[SEVENOAKS BRANCH Labour Party has just scored an…]

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SEVENOAKS BRANCH Labour Party has just scored an impressive victory against the Tory controlled Town Council. It is impressive because Sevenoaks is one of the richest areas in the country and is jammed full of Tories.

The dispute was over where a new swimming pool should be built in the town. Tory councillors had decided to build the pool at the local public school!

Practical objections were raised by the people of Sevenoaks: the school would restrict the use of the pool, the site was away from the 'natural population centre' of the town, and many people in that area had their own swimming pools anyway. The Labour Party pointed out that public money was being used to provide a private school with facilities.

Certain members of the Party decided to call a public meeting where people could voice their opinions. The meeting • was packed. A referendum was demanded by the Labour Party and the required ten electors the wrong way, it's possible to actually increase the number of pests. Bull gives the example of cotton production in Central America.

To start with there were 3 main pests which were controlled by traditional methods. After 1945, insecticides were increasingly used, starting with 8 applications per season.

Sprayings By the mid 1950s, 2 pests had declined but 3 new types had appeared! The number of sprayings per season increased.

By the early-70s, there were 8 important pests, while up to 40 sprayings per season were needed.

This is just one example of the 'pesticides treadmill'. The more you use, the more you need to use.

The next problem is resistance. Suppose a mutant insect is immune to an insecticide attack. Most of its fellows die, so it and its offspring have abundant food supplies.

Soon its descendants predominate and the species is resistant to that insecticide. Its natural enemies will also have been killed by the insecticide attack.

A resistant enemy would starve before it had a chance to breed. This explains why there are about 500 resistant pests but only about 10 resistant predators. The treadmill accelerates.

forced the council to concede.

The campaign was led totally by the Labour Party. Leaflets were produced and distributed around Sevenoaks.

The result of the poll taken on Thursday 17 August was about 2,000 against the council's proposal and only about 200 for.

It is good that a few people realise that just getting out of an armchair at election time is not enough to achieve socialism, and that the fight against the Tories must be waged now. It was an "easy issue" to oppose the Tories on, and has been described as basically nonpolitical (most people did not regard the siting of the swimming pool as a class issue).

Some sections of the party are still reticent about being actively involved in trade union disputes, etc.

Let's hope that the momentum gained in this fight is not lost and that the Party involves itself with equal vigour in more political struggles.

JOHN MOORE Sevenoaks YS.

I a pest is resistant to all the available pesticides, the business fails.

The treadmill is not the only problem. The health and nutrition of the poor can suffer as food becomes polluted -or fish die, depriving many of an important source of protein.

Disease-bearing insects may become resistant due to careless use of pesticides. Bees and earthworms also suffer, harming soil quality and plant fertilisation.

The health of farm labourers and families also suffers. Safe use and storage of pesticides requires precautions and protection frequently not available in the, Third World.

Instructions and warnings are often not available in the right language, or are inadequate, misleading or useless.

Illiterate In any case the users are likely to be illiterate. Worse, chemicals banned in the West may be freely exported to the Third World.

The result is that some 10,000 deaths occur in the Third World from pesticide poisoning. In Sri Lanka alone, 5 times as many die as in the USA, though the USA uses twice as much pesticide as the entire Third World.

Where health risks are monitored, this may not be to the advantage of the workers. This quote comes from a letter to a esticide worker in Sri Lanka:

Solidarity THIS IS the text of a reply we received to an appeal for the release of our union's imprisoned leaders and activists.

1 August 1983 Dear Colleague, Your letter (undated) seeking signatures for the appeal to be presented to the Polish Ambassador in London "in the first week of August" arrived at our office today.

No doubt you will appreciate that, due to the time factor, it is not possible for us to comply with your request on this occasion.

Yours sincerely, JOHN-HENRY Deputy General Secretary, 'Scottish TUC It comes just four months after a "Solidarnos" spokesman - invited in writing to the STUC annual conference - was refused the right to set up an information stand and threatened with eviction from the conference by the Standing Orders Committee.

Yours in solidarity, MAREK GARZTECKI 'Unless we notice a remarkable improvement in your blood cholinesterase activity [a measure of pesticide damage] * the company will terminate your services.' Bull deals with pesticide advertising at length before looking at the solution to the problem.

This lies in the intelligent use of pesticides as part of a programme of Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

This involves use of agricultural practices that discourage pest growth, nonchemical means of pest control, spraying pesticides only when pest levels get too high, and carefully selecting the best pesticide for the job. Better equipment and protective gear is also suggested.

The book is weakest in suggesting how to introduce IPM. David Bull sees this as a class problem, to do with the bargaining power of the agricultural labouring poor.

He sees that the economic interests and power of the big chemical companies are threatened by IPM.

In the end, though, moral persuasion is recommended.

Nevertheless, this book ful and good value adable, use* A growing problem - Pesticides and the Third World Poor' by David Bull. Oxfam, £4.95. 274, Banbury Rd., Oxford OX2 7DZ.

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Socialist Organiser September 1983 no. 144