Many sensible •. It was a mined show of merely providanks, armoured nd several oing to be moa couple of rous deathn be your age. emergency" is her parts of ling. This is ise.' conclusions from it:
*The upholders of the establishment are given all the facilities they require to mould the minds of the armymen, to foster anti-democratic conceptions and infiuence them to regard civiline activities for the redress of grievances or for changing our society as dangerous heresies that must be repressed by force. At the sape time, the members of the armed forces are denied democratic freedoms, and are banned from participating in normal activities or belonging to trade unions and political parties. The politics of preserving the status quo are dinned into the troops every day: hut the polities of working for progressive change are disallowed."
This situation of the army makes it the final int trument, one the ailing class inentasingly looks to, for backing up the police and other civil instruments of repression. Conservative MP Peier Firy, writing in the Guardier on 17 Norumber, radier let Die cat out of the bag when talking of pickets, He wrote: 'Can the police and the civil forces alone cope! Might there net be the need far enlisting the aid of the aribed forces as an adjunet to the civil power!. There is reason to belier that this probiom has evertised the minds of many policemen.
Even crose revealing aru the views of Bripadier Frank Kitson the man appointed by the Heathi Government to the key post of head of infantry training. He is on recont as holding that the Gewur HECHE BIASH CHAUTATUATIVATES TOT STILL huaking by setting up specialist indirkloals and units within the army to mable usential civil scrvias to be maintained in the event of chillens being unable or unwilling to maintain thee, Eret on ominousy he thinks that If Reenuiie and seriaus grievaboo aroso surel as baght rosult fram a significant drop in the standard of thing, all those ano nos disspale their probest oor a wido variety of causes might concontrab choir efforts and produce # station beyond tie power of the police to handle. HE PATELTSE Shrewshury 24.
trade unions, Ireland and 55,000 in Germany.
Quite a good total. Moreover, all are volunteers and professionals.
"Add to this in England and Wales some 95,000 policemen on active duty, most of whom have had weapon training and can be armed in a matter of hours. We may need every one of them.' the Incitement to Disaffaction Act, together with all similar laws. Defence of all those accused ander them and reluse of all convicted under them.
*For the abolition of the Conspirics Laws, the solonce anil rebuse of ull militanes threntened or their areas convicted on them, or on offer political charges.
. The telease of the Stoke Newingron 5, Irish political prisoners such as the Price sisters and for The release and dropping of all charges aguinst the "Hor the dissolution of all private employers' police forces and organisations such as Socuricor.
Such dissoh han lo be policed and enforced by the *For the abolition of all laws limiting picketing "For the arpunisation of self-duleno of picket organisations. all sections of the police. This to be supervised and controlled by the organisations of ibe working class *For the banning by Lahour councils of the use al Special Patrol Groops and anti-picket squads in "Full right of trado union and political organisa tion in the police, including the right to strike.
*No use of the army in industrial disputes lind of all joint anny-police exercises and no army training of the police. End of all armv exercises in civlian antas.
*For a united front of all working cipes and socialist organisations for the defence of all organisations of the working class movemenL *For inint agreement by the organisations of the Red Woekly 25 Jenuary 1974 Page 7
(Pluto Press, £1.50 p paperback)
Sheila Rowbotham's work is certainly the most sustainad attempt so lar published to place the struggle of women in the context of the struggle of the British working-dass. The book covers the experience of the antry of women into lange scale production, from the marty 19th century to the 1930'%, and the effects thes hed on the trade-unions and political organisations She traces the breakdown of the initial division af organised labour along sexual lines, the emergence of discussions connecting female emancipation with socialism land their weaknesses), the increasing intervention of the bourgeois state to encourage he use of women as an industrial reserve ariny in ole they stil play to this day! and the suffragette movement, Her discussion of the suffragettes is important, in that it puts paid to the widely held view that this was a typical bourgeois reformist movement. She One of the well-known tricks of the bourgeois press is to give massive coverage and praise to the actions of any member of the working class movement who will come out against u strike while presenting as ogres all those who support struggle For example, during the 1971 post office strike, which was almost 100 per cent solid, the Daily Mirror continually carried headlines, in one case eight inches high, such as 'REVOLT! BY THE HELLO GIRLS'. The Daily Express cared a picture covering 50 square inches of a single individual going into work. The fact that the entire postal service is no bbstacle.
A typical example of the second line of attack was the publicity given to Dick Taverne's outburst, The Evening New on 5 January an a big headline, Benn's blarney! He's gambling for power says Taveme'. Promineat quotes from Taverne then appeared, such as remarks on the opportunism and careerism of Benn and: "His (Benn's) problem is that he wants to be leader of the Labour Party so bad that truth . He exploits the Government's feeble inability to put over a truthful case (sic) by every kind of tendacious huckstering blamey that he can muster. He is a political gambler'. ideas and the admission that Smith had never called a strike, were endorsed by the reporter in such glowing terms as 'Like a voice of sanity in a country hell-bent on self-destruction, Frank, I suggest is the voice of our silent majority' and We can all learn from Frank Smith today' Even more blatant was the handling of the whok cpisode by the Dady Express on 7 Janu ary. After Smith's anti-communist tirade, the Exprear came forth with the beadline Cheers for Frank. Support pours in to miners" leader who says. End the Ban. To judge from the Express, you would have thought Smith was about the most popular man in the world with total support from ev