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REFERENCES tothe IRA and the Workers' Revolutionary Party have been bandied about in the first week of the trial in Leeds of the 'Chapeltown 6' youth accused of offences during the summer riots. Five of the youth on trial have been held in custody since their arrest in July. The six face a total of sixteen charges ranging from making or possessing petrol bombs through to burglary and theft. If found guilty they face lengthy jail sentences.

The trial began with the defendants rejecting number of people from a panel of 30 all-white and largely middle-aged jurors.

And there were police restrictions on those allowed in from the press and the public.

The Charges:

Malcolm Alan Bouch, 24 of Grange Avenue, Chapeltown has pleaded not guilty to 4 charges that he made 76 petrol bombs with intent to endanger life, cause serious injury to property or enabling someone else to do so and that he made petrol bombs for an unlawful purpose.

Michael David Cummins Fahy, 22, of Grange Avenue Chapeltown, has pleaded not guilty to similar charges relating to the possession of petrol bombs. He has also pleaded not guilty to two charges of burglary and has admitted handling stolen goods.

Alan Johnson, 20, of Hamilton Terrace, ChapThe prosecution set. the scene for the trial by implying that the July events were the work of extremists and that the defendants are dangerous left-wingers sympathetic to the IRA.

Prosecutor Paul Kennedy said that the cause of the riots was no concern of the jurors. And while they may "hear mention" of the housing conditions, unemployment, the Workers' Revolutionary Party or the IRA, their only task was to decide whether a particular defendant had committed a particular crime.

Yet the overtly political character of the trial emerged in the evidence from Detective Sergeant Lodge.

Under cross-examination he said that he had seen one of the defendants, eltown, has denied two charges, relating to the possession of petrol bombs.

Frederick Joseph Harbinson, 29, of Hillerest Avenue, Chapeltown, has pleaded not guilty to two charges relating to the possession of petrol bombs.

David Johnson, 18, of Hamilton Terrace, Chapeltown, has denied attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm on police officers and damaging a Hillman Avenger.

Mohammed Hussain, 17, of Grange Avenue, Chapeltown, has denied a charge of attempting to make explosive substances for an unlawful purpose. Michael Fahy, on a march in support of the hunger strikers. But he had not as brand him listing supporter, he insisted. Instead he asked him whether he had been involved in political marches. He asked him, 'Were you involved in making petrol bombs for political reasons?" Then he asked 'Was it your intention to help cause a riot because you believed it would help the cause of the IRA?"

To each of these questions, and in each of his interviews with police, Fahy insisted that he had not touched any petrol bombs or been involved in the riots. " Outside the court the Leeds 8 Defence Campaign (who also support two other youth due to be tried separately) gave out leaflets calling for the charges to be dropped.

The Defence Committee can be contacted c/o Box L8, 59 Cookridge Street, Leeds 2.

The case is proceeding.

OVER 20,000 marched in anger to Westminster on December 1 to protest at the latest Tory plans to destroy London education.

The march and lobby of Parliament were called by the teaching unions, NATFHE and the NUT, NATO is facing a new and terrible threat. Ministers and military strategists from its 14 member states meeting together in Brussels have decided to prioritise combatting this menace. No effort will be spared to get agreement on a common front against the peril.

You guessed ... it's the anti-bomb movement.

Inexplicably, millions of normally sane and sensible Europeans have taken an irrational dislike to the idea of nuclear weapons being sited in their backyards. Worse, they're even objecting to being chosen as targets in a 'tactical' nuclear war.

All many of whose members will lose their jobs if the Heseltine bill on local government is passed.

The protest was strengthened by half-day strike action which closed many schools and colleges across London. The march received the support of the National Union of Students, whose London members have been in the forefront of the struggle against cuts.

The Tory offensive would hard-pressed ‹ sonnel are goin waste valuable ing their populaces to If the SDP didn't exist, it would be necessary for Posy Simmonds to invent them. While opinion polls reveal the average. SDP voter doesn't have a clue what s/he is voting for, apart from a vague dissatisfaction, your average member knows exactly what it' s about.

The SDP, it transpires, really is one long dinner party for the concerned Defence perg to have to time bringrecalcitrant the senses cuts By next summer, more than a third of those un-employed, over a million, will have been out of work for over a year. While the total unemployment figures have risen by just under half, the number of longwhen they could be off having tactical nuclear wars or at least p lanning them. Really, you people should know better!

professional middle classes. 57% of its membership fall into this category, only 7% are manual workers.

Lawyers, academics and media persons predominate. This might go a long way to explain their apparent genius for self-publicity combined with a breathtaking lack of anything to say.

'leaders' try to keep the NUT a professional and unpolitical union and witchhunt those who actively mobilise against the cuts, as in Lambeth. They also oppose the affiliation of the NUT to the Labour Party.

The rally would have been greatly strengthened had it invited or allowed any of those involved in real action against the cuts to speak.

The rally had no student speaker, although the London Student Organisation (LSO) has been at the forefront of the struggle.

On November 18th the LSO mobilised thousands Liza Alexeyeva was detained and harassed by the KGB last Saturday as she was attempting board a train for Gorki to see the Sakharovs.

However much Socialist Organiser disagrees with Andrei Sakharov's political views and his idealisation of the West, we must defend unconditionally his, and the right of thousands of other political prisoners in the Soviet Union, to freely express and propagate their views.

It is the savage repressdenial of basic democratic rate - which has produced fighters like Sakharov. term unemployed has doubled over the last year to 750,000.

And inflation is eating at the real value of unemployment and supplementary benefits.

Last year the government removed the guarantee that increases would compensate for inflation. And in Howe's mini-budget another cut slipped through.

«The government underestimated by 2% the rate of inflation for this year's increase, but promised that this would be made up for long-term benefits in the next rise in November 1982. But while this is true for long-term supplementary pensions [for those over retiring age - if they happen to live that long| it does not apply to long-term supplementary benefit for long-term claimants under retiring age who don't sign on, mainly single parents.

So by the back door, the Tories have managed to undercut the precarious means of existence of the absolutely poorest section of society.

alongside the AUT in a march against the cuts from Chélsea. No mention was made from the platform of the occupation of the Polytechnic of Central London against the cuts.

The 24-hour: occupation of the South Bank Poly by students, in support of PCL and against police eviction, the day before received no mention either.

Neither was the day of action for December 4th called by LSO mentioned.

Overwhelming

These examples of determination to stop the cuts illustrate the need for direct action in the form of occupations and supporting strikes to stop the cuts.

Despite the inactivity and often opposition of our so-called leaders, this type of direct action points the way forward.

The overwhelming vote by NUS Conference for a week-long strike against ence of the willingness of rank and file students to fight.

The strike action by teachers shows they are prepared to take direct action.

We need to build upon that movement if we are to defeat the Heseltine Bill.

Build a fighting socialist youth organisation! Join th National Left Wing Youth Movement of the LPYS, Box BM 5277, London WC1N 3XX.

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ion, endured by millions in a47 Soviet Union - the

rights of free speech, the right to travel and to emig-

the Tory cut in the value of the grant is further evid-