Comrades in the North London Area are now well on their way to organising a meeting in the Conway Hall on May 8th, where it is hoped that at least two branches of the National Joint Action Campaign Committee for Womens Equal Rights will be set up. Speakers at the meeting will include Audrey Wise - well known militant in USDAW and Ann Spencer of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers. In the chair will be Brian Nicholson, leading dock militant. The activities of the comrades havealready attracted the notice the press. The local newspaper has carried one article and the Daily Telegraph of March 25th contained extracts from an interview given by our comrades in an article on the question of womens liberation.
Currently, alongside this activity,the comrades have initiated a study class around Vol.1 of Capital which about eight people are attending. Although all concerned have found that this is hard work the majority feel that they are gaining something from the reading and discussion.
N.B. Penguin Press are going to publish a Marx Library over the next two years. This will contain most of what Marx wrote, much of it not available in English before. This will be a major publishing event and comrades are advised to keep their eyes open for the beginning of the series. We shall try to let you know when the first volume is due to be published.
On March 16th, despite a counter attraction of a Tribune meeting on Ireland, a very successful meeting of the Unity Movement of South Africa was held at the Conway Hall. Speakers at the meeting were I.B.Tabata, and N.Honono, both of them being longstanding militant Marxists and revolutionary fighters in South Africa (both now live in exile). Nearly 250 turned up for the meeting and gave a very warm response to the speakers. Members of the African National Congress were present and in a somewhat agressive mood. But I.8.Tabata dealt with them patiently but firmly, so that they we not allowed to disrupt the meeting. Comrade Tariq Ali took the chair at this meeting, and proved to be an efficient chairman, not allowing questions from the floor to become speeches, reminding the questioners that they should keep to the point. This has been the first public meeting that the Unity Movement has put on in London, and is only the beginning of the work of organising supporters.
Ken Tarbuck spoke at the London School of Economics on March 4th to the clerical and administrative staff. The meeting was organised by the LSE shop stewards co-ordinating committee, there being a panel of speakers including Freddy Silberman, Tony Cliff and a representative of ASTMS. Each member of the panel was asked to speak on the subject of productivity bargaining for 10-15 minutes. There were about 45-50 people present, and after the platform had finished speaking, there was a lively discussion on the subject from the floor.