digestion in trade-union records and local history libraries. 1966 offers a specially good opportunity for examining the role of local labour, and especially the Trades Council, in the 1926 General Strike. local "Bloody Sundays", labour heroes or villains are’ worth looking up. Recent labour history ought not be overlooked; quite often there is no source available which gives a conspectus of the various industrial movements in your area. Brief but accurate essays, suitable for pamphlets of around 20 pages or less, are the format one should aim at. Nobody is going to win any academic spurs in this kind of work. This is a field in which financial sponsorship from local Iabour bodies may often be available; it is also an opportunity to offer a very real service to working-class organisations which may well form the basis of cordial working relationships over a wider area. 3) Iocal Democratic Issues It is almst impossible to wake any generalisations here. Problems of property development and traffic flow; welfare facilities (especially conditions inside institutions of various kinds); matters of local bureaucracy and democracy - these in their particulars vary from town to town. Ft is suggested that a CSE wight see its function as that of providing document ation and propaganda (e.g. as evidence at public enquiries) in whatever live campaiens are Wared. continued ov :r/
Programme for a Programme continued/
Members of the staffs of local government offices and other planning or welfare authorities may well have special skills to offer in such sitvations (even though they may have to work purely as local civil servants within their own specialism). A well~developed literature is beginning to form on wany of these questions. Where it is possible to offer general guidance, national CSE should help. It would be of assistance if local members would write in with some idea of the most salient problems where research and reading is needed. Two further points. Tt is strongly advisable to approach Trades Councils, either through their officers or through sympathetic delegates, to discuss the type of educational work that is likely to fit in with local demands. Good relationships with a Trades Council can be of inestimable value for a local Socialist society; some Trades Councils will enclose the circulars of "official unofficial" organisations along with the material they send out to affiliates. Finally, the above comments are an attempt to break away from a style of Socialist education based upon academic subjects: Political Theory, Labour History, or Economics in a course of so many lectures. Educational aids and educational methods have to be devised afresh for our work; the experiance of ‘adult education' techniques may have little to do with the tasks of Socialist education, which has to create its om union of mental with manual labour. We need a renewed attention to the details of interpersonal behaviouw in face-to-face study: the amount and distribution of the tutor's utterances as well as their content, the physical distance separating speaker and audience, the shape of seating arrangements. We must be realistic about reading lists and bibliographies; if we have the audiences we want, they will not have the leisure to do a lot of reading. One book per syllabus may be all we should expect (and CS may have to write it). In general we should not think of lectures so much as gatherings: we should begin to find it strange that a set of chairs with silent people on thea should face one way while a talkative person faces another. Socialist education cannot be the job of ‘providing theory': like scientific and technical education, it is qua education, the joining of theory with practice, in which (as William James said in his Talks to Teachers) there is no impression without a corresponding expression. TInterposing himself at a particular station in the theory~practice loop, the educator himself becomes educated. Socialist studies are not simply Liberal Stidies with Socialist titles.