Word from Glasgow's "Mole"

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Should solidarity with South African workers all be channelled through ANC? 1 n't knock the ANC! NEWS about the Mole in Glasgow District Council's Housing Department has recently surfaced in the Glasgow Herald.

Produced by person or persons unknown, "The Mole' is an irregularly appearing bulletin which circulates in the catacombs of the Housing Department. As the name suggMIT- SOUTH HEID Africans and others were distressed to read Bob Fine's article in Socialist Organiser last week, in which he launched a vitriolic attack on the ANC (African National Congress] and SACTU [South African Congress of Trade Unions].

While I agree with Bob that the Anti-Apartheid Movement should promote greater trade union solidarity with opposition movements inside South Africa, including direct ests, it belongs to a literrary genre halfway between Private Eye and a Solidarnosc underground paper.

A recent article in the Glasgow Herald (November 2) exposed the Mole to a rather larger audience than it is accustomed to enjoying. As the article points out, 'The Mole's sharpest barbs are reserved for a FRE ND Do contact in appropriate cases, I find his attack on the ANC and SACTU vindictive and unwarranted. His claim that "they fear.: that they cannot keep black workers in their place as a supporting cast for a struggle directed by themselves" is the type of comment which destroys the very solidarity which he claims to be promoting.

Bob Fine does not bother* to mention any of the "long list of generally bad arguments". . which SACTU and CE numer 0I companies which have been successful over the years in winning contracts from the District Council"

The article continues by referring to an earlier edition of the 'The Mole' which carried an apology for failing "to pass comment on the startling frequency with which Messrs Aitken, ARIF ANC the ANC use against direct links, so here are two of them:

1. Direct links, unless handled with due skill, put South Africans and their organisations at risk.

2. Direct contacts are open to a variety of abuses, both by the South African and British governments (for propaganda purposes) and by trade unions in both countries which do not genuinely serve the interests of the working class.

These are reasons to Toffortu and Kilkort Ach Lafferty, and Gilbert Ash are awarded district council contracts"

The reason which "The Mole' gave for this was that "We have grown quite attached to our kneecaps";

The Glasgow Herald also notes references in "The Mole' to alleged irregularities by councillors.

What makes the article in the Glasgow Herald of particular interest. is the closing paragraph, dealing with the attitude of the contrulling Labour Group leader to 'The Mole' •Jean McFadden [Group leader] believes the Mole does no real harm. But she did add that she could take this liberal attitude because she had not yet been a target of the Mole's cruel pen"

Socialist Organiser® was recently threatened with libel action by McFadden over an article dealing with housing in Glasgow which, in the course of a polemical conclusion, contained a throw-away line about back-handers.

This phrase about backhanders was clearly an offthe-cuff comment - and avoid a 'free-for-all' of direct links. Rather, what links there are should be channelled through tho Anti-Apartheid Movement with the advice of the representatives of the South African people and trade unions.

Bob Fine points out that SACTU has no affiliated organisations in South Africa. He must know that to admit SACTU connections in South Africa is to invite swift destruction, but anyone with a grasp of with coal (as outlined in these columns) is acid rain.Sulphur contaminates all coal supplies, and, when burnt, turns into oxides of sulphur, gases which float away in the air until it rains.

Then they combine with the water to make acids which destroy bulldings, forests and lakes (particularly in Scotland and Scandinavia). • • Here, we find ourselves looking again at Battersea Power, Station - one of only two coal-fired power stations which removed oxides of sulphur from flue gases, with 97% success. If this innovation had been incorporated into all coalfired ...plants, • acid rain wo Id have been a thing of the past.

But generating power from fossil fuels factually the remains of plants and bacteria that died millions of years ago) suffers from the drawback that supplies will eventually run out. North Sea oil will probably run out in 30 years, for example.

So we are sending up in smoke assets which are not being replaced, assets which ought perhaps to be used for making useful chemicals.

.. on has been withdrawn apologised for.

Even . so, - Mcfadden reacted with a threat of libel action and by bringing in the police to investigate this 'allegation' of corruption. "It is my duty when allegations of corruption are made to see that they are investigated by the police". , she said.

Her reaction to a throwaway line in a socialist newspaper is clearly very different from her attitude to much more explicit references to alleged "irregularities' in 'The Mole' Could it be that McFadden's reaction to the SO article was dictated not by concern for the good name of the council but by, a desire to help whip a witch-hunting atmosphere conducive to the expulsion of the article's author from the Labour Party?

There is certainly a crying contradiction between McFadden's attitudes to the different papers and articles. Perhaps the Mole could supply us with an answer?

CROOKE, Glasgow. recent events in Africa will know the it this does not mean that th ere is any lack of support inside the country for either SACTU or the ANC.

Let us fight the racist government, not the liberation movements!

Since I am a South African and not keen to go on a nuning list for letier hombs, I will have to remain, yours inonymously, I'sotsi In any case, we don't want to inherit a vast industrial society from capitalism, only to find that we have no power to run it on! So we should be using our influence now to get 'renewable" suurces oi power established and to see that power is more efficiently used.

Which leads us once more to Battersea. This station was the pioneer and only British representative of 'district heating': In this, waste steam from the station was piped arross the Thames to heat flats in Pimlico, rather than being uselessly vented into the atmosphere?

Why has the CEGB never introduced combined heat and power (CHP) schemes, linking • power generation with cheap district heating? ' Why are they closing power stations often less than 30 years old, replacing 100-Dear S.0, We invite readers to send us their letters, up to a usual maximum length of 400 words.

Send to Socialist Organiser,.. c/o 28, Middle Lane: London N8.

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