Asset-strippers attack d's Lord Stokes

I WOULD like to inform your readers about a meeting of the London Joint Sites Committee which took place on Thursday, February 22. Present was Lew Lewis, the secretary and leading member of the Communist Party in the building trade.

Under pressure from All Trades Unions Alliance (ATUA) members at the meeting he put forward a call to building workers to support a Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions lobby of the TUC special Congress on March 5 to demand a General Strike to force the Tories to resign and to return a Labour government pledged to socialist policies. He said this was the Liaison Committee policy. (See Workers Press, Saturday, February 24, 1973.)

Of course, in saying this, Lewis wasn't telling the truth. As everyone knows, the Liaison Committee policy is TON one-day national protest stoppage which could never remove the Tory Spanish police arrest 'guerrillas' as Castro signs deal SPANISH Foreign Ministry the capital of Asturias, has SPANISH Foreign Ministry .-. issued a note on the arrest of fanrac onlo otatomant official Eduardo Pena Bizanda has renewed a commercial treaty in Havana with Fidel Castro's Cuban government.

There was talk, in a 'cordial climate', of a rapid increase in Cuban sales to Spain: a target was fixed at $50m.

Spain will buy an extra 20,000 tons of Cuban sugar at a price which was officially described as 'very favourable to Spain, considering the world market price.

In Spain, Franco's police have been busy rounding up oppositionists-many of whom base themselves on the 'guerrilla' tactics of Comandante Fidel.

Police Oviedo, headquarters government In putting forward this call Lewis was cynically adapting to the growing anti-Tory feeling of the workers in the building trade in order to stab it in the back.

The depth of this cynicism was shown on the lobby itself. Not only was his Committee not fighting for a General Strike, but they were not even there. Not even a banner.

Usually keen for publicity, hey did not put in an appearince so far as I know. They were content to let the TUC betray because the outcome of the Com gress, the national one-day of protest, is all that they want.

The Stalinists today march arm in arm with the right wing. We must warn every worker of their treachery.

Every • class-conscious worker must join the ATUA and the SLL in the fight to transform the League into a party. This is the way to defeat the Stalinists.

London building worker.

the capital of Asturias, has issued me mobers othe a Maoist seven International Communist Party (PCI).

The Maoists were active in the Philosophy and Science Faculties of the University of Oviedo and the Uninsa and Ensidesa factories.

Full-time Maoist?

Fascist police claim that one of the arrested, Manuel Armenta Espejo, is full-time Maoist organizer 'who had conducted clandestine activity in Seville, Barcelona and Tarrasa and was now intensifying subversive action in Asturias' The Civil Guard in Bilbao has imprisoned 40 people connected with the Basque nationalLORD STOKES, the chairman of British-Leyland is expected to receive a rough shareholders at today's ens reception when he greets nual meeting.

The man behind the antiStokes group is Mr Redvers Veale. He says that although asset-strippers are being condemned, 'it should be remembered from the shareholders' point of view, they at least provide some protection against managements who are unable to provide shareholders with a realistic return on their investments' In other words, Veale wants more asset-stripping throughout the combine like the hiving off of Thornycroft's at Basingstoke.

One of Veale's questions to the chairman asks:

'Will the chairman assure us ist movement in Bilbao, Amorabieto, Marquina and Ondarroa.

Twenty-five arrests were made in Ondarroa, thus breaking up a group which concentrated on collecting funds for the Basque movement.

The Civil Guard requisitioned three duplicators and an archive containing illegal . newspapers like 'Workers' Guipuzcoa' and 'Batazuna' and the pamphlets 'Reformism and Revolution' and an Inquiry into Basque nationalism'.

The Basques were also caught with illegal posters bearing the portraits of Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro . . .

In spite of police repression, the Spanish working class has not relented in its struggle against the Franco regime. that if better results are not achieved in the current year he will consider the possible breaking up of the company?' Veale, a partner in Pim, Vaughan and Company, has told the City editors that he intends to put four other questions to Another asks: 'Will he reassure us that the current policy to sharply increase the already substantial expenditure on research and development will not be undertaken unless the management can ensure a more realVALUE-ADDED TAX will hit small shopkeepers much more than many of them realize. Customs and Excise officials announced yesterday that shopkeepers with a taxable turnover According to management figures only 1,800 of the 6,000 miners in the 13 pits in the mining valley of Nalon (Asturias) are working.

Some 1,700 miners in the private mine of Figaredo in Turón are on strike following the death of miner José Jesus Díaz (25), crushed under a fall of coal.

Shipyard lock-out

In Bilbao, 3,000 shipyard workers are still locked out after six weeks of stoppages for higher wages.

And 140 workers in 'Cadenas and Forjados' have been locked out for a week following a one-day strike last Friday.

In San Sebastian, 800 extras working on the film 'Papillon' VAT will hit hard According to management won a wage increase istic return to shareholders?' Veale and his followers are angry with the Stokes management because of the declining returns in recent years. The share price yesterday was only 30p despite Stokes's muchpublicized reports that the company was now set for 'big profits'.

Veale says: 'Over the past years shareholders have seen value of their investi nent duced by at least 50 per cent the income reduced by the s amount'.

of €5,000 a year must for VAT.

Many shopkeepers had thought they only had 1 , register if they made a F ofit of €5,000 a year.

won a wage increase reinstatement of 12 militants who had been sacked producer.

Cordoba buses are being boycotted following a 25-per-cent fares rise.

A member of the Civil Guard is riding in each bus and armed police are guarding the bus stops.

On most routes, the boycott is total--the only passenger is a policeman.

Firemen are in their fifth day of strike in Seville-the town council has refused to grant a proper wage increase. Sevillian workers are embittered further by the threat of the Peyre textile plant that it will have to close.

That would add 500 unemployed to the already large number of permanent unemployed in southern Spain. ten reand ame

PAGEANT DIARY The Road to Workers Power 'TAFF VALE is us. People need reminding it happened in these valleys. It's their history!