Discussing union democracy

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THIS SATURDAY, 19th, in County Hall, London, trade unionists will meet at the invitation of the Broad Left Organising Committee to discuss 'Democratising the Block Vote' The impulse for this came from recent struggles in the Labour Party. But democratising the block vote means democratising the unions throughout.

A first, smaller, initiative on these lines was a conference called jointly by Socialist Organiser and London Labour Briefing last April. At this conference we adopted a draft platform for union democracy,. which contains some ideas perhaps worth discussing on Saturday.

TUC and Labour Party conference delegations should be bound to follow union policy where it exists, it argued.

There should be democratic control of the block vote cast a Labour Party conference: delegations should be elected and consist of lay members. Members of all working class parțies and tendencies should be eligible for inclusion in the delegation.

Control

But such measures can have little effect unless the whole union apparatus is brought under rank and file control.

All officials should be elected for definite terms (no more than two years] and subject to recall at any time. Full-time officials should be paid the average wage in their industry.

Union policy-making bodies should be made up of elected lay members only. The same should go for Standing Orders Committees and Appeals Committees.

Full minutes and voting records of policy-making bodies should be circulated.

National delegate conferences should be held every year and should have Jubilee supreme policy-making power. Gardens Voting should be at workplace meetings or by work- near place ballot. It should not be by postal ballot. We Waterloo want informed, collective working class decision- Station making, not ballots manipulated by Fleet Street liemachines.

Election addresses must be circulated unaltered, and candidates and their supporters must have unrestricted rights to cireulate literature.

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In the second part of an interview with Mary Corbishley, Hassan Ghazi of the European Committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Irar discusses the National Council for Resistance SOUTH Africa's Foreign Minister Roelof Botha last month admitted that there is an agreement between his government and the USĂ for the stationing of Cruise missiles in South Africa.

The announcement followed on an unsuccessful tour of black Africa by vice president George Bush, who came under repeated pressure as a result of the USA's staunch support for South Africa and its military aggression in Namibia, Angola and Mozambique.

Réagan has encouraged the apartheid rulers to stand by their insistence that Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as a precondition for any negotiations on the independence of the South African "province' of Namibia.

By planning the introduc tion of Cruise missiles -with a range of 1600 miles and nuclear warheads — the Pentagon/Pretoria alliance steps up this threat - and brings other black African countries into range.

Far from seeking arms limitation or a restriction of the nuclear threat, the US imperialists are intent upon spreading that threat into the continent of Africa.

TUCKED away out of the limelight while newspapers headlined the plight of the two million foreign nationals expelled from Nigeria was news of more immediate concern to the imperialist leaders.

While penniless men, women and children flooded across its borders to a future of destitution, Nigeria's right wing government was signing a £200 million deal to purchase 18 Anglo-French Jaguar fighter planes.

Competition for the orde had been fierce, with the USA, Soviet Union and the French Dassault corporation in the bidding. No doubt the profits from this deal will pile still more food on the tables of British and French bankers and industrialists, at the expense of the workers and peasants of Nigeria and West Africa as a whole.

DRACONIAN provincial decree laws depriving trade unionists of the right to strike until 1985 and cutting public employees' wages by up to 20% sparked a tide of illegal strike action in Quebec last month.

66,000 hospital manual workers came out on strike on January 31, joining over 100,000 other public sector workers already engaged in a wave of strikes which paralysed schools and gov.. ernment services.

On January 29, 400,000 Quebec workers had marched in a resounding show of resistance to the legislation. Every striker faces fines of $25 to $100 a day - while union leaders can be penalised for $1,00( o $10,000 a day, and unions stand to forfeit $5,000-$50,000 for every day of the action.

Last year one union faced a bill of $4 million following a one-day hospital strike.

The government of Prime Minister Rene Levesque has threatened to sack strikers - exploiting the present 15% unemployment in Quebec. What is the attitude of the KDP to other political forces both in Kurdistan and in Iran: In particular, why did you join the National Council of Resistance, especially since Bani-Sadr, central figure in the NCR, was originally part of the Khomeini regime and responsible for the early bombardments in Kurdistan?

We don't believe in a one party system. As a result of the escalation of the struggle after the Shah's downfall we declared that all different political groupings should present their programme for Kurdistan and it's up to the Kurdish people to decide which one to follow.

As regards our relations with other political groups in Kurdistan, this is shown by our positive approach to a joint negotiating body representing the Kurdish people which was set up in the first round of negotiations with central government in 1979. This committee consisted of KDPI, KOMALA (Revolutionary Organisation of Toilers), and the redayeen. Kardish section, and was chaired by Sheik Azzedin Hossein (a progressive cleric who is a leading political figure in the Kurdish movement):

We are prepared with any progressive force fighting Khomeini's regime and KOMALA has its ioots in the Kurdish people. But in our assessment KOMALA don't take into consideration the reality of the Kurdish struggle. They just impose sometimes their subjective analysis of objective conditions and that is why they are not able to establish a correct relationship with KDPI.

In the last offensive around Sardasht we engaged in joint military actions with KOMALA and in some cases the Peshmergas of the KDP were put under the command of the KOMALA Peshmergas, but unfortunately this has not developed into any ongoing joint action. I think it is for the KOMALA comrades to answer this.

Our relationship with the Mujahedeen goes back to before the establishment of the National Council of Resistance. Right at the beginning: we thought it necessary to have a broad based front of all progressive forces in Iran in order to fight imperialism and advance the struggle of the Iranian masses. We proposed this to the Mujahedeen and to the Fedayeen before they split (the majority support the Khomcini regime).

The National Council of Resistance was originally based on al programme presented by Bani-Sadr which was not acceptable to the KDPI and we declared this in a letter to Rajavi (leader of the Mujahedeen). It was not acceptable because it was in the context of a constitution adopted by Khomeini. As a result this programme was abolished and a new one adopted, drawn up by the Mujahedeen. This is a transitional programmo atie democratic republic of Iran.

We found out that our demands for democracy in Iran and autonomy for the Kurds can be matched with the principles laid down in the programme of the NCR. That is why we joined it.

I don't know if you have followed the developments of the NCR. This resulted in new amendments to the NCR programme - autonomy for Kurdistan was included in the immediate tasks of a provisional government.

As fai as the acçeptance of Mr Bani-Sadr by the KDPI and his past involvement in oppressing the Kurdish people, we declared at the beginning when Bani-Sadı was ousted from government that although we have our reservations about Bani-Sadr and we hold him responsible for some of the acts in Kurdistan, this activity in exposing some of the policies of the Mullahs and his refusal to remain in power by submitting to their will and implementing : their wishes could be turned to the benefit of the Iranian people because we don't see the problems of such coalitions in a moral sense.

Of course he has been Iesponsible for events in Kurdistan but what is important is the continuation of the struggle in which BaniSadr can play a role. BaniSadr has switched sides, not. us. We are in the same place. He has accepted our terms, not we his.

What is the role of the NCR in the opposition to the regime in Iran. How can you guarantee that their proposed government will meet your demands?

The present situation for the Iranian opposition is one where the ruling government is in a situation of turmoil and crisis. The opposition has translated itself into the formation of the NCR. At the same time there are forces which have not yet joined the NCR.

We hope that the great majority of the opposition, in order • guarantee the democratic ideals we are all struggling for, can join the NCR so that on the ruins of the Khomeini regime we can establish democratic regime for Iran.

The Khomeini regime is attempting to cover up internal problems by continuing the war with Iraq, using money from the oil which is sold cheaply on the world market. It cannot last long.

There are other moves connected with foreign powers in the area for example, the monarchists who consider themselves an alternative, but I don't see any chance for them. They have no base in Iran, they belong to history.

The circle of history cannot go back and that is why Khomeini's regime cannot consolidate its grip over the Iranian people.

The NCR considers itself a provisional government to be in power for six months, and during this • period preparations will be made for a general election to choose a constituent assembly. This constituent assembly will decide about the future system and will give people a chance to choose what sort of government they want and what sort of society they want.

The KDP was formed as a result of the demands and aspirations of i Kurdish people and as long as their demands are not met the KDP will continue.

Should their demands be granted it may come to a point where the social and political demands of different strata of society can no longer coexist. think as we believe in a true democratic system this means that the great majority of the people will take their destiny in their own hands. In a situation where the Kurdish people's demands have been met we are prepared to continue the Strune KDP The KDP central committee agreed recently that our tactic now is to strengthen the NCR so that it becomes much more known to the people inside Iran and established as a democratic alternative to the present regime. Practically this means drawing new forces into the NCR and also opening up a new front in Iran to back up the present struggle in Iranian Kurdistan.

The political work of the NCR must be to expose the Khomeini regime.

As far as the KDP is concerned we are trying to escalate our military actions. We have now gone onto the offensive and wil continue until the end of the Khomeini. Of course our actions alone will not result in the toppling oi the regime. it has to be in conjunction with other actions in the rest of THE San Francisco AFICIO Labor Council has endorsed a 60999 protest rally on March 3 in San Francisco when president Reagan hosts the Queen of England at a state dinner.

The dinner arrangements which are estimated to cost two million dollars will be held in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and the FBI and Secret Service are already trying to close off the entire park to any protest organised by community groups and the trade union movemen.

The Irish community is also joining and helping to organise the mass protest. They already making plans to have a naval block1AAO auros Jodans o1 : on avec 00091 040 10 10 2 JO JeaN HSBT 0009 a47 pooj Pale Cer -TAV PHONE ann d UBS tuap Mou OAH modans 19704 ayS)

шоц Sue

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Socialist Organiser no.119 February 1983 Page

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