Workers Press no. 1003

workers press

MAKE THE TORY GOVERNMENT RESIGN

LOBBY THE TUC

ON MARCH 5th

DAILY ORI

'THE choice is simple. If you can't abide the government's policies and you can't change those policies, then you must change the government.

And that must mean the Trades Union Congress calling a General Strike. But if you shrink from such action, then you must have courage to admit you can't defeat the government. THE STATEMENTS by right wing miners union President Joe Gormley in last Sunday's "News of the World' and in his speech the previous Thursday, are a challenge to intimidate the 'left' in Britain. He has no more intention of mobi- lizing the working class in a General Strike than he ever had. His speech was made a few moments after he and the majority of his executive. had decided not to fight the government on the miners' wage claim.

At all costs Gormley, TUC secretary Victor Feather and the right wing seek to avoid the approaching and inevitable confrontation between the Tory govern- ment and the working class. And if they cannot avoid it, they are determined that the working class, under their leadership, will be defeated. But this does not alter the fact that the choice facing the working class is just what Gormley says it is. No one can avoid the question he has raised. How- ever, this has been situation ever since the autumn of 1970, when the Tory Government first introduced the draft of the Industrial Relations Bill.

At that time, and ever since, Gormley and the whole trade-union leadership fought bitterly against the policy of a General Strike to bring down the Tories, a policy advanced only by the Socialist Labour League. What is behind Gormley's statement?

He deliberately tries to give the impres- sion that he might himself favour a general strike. But the News of the World' is not in the habit of issuing calls to industrial action, let alone a strike to bring down the government.

Gormley's In the background of statement is the rapid development of revolutionary confrontation between the working class and the capitalist class, led by Heath's government.

The Tory government has created situation in which the ordinary working find it im- and women of Britain men possible to live. The rising costs to which Gormley refers are much worse than he knows. Together with the state-controlled cuts in real wages, under Phase Two' and *Phase Three', and the abolition of col-

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER

• WEDNESDAY

ILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

lective bargaining, these rising prices mean that millions of decent working people are put in the position of being classed as criminals! Their normal way of living and defending themselves and their families have been placed outside the law! These are the ingredients of a revolu- tionary situation: the ruling class can no longer govern in the old way—it is forced to change laws which have existed for generations: and the mass of the people can no longer continue to live in the same way. It is in this situation that Gormley and the right wing issue their challenge.

It must be resolutely accepted.

Gormares intention is to put rade-inion trade-union so squarely to the leaders that they will be scared stiff into following the right wing. But these 'lefts' do not need any persuading. At no time in their history have they ever set out to lead the against its working class enemy, and they will betray in 1973 just as they have always done.

One section of workers after another in the last few years has learned in strug- gle that these leaders always run to the employers. Today all these trade union leaders, supported by the Labour 'left' and the Communist Party Stalinists are discussing one thing and one thing only: how to head off the revolution. In their circles, they see the entry into the struggle of millions of workers not as a great oppor- tunity to mobilize for bringing down the Tory government, but as a disturbing and Pickets at the Hind

ONESDAY FEBRUARY 21, 1973 •

No 1003 4p

MMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEA

frightening development which at all costs they must prevent. Their intention at the Special TUC on March 5 is to divert and divide the working class, not to organize to bring down the Tory government.

The Stalinists will help them with pro- posals for one-day protest actions which dissipate the strength of the working class and leave the Tories free to proceed.

In last Monday's 'Morning Star', the Communist Party compares the struggle over Phase Two with the strike actions which led to the freeing of the 'Penton- ville Five', remarking that the govern- to climb down'. ment had There is no question of the Tories climbing down because of protest actions.

The question is to organize a General Strike to create the industrial and poli- tical conditions to make the government resign. This will enable the working class to return a Labour government and insist on socialist policies, Nobody doubts the cowardly response of the fake left to Gormley's challenge.

NOT ONE OF THEM HAS DARED TO

ANSWER HIM! But the Trotskyist move.

ment will not shrink from it. These are hours of great danger, but also of great opportunity. The revolutionary movement can be built only through confronting pre- cisely such contradictions.

have organized the Pageant of Working-Class History on March 11 for this very reason: in 1973 the working class is brought face-to-face with all the accumulated problems and experience of its history of struggle. t the Hind Street depot, Sunderland.

IN

UR LEAGUE

Every reader and supporter -of the Workers Press and the SLL must work for the success of this Pageant.

All Trades Unions On March 5, the Alliance is calling for the maximum sup- port for the lobby of the Special TUC Conference, to demand that the movement close its ranks to bring about the defeat of the common enemy, the Tory govern- ment. Every basic right has been legis- lated is away! But the working class undefeated! There is only one way to fight!

• Mobilize the whole strength of the trade union and labour movement in a General Strike to create the conditions under which the Tory government must resign! • Return a Labour government, pledged to socialist policies: nationalization of all the banks, building societies and insurance and finance companies, as well as all major compensation industries, without and under workers' control. • Repeal immediately the Industrial Rela- tions Act, Housing Finance Act, Immigra- tion Act and all Tory anti-working-class legislation. • Build in every area Councils of Action to lead the fight against the Tory govern- bringing together trade unions, ment, tenants, housewives, unemployed, factory political parties of committees, all the working class (Labour Party, Communist Party, Socialist Labour League, etc)-all those in struggle against the Tories.

• Join the fight to transform the SLL into the alter- the revolutionary party, native working-class leadership!

• All out on March 5 to lobby the TUC in London and demand that they mobilize General Strike to make the Tory govern- ment resign! February 20, 1973. MILITANT gas workers in the north-east are angry about the limited impact of their nation- wide industrial action. They were expecting a walk- out by production workers when gas pressures reached minimum safety levels. Instead leaders of General and Municipal Workers' Union appear to have actually increased them, follow- ing talks with management.

They also fear that Press specu- lation about submitting their claim to the state pay board will be used to damp down militancy until Phase Two becomes law, allowing the union to be fined heavily for taking action.

Feeling at the Hind Street dis- tribution depot, Sunderland, is typical. *The feeling for an general, l-op strike is pretty shop steward Billy Beck told me.

workers press

MAKE THE TORY GOVERNMENT RESIGN

LOBBY THE TUC

ON MARCH 5th

DAILY OR

'THE choice is simple. If you can't abide the government's policies and you can't change those policies, then you must change the government.

And that must mean the Trades Union Congress calling a General Strike. But if you shrink from such action, then you must have the courage to admit you can't defeat the government'. THE STATEMENTS by right wing miners' union President Joe Gormley in last Sunday's 'News of the World' and in his speech the previous Thursday, are a challenge to intimidate the 'left' in Britain. He has no more intention of mobi- lizing the working class in a General Strike than he ever had. His speech a few moments after was made and the majority of his executive had decided not to fight the government on the miners' wage claim.

At all costs Gormley, TUC secretary Victor Feather and the right wing seek to avoid the approaching and inevitable confrontation between the Tory govern- ment and the working class. And if they cannot avoid it, they are determined that the working class, under their leadership, will be defeated. But this does not alter the fact that the choice facing the working class is just what Gormley says it is. No one can avoid the question he has raised. How- ever, this has been the situation ever since the autumn of 1970, when the Tory Government first introduced the draft of the Industrial Relations Bill.

At that time, and ever since, Gormley and the whole trade-union leadership fought bitterly against the policy of a General Strike to bring down the Tories, a policy advanced only by the Socialist Labour League. What is behind Gormley's statement?

He deliberately tries to give the impres- sion that he might himself favour a general strike. But the 'News of the World' is not in the habit of issuing calls to industrial action, let alone a strike to bring down the government.

In the of Gormley's background statement is the rapid development of revolutionary confrontation between the capitalist the working class and class, led by Heath's government.

The Tory government has created a situation in which the ordinary working and women of Britain find it im- men possible to live. The rising costs to which Gormlev refers are much worse than he knows. Together with the state-controlled cuts in real wages, under 'Phase Two' and 'Phase Three', and the abolition of col-

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY

ILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTE!

these lective bargaining, rising prices mean that millions of decent working the position of being people are put in classed as criminals! Their normal way of living and defending themselves their families have been placed outside the law! These are the ingredients of a revolu- tionary situation: the rulíng class can no longer govern in the old way—it is forced to change laws which have existed for generations: and the mass of the people can no longer continue to live in the same way. It is in this situation that Gormley and the right wing issue their challenge.

It must be resolutely accepted.

omares intention stat rade-inion so squarely to the trade-union leaders that they will be scared stiff into following the right wing. But these 'lefts' do not need any persuading. At no time in their history have they ever set out to lead the working class against its enemy, and they will betray in 1973 just as they have always done.

One section of workers after another in the last few years has learned in strug- gle that these leaders always run to the employers. Today all these trade union leaders, supported by the Labour 'left' and the Communist Party Stalinists are discussing one thing and one thing only: how to head of the revolution. In their circles, they see the entry into the struggle of millions of workers not as a great oppor- tunity to mobilize for bringing down the Tory government, but as a disturbing and Pickets at the Hind

ONESDAY FEBRUARY 21, 1973 •

No 1003 • 4p

MMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEA

frightening development which at all costs they must prevent. Their intention at the Special TUC on March 5 is to divert and divide the working class, not to organize to bring down the Tory government.

The Stalinists will help them with pro posals for one-day protest actions which dissipate the strength of the working class and leave the Tories free to proceed.

Star', the In last Monday's 'Morning Communist Party compares the struggle over Phase Two with the strike actions which led to the freeing of the 'Penton- ville Five', remarking that the govern- ment 'had to climb down'.

There is no question of the Tories climbing down because of protest actions.

is to The question a General organize Strike to create the industrial and poli- tical conditions to make the government resign. This will enable the working class to return a Labour government and insist on socialist policies, Nobody doubts the cowardly response of the fake left to Gormley's challenge.

NOT ONE OF THEM HAS DARED TO

ANSWER HIM! But the Trotskyist move.

ment will not shrink from it. These are hours of great danger, but also of great opportunity. The revolutionary movement can be built only through confronting pre- cisely such contradictions.

We have organized the Pageant of Working-Class History on . March 1l for this very reason: in 1973 the working class is brought face-to-face with all the accumulated problems and experience of its history of struggle. t the Hind Street depol, Sunderland.

UR LEAGUE

Every reader and the Sit must work and supporter of the Workers Press for the success of this Pageant.

All Trades Unions On March 5, the Alliance is calling for the maximum sup- port for the lobby of the Special TUC Conference, to demand that the movement close its ranks to bring about the defeat of the common enemy, the Tory govern- ment. Every basic right has been legis- lated away! But the working class is undefeated! There is only one way to fight!

• Mobilize the whole strength of the trade union and labour movement in a General Strike to create the conditions under which the Tory government must resign! • Return a Labour government, pledged industries, without compensation under workers' control. % • Repeal immediately the Industrial Rela- tions Act, Housing Finance Act, Immigra- tion Act and all Tory anti-working-class legislation. • Build in every area Councils of Action to lead the fight against the Tory govern- ment, bringing together trade unions, tenants, housewives, unemployed, factory committees, all political parties of the working class (Labour Party, Communist Party, Socialist Labour League, etc)-all those in struggle against the Tories.

• Join the fight to transform the SLL into the revolutionary party, the alter- native working-class leadership!

• All out on March 5 to lobby the TUC in London and demand that they mobilize General Strike to make the Tory govern- ment resign! February 20, 1973. MILITANT gas workers in the north-east are angry about the limited impact of their nation- wide industrial action. They were expecting a walk- out by production workers when gas pressures reached minimum safety levels. Instead leaders of General the and Municipal Workers' Union appear to have actually increased them, follow- ing talks with management. They also fear that Press specu- lation about submitting their claim to the state pay board will be used to damp down militancy until Phase Two becomes law, allowing the union to be fined heavily for taking action.

Feeling at the Hind Street dis tribution depot, Sunderland, is typical. "The feeling for an general, Sop strike is shop pretty steward Billy Beck told me.

Gold at record PAGE 2 Workers Press, Wednesday Fe IWO men on trial in Greece this week claimed they had been tortured and brutally beaten by military police.

Retired air force officer Anas- Minis (53) tassios and Dr Stefanos Pantelakis (43) were charged with setting up an un- derground resistance organization called 'Independence, Liberation and Resistance' and planting 19 bombs. They face possible life impris- onment. Dr Pantelakis objected to the second prosecution witness, Major Police Constantinos Klonaris, who he identified as one of his torturers. His objection was rejected by the court.

ALEXANDROS

PANAGOULIS,

in jall since 1968 charged with trying to kill Greek Premier George Papadopoulos, gone on hunger strike in soll- darity with the Athens students.

In another trial this week eight with insulting students charged the authorities were sentenced by a civil court to prison terms ranging from eight to 11 months, suspended for three, years.

They were charged following a demonstration of about 1,000 students at the Athens Poly- technic-Greece's main technical university — against legislation threatening students with call-up to the army if they boycotted classes.

AZCARATE,

MANUEL

Spanish Communist Party executive committee mem- written to the has ing ; their warm reception for 'so-called Spanish par- liamentarians'. This follows the recent EC criticizing East statement establishing Germany for diplomatic relations with Spain. The delegation visited War- saw in January and discussed, among other topics, establish- ment of diplomatic relations Warsaw and Madrid. between Azcarate describes the com- position of the Francoist con- led by the tingent: 'It was Coint of Mayalde who was General Head of Security (that is head of police) in some of the blqodiest periods of ter- ror. It included general Iniesta Cano, well-known head of the London market at all-time high Namibia: UN deal with Vorster? A SOUTH AFRICAN government Bill to $76 an oz impose full apartheid on Namibia (South- West Africa) in no way conflicted with the United Nations charter and would not surprise UN officials, according to premier Balthazar. Vorster. parliament during the second reading of the Bil that its general principles had been dis

BY FOREIGN EDITOR JOHN SPENCER

Alfred Escher, the UN

WILL

envoy who visited Namibia.

Escher's chief, general Kurt Wald- heim, tried to get the UN to accept a deal with THE price of gold on the London market reached an all-time record on the status of Namibia last year. The level yesterday. It was fixed in the morning at $76.10 an ounce, up colony was formerly a UN trust territory man- dated to South Afri 72g cents on Monday's closing price.

The demand for gold has risen even more behalf big Common the steeply-at one point acknowledge American multi-national last week the European which allow corporations wien LU Visa markets selling 50

WEIE

members over' •TOlE a dav-ive their gold against the dollar culmin- Officially dollar has its devaluation week devaluation for The been 20 per last rise in cent gold the This has the But in prepared way market clear indica. jasl fact its round of crises. just VORSTER... slapped into debate.

gold terms only just in 1967 the devaluation the cur- sterling led to The UN now claims that the mandate is void half was of a gene- rency crisis. demanded that the South African and has politely then. of. conndence is made Every currency paper money and run anothe South Afric gold has simply ignored them. Now imperialist- evCI TaCl has also against raising the dominated UN, in the interests of the big mining That the gold the The outcome of the run which official price from $38 to real of value and mineral companies. wants to settle the ques on gold at that time Was $42 an under Where institution of the two- tion with Vorster. complete passage gold free €1,000 tier market-a The Namibian black majority, which organized through all nearly 70 of gold market open strike against the contract labour a courageous Since 1971, 1968 the will peishe than win me on cia which gold was more has repeatedly demanded un- last ycal. the to sell 32 about buy interencence rule behind ounces. market. Has the UN done a deal with Vorster The Set up their backs to betray this demand?

in March 1908 free the has in- the two-tier system Neise. • Rhodesian freelance journalist Peter creasing markcl TOdE neunevadly DrOKeI Salisbury the basic down and the real worth none ques- the order, signed by Ministers of Justice Desmaid With solved by of the dollar and the free 580P ice trons , signed Minister of Justice Desmond being soaring DabCI alleged he would disturb or inter- ounce the assets in There is reason brutally asserted desolte fere with public order. effec- believe much of all the attempts to control central to are tively EEC farm Nixon confident of union support for trade war prices sent Nixon's Trade Bill, now on its

PRESIDENT

Nixon appeared confident yesterday of support way through Congress, pletely in line with the from the trade union bureaucracy haywire for his trade war against Japan ary policy they have long advo- and Europe. cated. Meany put He professed himself pleased number of orions to u with his visit Bal Harbour, to mee une it the torbecom op use in met the Florida, where he prob. trade talks with THE CURRENCY crisis has created so many live committee One A LaU competitors in closed session. Une casuanst lems for the Common Market that its system of farm of the US. The AFL-CIO, led by George prices will have to be completely reassessed.

believed Meany, is the largest trade union said that hel the US. trade was a 'two-way street' and Meeting in Brussels yesterday the EEC Farm Ministers in that America should 'close the right-wing leaders have been decided to delay by one inonth the start of the coming farm nation which closed of the forefront protechou sl agitation. the door on her. This is the time from which the annual price revision Spanish Stalinists condemn This year comes into effect. it will come into effect on April 30, not April, originally scheduled. Polish link-up with Franco The farm prices are fixed in terms pre-devaluation dollar, but the

EEC

currencies now far of alignment are and a complex system of correc fionaled togents has been tional hastily

BY JUAN GARCIA

and would dearly like to im- together. pose conditions on the working class in their coun- his criticism of Polish Stalinism Civil Guard, one of the armed The purpos of fixing prices tries. the while making at the start of the farr curree

OVCILUIC LO

seaso repression against the people.' 'democratic' capitalist powers: i0 leen ble customs authorities Avcarate reseals competen within the confines of Stalinist levy tariffs agricultural fas- Everybody knows that With remarkable slip of falsification in this letter. outside the

EEC

cism exists in Spain; and that imports from memorv. he then notes that thi there ent dor elections and no the Spanish masses are upset democra-

EEC

I hiy is one on ist the 'abandonment soidarity of the polish Common Market, coupled Ical Dalialuckl farm policy cor- from a with faith in the peaceful In viton parila-

LOL OL

of the • Mar- ment socialist Common fascist Heistones people'. democratization the (when parliaments Kel BITi 1 1S gravely menaced Spanish spain, Ines Une It can Spanish by the United States. hardly shock capitalist countries have Stalinists in the forefront Wall bur- the Stalinist workers that nee same asian mered the battle to modernize Spanish authorized S The have authorities who helped break the to inte •a faine kind of capitals!. farmers to plant Asturian miners strike with of al.

SUDOULT

couring frances coal Over the last rigade month, the acres his shipments Franco's Cortes. grain-lands social. -political Several this year. 1970 are Spanish CP leadership ance ted that case, has the is far in of US Madrid has grain excess police-chiefs! alicac domestic demand. necessary trade It only disturbs the Stalinist agree illegal workers commissions.

Soviet Unio leadership Carrillo, The surplus could be dumped of santiago ment between the The Prosecutor in Ferrol ratified by the same Cortest which the world market, forcing oCCI to maintain its control over the down the of and seenanomor sentences price grain with the for those arrested during last Spanish working class making the

EEC

farm policy Which bourgeois CP year's Franco even more difficult to operate. Me tal Ic represents uc has not : recognized with the bringing tions of the Russian Revolu- "democracy to a Heath, Pompidou to Galicia. The US has already demanded Spanish and the Civil tion Brandt and Andreotti have that the Common Market dis- War hidden their enthusiasm never •I Pillado Lista: 17 years Le I mantles its farm make policy Rafael Pillado Indeed, Azcarate still mutes Franco's state for cut pulale for agricultural American Way produce.

1973 miner sees lessons from 1831

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS

'THIS IS exactly what they did in the miners' strike.' This verdict on a scene from the Jarrow contribution to the Pageant for workers' rights came from a young miner, John Watson.

He had just emerged from a melee on the picket line when members of the newly-formed union clashed vio- lently with blacklegs who were pro- tected by the military. The year was 1831 and the first miners' union had experienced its first baptism in blood. 'Well, I don't think it was quite like that,' comments director Steve Clarke.

There was a lot of bloodshed because the soldiers were in- volved,' John Watson goes on. 'It was like that at Westoe last year. We all lined up across the road and the police came after us with their truncheons.' The picket scene was tne best of tne nignts rehearsals at the Jarrow ex-Saw and or Club. with the forces and order alc engrained in the history of the north-west working class. William Jobling paid the ultimate price for his defiance. He was and gibbeted in Jarrow, but the union he built dia not ale.

This is the theme of the north-east episode for the Pageant to be presented at the Empire Pool, Wembley, on March 11 Two club members come into the upstairs room ros water ure rrereasaa "That was good,' says one smiling. 'It is very real.

They get quite carried away, don't they?

He and his mate say they will "Terms? There are no terms.' cussion of the difficulties.

Wembley the is the reply. Outside the finished Pageant. rooms renearcar. The conflict is fundamental. the battle to rally the north-east demanding But The miners are despite working class behind the Pageant wrent entalsiasm by the 15 workers or so taking contnucs and pay—a right part, development Gasworkers, government miners, hospital Suruete une evenng s renearoal and shipyard workers, taking 'bond' began with a run-through of a awav with its

OVCI

workers are all approached.

key scene. whole working classPhase the Iwo. Will send delegations, The Tnet miners have decided to give financial form a union and have sent terms argument and political struggle.

employment to the pit owners.

Different They These are the things that make connont le •verseer W1O approaches wants them to sign the bond- the Pageant and the fight to up. the symbol of slavery in the pit.

build the revolutionary party.

One miner Daved bv a voung Latest support are the unemployed worker, steps for- The scene is run through sev- South Shields

AUEW

No. the terms?' different ward are he eral times, using branch. After members heard a do- Then there is a dis- asks the enrazed overseer.

proaches. Pageant speaker, they gave CLYDEBANK council 'law and order'. meets tomorrow to Bailie Jack McAllister consider whether to called for the restoration the £5,000 fine pay of 'industrial com- ain ol meesiament in te to vor mercial confidence imposed on it for contempt of court. The mavorit imple- he added, n oecson gor to vai mentation, had no man- the mon y over could date to conflict with lead larger fine the courts'. for compounding

LILC

Councillors were given original contempt. 14 days pay Tine Even if the hine £5,000 fine - the dead- paid, however, the line Wed- expiring next Labour-controlled coun- ncoudy. be It will then be up to •LAIl defiance of courts Lord Wheatley and other following luces cecee witai decision affirming to do now that Clyde- of rent bank has reaffirmed non- moeeo| increases. Ibicmcalalol. Scottish Office After a two-hour de- bate, the council divided spokesman said yester- below Betty Brown the anti-rent Act banner day it was .a 'completely ten

VOLCS

SCVCI

through Clydebank. on a march against carrying out the situation for them 11CW provisions of the Hous- to face. snub to both the govern- by brought politician ing (Financial Provisions) But he confirmed that -the Secretary of State ment and the courts. power does exist

OCOLANO ACL

Scotland against Bailie Mrs Betty TOr the Act 'which the town council for Previously there had alluWe Brown, chairman of the refusing of 13 implement Tane secrelary been votes against resistance special com- to take over any func- implementation, uie

ACL,

Wolen

WOHC

mittee. told the council of tions the council as detrimental to the meeting: Curce COlnCIOIS WeLt working-class he sees nt'. people absent on this occasion. If we decided Clydebank council this country. she added. the Act, we implement Any attempt to make could be stripped gov- ernment which obtained would be destroving the 'scapegoats" out its and powers have order people we are trying to court against placed

ILS

dilails protect. Clydebank. The the hands of a Tory

IAILCNE

TesNed further "The action was Some renegade Labour- , vote is thus a appointee. Workers Press, Wednesday February 21, 1973 PAGE 3 Above: A pitworker speaks out signing the overseer's against bond-symbol of slavery. Below: Young miner John Watson, part total of £7 and agreed to send Pageant the cast. a delegation. Hawthorne Lesley shipyard workers discuss going sending a delegation and have already agreed to give some money. Mechanics' delegation Mechanics at Westoe Colliery are sending a delegation and are coach. Gasworkers organizing also to at Sunderland are dis- cuss the Pageant and whether to back it. Dofend trade unionism and basic living standards Unite in action to make this Tory government resign The road to power is through the building of the revolutionary party

YOUNG SOCIALISTS AND SOCIALIST LABOUR LEACHE

A PAGEAnT OF HISTORY-THE ROAD TO WORKERS POWER

EMPIRE POOL. WEMBLEY.

DUNDAT MARCH 11

I would like to take part in the Pageant/come to Empire Pool.

Please send me further detalls.

NAME..

ADDRESS..

No. of tickets required Amount enclosed (£1 each £...

Complete form and return to : Pageant Office, 34 Hamilton Gardens, London, NW8

INSIDE STROESSNER'S JAILS

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

PAGE 1 Workers Pross, Wednesday F Political prisoners in Par- aguay are held in groups of between five and 15 in small and overcrowded cells in numerous police stations, called comisar- ias, throughout Asuncion and its suburbs. Tin cans are used for ablu- tions; lights are kept on all night, and, in most cases, out- side exercise is completely pro- hibited. For this reason, the only time that most prisoners leave their cells is when they receive a visit. Such visits are, how- restricted to parents, ever, wives and children under 18, and normally last for five minutes once a week. Visits are now staggered so that relatives of different prisoners in the same cell do not meet each other when en- tering or leaving the police station. The conversation dur- ing the visit is held in the pre- sence of armed guards and the topics of conversation are ex- pressly restricted to family matters. In most police stations, prisoners are forbidden to re- ceive literature, and in none of the police stations can they receive letters. In many, the practice of chaining prisoners by the ankles to a rail-bar is still a common form of punish- ment. Up to August 1971 prisoners at the First Precinct Station in kept in irons Asuncion were between 20 and 23 hours day. Now, however, the chief -Alfonso Lovera Canete-has been removed for daring to arrest the sons of a leader of the Colorado Party. Prisoners are only chained at night.

In the Fourth Precinct cell doors and bars are electrified 'to prevent escapes'. One of the inmates at this prison Ignacio Chamorro who has been held for 13 years without trial. At the Central Police Station are the 'Dungeons of Silence'.

These are iron cages measur- ing two metres by one and which are brightly lit 24 hours inerday Fabruary 21, 1873 a day. Napolean Ortigoze has in such a cage for ll been years. In the sweltering heat of Asuncion's summer, tempera- tures inside the cells reach 40 degrees centrigrade. In the short but cold winter, the pri- soners receive no special cloth- ing from the authorities, and are as usual completely depen- dent upon gifts of blankets and vitamins from relatives. Medical attention is pro- hibited, but in an emergency, such as a prolonged hunger strike, or in the case of im- minent death, prisoners • have been transferred to the police hospital, Policlinico Rigoberto Caballero which is situated next door to the United States Embassy. Prisoners sleep on mattresses on the stone floor. In very crowded cells, they arrange a rota system for standing awake at night, due to the lack of floor space for sleeping.

All personal belongings are hung from the ceiling at night in order to maximize floor space. The miserable food sup- plied to prisoners is the most common complaint in letters smuggled out of the cells. There is no food allocation for political prisoners as such. local police The station authorities therefore feed them on watery- soup, hard biscuits and beans. For this reason, aid to prisoners in the form of a steady supply of food is impor- tant. Relatives are allowed to bring food to prisoners during as the weekly visits—-usually, they bring ; sugar, bread, fruit and yerba mate, a national bever- age. The very few prisoners with more wealthy relatives receive food daily from outside. The majority of prisoners, however, with relatives either too poor or too distant to be able to visit them with any regularity, are completely dependent on the goodwill of fellow- prisoners who are better off than they in terms of food supply. The variation of conditions from police station to police station reflects the arbitrary nature of imprisonment in of Paraguay. The local police chiefs enforce harshest the conditions possible, since they are aware that they each bear full responsibility in the event of a prisoner escaping from their police station. The armed Paraguayan forces total some 20,200 men, in addition to which there are another 8,500 paramilitary security forces. The police force itself is a paramilitary body and its chief is an army general called Francisco Britez.

The Ministry of the Interior is headed by a civilian called Sabino Augusto, who receives orders direct from the ruling military élite. The system of civil repres- sion is centred on the Investi- gation Department of the Min- istry of the Interior, which is housed in a building opposite parliament in the city the It is here that most centre. newly-arrested people are brought. Questioning is followed by beating with sticks in order to extract false confessions. The two floors and cellars of this building are divided into many small cells called calabozos where some long-term military political prisoners are also de- tained. The prolonged beating for periods of up to two hours non-stop with whips and sticks, burning of sensitive parts of the body with cigarettes and the removal of fingernails are all common forms of torture used. More brutal forms of torture take place one block away in the building occupied by the Department of Crimes and Vigilance. Here, the torture consists of applying electric shock treatment to sensitive parts of the body with a prod- like instrument called a picana electrica. The most brutal form of tor- ture employed here is called 'the la pileta, which means . This takes place in a bath' small room on the ground floor of the building. The radio is turned on full, and, in daytime, traffic is diverted in the street outside so that the prisoner's screams cannot be heard. The prisoner's hands are tied behind his back. He is then made to sit on the edge of an iron bath containing water filled with filth and excrement.

He is punched heavily in the stomach in order to wind him, whilst other guards raise his feet above the ground, and his head is then forced backwards and down under the water. He is held under until near drowned and forced to swallow the filthy water. His head is then removed from the water and he is punched hard on the stomach again until he vomits the liquid back into the bath. His head is then replaced in the bath, after more punching, and the is repeated several process times. In the opinion of several people who have received this treatment five such immersions are beyond the limits of human endurance. This form of tor- resulted in has ture many deaths over the past five years.

During 1969, there was one documented case, the Farias case, and in 1970, there was documented case of at- one tempted suicide as a result of this torture, that of a prisoner Niglionico, of Uru- called guayan natiotiality. In 1971, in the Monzon case there was a well-documented example of the use of this form of torture. During the torture sessions, on the basis of the reports of people who have been tortured, the tollowing high-ranking Paraguayan generals attended -Generals Caceres, Alborno, Martinez, Johannsen, Britez and Colman (all in civilian dress). In addition, a constant sessions is spectator at these Humberto Dominguez Dib, the 25-year-old son-in-law of Pre- sident Stroessner. A police doctor called Francisco Gomez de la Fuente, employed at the police hospital also attends these sessions. Nazis like Patrick Contric, a former SS man, and Josef Men- gele are actively engaged in the Paraguayan system of internal repression. The chiefs of the torture teams who actually carry out the torture on the orders of the above-mentioned generals, are Raimundi, army Budi Hellman, Erasmo Candia, Victor Martinez, Augusto Moreno and Comisario Lovera (who recently graduated as Doctor in law at the Catholic University). Their teams are composed of certain mentally deficient and sexually disturbed em- ployees of the Ministry of the Interior, of whom the most famous are Hipolito Santacruz and Juan Carlos Hermosa. Two other institutions are used by the ruling military élite as part of its system of civil repression. The Technical Department of the Interior the Ministry of functions effectively as an autonomous body apart from the Ministry itself. From its building in the city centre in Chile and Jejuy Street all espionage work against politi- cal opponents, both within and outside the country, is carried out under the label of 'the repression of communism' The two chiefs are Dr An- tonio Campos Alum, an expert in the use of psychological tor- ture, who spent several years in the United States at the International Police Academy in Washington, and Budi Hell- man, who is especially feared for his brutal repression of workers at the San Antonio meat plant, owned by the In- ternational Products Corpora- tion of New Jersey. together These two men, with Dr Miguel Angel Bestard, assistant secretary of the Min- istry of the Interior, control the vital system of communica- tions between the political sec- tion of the United States Embassy in Asuncion and the ruling military élite. All information about poli- tical prisoners in Paraguay is forwarded to the CIA via this office. The oft-repeated claim by the US Embassy officials in Paraguay that they are ignor- ant of the existence of political prisoners in Paraguay is a com- plete lie. The final branch of the sys- tem of repression used by the military élite is the amorphous collection of pyragues (secret police), maintained by the state via the Ministry of the Interior. Their numbers are hard to gauge accurately. They can be divided into three main types.

First, there is a full-time staff in civilian dress and is- sued with special identity cards which grant them superior status over the police. They number about 300. Secondly, there is a part- information time staff of gatherers (public employees, taxi-drivers, hotel students, staff and prostitutes) who are paid only by results, number- ing at least 2,000. is a small Thirdly there group of about 100 poor people working in the city centre as street-vendors, boot- blacks, newspaper sellers, and contrabandistas, small-time whose only reward for their services appears to be the free daily meal which they receive from the Ministry. The headquarters of the is a building police secret opposite the US Embassy be- hind the Police Hospital Rigo- berto Caballero in Avenida Kubischek. The chief of the secret police, who are under the direct control of President •Stroessner, is called Erasmo led Candia. Telephone tapping occurs widely in Asuncion. It is car- ried out from the Vigilancia Civil y Policial Department of the main state telephone ser- vice (ANTELCO) in General and M. Dominguez Brugez Street in Asuncion. Over 60 per cent of the 1,200 (1968) employees of ANTELCO are part-time police. Tapping is carried out by a modern sys- tem of 12-track cassette-type recording machines installed

Nixon at Nato headquarters last year just prior to the Helsinki talks. Now the Stalinists sit in conference with 'all the European states,

THE HELSINKI CONFERENCE

ON EUROPEAN SECURITY

by a team from Siemens in 1965, and it is considered to be the most modern system of its kind in Latin America today. Compared with the security system of neighbouring Brazil, that of the Stroessner regime is clumsy and unsophisticated.

But by employing a technique of mass random arrests of totally innocent people, and especially the arrest of rela- tives and suspects, brutal tor- turing and false accusations and arrests, the regime seeks to keep the population in a state of fear. And the penalty for subversive activities Paraguay is instant death.

The death of political pri- soners while in police custody is a common occurrence. It is impossible to be exact about of such deaths the number because the internal operations of the police are surrounded in secrecy, but the following are three well-documented cases of deaths of political prisoners whilst in detention: Prosident Stroessner. Left: Throughout Latin America, brutal regimes propped up by the CIA employ mass arrest and torture to stay in power.

JUAN JOSE FARIAS:

On March 7, 1969, Farias, cigarette and a 38-year-old sweet seller in the streets of Asuncion was arrested and to the Investigations taken Department on suspicion of bringing secret messages from Argentina. On March 12, his body was delivered to his wife by the police following a pronounce- ment by forensic Doctor Her- nan Godoy that he had died of a heart attack. However, a legal autopsy the following day revealed bloated lungs, frac- tured ribs, blood-clotted nose.

He had been beaten with leather or rubber thongs and then subjected to the 'bath' torture. There was no evidence of heart failure. A protest by the opposition Liberal Radical Party elicited no response at all from the government.

JUAN BAUTISTA BENITEZ:

Benitez, a peasant from Loma Pyta, was arrested at his home in November 1967. He was tortured and then placed in the Seventh Precinct Station, where he became ill in August 1969. For ten days he remained seated . on the floor, as his breathing became weaker, and his body began to swell until he finally died in that position.

All pleas for redical attention by his fellow-prisoners were met with the comment: 'Let him die from the prison guards. His body was returned to his wife and two daughters by the who police, even charged her for the coffin.

GUMERCINDO GAMARRA:

On February 14, 1968, a peasant from Gamarra, Toledo Canada, Capiata, was arrested in a bar in Asuncion with no explanation given. He was taken to the Investigations Department, where he was tor- tured and made to confess to being, a communist, even though he was a member of the ruling Colorado Party. He was then placed in the second police station, where he went on hunger strike in March of 1971, to plead his innocence.

His death in the police hospi- tal, Rigoberto Caballero, was announced on May 20, follow- ing a 38-day hunger strike. His body was returned to his wife and seven children without a medical certificate or explana- tion. With it came approxim- ately $23. Nixon at Nato headquarters last year ju exception' and with Nixon's envoys to A statement by the Internatic While the working class in every country is facing the harshest attack by the capitalists on its stan- dard of living and all the rights it has gained, in Helsinki, Finland, the preparatory Conference of the European Security Council is meeting, with the participation of the US and Canada. The Stalinist bureaucracy is participating in the conference with delegations not only from the USSR and other eastern countries, but also from the western communist parties.

This conference is a con- spiracy of the Stalinists and imperialists against the work- in the whole ing class, of Europe and worldwide. The In- ternational Committee of the Fourth International cannot help but declare its most abso- lute opposition. The Stalinists not only took the initiative on this confer- ence in order to further their counter-revolutionary co-oper- ation with the imperialists, but were also the most ardent sup- porters of participation by fascist and military dictator- ships such as that of Franco in Spain and Papadopoulos in Greece. 'We support the participa- tion of all the European states, ast year just prior to the Helsinki talks. Now th nvoys to conspire against the working class th ternational Committee of the Fouri without exception, irrespective of the character of their re- gimes, said the representative of the Greek Communist V. Venetsanopoulos, party, speaking at the Conterence.

In expressing the policy not only of Greek, but also of in- ternational Stalinism, Venet- sanopoulos made a distinction between his position and all the 'groups without influence' which reject peaceful co- existence of states with various social systems'. 'These groups, he said, 'maintain that the Soviet Union and other socialist states for- get their internationalist obli- gations and maintain relations even with dictatorial regimes, like those of Greece, Spain and Portugal. That with their rela- tions towards the dictatorial regime they become a serious ractor, It is said, in the dis- illusionment of our people, they belie their hopes and ex- pectations, they create ideolo- gical and political confusion.

'That supposedly they sub- ordinate the interests of the international movement to their own politico-military calcula- tions, and that by making opportunistic, one-sided as- sessments, they give priority and importance only to their own state interests.' This Stalinist found nothing to oppose all the accusations enumerated except he the arbitrary opinion that 'these views are foreign to the vital Workers Pross, WO s. Now the Stalinists sit in conference with 'al g class the world over. le Fourth International interests of the movement'.

To seek the co-operation and to promise the defence of the security of a world dominated by the monopolies, through reactionary governments, fas- cism and military dictatorships, means by itself an alignment with the counter-revolution.

Under conditions, present conditions of the deepest crisis of the capitalist system, the security of this world means every kind of insecurity, savage exploitation, oppression and even physical annihilation for the working class. From the time Nixon took his measures on the dollar in August 1971 and declared trade war on the competitors of the in Europe and Japan, the crisis of capitalism passed higher to stage. a Stalinist treachery has escala- ted to the same degree. The decision of the Stalinist bureaucracy to proceed to a conterence on security and co- operation with the imperialists constitutes a betrayal a thous- and times worse than the post- war agreements at Yalta and Potsdam. Then the Stalinists the imperialists helped to avoid the revolution. Now they are helping them launch the counter-revolution. As to what the : defence of 'peace' and 'security' promised by the Stalinists means, we had it, the opportunity of seeing ese : not only in their co-operation ital with dictatorial regimes, but Wednosday February 21, 1973 PAGE 5 e with 'all the European states, without also in the sell-out of the General Strike in France in 1968, in the intervention in Czechoslovakia, in the fierce suppression of the workers' movement in Poland, in the sell-out of the Vietnamese and Arab revolutions and at every point of their political activity.

The Stalinist bureaucracy, in order to confront the problems created in the states by workers' its re- 'socialism actionary policy of in a single country, not only betrays . the working class in the west, but places the revo- lutionary gains of the working class in the east in danger.

The International Committee of the Fourth International declares that only one kind of peace and security can exist in Europe and in the whole world: A peace that comes through the overthrow of imperialism as well as from the overthrow of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the workers' states. The IC calls on its partisans to confront the new Stalinist betrayals by intensifying the fight for the building of revo- lutionary parties in every country, as necessary organs for the overthrow of capitalism and the bureaucracy and for the conquest of power by the working class in the coming great revolutionary struggles.

International Committee of the Fourth International. February 10, 1973.

PAGE 6 Workers Prose, Wedtreaday Fi

BY STEPHEN JOHNS— PART 1

'Lord Leverhulme was a grocer's son, He learned to sell when he was young And all the tune that he could play Was 'Advertising Makes it Pay' Over the hill and across the skies By God it pays to advertise?

Everyone knows that BO is to be avoided. Millions are spent removing the natural smell of the body and replacing it with a chemical odour. But 40 years ago people would have looked blank if you had whispered BO in their ear. Because that was before Francis A. Countway, of Unilever in the head America, discovered it after playing golf. Another one of Unilever's ideological wars was unleashed the population of the on people world. Soon from Hong Kong to New York were all worried about BO and wanted to buy Lifebuoy toilet soap—introduced in England in 1898—to get rid of it.

Unilever, naturally, made millions. The BO story is by way of an introduction to the stag- gering expenditure on adver- Unilever alone spends £200m a year on 'promotion' and a further £100m on packaging —the budget of a small coun- try. Almost all this is parasitic, represents an enormous waste of human adds resources, greatly to the price of gro- ceries and in many cases leads to inferior goods. The advan- tage is entirely the manufac- turers. The aim of advertising is to promote the "exclusive- ness' of a product, which in all important respects is iden- tical to other products in the same field. This development is a direct result of the capitalistic structure of the food industry.

Before the war several large firms dominated particular sectors of the industry. But the development of convenience foods, in cans and and dehydrated in frozen packets, led to a rapid diver- sification of interests. Com- bine followed combine into fields. To stand still new would have been to risk an- nihilation. Eventually two, three or four combines faced each other in all sectors of the food market. Some, like Uni- lever, Imperial Tobacco, Asso- ciated British Foods and Cad- bury Schweppes, have substan- interests in many fields.

tial In the language of the econo- mists the structure of the food industry is oligarchic.

Price competition in these circumstances is too much of a risk for the big companies.

For example Proctor and Gamble (Thomas Hedley) and February 21, 1873

-PART THREE

Unilever between them trol the entire British market for detergents. They both have A massive resources. price- would be damaging war SO that it is both companies to entirely ruled out. firms tend to Instead both shift competition other into fields-especially advertising and promotion. The same 1S true of the whole food indus- Company after try. company spend millions of pounds to persuade the customer to buy their products. Advertising is a vicious circle. Once a giant promotes brand through blanket coverage on commercial tele- Press vision, the and on hoardings, its rivals are to follow or lose mil- forced lions in sales. This accounts for the saturation advertising of food products and the end- less search for gimmicks and innovations to show the pro- duct is 'new'. It all leads to the paradox that while sales promotion makes dif- products appear ferent, they are becoming more and the more same. Bread is a typical example.

The great variety in the loaf is being destroyed as the big three private bakers get a greater grip on the market. packaging But their de- is signed to suggest there is an outstanding example between their products and the bread products within each of their own ranges. For example Associated British Foods (Sunblest), des- perate for a new innovation, introduced Happy Bread'. It was more the or less same in a dif- product dressed up ferent coloured wrapper for each dav. Deterioration discovered n 1970 the results of five-year check on 100 com- War- mon consumer goods by wickshire weights and mea- sures inspectors was pub- lished. The conclusion was that while goods may have appeared to be improving, the opposite was the case. They discovered widespread deterioration-lo a ves had been made to look bigger by increasing the moisture con- tent and bottles dish washing liquid were enlarged by adding water. The inspec- tors concluded that the manu- facturers 'know they will lose sales by putting price up whereas profit they can safely by reducing quality Vim The gives campaign some indication of the sums of money involved. Vim was launched by Uni- lever (or Lever Brothers as it was then) in 1904 as a simple the cleaner. Later emphasis Vim was changed. became cleaner that could tackle any- thing from roof to cellar. Everything splendidly went and Vim captured 55 per cent of the f9m heavy-household cleaner market. But in 1955 Proctor and Gamble brought Top: The supermarket; convenience foo drated, but the public must pay far mor out Aiax with the 'greater Above: Lord cleaning power'. Vim's share by a 'halo' of advertising.

of sales slumped 30 per cent. So Unilevers invented 'new' Vim. The perfume was changed from 'garden pine' to 'fragrant floral' and the powder from white to green. The whole idea was to make Vim noticeably different from other powders in what described by the ad- was wizards 'low-interests as a field'. Apart from the smell, the campaign hung on a 'chemical miracle' which supposed to happen right in the house- wife's sink. What happened that the green was powder turned white on contact with One water. contemporary commentator had this to say about the promotion: 'Obviously housewives are not sufficiently interested in to prefer product science merely because it enables them to enact a minor chemi- cal miracle in their sinks, but it may at least help to Vim" is believe "New that nience foods, canned, frozen and dehy. really ay far more for any product surrounded an improved product. But • ove: Lord Sainsbury. •.. for a product such as ince sume to b Th naior no AVe motil gical eight tire Th ding the 1971 'Arie £1,32 lever bix; char al v - U1 or £3,60 (Nest bine) On

PASTES

LEE READS

per rented was ne to the green. ferent what ad- erests 1, the emical posed nouse- pened owder with porary say are ed 1n coduct nables chemi- s. but to em duct. t such Vim, which has already br as undergone several revampings during its long history, a con- sumer might well have reason to be cynical'. The cost of this one cam- paign alone was £500,000 (by no means a record for Uni- lever which spent £8m pro- moting 'Radiant' the biolo- gical washing powder) one eighteenth in value of the en- tire household cleaner market.

This kind of fabulous spen- ding is repeated throughout the entire groceries fieldin 197. £1.42m was spent on 'Ariel' (Proctor and Gamble); £1,329,000 Persil (Uni- on lever); £1,195,000 on Weeta- bix; £1,177,000 on Kellogs Corn Flakes; £9.6m on confection- chocolate and ary; £5m on bread and flour; £2.9m on biscuits; £1,317,000 on Wall's sausages (Unilever); £3,607,000 on tea; £1,207,000 on Nescafé and Gold Blend (Nestlés group, a Swiss com- bine), and so on. One recent argument brought in by the defenders of monopoly in the food trade is that pressure from the re- tail trade curbed has the power of the giant manufac- and forced them to turers compete. It is true that the growth of the chains has had an im- portant effect on the industry.

One : of the most noticeable developments has been the rise of 'own label brands' Sainsbury's example, for does a line in beans, manu- factured by Crosse and Black- well (Nestlés), which it sells a lot cheaper than the main brands. Something approaching 20 per cent of all retail sales in the multiples are captured by 'own labels'. But the result has been to strengthen rather than weaken the power of the big com- bines, and the necessity on their part to advertise. 'Own-label' brands sell on the strength of their cheap- They do particularly ness. well, therefore, in fields where housewives put little store on 'quality" or status. In these cases an 'own-label' brand can retail 20 per cent cheaper against an almost identical product, sometimes both made by the same producer, and do well. 'status' market where In a housewife is persuaded the quality is important, the 'own- label' brands stand less chance since they tend to be consi- dered inferior. The power of the retail trade The result, therefore, of forcing manu- supermarkets facturers to produce brands for them is more advertising of the manufacturers' own lines. Heinz must fight off the threat of cheaper Sainsbury beans by saturation advertising and promotion which suggests that although Heinz beans are dearer there is really no sub- stitute for them. think that a baked baked bean, but th turers would have wise. The ultimately giants and against manufacturer carry massive costs. This was re a sales conferenc cently in the marke tor said: 'Despite the man of the past two or big brands remain in the grocery mar It is the are really feeling t tion from brands have their tinct personality, t ment of which re enormous investme vertising, promotio ing effort [note th -not cheapness, A big brand must uniqueness and thei for constant is to stay that way cal characteristics of elemens tion-pack, style, and promotion blended into image.' This is really a of saying the publi for any P far more rounded by a 'halo tising. Promotion is of to such fantastic 1 the product itself secondary factor. Recently that grocers giant sized Persil as they cor sell the powder, bi acquire a 30p vouc The powder pack. away favourite customer the special offer than the more for the pack at th carry warehouse. The combines, display a wounded towards criticism advertising from the lever by Lord Cole their case. 'Our market is variety of our accept that s prefer to stay at h stay-at-home, tent packages and othe only cerned them. inside beans name other lessly that some and some find it a 'We of variety because if we public would disci the simplest ways. from somebod buy This argument evasion Choice, as we severely In ceries. Unilever firm, have a t of this poly Unilever far leading manufact presented 'choice' housewife is a choi ranges of mar two similar and price, their brand images the result of mass Cole added: advertisement package deceives 1 in the eye This too is comp advertising And after advertising proves it. Even., the occasion nave recognize this. Monopolies port on detergents lever dominates found You may bean Is a manufac- other- favour

LASSO

advertising John Scheweppes, dominant Big dis- own represents an ad- 1n and sell- prionles quality]. or it it Its physi- communica- advertising be single-brand way sur- carried found buying as ot not to to or given because was worth retailer paid of course, 1966 Uni- delivered fairly states public partly people sweet well-con- like pretty with what want the old an tried 11C W. shopping this nosense partly not, the They would is a total in gro- for ex- Kraft, a mono- product-with away the The to the quality only in which are 'Whether an or entirely beholder.' campaign campaign authorities on forced to 1964 i he Te- field) competition Nednesday February 21, 1973 PAGE 7 was in the field of advertising and promotion: "The main criticism of the advertising and sales promo- policies of these two tion : firms, Proctor and Gamble and Unilever, are that their advertising matter is con- cerned merely with emphasiz- ing unprovable qualities and building up brand images than public with informing the about the practical attributes of the product and how best use can be made of it. "They [the Commission] say the benefit of the gifts or prizes and that the effect is uneconomic because it leads a manufacturer to market two very similar products under two different brand names and to launch 'new' products or change the formula of exist- ing products for the sake of "improvements". which are of little intrinsic value to the consumer' The Commission suggested that a reduction in advertising expenditure would reduce the price of detergents by as much as 23 per cent. The giants resisted. No price cuts were carried out. One might ask Lord Cole, if the housewife is sover- eign, if the companies are at her mercy, if she cannot be fooled, why on earth does company spend millions to broadcast the 'qualities' its products alleged to are possess? The answer is that the monopolistic structure of the food industry forces Unilever to do so. If it did not, the would lose company sales and millions in profit. In private moments the food bosses are much more candid. Do the profits rise? Yes Bill Bowman, the inter- national division head of Biscuits McVities, United Crawfords, Carrs etc.), des- cribed to the 'Financial Times' how his company's fortune was revived. "There was no advertising, no product support at all, no image, they were cut-price products. So we made a start on revamping McVitie. We put up prices massively, we improved packaging and got from English-style away packs.' Did the consumer gain? No.

Were the biscuits cheaper?

No. Was there more variety?

No. Was there any particular improvement in quality? No.

Did the price go up? Yes.

Did United Biscuits' profits rise? Yes. The thing to grasp about advertising is that the bulk of it is entirely the product of the monopolistic structure of the industry and aids only the big firms to make more and more profits. Apart of increasing prices, it results in enormous human waste. Under a socialist system there would only be need for minimum advertis- the most ing-enough to inform the public that there were certain commodities available . and that they had certain proper- ties and qualities. The emphasis would be strictly on transferring the benefits of technology and efficiency to the consumer in the form of lower prices, better quality etc. The Tory government has the opportunity to slash prices stroke by ordering a at a halt in the mad race to per- suade the punch-drunk house- wife that this powder is whiter than that one, that this margarine spreads better than the other. But it will not. Talks of a 'decent standard of living' and "prices freeze' is a sham. Because the Tories represent the food mono- polies, the supermarket bosses ld) and the advertising kings, not ion the working class.

Taff Vale Railway. There has been a strike on the Taff Vale Railway since Monday last The Management are using every means to decoy men here who they employ for the purpose of black-legging the men on strike.

Drivers, Firemen, Guards, Brakesmen, and If you accept employment on the Tall Vale. that is what you will be known by. On arriving at Cardiff, call at the above address, where you can get information and PAGE 8 Workers Press, Wednesday February 21, 1973

STRIKE!

ON THE

Men's Headquarters, Cobourn Street. Cathays. SIGNALMEN, are all out. Are you willing to be known as a Blackleg ? assistance.

RICHARD

BELL,

General Secretary.

LOWER CATHEDRAL ROAD, CARDIFF.

RICHARDS PHISTEN, 41,

THE MEANING

OF TAFF VALE

On Sunday, March I1, at the Empire Pocl, Wembley, a pageant of working class history, "The Road to Workers' Power, will be presented before an audi.

ence of 10,000 trade unionists, their wives and youth.

One of the episodes in the pageant is based on the fight of the trade union movement to resist the legal attacks of the Tory government at the turn of the century.

The attacks culminated in the Taff Vale judgement of 1901 which fined the railway union £23,000. In the fight against this savage judicial attack, the trade unions went forward to found the Labour Party in 1906. Trade unionists and young people in the Merthyr Tydfil area in South Wales are working with a special pageant committee to recreate the Taff Vale incident—to bring yesterday's struggles be.

fore today's working class. On Thursday night a public meeting will be held in Merthyr to discuss the pageant and its implications for the British working class in defeating the Tory government and building a revolutionary party to take power.

The Taff Vale judgement of 1901 was a powerful blow against the trade union movement which changed its drastically legal position. When the five Law Lords sitting on July 22 in an action taken by the Taff Vale Rail- way Co. against two officials of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS) declared that a trade union was liable to be sued in its registered name' employers all over the country were jubilant.

With these few words, the judiciary, on behalf of the em- ployers, had struck a crippling blow against trade unionism, the only defence of the work- ing class against exploitation.

The decision made it virtually impossible to carry out picket- ing during a strike and enabled employers to sue a union for damages inflicted during a lays. trade dispute. A trade union would think strike twice about calling a which might result in it being saddled with heavy damages 'and legal costs sufficient to every ruin it financially. The judge- ment was thus a class attack by the judiciary on the rights • the of trade unions which were believed to exist under the Acts of 1867 and 1875. effective Not only was picketing made virtually im- possible, but the question of whether the workers had any rights of combination at all whether the trade unions were legal bodies-was now raised.

In addition, trade unions could be restrained by court injunc- tion from activities regarded as tortious; in other words, the full power of the law could be mobilized to hamstring the unions. In this case the Taff Vale Co. was able to sue the ASRS and awarded £23,000 was damages. The total cost to the union was £42,000 which, in 1901, was a very large sum.

The case went through three stages in the courts. In the first court the judgement went what in favour of the Taff Vale Rail- way Co. which brought the action. In the Court of Appeal it the this decision was reversed, but the company took it to the House of Lords where the and first judgement was upheld.

The Taff Vale case arose out of a struggle by the ASRS for increases against wage a number of railways in South Wales which were largely con- cerned with transporting coal.

Left: Official union poster for the strike on the Taff Vale rail- way. Below: Richard Bell. atary.

AND

ECONOMIC

Banner of the Amalgamated Society of to pay damages in the Taff Vale case During the South African war prices had soared. But the rail bosses refused to grant wage increases. Taff Vale's general manager, Ammon Beasley, : was termined to hold out against wage increases even when other companies had granted them. He was also a tough boss intent on smashing the unions. And he was far from alone. During the 1890s a general offensive against the trade unions was mounted by the employers. Hostility to the was increasingly Ie- unions flected in the press as well as in a number of legal decisions which prepared the way for : Vale judgement. One the Taff of these, in 1898, made it an offence to call someone a "blackleg' • Another important development was the systema- tic recruitment of strike- breakers. The best known of the scab organizers was the self - styled National Free Labour Association set up by William Collinson. Beesley turned to this Association during the strike which broke out on the Taff Vale railway.

As the railwaymen became increasingly militant Beasley became still more adamant. A rank-and-file militant, signal- Ewington of Abercynon, man was victimized by the com- pany and Beasley refused to negotiate with the union.

The treatment meted out to who had 20 years' Ewington, with the service company, coming on top of the still un- satisfied wage claim put the men in a militant frame of mind. Despite the fact that the ASRS officials were look- ing for some kind of com- promise, a strike had become Notices inevitable. were handed in and the strike began on August 19, 1900. Beasley refused to recog- nize the ASRS. He sent them a wire which read: I am pre- pared to see any reasonable number of the company's ser- vants and give full and care- ful consideration ... but I regret that I cannot receive officially or unofficially any person Rallway Servants ale case of 1901. a bitt was dispute. tion to supply bla recruited away as Glasgow a given free ber their fares to mounted a union persuade them to and manhan further 400 men: were of whom only abo actually employed. Those that were were given a squal a ticket home afte the dispute plained to who were taken o be incapable joined in to difficult. One anti- was heavy grease ( at a steep incline: motive's wheels co Trucks were trains could not ru The frustration busting plans Strikers who ley. company-owne were mercilessl although their ren paid. He consulter solicitors with getting restrain the 'watching an trom the company's pre advice was be taken not union 'in its regist thought, h Beasley the given action and some statemer the union he grounds for the had alread way the pared by decisions al egal tioned. At the end of Al •rouse sellement between the Taff Vale Co. resumed on did ompany indertaking to get labour brought strike and The continued. have seen, wris the ASRS and for followed the court

ERANG

• Servants (ASRS), the unio bitterly fought called on pply blacklegs. They from n free beer, and unted a campaigr them to return hom of them got About were recruited in all only about half were that were headed off meal and n a square ome after • the issues had been ex- them. Blacklegs taken on proved to picket and their lif make One anti-scab device • grease on the track incline so the loco- vheels could no grip uncoupled so that stration of his union- lans infuriated Beas- were living any-owned COTTAgeS evicted nercilessly their rents had been the firm's, consulted view to injunction to union officials ching and besetting premises. Their action could ken against a trade its registered name' ought, however, that of the men statements made by would have or an action. In fact ad already been pre- 1896 and 1898 isions already men- end of August a com- ettlement was reached

ASRS

and the and work was September 1. The not keep ig to get rid of the ought in during the legal proceedings The result, as we defeat for and for the whole movement which he court proceedings

INTEREST

OF ALL

the union which was sued and forced anxiously from the start.

Although the class bias of the judges could not be proved, it obviously existed and . Te- flected a growing ruling-class hostility to trade unions which visible in the previous was decade. Now that the trade unions were growing stronger being • extended and were relative tolerance which existed after the legislation of the 1870s disappeared. The trade union movement carried on a struggle for the reversal of the legal position, which could only be done through an Act of Parliament.

But the working class also drew the lesson from the Tafi Vale case that it needed political party to defend its The direct result Interests. was a big increase in support for the Labour Representation Committee which, in 1906, became the Labour Party. By the Trade Disputes Act of 1906, passed by the newly- elected Liberal government which depended upon working- class votes, the previous legal position was restored. Many Liberal members had been re- turned subject to their sup- port for the reversal of the Taff Vale situation. The new Act contained a a trade union clause 'that should under no circumstances be capable of being sued in tort. It also upheld the right picket for the purpose to either of peacefully obtaining or communicating information or of peacefully persuading any person to work or abstain from working... The interpretation of these rights, of course, still remained the courts which pro- with ceeded, in subsequent judge- ments, to whittle them down.

decision, 190 shore coget decision, the ment, laid it down that a trade union could not collect or spend money for politicai pur- poses. This made financial sup- port for the Labour Party illegal. This decision was reversed by the Trade Union Act of 1913 which expressly permit- ted a union to use its funds for political objects. Workers Press, Wednesda

BETTER THAN

COUNTING SHEEP

William Steig is a cartoonist whose drawings have for many years brought humour to the pages of the American maga- pr zine 'The New Yorker' His subject is generally mar- riage and the family and, although he claims his charac- ters are not meant to be taken for real, his wry digs at mar- ried life bring grins to people who find the figures depicted remind them of someone they know. But if his humour is domes- tic, that isn't to say that Steig is the bigger unaware issues around him. Recently, he was telling a reporter about himself. Appar- ently, although he makes his living from humour, his own feelings are pretty despondent.

He says he believes despair is the human condition, and that people are paralysed by it.

Asked why, he replied: 'What makes me despair? The fact that Mr Nixon has been re-elected-all I have to do is look at him to see he is the manager in a necktie shop!

To banish despair, and help himself to get to sleep at night, Steig says he has invented a 'long-distance magic dart', with which he 'bumps off' the US government and 'everybody in the world who is preventing paradise from reappearing'.

His wife commented: I'm lying there, having these tender thoughts . . . and I find I'm next to this killer.

He gives a little twitch and I ask: "What is it, dear?" ' "I got Nixon", he says.'

BREAD AND

When the first tourist guide book to Lancaster was pub- lished, around the middle of the 19th century, one of the sights and places of interest it recommended as worth a visit was the Lancaster prison.

In those days, the prison was open to sightseers (just as the asylum was, until rela- tives of patients protested) and among the 'attractions' des- Wednesday February 21, 1973 PAGE 9 cribed for visitors was the chance to taste a sample of rison bread, baked on th remises, and to inspect the fine new treadmill in the yard.

Obviously, for the refined Ladies and Gentlemen of the 1850s, just the kind of plea- sant things to make a holiday really worth remembering!

That was a long time ago, of course, and things are very different in Britain's modern prison service. As a matter of fact, the pri- son authorities these days are very particular about whom they let in to visit the prison.

They've just stopped clergyman calling at Lancaster.

The Rev Bob Morgan, a curate at the Lancaster Priory, says 'It has been indicated to me that I am persona • non grata at the prison and I am not now visiting as chaplain.'

The curate had been visit- ing the prison once a week, and running discussion groups for the prisoners. A spokesman at the Home Office confirmed last week: 'Mr Morgan's services as a chaplain at the prison are no longer required. The Friday night discussion groups are being conducted by somebody else. Mr Morgan is no longer given the run of the prison.

Apparently what upset the authorities was a piece which the curate wrote for the 'Chris- tian Comment' column which the local paper, the 'Lancaster Guardian' ', features each week. In his contribution, Mr Mor- gan referred to the putting of prisoners on bread and water diets, still a form of punish- ment used at Lancaster. The prison authorities have said that Mr Morgan was 'not sympathetic enough to the governor's problems' Perhaps the curate naïvely thought that as a Christian he should be sympathetic to those on bread and water, rather than to the man in charge who puts them on it! Presumably, a more reliable Man of God has been found to serve as chaplain. 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

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Wednesday February 21, 1973

TODAY'S TV

BBC 1

9.15 Schools. 12.30 Nai zindagi naya jeevan; 12.55 News.

1.00 Pebble Mill 1.30 Made in Britain. 2.05 Schools. at one. in the town. 1.45 3.05 Sunday debate. 3.35 Young scientists of the year.

4.00 Deputy 4.10 Play 4.35 4.50 Right Charlie. 5.15 dawg. school. Jackanory. Val meets the VIPs. 5.40 Wombles.

5.45 News. Weather.

6.00 NATIONWIDE. 6.45 ASK THE FAMILY.

7.05 TOMORROW'S WORLD. 7.30 NOW LOOK HERE.

8.00 BARLOW AT LARGE. Review. 8.50 WEEK BY WEEK.

9.00 NEWS. Weather. 9.25 SPORTSNIGHT.

10.15 ONE DAY IN THE LIFE. Of Jack Jones, General Secretary of the Transport and General. Workers' Union.

10.50 MIDWEEK. Roy Bradford's Republic. The minister in former the Northern Ireland government looks at life in the South.

11.35 LATE NIGHT NEWS. 11.40 Weather.

ITV

9.30 Schools. Yoga (London only). 11.00 Schools. 12.05 Mr.

Trimble. Rupert Bear. 12.40 First report.

Sing out with The 2.00 Harriet's back in Good afternoon. 3.00 Whose baby? 3.25 Get this. Arthur of the Britons. 5.20 University challenge. 5.50 News.

6.00 TODAY. 6.35 CROSSROADS.

7.00 THIS IS YOUR LIFE. 7.30 CORONATION STREET.

8.00 THE FIRST OF LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR.

8.30 ALL OUR SATURDAYS. The Unhappy Hooker.

9.00 LOVE STORY. Home for the Holidays.

10.00 NEWS AT TEN. 10.30 LOOKS FAMILIAR.

11.00 LATE NIGHT THEATRE-SHORT STORY. The Great Uncles.

FILM: 'FRIEND WITHOUT A FACE'. Marshall Thompson. Three 11.30 horror. found dead, their faces distorted with people are

12.50 ANYTHING TO SAY?

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.25 Open University.

7.05 MAN AT WORK. Job Enrichment-What's That?

7.30 NEWS SUMMARY. Weather.

7.35 JOHNNY MORRIS IN MEXICO. Taxco, Acapulco.

8.00 MAN ALIVE. 'From the Cradle to the Grave'-Thirty Years On.

The Welfare State. 10.25 CANADIAN JOURNEY. Hiahliahts of John Earle's 2,000 mile Children's Programmes. journey through Canada for 10.45 EDITION. 11.15 NEWS EXTRA. Weather.

TOTHAMES GAS BOARD

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CHANNEL:

London. 2.30 London. 1.15 News. 1.30 London. Galloping News. London. 8.00 This is your life. 8.30 London.

10.30 Place in the country. 11.00 London. 11.30 Epilogue. News, weather.

WESTWARD.

12.25 Hamm As except: S2.0 122on. G45 Hammy Hamp. 12.37 Honeybun London. 12.40 ster. News. London. 12.57 1.00 6.00 Diary. 11.30 News. 11.33 Gene- ration three. 12.00 Faith for life.

SOUTHERN:

12.05 London 3.30 Danger 4.25 London. Crossroads. London. Persuaders. 11.00 London. Shirley's world. 12.10 Weather.

Guideline. party. Londond 22 Buckse London. Chuckle- party• heads. 5.25 Crossroads. 5.50 London.

6.01 Report West. 6.15 Report Wales.

6.30 of Britons. 7.00 Arthur the London. 10.30 Time 11.00 London. 11.30 Cinema. 12.00 Weather.

HTV Cymru/Wales above except: mawr. 4.35-4.50 Cantamil. 6.01 Y dydd. HTV West as above except: 6.15-6.30 Report West. ANGLIA: 9.30 London. 2.30 House- couple. 3.55 Romper room. 4.19 News.

8.00 Protectors. 6.35 London. Fittipaldi file. 11.00 London. 11.30 Spyforce. Today. 12.05 London. London. 8.00 Please sir• 11.00 London. 11.30 O'Hara. Weather.

ULSTER: 11.00

London. 1.32 News. 35252.45, omeper 1.40 Schools. room. 3.00 London. Women Harriet's back in London. Protectors. don. 11:30 borld Britar ! 11.00 Lon- don. 11.30 World War YORKSHIRE: 9.30 London. 3.30 Jason King. 4.25 London. 6.00 Calendar. Weather. 6.35 London. 8.00 Anna and 10.30 the king. 8.30 London. Pro- 11.00 tectors. London. 11.30 Spy- Weather. force. 12.25 Fight rising rents and prices Defend basic democratic rights Force the Tories to resign LANCASTER: Wednesday Feb- basic rights. on Rents. Defend retreat WINSFORD: Wednesday February 21, 8 p.m. 'Wheatsheat Hotel'.

LANGLEY: Wednesday February 21, 8 p.m. 'Cardinal's Hat, Wood rua Street. 'Defend Democratic Rights. Hig Forward to the Pageant' Power'. WOOLWICH: Wednesday Feb- 'The Castle', ruary 21, 8 p.m. Powis Street, S.E.18. 'The Crisis of leadership' TOTTENHAM: Wednesday Feb- 'Bricklayers . 21, 8 p.m. ruary Hart LaMe. TRe case for a hite 'The case for a La- bour pledged to government socialist policies'. SLOUGH: Thursday, February 22, 7.30 p.m. Slough Community Centre, Farnham. STEVENAGE: Thursday February 22, 8 p.m. 'Red Lion', Stevenage Ce Old Town. 'Support the gasmen'.

LEWISHAM: Thursday February 22y 8 p.m. Deptford Engineers Club. (opposite New Cross station). HACKNEY: Thursday February 22, 8 p.m. Parlour Room, Cen- tral Hall, opposite Town Hall, Mare Street. Parodying the middle-class twil Ronnie Corbett, in 'Now Look Here' 1, decides package tours are out and plans to on BBC go camping. Dressed in his Safari kit—in the middle of an English Paddock-he of thousands other campers who have had to unravel the joins intricacies of a frame tent.

9.30 Date-

GRANADA:

9.30 London. 12.00

SCOTTISH:

London. 2.30 12.05 London. 5.25 London. 3.2b ine. Yoga. Crossroads. London. lodav. Uni- 3.30 •SUr 4.20 London. 6.00 What's on. versity challenge. 7.00 London.

STV

report 11.00 London. 11.30 6.30 Here's Lucy. Blue light. 8.30 10.30 Late call. 11.35 London. teddy bears. Kreskin.

GRAMPIAN:

10.58 London. 1.38 Carto Women 2.52

TYNE

TEES:

9.25 Our total well London 3.30. 3.30 Harriet. London. 5.20 being. Champions. survival. 6.05 4.20 London. 6.00 Lon- News. Thomp. 8.00 8.00 Anna and th.od king. 8.30 at teatime. 6.35 London. don. Stuart 8.30 London 1030 10.30 Tour. London London 11.30 News. 11.45 Edgar Wallace ondon rotectors. living. 11.55 12.40 Lectern. February

CAMDEN:

Tuesday February 27, WILLESDEN: Thursday •Prince Albert', Wharfe- 22, Labour and Trades p.m. p.m. High N.W.10. 'Road dale Road, Kings Cross. 'Les- Hall, Road, fighting Housing of the to Workers Power. sons Finance Act.

SCUNTHORPE:

Sunday February The Kingsley Hall, 25, 7.30 p.m. HARROW: Tuesday February 27, Cole Street. 8 p.m. Labour Hall, Wealdstone.

'All out for Wembley Pageant'.

BASILDON: Sunday February 25, Barnstable Community 5.20 p.m. TOOTING: Tuesday February 27, 'Road Workers' Centre. to 'Selkirk Hotel'. Selkirk 8 p.m. Power'. Broadway. •The Road, Tooting Fascism'. rise of Italian

WANDSWORTH:

Monday Feb- 'King's Arms', GLASGOW: Wednesday February High Street, S.W.18. 'Defend the 28, 7.30 p.m. Woodside Hall, St George's Cross. WATFORD: Monday February 26, Hall, Wood-

DERBY:

March Trade Union Thursday, 8 D.M. ford Road, near Watford 7.30 Metal Junc- p.m. tion Station. 'Rise of fascism in Premises, Charnwood Street.

Italy' CROYDON: Thursday March 1, Co-op Hall, February

ACTON:

House. Coombe 'Support the gasmen'. Park KINGSTON: Thursday PADDINGTON: Tuesday February *Liverpool Wales', Support the gas- men and hospital workers'. Great Western Road.

KIRKBY:

Tuesday February 27,

GLASGOW:

Sunday, ( March 4, 3 р.т. Partick Burgh Hall, near Southdene Community p.m. Centre, off Broad Lane. 'Crisis of Merkland Street Underground. capitalism and the future of the 'Hospital workers and Tory the government.' trade unions. Socialist Labour League Lectures

GLASGOW:

Sunday, February 25, 7.30 p.m.

WOODSIDE

HALL,

St George's Cross. 1933-1938. bello (near Jessops hospital).

German From the defeat the to 'The Revolutionary Party in Fourth International. Speaker: Britain'. Tom Kemp.

LACK of confidence in the value of money has led to a desperate search for more lasting forms of investment.

For years rare paintings have been considered safer than cash as a means of acquiring value. Now Stanley Gibbons, the well-known stamp dealers, are entering the investment market with stamp portfolios, mainly in the £1,000 to £5,000 bracket.

Stamps have always caught the investor's eye when share prices are falling. 'With most of the pre-1900 stamps there has been a healthy rise averaging out at about 12-15 Gibbons' year, per cent a spokesman announced this week.

Stanley Gibbons believe that a well-managed portfolio would have trebled in value during the last ten years. An added bonus is that there is no limitation on what can be taken out of the country, as there is with fine art. With their last financial year's £2.5m, standing turnover at Stanley Gibbons admit to hand- ling transactions of up to $lm.

CAMBRIDGE

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25

Mawson Hall Mawson Rd

SPECIAL SHOWING OF

'RIGHT TO WORK' FILM

RALLY, 3 p.m. Speaker: Maureen Bambrick (YS Nat. Citee) SEVERAL hundred workers are on strike at the Swinemoor Lane Armstrong Patents, plant of Beverley, Yorkshire, in detence of their union. The two Jean convenors, Jepson of the Transport and General Workers' Union, and Sid Poskitt, of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, have been suspended indefinitely because they refused to accept a management demand that they cease full-time union work and

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 REFA report delayed IT WAS not yet possible Maudling resigned bas De seent Ter i bich wwwnen re

WICSE

cation into the senll Estate Fund of Americ was used as promotional material for the offshore would COLHCla! soit Stor General, ine , In Maudling Solicitor General, deseriter •Tne Commons good and sound in- written reply vestment'. 'When the Director of A year later the fund Public Prosecutions polic crasnea Into bankrupicy final leaving creditors all ceives the round the world. report, i W11 COnsa• rr what action, Maudling was also should taken, with llolet rOLICR companies which suffered financial Mr Lewis (Lab

HOFFIL

MAUDLING

LLEWI

failure: West Ham North) had LuLIbUL Estate Fund of America ine United empire. United States 00r for M ulince lor form etly expected statement and when action Chancellor fraud. by Calta TAre eArLLenI H101L dC Attorney - General on nection'. man's TIrSI presice ntrecuet.

NUSILUL

entrusted the he of was Mr Reginald Maud- investigation has founder the which the former Home country's D. company, Mr erome oricee iwo di

HALLC

pertaining the Real Hofiman, is now serving to secrelary. HaLLD 'Code of conduct' for 45 p. c. interest men Slight Tory tap for moneylenders' wrists One of the merchant banker's companies,

HODGE,

SIR JULIAN

millionaire Hodge and Co Ltd, was named by Julian S. chairman of a finance company named Trade and Industry under-secretary Mr relel been Emery which had in the Commons as charging interest alol. Cull alles brought to the notice of his department for rates of up to 45 per cent, yesterday excessive Interest charges 'These include First National Securities, with a welcomed government proposals for a 25 per cent; Evergrowth rate oi ruc micie voluntary code of Investments, "lurret practice among Liverpool, 4y.t per cent, 26 Company, cent; and Julian Hodge, gage 26 to 45 per second mortgage companies.

rates range from whose true interest said Mr includes special charges, Wn1Cn 'We advocate the introduction of legisla- proposed a six-point code for money- Emery tion. We will support any measures and will would cleariv lenaers in waicn bortowme couracas support them actively even if they are volun- show the total money cost of the loan, including tary,' he said, but he denied his rate of inter- made, and state it in terms extra charges to est was so high. of annual dercentage Hodge's latest the venture Ic Commercial Bank Wales, Yorkshire strike for full-time which includes a number of pro.

minent Labour MPs on its board.

They include Mr James Calla- Chancellor of the ghan, former convenors Monday and has manned of the 24-hour excucouel treasurel since. PICKeL Labour Party, and another lorries have been stopped from Cabinet Mr George that they spend the only two hours entering plant. Secretary of state a dav on union business. Manarenen sent Wales in the Wilson govern-

TOT

letters to all the workers threa- Jean Jepson said: tening the closure of the factory menL. "It has been and cears for the strike does eneo- for four years mediately. Shares have full-time convenors.

We claims that it wants

KIOW

WC call l aive service an cany seluemell. They both have £5,000 worth our members require without But' said Jean Jepson, I've this right.' of shares in the bank. 23 hosts and to ere f cohta leed stood the last Other Welsh Labour MPs with engine ring fa cory oreck wone a stake in the bank are Leo Abse me.' €4,000; (Pontypool) Cledwyn Hughes (Anglesey), Fred Evans Probert (Caerphilly) and Arthur Socialist Labour League Public Meetings (Aberdare). all in for fl.000. and the two Rhondda members, Elfred Davies and Alec Jones,

UNITE IN ACTION TO DEFEND BASIC RIGHTS

£500 each. The final MP. with a share olding is an intriguing figure He is Will Edwards of Merio who when MPS.

DAGENHAM

netor nas nouu WOrTA THURSDAY MARCH 1, 8pm shares. Welsh Harold Wilson Manor Park Library for policy asked

SOUTHAMPTON

Romford Rd/Rabbitts Road MONDAY FEBRUARY 26,8 p.m.

ideas last summer. Edwards sug.

opp Rabbitts Pub senec e hat Babo or toala na Labour Marlands Hall

G HEALY

eaker nasoeknace (SLL National Sec) CoV: ACAN THORNETT By taking a share of the Hodge Speaker:

ALAN

bankne enterorsh cowaros is (Deputy Senior Steward Morris

THURSDAY

presum ol un dormining capitahe working MARCH 1, 8 p.m. Motors in a personal capacity) Windmill Hotel' Witham ism from within'

OXFORD

Speaker : CLIFF SLAUGHTER

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 27

(SLL Central Cttee) p.m. Knighted Clarendon Institute

WEST LONDON

THURSDAY MARCH 1, 8 p.m. Hodge, who was knighted b Speaker: G. HEALY Hall Lyndhurst the Tory government in 1970 for SLL National Secretary) Grafton Road, NW3 yesterday services

C TO

ROUSTV.

Speaker: M. BANDA reacted rather bitterly to the

MEDWAY

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 27, 8pm (SLL Central Committee) charges made against his com. pany in parliament. Autoe nore

.UTOI

Brompton Road 'I cannot understand it at all,' -RIDAY MARCH 2, 8 p.m Gillingham he said. But he went on- -inevi- Assembly Hall SSLL Ce Mra HeNDA tably-to welcome a full and feailess inquiry!

M. BANDA

Speaker

SLOUGH

(SLL Central Committee He was chairman of the Aber-

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 28

fan subter mid ee astrial

TOTTENHAM

ject teeuncil of the suo colmmllct Britwell Community Centre TUESDAY MARCH 6, 8 p.m member of Wafes Long Furlong Drive Lord Morrison Hall University Institute of Britwell Estate Chesnut

•C. HEALY

Science and Technology. speaker: G

HEALY

Speaker: He has written a book entitled (SLL National Sec) (SLL National Secretary) 'The Paradox of Financial Pre- servation'. Vednesday February 21, 1973

PAGE 11

BY DAVID MAUDE

LABOUR CORRESPONDENT

THE COMMUNIST Party has joined with right-wing reformists in consistent pre- paration of the ground for a cynical betrayal by the TUC leaders on March 5. Within days of the gas workers starting their official industrial action against the Tory pay laws, evidence of this preparation has emerged very clearly. One example already dealt with by Workers Press occurred at the national Ford stewards' meet- ing in Coventry on Sunday. On Monday, a London meeting of stewards' shop committee

SEC-

retaries and chairmen from the engineering unions completely vindicated our warnings about the Coventry events. The London meeting called on the TUC to unite the trade union movement behind workers fight- ing the pay laws, 'even to the extent of strike action'.

Programme Called by the No 8 district of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, it endorsed an action programme drawn up by the CSEU district committee. This includes a mass lobby of the March 5 TUC, support for the March 31 conference of the Liaison Committee for Defence of Trade Unions and a one-day stoppage on May I. But as Workers Press reported yesterday, the platform failed to the meeting a motion put to calling on the TUC to mobilize an indefinite General Strike to force the Tories to resign.

A similar motion was also kept from being voted on at Sunday's Coventry meeting. both occasions the Communist Party's 'Morning Star' has kept absolu- tely silent about these motions and their fate. Instead the 'Star' is campaign- ing for what it calls 'a one-day General Strike against the freeze' —a slogan which leaves the gas, hospital, railway and Ford wor- kers isolated and which the Stalinists know can arouse no enthusiastic support in the working class. In other words, by the most bureaucratic means possible the Communist Party is now daily engaged in a strategy of trying to contine workers to the politics of defeat. Editorial Yet at the same time, yester- 'Star' declared editorially day's that 'Heath is moving towards fascism'. The working people, the paper went on, must put a stop to this. If the 'Star' is serious about this analysis, why does it not declare the resolution for na tin n l a. of actin they marking time? Behind 'left'-sounding phrases 'Star' ary Stalinism ous as ever.

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Wednosday February 21, 1973

BY ROYSTON BULL OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

THE right wing is making a concerted effort to undermine the struggle of the Ford workers to resist the state pay controls imposed by the Tory government. Aided by the Press and exploiting politically backward elements among sections of the 250,000 employees, a com- nation of government, Tory back-bench MPs and Ford Motor Company forces are trying to whip up anti-strike sentiments.

Considerable paper publicity has been Ford convenors' chair- But important sections given to a vote in the Dagenham, Halewood. man and Communist Party member Sid Harraway and Langley, Swansea shop Waternoo already against the idea of all- indicated AneT are doing nothing their willingness to strike out strike action from defiance of the the new March 1 in rejection of decisive acuon

TUC

leadership. Jestion of the state pay strikes and in rejection of workers are £1 plus 4 per cent. saying that since there the wretched company Dav offer dictated by the Tory chance of an individual In Liverpool, the Press government. to cast doubt trade union or section result of workers beating the Tory It is up to more class- mass in conscious workers their own workers Troin government on the body plant at Hale- and since there no Ford's that

INCICT

Tine all- and wood which approved the convincing plans for meetings of convenors all-out strike. out, united, Trade. Thion then a strike by this week make the deci- action, Now Tory MP. Edward sion for strike action from Ford workers on their own suggesting that a stupid proposition. decisive. Matern this From there, political ballot pulsory be understandable confusion, campaign must orga- Ford workers, just as was nized by Ford workers, Ford plant-the done the railwaymen on Basildon radiator shop- centring round the special all- Congress on March 5, has voted against an Despite the rebuff to the the TUC from March leaders to out stoppage LONe Court then, the Tories call a General Strike. risk stunt because of stunt the des- perate position they are in with their pay controis. Aiding and abetting the this right-wing all in the Stalinists the car Stalinists industry the left abourites ATOl trade movement in whose policies general. sowing confusion and feeding the right wing.

TUC,

The 'left' and right, are making no clear call for united, trade union the pay same, by creatiyg the is- sible, creating dustrial con- and political ditions to force the Tory action for the day. government

FEBRUA

FUND S

IT IS getting to the end of Febru response to this mo still slow. stands from our ANOTHER piece of scare- If Gas Corporation way the We know reallv worried about the effects against gas- mongering of the gasmen's of down, but we remail in- Callbac might leave that you cut off workers was exposed yester- The Tory gas supplies in the normal -and time to sit back day when the South East no safe- way it would have to do for tlonary crisis any other disruption. Gas Board withdrew its tackle Tories to hospital warning to 850,000 The gas explosion scares are consu- Involved designed the middle all those panic mers that they were in immi- classes into vicious political the Workers Press onslaught against strike nent danger of being blown to workers movement warn all no up over the government's pay laws. up. Tha controntation government will

WEEK-LONG

strikes begin in possible to the East Shop stewards from north-west towns next week Greenwich and Croydon produc- which will close more factories.

working class. Show your reaffirmed guarantees tion plants The effects of gasmen's strikes, fight back. they had already given that overtime bans, and other actions effort to despite their 24-hour strike today, are building up in all areas.

month. Collect as pressure would Post the minimum safety level 'Can one-week strike began ately to: and emergency cover provided.

midnight in the East Midlands.

WORKERS

SEGAS

Geoffrey 20,000 will be

FEBRUARY

chairman About men in- Prott 186a Clapham hac Consumes the L4-hour CIM A In and tried to whip up a Press the south-east, south, and south- London, campaign against the striking gas- west regrons. men warning, consultation with the production that workers involved. a bolel- tially dangerous situation develop if gas supplies stopped.

Another spokesman said: 'Any-

BRADFO

the taps would body turning on get non vacangerous mixture

THURSD

of gas and air which, if lighted,

FEBRUARY

will explode 7.30 p.r Central Lit Workers the ‹egistered a Published Top of Hall Printed reet, 18s CanaG

CLIFF

Speaker 7029. hospitals will ban overtime EXTENSIVE strikes by an will hit al working and wilbaraw co workers operation from manage- least one big hospital from ment. the March 1 in each The unions have told the National Health Ser- Their statement on the TUC of the dispute and are 20- "initial details of industrial vice regions was asking other organiza- nounced yesterday. thi said: "In the ten hospital hospital service not central ' co-ordinat- regions in the country there The duties normally undertake ing committee or ibe ancillary workers at one or unions involved in the hos- workers. hos major workers' dispute pital pay The unions involved- strikes pitals said that the the of Conferderation just part of their plan "In other large hospitals to Health Service Employees there will be strikes by of a f4-8 the General Municipal force рауш selective grades ancil- week WOrKeRS lary workers. tional Union Public Under Phase Twa of the For yeneralkers Employees, Trans 'Ancillary workers and Tories' state pay laws, their other selective hospitals 220,000 hospital ancillary will stage strikes of limited Union-are setting up joint regional committees co- members have been offered and local just £1.84. Present basic three days) on a rota basis.

OrnAte all level. pay is f17.48 a week. Ancillary workers at nothing for the BRB's eight-month-old would locomen at get 1973. pledge to pay its members yesterday stopped €40 basic be Southend drivers wage The just a few entirely work yesterday by Tory pay refused to nela up laws. because, they morning leaders entered talks with the trains they And the Board has also claimed. the British Railways Board drive said that any review will were expected this defective. Later they subtracted from were labour their time ban. year's pay settlement- that the locomen altogether. meaning The Southend men's action-hitting one ortne commuter heaviest areas that five individual days

MINERS'

leaders have

THA

collare cinde Wil- off, awarded The representatives of 26 Scot- agreed to accent an arbi- berforce report last year of their decision-expec- branches tish tention 280.000 the gave union were preparing ted before the end of next miners an extra week. call *stronger action' for their claim for week-on But if the tribunal came claim week's holiday. an extra down in favour, the Roard outstanding since last June.

Coal believes it might help turn The National striking

ASLEF,

the locomen's opposed Board last week The miners been told that the claim on the grounds for their £5.50-£7 claim. union, has SEVENTY-TWO London schools were hit yesterday by. a teachers' strike. An estimated 40,000 schoolchildren were sent protested against the government's home as the teachers refusal to increase the special London allowance.

In two boroughs-Hounslow 28

BY IAN YEATS

and Ealing-all schools National called out by the Union of Teachers were closed.

The plans two further union

BRUARY

strikes starting on Feb- can" even fill their num waves ruary 27 (involving posts because the pay

ID STILL

and another at a date to be fixed He stressed the importance of About 1.500 teachers were in- volved in yesterday's strike. committee local dangerously close authorities had refused to 17 of February • this month's strikes involving Young teachers M the militant 200 of the 1,300-strong teachers £741.39a association. accoration i sociation secret me Mir John the present campaign failed.

Bull told meeting we remain concerned mess •We have got to see how much strikers at Windmill Hall, Ight leave It too with this first, allows minister: aovernment said one. 'But if it fails, will back. The Infla- 'We have reached the stage Is forcina havo to think of comething elce where what we need is the cold I don't know how people live on determination to go through with Chaemon the money. If I was married and workers, and what we are doing. nvolved in the T ins wages London's 36,000 teachers are couldn't do it. And I earn about head-on flaht. increase in their Press must be used demanding an the minimum. cost of living orkers everywhere of special lowance At Romford police kept close from £118 a year to £300.

This watch as teachers filed into the ahead do everything Tories borough headquarters The have offered them education try and defeat the a rise of f15. Mr Bull said: 'The House to nrecent a at Marory Prime Minister has said that petition to education committee determination Councillor Mrs Mar- be no give whatever chairman, there is to a very special garet Latham. Counter-Inflation over the 81ll Fund this But we have got to to suc- nEar try The teachers will be lobbying lect as much as you leave leaders of the Labour-controlled nerollare them to everything immedi the London allowance. We out two-day council throughout their suceeded before, and we have MPs letters

APPEAL FUND,

He added: 'Young people are the of High Street, mancing AYo licion Phase getting out of the borough at London allowance from SW4 7UG. Two. terrific pate in order to have a action to defend Unite in basic rights

RADFORD

MERTHYR

WANDSWORTH

THURSDAY

THURSDAY

THURSDAY

BRUARY

22

FEBRUARY 22

FEBRUARY 22

7.30 p.m. 8 p.m. p.m. Library AUEW Hall Wandsworth Town Hall Wandsworth High Hall Ings Swan Street Street

SLAUGHTER

Speaker: Sneaker:

HCALV

DANINA

Central Committee! (SLE National Secretary) Central Committee)