Geisel: claimed tortured
orisoners were shot while trying to escape.
Brazilian political prisoners have accused the Geisel regime of torturing to dean at least so portical prisoners since 1969, the Reuters news acene revoreom no ce Janeiro last December.
In a signed statement smuggled out of prison, 35 political prisoners in Sao Paulo said they themselves had witnessed the torture of 16 victims. Thev gave details of more than z4 forms of torture they had been subjected to and cited the names of 133 torturers.
According to Reuters, 'The 35 prisoners said they themselves had suffered beatings, electric shocks, the 'ice box', a tiny cubicle with temperatures changing from searing heat to freezing cold, immersions in water and sexual abuse'. ine brisoners sale inal Ine covernment tried to disguise most of the deaths by claiming that the picked Of course, this sort.
Southall.
Scapegoats racial prejudice. aCIs which Powel. The latter repatriation', logical catc. No political party, Labour Party, Through a mass campaign, Caprino won the right to stay. Many others have not been so lucky.
If the police suspect you of being you can be up ott the streets, taken lo the police station and asked to prove you have a 'right' to be in Britain. If you can't prove it at once, you may well be on your way to aeportation or sent to Pentonville where you may be kept tor monuns wilt 'investigations' are made.
La hundred there are variations on police harassment of you may me araceed our of your bed at night, picked up in a club or arrested at vour place o Woe fact hat such intimidation is as happened to Abdul Malik. "legally' condoned explains the constant tension and suspicion that surrounds the black communities in places such as Bradford or Far from being a legal 'oddity! therefore, the 1971 Immigration Act has become the legal 'cover! for After all, if it is accepted that black people can be denied entry due to their colour -ane cene basic rents on te same grounds if they do enter - racism has received official appeoval. All the Race Relations Boards in the wore cannot aer unis tact.
It is the racist aspects of such nave helped create the climate for demagogues such as merely seeks. with his calls for 'tighter immigration controls' and for to carry them to a including the has been able to
Commenting on the Labour Party conterence last year, the Guardiar • role that the purpose of the incomes policy lin reducing livina s: andards is no longer questioned'. he tinsel surrounding the £ô limit has, indeed, long gone. eaders did not even try to disguise the burden they are seeking ti mpose on workers. amilies iwill suffer a sharp decrease in their standard of living'. eft', Decline Backing the £6 limit means, in effect, vage cannot increase by more than 10% at a time when prices ar escalating at more than 26% annually. No wonder ASTMS predict a 6% decline in most workers! real disposable incomes before August. in food, electricity, gas, rents and rates bring it home in more Workers do not, concrete terms than any statistics. Massive social service cuts, as money is channelled away from schools and hospitals to 'bail out! ailing firms such as Chrysler, only further erode living standards. Confusion The fact that figures from Healey to the 'traditional' left have come out in favour of such pro-capitalist policies has seriously disoriented the rank-and-file in the labour movement. This was reflected at conterence where, very little real opposition was mounted. It has also seriously disoriented the left who have found themselves guarding wages against the inflationary spiral. Calls for more rank- unable to champion demands to and-file militancy - made by the International Socialists - are quite nacecuale.
Militancy Militant action to gain flat-rate increases, while important, is no answer to long-term intlationary trends which begin eroding wage increases as soon as they have been won. Continued struggles merely This is partly the reason why there was so little rank-and-file to Istand still' can, over a period of time, opposition to the TUCIs acceptance of the £6 limit. They could see no perspective. to make gains but only leaves weaker ones, confronted with the More than this, government, talling ever more behind. This was one of the ways that •Vilson managed to get the 2o accepted - by guaranteeing' a tair deal tor weaker unions.
Sliding Scale What Is needed in the coming period is a campaign that will unite workers - the weaker sectors alongside the stronger - in a common struggle to defend living standards against permanent erosion by inflation. The call tor a sliding scale ot wages - automatic compensation for increases in the cost of living - is a central demand to be raised in all trade union and Labour Party branches.
Such a demand is not counterposed to struggles for a 'flat-ratel increase. On the contrary, escalating cost of living but to gain real increases in purchasing they do occur, power. Its real significance is that it challenges, head-on, falling living standards. By demanding that there should be ediate compensation for every point increase in the cost of living, the labour movement as a whole can be united in a common fight against the government's pro-capitalist policies.
LSA PAMPHLETS prices include post and packing.
What We Stand FOr 1?p diverse forms - forward.
The Labour Party-Which Way?
Labour Figures from Healey to Foot, the 'darling of the all mounted the rostrum to justify Callaghan's point that British that the average industrial of course, need to be told this. Increased charges apart from NUPE's attack against cuts in the NHS, unite the labour movement in satelead to demoralisation.
militant action on its own may allow stronger unions it ensures that such struggles, when are motivated not merely by the need to chase an leaders! attempt to make workers bear the brunt of the crisis through the Labour An analysis of the current radicalisation and a strategy for taking it - in all its 27p Already, women January.
The government, of the late, restrictions social services. place, let us recall, of a mass dignitaries to repeal ine SPUC's persistence, to safe, her own right.
this are, ortions Despite the thousands who marched last June - and the resolutions of support since gained from the TUC and Labour Party conferences - women's abortion James White's Bill may no longer be rights are still under attack. threat but its restrictive proposals are very much in the air.
the recommendations of the Select Committee (set up to examine it) are being implemented by Barbara Castle who congratulated it on its 'very useful work!. This 'useful work' includes curbs on the number of foreign allowed abortions in this country and what amounts to a decrease (from 24 to 20 weeks) in the time limit on abortions.
More curbs are in the pipeline. In an 'open votel is being held in the Commons as to whether the Select Cttee should be re-convened.
which has already gone on record as being opposed to the 'abuses! of the 1967 Act, Is not limited to the Select Committee for implementing further restrictions.
It could pass its own legislation or it could be presentea witn anoiner private member's Bill on the lines lamented White model.
Whatever the precise Torm such may take, one thing is clear: women's abortion rights have already been curtailed and plans are afoot to curb them further still.
SPUC Pressure The roots of this offensive do not stem - as some suggest - from the government's policy of cutting back Curbing abortion rights to save a few million on NHS 'out-patient' facilities is not behind this long-term attempt to turn the clock back. These roots have to be seen in the wider context of an ongoing struggle by a mass lobby to roll back the limited rights women have won over ine past periou Wilson's decision to hold a 'free vote in ine commons on the reconvening of the Select Cttee took in the shadow SPUC demonstration of over 60, 000 launched by an amalgum of Tory back-benchers and Church Abortion Act of 1967. It was the climax of an eight-year long campaign.
over the years, in whipping up anti-abortion hysteria is by no means accidental. It stems from their awareness ot the dangers of women winning the right to control their own bodies which has become -throughout the world - symbolic in challenging the shackles of centuries.
They are only too aware that access legal abortion begins to undermine women's traditional role as 'child-bearer' tied to the home and economically dependent upon the man. It begins to break through the cacoon into which society has thrust her and opens up before her a role as an independent figure in The implications of as SPUC realises, Tarreaching since it slowly erodes the role of the family both as an economic and ideological prop for class society. At a time of economic crisis, when the family is needed more than ever as a 'stabilising' influence, any threats to it assume dangerous propSOCIALIST ACTUN a direct SPUC's Allies The recent moves by the government to curb the 'abuses! of the 1967 Act represent - in inis sense - a major concession to the mass anti-abortion pressure SPUC has created. This is what lies behind the recommendations of the Select Cttee being implemented with Wilson's blessing and the decision to hold a 'tree vore' re-convening.
In spite of the Labour Party and TUC coming out clearly for free abortion on recuest. the government appears more anxious to satisfy this right-wing lobby than its own base and sees fit to assist this lobby in sending women - particularly working class women -to back-street abortionists again. There can be little doubt that such moves on its part dovetail neatly into its present economic strategy. Restricting abortion rights undermines women's independence and limits them further 'to the home'. The more they are tied to the home, the more easily will the government be able to get away with mass redundancies among women workers and use the family as a 'cushion' against the effects of savage welfare cuts.
While suiting government sirdtegy. nowever, see the roots of this offensive as it would be a misiane lu primarily 'economic'. They are not. They stem from the mass pressure placed on the government by SPUC which has been gathering support over eight years and which has made substantial inroads into the Parliamentary Labour Party itself.
Challenge It was NAC's ability to recognise the attack upon women's rights posed by SPUC that enabled it to gain mass support so quickly. Apart from a few, small counter-demonstrations by the women's movement, NAC was the first serious attempt to meet the challenge ofSPUC head-on by asserting boldly a woman's right to choose whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.
Within a few months, the campaigr was able to create local groups all over the country and mobilise, June 21st. a mass demonstration which drew over 25,000. This combination of mass action around a clear-cut issue (a woman's right to choose) allowed it to begin to alter on the question. tne balance or torees This was most noticably shown ir recently, to force both the TUC and Labour Party conferences to pass resolutions in support of a woman's right to abortion on
----- pull-quotes -----
SOCIALIST ACTION / D.MacLeod,1 Pretoria Rd, London SW 16. For a sliding scale of wages