AFL-CIO backing state pay laws Nixon hogties union

The White House claimed it had unanimous backing of an advisory and union of presenemies or the continued wag ontrols which have beel in operation in one form or another since the summer of 1971.

With food prices rising at a rate of 2.3 per cent a month, the continuation of controls is a direct challenge to the US working class.

But Nixon has already ensured the benevolent neutrality of the trade union bureaucracy for his scheme.

This is clear from the two standing ovation Harbour given Florida, when he spoke to the executive council of the AFL-CIO.

There were supposedly 'frosty' relations last year when the union leaders quit the Pay Board.

Nixon himself told the executive council that food prices would rise sharply in the foreseeable future. But this did not shake the bureaucrats at all.

'We had a very pleasant meeting with the President of the United States,' said Secretary George Meany when the meeting was over.

The president has invited Meany to nominate union representatives to serve at Hanoi demanding assurances Vietnam peace on verge of breakdown NORTH VIETNAM is seriously concerned about the 'extremely grave situation' in the south and wants assurances from South Vietnam and the US before it will release any more prisoners.

Hanoi's sternest warning to date on the operation of the month-old ceasefire deal indicates that the whole ramshackle 'peace' arrangement in Indo-China is on the verge of breakdown.

There has been no cessation of hostilities and the South Vietnamese have made every effort to provoke the North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front representatives on joint commissions under the treaty.

Hanoi warned in a broadcast on Monday night that 'peace cannot be maintained with durability in South Vietnam' if these violations of the ceasefire arrangement continued.

On the question of prisoner release, Colonel Bui Tin, a member of the Hanoi delegation to the four-power joint military mission said: 'We are all prepared for the next release, but we are waiting for a response from the other side giving assurances that they will seriously respect all the clauses of the agreement.

'We must await the response from the other side. It is not reasonable for the US to seek the implementation only of articles which are of advantage to the US. There must be an equitable implementation of all articles by all sides.' assistant secretary level in the Departments of Detence, Housing, Commerce and Urban Development.

appointment, building union This is in addition to the firmed, leader Peter J. Brennan as Secretary of Labour, and it is only the start of the process of drawing the trade unions directly into operations of the imperialist state machine.

At the President's own request, Meany and the AFL-CIO hierarchy are sending names to the President for sub-cabinet posts in all other departments.

Nixon has made a similar invitation to Frank E. Fitzsimmons, the corrupt rightwing boss of the 2 millionstrong Teamsters (truckdrivers') Union.

The New York Times' suggests that Fitzsimmons might like to nominate an assistant Secretary of Agriculture 'now that the teamsters are co-operating actively with the California lettuce growers to smash Cesar Chavez's infant United Farm Workers—a course Mr Meany himself describes as "absolutely disgraceful and tantamount to strike breaking"'.

The ties between Nixon and the top union chiefs are so close that at Bal Harbour none of the 70 executive members and other union leaders raised the slightest CORRESPONDENT Colonel Tin indicated that he would be putting a series of fundamental questions to Us and South Vietnamese delegations to the commission organizing the ceasefire.

He said the situation in the commission had become very serious and added Hanoi delegates had been instructed to take positive steps so that the scheduled release of over 400 American prisoners of war still in North Vietnam would go Five North Vietnamese delegates to the joint military commission were injured in attacks on their compounds at Hué, Tam Ky and Ban Me Thuot. The attacks, by mobs inspired by the South Vietnamese government, were a crude attempt to sabotage the ceasefire deal.

North Vietnam has also accused Saigon of continued Dangers in Italian one-day 'General Strike' OVER 14 million Italian workers took part in a one-day 'General Strike' yesterday in support of pay claims and demands for social reforms.

Industry and many sectors of commerce were totally paralysed by the stoppage, the second in six weeks.

Workers staged stoppages ranging from one to four hours, while railway workers struck for 15 minutes.

Agricultural labourers came out for the whole day as did opposition to the government's stringent wage controls.

These laws are even now being used for the brutal smashing of strikes.

In Philadelphia, where 12,000 members of the teachers' union have been on strike for eight weeks, Nixon's close associate, the law-and-order mayor Frank Rizzo, has had over 1,000 strikers arrested and jailed the strike leaders for up to four years.

Rizzo ordered the judge to impose sentences which would 'break the back union'.

When Philadelphia workers threatened a General Strike against these savage attacks, the AFI-CIO leaders appealed to their friend in the White House to mediate in the strike.

Nixon has already indicated that his second term will be dominated by what he terms the 'work ethic, meaning that there will be wholesale cuts in social services, welfare, medicare and education schemes.

Such schemes were heavily trimmed in the latest budget.

'nibbling attacks' on NLF territory contrary to the treaty terms, refusing to release detained Vietnamese civilians and hindering the movements of North Vietnamese and NLF delegates to the commissions.

Big difficulties have also appeared at the 12-power Paris conference on Indo-China which is supposed to guarantee the ceasefire deal. North Vietnam and the NLF are resisting imperialist attempts to impose a permanent political authority from outside Vietnam to police treaty violations.

North Vietnam and the NLF have rejected a Canadian proposal that UN general secretary Kurt Waldheim be called in to take charge of such a body.

The two Vietnamese delegations are insisting that the main aim of the conference is to organize foreign disengagement from Vietnam, not to impose a new imperialist authority over the country. those working in bars taurants.

Electricity and waterworks men also walked out and the utilities warned that public supplies would be cut off if consumption held steady.

While hospital workers struck for one hour, emergency services were maintained. Print unions called their members out for two hours each shift.

One of the main demands by the three trade union confederations was for the reUnion chiefs' grovelling before Nixon reached its peak in the AFL-CIO's crudely protectionist trade policy. Its latest report blames the US trade deficit for the loss of some 1 million job opportunities for US workers over the last six Meany finds the President's Trade Bill attractive and says:

'If any nation closes the door on us-on our products--then we should turn around and close the door on them: just as simple as that.' Meany's policy involves complete subordination the unions to the requirements of imperialism. By accepting posts in the government the union chiefs are converting themselves into the direct policemen of the workers' movement.

Their betrayal must be met by the building of a Labour Party in the United States which will fight to a finish against class-collaboration and sever the reactionary ties which bind the US unions politically to big Salisbury.

Smith's jets in rocket attack on guerrilla bases RHODESIAN Air Force jets launched a rocket attack alleged guerrilla bases in the northern Centenary borders Portuguese Mozambique, according to The attacks, said to have been made at the weekend by Vampire jets, were thought to have been the first in a district which has been the focal point of increased guerrilla activity since a white farm there was raided before The Smith government has admitted that the local population has supported the guerrillas and recently took powers to impose summary collective punishments including heavy fines on communities suspected of harbouring resistance fighters.

The defiant Tangwena tribe in the Centenary area, which has repeatedly been driven off its ancestral lands to make way for white farming, is reported to newal of labour contracts for some 2.5 million workers, especially the 1.5 million metal and engineering workers who have been negotiating for over four months.

On the eve of the strike, the confederations-the biggest is the Stalinist-led CGIL-sent a joint letter to the government demanding 'precise replies on questions of social reforms, prices and employment'.

The overwhelming support for yesterday's strike proved once more the fighting capahave returned to its home on the Gaeresi Ranch from wl ich the tribesmen were evicted last year.

The police detachment detailed to keep them out of ranch was withdrawn when guerrilla activity began to increase.

The situation clearly has the racialist lan Smith regime worried. Two leaders of the African National Council, general secretary Carlton Ngcebetsja and organizing secretary Arthur Chadzingwa, were detained under emergency regulations on Monday.

Peter Niesewant, the freelance journalist who is also detained, has now lodged an appeal against his arbitrary imprisonment.

bilities of the Italian working class.

But the Communist Partywhich controls key sections of the trade union movement-is consciously intent on frittering away this strength with one-day stoppages with some workers only coming out for 15 minutes.

In this way the Stalinists hold back the working class, opening the doors wider every day to the extreme right in the shape of the fascist MSI