Workers Press no. 1019

workers press

10,000 AT EMPIRE POOL ANTI-TORY RALLY

INCORPORATING THE NEWS

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRA

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

OVER 10,000 trade unionists and youth massed at the Empire Pool, Wembley, yesterday in the biggest indoor anti-Tory rally since the Tory government came to power in June 1970.

They witnessed a unique event in the history of the for basic democratic rights performed by workers and youth from four areas of Britain.

Throughout the afternoon "This historic occasion would have happened without the not and evening the crowd was fight put up by the League and electrified by the power and he "The its supporters, said. message from this Pageant is to clarity with which the mak- forward and transform Socialist Lour League into the ing of the British working class was brought to life.

revolutionary party' Comrade Healy said this was The vivid and moving perfor- be simply not meant to an continually punctu- mance worker Every in- appeal. by cheering ated spontaneous struggle today had volved in the vast arena. from the responsibility join in to The scene was unfolded from this decisive battle for SO- the massacre Peterloo, Man- at cialism. in 1819 to the building chester, be- He warned of the great of the Labour Party in 1906, on in- the floor of Empire Pool itself trayal being prepared the Labour Party. and on a specially erected stage.

clique around The right-wing projected Four TV cameras Dick Roy Jenkins and Taverne details of the action onto a huge were busily erecting a barrier to cinema screen at the head of the the party from the trade isolate the The whole scene, arena. union movement. lighting, the the props, Like MacDonald them before the intricate technical equipment, they were preparing to split the all the of the and above power wide made Empire Pool movement open. acting this hour of greatest danger that unique occasion. demand a special conference we It was a great blow against of the Labour Party to deal with Tory the government and these traitors. by the historic step working They must be cast out of the class along the road to power.

ranks immediately. After the Pageant, Gerry Healy, should national secretary of the Socialist This conference pre- battle ahead. It Labour League, welcomed the pare for the socialist should down audience. lay a HE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY MARCH 12, 1973 • No. 1019 • 4p

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

policy for expropriating capi- Meanwhile the reactionary around Heath talism and it should form military clique to back up with with the trade union were were preparing pact the Tory drive movement in struggle to action the industrial and poli- rob the working class of its create basic democratic rights. tical conditions to force the Tories to resign.' democratic struggle for Such a struggle was now long rights was now a revolutionary The international crisis overdue. task, said comrade Healy. of capitalism was threatening complete collapse of economic 'That is the lesson of history, capitalist of life in the nations that the lesson of working- IS the world and especially Britain.

class struggle in country every The conditions of the working This lesson of the world. must here far lower than be heeded class could sink at this great those of the 1930s. meeting today. 'Forward to the revolutionary party.' Gary Gurmeet, editor of 'Keep Left', weekly newspaper of the Young Socialists, said the Heath government was heading for a presidential-style corporate state.

The Tory government may have succeeded in legislating itself into a powerful position but it still has to face the organized strength of the working class and its conscious leadership,' he said. But today's rally expresses the determination of that work- ing class.' • Pageant pictures, pp 6 and 7.

workers press

10,000 AT EMPIRE POOL ANTI-TORY RALLY

INCORPORATING THE NEW

DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTR

BY STEPHEN JOHNS

OVER 10,000 trade unionists and youth massed at the Empire Pool, Wembley, yesterday in the biggest indoor anti-Tory rally since the Tory government came to power in June 1970.

They witnessed a unique event in the history of the working class—a three-hour pageant of the struggle for basic democratic rights performed by workers and youth from four areas of Britain.

'This historic occasion Throughout the afternoon would not have happened without the and evening the crowd was fight put up by the League and electrified by the power and said. 'The its supporters, he Pageant is message from this to clarity with which the mak- the forward and transform go working ing of the British Socialist Labour League into the class was brought to life.

revolutionary party.' Comrade Healy said this was The vivid and moving perfor- meant be simply an not to mance was continually punctu- appeal. Every worker in- cheering ated by spontaneous volved in struggle today had the from vast arena. the responsibility to join in The scene was unfolded from for this decisive battle so- Man- at Peterloo, the massacre cialism. 1819 to the building chester, in the be- He warned prepared rent of the Labour Party in 1906, on the trayal being in - floor Pool itself the of Empire Labour Party. and on a specially erected stage.

The right-wing clique around projected Four TV cameras and Dick Taverne Roy Jenkins details of the action onto a huge were busily erecting a barrier to cinema screen at the head of the isolate the party from the trade The whole scene, the arena. union movement. the the lighting, props, music, Like MacDonald before them the intricate technical equipment, split the and above all the power of the they were preparing to made Empire Pool mis hour of greatest danger that open. acting movement unique occasion. demand a special conference we It was a great blow against of the Labour Party to deal with the Tory government and a these traitors. historic step by the working "They must be cast out of the class along the road to power. ranks immediately. After the Pageant, Gerry Healy, "This conference should pre- national secretary of the Socialist It League, welcomed the pare for the battle ahead. Labour audience. should lay down a socialist THE NEWSLETTER • MONDAY MARCH 12, 1973 & No. 1019 • 4p

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE

capi- Meanwhile the policy for expropriating reactionary Heath military around and it should form clique talism back up with with the trade union were preparing to pact the Tory drive movement in struggle to armed action the industrial and poli- rob the working class of its create basic democratic rights. force the tical conditions to Tories to resign? struggle for democratic Such a struggle was now long rights was now a revolutionary The international overdue. crisis comrade Healy. task, said threatening of capitalism was complete collapse of economic 'That is the lesson of history, the capitalist of life nations that is the lesson of working- the world and especially Britain.

class struggle in every country The conditions of the working of the world. This lesson must be could sink far lower than heeded here at this class great those of the 1930s. meeting today. 'Forward to the revolutionary party' Gary Gurmeet, editor of 'Keep Left', weekly newspaper of the Young Socialists, said the Heath government was heading for a presidential-style corporate state.

"The Tory government may have succeeded in legislating itself into a powerful position but it still has to face the organized strength of the working class and its conscious leadership, he said. 'But today's rally expresses the determination of that work- ing class.' • Pageant pictures, PP 6 and 7.

PAGE 2 Workers Press, Monday March G&MWU officer John Edmonds (right) f gasworkers after Friday's delegate confer THE MAIN hospital ancillary w asked the TUC for official support, Congress. The application will be d Committee on Wednesday. Meanwhile hospital workers stepped up their have again picketing action and the hun- dreds of strikes and other in- around the dustrial actions country are becoming more and more effective. Mrs. Linen - room worker Hyacinth Bailey, from St. James' London, Hospital, talked Workers Press on the picket line during the one-week strike there called by NUPE, the G&MWU and COHSE. 'We do the dirty work, •so we should get fair pay,' she said. That's what we fight- are ing don't for. If get our we claim at the end of this strike, on strike again. we should go I believe in fair pay. 'The people who don't do any work have all the money and those who work get little pay.

'I have a large family to help my husband support, so I have to fight for my rights. I am pre- to go on fighting pared them. *Hospital workers and gasmen and railway workers are all on strike together. I think they all feel the same way.' Mrs Bailey said she was sorry for the patients, but pinned the blame firmly on the Tories. 'We providing ser- are emergency she said. 'It's the govern- vices, ment's fault we're out at all.

'The patients are sympathetic They know we get low to us. wages and they would help us if they could' arena AN

UNPRECEDENTED

last- minute intervention by president Georges Pompidou marked the last hours before polling in the crucial second round of the French election at the weekend.

Pompidou went on • television on Saturday to tell the elector- ate that if they voted in a Left majority it would mean the end individual liberty and pros- of perity. attacked the opposition coalition of Communist, Social- ist and Left Radical parties as 'Marxist communists with their assured allies'. . The Left parties claimed his intervention was a breach of electoral law. lay March 12, 1973 • (right) falling to convince Sunderland ate conference. illary workers union NUPE has support, as pledged by the special will be discussed by the Economic ABOUT 500 workers from the Oxford area staged a march and rally on Saturday to protest against state pay laws. The demonstration was called the hospital ancillary staff by unions together with local gas-

T&GWU 5/55

workers, the branch from the car industry and the Oxford and District Council of Action and with the full and unanimous support of the Oxford and District Trades Council.

The column of trade unionists shouted 'Tories Out' and So cialism in' as they marched from PRESIDENT Nixon has revealed plans to restore the death pen- alty in the United States where it has not been used for almost six years. Annoucing a 'reform' criminal code, of the Federal the president said that he re- garded the death penalty as an 'contrary to effective deterrent the views of some social theor- ists'.

SUNDERLAND

gasworkers lobbying Friday's General Municipal Workers' and Union delegate conference have the right idea about the Gas Corporation's 'new' pay offer. 'When all's said and done, we've got noth- ing', they declared uncom- promisingly after a long, post-conference exposition John Edmonds, from national

G&MWU

gas officer. There is nothing new about the offer. In a crude attempt to split the gasworkers, the Gas Corporation has done juggling some arithmetical with a surplus on its pen- to reduce em- sion fund ployee contributions by per- haps 40p or 50p per week.

It has held • out the pos- sibility that 2,500 men due to start losing their jobs in April may not have to go until October. But not a single penny of new money is being offered-and the Tory principle of state control of wages; which the are fighting, is gasworkers maintained intact. Were the gas union leaders putting up a real struggle control, against state wage the Gas Corporation's split- be re- ting tactics would nA'ISE

NDS

ICILLOAC

I PAY

THE

TORIES

UPPORT

TORY

FREEZE

SPREA

MAY SATS

DISEASE

SUPPORT

YOUR

HOSPITAL

WORKERS

The Plain to an open air meet- ing at St Giles. There were delegations of gas- workers, hospital staff, civil ser- vants, car workers and represen- of political tatives different groups. given A leaflet shoppers to said the rally was called 'in oppo sition to the wage control policy of the present government who are attempting to use the lowest- paid workers • as the whipping economic boys for their own mismanagement. "The government arrogantly Nixon added that in view of the 'immediate need' for the restoration of capital punish- ment a new statute would be put before Congress as soon as pos- It will sible. apply only to Federal the State crime being encouraged but governors are to take similar action. The Supreme Court has ruled jected universally and out of hand by all 47,000 workers in the industry. Saturday's decision by shop stewards in the north-east, to recom- mend the end of a four-week strike next week, reflects a that the growing feeling leaders of their own unions and the TUC are hell-bent on selling out. Both the G&MWU and the Transport and General Workers' Union initially at- tempted to separate the issue of whether the g?s- wage control. Then they in- volved their members in a campaign of selective strikes which, Workers Press warned from the outset, would tend isolate them, dissipate to their strength and produce moods of disillusionment.

Even now they insist on babbling that all they want is "fair treatment, when the Herth government has itself laid it on the line that with- out its removal there is to be no concession. For Edmonds and the union leaders their to postpone planned escalation of indus- trial action, as they have done, itself signals a clear retreat on their part.

TON

VISION

CAT

RENGTH

SUPPORT

TOUR

claims that the British people support its unwarranted attacks the living standards of the on low paid and vitally important sections of the community.

'Yet thousands of working people are engaged in industrial action, many for the first time ever, in an attempt to secure a wage which will keep them mar- ginally above the poverty line.

'And the British people are being asked to accept hardships and inconvenience to show their for this disastrous support policy? that the death penalty , is dis- criminatory because a dispro- portionate number of people black executed were poor and while the white and wealthy were spared. Nixon's new statute may evade this objection by making the death penalty mandatory for such crimes as hi-jacking, arson, kidnapping and • killing police and prison officers. Saturday's north-east After stewards' meeting, G&MWU regional organizer Eric Easey said that the Gas Corpora- tion's offer contained the germs of a peace solution.

Some stewards reckoned that it was worth £2.80 to £3: a week, he said. This is exactly the kind of speculation the corporation and the government hope for-but it is only made possible by courtesy of the union leaders. It is time to halt the retreat.

To do this, those north- east stewards who fought on Saturday for an all-out strike will have to fight hard, with those who think like them all over the country, to stop their leaders accept- ing state wage control on the basis of alleged con- cessions. This can be done. In every gas- works and depot the feeling is growing: every section of the working class must be mobilized to force the Tory government to resign. And Empire yesterday, Pool, demonstrated that the lead- ership is now being built which will through carry these historic tasks.

BY A FOREIGN

CORRESPONDENT

THE CHINESE government has established full diplo- matic relations with fascist Spain and the two countries will exchange ambassadors within three months. The news was announced after a regular cabinet meeting in Madrid, presided over by the.

Head of State, General Franco.

The agreement, signed after secret talks between the Chinese and Spanish ambassadors in Paris, is regarded as an impor- tant step towards relations with all the Stalinist powers.

General Franco already has full diplomatic relations with East Germany and less formal dip- lomatic ties with Poland, Hun- gary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and the USSR. The Soviet Union is now cer- tain to want full diplomatic re- lations as well. Lopez Bravo, the fascist Foreign Minister, expects to have full relations with the Soviet Union and all east Euro- pean countries by the end of the year. China's decision to recognize Spain marks a further sharp turn to the right by the Peking Stalin- ists, who have already established American imperialism. Franco's courts have recently imposed heavy sentences on the clandestine Spanish supporters of • Mao Tse-tung. What Chairman have British Maoists and their chairman,

AUEW

executive councilman Reg Birch, to say about the Chinese betrayal?

Britain's building wor- kers, who in terms of accidents work in one of the most dangerous in- dustries in the country, also face another danger -hypothermia. This condition, of low body temperature, which is a fre- quent cause of death among old people, has been discovered to also affect a large number of workers in the construction industry as a result of in- adequate protective clothing.

This has been disclosed by Dr Geoffrey Taylor, a con- sultant physician, who was employed by the Ministry of the Environment, and its pre- decessor, the Ministry to carry out on-site Works, examinations of workers. But Dr Taylor's report has been published. And not neither the government nor the building employers have been prepared to do anything about the problem. In fact, the Medical Research which runs artificial Council, British big business is handing out hefty sums of money to the Tory Party and right-wing groups who fight against socialist policies. The largest single donation to the Tory coffers is again from Guest Keen and Nettle- fold. This company, which is at present negotiating with the government to regain control of British Steel Corporation handed over f33,000 plants, in the financial year 1971- 1972. A survey carried out by Labour Research Department shows that 167 major com- panies contributed a total of £632,086 to the Tories and their friends in that year.

Of this sum, £268,678 went to the Tory Party and the rest shared by outfits like was United Industrialists British (£229,675), Economic League (£55,855), Aims of Industry (£32,478), Industrialists' Coun- cil (£27,950), European Move- climatic chambers at Hamp- stead suitable for testing pro- tective clothing, is planning to close them down next year, claiming that there is no further use for them. These chambers were pre- viously used for developing suitable clothing for both hot and cold weather for the forces.

Scientists and research wor- working kers there have suggested that building wor- kers' clothing could be the to be next line of research carried out. a recent report in "The In Guardian', Malcolm Stuart quoted Dr Taylor as saying in report that hypothermia his was a very common and serious in moderately problem even cold . weather with little wind or rain. Of the men he examined, on sites from Lerwick to Swin- • had skin tem- don, a third peratures of 95°F or under. The lowest temperature he recorded was 52°F, and only I1 per cent skin tem- of the men had peratures of 98°F or above, which would indicate a normal body temperature of 98.4°F.

Common ment (t11,100), Cause (£4,850) and the Aldnor Trust £1,500). is Economic League The dedicated to the preservation of 'free enterprise' capitalism.

It Labour Research adds: combined this, however, with more sinister task: supply information on subver- sive activities to companies, and leaflet media mass readers"' As well as exposing militant trade unionists and left-wing it operates a organizations blacklist and 'intelligence ser- • Its total income in 1971 vice' was £299,761. Not surprising, many of the more generous contributors to these organizations were firms that are headed by leading Tories. Slater Walker, the finance conglomerate formerly headed by Peter Walker, Secretary for Trade and Industry, gave £15,000 to the Party, £5,015 Aims of Industry and to £1,500 to the Economic League. Stuart goes on to quote Dr Taylor as saying, at his home in Somerset: 'I told the Ministry that what was needed was a really effective protective suit that minimized sweating. 'But now the department says that this is a matter for building firms. In recent months I have been in touch with all the large contractors, but all I have received is polite brush- offs, nor have I had any res- from the TUC. They ponse consider it a matter for the government.' As well as inadequate cloth- ing, Dr Taylor notes in his report that there were disturb- ing signs of malnutrition among many of the men he examined.

He recommends an educational campaign to encourage extra vitamin C in diets, especially in the north and in Scotland.

But while it may be true that poor dietary habits are a factor, many building workers probably point to con- will ditions in the industry as at fault-no proper canteen on most sites and only a half-hour dinner break, meaning that workers have little time to go Writings of

WRITINGS

leon Trotsky

LEON TROTSHY

(1938-9)

WRITINGS OF

WAITINGS OF

LEON

LEON

TROTSKU

11933-341 1834-35 Six volumes of Trotsky's writings during the years 1933-1940 £8.00 including postage Please tick those you requi Name Address Complete form and post to: New Park Publications, 18 A New Park Publicat cold, inade- quate clothing and poor workers: diet. quate off the site for a meal or to digest it properly. complaints, such stomach ulcers, are also common as among building workers result.) Added to which, of course, we need hardly mention what is happening to food prices at present! "The Guardian' report con Taylor: by quoting Dr Cutes 'When I first started visiting building sites I was amazed to find that many of the appar- old men were still ently their forties. In fact you hardly find a man over 50 in the open.

'Cold conditions, inadequate clothing, and often a poor diet, turn healthy young men into old men at 50, with arthritics rheumatism, and chest com- plaints.' The raised by this assues report have been taken up by bullaing workers m Lancaster.

Lancaster No 2 branch of of Construction, Tne Allied Trades and Technicians.

(UCATT) decided to draw the matter to the attention of the union executive, nan that Be demand them to that Taylor's Report be published, and that adequate measures be taken to deal with the prob- of protective clothing. lem

ANNOUNCING...

History of Russian Revolution -special gilt pack of three volumes £1.70 including postage Please tick those you require. Amount enclosed £. New Park Publications, 186a Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UG A New Park Publications Booklist is a vailable, free, on request.

ress, Monday March 12, 1973

PAGE 3

The Tory government is press- ing ahead feverishly with its plans to build up an army force to deal with a General Strike. Workers Press has already reported the recruitment of 15,000 young men to the Ter- ritorial Army Volunteer Reserve (TAVR). And we also drew attention to an advertise- ment which the TAVR placed in a civil service magazine ask- ing for part-time intelligence officers. Earn good money' as a part-time spy, the advertise- ment said. Now Sunday newspapers are carrying an advertisement for tutors for the Home Defence College at Basingwold, near York. The advertisement says: 'A new residential college has been set up to promote study of the problems of utilizing peace-time services to meet major war-time needs and emergencies. 'Courses normally of short duration and with groups and syndicate work will be de- signed for senior staff from local and central government, nationalized and other essen- tial industries and the services? Applicants are asked to lead discussions in home defence relation to the changing in socio-economic environment of country. The successful this applicants are due to take up their duties in two months' time. The 'Terriers' are living up Britain's to their name as 'Phantom Army'. Trotsky—a documentary by Francis Wyndham and David King £1.65 including postage eet, London SW4 7UG able, free, on request.

- COAL: TORY HIVE-OFFPLANS

PAGE 4 Workers Press, Monday Marc Hiving-off is a phrase which has largely if not completely disappeared from the Press recently. Nevertheless there has been little corresponding let up in the Tories' actual attempts to persuade private enterprise to take on chunks of nationalized industries. Private In steel the plan has not met with much success and the engineering division at Redpath Dorman Long is still waiting for private capital to flow in. There isn't much sign that the railways have had much luck either, but they are push- ing very hard with a little- known scheme to traffic across to private enter- prise as possible. Everyone remembers seeing the odd train made up of Shell or BP tankers, but from now on rail chief Richard Marsh wants to see more and more trade names on the railways.

The plan is to interest busi- ness to the idea of block trains or company trains. Under this scheme private firms buy whole trains and maintain them. If there are no cargoes, British Rail loses nothing. And if they go wrong, the Board's workshops are available for repairs. business "The only thing we supply is a locomotive and a crew, a Board spokesman told me. 'As far as profit is con- cerned, the scheme has every- thing to recommend it. British Rail and the train drivers' union ASLEF hope the new scheme will attract a growing volume of business and neither are at this stage talking about possible redun- dancies. But the block trains operate in the same way as freight- liners and there is no doubt that a dramatic growth in this sector would be at the ex- pense of the old system of individual trucks marshalled one at a time into trains.

Block trains of huge con- tainers will undoubtedly even- tually mean fewer trains even though more freight might be being handled. Below: Richard Marsh of British Rail. iday March 12, 1973 Workers in the coal in- dustry are becoming in- creasingly restless about secret Tory plans to hive off all the National Coal Board's profitable activi- ties. They are particu- larly concerned about the lack of vigilance of their union's executive. A discussion meeting held mine- between last week workers delegates' and officials from the National Union of Mineworkers and the NCB not only failed to quell anxiety, but added to it. 'I didn't like the way Joe Gormley was talk- ing, said one delegate. The meeting was marked by some very plain speaking and some forthright questioning.

The matter will be taken up again at the NUM annual con- ference. But will this be soon enough? Two holding companies which are taking over all non- mining activities from

NCB

begin operations from April 1. Between them, they will take away f80m in assets from the coal industry and about £10m in profits. The Coal Board will initially wholly own these two com- panies, but under the Coal Industry Act of 1970, it has the right to dispose of these holdings, whenever it wants, to private industry. The Board says that the purpose of the hiving off is not to dispose of the assets, but to find a way round an- other clause of the Act which restricts its right to lend money to its own subsidiaries, a clause inserted so that no taxpayers' money provided to • the miners should help diverted to non-coal activities.

But the proposal to raise all future capital requirements for these subsidiaries from the private money market revives all the dangers of back-door which denationalization ap- peared when the Tories first came into office. Whatever ingenious plans the NCB devises for retaining nominal ownership of these holding companies, the supply of finance will eventually be the decisive factor in deciding really calls the tune. who Capitalism would soon openly dominate the ancillary indus- tries. In fact, the proposed capital structure of the holding com- clearly which panies shows NCB chairman Derek way Ezra intends things to go.

Half will be in loan stock owned by the Board but the rest will be in ordinary shares which it is eventually hoped to place on the open market.

'The Sunday Times' reported recently that the long-term plan would be gradually to replace the NCB-owned fixed interest capital wholly with equity capital quoted on the Stock Exchange. But even before such a final outcome is reached, the diffi- subsidiary the culties industries will begin. Though the companies are to remain under NCB control, for the hirst time they will have to raise funds on the private capital market at interest rates which could be considerably more expensive than government loans. In addition to this, the very activities the separation and the intention of making them 'self-financed' opens the door for any future govern- ment to abandon responsibil- industries ity for these wider economic difficulties, such as a major slump, cause them to make losses. Only continued full-scale public ownership can maintain the modicum of special lever- age which workers in national- ized industries can occasion- against arbitrary ally assert closures and the like. The hive-off plans cover all the NCB's activities other than coal, including the valu- able North Sea gas discoveries.

Most of the subsidiaries are good profit-makers. The larger of the two hold- ing companies, the Coal Pro- ducts Holding Company, will take over natural gas, chemical activities, as well as the exten- sive coal products business. It will have assets of over f50m.

These subsidiary activities include coke ovens, solid fuels like Furnacite, Midland Distillers, Yorkshire Tar Staveley Chemicals and other chemical interests, as well as partly-owned facilities in plas- tics, sulphuric acid, and caprolactam, the raw material for nylon. The smaller company, called NCB Ancillary Holdings, will take over engineering, brick- works, fuel distribution and as well as the appliances, NCB's land and property interests. The total assets will be about £25m. The Coal Board's official view of all this tries to quieten fears. "The formation of the holding companies will make no difference to the management or to the way the industry is run. The holding companies will be wholly owned by the NCB Lawrence Daly, NUM secre- tary, agrees that his members not happy with the pro- are posals and says that the NUM executive does not much like them either. He admits that the holding companies will have to pay higher interest rates than used to be paid for Treasury loans, and that there could still be backstairs attempts at selling the subsidiaries off to private enterprise. But he sticks to the NUM executive line that the holding companies better are arrangement than allowing the intervene government to directly and hive off the ancil- lary interests at any time, as they have threatened to do.

Joe Gormley and the rest of the executive tried to calm the men's anxiety by assuring them he did not believe that any part of the industry would be sold off to private firms.

And he tried to give double assurance by promising that lu-if any subsidiaries were hived off, the next Labour govern- ment would renationalize them without compensation. The north-east delegates to the conference were not so easily convinced. Dissatisfied with bland assurances, they plan to demand further ex- planations from an area con- ference and even, if necessary, a special conference of the entire union. "This has been done behind our backs and we are not satis- Above left: Lawrence Daly. Right.

Derok Ezra. fied with the explanations,' Tom Smith, a miner from Monkton Lodge, said after the meeting at the TUC head- quarters in London. John Dodds, NUM coke- men's area executive member, said: "The cokemen's area asked for this meeting and we are still not satisfied with the ans- wers, either from the Board or the NUM. 'The Board says it is not hiving off. We say it is.

"The hiving off can come in from various ways — apart directly selling subsidiaries to private industry. 'If private investment comes in, it means all the cream in the ancillary industries will be skimmed off to pay for the dividends or the interest.

This. demand for more is going to mean profitability a demand for greater produc- tivity and efficiency whether it is feasible or not. 'Sometimes, the profitability comes in the form of a ser- vice to the community by pro- ducing good quality smokeless fuels at plants which may, in fact, only break even finan- cially. 'But whatever service is being provided, private capital a very close and will take doubtful look at plants which They won't only break even. invest their capital. 'We feel that our jobs are in danger. And after this meet- ing we still feel that our job security is an open question.

'We have had lots of guaran- tees from the NUM leaders and the NCB that we are pro- tected. But it is not them who are calling the tune. 'The Government is running the show and could change the policy any day. 'The dangers are clear. The chemical side of the industry needs lots of new capital. This will now have to come from the money merchants. 'The more money comes in from outside, the greater the opportunity for private inter- say in the ests to have industry. It will be a foothold for them in nationalization.'

NIXON BUILDS UP

There was a time when Carl Foreman was considered a 'left radical'. A well-known screenwriter and director, his Hollywood career appeared to come to a sudden and pre- end when he mature was named as a communist 'fellow- traveller' during the witch- hunting hearings of Senator Joe McCarthy's Un-American Activities Committee. With the easing of the Cold War, however, Foreman has come back into favour—and has lost no time in ingratiating himself back into the most reactionary circles. His latest effort was the "The direction of the film Young Winston', a nauseating whitewash job on the early life of that arch-imperialist, Wins- ton Churchill. Winston' "The Young is about to get its first showing in South Africa and the first nights in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban are expected to be big prestige affairs.

Special news conferences have been arranged in each city to boost the film. Carl Foreman. Many actors and entertainers refuse to go to South Africa its because of reactionary racialist apartheid policy. Unions such as the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians ban members from filming there.

These considerations, how- have not affected our ever, erstwhile 'radical'. Guest of honour at all three. opening nights and the Press confer- ences will be. . . Carl Foreman.

The audience in each case will be entirely white. Prisoners released from South Vietnamese jails have told how they were held for as long as five 'tiger cages' built so low that the crowded prison- ers could not stand up straight. So far the Saigon govern- ment has only released 124 of the thousands of political prisoners held on the dreaded island prison of Con Son.

Many of them were paralysed from the waist down as a result of their ordeal. Their was 'pro -communist crime activities', for which they were tortured and imprisoned, but never tried. The prisoners have des- cribed how they were sub- jected to bestial tortures by the police and troops of the Saigon regime. The methods extract 'con- Vi employed to With the active assist- ance of President Nixon and the United States government, the Iranian armed forces are being built up into the most powerful in the Middle East. Nixon's satellite, the Shah, who, incidentally, has terri- torial claims on all his neigh- bours, including the Soviet Union, is being built up into the Napoleon of the area by lavish US military aid. In what was believed to be the biggest arms deal ever arranged by the United States defence department, it was announced in Washington in February that Iran will buy than £800m-worth of more American supersonic aircraft.

Already concluded are sales of American F-5E to Iran supersonic fighters, Hawk heli- copters and jet aerial re- fuellers. And in addition Iran will purchase F-4 fighter bombers and C-130 cargo planes. The Shah has left no doubt of his aim; he has stated that the oil-rich land he rules will powerful become the most military force in the Middle East and take an increasingly role in international active affairs. Iran's current budget of included f570m £3,000m highest in the country's his- tory-solely for defence expen- ditures. It was last November that premier Amir Abbas Hoveida parliamentary ap- obtained proval to borrow and spend abroad a total of £216m for arms purchases. Most of this sum is being spent on air force and naval weaponry. Recently, the Shah announ- forces in, ced Iran's naval the Gulf would be increased 'several times over' within the next two years as part of his country's far-reaching defence strategy that would stretch as far as the Indian Ocean. naval Addressing Iranian officers on the 40th anniversary of the navy's foundation, he declared the defensive frontiers of Iran-bordered on the north by the Soviet Union, on the west by Iraq and on the east by Pakistan and Afghan- istan-extended beyond the Gulf and Indian Ocean. 'Events in the world have taught us that the sea con- tiguous to the Gulf of Oman, and I mean the Indian Ocean, no frontiers, the recognizes Shah said. 'We are not merely thinking of the strait of Hormoz (the narrow entry to the Gulf) ...

are thinking of Iran's we security perimeter and I am not speaking in terms of a few kilometres.' fessions' and information in- of cluded the application electrodes to tender parts of the body, hanging by the feet, hnger-breaking and immersion in soapy water. When the army used these American civilian methods, 'advisors' were always present.

Children had to watch their mothers being subjected to these tortures. The tiger cages were sunk below ground level with grille at the top over which the guards could walk. Low and narrow, each cell held up to eight prisoners, some lying on top of the others. Many prisoners went mad and others this died under ordeal. Sadistic guards threw lime into the cells or stuck bamboo spears into the mass of help- less prisoners. The released prisoners are determined to continue the struggle to overthrow the Thieu regime in South Vietnam. During the past few years • Iran has spent £245m of foreign and credits to buy loans American and British arms.

And Iran became the first western-allied country to enter into an arms deal with the Soviet by buying Union £45m worth of Russian equip- ment. The Soviet deal was a barter arrangement. The Russians supplied Iran with armoured troop carriers, military trucks, other vehicles and anti-aircraft guns in return for Iranian natural gas from the southern oilfields which is being piped through a trans-Iranian pipe- line the Russians helped to construct. From Britain, Iran is taking delivery of 800 Chieftain 50- tanks - Britain's latest ton and most powerful armoured weapon - equipped with the latest night-firing devices.

Iran's air force entered the supersonic age in 1965 when it took delivery of its first squadron of American-made F-5 jet fighters, which were supplemented by Hawk anti- aircraft missiles and later by several squadrons of : long- Workers Press, Mond fighter- all-weather range, bombers, the F-R Phantoms.

Among the 500 helicopters is acquiring from the Iran United States are Cobra gun- ships and advanced transport planes. And Iran is now seeking laser-beam range-finders British-made Chieftain its tanks and the all-weather British Rapier missile system.

The Iranian air force is con- sidering buying the advanced F-15 supersonic fighter now under in the development United States. Addressing a military academy graduation class re- cently, the Shah promised that around for Iran would shop weapons that are 'the best we find anywhere, short of can atomic weapons' He warned any would-be foreign aggressor that Iran not hesitate to use would 'scorched-earth' and tactics that the Iranian armed forces would fight on to the end even against a nuclear-armed enemy.

'Even if our strength does not match that of the enemy, we prefer that our country cease to exist-that is to be ess, Monday March 12, 1973 PAGE 5 er- destroyed rather than sur- render. Iran's concentration on its arms build-up comes with its assumption of Britain's former role of maintaining imperialist rule in the Gulf region and ensuring the uninterrupted shipment of oil to world markets. More than half of the western world's oil imports flow through the Gulf and Iran's navy has been-and is being increasingly-built up honed to a finely-edged and state of readiness with des- frigates, corvettes, troyers, hovercraft, landing craft and assault vessels on continuous patrol duties along the vital waterway. A new hovercraft and heli- copter naval base has been established on Kharg Island, site of the world's largest crude-oil loading terminal.

Two more fast destroyers under construction for are Iran in British shipyards and orders have been further placed for new model British Seacat missiles and Tiger-Cat ground-to-air missiles to pro- tect ground and navy bases.

The Empire Pool at Wembley was packed yesterday when the Socialist Labour League and the Young Socialists staged their pageant of working class history "The Road to Workers' Power.

It was the largest rally ever staged in Britain by the Trotskyist movement and was attended by PAGE 6 Workers Press, Monday March 12, 1973

HEPBURNS

UNION

FORWARD TO THE

REVOLUTIONARY PARTY

Workers Press, Monday March 12, 1973

PAGE 7

The Empire Pool at Wembley was packed yesterday when the Socialist Labour League and the Young Socialists staged their pageant of working class history "The Road to Workers' Power'.

It was the largest rally ever staged in Britain by the Trotskyist movement and was attended by thousands of trade unionists, housewives, youth and students from all over Britain.

THE FRENCH POPULAR FRONT

1937: Defeats open the door to the Radicals PAGE & Workers Press, Monday Marcl

BY TOM KEMP

Leon Blum's social and economic measures, the hardening of the policy of the employers and the continued flight of capital and run on the franc ex. posed all the contradic- tions of reformism in 1936only months after his Popular Front govern.

ment came to power. The cost of the reforms cut into profits already forced down by the depression. Blum hoped that he could count upon the co-operation of the capitalists. Instead they pre- pared to take on the working class and did everything they could to weaken his govern- ment. He failed take to any measures to stop the flight of capital and in the latter part of 1936 prices rose rapidly. The bourgeoisie was determined to take back all the concessions which it had been obliged to make under pressure from the May-June sit-in strikes.

himself took up Blum a more openly hostile attitude towards the working class. In the Chamber of Deputies in September he attacked the re- newed factory occupations. Police armed with tear gas were sent in against strikers in the 1936-1937 period. At the 'massacre' of Clichy, police were sent in to break up an anti-fascist demonstration day March 12, 1973 with the result that five people were killed and 150 injured This took place when the semi- fascist French Social Party (successor of Colonel De La Rocque's 'Croix de Feu' which had been made illegal) held a in the heart of the meeting working-class district of Clichy on March 15, 1937. The workers took the meet- Socialist andProvocation and Communist or- ganizations in the area called for a demontsration round the hall where the meeting was to take place. About 4,000 people assembled. It was after emis- saries from the Blum govern- ment had persuaded the leaders to give the order to disperse that police attacked the crowd.

Thousands more workers then came onto the streets and a pitched battle took place.

The shooting down of unarmed people caused a great outcry.

The demonstration was sig- nificant in showing the willing- ness of the working class to take on the Blum government which had sent in the police to protect the fascists. Blum admitted that the police had been acting under orders and condemned the counter-demonstration to the fascists as a mistake. The Com- munist Party, which had accep- ted the call to dissolve the demonstration, while calling ple for action against the police, did not break its Popular Front ties with the Blum govern- ment. In fact, a few days later, when the government was un- der pressure from the right, that accomplished Stalinist par- liamentarian, Jacques Duclos, took the initiative in proposing a vote of confidence in Blum; it was passed with full Com- munist Party support. February 1937, Blum In 'pause'-that is, declared a there were to be no more social reforms or wage increases while serious measures were taken to try to boost ailing French capitalism. At the same time he assured the capitalists that there would be no ex- change control and re-estab- lished the free gold market. Blum's abject capitulation be- fore the bankers did not save him. A conspiracy of bankers and top civil servants led to huge quantities of government bonds being thrown onto the market, creating a budgetary crisis. The government sought emergency powers to deal with the crisis; these were accorded by the Chamber of Deputies but rejected in the Senate. As a result, Blum resigned and Chautemps took his place. The had passed to the initiative Radicals. Blum's abject capitulation to financiers and civil ser- vants was typical of his re- formist position. He had hoped, and failed, to win the capita- lists to support his policy.

AFONIT

He knew that the alternative was to rouse the working class to action. But that would have meant a revolution and the of power by the taking workers. Blum had, with the help of the Communist Party, defused a revolutionary situa- tion a year before. He had not changed. Nor, indeed, had the Com- munist Party. Instead of ex- posing Blum's complicity with the bankers, it assured him the crisis of its throughout 'unconditional support. It placed no alternative before the working class. After the fall of Blum the Communist Party's main con- cern was to prevent a repeti- tion of the events of May-June 1936. It supported the measures taken by the Chautemps gov- ernment and called for dis- cipline in industry and in- production. It held creased back the workers in the fac- were increasingly tories who angered by rising prices, which the gains had cancelled out made in the previous year's strikes. The Communist Party had been the strongest supporter of a Popular Front with the Radicals. Its leaders had wel- comed the Radical leaders onto their platforms. Edouard Dala- dier, together with Maurice Thorez and Leon Blum had marched at the head of Popular Front demonstrations. There was, therefore, no reason why the Stalinists should not con- tinue to support Chautemps, as they did. Left: Barricades on the streets of Paris during the May-June sit-in strikes of 1936. Inset: Chautemps, who became Prime Minister after Blum's resigna- tion. For the Communist Party the main thing was whether these governments would pur- sue a foreign policy tavourable to the interests of the Soviet bureaucracy. Until the October local elections it wanted to put on a mild and reasonable face in • order not to frighten middle-class voters away from Popular Front candidates.

In fact, for the Stalinists, loyalty to the alliance with the Radicals, i which the upon Popular Front rested, was a basic principle. The Chautemps government of June 1937 still socialists, but contained a new government was formed under his leadership in January 1938 from which the socialists were excluded. In April 1938, after a second, short-lived Blum government, Daladier came to power on an openly right-wing programme, including the destruction of the gains of June 1936 made by the working class. This government ruled through decree laws and in November 1938 took on and smashed the working class in the last major struggle before the outbreak of World War II.

It was to this government that Thorez offered his support in January 1939! It was this gov- ernment which later illegalized the Communist Party and arrested many of its leaders.

In fact the very period in which • the Stalinists became dominant in the French work- ing-class movement was one of defeats. These defeats, in 1937 and 1938, resulted, fact, in the Party becoming increasingly isolated and mis- trusted by workers outside its immediate influence. This re- sulted from its own betrayals against and from revulsion Stalin's Moscow • Trials and purges. The period from the fall of Blum the outbreak to of World War II requires treat- ment in a further article to bring out the full consequences of the disastrous policies of Popular Frontism for the French working class. Its lessons are basic to the understanding of the policy of the Communist Party today— its entry into a left coalition in the second General Election poll yesterday based on the common programme worked in agreement with the out Socialist Party and a rump of the Radical Party. Like the Popular Front of 1936-1938, this policy is in- tended to hold back the work- ing class and tie it to a policy of support for bourgeois in- stitutions, including the Gaul- list Constitution of 1958, and the protection of private pro- perty. Like its predecessors, it is a reformist policy of betrayal and counter-revolution which opens the way for reaction.

The French Stalinists like to recall, in a highly-coloured and distorted form, the history of the Popular Front, particularly its electoral triumph and the enthusiasm generated by the reforms wrung from the em- ploying class by the strikes.

They are less ready to follow up what happened after 1936 because this cannot be done in detail without revealing how, by saving the capitalist class in June of that year, they . the way for defeat prepared after defeat. Popular Front policies pre- pared the way for the victory of Franco in Spain and for World War II which, in France, in the coming to resulted power of the senile Bona- partism of Marshal Petain as a collaborator of the Nazis.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

by London In the action teachers for a better allow- ance the union leadership is leading , the strikers precisely nowhere, because they refuse to take up a fight against the Tory government. Now we learn that the National Union of Teachers' executive has decided to re- tain the plush advertising agency KMP Partnership. For a vast fee these PR boys are • to give the teachers' hoping fight 'a good image' by buying space in newspapers. KMP is doing very well profit-wise these days. It has just received a £400,000 con- tract to help recruit officers into the Royal Navy.

A SUCCESS

Reginald Maudling: no success Appearing on the BBC 'Mid- week' programme to discuss the Budget Reginald was the former Tory Maudling, Chancellor of the Exchequer and ex-Home Secretary. Maudling waffled on for half an hour about his masterly plan to 'save' the country's finance. Nobody pointed out, however, that Maudling's own have been business exploits less than successful. He was chairman and direc- tor of several companies run by John Poulson, the York- shire architect. Poulson went bankrupt. He was also first president of the Liberian-based Real Estate Fund of America. This outfit also later went bust, leaving a stream of creditors all round the world. L ES rotsk! Now available from New Pa 186a Clapham High Street, Joe Gormley. Above: Cooper After the Special Congress of the TUC last week the worthy leaders of the trade union movement marched off to the luxurious Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair. saying farewell They were to that notorious right-winger Lord Cooper, former general secretary of the General and Municipal Workers' Union.

The 400 bureaucrats tem- porarily suspended their 'fight' against the state pay laws and tucked in to a magnificent meal. It began with trout mousse and was followed by beef. This was baron washed down by goblets of Niersteiner Domthal 1970 and Mouton Cadet 1967. The array of guests, includ- Feather, Joe Gorm- ing Vic ley (earlier in the day he was calling for a General Strike), Jack Jones, Tom Jackson, Harold Wilson and James Cal- laghan, then relaxed to watch a cabaret presented by Brenda Ross's Vitality Girls. When they left late into the evening there is reported not to have been much vitality among the guests! By LEON TROTSKY Paperback. £1.00 Illustrated Sharp pen-portraits of leading figures of the Second Interna- tional in Russia and Europe, for the first time published an The translations English edition. were first commissioned by the Socialists' 'Keep Young paper Left' Their enormous success has completion of the led to the translation of the whole book, which is the first part of Volume 8 of Leon Trotsky's 'Works' pub- lished in the Soviet Union in 1926. It provides the most vivid picture available of the historic figures the Second Inter- their strengths and national, weaknesses, written by an obser- ver who was also a participant in the daily struggle of the Euro- pean and Russian working class.

1 New Park Publications h Street, London, SW4 7UG A massive 'purge' of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union taking the form of an exchange of Party cards began on March I. The operation, involving 14.5 million card-holding mem- bers, will not be completed until sometime next year. Its object is to carry through a comb-out of the Party ranks and remove all those show- ing any critical tendencies.

Thousands of members are to be weeded out expected for breaches of Party discip- line, for loose moral behaviour or simply for taking insufficient interest in Party life. The growing economic difficulties which the Soviet Union is ex- periencing throw increasing responsibility on Party mem- bers. Far from showing dedica- enthusiasm, many tion and in the atmosphere members, of corruption generated by the rule of the bureaucracy, are only interested in advancing their own interests. While the bureaucracy as a whole jeal- ously upholds its privileges, it intends to do so in an orderly way. examples of Too: blatant graft and corruption, of moral laxity and drunkenness or simple indifference to the tasks in hand gives the bureau- cracy as a whole a bad name.

Speaking on its behalf, Party Leonid secretary Brezhnev said: 'We must not allow a conciliatory attitude to those who misbehave. The Party cleanses its ranks of those who violate the rules.' In some parts of the Soviet Union, such as Azerbaijan and Georgia, recent revelations have shown that rules have been violated by the most highly-placed officials of the Party and state. The poor grain and potato harvests and the slowing down of economic growth are not a matter of is obvious accident. There mismanagement, gross neglect and against incompetence which the bureaucracy has to act. older Soviet citizens The remember the bloody purges of Stalin's day when a whisper GPU informer was from sufficient to send the most loyal Party member to a labour camp or to his death. The younger generation has heard the stories of those terrible the few times or have had surviving members pointed out to them. Stress is laid on the fact that this time the purge will bloodless. Delinquents are be likely to face no worse punish- The period in the 1930s when Stalin tried to win the friend- ship of the fascist dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini, are recalled in the autobiography of the famous Soviet aircraft designer, Alexander Yakovlev.

A number of friendly exchanges between Soviet took place flyers and the air force of fascist Italy. Back in 1933 a flight of Italian Savoia-Marchetti sea- planes visited the Soviet Union led by one of Mussolini's Workers Press, Mon Communist Party chief, Leonid Brezhnev of those who violate the rules.?

ment than expulsion from the Party and demotion in their jobs. At the same time more emphasis will be placed upon the loyality to present Brezhnev - Kosygin leadership.

in The last card exchange, 1954, was intended mainly to weed out the hard-line sup- porters of Stalin in the period immediately after his death.

It is the signiticant that feels bureaucracy now necessary to launch a public campaign against the more cor- rupt elements in its own ranks, particularly those in the favourites, General Italo Balbo.

despatched In return, Stalin three of the latest Soviet bombers to tour Italy. Yakovlev was one of the aircrew and this is how he described the scene when the planes arrived at Ciampino Airfield, Rome: •.. a brilliant throng had gathered to welcome us, among them representatives of the high command of the Italian air force, generals and officers in dress uniform, members of the diplomatic and corps, members of the Soviet embassy staff, headed by Ambassador V. P. Putyomkin. A guard of honour stood at attention and band played the "Inter- the national"? Although Yakovlev assessed the strength and weaknesses of Italian aviation with an expert eye, he expressed no surprise that he should have been sent to hob-nob with Mussolini's air force chiefs. In 1935 he went to Italy again at his own request when the Soviet Union exhibited at an international air show in Milan. The sight- seeing had pleased him on the previous trip. Apparently he did not spare a thought for the Italian com- munist leader Antonio Gramsci, slowly dying in one of Mus- solini's nor for the jails, ress, Monday March 12, 1973

PAGE 9

| Brezhnev: 'The Party cleanses its ranks the lower echelons whose mis- deeds cannot be concealed from the working class. The examples of the Czech Communist Party in 1968 danger of showed the SO- called liberal' trends within the Party itself. After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Aug- ust 1968, over 250,000 mem- iod bers were purged. No doubt the present card exchange will not be so dras- tic; it is clearly a precautionary the bureaucracy measure as senses the tremors of the forthcoming political revolu- tion in eastern Europe. thousands of workers im- prisoned and terrorized by the fascist regime. Nor, of course, did Yakovlev's boss, Josef Stalin, who was out to cul- tivate Mussolini's friendship.

By the time of this visit, Mussolini's flyers were exult- antly dropping high-explosive bombs and poison gas on the Abyssinians. Yakovlev men- without comment, that tions, the aircraft plants were buzz- ing with activity, but he noted turning out that they were models designed four or five years before. he tackled Caproni, When one of the bosses of the Italian aircraft industry, about this, he was told cynically: 'The war with Abyssinia does not call for later models. So why should we incur additional costs?'

Again Yakovley makes no comment on this, nor does he mention the fact that many Italian planes were fuelled with aviation spirit provided by the Soviet Union. A year or two later, during the Moscow Trials, Stalin tried to prove that Trotskyists and the old Bolsheviks had been plotting with the fascist powers.

Yakovlev, in his naive way, reveals that the real plotter was Stalin himself who did everything to win Mussolini's goodwill.

PAGE 10 Workers Press, Monday March 12, 1973 current market prices Engineers in West Lon- At the site is worth f10m. don want their union • wants to shut leaders to organize for a up shop in 900 men redundant. complete stoppage in the making But the workers have said £12.3m Rockware glass they will take any action ne- group, to prevent closure the factory cessary to keep open, including a sit-in strike.

of its Greenford, Middle- They have contacted the four sex, works. other factories in the group to The Acton No 4 branch inform them of their plans.

of the Amalgamated Union of Already the workers have Engineering Workers has writ- staged a 24-hour token strike ten to the union's district against closure, but their lead.

committee and national exe- ers say that for the moment cutive urging them to make their main emphasis is Un other changing the company's mind.

contact with unions been about a stoppage. Rockware has never Serious concern is expres- persuaded yet to change its resolution- -carried about a closure. sed in mind under a unanimously recent Three years ago, at meeting-about Labour government, the group branch the spate of closures which have Liver- shut down its Garston, already occurred in the South- pool, bottle works, despite and all rising productivity union area. collaboration Hard by the Rockware officials eager works is site of the old West- with speed-up deals. were lost 950 land Helicopter factory, taken Some jobs and closed a at Garston despite the .com- over year ago Securities, plaints of these same officials by Slater Walker of consultation'. about "lack which is now preparing to With a redevelop the site. Tory government in Slater also has the largest power, the Greenford workers holding Barclay clearly have an even sharper single in their hands. Securities, which is currently fight on rationalize Shep- The group, whose chairman, planning to perton film studios in Middle- Peter Parker, draws £16,752 sex and redevelop about 40 a year as compared with the £1,575 60-acre lot. wage of his acres of a average 7,753 Recently, Slater has been employees, make regu- lar donations to organizations buving Rockware shares. 35-acre Tory Party. Rockware, whose which back the In both 1970 and 1971 site at Greenford has a book it £3.5m, gave 1,000 to British United value of stands to make a huge capital gain Industrialists and £300 to the on witch-hunting Economic the property market by clos- ing the factory. League.

REENHAMES GAS BOA

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Or Full subscription (six days) for ..months. Name Address Amount enclosed f Lord Hailsham, decided to purchase Bils

BY CHARLES PARKINS

With the Tory govern- ment freezing wages, in the name of 'halting in- flation', ', it is only natural that people should keep a keen eye on just how the government itself spends money. So when it was learnt that £100,000 was being spent to provide lodgings for two near Preston, trade unionists and local councillors in Lancashire started to ask questions.

Questions were also asked in the House of Commons. And to confirm the suspicion that something was wrong, it has been disclosed that the government is paying more than twice the value that was originally put on the property concerned-for a building that totally un- many see as necessary. Lord Hailsham, the one-time candidate for Tory leadership, who is Lord Chancellor, de- Hall, cided that Bilsborrow between Preston and Garstang, should be purchased as Judges' Lodgings, to be made available for when High Court hearings at the Lancashire Crown Court are transferred to Preston.

hearings Until the now, have been held at Lancaster.

The Judges' Lodgings have been in a fine old house stand- ing beneath the walls of Lan- caster Castle. It was argued in favour of the move that, to be near the new court, new lodgings were needed. This has been questioned by a number of people. Lancas- ter's Town Clerk, among them, has pointed out that the judges could continue to stay at Lancaster and be driven to the court on the motorway in practically the same time as will take to drive from it Bilsborrow Hall. The police, who are respon- sible for the transport arrange- it would ments, say present no difficulties to do this. And, just in case any of our readers about M'Luds' worried are comfort, it is reported that they have always found the Lancaster accommodation quite satisfactory. Lancaster, Trades Council last month passed a resolution from, UCATT, the builders' union, attacking the Bilsborrow Hall plan as a waste of public money. Building workers' dele- gate Dave Barnes said that the money being spent on the new Judges' Lodgings could have gone on schools and Lord Hailsham, decided to purchase Bilsborrow Hall for the Judges' lodgings at a mere £100,000.

HOW DO THE TORIES SPEND

nurseries in the area. siderable In £100.000 considerable. isol Mary from Miss questions Tory MP for Preston Holt, North, the under-Secretary for the Environment, Mr Reginald disclosed: Eyre, 'The figure, being the open market value assessed as for compulsory purchase Nov. ember 1972, was £40,000.' Two other cases occurred last year where the Exchequer agreed to pay out more than the value placed on properts was for 5,600 yds Crosby Road, sq al Northallerton, the other cerned land at Crawley Hill, Camberley. One added attraction, per- haps, for the judges to have digs at Bilsborrow, is that the Hall has been honoured by the another exalted guest then Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan stayed there in 1959. At that time the owner was one John Barton-Townley. His family name car showroom in Lancaster, where owned the the family Bailrigg Manor hall and estate, sold to Lancaster city council in 1961, to provide the univer- sity site. Sir John-he was knighted in 1960—is vice-chairman Northern Commercial the Vehicles Group, and chairman of Alfresco Garages, a Brad- ford firm. 1951. he has been Since of Preston Conser- chairman vative Association Finance 1958, Committee and, since chairman of the Preston North Conservative constituency Association. lodgings at a mere £100,000.

A few years ago, however, changed Bilsborrow Hall hands. The new owner was John E. Hensher, director of Leylux, a Chorley upholstered furniture firm established 1966, which is a subsidiary of Hensher (Furniture Traders) Ltd., a combine with a num- of companies in London ber and elsewhere, including one in Barbados. The £100,000 paid to Hen- sher for Bilsborrow Hall rep- resents quite a handsome profit on the property. It is not the end of public expenditure on this project, To make Bilsborrow either. Hall suitable accommodation judges, a further for two £50,000 will be spent on it.

Added to this, £3,834 is to be spent on furniture and furnishings. The total of public money to be spent on lodgings for judges, therefore, is two £153,834. That is, providing it is only for two. To accommodate a third judge, the government that it will be envisages necessary to build an exten- sion, at £60,000. This is the government that has taken milk away from school - children, instructed Social Security officials to tighten up on the unemployed, and is refusing pay increases to hospital workers, civil ser- vants and gasmen. But quite clearly, it is unfair to call the Tories tight-fisted.

At Bilsborrow Hall they have been quite free with the tax- payers' money. Where is Britain Going? Paperback 37Łp • 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.

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London. 6.15 Maverick. 6.45 10.33 Boots Randolph. 11.30 Country girl. 11.50 News, weather. Channel

WESTWARD.

As except: 12.05 London. 12.57 News. 1.00_ Lon- don. 4.20 Gus Honeybun.. 6.00 Diary. 6.35 Date with Danton. 10.30 News. 11.55 Faith for life.

SOUTHERN:

9.30 London Sch0000. 12.00 News Cartoon., 12.05 London. 2.00 2.10 3.00 Film: 'Cargo Capetown'. 4.25 London. 6.00 Day by day. 6.40 London. 10.30 Deals wheels. 11.00 News. 11.05 Theatre. progress. 12.25 Weather. 12.00 Farm Guideline.

HARLECH:

9.30 London. 2.30 3.00 Film: "The Immortal'.

Women. 4.25 London. 6.01 Report West. 6.22 Report Wales. 6.45: London. 10.30 "The Haunting'. 12.30 Weather.

Film: HTV Cymru/Wales as above except: 6.01-6.22 Y dydd. 8.00 Yr wythnos. JOHN PEYTON, Minister of government minister to attem class anger against the strikers state control of wages. Peyton used the rail stop- pages this week to try to turn people's frustration into a political campaign against 'those who have been ready to wield the big stick'. The Tories are bound to wage a propaganda offensive against strikers anyway, but Workers Press has asked trade union leaders whether one-day strikes and other partial stop- pages do not play into Pey- ton's hands by being an irri- decisive rather than a tant challenge to the government's policies which the middle class could rally to. BILL KENDALL (civil servants): 'I think a lack of decisive action by the trade union movement does play into the hands of people like Peyton. 'I would have much preferred the special Congress to adopt our suggestion of all-out selective strikes in key areas rather than one-day national the stoppage proposed by the T&GWU. 'Peyton's remarks are nothing There has been a steady new. build-up to this propaganda cam- media paign. The have been carrying out the Tory govern- ment's work very nobly and it will have an impact, especially where there are one-day strikes which are not directly connected with specific economic demands.

'I wouldn't rule out one-day strikes altogether, but I still pre- all-out fer selective stoppages and we shall proceed that way.

'But the TUC should certainly act decisively on the Congress decision for a 24-hour General Strike. If they do not follow this up quickly, it will be a failure.'

RAY BUCKTON (train drivers): 'It was unstatesmanlike for Pey- ton to make a statement like this. It will incite the public to make attacks on men who are struggling for their just rights. It could lead to dangerous in- cidents. If the public want to take action, they should talk to those responsible for the inconvenience -British Rail. 'But if the public are incited to make physical attacks on the men taking the industrial action, this would definitely alter the

ITV

Schools. 9.30 10.33 World War 1 (London only). 11.00 Schools. 12.05 through Hickory house. 12.25 Alice 12.40 First report. the looking glass. 1.00 Mr and Mrs. 1.30 Emmerdale farm. 2.00 All our yesterdays. 2.30 'Young Good afternoon. 3.00 Film: and Eager' Diane McBain, Arthur Kennedy. 4.25 Pardon my genie. 4.55 Clapperboard. 5.20 Lollipop loves Mr Mole. 5.50 News. 6.00

TODAY.

6.40

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS!

7.30

CORONATION STREET.

8.00

WORLD IN ACTION.

8.30 BLESS THIS HOUSE. Watch the Birdie.

THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK

9.00

HOLMES.

The Superfluous Finnger. 10.00

NEWS AT TEN.

WILD WEST. The

THE WILD,

10.30 Night of the Plague. 11.30

DRIVE-IN.

12.00

WORLD WAR I.

WE SHALL OVERCOME. Ram 12.25 John Holder sings. HIV West as above except: 6.22-6.45 This is the West this week.

ANGLIA: 9.30 London. 12.04 News.

12.05 London. 2.30 Houseparty. $.00 Marcus Welby MD. 3.55 Romper room. 4.22 News. 4.25 London. 6.00 About Anglia. 6.45 London. Russel Harty. 11.30 London. Big question. ATV MIDLANDS: 9.30 London. 12.00 Guide. 12.05 London. 3.00 Film: Doghouse'. Name of the game. 11.55 Stories. Weather.

to

ULSTER: 11.00

London. 1.33 News. 1.40 Schools. 2.40 Romper room. 3.00 in 'Ha'penny'. 4.22 News. 4.25 London. 5.20 Emmerdale farm. 5.50 London. 6.00 Reports. 6.15 Dick Van Dyke. 6.45 10.30 London. Monday night. 10.40 Film: A Summer Place'.

The Mouse That Roared: 4.25 Lon- Calendar. Weather. 6.45 Ugliest town. 12.40 Weather. ster of Transport, is the latest o attempt to whip up middle- strikers who are resisting the

ASLEF'S RAY BUCKTON

railwaymen's opinions about what sort of action was appropriate.

Such attacks would make the men step up the strike action' BERNARD DIX (hospital work- ers): 'If there was nothing but one-day strikes, these could be used by the government as a The provocation. government might welcome them because they irritate the middle class.

'But in our own industry, the one-day have only stoppages been used to supplement the "hard front" of all-out strikes elsewhere. 'It is the long-term stoppages which are closing the hospitals.

as isolated in- One-day strikes cidents are merely a demonstra- tion protest. Our one on Decem- ber 13 was to test the determi- nation of our members. 'As for the government at- tacks on the strikers, we didn't expect anything else. But we have noticed that the media and the Ministers have not attacked RESEARCH into laws control- ling emergencies is . to be launched by the British Institute of Human Rights. The Institute, which held its inaugural meeting last November, is raising funds for the project. One of its main participants is Lord Gardiner, a right-wing Labourite and ex-Lord Chancellor. Gardiner served on the commission which white- washed army and police torture in Northern Ireland.

BBC 2

11.00-11.25 Play school. 5.25 Open University.

7.05 PARENTS

AND

CHILDREN.

Parents Talk Back. 7.30 NEWS SUMMARY. Weather.

7.35 LOOK, STRANGER. Man of Letters.

8.00 ALIAS SMITH AND JONES.

The Bounty Hunter.

8.55 CALL MY BLUFF.

9.25 SHOW OF THE WEEK. Dave Allen.

10.10 SPECIALISTS IN

MURDER.

After the Fact. The Accessory Setty Murder.

11.00 OPINION.

11.15 NEWS EXTRA. Weather.

GRANADA: 9.30 London. 12.00 Songs.

12.05 London. 2.30 Film: 'Beyond Mombasa'. 4.00 Crossroads.

4.20 Lon- don. 6.00 News. 6.25 This is your right. 6.40 London. 10.30 Eight weeks 1n the life of a car park. 11.25 Theatre macabre. TYNE TEES: 9.25 Only a dream. 9.30 Galloping 3.00 Film: Trouble Brew- ing'. 4.25 London. 6.00 Today. Cartoon. 6.45 London. 10.30 Face the 11.00 Name of the game. 12.25 News. 12.40 Lectern. SCOTTISH: 9.30 London. 2.30 Date- Film: Ten Wanted Men'. 6.00 Today. 6.30 Car- toons. 6.45 10.30 Late the lion. Quentin Durgens.

GRAMPIAN:

10.58 London. «Char- 1.38 Schools. 3.05 News. Film: ley's don. don. London. 10.30 University men. challenge. 11.00 Name of the game. 12.35 Meditation. Workers Press, Monday March 12, 1973 PAGE 11 answer that the government has remedy at hand: allow The the employers to pay us the £200 London allowance they want to.

'We are only taking action in Tondon where the government has been particularly mean and So far, we have kept dishonest. the public's support. 'We think that if the govern- tried to whip public ment up hostility to our strikes, it would So be counter-productive. far, the newspapers have had the Ted sense not to attack us. Short has attacked us, but not Margaret Thatcher. 'And our members have made NUPE's Bernard Dix complaints about the gas- workers' strikes which are now have L'S directly. They always having quite considerable hidden in cowardly way be- effect some on schools with hind the words of some consul- already closed for three weeks.

tant surgeon or other. Teachers union| spokesman: 'If 'We recognize that because tries that the they are public sector workers, anyone to say teachers' off-on strikes are driv- the gasmen have the same pro- blems as we do.' ing the public mad, we will

F THE YOUNG SOCIALISTS

From Wembley Pageant all out for Blackpool Pire Pool. Henry. w the preposton to i ately reas Defend basic democratic rights * Make the Tory * Forward to the government resign

(ST GEORGES HOSPITAL

STOP

EXPLOITING

HOSPITAL WORKE

NUPE

REEZES

ACTON:

Fight rising rents and prices Tuesday March 3 p.m. Co-op Hall, High Road Defend basic democratic rights Force the Tories to resign WANDSWORTH: Monday

PADDINGTON:

Tuesday March March 12, 'King's Arms', 8 p.m. 'Prince of Wales' 8 p.m. High 13, and S.W.18. 'Forward to the of Harrow Road Street, corner 'Forward Western Road. revolutionary party'. Great the revolutionary party.

HARROW:

Tuesday March to 8 p.m. Labour Hall, Harrow and HOLLOWAY: Thursday March 15, 'The fight against Wealdstone. ( 8 p.m. Co-op Hall, Seven Sisters Stalinism'. Road. TOOTING: Tuesday March 13, WALTHAMSTOW: Thursday Hotel, Selkirk p.m. Selkirk March 15, 8 p.m. Royston Arms Road, Tooting Broadway. 'For- Chingford Road, E.4. ward to the Revolutionary Party'.

CROYDON: Thursday March 15, CLAPHAM: Tuesday March 13. 8 p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe 8 Manor Baths, Clapham p.m. Road. Clapham S.W.4. Manor Street,

CAMDEN:

March 18, Tuesday March 13, BASILDON: Sunday 8 5.30 p.m. Barnstaple Community 'Prince Albert', Wharfe- p.m. Road, Kings Cross. Centre. dale

Anti-picket squad used against Hull Clear out the Jenkins gang

SE CEDO TENT

PAGE 12 Workers Press, Monday Marc

BY JOHN SPENCER

COMMON

MARKET

Ministers and central bankers held another round of consultations in Brussels yesterday fol- lowing Friday's failure to find a basis for agreement on crisis measures to meet the collapse of the monetary system. The foreign exchange mar- kets are to remain closed all week with severe effects on trade and international com- merce. of the exchanges Closure means traders will have great difficulty buying the foreign cur- rency they need to meet obliga- tions to overseas creditors.

It also gives rise to great un- certainty because no one can pre- dict from day to day what will be the exchange rate between any two currencies. Central banks are no longer intervening to support the ex- change rates of their own cur- rencies and the rates are fluctuat- ing wildly. The United States delegation at the Paris meeting on Friday made it clear they would do no- thing to assist the Europeans by taking back the vast amounts of surplus paper dollars in Europe.

George Schultz, the US Treasury Secretary, said that be- fore considering any action he needed to know what system he supposed to be defending was and where he was supposed to get the money to intervene in currency markets. The EEC countries are now themselves to fighting among will determine which country bear the brunt of the crisis. The French and German representa- tives will be determined to force the Tory government to refix sterling at the highest possible parity. Despite the impressive list of conditions produced by Chancel- lor Anthony Barber, who vir- tually asked his 'partners' to for family allowance rise Saturday's

ONE

Liberation march through London largely ignored by the Tory was the press reason for it. Instead they chose to concentrate on a punch-up between 200 women and police at Trafalgar Square Post Office.

But all the usual Women's Lib slogans aside, the 2,000-strong did have demonstration serious aspect. The march was called to pro- the Tory govern- against test ment's plan to replace family a tax-credit with allowances spokesman said, A system. •Family Allowance is a statutory Family right based on the Allowance Act of 1945. But a tax-credit allowance can changed with every budget and degrees until taken away by there is nothing left'. were de- The demonstrators manding an increased statutory family allowance to be given to every mother for every child and tax-free maternity allowances.

Registered as a newspaper at the Published by Workers Post Office. Clapham High Street, Press, 186a Printed 7UG. Plough 01-622 7029. nday March 12, 1973 write out a blank cheque for British imperialism, the Tory government has no option but to the Franco-German accept demands. This is certain to lead to an immediate escalation of the cost of living in Britain, making fur- ther big inroads into the living standards of the workers and their families. The American government is getting ready to impose penal sanctions accumulate too many dollars in their reserves, thus adding to the American payments deficit.

THIS IS the ugly outside • developed wharf, Barchard's timber Hull, last Friday when the local police 'heavy mob' went into action. About 1,000 local dockers took the day off to picket Barchard's where unregistered labour was being used to un- load timber cargo. During the morning regular local police marched away and were replaced by an inter- county group of police who have been specially trained for anti-picket duties. The squad was set up in the confron- wake of last year's tation between police and dockers at the Neap House Wharf. The two battalions of dock- ers and police faced each other for most of the morn- situation. in tense Dockers discovered that drain- pipes had been covered in grease to prevent any attempt to climb into the wharf over the roof.

BY ROYSTON BULL

ROY JENKINS, with vary- ing degrees of support from Shadow Cabinet members Shirley Reg Prentice, Williams, Jim Callaghan, and others, is preparing to split the Parliamentary Labour Party from its remaining links with the trade union movement. Jenkins, with 100-per-cent sup- port from the media and the rul- ing class, is out to immobilize the labour movement in the revolutionary struggle that lies ahead by forming a coalition with the Tories, either by taking the official Labour Party with him or by splitting the movement and forming a separate Centre Party. economic and political The crisis is steadily bringing to a head all the contradictions with- in the Labour Pariy. In effect these countries are creditors of the United States, having accepted its paper in re- turn for their goods and services.

But they are to get precious little thanks. According to a top-level con- gressional document rushed out to Washington reporters on the eve of the Friday meeting, the new Trade Bill will give Nixon powers to impose import sur- against 'any countries charges that refuse to make or frustrate exchange rate adjustments neces • to eliminate the United sary States external deficit'.

A serious confrontation avoided when manage- was ment backed down and told shop stewards' leader, Walter Cunningham, that no further unloading would take place.

The use of the 500-strong The confrontation the Tory government is preparing with the labour movement has already forced the TUC to call a special congress. The crisis in the leadership of the Labour Party is just as acute, and a special Party conference is the enable necessary to move- ment to reorientate to the rapidly changing political and economic developments. The essential tasks for such a government must be: • TO UNITE the whole labour movement behind the struggles the general onslaught on basic rights, launched by the Tories so that they can coerce the working class to bear the burden of un- controllable inflation. • TO ADOPT a policy to meet. p the rapidly developing economic crisis. • TO CLEAR OUT of the movement all the traitors like Jenkins and Prentice, who have not the slightest intention of standing with the working class

BY IAN YEATS

president Jafaar

SUDAN

Numeiry seems to be moving closer to executing the eight Black Septembrists who sur- rendered last week after the shooting of two American diplomats. Crowds of workers marched on his palace at the weekend shouting 'execution for the com- 'traitor Yasser and mandos' Arafat'. carefully - orchestrated The demonstration has almost cer- tainly provided Numeiry with the excuse he was looking for to take tough action against the Palestinians. The campaign has been build- ing up for some days beginning anti-picket squad must be a warning to dockers, miners and other sections of workers fighting the Tory government and its pay laws. Secretly and without the of parliament, the consent police have formed their riot in the struggle ahead; who have in fact already decided to back capitalism any revolutionary confrontation. The Labour Party has already, Wilson's leadership, stab- under bed in the back workers in struggle against pay laws by con- demning their strikes. Jenkins, in his weekend speech, fired the first shots in the cam- to completely • break up paign the labour movement. He blamed militant workers the decay and crisis for for which capitalism itself is respon- sible because of its inherent in- soluble contradictions. 'Are we seeking salvation through catastrophe? Do we seek improvement or smash? 'The number of people who are . country prepared to put through the needless misery of complete national failure are a tiny minority Even the most right-wing Tory is not so brazen as to deny that world inflation and the break-up of the currency system exists with the blaming of Al Fatah's Khartoum leader Abu Fawaz. Numeiry thus becomes the first major Arab leader to link Black September with Al Fatah.

But in allowing himself to be used openly as a tool of Ameri- can imperialism • the Middle i in East Numeiry is likely to run into trouble from his former Arab allies. With the sole exception of Jordan all the Arab states give varying degrees of support to the Palestinian cause. Numeiry is already trying to throw the blame for what hap- pened last week onto his neigh- bours but if he goes ahead with the eight execution the 'terrorists' he will have to weigh very carefully the value of con- tinued good relations with other Arab states. squads They have also been armed. These developments . reflect the worsening crisis of British capitalism. They mean that the Tories are preparing for class war on the most violent scale. independently of what militant trade unionists do in Britain. Not so Jenkins. He goes further. If chaos did come and threaten demo- Our cratic institutions, I have little doubt that it would be the far than the left who right rather would be the beneficiaries.'

In other words, if the crisis results in a crash greater than again 1929 and fascism wheeled in by the capitalists to them through the chaos, get Jenkins to tell the ready workers it is their own fault.

If these tendencies are not kicked out of the movement, along with MPs like Faulds and Crawshaw who sponsored the Jenkins' near-Tory Taverne, collaborator who lost Labour the seat at Lincoln, then betrayals worse than that of MacDonald in the 1930s are in store.

Union leaders like Jack Jones must be forced by their mem- bers to step onto the political arena and demand either that the Labour Party support the work- ing class or that the leadership be changed immediately.