Gorbachev's disarmament proposals: There the western poace movement shruld be threats of splits in the END: international ing and mecha coverage were the advertisers and the media people themselves. The whole After all we already have one Tory party — The only people impressed by slick advertis anti-nuclear peace policies, must be resisted. tomist jettisoning of unpopular" the contempt you descrve towards them. Gorbachev's peace convention takes place in Coventry this summer from 14 to 19 July. Over 1,000 peace The sixth END international PEACE proposals END CONVENTION THERE HAS NEEN a crcative tension at all END conventions between those who believe In detente from below and those who believe in "derente from above!. The former stress direct action, extra-parliamentary ae- tivity, solidarity with the oppressed across
Peace activists - whether, how and where each should be invited to speak. It will be very in- teresting to assess from informed contribu- in the Stalinist stateo and how lar glasnost" is a ventions those who want to make the wester peace movements into cheet leaders for soviet peace policies will be treared with There is 9 glaring need for political answers in the peace movement based on the and in dependence from the mass partics of social baison committee over approaches to thie of- ficial peaco movements of castern Europe as compared to the dissident independent peace real or a cosmetic coercise. From pass con- principles of 'derente from below! rions cartly what is happening democracy and Stalinist. septicism, activists are expected from over convention will be in Sweden. convenor of the local Coventry Brussels, West Berlin, Perugia conventions have been held in 30 countries. This is a unique opportunity for us to find out (Italy), Amsterdam and Evry Here DAVE SPENCER, different countries. Previous what is really happening in (near Paris). Next year's convention organising states, with ecological and third world con- With the arrival of cruise in European bases, many peace activist saw the need to take a more traditivnal, political road and other leaders who have state puwer, access to In the carly 1980s, the Furopcan peace movements grew in protest ar the planned deployment of cruise missiles. Peace camps Tike those at Greenhain Common in che UK and Comiso in Sicily caught the imagina- tion. Links were forged with the women's movement, with national liberation strug- gles, with dissident groups in die Scalinist coms, The principle of decente from helow latter stress dialoguc with thuse polinical, trade union or stare power or expectations of state power. The national boundaries. gained ground.
above For the sake of short-term alliances nores or prevents direct action by the up- pressed. In thn contest of the peace move- ment Frake the oppressed to include all chose should of course work with and within these pressed. Ay Karl Leibknecht said in world war one, the unly way to peace is by uniting the oppressed against the oppressors" and, again, that"te chief oppressor of the people Uniortunately the bureaucracies of social democracy and Stalinism have roo often in the past became part of that oppression. And therein lies the problem with detente from and influence with these bureaucracies, it ig parties bat we should not tone down our pro- gramme on their say so. Our priority must be direct action and solidarity with the op- 5 in its own country and the role of the Labour Party and the CND leaders, There is thusiasm declared by most CND Icaders for the Labour Party's defence policy and the actual presentation ofthe policy by Kinnock the French chair of the convention was mot: ed to say perhaps we should keep Audroy ar a hostage here in France to make sure that The convention is in Britian this vear and must inevitably conduct a post-mortem pn a major credibility gap between the expected to be discussed background to the issues committee, gives some the promises are kept the general clertion or through their agents in the leaderships of movements for their own purposes. Perhaps Socialist Party in Spain, which tough a then promptly switched its position during the subsequent referendum. Another ob- vious cxample is the strategy of the Soviet and Warsaw pact governments to influence the western peace movements either directly the western communist parties: luis hardly surprising than the most radical elements in cept of detente from above? has gained problem here has been, however, that the leaderships of the Euro- pean socialist and Stalinist parties have tried lo control and to use the western peace general ciection on the basis of no to NATO' put pressure on the mass parties. The con- the most ebvious example was Gonzales main credence The
Catastrophe threatens the whole culture of SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 2 July/Augun 1937 ing, based of course on the reality of the in- ternational balance of class forces that the In the first section of the transitionat pro- pur the matrer sharply, "without a socialist revolition in the next historical period, a homanity, The historical crisis of humunity is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary This was written in 1938 before the horror it is a thousand times who feel alienated, terrified and angry in the face of nuclear wedpons and nuclear power over which they have no control. Ie is l feel- world is like the Fitanic captured by peuple gramme of the fourth international Trotsky bent an self-destruction. nf nuclear warfare; more trucin 1907 leadership le miest be stated fondly and clearly char: before anything anti-nuclear. The Financial bon-nuclear detence policy part of the Labour manifesto, Worse still was the Labour Party's in- sisterice on silence and inactivity from its supporters. Trade union leaders called off industrial and Strike action because of the election The CND leadership rancelled the Essex CND May 15 demonstration and made no public criticism whatever of the Tabour and cu. The debate during the clertion was low key and stressed commitment to SATO *it has been toned duwn to the point where it and to increasing conventional weaponry the babnur Party campaign was a tailure is almost an apologetic foomote! the commented Party policy. Tiner christi who are not prepared to surrender in: dependence or direct action for short letur Among peace activists there is a healthy scepticism towards social democratic and Stalinist leaderships. This was shown last vear at the Evry convention, where Adrey Wise, speaking on behalf of the NEG of the Party, pronused a Labour The majority of British delngates applauded enthusiastically: the rest Hungarian independent next to me said: 'oh, 1 undentand. this lo befe the clertion. And sher the election? Who knows? Even the European peace moveniors have been the Greens and even church groups like pax govemment in 1987 with a full-blown anti ot the convention looked on silently: policy. British Labour nucicar guns:
state education is to make the very thought of sending your child to a state school, in and The manifesto states that 'if, in a particular school, parents and governing bodies wish to become independent of the LEA, they will be This will apparently be done through a parental ballot. Ifover 51 per cent of the votes call for The lact that in practice it will take up to five years for a school to opt out, and that parents will have come and gone from a particular have lasting effects! Such "non-IFA" schools and will roceive a grant from the department school, means nothing to the Tories. A democratic vote by ono set of parents can of cducation. How much and what the grant many 'independent" charitable schools, private in all but name, will have to search clsewliere.co. find money to pay for the types of services that state schools provided as of right: for instance school's psychological services, che opting out, then opting out will be granted. will become 'independent charitable trusts' additional teachers who work in many local schools serving the needs of students with difficulties, borough music teachers — who move around schools giving individual lessons to those learning a musical instrument, funding for educational trips, and so on. The implication is obvious: the government do not intend ro pay for a task, both in the Labour Party and the launched by any government on post-war Opposing these polices will be a mammuth unions. It is the most daring attack yet education services. Apart from continuing the struggle inside the NUT, both to defend state schooling and fight for our rights to negotiate, we will need to take the debate about education into the Labour Party in a way not done before. It is a matter of the highest prority that we open a discussion about what socialists tean by an education The conference planned by the Socialist Teachers Alliance ain 7-8 November will be an opportunity to capable of meeting the Tory onslaught. Put develop an alternative colucation strategy — will pay for are, again, not explained. that fully resourced schooling service. given the choice to do so. that date in your diaries now! for the working class. Hore will school upt out? will particular learning of inscif, undesirable. reality The shackle the corriculum to the chunging needs acguaint themselves with the precise implications of "Tory educational "reform", In order to start creating an alternative cducation strategy aspirations of the working class, in all its that is linked to answering the needs and The right of the Tories to stipulate what will be taught, how it will be caughr and how T. 11 and 14 year olds will be 'resred" In practice to try to scrap the right of local authorities to determine their policies for schools, one only has to look at the number of times that Brent and Haringey councils came up as an election issuc to realise that symbolic of the Tories" With five years head teachery and school going know best the needs of their school!, In other The will establish a national core carriculum The Tory manifesto puts it clearly, 'they local councils will become meaningless. Headsare Lo be given the task of deciding whether to mend a leaking roof or to buy new books, In reality this is another means of eradicaring the effectiveness of Labour authorities and the The Tories will increar Darenial choice: What The right to choose to send your child to a popular schonis which have carned parental support by offering good education will then be able to expand beyond present pupil compel schools to respond to the views of The will courage state ichovis to opt out Of authority (LEA) Bother will br given connal over their schond budgete. "populur school. The Tory manifeste states: "These steps will parents Parents, especially middle class parcors, are to be enlisted into Thatcher's dinist project — to check teacher malitancy contml Part of their idcological attack on practices and provisions in local schools. and curh progressive ideas and practices, So what de the Fories intend to do? teacher trade unions, in determining ducational polices of It is important that socialists of Tharcher's coonomic policies: hatred of progressive cducation symbolic Out of local education Apparently What will that mean? What coilt this mean? both names arc the diversity numbers. words, chuice! that? GIVE TEACHERS back thair negotiating Su ran the message on the front page of the June: he baldly stated that strike action was NUT's weekly newspaper on 15 June. Pleas such as these to the Tories sound hollow in the light of their clection victory. Hollow also secretary MacAvay to thc Guardian on 13 privatisation and selection were apparently which more important! As though the two could be neally separated! And, typically, the NUT leadership chose to tell the Guardian readership their strategy before consulting There is no doubt that it has been the Election leaflets published by the NUT make the government record on eduration During the secund period of Tory rule, the • they have spent 134 million on "assisting" to private schools, whilst giving state schools. 1750 million less in real terms in 1986.7. • provided nursery schools for less than - rights and peace will be restored in schools. middle class parents in getting their children • built up a backing of E2 billion in repairs. so thar many stare schools are in a chronic • cut spending on school meals by 37 per • oed 30,000 teaching jobs when over one and a quanter million pupils are in classes of • scrapped tearher trade union negotiating: я пюус comparable to the banning of trade unions at GCHO, and then announced chat education Their clection manifesto presented a series of sweeping, radical reforms' so bold and audacious that they have been able to present themselves as the only credible elempts to alternative to the havoc which they Themselves: have created tremselves — quarter of the population s 3-1 year olds: 'speak for itsell" as their bearing states. government's record of achievement made education a key clection issue. campaigning the words nf acting NUT and conditions; SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 2 July/August 1987 stare schooling is the following. through Tate-capping and to be called oil, since compared with 1930-81. consistent standards are falling cent since 1979/80, the membership. rights on pay state of repair. icachers cover 31.
----- pull-quotes on this page ----- Kenneth Baker, education minister responsible for Tory plans In the Tories' third term, education is set to become a hotly-contested battleground. RONNIE HELD looks at the Tories' manifesto commitments.