The debate on the new Employment and Training Bill has forced the Government to dust off the Disabled Persons (Employment) Acts of 1944 and 1958 and seread the sections on the Employers Quota Obligition System Britain has one of the worst unemployment records for disabled people in Ewope, By law, 3 per cent of the workforce should come from among the severely disabled wherever 20 or more Tories are believed to be disturbed by the people are employed. These regulations were introduced as the Second World War neared its ead, so that the fullest use could be made of the disabled servioemen and factory workers on the production line, But the legislation has since become useless 9,000 Tirms with more than 20 workers failed to nicet their statutory obligations in this respect last year, "BACKHANDERS' At a press conference on 22 May the Secretary of Employment, Maurice Macmillan, introduced a discussion document suggesting that maybe the quota system was outdated. A change was needed, be said; 'the Government intenda to make the disabled realise that they need not depend on charity, but are valued for the contrbution they can make as workers. The amount of Social Security paid out to the disabled, and one idea is to give backhanders" to the employers of severely disabled people, thus cutting down the benefits bill and making some surplus value out of them as welL
If any man. soldier or cinlios, is convinced that his country is wrong he should cease to support it and take the consequences.
BRIGADIER FRANK KITSON After performing a rather obscure ritual display of military arrogance known as beating the retreat" in no less than seven Berkshire towns, the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire) will be off to Afghan irregalars took advantage of the do a tour of duty" in the north of Ireland for 18 months.
On Saturday, 23 June, this two-week long military fanfare culminates in Reading This is seen by the regimental top-brass as preserving" (shoring up?) the "close ties the regiment is supposed to have with the local population. In Reading they are staging a military concert in the town centre at midday, and 'beating the retreat" in the evening. Less than two months ago they put on a similar show to impress the local population. At that time they bid farewell" to Berlin. Then it was a spectacular pageant of the high-lights of the regiment's 230-year history. It would seem that the increasing disillusionment, among soldiers and civilians alike, with the British involvement in Ireland, has forced the Duke of Edinburgh's top-brass to 'boost morale" through such public relations gimmicks, aimed at whipping up some momentary public enthusiasm for the Army. In the Berlin pageant, much was made of the role played by the 49th regiment (one of the 4 original regiments from which the county regiment is derived) in what was innocuously referred to as the War in China in 1840". In fact it in better known as the Feat Opium War. it was (as every schoolboy knows) started by Britain for the groat and noble purpose of protecting the British Empire's 'right to continue peddling this dangerous drug in China.
But the campaign of which the regiment is most proud is the second Afghan War, and the battle of Maiwand in 1880, This campaign, like the first Afghan War, was started by the British government to depose the ruler of Afghanistan and replace him with a pro-British puppet.
The battle of Maiwand itself was distinguished by being one of the few cases in nineteenth century Asia of the British army suffering a decisive defeat in open battle. Contrary to popular myth the battle was not won by weight of numbers. It opened with a set-piece artillary duel in which, to their surprise, the British found themselves our-cassed by the Arghan gunners trom Kabul, who had been well trained and handled their cannon in exemplary fashion (Arnold Fletcher: Afghanistan, Highway of Conguest, 1965).
hen the irregular foroes attached to th ifghan army (not the main army, whic took almost no part in the battle) charge "ancestor" involved in this particular campaign) was not exactly in the front line,.. No, they put two lines of colonial soldiers in front of them - the Jacobs Rifles and the Bombay Grenadiers. These were forced back onto the 66th's lines, and then the confusion to press home their attack. The 66th was all but wiped out, but, like Dunkirk, this crushing defeat has been turned into a great propaganda saga of an hervic last-stand.
The real significance of Maiwand at the time was to smash the myth of white supremacy in the field of open battle and sbow that what really counted was a combination of courage and technique. After Maiwand, things were never quite the same for the British in Afghanistan.
The whole glorious regimental history amounts in fact to nothing more than a series of sordid tales of armed force being Statue in Reading commemorating the loss of an entire regiment ar the hattle of Maiwand. used to subjugate militarily less well equipped peoples to the yoke of British capital. So, as the Royal Regiment departs to Ireland - to take up its customary role of trying to impose British rule and policy upon another people it only remains for us to wish them many happy returns of Maiwand! Reading Anti-Internment League has, together with various socialist organisations, organised a picket against the military concert in Reading on June 23rd. The picket will concentrate on putting out a joint leaflet calling for the withdrawal of British troops, and self-determination for Ireland. The assembly point for this picket is Forbury Gardens (where you will find the Lion pictured above), near Reading Station, at 11.30 a.m. Paul Hunter drive With land such a scarce commodity, the British Armed Forces have been finding it increasingly difficult to find enough field corners in which to bury its 'heroes", failures, and other unforsunate members. Instead it's had to resort to shipping them home to the family for burial in the local cemetry. Not suprisingly. most of the funerals have been taking place in and around the council estates and other working class districts of Britain.
Most of the defenders of the realm originated and lived the early part of their youth in such dowdy quarters. On leaving school, they were faced with only two alternatives: the dolo (penniless and bored) or the armed forces (where, they are told, apprenticeships are two a penny and a life of happiness, fulfillment and adventure awaits them). Large numbers opted for the second of the two.
TRADES COUNCIL ACTS South Shields Trades Union Council hus recently mounted a campaign against recruitment to the armed forces. Because of the high Jevels of unemployment the area has become a happy hunting ground for the armed forces' intensive recruitment campaigns: For many lads the social pressure to get jots drives them to what they see as the only alternative to the dole.
The Trades Council is organising picketing of local recruitment offices by trade unionists and it is also calling for the banning of recruitment campaigns in the towns and schools of the North East. If the authorities refuse to stop recruitment in schools, the Trades Council will attempt to enforce the decision themselves. They have rejected the idea of debating with army officers in the schools: as far as they are concerned this would merely give an aura of respectability to the anti-working class idęas and institutions they want to combat. The Trades Council is very concerned with the Army's role in the north of Ireland. They welcomed the recent national initiative of the Anti-Internment League in calling a conference on the British Army and the British Labour Movement, because they are aware that Derry and Belfast are the testing ground for the weapons that the ruling class may turn against the workers in this country tomorrow. WHAT DIRECTION?
Malcolm Campbell, President of the South Council's feelings when he said: •Young people from this area are being used as cannon fodder for the armed forces. For years the North Hast and other areas of high unem ployment hav provided the bulk of rank and file recruitment. Young working class lads are being exploited before they really know what it's all about. They are being used in situations like Northern Ireland to suppress members of their own working class. "The adverlisements for the forces show a life of beer, birds, and bingo. They never mention that you will be ordered to kill - and risk being killed. We will point this out to this year's schoul leavers. We will point out that the weapons and tactics they will be ordered to use and develop could be used against their own family and friends, workers and trade unionists in this country. The Army Chieis - Brigadier Michael Calvert and Brigadier Frank Kitson are already preaching a policy of training of the armed forces to he used against strikers, students and otber "trouble makers." The Tory Party pamphlet In Defence of Peace says that "The techniques of political terrorism must now be un integral part of every front line soldiers career, 'We will ask young potential recruits the question - "when your officers order you to fire on your own people -in what direction will you point your rifle???
CAMPAIGN The campaign is aimed at school leavers, unemployed youth, and students. Participation has been invited from all trade unionists, labour movement bodies, and other interested parties. Approacbes are being made to otber Trades Councils, and to Youth Trades Councils. Student Unions will be urged to put a ban on all visits of Officer Training Corps representaLives to their colleges.
How the campaign will deselop is not yet clear but it has already produced one noteworthy comment. On finding out about the decision of the Trades Council, South Shields Labour Parly promptly disassociated itself from such unseemly activity. A spokesman for the Labour Party said that he woukin't like to see unfair pressure being put on lads not to join the army!
By JACK GRASSBY and MICK GOSLING (South Shields TUC Anti-Recruitment Committeel