Workers Press no. 1002

workers press

NEW BODY WILL POLICE STATE PAY LAWS

TORY PAY BOARD

IS CORPORATISM

BY ROYSTON BUL

THE PAY BOARD will beco during the coming weeks. For their new laws for the state co It will be vital for the wol union leaders to have no truck stead organize united strike ac ernment. There can be no illusions about The ruling class has no way out o than to drive down wages.

This means defeating the organized strength of the work- ing classthe trade unions by forcing the pay laws on them and ending free collec- tive bargaining. The Tories cannot afford not to win. They must drive relent- lessly forward, into the even of confrontations with sharpest the working class. Either the government will go down to defeat. Or Phase Two and the Pay Board will become the law of the land, in deed as well as word. The reformist TUC leaders have already made their decision.

In any revolutionary confronta- tion they will back law and order against their own class. Their prime aim must now working become to get the class to accept the Pay Board, the symbol of the new cor- poratism. Just as the National Industrial Relations Court has become the union acid-test of the trade leaders' real determination to re- sist the other prong of corpora- tism, the Industrial Relations Act, so the Pay Board will fulfil the role on the question of state wage controls. And just as the reformist leaders eventually have allowed the NIRC to fine their unions, so they are preparing to let the Pay Board police their members' wages. Crucial in this early period is the attitude of the General and Municipal Workers' Union leaders who organize the gasworkers.

Already, they are getting ready undermine the TUC's to even mere token resistance to the cor- poratist pay laws. Initially, the TUC said it would have nothing to do with the Pay Board. But G&MWU secretary David Basnett is say- ing that the only reason why he cannot say if he will take his members' claim to the Pay Board is:

BY ROYSTON BULL OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

THE PAY BOARD will become one of the decisive issues in the class struggle during the coming weeks. For the Tories, the Board will play a key role in policing It will be vital for the working class to force the union leaders to have no truck with the Board and in- stead organize united strike action to defeat the Gov- There can be no illusions about the fight that is developing.

The ruling class has no way out of its economic crisis other a Because there has been no concrete invitation yet. • Because the composition, and of the Board powers criteria for judging special cases are not yet known, Significantly, the TUC, which has advised that trade unionists should the Pay serve on

JUL

Board. has not ruled our a umon taking its claim there. This is how the deed is to be done. Corporatist controls over pay introduced

INTO

reformist leaders giving the Board and acceptance claims through taking pay bility there for 'special case' pleading. protests at the low the settlements is just level' a cover. idea of the And once the state re triato union mes yement, trade movement, union will be looking THen -ПО back for the Tories From wage control, it will but a short step to direct be *in the national WaLe-CULLEY interest. Although the working mass is showing enormous will the Day laws and a ingness to go on strike to defeat them, the reformist and revi- sionist union leaders are already working to dissipate UnIS strength in order to accommo- unions to the require- date their ments of the runng class.

The G&MWU is making such efforts organize the in- uny to decided on by Justla acuon gasworkers and hospital demoralization is already a cancer of fight Because of the lack by the leadership. and lack the and mass proper picketing meeunes ete. WOrKerS Can quickly lose confidence in their union's ability to win the own fight. Therefore, the argument starts to creep in that if industrial

• NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20, 19

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCI

ESPONDENT

ve issues in the class struggle 1 will play a key role in policing Joseph Langston outside th action is doomed to failure any- way through lack of leadership, might just as workers well settle with the Pay Board with- out any bother. The right wing in Ford's, Dagenham, took a trick in the engineshop vote because the Stalinists' policy of a one-day general strike to defeat the pay laws is just not credible.

Only one policy can now unite the working class to de- feat the pay laws—a General Strike to create the industrial RY 20, 1973 4p No 1002

SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

THE

National Society of Brushmakers wants to have a new pay award taken before the government's Pay Board.

It could be the first reference before the new board. The 12,000 workers in the British brushmaking industry have negotiated an increase of utside the NIRC yesterday.

and political conditions to make the Tory government resign. The Tories cannot afford to give in. No single union on its own can breach the pay laws.

This is the only way forward for gasworkers, carworkers, hos- pital staffs, and all other sec- tions of the working class.

The Pay Board is the trap set for the working class. If it snaps shut, the fight for the basic rights will have received a huge setback. Ap. between £2.40 and £2.80 giv- ing men guaranteed basic a rate of £20. The union's general secre- tary, Mr T. B. Thomas, has expressed the wish that the board approves the pay and extra holiday award. reserves

OUR INDUSTRIAL

CORRESPONDENT

THE NATIONAL Industrial Relations Court yesterday reserved judgement in an ap- plication made by Chrysler worker Mr. Joseph Langston.

Langston is claiming an 'un- fair industrial practice by the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers and its works' representative, Mr Ken Walton, at the Chrysler plant at Ryton in Coventry. Neither Mr Walton nor the

AUEW

represented at were yesterday's hearing. A counsel, briefed by the Treasury solicitor, appeared as amicus curae (friend of the court) for Langston.

There was a short private hearing followed by a legal between Langston's argument lawyer and the legal represen- tatives of Chrysier (UK) which is also named as a party in the dispute. Langston has been suspended on full pay since he left the AUEW and fellow workers de- cided to strike if he was not sacked.

CENTRE PAGES

Stephen Johns four-part in- vestigation into the producers, their profits and why prices are so rapidly, continues on rising pages 6 and 7 today. Be sure of your Workers Press for these informative articles. Telephone 01-622 7029.

workers press

NEW BODY WILL POLICE STATE PAY LAWS

TORY PAY BOARD

IS CORPORATISM

BY ROYSTON BUL

THE PAY BOARD will becon during the coming weeks. For their new laws for the state co It will be vital for the wor union leaders to have no truck stead organize united strike ac ernment. There can be no illusions about The ruling class has no way out o than to drive down wages.

This means defeating the organized strength of the work- ing class—-the trade unions- by forcing the pay laws on them and ending free collec- tive bargaining. The Tories cannot afford not to win. They must drive relent- even into the lessly forward, sharpest of confrontations with the working class. Either the government will go down to defeat. Or Phase Two and the Pay Board will become the law of the land, in deed as well as word. The reformist TUC leaders have already made their decision.

In any revolutionary confronta- tion they will back law and order against their own class. Their prime aim must now become to get the working class to accept the Pay Board, the symbol of the new cor- poratism. Just as the National Industrial Relations Court has become the trade union acid-test of the leaders' real determination to re- sist the other prong of corpora- tism, the Industrial Relations Act, so the Pay Board will fulfil the role on the question of state wage controls. And just as the reformist leaders eventually have allowed the NIRC to fine their unions, so they are preparing to let the Pay Board police their members' wages. Crucial in this early period is the attitude of the General and Municipal Workers' Union leaders who organize the gasworkers.

Already, they are getting ready to undermine even the TUC's mere token resistance to the cor- poratist pay laws. the TUC said it Initially, would have nothing to do with the Pay Board. But G&MWU secretary David Basnett is say- ing that the only reason why he cannot say if he will take his members' claim to the Pay Board is:

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLE

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAI

TON BULL OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDEI

Il become one of the decisive issue ks. For the Tories, the Board will pl state control of wages. the working class to force the o truck with the Board and in- trike action to defeat the Gov- is about the fight that is developing.

ay out of its economic crisis other • Because there has been no concrete invitation yet. • Because composition, the powers and criteria of the Board for judging 'special cases' are not yet known, has advised that trade unionish should not serve on the Pay Board, has not ruled out a union taking its claim there. This is how the deed is to be done. Corporatist controls over pay will be introduced into Britain by reformist leaders giving the Pay Board acceptance and cred- ibility through taking pay claims pleading. there for 'special case' The noisy protests at the 'low level' of the settlements is just a cover. And once the idea of the state regulation of wages is sold to the trade union movement, then there will be no looking back for the Tories. From wage control, it will be but a short step to direct wage-cutting 'in the national interest. Although the working mass is showing enormous resistance to the pay laws and a great will- ingness to go on strike to defeat them, the reformist and revi- sionist union leaders are already dissipate working to this in order to accommo- strength date their unions to the require- ments of the ruling class.

The G&MWU is making such puny efforts to organize the in- dustrial action decided on by and hospital staffs gasworkers that demoralization is already a danger. Because of the lack of fight by the leadership, and the lack of proper picketing and mass meetings workers etc., can quickly lose confidence in their own union's ability to win the fight. Therefore, the argument starts to creep in that if industrial

: NEWSLETTER • TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20, 19

ENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCI

ESPONDENT

ve issues in the class struggle I will play a key role in policing Joseph Langston outside th action is doomed to failure any- way through lack of leadership, might just as workers well settle with the Pay Board with- out any bother. The right wing in Ford's, Dagenham, took a trick in the engineshop the vote because Stalinists' policy of a one-day general strike to defeat the pay laws is just not credible.

Only one policy can now unite the working class to de- feat the pay laws-a General Strike to create the industrial RY 20, 1973 • No 1002 € 4p

• SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

THE

National Society of Brushmakers wants to have a new pay award taken before the government's Pay Board.

It could be the first reference before the new board. The 12,000 workers in the British brushmaking industry have negotiated an increase of utside the NIRC yesterday.

and political conditions to make the Tory government resign. The Tories cannot afford to give in. No single union on its own . can breach the pay laws.

This is the only way forward for gasworkers, carworkers, hos- pital staffs, and all other sec- tions of the working class.

The Pay Board is the trap set for the working class. If it snaps shut, the fight for the basic rights will have received a huge setback. between £2.40 and £2.80 giv- ing men guaranteed basic rate of £20. The union's general secre- tary, Mr T. B. Thomas, , has expressed the wish board approves the pay extra holiday award. case: reserves

OUR INDUSTRIAL

CORRESPONDENT

THE NATIONAL Industrial Court yesterday Relations reserved judgement in an ap- plication made by Chrysler worker Mr. Joseph Langston.

Langston is claiming an 'un- fair industrial practice' by the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers and its works' representative, Mr Ken Walton, at the Chrysler plant at Ryton in Coventry. Neither Mr Walton nor the

AUEW

were represented at yesterday's hearing. A counsel, briefed by the Treasury solicitor, appeared as amicus curae (friend of the court) for Langston.

There was a short private followed hearing by a legal argument between Langston's lawyer and the legal represen- tatives of Chrysler (UK) which is also named as a party in the dispute. Langston has been suspended since he left the on full pay AUEW and fellow workers de- cided to strike if he was not sacked.

CENTRE PAGES

Stephen Johns four-part in- into vestigation the producers, their profits and why prices are rising so rapidly, continues on pages 6 and 7 today. Be sure of your Workers Press for these informative articles Telephone 01-622 7029.

STALINISTS ORGANIZE DEFEAT

Brandt's tax rises will hit PAGE 2 Workers Press, Tuesday February 20, 1973 EDWARD HEATH has laid it on the line. It's either bring down the Tory government or help them go on rob- bing workers' and wage packets smashing up the basic trade most union rights. This is the issue facing a General Strike. For, a: every trade unionist today.

some pains at But it is an issue which was not faced editorially, the policy of up to by the Ford workers' leaders Communist Party on Sunday. down the Tories, The Ford national convenors' commit- take government to tee called their shop stewards to- TUC's existing, bankrupt gether in Coventry, brought 400 from reformist policies. every one of the car giant's 21 British Before going any further, factories, invited 100 representatives putting on record what s of other workers hit by the Tory pay solution actually said. laws and emerged, after three hours of discussion, with • a call to the rafted by Sid Harraway, : rUC for a 'national day of action' he Ford convenors' comn leading Communist Stewards who pointed out that this it pledged the conferen call is no threat to the TUC leader- backing in the trade unior and moved amendment ship, an 'to call on the TUC on indefinite General demanding an Strike to force the Tories out, were implement a national da opposition to the att in ignored. collective bargaining by Yet in the extremely dangerous situa- ment's incomes policy. tion facing the working-class move- It went on to protest action of the urge supp March 31 conference of tl type the convenors propose led Liaison Committee f simply paves the way for collabora- tion with the pay laws by the unions' fence of Trade Unions against P top brass. the campaign Elsewhere it talked about This, of course, is why the call was so 'pay pause'. enthusiastically boosted by yester- day's 'Morning Star', which The style reflects the pol signifi- with a militant and fron cantly failed to mention the call for WEST GERMAN gov

THE

has introduced a wide range o creases and other measures a workers' living standards follo enforced up-valuation of th against the dollar. The Social-Democratic gov- PRESIDENT Nixon went be- ernment of Willy Brandt has fore American TUC leaders petrol by raised the tax on yesterday to try and enlist over 10 per cent in a move their support in his trade war which will clearly lead to against Europe and Japan.

steep increase in the cost of It was thought to be the first transport, food and manufac- time a Republican President has tured goods. to executive council gone an

AFL-CIO,

meeting these staple items of the the Prices of in the working-class budget will country's largest trade union confederation, which represents leap up time when 5 million increases are estimated already workers. 6.5 at per cent year-the The follows meeting secret highest in West Germany rate talks Florida between the in for more than 20 years.

AFL-CIO

leader George Meany and of Nixon's closest two To sow confusion, the Social- aides, Treasury Secretary George Democrats predicting a fall are Schultz and Secretary of State in the pace consumer price of the coming But rises over ycal. this prediction is quite worth- less and will, in case, be ally nullified the full-scale by government's actions. own from the United States by im- The government is making great play with the abolition of Trade Bill, now on tax deductible deprecia- certain way through Congress, tion allowances and the imposi- give Nixon the power tion of a (very moderate) level any tariff he wants. The power- of corporation tax and surtax.

is calling Higher Prices surcharge. Nixon wants the Bill through Congress as fast as possible to strengthen his hand for further But it is obvious that far from blows against his capitalist the the of soaking rich, cost US. rivals outside the taxes will immedi- these extra ately be passed on to the work- His aides have made it abun- ing class the form. of higher that the dollar de- in dantly clear prices. This in turn must inten- is only the first step valuation sify the struggle for wages which as far as America is concerned.

the trade union bureaucracy is US now is the policy sys- striving hard to betray. disruption and tematic over- of relationships throw existing The West German economy is the powers. between now in an extremely precarious For position. the second time At home he will require the in less than 15 months the mark of the right-wing union support been rigid has sharply up-valued chiefs to his maintain dollar. of against the policy state control wages at a time when wholesale The intensity with which the are rising 1.3 food prices per Bundesbank struggled keep to cent a month. mark at its the existing parity Under the of fighting testifies to the fear of the West guise the trade war, these leaders are German ruling class over revalu- being led into even closer col- ation. laboration with the capitalist It will only against the US certainly create an not state. difficult for overseas rivals, but also against extremely position country's export industries, the American working class.

the Said 'Star' editorial: 'When the the

TUC

decided last call year to General Strike to secure the release of the imprisoned it dockers, was because large numbers of workers had already gone on strike- -and the as the 'Star' minute more political discussion of pressure was so strong that the gov- how to get rid of the Tories, and how out ernment had to climb down.'

working bolicy of the British the class's will What a 'climb-down' that was! It pro- not bringing incoming Labour government, duced House Lords' judge- but 'forcing Stalinists the the and their reformist ment, which made permanent the the notice' of the moved

SOW

alles T......... £55,000 fine Transport and the confusion and drown workers look- on ankrupt treacherous General Workers' Union paved ing for a lead in a reformist swamp.

further, it is worth These are the politics of defeat.

the engineers. d what Sunday's re- Unable to majority of of the five prevent a large The release dockers un- Ford workers voting for all-out strike doubtedly demonstrated the power. irraway, secretary of action from March against the of the working-class movement, but ors' committee and a £2.40. Phase Iwo pay company's was betrayed by the promptly Party offer, the Stalinists seek to create union leaders' rush co-operate seek the conditions for the strike's isola- comerence with the National Industrial Rela- tion and betrayal by the union chiefs.

LOUS COUL

TUC on March 5 to inen uney ne about tnel accons une It is absolute treachery for Harraway tional day of action next day in the 'Star'. the attack on free Stalinists and force and the to try Although a full text of Sunday's reso- the govern- workers to into the one-day jump freely the strike. paper within of being minutes ge support Sunday's meeting When a speaker carried, its main article yesterday in- ence of the Socialist- sisted on describing the call for warned if Heath's anti-union for the De- succeeded, consequence plans develop a one-day could be a worse dictatorship Phase Two' was then supplemented by another: that of Hitler, they agreed. But their ed about the Tories' that the threat of a one-day strike policy is to hand workers bound and the

TUC

last year forced the gagged Tories exactly the same ser- Faced cimb down' over the in. propose to do from minute to dustrial Relations Act. vice for the Tories. N government range of tax in- sures attacking ds following the of the mark

BY JOHN SPENCER

strictly in line with the Common employers tace sharper competi- Market "anti-inflation' policy tion within the Common TrOM Taelr Lne raris summit of which are heavily dependent on rivals in Britain. The position EEC heads of state last autumn.

the US market of the German employing class part This was nothi more Even the Brandt government une crisis EEC bour- of the whole class-war foist the plan acknowledges that it will cut the geoisie. of the burden economic crisis German trading surplus by a or capitalsin onto mies backs on third. The Brandt government boasts the workers of all the Common Market states. In addition, the West German that latest Licabula

THE

NEWS

for the But Walker, •a tor- record post-war levels at Ebbw City financier be- of unemployment, feed. steelworkers mel The Tory Slater Vale is grim. to the ing inflation, raising and Industry Walker empire, is council Trade not rents, ending frightened Secretary Peter Walker by ultima- free wage bargaining works' tums of this sort. told the and attacking the basic committee he can give Nor will he be democratic rights of assurances for the frightened by the working class. the future of the south end day strike and lobby of The fight for these being rights is centre Line parliament at the Pageant of our work other the wore Thursday centred Merthyr serene workers will also have Tydfil. weeks announced two concreter hear the That is why we have chance lo ago be put proposals of appealed throughout effect. MP. their Michael the working-class com- the loss This means Foot, who is making a munity valley

LIC

of 4,500 jobs. some to support The steel Vale workers meeting. tation hear news The fight for the incident, as the Welsh mass meeting right to work to Thursday. be won by stunts and 'Road Workers' to It followed a 28-day Power. protests. ultimatum which the It now requires an • We have public Speakers at Sunday's all committee gave meeting the

AUEW

meeting in Jarrow (top campaigli Walker after the clo- against the Tory gov- Merthyr Gerry Healy, Lal ernment which Don't sure was first threat- res- Thursday night. ponsible for creating it. and John ened. miss

Poverty-line teachers start pay strikes

INTERVIEW BY IAN YEATS

'MRS THATCHER has attacked one of the most sacred rights written into the law— the right of an employee to negotiate his own value? Mr John J. Bull was speaking for 2,000 of Lon- don's 36,000 teachers who this week begin their month-long strike campaign for an increase in the London allowance. Today and tomorrow 45,000 children at 20, Haver- ing schools will have a day off, while their teachers demonstrate and lobby local officials for a rise in the allowance currently fixed at f118 a year. Similar simultaneous ac- open to them to persuade tions are being mounted by the government to allow teachers at up to 125 other free negotiation to con- outer London schools. tinue outside the freeze.

'Within a few weeks the Before Phase One of the government intends to put Tory state pay plan, •the through parliament a Phase London Educa boroughs' Two freeze bill and teach- tion Association had ers are now left with only offered the teachers an £82 a few weeks in which to increase. persuade them to leave the Tory Education Then London allowance outside Secretary Mrs Margaret Bill. the Thatcher stepped and In 'Very reluctantly teach- offer to £12, slashed the ers are left with the only raising it after barrage other free means to demo.

of teachers' protests to the cratically dissuade the gov- princely sum of £15. ernment from its misguided John J. Bu Headmaster Her 'generosity' was re- withdrawal of intent-the have to take action. jected. teachers' services.' Teachers are particularly Feeling, especially among velling costs of f2 a wee incensed that last May the and young teachers. sometimes more 1s running Mrs Thatcher signed high. 15,000 London teach- top of that.

CAMA

an arbitration award took of the Department in a mass A large number ers mising the allowance would homes other lobby Britain, but find it next t parts Education and be raised on November 1. Science of On November 3-three in November. Havering impossible to raise One days before Phase of the sent one largest fares for regular visits t action--the contingents-700. their families. swung InTO Education Secretary told Over 50 per cent of Lon- Young married couple councils not to don's teachers afford horonah are under cannot new 30 pay. with salaries around and face the prospect Mr Bull is headmaster of £1,300 a year. not being able to affor Ayloff Primary School. Probationary teachers even the deposit which has 600 pupils. He straight out of college house the next. de is also secretary of Haver- actually begin All extravagance cade. university of the ing their careers at the gov- ruled some Association out-in National Union of ernment-defined including even visits to th poverty Teachers. level-under £20 a week. cinema. He told me: 'Since Nov- Many of these young Some of the teachers take 'digs' in Lon- ember the teaching profes- especially, cry sion has used every demo- don at rents ranging from the money', said Mr Bull. cratic means of persuasion £6 to £9 a week with tra- Even an experience

LEADERS

of the trade union and

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS

labour movement were ganging up to stop the working class moving Strike, defend its to just challenging this or towards revolution, basic rights. that particular right, the first meeting in the Heath had made him- determined to hut north - east Pageant WArA self self-appointed smash all the workers' campaign was told on of law and de- historic gains and re- arbiter Sunday. clared that the 20 mil- duce them to the rabble lion workers fighting to they were before trade Gerry Healy, national secretary of the Social- of living "crimi- were Labour This brings me to es ist League. nals'. Pageant workers' audience an in warned 'If the working class rights. Hall that Jarrow Civic General Strike is going to fight it is not "This is not a play, talk of a question of neither acting: against the government miners' calling a General Strike, is part of the by leader training Toe Gormley designed therefore, but of taking for the revolutionary was struggles which lie right the power. to frighten the 'lefts' in "This the trade is what ahead. union AVAn move. *Every Tory worker knows ment. rammentotorc admit. that to do a job needs right-wing "The "The truth is The Pageant re- we are a training. presented Gormley is part of the training not here to nice is only getting ready to words with the working develop revolution- the Workers have no and "a revolution- …oovernmen class. laws and ioin the choice but to fight and ary, party. not. struggle and struggle appeal to you all norate state forward suffering.' he to and come meanc the said. ioin in this historic 110 the trade task? The north-east had a union movement history •"ro of struggle- Tom Marshall, seeking desperately to one of the from earliest min- the organizers of the the class working ers' unions. the Reforms keen north-east campaign. from the revolutionary Acts of parliament, and which centres round the implications of the con- against unemployment of frontation brewing in tho the of and murder early miners' struggles Britain! he said. whole communities dur- the north-east, said ing tha Monraccion that the whole analysis Ilal, want on to cau that the working class Now the biggest task of the League was based of all lay ahead. on the economic crisis. needed more than General The Tories 'This strikes. even were not crisis driving in d. Bull Reluctantly teach £2 a week older teacher cannot expr more on to earn average gross p • of more than £1,750 nber have year. r parts of One of the most serio I it next to consequences of low pay raise the high cost-of-living art ir visits to such as London or B mingham in the provin is the level of staff tur ed couples a new car over. Of Havering's 2,000 t rospect of to afford chers, up to a third char ›sit on a over every year. Said Mr Bull: 'The tui • next, de- vagance is is far too high over benefit children. The you some cases isits to the especially, need t security of the consiste he young presence of one person w knows them and their fa , cry_ over ilies in detail, not three | Mr Bull. six different teachers.' experienced F forward the Tory gov- ernment to attack all the basic rights of the working class. 'We say these rights must be defended now by building a revolu- tionary leadership. 'As part of this we are presenting episodes from the 1830s which ' show the bitter strug- gle and sacrifice the miners made to gain the most elementary rights for their class.' Allan Loustad, YS National Committee member, said that youth had a vital role to play in defence of basic rights. 'The YS unites all sections of youth in this fight—this includes stu- dents, unemployed workers left to rot on dole and house- the PI wives' John West, a boiler- oric makers' shop steward N/ from Tyneside, spoke to the meeting in a per- AL sonal capacity. 'There is no leader- ship whatsoever for the working class from the No top in the TUC and the Labour Party, he Co said. 'This is the most vital Pa facing the problem working class now' Workers Press, Tuesday Staff turnover is one as- pect of the problem cre- ated by low pay. The other is the absolute staff short.

age. Posts at either end of the teaching scale are often . vacant because the pay is absolutely too low or because top men and women are not prepared to live on it. The situation can be so bad that in a crisis a wel- fare assistant might be put in charge of a class as a substitute for a trained teacher. There is often not time for the discussions which teachers and parents find it helpful to have about pupils. Cases occur of parents visiting a school where their child's teacher has constantly to slip back- wards and forwards to her unattended class to check that all is well. With social problems in the community increasing of broken homes renut as a and "crime', such talks are assuming greater significance. ners A still more damaging effect of the teacher short- age is that class sizes stay pect high up at the 40 mark. pay While teaching methods a have switched from gen- eral average instruction to ious specific individual tuition, y in class sizes threaten to pre- reas vent the new techniques Bir- from being used or mean nces that they are put into urn- practice imperfectly. Increasingly unable to do tea- their jobs and fighting to ange keep the wolf from the door, London teachers urn- have decided on a militant • to their campaign to raise ung special London allowance.

the Said Mr Bull: 'Heath has tent who said there are going to be no exceptions to the freeze.

tam- as hard But we shall try e or as we can to win.'

BOOK YOUR

Defend trade unionism and basi Unite in action to make this Tor The road to power is through the buildin

APAGEANT OF HISTORY-THE ROAD TO

EMPIRE POOL. WEMBLEY,

I would Ilke to take part in the Pageant/ci Please send me further details.

VAME.

ADDRESS

vo. of tickets required complete form and return to : Pageant Office, 34 Hamilton Gardens, Lon , Tuesday February 20, 1973 PAGE 3 WORLD shipping charges will go up by an average of 10 per cent today because of the de- valuation of the US dollar.

A spokesman for a leading shipping conference said yester- day: It is now impossible to accurately calculate the of the dollar devaluation, Impact said, it had Nevertheless, he to introduce 'a been decided currency adjustment charge with- out delay' Members of the Association of West India Trans-Atlantic Steam Ship Lines will put up their charges by 10 per cent today while members of the European- South Pacific and Magellan Con- ference are also recommending a similar increase. The India-Pakistan Conference an ll-per-cent has opted for increase while the New Zealand European Shipping Service has agreed on an Il-per-cent rise.

These hefty charges, which arise directly from the world monetary crisis, mean all-round increases in the cost of imported goods. For British housewives, there- fore, the future is certain to hold soaring increases in food prices. ALL MANUAL workers at the Birmid Qualcast plant in Vic- tory Road, Derby, were locked out by management yesterday.

The lock-out follows the im- position of 40-hour working by the union over a claim. The shop stewards' committee met last night to discuss the situation and draw up a state- ment. Many of the workers are of Asian origin and their main union is the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers. m and basic living standards ke this Tory government resign ho building of the revolutionary party

SUNDAY MARCH 11

Pageant/come to Empire Pool.

. Amount enclosed (£1 each £ rdens, London, NW8

THERE IS NO PEACE

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Tuesday Febru A statement by the Internatio The International Com- mittee of the Fourth International salutes the heroic Vietnamese workers and peasants in their 26th year of revo- lutionary struggle. Faced with the most bar- barous repression of imperial- ism and the joint betrayals of Chinese and Soviet Stalinism, who have deprived them of the necessary weaponry and political help, the Hanoi and National Liberation Front regimes have been forced to a compromise. This is the meaning of the ceasefire agreement signed on January 27. While US imperialism is determined to impose a 'peace' which threatens all previous conquests of the Indo-Chinese people, nevertheless the terms of the Paris agreement show that none of the major prob- lems facing the US occupiers and their Saigon lackeys have been solved. The Paris agreement has not ended the war, but has changed the form which the civil war will take. If US imperialism is too weak to regain control of the south, the NLF and Hanoi conversely have been deprived of the modern arma- ments necessary to conquer

FOUR - PARTY JOINT

IN VIETNAM

A statement by the International Committee of the Fourth International decisively and defeat the Saigon armies and the US force. In defining this relation of forces the agreement reveals the insoluble contradictions of the present situation Viet- 1n nam and makes the Collilild" tion of civil war inevitable.

On the one hand the agree- ment implicitly recognizes the existence of 140,000 North Vietnamese troops and does not make their withdrawal a pre-condition for a ceasehre It explicitly underwrites the decision of the US government withdraw its troops. But these decisions are qualified and virtually annulled by contradicting clauses which the of make overduor 'cease fire' an impossible task. The modalites Article example, states that the for the withdrawal of US and allied shall be deter- mined by the four-party joint

- I LS

the soniassion shall Agreement stipulates operate in accordance with the principle consultations and unani- OI mity. Moreover. the commis sion is hopefully expected to complete its job in 60 days.

Article Three (b) stipulates that a two-party joint military commission of the two south Vietnamese parties shall deter- the controlled by each party and the modalities e Fourth International the of stationing. Far from the commission being able to achieve even a minimum of agreement it has instead broken down because of continuous fighting by the NLF for control countryside. The US imperialists are cynically hoping to woo, if not split, the Hanoi leaders with prospects of economic aid to rebuild the shattered country and with admission into the United Nations. Dr Henry Kissinger's latest visit to Peking is obviously intended Peking recognition for to get Nixon's policy of two Viet- nams at the summit confer- ence which is to take place soon. Although the agreement recognizes two Vietnams by 'sacred and in- depicting as alienable' the South Viet- namese people's 'right to self- determination', this scheme is being continually undermined by the civil war waged in the south and the incessant flow of men and materials down the Ho Chi Minh trail. The Thieu puppet regime, despite the concessions of the NLF and Hanoi and the tech- nical superiority of its army and air force, has lost the strategic initiative in the civil war. Hated by the peasantry and harassed by the guerrillas the Saigon regime is now rapidly succumbing to the dual pressures of inflation and cor- ruption. control of Saigon Thieu's and the provincial capitals is proving extremely tenuous since the NLF control all the district towns, the frontier . the strategically regions and vital areas of the central high- lands and the Mekong delta.

Thieu's hold over the cities is conditioned not so much on US aid, but by the political neutrality of the working class for whom the bourgeois character of the NLF pro- gramme has little to offer.

In the Tet offensive and again in the Spring offensive of 1972, the urban workers did not respond in a big way to NLF appeals, mainly because the PRG programme promises to respect private property and does not include nationaliza- tion proposals. But the massive inflation of food and imported prices necessities in the towns and the dollar devaluation will un- doubtedly bring the working class into action against Thieu and create serious problems for the NLF leadership and the Provisional Government. Thieu's reactionary laws on the Press and the unions and his electoral laws which ensure a one-party dictatorship are guaranteed to intensify popular hatred of the regime and trans-

COMMISS

form election any campaign into a civil war. So long as the land remains in the hands of absentee land- owners and the rural debt is not abolished, so long too will the civil war continue. 'cease peace agreement, no ire' can eliminate this. As tr bourgeois correspondent of the 'Daily Telegraph' reported from February 12: Saigon on 'Neither the Paris confer- ence the International Commission of Control ana Stability appears able to cause reduction in the serious of number incidents which Scores occur every day. are undoubtedly initiated the local Vietcong or North Viet- leaders the namese on spot, but others by the South Viet- namese army.' These examples suffice to show the unviable and utterly reactionary nature of the Paris agreement. It is also plain that the agreement will not resolve the vexed question of 600,000 political prisoners and that, in fact, the concentration camps and notorious pena. ments such as Poulo Condor will remain monumental evl. of dence the complicity of world Stalinism in this betrayal of the colonial peoples From the beginning, the Vietnamese has revolton been a serious embarrassment to these bureaucracies. Unable

to oppose openly the Viet- namese struggle, Stalinism has all along tried to exploit this struggle in order to pressurize French and, now, US imperial- ism to recognize the status quo in Europe and underwrite 'peaceful co-existence' between Stalinism and imperialism.

Thus in the mid-1950s the Vietminh were robbed of the fruits of the historic victory at Dien Bien Phu by Peking and Moscow in order that French imperialism might be persuaded to oppose the re- militarization of Germany. This betrayal consummated at Geneva and hailed by the Stalinists and Pabloite revision- ists as a 'great victory' did not bring peace, but laid the basis for the present civil war.

Soviet and Chinese Stalin- ism's attitude to the Vietnam Revolution, which is a com- pound of bureaucratic knee- crooking imperialism before and a nationalist and reformist hatred of world revolution, has been highly valued by US im- perialist observers. No greater indictment of Moscow-Peking policy can be found than the succinct appreciation of the Geneva (1954) Agreement by the US Presidential advisers contained in the Pentagon Papers: 'While it is fair to state that the immediate implications of the Accords did not reflect (even according to

CIA

reports) Vietminh strength and control in Vietnam at the time of the conference, it is equally important to understand why.

Vietminh ambitions were thwarted, not so much by western resistance or treachery, as by Sino-Soviet pressures on them to co-operate... To- gether and separately, Moscow and Peking pressed concessions on the Vietminh. 'Invariably, the two prin- communist delegates, cipal Chou En-lai and Molotov, played major roles in breaking with conciliatory deadlocks initiatives... ' "Peaceful co-existence" was the hall-mark of their dip- lomacy. The Chinese, in par- were interested ticular, border security, buffers, venting the formation of US alliance system with bases in the region, and reconstruc- tion at home. "The two powers did not hesitate in asserting the para- mountcy of their interests over those of the Vietminh? (Our emphasis). So it was in 1954 so it is today! The alarm and hatred of the Stalinist bureaucracies to- ward the Vietnam struggle today is directly related to the fact that this struggle takes place in the context of the monetary crisis in greatest capitalism's history and an unprecedented upsurge of class struggle in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. A decisive victory for the NLF would act as a tremend- ous stimulant to the struggle in west Europe and within the USSR and eastern Europe as well. Such a victory would severely intensify the crisis of Stalinism.

Another contributing factor is the towards this policy growing agricultural crisis in the USSR; which results from the bureaucratic methods of the Soviet leaders and their gross incompetence in manag- ing agriculture. Unable to feed the working class and fearful of another series of revolts like those which unseated Khrushchev, the Soviet leaders have decided to sacrifice the Vietnamese revolution in exchange for US grain. For these reasons the Soviet leaders deliberately refused to supply the latest missiles to the North Vietnamese and entertained Nixon while Hanoi and Haiphong were devastated.

While previous Presidents refused to sanction the mining of the northern ports for fear of Soviet and Chinese retalia- tion Nixon could-and did— pursue a total blockade be- Left: North Vietnamese at the joint mill sultations and unanimity! Above: Nixon cause both bureaucracies had indicated their compliance with his war aims. Outside of Vietnam Stalinism has supplemented these be- by trayals converting the defence of Vietnam into a pacifist-protest exercise de- signed the to strengthen domination of 'left' bureau- crats and middle-class poli- ticians and aimed against the development of revolutionary leadership. In Britain the high point of thiş betrayal was the refusal of the British Communist Party campaign leaders to against Wilson's visit to Washington in 1969 and their recent cam- bring pressure on paign to Nixon to sign the agreements.

In the US, Stalinist parti- cipation in the anti-war move- ment was designed to tie the anti-war movement to the Democratic Party and turn the movement into a pawn in the presidential election. The American CP did not split the anti-war hesitate to movement in 1970 in order to support "progressive' capitalist politicians. In these manoeuvres they were aided by the un- principled intervention of the revisionists who substituted their own brand of 'single- issue non-exclusionary' reform- ism for that of the Stalinists.

The International Committee of the Fourth International alone preserved and developed the Leninist theory of defeat- ism by openly attacking the 'united fronts' of the bogus revisionists and Stalinists and by making the Vietnam Revolu- tion a central issue in the programme to build a revolu- tionary party. The absolute correctness of the IC and Socialist Labour League's break with the Viet- Solidarity Campaign on nam role of international the Stalinism and the Vietnam Revolution in 1966 and our refusal to participaíe in the October 27, 1968, fraud is now amply confirmed by the events leading to the Paris treaty.

The defence of the Viet- • joint military commission headquarters which ve: Nixon and US troops. A B52 bomber, down namese Revolution means, first of all, a complete rejection of petty-bourgeois, pacifist oppo- sition which war, confines the anti-imperialist struggie to a series of adven- turist and propagandist ges- tures calculated to disarm the working-class politically and generate the illusion that wars can be ended by pressure on capitalist statesmen. Underlying such an oppo- sition is the reformist assump- tion that wars are accidents of the capitalist system and that the system can exist without militarism and war. This reformist-pacifist per- spective of the revisionists and Stalinists confuses the van- guard of the working class on the inevitability of revolution- struggles between the working class and the capitalist state and, more importantly, of the necessity to smash and not to reform the apparatus of capitalist coercion and rule by the actions of the working Nar class led by the revolutionary party. As Lenin stated at the inception of World War I: 'Under capitalism, parti- cularly in its imperialist stage, wars are unavoidable.' The task of revolutionaries, therefore, is to show, in theory and practice, the inescapable necessity to combine the struggle against imperialist war with the struggle for state power. To do this is to build the Marxist party without which the working class can- not be liberated. All the activities of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, the Indo-China Solidarity Front, the Student Mobiliza- tion Committee, the revisionist Young Socialist Alliance and the various ad hoc organiza- tions set up in the USA under Stalinist and revisionist patron- age cogently reveal that propaganda of peace at the present time, if not accom- panied by a call to revolution- actions, is only ary mass capable of spreading illusions, of demoralizing the proletariat Workers Praas, Tuesd is which are supposed to operate 'in accorda ber, downed by the Vielnamese despite the lac by imbibing it with confidence in the humanitarianism of the bourgeoisie, and of making it a plaything in the hands secret diplomacy of the belli- gerent countries.' (Lenin.)

In this sense thè differences between the US Stalinists and revisionists of the the US Socialist Workers' Party were completely factitious. While the CP called on Nixon to 'Sign. Now!', the SWP-YSA called on Nixon to withdraw his troops uncon- ditionally. based their Both groups the policies on reformist illusion that 'public opinion' and the clamour for 'peace' would end imperialist oppres- sion in Indo-China. Neither for the group campaigned indispensable necessity to place no political confidence in the Nixon regime and to break the US working-class decisively from the two-party system by forming an independent Labour with a socialist pro- Party, gramme, based on the trade unions. Their faith in the Nixon regime is but the reverse side of a deep middle-class sceptic- ism about the European and US working class. Secondly, no defence of the Vietnamese Revolution is pos- sible without an implacable struggle to expose the role of Stalinism in this war and to equip the vanguard of the working class with a correct and comprehensive under- standing of the counter- revolutionary nature of Stalin- ism. As the monetary and economic crisis of imperialism worsens and as the capitalist powers whip up a hysteria of economic nationalism to justify their corporatist measures, the Stalinist bureaucracies western Europe. are already openly collaborating with the monopolist plans to strait- jacket the working class. While the European ruling classes, particularly in France and Italy, integrate their plans for civil war through the Workors Press, Tuesday Fobruary 20, 1973 accordance • with Meca asm Market, the prostrate the decaying uphold the constitutions buroDe. ful mitted today, paration of Tencuon In Britain, consciously attempt resign the trade union its of Rome. Greece, plumbed stitution. of that no step not be Wil the centrist Organisation ternationaliste Ouvrière, Group (IMG) The -despite the backs- the Indo-Chinese more than struggle leadership reformism Impellansmn. ту 20, 1873

PAGE 5

Common before _ot bour post-war and means, pre- CAnC every depths 'national Committee International is the working class ep forward is pos- ope or Asia without of Stalinism and cannot conducted by like movements

(OCI),

nternational Social- ternational Marxist and the Ligue through temporary prove greater than strait-jacket. mate victory of th e people depends Eurer, an and us upon Stalinism smash February 16, 19731

PAGE 6 Workers Press, Tuesday Febi

BY STEPHEN JOHNS-PART TV

The Tories like to por- tray the food industry as a competitive jungle where prices glide up and down propelled by mys- terious market forces over which manufactur- ers have no control. But there is no jungle and certainly no mysterious market The entire industry forces. from farm to shop is domi- nated by huge monopolies who have abolished price competi- tion in favour of massive advertising campaigns and pro- motion gimmicks. Supermarkets may give the of bewildering impression variety. But beneath the gay wrapping food is becoming standardized and real choice ever more restricted. The multitude of brand names does not mean more competition-the top selling commodities are owned by a tiny handful of food giants.

Monopoly is universal. Three firms control 70 per cent of the milk product; four firms own 78 per cent of the bread market; three firms 60 per cent of cakes; two 62 per cent of biscuits; two: 75 per cent of ice cream; three 72 per cent of chocolate; two 72 per cent of jam; three 100 per cent of two 100 per cent of sugar; margarine; three 72 per cent of tea; three 90 per cent of all frozen foods; two 55 per cent of poultry; three 70 per cent of baked • beans; one 60 per cent of soup; one 60 per cent of all pet foods-and so on.

Often the same firm mono- polizes several fields. Hence Cadbury Schweppes dominates in cakes, chocolate and tea, Heinz in beans, soup and sauce and Unilever in margarine, detergents and frozen foods.

In some cases the food manufacturers have extended the empires forward into the retail. For example, Associated British Foods, the baking monolith owned by the Cana- dian Garfield Weston family, runs Fine Fare, the multiple grocery chain, with an annual turnover of £147m. In other cases the retail giants have reached backwards the fast rising Cavenhams group, now the largest super- market chain has the major share of the slimming breads market. Even the farmers are caught in the monopolist net. In the cash crop sector concentration is high. In 1969, 18.8 per cent of farmers grew 86.6 per cent of the pea crop and 3.5 per cent grew 37.7 per cent. Over 88.4 per cent of the pea crop, 96.4 per cent of the French bean crop and 64.4 per cent of the broad bean crop went straight into the manu- facturers' factories. Two or three manufacturers dominate these fields, with esday February 20, 1973

PART TWO

Unilever, which owns Batche- lor's; and Bird's Eye, far and away the largest. relationship The economic between the manufacturer and the farmer was described in a special paper on the British vegetable market published in May 1970 by W. L. Hinton of the Land Economics Depart- ment of Cambridge University.

"The process for canning and freezing is well established,' he 'For peas and beans wrote. (and to an extent for carrots) the processor [manufacturer] controls the production of the crop. Contracts are made and the price is known before the planting... a few groups of farmers have freezing facilities, but the big three Bird's Eye, Imperial Tobacco [Ross and Smedleys the backbone of IMPs' Imperial Foods] and Findus dominate the field.

"The carrot crop is different.

and the Over 80,000ha 120,000ha are under the con- trol of grower-merchants who have contracts with the pro- cessors in advance and often informal agreements with the farmers. It is common for the mer- chant to take over the carrot farmer for land from the ploughing, but wherever a merchant operates he does the harvesting. The carrot mer- chant supplies most of the big- gest market outlets, the open market as well, and most of the markets for canning.'

Clearly the farmer in Bri- tain's richest cash-crop areas is little more than an employee of the big firms. They supply the seed, fix the price (in the case of Unilever supply all the animal feedstuffs) and guaran- tee to buy his whole crop. He can, of course, choose not to co-operate, but the choice is choicegrow our Hobson's peas or go bankrupt. The scramble for monopoly, of course, is a general law of capitalist society. Firms must expand and expand to bear the weight of enormous promotion expenditures to wipe out pot- ential competition and to secure markets and supplies.

With size comes the power of the monarch In a 1963 interview Lord then the head of Uni- Cole, lever listed the decisions taken at the top-'Should we expand output of this product? Should we shut this place down here?

Should we build a new plant there? Should we try to buy this company? Should we move into competition with that company? Move into this market or out of that market'.

With size comes the power of the absolute monarch. It is beyond the scope of these articles to cover the whole of the food industry.

But there are only minor dif- ferences in character between one sector and another. One example-bread—will give a fairly accurate picture of the pattern of ownership and con- trol that pervades the whole field of food. The bread and baking indus- try is a classic case of big racing forward monopolies into the market to secure out- lets for their supplies. At the end of the war the big millers were in a comfort- able and commanding position, facing thousands of bakeries— some attached to a small shop.

But in the 1950s, Garfield Wes- the Canadian food mil- ton, lionaire, invaded and began buying up bakeries and out- lets all over the country.

The British millers panicked in the fight for and joined secure markets. They merged and built up their own baking

PALMO

BRUSHLESS

Pedigree chun

KIT-E-

empires. Today the once-frag- mented is highly monopolized with the big three Associated British (Westons), Ranks Hovis Mc- Dougall and Spillers- -control- ling 70 per cent of all milling and baking. The result has been generally a standardiza- tion as the giants cut costs and wiped out variety. Far from promoting com- petition, variety and improve- ment, capitalist trends in the bread industry have meant the reverse. We have dearer bread in the larder and more millions in the monopolies' bank ac- counts. The profit from bread is staggering, as these examples show. Associated British Foods (Sun- Tiger, by blest, Ryvita, etc.) controlled the Weston family through several trusts OSa CO BIRDS EYE 1 Spr 2 Beetburgers With Cheese and companies, but chiefly George Holdings, "Weston which owns 74 per cent of ABF shares. In volume ABF has 24 per cent of all British bread sales.

The UK sector of the company operates 21 mills; Allied Bakeries with 52 bakeries and Weston Foods, 2,388 shops, eight biscuit and which runs crisp factories, and eight tea and coffee factories. The UK grocery sector is based on Fine Fare and its subsidiaries and runs 503 supermarkets, 577 shops, a department store and nine manufacturing units.

In addition to Food Securities Group operates 56 warehouses and seven factories The trading profits (before tax and directors' fees) at £44m in 1972 are very high.

Dividends to shareholders have insi Above: who pr Porage Smedle Roses weppe Schwel Mars Cadbur British Brooke ris 8800 £2

PALMO

BRUSHLESS SH

(SWEETMEAL BISCUITS

Pedigree chun

ALESS

POPULAR

KIT-E-L

PALMOLIVE

Opersil 120oFF

NIMUM WEIGHI IR CU

O Persil 2P Scott's

OFF

Porage

RYVITA

Hovis Ne erispread dies fester riderin Make it your daily breat

RYVITA

DIGESTIVE

DRYERS MANTLY ITEMS TEN

margarin BIRDS EYE 1 SOr

CHERRI

ahedleys ew

FLORA

HALL WHOLE

CARROTS

BALTED

TLE

cut here 2 Beefburgers Smash: With Cheese Brooke Bond instant mashed potato Dividend

2 SAVI

2103 sier vis Above: A selection from the shopping basket; and Gamble: HP Tomato Ketchup, Imperial who produced it and what it all costs. Scott's Tobacco: Hovis, Ranks Hovis McDougall; Unilever; Porage Oats. Ranks Hovis McDougall; Walls Pork Sausages. Flora Smedley's Tinned Carrots, Imperial Tobacco: Uni- Margarine, Unilever: Stork Margarine, Roses Lime Juice Cordial, Cadbury Unilever; Sprouts, Sch- lever; Birds Eye Frozen Hartley's Cherry Cadbury weppes: Jam. Birds Eye Beefburgers, Unilever; McVities Kit e Kat, Persil, Biscuits. Schweppes; Unilever; Digestive United Biscuits: Palm- Smash Instant Potatoes, firm): Brushless Mars (US Soap. Unilever: Palmolive olive Cadbury Shaving Schweppes; Ryvita, Cream. Unilever: Total Cost Febru- Associated British Foods: Pediaree £2.20%. Bought at Fine Fare Chum, Mars; ary 12, 1973 Brooke Bond Tea, J. Lyons; Ajax, Supermarket (Associated British Foods).

Proctor

3151/ 12DOEF

sil Scott's 2P

OFF

Porage Hovis parad has fener crie Make it your daily blat

YVITA

YES MATLY IT. 79%

Seita

CHERRY

suedleys

ALL WHOLE

FLORA

CARROTS

SIGna

ALTED\

smash: instant mashed potato Brooke Bond Dividend 2103 er virs Above: A selection from the shopping basket; and Gamble; HP Tomato Ketchup, Imperial who produced it and what it all costs. Scott's How's sages, Ranks Hovis McDougall; Tobacco; Porage Oats. Ranks Hovis McDougall; Walls Pork Unilever; Smedley's Tinned Carrots, Imperial Tobacco; Stork Margarine, Uni- Margarine, Unilever; Roses Lime Juice Cordial, Sch- Birds Eye Frozen Sprouts, Unilever; Cadbury lever; weppes; Hartley's Cherry Jam, Cadbury Birds Eye Beefburgers, Unilever; McVities Kit Biscuits, Palm- Schweppes; Biscuits; Persil, Unilever; Kat, Digestive United (US firm): Smash Soap, Unilever; Palmolive Brushless Mars Potatoes, Instant olive Unilever; Total Cost Febru- Cadbury Schweppes; Ryvita, Associated Shaving Cream, Pedigree Chum, 12, 1973 £2.20g. Fine Fare British Foods; Mars; Bought at ary Brooke Bond Tea, J. Lyons; Ajax, Proctor Supermarket (Associated British Foods).

iefly risen from 25 per cent to 39 eat a slice of Sunblest, think Rank £41,000 in man Joseph 1970-1971. the ngs, cent in the nine years to of him. During same of 972. One thousand shares Recently Ranks Hovis McDou- year the 61,000 employees got bought in 1962 would have gall complained about the an average of £1,105. cost £575, high price of wheat. The firm hundred shares thev were were worth £805, a capital gain of asked the Tories to allow worth £155 ten years ago.

Last 40 per cent and a good hedge any 1.5p increase loaf. year they were valued at £185 on lne lied against inflation. i said. said RHOS would not, profits a capital gain of 32 per cent and suffer. returns Spillers (Wonderloaf, Din- could certainly ods, stand quite a kum toasting bread, Tyne- $25,000 pay as chairman battering. In 1971 there and was a Brand canned meats, is etc. is just pocket money tea trading profit of f32m and last the third big with 20 group, the market. UK year's was the largest ever. per cent of RHM (Mother's Pride, Nim- on It recently merged its mill- June mectors well rewarded. In 1971- ble, Porage Oats, Bisto, aries are Scotts ing and baking interests with 1972 they got £81,000 between Hovis, rets, McDougall's flour, Wholena e Lyons and the Co-operative them and the chairman, Garry Cerebos salt, etc. is the largest Society but owns

LOLC

gọt £25,000. nits. H. Weston, milling and baking combine in 75 per cent of the merged com- But the main benefactors of the land, with 25 per cent of bine. the bonanza have been the all bread sales. In 1971-1972, trading uses profit Weston : family which raked in Apart from giving thousands 30 per rose cent to £15.2m. bulk of the £6.25m divi- of pounds to right-wing out- The chairman, W. M. Vernon fore the Garry's £25,000 pay as dends. fits like Aims of Industry and gets £27,500 a year, but divi- will his the red-hunters chairman just Econo- dends from his 370,000 ordi- 11gh. the nave pocket money-next time you mic League, RHM paid chair- nary shares bumped his total Workers Press, Tuesda income to around £40,000 more than the average Spiller worker earns in 30 years.

Shareholders have found Spillers a very profitable in- vestment. One hundred shares bought ten years ago would nave cost £62, but are now worth £73. Dividends over the period would have been £39 (a 64 per cent profit plus a 17 per cent capital gain). These profits are not excep- tional in the food industry. In other sectors of manufactur- ing, monopoly is even more concentrated and returns are greater. All the major com- panies have increased sales and profits over the last two years. These are facts the Tories never reveal. This is deliber- ate. If information like this was widely published the pub- lic outcry over price rises to safeguard profit margins would clearly be enormous. In the retail and wholesale sectors the trend has also been towards a greater concentra- tion of power in few hands.

Here, too, record profits are made. The rise of the supermarket has dealt a death-blow to the corner grocer. Now he is faced with the prospect of joining one of the two main symbol which dominate the group smaller shop sector-MACE or Spar-Vivo. Membership slightly self-defeating, since truly independent grocer the must relinquish his powers over ordering and sales inside a group. The supermarket also had a dramatic effect on wholesaling.

The smaller wholesalers were forced to merge to protect themselves on . the one hand against the food giants and on against the retail the other chains which could buy direct from the supplier. As a result, wholesaling has also become monopolistic. One survey in 1970 found that 300 wholesaling points controlled 60 per cent of the grocery trade. The five largest mul- tiples controlled another 25 per cent and the symbol groups another 10 per cent.

Monopoly in wholesaling has a strong geographical element.

If those 300 outlets are spread across the country, the small retailer in any one area would be found to have very limited choice as to where to obtain his supplies. The decline of the small grocer can be seen from figures which show that in 1950 he traded 40 per cent of all gro- whereas turnover cery total in 1971 has slumped to 20 per cent. In that year the symbols dealt with 22 per cent, the supermarkets 43 per cent and the Co-op 15 per cent. myth about the One large supermarket is that it slashes prices. But this is only par- tially true. Supermarket bills are smaller than bills from corner shops.

But the price reductions are not nearly as great as they could be if the chains passed on the full economic benefits of large-scale retailing to the consumer. There are the 'lost leaders'-items cut specially to lure the housewife into the shop-but much of the re- duced retailing costs is raked back in higher profits. Now a new trend is emerg- ing. The first flush of the re- tail revolution is over. Super- markets are setling down to a comfortable life and more there is less pressure to re- duce prices. Some manufac- turers report they are being asked by supermarket chains to increase the recommended price. Excluding the Co-op, the re- tail empires can be judged by these turnover figures for 1971.

Allied Suppliers (Maypoles, Home and Colonial, Liptons, etc. sold last year by Unilever to Cavenhams, controlled by the financier Jimmy Gold- smith) £269m; Tesco £259m; Sainsbury £221m; Spar £175m; Mace £150m; Fine Fare €147m; International Tea 3s, Tuesday February 20, 1973 PAGE 7 £109m; Moores (Cavenhams again) £5lm; Mac Fisheries (Unilever) £40m. The housewives have less and less choice. The groups get a greater and greater grip of the High street and the small shops, the specialist shops (pork butchers, bakers and so on) go to the wall.

In 1971, 69 per cent of house- wives shopped at stores owned by only five of the biggest chains. The proportion now is almost certain to be even higher. Profits, again, are very sub- stantial. Return on capital in the retail trade is even greater than in manufacturing. for example, Cavenhams, made profits of £11.6m in the 32 weeks to November last This was more than year. double returns for the whole of 1971. The extra money came from the vast retail em- pire built up at break-neck speed by Jimmy Goldsmith, a financier from the Slater Walker stable who owns a Paris-based finance company called Finance Occidental.

Allied suppliers, the biggest fish of all Finance Occidental bought Cavenhams-an ailing Mid- lands grocery group-and used it as a shell for future opera- tions. Goldsmith added Moores Stores in a £lm cash and shares deal, but sold Moore's biscuit interests to the mono- poly United Biscuits for £4m.

Then Goldsmith swallowed the biggest fish of all-Allied Sup- pliers, the Unilever retail em- pire bought in January 1971.

Goldsmith did a revaluation to bolster the balance-sheet by millions and went into part- nership with the Southland Corporation, the biggest Ame- rican store group, which got of his a share newsagents, tobacconists and Moores stores (millions more in the kitty).

The breathless pace of Gold- smith's operations exudes from the latest Cavenhams report.

Goldsmith said the company's tasks fell into four categories.

'(1) Integrate recently- acqyired companies so as to ..! organize benefits. (2) Lay down the foundations for maintaining substantial organic growth throughout the group as a whole. (3) Dispose of all assets and activities that are incompatible with these ob- jectives. (4) Re-invest the total cash funds that we will receive in the course of the current year in a way that will contri- bute to a major phase of deve- lopment? The search is for profit, always more profit. The fact that Cavenhams provides the country's major outlet for food by which people live is sec- ondary. The aim of this article has been to show the highly-mono- polistic nature of the food in- dustry. A' conclusion that can almost immediately be drawn is that a relatively small num- individuals who lead ber of the major food combines do have the power to control prices. We repeat, there are no hidden, unstoppable mar- ket forces that guide the price of food. Another obvious conclusion is that monopoly in food has unlocked the door to vast wealth for a tiny minority. The whining by food companies about pressure on margins is a charade. Profit in food is very substantial and keeps on going up. There is, however, a much more serious aspect of mono- poly. The development in food of mammoth combines has led elimination of price to the competition and a freak deve- lopment of promotion and advertising. Expenditures in these fields almost entirely parasitic, are adding little value to the com- modity in question. We exam- ine the human waste cause by monopoly in food in tomor- row's article.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

THE US CATTLE RANCH

Part two of a series on Paraguay. By Jack Gale.

PAGE 8 Workers Pross, Tuesday Fabr In 1959, following the Cuban Revolution, Oscar Credyt, secretary of the Partido Comunista Paraguaya (PCP) hastily organized a guerrilla movement called Frente Unida de Liberacion Nacional (FULNA). This led to a series of disasters—52 guerrillas of the Ytororo brigade who crossed from Argentina were all killed.

The Paraguayan authorities knew exactly when and where they were crossing. A peasant guerrilla group called Columna Mariscal Lopez which occupied . the town Eusebio Ayala in 1960, was infiltrated by agents and de- stroyed. In June 1963 a lead.

ing PCP member, Wilfredo Alvarez, was betrayed to the police and killed. In 1967 Credyt was expelled from the PCP and accused of being a traitor. Since then the party has kept strictly to the Moscow line. In 1968 Credyt declared for Peking and established a pro- Chinese Communist Party in Montevideo. President Stroessner is re- the United States garded as best friend in south America and is certainly its most aday Fobruary 20, 1973 vociferous anti-communist ally.

Up to 1970, Paraguay, which is strategically situated in the middle of the continent, had received over $146m from the USA. In 1971 some $400,000 was sent in military aid alone.

Over 1,000 Paraguayan military personnel have been trained in the US and Canal Zone mili- tary schools. Stroessner has signed the Resolution which Selden authorizes unilateral inter- vention by US troops into Paraguay if American interests are endangered 'in a confronta- tion with communism'. US embassy and AID officials work in close conjunction with the Paraguayan police. During his visit to Washing- ton in March 1968, Stroessner offered to send Paraguayan troops to Vietnam. During this visit he was quoted in the US Press as saying that he con- sidered the US ambassador to be a member of his cabinet.

And Paraguay was the first country to send support troops to back the US invasion of the Dominican Republic. The main US private invest- ment in Paraguay is in cattle ranching for export. In addition, in 1970, two US oil companies signed an agreement with the Paraguayan government which granted them full exploration and exploitation rights for oil in the northern part of the Chaco region, with a govern- ment royalty on production of only 17 per cent, one of the lowest in the world. The first trade union in Paraguay was founded in 1896 and the first strike took place in 1936. In August, 1958, the Confederacion Paraguaya Trabajadores (CPT) called a General Strike following Stroessner's refusal to allow a 29-per-cent wage incrtase. The strike and the union organ- ization were smashed. A new CPT executive com- mittee was appointed by the government and the organ- ization has been a tool of the Stroessner regime ever since.

Despite this the CPT is affiliated to the International of Free Confederation Trade Unions and • in 1971 the Instituto American para el desarrollo del sindicalismo (American Institute for the Development of Trade Union- ism), an AFL-CIO-sponsored organization in Latin America, sent Jesus Artigas to work with the CPT in Paraguay in of trade union the field 'education'. The Confederacion Cristiana de Trabajadores (CCT), a Christian trade union organ- ization formed in 1962, has a 3,000 membership. It is denied legal status and its leaders are frequently arrested and beaten up. There is also a co-operative movement among small farmers, originally begun by sections of the lower Catholic clergy in in conflict the early 1960s, hierarchy. with the church organizations These are heavily persecuted because of the regime's fear of communism among the peasants who make up 80 per cent of the country's population. The heaviest repression of recent times was in May 1970, in Coronel Oviedo. US-trained Major Boson Pinanez and Captain Apuril rounded up 200 families and took them off to military installations.

Every village in Paraguay is ruled by the police chief, the local leader of the Colorado Party and the mayor. All these appointees. are government There is also a military garrison in every village, attached to the police station. There is no Press freedom in Paraguay-one of the most in Latin corrupt regimes America, which is saying a great deal. The few 'independent' (i.e.

not published directly by the government) newspapers refrain from all political comment or criticism of the regime. It is well known that army generals and top government officials are behind the various rackets such as the contraband trade in drugs, whisky and cigarettes. But in July 1971, when the weekly 'El Radical' attempted to publish the names of the military chiefs behind the smuggling of heroin from Paraguay to the United States, the edition was seized by the and Chief of Police police General Britez threatened editor Juan Carlos Zaldiver with death if he tried such a thing again. But in June last year Wash- ington columnist Jack Ander- son revealed the contents of CIA report which proved a 'con- that Stroessner granted cessions' on heroin smuggling to military leaders. Left: Stroessner of Paraguay with Lanusse (left) of Argentina.

Above: Jack Anderson, Washing- ton columnist. The men named were General Rodriguez, Andres General Patricio Colman, General Ger- Martinez Jara and Rear- man Admiral Hugo Gonzalez. All the foreign Press agencies in Paraguay are controlled by high- who are either men ranking Colorados or personal friends of President Stroessner.

Reuter has N. Rojas, EFE has Atilio Fernandez, France Press has Caceres Almada. When information prejudicial to the government is sent by telex, the state communications organization (ANTELCO) re- fuses to transmit it. The legal system is also con- trolled by Colorados. The head of the Supreme Court, Dr Morales, and three of its six members are active leaders of the Colorado Party. Only two political prisoners in Paraguay have ever been tried. But even in these cases the veneer of justice was thin.

Antonio Maidana was sen- tenced to two years, nine months in 1958, and Alfredo Alcorta got 12 months in the same year. Both are still in jail, nearly 15 years later. Decisions on the fate of prisoners rest entirely on Stroessner, since citizens can be retained on his personal order when a 'state of emer- gency' is in force. A state of emergency has since been in force ever Stroessner came to power in 1954. On September 10, 1970, the 'Law for the Defence of the Public Peace and Liberty of Persons' was passed. Article 4 of this law states: Whosoever publicly preaches hate between Paraguayans or the destruction of social classes will be sentenced to one to six years imprisonment.' Article 5 says: "Those who form an illegal organization of three or more members' will get three to six years, and leaders four to eight years.

Article 6 gives those who 'slander or falsely accuse' the President, the executive or the Supreme Court, three to six om years. Article 7 provides for one to four years for 'showing contempt for any of the sym- bols of the Republic' Article 8: Any contact with 'any Communist Party or organization', including letting them, results in rooms to sentences of up to five years.

Articles 9-15 provide for savage penalties for kidnapping.

Article 16 gives up to four years in addition to any other penalty for 'inciting mobs'

CONTINUED TOMORROW

NOTÉBOOK EEC: BICKERING

The Tories are always howling about the days lost through industrial disputes. Last year's total was the highest since the Strike. The 1926 General strikes were of the Tories, a direct result policy of con- frontation with the unions and their hated anti-union laws.

Figures have just been pub- lished showing that there were 35 million working days lost through mental ill-health and stress last year. This compares with the 24 million days lost through industrial disputes in the same period. mounting toll of in- The dustrial accidents could largely be blamed on 'human failings kind' of a psychological according to David Ennals, the former Labour Health Minister.

Research showed eight out of ten accidents were due to this, he said. What was often dismissed as 'being accident- prone' might conceal chronic anxiety. Ennals, a prospective MP at th election, is now the next director of a mental health campaign called MIND. He was a notorious right winger in the Wilson government and was known as its 'Spiro Agnew' because of his attacks on the 'work shy'. After releasing statistics of accidents and ill-health in industry, Ennals appealed to business executives to get more concerned with the problem.

'It is a challenge manage- ment cannot afford to ignore, he said, 'particularly if we are to achieve the output results necessary for effective com- petition within the Common Market.'

CASH-REGISTER

Andrew Sinclair, writing in 'World Medicine', gives a grisly view of private health in the United States. When I had appendicitis over there, I saw a woman untreated for 40 minutes after being rushed in by ambulance while the receptionist rang round her relatives trying to find somebody to guarantee her hospital bills. She dead before a was cousin said he'd cough up.

WORKERS

I've been turned away with a haemorrhaging wife in Oregon because the doctor said he of woulan t ureal ner — lear student youth, fear of lawsuit, fear of not being paid. Individually, American doc- tors and surgeons are humane, kind. But as a pack cucicl. or a Medical Association, with of hearts accomas uusienon and cash registers for stetho- scopes And always the four charity beds in a hospital for 400 paying patients, just Hippocrates Lo tve. isn't a dead oath...

BULK

The middle and upper class are finding one way to cushion the prices. enect o usner

BIOOC

They buying in bulk. are This bulk-buying is creating Mr Will a mini-bonanza for Cassel of the Stockport-based, Cordon Bleu Freezer Food Centres. His customers aren't buying the 1 lb and 2 Ib bags of peas that are on sale in your local supermarket. C cost bring 10 lb bags, the cost which 1S revealed. of the Because increased trade, Mr Cassel is putting £500,000 an expansion

NILO

programme, including the open- ing of two new frozen food supermarkets.

TAKE-OVER

Is there no end to the growth of monopolies? Clarks Cereal Products, the Dagenham-based 'Butterkist' popcorn group, has just taken over its only rival' - Pims Popcorn scilous of Wembley. Negotiations for the take. over of Pims, a subsidiary of Watney Mann, began April. General sales at Mr J. K. Butterkist, Lewis. said: 'We expect to improve the product of Pims Popcorn and give it wider distribution has than it white us ex- main perienced, our objective will continue to De the expansion of our own product.? Next thing we can expect a takeover of the streetcorner chestnut vendor.

BOOKS

BY TROTSKY

Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37$p Problems of the British Revolution Paperback 35p : Lessons of October Paperback 60p In Defence of the October Revolution Pamphlet 15p Marxism and the Trade Unions Pamphlet 25p Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International Pamphlet 10p Postage: 10p per book, 5p per pamphlet.

Order from: NEW PARK PUBLICATIONS 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG

US ROUND-UP BY IAN YEATS

The nine-nation Common Market is to make a formal complaint to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

(GATT)

about United States measures which they claim favour ex- porters. Through the Domestic and International Sales Corpora- tion (DISC), US exporters re- ceive special tax deferments on profits earned from sales abroad. The EEC countries are Rises in food and agri- cultural products prices have forced a steep in- crease in the US Whole- sale Prices Index. The Index rose by 1.3 per in January-an increase described by business obser- 'alarming. In Decem- ber the Index shot up by 1.8 per cent. Prices of food items as a whole went up by 3.7 per cent in the month including live- stock, poultry, vegetables, wheat. eggs, milk and The Index now stands at 7.1 per cent above its level for January 1972, according to the figures issued by the latest Bureau of Labour Statistics.

By the end of this month, food prices will have risen by 8 per cent for the year. Hazen Gale, a food econo- mist with the Agriculture De- partment said: 'By spring the pace may ease as meat supplies increase above a year earlier.'

The steep rises give the lie to Nixon's claims that Phase Two of his economic pro- gramme has kept prices in check. Phase Three imposes no con- trols on farm food prices and Nixon hopes to depress prices by the unlikely tactic of urg- ing farmers to raise output.

Workers Press, Tuesda arguing that the DISC system is incompatible with GATT.

If their complaint is not up- he held, they could take retalia- tory action in a further step down the slope to trade war.

The Common Market coun- tries say DISC is a tax exemp- tion which violates GATT.

The US insists that it only gives an advantage to home- • companies to bring based them up to the level of those which sell through foreign- based subsidiaries. Meanwhile the US Tarifi Commission has exonerated multi-national companies from "destructive, predatory' poli- cies likely contribute to After raining more explo- sives than in any other war in history onto the heads of the long-sufier- ing North Vietnamese the US government is offering them aid for re.

construction. With consummate cynicism Nixon has offered to partici- pate in a joint commission with the North Vietnamese to consider and finance some of the rebuilding of the country.

A White House statement said that commission the • 'de- would be charged with veloping the economic rela- 3S, Tuesday February 20, 1973

PAGE 9

materially to the world cur- rency crisis. Nevertheless the Commis- sion revealed that the short- term liquid assets held by institutions on the private international finance scene reached the staggering total of $268,000m at the end of 1971 twice as much as central banks and world monetary institutions controlled at the same time. With such huge resources at their disposal it was not surprising that even a rela- tively small movement of funds could turn an incipient crisis into a thoroughgoing one. tions with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the United States' • The agreement between the two sides follows Dr Henry Kissinger's visit to Hanoi. No firm aid figure has been is publicly disclosed, but last autumn Nixon mentioned $7,500m to be divided equally between north and south Vietnam. Nixon is determined to ex- ploit the mood of relief brought about by the formal end of the Vietnam war and Kissinger was despatched to Peking last week to further develop relations there. The effort is primarily direc- ted at the creation of bilateral trade links.

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Tuesday February 20, 1973

BBC 1

9.38 Schools. 12.30 Ar y trywydd. 12.55 News. 1.00 Pebble Mill al one. 1.30 Andy Pandy. 1.45 Ask the family. 2.05 Schools. 2.50 Sixteen plus. 3.15 Gardeners' world. 4.40 French chef. 4.10. Play school. 4.35 Jackanory. 4.50 Viaduct. 5.10 John Craven's newsround. 5.15 Vision 5.40 Wombles. 5.45 News. Weather.

on.

6.00 NATIONWIDE. 6.45 LAUREL AND HARDY.

7.05 FILM: 'HAPPY EVER AFTER'. David Niven, Yvonne De Carlo, Barry Fitzgerald. British comedy.

8.30 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS? No Hiding Place. 9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS. Weather.

9.25 DOCUMENTARY: 'THE BIG SCREEN'. John Schlesinger and Gerald Thomas are two film directors seen at work in this documentary.

10.15 FILM 73. 10.45 MIDWEEK. 11.30 NEWS.

11.35 VIEWPOINT.

: a green hope in our desert. Lanza del Vasto, friend of Gandhi. 11.55 Weather.

ITV

9.30 Schools. 10.30 This week (London 12.05 only). 11.00 Schools. Mr. Trimble. 12.25 Pinky and Perky. 12.40 First report. 1.00 Lunch- time with Wogan. 1.30 Emmerdale farm. 2.00 Harriet's back in town. 2.30 Good afternoon. 3.00 About Britain. 3.25 Kate.

4.25 Junior show- time. 4.50 Magpie. 5.20 | dream of Jeannie. 5.50 News.

6.00 TODAY. 6.40 CROSSROADS.

7.05 WHICKER'S SOUTH SEAS. If We were Over-confident We'd Be Dead. 7.35 MCMILLAN AND WIFE. Terror Times Two.

9.00 DOCUMENTARY: "THE SEARCH FOR REVENGE'. Looking for Francis Drake's flagship in the Atlantic.

10.00 NEWS AT TEN. 10.30 PLAYHOUSE. A Point in Time.

11.20 PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING. 12.05 ANYTHING TO SAY?

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.50 Open University.

6.40 OFFICE. Organisation.

7.05 OPEN UNIVERSITY. 7.30 NEWS. Weather.

7.35 COLLECTOR'S WORLD. 8.05 INTERNATIONAL TENNIS. lie Nastase v Stan Smith. 9.00 POT BLACK. 9.25 PLAY: 'EVELYN'. By Rhys Adrian. With Edward Woodward, Angela Scoular.

10.15 LEAP IN THE DARK. Pendulums and Hazel Twigs: Telepathy.

10.40 THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST. Strawbs, Judee Sill.

11.15 NEWS EXTRA. Weather.

UNTA THAMES GAS BOARD

PLEASE

KEEP THESE

GATES CLEAR

YOUR EMERGENCY SEPTI

Do you get WORKERS PRESS regularly? If not, why not take out a subscription now? £20.28 for 12 months (312 Issues) {10.14 for 6 months (156 Issues) £5.07 for 3 months (78 Issues) If you want to lake Workers Press twice a week the rates are: 1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) 6.24 for 12 months (96 issues Fill in the form below NOW and send to : Circulation Dept. , Workers Press, 186a Clapham High St., London SW4 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

MONDAY

Days required

THURSDAY

(Piease tick)

TUESDAY

FRIDAY

WEDNESDAY

SATURDAY

Or Full subscription (six days) for ..months. Name Address amount enclosed f Rodney Bewes (left) as Bob and James to the Likely Lads' on BBC 1

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL: 9.30-12.00

London. 1.15 News. 1.30 London. 2.30 Women. 3.00 London. 4.20 Lottery. 4.25 5.20 Partridge family. 5.50 London. 6.00 News. Lookaround. Crossroads. 7.00 Whicker.

7.30 Film: 'Destination Gobl'. 9.00 London. 12.05 News, weather.

WESTWARD.

As Channel except: 12.05 London. 12.20 Gus Honeybun. 12.40 London. 12.57 News. 1.00 Lon- don. 6.00 Diary. 12.02 News. 12.05 Faith for life. SOUTHERN: 9.30 London. 12.04 News.

12.05 London. Cartolouse party. 00 3.00 London. 5.20 Cartoon. roads. 5.50 London. 6.00 Day by day.

€.35 Junkin. 7.05 Doctor in charge. 7.35 McMillan and wife. 9.00 London.

12.05 News. 12.15 Weather. Guideline.

HARLECH: 9.30 London. 2.30 House- London. Chuckle- heads: 5.25 Crossroads. 3.50 London.

6.01 Report West. 6.18 Report Wales.

6.35 Try for ten. 7.05 Film: Saddle Tramp'. 8.30 Whicker. 9.00 London.

10.30 A point in time. 1l.20 London.

12.05 Looking at . . . 12.35 Weather.

HTV Cymru/Wales as above except: Fight rising rents and prices Defend basic democratic rights Force the Tories to resign BRIXTON: Tuesday February 20, Training Centre, 8 p.m. Brixton Control Room. 'No state control of wages'. LIVERPOOL: Tuesday February 20, 7.30 p.m. AEU House, Mount Pleasant. DAGENHAM: Tuesday February 20, 8 p.m. Barking Co-op Hall, Fanshawe Avenue. 'Defend basic rights'. SKELMERSDALE: Tuesday Feb- ruary 20, 7.30 p.m. Quarry Bank.

'Forward to the Pageant'.

EAST LONDON: Tuesday Feb- 'Festival Inn' ruary 20, ', Chrisp 'Common E.14. Market Street, Conspiracy. LANCASTER: Wednesday Feb- bruary 21, 8 p.m. Trades Hall, Fenton Street (near GPO). 'Stop basic rights.. On Rents. Defend retreat WINSFORD: Wednesday February 21, 8 p.m. 'Wheatsheaf Hotel'.

LANGLEY: Wednesday February 21, 8 p.m. 'Cardinal's Hat, Wood Street. 'Defend Democratic Rights.

Forward to the Pageant. PRESTON: Wednesday February 21, 7.30 p.m. "Waterloo Hotel Friargate. The Road to Workers' Power' WOOLWICH: Wednesday Feb- ruary 21, 8 p.m. 'The Castle' Powis Street, , S.E.18. 'The Crisis of leadership'. TOTTENHAM: Wednesday Feb- 'Bricklayers ruary 21, 8 p.m. Arms', High Road, near White . 'The case for a La- Hart Lane. bour government pledged to socialist policies'

TODAY'S TV

nd James Bolam as Terry are in another epi.

4.25-4.35 Miri mawr. 4.35-4.50 Canta- mil. dydd. 10.30-11.00 Ar 12.05 World gelyn. in action. HTV West as above except: 6.18-6.35 Report west. Amen. 3.00 on. 4:20 News 4045 London. 5.20_Cartoons. 5.35 Wind in the willows. 5.50 London. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Whicker.

7.30 McCloud. 9.00 London.

ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30

London. 2.30 Women. 3.00 London. 5.20 Osmonds. Cartoon. London. million'. 12.15 lan Phelps. Weather.

ULSTER: 11.00 London. 1.32 News.

1.40 London. 3.00 2.40 Romper room. London. 4.22 News. 4.25 London. 5.20 Emmerdale farm. 5.50 London. 6.00 Reports. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Cartoon.

7.10 McMillan and wife. 8.30 Whicker.

9.00 London. 9.30 London. 2.30 5.20 Here's Lucy. Calendar. Weather. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 STEVENAGE: Thursday _February 22, 8 p.m. 'Red Lion' , Stevenage Old Town. 'Support the gasmen'.

LEWISHAM: Thursday February 22, 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers Club. New (opposite Cross station). HACKNEY: Thursday February 22, 8 p.m. Parlour Room, Cen- tral Hall, opposite Town Hall, Mare Street. WILLESDEN: Thursday February 22, 8 p.m. Labour and Trades Hall, High Road, N.W.10. 'Road to Workers' Power'. SCUNTHORPE: Sunday February 25, 7.30 p.m. The Kingsley Hall, Cole Street. BASILDON: Sunday February 25, 5.20 p.m. Barnstable Community Centre. to Workers' 'Road Power'. WANDSWORTH: Monday Feb- ruary 26, 8 p.m. 'King's Arms', High Street, S.W.18. 'Defend the right to work'. WATFORD: Monday February 26, 8 p.m. Trade Union Hall, Wood- ford Road, near Watford Junc- 'Rise of fascism in tion Station. Italy. ACTON: Tuesday February 27, 8 p.m. Coop Hall, High Road, 'Forward to the Pageant -The Road to Workers' Power'.

CLAPHAM: Tuesday February 27, 8 p.m. Clapham Manor Baths, Clapham Manor Street, S.W.4.

'Defend Democratic Rights'.

Socialist Labour Le SHEFFIELD: Monday March 5, 8 p.m. YS PREMISES, Porto- bello (near Jessops hospital).

The Revolutionary Party in Britain'. other episode of 'Whatever Happened Cool milion. 9.003 7.30 Cartoon. 7.35 million. London. 12.15 Scotland Yard mysteries. 12.50 Weather.

GRANADA: 9.30 London. 2.30

•COT-

lecting on a shoestring. 2.55 London. 5.15 Primus. 5.50 London. 6.00 News.

Police file. 6.35 Smith family. 7.05 London. 7.35 Film: "The Astronaut'. 9.00 London. 10.30 A point in time.

11.15 London. TYNE TEES: 9.25 Our total well be- ing. 9.30 London. 2.30 News. 2.31 3.00 Kreskin. London. 5.20 Jackson five. 5.50 London. 6.00 Today. 6.35 Crossroads. 7.00 Whicker. 7.35 Cool million. 9.00 London. 12.05 News. 12.25 Lectern. SCOTTISH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Date- London. 5.25 Crossroads. Adam Smith. Whicker. McCloud. 9.00 London. 12.04 Late call.

GRAMPIAN:

10.58 London. 1.38 Schools. 2.35 Cartoon. 2.52 News. 3.00 Emmerdale farm. London. 5.20 5.50 London. 6.00 News. 6.05 Doris Day. Crossroads. Whicker. 7.35 Cool million. 9.00 Lon- don. 12.05 Meditation. CAMDEN: Tuesday February 27, 'Prince Albert', Wharfe- 8 p.m. dale Road, Kings Cross. 'Les- of fighting the Housing sons Finance Act'. HARROW: Tuesday February 27, 8 p.m. Labour Hall, Wealdstone.

'All out for Wembley Pageant'.

TOOTING: Tuesday February 27, 8 p.m. 'Selkirk_Hotel', Selkirk Tooting Broadway: 'The Road, rise of Italian Fascism'.

DERBY: Thursday, March . 1, 7.30 p.m. Metal Mechanics' Premises, Charnwood Street.

CROYDON : Thursday March 1, 8 p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe Road. 'Support the gasmen' HOLLOWAY: Thursday March 1, 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, Seven Sisters Finsbury Road (near Park Station). 'Marxism and the trade unions'. KINGSTON: Thursday March 1, 8 p.m. 'Liverpool Arms', Cam- 'Support the gas- bridge Road. men and hospital workers'.

GLASGOW: Wednesday, Febru- ary 21, 7.30 p.m. Woodside Hall, St George's Cross. PADDINGTON: Tuesday February 27, 27, 8 p.m. 'Prince of Wales' of Harrow Road and corner eant Great Western Road. ver'. KIRKBY: Tuesday February 27, 8 p.m. Southdene Community Centre, off Broad Lane. 'Crisis of capitalism and the future of the trade unions'. our League Lectures GLASGOW: Sunday, February 25, 7.30 p.m. WOODSIDE HALL, George's Cross. 1933-1938.

From the German defeat to the Fourth International. Speaker: Tom Kemp.

Manchester hospital workers on strike course

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS

WORKERS at one of the north's largest and most militant hospitals say they will strike in ten days time whether their union call them out or not. Porters, kitchen staff and other an- cillary workers are certain to be among the very first to take action when the selective strike campaign called by hospital unions begins on March 1.

A day after National Union of Public Em- leader Alan Fisher announced the ployees' the Manchester Royal Infirmary campaign, told me they wanted an all-out workers national stoppage. Kitchen staff shop steward David McIntyre (22) told me: 'We disagree with the selec- David Mcintyre (left) and tive strike policy. We all Tommy voted here for all-out action Turnbull . did in the ballot-as the young and old of hospital workers. majority determined to But Fisher has come along strike. decided for and selective action. What was the ballot for?' king-just to get anywhere near Dave and his militant col- decent money. We want all this leagues the Manchester scrapped and a good basic." Royal's kitchen pointed out that The policy of the Tory gov- selective strikes would not have fierce discussion causes ernment enough effect man- a surule the kitchen staff canteen. agement. There are a couple of Tories on also said it would tend They staff (100 per cent behind split Some to the ranks. up the strike nevertheless!, but the staff would be drawing money vast majority of workers bitterly while others would be in the condemn the state pay laws. front line fighting. "This farce,' is a freeze said The workers also are angry older worker Tommy Turnbull, advanced about the warning given by the unions. At Man- chester Royal trouble has been brewing for some time. One-day strikes have been held already. 'Management been has pre- this for weeks now. paring for Supplies of tinned food have been doubled and the manage- ment plans to do the cooking in the wards. If we had of struck without warning they would not have got this advan- tage, said George Rogerson. FITTERS and service work- Like the the 500 gas men ers at the Linacre gasworks, ancillary workers at Manchester Royal have endured low Liverpool, are entering the pay and bad conditions in peace for fourth week of their strike Many still too dis- "substantial' pay in- for a appointed that the £8 original crease. claim mooted in early days of Only the General and Muni- the conflict with management has been abandoned. cipal Workers' Union members Dave McIntyre told me that are acting officially. his take-home pay for 60 hours the plant group. picketing was as little as £24. Basic rates Workers talked Press to for the kitchen staff around the are seriousness of the present £16 take-home, and £14 for the with confrontation the govern- porters. the best way forward. ment and 'You can't live decently J. Windrow, a member of the this kind of money' Dave. said plumbers' union, which has not You are forced into overtime made the strike official, said the six-day and even seven-day wor- unions should call out the pro- duction workers. 'We will achieve nothing by ourselves. We only holding are up the North Sea gas conversions.

There must be unity among gas- working-to-rule and workers one-day strikes will not win "The only way is to get rid of a the Tories. That will need General Strike. proposition of the Pay 'The FORTY registered trade unions Board The is rubbish. men have accepted wouldn't accept it. They want an invitations to a meeting aimed at forming answer in money terms. Like their organization other workers, he was own strong enough to have a say in prices concerned about the operation of and wages talks with the govern- private contractors. E McGraw, said a full strike ment. The meeting has been called at in the gas industry was the only Warwick March to win. Another plumber, on way Coventry-based Union of Sales Jimmy said: 'We General Technical Representatives and need a and a to win.' General Election Agents, which suggested that the He said that fitters and main- new organization should be the Federation of workers on the known as tenance produc- Registered Trade Unions. tion side out for the first came Mr Jack Ogden, general secre- day of their strike. But the union tary, said yesterday that delegates got them back to work. the meeting at the University "They come out if the would of Warwick would represent blue union called them,' he said. (The white-collar production are present as well as unions. men at The registered bodies working-to-rule.) con- Kennedy said: 'We need an cerned do not include any of the strike of production and bigger unions. all-out i I went into a shop the other day for a bottle of Lucozade- then I saw a bottle in another shop 1.5p dearer. It's no use nothing is ever complaining, done. Everyone knows that prices have gone sky high since the freeze.' Denis Wheatley said that the example of the gasworkers had caused militancy to increase in the National Health Service.

"They are low paid as well,'

BY OUR OWN

CORRESPONDENT

everything. On our own we are really not effective. «The work-to-rule in the gas plant is having no effect.'

He also complained about pri-

MERTHYR

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22

8pm AUEW Hall, Swan Street Speaker: G. HEALY (SLL National Sec)

WANDSWORTH

THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 22,

8pm Wandsworth Town Hall Wandsworth High Street speaker: MIKE BANDA (SLL Central Ctiee)

BRADFORD

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22,

7.30 p.m. Central Library Top of Hall Ings. Speaker: Cliff Slaughter (SLL Central Committee)

CASTLEFORD

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25,

6.30 p.m. Castleford Civic Hall. Ferry Bridge Road Speaker: C. SLAUGHTER (SLL Central Committee)

BIRMINGHAM

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25, 7pm Digbeth, Civic Hall Digbeth, Birmingham Workers Press, Tuesday he said, "This is the first strike they have ever had. They've been like us—plodding along and doing nothing-but you don't get anything unless you fight for it, said Denis. "The gasworkers have given the lead. Soon we will be with them. I think all the unions be- ing attacked by this government should come together and sort it out once and for all' • See London Interviews p. 12.

work in vate contractors doing the industry. Some of these private jobs were being done- at a handsome profit-by ex-Gas Board bosses. Another striker added: 'We General Strike from a Land's End to John O'Groats.'

speaker: MIKE BANDA (SLL Central Cttee)

SOUTHAMPTON

MONDAY FEBRUARY 26, 8 p.m.

Marlands Hall Havelock Road opp. Civic Centre Speaker: ALAN THORNETT (Deputy Senior Steward Morris Motors in a personal capacity)

OXFORD

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 27

8 p.m. Clarendon Institute Walton Speaker: G. HEALY (SLL National Secretary)

MEDWAY

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 27, 8pm Aurora Hotel Brompton Road Gillingham • speaker: MIKE BANDA (SLL Central Cttee)

SLOUGH

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 28

8pm Britwell Community Centre Long Furlong Drive Britwell Estate speaker: G HEALY (SLL National Sec) • Tuesday February 20, 1973 PAGE 11 ASTMS, Britain's largest white- collar union, will stage a pro- test lobby outside the London headquarters of ICI on March The union has been demanding organizing and bargaining rights in the company during a pro- longed struggle. Association general secretary Clive Jenkins is demanding a meeting with ICI chairman Jack Caliard to resolve the conflict.

A spokesman said the union would fight 'tooth and nail' to get representation and the March 19 lobby could be followed by stoppages.

DAGENHAM

THURSDAY MARCH 1, 8pm Manor Park Library Romford Rd/Rabbitts Road opp Rabbitts Pub speaker: G HEALY (SLL National Sec)

HULL

THURSDAY MARCH 1, 8 p.m. 'Windmill Hotel' Witham Speaker: CLIFF SLAUGHTER (SLL Central Cttee)

WEST LONDON

THURSDAY MARCH 1, 8 p.m. Lyndhurst Hall Grafton Road, NW3 Speaker: M. BANDA (SLL Central Committee)

LUTON

FRIDAY MARCH 2, 8 p.m. Assembly Hall Town Hall Speaker: M. BANDA (SLL Central Committee)

TOTTENHAM

TUESDAY MARCH 6, 8 p.m. Lord Morrison Hall Chesnut Grove Speaker: G. HEALY (SLL National Secretary)

90 per cent of ancillary workers earn £16 a week Low-pay revolt bursts onto the hospital scene PAGE 12 Workers Press, Tuesday Fi NINETY per cent of hospital £16 a week it was revealed yest strikes due to begin on March steward at London's Whitting week today 'before you can eve Even then, including Satur- day and Sunday work, hospi- staff would only take tal home £21 to keep themselves and their families. Laundry driver Mr van David Smart told me: 'This strike is really over those on £16 a week. There are people who could get £15 on national assistance, so why come here for an extra £1? *I think the government is at fault. The Tories have got their priorities all wrong. It is all very well to talk in terms of per- centages, but there is a consider- able difference between a man earning £20 and a man earning 20 grand. "They have got to talk in terms which mean something to the lower paid. 'You've got your wife coming up to you every day now saying something has gone up. What can 'The Tories seem to be very clever at saying no to the lower paid, yet look at the tremendous rises they gave themselves.

'We don't want to come out on strike. Very few can afford it.

But the feeling is that there is nothing else to do Already the accusations are beginning to fly in the Tory Press the hospital ancillary that workers are behaving irrespon- sibly. We care But, said Mr Smart: 'We would not work in hospitals if we did not care for people. It is a bit hard to say we are striking to make people suffer. "The ancillary workers paid. They are not greedy. They are coming out on strike for the wage they need to survive. For- These get about percentages. people need £25 a week to live As the 220,000 workers pre- pare for selective strike action from March 1, many are worried the unions will not act decisively to halt scabbing and victimization. Driver Michael Bowman told me: Last time we had a strike, the local vicar turned up with 20 people. By the evening there were 30 to 40 more. There were more people than jobs.' He added: 'Management saw me handing out leaflets and the next thing I knew I had lost my Saturday work.' The belief is widespread that anything short of a total national stoppage will open the door to scabbing and victimization.

Workers complain that during their last strike members of other unions did their jobs and Mr Jewell said this time they wan- ted guarantees from their unions and the lUC that this would not happen. Women workers at the hos- pital left no doubt that they SHOP STEWARDS leaders from engineering plants in London and the south-east yesterday called for a mass lobby of the March 5 recalled TUC and for a one-day strike on May 1. George Guy, secretary of the Union, Sheet Metal Workers' failed as chairman to put to the meeting a motion calling on the TUC to mobilize an indefinite General Strike to force the Tories to resign. Tuesday February 20, 1973

BY IAN YEATS

lospital ancillary workers take hom led yesterday on the eve of a wave of • March I. Mr. James Jewell, G&M hittington hospital, claims you ne can even think about the cost of liv could not go on much longer without bigger pay packets, and raised prices, ranging trom rents to beef, were cited angrily.

But_like the drivers thes fear the effect of rolling strikes will be broken by volunteers. 'We don't mind striking' a cleaner told me, 'but we want to be sure we've got proper or- ganization and backing. We are only labourers. They could sack us tomorrow and we don't want to end up outside.' The intensity of anti-Tory feeling among hospital workers, triggered by steep cost-of-living increases, is at white heat.

But all eyes turned are anxiously on the leaderships of the four hospital unions to see how they will measure up to the Tory pay challenge. • See north-west interviews page 11. WORKERS in the north-east may strike for one-day in sup- port of engineers sitting in at Coles Cranes, Sunderland.

At a mass meeting of Coles Cranes men yesterday sheet- metal workers' official Arthur Tarn said that if management did not concede to the wor- kers' demands, district-wide strike action might have to be proposed. The 2,500 Coles Cranes men occupying their have been plant for eight weeks.. This followed the Swiss chairman ‹e home a paltry wave of selective , G&MWU shop Women ancillary wo you need £25 a hospital angrily st of living'. beef, 1o justify th packets. THE BONUS dispute between lorr Services in the Midlands entered it the union ranks unbroken.

The dispute has paralyzed the Midlands car and car cor- ponents industry and British- Leyland, BRS'S biggest single customer, claims to have pro- duction losses of more than £35m. Albert Caldicott, shop steward from the Bromford Lane depot, said: 'We are sticking out for the £2.50. We're not prepared to go William Alphonse de Vigire's announcement of 300 redun- dancies without consultation.

The workers also heard of international support from the International Federation of Chemical Workers who will hinder the raise money and flow of the group's products if management does not settle.

APEX (clerical workers') official John Creavy, said: 'We will not give in in this fight.

We are fighting for workers in this group, all the Unite in a

ACTON

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 20

8 p.m. Woodlands Hall Crown Street Snaker G HEALY (SLi natrenal secretary! ıcillary workers at London's Whittington ngrily cite raised prices, trom rents to justify their demand for bigger pay veen lorry drivers and British Road ntared its third week yesterday with back for anything with strings attached.' At Cheapside depot, , drivers said they thought that BRS man- agement was going on the offen- sive in the bonus fight. was Management, they said, preparıng to. make conditions worse than they were before the dispute began. Basically, manage- ment is demanding that average miles an hour should increase.

Aidan Lee, steward at the BRS Contract department, remarked: "This would make drivers a menace on the road.' The p roposed schedules would mean men working I1 hours a day. This would break the pre- sent national agreement. Harry Shorter, secretary of the 5/538 branch, said: 'We are struggling for an eight-hour day and we're not going back for an 11-hour day. 'We want the £2.50 merit allowance as recognition of our skill.' The men scoffed at the claims by BRS managing director Mr Kenneth Cook that some depots might be closed because of the dispute. They said the closures had been threatened for a long time and were not directly con- nected with the bonus dispute.

action to defend basi

WANDSWORTH

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22,

8pm Wandsworth Town Hall Wandsworth High Street speaker: MIKE BANDA (SLL Central Committee) Press

FEBRUARY

FUND NEEDS

IN 9 DAYS

IT IS a tough battle ahead.

need to raise approximately £116.08 each day between now and the end of February to com- plete our £1,750 target. We urge you all, dear readersthere not a moment to lose. We must not, on any account, sit back. We • know that each month so far, we have always pulled through. But in this poli- tical situation, let's leave noth- ing to chance. While the Tories prepare a snap election to try and bring in even harsher attacks against the working class, the trade union leaders remain on their knees. Workers Press is needed more than ever today to expose this reformist treacherous leader- ship. They will never take up the fight against this Tory gov- ernment. Our paper must used to build a revolutionary alternative to lead workers all over the country and to force this government to resign.

Back us up all the way. Make a very special effort and turn the situation for February's Fund. Collect extra amounts where possible. Rush all dona- tions immediately to:

WORKERS PRESS

FEBRUARY APPEAL FUND,

186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG. TALKS this week could end a two-week strike by clerks at the SOGAT headquarters in Balham, London. Father of the 16-man chapel, Mr. Brian Clarke, said yesterday strike for a 'sub- they were on stantial pay rise' to bring them in line with cost-of-living in- creases. All overtime has ended follow- ing the streamlining of work practices in the printing union's offices and the men claim their average £25-a-week take-home pay is no more than they were earning two years ago. Clarke yesterday Mr. said that they were hoping a compro- mise settlement would emerge this week to end the strike.

CAMBRIDGE

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25 •

Mawson Hall Mawson Rd

SPECIAL SHOWING OF

'RIGHT TO WORK' FILM

RALLY, 3 p.m. Speaker: Maureen Bambrick (YS Nat. Cttee) Registered as a newspaper at the Office. Published Workers Post by Press, 186a Clapham High Street, London, sW4 7UG Printed Plough Press Ltd. (TU), 180b Clap- ham High Stret 20don. reulation: Newsdesk: 01-720 2000. 01-622 7029. basic rights

BRADFORD

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22.

7.30 p.m. Ceniral Library Top of Hall Ings. Speaker: • Cliff Slaughter (SLi Central Committee)