Where we stand

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* Organise the left. to beat back the Tories' attacks! No to labour movement. Organise full support for black attacks on union rights; defend the picket-line; no state * The capitalist police are an enemy for the working class. interference in our unions! No to any wage curbs. Labour Support all demands to weaken them as a bosses' striking must support all struggles for better living standards and force: dissolution of special squads (SPG, Special Branch, * Wage rises should at the very least keep up with price * Free abortion on demand. Women's equal right to work and increases. For a price index calculated by working class organisations, as the basis for clauses in all wage agreements full equality for women. Defend and extend free state to provide automatic monthly rises in line with the true cost * Against attacks on gays by the state: abolish all laws which of living for the working class. The same inflation-proofing discriminate against lesbians and gay men; for the right of the should apply to state benefits, grants and pensions. gay community to organise and affirm their stand publicly. * Fight for improvements in the social services, and against cuts. Protection for those services against inflation by auto- determine their own future. Get the British troops out now! * The Irish people - as a whole - should have the right to matic inflation-proofing of expenditure. For occupations and Repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Political status for hour week and an end to overtime. Demand work-sharing * End unemployment. Cut hours, not jobs. Fight for a 35 supporting strike action to defend jobs and services. for a programme of useful public works to create new jobs without loss of pay. Organise the unemployed - campaign Irish Republican prisoners as a matter of urgency. support from the British labour movement for their strikes, struggles and armed combat against the white supremacist regime. South African goods and services should be blacked. The black working people of South Africa should get full * It is essential to achieve the fullest democracy in the labour movement. Automatic reselection of MPs during each parliament and the election by annual conference of party leaders. * Defend all jobs! Open the books of those firms that threat- Annual election of all trade union officials, who should be en closure or redundancies, along with those of their suppliers and bankers, to elected trade union committees. For * The chaos, waste, human suffering and misery of capitalism occupation and blacking action to halt the closures. For nationalisation without compensation under workers' urgent need to establish rational, democratic, human control now - in Brilain and throughout the world - show the social property, under workers' control. The strength of the hospitals, not a penny for 'defence'! Nationalise the banks labour movement lies in the rank and file. Our perspective and financial institutions. without compensation. End thr must be working class action to raze the capitalist system interest burden on council housing and other public services. down lo its foundations, and to put a working class socialist alternative in its plarr — rather than having our representatives run the system and waiting for crumbs from the tables * racism is. The labour movement must mobilise to drive the fascists off the streets. Purge racists from positions in the conditions. for the unemployed. management. * Make the * Freeze rents and rates. not the working class. Millions for defence. Build workers' defence squads.

MI5, etc.), public accountability, etc.

nursery and childcare provision. paid the average for the trade. of the bankers and the brasses. influence Papandreou in the future.

PASOK will be confronted on the right by Karamanlis who, after his resignation as head of the New Democracy, party, has now elevated himself to the de Gaullelike heights of President of the Republic, with incredibly wide ranging powers up to and including the dissolution of Parliament and of all civil liberties.

Obscure

He will be an effective constitutional safeguard for the ruling class if ever some serious measure against its interests is threatened by the incoming Parliament.

There will undoubtedly be great pressure on the Greek revolutionary left to concentrate simply on the "let's kick out the Right" side of the equation, thus tending to obscure the real nature of PASOK's politics and its future sell-outs.

But it would be a sectarian mistake for them to ignore PASOK and simply call for a vote for the CP on the grounds that PASOK does not fit into any of the schemas of a classical social democratic party.

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Socialist Organiser, Thursday 15 October 1981 Page 5 The NATO plans to station Cruise and Pershing missiles have sparked the biggest one of whose leaders no doubt see this as a way of whose leaders no doubt see this as a way While a few years ago neutron bomb at a time ineering union IG Meta In the one hand, there keynote speech to the Bonn of an extra-parliamentary denounce pacifists in the embarassing for Schmidt a directive from the uni keynote speech to the Bonn of an extra-parliamentary Erhard Eppier made the ot defusing the 'dangers' Schmidt could simply when it would be very who was speaking desp: Erhard Eppler made the of defusing the 'dangers' growing support for the March - hopes to inflict a mass movement, though it SPD with Cold War rhet- and only later sent Secre- federation, the DGB. March — hopes to inflict a mass movement, though it ace movement within defeat on Schmidt at the remains to be seen ¡h coalition parties. In Party Congress next what extent they are succ- of the party, he now has to it with him after the fact. Party Congress next what extent they are succ- defeat on Schmidt at the remains to be seen to oric and throw them out tary of State Haig to discuss The organisers of th Spring. Some of them essful in this. Spring. Some of them essful in this. Although the peace ing to differentiate thei Get vaporised, get fried by radiation, or get shot - that's what Britain's 'civil defence' against nuclear war offers all but an elite few, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Saturday October 24; assemble 11.30am Victoria Embankment, London. MORE than 250,000 demonstrators - the vast majority under 35 - marched in the West German capital Bonn last weekend . to protest against nuclear weapons. The march was particularly aimed at the Social Democratic/Liberal coalition's support for stationing Cruise and Pershing missiles in West Germany and its offer to accept the neutron bomb if other NATO governments in Europe did the samt.

The march was the buggest demonstratior. in West Germany since the state was founded in :149, and included a number of Dutch and West German soldiers in uniform.

For weeks beforehann the press had tried to whip up hysteria by warning that the march was bound to end in violence; in the event, it passed off completely peacefully.

Reliable

The SPD-FDP coalition under Helmut Schmidt is still determined to prove that it is a reliable ally of the USA and member of NATO. Schmidt supports stationing Cruise and Pershing in West Germany. But he faces pressure which threaten to pull the ich threaten to pull the coalition apart. ilition apart.

On the one hand, there is growing support for the peace movement within both coalition parties. In particular, the SPD left -reports JO THWAITES.

'Civil Defence' sounds like it is some sort of scheme whereby the civilian population will be defended if there's a nuclear attack. The idea is to make you feel a little safer -. "It's OK. There are plans to deal with the situation if it ever arises, at least we , won't all forgotten about. The authorities will have the situation under control.".

The end result of that reasoning being that a nuclear attack wouldn't be so bad after all.

Yes a few thousand people will get killed but the rest of us will be alright, so there's not a lot to worry about and the government can go on spending billions on defence and having the Cruise missiles based in Britain.

Well, we won't be alright. For everyone except for about 30,000 top civil servants, generals and selected members of public service and private industry, civil defence means stay where demonstration in Germany since 1949 you are, keep out of the way till the system of Regional Commissioners - safely stashed away underground during the attack - reckon it's safe enough for them to come out again. Above ground, it they're still alive, there should be a network of more civil servants stationed in remote 'safe' areas who will link up with the lucky bunker people to form a dozen regional governments.

At least that's the plan. The New Statesman (25 September) revealed what the plans are to keep everybody from moving about. There is to be a network of Essential Service Routes (ESRs) up and down the country. These routes consist of most of the main roads in Britain, including the M1, M4, the Al, A3 and the vast majority of main roads out of the major cities in Britain. These roads would be "controlled' : all petrol, diesel and other tuel would be impounded, and local authorities would be ordered not to feed refugees who 'chose to ignore the government's advice to stay in their own homes' (A detailed map of the ESRs can be obtained from New Statesman, 10 Great Turnstile Lane, London WC1, £2.50, with SAE). It would be extremely difficult to get out of London for instance, as 18 routes out of the city are ESRs.

This all seems to have very little to do with civil defence, but quite a lot to do with maintaining the existing system of law and order, and making sure that the population sticks to the government's instructions outlined in the tragic pamphlet Protect and Survive' offering practically zero protection and little chance of survival.

• Classified In 1975 the Home Office sent out a circular entitled 'Briefing Material for Wartime Controllers'. It was classified and only sent to top civil servants and police „chiefs.

The first section dealt with 'Law and Order': It outlines a system of emergency courts coming under the jurisdiction of regional commissioners where there would be "provision for appropriate penalties not normally available to courts." i.e. reduction of rations or execution. There would be no appeals.

That is the most detailed section of the circular. The rest deals with use of survivcontend with people such ing industrial resources, and reaches the stunning conclusion that there might not be much left and that 'A large nuclear attack would disrupt the production and distribution of power supplies, and hence most industrial and commercial activities' There is a section dealing with 'Manpower' In spite of heavy casualties among the able-bodied population, there should be no general shortage of manpower, since industry, as it existed before the attack would be virtually at a standstill'! It goes on to point out that if there was a lack of food, people might not want to do 'heavy or unpleasant' work. If this arose. Regional Commissioners would have the power to direct who did what but of course this depends on "the community's acceptance of the need "and their volun tary co-operation'. . 'Short of summary execution that is.

Telling

A strange, or perhaps telling, final paragraph points out that 'A large scale nuclear attack on this country would completely disrupt the banking system. Even a small-scale attack on London and the location of as Party Chairman and former ' Chancellor Willy Brandt, who, for his own reasons, has chosen to put himself at the head of the anti-Schmidt forces.

Schmidt faces pressures in the other direction from the Conservative opposition (the CDU/CSU) and from the USA. While Schmidt trounced the CDU/CSU under extreme rightist Franz Josef Strauss in last year's elections, it is now not so easy for him to compete with the CDU/CSU in pro-NATO sentiments, as he would only encourage the left in the SPD and the peace movement.

CDU leader Kohl -whose name aptly means 'cabbage' - is trying to break up the coalition and mounting an outright attack on the peace movement.

The Reagan government is doing nothing to ease Schmidt's predicament. They would be very happy if the CDU/CSU came to power, as they are committed to introduce the missiles and probably would be more reliable than the Schmidt government could be in delivering the goods.

Thus Reagan announced the decision to produce the neutron bomb at a time when it would be very embarassing for Schmidt and only later sent Secretary of State Haig to discuss it with him after the fact.

Although the peace the major facilities of big clearing banks would have a similar effect'. . This bizarre observation is followed by the rather shocking sentence, 'It may therefore be assumed that, for in period at least the widéspread use money, as a means of purchasing goods or rewarding services, would cease? :. However, happily the circular ends with the prediction that this state of affairs would only take a year or so to correct. But there's one word of warning. "The creation of a new monetary system would be a national matter and not one in which Regional Commissioners could devise their own policies'.

Echelons

So there we have it. The government has not a clue about protection and survival of the population. Only a lucky few, from the higher echelons of society along with a few art treasures (which, by the way, have a whole bunker to themselves in a mountain in Wales) and military generals will get into the bunkers. The rest of us can just stay put and do what we're told or get shot. ALICE PFISTER from Germany:

"It was huge, tremendous - the anti-nuclear movement is much bigger than the press make out.

"Politically, it's still very vague, but there are huge numbers of youth involved, which is a good sign. There weren't very many trade union banners on the march, but that's because there has not been much work done in the unions -that's something the movement will have to concentrate on.

movement has succeeded in drawing many people into activity for the first time, there is a danger that this will be frittered away unless revolutionaries are able to overcome the political and organisational weaknesses of that movement.

The leadership of the march on Saturday was shared between 'church groups, leaders of the opposition in the SPD and FDP, the ecologists - some of whom are very reactionary - and various prominent writers such &S Heinrich Boll.

There was only one union speaker, a member of the executive of the huge engineering union IG Metall, who was speaking despite a directive from the union federation, the DGB.

The organisers of the march were clearly not wi march were clearly not willing to differentiate themRobinson reports "The SPD,, cleverly adapting to what they see as important votes in elections, managed to get a speaker on the platform and tried to tone down the militancy of the youth. I don't think they will succeed, though.

"It was the biggest demonstration I've ever seen in Germany, and has given a huge boost to ordinary working-class people, for many of whom this was the first demonstration they'd ever been on"

selves clearly from the anti-communist premises underlying Schmidt's own position. The strongly pro-Moscow CP was not allowed a speaker, while a member of the right-wing CSU was given the platform.

Unlike CND, the movement, insofar as it is possible to speak of it as a whole, is not clearly unilateralist and includes many different views about the extent of disarmament needed.

Revolutionaries must seek to build on the present size of the movement in two ways: by turning the movement into the trade unions and giving it a more specifically working class character, and also by taking on head-on the assumptions behind both Schmidt's arguments and the cautious pacifism of the movement's present leaders.

No peace movement in can be successful while W. Germany remains in NATO and W. Germany will probably stay in NATO while Germany is divided.

Revolutionaries must put forward the perspective of a united Socialist Germany, with real workers' democracy, as an alternative to both Stalinism and the W. German anticommunist cuncensus if the peace movement is to really fight the dangers of war in Europe.

SCRAP THE BOMB!

demonstration.

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Socialist Organiser, Thursday 15 October 1981 Page 6

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lorld news- Germany:250,000 march against missiles

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