WE asked left-wing Labour MP Reg Race about the present leadership stakes in the party, and how the left should organise.
do you think about the fact that Tony Benn and • Eric Heffer were elected to the Shadow The failure of the PLP to elect Tony Benn and Eric denter shows that there 1s still an entrenched win heir richiniche PLP inclusion the Shadow Cabinet would nave marked significant shift to the left and it would then have been clear that the Cabinet contained who DCUUIC for comerence policies.
Should Tony Benn stand as ader once the new election agreed Procedures are My advice to Tony Benn is that he should stand in the erectonto be seo under toe electoral college forbelieve it's important that trade unionists, constiLucky Darlics ald VIrS should have the opportunity of voting for a candidate stands for alterMalaya surials suits.
Do.'vou- Think that the rather, than would и body Le reason the Campaign for Labour Party Rank and ' Mobilising Com: " Hilled SUBDULICE com or me ener Şöcialist Challenge Reg Race conference because knew that the trade unions did not want to take on the themselves, through the block vote they wielded al une barty comerence sense Lte vocacy of an electoral col device we supported as a matter of shoula tne Lour setT organise in the unions?
There is a long-standing problem aboul lue relatiolso between bonuca and action the Gieve that the nature of British capitalism now reLo: oc ali doullnot or tais taise asuschon. and for the adoption of a by the trade will no doubt quire organisation each attiliate. together with i specific constituency parties, and in the trade union movement.
17 December 1980 Page 2 Special published Sunday Times, OlIC Inon. Ine Nanone on Railwaymen, will holding a special conference o decide which way to vote at Wemble In other unions the decision will be leit to the na tional executive the For without 'con sultation the Labour to the coales i ralLy the decisior WIll Dased Donce bremors v estabusnee aline unions' . own national conbio ARMIGH H-BLOCK
CONDEMNATION of the carve-up by MacGregor, boss of the steel corporation, has been swift in South Wales.
Speaking to a Llanwern Steel Action Group meeting on Saturday - the day after ISTC branch secretary said:
have to fight back. the lave done places ike Scunthorne and Ebbw Vale is a crime.
*Since 1973 Ebbw Vale slashed 10,000 to 3,600 and now LICY IC chopping LOUSING jobs. delegate to the last ISTC Bill Sirs deman. ding a recall conference.
. lan . Roger Tovey, a member Haulonai. Union basemar cemen summons ee up the decisions of the steel action e wing:
mancarately ore, Velindre.
SCOW • vale. alla that if they take industrial action by striking or occuwill organise support in Llanwern.
Plan "we will start yarowing outside Tne plant. We'll also contact the miners definite The action groups reject this complacent acceptanc of devastating redundancie and plant : closures in othe Dalls ul Dillaill They will contact the Yorkshire • area to "discuss how to exert pressure on the the triple alliance to organise unica acuol will wrensule need to be brought to bear on the Wales TUC if it is to be forced to lead resistance JICW „lance or rank ane e militants from the various Welsh industries was set up on 5 December to do just money goes By Pat Kane it lost £544m.
Secret BSC documents revealed by the crisis of the rationalised steel GOER losses • per tonne to private industry.
Sacrificed BSC's problems stem from a dreamed up what was optimistically in five giant coastal sites. The plar liquid steel would be som tonnes steel industry was 1974. World-wide production was at record levels and steel. The following year the market collapsed.
18 per cent, by 24 per cent in West could absorb: the • Where British Steel's THE Steel Corporation claims that it will lose anything up to f600m in the 1980-81 financial year. Last year BSC is forcing through thousands of redundancies in order to balance its books.
Socialist Challenge in July showed that the corporation is planning further cuts and What they also showed was that although BSC claims it loses hundreds of millions of pounds, the big banks and private industry are doing very nicely out of 1975 and 1979, BSCs total wore a massive £1,215.6m - but it paid £680.4m in interest payments over the same period. In the financial year 1978-79; the corporation paid a massive £319m in interest and other bank charges. These charges add f12 to the cost of every tonne of BSC steel, whereas the American company Bethlehem Steel pays only f2.6 The corporation was originally set up to provide cheap steel for private industry. Between 1967 and 1975, the corporation lost f750m through underpricing steel supplied combination of the economic crisis and stupid management decisions. In 1969 they described as a 10-year plan. This was based on bulk steel production to be concentrated envisaged that by 1980 annual production of The last year of boom for the world production actually exceeded capacity. The market was glutted with 492m tonnes of In 1975 steel production fell in Britain by Germany, and by 20 per cent in France.
BSC's plans had rusted away, and the corporation found itself with an industry which had the capacity to produce millions of tonnes of steel more than the market The corporation decided on a U-turn, and instead of expanding capacity as they had intended with the 'Ten Year Plan', its solution waş to bring capacity into line with demand. The nationalised steel industry could not escape the laws of the market place.
The same problems affected the rest of capitalist world's steel industry. The EEC's European Coal and Steel committee
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list Challenge) Photo: JUDE WOODWARD Women steelworkers fighting for jobs